Wednesday Wisdom

Look at me

So for my birthday, what would any woman want...... oh yeah, a little red sports car.
sadly no this is not mine, but my step-son's. He bought himself a nice "seattle" car (no top) 1967 Triumph. yep with as nice of a summer we have had having a top is not a big deal... but on Tuesday the rain starts!

My present to you- you winner you-

Boo-Hoo for me my birthday is over.
but YEA to #6 -
squareby at: http://squareby.blogspot.com/

Result: 6 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

She get's the beautiful lavender domino bracelet....

and she also has a cute crafty blog!

It's my Birthday

AND DON'T FORGET TO ENTER THE *** GIVE AWAY *** HERE

It's my Birthday Give-A-Way

Sunday is my Birthday- -Happy Birthday Lisa-
For my Birthday, I'm having a Give Away, a real cool ( IMHO) Give-A-Way
For several years now my girls and I have been making Domino Jewelry. Mostly necklaces, pins and bracelets. The bracelets are the hardest because you have to drill the holes (2) and the drill is small... and well a pain.
I have some left over bracelets from a craft fair....and.... ONE OF THEM CAN BE YOURS!!!

SO, just leave me a comment and you'll be entered! I will have the RANDOM COUNTER pick a number Monday morning, because of course I'll be celebrating my birthday into the wee hours (10pm) on Sunday night. Good Luck--- and since I only have 16 followers (several who are out the country and I don't know how they found me....) You have a GREAT CHANCE OF WINNING A COOL, Talk Of The Town bracelet.

(some bracelets are smaller, 7" and 8") oh yeah, and let me know which one you like the best!
blue shells (7) Ivy (8)
music(8) duck(7)
Sleeping Beauty (8) dragonfly (7)
Lavender (7) Cards (7)
Butterfly (8) music (8)
old fashioned roses (8)

Wednesday Wisdom

Twixt the optimist and pessimist

The difference is droll

The optimist sees the doughnut....

But the pessimist sees the hole.”

Today's doctors don't think much of doughnuts, but they are accumulating evidence that optimism is good for health. - Do your best to seek silver linings, if not doughnuts

For those of you who don’t know me, or .. for those of you that do… I am a BIG time musical fan, whether watching, performing, stage managing or just passing out programs. There was a time (many) that Musicals were a big part of my life. I’ve loved them since Julie Andrews in Camelot or Sound of Music or Mary Poppins or Victor/Victoria, Ethel Merman in Call me Madam, Frank Sinatra in Guys & Dolls.. well… you get the picture. Leaving the theater and walking the 2 miles back to the ferry, I was trying to come up with the best musical ever. That is extremely hard, and so I just went the musical that spoke to me the most…
the music, the costumes, the story ………

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. I Love the Music, all the different styles, EVERY song is written in a different style.

Ok everyone what is YOUR favorite Musical……
(and stay tuned for a GIVEAWAY later in the week…. Just in time for you-know-who’s birthday)

Food Fun Friday- Chili Parmesan Chicken

We are going on vacation TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY, so I have been cutting down and eating mostly the "south beach, low carb way". I haven't been doing too much experimental cooking (except for some VERY strange tasting Flax meal muffins that look like they are chocolate muffins but definitely not).
This is my favorite EASY-Peasy recipe, only 3 ingredients... and NO I didn't have the noodles in the picture!
I am listing the original recipe, but you can use more or less of any of the ingredients.

Chili Parmesan Chicken
1/4 C grated Parmesan cheese
2 tsp. chili powder
6 small skinless chicken breasts

Preheat oven to 400-degrees. Mix together the cheese and spice, then coat the chicken with it. (you could dip the chicken in beaten egg first if desired). Bake about 25-30 minutes.


VIOLA-- there you have an easy, quick meal

Lisa's Craft Class

We had a fun class last night.... in fact so fun I didn't snap any pictures!!!! So I just got the left over tags and took a picture of them. It was a fun, relaxing evening just vegging out and put a little creativity into making tags for gifts... or holidays... or whatever. It was fun thinking about the upcoming holidays and everyone agreed to have classes that revolve around making gifts for the holidays whether birthdays or Christmas or????.

Creating is fun! Most especially with friends!

I'm going to be a Grandmother-

Lauren found out today... that it's going to be a boy.
A bouncing baby boy.

I love Fall (and a day off)

Let me just say that you have GOT to have one of these beauties if you are going to spray paint. This is my first! and WOWie ZOWie, I will never spray paint again without a trigger!!!

happy fall,
I am starting to decorate...
Welcome
lights on
lights off

Happy Birthday to my Mother

circa 1965

Today is my mother’s Birthday. -82- yep, 9/11

Up until she was 80, she NEVER, never, never, ever wanted anyone to know how old she was. She has always been serious about that. I remember as a little girl in elementary school there was some sort of puzzle/trick/equation that you put all these numbers here and there and at the end of it you got the person’s age, and I said .. so mommy you are _ _ _ and she was SCHOCKED, aghast.. and really upset that I had “figured” it out.

My mom IS the picture perfect 50’s mom. She never drove. She never worked (she babysat here and there). She was the mom. She got us rides everywhere. She made penny pinching meals (rice&peas&tuna casserole) and all of our clothes (well Nana, her mother made our coats).

