It's {still} Friday, and I'm Here!

true that.

it is 9pm my time and almost saturday, but i made it to post, as promised.

note to self: improvement over last time. yay for small accomplishments.

i won't go into what i had to wade through to get here. it's a little too woe-is-me, even for me. just know i was bound and determined to get here.

i didn't even blog last time about my hands and about the trial study drama. i've been trying not to think about it. but, my problems with the meds are still plaguing me, plus some. my toes are also in the same boat. damn, there went my idea to type with my toes, huh? lol but i'm hanging in, counting the days til i get tested (12 to be exact).

oh, and thanks for all the well-wishes and suggests. reading your comments helps me stay connected so much, and i'm really getting tired of only reading and not interacting on a daily basis. so, when i read your comments and emails, it helps me get through this, more than you'll ever know! {{{hugs}}}

i had to giggle at the voice-recognition idea for the blog posts, though. then it made my brain hurt when i thought about having to buy a program and ugh, learn it.

sort of ditto for the video idea, too, although the blame lies 100% with me on that one. i should know how to do that. it's almost 2008, for gawdsakes. and i do have the equipment. alas, i'm able to figure it out after investigating the idea, but only about 2% motivated to actually try. it's on my back burner for a later time, though, cuz occasional video blogging does seem pretty neat and intriguing...

oh, and thanks for putting up with the lower-case. hopefully, just a couple more weeks...

well, without further ado, i've some art to show that I've worked on since last I posted.

i'm linking to my flickr gallery, like last time, because there is more details about each piece posted over there, so it saves my fingers.

my aedm for 11/21 was our potato soup recipe:

the recipe itself is in the flickr description. we like this soup on the first day of a cold front, with some cornbread and a salad.

my aedm for 11/22, 11/23, and 11/24 is the dreamy girl i posted the last time, asking for ideas:

thank you to those who did offer up some. i've had some rhonna farrer autumn leaves stamps for a while that i had no clue how i was gonna use, but this gave me a chance to. you may notice the four stamped phrases surrounding her face. that's all i ended up doing. i could have flourish-stamped the edges all around and more, but i chose to keep it simple. this way, if the notion stays with me to do that, i always can. or not.

do you ever have any art (cards, layouts, journal pages, altered pieces)that you hesitate to finish, and decide not to for awhile? i've been going thru a phase lately where i hesitate to add on everything, fearing i'll ruin it by over-doing it. it's really a bugger to deal with, too. so, if my stuff seems too plain, that's probably why, sheesh! the worst part is, it may also be a wonderful thing. it might be me adjusting, evolving my style. i cannot see it in stone yet, though. so frustrating. the voices need to just tell me what's what and be done with it, ya know? hehehe

my aedm for 11/25 and 11/26 is a birthday card for the hubster's mom:

this card was inspired by a card i saw in my paper crafts magazine for dec/jan (current issue, pg. 36):


my aedm for 11/27 and 11/28 was a birthday i made for the hubster's oldest sister:

this card was also inspired by a card seen on the same page as the first one. lol, why not, they were both cute cards:


and finally, my aedm for 11/29 and 11/30...note to self: this means i actually completed aedm!!! yay for big accomplishments, too.
since i made a dozen of these cards, i decided to make a little photobucket slide show with them all and not clog up my flickr gallery with 7 uploads:

i told you i was going to start a holiday card marathon, and i did. i am trying to continue it through sunday, then see where i stand on how many i've completed. i'm at 28 completed right now. it is so fun! of course, i now wish i'd started in september, or maybe even july.

(note to self...yadayada).

next blog post will be monday, and i promise some cool web site shares, more creations, and a little family 411...

til then, have a great weekend, and leave me some comment love to let me know you stopped by!

TOO MUCH FUN FOR ME

...or so the headline should read. oops, my bad.
Hope no one missed my absence on black friday.
had i a lick of sense, i'd have planned to post today instead of then.

after the holiday weekend.

i'll have to say that this was the best holiday for me in many years. we celebrated with the hubster's family aka my in-laws, as we've done for the last 2-3 years since my parents moved away. we brought our famous corn casserole and our equally delish green bean casserole, with the topping of french's french fried onions. everyone was there, too, so that would be in addition to hubs, me and missy: hub's parents, his brother, 3 sisters, 1 sis-in-law, 2 bros-in-law, and 6 other grandchildren. what is that, 18 people. not one dull moment all day. gawd. why couldn't the previous 19 been this way?

hub's dad recently found out he has lung cancer, so i knew everyone would be on their best behavior, but even i was amazed at how loving everyone was. for hub's family, this is not a normal behavior, lol. they may love deeply, but they don't usually show it. whereas my family over-shows it.

so i was enjoying the atmosphere thursday. only bad things that happened were no ham to eat (bah!) and i should have flat ironed my hair because the nasty wet weather we had turned it into crap. Anyway, i figure if that was all, it was a very good day, and it was indeed.

well, where did i leave off on my art every day thing? i think 11/8's was the last i've shown. so, 11/9's aedm was baking
drop biscuits. i'll just link you to my flickr, where the details are, if there are any.

11/10's aedm was a
green butterfly box that's another little stash box for a niece.

11/11, 11/12, and 11/13's aedm was a
birthday card for my friend cindy.

