Paulette Stewart – Page 40 – Plum Street Samplers

Crazy Kids, Family, Good Things

Paulette Who?

May 25, 2011

My goodness, it's been ages! How have you been?

It's that crazier-than-usual time of year around here, what with all of the end-of-the-school-year events taking place, my youngest girl's birthday, doctor and orthodontic appointments, graduation preparations, and Bre dragging my bum to the gym every day. Here's just a bit from the last couple of weeks…

My Joonie had a birthday! She turned eleven, and is very proud of that, thankyouverymuch.

Sabrina is teaching herself to play the guitar, with the help of Friday…

Bre has started training for a marathon (to take place in September), and has changed her Le Clic photography blog to The Rising Runner. Instead of feeling guilty that she hadn't been taking a photo each day, she decided to get inspired by documenting her journey from occasional jogger to marathon runner, keeping track of her self-training progress and sharing a runner's recipe here and there.

Missy is still making lovely patterns on my carpeting, as well as breaking the sound barrier with her screechy announcements anytime one of us is coming or going…

…and Tasha is still channeling her inner Yoda.

Sophie and some friends recently tried out for the end-of-the-year talent show, but her little dance group didn't make it. 🙁 Good try though, Sophie!

Sabrina was awarded a $500 scholarship from the Rotary Club… Congratulations, Bean!

Adam has started training for the marathon with Bre, and comes over to play with Sophie a lot, even though he pretends he's there to visit Bre. 😉 (He feels a kinship with Sophie, since they're both the youngest in a family of five, and Sophie adores him for that.)

Sophie took 2nd place in the 60-yard-dash at her school's track and field day…

…She also played her last volleyball game and had fun at the season's end pizza party…

I shot another wedding! This time for two of Bre's best high school friends, Brooke and Alex. My Canon Sister Jaime shot with me, and we had so much fun working together. It was quite a learning experience!

And finally, my sweet Sabrina has a few not-so-fun doctor appointments ahead of her. She has an angiofibroma in her neck that needs to be removed, as well as several cysts in her left sinus. We've been puzzled by how sick she always is, getting frequent colds and not being able to breathe at night. (We don't even remember what her regular voice sounds like, she's been so stuffy for over a year now.) She meets with the head-and-neck surgeon on Friday, just after her commencement practice (yes, my girl is graduating!).

Please keep her in your prayers, if you would?

And that's just about it for Chez Stewart! I hope you all have been enjoying your first days of summer (well, almost!), and hopefully I'll see you soon! 🙂

Read More

Paulette Stewart
Family, Good Things

Smashbox

May 10, 2011

Hi everyone! Bre and I have been trying for a week to get her photo uploaded to a contest Smashbox Cosmetics has been running… the winner gets a trip to L.A. and a bunch of Smashbox goodies! Anyway, it's for fun, and Breanna dreams of a shrine full of mascaras. Ha!

If anyone out there has a spare minute (another ha!) to vote for her, that would be so awesome! Thank you so much! Here's the link: Smashbox "It" Girl Contest (Oh, and the only down side is you do have to have a Facebook account to vote.)

Btw, the reason we kept getting the photo rejected is that it wasn't perfectly centered when we sent it in, but we didn't know that at the time. You've seen it before, but here's the photo we submitted:

Again, thank you so much – and if you don't have the time (or care to spend your internet time voting), then we understand! 🙂

Good luck, Bre! My fingers are crossed that you'll have more mascara than you have lashes for.

Read More

Paulette Stewart
Family, Holidays

I am loved.

May 9, 2011

Our house can be a loud, crazy, and demanding one, but it is also one that is full with love. And I am so very blessed that my family doesn't choose to show their caring only on Mother's Day…but yesterday was a more pronounced version of how sweet they can be.

I mean, who wouldn't want to wake up to this? 🙂

It was a lovely day, and although I didn't get a picture of my sweet husband, he made it a special day as well.

I thank the Lord for my crazy, loving family.

Read More

Paulette Stewart
Crazy Kids

Major Feat

May 6, 2011

Recently I came out of shoe-painting retirement only briefly, when Breanna gave me a pouty face and handed me a new pair of white canvas shoes. Grr.

