Jeanine Sturgeon's Big Bear Life

Short Ribs Baby!!!! I'm Back! Again

2011-09-16T11:08:00.000-07:00

I have to tell ya, cooking intrigues me. There are just some things in my life that I just have to cook. I may not every do it again but now I know that I have "been here done that".

I have a favorite blog, actually I am addicted to this blog. Everyone that knows me knows I talk about this blog all the time. Its called The Pioneer Women. Ree Drummond is the author and has become a very close friend of mine. She doesn't know it yet, but she is.

I got into photography because of her. Bought expensive cameras, because of her, took expensive classes, because of her, and am having the time of my life, because of her.

She cooks and takes photos of her steps, and now I have to do it all the time. I have so many recipes that I have cataloged on my computer and the number of pictures, OH MY! I have a lot. I like to put recipes on my blog and have the photos to go with it. My private desire is to be a food stylist and that takes a special eye something that takes time, but for now I am having fun!

I saw this recipe on her blog and wanted to try it as soon as I could. Now, I know people just don't have short ribs in their freezer (except for me) and I am was not a fan of short ribs, until just the other day......

We went out to dinner in Vegas with my family and Andy ordered short ribs that were on the special menu of the day. I thought "Yuck". I ordered the salmon. Well, when it got there I thought "Hey that looks good, then looked at it again and thought, "I am going to need to try that" as Andy was cutting this rib meat with a fork. I asked him for a bite and bit into HEAVEN!!! Oh my it was incredible!!! The tenderness, the intense flavor, I ended up eating his dinner! (Good thing he likes salmon).

How does something like that happen? How can I make something that incredible?!!! After a lot of research, I finally found out tried it last night and all I can say is Come to Momma!!!! LUUUVE this recipe and Ree helped me make it happen.

I HIGHLY recommend this for you to make, take my tips to heart, I have seen the light and OH BOY!!!!!

I had some short ribs in the freezer as I said earlier. We like to buy a half of cow from a butcher we LOVE in Barstow, named Purdy's. The owners name is Tommy and he is such a nice guy, that is for another story. I found him because of my pigs I used to own, that is for another story, too. Jeanine, stay on track...Ok... Anyway, our best friends bought the other half of the cow and didn't know what to do with "short ribs" and gave them to us, (see the label, thanks Daryl). The way Tommy wraps his packages the meat stays for a LONG time. He triple wraps them and doubles the butcher paper.

For Christmas, my BIL gave Andy a Le Creuset Dutch Oven. What was really funny, is we bought him the EXACT same one color and all for his Christmas present! Now I am addicted to this dutch oven. I have a few pieces of Le Creuset and they are an investment, but you can hand these down to your children and their children and their children. They will last FOREVER! I like going on EBAY and looking at the vintage ones and just dream of having a kitchen filled with all the colors and sizes, one day.... Jeanine, stay on track...OK

The recipe and directions follow:

2 Packages of Short Ribs ( if you don't know where they are, ask the butcher, he knows)
1/2 pound of bacon
2 Tsp of canola oil
Flour
1 medium onion diced
3 medium carrots diced
1 package of Lipton Onion Soup mix

2 cups red wine
2 cups beef broth

Here we go!

Now I like to time how long sometime takes me from start to finish, however, it really isn't accurate because of the picture taking. For a meal I may take up to 75 pictures and the editing takes me FOREVER. That is why some of my recipes haven't made it to my blog.

Time: You will want to make this on a day that you are home, kickin back, playing on the computer, listening to music with nothing that you have to do....other than smell it's goodness while it cooks.

Preheat the oven to 350:

Here is the package.....

Here they are once opened:

They were HUGE compared to what the store sells, they were as large as my hand!

I let them get to room temperature and get the rest of the goodies out.

I have pepper bacon, I had bits and pieces on hand that I got to make pinto beans (another post another time) I LUUVE pepper bacon!

Take a half a pound and cut them up in small pieces and put them into your preheated dutch oven on top of the stove. By the way, did I tell you this was a one pot meal? Yeah!

Cook the bacon until all the fat is rendered and the bacon is almost cooked all the way, don't cook it too high or you will burn the fat. Remove the bacon and put aside.

When the bacon is cooking, I salt and pepper the short ribs and dredged them in flour.

See how big these ribs are? WOW!

Now I have a confession to make, flour is my nemesis. Truly, just like paint. It doesn't matter how careful I am, I get flour (and paint) everywhere!!!!! In my hair, in my shoe, don't get me started on how it gets on my plants, (still have no idea). It just does. You should have seen my camera, Andy is sill laughing. Jeanine..stay on track....OK..

I then add the canola oil and each of the Flintstones ribs to sear, about 60 seconds on each side. This is an important step because you want to lock in the goodness of the meat and the bits that will be on the bottom just adds more flavor and flavor is where its at baby!

I remove the ribs then added the diced carrots and onions to saute, just until they are soft.

I tell you at this part to add the RED wine. I took a bottle out of the wine cooler and was excited about opening this bottle, I have had this for a while and wanted to keep it for a special occasion, and what more of a special occasion than this dish, open her up, I say!

Listen when I say to you it is the utmost importance to make sure EVERYTHING is fresh and good before you use it, so I strongly suggest you take a sip of the wine, not only for good luck and to give thanks for such a bounty but to make CERTAIN the wine is good. (See the lengths I go to, someone has to it might as well be me). Cheers to me as I take a swig out of the bottle. Oh my! UGGGGG! The wine had turned and I turn and spit it out in the sink! Am I sure, stupidly I take another swig. UGGGGG again! Pour the WHOLE bottle down the drain, YUCK! Well there went my only bottle of red, desperate measures now, I take a bottle of white and use it, again take a swig of out this one, YUM ok another one just to make sure YUM again, alright one more for good measure as I giggle to myself, good thing it is after 12PM, it's 5 o'clock somewhere in the world. Right?

I poured 2 cups into the pot and then added some homemade beef broth that I had made a while ago. Deep rich dark ummmmmm....and added that.

I decided to add the onion mix at the end just for more intense onion flavor. I am normally a purist when it comes to cooking but I wanted intense flavor.

Scrape the bottom of the pot to remove all the bits and caramelized goodness! Oh my mouth is watering writing this out!

I now added the short ribs and made sure that they were completely covered, if not add more liquid, wine (remember to taste it first again, you now, just to make it is still good).more broth or even water.

I waited until it all came up to a slow boil and added the bacon I had removed earlier, does it get any better than this?

Put the top on it and into the oven it went!

I let it cook for 2 hours on 350 and then 325 for another hour.

Personal note: It ran me out of the house an hour and a half due to the incredible smell. You should have heard Andy again and again "I can't believe how hungry I am!" over and over, it was quite funny.

I took it out and let it sit for about 20 minutes. In the meantime I made fresh mashed potatoes (out of my pressure cooker, that is another one of my favorite tools).

Took a big spoonful of potatoes, added a rib on top of the pile (you may want to put three ribs on yours) and then put the gravy over it, WOW the presentation was OUT OF THIS WORLD!

The taste, can't even put into words how these just melted in your mouth! Gift from God I tell you!!!!

You may want to have some warm bread to go with this, that is on another one of my posts.

MAN oh Man!

Drop me a line and let me now of your experience in making these!

First Party Circle, Mr. Wizard the Frog

2011-09-14T12:14:00.000-07:00

So what do you think? This is what has been torturing me for the past few months, but now I am getting some leeway on my journey. This little guy is fun to do. The placement is what I am working on now. I would like to put it on a pdf and offer it as a giveaway, soon I promise, now off to the drawing board!

Tell me what you think and all the different ways you would use this wizard frog. I can't wait to hear!

Hey Everybody!!! Did ya miss me?!!!

2011-09-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

I have not written, as you are well aware of. Considering my last post was in May. So the question I have to you and mainly to me is: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SUMMER???!!!!!

I wanted to take a couple of weeks off to get done with all of the projects I had going and one day lead into the next and there ya go.

"Wanting to" and the "Reality" reasons for not blogging:

I have been wanting to "spice" up my blog with more great recipes and instructions.
Real: I am finding a lot of blogs with recipes and after awhile I get the "blah blah whatever is going on. I don't want my blog to turn into that.

I wanted to write more about my chickens and their adventures.
Reality: I sold them.
I decided that I have not been home enough to
#1 give them the attention that they needed and
#2 I couldn't eat all the eggs they were producing.
#3 Couldn't get rid of the eggs to friends, for the fear that they would suddenly stop producing and here I have 7 no laying chickens.
#4 They were going through chickens feed and that got very expensive. Do you know how many eggs I can get at the farmers market for $40.00 a month? I do, 10 Dozen and lastly,
#5 I got tired trying to find someone to watch them, even though they were pets with benefits.

Family issues, not that I want to get into it, but in having young adult children and the choices they make.... well, enough said. That took the largest part of my summer as well.
Reality: not wanting to focus on them and take away the important things in my life, i.e. my blog.

I have been sewing.
Reality: I like hanging out at the quilt store and visiting while I have my sewing machine all set up, those girls bring in the best food to share, I swear! But honestly, I did finish a quilt that I had no business in doing. Then did a cute panel quilt that all I had to do was to cut straight lines and sew in straight lines, it came out super cute. Pictures to follow.

I've been traveling, a lot!
Reality: I have been traveling a lot! Not that I am complaining but when you are gone for two weeks at a time, you start forgetting certain things about where you live, like what does your husband look like. And also, you forget about the clothes you have in your closet.

Wanting to start a new little business
Reality: Still wanting to start a new little business. I have been thinking of different party ideas and have posted the challenges on my past post. Well, Yahoo, I have figured them out, at a dear cost. The cost has been hundreds of hours, asking, pleading, and begging for anyone to help me. With me living in such a small town it's not like I can pick up a phone book and call someone who is a graphic artist and say "I NEED HELP!" But what you do is you start seeking and asking anyone and everyone who even knows how to turn on a computer. I did get help and the instruction was invaluable. I can't wait to start showing you my "Artesstist Work" Don't ask me what that first word was I made it up, after all I am an Artist or an Artessitist! Viola! Here is a sneak peak:

This is just ONE of sooooo many, this is just perfect to run through your printer and add to your bottles for your Halloween get together. See, I have been artisting. Who knew?

I haven't been taking time to do my photography.
Reality: Nope, I haven't. I haven't pulled out my Nikon since the Mother's Day Brunch. I have been taking my small Cannon Elf and even worse, dare I say it....taking my phone and taking pictures. The blasphemy!

I haven't seen my friends and spending any time with them.
Reality: Too busy to make time and therefore time keeps going and before you know it, you've lost a summer.

But, I have to tell you all of these confessions have been good for my soul and now I feel cleansed, deep breath! Whew!

So with all that being said and more stuff that I didn't even put in, I am wanting to change things up a bit. I want to have a section on my blog reserved for someone who is very very dear to my heart. After a lot of thought and contemplating I decided that he is worth it.

Uh hum, without further ado let me introduce to you:

GEORGIE:

This little guy has become such an important part of our lives. He goes everywhere we go and unlike kids, I can stuff him in a suit case and there is no complaining! Even my girlfriends bring presents to him when they visit and other ones hide them in our house and here we go looking for over an hour to find him (many times). He is a good hider,and he never makes any noise.

So, now I will be giving him his space that is due to him and I hope you enjoy his adventures as much as we do.

Also, I want to take a moment to thank all of my followers that contacted me while I was on hiatus asking if everything was ok, you all brought me back, so a BIG THANK YOU AND I LOVE ALL OF YOU!

I am going to close for now, thank you for being my friend and hanging in there. I am taking you very seriously and pay attention to what is important to me and to you!

That is, if you will still have me, (as I bow.... )

Happy Mother's Day!

2011-05-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

I am sooo sorry that I haven't written in such a long time. Busy would be an understatement. In the past three weeks I have put on a baby shower, pancake breakfast for 125 people on Easter Sunday and then did a Mother's Day Brunch after church for 65 people! Whew!

Now with that being over I can start playing again. I miss my blog and taking time to write. It centers me in my crazy world.

I have something I would like to share with you.

The following is a book that was read to me years ago in church. The pastor got up and read the child's book. I thought "Ugg"! in the beginning, but with the continued reading of this story it melted my heart. I cried and cried and to tell you the truth I don't remember what the rest of the service was about. But for over 15 years this story is one of my favorites.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Love You Forever

by Robert Munsch

A mother held her new baby and very slowly rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she held him, she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
The baby grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was two years old, and he ran all around the house. He pulled all the books off the shelves. He pulled all the food out of the refrigerator and he took his mother's watch and flushed it down the toilet. Sometimes his mother would say, "this kid is driving me CRAZY!"
But at night time, when that two-year-old was quiet, she opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor, looked up over the side of his bed; and if he was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. While she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
The little boy grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was nine years old. And he never wanted to come in for dinner, he never wanted to take a bath, and when grandma visited he always said bad words. Sometimes his mother wanted to sell him to the zoo!
But at night time, when he was asleep, the mother quietly opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor and looked up over the side of the bed. If he was really asleep, she picked up that nine-year-old boy and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
The boy grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was a teenager. He had strange friends and he wore strange clothes and he listened to strange music. Sometimes the mother felt like she was in a zoo!
But at night time, when that teenager was asleep, the mother opened the door to his room, crawled across the floor and looked up over the side of the bed. If he was really asleep she picked up that great big boy and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. While she rocked him she sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.
That teenager grew. He grew and he grew and he grew. He grew until he was a grown-up man. He left home and got a house across town. But sometimes on dark nights the mother got into her car and drove across town. If all the lights in her son's house were out, she opened his bedroom window, crawled across the floor, and looked up over the side of his bed. If that great big man was really asleep she picked him up and rocked him back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while she rocked him she sang:

'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be. Well, that mother, she got older. She got older and older and older. One day she called up her son and said, "You'd better come see me because I'm very old and sick." So her son came to see her. When he came in the door she tried to sing the song. She sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always...
But she couldn't finish because she was too old and sick. The son went to his mother. He picked her up and rocked her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And he sang this song:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my Mommy you'll be.
When the son came home that night, he stood for a long time at the top of the stairs. Then he went into the room where his very new baby daughter was sleeping. He picked her up in his arms and very slowly rocked her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And while he rocked her he sang:
I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my baby you'll be.

Happy Mother's Day. Mom I miss you.

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound.....

2011-03-30T11:45:00.000-07:00

Those words just stop you in your steps, don't they?

I love this song, I love the words so much that I have this in a frame in my bedroom. I look at it every day and feel the love that these beautiful words say.

As I have said in my prior post, I am doing a Mother's Day Brunch for my church. I decided to do the Brunch decorations with butterflies and the theme to be "Amazing Grace". Now, how to tie them both in, hummm? Well, I was walking past the picture and studied it and actually saw the butterfly on this page, it almost knocked me to my knees! I have decided to put the song, rolled up and have a lovely ribbon on it and place it at the plate of every mother attending the brunch as one of her gifts.

So as a small gift to you, I have put Here the picture so you may print it for your Mother or even for yourself to put into a frame.

I can't wait to post the pictures of the brunch with all the ideas that I have. So until then, enjoy and if you would, send pictures of what you did I would love to see the projects.

Have a great day and keep the ideas going! Now off to work on the baby shower.

Let there be light....

2011-03-10T10:30:00.000-08:00

I just found out that the time change is this weekend! My thoughts on it, Yippee!!! I love daylight, in fact when I was in my twenties I honestly thought I would move to Alaska during the summer for the sunlight. That is probably why I never moved to Washington or Oregon. Now don't get me wrong, I love the green, the rain, but the dreary weather, not so much.

When I lived in Vegas there was soooo much sunshine, yes the heat was a pain during the day, but there is something to be said about sunlight. Big Bear is just incredible for sunlight. Did you know that it has almost 300 days of sunlight? We even have a solar observatory here!

My house has windows everywhere! I do not have drapes on any windows in my house. Blinds are good enough. Walking into a house that is dark and closed up gives me the willies. Lovely Brightness!

Same thing with lamps. I LOVE TABLE LAMPS! They say you are to have three lights in a room. I think that works if you have a nightlight plugged in, Tiffany of course....But if you think about it, you have an overhead light, two table lamps for the ends of your couch. In fac,t that is what I am on the hunt for. I have a small side lamp for my living room and the bulb burned out and I put in a night light in it. Ummmm it doesn't give off any light, but give it a beautiful little glow just enough to bang your foot into the table, note to self: Get new light bulb!

Anyway, here are some thoughts I have for a new light in my living room, what are your thoughts?

Isn't she gorgeous!!!! (SQUEAL!!!) That would be perfect for my living room sitting right on top of my piano. (Warm feeling flows through my body imagining it). I may have to have it on even during the day! The beauty of Tiffany!

Sunshine on my shoulder.....

Cute little purse

2011-02-21T16:08:00.000-08:00

Here is something I decided to try on my Silhouette Machine. Didn't this come out just adorable?

I printed it out on Christmas scrapbook paper, but I think any other kind for what holiday you want to celebrate would be CUTE!!! This only took just a couple of minutes to put together and thank God for common sense, because it didn't come with any directions.

I loved it for so many reasons, I was going to make a bunch of these for gifts for a girlfriends luncheon on Saturday. Mother's Day Brunch? Best Friends Birthday? Little girl's birthday party? Endless possibilities and what a unique little gift. Oh how about using it as place cards at your dinner party with a little chocolate in it for desert to take home?

Have a great week!

PS. Guess what? I figured out how to make those party circles. I bought them on Etsy and can design whatever I want on them! Wow! I am amazed every time I go on that site, hours just fly by!

I'll post when I get some done!

Blurb, blurb, coming up for air....

2011-02-15T09:15:00.000-08:00

Splash! Hear me gasping for air! Wow! I have been drowning in my own craziness! There has been so much I have wanted to post, but that is just one more thing to do without finishing anything.

