PSA: Hobby Lobby

My friend Amy and I talk almost every day. I don't know about her, but it's my therapy.

And sometimes we go shopping together- she on her laptop and me on mine on the other side of town. Yesterday, I called because Zulily had some cute dresses and I needed her opinion on them- one for Big Girl's birthday portrait and the other for another future occassion.

So I pulled the trigger on the dresses. We got to talking about various YH occasions and my plans for them when I made some comment about JoAnn's not having something I wanted and it was too bad Hobby Lobby didn't have online shopping. {insert our lamentations}

And then I pulled up their site and do you know what?!

THEY HAVE ONLINE SHOPPING AND SHIPPING IS ONLY $3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I nearly had tears in my eyes and no, I am not exaggerating (don't judge until you've lived in post-Sovietness with nary a craft store in site!). Dinner preparations forced Amy to slowly put down the cover and step away from her computer. I rejoiced that I had made an extra meatloaf and had thought ahead to pull it out of the freezer to throw in the oven to warm so I could let the kids happily play ignore the kids' arguing while I looked at every.single.department.

We had dinner, my shopping bag full. And once the kids were nestled in for the night, I calmly returned raced back to hook up the VPN and hit the purchase button!

P.S. Did I mention the $3 shipping?!?

Congratulations, Ukraine!

20 years of independence!

August 24, 2011

A letter from Ambassador Tefft to the nation of Ukraine found here.

Vintage Fork Recipe Card Holder

My good friend Shelley received the neatest recipe card holder at one of her wedding showers, and I have always loved it. I've never seen another, either. But then I googled something like fork recipe card holder and found this blog. Amy and I were excited because we thought this would be such a unique (and easy) gift to make and give to someone (and something we could do over here).

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Amy is always brilliant and suggested we practice on a cheap fork before bending a vintage silver plated one. I found some old pieces I keep around for Mr. YH to take to work, got out the pliers and went to work. The first turned out all right, but it just didn't seem quite like Shelley's, and I vaguely remembered hers having the outside tines bent back and the middle two left to hold the card in place. She was gracious enough to send me photos (thanks friend!!) and sure enough, that was the case.

My next step was to find a fork I liked on Ebay, buy it, and then wait a few weeks for it to get over here. It arrived this week and after a little polishing, it looked like this.

I used masking tape around the tines to help mark the place I wanted to bend the tines as well as to protect the finish. In hindsight, I should have put some felt or something there, too. I didn't take any other pictures for a tutorial because I think if you see the finished product, it is pretty self explanatory (and Carmella did a great job on her blog). Also, tines are different lengths and you'll just need to play around with each fork to get it to stand the way you'd like it to.

I'm pretty pleased with the final result

and I only waited 13 years to have my own!!

Oh Yes, She Most Certainly Did

act like the biggest ham during the last portrait session.

{If you missed my saga about the first time around, and

feel like reading about it, go here.}

Sorry about the quality-

computer/printer issues,

but these were too hilarious not to share.

If you double click on each one, you should be able

to enlarge it; then use your back arrow to return to the post.

These are just 3 proof sheets of about 10...

I got ONE "normal" standing shot and a couple of her sitting.

These sheets are going in the album, too!

End of Third Grade Outing

Our tradition at the end of the school year is for teacher and student to have a special outing. I had hoped to take Big Girl to a tea room while we were in the States, but it just didn't happen. She had expressed a desire to visit St. Sofia's Cathedral, so during our last week of summer break, we left the younger two with Sveta and headed out together.

Looking out across St. Sofia's square toward St. Michael's.

I actually took this back in May when Sarah was here.

Euro 2012 will be here next May/June,

so there is a lot of reconstruction going on,

and the church is now covered with scaffolding.

Big Girl wanted to climb the bell tower.

The church was built back in the 900's;

the bell tower is a Baroque style and was added later.

The bell says "blessing."

Linucya and Sasha enjoyed the view last October...

This mosaiac was made out of pysanky eggs.

This was the only place you can take pictures inside the church.

Big Girl really enjoyed looking at the artwork inside:
frescos, mosaics, old paintings, etc.

Back outside before we

headed to Mister Snack for lunch.

