SONIC and MARIO BROTHERS - Fan Art

FAN ART-FLIP ART: here's one example from start to finish.

My son, Jake, has a friend who needed some art for his design shop. He bought 120 plain blocks of wood and asked his friends to supply the rest.

Jake wanted to come up with a fun design.

So, first my husband and Jake had to use a router to get the angles cut into the flat block of wood. It was a fun father/son project.

Then Jake had to come up with the art. This is an example of fan art because Jake loves video games and Sonic and Mario Brothers are two of his favs.
This is a Sonic/Mario block. At first glance it doesn't look like much of anything. But, when you look at it one way, it’s Sonic and when you look at it the other way, it’s Mario. I think, it came out pretty cool.

Fondant Frosting - FAIL

I had visions of something like this: But I failed miserably.

Have you ever attempted something, wanting it to be extra-special and then failed miserably? Well, I have. Guess it's really time to sign up for that cake decorating class I've always wanted to take and never made the time for.

Here's the story: September 7th was my daughter's and my son's birthday. Kara turned 21 and Jake turned 25. So, I wanted to try something new and exciting. I picked fondant frosting. And my cake wasn't professional - I mean I'm a Mom for heavens sake, not a chef. But my cake was definitely worthy of Cake Wreck status.

I spent the evening of September 6th baking and preparing the cakes and the frosting. Then the next morning I got up and started rolling out the frosting to decorate the cake. Unfortunately, the frosting was not easy to work with. I had to grease my hands in Crisco shortening just to keep the marshmallow fondant from sticking to my hands.


I really wanted to make a Superman cake but, as you can see, this was a terrible attempt that didn't get anywhere close to what I had envisioned.
Luckily, I had a backup cake. So, even though it wasn't a Superman cake at least Kara's friend made her a sucker bouquet, which turned out SUPER-cute!

And the funny thing is, the kids didn't even care. They ate their cake - okay they peeled off the fondant frosting - but cake and ice cream can't be all bad...right?

Then they opened their presents. It was a good day even if my frosting was a complete failure. So there's hope for anyone who wants to be adventurous and try fondant frosting. My advice, though, is don't attempt fondant for the first time on a special occasion or you might be in for a disasterous dessert.

Writing is Like Painting a Room

So how is writing like painting a room?

Well, painters have to combine many colors to make a breathtaking sunburst. And writers have to combine great characters, plot and conflict to make a reader care enough to turn the page, sacrifice their time, and move on through chapter after chapter to make it to the end of the book.

I thought about these elements and how we combine them to make a vivid story when I went to visit my niece. She painted her room this weekend. It was a very unusual combination of colors and techniques she used to bring out her personality in her room. She combined blackboard paint and then let friends and family start to add quotes, pictures and over all make their own impact on her design. (This is like letting critique partners interject their opinions on to our pages)
She also added vivid stripes
and then topped it all off with a sunburst on one side of the room.

It all worked well together and perfectly pictured Serena's personality.

I asked her, “How did you come up with all these different ideas?”

She said, “It just came to her.”

It made me think about how writers come up with stories and how we combine different elements to make a story come together.

One person might paint a room completely white, which would serve the purpose. But—at least in my opinion—it would be boring. Kind of like reading a newspaper story that said the Fermented Festival would be on August 28th. The details are there and it would serve the purpose of getting out the information—but it would be boring. There is so much more to tell.

That’s the trick for writers. We have to look for the angle or element that makes a story interesting.

Writers paint with words. So, we need to add vivid colors (characters) then layer the elements (conflict/romance/humor) with different techniques (dialogue and scene setting) to make the story come to life.

There’s no one way to paint a room and there’s no one way to tell a story. Paint your story with your own personality and it won’t be like any other story and definitely won’t read like a white room.

Oh yeah, HAPPY LABOR DAY!!! And Happy 21st Birthday to Kara - and Happy 25th Birthday to Jake!!!

Wonderful Holiday Weekend

Labor Day is always celebrated on the first Monday in September. And, it was first celebrated in New York City on Sept. 5, 1882.

So, what are we celebrating?

We are celebrating the working class and the day was picked because it falls mid-way between the 4th of July and Thanksgiving but really it is a great weekend to spend with the kids before they all head back to school.

My daughter is already back at Warner Pacific but my son doesn't start classes until the end of September. This will be one of the last weekends we'll all be together to - of course - EAT and enjoy our time together.

Tomorrow my baby turns 21 - YIKES - what does that say about me? Guess I'm getting old. But, it sure beats the alternative. ;-)

My oldest will be 25 - yep they share the same birthday. September 7th. The odds are strange. My husband and I share the same birthday too.

I guess the stars all aligned for us to share so much together.

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend too.

PRELUDE TO NEW MOON

The fifth of September, we were invited to a Twilight party - a costume party.
My husband went as Dr. Cullen. I was a baseball player from the Vampire Baseball game.
The party started at Twilight and we all had a little vampire venom or a Bloody Bella or two
and for those who didn't want any vampire venom, they could choose between Type A, Type B, or Type O blood to drink (have you ever noticed how much red wine looks like blood?...)
It was a roaring good time. With loads of good food and even a pin the tail on the werewolf game hanging on the wall then Team Jacob/Team Edward Jeopardy,
it was a wonderful weekend party.
With werewolf cupcakes

A fountain dripping with blood chocolate - okay it was only pink but pretty cool



Even the candles were dripping with blood.


All-in-all a heart-wrenching good time was had by all.

Danish Origami

Okay maybe the Danes are famous for their Viking Ships and Shakespeare's story of the Danish Prince, Hamlet, and not their Origami. But, the truth is, the Danes do a lot of paper art, which is kind of strange since they don't have that many trees in their country. Sweden is the Scandinavian country with acre after acre of timber resources.

But, no matter, because we have spent many nights and holiday weekends enjoying the arts: the paper arts.

These are CHRISTMAS STARS.

After we've finished them, we sew a string on one tip and hang them from the tree. Sometimes we also complete only one side of the star, and then use them on gifts, to top packages, and even as homemade presents (okay, we're cheap) - but only if they turn out fancy enough for us to pass them off as homemade Christmas ornaments.

We usually use red and white paper - the colors of the Danish flag. But, I bought this pretty ribbon to try. You can see my family wasn't too happy with my innovative idea.

And you can see what a hot date my boys can be. Invite a girl over for dinner and teach her how to fold - the Kasch family way. I guess it's better than folding clothes.

Call them wild and crazy.
But you'd better be careful because this paper-folding can quickly seem very therapeutic. It can even get addicting. It's hard to put down a project once you start it--okay, maybe not.



My husband taught us all how to make these Danish Christmas Stars long ago. Now, he's working on the youngin's who come to visit.

My daughter does these projects with us - but she was too busy with basketball to break away and spend an evening bending paper with us.

So you've been forewarned. If you come for a visit, you never know what thrilling activities we might have in store.

Well, we have to make sure we pass on these old family traditions. Talk about an exciting family.

Earth-Friendly Friday GO GREEN IN THE GARDEN

One way we can all be Earth-friendly is to start buying heirloom plants. Here's one place you can purchase heirloom varieties.

Did you know that there used to be tens of thousands of varieties of fruits and vegetables but those numbers keep shrinking. We find one variety that produces well, or looks the way we want, and we mass produce it until the others are left by the way-side. Soon we'll have such dwindling selections we won't have any choices.

We all know that saying that "Variety is the Spice of Life". Well, let's bring back a little bit of that variety by buying heirloom varieties.