So the next question you have is, did I finish anything and what are you talking about?

The answer is nope not one thing has been finished and listed below are the crazy things I have been doing:

My trusty beloved computer has really really been sick. She just didn't wake up one morning. The HORROR!!!! I panicked and started running through the house like I was on fire trying to call my trusty computer guy, pleading to the phone "please answer, please answer, fix her quickly!" Well I was calming down when I had to leave him a message, figures....

I took her over to his office, waiting for him to arrive and make her and I all better. Please make her ok.....
Miracle worker I say. He did fix her and she is all better, now. She had a really BAD bug in her and now I have like four safeguards to make sure my little girl doesn't get sick like that again. It was like having a child sick. I panicked hard! But with her check up I learned that I have to get more space for her, I guess having over 4 thousand gazillion pictures on here isn't the best place to put them. But you never know when you just have to pull up the perfect picture to go on your post. Am I right?

So, with that being done, the month of February is marching on. Ha ha, get it "marching on". Uh hum, anyway, I decided to try some different things and not necessarily in order. I am listing my projects that I have been currently taking on. I am going to post the con then the pro, but it is not in order, due to the fact that everything I have been tackling is bringing with it difficulties, to say the least. But there is always a bright side and we will call it them "Pro". OK?

Taking a class to make my first quilt.

Con: WOW I had no idea that sewing would be so hard.
Cut my instructor on the first day learning to use my new rotary cutter.
I sliced her good.

Pro: I learned how to thread my sewing machine.
Pictures to follow.

Planning a baby shower.

Con: Wow, had no idea what I was getting myself into. I have never thrown a baby shower before, When I had my twins they were four.

Pro: I love to throw a party, just add some baby stuff in it, how hard can this be?
Pictures to follow

Learning to use the Silhouette Machine:

Con: Holy Mother of God, I had NO idea that this machine is as complicated as it is!

Pro: Can't wait to see the finished product.
Pictures to follow

Learning PrintShop 22

Con: Whoa! Several hours later I am still at "Now how do I save this in jpg".

Pro: Print Shop is sooo much easier to use then Photoshop.

Learning Photoshop

Con: Oh crap this is difficult.
Pro: Let me get back to you on that one!

Our church has asked Andy and I to be the Greeter Coordinators.

Con: Now I have to get up early.
Pro: I am getting to be the first person who greets people when they walk in the door. It's like inviting them into my home.

Planning a Mother's Day Brunch for the ladies at Church.

Con: Have never planned a Mother's Day brunch other than my mom's brunch. Heck anyone can make reservations at the Queen Mary. I am a genius at that.
Pro: I love to throw a party, just add moms, how hard can this be?
Pictures to follow

Doing little sewing projects to get used to my machine

Con: Back the bus up! Do you think I should have done that BEFORE I decided to make a quilt. Are you kidding me?
Pro: Learning to thread my machine.

Making pillow cases:

This sounds silly, but I have to admit even though these pillow cases are over $30.00 for two and took me five hours to make them, they are definitely worth it. But....

Con: Make sure when you sew you need to make certain your pattern is set up correctly. So when you put your pillows in them and put them on your bed one is not upside down. Crap. There is a right and left part of a pillow, who knew?
Pro: I love making this little gems and I want to make 100 of them. Guess what people are getting as gifts?
Pictures to follow.

So, that is what I have been up to in the last 24 hours. Just kidding, Ok this past couple of weeks.

But it is now my goal to finish some of the projects I am working on. I have talked to myself and realize that if I keep spinning I won't get anything accomplished.

I realize that all of you can relate and sympathize with what I am doing to myself. If you can, raise your hand!

Ok off to cut my squares for my quilt, now where did I put the rotary cutter?

UPDATE::
I have a challenge: This is the main reason I am going crazy. Below is a picture that I got during Halloween. I am trying desperately to find out how to do this. Not necessarily for Halloween, but to make these labels for the Baby Shower I am doing. Does anyone out there know how to do this and can help me...PLEASE!!! Argh! This is why I am not getting anything done.
Take a look at what I am talking about Here and Here. I want to try the same labels and do the background in a different style. If all else fails, ask for help. Help!!
Have a great week and I promise to show some of the projects I am working on when they start taking form.

Valentine's Day Subway Art Part I.

2011-01-24T19:57:00.000-08:00

Click here for my valentine's artwork

Well hello everybody! It is a Monday afternoon and I just designed the cutest subway art project:

I have a new program (well it's new to me) and is so much easier to work with than the other programs. So for the easy to reach for program which is The Print Shop 22 Deluxe Version. I am really pleased with this, easy is the way for me. I just don't have time to sit down and rack my brains trying to get photoshop down. Call me lazy, it works for me. Now....

I had so much fun creating it but not so much fun trying to figure out how to put a pdf on my blog. I have way too much going on.
I have worked on this project for a loooong time and finally have it set it up so you can download it for FREE. That's right FREE.

Click here

Let me know what you think. This was a lot of fun, maybe too much fun.....

What a way to start the year. Sick, Sick, Had an Accident and more Sick.

2011-01-21T09:18:00.000-08:00

I know I will look back at my blog and barely remember being ill. But there is a nasty bug going around. In fact a lot of people are not getting to the doctor and it is turning into pneumonia. I have to raise my hand on that one. I have been sick since December 18th and just went to the doctor last week. Got a shot, horse pills and scolded. I'm use to it, I am very heard headed and don't do things like they should be done.

My computer got sick, WAY SICK, so it had to go to the doctor's as well. That is why I haven't been posting. Got it back, hooked it up, sat down to type a quick note to my girlfriend. While I was typing Andy came in and said that he was going out to the chicken coop and I jumped up and told him I wanted to go and see the girls.

We fed them, took the eggs and decided to clean up the coop a little bit. That is where it became dangerous. I was at the front and when Andy came out of the coop with some bedding, I backed up and off I went BACKWARDS!! Four foot drop! I landed on my right side and don't ask me how. But shredded my hand, scratched half of my face, bloodied my nose and had A LOT of dirt in my mouth! Thank God I didn't knock my teeth out of my mouth!

So, with motrin, pain killers and a lot of sympathy, I am recovering. There is just too much to do to have everything stop me.

My thoght: It could have been a lot worse. Even more worse: Having someone else do that drop instead of me. Now I know I have to fix it so it doesn't hurt anyone that goes up there. Nasty.

Well, have a great weekend. Even with everything that has happened, I have a weekend packed full and don't have time to stop. Now, where are those pain pills????? Talk to you next week!

New placemat project...

2011-01-10T12:06:00.000-08:00

I found the cutest blog, this happens to be my favorite pastime is to look at other people's blogs, that is one of my guilty pleasures in my world.

I saw that this particular blog called The Haverford House had put her artwork on The Graphic Fairy. Every Monday Karen has "Brag Monday" and I can't wait to get on and see what incredible work people will do with her graphics.

So, I took The Havorford House idea and went one up. Here is my picture:

How cool is this!!!!

I redesigned the center and put this great rooster on it. It translate in English from French: I sing loud and clear! I should rename my blog that. Boy, I can sing loud in my car, bathroom and anywhere no one else is in the area! I used a drop cloth Canvas as the place-mat. It looks really neat and natural too. Love the natural element.

It was extremely easy to do and I have to say, I am quite pleased with my work, and to think, I created something from nothing. Thank you The Havorford House for the inspiration and The Graphic Fairy for your unselfish love everyday.

I am linking this post to the Monday party over at the Graphic Fairy, take a moment and check it out, I promise it will inspire you!

We have a winner!!!!!!

2011-01-10T11:33:00.000-08:00

Well, I have to be honest here, as the Pioneer Woman says, :Just keeping it real". I had the hardest time with this giveaway. Why? I wanted everyone to win. With each person writing I kept telling myself, "I want this person to win". Then the next comment was written down and I thought, "I want this person to win".

I even asked if Andy wanted to be in the room with me when I went on to Random. org. to have them pull the number. I went over to Random.org and put in all 13 numbers and it said #5! Whoo hoo! It's done and they won! Who is that #5? I went back to look at my spread sheet and #5 is:

Cathy @ glsf@hotmail.com. Congratulations!!!!!!!!!

Go ahead and contact me and I will send you over the instructions to claim your prize...

As for everyone else, I wish I had 12 more of this prize to give each and every one of you. Thank you for taking your time to fill out your comment and enter. I promise that I will be having more of them. Can't say that I will be having the CSN giveaway, but others ones none the less.

Have a great week and congrats Cathy!

Contest-Great New Year's gift card just for you!

2011-01-03T12:27:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year Everybody!

Whew! How did we all do? Is your hair all messed up, makeup smeared, drool running out of your mouth? Oh wait, that is me, you, on the other hand, look FABULOUS!

I thought that I was all finished for my Chirstmas shopping, you know trying to be smart and get everything somewhat done? Well, I an only say it worked in theory. I only had to go to the mall, ONCE!!! Ya hoo. Next year, my plan is to not set foot in a mall. Now, I want to share "my plan" with you.

We all do internet shopping, right? What I hate is looking up page after page of shops and then forgetting where I went to then having to retrace everything I just did. I really wanted to find a place that has everything in one spot. Low and behold I found it! It is a great website called CSN Stores. They have EVERYTHING from TV stands for flat screens to cookware. It truly is a virtual mall, and this mall makes me happy, see no feet walking in the door, just fingers, (let your fingers do the walking, ha ha, I made a funny!)

Here is the exciting part....I am so happy to be able to give one of my awesome readers a $45.00 gift certificate for CSN Stores. Yippeee! Why? Because I love you!

Ok here is the rules. (There are always rules, but I am making them and it will be fun)

Rule 1: You have to spend this gift certificate on YOURSELF.

Rule 2: You tell me what you are planning to get with your wonderful gift certificate in the comment section.

Rule 3: How do you enter? Easy! Leave a comment in the comment section.

Rule 4: Send me a gift if you win (just kidding). Gawd! I thought that was funny.

Rule 5: You can enter as many times as you like, because, we all have the right to change our mind on things that we want.

This contest will only be valid for Canada and the United States.

The contest will run until Sunday January 9th and I will pull a name on Monday morning. Now, how is that for making a Monday worth getting up for, huh?

I will use Random.org to pull the name. I wish you the best luck and I am excited to be able to give this wonderful present to you!

Good luck and let the contest begin!

How do you say good bye to a part of your life?

2010-12-23T10:45:00.000-08:00

I know the title sounds sad, but I ask you "How do you say good bye to a part of your life?" I am talking about an electric skillet:

Sounds silly, come on an electric appliance? But if you think about it, what do you have in your kitchen, bathroom or any part of your house that you can think about and realize you have had that "piece in your life for a very long time"?

I had a crock pot that was my parents and they gave it to me YEARS ago. It even had the fabric cord and not a third prong on it! When I got my new one and was finally getting rid of it, I got a little meloncoly about it, not knowing why.

Now just the other day we cooked our last meal on our old electric skillet, we got a new one for Christmas.

When Andy threw it away, I looked at it in the trash, yes for recycle, and I started to cry. He looked at me and said "OK now you are losing it" . "You are really crying over this old electric skillet"?

And the sad part of it was, yes, I was crying over the old electric skillet. Now I have to admit, I am tired, as we all are, with the emotions of Christmas, the stress, the shopping, the running around, you get it, right?

Well, after I sat there for a few minutes I started to think about that old skillet. That skillet as with the old crock pot I had a few years ago, had been with me for a good part of my adult life. It had come into my home for a wedding present from my first marriage, it had been with me through the marriage, the divorce, new marriage, death of a parent, raising two kids, moved to and from seven homes.

Twenty one years, that electric skillet has had a place in my home. So to see it in the trash hurt my heart and I did cry over the years it had been with me.

I know that I have a new, improved skillet sitting brand new in a box under the Christmas tree.

I know that I will have excitement with the opening of the box and cooking my first meal with it and know that it won't got from 0 to "Holy Crap" like my old one did. The cord will stay plugged in and I can even put this one in the dishwasher. New and Improved is good, but there is something to be said about wearing a old comfortable shoe.... I dried my tears and said to myself that I look forward to the next 21 years with the new one. Let's just hope it can last half of that time, I was blessed with this little electric "workhorse" skillet.

P.S. How long did I have the crock pot for? 30 years, not including the five years before when my parents had it in their home...

What do you have in your home like this electric skillet? How many years have you had it?

Cute Vinyl Christmas Gift Part One and Two....

2010-12-10T09:20:00.000-08:00

You know during the Christmas Season, you are running around checking your list trying to get the best Christmas gift for your husband, wife, children, mom, dad, grandchildren. When you are all done, you are exhausted like you just ran a marathon, more fluids! Then as you are sitting back, drooling, you remember, Oh my I forgot the presents for ______! That my friend, is my definition of Christmas. The ones forgotten are usually a simple gifts for gift exchange for work, or for the mailman, butcher, doctor, babysitter, book club members, bunko girls, red hats, librarian, teacher, I can go on can't I?

I have figured out the perfect gifts!!!

I have posted about the incredible machine called Silhouette. With this puppy, I can make cute Christmas items for about two bucks. (You can't count the $300.00 it cost to buy this puppy) Then I could add to it as I want, if I want.. Take a look at this beauty.....

I bought a mixing bowl at the Dollar Tree:

(See the plate underneath it, yep that turned out to be a gift as well).

Came up with the saying "I love Pancakes" putting on my computer Silhouette software font called "Black Boys on Mopeds" serious, can't or won't make that one up. That font is free along with like a gazillion other ones.

Then I put my red (my very FAVORITE color, I LOVE it) vinyl paper in it and printed. Viola!

Transferred it to my mixing bowl and filled it with red foil shreds (Oh that was a mistake, boy was that messy!!!! But it really looked good, it is like wearing a pair of really high heels, they kill your feet, but you look Fabulous!). I decided to put a red spatula in it, then came up with the great idea to put a bottle of syrup and a box of pancake mix along with it.

I then wrapped it in clear basket wrap, again Dollar Tree and for a gift like this was a total of under $10.00! That is you don't buy pure maple syrup, if you do add about $8.00 to it.

I had done another one and replaced Pancakes for Waffles and just added a waffle mix. You could put "Cookies" and then do a cookie mix in a jar, Cakes then put a cake mix with frosting in it, See the possibilities???

Now you say, you don't own this incredible machine, no worries, go to a craft store and buy vinyl lettering and do it yourself, So easy to do, so personal and you did it yourself!

Second one..

Bought a plate at the Dollar Tree:

BORING!!!!

Then I took my handy dandy machine and printed on red vinyl again:

And came up with this phrase:

This is going to one of my girlfriends who is a lawyer. Perfect!

The second one:

Ohhh I love this one too! I took a cookie, broke it in half and taped it down to the plate. It is precious, then I took a dozen cookies and put them into a Christmas baggie along with a plate stand and put that in a Dollar Tree Christmas bag.

This is the one that I am bringing to my family gathering as one of my Christmas exchange gift as with the mixing bowl.

Again, don't have the machine, go to your craft store, but different vinyl lettering and you can make these cute and very personal gifts.

Humm,,, maybe I should be selling these, Naw, it is so much more fun to spend money than make it.

Have a great weekend and get out there and do these! Send over pictures of your work I and everyone else would love to see what you did.

One Scary Site...Horse with no Rider...

2010-12-06T09:48:00.000-08:00

It truly was a scary site..

Remember I live very rural.

Let me set the scene...Yesterday late afternoon around 4PM. We had just come home from an incredible afternoon attending the Tamale Festival down in Indio (that will be my next post.) We had just loaded up our booty (lots of tamales) in our truck and was headed home. It was raining and had for the past hour or so. As we turned the bend, Andy says, "Look, I see a horse running over there". He was pointing to a meadow which a home owner does keep his horses over there but the horse was runinng too far and I knew the cowboy had moved his horses to another facility down the hill for the winter.

As we passed the horse, we both realized at the same time that this horse had a saddle on it but no rider! Andy flipped a U turn immediately, then we watched as the horse started running towards the road! Andy starts blowing the horn and incredibly the horse starts running parallel to the road! I roll down my window, stretch halfway out of the truck and grab her reins. I don't even remember getting out of the truck. Boy, she was terrified! Eyes wide open, mouth foaming, open wounds, man oh man, this is not good. I was talking to her, calming her down, walking her around looking around at the vast area getting sick to my stomach, knowing she has a rider out there somewhere. It's cold, damp, raining with snow, and to top it off, it was getting dark.

At that time, a car pulled up and asked if she was our horse we told him no and he said he was going to start looking for the rider in the area that he first saw the horse running. What a sinking feeling I had. Across the street, there is a rental riding stables and we walked her over there and put her into a corral to further check her out. For the most part, she was pretty good, but the saddle, oh the leather on the side of the saddle was gone. I thought I was going to throw up!

About 45 minutes later, here comes the car with the rider in it!!! He wasn't your cowboy type, actually looked like he should have gotten off a Harley, not a horse. Black pants, black jacket, black shoes and a black and white bandanna on his head. He got out of the car limping and gave many many thanks to the driver. I am sorry now that I didn't get the driver's name. I yelled out to him as he was driving off "We make a great team!"

The rider said "Man, I thought I was going to die today, it terrified me!" He was shaking horribly. I was pretty sure he had a consussion and when I asked if I could take him to the hospital, he said no, he just wanted to get back to the house. Unfortunately, he didn't know where the house was!!! He had been visiting his girlfriend who just moved out there and he lived in LA. He just wanted to take the horse for a "quick ride" along Pacific Crest Trail (that is going to be a future post). He was going up a narrow trail and the horse slid in the mud and starting falling to the left down a cliff! He fell backwards and she caught herself before a drop he said of over 300 feet! She took off and there he was all by himself.

