Bon Bon Designs

EggFest 2011

2011-04-21T20:45:00.000-04:00

Actually, the original name was Eggstravaganza, but I forgot.

Pumpkin Adventure

2010-10-18T01:58:00.002-04:00

Things to Do Outside With The Family (for a Non-Outside-y Type of Mom)

2010-05-13T16:18:00.004-04:00

Thank goodness our neighborhood pool opened up! It is already so hot here for this time of year...

Before it gets to the point of running from one air-conditioned place to the next this summer, I wanted to write about a cool place to take your kids that is kinda enjoyable for moms, too!

Check out the Columbia Canal Riverwalk. Because I love history, this is a great place to walk around and explore...Take a picnic and eat it on a big rock in the middle of the river!

Back in the olden days, everything was pretty much based around the water... before mass transportation, the river was the only way to move supplies and products to and from villages. In South Carolina, we have a bunch of rivers and canals! The state used the labor of Irish immigrants in 1824 to build a series of canals to connect settlements in upstate South Carolina with the Midlands.

From Wikipedia:
"In 1820, construction started on a canal to navigate the rapids where the Broad River and the Saluda River form the Congaree River. It used a natural ravine that was between the City of Columbia and the Congaree and Broad Rivers. The canal started between Lumber (currently Calhoun) and Richland Streets. It ran along the Congaree for about 3.1 mi (5 km). It ended across from Granby Landing just north of the current railroad bridges across the Congaree. The canal was completed in 1824. It was 12 ft (3.7 m) wide and 2.5 ft (0.8 m) deep north of Senate St. South of Senate St., the canal was 18 ft (5.5 m) wide and 4 ft (1.2 m) deep. It had an 8 ft (2.4 m) wide towpath on either side. The canal had four lifting locks and one guard lock for the 34 ft (10 m) descent of the river. A diversion dam was built across the Broad River to allow access from the Saluda Canal. There were three waste weirs to prevent flooding of the canal.
A separate canal, which was called Bull Sluice, was constructed north of Columbia Canal on the Broad River, This ½ mi (0.8 km) long canal had one lock. The 1891 canal extended the Columbia Canal upstream of Bull Sluice.
In 1840, the State of South Carolina dropped its subsidy of the canal. In 1842, the railroads came to Columbia and the traffic on the canal decreased. During the Civil War, the hydraulic power of the canal was used to make gunpowder. Mills that used the canal for power were a grist mill run by the State Penitentiary, another grist mill, and a saw mill.

Portions of the 1824 canal south of Gervais St. survive today. Also parts of the Bull Sluice canal remain."

Happy Cinco de Mayo & How Much I Love Cilantro

2010-05-05T13:33:00.002-04:00

Happy Cinco De Mayo! The holiday celebrating Mexico’s victory over France in the 1800s is celebrated in the United States by great food and drink!

This day also gives me an opportunity to write about my love of cilantro! Once you have salsa with fresh cilantro, you won't like it any other way!

From Gourmetsleuth.com:

"Pronounced [sih-LAHN-troh] this member of the carrot family is also referred to as Chinese Parsley and Coriander. It is actually the leaves (and stems) of the Coriander plant.

Cilantro has a very pungent odor and is widely used in Mexican, Caribbean and Asian cooking. The Cilantro leaves look a bit like flat Italian parsley and in fact are related.

Coriander grows wild in South East Europe and had been cultivated in Egypt, India and China for thousands of years. It is mentioned in Sanskrit text and the Bible Spanish conquistadors introduced it to Mexico and Peru where it now commonly paired with chilies in the local cuisine. It has since become very popular in the Southwest and Western part of the United States as well as in most metropolitan areas. An interesting note is that people of European descent frequently are reviled by the smell of cilantro. It has not gained in popularity in Europe as it has in many other parts of the world.

Coriander is believed to be named after "koris", the Greek word for "bedbug" as it was said they both emitted a similar odor. The Chinese used the herb in love potions believing it provided immortality. Coriander is one of the herbs thought to have aphrodisiac qualities. The book of The Arabian nights tells a tale of a merchant who had been childless for 40 years and but was cured by a concoction that included coriander. That book is over 1000 years old so the history of coriander as an aphrodisiac dates back far into history. Cilantro was also know to be used as an "appetite" stimulant."

