Life is what you make it

"LIFE should not be a Journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body but RATHER TO SKID IN BROADSIDE, THOROUGHLY USED UP, TOTALLY WORN OUT and LOUDLY PROCLAIMING WOW WHAT A RIDE" many authors





Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Wow time flies

Well Time has flown since my last post.  I have been sick and had some family stuff going on but I have also been busy creating ATCs, Christmas tags, a recipe and clean out of the house for a yard sale.

Where to start?  My latest creations would be a good start.  I was in some swaps and ATC trades over the last month. Below are the photos:

ATC stamp club swap (that I missed because I got sick!)

Christmas tag swap

Vintage sewing swap. I made ATCs

We had a challenge on A Charming Place forum to "corrode" charms.  I used a generic, dollar store drain cleaner and let the charms soak for a day and a half. Each different cleaner works at different paces so pay attention until you know how long it takes to corrode the charms. I love the different colors that came out. The crown at the bottom was sanded after it dried and I was able to bring the brass back to shiney creating a vintage/aged look.

My other set of Vintage Sewing ATCs

A hand made flower swap.  These are fabric pieces that I melted.

So one day I was in the grocery store and I just needed to do some cooking. I also wanted something different.  Thus Spaghetti squash in a white wine sauce was created.  You can use any kind of meat on top.  My parents brought us some lobster from our family in Maine.
Okay so buy a spaghetti squash and cook accordingly.   Start your water for your orzo pasta and cook accordingly. While you are doing that saute up a sweet onion, and a clove of garlic minced.  Once the onions begin to become traslucent and browning add a cup of white wine,  Cup of chicken broth, tbsp of cumin, quarter cup of minced basil, cilantro, mint and lemon grass.  Add french cut style green beans and a package of asian slaw ( comes as a kit in salad section) add the sauce from the kit as well. Let it all simmer until the Greenbeans are done.  Now using a fork, scoop the squash out of its shell. Drain the pasta.  Now in a large container mix and gently toss the squash, pasta and greenbean/cabbbage together.  Now Daniel loves curry so he made his curry and we had it as a sauce on the side. Put whatever protein your are going to on top and serve. This will work as just a veggie dish too.  This makes about 8 solid servings. 

We recently got together with some classmates and I made a cornbread topped greens casserole that was delish.  I got this recipe from my Aunt Carolyn.
Pre heat oven to 425
In a large pot- brown 3 cups cubed ham or smoked turkey ( I only used a cup), 1 clove of garlic, 1 med onion, 1 green pepper( I forgot this) salt and pepper to taste.  Remove from the pot.  Brown 2 TBSP of flour. Add 3 cups of chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Add ham mixture, 2 cups of cooked collards, 2 cans of black eyed peas ( I used Glory seasoned). ( I added 1/2 cup Jalapino juice from the jar) Bring mixture back to a boil.  While that is heating back up make the cornbread.
2 cups self rising cornbread
1 chopped jalapino ( Or a TBSP of jared ones diced up.)
1/2 cup of self rising flour
1 tsp sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk.
Mix all the ingredients together and pour over greens mixture in a 9x13 pan.
Bake at 425 for about 25 to 30 min until brown


Saturday, October 23, 2010

My Tattered Angels entries.

I did not make the design team of TA. I am a bit disappointed but its okay too.  Here are my entry submissions. I am very happy with the way they turned out and that is all that counts.  If you dont ever try, you wont ever succeed. :D




Today I am crafting and web chatting with dear friends.  I have a recipe I created to post as well.  It was rather tasty if I do say so myself. 

Friday, October 8, 2010

Scrabble creations

While my other sisters were beading and scrapping I played with scrabble tiles.  They are easy to travel with, other than  my ink all adornments fit into a baggie.

I am also currently working on some ATCs to trade in my next Stamp Club meeting.  The glimmer mist is drying. :D  I have errands to run so it works out great that I dont have to wait and stare and get out my heat gun to expedite the process. 

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Had a great time with my sisters! We shopped and ate and hung out. While crafting I made scrabble tiles for a demo I am doing at stamp club next week and my sisters scrapped and beaded. She made very pretty necklaces for us.

I came home to a migraine and a dear friend of ours had a heart attack but is recovering.  I will have pictures of our time and creations soon.  :D  Didnt want anyone to think I already fell off the blog posting wagon.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Well the house is just about done. I have a couple of arrends to run. Then it is off to Orlando and have some sister time. My youngest sister flies in tomorrow morning. Tonight I get to go to my nieces volleyball game.

I have received 3 days of fun mail in the last 2 weeks! Love fun mail. I participated in several swaps in the last couple of months and they have arrived. 

The first swap was an altered scrabble tile and here is a picture of all the awesome creative work.
Also going on was a Time ATC swap and a Treasure themed ATC swap. Here are the results of that creative work.


Then last but not least, I was in a Secret Sister Altered Tin swap.  We each were assigned a secret sister and were to design a tin for her and fill it with fun crafting goodies. My tin is the one in the slide show with the red roses. But this is the Tin I received from my Secret sister Sherri! It is totally awesome and filled with all sorts of stuff just waiting and wanting to be all inked up. It was a great ending to a very stressful day!

 This is the top view
 The side of my adorable tin
The ever fun and yummy contents of my tin.  Thank you so much Sherri!

Now it is off to a wonderful weekend of good food, crafting, and hanging out with my sisters.  See ya Sunday.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Ideas to paper

I had a crafting idea last night before I went to bed. I did not write it down! I usually do so I dont forget and now I cant remember all of it. I'm going to try to remember and bring the supplies I need with me to my sister's this weekend. My sister is coming in from Alabama and we are staying with my middle sister in Orlando and having a sister weekend... crafting and scrapping are on the schedule. :D Im thinking flowers, Glimmer Mists were in the creative thought but what did I do to them that was new to me??? Were they paper, fabric or otherwise? That is the question... hhhmmmmmm it is gonna drive me crazy... LOL

Monday, September 27, 2010

Photographing and Submission day

Well here I go. I am submitting to Tattered Angels Design Team today. I had a blast making the projects and working with their materials but then again I always was an inky sorta girl.

The slide show is some more older art creations that I am making available for the folks at Tattered Angels to review.


Sunday, September 26, 2010

A good Day!

What a good day today. I got a few things done for acharmingplace. The last challenge for September is posted. I also completed all 5 projects for Tattered Angels Design Team submission. Tomorrow morning I will take my photos and finish up a few details before submitting my entry.

The slide show is of my current challenge on acp regarding layering glass and some of my more recent artistic efforts

Getting Started again

Well I have applied to the Tattered Angels Design Team and they like you to blog, so here I go again. :D These are some scrapbook pages, circle Journal pages and cards that I made a few years ago.