Peanut Butter Birthday Pie

I just love birthdays and I always work to make them as special as possible for people. When I was planning Aaron's birthday, I worked out his birthday week gifts and a special dinner out. Picked up the cards and a balloon. But what to do for a cake? Then it hit me. He LOVES peanut butter pie. But it is the one thing I have not made for him. I've never made a peanut butter pie. The day had come. It was going outside the usual birthday cake but I didn't think he would mind.

I don't think I've seen him so delighted before. And it wasn't the dinosaur candle holder.

Peanut butter pie is way easier to make than I realized. I feel a little bad I haven't made one sooner than this. But that probably made it taste all the better right?

Here is how I made it:

Peanut Butter Pie

1 package of Nutter Butter cookies

5 tablespoons melted butter

1 and 1/4 cup peanut butter

1 softened 8 oz package of cream cheese

1 and 1/4 cups powdered sugar

1 thawed 8 oz Cool Whip

Crust: Turn the cookies into crumbs in a food processor. Mix with melted butter and press into pie pan. Bake in 350 degree oven for 5 minutes.

Filling: Whip peanut butter and cream cheese with a mixer. Add in sugar and continue to whip. Add in Cool Whip and beat until nice and smooth. Scrape filling into cooled pie crust and put in the fridge for at least one hour.

(actually I get the 12 oz Cool Whip and use the extra on top of each pie slice)

$145 worth of stars

I definitely go through my own little style trends. Lately it has been STARS. I got star tights, a star scarf and have been on the lookout for the perfect little star stud earrings.

Then I spied Mindy Kaling wearing these star sweatpants on her Instagram feed!

I'm not a big fan of sweats, but I do like these skinny ones... for wearing around the house.

Thanks to this handy dandy internet site - wornontv, you can figure out what clothes characters on tv are wearing. Then you can be depressed because those sweatpants are $145. $145! For sweatpants!

I decided to take matters into my own hands. I got a pair of skinny sweats at Target, some fabric paint and star stencils at Michaels and even splashed out and bought foam pouncers (because I love the name) to do the painting with.

Stenciling the stars was easy enough. Maybe because I invested in the pouncers.

So there are my star sweats for a fraction of the price! They don't look exactly like the original but I won't be venturing far from the house in them so that doesn't matter.

The only thing I didn't consider was the foolishness of black sweats in a house with two pugs. They were covered with pug fur and I hadn't even worn them yet.

Brunch at Orbs

Just when I think I have partaken of every available brunch location in Rochester, Orbs raises it's hand. It did not occur to me that a spot known for meatballs would have a brunch menu, but boy was I wrong.

Indeed, they have brunch stand-bys like french toast and eggs benedict. But where they shine are the dishes that feature meatballs. Like the Home Skillet that comes with a sausage meatball, chorizo hash, ricotta, fried egg and duck fat gravy. Oh goodness.

AND it all comes out in wee cast iron pans! Even better! We will definitely be back to try other items on the menu.

Welcome home... doughnut

Aaron has been out of town for two weeks and I was so happy for him to come home today! AND he brought me home a dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts!

We used to have Krispy Kreme in Rochester, but years ago, they all closed. It has been many moons since I had one, so I was thrilled!

Fall tablecloth - with owls

I bought this fall fabric a year ago with the intention of making an autumn tablecloth and it somehow got lost in my craft room.

I found it during a cleaning session and immediately got my sewing machine out before it could disappear again. It's not a hard task to hem fabric on a tablecloth, but it is a lot of material so there is a lot of tugging and wrestling on my behalf when I do it.

Now I have a tablecloth perfect for that transition between summer to Halloween. Someone asked me "Are owls fallish?" I don't know, but I'm campaigning for it!

Squeaking in fall decorations

I wasn't ready to take down summer decorations, but my fall stuff is so cute.

Fall mantelscape. A little less than what I usually do since Halloween will be here soon.

Kitchen decorations.

Door hangings. These four are all from Dollar Tree. I am such a Dollar Tree fan. They aren't paying me to say that either.

Rochester Fringe Festival 2015

It is Fringe Festival season in Rochester again. My tried and true events to attend are the Pedestrian Drive-In and Rochester Stories.

