Happy Birthday, girl!

My sweet little bee turned 5 this week - oh my, time flies! And she has gotten so LONG ...

We had our first kids party yesterday and it was a lot of fun! Right when my husband and me were wondering how to pull his off, we got an e-mail from The Golden Apple telling us that we won a monster birthday party for Sophia - hooray!

So we invited eight kids and spend an afternoon with a fluffy monster and a mad professor, did all kinds of slimy and gooey experiments, listened to a story, made worms and dirt, ate chocolate cupcake, and watched a soda geyser explode. Good times! Except for the cupcakes everything was provided by the store and every child got to take home a goodie bag. Now if that wasn't the easiest party ever!

This week is so busy! On my sewing machine: pink zebra shorts in-the-making (Halloween party Saturday- not mine!). In the hallway: a package with ornaments from my shop, waiting to be shipped. Somewhere in Sophia's room: two DVDs that are due. Also mysterious library book from school library wating to be discovered. On my computer: food ideas for birthday party on Saturday. On my desk: chaos. Also: I'll be classroom helper today and my shop needs updating. Oh boy, there is just not enough hours in the day (especially if you like to hop into bed with your book at 8pm).

She might be at school ...

 

... but she is not out of sight!

After a morning of singing, drawing, hopping on the bed, a few clothes changes, scattering dried up bits of play doh all over the floor, and skipping to school horsey-style the house seems blissfully (and strangely!) quiet. How only one tiny person can change the energy around is nothing short of amazing.

I signed her up for a contest of her school's PTA titled "Diversity means ..." - turns out diversity is very hard to draw when you enjoy matching objects. Yesterday we set out different art materials that were allowed (no sculpting and no objects protruding from the page - shame!) and after looking up diversity on a kids' site she worked away.

 

While the only real diversity I can see is the diversity of pictures she produced she did have a great time drawing and painting. My favorite might just be The Piggy Bank and the Banana Tree.

  

On the weekend when Kevin and Sophia were visiting with family I learned something new!

The last time I went to San Francisco I discovered beautiful Fillmore Street and a shop called Paper Source. There, after spending an hour looking at all the great inspring things, I got a foto album kit that I tucked away until a quiet moment. And Sunday was the day!

I used some muslin and a big drawing from Sophia. Now I only need time to put in all my fotos!

 

Big steps

 Yesterday I overheared Sophia sounding out letters and humming to herself on the balcony. When I peeked around the corner I saw her writing and drawing on the chalk board. Seeing the letters she has been carrying around with her take shape was fascinating.

She asked me for help eventually and finished off her work by drawing mouths on the letters - in the shape they make when they are spoken (lots of teeth on D).

Sweet, sweet girl of mine. And this morning you didn't even want a goodbye kiss before school. After I asked you why (shocked and a little bit hurt I admis) you rolled your eyes and gave in. Almost five is not too old for kisses, right? Right?

Nothing soothes better than a day old cheesecake. I found the recipe in radically simple and simple it was:

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
5 oz honey grahm crackers
(1/2 walnuts or pecans - Kevin hates nuts in baked goods, so none for us)
1 1/4 c sugar
3 large eggs
16 oz cream cheese
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbsp cornstarch
24 oz sour cream

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter a sprinform with 2 Tbsp butter.

Crush the crackers (, nuts,) and 1/4 c sugar, add 4 Tbsp melted butter and put it in the bottom of the pan to form a crust.

now you basically mix everything else together very slowly - first the eggs, then cream cheese, the cup sugar, vanilla, cornstarch, 1/4 tsp salt and sour cream. Pour onto the crust and bake for 50 minutes, until firm.

Top with fruit, chocolate shavings, or enjoy pure like I do. Mmmh ...

Cookies up!

Polymer clay German Christmas Cookies, that is. And they are finally up in my Etsy shop!

Kevin took Sophia out for brats and football while I strung the cookies, gathered props, and set up an impromptu photo studio on the balcony (natural light!). Is it fair to say that this took my all Sunday? Well, yes. Am I glad it is in the shop? Well, YES!

I also have pretzel pendants and brooches patiently waiting to be put up, but that will happen another time.

Come have look at the cookies and let me know what you think. Maybe your favorite Christmas cookie is still missing?

Have a great start of the week everyone!

Sweet polymer clay

I think I have a new hobby!

Ever since Etsy lauched its Holiday Bootcamp I am getting more and more excited about my little shop there - I should really get going and stock it! So this morning while I was wondering what to put up I came across my 1984 cook book and pondered over the Christmas pages. And there it struck me - cookies! Not the edible kind, but for decorations. Think Christmas tree, advent wreath, in the window, ...

I looked up polymer clay on the internet and set out to Michael's. What can I say, it was polymer clay heaven. They even had good old German Fimo ;) I bought a few things, hurried home to explore and, you guessed it, it was tons of fun!

When Sophia came home from school she got excited, too, and so we crafted together for quite a while. She made ice cream and cookies for her dolls.

These cookies will probably be the next item in my Etsy shop, what do you think?

Itty-bitty coin purse

Ever since I had seen the tutorial in Molly Makes I had been wanting to make my own little coin purse. Alas, I could't find the frame at Joann's online or on Etsy within my price range so I gave up on it. Until one busy morning last week when I was waiting at Joann's for my cutting table number to be called out. I browsed through the isles and suddenly bumped into a wall full of purse pieces and, yes, frames! Ding!

Today was the day, with Sophia at Kindergarten, the workers outside turning the water off just after I had gotten enough for a cup of tea, jazzradio.com in the background and a clean kitchen table - pure bliss. It was fun to sew despite of all the ruffles and turned out true to it's name: tiny ... and very cute.

Custom order, anyone? For material + shipping cost and a bar of chocolate? :)

Tuesday morning

 Ever since the little pumkin started Kindergarten I feel the need to fill my three free hours in the morning with as much as possible. Of course, this was bound to fail ... So now I am NOT getting in the car to rush to the mall to look for things to wear at the concert while watching the time and rushing back to prepare lunch we can eat in the car on our way to work before fetching Sophia from school. Instead I harvest the first of our mystery beans. Wouldn't it be fun to toss them in the soup tonight?

Then I take a look at my stash of fabric, get out a yard stick, and begin making a bag. Every day on my way from and to school I wish I had a small little bag to just fit my phone and keys, maybe my wallet. Like those hippie crochet bags we had back in high school. And now I make one. No pattern, just eyeballing. And breathing.

 It turned out just fine.

 

 

Now it is almost time to walk to school and enjoy the little bag.

True, I didn't get quite as much done as I had planned but I feel a lot more relaxed - what's better?

A friend of mine was so kind to lend me the first three issues of the magazine Molly Makes and I was smitten! You should check it out. Anyway, yesterday we found this little guy in there and there was no way Sophia would allow me to turn the page without making one for here. So there :)