Wordless Wednesday

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Happy New Year!

Ok, so I kind of fell off the posting-every-weekday blogging bandwagon toward the end of last year.  I tried but it didn’t quite work out some days…  That’s just how it goes when the holidays roll around.  Some things were not blogged that should probably be chronicled and I’ll see what I can do about getting them wrapped up.  No promises though.  I’m starting 2011 out stress free (at least for the first day).

On that note, let’s talk about New Year’s Eve!

For the past two days I felt like I was fighting a cold and had been super tired so we decided to keep our celebration low-key.  My boys really wanted to see their cousins and I did have a 10-pack of party hats/horns/leis that needed to be used so we invited Big Red and the boys over.  We also had a huge pack of mini-fireworks that the kids were dying to set off in the street.  Big Red brought over some fire wood, sparklers, chips/dip and some hummus.  It was an instant party!

J lit a nice fire in the fire bowl.  There’s just something about a roaring fire during the winter that makes everything feel festive.  When the temperatures dropped around midnight the heat felt so good!  Kindly ignore the crap at the bottom of our pool.  The wind blew tons of mulch and other debris into the water.  It needs a good vacuuming.  J, if you’re reading this can you add “clean the pool” to your list?  Pretty please?  🙂

When Big Red arrived he noticed my pisco in an Easter-Island-Head-shaped bottle on our bar.  He was intrigued since he had never heard of such a liquor much less tasted a pisco sour.  When I took a study abroad trip to Chile during my MBA studies at the University of Houston I imbibed great amounts of pisco sours.  Yum!  So I offered to make us all a round.  Here’s the recipe I used:

Pisco Sour

2 oz. pisco

1 oz. fresh lime juice

1 oz. simple syrup

1 egg white

dash of bitters

Shake vigorously in a cocktail shaker with ice.  Strain into a glass and enjoy!

We headed out front to light fireworks after the drinks were made.  The boys could hardly contain their excitement.  J was the pyro-hero in their eyes.  It was so cute watching them jump for joy and scream with delight.  Simple pleasures are the best, are they not?

The sparklers were a hit as well.  Have I told you how much I love the fireworks setting on my point-and-shoot camera?  I LOVE it!  Look at those photos!  So cool!

After all of the pyro toys were exhausted we headed back inside to snack on some more goodies and wait for the ball to drop.  We rang in the new year watching Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest and toasting with a yummy bottle of Moet Chandon champagne that Big Red gave us for Christmas.  The boys split a bottle of sparkling grape juice.

As you can see, we got a new television for Christmas.  We’re in the process of relocating all of our A/V equipment so our living room looks kind of crazy with wires and stuff all over the place.

Then the kids mauled Big Red before becoming so exhausted they passed out…

From our family to yours, we wish you a blessed 2011 filled with happiness, good friends, good health and simple pleasures!

4th of July Craftiness: Coffee Filter Sparklers

I’m not sure where I came across the inspiration for this craft.  It’s something I found a while back and mentally noted for future reference.  Like when I was planning activities to entertain the kids while we were visiting family in Alabama!  I crammed as many art supplies as I could into one bag so we could work on some fun projects for the 4th of July.

When cleaning out the top of my spice cabinet I found an almost full pack of filters from our old coffee maker.  Woo hoo!  We could do the coffee filter sparklers without a trip to the store for supplies.  I was surprised that we actually had these.  You see, we’ve had several filter-less coffee makers since the one that required required these paper wonders so I’m not sure how old they are exactly.  Let’s just say that the top few were a tad yellow…

Supplies

Red, white and blue pipe cleaners

Coffee filters

Watercolor set with paintbrush

Cup of water

Patriotic ribbon

Scissors

How to:

Flatten out the coffee filter on a piece of newspaper and paint one side with your choice of watercolors.  The color bleeds through the paper so no need to paint both sides.  Allow the filters to dry completely then fringe the edges with scissors.

Cut 1 1/2″ from a pipe cleaner and set aside the small piece.  Tear a small hole in the bottom of a coffee filter and thread longer piece of pipe cleaner through the hole.  Create a small hook in the end of the pipe cleaner.  Tie patriotic ribbon to the hook then close the loop to secure the ribbon in the center of the sparkler.  Gather the coffee filter up around the ribbon and twist.  Secure the coffee filter by twisting the small piece of pipe cleaner around the bottom of the coffee filter.

Once everything is secure, fluff the sparkler and enjoy!  They make a lovely centerpiece of “flowers” too.