Wait! Before You Make That Weight Loss New Year's Resolution...

You simply owe it to yourself to make these!
I don't know if it's my friend Margie's from Clarksburg same recipe, hers are worthy of fundraising for the orphanage in Budapest, but if you are even thinkin of dieting in the New Year you might as well go out with a bang and visit one of my favorite blogs and get this recipe.
Pioneer Woman
I wanna be like her when I grow up.
I wanna have a Marlboro Man.
I wanna have her camera....the lodge...the SUV. (she can keep the snow and cow nuts)
I wanna be able to bake, blog, homeschool, and nuture chillens and animals alike.
Did I mention I wanna have a Marlboro Man?

And after you make those oh-my-dear-scrumpscious rolls, you can sit back and read all her entries of Black Heels to Tractor Wheels

(oh and note to Ree; I only stole the picture for effects...honest...really)

Now if I had any kind of kitchen like hers (tables and cabinets alike), I'd go in there and make some instead of satisfying my insomnia with reading!
Enjoy

The Boy, The Girl and the Dog

MeRrY ChRiStMaS !

The Holidays Begin for ME!!

Haley came home to help me put up the tree...(I know, I know.. better late than never!) and all of a sudden we heard our local hook and latter fire truck blasting it's horn and sirens... wuh woh.
Was it our chimney smoke? Was there a fire in the neighborhood? Car in the river?
Noo!!!
It was the BIG GUY himself...coming all the way to da Hood early to help me get into the swing of things.
Never mind the dark circles under my eyes...(you'll remember, I'm still suffering the after affects from shingles ),he sure cheered me up along with our whole Towne. What's great is we will be using our HUGE Firehouse community room for lots of other holiday gigs, too!

Holiday Jockularity!

CHRISTMAS CAROLS

Directions;
Translate the following into Christmas carols.
Cut and paste the quote and your answers into an email to me at: indahood15@aol.com
First person to get all answers correct will win some Blog Candy (aka a goodie from me!)


1. Move hitherward the entire assembly of those who are loyal in their beliefs

2. Listen, the celestial messengers produce harmonious sounds

3. Nocturnal time span of unbroken quietness

4. An emotion excited by the acquisition or expectation of good given to the terrestrial sphere

5. Embellish the interior passageways

6. Exalted heavenly beings to whom we harkened

7. Twelve o’clock or a clement night witnessed its arrival

8. The Christmas preceding all others

9. Infinitesimal municipality in Judea southeast of Jerusalem

10. Diminutive masculine master of skin-covered percussionistic cylinders

11. Omnipotent supreme being who elicits respite to ecstatic distinguished males

12. Tranquility upon the terrestrial sphere

13. Obese personification fabricated of compressed mounds of minute crystals

14. Expectation of arrival to populated area by mythical, masculine perennial gift-giver

15. Natal celebration devoid of color, rather albino, as a hallucinatory phenomenon for me

16. In awe of the nocturnal time span characterized by religiosity

17. Geographic state of fantasy during the season of mother nature’s dormancy

18. The first person nominative plural of triumvirate of far eastern heads of state

19. Tintinnabulation of vacillating pendulums in inverted, metallic, resonate cups

20. In a distant location the existence of an improvised unit of newborn children’s slumber furniture

21. Proceed forth declaring upon a specific geological alpine formation.

22. Jovial yuletide desired for the second person singular or plural by us


Remember...you MUST email the answers to me...please do not post here!

Nothing to share or show...

Just call me "bad" blogger, "bad" mama.
I have nothing new to share or show. I have no Holiday Spirit, nor Holiday tree up yet, either!
After (and still on-going) having the shingles, I also have NO energy. It's all I can do to make it through slow days at work. (and that's the worse!).
I have bought TWO holiday gifts and only made 25 Holiday cards (I betcha you're hoping to get one of those, right?)
I'm still having bouts of insomnia, too. So here I sit at 4am, blogging.

Tomorrow (er...today) I plan to head out to Joanne's to look at fabric.
I saw a really cute lap-wrap on a gal at work yesterday and thought, "self, you could have made a hundred of them for Holiday gifts, girl! and if ya hurry, ya still can make a few!"
That's Plan A.
If Plan A doesn't work out, it's Plan B.

Plan B isn't much fun...it's NOT pulling out my little White sewing machine that my Aunt Pat and Uncle Bob gave me in the 80's that still purrs like a kitten and whipping a stitch here and there by the fire whilst Holiday oldie movies play.
Plan B is NOT in the comfort of my own home.
Plan B is NOT for the still-weak-from-shingles.
Plan B has no forethought.
Plan B has no meaning.

Well, what exactly IS Plan B?
Driving into town, grabbing one of these (IF I'm lucky which lately I have not been)
being at the end of this line....
and dreaming of one of these
Plan B scares me.

