firecracker fruit

i often wonder how firecrackers were made.

i mean, how in the world did the firecracker inventor figure out that a certain firecracker would produce a full bloom or a drizzling of little sparks.

it should be called firewonders.

maybe?

:>P

regardless, i bet they eat these for breakfast:

super duper easy peasy to make!

i am sure those firecracker inventors play with their food.

uh oh!

DANGER!!!

i bet those firecracker inventors have a lot of ready to use burn cream in their pocket.

but a quick fix will do before they burn all their fingers off.

thank you firecracker inventors.

without you, we would just be staring at a quiet nite sky on the 4th. although, i hear dogs everywhere would disagree with me about the thankful part.

uncle sam spoons

huh?

hey! was that uncle sam?

well i do believe it was!

i figured he come around since his favorite holiday is coming up.

and who woulda thunk he was at the sno-cone section?!?!

ok, truth is, when i was wandering the super walmart aisles looking for who knows what cuz that store is so humongous i totally lose track of what i went in there for, i saw these spoons.

and i immediately thought of uncle sam.

my brain is really strange.

anyway, here's how he came to be.

any plain small oval cutter would work too. i have an oval cookie cutter set i got at homegoods awhile ago. but this would work too.

grab some parchment paper and lay it down for the spoons.

then the fun starts.

the weight of the almond bark will hold the spoon down if you make sure you pile it on thick on the spoon.

the spoons are wobbly when they are at rest if there is not enough almond bark on it cuz they are not made for uncle sam (SAY WHAT?!??). so i used another spoon laid under the beard like in the pic to level it while the candy dries so his beard doesn't fall off. 

 btw, you need to place the beard at the very bottom of the spoon to make room for his face.

work quickly to attach the rest of the candy and sprinkles before the candy dries.

it takes about 5-10 minutes to air dry. 

then just peel the spoons off the parchment paper and you're done.

holy cow! 

i didn't know uncle sam had brothers!

so are those septuplets?

i bet they were a handful for poor uncle sam's mom.

no wonder they needed strict rules to follow while growing up and why they are who they are.

anyway, their mom told me to dress them up for this post since the www is looking at them.

so i did.

so there you go.

and what's that? did you say something sam?

yeah yeah. we heard you the first time.

jeez and i suppose you still want me to join the army too.

happy 4th straws

well, in a few weeks, 

red, white and boom day will be here.

it's ALL over the blog world.

so i better get in on the picture too.

why not?

i have a gajillion straws i just stare at so i better put them to use.

so here's what i did with them and how you can play too:

did you figure this out yet?

maybe after these next few steps?

you'll see in a sec why it's important to leave room at the top when you glue your pieces together.

ok so here's what i came up with:

put them all together, they spell m-o-t-h-e-r! 

(oops! wrong holiday!)

let's get serious now and bring them out to enjoy.

i filled them up with some cool soda from world market.

i didn't know if the drinks would be too sweet or too surgary when i bought them. but even if it tasted rank, the bottles were so cool it didn't matter.

hope you make these easy peasy straws for 

your next firework shebang.

just figure out how you want the letters or symbols and use pieces of straws and glue happily away on the upper part of the straw.

don't forget to leave room when you glue the pieces on! 

for drinking purposes as i said before. see?

nothing like a cool drink on a cool summer night with 

a cool straw eh?

happy summer sunshine serving plate

never underestimate the power 

of a thrift store, 

as there are hidden gems such as this: 

well, ok, so i didn't exactly buy it like this, 

but i did make it, like so:

ok ok so i know it's one in a bajillion trillion chances you will go to good will and find the same exact plate. so what the heck good is this post? well, you can actually do this on any clear serving platter or large plate if you want. 

yay for you!

ok so let's see what's next.

(hey! anybody see the bottle this giant bottlecap belongs to?)

the only thing left for me to do is ask myself why i want to put faces and smileys on everything?!?

hmmm...

:>O

:>P

:>D

it's dad's day!

well, today is dad's day.

and as i remember my dad, i always remember his laughter.

oh my did he have a LAUGH!

the kind you HAD to giggle along with him.

SO loud and SO robust!

i can still hear it all the way from heaven.

i giggle just thinking about it.

dad's day also makes me think of my hubby of course, the father of my 2 lovely kids, who he had a knack of being a father from the very start.

via

well, ok, so he didn't and doesn't always know what to do as far as being a dad goes, but he does love the kids, and is always so thankful for their thoughtful gifts.

via

ok ok so they actually didn't get him a "business chair" but i know for sure they could pull this one up:

via

so when it came to thinking of what to get him for dad's day, the kids and i searched for these:

via

but unfortunately, like the cartoon says, these have not yet been invented. we tried to think of something and wracked our brains til i gave up and told the kids to ask the wise man what would be the best gift.

via

so it looks like he has everything he needs anyway and is gonna be around for awhile.

(think we'll do the same for next year too)

HAPPY DAD'S DAY!

(and thanks Dad for the smiles you put on my face)