Letting the 6 year old inside have her day

Today I went to COSTCO with my brother and his 2 adorable kids, ages 3 and 6. This particular store catered to individuals who have food vending machines, and rather than sell an entire case of sweet treats, they offer them for sale individually. There was an entire row dedicated to Hostess baked goods. A rainbow variety of fried dough and sugar glazed fruit pies, Ho Ho's, Zingers, Ding Dongs, and holiest of holy… Sno Balls.

Packages of twin day-glo pink mounds of soft marshmallow covered with coconut flakes, enrobing a cream filled chocolate cup cake. I suggested letting the kids pick one treat each for later (a clever guise for an excuse for me to make my own selection MWAHAHAHAH!)
See, I haven’t eaten one of these things in at least a decade, if not longer. Giving up Hostess baked goods is something all adults eventually do when they reach a certain age. Its like a mid-life Lent sacrifice for all eternity. Well, today I decided it was my mid-life Easter Sunday and I would break fast on my baked goods ban! Happily I placed my package of pink, fluffy Sno Balls in the cart next to Raspberry Zingers (niece,) Ho Ho’s (nephew,) and Ding Dongs (brother.)
Once we returned home, I was left alone with my delicious cello-packaged mini Grand Tetons the color representing NOTHING I’ve ever seen in nature. I noted the ingredients list of no less than 50 ingredients (maybe more if you count all the multi-ingredient ingredients….) the first on the list; sugar. Ohhhh, this can’t be good.


Just one bite, I thought. Before dinner. What could it hurt?

I peeled back the marshmallow robe and heard it make that pleasant crackling sound it made even when I was a kid. There it was. The chocolate cupcake.


One bite of the cupcake sent dopamine rushing through my veins to alert my nerve endings of the joyous event. Then the marshmallow. Teeth sinking in to the sticky, spongy layer while bits of pink coconut landed like snowflakes on my lips. The six year old girl in me said “Squeeeeeeeeel!!!”



It may not be something we can have everyday, but every now and again, take your inner 6 year old to the sweets counter and let her pick out anything she wants. Hasn’t she been a very good girl?

snowflakes 101

snowflake_09082, originally uploaded by fwwidall.

I found this link through another amazing blog (cakewrecks.blogspot.com) And I had to share it with you! He has created a somewhat complex camera sytem and snowflake capturing box and is able to capture amazingly detailed images of individual snowflakes. Their complex structure is breathtaking! It's almost difficult to believe these are formed by nature, and not photoshop (we are so jaded, aren't we?)
Click through his entire show of 100 perfect snowflakes!

NEGLIGENT!!!

Dear Blog'

I know you thought I had forgotten about you. I know you probably lay awake at night, shivering, wondering; "Whyyyyyyy! WHYYYYYYY!?!?" My absence was not your fault. It was nothing you did or said, or didn't do or say.

It's not you, Blog. It's me.

I was lazy and negligent and I accept responsibility for how I've made you feel.
Please accept my apology. Please? And I promise to do my best to never leave you for so long again.
All I can do is my best....

Wadda' ya' say?

Kaleidoscopes....A New Shop!

I finally did it. I opened a new Etsy shop to list and show off my handmade, stained glass kaleidoscopes! My inventory is on the light side at the moment, but there's more coming...MUCH more! I called the shop CrowsFolly because crows so love shiny objects and are involuntarily drawn to them. I think we all have a bit of that in us, as well!

I started making kaleidoscopes about 8 years ago, give or take. I wasn't very skilled at making large stained glass panels, and frankly the size of them intimidated me. One day I was cruising eBay looking for one of those old cardboard tube kaleidoscopes like we would get as kids (I just loved that click click click sound the plastic objects made in that magical cylinder!) During my quest, I discovered a book from the 1970's about the Brewster Society http://www.brewstersociety.com/
There was a whole world of kaleidoscope enthusiasts out there! Artisans and collectors. A world opened up for me!
After about a year of trail and error, I discovered the secrets to making a quality scope. One main secret is front surface mirror. Most artisans wont tell you that. They would rather you plug away making scopes using standard one-sided mirror and let you wonder why the image was always distorted. Not me, though. I'd tell anyone who wanted to know. I'd even tell you where to get it (which is no small task sometimes.)

Once I perfected the mirror assembly (a 3 mirror configuration is my favorite) I began to work on the exterior. Again, this was no small task. It takes a lot of care and patience to assemble one. You have to know when to not use flux, never use water to clean (it seeps under the copper foil despite all best efforts to prevent it) How to assemble the object chambers. But after several failed attempts I had figured it out.

