i found them

I love a Friday.

One that starts with sleeping later than 5:00 a.m.

and heads straight to the pile of paperwork.

(I obviously spent too many years doing bookkeeping. I really do love paper.)

Nearly ran out of ink today in my pen as I filled out forms.

School papers, more school papers and then even more of them.

I think we got it.

One set hand delivered, another faxed ...

one more to go as soon as I hear from admissions.

 

 

While we were out delivering we worked up quite an appetite and bit the big one.

$5 lunch is hard to beat.

 

Tia needed some birthday party supplies. Really all she needed was some balloons.

We ended up with a cart by the time we left.

I'm convinced Dollar Tree beats many of its competitors hands down.

 

I really need to get to Ikea and pick up some rods and hooks.

For now I used some screws to hang up these little baskets I picked up today.

I could use several rows of many of these little baskets to hold all those things

that just end up everywhere.

Where all this stuff comes from I just don't know.

We seem to not be able to exist without it tho'.

Oh, and chalkboard tags to replace the paper ones coming sometime soon.

I have the wood. I have the chalkboard paint. Maybe this week I'll have the time.

I was looking for things like candle sticks and glass plates to make cake stands,

but had no luck finding that.

I found this instead.

Didn't know they make these things without photos and stuff all over them.

Clear glass with a white memorial candle that stands about 8 inches tall.

For a buck!! Oh my gosh! The possibilities just abound!

 



 

My life seems to be complete if I can play a bit in the crafty department.

Just a wee bit.

Doesn't need to be an entire day, just a smidgeon of one and I'm fine.

Using an idea off Pinterest (the blog it comes from is linked here)

that involved using tissue paper on canvas,

I printed music onto tissue paper and mod podged away.

I wish I had thought of using darker tissue paper, but there is always next time.

Mod podge under the tissue paper and on top of it.

I did add a little color with an ink pad and more mod podge on top of that.

Then found a place for it on the piano.

Imagine this with sepia colored photos of your loved ones.

Yup. Imagination run amok over here.

 

While I was playing in between hustling laundry and cleaning showers/bath tubs,

Jari got the pressure cooker zooming outside.

I've had some tuna sitting in the freezer for awhile and we've been wanting to can it.

We ignored the instructions in the pressure canner book and went for the gusto.

This week I'll find out if you really do have to bake the fish before you can it.

Hope not. I'm looking forward to some delicious tuna sandwiches!

 

 

Tomorrow Jari and I are heading off to do some fishing and then up to the mountains.

Can't wait. It has been a very long time since I've been up to the Mogollon Rim.

I'm hoping to see a red or yellow leaf.

Maybe even two.

I'll try to psyche myself up for the new page of life that is coming this weekend.

No .... I'm not ready for this one.

Not yet.

This weekend started with

a visit to the chiropractor for 3 of us on Friday morning. I was along for the ride (actually the driver), but ended up being adjusted as well. I cave to pressure so incredibly easy it isn't even funny. The office we go to use to be down the street from our old house. Now it is across town ... and we still drive there.

 

Came home and the fridge was empty of eggs for breakfast. Off to Costco for the necessities with hubby dear. I finally had it with the person in the photo below and decided that she was going to be the subject of at least part of a blog post. She followed us around every, I mean every, aisle. I started wondering if I looked like a kleptomaniac or something. Maybe she was the new brand of security. I might be tempted to walk out of the store with 5 dozen eggs under one arm and a box of dog bones under the other. She'd keep me straight. Was she a mystery shopper? She'd take an item off the shelf and carry it down the aisle. Item would disappear from her hand and be replaced with another one. When she started shedding layers of clothing .... decided maybe she after my shopping companion. Time to take the man home!

 

 

Your house probably never gets to the point where something in the fridge smells and you can't figure out what it is. All science projects have been removed. All obvious spills cleaned up. And the thing still sends out less than desirable aromas. I cleaned it. Thoroughly. Scrubbed that bugger out with Thieves. Maybe that smell is stuck somewhere in the derailed track between my nose and the part of my brain that houses memory of smells. I buzzed up some freezer jam with strawberries that needed to leave the freezer. And I found these. Good gravy. I'm Christmas shopping and getting ready to start slowly accumulating Christmas baking supplies .... and I still have prune tarts from last year?!

