TUESDAYS AT NOON: I M LUCKY!

Posted by Ethne~

Well, a good weekend for the D family – on the whole…

My little pixies!

Going back to Thursday, I won a gift certificate to a wellness center and salon in little city, MN (suburb where I work) called Little Rejuvination Station at a Boys & Girls Club silent auction fundraiser.  I determined instantly that I wanted a manicure!  I paint my nails once a week and while it’s not particularly onerous, it’s not my most favorite hour of the week.  However, someone else doing it is quite a nice way to spend an hour.  I opted for the OPI Axxium nail gel over my natural nails.  It won’t damage my nails, yet it will provide one application for 3 weeks!

I picked the French manicure pink and white and I feel so fancy!  I may just do this every three weeks now.  I REALLY love it.

Anyway, Saturday Shaun, Grandpa & Grandma D, the girls and I went to the MN Renaissance Festival.  Super fun.  Great stuff for the girls to look at, fun stuff to buy, and I got lots of ideas for DIY blog activities. The best part was seeing the girls talking to the real-life fairy Twig.  The worst part was Easy Mac getting lost for 20 minutes.  O.M.G.  I about melted down.  I was searching around saying “don’t freak out”, “don’t freak out”, “don’t freak out” to myself.  Thankfully some anonymous person named Laura (Easy Mac told me her name after) found Easy Mac quite far from where we were, observed that she was lost, and walked with her in the direction Easy Mac thought she had come from: the elephants, which was correct; until Grandma D saw her.  Thank God for the goodness of strangers.  Laura if you read the blog – THANK YOU!!!

Easy Mac (r) and KD (l) on the fairy trail

Taking an elephant ride

Pony riding - KD

Easy Mac, prior to her unauthorized elopement

There were a couple of great ideas I saw.  One, which Grandma D got for the girls, was a fairy catching kit.  A jar with goodies to attract fairies.  I’ll try this out for gifts for friends, maybe party favors for the girls’ birthday party??

Another idea was putting a little fairy figurine in a fruit jar, moss and goodies, and covering it with a colored piece of fabric or lace.  What a great idea for birthday or fun gifts.  I’m thinking this could be good for elves at Christmastime too.  Or sprites at Halloween?

One thing we purchased which I think is A-DOR-ABLE is a fairy door which you screw into a big tree in your yard (I don’t have a yard yet, but I will) for fairies to enter and rest.  Naturally I got one of these, but it wasn’t cheap.  I’m thinking this could be a great thrifty project to re-create in the spring.

With real-life fairy Twig

We had some tasty food, none of which was so outrageously delicious that I need to go on and on about it, but I did like the soup in a bread bowl – sounds like a good fall and winter meal idea.

Today, I’m making some beef stew.  Shaun says I ruined a classic by adding zucchini to it, but I figure he’s wrong.  It would be a crime not to put a fresh garden vegetable in my home-cooked stew.  Perfect for a chilly, rainy day like today.

As I type this, Shaun has just 'arrested' KD for being ‘cute and dangerous’.  We played family games and watched Extreme Couponing which inspires me to do better than the $5 I saved at Target today.  But those were five dollars I didn’t have to spend. 

In all, a nice way to appreciate my family and just how lucky I am.