April 02, 2010

Good Friday

Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon me!

With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood there in front of Jesus, heard his cry and saw how he died, he said, "Surely this man was the Son of God!" - Mark 15:37-39 - 


March 21, 2010

Easter Outing

Another one from CRAFTY SECRETS and using NO stamping.  Again, I used a vintage image from Crafty Secrets "Heartwarming Vintage Booklets, Seasonal" and I also used paper from the Heartwarming Vintage "Radiant" paper pack.  (non-compensated bragging).  I hope the googly-eyes don't make bunny look too scary.  He's goofy.  I need GLITTER today.



Happy Easter - Joyful Easter

It's all things CRAFTY SECRETS today.  And everyone must know how much I LOVE CRAFTY SECRETS.   It's hard to believe but yes, I made a card using NO stamping.  It's easy to do with crafty secrets images, see <--- click here...I did it before.  For this card I used a vintage image from Crafty Secrets "Heartwarming Vintage Booklets, Seasonal" and I also used paper from the Heartwarming Vintage "Radiant" paper pack.  (non-compensated bragging).  It was fun just decorating up a pretty image.  The only thing that limits you is your own imagination.  I made my own chipboard frame (blue glitter) using die-cuts.  I also used a mix of epherma/embellishments from my own private stash.  The cloth flowers are old "literally" so they are special because when they are gone they are gone.  The sheer polka-dot ribbon (I have some in every color) is from pink hedgehog website (again, non-compensated bragging) and truth be told I used it because I had an opportunity for embellishment (yep I dinked the glitter so I hid it with a ribbon).  I think it came together really nicely and definitely says Happy Easter and Happy Spring. 
 

March 15, 2010

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

May there always be work for your hands to do.
May your purse always hold a coin or two.
May the sun always shine upon your window pane.
May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.
May the hand of a friend always be near to you and
May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.
Traditional Irish Blessing
 
 

February 22, 2010

Yard Fun

Close-up of my mint. I have three kinds, peppermint, spearmint and lemon mint. They've all grown next to each other so I can't tell which is which. All I know is I love it when it's fresh and new. See the pretty dew drops on the leaves? I pack a pitcher of my sun tea with the mint. Literally pack the pitcher full. That's how they do tea in New York. So I copy. Its very good. Maybe I will do a post about it later this summer when I start doing sun tea.

More herb garden pix. Thyme and Rosemary. I can't wait until these get big.
My hubby decided he wanted to dig up the yard to reseed. I decided it was a perfect opportunity to do my bonsai grass idea around the stepping stones. It took some convincing for my husband but after it was in, I made him a believer.
Here is a wider view. We only purchased two little flats of the ground cover, so we ran out. Technically, I wanted to do the outer-sides also. I'll either wait and take cuttings from what I have as it spreads or I will go out and get more to finish it in the next couple of weekends.
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February 21, 2010

Sunday Supper

Blame in on Pioneer Woman (PDub for short) she did it again. She made me cook.  On the menu: Meatloaf, Steamed Green Beans and Baked Potato. Super simple but great food. Here's my take on meatloaf.  Normally, I use oatmeal instead of breadcrumbs but when I saw how PDub used milk-soaked white bread for her meatloaf I had to try it.  I adapted my recipe by substituting 1/2 of the oatmeal I normally use w/2 slices of bread (she used white, I used wwheat because its what I had in stock).  I never thought of doing this and it looked moist... so I tried it.

Liz's Famous Meatloaf (secret ingredient revealed)

All amounts are approx. and to taste~
Click on any pix to enlarge for details

2lbs of lean ground beef (or more if you have an army to feed)
1 pkg of Lipton onion soup mix (secret ingredient)
1 big handful of fresh parsely chopped (pictured below is from my herb garden)
1/4 cup of parmesan cheese
1-2 eggs (I used one)
1 tsp fresh garlic
1/4 cup oatmeal or slices of bread (soaked in milk) I used 2 slices.
1-2 tbls worchestershire sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
1 small can tomato sauce (pour over top last 10 minutes)

Firstly a pix of my herb garden (right outside my kitchen window/door).  We are getting a jump on things.  That's how we roll in SoCal.  The parsley is the largest plant in the lower right hand corner of the pix. It's what I used in the meatloaf.  It's the oldest plant that's why its bigger then the rest.  It did really well over the winter (cough cough) with all the rain we've been having.  The smaller ones you see were just planted this week.  In the planter, fresh lavender.  We even have two tomato plants in already (back along the fence.  My mint is coming in nicely too (far left).


