Remember how I used to blog?

Yeah... good times.

My excellent excuse is that I've been really super busy. The end of the school year, family trips, getting ready for Girl's Camp and some extra design work have kept me running. The extra work keeps me busy but I LOVE it. I've had the chance to work on some really fun projects these last few months and I have been pleased with the results.

Since it's getting late and I still haven't put the kids to bed, I thought it would be the perfect time to post some of these projects. Obviously I have time-management issues.

All of these customers had great websites that you should totally check out too!

Pro Digital Photos (more than just printing, cute CUTE photo boutique products)

ShadowCase (gorgeous shadow frames for your special memorabilia)

Bloggin' Bout Books (for all you bookworms and avid readers)

On How to be Lovely (everything everything lovely)

I'm sure there are things I'm missing too, but these are the ones that I've had fun with recently. So there you go. Excuse for not blogging #42.

Bending over backwards... to be the worst ever!

So you would think that the Brent Brown Toyota saga would be over, right? You'd think that after we had to drive all the way back to the dealership to pick up the license plates that they had not (and had no intentions of ever) put in the mail, we could wash our hands of the whole debacle.

You would be wrong.

About 2 weeks later we get a call from someone who has 'taken over our account.' Since they still supposedly owe us $$ for the safety inspection we had to get, Joe took the call. It went a little like this:

Sales Weasel: Hey there! I've taken over your account and I just wanted to touch base with you and (insert more smarmy weasel-talk blah blah blah.)

Joe: Oh yeah?

SW: Yes! I wanted to ask you why you didn't purchase the '05 Tahoe from us.

J: .....................?

SW: You know, I took over this account and wanted to see if there was any way I could get you into a different car with us?

J: Are you talking about the Tahoe I bought in February?

SW: Oh... well... really? My notes said.... Umm..... The guy who had your account is..... no longer with us.... uuuuhhhh.

J: While I've got you, I did want to ask about the money they keep saying they're going to send me for a safety inspection.

SW: Umm, well I could ask... But it would probably be better if you just called back and spoke to someone else on your own.

You know Sales Weasel, that is a pretty good idea. If only anyone at the dealership understood the finer points of answering or returning calls. Which they don't. So, dear readers, if anyone ever goes to that dealership and embarks on a months-long Festival of Incompetence, don't say I didn't warn you.

I've converted

For the last 6 months I've been going to our city's rec center. It may be small but you can always get the machine you want and the limited selection of weight-lifting apparatus was actually a good thing - much less confusing for the beginner.

The only downside to the rec center was the daycare. While it was always empty and I really liked the ladies that ran it, it cost $2 per hour for the kids to be there. It didn't seem bad while Joe was on an afternoon shift and he watched both kids in the morning, but this month (with Spring Break thrown in) my $15 rec center pass has already doubled in price. So the idea of free daycare finally lured me into a Gold's Gym membership.

Fortunately Joe found someone who was desperate for a sale and scored me a killer deal on the gym pass. Today was my first day and I think I enjoyed it. There are a whole lotta people who are in much better shape than I am (as opposed to the rec center where you work out equal parts senior citizens and firefighters.) The number of weight machines was a little bewildering. I think Joe needs to come and set me up a new weight-lifting program.

And I do so ever love the hot tub.

Oh yeah... the cake

I almost forgot that I meant to post pictures of the birthday doll cake.

My papa was a master baker - he owned a bakery in Helper, Utah for many many many years. In addition to baking, he made beautiful cakes. My mom said that the roses on his cakes were so realistically light and delicately colored that you wanted to smell them. I wish I had pictures of the things that he made.

Not learning any of his skills will be something I'll probably regret all my life. I've only learned a handful of cake-decorating techniques (mostly from the Wilton site.) I can pass off a few of these with a limited measure of success - just enough to decorate a child's birthday cake without it being scorned and ridiculed. I had to bring out my entire arsenal of skills for this one. Fortunately a crowd of 6-year-olds are easy to please. Just don't look too closely at those ruffles.

Lisa's party was a masquerade ball.

The little 'cake' she's holding is actually a Keebler Clubhouse Cracker, stuck to the doll's hands with frosting. Bart ate it and pronounced it delicious.

And apparently if you have the audacity to let the girls make fun, feathered masks to take home instead of a princess-themed bag full of cheap plastic jewelry (that their mother is going to curse you for and throw away) the group of girls will totally call you on it.

Mothers of soon-to-be-6-year-olds, you've been warned.

