iLearn - Adventures in Stained Glass

I have realized lately about myself that I'm not generally crafty, creative, or artistic. Don't argue, Mom. It's true. Drawing mermaids really well when you're 10 doesn't mean you're artistic. I don't have the overwhelming desire to make everything around me beautiful. I wish I did. I totally admire people who do. I'm pretty freaking jealous of a lot of my friends' adorable seasonal items, their knack for finding amazing things at thrift stores that I never notice or never think of using in my decor even if I do notice them, their ability to make cute things out of everyday household items, the way everything in their houses seems deliberate, like they PLANNED OUT their decor or something wild like that. No, this is not where my talents lie. I appreciate but cannot create this type of artistry. I am far too pragmatic to be truly artistic or original. If it isn't practical, I can't get myself to do it. The only creative projects I take on, the only hobbies I undertake which can be considered artistic or crafty, are those which also have a purpose. Like soap. I had a good run of 4-5 years there where I got really into making soap. Because soap, if you don't know, also has the purpose of making your hands really dried out. See? Pragmatic. I have also made little decoupaged flower pots for growing herbs (post on that to come as soon as my sister takes pictures of them!). I sewed some little birds for my baby's room, but only because she had a blank wall that needed to be filled. Anyway, you get the idea. Beauty for beauty's sake? No. Beauty with function? Possibly.

So I have come to accept in my life that I will never be a great photographer, a painter, a ballerina, a chef, an opera singer, a ballroom dancer, or any of the other great artistic things I have at some time aspired to. I am, alas, a Jane-of-all-trades, mistress of none. I dabble in just about everything--languages, cooking, gardening, writing, dance, travel, yoga, cello, piano, singing, baking, photography, etc. but I am not amazing at any of them. I think my talent is not in the thing to be learned, but in the love of learning. And I learn well. Well and fast. I understand things quickly (not math). I'm a great test taker. I can remember long strings of numbers. I imitate accents well. I can remember useless facts. I adapt easily to different situations. I can watch the National Geographic Channel for hours without getting bored. I'm fearless about trying new things. I love all people. Those are all very handy, but not something you can show off at parties or collect trophies for. But that's who I am, that is where my talent really lies...in loving, embracing, soaking up learning.

My newest adventure in learning? Stained glass. You might say that stained glass is not a pragmatic craft. And you might be right. It certainly isn't trendy. But I've always loved glass--the way the light comes through it, the way it twists and bends images. The variations in the thickness. The smoothness. The way it amplifies light. The sparkle. A few years ago I had a roommate who created stained glass objects for a living--ornaments, garden stakes, mobiles, etc. She paid me to do some of the legwork, like cutting the glass and putting the copper foil on. But I never got to MAKE anything, to put it all together. So now, years later, I'm taking the opportunity to learn that final process. Stay tuned and I'll do a few blog posts walking my readers through the process. No, it may not be an apothecary jar full of hand-made marshmallow starfish, or an antique dresser with with just the right amount of paint peeling off and adorable pulls made out of hand-pounded railroad nails that I found at a swap meet for $12, or cupcakes with crushed Oreos and fondant tops that look exactly like spring tulips emerging from the dirt. But it will be my sort of art...and maybe you'll like it.

It's Time for a Pipdate!

Man, we are WAY overdue for an update on Baby Pippa! I think I last updated when she was six or seven months old. Now she's eleven months old! I almost thought I should wait and just do a 1 year old update next month, but she's doing so many cute things right now, I figured I better record them for posterity before I forget.

First of all, Pippa is huge! I'm not sure how much she weighs. At her 9 month appointment, she was 20 lbs on the nose. My guess is that she's 21 or 22 now. She's chunky and has big fat cheeks and I absolutely love it! Even though she's blowing through Daphne's old clothes super fast (she's already wearing 18-24M and a few 2T!) I still think it's fun to have a rosy, fat baby for a change.

