Celebrating Still (Part Two)

Now that the gifts with the still theme have been revealed and opened (see Part One), it's time for the Nelson Sisters to continue on a related adventure involving food and fun.  

My plans for going to Marge's Still in Lincoln Park area were dashed with the restaurant opening not until 4:30 pm and a drive to Bartlett to go to Still and Grill seemed to not be worth the drive once I read the yelp reviews.

 What to do?

Ditch the restaurant with "still" in the name and go instead to a place where still life viewing reigns supreme: The Art Institute.

Not only does the Art Institute have great works of art, it has a state-of-the-art restaurant in the Modern Wing on the third floor. On the left of entry is the Chicago waterfront view and on the right is our own, beautiful skyline! 

We ate first before the viewing of the Institute's art collections.  The foods we ate were also masterpieces of the culinary sort.  We started with a shared salad with a tasty buttermilk vinaigrette, grilled pears, candied hazelnuts and blue cheese on a bed of Bibb lettuce.

One word:  delishioooooooooous.  Then on to the main course - again shared by the sisters.

This was the Butternut Squash Agnolotti with cipolini onions, hen of the woods mushrooms and apple-thyme gremolata.

No, it couldn't have tasted better.  (Because I am so refined now that I am 60 I didn't lick the plate. Nor did my mostly-always refined Sis.)  Meanwhile I snuck off to find our waitress to ask about a possible birthday treat for Diann. She brought us this Deconstructed S'more.

 Do you see the words on the blue disc?  

And the graham cracker ice cream behind it?  

You just want a full view now, don't you?

It perfectly matches her necklace and lovely eye color!

This food gave us sustenance for what happens in Part Three.

A Scavenger Hunt may or may not be involved.

You never know what'll happen with these two next - especially when works of art are involved and one insists upon mimicry.

Celebrating Still (Part. One)

It's time once again to celebrate a Nelson Sister birthday;

 this time it's her turn!  

Mulling over what was to be the theme of  her celebration fell into place when I picked up a couple of  books with still in the title: Still Alice by Lisa Genova and Still by Lauren F. 

Winner. It just seemed like a peaceful, nice theme.  I also thought of many songs with still in the title like "In the Still of the night," "I'm Still Standing,"  "You're Still the One," to name a few. In a conversation in January that we had (after I planned the theme), she rather weirded me out by telling me her personal word for 2015 was Still.  Right about now the Twilight Zone music starts to play in my head!

Oh, well.  I can live with the theme being no big surprise this year.  Instead I will just make the gift tags a surprise by having her unscramble letters on the tag for a clue as to what might be in the attached package.

The t on the front of the tag tells what the word clue starts with.

On the flip side, she'll have to decipher "emit" unscrambled to "time."  and inside that package are tablets of paper for taking time to be still and to write down thoughts, lists, dreams, etc.

Some of the gifts are silly, too. Like the one for "Still Crazy after all These Years."

Or this one with memories of  Mitch Miller on the turntable of our childhood home stereo! (Thank you, Goodwill, for this vintage gem!)

And, how could one present a still theme without a still life painting?

Once the gifts were all unwrapped (in green and blue to represent grass and sky)

 it was time to head out for Part Two of our celebrating!  To be continued....

It Worked!

Around Valentine's Day, a recipe appeared on Facebook for slime.  Did you see it, too?

It looked like it would be ooey, gooey fun to save for a rainy day.  Such as yesterday.

With two girls in my care (and a husband who rolled his eyes upon my slime-making proclamation),

I got out the bottle of white glue, liquid starch, food coloring, spoons and water. Following the directions hastily written from the online source, we girls got to work.

Yes, it was a bit messy, but doing the stirring and mixing with the two bowls nestled in the sink prevented catastrophe. Lickety split we had sloppy slime success.

One would think this would be a disaster waiting to happen, but it wasn't!  The slime, while wet to the touch, doesn't stick to hands and surfaces.  It pours, stretches, flattens like a pancake and is really quite a tactile treat.  And, because it was pink it was even more fun!

Now that Spring Break has arrived, it might be just the required "getaway" for

 those on Staycation...or Grandma's/Grandpa's secret gooey weapon.

Something Blue

We have just returned from a lovely wedding in California. Our beautiful, creative,

   talented niece married  her own Prince Charming in an outdoor

setting with a canopy of stately oak trees overhead.

Gentle breezes on a perfect day - our bride made quite an entrance with her father. 