Cast of characters.  I have really little counter space that's why its all jammed into this tiny little corner with everything else (appliances etc).  What you see in the pix is about the extent of my working countertop space.  I get claustrophobic cooking in here at times.  I've gotten really efficient at conserving space too.  


See the bread crumbs? I thought they turned out so great. I soaked them in milk and then wrung the milk out and crumbled the bread slices into meatloaf mixture. The texture was perfect.


Ready for the oven. I thought the parsley was so pretty.  Wow did it smell good too (the parsley).  I never knew it smelled so strong.  I thought it was kind of neutral.  Not this stuff, it was FRESH.

During the last 10 minutes or so I pour tomato sauce over the top covering the entire loaf. No after pix.  No plate-up.  Just a few random pix of the process.  It turned out yummo!

Home cook extraordinaire Tip of the Week:  I spray the loaf tin with non-stick spray like Pam.  I also cover this with tin-foil until last ten minutes.  Tip alert!!! Spray the inside of the tin-foil with non-stick spray also. 

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well that was on February 9th.  I told you I had some catching up to do. I think I will schedule some daily blog posts. That way I can set them up and schedule them to publish later. Awesome.

It's a little grainy but I like it. These were the flowers I had on my desk at work.

Gwen Frostic

I can check off another item from my on-again/off-again list.  I had so much fun this weekend, I need at least two more days of it.  Here is an Easter Greetings card! OMGOMGOMG I got me some ART Therapy. Are you kidding me?

I found inspiration for this card from a couple of different places.  Firstly, from my new set of Gwen Frostic (Anthropologies holiday gifts) stamps that my friend Allison (Shadow's Castle Stamps) gave me for Christmas. I embossed the bunny image with a burgundyish embossing powder (I think he looks chocolatey this way). Secondly, I also found inspiration (sketch and colors) from the one the only famous Julie Her Royal Rubberness (see her Picky Purple post over at Paper Trufflez). She requests that we do not hotlink so I will leave that off.  She's pretty easy to find via any search engine.  Nothing like a CASE (copy and share w/everyone) and a new set of rubber to get the creative mojo going. Thank you Pr!ssy Pals for your wonderful ideas.  Re-purpose alert:  the swiss dot paper is a piece of packaging cardboard.  I thought it was such a pretty eggplant color I just had to re-use it.  I embossed it with a Cuttlebug embossing folder and then sanded it to get the white core to show through.  I used a mish mash of products SU paper, Michael's Ribbon , Sentiment stamp (Kitchen Sink), A Muse Paper (gingham flower), MS punch.  

Gwen Frostic Woodland Stamp Set
Close-up of Gwen Frostic Woodland Stamp Set.  Aren't they just the cutest?  My friend Allison has great taste.

February 12, 2010

Happy Heart Day!

I've got nuttin' for ya' so I might as well share a pretty vintage image...  I hope everyone is feeling the love this weekend.  It's one of my FAVORITE holidays.  Heart U.

January 30, 2010

Question for Blogland?

Does anyone know anything about this little salt crock? I NEED ONE.  I snapped a pix of it.  There were no markings on the bottom or under the lid nothing.  I couldn't find a name, brand (aka redwing etc), year, nada.  If anyone has any info or has seen one for sale, please leave me a comment.  I'm guessing 50-60s era, vintage.  The image is 2 girls w/balloons.  Cute.  I would love to get one of these.

January 20, 2010

Hearts

This is on a charm bracelet hanging in my bathroom. Thought it was a nice heart to share for Valentines Day since it is coming up soon... enjoy


January 18, 2010

January 18

People who are really efficient seem to do things easily, with a minimum of effort.  In so doing they release maximum power.