11/14:
toll house choco-chip cookies. and they were good, too. lol

11/15, 11/16, 11/17's aedm was a little art journal essay
about that christmas cheer.

finally, 11/18, 11/19, 11/20's was another little art essay piece
about my tradition of eating ham instead of turkey on thanksgiving.

oh, i do need your help! this is an art journal piece that i finished up saturday. I haven't offically uploaded to flickr and called it an aedm yet because i don't know if it's finished or not. and, i'd love to know your thoughts or take, etc... some advice, please:



i'm wondering if it needs a title and/or some journaling. i really felt no need to add any (and i suppose that could be my answer, but i'd rather ask your input first). i cut that little girl off some junk mail, because she really looks dreamy, doesn't she? and then i began making a sunburst quilt pattern with paper scraps around her, that being her inner light shining out. and that's really all i wanted to say. so, do you see that just from the art? or do i need to add some words to make that happen? please leave me a comment or email.

that is all i've gotten uploaded so far. there are more because i am actually all caught up on my aedm's. i very much want to be excited about completing the entire month, it is the 26th after all, but that might jinx it so i won't mention it. lol but after what all happened over the weekend and the doctor today and the dentist tomorrow, i need to upload the others later in the week.

sometime during late saturday night / early sunday morning, hub's car tires were slashed. right in the driveway, next to our 2 other cars that were spared. and he says it was unlocked and nothing taken, so we are thinking a teen prank. it's really unsettled me even though i haven't let myself dwell on it too much. where we live is always peaceful and pretty untouched by any crime, so something as petty as this is big trauma.

every couple of years we will have cars broken into or some such, but that's it. lots of folks talk about property crime on a weekly basis. and we could clean out that garage and use it as it's intended. i doubt we'll do one thing different, though.

being hit by crime is just kinda unnerving, like you had to appear nekked in public or something. leaves ya a bit exposed. i plan to do my best to keep thinking of it as random and therefore over until the next time not soon.

now this worked out well for missy who had been campaigning to take her car back to school with her. suddenly it seemed maybe safer for her to do that, so off she left sunday and nobody had to take her. sweet. her insurance will go up again probably, but what else is new. with gasoline costs, it might be cheaper. might.

she got a job at the applebee's near the campus before she came home last week. another reason for needing her wheels back. she's got big plans for making some serious bucks. she knows it's hard work. so we'll see. how better to do that trial and error living otherwise known as growing up.

she was working 40-plus hours a week at the beginning of the semester at the book store (for the rush the first month), working hard, too. and she can always quit if it gets too hard. her advisor in communications (her major is broadcast - radio, tv & film) offered to get her a job operating a camera at the local nbc-affiliate for $7 an hour, but it was right after she'd accepted applebee's, and she's thinking she can make like $10 waitressing.

personally, i think she won't make that, but hey, not my life.

sunday i was stressed and exhausted over the tires and all the homecoming. hubs and i both fell asleep as soon as missy called to say she got to the dorms safely. and today I'm still dragging. so, i'll call this done for now. i'm thinking i will try to post this friday with more art.

i'm planning to start a card crop marathon on wednesday to finish them up and get started getting them mailed off. i did order stamps, but did i order enough? we are heading into that crunch down on christmas, aren't we? dec one is this saturday. ack!

i hope you each have an amazing fruitful week, since saturday will be december one and that means 25 days countdown crunch starts. ack! let's get in gear here, aimes...

Being Naughty

Well, guys, I have been blog-benched by my doctor. Turns out that the trial meds I'm on to re-coat the nerves endings in my brain with myelin (that were lost by the 2 years on the pain meds) have the side effect in my case of causing pain in my fingers if I type constantly for more than a few minutes. SO, I've been faced with having to decide between the meds and typing. Meds that can bring me back to where I used to be, versus typing a blog and freelance writing. Tough choice. Really tough for me, anyway, since I've been growing both this blog and freelancing work doing what I love most.

I finally made the hard decision to go with the meds, for now. I could type through the pain, but it leaves me worthlessly worn out and a real beotch to my loved ones. I'm able to use my hands in paper crafting and in cooking, as well as most of the household chores I regularly do. Even a fair amount of cutting and pasting on the computer, just not the typing. Weird, but hey, weird is how I normally roll, so it figures, just desserts.

I've had this blog for 2 years in January 2008, so I am NOT, NO WAY abandoning it. I plan to post some little something every Friday until the end of the year (which isn't too far off). Missy's agreed to help me do this, so I will still be posting, just once a week. Hopefully, by Jan. 1st I'll have been tested to see if the meds have improved my reflexes enough to warrant taking them longer. I'm scheduled to be tested the week before Christmas.

I apologize for not getting on here sooner to tell you all of this, but the idea of enlisting help with the typing for an entry did not hit me until a few days ago. I called Missy and what you are reading was typed by her as I dictated it to her. She then emailed it to me and I cut n pasted it to the blog. A big thanks to Missy for all of her assistance. Girlie, I owe ya one!

Next Friday I'll show some of the Daily Creatings I've been doing since I last showed my 11/8 daily creative. I need to get started uploading them to Flickr, so I promise to work on that in the meantime. I haven't stopped creating, it's just been taking me longer than the slow-poke time I normally take, LOL.