Not only did she make her own ethereal wedding dress; she crafted her bridal bouquet as well her mothers's wrist corsage.

Princess Bride collected bits of fabric and family heirloom buttons,

 pins and ephemera to make into flowers for her bouquet.

And the blue chiffon bow came from a very special source:

her Grandmother Muriel's dress worn at another wedding in 1976.

Do you recognize this bride and groom?

May the 2015 Bride and Groom live happily ever after, too!

In Which the Real Deal is Better than the Book

Don't  get me wrong...I love this book by P.L. Hanson!  I received it as a gift; I have given it as a gift.

But in the case of life with my Grands, there's nothing like the real thing, baby!  And this is what my real thing looks like:

It is black just like the purse in the book, but there is simply magic in its contents. The most remarkable accessories have entertained my little sweeties far better than any toy to date. K Man sees me and immediately says, "MeMo...purse!"  Miss M asks for the purse immediately when we see each other, too.  Miss E, still likes it, but asks first for my iPhone to play games.

These two pouches are their favorites.

The leopard-printed pouch has band aids, glasses wiping cloth, swabs and lots of pieces.

The red pouch has ear plugs, flashlight, lip balms, lotion, nail files and sometimes a comb.

Rituals used with this pouch include turning on the flashlight, pointing it into mouth and saying, "Ahhh!"

A smidge of lip balm goes on lips, a drop of lotion goes on hands. Ear plugs are in and out of container and counted. I hold out my hand for a brisk nail neatening.

No matter if we are at home, in a restaurant, at church or out shopping,

 my purse contents are in high demand!

Who knew a purse could be so much fun even if it didn't have anything to do with candy??

My kids had a grandma that always had a sweet treat inside her purse to give.

My grandma had a mirrored powder compact that I loved.

What do you remember about your grandma's purse?

Spring-i-fied (with odd birds)

Even with a bit of snow on the ground, there's a tease of spring in the air.

My March calendar served as the inspiration for freshening up the decor in

our household to reflect this much-welcomed season.

The front door wreath was replaced first.

Though the wreath is a bit on the autumnal side, I added the flowers and bird's

nest from my stash ---I knew the packages of nests with birds and eggs would

 come in  handy when I scored a bunch of them this past summer at a thrift store in Iron River.  

(Though I have never ever seen birds with 

feathers like these in real life- maybe my ornithologist brother can help with the ID.)

Then it was time to get all set with a nest-in-a-cloche. Not having a cloche (transparent cover to put over young plants to protect them from the cold), I had to get creative. I set an overturned vase on a short pedestal plate and added an upside down glass candle holder on the top (really the bottom) of the vase. The bird in this nest has odd pinky peach feathers of unknown origin.

The three-tired cake plate stand in the dining room was adorned with the weirdest bird of all.

Buttery yellow feathers with no hint of wings or tail; most assuredly protecting her eggs.

 Finally a vintage bird cage got its inhabitant. 

 Finally I think the bird can be identified as a robin.

The hope of Spring coming is important to me. I yearn to see the first robin, hear the warblings of returning birds and watch as nests are being made in trees. Until that time, I'm settling on these odd birds in my house!

Glitter Girl

Armed with silver glitter, a pink accordion folder, some funky scrapbook paper and a computer, I set out to make decorations to celebrate my friend Carol who was joining me in the Sixty Club! If you know Carol, you love Carol, but you also know she isn't one who swoons for either glitter or pink. Ha!

It was fun to find statements related to the event- some are nice and some are rather not. I printed them off on my computer printer and got out the glitter.  Nothing elevates a project like glitter.

Making the accordion-folded circle was a snap with the removal of the folder "guts" and shaping the 

sections into a circle fan.  At the center of the circle a glittered 60 was placed. It was pink on one side and white on the other due to the file folder colors.

The decorations were sent ahead to the place of the big surprise party.  And, yes, she sure was surprised. It was so delightful to see her reaction.

We have been friends since our freshman year in college and because you now know both our ages, you know this has been a long, long friendship. During our friendship I learned a lot about food, too!

She is an expert on good food and savors each tasty bite.  At her party, guests brought foods from local ethnic restaurants (yum!) and her husband brought delicious bakery cupcakes in various flavors perfect for sampling.

Our Grands watch as Carol holds her grandson up to help extinguish the candles.

Life is sweet, isn't it? 

I wish my dear friend the happiest year to come as we move forward together in this new decade. May it be filled with all kinds of glitter and sparkles!