Happy 4th of July!

(Image from Bakerella - a fantastic baking website that everyone should check out for yummy inspiration.)

Have a safe and happy 4th of July everyone!

Play Day at Eden Prairie Center

A girlfriend that is also a Mommy told me about the great toddler park at the Eden Prairie Center. It is so much larger than the one that I would normally take Parker too. Also, since Eden Prairie is a suburb, there are a lot of kids playing at this indoor playground. Parker LOVES it!

This was our second time going, and both times Parker spent his entire hour going up and down the slides. He never tired of it. Every time he would slide down, you could see this look of concentration on his little face. Then when he got to the bottom, he was so happy and pleased with himself.

I just can not believe he was able to climb up the slides with socks on!

Of course, Parker is a lady's man. I missed the cutest shot with the little baby girl actually grabbing Parker and hugging him. He hugged her back before he went on his way back to the slide. What a heart breaker!

Parker attracted girls of all ages. Who could blame them? He has such gorgeous blue eyes!

Of course, Parker threw a temper tantrum when it was time to go. He did not like that too much. We have approached "that stage".

My First Floral Class

I have always wanted to learn how to make beautiful floral arrangements. I dream about making one of those gorgeous centerpieces that you find in an entryway, that has all sorts of stuff flowing out of the vase and artichokes sticking out. I don't consider that I don't even own an entryway table (yet), but the dream still lives. I had been looking for a class for some time, but had only found classes with the mega craft stores like Michael's - and then the classes were for silk flowers. It just was not quite what I was looking for. Lord knows that would not be good enough for Dorothy Draper or Kelly Werstler (just a few of my design icons).

Finally, one of my favorite little florist shops here in Minneapolis, Brown and Greene, hosted a simple floral arranging class. It just covered the basics - how to make a hand held bouquet with roses. This arrangement is usually used for bridal bouquets. It typically looks like a little round mound and is actually a quite versatile arrangement once you have the concept. We learned how to make the arrangement with simple roses. I know that the pictures do not really do it justice, but I think I did a pretty good job for my first time. It was more difficult than you would think holding all of the stems in place and twisting them around before tying off the bunch. I am excited to see how I can take this concept to the next level.

Video Wednesday - Stellarstarr*, Sweet Troubled Soul

I absolutely love Stellastarr*. I watch this video and I can not help but think of how many thousands of shots had to be taken to capture the movements of the puppets. It requires patience I certainly do not have.