He was completely lost. So Andy started asking him specific questions and all the rider could say is the house he is staying at is a log cabin, WOW, we are in trouble! There are log cabins EVERYWHERE!!! So we got in the truck and started driving in the direction of the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail). He said it was past a blue house (WHUUUT!) I sat in the back and kept praying and praying hard.. We only had about 15 minutes before it was totally dark and now the snow and rain was coming down HARD!

We took one dirt road, needless to say it all dirt road here. He said this is the road where she lived at and we turned around and went back to the corral.

He looked her over and got on. She was so calm, what a good girl...and Andy and I followed him all the way home, to make sure he was ok. As we turned the truck around to leave, the rider yelled out, "Thank you so much man, I love you two and I thank God you were there"!

Come to think of it now, we never got his name either.

When it was all said and done and we were just pulling up to the garage, that is when I lost it and started crying and couldn't stop. Why? To know that person was out there by himself and had no clue where he was. For the horse, who was terrified to be without his rider and not know where he was running, just to run to get safe. That people, out of the blue, stopped and helped, without knowing what was in front of them.

I truly believed in my heart that God put us there right then and there for that man, along with the other driver. There are angles in our lives and yesterday the three of us were that man's angel.

I am happy to say that his story had a happy ending versus what it could have been. I still woke up this morning with the fear what could have happened...What a blessing.

Now to go eat a tamale!

Bunny Tracks

2010-12-03T11:14:00.000-08:00

I haven't been able to write this week and for that I apologize. There has been craziness all around and I will think that it has been crazy at your home too.

We went from crazy cold to down right beautiful here this past week. In one day the temperature raised over 50 degrees! In the morning it was 9 yes I said 9 and then all the up to 59! WOW!!

I wanted to post a picture of bunny tracks for no other reason than they looked cute. You will find from time to time I post bunny tracks in the snow. I had taken a picture the other night of bunny tracks with an indention of his bunny tail. But taking a picture in the snow is difficult because of it being white. The camera has a very difficult seeing pure white.

With all we have to do it is just nice to take a second and not have to think and just enjoy.

Here is one I took that the little guy came all the up to my door:

Awwwee...

He wanted in....well this week the weather is beautiful until the next storm is supposed to hit on Sunday, but for now I will enjoy the warmth, it is getting up to 58 today, break out the shorts!

Happy Thanksgiving! Here is a present or two! Because I love you!

2010-11-22T09:28:00.000-08:00

Boy oh boy I bet everyone is running around getting ready for Thanksgiving Day this week.

Are you having the feast at your house? Are you going over the river and through the woods to Grandma's house?

Well I have something I think would be lovely to either give to your guests at their place setting or for your hostess.

I got this from The Graphic Fairy here. I am putting it into a frame, It was a dollar at the Dollar Tree.

Or, the other day I was looking at another blog I love called Craftily Ever After. She had the cutest faux burlap with the definition of Thanksgiving. I fell instantly in love with this. Wouldn't this be great to again, have these framed (Dollar Tree again) and sitting at the place setting for your guests or wouldn't it be the perfect hostess gift?

I would do a 3x5 for the place setting and a 8x10 for a hostess gift.

You are more than welcome to copy and keep these wonderful little gifts from our home to yours. I have mine printed out in Pacasa and do four to a page. So no fuss no muss! Easy Breezy!

Please have a safe and beautiful day and I am thankful to have you as my friend.

Trying new things stretching the mind and patience.

2010-11-21T09:54:00.000-08:00

I love the blog world! I love meeting people and only wished they lived closer. I love exploring people's blogs. It is almost like peeking in their windows, now STOP being gross, I meant that in a good way.

Ok let's put it this way, it like going over to a new friends home and visiting. That sounds better.

I have met a new blogger named Colleen and here is her blog here..

I ran into her blog from being somewhere else and I fell head over heels with the Halloween blocks she designed. I have to tell ya what she does is pretty amazing.

It is digitally manipulating pictures and the great product really got my attention.

So, I contacted her and asked her to help me. Wow! Was she wonderful! The information was spot on, however, it is not the teacher's fault it is the students. I couldn't grasp the soft ware called Gimp, which is free to download and use. I have another software called paint.net which is also free to download and use.

That is why I haven't been blogging this past week except for the past 24 hours. It has consumed me totally. I walked out of my office yesterday when Andy got home and when he saw me his eyes were huge and only said "Oh my". Stop it, just because I haven't showered, still in sweats and a t-shirt, and had HIS shoes on because I did tear myself away just enough to check on the chickens. Don't we all deserve a day to look like that? (I think I frightened him).

Getting back to my story.

Anyway, I haven't been able to accomplish anything with this yet and I have learned that I am learning everything of what NOT to do with this program.

Colleen, I love you and are thankful in my life, now if only I have have you do my projects.....hum....

See, I am still working on Halloween! Get over it, Christmas is here!

If anyone is familiar with either one of these programs, please share, I think once I get it, it will be incredible!

Have a great Sunday!

Explosion!!!

2010-11-20T08:30:00.000-08:00

Didn't expect it, didn't think it could happen. Heard through the years that this was possible. But it did take me by surprise and shock, especially when it hit me upside the back of the head!

What is it, you ask? Biscuit dough! It EXPLODED!!! B-O-O-M! Andy went to open a can of biscuits and I was heading towards the refrigerator and the can blew up! It hit me upside the head, went ALL over the kitchen! Andy just stood there, I think in total shock, wow is all he could say...

I started laughing so hard that when I grabbed my camera, which had dough on it. I couldn't stop the camera shots from being blurry! It even reached to the top of the ceiling fan in the eating area! B-o-o-m!

It's also was on the wall, the pantry, did I say in my hair? Andy's hair? Altitude, I tell ya. Messy, but what fun once I got over the B-O-O-M!

You have to laugh or life will just make you mad all the time! And no, we didn't make biscuits after that!

What a way to start the day!

Pilgrim Hats! OOOOHHH How cute!!!

2010-11-20T07:04:00.000-08:00

I made these hats today for the kids at the kindergarten class. They came out GORGEOUS!!! Sooo easy to make, wanna know how to do this, well it is soooo easy and I enjoyed it so much that I was sad when it was over. (Did I mention it was sooo easy)
I can’t wait until tomorrow, please say a prayer that I don’t destroy them like my graduation hats did, see older post in June of 09 Here. Bad Bad and really bad.

Here are the instructions:

One cup vanilla frosting(I guess you could use yellow frosting but I liked being in charge of how the color yellow would come out)
7 drops of yellow food coloring(Dollar store for a dollar)
32 miniature Reese’s (I freeze the cups prior to using them, it makes taking the wrapper off easier)
1 pkg 11.5 oz fudge-striped cookies (Dollar Store for a dollar)
I used little sprinkles that I found in Michaels for the buckle

Mix the frosting and food coloring together. Take out the cookies, lay them correctly with the chocolate side up.

Dip the cup into the frosting, don’t be stingy. Press the cup on to the cookie so the frosting smooshes out the sides.
Then put the leaves or something small of the side for a buckle as YOUR DONE!
These were so much fun! I hope you enjoy this as much as I did!
Let me know about how much fun you had making yours!

This will make 32 uh 30 of them because you just have to eat two of them, because it just looks so nice.

Let me know what you think about this cute idea!

Foto Friday....Low Cloud..

2010-11-05T10:39:00.000-07:00

Whew! I say that a lot. But the stress is all finished and taken are of. My sister LOVED her present. She cried. I cried. I am so very blessed to have her as my sister and have always been proud to have her as my sister from the first day she was born.

It doesn't matter how much money you have to spend or to owe. If you make something for someone that is true to their heart, you will always hit the mark, I promise.

Today's Foto Friday I have for you is a low cloud between the mountains. This is what I woke up today. What a great welcome home present.

Everybody have a great weekend. Now off to get another cup of coffee....

Finally Done with my Sister's Birthday Present....

2010-11-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

Well I am D-O-N-E!!!

I love the artwork on the blogs as you can tell. That is why I haven't been blogging like I should.

I have put down a blog called tatertotsandjello blog a while ago. Jen has become my muse.

There are over 125 people that have submitted their subway art on her blog. Some are just amazing, I couldn't wait to try it!

I did a smaller one for one of my sisters back in September. Then I came up with the bright idea to do a huge project (uh, 4 feet by two feet) for my little sister that just went to Europe for the first time and celebrated a milestone birthday.

There were so many, many and many more layers to this "little" gift. I first had to get specific words from her and told her that was her assignment while she was on vacation. Not knowing what it is, she probably thinks I am crazy, well, a little more crazy then usual.

I cannot tell you how excited I am to a) to have it done b) to have it turn out EXACTLY how I wanted it to.

Where is the picutre you ask? Hang on I want to tell you about it before I post it.

I wanted it to look antiqued. What I was looking for when I was designing this is a story of the two of them in Paris when they came across the painting:

(Here is my story of this painting).

Bill and June were walking into antique shops in the cold, damp, autumn day in Paris. Not knowing what they are looking for. What fun it is to actually hunt for treasure and not knowing what it is, is the best part of antiquing!

They walk into the shop quickly to escape the fine mist of rain falling. Inside was warm with the smell of coffee just being brewed. A tiny lady late in her late 70's welcomed them and invited them in and asked if they would like a cup of coffee to warm them up. Thankfully, they accepted and sat down while quickly looking over the place.

The lady said her name was Rose and this had been her shop over the past 60 years and had been handed down in the family for over 100 years before her. She said that very rarely does someone come in and not find a "treasure" for themselves. She then asked what they were looking for and they said in unison "We won't know until we find it". They chatted about the history of the shop and the surrounding area and it had been saved from the Germans during World War II. Rose said "They knew this shop was special".

Then Bill got up and started looking around in the jewelery cases and books on the shelves. June had finished her coffee and joined in the search.

In the back of the shop had many paintings leaned up against the bookshelves, a little dusty but nothing a good cleaning wouldn't fix. June started going through them one by one. Bill had made the remark that the pictures were quite large and getting them home would be a challenge. She laughed a little almost deciding to stop then when she flipped the next picture, there is was!

"What"? She screamed, "how in the world could this be"! She yelled for Bill to come over and said to him, "Look at this, I, I, I, can't breath" ! She held on to his arm while she pointed at the picture.

He studied her for a moment then his eyes went to the picture. "What the..." he said letting his words trail off.

This painting was words of their trip and it was the very words of the events that were memorable to them and even had Gordon Ramsey's restaurant where they had dinner just a couple of nights ago!

Bill went to the shop owner and asked "Where did you get this picture"? Rose told him very calmly that this picture had been in the shop every since she was a little girl.

"Why?" She asked.

Rubbing his chin, he tells Rose about the picture and what each word means.

"Then this is what you are looking for" she smiling slightly.

June then let's out another scream.! Oh my God!, When she turned the painting over it said "Happy Birthday, Love Jeanine and Andy.

Sometimes in life there aren't answers to all questions and somethings just don't need answers. They are there because they are supposed to be there, just waiting for the moment.

I hope your present is as special to you and it was for me to make it for you. I love you and always will.

(This is to be read by my sister before she see the gift )

So here is the painting that was done in her honor of her birthday and trip:

Whew! Who wants a tutorial? Say it and I will make it so!!!

Artwork Artwork and more Artwork! Updated!!!!

2010-11-02T08:36:00.000-07:00

Wow! Again Wow! I have said last week that there are some very talented people out there. The things they can do is jaw dropping. I ran across a great blog site called The Graphics Fairy and she has a lot of FREE antique artwork that you can download and do just about anything with.

I saw another blog (the internet is a huge web they are right) and saw this artwork that I fell in love with.

The author said she used Gesso. What is that? Well, to put it simply it is a gel medium that you transfer your artwork from paper onto a canvas then peel the picture off and there ya go! So, I just had to do this! I went to Michaels, remember it takes me a minimum to 2 and a half hours Just to go round trip. I bought some (there are so many to choose from). Printed the picture (flipped) on my injet, took it to the printers and copied it on a laser printer. (Inject ink will run that is why you need to have laser printer (it costs me 10 cents). I then went home slathered the Gesso on the front of the picture and then laid it face down on the canvas. I then took my Popsicle stick and smoothed it out as best and I could. Then I had to wait and wait. They suggest you leave it overnight and that was not going to happen because I did it at 12PM. So at 5PM I started to remove the paper. How did I do that? I put my forefinger in water and started rubbing the paper, and it started coming off! Over and over again, I kept rubbing, my finger is now raw but what was underneath the paper is outstanding!

Look!

How did it get from this:

To that:

It would be great to see the different colors that come out of each person that does this. I had seen one that it was black and white with a little yellow on the sides.

But I have to tell you, this surprised the heck out of me! What a great present.

If you look closely, it says balsamic vinegar, but it looks like it is perfume, ewe!

I am going to do another one today, but am worried that I am going to rub off my fingerprints.

This was so simple to do and so much fun!

TUTORIAL:

Ok, it is done!!! To tell you the truth, when I am doing a project I normally take a lot of pictures, so if I need to go back and review the project, I have pictures.

However, on this project, I didn't take any pictures. I didn't know in the beginning how it was going to turn out so I didn't bother. Note to self: Don't do that again.

Life happens and as I had said in another post, my husband had surgery, so just the simple act of posting this became impossible until now, he is sleeping and I can get this done.....

Ok the first part:

You will need to get a canvas board. I got from the art shop (any one, I know Michales have this too) Is a regular canvas board that is flat. If you want you can use one that is raised with the board around the back, however, you will need to have something put inside of it to give it strength when you are putting the picture down and making sure the picture adheres to the canvas. i.e. maybe a book in the back.

I got this board for $1.00 and it is 8x10.

I then made sure that the picture was able to be level so when I put the picture on the canvas it is not crooked. My first one was and you can't pick it up and move it around when it is wet because the color will start to come off immediately. Live and learn. So, I measured it again and again. You really have one shot at this so measure it really good, unless you want the picture to be a little crooked. Note: Even though I though I was doing everything perfectly, the picture is not even, but I will be the only person that will know that, well now, you do too.

The gesso is called Golden and when I got to Micheals and found this aisle, I had no idea that there were so many types of gel mediums! So I went middle of the road with this.

I bought a couple of large sticks to apply the gel, which I patted myself on the back because it was a great idea. They were only 5 cents each! Yea baby and I only had to use one.

I took the stick and scooped up the gel then started to apply the gel to the picture. This one I applied a pretty thick layer. I started to do it in one direction, then realized that it didn't matter in which direction you applied it, just make sure you apply it to the whole picture. Put down a newspaper so when it goes off the side, you will have something down. I didn't do that the first time and it was a yucky mess.

Like I said on the above paragraph, I put down a thick layer. I wouldn't do that. It made the paper really heavy and when I did the next step it tore part of it because it was so wet.

Once the paper is covered in the gesso, pick it up and put it face down on the canvas. Try to put it down correctly the first time as I said before, if you move it around it will smear some of the color.

Then take the stick and start smoothing out the paper and help it ahear to the canvas, (this is where I tore the paper) if it does tear , no big deal, just flatten it out and smooth it out, it will not show up as a tear and will

give it some depth.s

On some of the other posts I have read, people say wait overnight before you start removing the paper, but I usually do it in the morning and we really have low humidity here (that does help with the drying process). I wait about 3 hours.

You can see that it is already turning color. I have realized that when you print something black and white, it is not just done with black, it is printed with all the colors, especially if it is printed with a laser printer. I don't know if you can see, but within 5 minutes you could see red showing up on the paper. Pretty cool.

See the tear on the top above my fingers? I even took my fingers and kept smoothing the paper so it had great coverage.

This what it looks like after about 15 minutes...Now the hard part...WAIT!!!

Ok here we are it is 1:30 and I am ready. Take a little cup with water:

Then you will dip your finger in it and spread some over the picture:

Start rubbing. But wait, like I said in the earlier post, if you start rubbing with your fingers we will rub your fingerprints away. It really hurts after a while! I came up with a great idea, I went into the kitchen and grabbed a cotton towel. Not a plush one, but one I could dip in the water and start rubbing and it worked. You will see the rolls of the paper and it gets a little messy. As I write this, I am still finding little paper rolls in front of me, on the floor, in my chair, etc...

I then used my fingers just to make sure that all the paper was removed again, by rubbing and rubbing.

I wiped off the picture with the rag just to get the rubbies off and then took some sand paper and very quickly rubbed the sides so the residue o the sheet would come off (I thought of that all by myself!) and it works!

Finished!!!!

Here is the results of this one:

Now I had to darken the picture up a bit so it wouldn't look so faded on my blog.

This is such a nice project to do, I put the other one in a black frame and will be giving these as gifts.

The price to make this is so cheap!

The canvas board $1.00

Lazar copy .10 cents

But the Golden Gesso gel was around $15.00. But you don't use that much and I would guesstamate that you would get a least 10 of these 8x10 pictures. Which would bring the cost to $1.50 per picture.

So, for $2.60 you get a one of a kind picture. Perfect for a girlfriend's gift. PS. They have $1.00 black frames at the dollar store too! For a grand total of $3.60!!! Can't get that in your local store!

I would love to see some of your artwork using the gel medium. This stuff is incredible!

Let me know how you did!! Good luck and have fun!

Artwork...How cool and inspiring!

2010-10-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

I have the sweetest girlfriends on this earth. The one I am talking about today is Stacy. She is just a breath of fresh air, you know when you walk outside in the morning after a night of rain?

She follows my blog and I think she actually enjoys it, too funny. Anyway, I posted a picture for the heck of it a couple of weeks ago and told my bloggers this would be a great picture to download for the fall season. SHE DID! Not only did she download it, she sent it to Staples.com had it blown up, trimmed and laminated! What a cleaver girl!!!!

What do you think of Ms. Stacys art work?

Sorry about the blurry pic I am trying to get it big enough for you to see. Anyway, she then got a hook from the Oak Glen Apple Orchards gift shop (that place is soo much fun in the fall). Then put it in her front yard.

