OhmMama Mudpie

Irish Baking and Crafts

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We began celebrating about a week early with rainbow cookies... 

The recipe is from www.dltk-teach.com:

• 1 cup sugar 
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 cups flour 
• 1 tsp. vanilla 
• 1 egg 
• Food coloring-at least 6 colors (make sure one of them is Red!) 
  remember - with red, blue and yellow you can make all the other colors.

Mix sugar, butter, egg and vanilla.   Add flour and mix well. 

Divide dough into six balls. 

Add a different food coloring to each ball.

Roll each ball in a snake shape onto a floured surface.   This is fun for the kids -- just like playdough!

Arch snake shape and press onto cookie sheet. 

Add other snake shapes until the rainbow is formed.  (OR!  Form a letter R shape with them)

Bake at 350 degrees for 8-15 minutes. 

When cooled let each child taste a piece of the rainbow.

I would add a bit more flour to the mix, as it was verrrry soft and floppy making it difficult for a 4 year old to roll the dough and build the rainbow...especially with the last/longer rolls....they were yummy, however!

 

Ooops! I didn't follow the color wheel! Goethe is rolling over :)  The boys didn't mind...they ate them at 'sea'....seems rainbow cookies help prevent scurvey too.

TMI ALERT:  The food coloring does tend to 'alter' the kiddos waste products, if you know what I mean ;)  Some freaky colors were produced over the next couple of days, yes a couple of days!

Next, we (mostly I) made Stained Glass Shamrocks.  I took Martha Stewart's Crayon Hearts and gave them an Irish twist:

Kody helped shred the crayons.  We used Green, chartreuse, dark green and yellow.  I threw in some orange in a symbolic unity of North and South Ireland.  Kody helped with melting the crayons with the iron as I supervised.   Then we traced and cut Shamrocks out of green construction paper.  Kody and Kaden mostly practiced cutting and tracing the shamrocks :)  Kody gave a St. Patrick's Day card to our irish neighbors who graciously lent us the wax paper, as Kaden fell asleep befoe I could run to the store.

 

 

Here are a couple of St. Patrick's Day thoughts with which to leave you:

St. Patrick's Day is an enchanted time - a day to begin transforming winter's dreams into summer's magic.  ~Adrienne Cook

May your blessings outnumber
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go.
~Irish Blessing

Never iron a four-leaf clover, because you don't want to press your luck.  ~Author Unknown

And a St. Parick's Day memory: When Iwas five or six, my mom got carried away with celebrating St. Patrick's Day and dyed our oatmeal green...my three brothers and I were freaked out and refused to eat it.  All I can remember is some green stuff in a bowl sitting on the counter.  This morning, my boys ate irish oatmeal....without the 'enhancement'.

 

Facial Yoga....yes, it does work (at least for me)

I've been doing some of these exercises for a while and I have seen a difference in my skin tone....I usually do them when I'm driving or when I can remember while I'm with the kids...I've been caught and I wonder what people are thinking...heehee!

http://video.yahoo.com/network/100284668?v=4490855&l=3774730

Inversions are also great for the face...working against Ole Man Gravity...

This time Beauty flies out...

Been meaning to share...Pandora Music which is like having your best friend make mix tapes (anyone remember mix tapes?) for you...Enjoy!!

Haven't been posting lately...we're in the middle of a Short Sale on our house (yeah, that post is coming soon too) and today we have a showing....and instead of cleaning I'm online, making WHO Bread Acoustic Style (to entice those prospective homeowners) and grooving to G. Love and Friends on Pandora...

Apologies for the international readers...Pandora is not available outside of the USA.

Stocking Up on Storm Essentials - Keys' Style

Food - Water - Whiskey: One  Key West couple was noted on Yahoo News to be stocked up on their essentials to ride out Hurricane Fay, still a Tropical Storm as the eye makes it way through the Florida Straits, with a good probability of picking up strength before heading dangerously close to the Florida Keys.  But in the true pirate-hippy Keys' style...what could  possibly become a calamity, we make into a party :) because it's 5 o'clock somewhere, hurricane be damned!!  (Thanks Jimmy!!)

This is important to me, since, well,  I LIVE HERE.  Not Key West per se,  but in the Middle Keys. We aren't sooo much at risk, although one can never be too sure about hurricanes.  The hurricanes of 2005 proved many a forcaster wrong, with grave results. 

As I type, I can hear the winds picking up, lashing at the palm trees, and the clouds have fully opened with a deluge of rain...it will be a wet one for sure.  Living in drought conditions for the past two years, we were welcoming that precious precipitation, but all at once?  Ummmmm.....not so much.  The ocean side of the Keys will likely face a storm surge of  3 to 4 feet...we live on the Gulf side...crossing our fingers, we breath out a tentative sigh of wary relief..."not this time....not like Wilma"  But there is always that nagging feeling, pulling at the back of our minds....:maybe this is the one, the BIG one...maybe we shoulda, coulda prepared better.....or left". 

Concerned friends and family members have been calling, offering prayers and refuge since last night, "Are you leaving?" is the popular question. "Not yet", we reply, "but we are keeping a close watch and will let you know if plans change."  Other friends ask, "What can we do for you?" My husband replies, "Book more dates!!" Heh, heh...always working is he.