Confessions Of A Mom Geek

2010-04-24T14:49:00.001-04:00

There was a time when my geekiness was not very stylish at all! I was the one with the encyclopedia sized day-planner stuffed into my purse back in the late 80's. After my first baby, I took my geekiness to a whole new level! Enter the Palm Pilot! I remember typing all of my recipes into it and pulling it out at the grocery store while other shoppers gave me curious looks. Soon, I was dealing with a large, clunky cell phone and a Palm Pilot.... truly a female Inspector Gadget!

Between my sister and me, we have purchased and tested so many cell-phones that I have lost count. The phone that I have today and love is the Palm-Pre. I started with carrying Palm Pilots and it looks like I have come full-circle. Windows Mobile based phones are just not for me. In my opinion, they are not very intuitive at all. The Palm-Pre is beautiful in it's simplicity.

Palm, Inc. as a company....what's up with that? It seems this organization is always struggling. Today's news is that Palm is up for grabs to any corporation who will have it! Please, I'm a Palm Fan! Let's keep this wonderful phone from disappearing.

More blogging to come regarding this great device!

Eggstravaganza 2010

2010-04-03T14:23:00.002-04:00

We had our annual Easter egg-dying get together. There are no rules. The kids just grab a boiled egg from a pile. They can dye or decorate it any way they choose! Moms get involved too! It's fun.

This year my sister-in-law hosted our Eggstravaganza! She provided plain white handled bags for the kids to design themselves. We finished the event with a little egg hunt.

Every year, I tell myself that I'm going to study-up and learn some new and unique egg-dying tricks before the Eggstravaganza. :) I didn't do it this year, but I'm going to be prepared for next Easter! So far, we use the tried and true method of writing names and drawing patterns on the egg with a white/clear wax crayon before dipping it into the dye.

We also use a trick learned from a great aunt in which the egg is wrapped in several rubber bands and then dyed.

Here are some egg dying tricks I want to try in the future:

Silk-Tie Eggs - from the Martha Stewart website:

Lace Eggs - also from Martha Stewart:

Tissue Paper Eggs:

The Craft Kit Team

2010-03-01T00:58:00.013-05:00

My five year old niece and I have started a tradition of getting together to complete craft kits. These are usually ones that she has received for Christmas or her birthday. We are "The Craft Kit Team". Together we are going to complete, photograph and blog about the craft kits we create! I will publish "The Results" here!

A few weeks ago, we completed "The Cupcake Purse Kit". The item description reads:

Cupcake Purse kit is from Creativity for Kids
Handy kit allows you to decorate this satin-covered cupcake purse with icing trim, a sprinkle of beads and cherry bead topper
Craft kit offers trendy fibers and fun embellishments

Things We Liked:

Plenty of glue, beads and trim
Chocolate satin lining inside
Opening & closing the top using the ribbon & cherry bead
Nice colors

Things We Wished:

Better instructions at the beginning describing the different options of making patterns with the beads & glue, instead of just all over the top

Happy Valentine's Day 2010!

2010-02-14T13:13:00.005-05:00

A Classic Valentine's E-Card from Jacquie Lawson

It Actually Snowed!!

2010-02-12T21:05:00.007-05:00

But it got too cold to finish our snowman's face! He's lucky he has a nose.

Dreamin'

2010-01-25T21:15:00.002-05:00

Dreamin'
Originally uploaded by Bon Bon 07

Love, love this design! If they were in my size, I would have them on now!

Follow My Blog

2010-01-21T00:02:00.001-05:00

:) Just go to the box under my profile picture... thanks!

Putting Away Christmas...

2010-01-10T13:46:00.005-05:00

...is always a slightly melancholy endeavor.
Packed away in a little brown box with my grandmother's name and address, was a treasure that I forgot to display this past year!

