…Waiting for the Elevator …still waiting…

We went to a dance competition for my daughter and stayed at a hotel. For the most part, the hotel was great! The room was clean, had everything we needed and the beds were comfy. Considering we were at a dance competition you would think the talk of the week-end would have been about the fabulous dancing… well, it was… but it did get a bit overshadowed by the topic of the elevators!

The hotel had 30 floors and 4 elevators plus MANY guests whose children were at a dance competition in the hotel. Many other guests had children attending a cheerleading competition at the conference centre next door. All of these guests wanted to go UP and DOWN the elevators many, many,MANY times.

I am pretty sure I lost hours off of my life by standing waiting at the elevator. The button would be pushed and the wait began. The problem became that the elevator would arrive and it would already be FULL. Then it would stop at every floor on its way down – because people on the floors below had pushed the button and were waiting to get on too. It was INSANE.

One time we were waiting to go down. A couple of elevators stopped and the doors opened but the elevator was FULL.  So, finally one arrived that was going up. We decided to just get on it so that by the time it came back down we would have a spot on board. It was all about the real estate.

We tried the same thing a second time. Getting an elevator ride down wasn’t working so we ditched the folks we were waiting with and got on board the elevator going up! We went to the top and on the way back down we started picking up people. We were so happy to have our little corner on the elevator. Before long we arrived back at our original floor. The doors opened and the same people were there waiting to get on. They looked surprised to see us  again but we gave them a big hello and said, “aren’t you lucky that we decided to come back and get you!”  We managed to squeeze them on!

We made friends on the elevators. We had many good chats with other folks who were also not crazy about the elevator rides. We helped a maid load her cart, we rescued a little girl (whose family got off and her jacket got hooked onto the railing and she was stuck and starting to panic). We squeezed in as many people as possible to the point of feeling like a sardine.

One time my daughter was slowly tying her shoes in the room so we decided to go on ahead and push the elevator button. I told her to just bring the shoe and put it on while waiting for the elevator. Low and behold the elevator showed up “early” and my daughter had to hop on board with only one shoe on. ha ha That was kinda funny.

You may be wondering if we had time to do anything else while at this hotel and after re-reading my story I am wondering the same thing!

Image from Google. This looks like the elevators we rode on but just picture 15 adults waiting, 5 children, 5 cheerleaders and 5 dancers and 3-4 suitcases! That would be about right!

Welcome to the Tulip Festival In Ottawa, Canada

During the month of May in the Capital City of Canada there is a beautiful display of tulips. There are several large displays at National Sites around the city but the largest display is at Commissioner’s Park along Dow’s Lake. During a recent visit to see my daughter in Ottawa, she and I took a lovely walk to look at the tulips.

Here are a couple of signs explaining the festival at Commissioner’s Park.

History of the Tulip Festival in Ottawa,Canada

This year is the 60th year that Ottawa will be celebrating this festival. There are large tulip displays all around the capital region at many National Sites. There are about 3 millions tulips in bloom during the month of May.

The interesting part of the story is where the tulips came from. The Dutch Royal Family sent Canada 100,000 tulips in 1945 as a thank-you for events that took place during the second World War.During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Canada sheltered Princess Juliana and her daughters for three years.  in 1943, Princess Margriet gave birth to Princess Juliana at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. The maternity ward was declared to be officially a temporary part of international territory, so that she would be born in her own country and she could inherit her Dutch citizenship from her mother.

In 1946, Juliana sent another 20,500 bulbs requesting that a display be created for the hospital, and promised to send 10,000 more bulbs each year.

In the years following Queen Juliana’s original donation, Ottawa became famous for its tulips and in 1953 the Ottawa Board of Trade and photographer Malak Karsh organized the first “Canadian Tulip Festival”. Queen Juliana returned to celebrate the festival in 1967, and Princess Margriet returned in 2002 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the festival.

Sharing My Smile of the Week ♥

I had a great idea! I have decided that every Monday or Tuesday I am going to post my “smile” for the week. There is something that makes me smile everyday and I thought how great it would be to share. It is important to sometimes take a moment and think about what you have to smile about and be grateful for the good things in life. So, here is my “smile”.

This little smile comes from just over a week ago. In my grade 2 classroom ( I work as a Educational Assistant providing support to special needs children and others too) I was excited about our art project and I shared the inside scoop with one of my students.

“We are going to make a Mother’s Day Card in art today”, I told her. She thought about that for a brief second. ” Oh”, she says. “I am going to make my card for you.”

I smiled and said, “No, it’s a card for Mothers Day! You need to make the card for your Mom.”

“Oh”, she says. “Well, you are just like my Mom.” She looked at me with a big smile.

Of course that made me smile and warmed my heart. What an honour and a compliment to be compared to my student’s Mom!

