Fruits of my labor

Ha. I don't post for months and months, and then today comes along and I post twice. I am quite pleased with the fruits of my labor. Three pieces to be exact. My office. A Kathleen for Katie. Boston Cream Pie.

The pie came first. WC & I baked it for WM while he was away this week. Now that WC is three months old, he's getting to be quite the little helper.




Boston Cream is as easy as pie. We baked a French Vanilla cake. We made the filling from vanilla pudding with an extra splash of vanilla. (Just follow the pie directions on the pudding box & add and extra teaspoon of vanilla). The ganache is just whipping cream & chocolate chips. Heat a cup of cream in the microwave. Melt in one bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Stir until smooth and there you have it.

Mmmmmm...

Needless to say, WM has requested we bake him a cake every time he goes away on business. That is to say, every three weeks. I don't know how my bathroom scale would feel about that.

My office as mentioned in the last post had gotten out of control. Now it looks like this:


Lastly, Kathleen for Katie. Kathleen doesn't even have a page on the website yet. She's fantastic. Holds more than her fair share. Has doubled as a diaper bag in a pinch. Two sizes so ask for a Kathy if you prefer a handbag to a shoulder bag. This little cutie is for Katie. She asked for her AGES ago under the 'whenever you have time..." timeline. Whenever was today. Partly because I was feeling guilty. Mostly because it is fun to brighten someone's day. Between juggling two busy kiddos, PTA meetings, yearbook details, a husband and a household, chances are Kathleen has slipped Katie's mind. She'll get a sweet little treat tomorrow. WC & I are meeting Katie, Holly & Holly's darling little girls tomorrow. Shopping. Lunch. Good girly times. Hooray!!

The Creative Juices Are Flowing Again

Woo hoo!! Kara stopped by the studio the other weekend. We TRASHED it. There was fabric everywhere!! You couldn't see the floor and there wasn't a single thread left on the shelf. UGH. Good in that she found what she was looking for. Even better that it forced me to do a little cleaning.

I have a hard time creating when there is chaos around me. Now, everything is neatly put away. I'm still not totally sold on my orange walls. They've only been that color for four years now. You'd think I'd decide to either love 'em or hate 'em. They make me jumpy and restless. So...I bought some green & orange fabric for the window treatments. Hopefully, the green will add that soothing element that I am looking for.


As for Kara's selection, Alexander Henry. A bit of red, cream & black. Black accents. Et voila! You have one sweet little Betty.

(NEARLY) A YEAR IN REVIEW

OK. I'll admit to being a blogging slacker. It has been close to a year since my last post. I'm going to play catch up in one post and am making a solemn vow to be better at keeping my posts up to date.

It is a little hard to sum it all up. I'm all about the details. What do I leave out? OK...the high points are as follows:

In March, we celebrated our birthdays (my hubby & I share the same one!) by announcing that I was pregnant. How's that for a good start to yet another year? We also made a quick trip to LasVegas with my husband's family. It was fun! We saw LOVE. So...cool.


Skipping ahead...In August, we traveled to Cincy, OH to attend the wedding of my dear sister-in-law, Kelly. 7 months pregnany. 100+ degrees. An outdoor wedding. Still, it was very moving. Beautiful. Good to connect with family & friends who hadn't been seen for a while. Good to celebrate the budding of a new branch on the family tree. Congrats to Andy & Kelly!!

September brought our first wedding anniversary and baby showers that carried into October. I was also laid off from my 'real' job, allowing me time to nest and put my swollen feet up for a spell.


Walter Channing arrived on November 15. It wasn't an easy labor, but I will say he's now an easy baby. Sleeping through the night already. Letting me smother him with kisses and nibble on his toes constantly. If he could talk I'm sure he'd say, "Enough already, Mom!" I wished aloud for a snuggly baby and a snuggly baby is what I got. This picture is from last week. Don't you just want to pinch those cheeks? I find motherhood agreeing with me quite well. Quite well indeed.


New Year's came quietly for us. I made dinner. Lobster dinner. Ah...what we do for love. As my sister, Sarah, likes to say, 'I don't eat crustaceans.' I will cook them for my husband though. He was pretty pleased with his dinner. I had chicken. It was overcooked as I was paying more attention to the lobster. Oh well. I can still say I can successfully make lobster as well as an assortment of condiments for my condiment obsessed husband.

As for MaxineMargaret, good things are on the way. Many, many good things. There are all sorts of ideas floating round in my head. A fresh start for a new year. A new direction to go with the new phase of my life.