Memories of carefully getting this tiny angel band out each season for my grandmother came back to my mind. These miniatures were a gift from her sister to my father, when he was eight years old! Each year, they would stand on a small mirror, placed atop the piano in the "sun room".

Their hand-painted faces are so sweet. Their mellow colors are so pleasing to my eyes! Each musician holds a tiny instrument. Chipped and faded, they become more fascinating with the passage of time.

I felt sure this band was of German origin. Since I just returned from a visit to Munich, I'm sorry I didn't look more closely into the one of the many craft booths displaying painted wooden objects of all shapes, sizes and color!

There are numerous websites offering angels that are similar to these vintage cherubs. However, I have been unable to locate and identify their exact origin...

Taken from Erzgebirgische Volkskunst - Popular Arts and Crafts from the Erzgebirge Mountains:

"The popular arts and crafts from the Erzgebirge mountains have been in the hearts of many people from many countries because of their great variety. It began with the miners' carving, went on to the making of bobbin-lace, and then coming onto the making of wooden toys. But most popular are the arts and crafts manufactured for Christmas which made the Erzgebirge region well-known as a "Christmas Country". Their basis was the miners' working and living environment which gave Christmas the sense of a "festival of light". The pyramids, "Schwibbogen", angel and miner candlesticks, made a special contribution to that. But the smokers and nutcrackers also gave Christmas in the Erzgebirge mountains a unique character. They all belong to the typical arts and crafts for Christmas.

Being the product of craftsmen and artists they are not only for Christmas decoration. They should not only be used for people's enjoyment, but rather it should also show the heritage of their creation and development. It was the social and economical influence that changed the form of the crafts, not tradition. There were important changes in content, design, and function of the arts and crafts. The responsibility of our cultural heritage demands to compare the results of the history to the present time and to combine the best parts for creating new items showing our feeling for tradition. Let us not only show the tradition of the arts and crafts but also do all the best for preserving and developing them, and integrating them in our life."

There are many more angel interpretations available, each with the individual characteristics of the original workshop :

Image by Ela2007 via Flickr

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T16:38:00.001-05:00

...to one and all!

Click on this e-card from Jacque Lawson!

Trimming The Leaning Tower of Tree-sa

2009-12-20T02:10:00.010-05:00

Images and ponderings from our tree decorating activities...

The tree is leaning. We had to finally reconcile ourselves to that fact! ;) "They" said they are going to have Christmas on the 25th, whether our tree is straight or not.

I have turned it so that it leans into the corner!

Big sis was very patient in giving lessons on not putting ornaments too close to the end of the branch and separating ones that were alike. After a bit of time, the boy was done with the decorating and into chasing the cat around the tree, not at all helping with the leaning tree syndrome!

Tree lights have always been a source of slight distress on my part. I have searched high and low for the perfect tree lights of my childhood.

During the nineties, while decorating the first tree I had in my own home, I was surrounded by the mini-yellow light craze. Blah! Every tree in America had these generic, white lights. I wanted the multi-colored bulbs. I really didn't care if, at that time, it were considered a bit "tacky". It was Christmas -and Christmas is about memories and family! To me, it was a matter of simply going out and buying these wonderful, nostalgic multi-colored, twinkling bulbs of wonder. I had no idea of the changes in the tree light bulbing industry since the sixties. Seems these glorious strings of lights of my youth were responsible for many a house fire... and after weeks of searching, appeared to be unavailable for purchase to the average consumer!

I finally resorted to buying strings of outdoor lights, with large, chunky opaque bulbs and replacing each bulb with the hard-to-find, transparent(yet colored) twinkling bulbs, found in obscure places like on the bottom shelf at the back of CVS's clearance aisle.

Lately, I have noticed more and more folks are going with these merry, multi-colored lights and I quite like it.

Related link I found: http://www.collectorsweekly.com/christmas/lights

Happy Thanksgiving 2009

2009-11-27T10:49:00.001-05:00

Great Site For E-Card Greetings!

2009-11-10T21:58:00.007-05:00

A friend sent an e-card to me. It was an animated painting by Jacquie Lawson.

