Today is Teen Martha’s Senior Prom. I thought I would share one of my fave pix taken before they headed out for the big night. You’ll notice that the shoes were an important part of the outfit!

Today is Teen Martha’s Senior Prom. I thought I would share one of my fave pix taken before they headed out for the big night. You’ll notice that the shoes were an important part of the outfit!

I haven’t been posting much this week. Thing have just been completely crazy here with doctor appointments, other appointments, and kids’ events and activities. There has been almost no time to cook. Last night I threw together a macaroni, tuna, and veggie salad for us to shovel in before we ran from the house. Teen Martha was playing a flute solo at her band concert, which was held at Kleinhan’s Music Hall, a gorgeous facility in downtown Buffalo. If you’re interested, here’s the link to the song. We were so impressed by her beautiful music, and so touched that her band director complimented her on stage at the end (you have to wait for the guest conductor to leave and her band director to come out to speak if you’re interested). It was a lovely evening and we were so proud of her. She is a senior, so this was her last high school Kleinhan’s concert (the school rents it out once a year). I admit I got a little teary.  We don’t know yet if she will continue playing flute in college, but it’s something I will miss if she doesn’t!

I haven’t been posting much this week. Thing have just been completely crazy here with doctor appointments, other appointments, and kids’ events and activities. There has been almost no time to cook. Last night I threw together a macaroni, tuna, and veggie salad for us to shovel in before we ran from the house. Teen … Read more →

This is the second in a series of posts about the items I inherited from my paternal grandmother. She didn’t leave much behind, so I cherish the items I received, but at the same time I am trying to figure out just what to do with them.

handbag

This is a beautiful beaded handbag, but unfortunately, it’s falling apart. The other side is in even worse condition. I would love to get it repaired but have no idea where to do that. Any ideas? I love the style of this. My mom has a close friend who had an old heirloom handbag preserved in a display box and I would love to do something like that if it could be repaired.

pin cushion

Next up is the pin cushion. My aunt says this used to be on Gram’s dresser, but I am not sure I really remember seeing it there.  My aunt says that the hat pins belonged to Gram’s mother Rose, my great-grandmother. Rose was quite a woman, from the stories I’ve heard. She took in foster children before there was a real foster child system, and despite her family’s lack of wealth. Because of this, there is an “aunt” who was raised by her who is not a biological relative, but was always considered a sister to my Gram and her two biological sisters. I love the pin in the center with the rhinestones, even though many are missing. I would love to get that repaired as well. Stick pins were in fashion in the late 70s – maybe they’ll make a comeback and I could wear it as one!

There were some costume jewelry pins my mom chose for me to have.  The two that are identical are actually a belt buckle I think. I like the little one at the bottom the most. It’s pretty and delicate and would be something you could just pin on a collar for a little extra fun. I know it’s not exactly in style at the moment, but it appeals to me.

My mom also gave me an assortment of rings. Some I passed along to my daughter. I kept three for myself which you can see on my finger (which looks incredibly old and wrinkly in this photo for some reason!). The top one is missing some stones (rhinestones I presume) and I would love to get it repaired and sized to fit me. It’s a cute little ring.

The second one is missing the stone (I assume the stones were sold or reset at some point). I LOVE this setting. What is really, really strange is that it is very similar to the ring I received from my other grandmother. You can read that post here. My other grandmother’s ring was her engagement ring. The stone was reset for an anniversary. My mom gave me that ring and had an aquamarine stone set in it for me. This ring from

Comparison of two rings

Gram is very similar. It might have been the style of the times – however they weren’t the same age. Gai married in the 30s and Gram married in the 40s (she was a WWII bride), so I’m not sure what to think.

I’ve included a photo of the two similar rings together. In this photo, you can see that the ring from Gram has a blue stone on the side (it’s missing on the other side).

The third ring is also missing a stone, but again I am in love with the ring. The setting is quite high – it sticks out quite far and I love the delicate detailing on the ring itself. I really want to get all three of these rings repaired and reset so I could wear them.

