mix tapes

Remember back in the day when we made mix tapes?  I remember making one of all the rap songs that I loved in the 80's.  I was about 10 and it had the Beastie Boys, Slick Rick, the Fatboys, Sir Mixalot and DJ Jazzy Jeff.  We also used to break dance out front on pieces of cardboard, but that is another story.  (You can go ahead and laugh now.) I remember trying to make tapes from the radio when I heard a good song came on and trying not to get the DJ talking.  When I was in middle school, I made mix tapes with Stevie B, Def Leppard, NKOTB and Madonna.  In high school it was Violent Femmes, B52's, They Might Be Giants, Snoop Dogg and (still) the Beastie Boys.  In college I got more creative with the "summertime mix", "break-up mix" and "gotta dance mix".  Now that I am older, (36 today!) I miss my mix tapes!  I wonder if the kids in my class even know what a tape is???  If I could make a mix tape today, it would probably be an old school mix of all the stuff I used to love.  What would you put on a mix tape?

This is called a "cassette tape", used to record music before CD's and MP3's!

6 Word Saturday!

Yummy dinner at nearby cooking school!


The other night I went along with some friends to the local culinary school's graduation dinner.  A guy who we work with was graduating and invited us to come check it out.  They cooked a Spanish themed five course dinner that was delicious!  We had yucca mofongos (fried yucca balls), shrimp ceviche, mexican chicken soup, steak rolleno (rolled up with rice and beans in the middle), and my favorite- a trio of sorbets that was so delicious! 

 This is a picture of our quatrain of desserts.  The one on the spoon was supposed to be sort of like a mojito.  We toasted and then all popped it into our mouths at the same time.  It was not what we expected- we definitely did not taste the mint in it!  It was cool to pretend we were Top Chef judges while we ate and we had a great time.  Most culinary schools have a night when they cook for the public.  Find one near you today! 

Can you describe your life in just 6 words???
 

terrariums

Lately I have become very interested in terrariums.  I saw one in Real Simple Magazine suggested as a hostess gift and thought how beautiful it was.  When I saw the price, my eyes practically popped out of my head- 75 bucks for some plants in a jar?!?  Then a few weeks ago, there was a book review in the local newspaper for the book, Terrarium Craft, Amy Bryant Aiello. I checked her book out from my local library and I just can't stop looking at it!  My favorite terrariums in her book are the desert terrariums!

My favorite terrarium from the book- love the sea fan!

If you know me by now, you can tell where this story is going... After oogling all the beautiful pictures in the terrarium book, I was inspired to make my own.  I chose two lovely glass containers from Michael's Arts and Crafts Store (they even give a teacher discount, yay!)  Then, I bought a bunch of cute little plants at Lowe's.  I also picked up some pebbles, coarse sand and a 50 pound bag of beach sand.  Moving the sand, I pulled some muscles in my back and have not been able to bend my back for two days!  

My first terrarium!

The second terrarium.  This one was much more difficult.  Every time I would try to put another plant in, the first one would move.  Now I know why there is usually just one or two plants in terrariums- the more plants, the harder they are hard to arrange!

 Do you think that my terrariums were worth the work???  
(I do!)

Un Camping

 This weekend we went un-camping!  We had some friends who were camping at a campsite on the beach for the weekend, so we drove down to visit for the day.  We played on the beach all day- the water was great!  Then we headed back to the campsite and cooked dinner on the grill.  I made camping onions of course!  While dinner was cooking my daughter got to run around the campground playground with all the other kids.  Then we sat around the campfire, ate our dinner and hung out for awhile, and then headed home!  It was perfect- almost like camping out, only without having to pack a million things into my car and sleep in a tent in the heat! 

6 word Saturday

Exhausted!  Thanks sleepover!  Need some coffee!

Can you describe your life in just 6 words???