mother's day!

the family took me out on Saturday to have a juicy jalepeno burger and some sweet tater tots. they also took me to walmart where i had to wander around so they could shop for me (in secret).

sunday morning before church, they presented me with 2 fancy chocolate bars (cayenne & orange - my 2 favorites) and some awesome nail polish.

my son picked purple. my daughter, blue and green. hubs got me some glitter stuff (4th of July is coming up) and some new crackle stuff that looks like watermelon rind. cool stuff. and they all know how much i love to paint my toes.

what a blessed mother (and wife) i really am.

duct tape and a pizza box

i was talking to a friend on the phone the other day and she was laughing at all the odds and ends that i create to make up for a need i have around the house but am unable or unwilling to spend money on something. she said i should share these things on my blog. i do this so often, i guess it just never occurred to me to share these little things, but i think i'll take her up on her suggestion just in case someone else would benefit from or enjoy my silly ideas.

i needed something to block the back door open so the wind-tunnel in my house wouldn't suck the door shut. the standard would be one of those rubber triangle thingies (sometimes referred to as a door-stop) to put under the door. i didn't have one or the ability to run to the store and get one. i also didn't have anything heavy enough that wouldn't block the entire doorway that would work, so i sat down to make myself a door stop out of what i had on hand...a pizza box and some duct tape.

i also had some cheetah duct tape left over from my Bible recovery project and decided that would be more chic than silver since it was going to be visible to anyone visiting my humble abode.

below are the pics of the progression of start to finished project.

power tools and me

today, i used a circular saw...and a jigsaw...and a power drill (okay i've used this one before), but the point is i used power tools and my husband wasn't even home.   this is pretty incredible for me.  really!!

 been dying to better organize this storage area in our breezeway and i did it all by myself...ok i had elves (children) picking up screws as i dropped them the dozen or so times each it takes to actually get them drilled into the shelves, but mostly by myself.

this area is the "tween" station on the way to everything else. on the way to the garage or the freezer room where other things belong and people (everyone but me) think that if there's a clean spot on these shelves that they don't have to actually take it all the way back to where it belongs. this would take another 45 seconds of their precious time and possibly another 50 steps or so. i know...it's a lot to ask.

this photo was taken after everyone has been piling their junk on it all winter (actually i think i've cleaned it once since winter).




these were taken after i got the shelf installed. i chose not to clean or move anything until i was finished.







and tah dah....these were taken after i cleaned and place things on the new shelf that i built. oh did i mention...i BUILT A SHELF!!!





now, you might notice my stones over on the left two pictures back. i just thought i'd share what those are actually setting in. the photos below are of how i constructed a stone holder out of ordinary ANTIQUE items laying about the house.



those are canning jar rings attached with zip ties to keep the one side elevated to prevent the round stones from rolling onto the floor.

new Bible cover

duct tape wins again. i have a 20+ year old Bible which was a gift from my daddy. it's a good quality Bible, but alas, the cover has begun to show some serious wear...so i went to wally world and got me some cheetah duct tape and repaired my Bible cover. thought you might like to see.

outside front cover

i put a few pieces of tape (3 layers thick) under the final cover to make a pattern.






you can see the tape wrapped around the inside edges.

i re-glued the inside cover pages over the tape edges.

blogging groove

haven't really been a very consistent blogger. been doing some renovations and realized, i actually used to write about my life a bit. have been thinking it might be a good idea to get back into that groove. blogging started out for me a way to interact with friends. this was the time before facebook - wow! a friend told me about Xanga and i had a handful of friends, we read about each other's lives and as a bonus, we got a record to check back on and remember stuff.

i'm not really a very interesting person but i do find very interesting some of the older things in my blogging archive. today, i do most of my keeping up with friends on facebook or via cell phone or some other such mobile device - got my first cell phone for my last anniversary (2011)--but i think i'll revisit my blog a bit more and see if i can find that groove again.

this week in summary: sinus infection all week; boy had bronchitis but weathered it well. missed church last week, but am intending to make it tomorrow. hubs and the kids are scheduled to sing in the evening service with grandpa and the cousins. overall, not much happened beyond the normal grind. couldn't muster the energy to do more than exist. drank 4 gallons of mullein tea and still need a couple more i fear before all of the congestion is gone. i just praise God it wasn't any worse. it was draining and somewhat lingering, but it was an easy illness for the most part.

still need to get groceries this evening--that means a late supper. working on a new android (cell phone) application called toMarket (i think) for keeping and managing my shopping list. it's pretty cool - stores and sorts all items according to stores and individual store isles. i was using a paper shopping list of the "checklist" sort. i got the idea from jill on facebook. i really liked it, but was just a little unwilling to use up the paper and printer ink. this list works about the same way, but it's all digital and it's portable and i don't even need a pen to check the items off as i go.

had a lovely conversation with a lady friend from welltellme. she is now a llama farmer. how fun is that? welltellme has been good to me over the years. i've collected a few friends. can't wait until i have the funds and ability to travel around and hug them all in person.

not much else to report.

