Flawful Fibers & Yarns + tisjewelART - Blog

BAA!

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 15:48:00 +0000

No, that's not baa-aaah, as in the sound that the sheep makes, it's BAA - Blog Aversion Anonymous, as apparently I have the tendency to find excuses why not to blog, so need therapy to steer me in the right direction and have me blogging on a more frequent basis. Two months blogless is unacceptable behavior in this day and age. HA!

DH & DS Cuddling

So what has this lil ol me been doing for the past 2 months? Umm... can't recall the tail end of May, other than that DS started his summer vacation on May 22. He went to his grandma's house for 2 weeks in June/July. See him pretending to sleep (aka ignoring me) on the way to meet with my mom and drop him off.

While DS was away I updated the shop with combed tops/rovings, handspuns, and bunny fluff (from my mom's bunny)

... and we started packing up the house for a move, and then I went to LV for a few days. (PS a lot of this stuff overlaps, so forgive me if I jump-jump jump jump-around).

I decided on the spur of the moment to go to LV to visit some family there. So I drove to Jacksonville, FL, had lunch with a few of the lovely knitsters there at Ruby Tuesdays. Of course my monthly friend was running a week or so late, and JUST SO HAPPENED to come right smack in the middle of lunch before my vacation. Luckily I had put on a pad just in case. After lunch, I hopped on a plane got to LV on a Friday night. I was promptly fed by my aunty Rie (though it's weird saying "aunty" cause she's only a couple years older than I am, so more like a sister) some freshly cooked, good comfort food, Pinakbet (not sure if that's spelled correctly), which is a Filipino dish that has ginger, green beans, eggplant, bits of pork, and shrimp (and usually bitter melon, but I don't like that so she didn't put it in). It was soooooo very good!

Saturday, they celebrated my little cousin's 2nd birthday, this was also 4th of July. I met some of their friends, again had some Filipino food - pancit, left over pinakbet, and guissantes, as well as bbq chicken, beef, and a shrimp dish. We also drank this great drink that is a mix of vodka ice tea, lemonade, and strawberries. I had 4 of them, LOL! Let's just say that the others got very sloshed, and it was hilarious :) and good fun.

Sunday, Rie & I went to a sushi place for lunch, it was all you can eat, where you just pay a flat fee and can choose anything from the menu, as much as you want, as long as you eat it all. Let me just say that they need to have more of these types of restaurants! Especially where ever I live, LOL, since anytime I order sushi it usually costs us $50+, so at $22ish and as much as you can eat, it's a bargain!

(I borrowed a camera from ContinentalKim's DD :), thanks so much!)

After that we went to the strip and walked down and up, in and out of the casinos and shops.

For our last stop we were going to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dessert and drinks, but found out they were closed and boarded up, so then ended up at the NYNY and had some drinks there and ate some more food. Let's just say that I probably drank too much even though I only had a Mai Tai, Mango Margarita, and a few sips of a horrible bleh god-awful Mojito (I LOVE Mojitos, but this one tasted of just plain old yucky mint flavored carbonated soda water).

I had a Starbucks Carmel Mocha Frap (which is my fav) w/o whipped cream, and we walked around a bit, played a little slots, and contemplated playing roulette, but chickened out. By the time we got back to her place it was midnight and I had to leave at 3am that morning to head to the airport to catch a flight back. I got a few zzz's then left for the airport. On the way there, ut oh, my stomach was doing flip flops, and my head was pounding. I managed to not vomit. However, those flip flops and headache stayed with me all the way to Atlanta with a few green moments, then at that airport I decided to purchase some pepto bismal thinking it might help... it didn't, in fact it made me even more green, so I held my breath and walked briskly to the bathroom where I promptly spewed whatever I ate while drinking the night before. When I got to Jacksonville, I was exhausted, tired, still hungover with a headache, but I had to do a 2 1/2 ish hour drive back home, so that was fun, struggling to stay awake whilst cradling a hangover and having had less than 3 hours of sleep.

So as not to have any dull moments, the day I got back is the day that DH had to pick up keys to the new place. So Tuesday was the first moving day. We rented a truck and over the next couple of days we moved our household from the old to the new on post. It was very tiresome, especially since we have stairs at the new place, so definitely got in a good workout. We had left all of our clothes that were on hangers in the closets, as well as cleaning and lawn maintenance equipment there at the old place with the intention of going back to pick it all up and clean the place for inspection at the end of the month. However when DH went back to pick up our clothes.... (cue music now *dun, dun, dun*...) He could get through the garage as he had a garage opener, however, the locks were changed!!! Imagine our suprise, as here it was just the 10th of July, and we were paid in full until the 31st of July, we had submitted a 30 day notice on July first, and had been there not but 2 days prior, not to mention had spoken to someone at the realtor's the day before. Yet we had been locked out!!! So yes we were very pissed off, to say the very least. DH tried calling the emergency number to the realtors, only to have to leave a message. He called back a second time after a while and spoke to someone finally, but in the end was told that he'd have to come to the office when then opened in the morning. Yeah right! I mean, come on! We had rights to that place until the end of the month and that was OUR stuff. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that the only thing that was left in the garage was our hedge clippers, all of our lawn equipment and our ladder, etc were MIA. So we were very anxious about our clothing that may or may not still be in the house, including ALL of DH's military uniforms. Eventually, DH had to call the police, who met with him there at the house. Just as a precaution so that DH wasn't doing anything illegal by trying to gain access into the house by other means. He ended up using a credit card to open the door through the garage.

Thank goodness all of our clothes were still there. There was still the issue of our other stuff, however.

So the next morning, which was the morning we needed to drive to Florence, SC to pick up DS, and then to Aiken, to pick up our new Jack Russell Terrier puppy, DH had to go to the realtor office to hash this out.

Side-tracking...

I ended up going on that long drive by myself. It was a 3 1/2 hour drive to Florence, SC, where I met with DS, my mom, and grandma at Crackle Barrel for an early lunch, then DS and I headed to Aiken, which was another 2 1/2 hours. We picked out our JRT puppy! They were soooo cute! Smaller that I had thought, just little tiny things, being that they're only 6 weeks 2 days old at that time. DS carried ours in his lap on the 3 hour drive back home.

The breeder named him Gandolph, which we had liked initially, but DH thought it was Gandoff, so when he heard that it had an l in it he no longer liked it, LOL. So we're now calling him Achilles, or Killies for short.

We've had him for 5 days now and he's starting to emerge from his shy self. Very much a rascal, and very much like a newborn as he only sleeps 1-3 hours at a time, which means that DH and I have to get up several times during the night to take him outside. The first night I did this, I ended up slipping on the stairs, landing on my back and neck with an instant headache. fun. not. And I fell again yesterday morning, as I missed the last 1-2 steps, ouch.

Anyhow, so back to the old house fiasco. DH went into the office that morning and found out that it was not the realtor's fault, it was the owner of the house's fault. The bank had foreclosed and they owner kept that information from the realtors, so the bank took our lawn equipment stuff thinking it was the owners. Not only that, but the owner took our July rent, knowing full well that the bank was foreclosing on the property. So now, the realtor is going to give us our deposit back, however, July rent is in question as they have to fight to get it back from the owner to give it back to us AND they have to inquire as to where the hell our stuff is. We better get our July rent and our stuff back! I'd hate to have to file a lawsuit, but who would we go after, if not the realtor as that is who we make the checks out to.

Can you imagine though? What if I had left my car there? What if we hadn't had been moving and/or had been on vacation? We'd be left in the cold and/or all of our stuff would have been erroneously confiscated by the bank like our lawn equipment stuff was.

So that's that, and now we have to wait and see.

This week has been very busy. I've been like a chicken running around with it's head cut off. Yesterday DS had had an eye appointment, but DH accidentally made the dental appointment around the same time, so I had to reschedule the eye appointment. While DS & DH were at the dentist, I went to his old school to try to get his school records to transfer him to a school on post, but they were closed for lunch or something, so I had to drive back home. Was going to stop at his new school to pick up paperwork, but they were only open until 12, so didn't have time to do that. After DS got back, I took him to get his shots. I was going to get mind done as well, but I didn't bring my immunization record, sigh. Then we went back to his old school and got the records.

SO then this morning, we got up early just so we could get to his new school when they first opened and get his registration out of the way. I had compiled everything he needed, but then was told that DH needed to sign some papers, AARGH! Of course, they are only doing registration from 8-12 Tues through Thurs, so that means that I now have to wait until Tuesday to get this done because DH won't be back home until later tonight. SIGH YET AGAIN. We got back home, and the maintenance guy showed up a little later to fix the dish washer and the upstairs tub. And this afternoon, I have to go back to the hospital to get my immunizations done. Apparently I haven't had a shot since 1992! Which is really strange because I thought that I at least had some shots done after DS was born, but nothing is written on my report, so who knows. I HATE shots! I might have to get 2-3, eek! I remember as a child when I had to get shots, I'd run away, all over the doctor's office just to avoid getting one, of course they'd catch me and I'd cry like a baby all the way home. I'd do that ;) for old times sake, but don't think the nurse would appreciate it very much.

No rest for the weary, as tomorrow DS has that rescheduled eye appointment, and then this weekend we need to go school clothes and supplies shopping. Then next week Tuesday got to reattempt registering him for school, also reattempt making an appointment for the pup w/the vets and reschedule my pap for next month.

Yep, very busy. And I haven't gotten to sleep in past 9 since I moved here. That may be a good thing though, if only I got a good night sleep (uninterrupted by the cries and howls of the little JRT).