For several years my scopes were the most sought after and hoped for gift among my friends and family. (And I don't think a single one of them doesn't have at LEAST one on their shelves.) I toyed with the idea for years to sell them, not really thinking there was a market for them. Until I started getting custom orders. So now, along with doing custom orders I decided to introduce my scopes to Etsy. The clear glass used in my scopes is re-purposed from picture frames that I would discover in waste bins or in thrift stores. The colored glass is obtained from local merchants, and occasionally from salvaged pieces of broken stained glass boxes and other objects.

I hope I will be able to provide a mix of scopes and glass objects that will make you say, "Ooooooooooo."

So much for a Wordless Wednesday post. Ha ha!

Stay tuned!

Tokens of the Great American Roadtrip

Summer is winding down. Families prepare for the school year and the onset of Autumn. Children returning to school with stories of "How I spent my summer vacation." I remember those days. I loved having a souvenir of some sort to bring with me to school. Giggling and excited, we would ooh and ahh over the tokens each of us had collected that summer. Postcards, snow globes, key chains, and my favorite; cedar boxes.
I remember my first cedar box from Hearst Castle in Northern California. It had a postcard image of the Castle lacquered on the lid, with a tiny, lockable brass hasp. I LOVED that box! I had one from Lion Country Safari in Irvine, CA. The Grand Canyon. Tijuana. Las Vegas. How I adored those cedar boxes, each with its cursive-font stamp stating the destination.
As I grew up, the boxes were lost, misplaced, broken, and in one odd occasion, burned by my step-brother. I missed them. So I began a mission last year; to find as many cedar souvenir boxes as I could.
My goal is to find one from every state (but where I will keep 50 varied sized boxes is something I haven't yet considered. Who can think clearly when on such a noble mission?!)

I have amassed a sweet little collection so far. My two favorites being one that has a poem to ones "Sweetheart," and the rounded-top box that resembles (in my eye) a tear-drop trailer.


They make me sentimental for the days of long car drives in the back of an non air conditioned station wagon, with the eternal question posed to the patient driver....."Are we there yet?"

I hope your summer was full of memories!

If they only knew.....

Then I wouldn't find such amazing treasures! Something drew me to the stack of 1980's mass produced prints of pastel palm trees and coyotes in howling profiles. There it was, a bronze gilded frame and a huge Maxfield Parrish print. GASP! The backing was shredded, save a tiny corner that had an art shop label for The Golden Rule in St Paul Minnesota. $19.00. What?!? Well, even if it turned out to be a repro, it was a great find. The frame alone was worth more than that! So I take it home and research the Golden Rule. GOD BLESS THE INTERNET!!! Turns out the Golden Rule was the #1 department store for folks of considerable means from the 1890s up until the 1940's. They had an atrium where you could have an extravagant lunch while the porters stood at the ready with your newly purchased items. There was an entire floor dedicated to fine art. And in the 1920's a Max Parrish framed and numbered litho could be had for about $90. IN 1920! Even then he commanded a great price! After carefully removing the brown paper backing, I discovered the litho number on the back of the Parrish print. Turns out its and original run litho. GLORY BE!!! Sad part of the story is it has lost a lot of its glorious purple hues. Possibly was kept in a sunny parlor and was exposed to hours of abusive UV glare. *sigh* But just the same, I adore my new Parrish!
Until I can afford a mint condition version, this one suits me just fine.......

Tiny plates....a growing obsession

One day I was having a snack. A few slices of cheese and some crackers. I assembled my snack on a linen napkin, walked through the kitchen, one cracker was precariously balanced and when I stumbled on the corner of the area rug, the cracker flew and I tried to stop it and then I lost the whole mess. I thought, Maybe I need a small plate for small food. Currently I have large chop plates and pasta bowls, but no small plates. You know, like a bread plate that comes with a set?

At that moment, an obsession was born. I don't like using paper plates (trying to leave a small footprint and all that.) Reusable is the way to go. And up cycling, I'd be saving them from a landfill! So I'd be doing a good thing by buying a few small plates, right?

My next trip to the thrift store sussed out a single, funky 6" plate. A few days later I found 2 more plates in yet another funky design. Surely 3 plates was enough. I mean, how many snacks on any given day will I have? But what if I have company....and THEY want a snack? I need more plates.

2, 3, 4 more plates added to the collection. But what if I had a Tapas party? I have that really amazing Tapas cookbook. It could happen.... I need more plates! And the stack grows. Clattering when I take one off of the top of the stack. (The same plate each time, by the way. I only ever use one plate at a time. And place it back on the stack. And use it again. And again. The same one.) While the rest of the plates go largely unused, it doesn't stop me from scouring the thrift store shelves for that stray Franciscan bread plate or milk glass saucer missing it's tea cup and doomed to spinsterhood. I'll have a tapas party one day. I swear I will.

I just need a few more plates first......