Pippa can:
·Drink from a sippy cup (she learned it today! She figured out how to tip it up and now she can't get enough of it).
·Say a lot of words: Dada, mama, baba (bottle), uh-oh, dat (that), tee-tee (tweet tweet), and her absolute favorite: HI! She says hi to everyone! Every person she passes at the store gets a hi. She says hi when she sees someone or something she wants. She says hi to her bottle. And she shouts "HI!!" to the entire congregation behind her when she turns around on the pew at church! It's adorable. The grandma waitresses at IHOP practically died at how her sweet little voice said hi, and how she'd hold out her arms for them as they passed. I thought they might take her back to the kitchen with them! She definitely isn't a shy one. She takes after her sister that way.
·Understand a lot of words. She can understand commands like "stand up" "lie down" "no!" (this is where she turns to look at me and smiles impishly. But she usually obeys), "come on" "ahh" (meaning "open your mouth and let me remove that disgusting thing you're sucking on!) and a few others.
· Climb stairs! We found this out the hard way when I was cleaning the basement and couldn't find her. There she was, at the top of the stairs! And she had even closed the stair gate behind her when she got to the top. What a good girl!
· Eat big girl food. Pippa never would eat baby food. There was about a 3 week period where I could get her to eat baby oatmeal from a spoon, but then she wouldn't eat that either. And she has never liked any pureed baby foods. So we went from those oat puffs pretty much directly to people food. She eats eggs, Life, crackers, ham, hot dogs, ramen, mac and cheese, bananas, strawberries, bacon, rice, and about everything else we eat, especially if it is on the floor. Still, she loves her baba more than any food.
· Crawl! Pippa started crawling just a few days after she turned 9 months old. She's a pro now.

Pippa is not much of a snuggler, but she is very friendly. She loves to be held for about 10 seconds, and then she wants to go go go. And then 30 seconds later she wants up again. She is so busy!!! And so social. She loves nothing better than when the whole family is over and she can go person to person the whole night.

Pippa is so on the go. She is into everything! She loves taking everything out of the cupboards, drawers, pantry, etc. She loves to sit in the wet shower if we leave it open for the cat to get a drink. She also loves to dip her arms in the cat's water fountain (which I'm not even sure if the cat drinks out of) and sit in it if she can maneuver it right.

Pippa is still a fantastic sleeper. Except for that 6 week period from age 4 months to 5 1/2 months where she woke up in the night and had to be Ferberized (which worked like a charm, I should add--one day and she was back to sleeping through the night again!), she has slept through the night since 4 days old. Now, at 11 months, she sleeps 12 hours a night (7:30-7:30) and takes 2 naps a day (9:30-11am and 3:30-5pm). I love that she got my sleeper gene!

Pippa has tons of hair. Daphne was bald until about 18 months, and only had this much hair at her 2 year old birthday. Pippa's hair is still strawberry blond, and in some lights looks quite red! It's curly at the back behind her ears. Pippa has two teeth. She got one two weeks ago and one popped through yesterday (bottom). It looks like one on top is about to come through soon too. Pippa's skin is that gorgeous rosy color that no one on my side of the family has. Thank you Big Daddy for that! Her eyes remain, thank goodness, grey. You might call them hazel. They are blue-ish grey but have a green tone in some lights and a starburst of brown in the middle. Sometimes I'm worried that that starburst of brown will expand and take over her eyes! But so far it has stayed limited to right around her pupil. Fingers crossed!

Pippa loves to be hung upside down, to laugh at her siblings' antics, to crawl so fast her hands won't keep up and she lands face first in the carpet, to shake my iPod and dance, to chase the cat, to eat cat food, and to give big, wet, open-mouthed kisses.

She is such a joy!

3 Cheese Macaroni And Cheese With Ham

I had a ton of ham left over from Easter dinner at my house on Sunday. I also had the stomach flu yesterday. So today when my appetite returned, sort of, I wanted something really comforting to eat. This baked ham and macaroni and cheese recipe I created turned out great! It really hit the spot and my husband declared it "possibly the best macaroni and cheese I've ever eaten." He may have been just trying to get the kids to try it. Because heaven forbid you do something radical to the worlds most kid-friendly food, like add HAM to it, or put BREAD CRUMBS on top of it. Now it somehow needs talking-into. Pschaw. Ignore the kids... I swear it's delicious!