7 weeks old as of today

[took me 2 1/2 hours to write this post! LOL]

Flat-lined

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Tue, 19 May 2009 23:39:00 +0000

We'll not too much going on here lately. Saturday night while cooking dinner (lunch box pizzas), and just as I closed the door after putting in dessert (puff pastries that I would later top with something delish), the oven made this loud-enough-to-hear-in-the-livingroom pop buzzing sound, electrical buzzing... not good. I reopened the oven to take a look and there were sparks coming off of the top heating coil with a couple of little flames licking their way around. Closed the oven, reopened, the flames were gone, but the sparks were still flying. So dinner and dessert had to come out :( Dinner needed at least another 10 minutes, but what can you do? I had to put it in the microwave. However, the pastry puff had just gone in and was brushed with egg wash, so had to be thrown out. Back to oven... it continued to move around the coil, much like in the movies, but in slow motion. DH pulled the stove out and unplugged it, as I didn't want the sparking to continue moving around and end up by the wiring in the wall -- as we don't have the most reliable wiring in this house, especially the kitchen. Ugh. So here we are on Tuesday, still no fixed oven. The realtors, of course, giving us the typical runaround and drag-ass. Someone is supposed to be coming here tomorrow between 12-5 to "look" at it. I miss having an oven.

OH, under the stove we found a pacifier, a large plastic lid, and some broken dishes bits. Not to mention how filty it was under and on the sides of the stove from previous owners. I did find one of my dyeing tools though! So that was a good thing.

In the interim, I started a food blog called Belly Garnish. It's a collaborative food blog, so I won't be the only one posting there. So far so good! If you want to join us and contribute to the blog, feel free to let me know (let me know the email address you use with blogger so I can send you an invite).

On other news, mom wants me to sell her bunny angora fiber :), look how pretty it is!

and after the cut:

Wrestlemania.... Spin/Knit Style

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Thu, 14 May 2009 22:23:00 +0000

I've decided to join the WIPs (works in progress) Wrestlemania 2009 project via Ravelry, under the Team Spin-Out. We had to come up with names and some links to name generators were given so I tried out the Rollerderby one and got the name "DeathMetal Needles" (using Jewels under "A Jammer"), which is kinda cool cause it goes with knitting... however, I'll be spinning more than knitting for this project, haha, so maybe it should have been "DeathMetal Spindles".

This is the avatar I created for it:

My goals, I'm thinking, are to:

1) finish the purse I'm knitting with the yarns I spun from Sugarbeestudio's Jordan and Zinnean batts. Though I'm not sure if I like how it's going at the moment. I've restarted it once already and may have to do so again or rethink what to make with them.

2) Novelty and Art Yarn Spinners "Spinning Twins" SAL. The Challenge: To take identical fibers in identical amounts and make 2 very different yarns. Basically, pick out a bunch of fibers to spin, divide in half and then spin using two different techniques or in two different manners.

3) Novelty and Art Yarn Spinners May SAL - Spinning Fabric. The Challenge: Fabrics incorporated into yarns or yarns made entirely from fabric. I've done this before, but I wouldn't mind doing more like this.

4) Spinner Central May SAL - Primitive Fiber - Think Socks or Mittens - Landscape inspired.

The Maybes...

>> Novelty and Art Yarn Spinners Mix-n-match along. Carding up random batts that don't necessarily match up with each other and spinning them together.

>> Spinner Central April SAL - New to you fiber - Fractal Spinning. Though I've done this before without knowing there was a specific term to it. So it's nothing new to me, other than, of course, spinning a fiber I've never spun before. I'd say I was the most "fractal" person I know, haha, very disjointed, and I totally blame it on being born on the cusp between Sagittarius and Capricorn. I'm always at odds with myself, or at least my brain is... I wonder if that sort of classifies me as having a multiple personality?

I really want to work on the bundles of fibers I have, kind of like kits (also some from fiber clubs I've gotten or MADE, haha), I've been putting them off because art yarns are so involved. At least this way I can focus and hopefully at least get a couple of them done.

-----

And on other things, someone posted this link, The Belly Project, on plurk, I thought it was interesting. Really gives you another perspective on "the belly", though it's in your face, it's quitely abstract, taking a step back to view it as an object rather than flesh that hangs and mocks you. For me looking at the pics made me a little thoughtful and appreciative of what I have. So now my belly is not as bad as I have been thinking, even though I still would like to have a flat one as some of those in there, hehe, and I will never get rid of those pesky stretchmarks. DS made this comment "gee mom you have a lot of stretch marks", and I said "well yeah, you gave them to me", LOL.

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Then finally... I was a the grocery store and decided to pick up some chayote squash for dinner. (the 2 pics below I borrowed from the internet, so please don't shoot me, whoever took them, thankyouverymuch) If you don't know what they are, they're those things that look like green apple fists (or at least to me they do, someone said they look like an old man missing his teeth, LOL).

Anyway, as I was picking them out, one of the ladies working there, putting veggies out, asked me what I do with those because she had always wondered and was interested in cooking them. Now this isn't the first time I've been asked how I prepare this particular squash, lol, so I decided that I'd put my recipe out there.

Chayote Squash & Chicken

2 Tbsp Olive Oil
1-2 Garlic cloves, minced
2 Leeks, thoroughly washed then chopped (you can also substitute or do a combination with chopped onions, shallots, and/or scallions)
Chicken breasts or thighs, chopped into 1/2 - 1" squares (mine come out rectangles)
3 Chayote Squash, skinned and chopped into small cubes
salt (optional)
pepper
garlic powder
onion powder
1 1/4 C Water
1-2 tsp Soy Sauce (lite)
1 tsp Mirin (optional)
1/2 tsp Patis (optional, I just drizzle a tiny bit)

Saute your leeks and garlic in the olive oil over medium heat in a large pan, when leeks are soft add chicken and increase the heat a little (somewhere between medium and medium-high). Add seasonings - salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and continue to saute until chicken is cooked. If adding patis, do so now, along with soy sauce and mirin. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until squash has melted a little bit and is soft.

Serve over hot rice.

Voila:

Now there are a couple of pet peeves for this dish... 1) leeks are often sandy, so make sure you clean them thoroughly and between each layer. I like to peel at least 1-2 layers off, then cut in half and rinse with water, making sure that it's clean between the layers. 2) when cutting the chayote squash, I get this flim on my hands that doesn't wash off right away, it dries to almost like a layer of glue. No worries thought, it's a minor inconvenience and will go away after a few washes.

Ooops, I did it again?

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Tue, 12 May 2009 16:41:00 +0000

I could have sworn I've blogged since April 16th, but ah well I'm blogging now, so that's something right? ... It's the trying to remember what happened since that kind of throws me off, lol.

I got myself an ice cream maker the other week. My first batch was ok, I tried to make chocolate sorbet. When melting the sugar, I managed to melt the spoon... yeah, never use a plastic spoon when melting sugar, bad idea. SO had to toss that, and it candified (that's not a word, I know), at the bottom of the pot, so I had to let that soak and use another one. Now as I said the sorbet turned out ok, but it was on the bitter side, kind of like dark chocolate, but then again since it was bitter you can only eat so much of it.

My second batch was using chocolate with mint chips pudding. Now this one turned out good, however, because it was so thick the ice cream maker started stuttering about 15 seconds after I poured, so the middle section didn't get much stirring before I had to stop the machine and just put the container in the freezer.

I told DS that I had taken the fat out, haha, so he didn't want to eat it, said it tasted funny.

The 3rd batch was the same as the 2nd though I did add more liquids, so it turned out yummy. I still have a little bit in the fridge left. The only thing about this is that since the container is freezable, it keeps the ice cream really frozen, so it's a PITA trying to scoop stuff out when it's that solid so you have to leave it out on the counter for a while before you can dig in.

I've been trying to cook more than we eat out. Trying to eat healthy is a chore, really, as there's so many good dishes out there that are loaded with fat. Maybe if we adapt the mentality that there is really NO FAT within what we eat that it'll trick our bodies into believing that also? heh.

So anyway, this is not fat free, but it is sooooooooo very good:

Puff Pastry Pockets

I've made two versions of this, so here's #1 - Brown-Sugared Pears

store bought puff pastry
1 pear de-skinned and sliced thin
1 Tbsp + 1/4 C brown sugar
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
egg, beaten
brie (I used the brie that comes in a circular container)

Note: You may want to poach the pear, depending on your tastes, I didn't, so the pear was slightly crunchy.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the brie in half to make 2 portions.

Open one puff pastry and cut in half. Place the brie on one side of each of the halves, leaving a little space to fold the puff pastry over and seal. Place about 3-4 or so slices of pear on top of the brie, then sprinkle pears with brown sugar (optionally, you can roll the pears in the brown sugar first then top the brie with the slices). Fold the puff pastry over the pears and brie and seal by pinching the pastry together, you may use a bit of the egg wash to seal. Brush the pastry top with the egg wash and sprinkle lightly with brown sugar, then place in oven to bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

While the pastry is in the oven get a small sauce pan and melt butter (if you want a thicker sauce, before adding butter, make a paste using 1/4-1/2 tsp of cornstarch and the butter), then add 1/4 C brown sugar and remaining slices of pears. Stir and keep warm.

Once pastry is finished, take out of the oven, place on a desert dish and pour sauce over it.

When you break open the pastry the brie should be all liquidy and/or gooey goodness.

Version #2 - Smooshed Cherries

store bought puff pastry
3/4 bag of frozen sweet cherries
1/4 C brown sugar
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
egg, beaten
brie (for this one I used the same circular brie, but that came in 8 mini pre-cut slices)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Get a small sauce pan and melt butter (if you want a thicker sauce, before adding butter, make a paste using 1/4-1/2 tsp of cornstarch and the butter), then add 1/4 C brown sugar and all of the cherries. While stirring, smash the cherries with the back of the spoon. Keep stirring over medium heat until cherries are a bit softer and sauce is incorporated.

