Larklight

We have been reading the book Larklight as a bedtime story for the past week. I can't think of a better story to finish off our summer reading! It is a fast paced fantasy, with friendly pirates and dangerous, giant space spiders, which takes place in the universe of Victorian science fiction.



The main character, and narrator, is Art Mumby, a young boy, who along with his older sister Myrtle, is rescued by a motley band of space pirates after their home has been attacked by giant white spiders.



The official Larklight website

http://www.larklight.com/

Larklight is the first book in a trilogy.

Rained Out

Well, we went to Orlando and we got wet, but we never made it inside the water park.
It started sprinkling as we parked the car. Just as we were about to have all of our bags searched (the step right before presenting our tickets at the gate), it started thundering, lightning, and pouring rain. We waited under the over-hang from a kiosk roof for a while, but the rain didn't let up.

I took this picture right after we got out of the car. Look at all those poor people waiting in line. This was only about 10 minutes before they were all told to seek shelter.





We were then out the cost of parking ($12), but at least we hadn't used our admission tickets yet, so we still have those to use another day.

Instead we went to Ikea, had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant, and then wandered around Skycraft for awhile.

Our 3rd Wedding Anniversary

Step into my time machine and I will take you back to 2007.
Three years ago tomorrow, this was us (this was originally posted Aug. 20,2007):

Wedding Photos

August 20, 2007 in Uncategorized by Crescent Moon

Speak No Evil, Hear No Evil, and See No Evil (waiting for the wedding)

My mom called tonight because while she was writing our wedding date in her book of birthdays and anniversaries to remember, she discovered that Aug. 16 was also her parents’ wedding anniversary (Aug.16, 1930).

DH and I spent one child-free night in St. Augustine as our honeymoon, but the whole time we kept thinking how much the children would enjoy all the things we were seeing. We drove home the next day, picked up the children, and returned to St. Augustine.

Nika and Blaze enjoying the beach:


Let's return to the time machine and back to 2010.

Tonight we celebrated with a "raspberry elegance" cake from Publix, the same cake we had on our wedding day.



The traditional gift for a third anniversary is leather, but the modern gift is glass or crystal. I gave DH the French apothecary jar style drink dispenser sitting next to the cake in the picture. Besides bringing home the wonderful cake, he is giving me the crystal clear waters of the Aquatica water park.

http://aquaticabyseaworld.com/ParkInfo.aspx

I have never been to a water park before. I know that's a strange thing for a person living in Florida to admit, but I didn't grow up here. Blaze has also never been to one, because I told him he had to learn to swim before we'd take him, so this is also his reward for learning to swim this summer. Special admission prices begin tomorrow for AAA members, so we're going to be at the AAA office as soon as they open in the morning, and then it's off to Orlando.

The Last Airbender Haircut

DH took Blaze to the movies last weekend to see the Last Airbender. DH said that the script was weak, but it was visually very beautiful. Blaze loved the movie!
Blaze had been telling me for several days that he wanted a haircut that would make him look like the main character in the movie, so yesterday I granted his wish (after all, it's only hair, it will grow back quickly enough).



First, I gave him a very short crew cut with the electric shears, then made a stencil out of paper and marked it onto his scalp, before shaving the arrow design down the middle of his head.



Blaze is very pleased with the way it looks and keeps admiring himself in the mirror.

Blue Cheese Crackers

DH got a membership to Sam's Club when he was stocking up on food for the archeology field school this year, but it took us until two days ago to get around to going there to buy anything for ourselves. Bulk purchases don't usually seem practical with a kitchen as tiny as ours ( DH says to just imagine our kitchen is on a boat, because it would be a very nice galley on a yacht). We finally went to Sam's because DH wanted to look at eye glasses there. We came home with some salad making supplies and a 24-ounce tub of blue cheese, so I'm going to be trying some new recipes that call for blue cheese.
Here is the first one, which we all really enjoyed.



