carved

Hey Chiara, let's add pumpkin carving to the list of things we're going to do when I visit!

Happy Labor Day

"Labor is prior to and independent of capital.  Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed.  Labor is the superior of capital and deserves much the higher consideration."  Abraham Lincoln

image here

independence day

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Irish

 

President and Caroline Kennedy, St Patrick's Day 1961.

Happy New Year!

making a hard play for the "Best Aunt Ever" award

My nephew Declan's birthday isn't for another couple days, but since yesterday was our last night all together in Colorado, we decided to celebrate.  (Did I mention we're in Colorado for the holidays?  We are.  It's lovely.)

Since cakes don't turn out that well here at high altitude (at least not when I make them) and I had some left over sugar cookie dough in the fridge, I decided to make him a giant pop up bulldozer birthday cookie.

I just cut the parts using a template and then assembled them with a TON of royal icing.  It was really easy, I swear.  The only hard part was trying to pipe the icing with 3 kids trying to sit on my lap or steal a taste (I didn't really mind). 

I decided to make a bulldozer partly as an homage to last years cake, and also because...

after the candles were blown out, we had a demolition derby.

The kids took some of the parts home with them this morning.  Can't wait until next year.

house to home

It was a gingerbread extravaganza! 

Steven had a log tower, a pretzel fence and some window boxes.

My nephew Colin's house had a tootsie roll mailbox and an awesome "Christmas tree".

My brother Michael started the mailbox trend and put some gargoyles on his roof.

My nephew Declan had a backyard ice rink, gummy worm curbs, Oreo siding, Starburst and Smartie roof tiles and if you look very carefully, a family of gummy bears living inside.

My niece Riley got banished from the candy table before she got to the front because she was eating way more candy than she was putting on her house, but her roof still looks fabulous and pink.

My sister in law Annie's house had a gorgeous roof and french doors in the back.

 And I decided to live out my farm owning fantasy in gingerbread.  Barn complete with weather vane.

preview

Today, we all, Riley (2 and 5/6ths), Declan (4 and 356/365ths), Colin (6 and 3/4ths) Annie, Michael, Becky, Steven and me (grown ups), made gingerbread houses and they are awesome.

I'll confess that Declan's is my favorite, but only because none of the other kids read blogs. If you repeat what I said to either one of them, I will deny it, and make sure that you get nothing but coal in your stocking next year.

Riley's is the pinkest, Michael's has gargoyles, Colin's has an awesome "tree", and Annie's has french doors.  Steven's is the most ambitious (he's an architect, it'd be embarrassing if it weren't) and mine has a house and a barn because I made all the gingerbread parts and the frosting and I want a barn in real life.

But Declan's has a red ice rink that is surrounded by flowers because, "they all should be."

Photo's of the finished houses tomorrow, but I have to say this is a new tradition that's even better the second year!!

merry and bright

My mom said to my niece Riley (almost 3), "What do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas?"

Riley replied, "M&M's."

I hope your holidays are just like Riley's.  So much fun that the only thing you can think of to make it better is just a little chocolate.

And that Santa brings it for you.

Merry Christmas!

post haste

I am sorry to be absent!  I've been spending my free time decorating the house for the holidays,

making about a thousand cookies, and finishing up a bunch of other things that I won't show so as not to ruin the surprise for the folks who are going to get them for Christmas. :)

I'll be back to regular posting, once I get everything in the mail!

In the meantime, our friends Jen and Gabe are wonderful event and portrait photographers and have a new website.  Check it out.

Red light Rudolph

You Tube user mojochronic posted this mash up of Rudolf the Red nose Reindeer and Roxane and it's awesome.

recycled wreath

Here's the wreath I made for the front door this weekend!

It wasn't fast, but it was super easy and I didn't have to buy anything to make it.  If you want to make one of your own you will need:

-a ton of magazines and catalogs (gardening magazines work best (lots of green) so it helps to have a friend who has a flower shop who'll give you some.)

-a cardboard wreath form (you could just as easily cut your own ring out of an old box or something, but I had the wreath form already so I used it.)

-some glue 

First you have to make a million leaves. Make a paper template of a leaf shape that you like, making sure to have a little stem at the bottom, and use all the green you can find in the magazine to start cutting.

Don't worry if there are spots of other colors mixed in with the green, little flecks of color are what makes the wreath look nice.  If you run into giant text or something else you really don't like, just make sure it's on the stem side of your leaf and it won't show.

Once you've cut a million leaves (I honestly have no idea how many, but it was a lot) it's time to glue them up.  I am sure using a glue stick or even hot glue would have been faster, but I didn't have those things around so I just used regular old glue and it worked just fine.

Make groups of 3 with the middle one on top and set them aside. 

Once you have a ton of them, it's time for the fun part, making the wreath!

Put them in a little v shaped pattern, quite close together and continue around the form.


When you get to the end, just lift up the first leaves and stick the last ones underneath.


And Voila!  A lovely, recycled, recyclable, and absolutely free wreath!