surgery is an essential part of parenthood

My child LOVES beanie boos. We get them for Christmas and birthday gifts, souvenirs, Tuesdays, whenever. We created a beanie boo village with separate rooms, furniture, and a kitchen with mini foods and cooking supplies. Beanie boo village is well cared for, decorated, and updated. We have two little friends that even come over just to play beanie boos.

Now... we also have the cutest little dog that we adopted. He doesn't really play games or play with toys. He does like the occasion squeaker, but boy does he LOVE those illustrious beanie boos. If he is ever left unkenneled, he helps himself to beanie boo village and gently lines up his new friends in a nice little line across the room. It is the cutest thing ever UNLESS you are the owner and creator of beanie boo village. She hates that, but she doesn't get mad or yell because our cute little shelter dog is just too skittish and too cute.

Insert me: Mom. The fixer, the seamstress, surgeon, and helper. Tonight I performed surgery on two of these beauts and OMG, those glittery feet about did me in. There is no whipstitch or quick fix to make the dog's little love bites less noticeable. Yes, I am aware it's not 1950 and sewing isn't quite the trendiest trend, but I can sew and I can definitely perform miracle surgeries to repair the beanie boos. I even cranked out a Star Wars scrunchie because I already had the supplies out, so why not.

I am not ready for a sewing shop. I will not make a side hustle from my wears. Meredith Grey will not tag me in for an assist. BUT I can fix the little things that make my little one happy and crank out some trendy accessories along the way, so we all win here!

finding fun in a pretty and new way!

We found a new way to have fun recently! We love to support local. Fun and local go hand in hand around here. Taking a class from time to time is just the trick. Erica's Board Creations has been bringing in people to teach classes and we jumped on a cupcake decorating class. 

You pay online, show up, learn, and enjoy. We got to keep all the decorating tips and connectors for the piping bags. We decorated 6 cupcakes and got to take them home. Lots of hints and tips,  demonstrations, and laughter. I must say that mixing our own frosting colors was quite relaxing and we enjoyed seeing all the bright colors. 

So what did we learn? We learned different frosting techniques. We learned what different tips can do. We learned the easiest way to fill a piping bag. We learned that I have VERY unsteady hands when I dropped TWO different cupcakes frosting side down... after freshly decorating them. I never knew you could tear up over cupcakes!

There goes my future career as a surgeon. All my Grey's Anatomy dreams gone. :) The nice thing about this day was that me AND my lovely daughter learned that perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Just because it doesn't look like the demo doesn't mean it isn't right. When we messed up or didn't get it right, we scraped the frosting off and started again. 

So now we have some great life lessons to embrace. And all because we wanted to spend some mother-daughter time and try something new. Here is a list of life lessons translated from a cupcake decorating class to motovate you.

1. Just scrape it off and try again if it isn't right. 

2. Use a steady hand. 

3. Be patient.

4. Always carry lots of hand sanitizer.

5. Feel free to stop and eat the frosting off the spoon when you get frustrated, but don't mix up the spoons!

comfort foods are SO comforting :)

It's almost spring which means it's that time of year when you can see three different seasons in a day. We wake up to winter, have spring in the afternoon, and feel fall like temps in the evening. Because of this, it's dressing in layers and prepping for warm/cold/humid/dry weather. You just never know. I mean, it's the midwest! 

Some nights we still light a fire and some nights we open the doors up. After all these years living here you just get used to it. This also means that we try to wrap up the rest of our winter fun. All the favorite winter games, crafts and recipes get pulled out. This includes homemade pot pie. You just can't make a good pot pie in warm weather!

My shortie loves to roll out the homemade pie crust. I always make the yummy, gooey filling and she does the crust. This new recipe made 2 pot pies, so we had gobs of food. It's completely worth the time and the mess watching my kid work her way around our kitchen with such confidence and ease. This is by far our favorite winter food that I make.  

In a month we will be ditching the crockpots, comforters and casseroles. We will crack some windows, prep the grill, and pull out the bikes. Goodbye winter, hello spring! In the meantime, though, no one goes hungry. And no one can get bored with all the recipes we can work through (and clean up!).