We walked back to the Golden Gates

where Big Girl posed with Yaroslav the Wise

(prince of the Kyiv Rus period- he's holding a

model of St. Sofia's).

And then we got some yummy ice cream-

she had strawberry and chocolate

and I had banana and chocolate-

and we sat on the rock with the cat statue...

until we were chased off by Ukrainians wanting their photo op.

A very pleasant day!

Next year we'll have The Boy with us!

How Tara Got Her Craft On

Back in April, Amy and I hosted a shower for a friend.

Then I repurposed the fabric- both girls got a new summer dress

(the one below was slightly adjusted after this photo).

In May, we did the same thing with the birthday trappings.

{We've gone to banners to take away from the swirly pink wallpaper.}

And now the machine is packed away again.

My excuse is that I am not sure it's good to run it through a transformer.

Tropical Smoothie

In respect to getting great fresh fruits and vegetables here, it's often hit or miss. Oftentimes, our apples are mealy, the bananas are rotten, the price is outrageous or you simply can't find whatever it is you're looking for. We have the amazing blessing of buying in bulk (it doesn't make anything cheaper- it just gives us access to certain foods) from a base in Germany through the embassy, so after having my mom send a blender from Wal Mart (blenders are upwards of $100 here), I have been buying cases of frozen fruits to keep us off the scurvy road.

One of our favorites has just three simple ingredients:

For the five of us, I put about

half a can of coconut milk in first,

followed by 3 ripe bananas,

and a bag of frozen pineapple:

DELICIOUS!

I just placed a bulk order last week and we'll be getting a case (24 cans) of coconut milk at the end of the month. Too bad I didn't know Mega Market had it and the box we got there tastes even better than the canned stuff- almost a toasted coconut flavor! At the rate we're drinking these, however, we'll be sprouting hula skirts before we know it!

Nightlight

If we don't have our blinds closed,

our entire living/dining room has a blue glow to it.

Tickled My Funny Bone

It's been said that you can know a lot about a person by what they laugh at...

• I totally forgot to write about this back when Baby Girl was potty training. I had some size 2T undies from when Big Girl was little that we pulled out. She surprised us in that the Pooh variety were not the favorites- the plain yellow ones were, and those were the 2 pairs she always asked about. One day she was wearing a pair and had a dirty accident. Once we got them off and I emptied the contents in the toilet, I swished them around in some clean toilet water and then flushed again. Turns out those German toilets have very strong water pressure and it sucked those panties right down while Baby Girl watched in horror. Still makes me laugh out loud!
• I was hurrying one morning to get ready and grabbed my eyeliner. I was horrified that something was suddenly wrong with my eye! Turns out, MKay's eye liner and lip liner come in the same type of tubes. What's worse- I've done it twice now!
• Several weeks ago, Mr. YH walked out for work and our neighbor's door was open. I mentioned later on that I thought they'd accidentally left their outer door open. He told me that no, the guy was at the door taking delivery of his water...in his tighty whities. Eww- gross! I thanked the Lord again the other day that I was not subjected to the scene because he talked to me down at the playground (I'd never met him) and I think it would have just been awkward- you know?!
  
  
  

ABC- 123!

We've had a busy week. We started school on Monday so that we can have one semester done by Christmas. It's not because I'm overly ambitious; it's mere practicality because we are now on the countdown until moving time. We should find out January-ish where we'll be headed next, and I'd like to have the second semester done by the first of May so I can have a couple of weeks to organize the house and then pack it all up and send it on its way back to the States.

Our books were ordered before we left for the States, and then I ordered the final things last month and spent a little bit of time each day preparing. This year the Yellow Hat Academy has one preschooler, one kindergartener, and a 4th grader.

{I bought this table for Big Girl when we returned
to the States from Ukraine
back in 2005! All 3 have now used this "desk."}

She has a flair about her...

He is SO excited to learn to read!

This is his "secret code" workbook. Ha!

We've got a bean and corn experiment going on the window sill...

Lunch time comes so quickly now!



Today, each of them found a coupon in their last folder
to pick out the treat of their choice at the store
this afternoon- exciting stuff!
They worked hard for me this week!