~be blessed

be blessed.

kitty dolls

hahahahahahaha!

i can't stop laughing at these pictures. this kitten doesn't like me. won't sit in my lap, won't allow me to pet or cuddle her but is the first to holler at me at feeding time. i take all of this in stride, because she is not my cat. i adopted her from the local animal shelter for my precious (hahahahaha) 11 yo daughter to love and take care of. this seemingly unfriendly and haughty kitten just adores (or tolerates) my daughter with the utmost grace. although i am somewhat miffed that this kitten just will not have anything to do with me - after all - i AM the one who feeds her (and decided to allow her to live in MY house.) and animals LOVE me (or so i thought until SHE came along), i am pleased, that she bonded so well with my daughter.

the other compensation for this cat's obvious lack of taste in human companionship (meaning me), is the things that my daughter can do with this cat because of it's obvious love of this very creative young girl. the proof is below. check out the photos and laugh with me.

hahahahahahaha!

is she gone? time to run.

ok, ok, i'll sit still, but i WON'T like it.

are you DONE yet?

this dress is so heavy. ugh.

yeah, i'm cute. DUH. what's your point?

can you BELIEVE THIS? look at this cat. yes, i can't help but "AWWWW" with the rest of you, but i'm still laughing. buwahahahaha. this is what you get when you don't make an ally of "the mom."

gorditas anyone?

we love to watch curtis on the take-home chef. he made this pork roast hot mexi-style stuff and we decided to try to duplicate it. we didn't have everything, but we managed to come out with something pretty tasty. we served it up with sour cream & cheese on homemade tortillas.

tonight, i decided to try it with beef. the beef was a little tough even after cooking all day. she was an old cow and gave the family 8 good calves, so we can't fault her too much for being good and chewy. didn't have any sour cream so we used ranch instead AND i thought i'd try my hand at some "gordita"-style flatbread. my face is still burning. great for the sinuses. wooooot!

i stole the flatbread recipe from King Arthur Flour, BUT it called for potato flour, which i didn't have so i had to alter the recipe just a hint, which technically makes it my recipe and "my recipe" is as follows.

gordita-flatbread

3 1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
3 T olive oil
1 1/4 tsp salt
2+ cups water
1 pkg dry yeast (not instant)
1 small potato

1) peel, chunk and boil potato in 2 cups of water (more if need be, but not more than you need.).
2) when tender, strain starchy water into another container and save.
3) mash taters with fork until mushy and measure out 1/4 cup of taters.
4) measure 2 cups of flour into bread machine (or mixer).
5) pour 1 cup hot starchy water left from boiling potato over flour.
6) mix until smooth.
7) allow to rest for 15 to 30 minutes.
8) meanwhile, put yeast in 1/4 cup warm water and set aside.
9) when dough in bread machine has rested, mix together in another bowl, 1 cup of the remaining flour, salt, oil, mashed taters and the proofed yeast mixture.
10) toss new dough ball into bread machine with the other dough ball and turn on bread machine and allow to knead the two mixtures together. i let my machine run the full cycle (approx 14 minutes), but the original recipe says 5 minutes should be enough. add the rest of the flour as needed to get the dough to a soft workable texture. should be slightly sticky but soft.
11) cover and raise for one hour.
12) divide into 8 balls.
13) allow to rest another 15 minutes.
14) meanwhile turn on heat (med/low) under griddle (i use cast iron.)
15) roll dough balls into 8 inch (about 1/4 inch thick) rounds.
16) cook each flatbread for about 1 to 1.5 minutes per side or until you notice brown bubbles on the cooked side.
17) serve with favorite stuffing. yum!




healthbratt's mexi roast

1) take 2 to 7 pounds of pork or beef roast and cut into 2 to 3 inch cubes.
2) brown all sides of cubes in butter in cast iron skillet.
3) throw browned meat pieces into roasting pot.
4) deglaze skillet with some water and toss the lot into the roasting pan.
5) add peppers, onions, garlic and stuff to your liking
(we used one can of rotel tomatos, 10 serano peppers blended with water, and 2 onions sliced and few cloves of garlic diced)
6) add 2 T of chili powder, 1 to 2 T cumin, 1 to 2 tsp paprika, 1 to 2 tsp salt.
(decided on the seasonings based on the number of pounds of meat you settle on.)
7) add enough water to the pot to almost cover the meat and toss to coat and mix all the seasonings.
8) roast at 350 degrees (or lower if you prefer) for 3 to 6 hours.
(the longer you roast, the more liquid you'll lose. check it often and water as needed.)
9) serve with cheese, sour cream, ranch or whatever taco fixin's you like.