 

Saturday Jari and I had eye appointments. I ordered glasses. Purple ones. It is going to be challenging to learn to keep glasses on my face more than I do now. Jari couldn't find any he liked, so we'll have to do a little searching for his. Sent Jari off fishing and I started working on the garage. Totes. I have many totes. Scattered in between probably half a dozen of them were winter clothing. Arctic gear. Snowmachining gear. Hockey gear. Helmets. Goggles. I started consolidating and ended up with a few more stacked empties than I had before. There is more to get rid of in that expanse of parking space, but it is a wee bit easier to get the car in there now. Another day ... another trunkful and eventually we might get down to what we need in this life. Like we need Arctic Gear at this point in time.  

 

I manage to cart things through life, especially when I lean a bit toward the sentimental type. Foruntate or unfortunate, my kiddos tend to be the same. Two bags of stuffed animals. Not large bags, not tiny bags, but bags nonetheless. None of them can be pitched. One is a gift from so and so. Another was received when a child was in hospital. Yet another was a gift from someone who is no longer living. One from a family trip to Disney. And on and on and on. I did get a few little ones to add to my "toy box" for visiting littles. The rest I'm sure will become carpeting in someone's bedroom.

Out the door here in about half an hour again. Then eventually on to morning and the start of another week. One that should prove interesting as always.

red velvet delight

Delight really isn't in the name.

It is just delightful.

Decadent.

Delicious.

Distastrous if you're counting calories.

 

I brought a pan to work today for a birthday celebration and had some left over to bring home.

Photo op supplied and prop duly eaten.

 

I thought that this recipe came from a blog via Pinterest but I can't find it now.
I really can't take credit for the idea.
I will take credit for the baking of this one.

Red Velvet Poke Cake

1 box of red velvet cake mix
(each box I purchased had filling with it that I didn't use)
1 large box of vanilla Jello pudding
approx 4 oz cream cheese
8 oz cool whip
crushed Oreo cookies

Bake the cake as directed on the box ina 9x13 pan (saving the filling for something carrot cake tasting instead). When cool, poke holes in the cake using a rounded spoon handle. Prepare pudding mix as directed. In separate bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth. Add small amount of pudding to the cream cheese mix and mix until smooth. Add the cream cheese mix to the rest of the pudding and fold in. I then cut a small corner of a gallon size ziploc bag and filled the bag with the pudding mix. Poking the cut corner of the bag into the hole into the cake, start filling each with pudding/cream cheese mix. When holes will contain no more, pour the rest over the entire cake and spread evenly. Cover and chill in refrigerator until pudding is firmly set. Top with softened Cool Whip. Crush about 1/3 package of Oreos and spread over the cake.

At this point if you're intending to bring this dessert to some function you place a note written with permanent marker on a napkin or paper towel onto the cake pan that says "Do Not Touch This Cake!" With any luck the kids will see the note before they devour the delicious dessert.

Happy baking!

deer crossing

I usually don't share this type of thing, but this one gets my funny bone.
You have to watch this.
You don't have to watch.
Just listen.
And laugh.

She got it.

And I don't mean the Blackboard Blunder she was reading.

 

She got the deer crossing.
"Even I'm not THAT blonde!"
Whew!

that earthy feeling

 must be somewhere deep inside me begging to be freed.

Everything I'm doing lately is earth colored in nature.

Perhaps because it is cool outside and I'm planning to just live out there ...

until May sometime.

 

I spent Saturday morning creating a few cards and have been

downloading new fonts to the computer.

I'm using free font downloads from dafont.com

So many fun options over there! 

random coming right up

Thursday at work. Quite obviously I don't work in a place that is laced with marble.
I like it that way. Less pretend. A bit more real.

 

We had a celebration (we sort of do that very often) of a recent marriage.

So I introduced them all to Taytekakku.

They all found what they've been missing not being a good ol' fashioned Finn.

It may have been a mistake. I might have become the Cake Committee.

 

 

I had a long day at work Thursday and the sky was a bit cloudy when I left, but look at it!

The lights were on in the parking lot when I left.

The lights were on and it was dark when I arrived in the morning.

Our seasons may not include things like snow, mud and beautiful color ...

but we have them.

And I absolutely love the one that is here.

We spent the evening having 75th Birthday cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory Dad, Mom, Frans & Jenny. I have missed many celebrations being as I've never really lived in the same neighborhood as them. Makes it extra special to have him here.

 

We spent a few minutes taking photos, window shopping ....

and being inspired by a bit of Marimekko. I love this piece of fabric and the colors of fall.

Fun evening.
Then on to Friday and an evening celebrating Alyx's 21st birthday with a fun group of people.

 

Today I did laundry. And more laundry.

Didn't go garage sale hopping, tho' I thought many times I should get out there.

Do I need anything?

Um. No.

I stayed home.

Cards were crafted to be shared later.

And this evening ...  I found the treasures I've been needing at Lowe's.

Garsh! I love that store!