Floam Friends and Fancy Food - NOT

It doesn't take fancy food and high-cost trips to have a good time. Just go retro and play like a kid again.


You're never too old to play with playdoh, floam or make-believe friends.
And after you create your friends - sit down and share a piece of upside down cake - wait that looks right-side-up. . . I guess when you get in touch with your inner child you just might lose touch with reality ;)

Earth-Friendly Friday: LEMONS

My husband was broiling some salmon the other night and after he sprinkled some lemon juice over the top and we ate our meal, he used the left over lemon rinds, with a little salt, to scrub at the pan he'd cooked the fish on. Then he used the worn out lemon juice, to wash away some of the fish.

I thought this was an innovative way to be earth-friendly. Nothing like using it all:

We ate the lemon then used it to clean the pans.

Can you think of anything you've done like this? Share your helpful hints in the "comments" please.

TU PUBLISHING OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS

Tu Publishing: a new independent small press that will publish multicultural fantasy & science fiction for children & young adults.
http://www.tupublishing.com

They're on Twitter, too! http://www.twitter.com/tupublishing

Fan them on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tu-Publishing/112191230046?ref=nf

I'm just passing on some info I got from my local SCBWI for all my writer friends out there in cyberspace. Here it is:

"I just wanted to announce that my new small press, which you may have heard about last fall when we were raising money through Kickstarter, is now open for submissions. We will focus on diverse science fiction and fantasy for children and young adults--that is, science fiction and fantasy that features characters and settings about people of color and/or non-Western cultures (including minority US subcultures). As you may be aware of from discussion in the blogosphere over the last couple of years, there's a gap in children's literature, especially speculative fiction, for such books, and we'd like to be a part of filling it out.

Here's our submission guidelines: http://www.tupublishing.com/submission-guidelines/.

Please make sure to browse our blog at http://www.tupublishing.com to get an idea of the kinds of books we're looking for. Because we (obviously) don't have a backlist yet, we've been interviewing writers and bloggers and posting lists of books we recommend so that you can get a better idea of our tastes.

If you've been working on a manuscript that would fit our needs, please consider submitting. Note that we do NOT take initial email submissions, so please do not reply to this email with queries--please use the snail mail address in our submission guidelines. We hope to have an electronic submissions system up and running soon, but until we do, snail mail works best for us.

Thanks, and happy new year!

Best,
Stacy Whitman
Editorial Director
Tu Publishing"

So submit away, and good luck!

Chasing Brooklyn by Lisa Schroeder

It was a dark and stormy night. The perfect time to go sit in a big comfy chair and listen to ghost stories.

That's what I did on Tuesday night. My daughter and I drove over to Barnes & Noble at Clackamas Town Center to listen to Lisa with a group of other like-minded people: readers.

We were all there to hear bits and pieces of Lisa Schroeder's newest release: Chasing Brooklyn, published by Simon Pulse. And we weren't disappointed.

Even the cover is haunting:

It was a cold, wet, night in the Pacific Northwest, as we drove across town to listen to Lisa. So consider yourself lucky as you cuddle up in your snuggie and listen to a few of the words Lisa shared with us:



I'm not sure if you'd actually call it a sequel to I Heart You You Haunt Me but some of the characters make appearances so maybe . . . I guess you'll just have to read it to find out.

2010 - we celebrated all day

The kids all went out. I only caught MacKenzie and Luke quick enough to take a photo.

Then we all went out for lunch.

and the food was amazing.


and the dessert was even better


and I loved the Creme Brulee
Another picture of us enjoying the food at Sinju in the Pearl

Then a few short hours later we went to dinner at Bo and Sue's where we had traditional Danish open-faced sandwiches.
Guess it's time to start another die---t.

How did you celebrate?

Death Masks

We've had death masks made but not Mackenzie. So before she takes off for France, to study for a semester, we wanted to immortalize her in marble - but we could only afford to do it in plaster. So here's the process.


This is the mold that was made by pouring the mixture onto Mackenzie's face. It looks 3-D but this is just the form that was made first, then the plaster had to be poured into the mold:






Doesn't she look like a little flower?








In the end, it needs a little touching up to fill in the gaps where air bubbles left holes. But I think it turned out pretty lifelike. What do you think?

Unexpected Snowfall

It created a huge commuter hassle but it was a winter wonderland while it lasted.