3 Cheese Baked Macaroni & Cheese With Ham

(Serves 8)

• 4 oz ham, chopped to bite-sized pieces
• 2 cups elbow macaroni
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup onion, diced fine
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2 ¼ cups milk
• 6 ounces (3/4 cup) shredded medium cheddar cheese
• 2 ounces cream cheese
• 2 ounces (1/4 cup) of your favorite cheese, grated or cubed. I like parmesan, gouda, or havarti. Nearly anything will work, but cheeses with more flavor produce a better result.
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• ¼ cup Panko bread crumbs

Directions:
• In a large sauce pan, cook macaroni for 7-8 minutes in salted, boiling water. Macaroni should be slightly al dente. Drain and set aside.
• Meanwhile, fry the ham for 3-4 minutes on medium heat until it begins to brown. Remove from heat and set aside.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 2 quart casserole dish or a 9x13 inch pan with foil. Spray with no-stick cooking spray. This will make clean-up a breeze. No baked-on cheese to scrape!
• Now it’s time to make the roux. In a medium sauce pan, over medium heat, melt the butter. Add the chopped onion and garlic powder and cook for about 5-7 minutes, until the onions are translucent and the edges are beginning to brown. Remove from heat. Whisk in the flour, one tablespoon at a time until smooth (the onions will make it a little lumpy, but you don’t want lumps of flour). Return to the heat. Cook and stir the butter, onion and flour for 2 to 3 minutes until it thickens. Whisk in the milk a little at a time, stirring constantly. Bring the sauce to a simmer, then lower the heat and cook an additional 2 minutes.
• Now add the cheeses. First the cream cheese, cut into chunks. Once that is mostly melted, add the cheddar, half at a time. Once that appears mostly melted, add your final cheese. Stir for another minute or two until the cheese is all melted and the sauce is smooth.
• Pour cheese sauce over macaroni. Stir in ham. Add salt and pepper. Stir well to incorporate.
• Once the whole thing is nicely mixed, pour the macaroni into the prepared pan. Sprinkle with panko bread crumbs until the surface is lightly covered. (Add more if needed).
• Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges are hot and bubbly. Change heat to broil and cook an additional 2 minutes to brown the bread crumbs.

YUM!

Fabric Birds On a Branch Tutorial

A few months ago, I saw a cute blog post that had a picture of little hand-sewn, stuffed birds perched on a branch. It was a decoration for her baby's nursery. Well, wouldn't you know it, I have a bird theme in Pippa's room, so when I saw a wall that needed a little sprucing up, I decided to try this idea. Originally (the post I saw said) it was a bird mobile, with rows of birds rotating and dangling above the baby's crib. But she changed it up to be a piece of art on the wall, with the birds perched on a branch. I liked this idea better and so I set out to make my own version, based on the Spool Sewing website's pattern. Unfortunately, none of the blogs I searched out who tried this project gave many details about how they did it. So I decided to make my own tutorial on how to make your own hand-sewn, stuffed birds on a branch. Just so you know, I'm not much of a do-it-yourself-er when it comes to sewing; I'm a fairly inexperienced seamstress. I'm more of a have-your-mom-do-it-er. But I do know the basics of sewing. So when the sewing machine itself doesn't foil me with tangled thread, loose bottom stitches, or the bobbin having to be reloaded (all of which always happen to me, dagnabbit), I can usually manage to sew something simple. And seeing as how my mom is several thousand miles away, I just had to buck up and try it. Surprisingly, it turned out great! So if you're not terribly confident in your sewing skills, don't be intimidated. My tutorial is really clear and detailed and easy enough for even a not-so-brilliant seamstress.

Here's how it looks when it's finished...

And here are some close-ups of the sweet little birds...





So cute, don't you think? Pippa loves it. Every day I point around the room to the birdies and say "Tweet, tweet, tweet," she tries to copy me. But it comes out more like, "Tee tee tee!" since she's only 10 months old. It's ADORABLE, I tell you. I wish you could hear her. Anyway, I'm sure you're wondering when I'm going to get around to the tutorial part. Well, I did a guest post on my sister's blog Beehive and Bird's Nest with the entire tutorial. So rather than repeat myself here, I'll just link over to her blog for the how-to portion of making birds on a branch. Don't you love how Ive just added one more step?

Hand-Sewn Birds On a Branch Tutorial by Arianne

Have fun!


Here are some pictures of her room, in case you want to see how it all came together...

Her crib and wall stencil (designed and made by Big Daddy):

Her bedding, which is what inspired the bird theme (sewn by my mom):

The birds on the branch art, as well as her alphabet letters:

And finally her dotted bird/flower hooks, which used to be on the wall where the bird branches are now, and which are now relocated to above her closet.

