Wednesday Wisdom

The beauty of memory is that it still sees beauty when beauty has faded.

Paul Boese

de-clutter, pack, clean - blog - repeat

*all in all it feels great to be cleaning, and boxing and de-cluttering and discovering...oh yeah, the discovery's that you make when you go through the piles of boxes in the closet...
"I forgot I had these!!!"
or
"why do I have so many of these, I have a problem"  those are my thoughts when I was boxing up ALL my old ornaments from Christmas, my 'obsession' I call it...and this year I made 4 more wreaths and gave 3 away... and I have all these boxes of usable ornaments left.... (hahah can't find picture now... like THAT's unusual) but let me tell you there were 5 boxes (regular plastic bins) full of Gold, Red, Green, Blue, Pink and Silver ornaments... to use on wreaths whenever I get the time to create again... (and that does not include the 4 boxes of carefully stored antique ornaments)  it's a sickness.

I also have been craig-listing a few of our belongings...

and if postage wasn't so expensive (did you know it went up Jan 1st, not the 44cent postage but all packages large and small, heavy and light)  I'd sell stuff on ebay.. but that postage just kills all deals!  Maybe a garage sale is in our future????? and you all know that Sequim is the home of the killer garage sales!!!

All in all it feels good to LOVE it or LOSE IT

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MY NEW BLOG DESIGN

I am so excited!!!
I have been wanting a new, my very own, blog design for a long time now.  I just didn't have the time to figure anything out.... and along came the fairy blogmother:

actually I read about her new company on her blog that I follow: oops! i craft my pants

She started her new fairyblogmother and was asking for people that wanted new blog designs.  Well I jumped at the chance.  Erika was great to work with and believe me I asked a lot of questions!!! She was really helpful even with my dumbest questions.  I am so excited because now I don't run across other blogs that look like mine, I am unique
****AND best part of all I got the tabs I have always wanted.  I mean even I have a hard time remembering which recipes I have posted or people ask me for 'that' certain recipe or sometimes I need a copy of something I've made and NOW...I can just look it up. 
and I can remind myself of my tutorials... ahh I long for the days I could make things
(this cleaning,painting,organizing,moving,sprucing up TWO HOUSES, let alone calming my mother down and helping her  LOVE IT OR LOSE IT.....) but alas there is a time and season for everything. 

What I'm trying to say is........I can't say enough good things about about Erika she was great to work with!   If you are looking for a change or just a little sprucing up or added fun for your blog she's your go-to gal!

love ya Erika!  she's a little mama to be.

Food Fun Friday- Italian Bake

We are eating healthy, and are on a Atkins/South Beach kind of thing.
I can't remember where I found this recipe, but I finally tried it and thought it was really good.  Notice there is cauliflower instead of some sort of starch.  It was great, can't wait for lunch(left overs tomorrow)

next time I would:
*add A LOT more seasoning!!! much more! 
*more cheese too!!! yum yum
*use the whole head of cauliflower (oh and maybe? grate it next time, you see in the picture I just chopped it into chunks.

Italian Bake
1 lb lean ground beef
6 slices of bacon, chopped
1 sm onion, finely chopped
4 ox. green pepper, finely chopped
1/2 head cauliflower, grated
15 ox can chopped tomatoes, pureed in a blender (I did not puree this)
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 oz grated cheddar cheese
3 oz grated mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350
In a large frying pan, brown the beef, bacon, onion and green pepper.  Drain fat, and then add all of the remaining ingredients, except the cheese.
Mix thoroughly, Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
Transfer to a large oven proof dish and to with the cheese.  Bake for about 10-15 minutes, until cheese is brown and bubbling.

WEBBVILLE Spokeo..(insert scary music)

This isn't a blog- but a web site that is pretty freaky. It's a site called Spokeo.com - a new online USA phone book w/personal information


You put in your name AND IT FINDS YOU.... and what your phone number is...and what your address is... and how much your house is worth...and who lives at that address...and how old YOU are...and how much your income is!!! and your approx credit score... AND more.
You can also put in phone numbers and it wil tell you the same thing.
and email addresses.
yuck, I don't like that!!!  (I also found me with my old house info from 5 years ago... )

You DO have to pay a fee to get ALL the information on someone..(like their posted pictures, approx. CREDIT SCORE,  etc)  but for someone wanting to do something BAD or scam ya (like I said you just put in 'their' address... like the guy across the street... and you can know EVERYTHING about them and their family.. NAMES OF THE KIDS..)

This does not make me happy.  I can see bad things happening!

I did find this on somewhere about removing yourself:  Remove yourself by searching for yourself on their site, copying the URL of your page(s), then go to the bottom of the page and ...click on Privacy button to remove yourself. 

Big Brother is watching, and taking notes.... AND SHARING THEM (for a fee)

In the site (way down at the bottom) they have a blog and there is a post is about: How Our Opt-Out ystem Works

I know that they think it is a wonderful site and they have OTHER "blog posts" about how to use the site and how it can help you remember who people are, etc.  But???...  I do try to see both sides of a situation, and I just don't like this one! 

WHAT DO YOU THINK???

Wednesday Wisdom

It is easy to sit up and take notice. What is difficult is getting up and taking action.

Al Batt

THE upcoming wedding.

Have I mentioned that there will be a wedding in our family this year?

Kieri & Russell are getting married Labor Day Weekend!

This is cause for celebration!  yea!  and cause for going on a diet,

and cause for looking at all sorts details as to throwing a wedding bash unique like the engaged couple.

a daunting task.

so, just thought I'd throw out a few pictures I've found that I like, I mean She likes (hehe) 

ok so only a couple of things are certain:  the colors: Red and black and the cake (they got to taste 16 cakes)... 16 cakes!! wow, here, take home these 16 (little) cakes and EAT THEM!!!! and tell me what you think.  Oh yeah, glad it wasn't me or else my "healthy" eating would be totally out the window.

So here is their cake:

now here are pictures that I would like to see/make/do for their wedding:

 It seems that a BRIGHTly colored pair of shoes is the way to go nowadays

 love the black and white of this arrangement 

love the pearls in the redflowers... don't think they are roses... hey they'll match the shoes.

 She really wants black or dark red cala lillys

 love the sash and pin

love the table arrangements, simple but elegent

oh it's fun to dream