Crab Salad

What is it that makes me want to feed people?

I love housefuls of people happily eating.

It's probably from my mother who has so lovingly fed so many over the years.

If someone isn't eating at my house I almost don't know what to do.

Maybe it's a Minnesota thing.

Maybe it's a Northern Minnesota thing.

Maybe it's a Finn thing.

Whatever it is, I enjoy it.

I do have a problem with little luncheon things.

I don't do those because I don't know how.

Guys filling plates with food. I got that down.

Thursday I was preparing to have a houseful over in the evening and chatting on the phone 

while I was preparing to cook my pasta for salad.

Renae (who I hadn't talked to in absolutely ages!) said Kevin had asked for my salad recently.

Occasionally I try brew up something else, but I really do love this one ...

enough that I'm sharing it.

Crab Salad

1/2 bag coleslaw mix
1 sm box spiral macaroni, cooked
1 green pepper, chopped
1 cucumber, diced
1 bunch green onions, sliced
Bacon bits or imitation crab (I've never used bacon bits because I'm a big fan of crab.)
  (Louis Kemp is best, with pcs of crab already cut up)
Parmesan cheese

Dressing (make ahead of time and refrigerate):
1 c mayonnaise
1/4 c sugar
1 T vinegar

Mix all ingredients except dressing. Toss with dressing right before serving.

11:52 morning light

This particular morning our world was wet and windy.

As she took a gander out the window and I watched 

the morning light play on her face, I heard her say

"I don't think I should go out today".

A feeble attempt, but still an attempt,

to stay home as the inflammatory

disease of senioiritis is running rampant.

 

 

Her feet made it closer to the front door and she wished Duke a good day with

"Don't worry Duke. School is boring and Mom doesn't let you out early anyway".

Morning light is mom's favorite time of day.

My link this week in our Project 52 circle takes to you Marcy.
Enjoy!


chalkboard art

Blogging about crafting takes a minute or two.

Especially when I forget to take photos of all the steps the first time around

and end up redoing something similar to share with you.

It is so worth it, tho'.

I hope you'll agree when you finally hit the end of this post.

 

About a year ago I picked up an old frame from a yard sale with the intention of doing something fun with it. A year later it was still sitting in the garage. It didn't have glass, just a heavy cardboard picture of something I didn't want hanging anywhere in my house. It got moved around the garage anytime I felt the urge to clean. It got nearly tossed out many times.

 

Nearly two weeks ago we had a special wedding celebration and wanted a sign for behind the bridal table at the reception. Alyx came up with this idea and I hopped to work.

 

First I took the "picture" out of the frame and using chalkboard paint I painted several coats on both sides. I wasn't sure which side I wanted to use and thought it could at some point be reversible.

 

 

The frame was old looking and needed to turn silver. I'm still working on using up that hammered silver spray paint can, so outside it went on a sunny day. I know. Nearly every day is sunny around here!  Hung to spray and flipped when dry to spray the other side.

This is where we move on to the extra project to show you what I did. Using Microsoft Word and a free fun font downloaded from dafont[dot]com, get your writing into a document, print it and cut it to size. My first project was rather large and involved actually taping together about 4 8.5x11 pieces of paper to get the entire message printed.

Once your message is printed, turn it upside down. Using chalk, chalk over the reverse side of the paper on the writing until everything you want on your chalkboard is covered with chalk.

 

After blowing off the excess chalk lay the paper onto your chalkboard surface and, using some kind of pointed instrument, trace over the writing so that the chalk is transferred to the chalked surface. I outlined the words, not filling in everything at this point.

 

This project is a dollar store little silver tray that I painted with chalkboard paint.

Unfortunately, I didn't prep this surface the right way because the chalk comes off if you hit it the right way with a piece of chalk. Anyway, fill in the chalk outline with even more chalk. Add some doodles if you want or just leave it plain.

