Sleepless in Seattle

Posted on August 31, 2010 at 9:00 am
in The Birds, Travel, , ,

Downtown Seattle, I love you. Your streets are aligned with gorgeous architecture and homes built with personality. I happened to visit Seattle on one of the most beautiful days of the year. You called it hot, but I soaked up every moment of Seattle sun without 60 percent humidity like in the South. And the biggest shock about Seattle? People don’t have AC in their homes! That’s inconceivable to someone who came from Georgia.

However, the salty sea breeze… I can sniff that all day. I wanted to bottle that smell up and take it home with me. I miss the smell of the ocean. It flooded my mind with memories from my childhood in Hawaii.

Last week we were vacationing in Washington. It was the first real vacation we’ve had in two years. Sad, huh? Well, that’s what happens when Nathan has been chugging away at his MBA by going fall, winter and summer semesters. But as soon as he was done, we were ready to go somewhere. Anywhere. First we took a short trip to the beach. And then we went to Washington to visit Nathan’s family.

We spent a couple days in Seattle. I have been to Washington four times now and this was the first time I actually looked around Seattle. It was too bad our kids had a hard time at first adjusting to the the three-hour time change. So really, it was sleepless in Seattle for us that first couple of nights.

While we were there, we ate lunch with the seagulls at Ivar’s. Yummy fried seafood. Fish and chips, right? The fish were delicious and the fries were perfection, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.

The girls had a great time tossing fries to the seagulls. Those seagulls are professional beggars. They yell at you until you give them food. Maybe even a few threats of fly-by droppings.

We also visited an awesome beach park. It had playgrounds, a beach, picnic tables and grills, gorgeous views and even Wi-Fi. Couldn’t have asked for anything better. The girls ran around chasing birds and dipped their toes into the cool water.

Lastly, we walked through only a part of Pike Place Market. We didn’t have enough time to go through the entire market. Although I would have loved to see all the shops underground. I couldn’t believe how cheap these breathtaking flowers were.

Really?! Only $5 for a bunch? I would be there every week for new flowers. You could use these for weddings. They were that nice.

If I lived in Seattle, I would shop here all the time. The fresh fruits and veggies made me drool. And the seafood… I love seafood. Need I say more?

The place was shop after shop of marvelous wonders. Even a whole stand dedicated to honey. Local honey. That’s the best stuff.

And at the end of the day, we all went home happy. Especially if grandma found a princess tiara made of jewels and feathers and a long pink train on the back. And people gave you free flowers just for being cute.

» Tell me… Have you been to Seattle? What is your favorite thing about Seattle? Do you live there? What is it like to live there?

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Project 52: Music

Posted on August 31, 2010 at 8:00 am
in Project 52: Date Nights, , ,

I have to admit. At first, I didn’t think much of this date when Nathan told me we were going to listen to music. I thought we should play games while listening to music. Just sitting there listening to music seemed a bit boring to me. However, it turned out better than I thought and we stayed up until midnight going through all our music. Lesson #1: Give dates a try, even if you think they may be boring.

We have over 4,500 songs in our music library. When we were first married, our CDs and iTunes music joined in union also. It was interesting to see how our music matched or mismatched. We had a great conversation on what music we listened to in high school and in college. And where we first heard of certain singers or bands. It was amazing to us the memories music created in our past. Lesson #2: Want a walk down memory lane? Try going through your old music.

Nathan said: I was actually really excited about this date. It was simple and would allow us to talk and relax. Tiffany wasn’t as excited – at first. But after a while things really picked up and we had a good time listening to new and old music. Did you know Tiffany went through a hard rock phase? Ha!

» Tell me… What kind of music do you listen to? How is it different from what you listen to in high school?

Want to join Project 52: Date Night? Great! Start anytime. Go here for details about the project and print the pledge.

When you link up, please remember…

  • Keep it clean and family friendly. This is a family friendly site. Anything inappropriate will be deleted.
  • It needs to be a date. Not your latest projects or pictures of your beautiful children. I do love reading about your projects and learning about your family. But this linky is for date nights and date nights only. It is for us to exchange date night ideas.
  • Link to a specific blog post about your date that week. Don’t just link to your site’s home page. It needs to be the direct link to the post. Anything not directly linked to the post will be deleted.
  • Link back to Simply Modern Mom or put the Project 52: Date Nights button on your site. It’s common courtesy. Please be nice.

