Sweetest Day cake & a sewing project

Happy Sweetest's Day!  Duane and I celebrated a day early with a yummy meal at Olive Garden.  I had been longing for a good steak and ordered their 8 oz. sirloin.  It was breaded with parmesan and herbs before cooking.  It was incredible!!!  I ate every last bite.  lol  Tonight we had a Taco Salad meal with the kiddos and shared a bottle of special Raspberry Sparkling juice.  The kids were quite excited when the fancy goblets come out. 

This afternoon, while Duane was working, I made this cake for him.  It looked and smelled delicious.  I didn't have a bite though.....gluten....and sugar.....sigh.....I have put myself on a 2 week sugar fast.  This is day 5.  My sugar-withdraw headache has finally ceased.  This is good for my body....but oh so HARD!!!

I've been so incredibly busy with housework and teaching Callie each day that my sewing has been much neglected. Here is a project I sat down and did on Friday.  A lady at our church asked me to make a walker bag for a neighbor that had liked the bag that she had(that I had made).  I had fun going through fabrics and coming up with something bright and cheerful.  This picture keeps rotating....sigh....Anyways, the one side with 2 small pockets and 2 medium pockets.  The have a bit of elastic at the top in a casing to keep them from flopping when things are inside.

 The other side with one large pocket with elastic at the top.  I didn't have any bias tape to match, so I made my own up.  That was fun!!  Now I think I'd like to get one of those bias tape binders to make the process go a bit faster.  Maybe for Christmas.....:)

Thanks for looking! Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend!!!

October birthdays, Columbus Day & International Day at School

It's International Day at our school this morning.  Samuel is representing the Philippines.  He is wearing the colors of the flag and has a wooden bowl that my brother-in-law brought me back from the Philippines along with some rice--safely sealed INSIDE a plastic bag in hopes that it won't spill all over today--and some coins from the country.  I also printed off and colored a flag and glued it to a chopstick.

 Simon chose Australia and is back from a hunt in the great Outback!!!! lol

 Seth is Canada......red shirt and a flag.  7th. graders don't get into all the props I guess.:)

 Callie wanted me to take this picture and show it to her aunt Sarah in the Philippines.  She made a play-doh cinn. roll and an Easter basket with eggs during one of her art projects.

 For Columbus Day this year, Callie made a fun after-school treat for the kiddos. 

 Putting the sails on....

 Adding the 'fish' to the coconut 'water'.

 All completed and ready to eat after school is out!!!

 A donut-shaped cake.  He just requested that it have sprinkles and M&M's.  I baked it in a bundt pan and it turned out looking like a 'donut'. Or at least that's what Callie told me.

 Simon, our 11 year old. Very excited with a toy gun from his older brother.  We purchased a used student trombone for him for our gift.  We found it on Craig's List and the guy met us at a restaurant half-way between our homes.  Simon didn't have a clue what we were doing and was VERY excited when he found out!!!  He just started trombone in band this week.

 Seth wanted a cake with candy on it. That was simple enough---thank goodness!! His birthday fell on a Sunday this year.

 Officially the parents of a teenager!!!!

 The expression on this picture was too good not to post....

 A creative gift from Simon.  He put some fun snacks for Seth in a plastic tote and decorated the lid with.

 For Seth's 13th. birthday gift we purchased a trumpet for him.  It is a Bach Stradivari and we found a great deal for it off of Craig's List.  We drove to Michigan and back to look at it.  Seth was very excited to finally have his own instrument.  Thankfully, a relative had loaned us their trumpet for the past 2+ years for him to use.