M&M's Blog

Time does indeed fly!

2012-01-28T22:51:00.010-05:00

I was just posting a reply to my wonderful Goddaughter Rachaels blog.... and signed in with gmail, which made my picture show, and I clicked on myself to see my blog.... and to my amazement I have not posted anything on here in over a year!

I haven't posted because I have been busy...... just boring! I truly am! I will show you how much!

Scotty's house is done on the inside, there is still lot's to do in his yard. I took a year off of painting and I promised him I would paint his deck this summer. And we promised to finish picking up rocks from the pool that was there and finish planting grass. I've been teaching him some web stuff and he still teaches me a thing or two. Last May he adopted a rescue dog...and they are a match made in dog heaven. Scotty needs to take care of something and Bomber is very needy!

Jewelry is still going strong! I have some new stuff coming out this year. Little book charms of Diana's first 8 books, finally some Claire's Ring hoop earrings. Which I have been wanting for myself for awhile. :)

Graphics on Cafepress doing well too...... even got a request to make a graphic for Hertz Rental Car. :) If I was smart I would devote more.... some time to this, I can see how people make serious money at it.

Still making websites for friends and friends of friends, mostly for fun, but some paying customers too. :) Made a massage site in Swedish and Finnish, and I made a site for a man in Scotland for a animal shelter in Portugal. So wordly I am!

Brian finally got back into project management at Lilly. He's very busy and a happy camper. I knew he was way bored with Six Sigma when he started looking for a part-time teaching position. :) But he's back in the Diabetes game in R&D at Lilly.

Ian is a Sr. at Purdue, he will have to go for another semester next fall since he changed his major, he's in Computer Graphic Tech. now, loves it. He is working for the Entomology Dept at Purdue with their website and newsletters. PT during school and FT in the summer.

Brian and Ian at a Purdue Game

Collin just got accepted at Ball State and he starts next year, with his major as of now Urban Planning. He is winding up his senior year, and has found a great group of guys and already has a roommate for college.

I knew I scanned his HS grad pic, but forgot to save it regular before I started messing with it to put on some moolah for him as a gift. :)

Hmmm trips.....
last family trip (I know I've said that before, but this really was!) to Disney last May. We drove for the first time and it was rather nice!

Went to Vancouver again in October, also spent a weekend with friends in Toronto.

Cheryl came to visit twice last year! Once in May with my moms sister Bette and my cousin Nadine... we had a Girls Weekend! Brian survived just fine!

Then Cheryl came again in November for Georgias daughter Kims baby shower...

Kim had a precious baby boy name Reid in December, who I haven't seen yet, but will soon!

Lego and Lola are also doing well! Lola loves deck patrol!

All the Neumann side is doing well..... and all of the Moore side too!

So we are incredibly blessed, because we all know that... is the most important thing!

Well that and chocolate!

M

Been Busy....... can you tell?

2010-12-18T20:20:00.014-05:00

There were I dont know how many days, putting up insulation in Scotty's garage. We started when it was really hot out, and ended when it was getting really cold out. Neither of us could go for very long with looking up all the time doing the ceiling, so it took us forever!

What an icky job..... and itchy job too!

Then we headed back up to Brian's brothers and finished the faux wainscoting. For their wedding gift, I offered make their master bedroom all spanking new. Lot's of stripping of wallpaper, paint, and a amazing deal on chair rail molding. Never have seen it on clearance before, but $22 7 ft. pieces of chair rail for $8 bucks each! Saved a ton of money on it !

Scotty then made the molding for wainscoting insets. He got a new router, and he's been having fun with it ever since!

I thought I took a picture of the finished product, but I guess not. It looks really neat when all painted and finished. I came home looking where I could do it in my house! Here's almost finished!

I felt bad because their house had a lot of stairs and 80 year olds and stairs aren't a good match. One days work, and he's out of commission for a while, sad thing is..... so was I at almost half his age! :)

In my never ending quest in not having to get up to let the dogs out, that was accomplished this week! Brian put a doggie door in our sunroom screen door when we moved in here seven years ago, so three seasons out of the year, the dogs just come and go as they please.

