Hibernation Over

Hi Everyone-

Yes, I've been hibernating for too many months. I recently became a reviewer for The Romance Reviews. They are having their Grand Opening. Feel free to join in all the fun they are having!
Here's the Blurb:

You’re invited!

From March 1 – 31, 2011

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Cranky Monday

I'm feeling a bit like Garfield today and hating Mondays. This has no real information to share, but I just feel the need to vent, so if you want a rant free day, just click away from here...

Why am I so cranky?

Well, 10 days ago, we had some 90 degree days and I got into the pool. (Not for long since the water was REALLY cold!) Then, we had a week of rain, as in TONS of rain. The weekend was OK, sunny, but chilly. So much so that yesterday I had to dig out my slippers and then I had to put on layers! Yikes!
At 1:00pm, hubby and I sat down to watch the Steelers totally blow their game against the Ravens... Being in the Baltimore area, lots of news stories about the win and all the screw-ups of the game. Like I need to be reminded....
I am not going gently into this Fall season. It wouldn't be so bad if it would just stop raining!
UGH!!!

Now back to your regularly scheduled program....

Visit To My Mom's

I've been super quiet this summer, not being creative and just hanging out with the kiddos....
Just came back from a visit from my Mom's where she taught me how to cast off, knit and purl! I am currently making a hideous attempt at a long strip of bad knitting (and mastering that too!) and hope to branch off to other things too...
However, the big news of the trip was this...

Now, I am going to seriously date myself, but this was my ALL time favorite cereal as a kid. We didn't get it often, since Mom didn't like us to have 'sugar' cereal. However, this would slip past her healthy food radar and we'd crunch away to happiness... So, when I saw it in the store, I just had to have it! I didn't even need to whine. (Bringing the cute grandkids along helped....)
Of course things we had as kids aren't always all that great as adults..(ex... Lost In Space was my favorite show....) However, Quisp is still AWESOME!! I ate two bowls the first day and only one the next (the kids ate the rest....) and am happy to report it still rips up the roof of your mouth, but it is SO worth it!
So, if you see a box in your store, purchase it! We don't want to have to wait another 30+ years to see it again!

And yes, I am just a big kid!

Have a Wonderful Day

skyline
Originally uploaded by ClaynPrazy

When you have a sky like this, how can you not smile?

What is Your Favorite Color?

People ask me that and I immediately answer, purple. I love all the shades of purple, fuschia, and magenta and the like. However, when I look through my bead stash, I see I almost very little in the way of purple.
I've got lots of greens, blues, and even a smattering of browns and yellows. I did make a conscious effort to purchase more purple (like I need a reason to buy more beads!), but it still doesn't compare to the amount of blue I have. I wear blue often (blue jeans being my uniform) and black since it is a slimming color. Purple, I have a couple of shirts I rarely wear. My favorite sweaters are green and blue respectively. I have blue glassware, my china is blue and my everyday plates are blue floral.
Now, why this little bit of introspective? Well, it's Fae's fault. (For those who don't know, she is an evil bead maker who makes sparkly and swirly beads that I find irresistable....) This past week Fae, or EBM (evil bead maker) put up some bead auctions. One had a turquoise swirl and another a beautiful cobalt blue set of beads. I immediately put in my bids and was thrilled to be the high bidder. Then life got in the way and I noted that eBay had sent me a notice that someone had outbid me on the bead set. I meant to re-bid, how could I let those yummy beads go to someone less deserving?
Unfortunately, I didn't win the blue bead set. I was quite saddened at that. Those beads made me rethink my favorite color! But EBM, being an EBM, sent me an e-mail asking if I wanted her to make me a similar set. She had read my mind! An EBM with ESP!! What is not to love? I had planned on asking if she had any other cobalt blue beads hanging around that I could snap up.
So, if anyone asks my favorite color, I will probably still say purple... .
Go Figure!
What is YOUR favorite color?

A Beaded Cane - A Story of Procrastination!

I knew that in my recovery from a knee replacement, my cane would be used for a few weeks. It's a plain old black one and I thought it was silly for it to stay that way! Now, of course, I'd scheduled this surgery 3 months out, so I knew I was going in on February 1st. So, of course, I didn't start this project until February 10th, a week after I got out of the hospital! I planned on blogging as I went along, but of course, that didn't happen.
So you get to see it all at once. Isn't that exciting?!
I drew out a pattern:
I started to bead.


I got a little further...

You can see I don't follow patterns very well, not even my own!
Finally, two weeks later, I was finished.
It didn't come out exactly as I wanted, but I wasn't going to start over!
So I put it on my cane...
It looks pretty good on it, I have to say. But alas, after a week of using my newly decorated cane, I finally started walking without it... sigh...

Nothing to See Here......

...but SNOW! Hubby is going to take some pics when he's out clearing the driveway. Friday and Saturday gave us 30" of snow! Makes me wish for my snowmobile I had when I lived in Upstate New York. I have two nephews in Florida that don't get to see snow, so we will email them some pics too. They get a kick out of it. I wonder if they would if they had to shovel the stuff!

I will not be able to help hubby this time around and probably not for the rest of the Winter. On 2/1/10 I got yet another knee replacement. This one replaced the partial I got a couple of years ago and failed. This time, I got a full knee replacement from a doctor who specializes in the type of joint that I needed.

So, for now, I'm laid up and will probably blog more. I will definitely be reading more, so if you are interested, I put a link to my Good Reads page. Feel free to recommend books! Maybe I'll even bead a bit. I did finish a bracelet that I have to post.

Have You Ever Tried...