 

Back to the original project here! Before I talked to the talented and knowledgable Kim, I started spraying my chalk project with polyurethane to preserve the chalk. It started disappearing and I sort of freaked out. Then I talked to Kim who gave me great tips. I didn't have time to make my project permanent as it was heading out of town the next day, but I brought it home afterward and have finished it. In order to preserve the printing on the chalkboard, I sprayed with poly and then rechalked over it all. I sprayed again ... and rechalked again. Sprayed again .....

I think I did it three for four times.

 

I thought that we could hang it so added a ribbon in the wedding color. The hanging didn't work out, but the sign did. The wedding was beautiful and the project was a lot of fun!

Love the chalkboard look ... and the loving message from the groom to his bride.

10:52 shadow

Nearly 1/5 of the way done with our Project Fifty Two!
This year is just a flyin' by.

As always, I'm curious to see what the rest of our circle came up with this week.
I lean more toward the black and white side of life, not one filled with colors.
However, I do pass this gem every day and admire the brave folks who fill their worlds with vibrant colors. (The rest of the building is rather bright.)
This afternoon the sun was bright in the nearly always blue sky casting shadows on a space that I envision filled with ancient wooden rockers.

Head on over to Kendra to see what kind of shadows she is sneaking up on!

oooh la la

If you're doing any kind of research at an institute of higher learning,

you're probably aware of Ebsco Host.

It is an online library for journal articles and books.

Lately, it is consuming hours of my life as I pursue another degree.

Recently, I was hopping through articles and lit upon one that had an option of listening

instead of the normal ol' fashioned reading.

Not only could you listen, but you could listen in different accents.

I never made it to reading the article, I was so impressed with the accent thing.

Who would have ever thought?!

 

I have always been a fan of the British accent.
At least I thought I was.
I used to say that if my dear hubby hadn't come along I'd have probably swooned over anyone with that accent.
I only made it through the first sentence of this article.
First in the American Accent.
Then I let myself listen to the British accent.
What a treat!
Until I made it to the Australian accent.
Then back to the British again.
Back to the Australian yet again.
And I decided that I'd rather hear quacks are not invited in an Australian accent
than in a British one!
The things you learn when you're researching!!

Maybe I could write a paper on the benefits of learning when it involves an Australian accent.
Then again, maybe I should just read the paper and I might learn something worthwhile
about The Root of Disease.
I'd rather just listen to quacks are not invited over and over and over again.

We are patient

at least in some things!

Tia started working a month ago and we finally made it to the bank today. She has been patiently waiting (and I have been patiently shoveling over money) to be able to use her own money. Today .... we did it!

9:52 in your closet

I could seriously go hide in my closet.
I'd probably need to take along an extension cord to plug the laptop in,
but I could really use half a day hidden away somewhere.
At least long enough to finish some ridiculous discussion posts for school and write another dreaded paper that I haven't even looked at yet.
The past several weeks have been kind of crazy. Fun, but crazy.
Enough that I'm going crazy at this point.
Crazy enough to hide in that closet.

I'm not crazy enough to take you into that closet with me.
Thank goodness I have another one!
In the shuffle of kids moving out of the house and others moving back in, I somehow ended up with an empty bedroom. It quickly filled to become my "sewing room". It packs up quickly and becomes a guest room much faster than I can get a paper written.

It also has a closet.

This particular closet stores things like Bumbo chairs, blankets and air beds.
It is also home to my sense of peace.
The dotted Jo-Ann bag holds the makings for a sweatshirt blanket.
The blue bag holds makings for a denim blanket.
The green bag holds quilt tops waiting for batting, backing and binding.
The drawers are filled with even more projects.
Now this is the space I consider MY closet!

Our Project Fifty Two circle is a bit smaller this week. Life has sort of intruded into a few folks' lives .. kind of like mine but in different ways. This week's link takes you over to Leann. Hoping you find something a wee bit more interesting in the rest of the closets around the circle and thanks for stopping!