Jennycakes Creations

Brooke strikes again

2008-07-19T21:17:00.004-04:00

Last night while eating dinner, our dog walked by the table. His docked tail caught my attention-yup, you guessed it, a pantyliner was wrapped around it.
He didn't seem to mind the feminine hygiene product. As long as he got some table food, I suppose it was a fair trade-off.

seashore

2008-07-18T12:42:00.000-04:00

Handwriting & Poo

2008-07-18T12:29:00.003-04:00

I am really awful-I don't mean to neglect this blog...I am just such a handwriting person...My journals are full of my meandering thoughts, and happenings w/the kids, and this blog has gone neglected...
I suppose I just don't type too well....and there's something to be said for handwriting. I still love re-reading my Nana's old cookbooks where I can almost see her in her kitchen jotting notes to remember her impromptu additions to recipes. Mostly they were in her head, but the notes, and that specific handwriting, just feel like her. I feel like I still have a part of her.
In my sewing room I have a framed note she sent me before she died. It was written on the back of a blank page of an old date book, never written on. It says something like, "I love the nice notes I get from you, we never have trouble talking on the phone do we?". I look at it often. Handwriting is such a personal thing. I hope that my journals will mean something special to my girls when I am no longer here to write in them. They will have a piece of me forever. My cookbooks are filled w/my scrawl as well....god knows I change every recipe I try.

On to poo-I've picked up 3 turds already today off of my living room floor-Peyton isn't getting the message about the whole POTTY thing...............................then Brooke pooped in Peyton's potty to "show her" what to do. Great, now I get to dump man-turds from the kiddie potty too. Motherhood is very glamorous. I haven't stopped gagging yet today.
Oh, and Brooke wrapped 2 panty-liners around my bedroom fan.

I am close to opening that bottle of champagne in my fridge. Very close.

brooke

2008-02-06T09:46:00.001-05:00

ok-brooke got a hold of it this morning...looks like little house on the prarie jammies on her, but...she loves it...

spaulding...

2008-02-05T20:49:00.001-05:00

Some of you know that Brooke has been called spaulding b/c of her 'poo' adventures and nakedness...I write about her frequently in my journals...her craziness is unparallelled to this point.

Here is what I'm dealing with in a nutshell. Notice how I am not missing a beat on the phone. The pictures were all taken by Taylor.... the pic of Brooke watching the monkey-don't ask me...

re-cons and such...

2008-02-05T16:58:00.000-05:00

Taylor refused to take off her jammies, so, here we are...

So I've taken to re-constructing some of Bill's old oxford shirts that were just too yuck-around-the-collar to wear anymore & turning them into cute dresses for the girls...and today made some pretty scarves-one for me, and one for mom as a thank you for taking time off of work to help me out w/the kids during my surgery last week....

....Oh, and I've been making baby slings too...the one pictured here I just sent to Patricia in Spain for baby Gonzalo.

I'll get the pics up of the dresses when they're finished....

And here they are...little longer than I thought, but she'll grow.

trying..

2008-01-16T21:21:00.001-05:00

I've been trying to workout-really trying...but the kids just aren't being very cooperative. I wake up early, & Peyton is calling me from her crib, who then wakes up Brooke who wants to go downstairs for chocolate milk, not the treadmill.
I've realized that what is happening is that I am putting on workout clothes everyday, telling myself, it's OK, try again during nap time, only nap time comes & Peyton is asleep, but Brooke is singing "mommy come get me out of here" to the tune of jingle bells. So I spring her from her "nap" so Peyton can have one, but this doesn't help me get a workout in. Because she wants to play & doesn't understand that mommy needs to shed those extra few pounds, which, by the way, were put there because of the very same people who are preventing me from taking them off.
Now everyone is in bed, and after driving to & from pre-k, dressing & undressing Brooke 500 times today, wiping boogers from crusty faces, changing diapers, making dinner, doing laundry..........another day has gone by & my workout clothes really haven't been worked out in, just worn.
I'm sure one day I'll look back on this fondly....now I just want to sleep (after I fold laundry). Tomorrow is another day, right? The sports bra will see another day!

Belated Christmas!!

2008-01-13T22:26:00.002-05:00

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

I know, it's a little late, but give me a break, I think I have just started to breathe again! Enjoy!

