Whew! Tons of new things happening. I got the opportunity to spend 6 weeks or so in an elementary school. I am currently fascinated by kindergarteners. Those munchkins have a song for everything. You picked the blue marker? B L U E, we have a song for that. It's Tuesday? Yep. We have a song for that. It's like living in a mini Broadway musical. With snacks. Today was brought to us by the letter T.

Second graders are too cool for school, and the 5th graders are too cool for me. They keep giving me the evil eye, like I'm out to get them or something. Sheesh.

As far as the perennial To Do list, here's last post's list:

• Evaluations - one to go. MAJOR procrastination going on here
• Pav's quilt - jelly roll purchased - Yay Quilt Show. I found the one I really wanted.
  
• Tea towels - currently embroidering, but for a swap, not for me
• Cupcakes and March birthdays and L's birthday, all done. April birthdays still to come, as well as Administrative Assistant's Day muffins - tomorrow - eep!
• Tommy's quilt - sandwiched and partially quilted, but no end in sight

New projects? Of course.

• Cookbook swap - book purchased, pages made for scrap, book not put together, dish towels being embroidered. Should be done on time no problem
• Gardening now that the weather is finally warming up. Salad mix for new planters by the grill. Have to find windowboxes. Installed mini fence for minipuppy to keep out of beds.
  

To Do List update

So here was my list of things in progress as of February:

Current projects include:

• finishing these $#$@*% evaluations
• finishing Mom's quilt from Christmas
• starting a chair quilt for Pav
• finding some tea towels to embroider
• baking February birthday cupcakes for school - chocolate cherry with ganache frosting and vanilla cherry filled with cream cheese frosting
• cooking a fabulous dinner with R for the boys - menu TBD and be fabulously complicated
• finishing the quilt for S's new baby, Tommy

How am I doing?

• One evaluation to go
• Um. No progress on quilt unless getting the batting out of the bag to fold it up and leave it on the table counts. I think I am dreading maneuvering a large quilt under the machine to do the quilting. The back is pieced, however.
• Pav's quilt - ordered the pattern, looking for fabric very casually
• Bought one tea towel. Found pattern, started to trace it. Must finish this for a Craftster cookbook swap, making this next up. Still need to find nice towels, though.
  
• Cupcakes made and eaten. The Chocolate Cherry ones from Nigella Lawson - wow! Also made carrot cake for March birthdays.
  
• Not one, but TWO fabulous dinners cooked and eaten. See below.
  
• Quilt top finished, ready for layering and quilting.

New projects:

• Bought a few pieces of material at Vogue from the remnant room for summer dresses. Need to find pattern(s) and actually make something.
  
• Finish Cookbook swap by putting together created cookbook and embroidering tea towel.
• Figure out my freaking golf swing and actually hit the ball. %$&#*@!
  

Dinner Party #2 Post Party

Well, I think we were mostly successful. The caprese sandwiches got nixed. The chicken dish was pretty good. Everything was ready on time and no one got hurt. A fine time was had by all.

In a somewhat related note, I painted the kitchen cabinets over Spring Break, finishing on Saturday in time for said party. I am really happy with the way they turned out. Now I just have to find a kitchen designer to help me tweak the layout and order new cabinetry. I do like a painted cabinet and I think I can find a semi custom or stock cabinet with a finish I will like.

Before:


After:


I still hate the wallpaper on the soffit, and it keeps the kitchen from looking totally different. There's no point in ripping it off now when the whole thing is coming down in the remodel so I can have taller cabinets that are set higher off the counter.

Dinner yesterday - party leftovers
Dinner today - Parmesan chicken and broccoli