how the seventeenth of march turned out for us...

 What I (and we) did:

• Wore my green with a plush clover I made with felt, fabrics and a gold button. The button was a nice touch for me because it looked like a coin but also represented a cross to me (with the arrow pointed upward). I also wanted that old school feel of pinning a piece of green onto your clothing like when I was a kid so I used a safety pin to attach it. The bird pin is from Zapol Designs and the Butterbeer badge from Celeste Frittata (wait, I mean from Harry Potter, of course) ;) 
• Made sure Nat had her green on but still gave her a few playful pinches before taking her to school.
• Played Flogging Molly's Pandora radio station in the kitchen while I worked. Lots of fun music for the day!
• Baked zucchini oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips. I put the oatmeal in a food processor for smoother texture and substituted walnuts for the granola. So very yum and will definitely be making more of these soon!
• Cooked mustard glazed corned beef with cabbage and potatoes (for the first time)! Had to be resourceful with items I already had so subbed the whole grain mustard with spicy brown, the cider vinegar with apple cider vinegar and butter gold potatoes for the red potatoes. I am not a huge mustard fan but the glaze/dipping sauce was really amazing (thanks to brown sugar too)!
• Made a green fruit and veggie smoothie as a refreshing and tasty snack for Natalie, Rick and myself (as requested by Natalie since last week)!
• Gathered up a hodge podge of greenery to make as my centerpiece. I adorned the vase with a hankie I got a the dollar spot in Target and placed two spoons I had decoupaged. One with a paper clover and heart that I wrote love on and the other with an actual clover from one of our potted plants.
• Placed more kissing blarney stones on the table. Another gal with fuller lips and two more gentlemen. One, especially, I have named 'The Abbott' because it reminds me of the character of the same name from the amazingly illustrated film, The Secret of Kells (if you haven't seen it yet, you need to).
• Gave a shout out to my Millan family via facebook about where our heritage before Puerto Rico may have come from. We could have descended either from the surname Aemilianus (Roman) or McMillan (Scottish) and be from any where of the following places: Ireland (yay St. Patrick's day!), Scotland, England, Germany, Spain or even Russia. It's pretty neat since I always joke with my dad  about him  really being secretly Irish. He has a freckles, had red hair the first five years or so of his life and took a liking to fighting and drinking (insert apology here for the stereotypes).
• After the evening was done with cooking, Nat's softball game, dinner and a handful of cookies, I read this amazing post from Pastor Mark Driscoll on who St. Patrick really was and what he was really all about titled St. Patrick: One of the Greatest Missionaries who ever lived.

What I still want to do:

• I didn't get to share with Natalie yesterday about the real story of St. Patrick (see above link and previous post). I still want to to let her know the day is more than just a fun and partying sort of day.
• Make Irish Soda Bread, Irish Soda Bread cookies and other delicious desserts and food (like Irish Stew). Also Ballymaloe Brown Yeast Bread and  Pea and Coriander soup from the Food Network's special, Bobby's Ireland.
• Continue to bring fresh greenery into the house. It livens it up and feels so refreshing and 'Spring' like!

All in all, we had a very fun and....

and I hope you and yours had one too!

blarney stones, shamrocks and a leprechaun too

St. Patrick's Day is this Thursday and other than just wearing the required green, I have never done much else for it. As we came into March I began to think of why Nat and I never did St. Patty's crafts and what could we do to make up for it. So, we gathered a few nice rocks and decided to make them into our very own Kissing Blarney Stones! Before we set out to paint and decorate, I wanted to know what was a blarney stone and why do people want to kiss it. I found out that it is part of a castle in Ireland where legend has, if you kiss it, it will give you the gift of gab (like Nat and I need more of that)!

There is never a stone that whoever kisses, Oh! He never misses to grow eloquent 'tis he may clamber to a lady's chamber, or become a member of parliament.

Francis Sylvester Mahony

Nat and I began to paint our rocks (green, of course) and the following day I set out to make the example pair for her. I came up with Mrs Clover Blarney and Mr Seamus Blarney. I fashioned a little shamrock for the missus by gluing three light green heart shapes cut from felt topped with a patterned cloth circle.  Seamus has a hat made from a rectangular piece of felt glued onto a circular base and two yellow strips by the brim. I used a hot glue gun for all the pieces and for attaching it onto his little green head. Of course, with better (and more patient) skills than mine, you can make it where you don't see the glue or better yet, sew it all together.  I gave Seamus a 'beard' of yarn, frayed a bit on the edges.  Both the Mister and the Missus have their eyes closed and their lips puckered as an asterisk ready for a smooch! Since Mr Seamus was a more glossy stone than Mrs Clover, his green appeared darker and was harder to see his expression. I went over the black permanent marker with yellow paint thinking you might see his face more but I think it ended up adding to the confusion. I went back with the marker but left him with bright yellow freckles anyway! Also, since I didn't give his hat a top, I just filled it with a paper shamrock.  We still have her stones to do and hopefully they will all be up and ready for smooching by thursday!

