Updates

 Since A-Z took up all of April, here are some pics of the highlights from late March to May.

The furkids remained goofy.

My bff/sister Michelle up in Maine told me she sent an 8 lb package to me.  What could be in it? OMG! It was my DREAM package!  Full of marbles, flat back glass blobs, tumbled glass, a glass etching kit and a huge bag of embroidery/cross stitch floss.  Plus 2 wire wrapped pieces of beach glass and a handful of abalone shell, tear-shaped pendants.  She's all about the fibre arts and knitting now and wanted to give her craft supplies a good home.  The marbles in particular are fabulous.  One of her friends did the glass tumbling and they look like beach glass.

In late March, I took my stepdaughter to Falmouth to pick up the awesome new ride she's leasing. These new cars are like Knight Rider "Kit" cars with all the touch screens, a back-up camera and futuristic key!  We had to wait for it to be registered, so we went to lunch and then for cupcakes at Cupcake Charlie's in Mashpee.  She had the lemon, I had the carrot cake and they were deeeeeelish!  I haven't yet obtained her permission to put any pics of her on my blog, so all you get are the cupcakes.  :-)

Years ago in CA in the 1990s, I'd made a sugar egg and always wanted to try another one.  I decided to do it kind of late: The day before Easter.  I had the wrong frosting and my toys weren't that good. I should have done it with vintage Easter ephemera images and next time I will.  I will also be sure to make the royal icing recipe because that will dry faster and much harder than the canned buttercream.

I also shouldn't have used pink sugar because the bunny was also pink.  Then I tried to dot frosting flowers on the back wall with limited success.  My icing piping bag sucks.  I need a better one.  It's been a month  and the icing points are breaking off, rather than hardening, so I may have to salvage the toys and scrap the eggs.

A baggie of Fimo clay canes surfaced when I was reorganizing my craft room for the umpteenth time.  I got them in about 1996.  I'd made a bunch of beads back then, but moved onto other projects and the canes got bagged & stored.  They have now dried out, so making beads with them was next to impossible.  The canes split down the center.  However, I was really delighted with what they looked like!  Reminded me of "Fordite", a faux gem made from layers of automobile paint that accumulated in chunks in the old auto factories.  

I was only able to make a few beads, which all had to be thick and all split when I ran a headpin through to make the holes.  But I love how the flat cross section pieces came out.

My stepdaughter also spent a great Sunday afternoon at my house, making cupcakes and watching 'Shawshank Redemption' and 'Erin Brockovich'.  I made her homemade mac & cheese and broccoli for dinner and of course we nommed the cupcakes for dessert!  It was her idea to make the batter purple.  She is the one who did all the work with them, including piping the frosting.  I was in charge of sugar.  I love that she likes to spend time with me. 

My job at the Wareham schools in the cafeteria is really pretty good.  I was dreading it at first but I like the fact that it's so fast paced and the time goes by wicked fast.  I've been called a few times now and it seems that I'll get called a lot as the school year comes to a close; I expect the kitchen will be brutally hot when June gets here. I also did my very first photography job for a friend of mine who had remodeled a cottage he & his wife bought last year.  It'd be cool if I could pick up more shooting jobs like that.  

After the snow finally melted, I scavenged some acorn caps from my mom's yard and made some more acorn capped beads.

And sprayed some shells silver. 

And made a supply caddy for my craft table out of a metal paint bucket covered w/ paper and ribbon, with a soup can covered with paper, and hot glued to the bucket.

And made a beaded bubble blowing wand, that works so-so.

In baking news, I attempted my first pineapple upside down cake, sans maraschino cherries because, well, we don't like them.  The way to my man's heart is through his stomach and I've been doing a lot more cooking and baking.  He lights up like a Christmas tree when I cook for him, too.  He mentioned liking this kind of cake and I decided to make it for him, from a Duncan Hines mix.  I was afraid of the flipping part but it worked without breaking.  It was so freakin good too.

This was another quick project.  Just use a punch on coloured tissue paper and decoupage to a votive cup.  I used the decoupage on the glass too because I thought it was supposed to dry with a matte finish but it didn't.

The year started off with some bad luck, but things have evened out for the time being.  Let's hope the rest of the year goes well!