Monday, Monday...

It's Monday.

The skies are gray and rainy.

What is the proper spelling of gray?  Gray or Grey?

I made a ridiculously high caloric dessert for a get together tonight at my house.

Had to cancel get together and am now stuck with said high caloric dessert that I now have to stay out of.

Frustrated with "fair-weather" friends.

Can't seem to stay on task today.

The good news is I mopped my tile entryway... the bad news; the rest of the tile floor now looks really bad next to the entryway.

I want to be thin but don't want to put in the effort it will take.

Should be cleaning up my craft room but can't decide where to start.

Trying to decide if 'fair-weather" friends are worth it.

Can I get anymore negative today?  Probably but it is a waste of my time.

Must make a list of to-do's and stick to it until I get them all done.

Get my behind off this computer and get to that list.

Bye.

INEXPENSIVE SCARF SOLUTION

 

If you are like me you have collected quite a few scarves that you wear as accessories.

This is how they have been hanging (pardon the pun) out in my closet.  Willy nilly, mish mash, crammed in wherever.

 

Enter the Pinterest solution I came across.

1 package shower curtain rings ($1.24 @ Target)

1 wooden hanger ($1.00 also @ Target)

 

And VIOLA`... ORGANIZED SCARVES.

 

As an unorganized person I was tickled with this little project.

RATING PINTEREST PROJECTS

I have found some really great recipes and craft ideas from Pinterest and have decided to give some of these "pinspirations" a try.  Some have been successful and some not so much.

 

Here are some recent inspirations I have tried:

 

 

Just last night I made these Vanilla Oatmeal No Bake Cookies that were originally posted on AUNT PEGS RECIPE BOX blog.

Recipe:

2 cups sugar

3/4 cup butter

2/3 cup milk

1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) instant vanilla pudding (I used french vanilla pudding which I had on hand)

3 1/2 cups quick oats

1/2 tsp. vanilla

 

Stir together in a saucepan the sugar, butter and milk.  Bring to a boil over med. high heat and boil 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and add pudding (dry mix, not prepared) and stir until dissolved.  Next add oatmeal and vanilla.  Let sit about 5 minutes then put onto wax paper by the spoonfuls.  Let set up.  I let mine set up over night and they were just right.

 

*ON A SCALE OF 1-5

(with 1 being I would 'not recommend' and a 5 being a 'let's make these every day')

I WOULD GIVE THESE A  " 4"

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Raspberry Swirl Sweet Rolls 



{Source}

I made these yummy rolls last week.  The picture is not of the ones I made because they were gone before I could get a good photo of them.  Hubby couldn't stay out of them, I on the other hand did partake but not nearly as much as he did.   As a matter of fact I have been know to make some killer cinnamon rolls and hubby said he liked the raspberry rolls even better.

For the recipe click on SOURCE above.

 

*RATING: "5"

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I found this flower scarf on Pinterest a couple of months ago and thought it was really cute.

The blog WATCH ME DADDY has a very easy to follow tutorial if you want to see how she did it.

Click HERE for the tutorial

 

 

 

Here is my version.  The only thing I did differently was to add some fake salt water pearls in the center of each flower. 

Now the rating and overall opinion of the finished scarf:

THE UPSIDE: I will say it was quite easy to make, great instructions, it went together easily and the finished project turned out well.
NOW THE DOWNSIDE:
If I were to make one of these again I would use a fabric that is softer and more pliable.  When I put it around my neck it was scratchy and bulky and knew right away that it wasn't going to be worn by me anytime soon.

 

*RATING: 3 1/2

I DID SOMETHING OTHER THAN BROWSING THROUGH PINTEREST

 

 I ACTUALLY DO GET STUFF DONE BESIDES CRUISING PINTEREST ALL DAY!

(I know, hard to believe isn't it?)

 

I was blessed with the opportunity to buy 40 lbs. of frozen skinless chicken tenders for a very good price of .63 lb. just before Christmas but just now got around to unthawing it so I could can it.  Canning chicken, or any meat for that matter, isn't hard to do but it can be time consuming.  Each batch (9 pints) takes 70 minutes to pressure cook which isn't that bad but you have to watch the pressure guage and make sure it maintains 10#s of pressure for the full hour and 10 minutes.  I ended up with 38 pints of chicken

 

 My next adventure is to fill 34 quart jars with soup, stew and beans.

I actually enjoy canning but with all the produce that comes on in the summer and fall it can get quite tiring so I like to can up other things that aren't seasonal during the winter.   There is something quite satisfying about filling jars with food that I know what goes into it, no chemicals or unwanted ingredients that I can't even pronounce.

 

Now I think I will go browse around Pinterest ;o)

New Year - New Projects

Well, all of the Christmas decorations are down and put away for another year,  now I must satisfy my creative bones by creating new projects.

 

 

This is one of the verses from the Tim McGraw song "It's Your Love" that I cut in vinyl and applied to scrap book paper and mounted on a 10"x10" canvas. I think something like this would make a great gift to your sweetheart for Valentine's Day, using part of your own love songs words.

 

 

 

Warm Winter Wishes is a block set that my good friend ordered to replace a Merry Christmas set on her tv stand.  She loves to keep all of her snowmen from Christmas out through the winter so I thought this might work well for her.

 

 

 

And you guessed it, Valentine's day is going to be here before we know it so I couldn't resist making a new decoration for that holiday.  I will actually be teaching a class in a couple of weeks where some of my crafting buddies will be making their own versions.

 

Do you do much decorating for Valentine's Day or is it a holiday that kind of gets glossed over?

FIRST THREE DAYS OF PHOTO CHALLENGE

 

Day 1,

January 1, 2013

Subject: Today

This is a photo taken of Mt. St. Helen's blanketed in beautiful snow on this first day of 2013.  The weather was perfect, not too cold and hardly any wind.





 

 

Day 2

Subject: Something new

This is a new dry erase board I got for Christmas.  Hopefully it will eliminate all those little pieces of paper I jot down information on then proceed to misplace or lose.

 

 

 Day 3

Subject: Heart

I was digging through some craft supplies looking for things to make Valentine decorations with when I came across these plain wooden hearts.  After fiddling around with them I thought this arrangement was kind was kind of unique so I snapped a picture.  I edited it in Picasa and added red around the edge.

 

 

Now let's see if I can keep up this little adventure and post regularly.

PHOTO A DAY 2013

There are some pretty talented ladies with blogs that post some amazing pictures they have taken.  I have especially enjoyed Amy's blog at KEEP'N THE SUNNY SIDE and Pat's blog at KEEPING IN TOUCH.  They have taken some fabulous photo's, especially outdoors.

I was fortunate enough to get a new camera for Christmas which has sparked me to challenge myself to take a photo a day.  I found this blog (from Pinterest of course) that has a theme for each day, beginning in January.  I still have LOTS to learn about my camera so hopefully over the course of a year I will be able to see improvements in my skills.

Here is a picture of the camera I got.  It also has an extra telephoto lens, a 75-300mm.  I am pretty intimidated  at this point with using it though but hope to become friends with it.

I will NOT be posting every day the photo's I take but maybe weekly or bi-weekly.

Wish me luck!