Open one puff pastry and cut into 6 pieces. Place the brie on one side of each of the halves, leaving a little space to fold the puff pastry over and seal. With a slotted spoon place about 3-4 of the smooshed cherries on top of the brie, only adding a tiny bit of the sauce on top (not too much or it'll make for a soggy pastry). Fold the puff pastry over the cherries and brie and seal by pinching the pastry together, you may use a bit of the egg wash to seal. Brush the pastry top with the egg wash, then place in oven to bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Once pastry is finished, take out of the oven, place on a desert dish and pour sauce over it.

Sorry, no pics for those! They should be eaten hot and well... there's not much time between taking them out of the oven and the eyes connecting to them and sending signals to your stomach that it must be eaten straight-aways. So no time to get the camera and take some shots. haha.

I came across a link for a blog called "Jenny Mac's Lip Smack" via a post on plurk, and thought I'd share it with you all. Her dishes all look so scrumptious and I've made a few of them with my own variations. Enjoy!

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I drove down to Jacksonville this past Friday night and spent the night at Sugarbeestudio's house. Then Saturday morning we got up and Picnicknits met up with us. The three of us and Sugarbee's daughter went to a little diner and had some waffles. YES, I finally got the waffles I've been craving this past week. I still want to get me a waffle iron thingie one of these days. I had plain waffles that they had sprinkled a bit with powdered sugar, and I poured on some maple syrup. It was very good! We were sitting outside to eat, so we had a time figuring out how to shade ourselves with just one umbrella, haha. I'm sure we each managed to get a small bit of ourselves burned just a tad. Toward the end of breakfast a black/brownish cat wandered close, but we had to try to shooo it away - or rather Sugarbee's tried to have a conversation with it trying to convince it to go away, lol, since Picnicknits is allergic.

After that we went Yarn Crawling. I had never heard of a "Yarn Crawl" before this, so if you don't know what it is, it's basically going yarn store hopping :). We went to A Stitch in Time first. I found a few skeins that I wanted. I had never yet owned a skein of Noro, so got enough to make a purse or something. And another skein of Araucania (spl?) because the colors were just so pretty.

The store is nice, the front of it is mostly needlepoint then there's the yarn at the back.

After that we dropped off Sugarbee's daughter and headed to the other yarn store, Mckinnley (or Mckinney? something like that). That one was nice! There was a few skeins that caught my eye, but I had already spent so much at the last one, I decided not to get anything. They had a nice selection of yarns.

So Yarn Crawling turned out to be a fun experience :) Will have to do it again!

We headed back to Picnicknits' house for a birthday party for TrishTheDish, and had cupcakes, hotdogs, and at least for me, sweet tea... no booze for this girl as I had to drive home that night, lol.

I'm loving Jacksonville more and more, and especially since there are those fabulous people, with whom I'm loving more and more too - like Sugarbeestudio and Picnicknits and Knitkimberknit and... +++ So hopefully, once DH retires from the military, moving there can be a viable option for us. The only thing that I think would be a deterrent would be the friggen heat. Ugh - me + heat = melty and miserable. I would be nice, however, to settle down somewhere finally and to have that kind of bond with people that other people have regularly because they've lived somewhere for a long time, so have had had that chance to get close and be close to others.

Speaking of moving, we're thinking about it. Or at least getting on post housing. Right now the housing community we want to get has a 6 month waiting list, :(, so that's likely not going to happen. We going for the alternative, which is still nice, but doesn't come with a 2 car garage. The plus is that we can possibly get a 4 bedroom, which would be great. BUT the 4 bedroom units are in the middle of the unit complex. The wait for that is 30-60 days, hopefully, we get in there sooner rather than later, esp since summer is upon us and DS's last day of school is in 10 days or so.

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Back to the weekend. Sunday, was mother's day, but since Monday was DS's birthday, we sort of did a combined thing. DS and DH surprised me with some lovely cards. I asked DS where he wanted to go and he chose Applebees, so that's where we had lunch. Then we took DS to go shopping for gifts at - where else? - walmart, of course, lol, being that we didn't want to drive all the way to Savannah, and opted to stay in Hinesville where the only place to shop is Walmart. He got a game and a couple of movies, then yesterday I picked up a Caramel Brownie Ice Cream cake. Haha, it was funny, I got those magic/trick candles and since they keep resparking, and making a whole lot of smoke, DH tried to put them out... using a papertowel. Needless to say the paper towel eventually caught on fire. Luckily we were in the kitchen and DH rushed it to the sink where the water was already running. Fun stuff! LOL Had I thought of it, I would have gotten a photo.

The pics of DS and DH are blurry as they didn't want to stay still while I was photographing because they were all hyper excited over the sparks from the candles.

Ah, 9 years old already... sigh... how time passes. DH's comment is, "half way there", haha, as in half way until DS is out of the house on his own.

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Eye candy...

Batt custom carded for me by Sugarbeestudios

Finished handspuns, I've been meaning to photograph for a while now

and silkrods to be listed soon

Mmm... mmm... good.

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:36:00 +0000

I forgot to post this last night, but here's what we had for dinner. It was a little bland as is, so I added some seasonings which will be indicative by italics.

Recipe: Chicken with Wild Rice Stuffed Tomatoes (my substitutions are in parenthesis)
(Link to orig recipe)

1/4 c wild rice (sub: boxed long and wild rice minus the seasoning packet)
8 lg tomatoes
3 Tbsp EVOO
1 onion, chopped
4 oz mushrooms, chopped (used: baby portabella)
1 lb ground chicken (sub: 1 lb ground turkey)
1 Tbsp sweet smoked paprika (sub: 1 Tbsp paprika + 1 Tbsp smoked chipotle tabasco sauce)
1/2 c sour cream
1 bunch dill, chopped (used: fresh baby dill)
onion powder
garlic powder
shredded parmesan cheese
salt
pepper

1. Prepare the wild rice according to the package instructions.
2. Meanwhile, cut a 1/2-inch slice off the top of each tomato (1/4" should suffice). Scoop out and discard the seeds, most of the flesh and excess juice (I saved these to use in another dish later). Place the tomato shells on a baking sheet and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350°.
3. In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for 1 minute. Add the ground chicken and cook for 6 minutes, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon until crumbly. Stir in the smoked paprika (or my subs + onion and garlic powder). Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cooked wild rice, sour cream and dill. Add salt (and pepper) to taste.
4. Stuff the rice mixture into the tomatoes. Brush the outside of the tomatoes with the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and season lightly with salt (I used olive oil spray, for one, it's zero calories and two, it's easier). Cover loosely with foil and bake until the tomatoes are tender and the filling is hot, about 25 minutes. (about 5 minutes or before finished, I topped with parmesan).

Once you pull it out of the oven add some parmesan to the plate before putting the tomatoes on, then sprinkle a little bit more on top.

I served this with extra stuffing I had warming on the stove, and Pillsbury biscuits.

Then tonight we had chinese chicken salad, which was delicious!!! I remember when I was going to HCC, there was this restaurant across the street that had the best chinese chicken salad ever! but you had to get there early enough because they always sold out (it was that good!).

Recipe: Chinese Chicken Salad (my substitutions are in parenthesis)
(Link to orig recipe)

1/2 lb white chicken meat, cooked and shredded (sub: chicken thighs, cause that's what I thawed out, sliced thinly)
1/2 pkg won ton pi, cut into strips, deep fried until light brown (sub: too much work, so I just got a can of those crispy noodles)
1/2 lb char siu, thinly sliced (sub: no char siu around here, so I diced up and cooked some Tochino, which is similar in flavor to char siu)
1 head lettuce, broken in bite-sized pieces (sub: 50/50 baby spinach and mixed spring greens)

Dressing:
1/2 tsp white pepper (sub: black pepper, don't keep white pepper on hand)
1 tsp salt
1/4 c vinegar (didn't specify what kind, so I used what I had, which was cider vinegar)
1/4 c sugar

Boil the above dressing ingredients, cool, then add:
1/4 c sesame oil
1/4 c salad oil (sub: EVOO)

Cooking Instructions:
Toss salad ingredients (you may want to let the chicken and char siu/tochino cool a bit before adding) Mix dressing ingredients well (whisking helps). Pour dressing over salad (toss again, then serve).

Tomorrow I'll have to do chicken again because I have some raw left that I need to cook. Was also planning on doing some boiled peanuts, yum!

-----

Oh, and if you missed that important post from yesterday, please scroll down, it's regarding the hubby of an artist friend of mine who needs our assistance.

Be sure to check out the post below this one...

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 23:24:00 +0000

as it's an important one!