Well, certainly not the last part...let's hope Plan A works and ends with the latter of Plan B.

Holiday Score!

Isn't this the most stankin cute dish set?
A couple years ago, I scored when it was 75% off...a setting for 4 for a whoppin $9!
Gotta love that!

Believe

There once was a stamp set called 'Twas the Night Before..."
When it came out, the mother of a 4 yr old remembered this photo that she had the witherall to take on Christmas Eve.

When some family members rec'd their card in the mail, they commented, "where'd ya get a photo like that of a cute kid?"

Holiday Traditions

Now that I am feeling a bit better, I think it's time to start enjoying the holidays.

I find it interesting how different cultures have celebrated Christmas in generations past.
Since Haley was in Sweden during the holidays in 2005, I researched their many traditions and had made a lot of things and sent them over for her to give to her families there.

How ironic that when Haley rec'd her first American Girl doll, it was Kirsten, a Swedish girl.
Since I was sooo lonely for her during the holidays, I still dressed her doll in the traditional St. Lucia outfit as we had done together over the years, hence the idea for this was the card I then sent to her families.
Enjoy a little Swedish Holiday Tradition...

Feasting and celebrating begin on December 13 with Lucia Day, which legend says is the longest night of the year and a time when man and beast need extra nourishment. A Lucia (Queen of Light) is chosen from each home, club, school, etc. She is dressed in a white gown with a crown of candles in her hair. She brings coffee, rolls, ginger biscuits, and occasionally "glogg" (a mulled wine). She is generally accompanied by a train of white-clad attendants. The girls wear glitter in their hair and the boys wear tall paper cone hats decorated with stars. While delivering their precious fare, they sing traditional Lucia carols.

Here is the translation of the Lucia carol;
The night treads heavily
around yards and dwellings
In places unreached by sun,
the shadows brood
Into our dark house she comes,
bearing lighted candles,
Saint Lucia, Saint Lucia.

Oldies, but goodies, WORD BLOOMS

Since I'm limited to sitting, standing, and awake time, here's some oldies but goodies.

Quick history on these darling letter albums called Word Blooms.
They are cut out using a very expensive laser cutter, hence *no pattern* to share.
I have bought a variety of WBs and love having them on hand for quickie (well, sort of) gifts.
This one of course spells out t.r.i.p and I used Vintage Travel kit from CTMH (best dang kit by far and will soon be retired!)
What can I say about this one....
And of course, the girls who own the machine did me (and a few hundred others) a favor and made a CTMH WB without charging me a set up fee!
My type of FRIENDS....
THIS was the Swap of a lifetime...all elite to be sure.
I saw this one and just knew it would be worthy of this swap of Elite Swappers.
Since the Word Bloom spells out f.r.i.e.n.d.s., each letter has an adjective that matches that person (tried to anyways!)


the E. photo is missing, I know...




And here's some blank ones I have just layin around...(I did mention no pattern exists, right?)
leave a comment on your favorite and what you would do with it, and there might just be a giveaway!

and NOW I have....

an allergic reaction to the meds I'm on for the rash from the Shingles!
As long as the pain meds keep comin, it's aaaaallll good. (well, NOT!)

I Have Shingles...

Pray for me.
'nuff said.

HaPpY ThAnKsGiViNg to ALL!

Maybe it's the sign of the economy, but unfortunately, we haven't seen this guy around our campus' lately...he was beautiful!
AND I was having a GOOD camera day when I snapped this off last year!
Click on the photo to see the details.


I'm truly grateful for a lot of things this year....too many to name, but obviously a few things like the health of my mom, daughter and other family and close friends.

Ode to a Dog...

Yes...dogs are like family...and yes this was my little sister. Being the youngest of two, that's what happens. I needed a little sister, too.

So what that she had four really cute paws.
And a long arched tail.
And the longest eyelashes on earth.
And a quirky personality.
And always wanted my food, begging for the crust off my toast.
And never liked birds or squirrells or cats.
And laughed (if dogs can) at all of our mommy's funny costumes.
And survived the house fire.
And would come stay with me, loving all the wide open space and new sounds (coyotes) and sites (fields of tomatoes, hay, and corn)

And had to grow old.
And forget why she was going outside.
And would get lost on the walkway back to the door.
And would wander through her own house of 14 yrs and need directions back to the family room.



And would sleep more than be awake.

Dogs are like daughters in fur coats, we say.
They want to play when we want to rest.
They want to go outside when we sit down.
They want our dinner even though they just ate.
They know when you need them and will cuddle close.
They could care less when football is on TV.

It breaks our hearts when their legs fail and kidneys shut down,
And they know they can count on us to say that's enough.