Oh, Did you Ne'er Hear of the Blarney 

by Samuel Lover

Oh, did you ne'er hear of the Blarney,

That's found near the banks of Killarney?

Believe it from me, 

No girls heart is free,

Once she hears the sweet sound of the Blarney,

Once she hears the sweet sound of the Blarney.

Oh say, would you find this same Blarney,

There's a castle not far from Killarney,

On the top of the wall

But take care you don't fall,

There's a stone that contains all this Blarney,

There's a stone that contains all this Blarney.

Like a magnet its influence such is,

That attraction it gives all it touches,

If you kiss is, they say,

That from tht blessed day,

You may kiss whom you plaze, with your Blarney,

You may kiss whom you plaze, with your Blarney.

Since we never did crafts before for this holiday, I did want to read up about it a bit. I found out that St. Patrick was a Missionary who is credited for bringing Christianity to the masses. Now, we are always associating the shamrock with this holiday and with Ireland itself but why is it used? I found out that St. Patrick used the shamrock to explain the Holy Trinity to the people. I also wanted to know what the difference between a shamrock and a clover is and found out that that there is none, really for the shamrock is just the name of three leafed old white clover. The name shamrock is derived from the Irish seamróg (little clover) which is the diminutive version of the Irish word for clover, (seamair). 

I think that's pretty neat and now have a whole new and appreciative outlook on the plant and the holiday itself. 

*Side note--Nat and I just got a new green watering can where we decorated it with permanent marker. At the bottom of the spout, I put a little clover on it with our initials on it. Not saying that we are the Holy Trinity but just in honor of our wee three person family!*

Since we had the paint out, we also decided to use it to make red handprints for leprechaun's beards, of course! This is Natalie's and once the handprint was dried, she drew her wee little man around it. She hasn't finished coloring him all in, but I think he has some good jolly spirit in him! Oh, and she named him Clover Gold Pot but you can just call him Clover for short ;)

Leprechaun, leprechaun, fly across the sea

And fetch an emerald shamrock for you and me.

Do not bring a nettle or a thistle for a joke,

But bring an Irish shamrock, for we are Irish folk.

And you and I, my leprechaun, will wear the shamrock gay,

And match it with and Irish smile upon St. Patrick's Day!

As you may have guessed it, this coming thursday, I will not only be wearing green but attempt to make Corned Beef and cabbage with potatoes for the first time.  Nat's also requested a green smoothie to drink for that day. I'm getting pretty excited about it all and was pretty excited over watching the Food Network's special, Bobby's Ireland. Wow, beautiful places, landscapes and of course, food! I would love love love to go there with my family one day. Until then, I can dream and this little poem can help me along:

By Killarney's Lakes and Fells

by Edmund O'Rourke

By Killarney's lakes and fells,

Em'rald isles and winding bays,

Mountain paths, and woodland dells

Memory ever fondly strays;

Bounteous nature loves all lands;

Beauty wanders everywhere

Footprints leaves on many strands,

But her home is surely there.

Angels fold their wings and rest

In that Eden of the west,

Beauty's home, Killarney,

Ever fair--Killarney.

botany, antiquated silverware and a unicycle...

Tarzan's Treehouse at Disneyland has me wanting for all of this...and I do mean all of it!

the tea is in the garden...

 Strange how a teapot can represent at the same time the comforts of solitude and the pleasures of company.  ~Author Unknown

I've had a flurry of ideas come into my head lately and so far, just this one has been materialized. It's almost appropriate, being in the month of March now, awaiting springs true arrival. I like the idea of having tea in a splendid garden and maybe one day I will get to do that with a few cherished friends (and of course, my sweet little girl). 

I also think I am approaching yet another slight sea change in my art. I want to explore a few different ways of seeing things and relating that onto paper. Not just paper too, for I have ideas for felt little dolls and the like. I have so many ideas and much to do but still, the whole concept of balance and discipline nip at my heels for attention. I need to buckle down and just do the things I have set out for me. Until then, I'll put the kettle on, warm this chill upon my skin and hope you do the same too. :)

tea leaves

tea loves

loves tea

lives tea

leaves tea?

never.

~Uniek Swain

Indeed, Madame, your ladyship is very sparing of your tea;

I protest the last I took was no more than water bewitched.

- Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)