My Weekend At Cheese Fantasy Camp

This weekend I had the chance to go visit my friend Mariella, who is a farmer/cheese-maker intern at the Rock Hill Creamery in Richmond, UT. My husband calls my little getaway "Cheese Fantasy Camp." He told all his clients, "My wife is away at Cheese Fantasy Camp." "Maybe she'll bring us back some great cheese from Cheese Fantasy Camp." Hmmm, maybe she won't if you say it like THAT. But he is right. I do have a secret fantasy about having a little farm where I make cheese, raise chickens, and keep bees for honey. It might even be more than a little fantasy. There is the slight possibility that when I can't sleep at night I lie there planning where the chicken coop will go and what kinds of fruit trees my bees will get the taste of their honey from. I may or may not think about what shade of yellow or green my little farmhouse's shutters will be, and how many sides of the house the porch will wrap around. And it's possible, but not substantiated, that if I lie awake long enough I might even dream about what my handsome, rugged, Nordic hired hand Sven will look like. But back to the cheese. The cheese at the Rock Hill Creamery, at least, is real.

Mariella has been our long-time babysitter, turned grown-up, turned friend. So I jumped at the chance to see just how hard (i.e. fun) working on a dairy farm might be. I drove up in the evening. We had a nice dinner at the one fancy-ish restaurant in Logan, and stayed up late chatting about boys and watching movies about boys (The Ides of March, yum. Incidentally watched ON the Ides of March. Weird.) We slept in her little studio apartment above the cheese cave.

But morning came all too soon, as it does on most farms. (On MY farm, morning won't start until 9am, but other farmers, it appears, are sadistic and like to milk in the dark). So at 6:25 we woke up, I ate breakfast in my sleep, got dressed in my fancy farm clothes in my sleep, and made it all the way to the milking parlor before I began to wake up. (Stripey overalls and rubber waders, how picturesque!)


We shoveled hay into the manger (they actually have real mangers on farms!) and called for the cows. Here you can see the girls eating their hay. All except Ingrid. She was being sassy and made us tromp all the way down into the pasture to make her come eat.
(It's still barely dawn out, and I wasn't about to haul around my tripod, so the pictures are a little blurry.)



Next was the milking. I have to say I was a little intimidated by the size of the cows. You kind of picture them as being about chest high. But in reality they were about as tall as I am or more. And they look at you really suspiciously with their big eyes and you wonder if they might not want to sit on you if given the chance. But since they're such creatures of habit, they marched into the milking room right past me, stuck their heads in the oat trough, and started munching. No killer cows on this farm, thank goodness!



I have to get a little real with you here. It kind of weirded me out to touch their, um, teats. I felt like I should have gotten to know them first, taken them out to dinner and a movie or something. Reaching down there and just grabbing hold made me feel like I was violating them just a little. It was made worse by the fact that their teats are warm and fleshy and pretty much exactly what you'd expect touching someone's teats would be like...only their somecow's teats, not someone's teats, and are 10x the size. STIll, it was a little bit creepy. But that creepiness got me to completely forget my fear of being stomped on while milking. So before I knew it, I had squirted milk all over my foot without even being scared!

(Incidentally, the cows are not milked by hand. They're hooked up to a little four-prong milking apparatus that sucks the milk through some big tubes into the milk cans. Watching it gave me sudden flashbacks of pumping bottles for my babies. The small scrap of self-dignity I'd managed to retain while being hooked up to a breast pump completely dissolved while watching these cows get milked. Yep, I had been a human cow, nothing more.)



After all the rich, creamy milk was extracted from the six cows, Mariella weighed it (I was way too weak to pick up those huge urns full of milk) and poured it into the giant refrigerated vat where it is stirred and kept cold until cheese making day.




I wasn't there for cheese-making day, unfortunately, but I was there for cheese cleaning and turning day. So we showered, donned our special cheese making clothes--aprons, hair nets, cheese clogs (not wooden, sadly) and rubber gloves--and headed to the Cheeserie (not its real name). I got to help Jen the Farmer's Wife turn the feta first. It's stored in these big rings wrapped in cheesecloth. They sit on a big sieve where the whey drips down and goes into a big bucket. (I asked her what they do with the whey, and she said a farmer with a much bigger dairy buys it to feed to his calves. I love how everything on the farm is used for something. Even the manure is bought by other farmers for fertilizer. Nothing goes to waste!) Anyway, the feta cakes have to be turned periodically to allow the cheese to become uniformly firm, and to allow the whey to get out. So we pulled off the rings, flattened out the cheesecloth, flipped the big square cakes of feta over, and re-wrapped them. I was amazed at how solid and heavy they are! And being a big fan of feta, I loved the strong, salty smell.