Good bye my little sister...there will always be a place in our hearts for you.
Thank you for being the best loyal friend and companion for our mommy.

Warm Unders...

Babeeeee...it's cold in the am's here so it's time to get out the warm unders!

I saw this whole wall of warm unders at the State Fair...and of course this one caught my eye because of our white rabbit, Finola.

ok, here's some of the finalists for the photo shoot today with Zoe the Briard...
we liked this one for the obvious reasons in the "meaning" behind the photo...
this walkway was named for my friend's late husband, Peter's Alley.
The trees were planted with some of his ashes, the metal sculpture of a heart with the rock pendulum (he was her rock and he had the sculpture made for her.
We left the hose in the picture because some relative made the humingbird faucet (who is getting one of her holiday cards with the photo, otherwise would have been cut out)
She also liked the fact that it was not close up to her face.


We both really liked this one, too....except arg! the orientation for the cards is wrong AND those darned trash cans went unnoticed!
and here's the one we both REALLY liked...
mainly because Zoe thinks she is a lap dog...honest.
I know..the rock looks like it could be her gonad, but we all know she's a girl!





Please remember that I don't use any type of program to edit photos or "correct" things...AND we really wanted "raw"...this is them, nothing pretentious, not a "formal" type portrait...

I think we did just fine!

Digital for Dummies

I'm doing a photoshoot today for a neighbor...she wants to send photo cards for her Holiday cards.
I'm a nervous wreck!

I keep wishing for an SLR Digital Camera...ya know, like the Nikon that cutie-patootie Ashton "gets the shot" with in their commercials...or the infamous Canon Rebel SLR.
If I DID have a camera like that (in my dreams) I could do FABULOUS things! I could even use a PhotoShop Adobe program to inhance, alter, crop, etc. my photos. (NOT gonna happen no matter what camera I have...but it's part of the dream, k?)

I am quite sick and tired of getting shots like this during an event...
gack! I was maybe 10 feet away and totally missed the shot of Camryn getting her trophy.


Then the other times, I get GREAT shots like this...sitting in nose bleed seats!
I mean for heaven's sakes...you can even see the water drops! and NO blurring!!!!


Then I visited a website and found some great shots she gets ALL the time with a Point and Shoot Digital similar to my Kodak Z740.

That's when I started to;
a. visit some other sites dedicated to Point and Shoot Digitals
b. read my manual while perusing a. above.

So far, it's all TMI (too much information), but I am HOPEFUL that at a certain point, I'll have the A-HA moment! to know when in "this" situation, do "this" and when in "that" situation, do "that".

One thing I DO know is the best batteries out there are the BLUE Power X Duracells.

So if you are wide awake, or like to read things that might make sense more than your digital camera manual (you DO know where that is, right?), then check out the new links I added under "Point and Shoot Digital for Dummies".

If anything stuck in my brain between last night and this morning, I'll share some shots from today later.

SCORE!

Soccer Circle Albums....done...it was definitely a GOAL of mine to SCORE bigtime!
Cute cake! It has the Team Photo on it!
I think so!
Look at that impish grin...ya'd never know this little firecracker can go a mile a minute!
Love ya Cam...you GOAL girl!


Now to finish the another project in the works...woof

It's "that" Season again....

Some people might look at this picture and say, "wow, isn't that fog cool looking?"


Some people don't have to drive in it every.single.day.
I don't like this time of year due to the notorious Sacramento Tule Fog.
We'll have it through January...if we don't have a lot of rain. I pray for rain.
Car pile-ups on I-5 are not uncommon. Ya'd think some genius would invent a fan that could be placed along roadways that are prone to dense fog.


This reminds me of a Thanksgiving story;
We were newlyweds and had gone into town to the in-laws for Thanksgiving. We took one of the younger employees from our restaraunt, and by the time we left, the Tulie fog had set in on the River Road. I was the designated driver, of course.
The closer we got to home, the worse the fog was. At one point, I literally had to open my door to follow the center line of the road.
I kept hearing comments from the peanut gallery like, "you're doing great...I gotta pee hurry up...I have to puke, can ya pull over". Uh, pull over? Pal, I can't even tell where the pull over spot would be and if I could find it, you'd be left there!
I wasn't worried about going in the River because of the guard rails that Grace Scribner had fought so long and hard for with the County of Sacramento. Thank you Grace!

