Birthday Thank You Photo

For a few years now I've been including a photo collage like this in Sparky's birthday thank you notes. It requires asking each kid to smile for me, but I find that not so hard when they're holding cupcakes. I crop a square out of each picture and size it to a fixed number of pixels, then collage them all together. It's all done with Photoshop Elements, which came free with our scanner. I have the photo place print it out as a 4x6.

For the second time we did decorate-your-own cupcakes. The kids basically pave their cupcakes with assorted candies. They love it and it requires no fancy culinary creations on my part. Not that I mind creating confections, but I tend to get carried away. For instance...

The Volcano Cake of 2006

It wasn't actually that challenging, since the frosting could be (should be) messy.

The Dumptruck Cake of 2005 was really easy, just a mush of chocolate cake (dirt), chocolate pudding (mud), and crunched up Oreos (gravel). The tricky bit was when I realized I hadn't bought a dump truck yet and it was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. But the gods were smiling and I found this cheap beach-toy truck.


My sister sent the construction cone candles, and we made a ramp so we could drive the cake onto the table.

Stops and Starts

I guess I didn't sleep fast enough.

Last night about 10:15 the phone rang. That's late for me, and with both son and husband elsewhere, I was a little freaked, especially when my caller turned out to be a cop! Not calling about family, but about a friend. Driving through a green light, my friend Dr. Mavis was hit by another car running a red light. No major injuries, but she had to be checked out.

So I went to the hospital, hung out joking with Dr Mavis's Great Friend and her Surrogate Niece. Great Friend explained that kids have to be twelve to visit in the ER, so Surrogate Niece (age eleven) put on earrings and primped a bit so she would pass. She also brought an iPod. Once Dr. Mavis started to get really sick of waiting for a CT scan and wearing a neck brace and her knee was hurting, Surrogate Niece hooked her up to hear Harry Potter 7. Not quite Vicodin, but it helped.

I got back home about 1, then slept in. I saw Dr. Mavis again in the morning, and didn't even START in the studio until about 3.

Last night as I left for the hospital, with no idea of how long and how bored I would be there, I realized I had no hand work to bring! I hate that! When my energy is low, or life is rough, I stitch. What if something really awful happened and I had nothing ready to go!

So even before getting out the dye today, I got out the piecing I finished last week, and basted the top/batting/backing together for hand quilting.

It's going to be a pillow for Mom. I have been wanting to try the Storm at Sea pattern for a while. I had planned a wall hanging to go above her bed, that would look like this:


Since it would only be 44" wide, the pieces were getting pretty tiny. So I decided to sew a pillow at that scale and see if the tiny bits of fabric made me crazy.

The tiny bits of fabric made me crazy.

So I'm giving Mom the pillow, as a down payment, and will see about a different wall hanging later on. I might still make this design, but larger. And wouldn't it look great in some mottled, hand-dyed fabric?