I am so proud of my friend Aprille who held her show Rochester Stories at the Fringe Festival for the third year in a row. Each year it gets better. It is always an eye opening experience to hear a story told and then have the real person revealed afterwards. There was a great kuzoo story shared by a fellow in the audience afterwards too.

Aprille invited me to the Pedestrian Drive-In movie which was Princess Bride this year. It's sort of like a drive-in movie but you sit on a lawn chair with headphones on. Princess Bride was the perfect film for this! We got a big bag of popcorn, settled in and enjoyed.

We also posed on a chalk drawing in the Spiegelgarden that made it look like we were walking over the High Falls on a tight rope. Daredevils! I like how Aprille is nonchalantly walking away in the second picture.

Introducing... Wyatt

We have a name for Kitten! His new name is Wyatt. After the famous gunslinger Wyatt Earp. They have the same mustache!

Here is a nice full shot of Wyatt. You can see his "spats", "white gloves", "waistcoat" and of course his dashing mustache.

I was worried that a cat this cute couldn't possibly have a good attitude too. What were the chances of us striking gold twice? But he is the sweetest. He loves people and wants petted all the time. He loves being picked up and carried around. Of course I oblige.

We couldn't ask for a better relationship between Stewie and Wyatt. Stewie is so patient with Wyatt's kitten play attacks. And he is already teaching him bad habits like drinking out of the tub faucet.

Stewie and Wyatt remind me so much of the Friskies' Dear Kitten videos.

Dear Kitten, When you are thirsty, I suggest you visit the big, white canyon to drink from the shiny spout of refreshment. It is much better than the stagnant water the humans put out in a dish. Meow and look at them pathetically until they turn it on for you.

Wyatt and the pugs are another story. Although both the pugs are very comfortable with Stewie and vice versa, they do not seem to realize that Wyatt is the same sort of creature. Instead they are convinced he is here to kill us all in our sleep. This leads to whining, barking and lunging as soon as they see him. Wyatt of course says "Oh no way" and hisses back. Then it spirals out of control. We are cycling turns of Wyatt shut upstairs/pugs free and pugs shut in kitchen/Wyatt roams free. We also have sessions of Wyatt free with pugs on leash. We are making small bits of progress.

It's like it's 1980 all over again - Muppets & Peanuts

After 34 years, The Muppet Show is back. I grew up watching the original and have been looking forward to seeing the return.

In The Muppets, instead of putting on a show in a theatre, all the Muppets work on the set of a talk show, Up Late with Miss Piggy. I think that is a clever twist. The morning meetings crack me up as the Muppets come together and discuss the previous evening's show and the upcoming one. I wish my office meetings were like Muppet meetings.

When they first started advertising the new Muppet show there was a rumor leak that Kermit and Miss Piggy broke up and Kermit was dating a younger, thinner pig named Denise. I was more upset over this split than the news that Jen and Ben broke up.

I am pretty sure Kermit and Piggy will get back together though.

Just like the old show, The Muppets bring on human guest stars. Elizabeth Banks and Imagine Dragons were great additions to the first episode.

To further continue blasts from my childhood past, on November 6 the new Peanuts movie is being released. I am hoping they do as good of a job with this movie as the return of the Muppets.

There is a cool tool online where you can turn yourself in to a Peanuts character - Peanutize Me. I thought I did a pretty good job making my character but my friend Patricia said it looked nothing like me. Except it was short.

Happy 13th Birthday Oscar!

Today was Oscar's 13th birthday!

I went back and found blog post from the day we went to pick him out and the day we picked him up.

Also I think it is interesting Aaron wanted to name him Bernard because he is trying to name Kitten, Bernard.

My mom cooked Oscar a special birthday fried egg. Oscar said, "Thank you Ma'am, that tasted like another." What a jokester. Happy Birthday Oscar!

Vintage Halloween Blow Mold Lawn Ornaments - and a little history

This is taking me dangerously close to having another collection, but when you love holidays and decorating as much as I do, it’s hard to ignore blow mold decorations.