The excitement for today was a knock on the door... of course I wasn't in presentable attire - a pair of short pink sleep shorts and a t-shirt. I had DS answer the door for me, expecting that he'd tell whomever was at the door that his mom couldn't come to do the door at that time, but instead since the guy asked to speak with me, DS came to get me {insert rolling eyes emoticon here}. So I then motioned for DS to look at what I was wearing, with a "duh" look on my face. He then tells the guy "my mom's getting dressed" *facepalm*... kids. So I then have to scramble to at least get a bra on to go to the door after all. When I get to the door it's a dog catcher. Backing up a bit... Earlier in the day, DS went to go throw out the trash and he saw that the dog next door was loose in the neighborhood, barking and being generally a little bit scary-ish... back to the dog catcher... so he asks me if that dog belongs to the next door neighbor, and a series of other questions, like if I knew how to get in touch with them, etc.. I don't know our neighbors, so couldn't give him much information other than that we knew that they had three dogs (left out the part that these dogs bark ALL THE FRICKEN TIME, esp. like those times when we try to sleep), that that dog was probably theirs, that DS said that it was the dog from next door, and that DH said that he was friendly. The dog catcher said that the dog wasn't being very friendly and that it was being aggressive and he didn't want to approach it because he didn't want to get bitten. So anyway, he goes about his business watching the dog, I close the door and proceed to go take a shower. As soon as I get a towel on after stepping out of the shower, I hear the knock on the door again, so I have to scramble yet again to put something on, yet this time dripping wet. They tell me that the dog is now in our back yard and that they are going to go back there to see if they can catch it. I was like ok, that's fine. I go back into my bedroom bathroom to put the towel up and I hear a "zzzzzap zzz zzap"ping, like a tazer. Poor doggy! I didn't look outside to see it happening, but still could hear that ominous sizzle zapping. I guess they finally caught the dog.

When DH got home, I told him the story and from him I came to find out that it was not actually the dog from next door because he had seen a dog similar to the one next door out and about that morning, but it was bigger and a pitbull/mix rather than a boxer mix. So ooops!

There's some weird crap that DS told us a while back that he heard from the kid who visits, I guess his grandma, next door, something about gun powder in the dog food (I guess it makes a dog more aggressive???) and dog fighting, but who knows what to believe. It's kind of funny though, one should be careful what the do and say around kids...

----

Again, please check out the post below this one. Thanks!

repost: Emergency!! for JoAnnA & Ron Pierotti

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:59:00 +0000

copied from Izabella's Blue:

Please see JoAnnA's blog for more information http://mosshill.blogs.com/.

Ron has a brain tumor & it is much worse than they expected, they say if he doesn't have this done immediately, they give him only a month to live! JoAnnA & Ron are beautiful souls & would take their shirts off their back for anyone...I feel it's the least we could do is...chip in a dollar or 1000 dollars, please please pass along this widget to help them in their time of need. And prayers are desperately needed to comfort them in this traumatic time~

You can also use this link to add in forwarding emails, this will take you to the page where you can pick up the embed codes for your sites. http://ronpierotti.chipin.com/ron-pierotti Please forward this to your friends~ Thank you so much!

Ooops, I let a week slip by

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 21:51:00 +0000

Ok, so I let a week + slip by, haha. Anyway, not too much to report. We didn't do anything on Easter. We did go to Savannah the day before though and had lunch at B&D Burger. The burgers were pretty good. My puter decided it wanted to blue screen and crash on me, however, so that was not fun. We figured it overheated because the cooling pad conked out and the internal fan took a vacation. Afterward, because of what happened to the desktop crashing last year, I went and ordered a new puter. Yes, ordered, cause I'm not getting another refurbished crappy laptop that only lasts a year or less cause I can't recall when exactly I got it, I'm thinking it was around the same time last year. As soon as it cooled and would let me do anything except ring-around-the-rosy with the startups and blue screens, I copied all my movable files onto my external drive. My outlook is locked up though :( so I can't copy the emails, of which I have tons. I can get email in, but can't delete junk mail. I did a virus scan and even went through trend micro, but found nothing. It's slow as heck and so can only use it limitedly now until my new puter comes in. DH needed to get a new laptop puter also, so we went to bestbuy for his. Well... since the puter only came with Vista Home Pro, we purchased the upgrade to Vista Ultimate thinking that it would be easy to install. Installing commenced, then it said that there were files missing so couldn't complete the upgrade. So we did the troubleshooting thing. Must have tried a half a dozen times, but it still gave the same message about 40-45% in. So we're thinking it's an issue with the upgrade discs, so DH drives all the way back to Savannah to return it and see if there was something they could do. Needless to say the line for the techs were too long... so DH brought the puter and the exchanged upgrade back home. Again we tried to install the upgrade and got the same results. So I tried booting from the DVD and it then said that it couldn't install because we didn't have a genuine copy of windows installed??? OK, so now we had to restore the puter from the original discs to make sure that all the files were there. During the first disc it said it was missing a file, and the only option we could take was "skip" so we did that and then it went to the 2nd disc, said it was missing the same file... "skip"... then again, "skip"... then at the end it said that there was an error and that it could not complete restoration. AARGH!! Keep in mind this is a BRAND NEW PUTER and we have not used it yet, all we were doing was trying to install an upgrade! Ok so we have to click "ok" and then the puter restarted only to black screen on us and say that the bootmgr (boot manager) was missing!!! So now DH has to go back to Savannah again for the 3rd time, and this time he turned it in and of course now we have to pay extra to have them fix the puter and install the upgrade and it is NOT cheap to do so. This sucks, big time, because well hello, it's a new friggen puter that we have NOT yet used at all. I still think that it was a factory installation issue, regarding the missing files and the fact that the upgrade discs didn't recognize the windows that was already installed as geniune and that best buy (or geek squad) shouldn't be charging us for these issues. We have never ever had this many issues with a puter before, it's crazy.

I can't wait to get my new puter, this limited use stuff is driving me crazy. I have spun more yarn though because of it :)

Anyway, that's about it. DS is on spring break and goes back on Monday, then has that CRCT testing... fun.

Tonight for dinner I'm making Papaya Chicken. I was going to make Chinese Chicken Salad, but I couldn't reach a couple of the ingredients at the commissary, so will have to do that one another day.

I'm going to try to start making dishes that are healtier and smaller portions. We really need to lose weight *facepalm*. Except for DS of course, he needs to put more meat on his bones.

Sassy Lasagne

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 23:45:00 +0000

Let me just start by saying this is the best lasagne I have ever made. Mmm... I was just savoring it as a ate it off the fork. It came about because I wanted to find a recipe to use some ground sausage and some sweet potato that I had in the fridge, and well in browsing through recipes, lasagne caught my eye, and then a light bulb went off, add them together, and voila. It's good because there's a subtle sweetness from the sweet potato and a slight spiciness from the sausage.

So here goes. If you try it let me know how it tasted. There's a bit of prep work to do, so give yourself some time.

I served it with fresh greenbeans sauteed in unsalted butter and garlic/onion powder. I almost forgot about it, lol, until DH said something when we sat down to eat (he only mentioned it because he did all the hard work in cutting off the ends, haha).

Recipe: Sassy Lasagne

1 med to large sweet potato
1 lb ground pork sausage
1/2 med onion, chopped
Bottle of spaghetti sauce (I used Prego Italian Sausage & Garlic)
2 Tbsp water
Uncooked lasagne noodles
2 eggs
2 or more cups of cottage cheese or ricotta (or both)
2-3 cups of your favorite shredded cheeses (suggestions 2 or more: mozzarella, parmesan, cheddar)
1 tsp dried parsley
Pinch of dried cilantro (optional)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder

Preheat oven 350 degrees F.

Boil sweet potato (or microwave it) until soft, peel skin, and mash. Put on the side and let it cool for a bit.

Cook onions, garlic, and sausage in a skillet until browned. Drain grease, then add 3/4 of the sauce to the meat, mix well.

In a med bowl, combine 1 1/2 cups of the shredded cheeses, ricotta/cottage cheese, eggs, garlic powder, onion powder, parsley, and cilantro. Add in cooled sweet potato and mix well.

Combine remaining spaghetti sauce with water and spread on the bottom of a baking/casserole dish.

Put a layer of noodles in the dish, layer over that the meat sauce, and over that the cheese/sweet potato mixture. Repeat layering. Top with remaining noodles and meat sauce.

Cover with foil and bake for about 50-55 minutes. Remove foil, top with remaining shredded cheese and bake for another 5 minutes to melt cheese.

Let stand 10-15 minutes before serving.

-----

There were a couple of other recipes I needed to post and link to, but will do that another time.

OMG Another!

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:44:00 +0000

Yep, another blog post, and just shortly after that other (ee gads, *faint*)!

But I thought these were pretty funny, so had to share. I asked on plurk for some alternatives for "a few screws loose", because apparently I had a couple and my mind was drawing blanks, here's what they came up with:

bat shit crazy
A few cents short of a dollar
Not the brightest bulb in the box.
not the sharpest tool in the tool shed/box
not the brightest crayon in the box (which was the winner, woot!)
a few stitches short of a row. (I liked this one too, but will have to reserve for later)
6-pack with the plastic thingie missing?
lost their marbles
nutty as a fruitcake
they are co-co for cocoa puffs
off their rocker
nutty as a squirl turd
fruity as a nutcake.
a few cards short of a full deck
elevator stops a few floors short of the top floor
2 french fries short of a happy meal (hilarious!!!)
the lights are on, but no body's home

The plurk page is here (in case there's more).

Peek-a-boo

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:39:00 +0000

I know I've needed to update this thing for a LONG time now, but every time I think about it, I get blog block.

So what has been going on...Let's see.

I did get my hair cut (of course, now it doesn't look as good as the day it was done, lol). Here's what it looked like when I got home (after the wind blew it), kind of hard to see the layers though and ignore the fish-bowl closeup.

Then we had that military ball in Savannah. It was nice, not too boring. A lot of the ladies there dressed up in ball gowns even though it was supposed to be semi-formal. I think next time, if there is a next time, I'm going to jump on the bandwagon and get me a gown, lol, and something with color. :Op. So here's some pics:

This is a scanned pic from the one we had taken there:

Handspun eye-candy, most recent spins. The first pic of those singles on the bobbin, I'm still undecided as to what I'm going to do with. One is merino and the other is from a batt by Terrabellaspun. The 2nd photo shows a skein of a targhee single (squishy soft!), merino/tencel navajo plied, and various wools navajo plied. 3rd & 4th pics are of a skein spun from Sugarbeestudios' Zinnean batts, navajo plied.