crochet frenzy continued...

designed a new pattern. going crazy with it. my prototype (the pretty gray ones) were designed to be a birthday gift for someone very special. after that, they just started pouring out one pair after another. these are really fun and easy to make and it's very easy to make size adjustments on the fly.






this pair was made with a very soft yarn, i found at walmart. it's a bit pricier than regular red heart, but it only takes about 3 or 4 oz to make one pair. you could make hat to match. i actually made a mobius cowl/scarf to match this one and it took about 12 or 13 oz for the set.



this pair was another specialty yarn. also very soft but doesn't cling as well. still very warm and cozy.

the next two pair were a lot of fun and were made with plain ol' regular worsted weight red heart. easy but you have to guage the pattern down a bit for the thickness of the yarn.



the thumb hole is very flexible and you barely notice it's there. always a plus.



this pair, i got a bit carried away. i wanted them to be fun so they go clear up over the elbows. go greenbay?!?





i'm not very good at writing up patterns, but if there's any interest, i'll give it a shot.

it's a basic chain 34 for small yarn or 32 for thick yarn/or child's size.

then i did front/back post stitches around for 4 to 5 rows, joining and turning at the end of each row.

then i started doing regular double crochet around. the first row make no decreases. decrease one time each row for the next 10 rows (unless you want a shorter sleeve - adjust as needed). to keep the decreases even: glove(1), double crochet 10, decrease, double crochet around (this number will decrease one each row). glove(2) reverse this by subtracting one each time (the first will be either 20 or 22 depending on whether you started with 32 or 34), decrease, double crochet 10. join and turn. at this point, you should be at your smallest width (wrist size).

depending on the length and stripe patterns i added 1 to 3 more rows of regular double crochet. join and turn.

do one more row of double crochet but do not join. chain 3 and turn. double crochet front/back post stitches around 3 to 4 rows. do not join any of these rows. always chain 3 and turn.

on the last row, chain one and single crochet around the thumb hole (these are the 4 to 5 rows you didn't join.)

once at the top, join and chain 1.

single crochet around the top. slip stitch in the next 2 stitches and tie off.

done. :D

crochet frenzy

this winter season, i went nutz with the crochet. just thought i'd share.

all of these projects were done with Red Heart worsted weight - the cheap stuff from wal-mart.

this first two are a simple double crochet. i started with a width of about 165 stitches and i used a P hook to get big loopy stitches to give the blanket a lighter, cozier feel. remember the shaker knit sweaters from the 80's? it reminded me of those as far as how well it laid on the bod. to finish up, i used an I hook and 3 or 4 rows of single crochet around. pretty simple stuff for you crochet nutz.

(for my 7yo son)

(for my 10yo daughter)

this one is a bit different. i started learning granny squares about 15 years ago. i made the squares, with the intentions of making a rather large afghan. i had green in there too. i got distracted and through the stuff in the closet for the last 15 years. the sqares actually made it through both moves. then i found out the church wanted to make lap blankets for the local nursing home residents and i pulled these out to see if we could do something with them. because of my inexperience, not all of my squares were the same size. i had to throw out the green squares because the stitches were too tight. then i was a couple squares short and i couldn't get the squares right, so i made a couple of make shift, single crochet triangles to throw on the corners. since this blanket is being made for the purpose of laying on a person in a wheelchair, i thought the flat corners might be nice. then i learned how to join with this strange modified granny square type pattern. what i've learned is that i'm not too big on granny squares - not 15 years ago and not now. i hope someone enjoys this blanket because it will probably be the only one of it's kind that i ever make.

this one, i really enjoyed. i designed this pattern before i made the one above. i was thinking that i could save yarn and keep the corners from getting rolled under wheel chairs. it would be like wearing a half skirt. anyway, i started with a simple half circle and it was too short. hub's suggested i add rows at the top and this is how it turned out. i was really pleased with this one. it's a simple double crochet. started with 6 around a 3 stitch loop and kept increasing as needed to keep the shape. this was done with leftovers from the girls afghan at the top so the rows are really not designed ahead, just random-as-i-go-with-what-i-have-left. i have since, designed a horshoe pattern based on this design to make the crocheting faster and easier, but this is by far, my favorite. i hope someone enjoys looking at it as much as i enjoyed making it.


i will post a picture of the horseshoe blanket when it's finished. i also made an afghan that looks like a chocolate bar for my dad for christmas but i forgot to take a pic. if he's able to send me a pic, i'll post that one as well.

hope everyone had a MERRY CHRISTMAS and enjoys their new year.