Birthday Thank you

2008-01-13T21:51:00.001-05:00

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

Viola

2007-11-21T20:16:00.000-05:00

I read cookbooks, I should just put that out there before I tell this story.
So my mom gave me a cookbook from the parish where she works...a compilation of the parishioners favorites (a heavily Italian parish). So I decided to try a recipe I found that required a Rossetti iron. I have had a Rossetti iron sitting in my cabinet for over a year now, having been given it by an older woman who was moving away & didn't want it to go in the trash. By the way, I had no idea of what to do with that darn iron, I just kept it out of kindness, knowing she wouldn't want it chucked. So I figured I would try the recipe out on the kids & see if I could figure out how to use the thing. It was written by a woman named Viola.
So, I tried it out, and having messed up about five times, finally got the hang of dipping the butterfly shaped iron into the thin, pancake like batter, then holding it at just the right angle in the hot oil so that the batter curled up around, but not over, the iron. This created a funnel-cake like hollow butterfly that the kids found very exciting to eat, sprinkled with powdered sugar.
So, I continued reading the next few recipes, because now I had a huge pot of oil sitting around & thought maybe I'd find another use for it. I did. On one of the next few pages there was a fried ricotta cookie recipe, which required a huge pot of oil. Check.
I made these little doughnut-like fried cookie balls, dusted them with powdered sugar, & they were gobbled up quickly. As far as the leftovers went, however, I wasn't sure if they needed to go in the fridge. There was no instruction. So I looked at the recipe's author & there she was again...Viola. She also authored the Rossetti iron cookie recipe.
I decided that my mom should track her down & tell her that I liked her recipes, but get the answer to the refrigeration question.
She called back quickly with the information-she had found Viola, and turns out she's 90 years old & was just tickled that someone was making her beloved cookies. And she wouldn't tell my mom the answer-I was to call her myself. My mom did warn me that she was 'off-the-boat' Italian & might be a little hard to understand. I called her & yes, she was a little hard to understand, but what came across quite easily was the smile in her voice as she told me about making cookies in Italy & how happy she was that I was making them for my girls. She was a also a dressmaker in Italy, but now her hands have arthritis. And she used to cook so much but now her legs and arms weren't that strong....but she had the sweetest voice & was sharp as a tack. She told me that she didn't need cookbooks, because she had it all in her head. I believed her. She was nice enough to tell me to call anytime, so I took her up on that today. I had a question for her about sfogatelli (Italian pastries).
I called her up this morning, asking where she would be for Thanksgiving, and if she minded a question from me. I asked if I could make the sfogatelli pastry today, but not bake them till tomorrow. "Oh!", she said. "Sfogatelli is a-dead, I am-a sorry to-ah tell you. What did you want to-ah make? Apple cake? I-ah tell you my apple cake recipe and you-ah make it".
I tried to tell her that sfogatelli was a pastry, not a person, but she kept saying she was dead, so I went with it & wrote down the apple cake recipe.
It sounds like a good one.
Hey, she's almost 91, I'll take her word on anything.

buzzards, oh my!

2007-11-19T14:46:00.000-05:00

Oh my gosh, the book arrived & it looks really great. A couple of minor things I might change before selling it online, but wow, how much FUN that was!! The kids love it & Taylor will feel like a star today at school when her teacher reads aloud our fabulous book to the class. Story time will never be the same.
While I was pulling out of the driveway today, to take Taylor to school, she screamed for me to run & grab the camera because there was a huge turkey buzzard on our neighbors rooftop. So I did....didn't get very close w/the lens, but it made the drive to school a photographic adventure as there were turkey buzzards perched on rooftops all over our neighborhood. We made it to school on time...but not too much time to spare. Do I hear a new book coming? Hmmmm....

It's coming!!!

2007-11-15T15:51:00.000-05:00

The girls & I wrote a little book about bugs in our yard & published it on http://www.lulu.com/ . OK, well, I wrote the book, but they did help me out. They are in all the pics w/their garden bug friends, and it is really exciting now that I know it is an actual book & is somewhere in the mail. I'll try to link a pic of the cover...a ladybug crawling up onto Brooke's finger...after I get my copy, I think I'll be adding it to the lulu public access thing...selling it online. You can buy it now, but I want to re-check it in my hands first....so exciting!!

ps-I'll change my name from Mommy to Jennifer if & when it's ready to sell....you know, so I sound like a grown up.

So much to do.....

2007-11-07T21:10:00.000-05:00

I am frantically planning for Christmas, figuring if Taylor should have a blow-out birthday party early in December, or wait...TONS of sewing to do....and I just keep making lists. I'm losing it. They had a great time on Halloween, though, can you tell?

Keeping up...

2007-10-29T14:37:00.000-04:00

Well, I guess I have good intentions with keeping up here, but life is just too crazy sometimes to post...I write in my journals almost everyday, but getting here just doesn't always happen...I won't skimp on the journal entries b/c there's just something about sitting down & writing ...w/a pen...that is cathartic for me. I plan on compiling these journals to one day hand to my daughters when they have kids so I can say, "LOOK...this is what you did to me...and so it shall be done unto you". I have to say, it is funny when I go back & re-read past entries...I think I will start posting some of them here, in my spare time. Oh, I have none of that, by the way.

Hope you liked the Halloween carving pics, Mimi & Pop-pop babysat while Bill & I were out on the town...

catholic ladybugs?

2007-10-17T13:47:00.000-04:00

I was just reading about ladybugs (while I was spending way to much time sitting & waiting for the Blue Cross/Blue Shield woman, who was very nice, to take me off of hold) on www.backyardnature.net here's a little excerpt which made me realize that apparently Ladybugs are catholic....who knew?

