Happy Easter!

 Look what we're making!

Aren't these adorable cupcakes?

I'm no baker so we just used a box cake and a canister of frosting. As I frosted each cake, I handed it to Alfredo who perfected the technique of rolling the frosted top in a plate of green sugar (Pearlized Emerald by Wilton). 

Then Alfredo decorated the tops with little foil chocolate bunnies and jelly beans. (all the while eating just as many as he put on)

Don't you love the new cupcake wrappers you can find these days? I love them but I find that the design goes away when you bake them. So I baked these cupcakes in old-school foil cups and then added the pretty cups post decorating (they are from Meri-Meri's cute cupcake kits)

I was just going to use regular pipecleaners but then had a terrific idea! 

 Here we had a kitchen table full of Easter egg dye cups that I was just going to toss (we'd already dyed all the eggs and our fingertips!) So I thought what if I plunk some all cotton pipecleaners* into that dye and see what happens...

The result? Fabulously dyed pipecleaners!

All cotton pipecleaners can be found at tobacco shops and are still used by pipesmokers for their original purpose.

Back to making cute Easter baskets. I'll show you a prettier picture of them tomorrow.

I woke up this morning at 4 and couldn't get back to sleep. So I came downstairs, fixed a cup of coffee and decided to get my day started a bit early.

Can you believe how big Alfredo is getting? I love this picture of him with his Aunt Tootsie (my wonderful friend Lorraine).

Did you know it will soon be 2 years since he came back to live with us? Isn't that hard to believe? I'm just so grateful for this life, this beautiful path to motherhood.

He's doing so well. Growing into such a sweet little boy. So smart. So sweet. So big.

a fun day

Last week, Alfredo and I met Rosalyn-Sue and Coe Polk at our friend Lorraine's for a morning of fun. It's always a treat to visit Lorraine and it was extra fun hanging out with R-S and her sweet little boy. So much fun.

One of my very favorite things to do in the whole world is sit and listen to my friend Lorraine weave a tale. She has such a gift for storytelling! And guess what! She's sharing one of her famous stories in the next issue of the magazine!

Speaking of which, we're still working like maniacs on the birthday issue of Inspired Ideas. I can't wait to show you but we still have plenty of work to do. We're shooting for the end of next week. Oh! it is so good!

My good friend Pam is my right-hand-woman. She's quite an editor and sounding board and, above all, friend. We're hoping to get together someday this week when the sun is shining to take some photos.

Back to work for me...if you want me to send you an email when the next issue is ready,

sign up for the email here.

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so excited about this...

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it was fabulous

Thank you for all your nice birthday wishes. It was a really wonderful day...week....month!

I'm keeping super busy trying to get this Happy Birthday issue together...it is going to be HUGE. And Wonderful. I can't wait to share it with you.

Alfredo is growing so fast. I need to make a movie to show you because you just won't believe it. And he's saying the most incredible things. Today, he called the grocery cart "a trolley" which is so sweet, isn't it? He picked it up from Peppa Pig, our most favorite show. I just went along with it and called it a trolley too for the rest of the trip and even feigned a little British accent to make the grocery shopping even more fun. In the spirit of that, I bought some devonshire cream just for the hey.

And just in case you're putting together that picture in your mind, be sure to include the fact that I forgot completely to put even a little bit of makeup on this morning. So be sure to picture me extra tired looking with dark circles under my un-masked eyes.

Benefit for Japan

If you live in the Cleveland area, please try to attend the benefit. The kids have worked hard on organizing this event and there are excellent performances scheduled.

my birthday!

Hello, 40!