Accompanied by such lovely music, these e-cards and screen-saver backgrounds are truly noteworthy. Not just your everyday, run-of-the-mill e-cards... (if there is such a thing!)

I really enjoyed mine! Thanks, Roxanne!

...and a big Thank You to our country's Veterans!

All Saint's Day School Project

2009-11-06T11:57:00.013-05:00

How much fun was this?! My son chose St. George for his "All Saint's Day" Project at school.

After I had some fun with Photo-shop, the red poster is not readable :)

On the sign, he wrote 5 facts about St. George:

Patron Saint of Boy Scouts
Feast Day is April 23
Slayed a dragon
Saved the king's daughter
Converted her village to Christianity

More Fun With Graphix!

2009-11-01T12:20:00.000-05:00

My Daughter...On Her Eighteenth Birthday!

2009-10-26T23:45:00.002-04:00

I love you!

Ah, summertime at the beach...

2009-06-28T14:44:00.025-04:00

filling up senses...

fleeting, it calls on us to make the most of its briefness...

Front Porch Creature

2009-06-22T02:18:00.010-04:00

There is a really weird spider on our front porch. It is only the size of my pinky nail, but boy is it creepy. I googled black and white spider with horns and came up with some interesting sites.... I'm wondering if this could be the same type of creature:

UPDATE: I received an answer from Dr. Joseph Culin of Clemson Entomology Center! Thanks Dr. Culin!!! (maybe I will email him back and ask if he would like to "have" my porch creature...)
"Kim
I think it is what is called the star bellied orb weaver, Anantheperia stellata. Most of the images in Google Images are not as white as yours is but most that I’ve seen are bright white.
Joe Culin"

School Projects & The Wonder of Krylon Paint

2008-09-17T17:44:00.011-04:00

To make a Pueblo Adobe Model for his social studies project, my son used boxes, glue, some sand, twigs, backyard cactus prickly plants and Krylon Make It Stone Texture Spray Paint! This stuff was like spraying wet beach sand and pieces of shell. Really pretty cool.

So what do you think? Does it look like an adobe house to you? Hope so! :) (Actually, it makes me think of a house-shaped cake, but trust me, it really wouldn't taste so good!)

I love summer!

2008-07-04T14:51:00.002-04:00

School Spring Supper and Used Book Sale

2008-04-11T12:15:00.016-04:00

Easter - Celebration of Life Eternal

2008-03-23T21:37:00.000-04:00

Today was a great family day. My son also thought that it was a great day for teasing. (sigh)

Dream Dinners

2008-03-22T14:06:00.017-04:00

My daughter and I scheduled a session with Dream Dinners.

We had a blast going to each station and preparing delicious meals to freeze and then have on hand for the weeks ahead. No prep work, no clean up!

Everything is fresh and ready for the "fun part" of cooking!

Dreaming of Summer!

2008-03-03T11:15:00.002-05:00

More Birthday Fun!

2008-01-31T19:00:00.000-05:00

Birthday Butterfly Cakes

2008-01-28T15:42:00.002-05:00

My daughter learned about "Butterfly Cakes" from her English friend. For a special treat, she made her own chocolate version to celebrate my son's birthday!

Slice the cupcake top off, cut in half and adhere "wings" with icing!

Happy Birthday!

2008-01-28T12:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to my son! He is nine years old.

Check out This Blog

2008-01-21T17:11:00.000-05:00

Stuart James is a great friend and wonderful realtor. Check out her blog. http://athomewithstuartjames.blogspot.com/

Happy New Year to My Friend Tara!

2008-01-01T14:45:00.000-05:00

Happy 2008! After much coaxing, he finally experienced the joy of SPARKLERS!!!

2008-01-01T14:27:00.007-05:00

Yummy

2007-12-30T18:04:00.000-05:00

Created using designs by Katie Pertiet of DigitalDesigns.com.

