Night, night, sleep tight, don’t let the dowdy bugs bite!

As I am sitting here hanging out in my favorite garden gnome jams, I am thinking about how as much as I love to play dress up, I am alllll about the comfort zone! (And don’t I know it this week! It’s Mini Maven’s Spring Break and we are lappin’ it up like a bowl full of warm milk!) As I have stated over and over and over again…… I am a collector of many things. One of the things I collect is pajamas. And not just *any* pajamas, but ones that I think suit my personality. ::grin:: I am a ginormous fan of Nick & Nora Pajamas. You can find these just about anywhere; including superstores like Target — or Tar-jay, as so many of us like to say when we fancy sounding fance-say. Of all the topnotch PJs out there, Nick & Nora make the most cozy, comfy, snuggled-down jammies on the market. I kid you not! (And I kid you more often times than not, so…)

I LOVE pajamas. If it were up to me, they would be suitable outerwear and daily attire. I mean, c’mon, folks…! Life is short! Don’t you all enjoy being free to flow and having free-flow? Oh, you knooow you do! I have a good friend, of whom I call DEElicious, who is cringing right now, and chewing her nails down to bloody stumps, because she abhors when people go out in public in their jams, but I can’t deny that I am guilty as charged. Book me, Dano!
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These are NOT real cupcakes! 12 Legs Curiosities presents their retro inspired “Cupcake Queen Collection” to bring you good luck in the kitchen. Simply place her somewhere near your baking and let her do her work. Her magic cupcake wand will start swirling round & round with cupcake magic and zap your cupcakes with all the delicious magic they need to turn out perfectly every time. You can find them on Etsy!

It’s Terrific Tuesday, AND Spring Break, AND Darling Hotbuns’ Gaming Geek night, so this means Mini Maven & I have the joint all to ourselves! We’re thinking about baking some cupcakes. ::slaver:: As many of you may have surmised, I’m a fan of red velvet ANYTHING. If given the chance, I bake things that are red velvet more often times than not. And the sinister truth is that I am actually gluten free — I have what is called Celiac Disease, which is a condition that damages the lining of the small intestine and prevents it from absorbing parts of food that are important for staying healthy. The damage is due to a reaction to eating gluten, which is found in wheat, barley, rye, and possibly oats. Therefore, I either have to bake gluten free delicious desserts that can be quite contrary with each recipe –OR–  I can just bake like (I think I am) Paul Hollywood and go berserk on that egg beater. Pa-POW! I *wub* to bake, so much so that most of the time I just bake for my loved ones and get my jollies out of smelling up the house something sweet for my sweets. ::smile:: I always tell Mini Maven, “I love you more than the whole cosmos with icing, sprinkles, and a cherry on top!” She should know it, because gosh beaver dam it if it’s not hard to lick the spoon of pain!
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Mini Maven’s Easter basket this year! That ‘Easter Bunny’ is a good egg! 😉

Yesterday was Easter Sunday, so, but of course, the EASTER BUNNY CAME! Every year the Easter Bunny does it up something fantasmo (even when times weren’t as good as they are now), but NOW that my cute little chick is officially a “Tween” (YES, ages 9 through 12 are deemed tweens ::faint::), this years basket had a bit of a different theme… This year’s basket wasn’t all Play-Doh eggs & Peeps, it was more of a basket for the brain.

It is true that this year Mini Maven did indeed get some Peeps, bubblegum robin eggs, a bunny-shaped sucker, and her traditional chocolate bunny she asks for every single year (as well a Max & Ruby Ty plush because no matter how “tween” they are, they still suffer from nostalgia just like the best of us #love), but… In the past, the Easter Bunny always filled Mini Maven’s baskets with books, developmental toys, fun things she liked to play with (at the time), random doodads, and *some* candy (the Bunny knows we don’t like to keep a lot of candy around the house because Mini Maven is a sugar addict!). They looked a little something like this:
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Stylish kid about town’! Check out this take on the traditional rocking horse from JIP. Buy it for £40 from DotMaison.

In spite of the fact that I like to find spiffy, retrotastic new/old things, I think we’ve already established that I actually detest the act of shopping. I loathe going out to chain stores and shuffling through merchandise. I find it mind-numbing & stressful. I *don’t* feel this way about Internet shopping though! In fact, I greatly enjoy it like a hunt for a buried treasure. ::grin:: Even when I have no plans of purchasing anything, I get a kick out of finding something — a unique gem — that I’d enjoy having. So, sometimes when the weather is grim, or I’ve just finished a book and I am missing my characters too much to delve into another one just yet, I start traipsing through the www. I find it cathartic & thrilling to stumble upon — following link after link after link — that crazy cool something that tickles my fancy. I seldom buy anything, but I feel as thought I unravelled & cracked a secret code when I’ve discovered something truly interesting, like an archeological dig of I DIG this! I realize I am only doing what all of you do, but don’t whizz in my Cornflakes. ::chortle:: I like to share!
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Annual Mad Hatter’s Tea Party at Tea Leaves & Thyme in Woodstock, GA ~ circa 2006 🙂

I know there’s been a lot of recent hype being posted by parents who blog about taking the holidays down a notch because it’s just gotten so out of control. In so many regards I do agree, wholeheartedly. I think, mostly, about those less fortunate families who struggle with finances, and then there are such a multitude of demands on all parents via the school events — how children pass around favors, and the parties that require the adults to take off from their jobs or be absent from the festivities (which both cause such immense guilt). I feel for them because I was one of them for the majority of Mini Maven’s life. But, I have to admit to being a holidayaholic, even when times were tough. I just love a good excuse to party & be utterly ridiculous! I’ve ALWAYS loved holidays — all of them — and I can’t deny being gaga over Easter. It’s just magical to me, and since Mini Maven was knee-high to a grasshopper, I have made it even more magical by giving it an Alice in Wonderland theme. ::grin:: I am mildly enrapt with Alice in Wonderland. Okay, madcap & manic over Alice in Wonderland, fine, you got me. I identify with Alice. Oh, how I identify with Alice! I, more often times than not, sometimes have believed more than 102, 394, 586 impossible things before breakfast.

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