January 17, 2010

?1-800-SE-DENTISTA (1-800-GOT-DENTIST)

Pensé que le gustaría saber cómo mi primera experiencia dental fuera de los Estados Unidos fue .... (translation... I thought you might like to know how my first dental experience outside the United States went...)  Ha! Just kidding.  I srsly do not speak Espanol.  k.thx.  You might remember I have recurrent dental ISSUES.  I won't go into the gory details but this isn't the first time I've  posted about my toofie problems.  Smiley from millan.net

Si? No? Well my last treatment estimate from my friendly American dentist was $8000++.  I was told I needed 3 core build ups w/crowns and a root canal, core build up and crown (four crowns total). Now mind you... I've sunk a chunk of change into my teeth over the last 5-10 years (think 10s of thousands and I won't be specific).  I've had to creatively finance ALL of it too.  I've paid in a variety of ways....with all of my savings (emptied out 3 times), loans against my savings, yadayadayada, etc etc.  Well, with this last bid I was given, I said ENOUGH and have been researching Mexican dental for several months now.  I finally decided upon an office with good references (spoke with actual patients) and made an appointment for a consult.

The new treatment estimate included 4 fillings, 1 extraction (to incl an implant to replace the tooth removed and cleaning).  All inclusive approx $2500.  HELLO. He told me I didn't even need crowns.  The extraction unfortunately was the tooth that required the root canal.  Too late for it.  In fact, after Dr. Britton saw the X-ray the first words out of his mouth.... HOLY GUACAMOLE.  Now that was funny.  He spoke fluent English.  Anyway, the consult turned into an extraction and getting two of the fillings done (since I was there already and the one tooth that originally needed the root canal now needed extracting as it was infected.  Thank you Mr. American Dentist for your help NOT).

Overall, it was a good experience?  I leave the question mark because it was different but not bad.  Some things kind of made me go hhhmmm?  So that's why the question mark.  There were some differences in "convenience" of care but not "quality" of care and the "end" results was the same.  So I am happy about this.  How do I compare it?  Think LaJolla/Tijuana, think donkey/racehorse, think high-tech/hammer chisel.  I'm OK REALLY.  No really I am just KIDDING.  The dentist was an awesome guy (except for the occasional unabashed profanity, NOT KIDDING...never had a professional do that before, well, at least not while on-duty??!?@!?). Ok so he didn't care about appearances... did that matter?  His skills were what I was worried about.  Um no fancy happy gas, so I was wide awake as he used hammer and chisel.  Um no TV to distract me (perhaps the American dentist like to make me all comfy so I can ignore the fact that he was charging me 8000?).  Instead I had a conversation in Spanish to listen to (that I didn't understand) which was entertaining in itself to me.  I love listening to foreign languages.  Don't ya ever wonder what they are REALLY saying about you?

Well, this was a first and not a last. I have more appointments to finish the treatment plan and I don't feel like I was raked over the coals and ripped off.  Dr. Britton was genuine, honest and most importantly skillful.  He went the extra mile.  I did not know I had to fill my prescriptions in Mexico due to licensing.  I found this out when trying to fill it at my US pharmacy.  I called Dr. Britton on his cell phone number (which he gave me) and he picked up my prescriptions in Mexico for me and drove over meeting me state-side to deliver them himself so I didn't have to deal with the border crossing again (it can be time-consuming).  Now that's service and Care with a Capitol "C".

Mexico here we come...


Nice sidewalk


These are the metal gates you walk through to cross the border.  You go first...(that's hubby)


No turning back now.....hey wait up for me


This is the exact boundary between two countries.  Don't cross that line!! Stop back away from the door.  Put the package down....don't turn around.  Security.


Inside the gates.... mural painted on the wall.  You know my eye was catching the art.
 

 I felt right at home. Vaca de la señora (Mrs. Cow) there to greet us.
 

Good-bye America.  Good-bye US of A. No turning back now.  Ok sorry I do get a little panicky. 
 

 I got your number mister don't try anything.  Security?


January 15, 2010

Some Pretty Cool Blog Candy!


Blog Candy over at Whinnie's Whimsy and Crafts Blog!!!!

I don't know about you but I would love this blog candy.... here's the dete's!