OH OH OH!!! We also found out that DH made the promo list! Woot! Finally. :) And well deserved, of course! {insert happy dance here}

And continuing the disjoint of this blog, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to straighten up the studio office a bit. It still needs more organizing and cleaning, but at least now I have table space and room to walk without too much fancy footwork.

DS also had a school play, "Let it shine". They did some singing and he had a speaking part. The camera was having some issues, so the pics didn't come out all that well.

DH was taking pics and DS kept looking at him instead of at the teacher, LOL.

Oh, I should say we've been having more issues with the school and with the teacher. Grr... it's been very aggravating. First of all they didn't let us know when exactly SMILES (the after school program) was starting, so on that day he didn't come home. Then they didn't tell us when it ended, they sent a note home on that day saying it was over the week prior, so DS came home early, good thing I was home...

Then there was this issue with the teacher. DS had a recycling project to do that required a "regular" sized poster board, and that if he didn't turn in that exact size it would not be accepted. So not knowing what a "regular" sized poster board was, I sent a note to the teacher asking her to specify the dimensions. She then scribbles on my note and reiterates that it's a regular sized poster board and that DS should be able to show me. Of course that didn't answer my question, so I was already annoyed at that point, but I took DS to get some poster board, and he swore up and down that the size we got was the correct one (this was a monday). Then later that week (thurs), he comes home and tells me that the size we got was not the right one. So going back to being a little miffed by this, since this could have been easily taken care of if the teacher had simply given me the dimensions as I had asked, I emailed her and cced the principal asking again for her to give me the dimension. Let me just say that again she did not give them to me and again reiterated that it was "regular" size and gave me information for everything but the dimensions as I had yet again requested. So I sent another email to her, this time I let her know how displeased I was that she couldn't take the time to measure the poster board and give them to me. We finally got them after that, but sheesh!!! Such an ordeal, when just a simple courtesy note with the requested information would have sufficed. And of course her email closed with a paragraph outlining her credentials, like ooooo that's going to make a bit of difference, when clearly there's a bit of laziness and disregard here. Never did hear from the principal who was cced on each correspondence.

I would also like to mention that her grammar, spelling, and punctuation left much to be desired. LOL, how unprofessional. I mean I don't have the best, because, well this is online and it's informal, but in corresponding to a parent you would think a teacher would take the time to proof what she sends, whether written or typed. Practice what you preach, especially if you're going to be grading a project 25% on grammar, and 25% on mechanics; not to mention teaching my child how to do this??? No wonder the kid is so confused. (AND she still spells his name incorrectly and still calls me Mrs. maiden name, even though I signed all of my notes and emails by my married name.) Uh huh... real professional. Yeah, ok.... Next.

Then back to the school thing. We were having really bad weather, but one morning, after the storms, it was all clear out, maybe a little overcast, but no drops or thunder. So I sent DS out there to wait for the bus and he had left a couple minutes earlier than usual. He comes back in 20+ mins later saying the bus never came and that there weren't any kids out. I'm thinking to myself that we didn't receive a note home saying that school would not be in session that day, nothing was on his homework, nothing on the calendar, in fact there was supposed to be an art fair that day. I checked the school website and nothing was on there about it, and I called the school, got their regular recording, but nothing about it being closed and no live person. So we hop in the car and drive down to the school, and it's a ghost town. Back home. I check the site again, then go to check the county school site and there in a small paragraph is an announcement that the Liberty county schools would be closed due to imminent weather. I wish schools would call, they could do an automated thing or whatever, but at least inform the parents! What if I had a regular job outside of the house and DS didn't have a key, then he would be stranded outside with no way to get in touch with me. Oh, by the way, the weather stayed clear that day and in fact weather.com had a forecast for "sunny" with highs of 65. This when they've gone to school before when it heavily raining... This school, in my estimation, is "not the brightest crayon in the box" (courtesy of ibmomof2).

Carrying on... the weekend before last, I think, the fam and I went to the park... well not much of a park, lol, but it had some picnic tables and some grassy areas. We had some chips and salsa (or cheese dip in DH's case), and drinks. Then the boys played catch with the football for a bit. It was windy and a bit nippy, but it was good to get out and do a family thing.

We still have to get DS out there on the bike, cause he still doesn't know how to ride one properly.

This past weekend we went to the drive-in to see Fast & Furious and Last House on the Left. I think both were good. F&F is a prequel to F&F Tokyo, so that was weird, since F&F Tokyo was #3. Forgot there were skeeters out there, so I got bit on the bottom of my foot at the arch, which is really really itchy being a sensitive spot, and on my elbow. But 2 is not too bad considering I got bit over a dozen times that one time we went there. It's still pretty early though, so likely more toward summer is when they'll be out more.

I've mentioned this game before, Animal Crossing: City Folk for Wii, and if you don't have it you should get it, because it's addicting :) Slow at first, but then you warm up to it and get hooked. Anyway, DS was playing it and well he somehow managed to fall asleep whilst doing so, haha. I found him this way, so quickly got DH and we took some shots:

Such a goofy kid!

Speaking of games, there's another one on facebook, aside from Yoville, that's addicting. It's called Restaurant City. You get to open a restaurant, hire staff, run it, choose dishes, and decorate. Here's a screen shot of what mine looks like from the outside currently (there's about 27/28 levels that I know of and I'm on level 15, so still a ways to go).

And inside:

It takes forever to get $ and points to level up though. Per plate served and emptied it's $2, and you only get 1 gourmet point per (though it can increase at 0.2 increments if you level up individual dishes by obtaining the ingredients needed). But it's interesting seeing how each restaurant evolves.

Anyway, jumping back to DS' school project. It was on recycling, so we had fun putting that together. He did a can art. He came home today saying he got compliments from the teacher and the Vice Principal (who gave him a box of crayons because of it). A part of me is suspicious, lol, because of all that stink we went through with the teacher, just wondering if they're sucking up... a little. But it was a nicely done poster.

DS got a paper recycling kit for christmas and we finally got it out to play with. We were going to do some recycled paper for the project, but didn't start it in time (it's still drying). It was pretty neat. We took some scrap paper and tore it into small pieces, then soaked it in water for 2 hours, put it in the plastic kit hand blender and made it into mushy pulp. Then that went into a tray of water and a mesh was put into it and the pulp sifted onto it, then pressed the water out, flipped onto some blotting cloth, and pressed. There were some shapes, but we stuck with the rectangle for now, I think DS wants to try the others we we do it again. I'll post pics of our results when they finish drying.

Whew... that was a long one huh? I can't promise I'll try updating more often because I've done that before and well, you know how it goes.

Zooommm...

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:51:00 +0000

This month seems to be flying by.

Here's some eye candy to start off with. It's spun from multiple mini batts (carded by Jenna at UniquelyYoursDesign) and each batt spun in succession.

I call it "multiple personality" because of the variety of textures, colors, and fibers.

Since the last time I posted, I picked up the game Animal Crossing: City Folk for Wii, and can absolutely say that I'm addicted!!! At first, I was like, this is ok, but then before you know it you get into the game it just sucks you in to the point of being zombiefied.

If you have the game and want to add me, here's my friend code info.

-----

Gate Status: closed ATM while I map out the grid
Code: 1118-5606-3616
Name: Jewel
Town: Rogueang (I had a hard time coming up with a perfect name, and happened to glance aside to a book I'm currently reading called Rogue Angel, so Rogueang is just shorted from that. It's kind of catchy, so stuck :))
Time Zone: EST
Native Fruit: Peaches
Wii Speak: No and the keyboard thingie sucks!!!
Rated: G
Collecting: Regal, Classic, Pave, Green, Cabana

If you visit leave me a note saying you’ve been there, I’d love to hear from you. Also please don’t dig up fossils, being new, I’d like to find as many as I can. Fishing is fine, fruiting is too. (I also just starting to grow cherries, apples, and pears, please don’t pick these yet, thx). If you can bring some of your native fruit, I’d love to have some.

Be sure to send me your code if you add me, so that I can add you and we'll be linked up. I love visiting other towns to see what's up. I had no idea about the grass situation, so right now I'm trying to advance the game so that it can regrow, but not working just yet, LOL. I hope to revamp the town layout when I get a chance.

I got so hooked that I had to get me a Nintendo DS Lite (off ebay) to play the other game, Animal Crossing: Wild World, on it, LOL, so I can play it anywhere. It hasn't come yet, so will post that coding later.

--

On other notes, I plan on getting my hair cut tomorrow, will just cut off about 6 or so inches. Here's what it looks like currently (just ignore the bathroom light ambiance):

Here's what I'm thinking of getting, style-wise, though will be a bit longer in length (hopefully, you know stylists, they always cut off more than you ask for):

I like the 1st one and so do a lot of the plurkers who responded to the post I put up, lol, but I also like the 2nd one because it's different. I've gotten a couple styles in the past similar to the 1st one. So I'm still debating. There was a third, but I like these 2 better.

This weekend I'm going to Jacksonville, FL again for the knit2gether at Sugarbees Studios' house. I love going there and meeting up with them. We're going to be doing some open sales there, so wish me luck! Then Sunday I have to go dress shopping as I need to find something to wear to the military ball next month.

--
And in closing I tag you! Your it! (swiped from facebook)

Random funny album cover and title

What would your own album look like if you were in a band? Follow the directions below and find out.

Here are the rules (no cheating!!):

1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop or similar to put it all together. (If you don't have Photoshop, you can use the free online site Picnik: http://www.picnik.com/.)

