Morning in Edom

I spent a fun hour or so in Edom, Texas this morning. I love these tiny towns that seem to be bursting with artists. One is the man who makes these AMAZING birdhouses/fairy houses. You can see other examples here... http://www.arborcastlebirdhouses.com/id3.html I hate myself for saying this, but there are days I'd like to be able to make something like this so much I'd be willing to trade my writing for it. Of course, then I shake myself and remind myself to be thankful for what I have and thankful that there are such amazing artists out there making things simply because they are beautiful. 


I love that. Art just to make art. 


That is what I keep telling myself today. I will make art for art's sake. 

Homemade Cadbury eggs

Okay, this was one of those -- WOW! Let's do that even though we could just pop down to the grocery store and buy them for like a dollar. It's way fun and not terribly hard to do.... and just think now we don't have to wait all year for these!

• (1/2 cup) light corn syrup 
• (1/4 cup) butter, room temperature
• (3 cups) confectioner's powdered sugar (icing sugar)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• yellow food coloring
• 1 (12 ounce) bag milk chocolate chips -- we used semi-sweet. You could also use tinted white chocolate. That would be sort of awesome.

To make actual hollow eggs with the filling inside, you'll need to acquire some egg molds.  Alternatively, you can form the filling and dip it in the chocolate. We did the dipping method. It just seemed easier... although probably less 'pretty'.


Another idea would be to put these on sticks like lollipops, but I'm thinking that might just ruin the sticky fingered awesomeness...

Garden fun

It's just too beautiful here to stay inside all of the time, so we've taken some of our projects outside. Of course the beginning of the week was horrible: tornadoes, thunderstorms, flooding, trees falling on houses. But now it's beautiful. And the upside of the rain has been that our veggie garden is going nuts!
This year we are growing: peas, purple green beans (do you still call them green beans?), honeydew melon, cantaloupe, cherry tomatoes, jalapenos, bell peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, and well blah blah blah. The really interesting part is the scarecrow we pulled together out of an old, rusty trashcan, plastic Easter eggs, a old pot, and some assorted kitchen gadgets. Here he is... isn't he beautiful?