Next we went down into the cheese cave (its real name!). Pete the Farmer had made some new spruce planks for the cheese to sit on. They had to be tempered and sealed with olive oil, so I got to do that first. Next I helped Jen and Mariella with the affinage. It's a fancy French cheese word for giving the cheese some TLC. Mostly it means turning and cleaning the cheese wheels. They are massive! Each wheel weighs 13-18 lbs and there are 4 on a plank. The planks rest on two metal bars, one at each end of the plank. There is another rack of bars in the center of the room. So you pull a plank out and rest it on the center bar, then it becomes a sort of work shelf.
It is VERY scary to pull the planks out. They weigh about 60 lbs, and once you slide them past the back support bar, they're like a cheese see-saw! You have to balance them exactly to keep them from tipping and sending cheese wheels rolling in all directions. Once you have the plank balanced on the center bar, however, they are stable and you can begin the cheese cleaning. The Rock Hill Creamery makes natural rind, aged cheeses. This means they use raw, unpasteurized milk and allow it to cure for a minimum of 60 days (but up to 2 years!). They rub it with a special briney wash that causes a certain bacteria to grow and form a rind on the cheese. This seals the cheese in, so to speak. But like all cheeses, in which mold plays an integral part, there are bad molds. So we wiped the cheese with a soft cloth to remove any bad molds, flipped it over and put it back to continue aging. There were a few cheese wheels on which the rind was not yet forming, in the pictures you can see them as a beautiful golden color, like a giant cheesecake. So these we washed with the bacteria wash to get the rind to form.



Jen and Mariella cut, weighed, and wrapped some of the cheeses for sale at local markets and stores next. I was lucky enough that while Jen was cutting the cheese wheels into small chunks she let me sample all the cheeses. Oh my deliciousness! Every one was more yummy than the last. I got to try an Edam, a Gouda, a 1 year aged Gouda, a Tomme, the Red Desert Feta, a Gruyere, and a 1 year aged Gruyere. I thought I liked the Edam best until I got to the 1 year aged Gruyere. When it hit my mouth, it was like my taste buds exploded! (In a good way.) The cheese had such a wonderful flavor--surprisingly sweet, firm, nutty, a little sharp, and there was almost an effervescent effect on your tongue while eating it. I can't quite describe it to you, but if you ever get a chance to try a 1 year old aged Gruyere, do it!!



After all that, we were pooped! So we went with Pete to L.D's for lunch. Picture a greasy, small-town diner where everyone knows everyone and nothing has changed for 50 years and you have L.D's. Within minutes, I was in love with L.D's and everyone in it, especially L.D. himself, who came over to chat with us. He brought over a handful of photos of Pete eating in the diner about 15 years ago. He was younger, with fewer gray hairs then, but he's still just as handsome! The diner looked exactly the same as it had back then and probably since Pete started working there in 1957. Same wood-paneled walls, same kitchy decor. Including this gem:


That was my wonderful day on the farm. It was so fun, and I learned so much. I asked Jen everything I could think of about cheese and cheese making as we cleaned the cheese wheels, and she knew the answer to everything I wondered. Mostly I found out that taking care of cows and making cheese is a lot harder, more back breaking work than I had anticipated. But don't think that has discouraged me from my cheese and bees farm fantasy. Oh no. Afterall, that is what Sven is for!

Foresight is 20/20.

They say hindsight is 20/20. But my hindsight wasn't even close. 20/80 in my left eye and 20/550 in the right. 20/550...ya, you saw that right. Do you know what that means? It means virtually blind. It means serious coke-bottles. It means if you took, say, a TV and put it 550 feet away from someone, they would see it just as clearly as I would see it standing only 20 feet away. It means if you've ever run into me without my contacts, guess what? I had no idea who you were and just waved to be friendly. Sad, huh?

Whenever I have gone in for my eye exams, they'd ask me what the smallest line on the wall I could read was, and I say, there's a wall there? I couldn't even read that giant E on the top with my right eye. Which is why I have always longed for LASIK.

