Be My Doormat

Posted on Feb 24, 2008

I saw this great doormat on Better Living Through Design. I’ve been trying to find a plain coconut fiber doormat that I can screen myself. It’s proving hard to locate. I did find a cheap version online form Coco Doormats.

I’m also jonesing for this rug from 2Modern.com.

Wouldn’t that be stellar in my grey and yellow bedroom? Capree sent me an email this week with these lovely grey and yellow pillows from Bluefly.com.

Grandma’s Farm

Posted on Feb 24, 2008

My mom does this “Grandma’s Farm” visit at elementary schools where she tells them all about her life growing up on a farm with no hot water, or indoor toilets or T.V. She brings in her wheat grinder and shows the kids how to make muffins and then they get to churn butter in her old fashioned hand churn. When she did it for my class when I was in kindergarten she gave each of us heavy cream in a baby food jar and we all just shook those up til we had our very own butter for our whole wheat muffins!

She is starting to do it again this year. She tells this fantastic story about her and her siblings going out before dinner and riding a horse around the farm. Her mom called them all in for dinner. They left one minor detail behind. Her brother Eugene. He remained on the horse. A red headed little boy bobbing up and down out to pasture. Unfortunately for him, the horse got thirsty and as most farm horses go the best place for a refreshment was a pond. Down went the horse’s head and down went Eugene. With an awesome story like that how can you not expect to find thank you notes featuring this?

Do you remember being in 2nd grade when every letter you wrote ended with Sincerely? Thank the heavens I don’t have to worry about flame throwing irons either.

Now that sounds like a delicious sandwich, and a recipe for safety!

Posted on Feb 23, 2008

It’s always been a wonder to me what kind of callings a newly married couple gets at church. Most of the time I hear primary teachers or sacrament greeters. Usually something together.

Not so for the new Mrs. Stay. Oh, no. I get to be a Cub Scout Leader! That’s right folks, me and some other poor sap and 8-10 ten-year-old-boys. Hooray for Webelos!

My “craftiness” has gotten me into trouble once again. I’m not really sure what to do with them. But PopSci gives a fabulous 5 minutes course in how to make your own SLIME!

I did this in 7th grade science and thought it was about the most awesome thing ever. It was right around the era of Nickelodeon’s Gak extravaganza.

I don’t really know how this fits into merit badges but maybe this water safety ranger has some ideas.

I had to listen to this guy go on for a while today. There are a lot of tests a Cub Scout Leader has to go through. Don’t worry, they don’t let just any old crazy mold children.

On Target

Posted on Feb 23, 2008

Turns out, finding a job is hard and grueling. I am feeling a little useless right now. Painting the house is all I have going for me on a day to day basis. It’s not fun. One room would have been cake but the daunting task of doing the entire house is beginning to drag me down.

The good news is that sometimes the gadgets you buy, hoping they work, actually do work!

I was hoping that the sleek design wouldn’t be overshadowed by the fact that it didn’t function. But the snazzy Dirt Devil Cone hand vacuum (ours was only $35 at Target) looks good and seems to pick up a lot of dust and dirt. The boys that lived in our house before us were slobs, plain and simple. Painting the baseboards is pretty nasty. But thanks to my handy little vac I can paint with 80% less grossness(you don’t want to know).

Item number two that shocked me into belief is this new fangled painting edger. I saw it in Target with Sir Luke the other day and thought it would be pretty awesome if it actually functioned properly. And function it did!!

I couldn’t find the picture on Target.com so this one from Ace Hardware will have to do. You just let it glide across the wall and it rolls along the ceiling. Granted we still taped off the ceiling for a more precise paint job but in all it works well in coordination with the regular paint rollers.

So here’s to you Target. For selling me products that meet my expectations. Cheers.

Penn Me

Posted on Feb 20, 2008

Irving Penn is one of my favorite photographers. His groupings are styled beautifully and the lighting is clean and soft. He lets you know he has selected every detail in the frame. I can only hope that my work can come minutely close to his talent.

While in school my editorial class in college, we decided to reproduce an image by Irving.

What do you think? His or ours?

Choc Doc

Posted on Feb 16, 2008

I think I’m still on a Valentine’s Day chocolate binge. Sir Luke bought me a lovely box of Dove dark chocolates as well as made me crepe suzettes on the day of love.

After working for the length of the movie “Holes” on our refurbished black, two-drawer, file cabinet from DI (more on that later, contact paper is amazing), I decided to relax by watching a sweet episode of Unwrapped all about chocolate.

I learned that I want to eat two new chocolatey things.

First, drinking chocolate from Schokinag straight from Germany. Don’t be fooled, drinking chocolate is NOT hot chocolate. I am dieing to get my hands on some. I’m going to have to send a can to my friend Travis, back in New York. He still believe Jacque Torres has the best hot chocolate in the country. Somehow I managed to escape the city without trying it. But, I did persuade him to stop shopping for the luscious drink at the bucks but at Dunkin’ Donuts instead. You will not be disappointed.

But seriously, I want some of this (sans mocha).

The second chocolate bits that I discovered tonight are from Schwartz “Out of this World, Chocolate Marshmallows.” Can you really beat that introduction?

If you are in need of a fluffy find, look no further. They come in several flavors and are made on Long Island. You can choose form several of their other chocolate concoctions but the marshmallows are much more intriguing to me. They ship across the country as well.

Mmmm, chocolate.