Sunday was Father's Day and in honour of the occassion I made these very cute desserts. I got the idea, directions, and templates from Bakerella. Pretty easy to make, but a bit time consuming due to all of the steps. But worth it, I think. Next up, cake pops?
Apparently our town decided that they didn't want to deal with fireworks on the 4th of July, so instead they had them last Friday. Huh? And Boy Chris was able to have an "I told you so" moment. The fireworks were scheduled for 9, with music starting at 8. So I suggested that we bring some food and get there around 7:30 or so. No one was there. Ok, the DJ was there, but that was it.
Silly me, I assumed it was live music and that people would get there early, set a blanket out on the ground, and have a picnic. Nope. Seating was on the bleachers of the football field. Around 8:30 it started filling up. I'd say that we now know better for next time, but seeing as how we're moving, there won't be a next time.
I did have a chance to play with my camera and try some new things with taking pictures of fireworks. Would have been better with a tripod, but I didn't want to deal with that.
It's 10 days before the Derby and I'm actually done with my car? This is most unusual. I'm usually finishing it up the day before or the day of. But here it is.
Last year my friend Jeremy made a US flag for his Derby car since it was held on the 5th of July. So we were talking about what special holidays might be around this year's Derby. I looked it up and here are a few of the special holidays.
I decided to go with National Orange Blossom Day. I drew a branch onto my block and then cut it out- making sure to leave branches for the axles. However, the problem was then that my "car" weighted .7-.8 ounces. Ugh. I cut away a lot of weight. We went in search of fishing weights. We were going to go with tungsten since they are much more dense than lead, but instead we got a variety of lead weights.
We drilled into the front and back and added half an ounce on each end. Add some stain and putty, and I'm now up to 1.7 ounces. Still nowhere near what I want. For leaves I had thought about carving them, but I tried that and although it was working, I wasn't thrilled with the way they were turning out. And it still wasn't going to be heavy enough. Then I thought about polymer clay.
Then there was the clay. Yesterday I made a bunch of leaves and flowers. I had one flower that I really liked. The directions said 130 degrees for 15 minutes per quarter inch, and don't overbake. Mine were about 1/8 inch so I did 5 minutes- checked, nope. 5 more minutes. Pulled them out. Left them for a bit and tried one and it broke. Did they need more time? I put them back in a bit longer. When I took them out, they still broke. What was going on? If you overbake do they become too brittle? That's when I re-read the directions. They were supposed to go in at 130 degrees Celsius (275 Farenheit). Wait, who puts the Celsius temp first? Maybe it's European? I checked- Made in the USA!
Finally, I leave you with a mystery. I don't think it's Derby related. Ok, there's a derby website on this post-it, but what I want to know, is what the heck I was sketching. I asked Chris what it was and he doesn't know either. Any ideas??
So what's happened in the world of Chris since I last posted? And aren't you impressed that I've been updating more frequently? Three posts last week and another one now? That's 4 posts in 10 days! But who am I kidding, I'm sure this won't last.
And speaking of the peonies, I've been going back in forth in my mind (and a bit with Chris) about what I should do with the peonies and various other perennials in my garden when we move. I've spent a fair amount of money on them, and they've taken a few years to become established and actually look good. So do I leave them in a garden that may quickly become neglected, overgrown and unappreciated, or do I dig them up and move them to the new house? If I do decide to move them, that means that I'll need to know where they're going, and will need to prep the area in advance. This could be easier said than done. I think the ones I care the most about are the peonies, my lavender, and my chives. I've had those chives since I lived on Myrtle Street. They're at least 8 years old and have moved 4 times. 
Wednesday night our realtor sent us a listing. Chris and I both liked what we saw. It had been on the market for two days. We asked to go see it ASAP. Last night we went to check it out. Our realtor commented that he had gotten there a bit early and was able to walk around and look at it, and then he went out to his truck and started to fill out the papers. We loved it. We were ready to make an offer. We agreed on a price and he gave them until the end of today to respond. He wanted to get it finalized before their scheduled open house this weekend. When we left we stopped by to visit my dad, and after talking about it a bit we decided it wasn't worth haggling over what is a relatively small amount of money, so we called our realtor back and said we were going to offer the asking price. They accepted. So I'm still a bit wary and am trying not to get too excited, but I think it's ours. Here are the pictures.
For our anniversary we went to see the Spinal Tap: Unwigged & Unplugged concert. It was awesome! It was a mix of classic Spinal Tap songs, some of their "earlier" work (when they were The Originals, The Thamesmen, etc) as well as Folksmen songs from A Mighty Wind, and even a song from Waiting for Guffman. Here are a few of the pictures from the concert. 
Throughout the show they showed various clips of things on the screen behind them. So for Stonhenge they showed a little Stonhenge being lowered and then troll dolls dancing around it.
However, I think the best moment for me was after the show. We went around to the stage door. We certainly didn't rush out there, but we were the first ones. Odd. The longer we waited, the more people showed up. And then we got the sense that they were trying to make a speedy exit because the tour bus was moved up more into a direct exit with the door. However, that didn't stop me from getting Christopher Guest to sign my copy of Guffman- my favorite of his movies.
We are soon to be homeowners! We put in an offer on a house, they countered, and we are accepting their counter. So by the end of the summer, we'll be the proud owners of a little green colonial built around 1918. I didn't take pics of the front of the house since those were available online in the listing, but here are the other pics that I took of the house. This one here is if the backdoor and a peek at the yard.