The Tale of Two Fish

or: Reason # 317 We Don't Have Pets

Once upon a time there was a beautiful Princess, her mother the Queen, and a Fairy Grandmother (who was also the Queen's mother-in-law.)

The Fairy Grandmother had threatened on numerous occasions to purchase an enchanted aquarium for the Princess. The Queen feigned deafness whenever this plan was suggested. The wiley Fairy Grandmother snuck the aquarium into the Princess's Christmas presents and cast a spell which got the Princess all excited about raising fish.

The Princess, who has been known to form unrealistic expectations about aquariums, pets, toys and life in general, immediately began plotting to fill her 2-gallon aquarium with several breeds of tropical fish, sharks and possibly a small whale.

The Queen resigned herself to travel to Ye Olde PetSmarte in search of a very tiny whale.

After viewing completely every possible type of fish and convincing the Princess that neither a rat nor a parrot would be very happy living in an aquarium, the Queen was able to purchase 2 small and allegedly durable fish to return home with the Princess. They were named Silvermist and Shadow. The Queen took several really lousy pictures to post on Her Royal Blog.

Silvermist.

And Shadow (their names were originally Squirt and Bat Fish but the Princess wanted something a little more enchanting.)

The Queen let the Princess decorate the aquarium with all manner of pink plants, a fish cave and shiny jewel rocks. Everyone was pleased.

The fish lived happily ever after... for 1 week. Then an evil spell was cast on Shadow and he was turned into a female and spawned 28 baby fishsticks, which both fish proceeded to gobble up. The tank got stinkier and stinkier (possibly in a misguided attempt at escape). One day the Princess noticed that they were both floating upside down. She laughed her head off and we transferred them into the toilet so they could swim out to sea.

The end.

Works for me: keeping track of the remote

Looking for the remote, listening to kids complain about looking for the remote, telling other people to look for the remote their own dang selves and replacing all the furniture after successfully locating the remote takes up approximately 83 hours of my week. I've tossed around various ideas for keeping them in once place. My favorite involved hooking them to a retracting wire (like a janitor's keychain) that pulled them all the way to the ceiling and out of the reach of marauding 4-year-old pirates and the like. The problem with this plan is that I can't reach the ceiling either.

Finally I remembered that I have a giant roll of stick-on velcro. It's two different adhesive strips, one with the hook side of the velcro and one with the fuzzy side.

I stuck the hook side to the side of my computer desk (conveniently located next to the couch) and the fuzzy side to the back of the remotes.

Voilà! The remotes have a 'home' of their own and don't spend quite as much time under the recliner or lost in the sofa bed.

This also works well in the craft cupboard for pencil sharpeners, flashlights, lighters and the elusive Big Ol' Sharpie.

Remember my love for vintage cake pans?

To go along with the boy-themed cake pans from my mother-in-law, my own mother gave me this Wilton doll mold that she used when my sisters and I were little.

Fortunately Wilton still sells the doll toppers because we needed a fresh one. I wish they still had the headband that you could decorate without getting frosting in the doll's hair.

Anyway, here's the start of Minnie's birthday cake. She wanted a masquerade-themed party this year, so the doll pick has a feathered mask on. It kind of messed up her hair so I need to figure out how to re-set her curls. I'll put up pictures of her cake when I get them off the other camera.

Take that Spring

I may not have seedlings planted and my house is not any sort of cleaned (let alone spring-cleaned) BUT I updated my blog background when the season actually changed. And not 3 months late. So there.

Time changes are hard on everyone

Even the littlest of monkeys.

It's hard to get him to preschool on time when he wakes up like this, because he drags his tired little bed-headed self to the living room and wants to sit in your lap until he's more awake. So, more often than I would like to admit, he just goes to school with messy hair, yesterday's shirt and too-short pants.

What am I thinking?

Brittany and I are going snowboarding.

I am kind of nervous. I haven't been snowboarding since before Bart (that's 5 long years for those who are keeping score.) If you have any prayers to spare today, maybe mention that I would not like to become injured or dead today.

Update: we have both returned un-injured and non-dead.

I love snowboarding and can't wait to go again! We had about 3 inches of powder, light snow and an almost completely empty resort. In the middle of the day we rode the lift to the tippy top for a twice-baked potato and the most chocolaty, indulgent, whipped-cream-with-cinnamon cup of hot chocolate. Totally fabulous.

Officially 4

You're pretty much not an official 4-year-old until you've fought crime and saved princesses whilst wearing a dishtowel cape. It's like a right of passage. Bart prefers the vintage flour-sack dish cloths. Because he rocks.