Finally, thank you to all of you who've commented and emailed to check on me. It has meant so much to me to read just a little note here and there from you. Even though I haven't been able to respond, please know I've read and appreciate them all. Hopefully, by Dec. 1 or close to that, I maybe can cut n paste a message on your blogs. Just know I do visit and read them. I just can't comment on them all. Very frustrating! LOL

Have a great weekend and week, and seeya next Friday!

still puny, but on the slow mend

i'm here, still in lowercase! how are you this morning? i hope everyone had a great weekend.

i followed doctors orders most of the weekend and will need to keep my typing at a minimum for a few more days. i was prescribed muscle relaxers and they've helped keep the hand cramping down, but they don't help with the keyboarding (i know, i tried on saturday morning like a naughty girl). the guess is that my painful hand cramping is being caused by the medication i am taking as part of that study, since it's a known side effect. great, huh? that makes sense. i don't usually get full-blown cramps like i am experiencing, just arthritis pain. the physicians assistant called to check up on me saturday evening, and seems to think it may subside after a while.

at any rate, i won't be able to post more than a tidbit every day, and today's was this explanation, lol. i'll think hard to come up with an interesting short for tomorrow, and of course the daily creative will just have to wait, but i'll make it up. i've been doing a little bit of magazine collaging in my art journal and have been enjoying it. i actually did some creating every single day since my last upload of art.

hope everyone has a great start to the week...till tomorrow! :-)

Out of Commission Today...I'll Be Back on Monday

Yup, my fingers cannot do the walking today. Mega pain, so I am postponing everything for today until Monday, when I promise to feel betters. My doc is calling me in a script that is going to help, but it will take a day or so.

Come back and check in on me Monday. I promise to catch up with visiting your blogs then too. Here's some wishes for good weekends to all of you!

Oops! Edited to add:

I did want to post my Creative Daily AEDM for 11/8, a quick and very simple card I made for another one of my nephew's for his birthday. Loosely inspired by Maria's April sketch #1: Really simple card, that's all I could handle! In these kinds of situations, best to let color rule the day, huh? It helps take up the skill slack, LOL. Laterz!

the details were sketchy, at best....

[[[note to readers: my fingers are feeling their arthritic pain today, so as few shift-key strokes as possible are called for and it's all lower case for me. hope you don't mind. just making the " and the ! etc. are painful today. suck-ville. oh, well, i *will* not let it keep me from writing, since writing to express myself is as essential to me (almost) as breathing...]]]

My AEDM for 11/7
...felt good to get a sketch under my belt again, haven't done one in so long. i did this while watching tv. i'd seen a woman who was laying on her side talking and fighting falling asleep, and it just stuck in my head. I thought the camera angle was interesting...it made her hair seem like it was floating on air, so I kinda exaggerated that in my sketch....

[[[note to file: put a digital frame around the web images of sketches i show in the future. white background axiom #1,445 and all.]]]]

and, i hope you like my sketching. what do you think? it isn't exactly a 30-minute art meal for me, but it is a way for me to get some daily art done. I studied art in college as a minor to my writing/journalism major, back in the ancient day, before changing to the more "practical" discipline of accounting. in my junior year, i had an epiphany of sorts and suddenly became bent on having my degree be something i could count on to financially support me for the rest of my life. that was a wise move because accounting did pay my bills well during my decade as a single career woman, and it has provided me with a lucrative way to work at home for almost 20 years now.

but i never lost my "first loves" of writing and art-ing, and that's why i turned to them, and re-discovered them, when i was diagnosed with the 5 arth's. it's all made me realize that i never chose wrong in college; there's just a time and season for everything. turn, turn, turn, etc.

oh, wanted to give an update on my online shopping credit-due story from earlier: i was credited that shipping amount to my paypal and the order has been shipped. i dodged the bullet on this one, i think. i rarely shop at smaller online stores anymore, and this experience does not help. i do have a cadre of smaller stores that i've bought from for a few years now, having gotten to know their owners and benefit ted from the great customer service that can result. i try to support that. but it's getting harder to. this spring's shipping increases were especially tough on that, but i do still try.

i really ought to share my short list of smaller stores with you, because many of you have expressed fear and trepidation in shopping online, and these places are worthy of your trust. i'll work up a list for tomorrow's blog entry.

well, my nice and cute dishwasher guy jose is here, so i need to wrap this up here and get my supplies out and ready to clean up after he finishes. his work today has been a bit messy, lots of water on my floor from the dishwasher-on-loan when he pulled it out, i guess from the hose. anyway, looks like my floor is getting mopped today, oh joy.

have a great evening!

My Creative-Every-Day for 11/6 was this yummilicious dinner dish:

KING RANCH CHICKEN (ALSO CALLED CHICKEN TORTILLA CASSEROLE)
4 chicken breasts
12 corn tortillas
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup milk
1 medium onion, chopped
1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes
1 lb. Cheddar cheese, grated
jalepenos or other hot peppers, sliced (optional)

Boil chicken breasts. Cool and debone. Tear into bite-sized pieces; set aside.
Cut tortillas into quarters; set aside.
In a bowl, mix soups, milk, onion and tomatoes. Butter a large baking dish. Put a layer of tortillas in dish bottom, then a layer of the soup mixture, then chicken, and then cheese. Repeat, ending with the cheese on top. Bake uncovered at 300-325F for 45-60 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Serves 4.
The Hubster fried up some extra tortilla quarters in "his" big chicken-fryin' cast iron skillet (seriously, it's his exclusively because he loves it so; I get to touch the small one to make corn bread in). We topped it off with some sour cream, a salad and some guacamole, and called it Texas Heaven. Try it on a chilly evening when you need something to stick to your ribs, as they say. Good comfort food.

I Was RAK'd!
Started out innocently enough. Went by Sherry's blog, noticed her pretty blog banner and left her a comment. Last night, I find an email from her with {gasp} a banner for me! She'd made me one. How sweet is that? Sherry, you rock, seriously! Anyway, what do ya'll think? Isn't it pretty? THANK YOU!!!!! I just love everything about it.