It is a light box with lights and a small tripod. All you have to add is the camera! It is amazing the difference a light box makes in your photos! It comes with 4 different colored interchangable backgrounds. Here's the rules: Good Luck to everyone who plays along:
1. Become a follower of my blog
2. Leave me a message
3. Announce my blog candy on your blog
4. I will be drawing a name on Monday, 18 January at 6pm EST.
5. Every day that I post a card and you leave a message, you will get your name entered in again for the drawing. (ie if I post 5 times over the next week and you leave a message all 5 days AND you're a follower of my blog, you will get your name in the drawing 5 times.)

January 12, 2010

Encouragement

I think I've decided on my word for the year!  Yes, that's it.  Encouragement.  As is usual, I went through a lot of discussion with the committee's in my head to finally decide on just one word.   More later on how I came up with mine this year.  For now, another short post to just pop in and say HI y'all.

January 01, 2010

JANUARY 1

The verse (below) is from today's calendar page.  ...liked it..thought I'd share.  ...think I am going to work on some cards today using the "Blue Moon" for my inspiration.  Speaking of the moon...I got a really cool shot of the "Blue Moon" last night (Canon Powershot point and shoot, no night vision goggles or anything, I don't even know where the night shooting option is, I think it has one).  The moon was just rising so it was still big.  Its pretty and if you looked closely it even had a little cloud underneath it.  Much prettier IRL.





One day at a time ~
This is enough
Do not look back
and grieve over the past
for it is gone;
And do not be troubled
about the future,
for it has not yet come.
Live in the present,
and make it so beautiful
that it will be worth remembering.
~ Scott Taylor 


December 31, 2009

Broccoli Basil Soup Recipe from The Golden Door Cooks at Home Cookbook

I had a lot of requests for the recipe I used for the Broccoli Basil Soup I did at Christmas. Below is the recipe and some of the "how-to" pix. I didn't take pix for each and every step Smiley from millan.net




Broccoli Basil Soup 
(Courtesy of the new Golden Door Cooks at Home [<---click] Cookbook)

Olive Oil Spray
1/2 medium onion, diced (1/2 cup)
1 pound broccoli (chopped)
4 cups Vegetable or Chicken Stock (store bought low-sodium ok)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
1 bay leaf
1 cup of packed fresh spinach leaves
2 tablespoons sliced fresh basil leaves
2 ounces sharp smoked Cheddar or Gouda, grated (about 1 cup loosely packed, optional)


Saute onion in olive oil spray 4-5 min



Stir chopped broccoli into the onion, cook 1 min.  Add stock, salt, pepper, and bay leaf.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 10-15 min.



Allow to cool, remove and discard bay leaf.  
Transfer the soup to a blender or food processor and process until creamy but still chunky, about 30 secs.  Add the spinach and basil to the blender process for another 10 secs. 
Return soup to a clean saucepan and reheat over low heat until simmering.




If desired, add the grated Cheddar and stir until melted.




Serve hot


ENJOY!

December 30, 2009

New Year Greetings~~




Prayers of Meditation
Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
ralph waldo emerson

December 25, 2009

It's the Most Magical Time of the Year! Merry Christmas All~~

O holy Child of Bethlehem,
descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
be born in us today.
o little town of bethlehem - phillips brooks - 1867



December 17, 2009

Happy Holidays from the "CHRISTMAS"EN'S


Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Merry KissMoose ;)

I just love this vintage image I found on "Vintage Printable".  If you don't already know about this site, run on over.  Some great free images to use for projects.



Here's part of swivelchair's (from vintage images) bio.  Ha, he's in the biopharma industry. 

Directly copied from his bio

Hi, this is Swivelchair. I work in the biopharma area. Not a scientist, not a journalist, mostly in the business aspects. I have a science and business background, and have been involved in a variety of biotechnology-related ventures.


One of my hobbies is curating out-of-copyright scientific illustration, now that there are so many digital image databases on the web.


I’ve taken care to ensure that the images collected here are either pre-1922, or else works created on behalf of the US government. It is my belief that there are no copyright infringing works here, but if anyone thinks I’m mistaken, please send me an e mail and I’ll remove the image.

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

December 10, 2009

From Our House to Yours...

My eyes are tarred...so the pix lighting is off. I was so excited to have gotten ANYTHING done for the holidays that I just wanted to post it right away. Is this not the cutest? Much cuter IRL of course. More later. All things A*Muse.

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