Trying to get my "craft" on

For the past few weeks (actually since before Christmas) I have hit a creative slump! I have lost my mo-jo. I am looking for any good ideas to get it going again. Anyone have any?

I decided that I would sign up for some challenges to see if that would work. I signed up for Lain Ehmann's LOAD challege (Lay Out A Day) for the month of February. I only made it 2 days! Ugh! So, I decided that maybe I need to start small. So, I am playing along with the card challenge at the Amuse Lounge. The challenge was to make a card inspired by music. Here is mine...



Part of Amuse's mantra (if you will) is to keep things simple. As you can see, that is exactly what I did.

The card was inspired by the song, "We Rock", in the Disney Movie, Camp Rock (which Brenna loves). I made the card for my Nephew Conor for his birthday.

A Heartbreaking Story

I was reading another blog recently and was shocked when I read the story about David Goldman and his struggle to bring his son, Sean, home from Brazil.  He had been abducted by his mother, years ago and taken to Brazil where she was from. She refused to return Sean to the US and his Father. She remarried and continued to allow Sean to see his Father. The international legal battle took a strange turn when she passed away. Despite her passing, her new husband continued to fight Sean's return to his Father in the US. I have since spoken with others who had heard the story, and some that had not.  If you do not know about it, check out the story here .

There is good news.  David was able to see Sean for the first time in over 4 years!  See the story here .  He is still fighting in the Courts to have Sean returned to him permanently in the United States, but at least this was some progress.  I can not imagine what that was like, not being able to see your son for over 4 years, and finally being reunited, if only for a few days.  

In light of all of the legal issues, mostly international, that this case presents a petition is being circulated in support of a House Resolution urging the Brazilian Government to return Sean to the US immediately.  More information on the Petition and the proposed House Resolution, can be found here.

Stories like this help keep things in perspective and remind us of how blessed we are, in so many ways.

Have a nice weekend.

What a week!

It has been quite a busy week.  The kids have been on winter break and we decided to not to plan anything big.  We just wanted go with the flow.  It has been relaxing and fun.

On Sunday we joined our friends, the Parmas, for a THROWDOWN challenge.  You see, the Parmas (and us too) are fans of Bobby Flay's "Throwndown" show on the Food Network.  Caitlin, their 4 year old daughter, came up with the idea that we should have a baking "throwdown".  We narrowed the subject down a bit further and decided on cupcakes.  The kids were assigned the role of judging.

Now anyone who knows me, knows I love to bake (since I love sweets so much) but Carol and Jean share my love of baking. So, it seemed like a good match up.  Since the kids were judging the original idea was to not let them see each of our entries.  We worried that they would pick one over the other if they knew who made it.  

I had a lot of fun getting ready.  I tried out 4 different recipes.  I was relieved when Todd returned from his trip that week as I needed some help in my "taste kitchen".  Each of the recipes seemed to be missing something.  The kids were thrilled to eat the "rejected" cupcakes. (Brenna would sweetly insist that each of them were worthy of being entered into the contest.) Ultimately, I decided on a chocolate cupcake, with Heath Bar pieces, and a vanilla buttercream frosting.  

When we arrived at the Parmas I was greeted with their very adorable cupcakes.  They certainly had outdone me in the "creative" department (and my scores would reflect that at judging).  Here are the contestants


(and I was happy to be there so I have no idea why I am making that face in this picture!) 

and our entries....

As you can see, the judges took their jobs very seriously.



And the results.... well it was a close race. I got tanked on decorations (and you can see why) but recovered a bit on taste. We were convinced that they kids knew which cupcake belonged to which baker, so it was not quite a "blind" vote. In the end, I scraped out a victory.

I had a blast, but do not think that I can bake another cupcake for some time. Rumor has it that the next Throwdown is for cookies. I will definitely have to get my game on for that one!

Hockey

Today was Andrew's last day of his first hockey season. He asked me to bring the video camera today so I could get some video to share. I am so glad that I did. When we arrived they announced that they would be playing cross-ice games today. This is the "learn to skate- hockey" program and the kids had only been skating with the hockey sticks since after Christmas. He was so excited when he heard that they were going to actually get to play.



After warming up a bit, they broke the kids up into teams and set up three cross-ice games. This was the most active that he had been on the ice so far. He did a good job following where the puck was and I was surprised to see that he did not mind getting into a crowd to try and get at the puck.

Only minutes before they ended, he got his first goal! I was so happy to capture it on film. Here, you can take a peek here. (He is the one with the yellow hood hanging out of the back of his jersey.  He was so thrilled!




Afterwards, he received a medal and Certificate of Participation. Since this was the first real sport that he played, this is his first medal. Can you tell that he was excited?




It really was a great experience.  And we are all looking forward to next year.

Valentines Day Preparations

Well the kids have been enjoying getting ready for Valentines Day this week. When I picked up Andrew at school on Tuesday he was wearing this adorable hat that he made...



He wrote "Happy Valentines Day Mom" on it. It is so stinking cute!

Brenna has been hard at work making her Valentines cards for her classmates. She stamped, colored and glued them all herself. She even picked out specific designs for certain kids in her class.


She is very excited to bring them to school tomorrow for the Valentine's Day festivities.

We hope that you have a nice Valentine's Day and that you get to spend some quality time with your loved ones!

Facebook????

Ok, so I am bored.  Todd is out of town.  The kids are in bed.  And quite frankly, I do not feel like picking up the house right now.  So, I saw a link to FaceBook somewhere on another blog, and I thought I would check it out.  I know, I am only a few years behind, but I heard that it was a really neat way to re-connect with people.  So, I signed up tonight.  But honestly, I have no clue at all what to do now.  How do I make "friends"?  And when I do, what happens?  Do they chat with me?  E-mail me?  If anyone out there is on FaceBook and can explain it to me, can you please do so?  I sent an e-mail to my very technologically savvy friend Carl (who I know belongs to FaceBook) but he never reads his home e-mail so I am pretty certain that I will need someone else's help.  Thanks so much.

Have a nice weekend.

Just a Click Away

Uncle Chuck passed this link along to the Breast Cancer site today.  By visiting the site, and clicking on the pink button, sponsors will donate funds to provide mammograms for those in need.  You can visit once a day.  Obviously, this is a cause near and dear to our hearts.  So, please check it out.  I have also added a link on the right side of the blog that will stay there in case you lose the address.  

Have a great Sunday.

Enjoy the game Uncle Chuck.