I really admire the talent to scrap digitally. I've been scoping out trying to learn it and I decided yesterday that I need some kind of mentor cuz I suck at figuring out some parts of the software. I'm hoping I can find someone who could answer questions if I get stuck.

I checked out Sherry's gallery at 2peas, and you should see her first digital LO: Go here and leave her some praise...that was her first one and it looks so good, it just amazes me!

http://twopeasinabucket.kaboose.com/layout_images/1248688.jpg
I can only pray that my first digital layout looks 1/4 that good! If I can ever get through one, that is...

Well, it's another hump day. I am really feeling pressure in every area of my life lately. Have you ever felt jazzed and excited about life, yet depressed and dreadful about it, too? (I know, right? You're going "what???") Well, I have been. I think I'm really over-committed again. The Creating Thing every day is bearing down on me like a balloon made of lead. I think I'm going to have to slow it down to only a couple of times a week, because I have to do my Christmas gift-making, that was the deal I made with myself, and I've about run out of things that can be made in a day. Which of the two is more important here? I mean, "uh, sorry little Johnny and Jenny, Auntie Aimes couldn't get your gift finished because I was too busy creating a finished product every day" or "Here, you get a card or journal page, cuz it only took a day to make."

Not. So, you see my dilemma. Yeah, should have never signed up, sorry, Leah. I really thought it could work. I definitely will be creating every single day, but nothing to show for it except for every so often. That challenge is really more suited to art journal pages and such.

Well, great, now I get to feel like a failure for not being able to do it even a whole week. Man, can I ever set myself up? I guess I could try and just do a 30-minute doodle or drawing every day, pure fluff at the busiest time of the year, and call it a therapeutic break. We'll see.

So now, do you see, my attitude blows. Like, nothing to live for, even though that isn't anywhere near the truth. And, I am jazzed about learning digital and scrapping some layouts again the old-fashioned way, too. I'm burned out on cards, though. I needed a break and got a bit of one, but family birthdays are starting up again. Plus the few I make for Christmas. Back to the card factory grind.

I think I just want to be a curmudgeon. Just for that, I'm making chocolate chip cookies today. Oh, and I thought I was going to be gaining some weight (under the it-figures rule of Murphy's Law), but I actually lost 2 pounds. Didn't even walk a lot this past week, either. Must have been the yogurt and cereal. Maybe that Special K ad is correct!

It's In The Mail

Hey. How are you? I'm good. Late and Pissed, but good.


Before I get into my vent as to why I'm pissed, here is my Art-Every-Day for today, 11/5. Another box for another niece (I have 4 of them, just to warn you.)

Okay, for the vent: I just got through placing an order with an online scrapping site (who shall remain nameless for 24 hours, as I give them a chance to right this wrong before dissing them to the world). They put out a free shipping promo and their shopping cart was unable to account for it.

Why do store owner people do that? Don't they realize the blood pressure levels that rise? What ever happened to "a happy customer is a return customer" or "the customer comes first"?

Thing is, this was my first order with this site. I first tried to check out Saturday when the cart kept adding ten bucks of shipping in. I was able to save my cart, and I promptly emailed them to explain and ask for assistance.

Heard from them late today. They sent instructs on what to do to coax the cart to comply. (Say, what?) Oh, brother. Well, I wanted some of that stuff bad, so I did what they said.

I even went the extra mile, deleting cookies, restarting the computer, the whole nine yards. I was beginning to get a migraine and that's not good! Every time I went in Checkout, there was that shipping charge added in.

Finally, I think I just snapped, because I thought, well, I'll just pay with paypal and they can issue me a paypal credit. I was also beginning to get nervous that maybe some of the stuff would be out of stock if I waited. So, I checked out.

Now, I'm waiting to see if they will do the honorable thing and issue me the credit, or if that email promo was a scam, or if all they will do is issue me a store credit. The reason I chose to use paypal is that I'll at least have that avenue to complain to if I'm not compensated fairly. And I did save the promo email.

The site looks normal. Like it's been there a while, and their folder in my email prog has a welcome email from them from March which is when I must have signed up for their newsletter.

I probably should be less irritated about it, but it's really just fear on my part that I'm going to get ripped off. And that might be over-reacting, but honestly, it's also a great example of what goes through a customer's mind and why stores don't get return business when everything else was good to go. I'm hoping it's just stupid programming and techno-clueless ownership. Still, don't force the customer to have to suffer because of either of those. All I'm sayin.....

Now, as to why I'm real late posting this: I actually spent the entire day as if I did not have a blog. Weird, huh? I worked on stuff I needed to do all day long. In the very very back of my mind, the word "blog" did sit, waiting a little too patiently for me to get to her. (Yes, if my thoughts had a gender, they'd be female.)

***Weather Alert on the news right now: Dropping temps tonight! Jacket needed tomorrow....HERE! 39 in Amarillo right now.***

Today (though not in this order), I cooked King Ranch Chicken (recipe tomorrow with photos, ok?), I created stuff, I cleaned in the breakfast nook part of our kitchen (the nook where the table is), paid some bills, did some accounting work-work, and then I did some organizing on my Google Reader subscriptions (I about gasped when I noticed I have close 1,000 of them -- eegads, huh?).

Something else I did was keep the radio on all day instead of the TV, and I have to say that I get lost in what I'm doing more with muzak in the background. This is good and bad. Good, meaning more enjoyable. Bad, meaning less control on time management. When I did turn on the TV to watch Heroes and Journeyman as is my usual schedule, the sound sort of assaulted my ears. Whoa. It was refreshing to not have that TV on all the time.