And of course, here's a "Fish Tale";
Haley was little...like 3 or 4. Pop went out in the Bat Boat for some Sturgeon fishing. That's the only thing fog is good for in my opinion. He had a butane heater, insulated overalls, gloves, plenty of bait and whiskey...all important supplies whilst waiting/fishing for Sturgeon.
I had fallen asleep but woke up thirsty, so I headed to the kitchen for a drink of water. As I passed the antique clock, I thought it said 12:30. As I looked out the kitchen window, I saw a wall. Huh...funny, I should be able to see the deck!
I turned on the light and saw it was a wall alright...a wall of fog! When I looked at the illuminated digital clock it said 6:30...that's AM! and he wasn't back yet.
Hmmm...guess the whiskey lasted all night.
About an hour later, I hear the truck pull up, backing the boat into it's parking spot. I made coffee. A lot of coffee.
Haley wandered in and looked out the sliding glass door and saw her Pop unhooking the boat.
She yelled out..."Poppa, whereyabeen?" He said, "fishin...wanna see my really big fish?"
Yea, sure, it's probably barely a keeper I thought. Hope ya enjoyed all that whiskey.

Well, we did as women of hunters do..put on warmer clothes and boots, grabbed the camera and clammered outside to see what all the hoopla was.
No fish in the boat..no fish on the ground. Where's this really big fish?
He pointed to the truck bed. Open.
And there it was.
Can you say, MOBY DICK?!!! Over 70lbs and and 70 inches long!!!

Seems that he had caught the fish early on in the night...but couldn't drag it in the boat. Had to drag it alongside the boat. And as he went to go back to the launch, couldn't find it in the fog.
So he trolled along the side of the banks and every so often would pull up, get out and try to find his bearings. One roadside looks just like another in the fog.
(doesn't this sound like Moby Dick to you?)

And then the ceremony.
(I hate this tradition)
After the tale has been told...the fish gutted and cleaned...the head must be hung from a tree branch to be admired by all the neighbors who have come with coffee mugs in hand.
To hear the tale again...and again...

Have I mentioned how I hate the fog season?

(oh and the picture? as I went to grab a photo of the layout, I am missing and album!
How can that happen?! It's my family album...with heritage photos! ohmygod)

Clink*Clink

Birthday cheers and a Martini toast for my bud Susan!
and...

Democracy...it Works... and

YES
WE
CAN
make a change.

I was very proud and humbled to be able to sit with my daughter tonite and watch history happen before our eyes.

Vote-Eve

Votes for women were first seriously proposed in the United States in July, 1848, at the Seneca Falls Woman's Rights Convention organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. One woman who attended that convention was Charlotte Woodward. She was nineteen at the time.

On August 26, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution became law, and women could vote in the fall elections, including in the Presidential election., when women finally won the vote throughout the nation, Charlotte Woodward was the only participant in the 1848 Convention who was still alive to cast her vote.

Eighty-one years old, she cast her vote proudly.

Excercise it ladies...and I don't mean with a mop and bucket.

Why We Don't Want Men to Vote

by Alice Duer Miller circa 1915;

• Because man's place is in the army.
• Because no really manly man wants to settle any question otherwise than by fighting about it.
• Because if men should adopt peaceable methods women will no longer look up to them.
• Because men will lose their charm if they step out of their natural sphere and interest themselves in other matters than feats of arms, uniforms, and drums.
• Because men are too emotional to vote. Their conduct at baseball games and political conventions shows this, while their innate tendency to appeal to force renders them unfit for government.

Tricks or Treats?

Depends on how you look at it...
I was tricked into buy the first version of Stickles at the SB Expo.
Here's some treats...
new from t!m and Ranger Products




AND t!m will be here again in the Sacramento area...
Check out the classes he'll be doing next weekend by clicking here

Fun with Grungeboard!

Wow! 2 posts in one night?
That could only mean one thing...I had a Mocha-Frap...(see earlier post)

I love Grungeboard! Check out t!m's blog for even better examples.
Note; the large "h" and "aley" the crown at the top and the no.'s 20 {1} are in Grungeboard inked and distressed to the max!



Just love that stuff!

Recycling to the Greenest Level!

I saw this idear at a SB Expo and literally went green with envy that I didn't think of it!
Not only could I just kick myself about not thinking of it first, I can NOT find plain plastic tumblers with no markings or logos nor could I find cocktail umbrellas in all the colors that the vendor had...like black & white, Cocoa, etc.
It does look best without the logos. Or I guess I could just camoflauge it with stamped images or stickease...but was in a hurry to play.


And since it's PINK awareness month...
and I am having sort of a blue kinda day.......
Of course a 4-pack will look darling in a cardboard drink holder too!
Weeeeeeeee!
Never knew recycling could be so much fun! (thanks for the thought bubble, Bren!)

SuRprIseD!

I wasn't surprised that she did it, but I was surprised to hear singing on Saturday while up at our SB Getaway when my mom walked in with a cake and an armload of presents!

And, I might add, she placed upon my head the traditional Red Hatters' Birthday Hat.
All the loot is in my lap...and check out the cUte green jacket!
Moms.
Whaddaya gonna do?
Just eat the damned cake!