Mother Nature, however, has been toying with me for the last 15 years. Not only was I blessed with being the only child in my family to need glasses, my eyesight has gradually gotten worse and worse every year since I was about 23. About that time, LASIK came into existence. I asked my optimologomitrist guy if I qualified, and he said no. My eyes were not stable enough. But don't worry, he said, they usually stabilize by age 25. At age 25 I asked him if my eyes were stable enough. No, he said. But don't worry, they usually stabilize by age 30. At age 30 he told me that they'd be stable by 35. He said it with such sincerity, even though I know he'd already lied to me twice. At age 35 he finally stopped making up numbers and just shook his head. I figured I was doomed to always need glasses. But then by some miracle, at my next appointment a year later, my eyes had hardly changed. And the next year, again. Finally I was a candidate.

Now, the main reason I have always wanted LASIK, you might be surprised to know, is because of the end of the world. True dat. I mean, ya, it's a pain to put in contacts and stuff. And to need glasses first thing in the morning and at night. But contacts aren't that bad. If I thought they'd always be readily available, I probably wouldn't worry about it. But someday there may be a financial collapse. Or a major pandemic. Or a third world war. Or a run on Acuvue. Or some other reason why society (and the economy) as we know it might cease to exist. And really, the scariest thing I can think of is not being able to see if something should happen to my glasses. REALLY. I would be virtually blind, and that is very very scary.

So last week I did it. I got LASIK. It was not fun. WATCHING people cut open your eyes and pull back the cornea and do stuff with sharp instruments...actually watching it close up, despite the Valium they give you, is just not that fun, even if you can't feel a thing and it's all sort of blurry. BUT it is worth it, oh yes it is. The next day when I went in for my post-op...20/2O in both eyes!!! A week later at my check up, they've regressed a bit, to 20/25 and 20/30. But they may improve again, the doc said. They fluctuate for several months as they heal. But guess what? I don't even care! I can SEE!!!! From here on out, you can just call me "HEY, TWO EYES!"

Arianne Go Bragh

If you aren't familiar with the famous phrase "Erin Go Bragh" that's probably because it isn't that famous and you obviously aren't Irish. I'm not Irish either. At least not that I know of. I know of a lot of European blood is floating around in my veins--Danish, English, Manx, German, Austrian, Hungarian, Czech...probably a few others--but as far as I know, I don't have a single solitary drop of Irish blood. So every year when St. Patrick's day rolls around, I begin asking myself:

Should I decorate?
Is there some classy way to make Kelly green blend in with my decor?
Who is St. Patrick anyhow?
Did he clear Ireland of rats with a flute?
Wait, I think that was the Pied Piper.
What IS a blarney stone?
Why are people kissing it?
Can kissing rocks give you weird lip fungus?
If you get a lip fungus, can you get rid of it with Abreva, like a cold sore?
And does Abreva really work?
And how can that tiny 1" long tube cost $18?!?

So you see how the arrival of St. Patrick’s day causes all kinds of upheaval in my life. I just don't know what to do with this holiday. I do like to dress up the house for the holidays a bit. Halloween is my favorite. I can't get enough of the macabre. Christmas is fun, just for the sheer amount of decor you can put up that is Christmas related (at least vaguely, like anything green, red, gold, silver, sparkly, round, star shaped, covered in ribbon, covered in stripes, covered in polka dots, or even plaid, if it's any combination of red, green, gold, silver, or white.), I do a bit of something like a fun wreath and some sparkly hearts around for Valentine's (another saint I have no idea who he is, but at least he comes bearing chocolates and flowers, so he is deemed worthy of my decorating), some pretty pastel eggs and such go in my apothecary jars for Easter. Even harvest might get some pumpkins and gourds and stuff thrown around (though I can't abide cheesy Thanksgiving items. Turkeys and Pilgrims do not inspire me aesthetically). But what to do for St. Patty’s? I perused the aisles of my local craft/decor store today and took in all the shamrocks, clovers, leprechauns, shamrocks, clovers, and shamrocks and...I just couldn't get inspired. I will do green pancakes and green milk on St. Patrick’s day. I'm not a complete Ebenezer Scrooge. (Misplaced metaphor?) But as far as that tacky green decor...well, what can I say? "Kiss me, I'm Anglo-Austrian!"