Here they were after I finished all the doodling:

And 5 hours later, the finished pair:

One shoe tongue says "You lift me up."

And the other says "You smell nice."

One of Bre's favorite things to say is, "Sorry 'bout it! Hope you're not, like, mad about it!" So I incorporated that as well…

I've gone back into retirement now.

(Although Sophie has been giving me the pouty face whenever Bre wears her shoes.)

P.S. Bre wore her first pair so often, they turned black!

Read More

Paulette Stewart
Family

Home Again

May 5, 2011

My girl is home for the summer, which makes me one very happy mom…

The only problem with this, however, is that she'll be expecting me to go to the gym with her.

(When does school start again?)

Read More

Paulette Stewart
Crazy Kids, Family, Friends

Ladder Ball and Other Nonsense

May 4, 2011

This past weekend we had a cookout, and Bre brought her friend Adam (who had just gotten himself a mohawk for an '80's-themed party). After our burgers and sides and Sophie's Incredible Orange Edible, Mike decided everyone would enjoy a game of Ladder Ball (also called Monkey Ball), so outside we went…

Here's Adam, looking fierce, focused, and ready to dominate:

But he'd better watch out for Soph, who has her dad as her partner…

During warmups, Bre whacked herself in the top of the head…

And while she recovered, Mike got ready for his big move…

There he goes!

Bre's up…

An excited spectator…

And an excited player…

When the game was over, the winners congratulated each other…

…Although Mike took the lion's share of the congratulatory cheers…

When Mike and his lowly teammate started to do their victory dance again, Bre decided she would rather pretend she was on their team the whole time…

…Than admit to losing.

Sabrina had to leave for work before the games began, so she and her dad went at it the next day…

And if you thought MIKE was bad when it came to winning, you ain't seen nothin' yet.

Adam, if you never come back to the Stewart House, I will understand.

Read More

Paulette Stewart
Stitching

Miss Eden

May 3, 2011

It's been ages since I've had any personal stitching accomplishments, as I'm usually working on models. But with a little (er, a lot of) determination, I got this sampler finished. Finally! Here is Frances Eden (on Glenshee with DMC), who was aged 10 when she stitched her sampler…

Now I'm kind of at a crossroads with my stitching… do I work on Dutch Beauty? I've wanted that stitched for-ev-er, but I'm only at the half-way point. I'm thinking maybe a page per month… and I just started Elizabeth Sheffield with Mom, which I posted about a few days ago. I have a little bit done on that one, so I may do a page per month on that too. And models in between.

Mom, you can quit snickering now. I realize how grand these plans are.

One more thing… Frances was actually bequeathed to me by my dear friend Kim, who started the sampler, got it just about half-finished, and then decided she would one day re-start it on a different linen and with silks (instead of DMC). I've kept the sweet note she enclosed with the kit, and it still makes me smile.

I didn't realize the entire note isn't here, but it went on to say that she knows Fran will have a better life and that maybe she can come visit Fran once in a while. She signed it, "Love, The Surrogate Stitcher." 🙂

Now that Frances is finished, perhaps I can convince her "real mother" to come visit her here in Omaha. 😉

Read More

Paulette Stewart
Crazy Kids

Stop Right There.

May 2, 2011

I asked Sophie, "Why do you think God gave us eyebrows?"

She thought about it, and gave me these three reasons, and was very sure (and serious) about her answer:

1. "He wanted us to be able to show emotion with more than just our eyes and our mouth."

2. "Maybe He thought our face was too blank with just a forehead and eyes, so He needed one more thing to put there."

3. "He knew that some day, girls would want to wear makeup, and they needed a line so that they knew where to stop."

I loved her answers, and I'm going with all three of them.

Read More

Paulette Stewart
Good Things

Fun-ness

April 29, 2011

Recently I was reading a post by The Sampler Girl about some of her favorite things. Which reminded me that it's been ages since I've shared some of the fun things I've run across lately!

Check out this darling owl wristlet I got for Bean… she and I were in a little shop called Francesca's (my older girls' favorite place to shop), and when we spotted this, we knew it must be hers. (She loves owls.)