5 - Post it as a photo to FB or your blog with the text in the "caption" or "comment," or use Notes and add the photo with it. Then TAG the friends you want to join.

--

Here's mine:

Album title: happy idling, dawdling and puttering
Band: Room & Board

(orig. photo/art borrowed from: here)

Ignore my little error on it where I accidentally put in a space in the word "and", so the a and the nd are on different lines.

Happy Valentine's Day!

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 05:57:00 +0000

Tonight DH and I went to that Sixth Sense / Paranormal Dinner Show w/Nobody Jones at the Pirate's House in Savannah. They served us salad, then dinner - I had pecan encrusted salmon in some kind of sauce similar to teriyaki, DH had Sirloin in the same sauce, I think, and sides of garlic mashed potatoes and steamed veggies. Then dessert was pecan pie or bread pudding. The food was good, I didn't care for the dessert though. They served cocktails and drinks and I had a pina colada whilst DH had a bud light. The show started after we were served. It wasn't all that great, more like roll-your-eyes, ok that's lame, kind of thing. DH & I were picking it apart after it was finished, LOL. The host, Nobody Jones, had me come up there once to lift the treasure box. Then had some guy try to lift it after he put coins in it. I saw that it was rigged cause when he stuck his hand in the box, he pushed something. Everything he did was more like a parlor trick, even the levitating table I could kind of see that he was maneuvering it up via a handle on one side. But other tha the show being a disappointment, DH was good company, and I enjoyed the dinner, and as it turned out the drinks were free (had I known they were going to be free I would have gotten the one that came in the skull cup, cause that was cool), so it was a good night. :)

I think next date night, aside from next month's ball we're going to look for a good comedy club.

As if I need another distraction this past week or so I caved in and got on facebook, now I'm hooked on YoVille and Vampire Wars. So if you're on facebook add me :) (see the widget on the side column of this blog).

Here's some other stuff I've been up to, handspuns:
Part 1 of super beehives:

Part 2 of super beehives:

Some handspuns I've been meaning to photograph since Dec/Jan:

Weeping Willow (sw merino/seacell 2ply)

Scallywag's Twisted Parrot (sw bfl 2ply)

Lil Ballerina (merino/tencel single)

Last Harvest (sw bfl thick/thin single)

Karner Blue (south african fine 4ply)

And then currently...

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 02:16:00 +0000

I've been dog sick for the past week, with tonsillitis. I think the other day when I was chewing some meat, I didn't chew it well enough and swallowed a piece that was too big so it managed to bruise my tonsils and the back of my throat. Since then I developed a high fever, ranged up to 103.5 and difficult painful swallowing. The fever is gone now, but I have a head cold and the sore throat (in the tonsil area) is still there. I'll do some home rememdies for now, but if it doesn't improve this week I'll make an appointment to see the doc and see if they can give me some penicillin.

And have cast-on for the woodland shawl which I have hopes of finishing before March for the Battalion Military Ball (which is March's date night). I don't know that I'll finish as I think I only have around 8-9" in length done unblocked and I would like to get it to be at least 60-70" for a good sized wrap. I'm using undyed merino/seacell yarn so that I can dye it to match whatever dress I get for the ball. So cross you fingers for me in hopes I finish it in time to dye and block.

Since I've been sick I managed to knit up two scribble scarves and a day tripper bag (no pics yet, as it's blocked, but I still need to sew in the strap and lining and button decorations).

The scribble scarves are unblocked, so better pics later.

So this month's date night will be on Valentine's day. I had given DH a choice between, 1) a valentine's cruise (he said "no water", hehe), 2) ghost hunt tour, with equipment and all, or 3) 6th sense paranormal show and dinner at the pirates' house in savannah. I don't know what's up with all these ghostly things on valentines? do you? But it's something different. So he chose #3

The 6th Sense Paranormal Show Featuring Nobody Jones @ The Pirate's House Restaurant
Dinner & Paranormal Show themed around mind bending psychic and supernatural phenomena brought to life by uncanny and eerie skills of paranormalist, Nobody Jones. Amaze at spirit communication with spirits trapped in The Pirate's House along with those of your deceased friends and relatives! Witness crystal ball divination and mind reading! Gasp as you become some of the first ever to see a spirit orb captured and controlled for your entertainment! Be dumbfounded as Jones performs Voodoo incantations to cause mayhem! Lose your mind as Nobody Jones harnesses spirit energy to help him move things in the physical realm! See the true to life Houdini spirit bell used by Bess Houdini to contact her magician husband every Halloween! Seeing is believing and this show is unlike anything happening inside of America's Most Haunted City! You Will Believe!

Sounds kind of cool, hopefully the food and the entertainment will be good :).

So now, I'm working on a scarf pattern, a derivation off of the drop stitch pattern that is EVERYWHERE, so I need to make it different, ya know, just cause.

Back-tracking to New Years, then sprint forward

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 01:24:00 +0000

After christmas the fam and I went up to NC to visit mom/dad, kid bro & grams for the New Years. New Year's Eve, DH & I left the kid with my parents to go on our first date night :) We drove up to VA for a Murder Mystery Dinner Playhouse. We've been to a couple of those types of dinner theatres, but this one wasn't as good. It was still ok, funny at times, and we were given a pamphlet of clues to figure out who killed the King. Basically the players were working around the room (hotel conference/dinning room), so it wasn't an elaborate setup. It was New Year's Eve, so it was a bit pricier, but I think we were paying more for the extras - the noise makers, hats, and the small bit of champagne at the end. DH wouldn't wear the hat, LOL, but I wore the tiara. I thought it was funny though as apparently the Queen had a replacement at the last minute so she was carrying around the playbook while trying to act out the scenes. The costumes were kind of rageddy looking like they needed a bit of sewing up and mending. Dinner was on the cold side, like it had been sitting waiting for a while before delivered to us. They started us off on soup, possibly minestrone, then salad, basket of rolls, then a main course of steak, with some kind of dry half potatoe thingie, and broccoli (I think, if I can recall correctly), then cheesecake for dessert and a small champagne. Drinks were basically water or iced tea, or you buy at the bar. I wanted something fruity, lol, so I sent DH to get me something and she concocted some kind of grapefruit thingamagig, which wasn't too bad. Then I had DH get me a mai tai and well it wasn't really one.

I guess all in all it was an interesting night. The hotel that we stayed in was fairly nice, and we fell asleep before midnight watching TV. New Years Day, we went to one of the local Richmond Malls, and it was freezing! Of course I didn't bring a heavy jacket so I was shivering my butt off. This had to be an outside type of mall, so we didn't stay long. Ended up going to target (where I bought a jacket). On the way back to my parents', I wasn't feeling well, I had been plauged by migraines so just a little before we got there, I had to have DH pull the truck over and just managed to stick my head out of the door for a little spillage, ick. (the door got in the way a little, as did the sleeve of my new jacket). That was fun.

We stayed a couple of days at the parents' house, played a few board games :) which are always fun, and this time DH played Pictionary with us, so I was happy he had joined in. It was surprising to see how good he was a drawing, and learning something new about someone you've been with for a while is always surprising, but in a good way this time. We also got hooked on playing Scrabble on the puter with mom, lol.

One of the days that we were there we went to go visit a local angora rabbit farm. I've detailed it the last store e-newsletter, which can be found here.

So that was that, and I had a shop update in there as well, here's a group shot:

On Jan 17th, DH & I had date night :), we're planning on doing at least one night a month to go out and have a good time together, just the two of us as a couple. This was our 2nd one. We found a good babysitter off of craigslist, who lives just a few minutes away from where we're at. She's a sweet lady, and has two children, so DS got along well with them. For our date we had planned on going to a local German Restaurant because I researched and it had good reviews. Of course DH happened to tell me to call ahead on the day of just in case to see if they're open, and as luck would have it they were closed until further notice due to fire damage. So instead we went to Rodeo's Mexican Restaurant. It had opened up while DH was deployed so we had never been there before. When we got there the place was virtually empty, maybe a few tables filled. The service was quick, and the food was good. So it was a quiet atmosphere, not too bad actually. After dinner we went to the movies. OMG the line was sooooo long and it was chilly outside. We ended up seeing Grand Turino, which was a pretty good movie. I had wanted to see the Unborn, but am glad we saw that one instead. Clint Eastwood was old, but funny.

I think our date nights have been good so far :) we still need to work on communication, but we're progressing.

We lost power on the 21st, which was not fun. In order to get the cars out of the garage DH had to manually do it. Then to get food in our stomachs we had to hunt for a fast food restaurant that wasn't effected by the power outage (it was city-wide), so ended up at Wendy's. DH & I spent some time in walmart afterward (I guess that block is on another power grid or someting). Power never did come back on until almost 2:30.

On the 25th I headed to Jacksonville to meet up with the Jax Ravelers for Knit in Public day. Of course google threw me off and sent me in some other direction far from the park I was supposed to go to, so I had to call up to get some help in getting there. It would have taken a little over 2 hours or so, but ended up taking a little longer than that, lol. Finally though through much sight seeing, I managed to get there. By that time, they were thinking of moving location because of the rain. They did a raffle and I won a Politically Incorrect Hand-painted yarn (from sugarbeestudios)

The colorway is called "Dingle Berry", LOL! She has the cutest colorway names.

Here's some pics before we moved location to Loop Restaurant.

I had a really good time. The event was put together well by Kimber and Corinna and I'm looking forward to the next get together at the end of Feb.

