deciphering the days

My favorite birthday tradition was thumbing through a cake decorating book, picking an amazing design, and spending the afternoon with my dad preparing my birthday cake, My younger brother has similarly fond memories of the tradition. He and his wife just welcomed their first child to the world, and I thought, "Why don't I find that book and give it to him, so that he had his children can make the same memories?"  How hard can that be? I gathered the description of my memories and my family's: It was a book unless it was a pamphlet or leaflet We found it at a thrift store unless we ordered it new Either way it was late 90's or early 2000's The cover was blue, unless the cover was ripped off and the first cake was blue Understandably, this quickly became a difficult quest. We agreed on the following: There was a sunflower, watermelon, and hamburger, all baked in a bowl There was a castle, butterfly, snowman, bunny, star/chinese checkers game There were birthday...

I hated thrifting as a kid. It meant hours at a smelly store, endless hangers of obscure and overstimulating patterns and prints, and clothes purchased based on fit and condition. If it didn't have holes and wasn't too small (too big was fine - even preferred in some cases) then it was thrown in the bag and was now mine. Hear me though. I was always dressed and always warm. Second-hand shops were an important resource for my family and many other families in our community. We spent hours at the shops because there were 4-6 people in my family that all needed clothes. There were no outlet stores anywhere close, and even if there had been, it wouldn't compare to the "3 dollar bag days" at the local thrift stores. I am grateful how my family took care of me. I still hated thrifting though.  As soon as I had a job and moved to the city, outlet stores seemed magical. Ross, TJ Max, Marshalls. New clothes, clean smells, different size options, and trendy styles. I never ...

Maybe I could bring back dinner parties? I want it to be fun, and fancy, and social. But simple, and peaceful, and happy. And sustainable. If I have a single rubric that I follow for the parties, maybe I can do it.  Description and rubric of my dinner parties, that make it different from a regular dinner and more sustainable in my brain: A real invitation; I'm doing electronic and designed them on Canva A nice meal, which is prepared entirely by me. Some aspects are home-made and others pre-prepared. Drinks: water, wine, and mocktail Main Course: Meat, starch, vegetable Dessert: anything sweet, preferably ties in with the season or mocktail A deliberate and thoughtful table setting, that mildly coordinates with the season or holidays Entertainment Music: Amazon music was the easiest way for me to make a playlist without ads, as I already have Amazon Prime.  Activity: adult oriented activity, but rotate between artsy, games, and just entertaining, with a balance of stereotypica...