This is the second in a series of posts about the items I inherited from my paternal grandmother. She didn’t leave much behind, so I cherish the items I received, but at the same time I am trying to figure out just what to do with them. This is a beautiful beaded handbag, but unfortunately, … Read more →

If you’ve been following along with me, you probably remember the Grandmother Project. After my maternal grandmother passed away almost a year ago, I inherited boxes and boxes of things (my entire dining room was filled) and spent a lot of time trying to make sense of them and put them to good use. I posted many times with photos of some of the more interesting finds and uses.

My paternal grandmother passed away several years ago, but there was recently a family pow-wow to divide up what remained of her belongings. Gram was not a woman of material wealth and didn’t leave much behind. I had nothing of hers though, so I was happy when my mom brought home some things for me. Today and tomorrow I’m going to share some of them with you.

My aunts say that this piece of lace was my grandmother’s parochial school collar from her uniform. It’s actually quite beautiful and is 23 inches long. I’m not sure what to do with it though! Any suggestions are welcome. I could frame it I suppose.

Lace collar

Next up is another collar, but this one is for a baby or child. And since it is blue, we think it must have been my father’s, or possibly the other son my grandmother had who died as a baby. I’m not sure what to do with this either! It’s an interesting piece of family history to have though.

These gloves are very tiny – I can’t get my hands into them at all and neither can Teen Martha ( I think we inherited a scaled down version of my mother’s giant paws), but Gram had very small hands. It’s possible these are from her wedding, although her hands are not visible in the wedding photo I

Gloves

have. They have tiny little pearls at the edge and are quite pretty, if  a bit yellowed. Again, I’m at a loss as to what to do with them and the only thing I can come up with is framing them. I also am not sure how to get the yellowing out without damaging them. Any thoughts or suggestions for any of this is welcome!

Tune in tomorrow for another installment of this project.

If you’ve been following along with me, you probably remember the Grandmother Project. After my maternal grandmother passed away almost a year ago, I inherited boxes and boxes of things (my entire dining room was filled) and spent a lot of time trying to make sense of them and put them to good use. I … Read more →

MarthaAndMe is taking a short break and will be back Apr 27.

MarthaAndMe is taking a short break and will be back Apr 27.

Yesterday Teen Martha turned 18. I can hardly believe it since it seems like yesterday I was in the hospital as a new parent.  I thought I would share some of our quirky birthday traditions.

The birthday child gets to choose the birthday meal and dessert. This has resulted in things like pumpkin pie, Italian Dippers (modeled after a school lunch item!), fettucine, crab cakes, hamburgers, baked apples, Caesar salad, corn, cookie cake, brownie pizza, etc. I have also created many themed birthday cakes – a nail polish bottle, a Barbie, bowling pins and ball, a hockey rink cake, a spaghetti and meatballs cake (with an April Fool’s Day birthday, what else would you expect?) an Elmo cake, and many more.

I have two special dinner plates that say Happy Birthday on them and the birthday child gets to choose one to use. They always choose the red one when I hope they will choose the blue one! I also have special birthday dessert plates. Each is a different color and has different graphics of cakes and cupcakes on them.

We stopped having family parties when baby #2 came along and celebrate with just the immediate family. We usually have a party for friends though, which has included bowling, rollerblading, a makeover party, a Barbie party, and having a reptile guy come to the house with his cadre of live specimens.

We normally do gifts after dinner and then do cake with candles and singing.

This year we’ve had some breaks with tradition. Dude Martha was invited to go to a Sabres hockey game on his actual birthday, so we celebrated the day before. Teen Martha requested a Coldstone Creamery ice cream cake this year (the first time in 18 years I have not made a cake – or pie- for her birthday). In the past, we’ve been on vacation during birthdays which meant stuffing gifts into my luggage and making birthday strawberry pie in a condo.

What do you do to make your children’s birthdays special?