Zen Tarpon Daddy just returned from our shed/office, with the news that there is flooding already, with 12+ hours to go!! Woo...hoo...<sign>.

Zen Tarpon Daddy is a man of the elements, spending 12+ hours a day amidst the sun, air and water...it is in his blood, and I trust him and his sixth sense that we will be okay.  We will probably lose power, we will probably be flooded a bit, and we will probably have a LOT of work afterward, but we will be okay.  Three years ago, his sixth sense told him to 'get outta Dodge' as Wilma pummeled Mexico...he knew, he saw the storm surge of a Cat 5 coming...and we were one of the 10% of the local population to leave.  I remember watching the Weather Channel Monday afternoon and seeing reports on Key West, and then reports in Key Largo, and I remember praying..."No, not us...maybe we didn't get hit (yeah, right).  We returned three days later to what appeared to be a nasty and pungent prank; the floors and everything below 10" were muddy, soaked and destroyed.  And let's not get into what was found in the bathroom....ugh!! Thankfully, ZenT  and Zen Buddy did the dirty work, while I washed possibly everything we owned...everything that couldn't be washed was thrown out.  Leave it to Mother Nature to declutter your home...better than any show on HGTV!!

I did not take pictures of the 10 foot high piles of absolute junk that stood sentinel in front of 80% of the houses.  20 years of belongs will do that.  Included in that were refrigerators, washers, dryers, ovens, and computers (yeah, we left our computer on the ground too this time...just up'n left). 

We were the lucky ones...our back door is a Hurricane door, hense, watertight, so when the 4 foot storm surge rose to engulf our sleepy town, our house held tight, except for the 1 1/2 inch gap between the front door and the floor....4 feet came through and the water line inside our home was at 10"....thank you sweet powers that be.  Other neighbors were still not in their homes one year later!!  Once again, though I occasionall (frequently) curse my concrete walls (what the sammhill do I have to do to put up a picture or shelf!?), all we had to do was empty out our home, power wash the inside, let dry, and move back in...we were back home, albeit much lighter in the clutter department five days after Wilma hit. 

I've been told by old-timer locals that duct tape will fix that gap and keep out the water.  I sure hope we do not have to put that theory to the test!!

Last night, Zen Tarpon Daddyo returned home with the above-mentioned provisions; Captain Morgan and Jose Cuervo, and the appropriate mixers for....you guessed it....Hurricanes and Margaritas!!  Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of RUM!!!

Cheers to y'all me hearty fellow pirates!!!  We will weather this storm, light that of years past, with strength, resilience and humor.  Aaaargh!!

What Tarot Card Are You?

You are The Star

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised

The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you're a dreamer, but you're not the only one.

 

Hmmm...Im flattered and inspired...and I like the angel in Utrasana/Camel Pose.  I've always had an affinity to the Moon, however, and being a Virgo I usually am associated with the Hermit, which are both fitting...maybe I'm actually enlightening..woohoo!...this yoga stuff really works!! Ohhhmmmmmmmm.....

What tarot card are you?

 

Thanks Yogamum for the cosmic noodge :) 

Photo Friday - August in the Keys

Deep peace of the running wave to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you
Deep peace deep peace

Deep peace of the sleeping stones to you
Deep peace of the wandering wind to you
Deep peace of the flock of stars to you
Deep peace deep peace

Deep peace of the eastern wind to you
Deep peace of the westeren wind to you
Deep peace of the northern wind to you
Blue wind of the south to you
Pure red of the whirling flame to you
Pure white of the silver moon to you
Pure green of the emerald grass to you
Deep peace deep peace
                                                        
                                                   Donovon

Photo Friday - New 'Hampster'

Shaving Cream Sculptures

Kody painted on shaving cream today, inspired by Artful Parent:

At first he was tentative...as his his nature, he first likes to observe...

Soon, he got into it, and his true wild nature emerged....

Kaden woke up in the middle of all this and dived right in..

Oh boy, a little too deep diving...but his eyes weren't stinging and I washed him off right away...not to fear!!

Oh the colors...looks like a bird of paradise

This was such a hit with Kody that we did it again later in the afternoon, with his request for more shaving cream  'skulp-schures' Mama.  I see this being a regular thing...and clean up was fairly easy, and convenient way to mop the floors of the sun room...I cleaned the babes via backyard pool and sunshine.

We're Leavin'

On a jet plane to Grandma and Granpa Zen Tarpon's House in New Hampshire...our first trip  there as a family and Zen Tarpon's first trip back to the homefires in many, many years...

And Im bloggin...this is rather satisfyingly addictive, what?  See you in a few....

Third Time's the Charm!