Have a Wonderful Week everyone ♥

Baking Chocolate Chip Muffins with my Mama ♥

In honour of Mother’s Day I would like to share a recipe for Chocolate Chip Muffins that were made by my Mom! She is an awesome baker and an awesome Mom too. Happy Mother’s Day to my Mom and all the Moms out there! I will be taking tomorrow off from writing a blog. I am hoping to have some coffee served to me even though we are at a hotel at my daughter’s dance competition! I will be back on Monday with my Smile of the Week. Enjoy the rest of your week-end everyone!

I recently headed over to my Mama’s house to make some muffins. This time we decided on a dessert muffin. The recipe calls for a chocolate drizzle and at first we did not add it but then decided, what the heck! The muffin recipe once again comes from the Muffin Mania cookbook by Cathy Prange and Joan Pauli. Every time I go to my Mama’s to bake muffins, Mama and I go through her china cabinet looking for a plate to put the muffins on for a photo. Each time my Mama pulls out different plates and tells me the history of them. Each plate seems to have a story. I am thinking a tour of Mama’s china cabinet could make for a fun blog so you can watch for that coming up one day soon! Anyway, we chose this really pretty pink plate for this day.

Recipe for Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients

• 1 & 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 3 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. of salt
• 1 cup of chocolate chips
• 1 cup of milk
• 1/3 cup of melted butter
• 1 egg

Directions

• Mix the dry ingredients and add chocolate chips
• Combine egg, milk and butter and stir into the flour mixture. Do not beat, just stir!
• Bake at 375′ for 20 minutes.
• A few chocolate chips melted and drizzled over the tops when the muffins are slightly cooled, make these a special dessert treat for chocolate lovers.

makes 9 large muffins

PHOTO DIRECTIONS

Mix the dry ingredients

Stir in the egg, milk and butter.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir.

Scoop into the muffin pan

My Mama about to enjoy a muffin. They did not last long!

Once we put the drizzle on these muffins got even BETTER! They were delicious!

If you love muffins then you should check out the other recipes from my Mama! Click here for Banana Muffins and the delicious  Orange Muffins.

Mother’s Day Vase made from a Painted Glass Wine Carafe

I am very excited about this project!!  Once I get an idea I do get a bit carried away (I am back painting glass again). I was originally inspired by the painted glass I saw on Pinterest and I read about several different ways to do it. I loved the idea of doing a design on the bottle but then I thought a message would be really special and who better to honour then my Mom and my Mother-in-law!

So I have been waiting for a good reason to do another version of the painted glass. (I did the Painted Glass Jars for Easter already) I read about two ways to write a message. The first way is to use your glue gun. I used a baby food jar and gave this a go.  The great part is that if you make a mistake it can peel right off! However, I found it hard to be precise when holding and squeezing the glue gun. I have a big old one that I have had for a long time so you may be successful with one of the smaller glue guns.

Here is a baby food jar that I practiced on. I used the glue gun to make hearts.

Here is the spray paint I used! It is Krylon indoor/outdoor.

Hey, this turned out cute too. The hearts were all different and some were better than others.

In this next photo I practiced my writing in hot glue and with 3D paint. It was much easier for me to be neat with the paint so that is what I decided to use for my project. I bought two 1/2 litre wine carafes at the thrift store for a couple of dollars. I already had the spray paint from my last project (sorry for the same colours again!) so I put all of my money into beautiful flowers!

I made myself a stencil on lined paper and i stuffed it inside the jar. I put a squished up bag in behind to hold it tightly. I loved the idea that the message was in my own handwriting.

Here they are! I left them overnight to dry.

The carafes are ready to be painted.

Find a place where it is well ventilated to spray the glass. I just kept going back and recoating until I was happy with the coverage. My glass carafes are now vases for Mother’s Day!

My Message

I am going to be away this week-end so my Mom and I celebrated Mother’s Day today. I took my Mom out for lunch and presented her with her vase of flowers! My Mother-in-law will be getting hers later so don’t tell her! ha ha

Sharing my SMILE of the Week ♥

I had a great idea! I have decided that every Monday or Tuesday I am going to post my “smile” for the week. There is something that makes me smile everyday and I thought how great it would be to share. It is important to sometimes take a moment and think about what you have to smile about and be grateful for the good things in life. So, here is my  “smile”.

Monday, May 7,2012

I was busy getting ready for work and not paying too much attention to my surroundings. I opened my front door and right in front of me was a beautiful red cardinal. It is rare to get such a close up view and it certainly caught my attention! It sat for a few seconds before taking flight and I headed out to the car. As I came around the corner there was the second cardinal and that made me smile even more. What a wonderful morning welcome it was to see 2 red cardinals in the bush. Oh, how I wish I’d had my camera!

picture from: http://birdwatchingclub.net/

My Idea of the Best Mother’s Day

My favourite Mother’s Day is one where I spend it with my family (and sometimes my Mom too) and I am spoiled. I get spoiled because I am showered with attention and love plus the chores are done and I am treated like a Queen! My breakfast is usually made and served to me. When my children were little they would literally stand beside my chair wondering what they could do for me. They all wanted to do something to make me feel special and all of that was so much better than any store bought gift I could ever get! I loved to receive the handmade cards with sweet messages and the gifts made at school. My husband always came through (and he still does) with an actual gift too. It was never a big surprise when all of a sudden my husband and three kids all had to go shopping.( a few days before Mother’s Day). My kids were all so excited and proud to give me the gift that they helped pick out. We always had a nice day together, going for a bike ride, a walk, making a nice meal together and maybe having a special treat. Isn’t that all any Mother could ask for? I am so very lucky!