Pretzels dipped in Fluff? Okay, I realize how gross that sounds, but since I have one kid that LOVES hot dog buns with chocolate syrup drizzled in the middle, I am an old hat at gross sounding items.
One of my little ones must have pretzels and peanut butter every day or else her day is incomplete. So when she asked for them, I asked the others if they wanted some too. One chimed in 'Can I have it with Fluff?'. I figured why not. After the three of them said it was an awesome combo, I was tempted to try.
I have to say it was pretty delicious!
Could it be that I've been trying really hard to behave myself (food wise...) since my Cardiologist gave me my test results and a resound thumping on my horrible numbers, so anything tastes good...

So I challenge all of you to dip a pretzel in some Fluff and let me know what you think!

Holiday WiP

I thought I would post some wip pix on the RAW bracelet I've been working on, but I haven't taken any pics yet and with the kids home because of the snow and all the holiday craziness, I haven't gotten back to it.

However, all is not lost! Instead, I have a holiday WiP for you!

My Hubby Cutting Down the Christmas Tree... Each year, we go to this great Tree Farm and cut our own tree. This year we brought Sam the wild dog with us. That made it all the more fun!


Here is the Tree all decorated. I did the lights and the kids did the ornaments.

What would be a tree, without a tree topper? This year, Bumble is the Yeti of honor!

Here's Wishing You All a Bright, Happy, Healthy and Safe Holiday and New Year!

Birthday Prep

With the family gatherings done and my Mother off to her own home, we spent the afternoon recovering from all the festivities. But tonight, I wrapped presents for my oldest whose bday is tomorrow. We do a treasure hunt each year, so I spent the evening rhyming words and hiding gifts.
It was a wonderful holiday weekend and we've been blessed with family and friends.

I sure hope all of you had a great weekend!

My Turkey was Featured!

If you click on my little Butterball, you will go to Eugena's site and see other great polymer turkeys too! What a great thing to wake up to the day after Thanksgiving. Thanks Eugena!
While you are there, take a peek at her gorgeous work. She does some amazing stuff with Polymer Clay!

I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day! Today, we'll get a nice lazy start and then head back to my in-laws for leftovers and presents! Yipee!

Tamales

Fifty of them are in the fridge as I type awaiting the Big Day tomorrow. It was my first solo attempt at them and I did make a test batch to taste. They weren't bad. Hubby says they are great, but who knows.... I just hope my FIL likes them. He's the one who was raised eating them.
Either way, it's been an experience and if I were to do this again next year, I will space out the time between batches. It took about 3 hours to press all the tortillas (which I made from scratch -so cool!) and put them in the corn husks and then put the chicken mole in and wrap them. My feet hurt from all the standing. So, I'm taking it easy the rest of the evening.
Will start all the craziness again in the morning.

Sssshhhhh...

I missed the midnight deadline for a blog post. I was just going to say I'm too pooped to blog, so I guess this counts not only as my blog for the day, but also since it wasn't much of one, I shouldn't be dinged for missing a post... right?

Yep, too tire to make sense either!

My Baby

Is growing up! WAH!!!!
We took her today to get her ears pierced as an early birthday present. She was a trouper and has been chatting about them non-stop all day!
We've been busy cleaning the house for Turkey Day. So, tomorrow will be attacking the killer dust bunnies!

Happy Birthday Nicki!

We lost our sweet Nicki last month, October 20th, a month shy of her 14th birthday. Our loss has been immense, but today, we celebrated her life with messages written on balloons and then released so she could read them all in Doggie Heaven. Rest in Peace Sweet Pup.

Happy Day!

Today hubby came home with a nice surprise.... a 42 inch TV!! We got one last year for Xmas, but it died back in June (we were NOT happy!), but since we had purchased the extended warranty, we thought that it was a minor glitch in the road. Well, it seems the part that blew out was back ordered for a year (or more!), and they would send us a refurbished replacement, but then that would void out our extended warranty. We got the refurbished one, and how it made it hear in one piece was a miracle. There was broken styrofoam in the box and that was it. It did have some chunks out of the shell of the TV, but it did work. They then told us that we would have to be happy with that. So, hubby sent both TVs back, got a refund and was determined not to get another big screen TV again....
Good wife that I am, I let him vent, rant, and rave. I put up with going back to our 19 inch TV. I was sort of okay with it. But from time to time, I'd show him a flyer...
I am so happy he bought one! It is nice not to have to squint at the crawlers on the bottom, or guess what the credits say....
Yippeee!

Happy Friday!

Hope everyone has a wonderful night! New Moon is in theaters, hubby is home and finally relaxing, and I'm feeling a bit better.
So, what are you doing reading this? Go have FUN!

Punkin Pie!

For all of you that are like me and spelling mistakes drive you batty, I did it on purpose! Anyway, another trip to the Doctor and am now starting my third round of antibiotics, nasal steroids and also regular steroids, so I am feeling hopeful that this will knock the snot right out of me! (TMI!) So, in honor of feeling better, I decided to give you a giggle. My friend Jean Bernard sent this to me...

It is how Pumpkin Pie is Made....

Bluck!!

This sinus infection has taken hold and won't let go. Feels like an elephant on my face...
(Nice visual, huh?)
The girls got to meet an author today, Lois Jarman. She writes about real princesses in Medieval Times. She was wonderful!
To see more of her work, click here.

Yipes!

Again I forgot to post!! I do have an excuse.... boogers!
I'd finished my round of antibiotics to mash my sinus infection into submission, but as soon as it ran out, it came back with a vengence. So, it's back on antibiotics, and hopefully this sucker will go away!
I must be better so I can go see New Moon on Friday!
Eeeeps! I am such a dork!