Sooooo, I've recently come back to 'the fold'...yanno, the wild and wooly fold?  Yes, I mean knitting!  I learned knitting in Girl Scouts, along with crocheting when I was 9 or 10 and happily knitted away in classs, making looooooong scarfs...I don't think I ever bound off.  I would wait for my Nana to visit and she would bind or and then cast on for me, and then I was off, knitting again those looooooooooong scarves, heh, heh.  Then, unbeknownst to me, knitting became uncool over the summer, and I had to lay my needles down b/c hell yeah, I didn't want to be a geek (I was in denial...I played clarinet in band camp and was moving onto first chair at the time....ah me)

Anyway, I gave up a lot of myself in middle school/high school, and one of them was knitting.  I resurrected it temporarily 10 years later, but I was a medical transcriptionist and typed all day, and the added knitting made my wrists HURT!  I remember a girlfriend laughing at me when I told her I started knitting a sweater...."That'll never be finished!! Good Luck!"  Ummmmmm, she was right.  I carried that dang thing around for five years...it survived seven house moves, six huricanes and one flood (thanks Wilma)...and now I have no idea where it is....it wouldv'e been a beautiful sweater!

So I didn't have the knitting bug...but since children (and losing my pottery studio to raising children) I have been in need of a creative outlet...and the bug has bit...and I have finished a knitting project!! Whoope-de-Dooo! 

Here's my saga...April 2008 I travel one hour to the only knitting shop in the Florida Keys (it's like living in the Stone Age here, kiddos....a veritable creative wasteland)...KnitWits off of Duval St.   I teel her I used to knit (I hedge myself on the details...) and I leave with some really pretty specialty yarn, sleeping babies and a huge smile (and bill...wow yarn is expensive!!)

I return home and check my stash and what-the.....circular knitting needles?  What the F am I gonna do with circular knitting needle?  Knit myself a noose?!  I just told the saleslady (who reminded me of my grandmother) to 'get me started'...now Im starting to feel like Opus  from that cartoon Doonesbury, yanno, the cute little penguin who gets bamboozled into buying useless crap from pushy salespeeps...Opus I am!

So I give it a go...and the freakin 'specialty' yarn which was oh-so-pretty just keeps knotting up on me...thank got the babies and husband are sleeping...cause Im cursing like a sailor/waitress/bartender...the old life comes back in a heartbeat...no need to illuminate...you get the picture. I did not, however, throw the yarn or burn it...so kudos for me. 

I try three times, but no go...so I go online and buy straight needles, but I must've checked the wrong boxes b/c size 2 and 3 arrive, very silvery and ready for action...but I need size 4 and 5....doh! moment happening...

Im getting kinda frustrated about this knitting thing...man do I wish I could just throw some mud around...just a little bit...not to messy...to have my fingers sink into the coool, wet goodness of Mother Gaia.....ahhhh....

Okay...back to my senses....I go back online to my trusted Ebay....I've only burned once...damn women threated to give me bad feedback because I was 3 days late on payment...then I never saw the Maternity Sweater...and when I was angry enough to give back feedback (only happend once)...her account was cancelled...ooooh, there is a place in hell for peeps who prey upon the hormonal and with-child.....

Yay...I get a whole slew of bamboo straight needles in tons of different sizes...I'm like a kid in a cancy/crystal/book store (and maybe TJ Maxx)...Im happy...swimming in needles...so I order more...circular needles on meeee!

This does the trick...Im working on a beautiful purpley 'beginner' sweater/scarf...it's actually the back of a sweater, with a scarf attached...a T-Back Key's T-Sweater...I will have a pic soon...I don't have a scanner yet and the sweater is not quite done....soon, oh yes, soon!

I was inspired by Soulemama and her book, The Creative Family  and was smitten (among other many things on my to-do list or my kiddos) by her felted bowl...so I found the book One Skein and began to knit.  I first used my thrifted yarn because I just wasn't to keen on circular needles, and I wasn't looking fowart to the pirate in me spouting those barbary words...avast ye needles!

 

I chose the brown and gold b/c they seemed to be the most 'wooly' of the bunch.  Here's the not quite felted finished product:

This would've been soo cool if it had been wool....but it wasn't and is now part of the boys' dress up trunk.

Next try...I used wool this time....really, I checked!  I filched the wool from some dog toy kits I had lying around...and I knit...I kinda like knitting in the round now!  It's all about the 'give' in the yarn...not too tight, not too loose, a little zen in my mind...the middle road...

However, I did not bind off securely....so it unraveled (another zen moment...if you do not 'bind off' securely, address and take care of those loose ends, life unravels in your hands....take the pebble from my hand grasshopper....) Ahh, so there is 'yoga' in this blog afterall...Blzzppst! and Namaste) Maybe I can walk the world like Kane...

Next try...I choose the cashmere blend yarn from my thrifted stash...pink and powerfull!! I've got the skills and learned valuable lessons from my fledgling mistakes. Now it is time to Fly!

First, Kody preferred it as a hat...

Lil bro Kaden concurred...

But Mama was nonplussed...into the wash be thee!!

At last, SUCCESS!! (Noooo, the lil one didn't sprout from the big'un's brow... I made two, just in case)

Oh, the lil one is quite lovely on my alter <ahem> nature table ;)

I do not know the yarn...one was cashmere and I used another pink nubby yarn and am tickled with the result...so there Leslie K...hah! I finished a knitting project!  I am officially a knitter!!

So what have you created lately?