This particular Mother’s Day there was a “secret” activity that was taking place in the basement in the week leading up to Mother’s Day. So, it was a surprise to come downstairs to this HUGE and fabulous sign that my kids had worked all together to make!

Fabulous Fruit Pizza Recipe

This dessert looks so impressive and it isn’t hard to make. It  tastes pretty delicious too. ♥ It would make a great dessert for your Mother’s Day Brunch! I got this recipe from a girl at work a few years ago. I was amazed at how good it was and I finally got around to making it myself.

BOTTOM LAYER WHICH IS THE SHORTBREAD CRUST

Ingredients

• 2 cups of flour
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 1/4 cup of icing sugar
• 1 cup of butter

Directions

Mix together all the ingredients to form a dough ball as shown. You can use your mixer or stir by hand.

Press it into a greased cookie sheet (or you can use a pizza pan)

Bake in a 350′ oven. My recipe said 30 minutes but when I peeked in at 15 it looked done! So I would maybe turn the oven down to 325′ next time and check it after 15 minutes. Watch for it to be lightly browned. Let it cool completely before adding the topping. I almost think my crust was a bit overdone and it might have been better a little bit lighter.

TOPPING

Ingredients

• one 8 oz. package of cream cheese
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 tsp. of vanilla

Directions

Blend together then spread evenly on top of the cooled crust.

GLAZE

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of orange juice
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 & 1/2 tbsp. of cornstarch

Directions

Mix the ingredients and microwave for about 1 minute to thicken. If needed, continue till it thickens. You could boil it on the stove too. Let it cool a bit before pouring on the fruit.

Cut up a selection of fruit that you enjoy. I used strawberries, blueberries, bananas, peaches and pears. I do think softer fruits are probably better. I did not have fresh peaches and pears so I used canned. I drained them well and I think it worked nicely.

This was the fun part. Arrange the fruit on your pizza and pour your glaze over top and let it cool. Pizza anyone?

French Toast that you make the night before!

I am sorry I do not have a photo of my French toast looking fancy on a plate but I served up about 20 pieces to our family over Easter and there was no time for more photos! This recipe comes from the “Grand Slam, The Best of Bridge” series of cookbooks. It is called Midnight French Toast and this is how I made the recipe.( I made a few slight changes) Pay attention Dads and anyone serving their Moms breakfast next week-end! This is easy to make.

Ingredients

• 1 dozen eggs
• 1/2 cup of cream ( I used half and half)
• 1/2 tsp. of vanilla
• 1 tsp. of orange zest
• 2 tbsp. of orange juice
• 1 loaf of bread – sliced about 1 “thick

Directions

Beat together the eggs, cream, orange zest and orange juice in a 4 cup measuring cup or a big bowl (with a spout is helpful).

Place bread in a pan(I used my 9 x 13″ glass pan) and pour the egg mixture over top covering all of the bread.

Cover with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge overnight.

Next morning put the slices on a well greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375′ for 20 –25 minutes. I found it was good to turn it half way through to brown both sides.

Serve with maple syrup. This made about 10 slices.

PHOTOS

Beating the egg mixture

The bread has been soaked all night and it is on the cookie sheet and ready to go in the oven.

Good news! I had a brilliant idea! There were about 4 pieces of leftover French toast that my son has been eating for breakfast. So this morning I followed him around with the camera (yup, he was thrilled) and I snapped this photo of it before he gobbled it up! Did you know you can freeze leftover French toast and then pop them in the toaster on another morning? So it is good to make extra!

Sharing my SMILE of the Week ♥

I had a great idea! I have decided that every Monday or Tuesday I am going to post my “smile” for the week. There is something that makes me smile everyday and I thought how great it would be to share. It is important to sometimes take a moment and think about what you have to smile about and be grateful for the good things in life. So, here is my “smile” for this week.

Monday, April 30, 2012

In the mornings, on my way to work I pass by the school crossing guard. Last week I was driving past and I saw him waving to the cars with all of his might from his lawn chair! It was the hugest wave I have ever seen. The background to this story is that our crossing guard is an elderly gentlemen who loves his job. He wears shoes that are too big, in which he shuffles onto the road. He brings stuffed animals to share with the kids and he wears hats to celebrate all of the various holidays. Unfortunately, last fall he had surgery on his knee and he has been away from his job for many months. My smile was SO big when I saw him back at his corner and I gave him the biggest wave I could, while still driving responsibly!

photo from: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/clipart/clip/crossing-guard-color.html