I will mention now that she HATED having her picture taken. There were not many family photos in our house. (even their wedding photos were tucked away and only since she’s moved here has she taken the photo out and framed it) Oh and let me mention here that my dad was a photographer, he did brochures, portraits and weddings etc. No pictures of my mom! All the pictures my dad (tried) to take of my mom had 1. newspaper in front of her fact, 2.a body only as the face was hiding behind someone else, or 3. a blurry back that turned just in the nick of time so as never to be in a photo. On the flip side there are very few pictures of my dad because HE WAS ALWAYS TAKING THE PICTURES.

My mother does not like change. Good or Bad. She fights change. She lived in her house 50 years. Imagine her answer (3 years ago) when I told her she was going to have to move! .... 2 states away! But she did it, she rose to the occasion and for the most part (except for the snow) is glad she did.

So it has come full circle. Hope I'm as good to you as you are to me.
Not like I'm worried she'll ever read this, ha...guess I could have told all her secrets. Like how she loves her black hair and is REALLY upset that I talked her into letting it go natural. Yep she is ALL grey now, and just hates it!

birthday bulletin board

It's my mom's birthday (82) on Friday, and I took an old bulletin board and covered it with BLUE toile - she loves anything in blue, so hope she likes this and can use it.
We made these at my once a month craft class.. and they really do make great gifts! Gifts with a purpose.

Wednesday Wisdom

nuff said

I love holidays

I am having the best day -
I did ALL my cleaning on Saturday, so I could spend today:
cleaning out my emails.
reading blogs and organizing my foxfire (since the gremlins are gone and computer is back up)
sewing the little projects by my sewing machine
organizing the articles from the last 9 months that I want to make
working on my Christmas ball wreaths
cleaning up my workroom
and that's just what I've done so far today, and its only 12 noon.~!!!!
maybe I'll watch a movie and make more wreaths or work on my mom's b-day gift.

oh, I LOVE a day off by myself. The only thing that could make it better would be making all these crafts with my girls.

Blogs in Blogville- The Shabby Tiara

I'd like to share.
There are so many interesting blogs in Blogville.
There are so MANY places that are fun, informative, uplifting, beautiful
and SO many have give-a-ways.
(and if you follow me you know that I have been LUCKY on 2 different occasions!)
This week I'm sending you to a fun site I watch: The Shabby Tiara
She is having a give-a-way ----- books - or things that are pink.
Other than that, she has a great blog, she loves things shabby/chic, such interesting eye-candy! and a fun mom too!

Food Fun Friday- Chocolate Zucchini Bread

Chocolate Zucchini Bread -- yum yum
yes you read about this on Lauren's blog... OR if you didn't... here it is
--I'll add my comments later--

Chocolate Zucchini Bread {makes 2 loaves}
Recipe by OurBestBites.com found here

2 C flour
2 t cinnamon
1/2 t salt
1 1/2 t baking soda
6 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 C canola oil
1 C sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
3 eggs
2 t vanilla
1/2 C sour cream
3 C grated zucchini
3/4 C mini chocolate chips

Topping:
2 T brown sugar
2 T white sugar
1/2 t cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour 2 loaf pans and set aside.

Mix topping ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Place flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.

With a stand or hand mixer beat oil, white sugar, brown sugar, and eggs until combined and slightly fluffy, 1-2 minutes.

Add vanilla and sour cream and mix until combined.

Gently stir in the grated zucchini.

Take a spoonful of the flour mixture and stir in with the chocolate chips (that will help keep them evenly distributed.) If you only have regular chocolate chips, or a chocolate bar, just give it a chop so it's the size of mini chocolate chips. Stir remaining flour mixture into batter and mix just until combined. Add chocolate chips and stir to combine.

Divide the batter between the two pans, sprinkle topping over each.

Bake in your preheated 350 degree oven for 50-60 minutes.

When it's done a toothpick or skewer should come out without goopy batter on it and the top will be gorgeous and cracked with sugar.

Let it cool on a rack for 5-10 minutes and then remove from pans. You definitely have to eat a slice warm. And slathered with butter.

--I made mine in 5 little mini loafs (the foil disposable ones)
THIS WAS GREAT!!! and it took 50 minutes.
-- The second batch I made I used 2 loaf pans, cooked it for an hour and the toothpick came out clean.... but the loafs were so "moist" they broke in two... lengthwise.
They were still pretty tasty, EVERYONE at work gave it a thumbs up...
but I still like regular zucchini bread/cake better!

Weekend Travel-log

We had a GREAT long weekend. We went to the Columbia River Gorge to see Nickleback. ..... with 22,000 close friends. It was 82 degrees, no wind. Just a beautiful relaxing time.
yep, pretty crowded.
Afterwards we stayed at the Rhoades BED&BREADFAST (homemade apricot bread to take home, yum yum) They also fixed us a WONDERFUL dinner... so we didn't have to buy any of the overpriced food at the concert (another plus). After our stay in Ephrata and visiting (a little) we were off to see the country side, Northern Washington.... but I'll have to say I didn't get ANY pictures of the miles and miles and hours and hours of driving thru the apple orchards!
Beautiful scenery...
and just look at the wildlife!
More wildlife. We figure the deer must know it is NOT hunding season. We saw and almost ran into more deer than you could imagine. Most fields held at least 25 dear, mile after mile. They are smart, eat while they can't shoot you!!
and beautiful scenic vistas. Washington is a beautiful tree laden state.