What a great and CHEAP decoration! Way to go girl, it looks stunning! Thanks for sharing! The fun just keeps going. Now to work on my board and to start my pillows before Halloween get here!

I love this. Witch with Crow...

2010-10-21T13:35:00.000-07:00

You know, people are so creative. I have one of my fellow bloggers who did two pillows and I fell in love with her work.

She told everyone she bought this Silhouette (not the machine, this time) from an Etsy Shop.

It is called 1963 Vintage Lane and Jackie is a sweetheart! Now a lot of people don't know what an Etsy Shop is. It is a shop that people sell their homemade items and let me tell you, PEOPLE ARE SO CREATIVE.....

I bought the Witch with the crow and it was only $3.75! Great thing about this is you can use it over and over again for YEARS! From the blog site of RESTLESSRISA I am going to copy her pillows. I will post them when I am done. But take a look at her site and tell me what you think! I love the turkey, I want to put them on tea towels and give them to my family as a Thanksgiving gift. OK HELP...WHERE DO I GET TEA TOWELS. Help me people!

Here is the witch and bat:

How cute would this be to print it out and frame it!

Now all I have to do is get the nerve to do my pillow project.......Any info on the tea towels yet?

I am mixing things up, but not on purpose...I couldn't wait until Foto Friday..

2010-10-21T08:40:00.000-07:00

This is what I woke up to this morning! Our first snow! Two really good things about the first snow...

1) It is just an incredible picture no price tag required. Thank you God.
2) It is far away enough that it didn't hit our house. Thank you God.

With all things of beauty, it has now melted but the picture remains....

Have a great day! (SHHHH....I am so busy doing my project that I am not stopping to blog. But I can't wait to show you when I am finished. IF I ever finish). Wanna come over and help? I have some coffee going....

Foto Friday....Double Rainbow

2010-10-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

I received a text this morning,(thanks Kim) and when I pulled up the picture, there was a BEAUTIFUL double rainbow!

I have never seen something like this...only in Big Bear!

I forwarded this to my family and friends. Here are a couple of responses:

May God double your blessings today (One Brother In Law)

Where is the double pot of gold? (Another Brother In Law) My response was "In Big Bear, of course!

Keep your eyes open, you never know what beauty you will see when you start watching.

Have a great weekend!

New Silhouette Project

2010-10-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

I saw this sign done by a fellow blogger on the internet and fell in LOVE with this. So, I thought, why not? Oh my! It was a lot of work!!! I learned a lot of what NOT to do. First, I needed to make my art so much bigger! That would have save me time and energy.

It took me days upon days and the reason is because:

Find the Board, (I had one in my outside office) It is Four Feet by Two Feet (question to self, "Why did you pick a sign this big?" I don't have an answer but I know not to do that size again, well, for now.
Spray the Board with Primer (thank GOD for the adapter handle for the spray paint, Do not EVER use a spray paint without it, trust me on this people!)

Spray the Board with the Orange (Five Coats)

Being a smart girl, I knew I had to spray the board outside even when it was a little windy, I look good in a shade of orange.

Something caught my eye when I had stood back to look at the board. Right in front of me and the sign slithered a snake!

I have a remember that I am in the mountains and this is supposed to be a normal occurrence. Thank goodness that it was a Gardner snake and not a rattlesnake! (Rattlers are the only snake I have ever seen here, so I actually was excited to see this guy).

On to my project:

Find the artwork
Play with the placement
Cut it and then place the piece

Spray with Mod Podge Sealer (which turned out to be a disaster, it turned up a lot of the artwork, again, had NO idea!) YUK, so I went over it again with the white mod podge and a sponge to try to get some of the artwork to lay flat, not going so well. Live and learn...

Well it is now finished and ready to go outside for the world to see.

What do you think?!

Gardening

2010-10-07T16:35:00.000-07:00

This Monday will be the last meeting for "A Garden Club" in Big Bear. I am sad because I just joined this group a couple of months ago. However, I have met the BEST people and have instantly made "best friends" with a bunch of women and men...

So I will came up with the perfect way to say sleep tight my ~~dirt~~ garden and I will tackle you next year.

This was done with Picasa and Picnik! Incredible I tell you!

Have a great weekend!

Whew! Usually I do a Thursday thought but instead of an thought, how about an idea?

2010-10-06T18:23:00.000-07:00

I am sitting here at home on a Wednesday afternoon. It was supposed to have a bad storm pass through and the temperature is cold for the first week in October. I am pouting pretty bad because I was to have a long overdue lunch with my bestest high school girlfriend. With the weather "up in the air" we decided to make it another time when the roads would not be so dangerous. I can work around almost anything, but ice on the drive down the mountain is one I have to walk away from.

Sooooo with a lot of time on my hands, I decided to play on the computer, imagine that? Anyway, I came across a great tutorial on how to make your own Halloween labels, and let me tell you, this girl's blog is something else!

Look at what I did, well kinda, sorta:

How cute is this??!!!!!!! (Squeal!!!!) All I can say is there went my afternoon! But what I learned from here is just the tip of the iceberg! What a wealth of info and the easy way she explains how it is done is elementary (I liked my second grade teacher, Miss Farmer).

You can find her site at www.centsationalgirl.com/2010/09/ghoulish-grown-up-beverage-labels/.

When you take a look (yea right), well when you adsorb her blog, you will see one that looks almost identical to this one. I wanted to follow her and do everything she did and then start doing them on my own. Now that I feel more comfortable and am exited about my ~~one of many~~ new project that I am working on.

Here is another sign that I found and just had to have. Wouldn't this be so cute to put into a frame and hang it just for the fall season?

You are more than welcome to click on to this or the one above and print it for yourself. Great colors.

So the Thursday thought?

Never memorize what you can look up in books - Albert Einstein

or in my words....

Never memorize what you can look in on the computer - Jeanine Sturgeon

Let me know what you think and if when you make some really cool labels, share with me and my viewers!

Is your mind racing all over the place because of this? I hope so! I know mine is.

Have an incredible day!

OBTW, it never did rain and storm here, ohhhhh I am so aggravated!

Foto Friday.... The Haunted Whaley House

2010-10-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we went to San Diego to visit my sister and to celebrate our birthdays.

I love San Diego, there is sooo much to do and to see. The history is as rich and old as this country.

When we were talking about the trip I said I had wanted to go to Old Town and visit the "Whaley House". My sister said "Cool"! I asked her if she knew about the Whaley House and she said, "No". I giggled and then explanied to her what it was.

So, here is my story, first in my own simple words then what they have written about it.

My words:

The Whaley House is THE most haunted house in the nation! It was deemed the #1 house by The Travel Channel and few other shows and magazines.

This is what is written about this home:

According to the Travel Channel's America's Most Haunted, the house is the number one most haunted house in the United States. The alleged hauntings of the Whaley House have been reported on numerous other television programs and been written up in countless publications and books since the house first opened as a museum in 1960. Although we cannot state positively that the Whaley House is really haunted, the voluminous documentation of paranormal occurances at the site makes a compelling case. But, if there are ghosts at the Whaley House, who are they and why are they here?

The earliest documented ghost at the Whaley House is "Yankee Jim." James (aka Santiago) Robinson was convicted of attempted grand larceny in San Diego in 1852, and hanged on a gallows off the back of a wagon on the site where the house now stands. The local newspaper reported that he "kept his feet in the wagon as long as possible, but was finally pulled off. He swung back and forth like a pendulum until he strangled to death." Although Thomas Whaley had been a spectator at the execution, he did not let it disuade him from buying the property a few years later and building a home for his family there. According to the San Diego Union, "soon after the couple and their children moved in, heavy footsteps were heard moving about the house. Whaley described them as sounding as though they were made by the boots of a large man. Finally he came to the conclusion that these unexplained footfalls were made by Yankee Jim Robinson." Another source states that Lillian Whaley, the Whaleys' youngest daughter who lived in the house until 1953, "had been convinced the ghost of "Yankee Jim" haunted the Old House." A visitor to the museum in 1962 mentioned that "the ghost had driven her family from their visit there more than 60 years [earlier], her mother was unnerved by the phantom walking noise and the strange way the windows unlatched and flew up."

Many visitors to the house have reported encountering Thomas Whaley himself. The late June Reading, former curator of the museum, said, "We had a little girl perhaps 5 or 6 years old who waved to a man she said was standing in the parlor. We couldn't see him. But often children's sensitivity is greater than an adult's." However, many adults have reported seeing the apparition of Mr. Whaley, usually on the upper landing. One said he was "clad in frock coat and pantaloons, the face turned away from her, so she could not make it out. Suddenly it faded away."

The specter of Anna Whaley has also been reported, usually in the downstairs rooms or in the garden. In 1964, Mrs. Whaley's floating, drifting spirit appeared to [television personality Regis] Philbin. "All of a sudden I noticed something on the wall," Philbin reported. "There was something filmy white, it looked like an apparition of some kind, I got so excited I couldn't restrain myself! I flipped on the [flash]light and nothing was there but a portrait of Anna Whaley, the long-dead mistress of the house."

Other visitors have described seeing or sensing the presence of a woman in the courtroom. "I see a small figure of a woman," one visitor said, "who has a swarthy complexion. She is wearing a long full skirt, reaching to the floor. The skirt appears to be a calico or gingham, small print. She has a kind of cap on her head, dark hair and eyes and she is wearing gold hoops in her pierced ears. She seems to stay in this room, lives here, I gather." None of the Whaleys fit this description, but the house was rented out to numerous tenants over the years. Perhaps the mysterious woman in the courtroom was one of these.

Another presence reported by visitors and docents is that of a young girl, who is usually found in the dining room. Psychic Sybil Leek encountered this spirit during a visit in the 1960s. "It was a long-haired girl," Sybil said. "She was very quick, you know, in a longish dress. She went to the table in this room and I went to the chair." Urban legend has it that this is the ghost of a playmate of the Whaley children who accidentally broke her neck on a low-hanging clothesline in the backyard, and whose name was either Annabel or Carrie Washburn. There are no historic records of any child dying this way at the Whaley House; nor is there record of any family named Washburn residing in San Diego at the time. It is believed that the legend was started by a one-time employee of the Whaley House, in an effort to add to the house's mystique.

Even animals aren't left out of the singular occurances. A parapsychologist reported he saw a spotted dog, like a fox terrier, that ran down the hall with his ears flapping and into the dining room. The dog, he said, was an apparition. When they lived in the house, the Whaley's owned a terrier named Dolly Varden.

The Whaley House stands silently watching over San Diego Avenue as it has done for a century and a half. Every day visitors come from around the world to tour the historic museum. It contains so much history within its walls, that even the non-believer will enjoy the tour. For believers and sceptics alike, the house draws them back time and again, in search of those elusive ghosts. As Regis Philbin once said, "You know a lot of people pooh-pooh it because they can't see it. But there was something going on in that house."

My Experience:

If I had my way I would of LOVED to have taken the tour (which is self guided and you are alloweed to take picutres too!) in the evening, scarier the better! But with other plans for the evening we went in the afternoon.

Did I see anything? No. I didn't however, when I went to the theater which is on the second floor (I thought that was odd due to the fact that people still lived in that house and the theater room was right next to the bedrooms) I did get dizzy and a little nauseous over by the window.

UPDATE: October 3rd: Watched the Travel Channel last night regarding the Whaley House (Most haunted homes) and this is the room that Ana Whaley died in and said she is one of the ghosts and haunts this room!
That was weird. But other than that, I didn't see anything and if you really think about it, those ghosts would have to be pretty busy with all the people in and around that house. He must have been sleepy! I would have been!

But they do have ghost tours of the house at night and also of Old Town as well. Now, that is what I am talking about. I am up for it and look forward to going next time!

Do you have ghost stories? I do, many of them, share yours, I and my followers would love to hear your story.

Happy October 1st!!!

Thursday Thoughts.....

2010-09-30T15:10:00.000-07:00

On Coping:

"Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a bottle of wine."

Thomas Aquinas

Philosopher (After my own heart)

New Silhouette Project

2010-09-27T09:05:00.000-07:00

I have put on my blog the amazing stuff you can do with this machine. One idea that I ABSOLUTELY love is called subway art. If you have a moment check out www.tatertotsandjello.com web site. Her subway art ROCKS!!! Very impressive. There is another link to www.howdoesshe.com. They also do subway art, and this is the one idea I got from them....

I have a sister, (I have many, and I am the youngest, oldest and middle child, it's all in how you look at us) she and I are celebrating our birthdays together. I wanted to do something that described HER. Let me tell you, it is weird to actually sit down and put into words to describe someone. Actually, once you put the words down and look back, it also reflects about you too. Strange but true. Can't help but smile when you look at the words you wrote.

I came up with the obvious but when it came to details I looked at my family for help. I wanted them to be a part of this project and I took 18 words and used my Silhouette machine to cut out and then I went to work.

It was very random in the use of the words, it didn't help with my transfer tape not WORKING at all! I was dropping letters left and right! So a little project that would have taken me lets say an hour, took me almost four! ARRRGGGG. But I got it done and it was a labor of love. I hope she likes it!

What do you think and what words could you come up with to describe someone you love, a husband? Child? Mom? Dad? Sister? Grandchild? Teacher, Best Friend? The list goes on and on.

I just used a 12x12 tile from Home Depot and put it on a plate stand. Simple but very personal.

It's just the beginning!!!!

I am like a mad scientist! Whaahaaaahaahaaa! That is supposed to be me rubbing my hands together making a sinister laugh, don't know how to spell that laugh, sorry!

Have a great day!

Foto Friday....

2010-09-24T07:05:00.000-07:00

Andy was working on a house just up the road and I went with him to hang out. Well, I went there to be nosey. The property is only a couple of miles from our house and it is new construction.

Living out here you never know what you will find and after an hour or so helping out (ok, that sounds good) I went on a walk to the back of the house.

Look at what I saw!

Is this the coolest thing!

I don't know anything about it except it is old.

I wonder if the owner has to pay property taxes on this?

Can you imagine the old miner that lived here?

I wonder if it is insulated...Flat Screen capable?

I love the back door. It is like a barn door.

I wonder if the Pioneer Woman (Ree Drummond) got her idea to do this to the lodge from this beauty?

Well it was the perfect home, move in ready until the side of the building starts to collapse.

This is a pretty cool building and I truly expected to run into a (or more) rattlesnake(s) when I was going around this beauty.

Now, my fellow bloggers may have their Southern Homes to tour but they ain't got nothin on us in Baldwin Lake! (I say that out of pour jealousy, serious)

Amazing isn't it? There is so much history in this town that it is a cowgirl's dream.

Let me know what you think. BBQ anyone?

Thursday Thoughts.....

2010-09-23T07:05:00.000-07:00

People have the inner resources to become anything they want to be. Challenges just becomes the vehicle for tapping into those inner resources.

—Eric Weihenmayer, blind mountain climber

Walmart. Outing.....

2010-09-21T08:53:00.000-07:00

Well, as everyone knows I live very rural, I try not to sound like I am complaining about the distance I have to go to get anywhere. This is where I chose to live and am happy to be here.

However.....

I am not a shopper, but when I get in the mood......

I went down the hill on Sunday, trying to get to as many places as I could with the time allotted for me. Let's see, I need to go to Michaels, Walmart, Big 5, Burlington Coat Factory, Dress Barn, Bed Bath and Beyond, Fashion Bug, Lowes, Grocery Store, get gas and only have 2 hours to do what needs to be done! That is already a 4 hour day considering it takes two hours just in driving round trip! Forget about getting something to eat, there is just not enough time!

In my mind I map out where I have to go furthest, I'll hit Michaels, but wait let's stop at Walmart first. OK this is where it gets interesting.

I don't shop Walmart. Period. I know I need to for the saving but in the Big Box Stores I am a Target girl. I don't think I have been in a Walmart in years upon years.

Let me see if I can set the stage correctly. I park FAR FAR away, not by choice. The amount of people going into the store looked like there was a renunion concert of some 80's band.! Serious! WOW! I actually had to stop because of the mass of people trying to get into the doors. I thought "There IS a concert going on in here".

When I got into the store, there was a McDonalds to the right. That took me back to the time when I was little and my mom used to take me to KMart and we would have lunch in the diner they had. Boy was that special! Now I look at the brightness and the plastic seats (fast food places do that so it won't be comfortable and you won't stay long) and the chaos. Chaos is a good word to describe this event.

So I went to the fabric area. I can't believe they sell fabric at Walmart! As I am looking at all the $3.50 yard, my heart is leaping!!! Wow fabric that cheap and it even gets cheaper at the discount area.. fan me, fan me! Whew!
I stop to get my barings together and I decided to watch the people walking by. Um well, to say the least, I thought to myself, are these people for real? Is this like a cult that all people going into Walmart dress like this? Meaning, I remember going to the Rocky Horror Picture Show when I was in High School and everyone dressed up like the characters. Scary when you haven't seen the movie yet.

It stopped me in my tracks and made me giggle the whole time I was shopping, it just kept getting better.

When I got home from that afternoon, I thought there HAS to be a website for the "Walmart People" and there was! I swear I saw these same people there on Sunday!

HIS shorts says it all! (That's a guy!)

Do you think he is a dad to someone? (This is a GUY too!) EWWWWW

This poor dog is saying "Just shoot me, what are my friends gonna say"! A Mohawk is pretty bad in itself, but a blue one, come on!

There are hundreds of pictures on this website www.peopleofwalmart.com. I laughed and laughed at these picture. I truly believe now that it is a cult. Now off to see The Rocky Horror Picture Show, now where did I put my black fishnets.....

PS. I did get done everything I needed to, forgot to eat lunch made it up the hill and had a dinner party at 5:30 at my house. I AM WOMAN!!!

Stay tuned for the great finds I found at Walmart (not the people, the goodies, Mod Podge, candles, material, etc..) It was all worth it....

Silhouette Art...