Project 52 Date Nights

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Pleated Uniform Skirt Tutorial

Posted on August 30, 2010 at 8:00 am
in Featured, School, Sewing Projects, Tutorials, , , ,

Last week I did a tutorial for Sew Mama Sew. They asked me to be a Sew Mama Sew contributor for their Back-to-School series that has been going on the month of August. I was stoked. I mean it’s Sew Mama Sew!

Even though I don’t have a child in school this year, I made a pleated uniform skirt tutorial because I thought it was cute… school or no school. And the skirt turned out so easy that you can make it in under an hour. I used a fleece material that is perfect for the fall.

Please visit Sew Mama Sew to see the full tutorial. And I made it on their contributor page too.

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Friday’s 5 at 5: Foods Served At the Ice Cream Party

Posted on August 27, 2010 at 5:00 am
in Food, Friday's 5 at 5, , , , , ,

This year I decided to keep it simple with the food served at Kaye’s ice cream party. I spent so much time with the decorations and activities that I knew I wouldn’t have time to make the food fancy. And I was able to feed 25 people for about $1.75 per person by serving the 5 things below. Everyone had plenty to eat with leftovers. I made it nice with fancy paperware found at Michael’s clearance section.

  1. Little Ceaser’s $5 pizzas. We only needed 5 cheese or pepperoni pizzas to feed 25 people. And the plus side about it was I didn’t need to heat up our house on a hot summer day by baking them in our oven.
  2. Easiest fruit salad. Cut up strawberries, peaches, grapes and bananas. Coated bananas in lemon juice to keep it from browning. Then tossed it all in a bowl to mix with a little bit of sugar and almost a whole tub of whipped topping. Simple and delicious.
  3. Chips and dips. I made some guacamole to go with tortilla chips. Then had some potato chips to go with favored sour cream dips.
  4. Vegetable tray. I did one side cucumbers and another side of baby carrots. In between were French onion and bacon and onion dips.
  5. Water and juice. Gave some color to the water with lemon and lime. Then I also provided the option of apple juice and the colorless CapriSuns. I don’t have to worry much about children spilling on my carpet.

» What kinds of food do you like to serve at birthday parties? How do you keep food at parties simple and cheap?

P.S. Here are other party food ideas.

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Ice Cream Bar & Ice Cream Party Details

Posted on August 26, 2010 at 9:00 am
in Food, Party Ideas, , , ,

I hope you have been enjoying all the tutorials from Kaye’s ice cream party. I hope it at least gave you ideas to other things you can do at parties. I tried to keep Kaye’s party small and simple. So the schedule for the party went like this…

When the kids arrived, I had a little animal puppet craft for them to make on popsicle sticks. And of course the kids smothered themselves with toys in the playroom. Then lunch.

After lunch the kids went outside to hit the piñata. Once all the candy was cleared from ground, everyone came back in to escape the heat and for the gift opening. While Kaye opened gifts, I worked on setting up the ice cream bar.

The toppings were mini ice cream cones, syrups, Oreo cookies, baby gummi bears, mini M&Ms, sprinkles, waffers, white chocolate chips and chopped nuts. I made special signs for each topping using calligraphy and embossing. Then I taped them onto large popsicle sticks. Finally I made it stand by sticking the bottom end of the popsicle stick into white playdough.

I also decorated the ice cream bowls by using clear plastic cups and covering it with coffee filter that had the bottom of the filter cut out.

Next I used double-sided tape to keep the filter attached to the cup. Then used bakers twine to add a hint of color.

I also made some extra ice cream invitations without the birthday info and glued them back-to-back to make some ice cream hanging for decorations.

Lastly, the cake. I made cupcakes in ice cream cones. I make them in mini cones for the children and regular sized cones for the adults. The trick with these is to not fill them up too much. The cake will overflow the cones and make it mushy.

» Tell me… I want to know what kind of cake you have made for your child. Do you make your own or do you get the store bought? Do you make two cakes so they can mess one up then serve the second cake?

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