Here's Lola trying to figure it out.

But in the winter, it's too cold to leave the slider open to the sunroom w/o losing a ton of heat. But....... Scotty to the rescue!

Lowe's or Home Depot usually have a little section for returned custom items, like custom paint colors for $5 a gallon, or even doors! We went to Lowe's for a piece of plywood to set a dog door in, and instead we found a 20 in. wide door for $5.55! A custom order someone didn't want or whatever, their loss... my doggie door door!

We can just pop it in for winter, and still use the slider to get in and out of the sunroom!

It's Wonderful!

Scotty's Guest Bedroom is done!

His amazing bed he made.... yes made, scroll down the blog to see the "before" pic. This is the most expensive thing in the room, it was $80 for wood.

The cubie thing, and a shelf made from scrap wood and old brackets from my half bath painted white. I covered the clearance shade I got with left over quilting fabric I had.

That I also used for the windows.

Which was left over from a quilt I got years ago for $20, that I made the window treatments out of for my guest bedroom.

Did I say done? I still have to stain the corner desk that he made out of a $20 used table,but that's basically it in there.

What an amazing man! Don't worry he's taken care of for Christmas, I have loaded him up with Peanut butter fudge and cookies!

Now I just have about four more batches of cookies to make, a bit of gift shopping, and a lot of food shopping, and I will be set for Christmas!

M

A Whatchamacallit!

2010-11-16T18:54:00.008-05:00

I've been sort of busy latey...... Let's see...... went to Surrey, and after Surrey took a drive down to Redding,CA, for Scotty to pick up more stuff for his house here.

It was basically three days in a car! A mint green Ford Focus, which has got to be the ugliest car out there! Here's a little video.

At Scottys house...... we finished the guest bedroom. I dont have pictures yet, but here's a cute little thing we did for in there instead of a dresser. I no idea what these things are called! I bought the fabric cubes, and Scotty drew it up, and we we're going to leave the top shelves empty. Doggers didn't care one way or another.

But then I asked him if he could make drawers..... Scotty said...... sure! The bottom needed something so I drew out a little scroll, Scotty cut it out and how cute is that!

All done!

Soooooo whatever it's called, Cubie Thing, Cubical, Whatchamacallit...... whatever it's called.........

it's cute!

M

Some Outlandish Humor....

2010-09-03T22:21:00.011-04:00

This will only be funny to Gabaldon fans... unless you are a Gabaldon fan w/o a sense of humor, but I haven't met too many of those.

Every year there's a group of us that get together with DG, and I always try to make a card that pokes fun at the whole Jamie thing. He's not real you know!

Here's a few of them...

This would be the year the movie rights were bought for like the ..... upteenth time...

The year Claire's Ring came to be...

This was the year nothing of DG's was out, so I improvised...

I do think the National Enquirers, are my favorites...

This wasn't a card, but back when I posted the Bdays on LOL, years and years, and even more years ago.

I think this was a card, I'm getting old and you really can't expect me to remember this kind of stuff... or any kind of stuff for that matter.

But this was the card last year.
"An Echo of the Bone" was released...

That's all she wrote, or uploaded! :-)

M

My sister told me I needed to update!

2010-08-21T21:43:00.009-04:00

......and I always listen to my sister. Right Georgia?

Okay, Ive been a bit busy...... all good things!

Brians brother got married, to a woman I just adore! I kinda wanted to marry her, she's funny and she really gets things done! :-)

Then Scotty and I are finishing up the headboard. The second coat of paint goes on it tomorrow, then I need to pick up some cute knobs and its done.

We're going to make another one after this for Ians room. Im going to put tin or something cool on the back panels.

We also made a desk for Ian, for his apartment at school. He went back yesterday, today we brought out what wouldnt fit in the car. Cassie his cousin now goes to Purdue too! Next weekend, we hope to meet up with Mim and Norm for lunch with both kids.