And now I'm sleepy and still need to shower, so I'll close with something that happened this morning. My friend Vanny, who works by day as an office manager (she's actually a VP but I never call her that lest her head grow to the size of a watermelon, LOL -- you hear that, Vanny?), calls me this morning from her office. She does this a few times a week, but today she was really agitated. She starts in with "Can you believe?" A new girl who works for her called in to take a sick day because she had gotten a "beaver wax" (you can figure out what that is, right?) Saturday morning and it was already stubbly! OMG, I LMAO'd just to think someone would tell their boss that so nonchalantly. Yeah, she did, and said it would just be too painful to get out of bed, so...

Well, you really have to know Vanny, but she was quick to trot on this and told the girl (she's newly hired, remember) she was sympathetic but she would have to connect her to the big boss cuz he had to approve it because everyone was needed at work due to some kind of company files problem. So, the girl was weirded out, but Vanny cut her off and transferred her, telling her boss to just play along. A few minutes later he walks into her office and tells her the girl told him she was sick with a rash and couldn't come in, and then was like, come on, fess up, why in hell did you give her to me? (They're good friends and have worked together for over 20 years.) Vanny gave him the 411, and they were both like, what an idiot we hired. And Vanny asked Jim what would he have done if the girl had repeated the 'real' story to him? Yep, she proceeded to rib him good, and he in turn kept answering that he'd have fired both their butts. She pops back that she just wants to know, is that a legitimate excuse in the company manual for a work absence or not, because she doesn't hunt beaver so she doesn't know? Back and forth. Back and forth. That one will get tease-worthy action for months. I've have margaritas with both of them before, so I could just visualize the conversation perfectly.

I'm tellin' ya, Vanny does not let go once she has sunk her teeth in, but I love her. She's about the closest to a sister I have, outside of my closest and oldest friend Cindy.

Well, let me get off of here while it's still November 5th. Have a great Tuesday, everybody!

Sunday Confessionals

Well, a happy afternoon to ya! LOL Yep, I'm la-a-a-a-z-y today about gettin' on this computer. I've been going strong all day though, just on other things. I needed a break from the Chair.

I have a delish-i-o-so recipe for you today as my daily creative (remember, there's a very wide latitude in the rules for this thing. And I aim to keep 'em that way, tuh-duh-duh! LOL )

This one's called Easy Banana Bread, but don't let the name fool you into thinking that easy means bland or dry, cuz this is neither. The key to it is 3 ripe bananas that are almost trash-worthy. You want to be able to mash them thoroughly with your potato masher or whatever you use. I've been making b-bread for years, and I was told when I began that they need to be that ripe because only then will their flavor fully blend and gell with the other ingredients. There have been a few times that I doubted that and went ahead and made it with bananas that were still edible, well, as peel-and-eat bananas. And the bread was kind of tasteless. So, wait to make this until the time is "ripe".

I took a pic of my bananas before I made this so you could see just how disgusting they look. Not so far gone as to be attracting any insects, I want you to note, LOL, but I personally wouldn't eat them. Then again, I usually give a banana one bruise; any more and we are done, so I might be a nana-wuss, LOL.

Anyway, on with the show: (oh yeah, babe, doncha know, I'm Rachel Ray in 20 years, cough-cough)

INGREDIENTS:
3 large bananas , well mashed
1 egg
1 stick of butter, melted
1 1/2 cup of flour
1 cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 cup nuts, optional (I add chopped walnuts, yum)
PREPARATION:
Mix all ingredients in a mixing bowl; put into a well greased loaf pan. Bake at 350° for about 60 minutes, or until a knife inserted in middle comes out clean.

And, voila! I plan to eat on this for breakfast, snack, and dessert, if the mood strikes me. I actually get pretty lazy when it's in the house. That's two of three meals, ok? Cereal works for the third, I mean come ON! ROFL

I will be back tomorrow with a full-fledged episode of Aimeslee's Antics (hey, I smell a blog name change, don't you? LOL) Enjoy the rest of our weekend!

Sumptuous Saturday Sightings

If you promise to come back to me, I'll share 2 glorious photos I found on my blog-trotting last night: Click here, but come back, ya hear! LOL

Scrapbookers Whose Work I'm Currently Once-Again Eye-Candying:
3. Mara-May
2. Adrienne Looman
1. Tracie H.

Moving right along, my Art Every Day project for 11/3 is a blinkie I created all on my own in Jasc Paint Shop Pro and Animation Shop:



I swear I think my true calling was in advertising. I'm an idea person, through and through. Last month, I developed the idea for a sub-group on 2peas for older scrappers, and I named it AARPeas. Cute, huh?



Well, now it's an active sub-group on the Pub board. In a thread about being children of the fifties and sixties, I mentioned it and asked would anyone be interested. Yup. Marie even asked to moderate and run it, which was fine with me because like I said, I'm an idea person (which usually means not such a good action person). Frankly, it's kind of tough being an older member on 2peas. It's just the fault of numbers. The online part of this scrapbooking hobby is overwhelmingly GenX and Millenial (GenY). At least on 2peas it is. So, we mature-er ladies needed a lil sumpin' to call our own.

Now, this brings me to my latest blinkie, the CK one. I've held my tongue about the recent scandals, taking my time to really flesh out how I feel about it all. I know several things upset me about it, and geez, between the Big Picture ruckus, the CK HOF photog fiasco and now the 2peas G-Girls' private skank talk outing, I get dizzy trying to think about it at all. But, I do know my gut feeling on the HOF thing, and so once again, my facetious sense of humor honed right on in at CK's motto "CK OK" with the little check mark. Turning the phrase pretty much sums it all up for me on that particular verdict.

