a pretend playdate

the bean was pretty excited to hear that we were going to meet up with our friends mommybelle, LP, LFM and LFM2.  and then she was beside herself when i told her where this playdate was taking place.  she loves her some pretend city.

the bean loves to draw pictures of "me."

they all had fun in the "farm."

well, LFM2 wasn't so impressed.

MB and i giggled at our two big-headed kids finding helmets that fit them.

since our last visit, the "restaurant" switched from italian to vegetarian.

at the "doctor's," all three got measured.

the bean was happy to play patient to LP's dentist until she realized what that meant, and then she bailed.

i thought the little stools were cute.

hamming it up on the stage.

a prediction of the bean's first job, perhaps?

the waterplay and beach areas are always a good bet.

and one last role to play, although not necessarily a pretend city-sponsored one - mama.

so much fun!  she passed out cold in the car even before we got on the freeway.  too bad for MB, though - no such luck.  sorry, buddy.  maybe next time.

bootylicious

i was excited when my friend APK hit me up to do an order of cookies for a bachelorette party.  i've seen lots of fun designs online and have been dying to give them a shot.  plus, i hadn't decorated cookies in a while and it was nice to get back into the groove.

armed with my instructions (bride digs tiaras, colors were pink and purple, no penis-shaped cookies), i got to work.  i wanted to do some of the fun booty-shaped cookies, and following the examples i found on other cookie blogs, i cut out hearts and trimmed off the points at the top.

the bean was so confused.  "why are you making cookies that look like a butt, mommy?"  heh.

it was fun to decorate these, although to me they looked like they were flipping me the bird.

i was pretty satisfied with my finished product, but even after leaving them out to dry overnight i was so annoyed to find that they were still slightly tacky.  i needed to package them up and mail them that day (i always wait till the last minute because i want the cookies to be as fresh as possible, you know), and i was freaking out.  i googled for some help and decided to try the easiest one:  put them in the oven at a low temperature.

as you can see, that idea was a complete FAIL.

it's for unforeseen dilemmas like this that i always make a few extras of each design.  phew.

so next, i turned to twitter to see if any of my cookie-ing buddies might come to my rescue, and both bakeat350 and sweetsugarbelle fired back responses that helped immensely.  after leaving the cookies to sit in my oven with the light on for about an hour and then sprinkling the surfaces with color-coordinated sanding sugar, they were good to go.  thank goodness i have a crazy stockpile of sanding sugar and other sprinkles in my pantry.

i'd forgotten to buy more tissue paper for stuffing in the shipping box, so i resorted to some leftovers from christmas.  oh yes, i sure did mail bachelorette party cookies packed in juicy couture tissue.  i'm fancy, huh?

i finished it off with prettier, more appropriate tissue, shook the box to check for movement, shoved a bit more paper in, and finally sealed it shut.

i sure hope they arrived intact and yummy.

such a softie

i've had a cute little kit for making softie toys on my bookshelf for over a year now.  i'd opened it and browsed through the projects listed and then put it away for another time.  and then as i was making that baby gift a couple of weeks ago, i decided it was time to revisit and see if i could use leftover scraps of material from the dress and blanket for something fun.

of course, i found something that looked really cute and easy enough to sew together.  i got all of the pieces cut out but then ran out of time before we left for texas.  and so the very first thing i did when we got home (after unpacking and doing laundry and picking up mollydog and stuff like that) was to sit down at the machine and get 'er done.

it was a little trickier to complete than i'd anticipated, but an hour later i had this cute lucky elephant:

instead of using buttons, i tried my hand at some simple embroidery and managed to create two pretty darn good-looking eyes.  i was so proud of myself.  i can't wait till our next visit so we can present it to the baby mama.

the bean and i had also scheduled a playdate with my friend mommybelle, LFM and LP.  it'd been a really long time since we'd gotten together - so long that they've added another baby boy to their brood.  this would be the first time we were going to see LFM2, and i wanted to bring him a present.  so i picked out some fun boy-ish fabric from my stash and busted out another elephant.  the bean thought it was fun to introduce the two animals.

i wanted to add something more to the gift, but he's the first baby boy i've made anything for.  so after scouring the internet for other ideas, i settled on this crinkly "taggie" square.  i liked the idea of making something different, and it was super easy to throw together.  the hardest part was finding something for the crinkly layer between the two fabrics, but i managed to improvise.  the plastic wrapper for baby wipes refills worked perfectly, was the right size after i cut it open, and it made a really fun noise.  i used some leftover blanket fabric for the back, and was done in no time.

and look at how cute the elephant came out!  i decided not to use two different fabrics this time, and he came out just fine.

elephant booty!

and because i apparently can't get enough, i whipped up yet another elephant and crinkly taggie for one of the hub's assistants at work, who's expecting a girl.  i used some pretty amy butler fabric that i'd forgotten i had, and threw in one of made by rae's itty bitty baby dresses too. 

i've made these things so many times by now, i can sew them together without having to look at the instructions.  yippee!

simply delicious

following a tip from a few twirlie friends, i got a bug up my butt to try smitten kitchen's delicious-sounding tomato and onion sauce.  the hardest part was finding the san marzano tomatoes that it called for, but i was happy to find them at a local italian deli. 

yup, i paid FIVE DOLLARS for a can of peeled tomatoes.  but hey, they were imported from italy!  woohoo!

i searched in about four different places for the "telephone cord" pasta that SK used, but had to settle for this instead.  not the same by any stretch of the imagination, but i wanted to try something other than regular old spaghetti.

the sauce contains only three ingredients - the tomatoes, a peeled and halved onion, and nearly a stick of butter.  three!  well, four if you add salt.  next time i'm going to use salted butter and see if that makes a difference. 

while i left that to simmer, i thought it would be nice to have dessert.  despite those extra pounds i brought home from texas, it ain't my house without some sort of fresh baked goodies in the kitchen.  and today, i settled on twix caramel brownies that i'd seen posted on twitter.

instead of the caramel sauce for ice cream in the recipe (which i, uh, also have), i thought i'd bust out the starbucks stuff.

drizzle, drizzle, marble.

while those baked, i boiled some water to make the perciatelli for that sauce.  they kinda look like straws.

the hub, the bean and i were all super satisfied with that sauce.  it is just so amazingly delicious.  and i think i might try making it again when the teen is home, this time using the fresh tomatoes from our back yard.

lining my brownie pan with parchment paper is magical.  you just pull the whole thing right out when it's cool.  zero mess, and super easy to slice into bars.

ah, dinner at the house of wan.  total win.