2010-09-13T08:54:00.000-07:00

I have been having so much fun with this machine! I see things in such a different light. I look at almost anything and say, "I can do something really cool to that." Now bear with me, I am still a real newbie to this, but am at least working on different projects, little as they may be.

Saturday night we were at our friends home for dinner and she showed me all the great stuff she has bought for her grandkids who are staying with them for a week. I looked at the black pail and said "How about if I take it home and personalize it?" So Sunday I went to the Dollar Tree (I LOVE THAT STORE) and bought another pail, came home and a couple of minutes later I had the cutest pails!

I did it in orange because of the season and also it really looked cool!

What do you think......

Off to do more projects! This is definitely addictive!

In the Stariway....Today

2010-09-11T11:43:00.000-07:00

I found this last year and had to send it to eveyone I knew. Now I have the honor of putting it on my blog. As tears roll down my face, I know that each of them is for the ones that lost someone they loved. I too cry along with you. But with sorrow comes the opportunity to really lean and rely on God. It is a time for rebirth and renewal.

'MEET ME IN THE STAIRWELL'

You say you will never forget where you were when
you heard the news On September 11, 2001.
Neither will I.

I was on the 110th floor in a smoke filled room
with a man who called his wife to say 'Good-Bye.' I
held his fingers steady as he dialed. I gave him the
peace to say, 'Honey, I am not going to make it, but it
is OK..I am ready to go.'

I was with his wife when he called as she fed
breakfast to their children. I held her up as she
tried to understand his words and as she realized
he wasn't coming home that night.

I was in the stairwell of the 23rd floor when a
woman cried out to Me for help. 'I have been
knocking on the door of your heart for 50 years!' I said.
'Of course I will show you the way home - only
believe in Me now.'

I was at the base of the building with the Priest
ministering to the injured and devastated souls.
I took him home to tend to his Flock in Heaven. He
heard my voice and answered.

I was on all four of those planes, in every seat,
with every prayer. I was with the crew as they
were overtaken. I was in the very hearts of the
believers there, comforting and assuring them that their
faith has saved them.

I was in Texas , Virginia , California , Michigan , Afghanistan .
I was standing next to you when you heard the terrible news.
Did you sense Me?

I want you to know that I saw every face. I knew
every name - though not all knew Me. Some met Me
for the first time on the 86th floor.

Some sought Me with their last breath.
Some couldn't hear Me calling to them through the
smoke and flames; 'Come to Me... this way... take
my hand.' Some chose, for the final time, to ignore Me.
But, I was there.

I did not place you in the Tower that day. You
may not know why, but I do. However, if you were
there in that explosive moment in time, would you have
reached for Me?

Sept. 11, 2001, was not the end of the journey
for you. But someday your journey will end. And I
will be there for you as well. Seek Me now while I may
be found. Then, at any moment, you know you are
'ready to go.'

I will be in the stairwell of your final moments.

God

Just the word "Remeber"

2010-09-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

Today I am really emotional. Couldn't seem to put a finger on why. Beautiful day, had lunch with my wonderful husband, fall feeling in the air and it's Friday. So why.?????

Just got on my computer and pulled up one of my favorite bloggers.

Tomorrow is 9/11 and the tribute she gave had me hysterically crying. I just sat here and cried and cried and then cried some more.

It is absoultuely beautiful post she wrote about and in her honor, I would like to put the link to her site. So tomorrow all I can say is summed it up in one word.....

REMEMBER.

God Bless America

Fly your flag with honor and to honor those who gave their lives.

Sarah's Blog is " www.ThriftyDecorChick.blogspot.com

Thank you Sarah, we will remember.

Foto Friday....

2010-09-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

As I promise, I love writing in my blog. Even though it seems like we are all flyin, I think a moment to enjoy a picture is always worth it.

This picture today is from a "Sitting Pretty" class I took last week offered by our gardening club here in Big Bear.

This class was soo much fun. How do you do it? Easy Breezy as my friend Kim would say.

All you do is get a chair, take out the middle part, put chicken wire down, and staple it to the chair. Make sure the wire is deep for the growth of the plants. Get potting soil and perlite. Mix the two together (the perlite will hold moisture).

The host brought out baby diapers. Baby Diapers!!!! She said cut a couple of hole into the diaper and lay it on the bottom of the basket and it will asorb moisture too! What a great idea!!!!

Well withink 10 minutes I had my chair done and it came out sooo cute!! I was really proud of myself.

Total cost:

Chair: $15.00 I bought it at a Antique shop, but everyone else said they found theirs for free. I just didn't have time to "find" so I bought mine. It was already painted blue and the legs were shortened. PERFECT!

Dirt: $5.00 (You can find it cheaper) Remember I live far away from cheap.
Perlite: $3.99 will last me a LONG time!
Plants: Pony plants $3.99 (6 total) and one geranium @ $2.50
Moss: You can buy any type of decorative moss even from a craft store, I had some already.
Chicken Wire: I had some thanks to my chickens.

So, for start up cost around $29.00 is was well worth it! Next time it won't be a1/4 this amount. Maybe just for the cost of the plants. I can't wait to do more when I have time!
Let me know what you think....

This looks much better now that the plants have had a chance to grow. Love it!

This is what the class made, how cute is this!

Isn't the little one just adorable? She made it for her "fairy" garden. The red chair is actually metal, who knew??

Thursday Thoughts.....

2010-09-02T15:02:00.000-07:00

Here is something my sister sent to me. I truly am a cowboy!

Cowboy rules for:

Arizona, Texas , Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Idaho, Nebraska and the rest of the Wild West are as follows:

1. Pull your pants up. You look like an idiot. (I say to my son ALL the time, in fact, we were in a grocery store and some man came up to him and told him off for wearing those pants around his daughter, I laughed).

2. Turn your cap right, your head ain't crooked. (Again, my son)

3. Let's get this straight: it's called a 'gravel road.' I drive a pickup truck because I want to. No matter how slow you drive, you're gonna get dust on your Lexus. (Just drive your car slower, I do when I am not driving my pickup, which is almost NEVER)

4. They are cattle. That's why they smell like cattle. They smell like money to us. Get over it. Don't like it? I-10 & I-40 go east and west, I-17 & I-15 goes north and south. Pick one and go.

5. So you have a $60,000 car. We're impressed. We have $250,000 Combines that are driven only 3 weeks a year.

6. Every person in the Wild West waves. It's called being friendly. Try to understand the concept.

7. If that cell phone rings while a bunch of geese/pheasants/

ducks/doves are comin' in during a hunt, we WILL shoot it outta your hand. You better hope you don't have it up to your ear at the time.

8. Yeah. We eat trout, salmon, deer and elk. You really want sushi and caviar? It's available at the corner bait shop. (But I do eat sushi, heck I make it!)

9. The 'Opener' refers to the first day of deer season. It's a religious holiday held the closest Saturday to the first of November.

10. We open doors for women. That's applied to all women, regardless of age. (Amen)

11. No, there's no 'vegetarian special' on the menu. Order steak, or you can order the Chef's Salad and pick off the 2 pounds of ham and turkey.

12. When we fill out a table, there are three main dishes: meats, vegetables, and breads. We use three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup! Oh, yeah ... We don't care what you folks in Cincinnati call that stuff you eat ... IT AIN'T REAL CHILI!!

13. You bring 'Coke' into my house, it better be brown, wet and served over ice. You bring 'Mary Jane' into my house, she better be cute, know how to shoot, drive a truck, and have long hair.

14. College and High School Football is as important here as the Giants, the Yankees, the Mets, the Lakers and the Knicks, and a dang site more fun to watch.

15. Yeah, we have golf courses. But don't hit the water hazards - it spooks the fish.

16. Turn down that blasted car stereo! That thumpity-thump ain't music, anyway. We don't want to hear it anymore than we want to see your boxers! Refer back to #1!

Words to the wise!

Wow! Ok this is what has happened this week Whew!

2010-09-01T15:24:00.000-07:00

This is the little machine Silhoutte SD Machine can do....You will be AMAZED. please bear with me on the simple things, but we all have to start somewhere, I am going to the MOON and BACK!!!

How do you like it? The font on the green vase in called "Black boys on mopeds" What????? But seriously, that is the truth! Too funny!

I have been addicted to other people's blogs regarding this machine. Take a look at my side bar with the other bloggers blogs and I can almost guarantee you that they are working with this machine too.

But I have to tell you, to get it started was a pain. I don't sit and read instructions and like to "wing" it and for that I have to suffer the consequences of that. I get it. I just pray that I don't break the machine in the process. That is like sewing. I had my mentor come over now a few times to teach me the "right" way of sewing. Not my way. My way is probably wrong and I know once I get the bad habits I will just keep going back to it over and over again. I am that way on knitting, again, bad habits. Do you get it now?

I just seem now to have more patience than I every have, or is it I am tired of not succeeding on projects I have started. Well I am finally finishing things, that is why my blogging is suffering.

Thank you for keep checking in on me. (I finished "The Help" last night). Boy it was a good book, good reader. Now to go and finish the scarf, man I have ALOT going on. I will have to write about my sushi party on Saturday, now that was a hoot! I have a lot of pictures and stories about that one!

Thursday Thoughts.....

2010-08-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

Excellence is a habit. You are what you repeatedly do.

—Shaquille O'Neal, professional basketball player

Prepared to be blown away, this little girl is amazing, did you see this on AGT?

2010-08-14T10:38:00.000-07:00

I sat straight up and my mouth dropped! She is unbelievable and no there was no one in the shadows singing for her. Watch this and enjoy! I can't wait until she sings again. Could you imagine hearing her in her bedroom for the first time? I would think someone was in there with her a big opera singer and taken over her body!

Enjoy!

Foto Friday....

2010-08-13T08:43:00.000-07:00

Good Morning,

I just wanted to put something on today that was easy to look at. For centuries, people have been painting fruit and for the past oh 100 years or so, they have been photographing fruit. I am no exception. I love to look at a beautiful bowl presenting fruit. Here here is my Foto Friday of Fruit.

Please have a great weekend. I am going to sew a pair of cooking pants today. I hopefully will post my design early next week. I am excited about doing this. I think I have overwhelmed Andy with making place mats. How many sets do we really need? As many as I want to make! I love fabric.

Thursday Thoughts.....

2010-08-12T08:24:00.001-07:00

Worrying is like a rocking chair; it gives you something to do but gets you nowhere.

—Glenn Turner, Broadway actor

Foto Friday....

2010-08-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

Can you smell the pine trees? Can you smell the cool breeze along with the heat coming from the ground? This was taken on another part of the lake. Wanna join me for a walk sometime? I would love to have you. We could make a picnic, sit next to the water and watch the children play.

Enjoy the "foto".

Have a great weekend!

What I am reading now..

2010-08-06T08:38:00.000-07:00

I went to my book club meeting on Tuesday. Hey if you ever have a chance to get into a book club I HIGHLY recommend it. That is if you like to read. I LOVE to read. When I was in my early 20's and didn't have any money to spend, I use to get home after work, get my pj's on, make a sandwich (I was broke) sit down open up a book and 3-4 hours later, it was time for bed. Now if I got calls from my friends I would definitely pick up, that took priority over EVERYTHING!

My favorite book, well there are so many, off the cuff, I would have to say, "The Stand" by Steven King.

Not only did I read it as soon as it came out, I hit the story exactly when the weather was the same in the book, but when they re-released it I had just finished it one week earlier. Bought it immediately and re-read it again. Incredible book.

It was my first "Big" book I read with more than 200 and something pages. I grew up!

Now, my club is reading "The Help"

I like this book, the writer writes a lot in the persons thoughts and even though I am a few dozen pages into it. I recommend this book. I was looking at another blog site this morning and she said she kept reading this book. I get that. It is based on the 1960's and their way of thinking, that is all I am gonna say about that.

If you do get this book, let me know what you think....

This weekend I am attending a book signing of an author I have just fallen for her writing. Her name is Christie Walker Bos and she is from Big Bear. I have read "Finding Delaney", which was the first book I had to read in the book club and found her writing, easy and fun. Sunday she is re-releasing "The Man List" and it is a fictional book that has the main character make a list of what she wants in a man. It worked, and it worked in Christie's life! Unbelievable! If you want something bad enough, write it down, my pastor used to say that all the time. But be careful with what you want, you might just get it. True words, huh?

Have a great day, now to get my foto for Foto Friday, that is a lot of F's!

Chow!

Thursday Thoughts.....

2010-08-05T08:55:00.000-07:00

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.

—Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple

We are big time!!!!

2010-08-04T13:45:00.000-07:00

Hey, I just got the Sunset Magazine and we are in it! It is a great article that showcases our town and some of our restaurants, (way to go Jamie, your pancakes are THE best, not to mention your hamburgers) at the Grizzly Manor! (This particular issue pictured below is not the issue it is in....I couldn't find the current issue on the internet and I am too lazy to take picture of it and post...maybe later)

They wanted to do an article about me and my blog but I told them that due to me having surgery I was not able to put everything together at this time. Believe it or not....

I am very excited and love my town to death, congrats to us!

Happy August!

2010-08-02T09:28:00.000-07:00

If you have noticed my blog, there are just simple little posts lately. Why? I have to tell you what has been going on this past month.

I have been busier than a one arm paperhanger with an itch!!!! In the past posts I have told you about the crazy health stuff that I have been going through. Well I went to Vegas last week and had a filter put into me to catch any more blood clots if they form. It was a very easy procedure, scary yes but easy non the less. They go through your vena cava vein and place it in your abdomen.(please forgive me my medical friends if this is not exactly correct but almost on the mark?) No problem until you get up after two hours and you start bleeding out. Oh CRAP!! Poor Andy! Another two hours stationary then went home and drove back to Vegas the next day. The bruising is ugly! I have tried to keep this procedure simple to understand. I asked now will the metal detectors go off at the airport? He he, they said no and I was not the first person to ask that, darn!

So, with that happening was just one thing. I have many others...

I have taken up sewing, can you believe that?

I can make some mean table place mats!!! Ha ha! That needs to be a post all by itself!

I just made breakfast sausage, hot and maple and have a lot of pictures to post about that adventure.

Mine doesn't look like the picture, but it is such a pretty picture I just had to put it on here. Isn't food one of the most beautiful works of art? God is incredible!

I just got a Silhoutte Machine

and having a BLAST with that, especially because I am not a "crafty" person, but the stuff you can do with this is pretty amazing. I found this machine from a couple of bloggers I know and just had to have it. The couple of projects I am working on is a lot of fun and when it is done I will share it with you and maybe have a give away. I am working on Halloween and playing around with Ideas of Christmas! Just google Sillhoutte machine and take a look at what people are doing! Incredible!

I submitted a short story to Guide Post. That is a Christian magazine and web site that has really helped me in my path of life.

I am reading a book, well just finished one that I am crazy about. It is called "First Light" by Sue Monk Kidd. She didn't realize that when she wrote this book she was writing it to me. I can't tell you how many times during the reading that I cried, laughed hugged the book then cried more. WOW! I am now reading a book called "Life Wide Open" by Dr. David Jeremiah and the word is "Passion" I know that word very well, as you can tell.

I have always wanted to be a writer that is why I started this blog and what better to write about than what I know, which is me!

Well, that is just what I did LAST WEEK!! But I do love my blog and know it is so much a part of my life. I get so involved in this that I lose track of time and don't get things done. But since my surgery I am taking life in as much as possible, big breath (wrinkle your nose and breath DEEEEP) that is what I am doing!

Today is Monday, have a great week and know that every day truly is a gift, I know that for sure!

Love you! Away I go!

What is going on with the Chickens?

2010-07-31T09:42:00.000-07:00

I have a lot of friends as me about my chickens lately. No I haven't stopped talking about them. Actually I have put a tab on my blog to keep an updated account of what is happening with them, please take a moment to look over there and see what those girls have been up to!

Or better yet, looking out of!

Thursday Thoughts.....

2010-07-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

You can rise above almost any obstacle if you’re willing to work hard and believe that you can do it….ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

—Dr. Thad Bell, associate dean for minority students, Medical University of South Carolina

Foto Friday

2010-07-23T11:07:00.000-07:00

Went for a nice walk yesterday and just had to take this picture..this looks like a postcard doesn't it.

Enjoy and have a great weekend. I am soo blessed to be able to live here and take incredible pictures like this!

Thursday Thoughts.....

2010-07-22T12:15:00.000-07:00

You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.

—Wayne Gretzky,
former professional hockey player

Foto Friday....

2010-07-16T06:00:00.000-07:00

I was at the feed store today getting chicken food and there was a lady talking about her two "babies" that she nursed back to health. I started listening to her and she said she was from the zoo and she was the care taker of two raccoons, baby raccoons!

She went to her truck and I asked if I could see these babies. "Absolutely" she said. Oh my they were precious!!!

I grabbed my camera (I keep a Cannon Elph in my purse) for moments just like this!

I love raccoons, however, they are very dangerous and can shred you or your animals very easy, their nails are like razors! I saw Billy the Exterminator the other day and he was called to get this raccoon out of a trash can, I laughed and laughed. His mom on the radio "BEEELLLLEY! It really is a cute show, watch it sometime it is almost like watching Kid Rock in a kinda sorta way...

Hope you enjoy the fotos!

Awwee how precious!

This little one is saying "Check out my nails!"

Have a great Friday and an awesome weekend!

Hang in there!

2010-07-15T09:52:00.001-07:00

Boy do I know this feeling!

Thursday Thoughts.....

2010-07-15T08:29:00.001-07:00

Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it. —M. Scott Peck, M.D., author
Find inspiring stories about personal growth at Guideposts.org!

Tortoise or the Hare? Crock Pot vs. Pressure Cooker-Pulled Pork!

2010-07-06T16:24:00.000-07:00

This will be going under my Recipe spot, but first I wanted to put it on here.