Blue Cheese Crackers

1 Cup of butter, at room temperature

1/2 Cup of cream cheese, at room temperature

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 1/2 Cups of crumbled blue cheese

2 Cups of Rice Krispies cereal

2 Cups of unbleached all-purpose flour

2 slices of crispy, cooked bacon, crumbled (optional)


Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the cream cheese and the butter. Add the flour, cayenne pepper, blue cheese, rice cereal, and bacon. Beat on low to medium speed until a well blended, stiff dough is formed. Roll into walnut sized balls and place slightly apart on an ungreased baking sheet. Use a fork to flatten each ball. Bake for 15 minutes.

These were great served next to our bowls of spinach salad last night, but they'd also be good as party food or with tea.

What we've been up to

I know it's been a few days since I posted anything. It's not that we have fallen off the face of the Earth, it's just that Blaze's schedule has been keeping us very busy. He has joined a Special Olympic swimming team, which practices 4 mornings a week and two afternoons (it will be less once school starts). He won't be competing this year, because he still needs to improve his skills and endurance, but the coach believes that by next year he'll be ready.







Swimming is not Blaze's only scheduled activity, he still has therapies to go to. He has speech twice a week and physical therapy once a week. For physical therapy they've been doing serial casting on his right ankle to stretch his Achilles tendon. Yesterday he got the 4th cast in the series.

The way this works is they flex his foot as far as they can and make a cast in the position. Then the cast is split up both sides so it can be removed and Velcro is added, so that it can be wrapped back around Blaze's leg at night.



He only wears it at night and he's been really good about reminding me to put it on him.

If he has gained range after 2 weeks of wearing a cast, he will get a new one that flexes his foot back more, until he achieves a normal range of movement in that ankle.

Steampunk Birthday Banner

Pennant banners (or bunting) have become very trendy. They are a great way to turn fabric scraps into something pretty. They can also be reused year after year, unlike crepe paper streamers, which must be thrown away when the party's over. Another advantage to the pennant banners is that they do not have to be limited to mass produced party themes.


Here are the measurements for the pattern I created. It is bigger than a regular sheet of paper, so I used a piece of my son's art paper, but a flattened brown paper grocery bag would work just as well.


The banners I made took 34 triangles total, 21 of those are cut from the clock fabric. It took about a yard and a half of the clock fabric for this. It is certainly not necessary to use the same print for all the backing fabric, that was just my choice because I liked the way it looked.

Pin two triangles, right sides together. Sew along the seam allowance.

Cut the point off of each triangle, before turning it right-side out. This will make turning easier.



Use a sharp pencil to help turn the points all the way right-side out. Trim off the two little points of fabric that will be sticking out of the opening on each triangle.



Iron the triangles flat. If you want to, you can add topstitching at this point, but I chose not to.



The letters on these banners were made using this font:

Mechanical Fanfare Alphabet Digital Kit

printed on iron-on transfer paper made for dark fabrics.





I traced around a homemade stencil to make the desired shape around the letter. Using a sheet of transparency paper ( the kind used for over-head projectors) to print out a gear design that I found online, I was able to have a clear plastic stencil, which made it easy to center the letter properly.



Cut out the iron-on design and follow the package direction for applying the design to the fabric. Peeling the backing paper off the iron-on sheet, may be the most difficult part of this project. If there is part of the score line on your design, this will be fairly simple, but without the score line it requires patients and a lot of picking at corners with finger nails.




Lay out all the triangles in the proper order and pin them into bias tape, so that the tape covers both sides of the raw top edge. Each of these banners took a 3 yard package of gold bias tape. Sew the full length of the tape.



I finished each pennant by sewing either a small gear or a key charm to the point, alternating each. This not only adds a little decorative touch, but also adds a little weight to help the pennant lay flat.





The finished banner:



Since it is double-sided, the banner can be turned so that the letters face the wall, to be used for other occasions. I think this clock patterned fabric would look nice for New Years Eve.