I scream, you scream, we all scream for...

With the warmer weather seemingly here (I say "seemingly" as I don't want to tempt fate and bring the snow back), my mind has been increasingly turning to thoughts of the above. Yep, this is one of my earlier PMC and lampworked necklaces. I was just starting to get a handle on making these blasted banana split beads when it became too cold around here to work in an unheated garage. Also, those PMC spoons and the clasp are just looking incredibly crude to me now. I think I need another whack at them. I certainly never seem to get tired of an homage to my favorite food. (In case you're wondering, my current favorite flavor is Ben & Jerry's "Cake Batter". Truthfully, it borders on being disgustingly sweet, but, oh, how I love it so. And I wonder why I haven't been able to lose any weight lately...) On the other hand, I haven't so much as made a glass spacer in over 8 months - I wonder if I still remember how to do it...

On other fronts, a couple of pans that my Mom ordered for me as a gift arrived yesterday, and the Short One (who believes that all packages arriving at the house are gifts for him) descended upon them with cries of rapture. I had to remove the large pan - it's so heavy, I was worried that the SO would drop it on his toe and Bad Things would happen - but he spent a happy hour (really a very long time for him - his attention span is still pretty short) "cooking" with it. I showed him how to crack an egg with a couple of plastic eggs left over from Easter, and he meticulously cracked each egg open before putting it in the pan. Then we gathered up his set of plastic fruits and veggies that the Easter Bunny brought him and made stir fry.

As a result of all of this, I have been spending today surfing the 'Net looking at toy cooking sets for him. I find it interesting, although not surprising, that the sets are largely all marketed to little girls. Curiously enough, though, reading the parent reviews on Amazon and the like, it's clear that many of them were purchased for little boys. I once knew a woman whose husband used to get upset if their son even watched the Food Network, because he felt that cooking was "sissy" and he wanted his manly little man to have no part of it. We don't remotely adhere to that principle chez SO - the Husband is an excellent chef and actually did almost all of the cooking at our house before the SO arrived. Now I cheerfully burn things on a nightly basis, as I try to keep one eye on the food and the other on the SO, but the fact is that we both think that cooking is an essential skill for the SO to acquire. Hence, my sudden interest in plastic pots and pans and play condiments. I'm staggered by the sheer variety of sets on the market these days. The same company that makes the fruit and veggie set that we bought for the SO also has dim sum and sushi sets. You can buy anything from cake and pizza making play sets to ice cream banana splits etc., etc. There are also tons of wonderful play food sets available on Etsy. I'm lovin' it! The only difficulty for me is deciding which one will be the best for the SO. Stay tuned...

Thanks for visiting!