As for the others, I'm either still making up my mind or my cynicism over expecting any industry changes makes me want to just not think about it at all. I will confess to mulling over snarky references to gardens of eden and apples, but nothing catchy has come to me yet and may never. And to think, after 2 years of being on 2peas I finally place my first order the very same day that the "Glitch" post was made. Is my timing nuts, or what?

Speaking of orders, that 2peas order arrived today. I have not been able to find the 8x8 American Crafts 3-ring binders anywhere I usually shop, and I wanted some, dangit. 2peas was sold out (as usual - frustrating bigtime) of every spine color except the lavendar/lilac/purple/ whatever it's called, and that's Missy's favorite color. Plus that color was marked down 50% to like $6 a binder. So of course I scooped up 2 of them and had to exhibit tremendous self-control to not order more. Then, 2peas is one of the few places I know of that carries Maya Road chipboard albums and the darling little house books were in stock and at a great price, so I picked up 2 of those. Yes, I paid shipping {pout}, but I wanted those things. I through in the Queen & Co felt ribbon in the purple just for grins.

I also received my 2Scrappy Chix order. Got free shipping, and I scooped up some more felt ribbon, as well as some Marah Johnson goodies, some IP Circus Rose papers, the Cherry Arte Arcade papers I'd been denying myself, HS rhinestone stars, DCWV Rockstar shipboard alphas, and some Luxe Jotters. Nothing brand new, but all great stuff.

I had so much fun shopping there that when another ad for 30% off my entire order hit my inbox, I was back over there. I did more serious damage this time, eeks! I'll be sure and share when it arrives. All I will say is that I ordered enough to get free shipping and that was net of the 30% off. Good stuff!

A couple of days ago, I got the stamps I'd ordered from Scrap Candy. Finally, something new! LOL October Afternoon's Candid Camera stamps. I've been looking for a journaling stamp with the who/what/when/where/why questions, and this gave me 4 of those.

While it looks like I've gone hog wild with the pocketbook and to heck with my budget, let me share that all these items are part of a carefully thought out plan to one day soon be crafted into Christmas gifts. I have lists and lists on lists. So, I guess I could say I've already done quite a bit of shopping already. If the ding dang materials would craft themselves into cool presents, I'd be sitting pretty. LOL But I don't think I'll be hurting too much having to play and create, do you?

Friday's Here

My Art Every Day project for today is a cute little 'kinda' matching money box for my niece, to go with that Disney card. This is where I'll put her cash gift. That way she has 2 presents to go along with a book (I buy every niece and nephew one for Christmas just on general principles), cuz these are good for rings and 7-y-o-girl things. Polly Pockety things. Everyone needs a stash box, no matter how young or old, right?

I started about 8 of these almost 2 years ago, in addition to several that I made for Missy's friends in dance team. I got into a zone with my paints and didn't want to quit. The ones that didn't get finished were at least covered with color and could hang, waiting to be embellished. As happens a lot around here at Casa Miguel, inspiration hits me when it's ready to. I needed a little box to decorate and thought, now's the time to finish some of those that I'd started. Gotta love it, no expiration dates. That's how I roll, what can I say? LOL

In other news, I'm feeling calmer now, just about back to my status-quo. I spent last night blog-commenting, researching photo printers, watching some fave TV shows (Earl, The Office, Mad Men reruns), and a little guilty patterned paper shopping pleasure of pretty new stuff, believe it or not. (I know, I'm very bad, but I wanted it, and I'll blog about that this weekend and show what I got, maybe).

BTW, Mad Men continues its first season reruns every Thursday at 10 p.m. EST on AMC if you are interested in catching it. I myself became completely hooked on it, but was incredibly bored by the first episode and nearly didn't give it another chance. So, yes, you missed that episode but it might bode well that you did! You didn't miss anything you can't learn by starting with episode #2 on Nov. 8. LOL Let me just say, except for the Damages season finale (which was par excellence every second), Mad Men's finale was the best show I've seen in a while. Definitely grew on me....my favorite Don Draper quote: "It's not a viewer. It's a carrousel." (Ya kinda have to watch it to understand...)

Anyway, Hubs' attempt to install our new dishwasher went bust, mainly because he was in one of his moods and did not want to do it at all. I see now that this contributed to my no-good-terrible-dayness as much as anything else, by the way. {eyeroll} He did get the old one out and I managed to get all the gunk off the floor of the cut-out, and so Jose the install guy is here today.

There's also a another glitch: the front of the new dishwasher had a dent in it that neither I nor Hubs saw. The install guy pointed it out, what a guy! and suggested that he install this one, then come back with a pristine one and swap it out once they get another one (a few days, as it has to come from another store because my local Lowes is all sold out of this model now). The obvious fix, a new front panel, was not an option on this model.

So, the dishwasher saga continues, except that I have one to use and try out until my undamaged one comes. And, Jose the install guy is very nice, so I'll get to have him visit again. So sad when you look forward to having the install guy visit, huh? LOL

Well, today's blog entry is being posted earlier than yesterday's, but I would like to shoot for posting each day's entry before I go to bed the night before. I'll keep trying to shave off time and hope for the best. Thanks for reading and commenting, guys, you totally rawk!

Happy Nov. 1 ~~ I'm going bonkers...