I love pork shoulder or pork butt, they are both the same thing. It is really inexpensive and there is a lot that you can do with it. (Sorry the picture is sideways, I don't know how to change it on the blog now there is another thing for me to work on)

Since it is summer time, we decided to have pulled pork sandwiches. "How do you want to cook them?" We both asked at the same time. Andy wanted to use the crock pot, which he is a huge fan of. Me personally, I love to pressure cook.

I told him I didn't know how a crock pot was going to do since he couldn't put it on until the morning (it was still in the freezer. For some reason, things up here in this altitude takes forever to cook like 18 or so hours!
He said he would put it on high and let it cook all day. I told him I think it would be easier and better to put it on the pressure cooker and let it cook for almost an hour.

So we decided to have a cook off! I love cooking competitions! I normally lose but what a fun time I have while competing! See, that is one secret of life, enjoy the game.

We cut the shoulder in half and he put his on at 8AM on high:

and I put mine on when I got around to it and set it for 45minutes. (Get it the tortoise and the hare?)

Well, which one is better?

After his cooked for 8 hours and mine for 45 minutes we took ours out and both shredded the meat using two forks:

Andy added his special ingredients and I added:

Ok I wasn't having a TASTING contest, it was just to see what would be the best, I guess I should have known he would have done that, always taking it up a notch!

I have to got to tell you, the texture was the same (Andy said it wasn't) but it really was:

Andy's:

Mine:

So my findings: If you have time then go ahead and crock pot the pork. If you are wanting to have pulled pork say like after work then put it in the pressure cooker.

Either way, take the pork out ,shred it, pour bbq sauce over it, mix it and there ya go!

Off to make the rest of dinner!

Let me know what you think!

UPDATE: We took each of the pork and split the sandwiches. I put mustard on mine just to be able to tell the two apart, which I already knew which one was mine.

Andy's did taste better and his words were "You should always spice up your food!"

But 2-0 mine was more tender! I won!!! WHO-A!

Now get in the kitchen and make it in the pressure cooker!

Are we in Kansas?!!

2010-07-05T16:33:00.000-07:00

Today was a nice day enjoying the day after the fourth of July. I had just closed the living room window then all of a sudden....

Holy Moly!!! WOW!!!

You could hear it and see it coming right at the house, at one point I thought I need to move away from the windows. I truly thought it was going to blow the shingles of the garage! The patio furniture being strewn all about!

Take a look at the pictures, look what it did to our little shade!

Look at the chairs from last night and then today after the "tornado" a.k.a. dust devil hit:

Before

AFTER!!!

I am so glad that it didn't hit yesterday when I had the table all set up for dinner!

It was amazing! Well we live in an area that anything could happen and it does!

What a mess it was it took Andy and I about an hour to straighten up our porch WHAT A MESS!!!

There's no place like home, there's no place like home.....

I dream of looking out and seeing this beauty

2010-07-01T15:17:00.001-07:00

mediterranean patio design by san francisco architect Buttrick Wong Architects

I love this website called www.houzz.com I has really opened my eyes and ideas where people have taken pictures and posted, I like it even better than Better Home and Garden.

Check it out and let me know what you think! Wine anyone on the patio?

Am I confusing you yet?

2010-07-01T10:03:00.000-07:00

I bet that in the past couple of days you have been visiting my blog and there are changes, A LOT of changes. I want to do somethings different and I can keep my stories in categories instead of one right after the other. It looks messy to me, so for the past few days I have been (unsuccessful) in trying.

It must be amusing at some degree, my blog looks like it is bipolar!!! I am trying hard to get it the way I want it, but truthfully I have No idea what I want, too many choices!

So, enjoy the ride!

On and On as I go!

2010-06-23T16:36:00.000-07:00

Heyy I am back!!!! I haven't really wanted to write which is sometime almost like breathing to me, other than talking which I am REALLY good at. But I need to write and also to explain why I have been absent, not only from my blog but from the world.

Alright, make sure you are comfortable, this may take a while, I hope I don't bore you with the details, but I don't think this is boring. Just REALLY blessed to be able to write my story. You will see why....

O.K. from the beginning, that is where I need to start. January 2008 I had to have an emergency Gall Bladder Surgery. All went well, had surgery on Friday in Vegas and came home to Big Bear on Saturday. No big big deal, right? Well after two days I was having difficulty breathing, LONG STORY short, found out that I had two blood clots in one lung and pneumonia in the other. Eight days in the hospital and a LOONG recovery I made it through. Stories upon stories I heard about how extremely dangerous blood clots are and how incredible blessed I was to not have died during this extreme times.

Second surgery, October 2008, 10 months later had to have surgery due to a hernia because of lifting a saddle too soon after the gall bladder surgery. No big deal right? Right, no problems, had surgery in Vegas and stayed for a couple of weeks just to be sure recovery went well. That is what we are talking about!

December 2008, went to the Dr.'s for a girl's annual checkup. The doctor made the comment in the middle of the exam saying "Your uterus is huge!". He said that I had a fibroid tumor and it was the size of a 6 month fetus. Options? One, take meds to put me into menopause and again 20 pounds, uh, no thanks. Second, surgery to remove, uh no thanks. Third, let it go and it will eventually stop growing and go away, Ok that is what I will do.

I was all about the third option, problem was the tumor didn't stop growing, it grew and grew and grew. When I finally decided to see a surgeon about the monster this past April, it had grown to 12 pounds and almost 2 feet in length!!! It was like carrying a three month old inside of me! The surgeon said that it needed to be removed sooner than later, and I agreed due to the fact that I noticed I was having heart palpitations and difficulty in breathing, needless to say the weight gain. Now, don't take the above symptoms and think I was a winey baby, I am one tough chick and if that was happening, I knew something was not right. It was going to be a non invasive hysterectomy. What does that mean? Well it means that they won't have to cut the muscles and recover is easy. One night in hospital, can be driving in five days, and will only have to be on pain meds for four days. ARE YOU SERIOUS? He was spot on! Incredible! Details are too long in length, but all I have to say it WOW!

Surgery was scheduled on Thursday, June 3 in Las Vegas and as I said in my last post, went there two weeks early to help with my dad having his hip replaced. Now the surgeon that I had is probably one of the best if not THE best in the nation. I had all the confidence in the world to have him perform the surgery. It went without a hitch except for on Friday, my BP dropped to ~~30 over 60,~~(I was looking at upside down! I meant 60 over 30 and that gave me another night in the hospital. (I don't do surgeries well). Went home to my MIL's house and by Wednesday, we went out and got a pedicure. Moving slowly but that would have been unheard a few years ago.

Friday, we were going to go shopping at the 99 cent store and I started having my heart race. After checking my BP and heartbeat for 10 minutes, I decided to go to the ER just to make sure. We did and in a hour after getting there and having a ultra sound they found a HUGE blood clot in my right lung! CRAP!!!! That bought me three days in I.C.U! Now I am being under a hematologist/oncologist care, to found out WHY I am throwing this clots. Unbelievable!

I am very blessed and know that God has his finger on me specifically. This is the second time I have had them. I know that I could have died instantly and there is usually no signs to a blood clot, you just drop dead!

I am recovering at home, finally made it after being gone for almost five weeks! Taking it slowly and enjoying every minute. I am just keeping my eyes open to see what is in store for me.

God is incredible and I find myself talking to him ALL the time! But I can't help knowing that I am still alive is because of HIM. I have always have been a child of Faith, knowing and believing in all things is the work and word of God. With this faith it has brought me happiness, contentment, and a true lover of life. With this faith I have done things that people would not ever dream of doing. I enjoy life to its fullest and that is my life's work, finding joy in even the littlest things, as I hope you can see it through my little blog.

Now that I have wrote my adventures of the past few weeks I know stare at the title, how can I sum up this story in just a few words?? I thought of a few titles "What the Hell just happened"?......"There's not place like Home?". Bat out of Hell? Can't keep a Good Woman Down" Everyone needs a little help from their friends? On and On as I go, that it! And just to think, I was not even thinking of that for a title but it sounds good doesn't it. so there I go!

My words and blessing to you, enjoy your day, enjoy your life, find the littlest things to take your breath away and know that God is beside you, He may be silent but that does not mean He is not doing something incredible in your life, you just don't see it in front of you, But start paying attention, it's right there.

God Bless my friends, good to have you a part of my life.

UPDATE: Went to Vegas on Friday to see the Hematologist, still took more blood, and still waiting for the rest of the results. Boy talk about a turn around, great to see family, spend special moments with them and then SWOOSH, back home again! But I still have the rest of the weekend left! Off to check on the chickens!

No I am still here!

2010-06-10T21:57:00.000-07:00

Thank you all of my very faithful readers, I do sincerely apolgize for not writing for a while. Good reason, I have been out of commission for almost a month.

My dad had hip surgery so I went to Vegas to help then followed through myself with a hysterectomy. So while the recovery is incredible, it still is recovery. So bear with me and hopefully I will be home next week! But the great news is that I am off the pain meds and even went and had a pedicure yesterday, can you believe it!! So there are no pics for this one, well I guess I could take a picture of my toes.....I'll be back soon, I promise!

We do live in the mountains!!!!!

2010-05-14T09:40:00.000-07:00

You just get used to your surroundings. Complacent? Lackadaisical? Maybe. It still surprises me to have people talk about a mountain lion down the road from us, attacking and killing someone's prized sheep. Or someone's puppy being picked up and taken off all from a mountain lion or a bob cat.

Well ,last week they caught the mountain lion and had pictures of him in the newspaper. Saddened my heart that they put it down. We do live in the mountains!! I told my dad about the mountain lions being in the area and he just looked at me and said "I wouldn't live there, they can attack you and you not even know it". (I thought to myself, I think I would know it when it is attacking me.) Well that was unsettling, so for the next couple of days I was actually nervous about leaving my house even to go to the garage.

But I figured (self-justification) that if a mountain lion would attack me, he would have to be pretty desperate and be half crazy and surely we don't have crazy mountain lions here, so I am safe!

But this year, I have to tell you, I have seen A LOT of coyotes, I am averaging two to three a day. I try to keep my camera on the table by the window so when they come up my hill, I can catch them. I know they are stalking my chickens...so every day I am double checking and triple checking my coop.

Andy is working on a house a couple of doors down yesterday and calls me and says "There is a coyote coming down the road and he is BIG!" I grabbed my camera and waited, NOTHING!! That is ok, I have plenty of coyote pictures to last me and you a while

These were taken yesterday after he (she) leisurely went past the chicken coop for the second time, I wonder how many times he came by that I didn't see?

I think she is a girl, what should I name her?

Oops! This is the one in November, however, belief it or not, it did snow yesterday, and it's May! But as soon as it hit the ground it was gone, but what a beautiful picture huh?

She was moving at a really good clip.

Goin right past my neighbors, move on coyote!

Now just have to be careful with the rattlesnakes, after all we do live in the mountains!

Construction-It Never Ends!

2010-05-10T17:37:00.000-07:00

Guess what I got for Mother's Day?

I hope everyone's Mother's Day was special. Mine was Great! I had the nicest Mother's Day because of ONE particular item that was on our to do list.

We are big on construction. We are ALWAYS working on something. That keeps us going. Weather warming up and knowing that the front will be our focus this summer, we have been wanting to restain our deck. Now it looks like it would be a easy thing to do, right? WRONG....

This is how the story goes.

We put a beautiful redwood deck in two years ago, it is over 1,000 square feet, which is huge!!! Love it! Well the deck needed to be stained soon after installing it, easy enough right? WRONG!!!! Ok play by play of what we did.

Staining, step 1

When you go to stain a deck, remember these important details.....
Take the stain with a sponge on a handle and dip it VERY carefully in the stain and start at the beginning of the wood, continuing all the way to the end. Then go to the boards next to it (we can do two at a time) and continue all the way down again. Now this sounds elementary, however, what we did was stain areas at a time which meant that when we were ready to do the second segment we overlapped the stain which looked awful!!!!

And let me tell you nothing works unless you sand it all the way down, because if you just try to sand it where it is overlapped, it will look awful! Also, don't try to power wash it, especially on the narrow setting, I have found that the wood splinters!!!! I also thought it would be cute if I decided to write my name in with the power washer, Andy didn't think that was too funny. I did until I had to take a sander and try to sand my name out of the deck, crap!

So, we decided last year just to let nature takes it course and naturally bleach out the color and it did. So now this past weekend we tackled it.

Cleaning step 2

Andy asked me to take the pressure washer, this time with a different nossel and wash the deck, he said it would take a few hours, NAW!!! I had that thing washed in 15 minutes. Andy walked up to me and asked "How far have you gotten?" I told him I was done! He just looked at me, I hate that look!!

He further instructed me that EACH board had to be pressure washed to take off the stain and get to the bare wood. WHAT? That will take HOURS!!!! So he took over the pressure washer and six and a half hours he had it done! Boy, was he sore!!!

Mother's Day we brushed and brushed the deck off and put on the new stain, I say we but we all know it was Andy. Four hours later he had the front finished. Now I am not mentioning that we had winds come up to about 30 miles per hour and ugly storm clouds with the wind chill about 35 degrees!!!!

But it got finished and all I can say is:

IT IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!

I took pictures of it so you can see the difference between the two.

Tomorrow we tackle or should I say he tackles the side deck! I am very happy with the color I picked out too, it will blend really well with the dirt.

The nice thing about this is that now we have corrected the problem and know how to stain a deck the correct way, next year we will only have to power wash it like I did and not for six and a half hours!

See the difference between the two?

Looks like two different pieces of wood! Incredible difference!

This is the one that was powered washed and just treated the railing can't wait to get the pictures of it tomorrow!!!

You would think that the way the sunlight is hitting this it is an illusion, but it isn't. that is the WAY difference in wood. WOW!!!!

More pictures of the transformation to come....

Autism Day- April 24th. Day of Tears of Joy and of Thankfulness at Double Six Ranch

2010-04-30T15:49:00.000-07:00

I have been putting pictures together of the Autism Day held at the Double 6 Ranch in Apple Valley. My last post had the fundraiser with pictures of the events that took place.

I didn't know what to expect, except for what we witnessed on the day of the ride, which was an incredible experience.

I was not able to get there as early as I wanted, I was thinking 8am, however, my body told me different. We were able to get there around lunch time with camera in hand and anticipation.

The group took the kids out to the arena and let them play with the cows. There was one boy I couldn't resist to take pictures of. He was determined to get a hold of this cow and show it who's boss:

See how he is making his plan, go from behind......

Naw, let him see you come right up to him...

Grab him by the tail....let him know who is taking control......

Now you take him for a walk, or he takes you for a walk....

Hold on.....

Uh oh the cow is walking a little faster......

Awwe! And the cow keeps walking! But you know what makes this little guy a real cowboy?

He gets right back up and does it again! Little man, you are why I LOVE Cowboys!

After this, I walked over to the round pin to watch what was going over there. There was this other young gentleman was had never seen a horse before. For this special occasion they were going to bring in Goliath! GOLIATH!!!!!! What in the world! I am looking around and when I wasn't looking they brought the beast in!

I whip my head around to see this monster and this is what I saw:

Are you ready?

I laughed and laughed!!!

Many of the children that attend this day have never touched a horse before. With the kindness of the Double 6 Ranch and working with these children they overcome so many obstacles.

This young man arrived with his family and he was in the arena with a few cowboys. Ty brought in the Goliath the mini, asked him if he would like to touch the horse, No. Asked if he would like to walk the horse, No. Then Ty asked if he would like to walk with Ty and the horse. The young man did walk beside him and around the arena he went. Then the young man's hand stretched out and he petted the horse. Everyone that was watching held their breath. They walked a little further and the young man touch the mane. The walk continued and then the young man reached for the halter and pushed Ty's hand away, he wanted to walk the horse by himself! I was in tears at this time, in fact, so was everyone else. The gift that this little mini gave to this young man was something you can't buy!

Now, at the end of the walking, the young man looked at Ty and asked if he could bring it home! He even asked his mom!

I could write story after story about the day and all the miracles that I witnessed, so instead of writing them all out, I would love for you to share it first hand on the last Saturday of the month. Their barn doors open to all!

As I have said before, I am excited about being a part of this great program and can't wait until next time!

Make sure you put on your calendar to join us for the fundraiser on the 15th!

In my Backyard...Double 6 Ranch - Apple Valley

2010-04-22T09:21:00.000-07:00

I was on Craigslist the other day, just looking, one of my favorite sites is the farm and garden section. Maybe a few more chickens, maybe a horse or two, maybe, who knows...that is the fun of it, just looking.

I found this:

The Double 6 Ranch invites you to:

Autism Awareness Day & Rides

Saturday, April 17th

Relax by the Bonfire 'till the cows come home!

$40.00 pre-sale / $50.00 at the door: to bring your horse and including dinner.

Horse Rentals available for $65.00 and include your horse and dinner.

Want to attend, but don't want to bring your horse or do not have a horse?
Ranch Passes are $25.00 and

include admission into the ranch and dinner.

I read it and then I read it again. A WHOLE day for $65.00! Serious? So, I emailed them and inquired about the price and it is exactly what is reads. Their website is Double6Ranch. Check this website out it is really neat.

I went ahead and paid for it and marked my calendar boy were we excited!

All I can say before I write this experience, now, afterward's, is that it was one of the most memorable and pleasurable events I have done in years. This group is truly some of the nicest, accommodating, and very giving, They were wonderful!

We arrived there around 9AM, greeted by Emma, who introduced us to Ty who owns the Ranch.

They showed us which horse we would be riding for the day, clarifying the skill of riding, which made me feel really comfortable. I am always VERY leery or you could even say scared of getting on a horse that I have never been on, especially since the accident a had 10 years ago, BAD!! (The horse RAN me into a tree and kept running, 4 broken ribs, concussion and the worst bruising I have ever seen).

They gave Andy Poco who as they say an incredible Gymkhana horse, which was right up his alley!