Blow molds are those light up Santas you see in yards at the holidays. And not those fabric ones that require a fan. The old school plastic ones with the hole in the back. They are called blow molds because that is exactly how they are made. Plastic is melted and then blown into a mold using air pressure.

I tried to find information online about the history of blow mold decorations but it was a bit scanty. There is a bit in this blog post and this blog post and this blog post. From what I can tell they have been available since the 1940 but it was the Pink flamingo lawn ornaments in the 1950’s that made them really popular. The famous pink flamingo was designed by a guy named Don Featherstone if you can believe that. AND he passed away recently ON June 22 WHICH just happened to be one day before Pink Flamingo Day! Coincidence? I think not.

Blow mold lawn ornaments still seem to be going strong… as evidenced by this Facebook page and this Facebook page. I like smaller sized ones, that sit on a table rather than the large sized ones. And now, I am really into the Halloween ones. Particularly vintage Halloween ones.

I went to an antique shop with my mom and I was on the look out for them. I wasn’t disappointed as I found two for $7 each. There was one more I didn’t get and now I’m kicking myself.

I’m looking forward to putting them on display for Halloween. (Holding out for October however)

Fall Weekend

I snuck off to PA for the weekend. Perfect fall weather. I love riding on the wagon being pulled by my Dad's tractor. Someday we will have land where we can build a little trail and we can take our own tractor and wagon for hay rides.

Steampunk lamps at Mayday Underground Craft Fair

Exciting news! Aaron has started making these cool Steampunk lamps with pipes, reclaimed wood and mason jars for Jandamade. We will have them for sale at the November 7 and 8 Mayday Underground Indie Craft Fair. Just in time for holiday shopping. Be sure to check back, he will be making different styles and designs.

New guy in town

Aaron leaves town for a couple weeks and I bring this guy home!

I have been talking about getting a second cat for awhile. It's rough when I see them constantly coming into the Rochester Animal Services shelter I do volunteer social media work for. I would send a kitty picture to Aaron and he would reply NOPE.

Then my friend Liz who photographs animals at the shelter sent me Pablo's picture. HE HAD A MUSTACHE! This time Aaron said "maybe" so I jumped on the opportunity. I had to move fast so I didn't lose this chance. I went to the shelter to meet him (the pics above was in the visitation room) and he was just as nice as I could have hoped. He let me pick him up and purred like an engine.

I put my name on his waiting list, (he was a stray so there is a several day hold to make sure an owner doesn't show up) and then today he was ready to come home with me!

They say he is 8 months old but he looks so much smaller than Stewie did when he was 8 months old. So either Stewie was older than 8 months or this guy is younger.

He is what is called a Tuxedo Cat, a type of Bi-Color cat. A Bi-Color cat has white fur combined with another color. In the case of a Tuxedo Cat, it's black. Apparenly to be a true tuxedo cat - "the feline's coloring should consist of a solid black coat, with white fur limited to the paws, belly, chest, throat, and often the chin."

Sometimes tuxedo cats are called "Jellicle cats" from the T.S. Elliot poem  "The Song of the Jellicles" his book "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats". T.S. Elliot describes Jellicle Cats as black and white.

We aren't keeping the name Pablo, so there has been a lot of brainstorming. We liked the idea of something like Stewart/Stewie... perhaps Franklin/Frankie, Fredrick/Freddie. I'm starting to think it has to be the name of another famous mustache wearer like Dali, Tom Selleck or Sam Elliott. Right now we are calling him Kitten. Stay tuned.

Pi Craft

Aaron and I tried a new pizza place in town called Pi Craft. It's sort of the Subway of pizza parlors. You start at the beginning by choosing your pizza size. Then you go down the line and pick your sauce, cheese and all sorts of toppings.

There is a big pizza oven in the back with a revolving oven stone inside. They take your pizza and put it on the wheel and by the time it circles back to the front, it's ready! I'm looking forward to going back. The possibilities of combinations are endless!

Afternoon in CMoG

Last weekend when we went to see the Pyrex exhibit we went through the rest of Corning Museum of Glass.

There are some fun displays to look at.

We stood in front of this one for a long time.

They have an exhibit area now with glass works of art. It's a big bright white exhibit area.

We took a few artistic shots ourselves.