Yours 'til Niagara Falls: It's in the Cards

I must confess, I purchase items from those shop-at-home television networks. My latest purchase was a big hit. A little while ago I bought a card-making craft kit from a talented paper artist named Anna Griffith. My mother, my aunt and my cousin Bridget got together last Saturday afternoon for a wonderful afternoon of crafting

The afternoon started with a tea party. The menu was the standard tea party fare. The scones were a big hit. I used the "Joy of Cooking" recipe. They were greatly enhanced by - don't let the name put you off - mock clotted cream. The recipe was in the New York Times food column last Wednesday. All it is is mascarpone cheese thinned down slightly with heavy whipping cream. Imported clotted cream is well past my grocery store flinch point, about $8.00 for a half pint. Trust me, this recipe is delicious. Every bit as yummy as the real deal. The madeleines were also a box mix shortcut.

We also threw back some sherry to get into the tea party mood.

After our victuals, we started making the cards. Not too many minutes into it, we made a soboring discovery. We are not a warm and fuzzy group. The kit came with pre-printed sentiments. Some were a little saccharine for us - "Thinking of you is one of my favorite things to do" for example. But, we got past that and proceeded to create some lovely cards. The Victorian motifs were very pretty. It was kind of a surprise to me. I don't usually favor florals or a pastel color palette. I have, however, heard that one good exercise to jump start one's creativity is to use different colors or media than you generally prefer for a project. I think it worked because I was more than happy with the cards when I finished.

Another pleasant thing that happened was something we had not anticipated. Making the cards gave us a chance to reflect on some nice events that are happening in the near future - a baby due in May, a graduation in June.

I used my current favorite dishes, by the way. They are Friendly Village by Johnston Brothers. I love the snowy scene. I wanted a set for ages and finally trated myself last year. I love the snowy old-timey scenes.

In other news: I have bonded with my Kindle. I just finished reading "The Feminine Mystique" by Betty Freidan. (N.B. I fully realize book titles should be underlined, but I don't want to confuse people by making them think I am giving a link, so I use quote marks. I hope punctuation purists don't judge me too harshly). Anyhoo... I enjoyed the book. It was written in early 1963. many things have changed and gotten better for women, but many things have not. It was good companion book to "Then Women's Room" (again with the mis-placed quotes!) which I re-read last year.

I also returned to the gym for the first time in ages. I am feeling better than I have since I can remember. I am on the way to recovery from a very bad case of anemia. All it took was three units of blood to improve things. I can't describe how different life is without the hellish level of fatigue I was experiencing.