Found Object - Salad Bowl

This wonderful salad bowl was made by my hubby Paul when he was in Shop Class in high school.  It is beautifully made.  He also made the salad serving set as well.  Many years back though, before we had a kitchen with storage, we used to keep the bowl on top of the fridge with a lot of other stuff.  Then one day it got jostled and fell off.  It broke clean in two, much to our despair.  It went into the basement for repair, and Paul got it glued back together.  It needed refinishing though: filling of any small remaining cracks, a good sanding, re-staining parts, and plenty of polyurethane to fill gaps and give it a solid waterproof coat.  But there were just so many other projects and so much to do, that it sat and sat and sat...

Then once we had made some good headway into the kitchen remodel, we stumbled upon it on a shelf in the basement.  How many years had it been?!  Paul got going on it again, working carefully and methodically to restore it.  Coat after coat of poly, until it was just right.

Paul's Signature on the bottom of the bowl 

from when he first made it- 4/20/72.

How lovely to serve salad in such a bowl!

Dancing Again

I have finally, finally gone back to ballet.  Illness and flaring up of old injuries have kept me away.  I have started slowly, but am going to a very nice adult class.  I need to build strength, both muscular and cardio-wise, plus I need to be more stretched. The first time I went was very difficult and overwhelming.  I felt so out of my body.  My brain and muscle memory knew what to do, but the body could not respond.  Today it was a little easier, and definitely more enjoyable.  There were times when I was very joyful and smiling and having fun.  If I am going to do this however, I need to get to class at least twice a week, preferably more. Mostly I just need to go to bed earlier so I can get up early enough to get to one of the many morning adult ballet classes.

It is still the most enjoyable way to move one's body and exercise.

1st position - we begin to dance.

A New Front Door

Several years ago I bought a new doorknob and lockset for our front door.  The old lock was becoming more and more difficult to work.  The problem was - there would be a lot of work to be done to make the new one work.  We put it off many times because there was always something else to do.  Eventually the door lock was only working from the inside to lock us in.  Paul and I decided to look at getting a new front door.  We wanted one that was at least interesting (the old one was not) and one that would let in more light than the old door's four tiny windows along the top.  And of course, the door needed to look historical.  

We found one we liked.  It was a fair amount of work to do for Paul, but it was better to have him spend time working on a nice new door rather than spending the same time (or more) working on the old one but getting a less-than-desirable finished product in the end, due to the limitations of the old door.  I love the result, and it feels good to be able to lock the front door again when we leave the house!

The new doorknob lockset

We also got new hinges

Ta-dum!  A lovely new door!

(Note the beveled glass window)

Lent Is Upon Us (But First, A King Cake!)

Prior to Ash Wednesday this year, we did not have a Mardi Gras party as we did last.  But I wanted to try making a King cake.  I found this one:

It included a little plastic baby; note that you are not supposed to bake the baby in the cake. They recommend just placing it under someone's slice of cake, but that is dumb.  What I did was this - once the cake was cooled, I wheedled the baby into the seam where the cake had been rolled up after adding the praline mixture.  Then we frosted it, so no evidence was seen. Of course, I made sure Tyler got the plastic baby piece.  However, he was not impressed (thought it was creepy - it sort of was!).  I did not try it since I am avoiding gluten, but Paul, Kristin, and Tyler all seemed to enjoy it.

The cake, all decorated.

Inside Tyler's piece, the creepy baby.

Before I wrapped up the rest of the cake, I stuck the baby on top.  

Can you tell I had fun with this?