And the most fun and most time consuming projects lately, I made a website for "Outlander- The Musical", for Diana and two really neat guys in Scotland, Mike and Kevin. Neat guys, Im not sure that how they would describe themselves, but they are both very sweet, very funny, and both love dogs, so there!

The logo was made by a gentleman in Scotland, no idea if he is neat or not! But its much easier to make graphics for a website when you have something to go from.

Website: click here!

Also made some youtubes for it......

This one is of the song snipits, took me forever and of course once uploaded, there was a typo, maybe two *G*, so its all cleaned up. :-)

There's a typo in the first one too, but I really thought his name was spelled that way when I made it, that one was not my fault. :-)

Last weekend my sister Renee came out for the weekend, and then Georgia and Will came for a night too. Saturday night we played Balderdash, and Sunday we sat at the table and ate all day... yum!

Now, once I typed it all out it doesnt look really busy, but really Ive been busy!

M

Scotty's Stripper Bathroom!

2010-06-25T15:55:00.028-04:00

I bet that got your attention, an explanation will come later!

Click on any picture to make bigger... alright here we go!

With the exception of the trim around the door that needs to be taken off, sanded and painted, the bathroom is done! It's a very small bathroom, so hard to take pics of but here's the before...

The ceiling was really nasty!

First thing we did, well in this case Brian and Scotty did, was take out the old rusty 1950's tub and put a new one in. Scotty made a frame and side for it, they laid concrete on the floor and set it in, and then I tiled around the top of it, and on top of the bead board side.

And repainted grout.

It looked like the old owners were re-doing the bathroom in the 80's and never finished, so none of the drywall in the corners or ceiling was finished, so I mudded all of that. My shopping karma rubbed off on Scotty and he got a Martha Stewart shelving/drawer unit for 30 bucks!

We painted the bath blue, the same blue as the guest bedroom. Switched out the icky medicine cabinet and light fixture. We also put a wooden cornice up to hide all the curtain rods.

Recognized the light fixture?
If you have been to my house you might, I bought it silver for here, and then I painted it bronze when I first did our li'l bathroom, and when I re-did the bath for the second time, I switched it out. So its back to silver again in its new home. Gotta love spray paint!
I looooove bead board, nothing makes a house look neat and clean like bead board. We did that half-way up the wall, and then Scotty made, yes he made it, trim for it! He also made the little heater frame with towel hooks. It was pretty nasty before, it stuck out two inches from the wall.

The Stripper Pole!
Most of you know Scotty, and know he is 79, and he needs a wee bit of help out of tub. We looked everywhere for all types of grab bars, and found them all overpriced. Sekret Message to the Old Fart Grab Bar Manufacturers, most old people are on a fixed income and can't afford 80 bucks for a grab bar, hence have to use stripper poles! Scotty headed to Lowe's and came home with a shower rod, and then he made a little wooden holder for it at the ceiling.

In this picture you can also see the textured ceiling I did, and Scotty covered up the ugly fan hole, he made crown molding too! I'm thinking I should hire Scotty out!

To make a room that reflected Scotty, besides the Stripper Pole *grin*, I added some pictures. I got this little set in Scotland when I went with my sister in 2001. They are the cutest little minitures of things Scottish. Scotty's father emigrated to the states from Scotland.

(The litte jars I got from Hobby Lobby for a buck each.)

The hard part was finding something for the sides of the heater frame, but I found these brushed steel picture frames that I thought looked a bit masculine. I've tried to put Scotty's initials in every room I've decorated. So far I have the kitchen, bedroom, front room, for his bathroom, I ended up with his last name. I made some graphics and printed it on cardstock. The backgrounds of each letter are pictures of the Whitmore/Redding area where he moved from.

You might have to click on this below to read the picture descriptions.

Yes, I know what you are thinking, why would anyone move away from there, two words.

ADULT CHILDREN!