On other things, I've been working on another pattern, this time for fingerless mitts/arm warmers. Here's a swatch of the yarn I'm using:

Cozy Cosette Footsies Pattern (toe-up)

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 01:18:00 +0000

Since, I love footies, foot socks, toe warmers, whatever you want to call them, I decided to design my own. So here they are! I had initially though to submit to Knitty, but being that I’m fairly new to pattern writing, I think I’ll wait awhile until I get more patterns under by belt before taking that step. This pattern is free. For ravelers, click here to download and add to your ravelry queue.

All others can download the pdf pattern here.

Video with K1B stitch demo on photobucket can be found here:
http://s283.photobucket.com/albums/kk298/flawfulfibers/?action=view&current=PICT0001.flv

Rain-Washed Cap

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 01:15:00 +0000

Another free pattern.

The cap was double strand knitted from hand-painted sock blanks, but any DK weight double stranded yarn can do.

For ravelers, click here. Others can download the pdf pattern here.

Here I am! waves

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 01:06:00 +0000

Yeah, yeah, I know you don't want to hear it, the whys of not updated the ol blog. So I won't make excuses.

Ok, so since Christmas what have I been up to? At least so much time has passed that you won't have to sit here and wade through all the deluge of nonsensical stuff and get right to the point, right? haha.

(I'm cheating and looking on plurk to refresh my memory.)

Will have to update in chunks.

Ummm... yeah. OH!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS! :)

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 20:46:00 +0000

Seems neglect-o-da-blog is my middle name these days...

So I'll need to sum up the past month or so.

For thanksgiving week mom and grams came down, bringing our little one - le bunneh. She had gotten much bigger, probably at least twice the size she was the last time we saw her. Mom took pictures, but she hasn't email them to us yet.

Anyway, so a couple days before TG, we took a drive (about 4 1/2 hours) to Duluth, GA, to go to Super H-Mart (asian grocery store). Of course Mapquest screwed us up, but we eventually found it. Eating lunch first at the food court, I had some seafood bim bit map or something or another. We grabbed all the goodies we could get our hands on, though not as much as the other one we had gone to before. On the way home, we encountered traffic around the Atlanta area, then came up next to an unreal accident where a small car had wedged itself under a gas truck (yeah, real smart there), and then having passed that we came upon a truck ON FIRE!!!! The whole front end of this truck was literally engulfed in flames. We were all anxious to get past that truck before it blew up (you know, like they do in the movies), and we did get past it safely... there was no explosion as far as we could tell. AND THEN... on the back roads of Ft.S, I just happened to think to tell my mom to be careful because there was deer in the area, when not but a couple seconds later one comes limping out from the side of the road in front of us. If I hadn't told her to be careful she would likely not have had enough time to actually see it and slow down to let it pass in front of us and we would have hit it. The gods were looking out for us :)... and the deer.

Ok, so back to the bunneh, we attempted to give her her first hair cut.... .... .... poor bunneh looked like she had rat bites cause we couldn't exactly cut evenly... we did get a gallon + bag of fur out of the ordeal and we attempted to dremmel her claws, only got the fronts done.

So then moving on to December. Dec 6th DH left his post and headed to Baghdad, and let's just say that it took a week for him to finally get home. I took a few of pics from the ceremony, but it was too dark out there, so I had to up the contrast on a couple of them, still terrible, but you get the idea.

Me posing before leaving to pick DH up:
DS as we wait anxiously for the soldiers to come down the field:

DS & DH:
Welcome home sign:

DH is finally home! :) It's been great having him back, and especially for the holidays. Today we opened prezzies and I cooked turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, green beans, and croissant rolls. Just rolling around now like a stuffed turkey - but a happy one at that!

Oh how they grow.

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 18:33:00 +0000

Night before last before DS went to bed, he told me, "mommy, when I'm at school can you straighten up the house a little bit..." of course I just looked at him strange, haha. He said that because he wanted to have a friend over the next day.

Poor thing is so friend starved. He went over the kid's house to ask if he could come over, and I guess the kid (he said his name was "bubba"...) was busy doing something, so DS expected him to come over later. It got dark so I told him that he'd probably not come. So DS sulked and got sad and started to get teary eyed. Of course that all changed when I told him he could play Wii for a little while.

---

Anyways, so I have a ton left to do and mom and grams are coming on Monday. I was decanting last night, putting packages together and while clipping plastic flower accidentally clipped my thumb. The skin on my knuckle got in the way, so I have this nasty little bloody almost "V", just a couple more mm I would have cut the whole chunk off... eeek! So I had DS grab me the neosporin and a bandaid and he patched me up with a kiss on the booboo, haha. Now I have this round bandaid on it and since it's on my thumb makes me feel like I had a wart or something LOL.

After packaging all the goodies for the decants, I may unpackage them and stick them in regular baggies instead of those cellopane party bags since their so bulky and they don't fit very well within the mailers I have. I'd get bigger mailers, but I want to use up all these bubble CD mailers since I have a ton of them.

I need to finish getting them together today and then get to doing a small batch of dyeing, then do the final phases of cleaning the house (i.e. straightening up, floors, my studio, washing extra set of blankets, etc.). And we're out of bottled water so need to do a walmart run.

---

Pics time...

I had a small shop update this week:

New bunneh pics (when she was 10 weeks), FLUFFIER!:

And the package I received yesterday from my Plurk Swap Partner, Kristin:

‘sniffles’ I’m not a mmmmmalabrigo virgin anymore! hehe.

Malabrigo Stonechat Silky Merino, Malabrigo uruguay merino, custom made Knitters Rule with banana’s and banana leaves painted and burned on from KaratStix on etsy, Indian Spiced Chai tea, Black tea Variety Pack, Moose Munch chocolate bar, Lindor Tuffles, and a hot chocolate notebook

Fiasco...STRESS!!!

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:27:00 +0000

I swear DH is never allowed to go on deployment ever again. This has been the longest time and I probably lost at least a good 10 years off of my lifespan, LOL.

Yesterday's events comprised of waiting for the damn comcast guy to show up. He was supposed to come between 8-12 with a 30 min call prior. 12:30 I call comcast to find out where the guy is, and I get put on hold for the longest time because the rep has to locate the dispatcher and see if the guy is on the way or what. After being on hold he asks me if he can call me back when he gets a hold of the guy. 30 minutes later he calls and says that oh it had been rescheduled for between 1-5... UGH. It would have been simpler to tell me oh hey why don't you wait the whole day, we'll show up eventually.

Backtracking a little bit, I was awake early, since comcast was SUPPOSED to come, I hear this scraping and pounding on the house outside. It sounded rather ominous and peculiar, so I peek my head out the front door and get a bit of a fright seeing a big guy wielding a pick axe at our house and the ground around it. Shudder. Ok, yeah, I then notice the truck in the driveway says "exterminator" yadda yadda yadda. But here I am totally in the dark about why he is even there because the realtors failed to mention ANYTHING whatsoever about it. Then later in the day he knocks on the door and tells me he needs to see the waterlines in the house. SO I HAVE TO GIVE HIM A TOUR OF THE HOUSE, INCLUDING WALKING HIM THROUGH MY BEDROOM AND BATHROOM... Mind you the house is in no condition to receive any visitors. I realize the guy doesn't give a damn, but that's not the point, I was completely uncomfortable doing so. And I realized later that I had also left my dirty clothes on the floor in the bathroom (I had thought I had picked them up this morning, but to my horror had not, so I had panties, bras etc laying out, and more bras hanging off the laundry basket). Totally and completely uncomfortable. So he told me that he need to do work in the bathrooms - i.e. cutting holes in the wall and installing bath traps tomorrow (said yesterday, so today). Then later come to find out he also needed to get into the garage to drill all the way around.

Ok, so back to the comcast guy, he showed up around 2:30 finally. He was a pretty nice guy. He was very talkative and interested in all the stuff I do, lol, kept asking all kinds of questions about my fiber, photography (cause I had my photo tent and lights out), art, etc. Then went into telling me he built a wooden cage with hearts for the top and bottom and dowels for the bars. This he was using for doves, because he was putting together a business for weddings, where he'd release some doves into the air. Homing pigeons, he said, lol. And went into how he was having photographing troubles, that his fiances took over 200 pics of him releasing the doves in the backyard, but none came out right. Anyway, so he switched out the malfunctioning cable box and had removed some sort of filter outside that was preventing us from accessing On Demand (had I realized sooner that we were actually paying for On Demand and that it wasn't a free part of our cable services I would have called them a long time ago, cause we haven't had On Demand in several months at least since June).

So that wasn't all bad, just the wait and then the change in appointment. I think if they're not going to specify an exact time and they're going to give you a time frame, they should really keep that appointment within the time frame and not move it to another time frame. That would have been waiting from 8-5!

The exterminator left I guess when it got dark.

and then there was today's events...

The exterminator came again today, finally around 2 something, different guy, I felt better around him. I guess for some reason the other guy gave me the creeps, maybe seeing the axepick, lol. ANYWAY. He needed to do the garage, so I needed to move DH's truck out.... AND it wouldn't start! I had driven it last month and every time it started right up, so I had no clue as to why it wouldn't, not even a flicker. So anyway, the guy was nice enough to help me out. He didn't have jumper cables so I went across the street, and asked the lady who lives there if she had any. She did, but since the battery happened to be on the other side of the truck, the side closest to the wall it wasn't long enough to reach over to my car. ALSO, while we were looking at the battery, the exterminator noticed that the oil cap was off and laying on the side -- which means that when they did the oil change a while back (may???) they didn't put it back on. The oil change was done at the same time when they spilled oil on my engine, so no more going back to walmart for oil changes that's for sure - asshats. Ok, so I had to return the jumper cables and in returning them, I realized that I misplaced the truck keys somewhere! AAAH!!! practically pulling my hair out - happens when one gets flustered and unbelievably stressed out. UGH, as if things couldn't get any worse. Anyway, she said she would ask the woman next door to her to see if she had longer jumper cables. She did. So the guy hooked the truck and car up, and I had to use the valet key for the truck. It took a very long time before the truck would start on it's own, an hour and a half at least. I just got finished coming back from driving it around town as one of my plurkpals suggested that I drive it around to continue charging the battery.

