QUICK catch up ....

Okay ...time has flown by ... what the heck have I done ??? No posts, no photos, no memory really ... but just so you don't think I have abandoned my blog ... here it is in a nutshell : I have cranked up the BBQ a few times, I have complained about the heat a few days ago (I actually HATE summer so that day was too real for me !!), I have given my cat many pills - not always successfully ! , I have bagged up my cake pop balls ( they can wait !), I have been to the grocery store a gazillion times & spent too much money - always on the fly - you may have seen me running with a cart ... , I have vowed to have a garden this summer - see previous statement for why, I have made some more ____ for PAAT, I also made & packaged my Make'n'Takes projects, I have cleaned out 3 bags of garbage from the upstairs in the store, I boxed up about 50 frames for a big sale, I ate about 3 pounds of sawdust while cleaning, I have 3 or 4 more solid days to go in the effort to clean the store upstairs ( where-O-where will those days be ???) , I've had a lousy flu but kicked it in the bum and sent it packing (YAY!!), I have unpacked 3 boxes of beads & 2 boxes of scrapbook supplies, I have made 2 kick ass Swarovski bracelets ( Hey ! Swarovski need to incorporate "kick ass " into their marketing ... I think it would work !!) , I have researched flights & hotels & car rentals, I have made tons of ____ for PAAT & put them in the freezer, I made white chili (yummo), I have to make ____ for PAAT tomorrow night, I have a ____ meeting for PAAT tonight, I have done my HST - and paid it, I FOUND my ledger so I can START my 2008 taxes ( yes, that is correct. 2008), I have decorations ready for PAAT, I have measured & sold POUNDS of seeds, same with pounds of beads, I am planning a garden and it too will be kick ass, I sold my first item on ETSY !!! , I have researched a ton of healthy recipes, I have gathered up a HUGE box of kindling in my upstairs cleaning, I have cried tears for my Gramma, I still have a dumpster here to fill, I need to squeeze in a trip to Halifax this weekend for bags ( no problem, I will be up all night Saturday but there is always Sunday afternoon ...) , I have purchased a shirt for PAAT in a last minute desperation purchase that I am afraid is the wrong colour ..., I have passed out Coca Cola to the town employees who ever so nicely have swept & shovelled the dirt from my parking lot ( nice of them, wasn't it ?!), I found a whole stack of cut out birdhouses & Christmas trees upstairs (hmmm) , I have planned a million projects, dreamt a thousand dreams, had a birthday dinner with sweet friends, baked 2 homely but yummy pies, laughed hard, loved a lot , and have been happy. The End .... until next week.

It's been a long time ...

It's been quite a while since I posted. I've been in a slump ... a sad snively slump ... but things happen and we need to get back to regular life I guess. So I am .
This weekend was supposed to be a birthday dinner for Charlie the birthday boy but ... a vomiting wife is NOT the best dinner accessory. Some freaky kind of flu struck me and I was ... icky ... to say the least. And because I could not find a restaurant that specialized in toast & Gravol, we cancelled. So that is something to look forward to this weekend !
So we went to Coldbrook & New Minas in Big Bertha , the truck, picking up stuff for the Feed Store on Saturday after work. Then back to switch vehicles & get groceries. Then FINALLY ... HOME !!! We spent a quiet night with a movie (Marley & Me) and a box of Kleenex. Too true to life ... oh my. But a wonderful movie for sure. Then Sunday was my project day. I made an awesome Mexican soup that I MADE UP MYSELF ... and it was DELICIOUS !!! I will be writing that recipe down. Then ... I decided to make cake pops. Now, if you want to see what cake pops are SUPPOSED to look like, check out BAKERELLA'S blog (www. bakerella.blogspot.com.) DO NOT LOOK FOR A PHOTO HERE. Okay , this is a multi hour process but somehow you convince yourself that it can't be that hard . Mm, sure. First you bake a large cake & let it cool. Then after an hour or so, you grind the cake up in a food processor. Then you mix the grindage with icing. Then if you are me, you put in too much icing and you must then bake ANOTHER cake ... and this one from scratch because you used the mix up in the earlier cake. So you make another cake and wash all those SAME dishes AGAIN !!! Then the cooling process starts. Then the grinding. Then washing the food processor AGAIN. Then mix it all up. This gooky stuff is then rolled into balls while washing hands every few balls because it is so gooky. Then the trays of balls are placed in the freezer ... this involves removing all the laundry, earth friendly shopping bags that never make it to the car, the camera, the tote from work, a few hats etc... FINALLY, I AM IN ! The freezer is open. Where is the space ? Hmmm ... so now Operation Cake Pop is Operation Clean Out the Frost Bitten Meat and then Operation Green Cart. Finally, the balls are placed in the freezer for their 15 minute rest. (By then I needed a 15 minute rest too !!) The balls are then removed, shaped into "turds" as Martha Stewart described them, then shaped into mini cupcakes. This involves a cutter that I did not have but I was sure I could improvise. Apparently not. Mine never ever resembled cupcakes. They then have several more rests in the freezer, 2 different dippings in 2 different melted chocolates, and then sanding sugar or sprinkles. Well ... my first tray had all the bottoms stick and break off. The next ones did get dipped & sprinkled. So I had 2 full cookie sheets of balls and I made 11 dipped balls. ELEVEN. ELEVEN. There are probably 80 naked round gooky balls in the freezer. I dipped only 11 ... I couldn't even force myself to make an even dozen. They look like weird misshapen round things dipped in 2 colours of chocolate & sprinkled with coloured sugar. Charlie said they tasted good. But I am willing to bet that the cake from 7 hours earlier and the icing would have also tasted good. And would not have resulted in a freezer cleaning and 3 sinks full of dishes.
But there are still all those in the freezer ... that I SAID I was going back to the drawing board on. Rethinking. Redesigning. ( haha!! In three months, when I decide to make some kind of shaped cookies that need a spell in the freezer, I will carry out OPERATION DITCH THOSE BALLS INTO THE GREEN CART. Sorry Bakerella - not my favourite project !!
UPDATE ... I just ate one of those blobs ... first one ... and while they might be homely they are DELISH ! Hmmm... who knew ???!