And that's about it, enuf' huh! Now it's back to finish the guest bedroom, which we stopped in the middle of to do the bathroom.

Just in case you are wondering what an 80 year old stripper looks like...

...yeah, I'm thinking she needs to keep her clothes on too!

The trellis............

2010-06-20T20:47:00.007-04:00

Since we put in this little pathway from the garage to the backyard I thought a trellis would look good there. I saw this one on the net...

Found some iron work at Hobby Lobby, and don't be too impressed with my drawings of my plans.

Scotty could some how read that jibberish and went to work.

Then I painted it a nice grey, since I don't care for the grey that Cedar wood turns, I have a whole fence of it, so I thought I would make it a grey I like.

Then last week Brian and I put it up.

It really sets off the bag of garbage nice, dont you think?

Final cost was about 110-120 bucks, not bad!

Anya Seton Month at Historical Tapestry

2010-06-16T13:12:00.006-04:00

This is Anya Seton Month at Historical Tapestry, one day of course featured "Katherine" by Anya Seton, which you all know is one of my favorite books!

They are having a contest to win a Roet Shield Pendant... CLICK HERE! You can still enter, just post a comment, you need to put your email in the comments so disguise it a bit, so auto-spammers dinna get at it.
lolmichelle(at)yahoo(dot)com

And, they asked me to write up a little something about how I came about Anya Seton and jewelry, that is CLICK HERE!

Long time ago, years, I've made a webite for the novel... CLICK HERE!

After the website I started a Yahoo Group for the novel, which attracted over 400 people, and they were waaaaay smarter than me concerning all things Katherine and John of Gaunt that I handed it over to a wonderful woman who knows all things Katherine. When I figuring out how to use Windows Movie Maker, I was doing casting for novels I like. So with suggestions from the yahoo group made this...

It was one of my favorites to make, since I made some of the graphics from The Book of Kells.

Soooooo enjoy June otherwise known as Anya Seton Month!

M

Before and Almost After....

2010-06-05T16:00:00.019-04:00

People keep asking me whats going on at Scotty's house, well..... lot's of things going, but none of them done. :-)
(As always, just click on pics to make bigger)

Been diggings up some boxwood shrubs here and planting there in the front,, planted some lillys and hostas painted an old milk can I had to match his house. Still have to change out the light fixture, but here's the old and new pic.

Seeded where the pool use to be in Scottys backyard. We still have mega-things to do back there, repair and paint the deck, shovel up and move about 5 million rocks!

Tore out the old tub in the bathroom, unfortunately the old rusty tub isn't showing, more fortunate for you though since it was uuuuuuugly! We replaced that light fixture and medicine cabinet too. built a frame around the heater that was sticking out two inches from the wall, still have to paint and add hooks for towels.

Scotty wanted a spa tub, so Brian and him cemented that to the floor one Saturday. Then Scotty had to crawl under the house yet again, to do some plumbing, and jack up the weight bearing beams a bit. This was the day he was pulling a cement block and yelped, and he heard a pop in his arm... turned out to be a muscle!

Scotty made a wood frame and bead boarded the side. I tiled around the tub and the top of the frame, and re-painted the grout on the wall tile.

I hope to start drywalling this week. We're going to bead board all the way around the bottom wall, and then I have to fix the ceiling, not looking forward to that!

Meanwhile he is still working on the bookcase headboard.

And a verra cool trellis for my house, which is ALMOST done!

Here's the inspiration from the net.

I asked Scotty if we could make it like this? He said, "Yes." I don't know how he knew what I was thinking from my drawing though! :-)

But he did, and he got to work!

Before you know it, one side is done.

The I brought it home in pieces, and he came over the next day and put it together.

Right now it's in the process of being stained grey, some more iron work put in on center top and sides, more rails on top and then it will be ready to be cemented in.

This is the picture of the house when it was up for sale, seven years ago already, on the right, drawn in pink is where the trellis will stand.

And that is where we are at!
M

Renee's Victor....