~Christmas Overalls~ Created For My Precious Niece

2007-12-28T14:27:00.001-05:00

Funny Email From My Sister

2007-12-28T12:32:00.000-05:00

Concerned Parent

"Dear Edushape Company:
While my daughter absolutely adores the 'Splash of Fashion' tub toy she received as a gift from her cousins, I have developed a concern about the stability of the mother-figure therein. See attached photographs. Please advise whether Edushape will be offering a companion product specifically for the evidently-distressed woman entitled 'Splash of Prozac.'

Thank you very much."

Santa

2007-12-22T10:05:00.001-05:00

My son has never been a real big Santa fan. He has always been slightly skeptical and reserved when it comes to St. Nick. Here, he keeps a safe distance.

This was a case of herding cats.

Christmas Cookies

2007-12-21T19:04:00.004-05:00

Trying Out Digital Scrapbooking

2007-12-10T00:36:00.001-05:00

Make a postcard!

Tree Lighting Festival

2007-12-05T00:38:00.001-05:00

Let's start this post out with the fact that I had a total mind-block about the flash on my camara and other basics. (Sorry Sis.) I've never been real good when a whole lot is going on at once!
Hot chocolate, balloons, lines, lights, uhhhh.... my mind was blown. It doesn't take much. LOL

The balloon creations were awesome! These folks can make anything with balloons. Adorable elf hats, reindeer, all kinds of festive items. After standing in line for quite some time, my son chooses.... an octopus!! Oh well, it was a really cool octopus!

Four chicken tenders, two hot chocolates, and one gynormous octopus later - a smile!

National Honor Society

2007-12-05T00:08:00.000-05:00

My daughter was inducted into the National Honor Society a few weeks ago. I'm so proud of her!

Book Club

2007-11-24T01:00:00.000-05:00

Ok, how's this for a post? We had a book club meeting last week.

The book of the month was entitled "Water For Elephants".

Did I read it?............ Ummm, no.

But......the meeting also involved a "Fashion Swap"!

Now we're talking Kim stuff! We got just a lil' silly!

But, hey, girls just wanna have fun! (and read a good book every year or so...) :)

Big Sister's Riding Lesson

2007-11-06T20:54:00.000-05:00

Drove out with my daughter for her riding lesson. My son tagged along too. It was pretty cold!

I had my camara, so I made myself not stay huddled up in the car, listening to the radio!

Nothing like sand and toy trucks!

Etsy

2007-11-06T12:59:00.000-05:00

Hey, check out Etsy.com! I love this site because everything is handmade. I just "opened a shop" there. Kewl.

Candy Canes!

2007-10-27T12:44:00.000-04:00

This is a fun project! I used ideas from Martha Stewart to embellish this adorable infant top. Click here to purchase one!

Create all kinds of festive decorative items with good old-fashioned rick-rack! Who knew? Click here.

Book Report Project

2007-10-23T21:32:00.000-04:00

You know, this was kinda a big deal for a hard working little boy around our house for the past few days. It might not look like much to you, but... I mean Wilbur and Charlotte are like family! (click on pics for a better view)

2007-10-22T12:06:00.000-04:00

Sweet Sixteen today! So hard to believe...

Mom Video

2007-10-21T20:35:00.001-04:00

I've sent this video link to most of my family and friends. But, I still couldn't resist posting it here. It's just that funny!

Turkey Bib

2007-10-14T23:04:00.000-04:00

Check out this adorable turkey appliqued bib I created. Wonderful for the upcoming season. Thick, soft chenille. Ultra washable. Click here to go to my eBay link!
Update, no one wanted it I guess! :) So, it's now in my Etsy shop. Funny, I sold over a dozen of these at a Christmas show a few years back. Poor, unwanted Turkey Bib!

Pumpkin Hunt!

2007-10-14T21:31:00.000-04:00

Finding the perfect pumpkin is hard work!

Even with a knight in shining armor to help!

Fall Is In The Air!

2007-10-12T12:57:00.000-04:00

I can smell cold weather coming on. I'm not really a big fan of the cold, though, so I try to savor these fading days of sun and warmth! My son and I visited the fair with a group of friends. The weather was perfect! Of course, I got to be the "holder of the cotton candy bag", which was probably not such a good idea! (wink)

http://www.scstatefair.org/