They gave me Cash, who by the way he was 16 hands!!! Got on him with a help of a chair and he was the best behaved horse! (More on that, in a minute). Now don't laugh at my helmet, I had no idea that it was crooked and it takes a very secure women to wear this:

Once everyone was saddled up and ready, which were 17 riders, we took off. The desert was the prettiest I have EVER seen, boy did I get my fill on desert bloom. WOW!!!!

Cash decided that he needed to be very cautious with me and took his time in walking, to the point that the guide (who was an absolute sweetheart) and I had our own group, There was no way that horse was going to scare me and he was the perfect gentleman. I did the 4 hour tour, worried that when I finally got off his back and I wouldn't be able to walk, at first yes, but it did get easier.

Back at the Ranch, we were waited on continuously everyone making sure we were comfortable. The dinner was catered by Overton Meat Company, which was WOW, good food, good fellowship, who could ask for more. By that time, everyone were like old friends.

After dinner, we went over to the corral and played with the steers, I was a dynamo!!!! I roped one that couldn't be roped by ANYONE (actually, nobody tried, except Bill). I was so proud of myself! The bull was in love with me, and wouldn't leave my side, so much for being the great roper!

The bull was in love with me, and wouldn't leave my side, so much for being the great roper!

I nicknamed him Norman and wanted to take him home! AWE!

It looks like a lot of fun, doesn't it? Hey, do you see the llama in the background, is that llama for roping or riding? I want to try, BOTH!!!!

When all was done it was time to have the bon fire! They brought out marshmallows, chocolate and graham crackers! Cool!

Fire going, sitting around in the desert evening, wow it was soo nice! After being there all day (almost 12 hours) we said our good nights with the promises of seeing everyone the next week.

What is this ALL about? Double 6 Ranch explains it the best:

We believe that horses have great therapeutic value for those afflicted with special needs, and have witnessed "first words" at our program because of our horses. There is nothing more gratifying than that!

Here at the Double 6 Ranch we are proud to host a day for children with autism and/or special needs on the LAST Saturday of every month.

This is a time when special needs children, adults and their families,

have the opportunity to ride horses, learn how to rope, participate in arts and crafts, enjoy the petting zoo and just spend a day at the ranch.

Our program is offered as a free service to our community to promote and bring awareness to autism and other debilitating diseases.

I was VERY proud to be a part of the fundraiser and am excited about being a part of this great cause, so I will be there this Saturday to help and to be there to see the magic that is going to happen.

Can't wait to have more pictures and stories to tell, would love to see you there!

Construction done on the fireplace!

2010-04-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about all the construction being done in our living room. Well it is finally completed!

This was THE best investment we have made in a while. The average temperature is 70 degrees, we haven't had that warm since the summer!

Shown below is the finished project... Yeah me!

In my Backyard....Who says the desert can't be beautiful!

2010-04-12T19:54:00.000-07:00

Today we went down the backside of the mountain and I have been waiting for the spring wildflowers to bloom well they have! Unfortunately, I had both my cameras in my camera bag and only had my cell phone.

The first one is after a quick but powerful storm came in overnight:

This one I had Andy pull over, wow!

As I said in the post title ,who ever said the desert isn't beautiful!

Ok instead of posting I have been fighting!

2010-04-01T16:05:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note: I haven't posted in a while due to the fact that I am fighting to get my pictures back on my blog. For the past almost 6 months the pictures are GONE!!!!

So my friends, bear with me, because I have been spending HOURS on this!

In my backyard….Original Del Taco

2010-03-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

We go to Vegas A lot! I do have to say that after all these years that drive still intrigues me. There are secret places that people do not even exist…Are you kidding me?????? you are probably saying right now. No, I am serious! Take this for instance; did you know that the FIRST Del Taco was in Yermo? Yermo,?????where in the world is that????

Yermo is located on Interstate 15, 17 miles from Barstow and is where the California agriculture inspection station for traffic heading south on Interstate 15. Very close to the U.S. Army base at Ft. Irwin.
This is where a secret comes in….when you drive home from Vegas you will ALWAYS hit traffic around the inspection road, take Harvard Road exit turn left and then right at the stop sign and travel along the feeder road parallel to the freeway. It will save you a lot of time and a whole lot of aggravation. When you are traveling, take a look on the right hand side, you will see the Burger Den which was where the original Del Taco was.
The road goes all the way to Calico Road where the old mining town is now called Calico Ghost Town. There you will find a couple of gas stations (by the way, they are the cheapest, that is where we stop and get gas) and a Jack in the Box, where we normally stop and get a quick bite to eat, too! Then proceed to the 15 and head on out!
We try to help out little towns that try to keep their head above the water or rather their nose.
History lesson:

“When Interstate 15 freeway opened in 1968, the town of Yermo was immediately bypassed by traffic traveling to and from Las Vegas, Nv. As a result, 90 percent of the local business's were unable to succeed and closed. During it's heyday, Yermo had 27 gas stations with mechanics on duty, 7 bars, 2 grocery stores, a hardware store, a pizza shop, 4 real estate offices, 3 motels, a thrift store, several restaurants, roadside camping sites and 2 parks.^[ In 2009, Yermo played host to 1 grocery/general store, 1 bar, 1 thrift store and 1 park in town and 3 restaurants, 4 gas stations, 1 motel 3 miles south of town. The fast-food restaurant Del Taco was founded in Yermo in 1964 and the original structure remains active as a local fast food restaurant, The Burger Den.”

It really hurts my heart to see this town sleepy. But great things did come out of here and we are so happy to see this landmark. Who knew!

Cabbage with Leeks

2010-03-16T09:18:00.001-07:00

I looked at my calendar and saw that St. Patrick's Day was on the 17th, which is tomorrow! You ask, do I celebrate St. Patty's Day? Only when it comes to food. Give me any holiday and I will think of a meal to go with it, Halloween ='s chili, Easter ='s Ham, Cinco de Mayo='s Tacos, My Birthday ='s crab, 4th of July ='s ribs, see it's that easy!

So, on the 17th when everyone is eating Corned Beef, I do as well, (my findings will be on another post) what do you serve with it? Cabbage of course, but how blah!!!!!!
I found the most incredible recipe from a cookbook my sister sent to me years ago. Actually, of all the hundred's of cookbooks I own, this is one of my favorite's. It is called the Greenbrier Cookbook from the Greenbrier Hotel in West Virginia. I love cookbooks that have history, stories, pictures and of course, great recipes! I made this not knowing the incredible flavor it would have and the requests I have for the recipes is soooo much I have them on note cards to give to my guests when they ask (which is every time).

Simple but elegant: Here is my gift to you for St. Patrick's Day:

Savoy Cabbage and Leeks in Cream
(Don't worry I don't know what Savoy cabbage is either, I just used regular cabbage, just as good)

1 medium head Savoy Cabbage (1 1/2 pounds), cored, and tough outer leaves discarded
1 1/2 Ounces Bacon (about 3 strips) cut into 1/2" strips
5 Medium Leeks (2 pounds) white part only, split and cut into 1/2" slices
3/4 cup Chicken Broth, preferably homemade
3/4 cup of heavy cream
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Few drops of lemon juice

Separate the cabbage leaves. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and blanch the leaves by boiling them for about 2 minutes. Drain, then refresh under cold running water and pat dry with paper towel. Stack several leaves together and roll them up like a cigar and slice crosswise into 1/4" strips.

In a large saucepan, cook the bacon strips over medium heat until the fat is rendered and the bacon is almost crispy, 3-4 minutes. Drain off most of the fat leaving 2 tablespoons. Add the sliced leeks to the bacon and saute over medium high heat, stirring until slightly softened, about 3 minutes.

Add the cabbage and saute for another minute, stirring to combine the ingredients. Add the stock, season with salt and pepper, cover and simmer, stirring frequently, until the leeks and cabbage are tender, about 20 minutes. Remove the lid, add the cream and simmer uncovered another 10-15 minutes to reduce the cream until slightly thickened. (The mixture should be very creamy, but not runny). Add a few drops of lemon juice, taste, and correct seasoning.

Serve hot.

Now, in regards to the leeks, it took me until this recipe before I tackled these unknown things. What are they? Huge onions, well in a form, yes. So, I took these aliens home, cut them like they said and thought, "wait a minute, I remember something about sand and dirt being in them from the Food Channel". Good thing I remembered that, so I soaked them and boy the dirt and sand that came off of them!!! Please do this because your side dish is not to have crunchies in them! Make sure you swish them when they are soaking and rinse thoroughly!

Let me know your thoughts on the recipe once you make it, I promise this will be a favorite of yours and it makes you look really good!

In My Backyard..Windmills

2010-03-10T11:53:00.001-08:00

Here is a post of what I think is one of the wonders of the new world.
Andy and I drove down to Palm Springs for the day, considering it is only an hour and a half away. Seeing that it was 45 here on Saturday and 75 there, it was time to go have a nice lunch OUTSIDE. We have a favorite Irish Pub we go to, sit and have a nice lunch and watch people walk by.
When we are heading home after a lovely afternoon, I always marvel at the windmills that are row after row after row. The first time I ever saw them was in a movie in the 80’s who I remember had Michelle Phieffer in it and I thought where in the world are those? Does anyone remember the movie? Could it be Tequila Sunrise? Don’ know….Now they are one of my favorite things to see.

Can you hear the wind when these are moving?

There are thousands of these lined up. Man o man are these a sight!
I am so blessed to live where I live. I never take it for granted….Until the next “In My Backyard”. I encourage you to go out and explore what is “IN your backyard”. Let people see through your pictures what you see, you would be surprised once you open and see what is around you.

The Winner Is....

2010-03-09T11:26:00.000-08:00

Well, I have a winner. After picking the name AT RANDOM, the winner is JEANNE! Congratulations!!! Contact me and I will be more than happy to get you the prize! I know you will love them and thank you for following my blog!

Now, everyone, I will try to start having giveaways on a weekly basis, so keep tuned and and let's play!

Have a great week and keep watching!

Springtime giveaway…well almost spring, but definitely a giveaway!

2010-03-03T16:20:00.001-08:00

I used to think that March was the boringest (is that a word????) month. However, THIS March is sooo cool. Why?

Time Change, March 14th

St. Patrick’s Day is March 17th

1st day of Spring is March 20th

Palm Sunday is March 28th

Passover is March 30th

Not to mention the desert flowers are going to be in full bloom (getting ready to plan a trip to take photos if anyone is interested, let me know, it is going to be awesome with all the rain this year, WOW).

With March busting out at the seams, I wanted to have a little giveaway. I am going to be giving away two dip mixes from Pepper Springs:

These are my best sellers when I do craft fairs, they are yummy

So, how do you get these little gems? Well, this is where the fun comes in. For my faithful followers it will be easy, but for the newbies it is defiantly hunt and peck.

Here ya go:

On one of my older posts, I mention the name of one our tenacious chickens getting out when we had the “epic snow storm” What is her name?

I will pick the winner (with the correct answer) and you may enter as many times as you wish. The drawing will be COMPLETELY random and will be drawn on Monday March 8th. I wish you luck and have fun……

JSBBL (doesn’t this look like Jezebel)……hum…may need to think of another way to end. my post.

Another fireplace, MORE Construction?!!!

2010-03-02T13:23:00.001-08:00

I truly am addicted to fireplaces, looked in the phone book, Googled and nothing for fireplace addicts!!! This past BAD storm has made us change some of the ways we live and with some of the things we have.
Now last year, we put in a fireplace in our bedroom:

LUUVVVLYYY!! I am extremely happy with it, and it worked when our power was out for 36 hours!!!
Well, the one we have in our living room:

(I know it is blurry, this picture was taken when the power was out) Not a lot of light.
Was OK for the most part, but not for a lot of reasons:

The fireplace was on the ground, no hearth to sit at, but your feet kept warm if you sat and put your feet close to the fire!
It never heated up past 62 degrees therefore, the heater came on all the time! It USED SOO MUCH GAS! We live on propane and it is as expensive as gold! So we try to use it as sparingly as possible, especially when we are low, the gas truck has to get here to fill it and with the mud as bad as it is, they have a REALLY good chance of getting stuck! I am sitting here now and watching the bag that we have over the pipe (lovely) move into the pipe. I know that is where our heat was going!!! Thief!
The amount of heat coming out of the fireplace was probably 3% and 97 going up and out!
It was just plain and U-G-L-Y!

Well did a lot of homework and decided on a gorgeous unit that will be an enclosed unit that will heat the entire home!!!
Let the construction begin:::We have a BIG HOLE!

But first take a look at the wall unit we had made and installed this past week, it is so nice! I LUUVVE it! Nicer than the shelves I had there on a“temporary” basis. I didn’t even really see how ugly it was until I took pictures of the fireplace and noticed all the wires in the back! UGGG!

All gone!
Now being married to an electrical contractor gives me some privileges that a lot of people don’t have, uh like having an electrician in my home all the time…

With all the construction being done, I asked Andy, “How about adding some speakers throughout the house”?. He said ok, (little did he know that I was going to ask for FOUR sets). I love music! Well now, how about running wires so I can hook up my laptop to the TV? Again, OK. Alright we are getting somewhere, about about running another set of cables just in case I want to ad more components to it at a later date. Again OK!! Wow! I just didn’t think it would be THAT many wires!!! Wow! I am so grateful he is patient. Especially when it came to connecting all the wires Whew!
See, we never seem to be done with projects, and I say “NEVER be done with projects” Where’s my banner??
I will post more pictures in stages starting when they have finished with installing the fireplace .

Diary of a snow shoveler

2010-03-01T11:03:00.000-08:00

I laughed so hard that my sides hurt!!!! Tears rolled off my face!!!

I truly believe Andy wrote this.....

DIARY OF A SNOW SHOVELER

December 8 - 6:00 PM
It started to snow. The first snow of the season and the wife and I took our cocktails and sat for hours by the window watching the huge soft flakes drift down from heaven. It looked like a Grandma Moses Print. So romantic we felt like newlyweds again. I love snow!

December 9
We woke to a beautiful blanket of crystal white snow covering every inch of the landscape. What a fantastic sight! Can there be a more lovely place in the whole world? Moving here was the best idea I've ever had! Shoveled for the first time in years and felt like a boy again. I did both our driveway and the sidewalks. This afternoon the snowplough came along and covered up the sidewalks and closed in the driveway, so I got to shovel again. What a perfect life!

December 12
The sun has melted all our lovely snow... Such a disappointment! My neighbor tells me not to worry- we'll definitely have a white Christmas. No snow on Christmas would be awful! Bob says we'll have so much snow by the end of winter, that I'll never want to see snow again. I don't think that's possible. Bob is such a nice man, I'm glad he's our neighbor.

December 14
Snow, lovely snow! 8 inches last night. The temperature dropped to -20. The cold makes everything sparkle so. The wind took my breath away, but I warmed up by shoveling the driveway and sidewalks. This is the life! The snowplough came back this afternoon and buried everything again.. I didn't realize I would have to do quite this much shoveling, but I'll certainly get back in shape this way. I wish I wouldn't huff and puff so.

December 15
20 inches forecast. Sold my van and bought a 4x4 Blazer. Bought snow tires for the wife's car and 2 extra shovels. Stocked the freezer. The wife wants a wood stove in case the electricity goes out. I think that's silly. We aren't in Alaska , after all.
December 16
Ice storm this morning. Fell on my ass on the ice in the driveway putting down salt. Hurt like hell. The wife laughed for an hour, which I think was very cruel.

December 17
Still way below freezing. Roads are too icy to go anywhere. Electricity was off for 5 hours. I had to pile the blankets on to stay warm. Nothing to do but stare at the wife and try not to irritate her. Guess I should've bought a wood stove, but won't admit it to her. God I hate it when she's right. I can't believe I'm freezing to death in my own living room.

December 20
Electricity's back on, but had another 14 inches of the damn stuff last night. More shovelling! Took all day. The damn snowplough came by twice. Tried to find a neighbor kid to shovel, but they said they're too busy playing hockey. I think they're lying. Called the only hardware store around to see about buying a snow blower and they're out. Might have another shipment in March. I think they're lying. Bob says I have to shovel or the city will have it done and bill me. I think he's lying.

December 22
Bob was right about a white Christmas because 13 more inches of the white shit fell today, and it's so cold, it probably won't melt till August. Took me 45 minutes to get all dressed up to go out to shovel and then I had to piss. By the time I got undressed, pissed and dressed again, I was too tired to shovel. Tried to hire Bob who has a plough on his truck for the rest of the winter, but he says he's too busy. I think the asshole is lying.

December 23
Only 2 inches of snow today. And it warmed up to 0. The wife wanted me to decorate the front of the house this morning. What is she, nuts?!! Why didn't she tell me to do that a month ago? She says she did but I think she's lying.

December 24
6 inches - Snow packed so hard by snowplough, I broke the shovel. Thought I was having a heart attack. If I ever catch the son of a bitch who drives that snow plough, I'll drag him through the snow by his balls and beat him to death with my broken shovel. I know he hides around the corner and waits for me to finish shovelling and then he comes down the street at a 100 miles an hour and throws snow all over where I've just been! Tonight the wife wanted me to sing Christmas carols with her and open our presents, but I was too busy watching for the damn snowplough.

December 25
Merry f---ing Christmas! 20 more inches of the damn slop tonight - Snowed in. The idea of shovelling makes my blood boil.. God, I hate the snow! Then the snowplough driver came by asking for a donation and I hit him over the head with my shovel. The wife says I have a bad attitude. I think she's a fricking idiot. If I have to watch "It's A Wonderful Life" one more time, I'm going to stuff her into the microwave.

December 26
Still snowed in. Why the hell did I ever move here? It was all HER idea. She's really getting on my nerves.

December 27
Temperature dropped to -30 and the pipes froze; plumber came after 14 hours of waiting for him, he only charged me $1,400 to replace all my pipes.

December 28
Warmed up to above -20. Still snowed in. The BITCH is driving me crazy!!!