Don't you love that stamped leather? I know it's not called "stamped" leather, but right now the correct word eludes me.

Here's the back:

This is my very favorite kind of polish… Sally Hansen's Insta-Dry nail color. The square-round brush is the best I've ever used, and you can get about 4 1/2 nails polished with one dip in the bottle. It's very cool.

This particular color is "Lively Lilac." (And yes, it does dry almost instantly.)

Sophie had a book fair at school this past week, and Sabrina asked me to pick her up a couple of these pens:

She likes how people get freaked out when she does this:

I could do this all day…

I'm planning on doing a stitch-along with my mom soon; we'll be working on Scarlet Letter's Elizabeth Sheffield, and I've discovered a new kind of silks I'll be using on it. They're called Carrie's Creation silks, and they're just gorgeous! (I got mine at Reflections Framing – 402.331.1740.)

(By the way, the linen is 40 ct. Meadow Rue by Lakeside Linens.)

Sometimes I like to peruse Etsy, in the hopes of getting myself in trouble. I love the smell of cloves, so when I stumbled on this lip color by The Epically Epic Soap Company, I knew I had to try some…

It's actually a lip tint in "Red Clove." It does smell very mildly of clove, and it goes on very smoothly.

And that's it! No food this time! I'm going to have to remedy that, bc I do love food. (Especially Fruit Pastilles, which are from England and are always calling my name, even this far across the pond. I should write to Kate and Wills to see if they'll send me some.)

And now I must take my leave and get back to whatever it was I was doing before I sat down here.

Oh yeah…

Read More

Paulette Stewart
Family, From My Kitchen, Holidays

Easter

April 27, 2011

It was such a pretty day this past Sunday, and I'm never in more of a mood to bake than on a bright Sunday morning, when the house is quiet.

I decided on monkey bread, bc one of the most heavenly aromas in the world is warm yeast bread baking, and hot coffee brewing. And bacon.

Just before it was time to shape the dough and set it in the oven, my littlest Easter chick came downstairs. (She's always the first one up on holidays.)

She was very excited to receive a much-longed-for fragrance in her basket. It's called Carried Away, by Bath & Body Works.

She smelled marvelous for church.

And Papa Bear looked marvelous for church.

(She wasn't quite ready for the picture, as she wasn't zipped up yet, but she was gracious about it.)

Bre wasn't home to get in on the picture, but Mike snapped a photo of me and my two other sweet girls…

Bre did make it home in time for this, however:

I hope you had a lovely Easter Sunday!

If you'd like the recipe for the monkey bread I made (which originally came from Martha Stewart, but with my slight changes), here it is:

**************************************************************************************

EASTER MORNING MONKEY BREAD

FOR THE BREAD:

1/4 c. water
3 1/4 c. flour
1 large egg
1 tsp salt
1/4 c. granulated sugar, plus a pinch for yeast
3/4 c. milk, warmed
2 T. shortening
1 pkg. yeast

1. Put the warm water and pinch of sugar in small bowl; sprinkle yeast over top. Stir; let the yeast soften and dissolve, about 5 minutes.

2. Place shortening, warm milk, sugar, salt, and egg in mixer bowl. Grease Bundt pan and a medium bowl.

3. Once yeast is dissolved and foamy, add it to mixer bowl; mix well. Slowly add flour. Knead by hand for 5 minutes or so. Place in the greased bowl; cover with plastic. Set dough in warm place and let rest 20 minutes.

FOR THE COATING:

1 stick butter, melted
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
3/4 c. light brown sugar

4. Put melted butter in a bowl. In another bowl, mix brown sugar and cinnamon.

5. Shape dough into 1/2" balls and then roll in butter and then brown sugar mixture. Place into prepared Bundt pan.

6. Cover with plastic wrap; let rise about 1 hour or until double in size.

7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake 30 to 35 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes in pan.

8. Turn bread out of pan; cool 20 minutes on rack or plate.

FOR THE ICING:

2 c. confectioners' sugar
1/4 c. milk

9. Make icing: In a small bowl, stir milk into confectioners' sugar. Drizzle over bread.

Enjoy! And be sure to have a fresh pot of coffee to go with it. 🙂

Read More

Paulette Stewart