Yesterday Teen Martha turned 18. I can hardly believe it since it seems like yesterday I was in the hospital as a new parent.  I thought I would share some of our quirky birthday traditions. The birthday child gets to choose the birthday meal and dessert. This has resulted in things like pumpkin pie, Italian … Read more →

Thanks to all of you who expressed concern (and sent good wishes!) about ongoing family medical issues. For the second time in two months, we had a false positive radiology reading. First it happened to me in December – the ER outsourced the reading of a CT scan at night overseas and they sent me home telling me I had a mass that was likely cancerous. The CT was reread in the morning by a hospital radiologist who determined it was simply a burst ovarian cyst. This week another family member was told there was a pancreatic cyst on an ultrasound with all sorts of horrible possibilities. A CT then showed everything was completely normal. Whew. We’re all relieved and completely exhausted. On the one hand, of course I want radiologists to identify possible problems, but gosh, I am so sick of being alarmed and panicked over what turns out to be absolutely nothing. I wish there was a way these folks could be a little more careful.

So, I’m scraping myself off the floor, taking a deep breath, and moving forward. In other good news, this has helped me to identify a toxic person in my life – a friend who was intent on seeing only the negatives in every situation. This opened my eyes to that and I feel like a weight has been lifted. I have a whole new positive outlook on life. It has also made me realize I need to widen my circle of friends.

I just got the February Martha Stewart Living in the mail and I am so excited by it! There are lots of recipes I want to try as well as some crafts (and it is rare for me to get excited about crafts!).  I think the next couple of weeks are going to be fun as I try some things in the magazine and share it with all of you.  Thanks again to everyone who supported me throughout all of this. Onward and upward!

Thanks to all of you who expressed concern (and sent good wishes!) about ongoing family medical issues. For the second time in two months, we had a false positive radiology reading. First it happened to me in December – the ER outsourced the reading of a CT scan at night overseas and they sent me … Read more →

Since several people have emailed me privately about this, I thought I would post about it. Today on the Martha Stewart Show, Martha did an entire show about blogging. She filled the audience with bloggers and had guests who are bloggers. Of course she included her daughter, Alexis, and Jennifer Koppelman Hutt from the Whatever show, but she also invited Andrew Ritchie of Martha Moments and Jeff Blumenkrantz from Jeff and Martha to be guests on the show. I hope you caught the show – if not check out Andrew’s and Jeff’s two blogs, which are simply wonderful.

Now let me answer the questions folks are emailing me about. No, I was not invited and no, I’m not upset nor surprised! I tend to be quite frank about how my Martha projects go and I suspect the MSLO folks who snooped around my blog felt I was not positive enough about Martha in general. Sorry Martha! As I’ve said many times, I have incredible respect for Martha. She is a truly amazing businesswoman and creative person. She has more talent in her little finger than I’ll ever have. That said, my project is about trying out Martha projects and trying to fit them into my life. I’m a regular gal (mom, wife, daughter, friend, writer) who is searching for inspiration and a little oomph. I’m all about honesty here. Some Martha things work, some don’t.  So, I’m not surprised I wasn’t asked and really it’s ok! I think it was great Martha did a show on blogging (although isn’t it funny that she really doesn’t actually blog – she just writes it and has an IT guy who has to post it and manage the blog – in Martha’s life there is always someone to do mundane tasks for you) and I am thrilled to see Andrew and Jeff get publicity for their blogs.

Since several people have emailed me privately about this, I thought I would post about it. Today on the Martha Stewart Show, Martha did an entire show about blogging. She filled the audience with bloggers and had guests who are bloggers. Of course she included her daughter, Alexis, and Jennifer Koppelman Hutt from the Whatever … Read more →

Hi everyone. I’ve been busy with Christmas and a ridiculous abdominal muscle pull that has rendered me practically unable to function! I hope your holidays are enjoyable. I’ll be back with a new post very soon!

Hi everyone. I’ve been busy with Christmas and a ridiculous abdominal muscle pull that has rendered me practically unable to function! I hope your holidays are enjoyable. I’ll be back with a new post very soon!

If you heard me on Martha Stewart Radio, Morning Living Live this morning, will you drop them an email and let them know?  I believe the show is replayed over the weekend, so if you missed it, you can catch it then.

If you heard me on Martha Stewart Radio, Morning Living Live this morning, will you drop them an email and let them know?  I believe the show is replayed over the weekend, so if you missed it, you can catch it then.