So thank god for the exterminator guy today! Guess things happen for a reason.

Also, DS made a couple of friends, the son of the women I borrowed the 1st jumper cables from and the boy who moved into the house across the street.

Oh and I did find the keys, I guess when I was moving things from the garage into the house, DS's bike, cooler, the folded blue chair, etc. it had fallen into the center of the folded chair landing in the cradle of the seat, so when I moved it back into the garage I peeked down in there and voila.

I'm completely and utterly exhausted now. I left the truck in the driveway just in case, and will start it again tomorrow. I'm so scared it won't start up again.

Recap

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:35:00 +0000

So anyways, time for the accumulated eyecandy...

At the end of Sept I went to SAFF and met up with mom and grams. This was the first fiber festival that I had ever been to, so it was fun. I got to meet a few people from raverly/plurk there, of course my addled brain doesn't remember their usernames or names except for two - Dianne of Creatively Dyed and Chris of Sugar Bee Studios. Also took a couple of workshops while I was there, Natural Dyes and Airy Fairy Felted Scarf. AND... mom wanted a bunneh, so guess what:

Jaeden named her Crystal (mom spells is Kwistal, I think). At the time she was 8 weeks old, a tri-tort doe german angora. Quirky little thing, and oh so soft!

Some SAFF treasures scored from Creatively Dyed:

and Sugar Bee Studios:

Mom brought Buttershots!!!

Airy Fairy Scarf I created from the workshop, it was a heck of a workout! but fun :)

Natural Dyeing workshop results:

Not too long ago I had the opportunity of going to a knitting/spinning meet up at Sugarbeestudios' house in Florida. I got to meet more people! Eee gads, yeah the social anxiety person in me cringed at the thought, but I managed to get thought it ok, was glad I went. Chris and Kim and everyone else was great, I can't wait until the next time I can go down there. Chris' mom Mimi was so nice, and OMG her Filipino food was soooooo delicious! Jaeden had a blast there, so much so that he didn't want to leave. I can't imagine what it'll be like when we go again and he gets to meet up with Chris' son Justin.

Um so what else, not much else except for some knitting pr0n and tattoos.

Jaeden and the Giant Yarn

Which magically turned into this (albeit it's super long and not very wide, LOL, I should have cast on half the stitches then it would have been perfectly proportioned, but it works well for covering up the legs on chilly days - like today)

My henna tattoo, the first time I did it it looked great as a paste on skin, but then it started to crack real early on (even though this particular type of henna is not supposed to crack, grumbles), so I took it off and then waited a couple of days before going back over it. When you go back over it's never as nice as the original and in addition to that it bled some so the lines weren't as fine as I wanted it to be. It got darker and more defined than the pic up until yesterday when it started to fade some. It was darkest on my fingers and on the side of my hand, strangely, I guess the texture is different or something.

Since mom and grams and bunneh are coming for a visit, mom wanted me to knit up a blanket for Kwistal, so I carded up some undyed angora, naturally dyed and undyed wool and mohair, then spun it and knit it with Lana Ecologica Natural wool yarn and Joann's Sensations Angel Hair yarn (used this cause it was fluffy and soft like a bunny). It came out to be 14.75x16.

On other things... This is the long awaited yarn club (for Mar/Apr), can you believe it! She sent 2 of the same skein, which I wasn't too happy about, but ah well, as well as a handspun.

I was gifted this, woot! I'm no longer a Wollmeise virgin! Those who aren't avid knitters won't understand.

Anyway, so after taking that Natural Dye workshop at SAFF I was all excited to try some natural dyeing. Though I have a tub of natural dyes I've yet to dip in, lol, but I was able to score some rotting black walnuts from a very nice girl in Ohio :) to try my hand at that. Why "rotting" you say? Well the blacker it is the better it'll dye. Walnuts do not need a mordant either, so it's just soak and heat.

Cashmere/Silk/Merino yarn which was originally light grey and light-medium grey with multi-color flecks, dyed at varying times

This pic shows some tunis dyed with walnuts, as well as 2 of the cashsilkmer yarns (bottom 2 rows in the pic above) knit up in seed stitch for the Roam hoodie I'm making:

A finished scarf using a pattern I designed, sort of a wrapped faggot stitch and trellis. It was supposed to be for a secret project, but as I haven't heard from the person in a while...

WIP - June is for Jag Scarf

WIP - Carpet Bag (using all handspuns, just need to sew in a liner)

I think that's it for now. Mom & grams & bunneh are coming down for TG, we're doing a non-traditional one with a run to Super H-Mart for asian groceries and food, YUM!

Recipe...

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:00:00 +0000

Oh yeah, I forgot I had this thing, haha (well I didn't really, just haven't felt like blogging in months, I have lots of pics though so will update with some eye candy later). New recipe. I had been craving meat loaf because those evil enablers on plurk kept mentioning meat loaf. So I decided to make some, but had a dilemma, NO KETCHUP! Why no ketchup? Because DS, not paying attention and not slowing down (as usual), busted it by rushing around an then accidentally flinging it to my feet as I was about to step forward, thusly dousing my feet and pants and floor with a good coating of squishy red. So what is a girl to do when there is no ketchup and there is a need to make meat loaf? Reinvent it! So here's my recipe. The meatloaf is moist, the glaze sweet yet slightly spicy.

Reinvented Meat Loaf

1.5-2 lb lean ground beef or pork
2 - 2.5 slices of bread (toasted then crumbled; approx 1 cup)
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
2/3 can of Hunt's Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
1/2 small/med onion
2T mirin
Salt
Pepper
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder

Sauce glaze:
1/4 cup light brown sugar
remaining Hunt's Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
1t Mango Habanera Rub by Red Monkey (or any spicy/peppery blend or hot sauce)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine and mix all main ingredients well. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray (or olive oil spray). Pour mix into the pan and level top. Bake for 40 minutes to 1 hour depending on your oven or until the internal temperature reaches 170 degrees F.

In a small sauce pan over medium heat combine sauce glaze ingredients and stir until heated. 10-15 minutes prior to removing the loaf from the oven, spread the glaze over the top, making sure to let it seep into the edges.

Let rest for 15 minutes before serving.

ANNOYED.

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 12:03:00 +0000

DS's school is stupid stupid stupid. I got maybe one hour of sleep, cause I was up all night again. So I went back to bed after DS left for school this morning, but then not but 20 minutes later there was a call. I didn't pick it up at first cause I didn't recognize the number, but then I heard DS's voice on the answering machine. So picked up. He was calling because the school made him because he forgot to wear a belt this morning and so I NEEDED to drive down and bring it to the school. WTF??? Couldn't they just give him a warning for one fricken day? Last year he forgot one day and they sent a warning note home that needed to be signed.

This is fricken ridiculous and I am so very irritated. I understand rules and such, but come on now... What if I was at a normal job, not like I could run home pick up the belt and then bring it to the school. Then there was last week, where he got a yellow - they go by a color system - because, get this he sneezed into his hands instead of his inner elbow and that was considered disrespecting the other students. I was raised to cover my mouth when I sneezed, so what the hell?? I could understand if he sneezed without covering his mouth, but to make a big deal out of sneezing into your hands?? Couldn't the teacher just tell him to use some germX or wash his hands instead of giving him a yellow for the day?

I bet he comes home with a yellow today. A-holes. And these people are in charge of educating my kid. Great.

8 years and counting...

noreply@blogger.com (tisjewel) — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:23:00 +0000

Yesterday was my 8th Wedding Anniversary :). To celebrate, DS & I went out to dinner last night at Chili's (being that DH & I had our first date at a Chilis), DS sitting in for DH, of course not the same without DH, but DS was a hoot. He was flirting with he waitress, giving her the eye and showing both of his dimples. The waitress was actually buying into it, lol. I told DS on the way home that he should have gotten her name and number and he said ”I’m not old enough yet, maybe when I’m a teen” haha! Then when we got home he’s like “don’t tell daddy I met a girl”. So we had an amusing and pleasant evening.

DH had these lovelies delivered to me:

It's difficult having to go through these holidays and celebratory days without the significant other, especially 2 years in a row, but got through it, and there's always next year!

New batches of soap :)

Delirious Maybe {exfoliating}
Everything that is, but is not, as seen through eyes-unfocused upon a filtering pink lip gloss moon. A wild fey whimsically rolls on black sand under a canopy of sliced lemons and limes, bathing in the zesty downpour. Her giggles bounce off of succulent berries, drawing forth fantastical beasties and the serendipitous tide.

Seeded blueberries, lemon-lime margaritas, honey powder, black pepper, almonds and dark patchouli.

(those black dots are blueberry seeds)

Forbidden
Morpheus, god of dreams, manifests… all encompassing, beckoning, spreading a dreamlike state of delectable euphoria. From his lips thy taste of the lingering crisp dew, nectar sweet and intoxicating, like a fruity bouquet siphoned from the wine of the gods whilst you lounge in silken sheets.

Rendered pears, silky almonds, drizzled honey, warmed rum, touch of spice, and black opium.

On the agenda for today (after I clean the house a bit), will be another batch or two of soap :) - "Stingy Ol' Jack" and one other I haven't yet named.

It's warm and humid today, yick. The kind of day where you just wish you were liberal enough to go about nekked.