THE WORD LADYBIRD
I grew up calling these insects
"ladybugs" but most books seem to refer to them as "ladybirds." The dictionary
says that the latter word is derived from "bird of Our Lady." Most people are
pretty sure that "Our Lady" means the Virgin Lady, and one theory is that the
people who named our little beetle "ladybird" had a species ornamented with
seven spots, and the namers saw in these seven spots "the seven sorrows of
the Virgin Mary." Also it's possible that in the old days people simply thought
that ladybugs were so pretty that they deserved to be associated with the Virgin
Mary.
But, what about the "bird" part of "ladybird"? A good guess is that
people just thought that a "bird" was more appropriate to be associated with The
Virgin than a "bug."

not a cocoon......

2007-10-17T13:15:00.001-04:00

OK, I just found out from my handy bug website that my cocoon isn't a cocoon at all...it's a chrysalis of a black swallowtail.....the dead giveaway (apparently) is it's upward orientation & the fact that the caterpillars were avid parsley eaters in the garden...you learn something everyday, I suppose!

bugs & such...

2007-10-17T13:10:00.000-04:00

here's a cool bug website I found...the kids like it & it has plenty of critters to look at from other people's backyards....
bugs

garden...

2007-10-17T11:48:00.001-04:00

Some other garden pics I love...also, here's a cocoon we've been watching on our shed....the kids have magnifying glasses & have been checking it everyday....

uneventful so far.

Jessica's Bridal Shower

2007-10-16T20:40:00.000-04:00

well, thank god it's over. It was very nice & the country club was beautiful, but all the planning & cake baking & quilting for that day was starting to make me go insane. everything went just as planned, Jess was very surprised & got plenty of beautiful gifts to keep her busy writing thank yous for awhile. Anyway, here was her cake that I made for the day....a "tea party" theme...

I used a 'brush embroidery" technique for the first time & I think it came out well...time consuming, but pretty. Everything was edible except for the 10" round second form the bottom...that was Styrofoam, for height...

Garden Fairies

2007-10-16T19:59:00.000-04:00

Ok-the pictures are finally here...if these photos don't make you want to go & plant a garden with your kids, nothing will.....Taylor & Brooke are playing upstairs so nice & quietly that it's making me nervous...gotta run..

witches

2007-10-15T23:21:00.000-04:00

I just finished baking & well, creating about 30ish witches for Brooke to take to all the other 2 year olds at school tomorrow...green icing with sugar cone witch hats & googly fondant eyes, some rolled by Daddy...oh, and candy corn noses...if my darn camera wasn't dead, I'd take a picture...I suppose I will grab the student teacher & bribe her w/a cupcake to get a pic & send it to me so I can share...they're sort of cute. It's all I could muster up after my sister Jessica's massive bridal shower cake I did over the weekend...it was huge, 5 tiers, & it took the life out of me. The catering manager asked, "Are you a baker?"......"um, well, I baked it...in my oven at home if that's what you mean...". Anyway, I've been up to my ears in cake & quilting, so cupcakes are just my speed tonight, even if i did pipe them all & add the fondant eyes....& hand paint the black eyeballs on those eyes....oh, Brooke will be so excited when she wakes up!

Wisdom for the day...

2007-10-08T15:17:00.000-04:00

My camera is not charging, so I can't upload the beautiful pics I have taken recently of the kids in the garden & all of the many bugs which inhabit that garden. On just one asparagus fern, it seemed like there was an entire city of busy beetles-ladybugs, and the like....I'll get them up eventually.
Until then, here's an email I got today & thought it was funny, gross & worth sharing...

Water VS. Wine:
As Ben Franklin said: In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom,
in water there is bacteria. In a number of carefully controlled trials, scientists have demonstrated that if we drink 1 liter of water each day, at the end of the year we would have absorbed more than 1 kilo of Escherichia coli, (E. coli) - bacteria found in feces. In other words, we are consuming 1 kilo of poop. However, we do NOT run that risk when drinking wine & beer (or tequila, rum, whiskey or other liquor) because alcohol has to go through a purification process of boiling, filtering and/or fermenting.

Remember: Water = Poop, Wine = Health
Therefore, it's better to drink wine and talk stupid, than to drink water and be full of shit.

hems....

2007-10-05T13:54:00.000-04:00

I need to make a dress for myself...kind of like this one...but I will actually need to hem it as the fabric doesn't lend itself to , well, doing nothing to it...it will fray like mad. So, being a self taught sewer, I will need to figure out how to do a rolled hem...probably why I am not downstairs in my sewing room now doing it. I need time to think of how I will do this & not end up w/a dress that looks like I made it...

anyway, I need to get busy. Kids are napping, so do I shower or sew? Tough question.

Funny Bunnies

2007-10-04T20:39:00.000-04:00

Here are the funny bunnies (as Taylor has named them) that I made last night...random scraps of fabric with random body parts...Taylor stayed up way too late with me to be the "stuffer" of the bunnies. How could I say no? I was planning on embroidering the faces on, but Taylor required hers immediately for bedtime....so they got penned on....hey, they're funny bunnies, they really aren't that picky.

Here I am

2007-10-04T20:31:00.000-04:00

ok-I will start blogging here to stop the never-ending emails I send to my too-nice friends everytime I finish a burp cloth, baby blanket, or funny bunny.....this should keep me occupied.