It better not be a sign of things to come for the month, or an indication that my new meds are not going to help me handle stresssssss.... but I am just totally overwhelmed right now by alien bullsh*t... ATTACK OF THE ALIEN BS ... LOL. Well, not really alien stuff, just a snowballing of a lot of trivial, unimportant crap I've collected on my To-Do List that has decided to come home to roost and crap on my forehead on this day of all days. Is it God, telling me to take care of this stuff? I don't know, but someone is telling me to.

More later, but let me get my Creative Every Day project for November 1st uploaded and out of the way, before more alien rambling. No, I don't have a Disney obsession (no insult intended to those of you who do). This is Sleeping Beauty Princess from the SandyLion Disney Christmas Collection, and the card was made using sketch #14 from Maria's April sketches. Here's the sketch:I flipped it left-right, and now that I look at the sketch with my card, I see it would have been nice to put that horizontal layer of paper strip on the base paper, in the middle. I had been thinking it would detract from the Disney pp, but the scrolly lines are really faint on the pp. Oh well, live and learn, eh?

I bet I know what you are thinking...stickers? Well, hey, does my princess really look like she is a sticker? (A vellum one, at that.) I did lay the snowflake stickers directly on the pp, but that was because I wanted them to be in the background more. For the princess and the "Fairy Tales" text stickers, I adhered them to colored cardstock and then cut them out, thereby making cardstock elements out of stickers. I like the outline all around it. I "inked" the edges with a Marvy pen for more dimension, then I adhered the text element with foam tape to give it even more dimension. Made a crown with my crown punch, added the rhinestones with my KIGloo, added the snowflake stickers. Finally, I gelpenned and glitter-penned in a bunch of spots. Click on my card to bring up a larger photo where you can better see the glitter going on. I am developing a real affinity for glitter....

Now, say what you will, but I think this rivals a storebought card. I plan to give it to either my 7-yo niece or to DD for a Christmas card. And, I feel like I challenged myself by actually using the Disney stuff, and by creating something "not cool" according to the current "in" style. (Gotta come up with a nickname for that, because that's fast becoming my style, LOL.)

So, enough about that. Where was I? Oh, yes, Aliens. Oops, one more thing first...

I've also challenged myself for November to use Maria's sketches for my cards, whenever possible. Just so you know. All of her sketch page links, by month, are on her Stampin' Inspirations blog, and she is listed on my sidebar.

And my 3rd November challenge is to make stuff for Christmas gift-giving. And 3 challenges at one time is my limit, if not my un-doing, LOL. Maybe that's why I should be on anxiety-attack-watch? LOL

Okay, so enough about that, again. Where was I? Oh, yes, Aliens. LOL

Just for grins, I'll recap my last 18 hours or so, not counting sleep time. I was fine yesterday. In the afternoon, I started looking through my old photos that I very neatly have filed by year in my Hobby Lobby photo boxes. These are original old photos, from the beginning of time (LOL) to now. Why was I doing this? Because of Halloween. Somehow, I'd hit upon the idea, like it was an original thought, which it was to me but not to the rest of the scrapping world, that maybe I should scrap by holiday and season. Like, scrap ALL my Halloween photos, layout by layout. But, start doing that in August or Sept, so I'd have them ready to share by October. Cool thought, huh? There have been a ton of threads at 2peas titled, to the effect of, "Show me your Halloween layouts", etc. That's what got me to looking through the old photos and seeing just what I had for Halloween.

Now, I realize it's a bit late to do Halloween. Heck, it's probably too late to do Christmas now, especially with having to make gifts. But that's a neat idea and mindset, don't you think? If you aren't a chronilogical scrapper and if you are not caught up in the least. Two big if's.

Anyway, to move this along, I ran across some photos of Missy in 1992, she was 4 and that Halloween she was costumed as Simba (Lion King). I will wait til another day to share the photos, but you just have to trust me when I tell you that when I laid out those photos on my table and got them arranged like my brain was urging me to, I got the most fantastic idea for a layout. Missy's expressions in these photos are priceless. And all kinds of ideas began moving like ADD in my head. I was jazzed because the photos are good, don't need editing much at all, and they are scrapping photos! There are six of them and five of them are necessary to tell the story, and they tell a story! Anyway, I was on Cloud Nine.

And so all I wanted to do was get right on that project, right? Wouldn't you? I mean, it was Oct. 31, I'd finished my Disney card for today, and brain cells were popping!

And it was at that exact moment when all the Aliens decided to come busting out of their hiding places....

Right off the bat, you should know that in the frame of mind I was in, I was primed to treat any other requests for my time with a bit of resentment. But the first 14,000 time-suckers I managed very well, good-humored, maturely.

First, I went in to unload the dishwasher and discovered that it was kaput, DOA, not gonna be revived. This Time. (Hubs and I have been fully aware for a few months that this moment would be forthcoming, as it's going on 12 years old and has been a great appliance, but ain't it a beach when that moment comes at the wrong-arss time.) So, I called Hubs and said, look, It has finally happened, and I don't really care what brand we replace it with, it needs to be replaced pronto, asap, and there's no cooking until that happens. He says, well you are gonna haveta go online to Lowes.com and pick one out, and I'm not installing, they will have to. Okay, so I get on there and look at the ad flyer for this week, and lo and behold, free installation on the dishwasher of my dreams. Well, my dreams are quite Kmarty, but it's got a stainless tub, sanitation cycle, commercial grade, and on sale for $598. I'm happy. I've posted a photo of our particular model,but we got the black one for $100 less (all stainless on the outside is more expensive). I linked the product page cuz if you are looking for a dishwasher, this one is a great deal! I do morn the loss of the mechanical controls, though. I prefer old-fashioned dials to those electronic button-thingys. Less to go wrong and have to be repaired. Ah, the curse of old-fart wisdom.....