December 29
10 more inches. Bob says I have to shovel the roof or it could cave in. That's the silliest thing I ever heard. How dumb does he think I am?

December 30
Roof caved in. I beat up the snow plough driver, and now he is suing me for a million dollars, not only the beating I gave him, but also for trying to shove the broken snow shovel up his ass. The wife went home to her mother. Nine more inches predicted.

December 31
I set fire to what's left of the house. No more shoveling.

January 8
Feel so good. I just love those little white pills they keep giving me. Why am I tied to the bed?

Homemade Italian Sausage!

2010-02-19T14:21:00.001-08:00

There have been many times that I have wanted to post the different types of food that I love to make. Not only the great recipes but with the great pictures.
I have wanted to make homemade Italian sausage for a very long time and finally decided to get on the internet and look up different recipes. The one I most like is from a guy named Tom Papoutsis and he is on monkey see.com. He has a few clips with GREAT instructions.
So when the storm was in the throws of being ugly and we had electricity, Andy and I decided to try it, what the heck. But way before this day I had to……
First, I had to order the meat grinder for my Kitchenaid Mixer and the sausage maker. Now I could have gone down the mountain to get these at like Kohl’s or any department store that carries Kitchenaid. The order took almost 2 months to get to me! But I finally got it, now what? I then went to the grocery store and ordered natural casings from the butcher.

It would be easier to go to an Italian Market and get them. Ordering them took time and was quite expensive. So, now I have almost three months into this project and I haven’t even started yet!
Well, here is the recipe we followed:

8 pounds Pork Butt or also called Pork Shoulder – both are the same.

Try to get the pork on sale, see I got it for 89 cents a pound! Now that is a lot of sausage for a little bit of money!

9 cloves of garlic –minced
Dry Spices:

1 Tsp Kosher Salt
1 Tsp Dried Basil
2 Tsp Dried Oregano
2 Tsp Paprika
2 Tsp Red Pepper (Pizza Pepper)
2 Tsp Cayenne
1 Tsp Rosemary Leaves
2 Tsp Cracked black pepper
2 Tsp Fennel Seed ( I grounded mine)

Secret Ingredient: 1 Cup White Wine
Directions:
9:30AM Take the casings out of the bag. They are incased with salt. You will have to rinse and rinse and rinse them. Follow the directions on the back. They have to soak for two hours. There are over 50 feet of casings! This was the really strange part and it will even get stranger as this story goes!

11:20AM Take the pork butt and cut into chunks. I didn’t take out the fat due to what I found out, see Italian sausage that you buy in the store is about 50% fat. The pork butt that you buy in the store is between 25 and 30% fat. I just didn’t use the big slab of fat on the back part, but used the marbling throughout without getting crazy to cut it out.

Put it into the meat grinder on the larger of the two blades, put the motor on 4 and let it go! Make sure you have a bowl underneath it to catch the meat. Even the simplest things get by me sometimes.

It gets messy with the grinding of the fat with the meat, you may need to stop it a couple of times and clean it out. ( I had to).
Once it is all grinded that is when you start to add your ingredients. Make sure you take off your rings or you just may lose it in the mix. It mixes really easy, just be thorough in the mixture

To make sure you have enough ingredients, you can take a little and make a patty to fry up and taste before you doing the second grinding.

I needed to add more heat, good thing I checked.

So now you are ready for the second grinding:
This is where it becomes a work of art! WOW! I would suggest as with the first grinding and second, work at a table that is lower than a counter. my shoulders were killing me when I was done! Because you are literally working over your shoulders, Whew!I am going to show you how to make sausage links.
I did this because I wanted to try to make authentic sausages. Been there, done that, and DON’T WANT TO DO THAT AGAIN! Note to self: Self, next time make patties out of it, it is A LOT easier!!!!

When the casing were finally finished, we put it on the sausage maker, let’s just say we tried and tried and tried, but it finally worked. What a pain!
We worked on length of casing on it and stuffed the mixer and away we went, well not exactly away we went it was sort of ----what the hell?!!!!!
I didn’t take any pictures of the actual filling of the casings due to the fact I was using my hands and Andy’s too. We only had four hands and the camera would have been gross!

We used only four strands and I didn’t know if we could of saved the unused ones so I threw them out, when in doubt, throw them out. I just found out yesterday that I could have froze them and it would have been fine. (I thought to myself, “Yeah like that would have happened then I could have used them again, yeah like that would of happened!) SEE NOTE TO SELF!!!!
We only split a couple and I didn’t take into consideration about the uniform links, some large, some small and a lot were ugly. I want to take a picture of them in a circle and that is what I did. That will be the last time I make links, I had to save that picture.
I took cookie sheets and laid them out and partially froze them. Then I took them and but them into bags and stuck them into the freezer.

I grabbed some and took them over to our friends home for Super Bowl. They were a hit especially when people found out that you made them yourselves.
It took me about 2.5 hours from the time I started with cutting the pork until they were stuffed. You probably could cut out about 45 minutes if you didn’t stuff the casings.
I look forward to making them again, but this time patties please.

Update Notes:
I have made patties since then and cut out all the fat, oh boy you need fat for these babies. Way too dry, however, they were excellent in spaghetti sauce, but too dry to eat by themselves.

In My Backyard…Events of the past storm!

2010-02-19T08:49:00.001-08:00

Now I haven’t been able to write about all the havoc we have been here in the mountains. I knew this year we would have El Nino and it would pretty bad, but I had no idea that it would be THIS bad!

Like I said in my other post, we had a series of storms that dumped over 5 feet of snow in just a couple of days.

We were out of power for 36 hours due to wind gusts that went over the lake at 80 miles an hour and sheared eight power poles like toothpicks. Here is a picture of them, if you look at the back of the picture you will see one power pole down,. They closed the road in order to work around the clock to get them up and God Bless the electric company.

I had to take this with my cell phone after trekking as far as I could before being asked to leave and trek back to my truck. (hey that was kind of funny).

Well that is were funny stopped. The first night wasn’t so bad with not having electricity, used a lot of candles and fires in the fireplace. But the next morning, OH MY LORD! Here are some pictures of what we woke up to:

Beautiful isn’t it? Now you ask about the chickens, what happens to them when there is this much snow?

Well, take a look at their chicken run:

What do chickens do when there is this much snow?

Andy went out there to shovel a path so at least the chickens could get out and when he went to the back guess who was looking right at him at eye level? Susie Loo Who! Can you believe it? She pecked at the snow a little at a time until she reached the top of it! Aren’t chickens amazing!!! Unfortunately, since the storm they have only laid one egg, it traumatized them.

We are having another storm come in tonight and is supposed to last for the next few days, so here we go again, however, I don’t believe it will be as bad or even near as bad as this last epic storm.

It feels so good to have the internet back, just makes me so nervous to be so dependant on this machine, I don’t ever want to be without it again, I felt I was all by myself on a mountain that was snowed in…wait a minute……..

In my backyard...or actually looking out my kitchen window

2010-02-18T10:53:00.000-08:00

Hi y'all!

I have some incredible pictures of the storm we had back a month ago. But since my computer router went out I could not post any pictures. I downloaded a huge amount and wanted to start with this one.

I hope you like it and there will be more to show. It snowed over 5 feet in 36 hours and all I can say, is WOW! It was the worst storm we had had since 1969!!!! Over 40 years ago. This town went into action and with all the work, we were up and running sooner than later.
I have a lot more but wanted to get this one up and on my blog...

Hold the Presses!

2010-02-04T09:14:00.000-08:00

Literally!!!

I am being held hostage by my internet company! We have had bad storms and I MEAN bad, over 5 FEET of snow. This was the worst storm since 1969!!!! Well that was 2 weeks today and my internet is down, still!!!!! I am ready to scream! No wifi, so I can't listen to my internet radio on my Itouch! What is a girl to do, however, I sneaked over to a girlfriend's house and wanted to write you a quick note, to say I am still here!!!!

I am one tough girl!!! So, when I am able to get the cable guy over to my house it will be back on board! Until then....

In my Backyard…..Last Indian Fight in Southern California

2010-01-13T21:11:00.001-08:00

I am very blessed to live in a very special area. There is so many interesting points and history in my backyard. SO, I have decided to write about different things that I find really interesting. Some things may be corny and something's you may even say, really?
Here ya go on my first one…..
How about the last Indian fight in Southern California, right down the hill in Lucerne Valley…here is a snippet of the fight…

Chimney Rock in Lucerne Valley was the site of the last Indian fight in Southern California.....There were many events that lead up to the historic fight.....Indians had used the mountain areas of San Bernardino for many years to supply food for their families.....When the white man began cutting down trees and building their sawmills the Indians felt their hunting grounds were being ruined....This began a campaign to rid the area of the white man.
How cool is that? Stay tuned for more, silly trivia!

Working full time! There isn’t enough time in the day!

2010-01-09T08:54:00.001-08:00

I am back! I have been trying to think of some great words to put down to say why I haven’t taken time to write. I have been working full time and that has kicked me in the ???? you know!!!

I also have decided to start putting my pictures from the computer on to a flash drive, well that has been a HUGE undertaking! I just went through 4 GIG and I am not even half done! Plus, if anyone of you take a lot of pictures, you start getting into looking at them and POOF hours are gone!!!

I want to apologize for not having something on my little blog when you visit. It is like having a friend stop by and not being home, that will only happen so many times, then your friend stops coming over.

Thanks for stopping by my friend, I will make sure I am home. Let’s sit and have a cup of coffee and let me share with you what has been happening in my world…

Looking Out My Living Room Window

2009-11-29T13:22:00.001-08:00

Andy and I were having coffee this morning, discussing the events of the day to follow. Watching the last of the storm outside my living room window. There, I saw him, not only was there one but two!

Aren’t they beautiful! I asked Andy to hold my coffee, ran and grabbed my camera and took as many as I could!

If you close enough, you can see the snow on this guy’s nose. They were truly the size of German Sheppard's! Look at the tail!

These beauties have not missed ANY meals and they are on the way up to my chicken coop,
Run girls RUN!!! (would that be a chicken run?) Look how beautiful his tail is……
Wow, what a site to see, another blessing of living up here, well, to be here IN the house and take photos out my window!
Just happy my windows were clean, ok, kind of clean!
Have a GREAT Sunday!

Really knowing the size of your turkey!

2009-11-26T12:38:00.001-08:00

Let me start off by saying, “I didn’t think it was going to be a problem!

Andy and I decided to brine our turkey this year, which is simply putting your turkey in a large container and put about 2-3 cups of kosher salt in it and let it sit then cook it later so the turkey is really moist.

Now, we have been known to do that the night before, but honestly, forgot about it. No big deal. So Andy went outside to the garage to get the turkey out of the refrigerator while I pulled out a pot to put the kosher salt, water and turkey into.

He walks in and says “that pot is not going to fit our turkey”. I said “sure it is it’s only 15 pounds”. He get the turkey out of its package takes all the stuff out of it and puts it in the pot.

I just stood there looking at it. I started laughing and still am writing this post. Well, as hard as it is to say it is even harder to write HE WAS RIGHT OMG! Write that down!

He went outside to my storage area and went and got a HUGE pot to put it in. Much better!

I just had to share this with you!

OOPS!

Second pictures says it all!

Well that didn’t work well. As I said in my title I need to really know the size of my turkey or pot!!

Let’s see how the rest of the day goes! Happy turkey eating!

Happy Thanksgiving my family and friends

2009-11-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

Just a special little note to say that I am thankful to have you and you and you too as my family and friends. We are blessed in so many ways, I just wanted you to know how special you all are to us.

May your day be filled with love and happiness, and most of all, with full bellies.

From our home,

Andy and Jeanine Sturgeon

Make your own Firestarters!

2009-11-25T16:17:00.001-08:00

For years I have complained, (yes, I do that from time to time) about this one thing over and over again. It seems that when I go to make a fire in our fireplace we are ALWAYS out of firestarters. I hate buying them, due to their cost but their convenience is worth its weight in gold.

So, off to the internet over the summer to see if I could make my own firestarters, nothing lost, nothing gained.

This “recipe” is so simple I kick myself that I didn’t do it sooner. Without further writing,or um, talking, here is the best firestarter recipe I know…..and did I say it is almost free except for the cupcake paper?

A package of small cupcake wrappers (I mean small, they will work great, you don’t need bigger, trust me, you will use way too much wax and the smaller one will do the trick just fine.

Wood shavings ( I gathered wood shavings from ~~Bertha~~ aka the HUGE tree Andy cut down. You could even use wood shavings from any pet store.

Used candles (See, REUSE, how cool is this? Now I never throw away my candles anymore)

A vegetable can (rinsed out )

A pot (filled 1/3 way with water)

Mini muffin pan (convenient but not imperative)

Now, melt the candle wax in the can over medium heat, remember that candle wax is very flammable, so always use caution, pleeaassee!

I put about 1/3 of the shavings in the cups and when the was is melted I Andy wrapped a thick cloth around it as to not burn me Andy and slowly pour each cup until they were 3/4 way filled.

Once it dried, I removed them from the muffin pan, that’s it!

To use, just add one to your fireplace and light the paper on top and VIOL A you have a GREAT firestarter! They will burn for about 15 minutes, plenty of time to get your fire going good!

I was so excited about this that I just had to start it while I had my candles in the fireplace.

Only in Big Bear

2009-11-21T16:19:00.000-08:00

I loooove this town for many reasons, the small town mentality, the closeness of this community. We have blessings of saying “only in Big Bear”. It is not too many time that you can walk through the village and see a lady walking her ?horse? Or a miniature horse pulling a lady on a cart, waiting at the light for it to change. Makes me just laugh with the uniqueness of this town.Isn’t this guy so darn cute? Check out the person looking outside the window of Chad’s Bar.

This team is waiting for the light to change, awwww such good manners (do you see the person in the Suburban checking them out!

LOOK WHO'S COMIN TO BREAKFAST!

2009-11-15T08:29:00.000-08:00

I was sitting here playing on my computer and Andy was getting ready to cook breakfast. He went out to get a dozen eggs from the refrigerator outside. He walks in with it and opens the carton he let out a laugh that stopped me in my tracks! This is what he saw:

I got up and walked over to see what the hoopla was, good morning! I actually remember doing this a couple of months ago for a surprise and it worked. When Andy closed the carton to put it away, he let out another belly laugh. He walked over to me and showed me this!

I laughed so hard I had tears rolling down my face! What a happy little egg! Now for the third pictures, doesn't he look like he is looking a you and saying "I see you!" Or "Hey does this carton make my egg head look big"?

I crack myself up! Ha ha heee hee! I'm on a roll! Ha haaaaa!

I CAN'T believe I am posting my winning chili recipe! But for you...anything!

2009-11-09T17:44:00.000-08:00

I have been hounded for my winning chili recipe. So after much thought, I have decided to post it. After all, I wanted to have this blog with recipes so what would be better than my chili?

I hope you love it as much as everyone else did! Let me know your thoughts!!!

1.5 lbs hamburger meat
1 large onion - chopped
1 can red kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 can chili beans
2 cans tomato sauce
2 pkgs taco seasoning
1 can of Rotel tomatoes (regular)
1 can cut up tomatoes
1 pkg of dry ranch dressing (not fat free type)
corn chips or corn tortillas
(I added extra cumin and Cheyenne pepper) did I spell that right?

Fry up meat then add onions to soften
In crock pot or regular pot
Add the meat
Add the beans with the juices
Add tomato sauces, cut up tomatoes and Rotel
Add taco seasonings, ranch dressing
Medium heat for Crock pot and simmer for stove top.
After a while I added tortilla chips because I didn't have corn tortillas. That is one of my secrets, it makes the sauce velvety and smooth, it also thickens it up too. Don't know the amount, I just took a bunch and crushed them. With the corn tortillas, I cut them into strips and add a little at a time until I like the consistently. DON'T use flour tortillas, it puffs up like a blow fish and floats on top, it's an ugly thing!

Taste and add salt if needed, I don't. I add extra cumin and Cheyenne pepper. You can also put frozen corn in it, I do but didn't because I forgot to buy it at the store. Good thing, because someone else did at the cook off and people commented that chili should not have corn in it. But I like it.

That's it! Boy is it fun to make, when people hear that you use Dry Ranch Dressing, they go yuck!! But that is what makes the flavor so good! Trust me as I adjust my crown...

I wonder why they have them..Llamas

2009-11-09T17:07:00.000-08:00

I had the funniest thing happen, actually I laughed so hard I fell down!

Remember what I had posted about being glad that I was not raising llamas?

See, I had a couple of friends over for the weekend as they were driving down my road, he sees a llama in one of my neighbors yard. (Actually, a lot of neighbors own these creatures). The wife asks her husband, I wonder why they have them? The husband replies "For their eggs?" She was still laughing when they drove up to my house and tears were rolling down her face! When she finally caught her breath and she told me what he had said, I really thought he was joking, but alas he was SERIOUS!

So to all my city friends, llamas are not kept for their eggs!!!!! I will never look at these animals the same again!!!!

Ode to a Chicken

2009-11-05T19:01:00.000-08:00

My favorite chicken is gone! I went out today to give them water and food and there was always one that jumped up on the table so I could pet her back and rub her neck.

I noticed that she didn't jump up immediately and thinking "She is probably outside" then I tapped on the table she didn't run in. I counted seven girls and even walked out to the back to she if she was there, NO CHICKEN! She's gone! How did that happen? Who took my chicken?!!! I am very sad tonight and wanted to write some words for her.

Ode to a Chicken
Little girl I knew you when you were a pullet.
You grew as fast as a bullet.
Hunting and pecking through the goodies
I never thought of you as a foodie
Our time together was not enough
I just wish you were still here for me to fluff
I will always remember you attacking my pinks pajamas
I am just glad I wasn't raising llamas!
(Give me a little slack I am grieving over here)

God bless you little chicken!

RIP - March 15, 2009 to November 3, 2009