A Banner Year ...

Or so it seems ... I really enjoy making banners so it seems like I might have a year long collection of them ... one for every occasion . Not bad for someone who never used to decorate for ANY holiday . But , to be fair, I still have my Hallowe'en banner hanging up so they may end up all being hung at the same time!! Spin around in the middle of the room for a year review at top speed !!!


Here are a few closeups ... do you recognize the rosette flowers ?

RECYCLED PAPER COFFEE FILTERS ... I have always loved them - the brown creamy colour, the gauziness, everything. So I was really pleased to find a way to use them in my project.
Have a happy spring & a great Easter !!!

How did I do on my list ???

Well ... let's see how I did with my list of "goals" (haha!!). I love seeing the great ambitious lists I make after the proposed time frame has past ... I NEVER can say "complete CHECK" ! Oh well, I enjoy my time here on this planet so who cares ?!
(sheesh that sounds weird ... like I'm an alien just here visiting or something ...)
So ...
1. CHECK !!! Yes, that's right , CHECK. Plus a few extras !!! I rocked those ____.
2. CHECK ... haddie bits. MMM good.
3. CHECK ! Pumpkin raisin oatmeal ... one of his favourites. Just under the wire too - about 9pm last night. Still counts as done on the weekend though !! Oh, and I used my Big Daddy mixer that I am totally in love with. May have even overmixed those cookies because it was soooo fun !!
4. nope ... had no supper on Saturday because of a late lunch at at great new place. JONNY'S FAMOUS BURGERS . It was really good. I had the Sweet Marie burger with sweet potato fries & curry mayo. All the ingredients are local and the actual mayo and other things are homemade. The burger had grilled pineapple ( which I was told is actually NOT local - REALLY ???!) , homemade mayo, local bacon, and sweet hot chili sauce. YUMMO !! No orange cheese slices here - local Havarti. It was really a great burger - loved the grilled pineapple. Next time I will have the one with Havarti & grilled apple slices....
As for the pizza ... couldn't find my crust dough... I bought some but I DO NOT have it . I picture it sitting, lonely, by the checkout because it never got put in the bag ... So spaghetti it was !
5. nope ... see #1 . Took all Sunday.
6. nope ... see #1.
7. a bit .... I took rotten stuff out to make room for groceries. And I actually took it all out to the green cart. Follow through I like to call that !! ( not usually my strong point ...)
8. nope. But again I did add stuff ... and did some FINE stacking if I do say so myself.
9. nope. Didn't get to any of that kind of stores. But I did talk to her & she sounded soooo much better. It was awesome ! The shopping will remain on the list.
10. nope ... didn't see any that we wanted to see & I am NO LONGER watching TIME WASTING CRAP !! So it was fine. I'll wait until there is something I really want to see.
11. CHECK. Necessities, I guess.
12. nope ... see #1. Oh, yeah, and I hate doing it & don't care until I have no choice ...
So all in all I did poorly but it was a great weekend !!!

Not much but ...

( This is the view of the water behind our house ... spring run off ... haha ... kidding ...
Actually it is one of my favourite places - Niagara Falls - taken from the Big Wheel)
Not much new to chit chat about but I need to change the first thing you see from that burnt out house ... gloomy. Today is Saturday - our "littleday" - because we only work for half the day. And today is a SUNNY Saturday ... SWEET ! So ... what will we do ??? Not sure but it will be great whatever it is.
Here are my plans/goals/wishful thoughts for this weekend:
1. Finish 70 ______. Sorry but I can't say what in case you are a PAAT participant. But this is a real GOAL , not wishful thought. I NEED to finish because my mind wants to move on to something new !!
2. Go to Pearls. No need to explain that one.
3. Make some cookies for Charlie.
4. BBQ - every night - I sense burgers and then pizza in my future ...
5. Get some samples done for the store .
6. Get some classes ironed out , samples made, supply kits costed out, photos taken, blog started. ( yeah, this is just a small item ...)
7. Clean out the fridge - eewww.
8. Clean out the pantry ... how many bottles of mustard do we need ???
9. Buy a nice Xsmall sweater for my incredible shrinking Gramma. None of her clothes fit her any more.
10. Watch a good movie. And I mean a GOOD movie. We have wasted too many movie nights with BAD movies. The last one was AWFUL !!! ( Blindness - in case you want a warning!!)
11. Groceries. Laundry. The usual.
12. Bookwork ... I'm sure I'll put this one off ... I need to feel the hot white heat of a panicky deadline !!!
Oh, last night we had a great night. Dinner with the pals for Steven's birthday, then off to YukYuks ... too funny ! I LOVE to LAUGH !!! Great way to end the week !
Have a super weekend !!