After that, my time was just stripped from me. One ridiculous problematic thing after another came hurling at me like elves scurrying about on Christmas Eve. I hadn't discovered the dishwasher death until AFTER I'd unloaded it and put away all the dishes, which were not clean. Had to go back and reclaim them all, then wash them all by hand. And I have to lean forward at the sink just enough to where my back goes into trauma along with my neck, which is why a dishwasher is so important to me. So, I had to deal with the pain, not pretty. I had to pay some bills that were due and had to take them to the p.o. since the postman had already been by. Then I had to go get gas, because hubs forgot to do it. Then, I forgot I was going to take shots of Halloween decs in the neigh-BOO-hood (layout idea), and since it was the last day, I had to go do that.

But it was all manageable until right before Hubs came home. That's when everything began to get ridiculous. I had to go buy something to eat for dinner, because no cooking. Then, had to go get some paper plates. Then, every single thing I touched either fell out of my grasp or toppled over somehow. Wiped up several spills and bent over picking stuff up countless times. Nerves. Raw. Need to relax.

Usually, the computer does that for me. Last night, no. Too many emails. Digital freebies that I'd been looking forward to getting so I can actually learn how to scrapbook digitally that wouldn't download, after trying again and again, and good for only thru last night. Couldn't type without a million typos because I've put off clipping my nails. They're long and pretty, but a pain in the arss. I usually wear them short for that reason. Had to go clip those. Totally forgot my usual late afternoon shower time (and still haven't had one, but I'm headed there, I promise). Totally hid out and didn't give out candy to the Trick or Treaters (this had been planned, because as usual we had an 85-degree day here and so the skeeters were rampant last night and no way are they living in my house with all the door-opening, and if I had candy and did give it out I'd have been a real witch anyway). Spilled frickin salt everywhere and had to clean that up. Then had to cajole and prod Hubs to get down to Lowes to order that dishwasher before someone else did and we'd have to wait 3 weeks on it like we did the range hood last spring. (Our Lowes kinda sucks, but it's better than our Home Depot, our Sears, and our Conn's, lemme tellya.)

Then, my mother-in-law calls. Why did I answer the phone? Had to let her tell me all about Hubs' Dad's upcoming biopsy, his doctor visit, some kind of miracle mineral water from Arkansas that the doctor laughed at but really works, and various goings-on of all the siblings. Thankfully, Hubs beeped in from Lowes, so I had an excuse to hang up and take his call. Then one of my clients I don't like calls...at NIGHT...and wants to pick up another copy of his tax return at 7 a.m. today cuz he lost the one I gave him. Dumb-arss me says okay. Then I realize, he hasn't paid me yet. Had to call him back and tell him I need my money and it'll be another $10 on top of that. He gets indignant (yeah, I'm a bad guy, it's only been 6 months since I did the return) and says okay, but he's going elsewhere next year. I say, do you promise? Oh, and deliver your payment today and once it clears the bank, you will get another return copy. He says he'll bring cash and can he get his copy. Fine. So I stay up and print that out. Another 45 things go wrong, but I will quit boring you.

This morning, I get my money (have to get up early for his sorry butt) and good riddance to him (been wanting that to happen for years), and things begin to calm down. I get a chance to deal with stuff I want to deal with, Heather wants me to look at some new art of hers and that was really fun! I think, okay, I'm back to normal. Maybe I can start that layout! Alas, I discover I need some elements that I'm either going to have to order or print out from online images. And I have a crappy ink jet printer. So, gotta attack another thing I've been putting off: researching for a new photo printer. I put in about 2 hours on that, and then I discover some ink refills I had bought for two of Missy's ink jet printers. Maybe they still work. So, I need to stop the research and instead dust those off and clean them up and put new ink in and see if they will work, because I am so cheap that I cannot just throw out the whole mess and buy a quality machine. Which I am still going to do the second I use up all this ink.

Then it all starts up on my computer. It begins freezing up on me. I don't know how many times I had to restart it, then I had to just push the button on the CPU to turn it off and then back on. Turns out that SOMEONE whose emails of their newsletter I get had a link in it that had a malicious adware program in it. I've got all the anti-whatever programs on my computer that a person could have, but it goes nuts if it actually encounters something it has to fight. Sheesh. I'd love to email this newsletter person and tell them the link they told everyone to check out is narly, so I did. She writes back and says what? Gotta be a problem on your end. I give up. Go back to trying to download the digital freebies and the dang 4shared site is still timing me out. What, did I download there once too many times or something? I give up. At that moment, the lady next door wants to chat. Got rid of her after too long. Then, I get another copy of that newsletter with a note that says the link's bad and has been taken out. And it says thank you to somebody else for letting me know. Dang, can't even get proper credit! Then, every single big name vendor alive has a holidays ad in my inbox, so it's started already folks. Walmart, Pennys, Kohls, Amazon, Epson, Sam's, and on and on. Had to read 'em all, too, cuz there might have been something in there that was on my list. There wasn't.

I kinda had a small meltdown-slash-tantrum right then, cuz it just all came to a head and I could not hold it in anymore. Then, I took a long, hot shower, followed by a big cup of Dreyer's French Silk ice cream. And now I'm blogging.

So, I am really late for today's blog entry. But after the trip I've had, I say better late than never! Have a good, stress-free night. I plan to! LOL