2010-06-02T22:43:00.012-04:00

The weekend of May 22nd was spent up in Pittsburgh, PA. I had never been to Pittsburgh before and quite honestly would of gladly missed visiting the city, since it was under horrible circumstances.

You all know my sister Renee, my oldest sister, and the one who so galantly battled Stage 3B Cervical Cancer four years ago, and won. Well, one year ago she met a man named Victor and fell in love. My other sister Georgia, dh Brian and I had the honor of meeting Victor last September in Dayton, Ohio at a Diana Gabaldon signing. Scotty (old Scotty, not the brother) and I drove up to Dayton for the signing, and instead of waiting for the long line of readers to get their books signed,S cotty, Renee,Victor and myself went for a drink to pass time and get to know each other.

Georgia, Will, Will's Mom, and Brian all drove up later and we all met for dinner. Renee would always talk about the romantic things Victor would say to her, and I had made Victor a little journal, so he could remind Renee of his kind words, to welcome him into the family. Renee said Victor was a manly man, so of course I made his journal as pink and feminine as I could!

You might remember the blog post...
http://m-another-m.blogspot.com/2009/09/last-week.html

When you met them you would of thought they had been together forever, their mannerisms, their ease and comfort with each other all spelled out... OLD FART COUPLE!

Renee's Victor had a fatal heart attack on May 21st. Renee had made an unexpected trip to Pittsburgh that weekend, only to be the one that had to call 911 and perform CPR on her fiance, before he was led away in an ambulance. She was thankful she was there, since who knows when someone would of found him otherwise.

I usually dread the calls in the middle of the night, but this call from Renee came Saturday morning at around 9 a.m. Brian and I were just about to leave for Chicago to visit his Mom, who had broken her ankle and is in a rehab facility. Instead, Brian still went to visit his mom, and I headed to Pittsburgh to be with Renee since no one was with her.

When I heard about Victor, the saddest thing for me wasn't his death, but Renee with all Renee has been through, she now had to go through this tragedy. She really really loved this man... correction... loves this man. Victor was a mushy guy, he said mushy things all the time, hence the journal mentioned above. She would call him her "Hallmark Card".

That Saturday night, she was listening to a condolence message from a friend, but Victor's messages played first on her phone, all sounding a bit like this...

"Hello Love of my life, I'm just calling to say I was thinking about you."

When I first met him, his first words to me were, "I've been waiting forty years for your sister." Victor had just turned 60 in May.

Renee was in the process of moving to Pittsburgh, she was just waiting to get a job there and make the big final move. They had planned to marry when she moved to there for good, so Sunday and Monday were spent getting her things together she had already moved there to bring back home to Chicago.

I could only stay till Wednesday, I ran out of meds, and clothes, and home was calling. I stayed the first two hours at the wake, and left Renee in custody of some of Victor's good friends.

Victor had three other loves of his life, his three Golden Retrievers, who thankfully have gone to another home all together, but without their master.

Renee had only a year with Victor. Renee lost her love in the Honeymoon phase of their relationship, so Renee's memories are only of good and happy times with her soul mate.

If only the rest of us could say the same thing.

God Speed Victor!

Around the world with ivmoores!

2010-05-21T23:36:00.010-04:00

So tonight I was emailing a friend instructions on how to view her website statistics on her server. So then I thought I should check mine. You find out things like...

All my sites combined got around 185,000 hits this month so far.

My "Painting Kitchen Cabinets" website got 1785 hits since May 1st.

83.9 % of people that visit my sites use a PC.
14 % use a Mac.
1 Hit came from a Nintendo Wii!

As for Browsers........
Browser/Hits No./Percent
MS Internet Explorer No 80528 59.8 %
Firefox No 29412 21.8 %
Safari No 15412 11.4 %
Google Chrome No 6309 4.6 %
Mozilla No 1619 1.2 %

For some reason your front door is on a Russian blog, what the ?????
http://azasexugix.blogspot.com/2009/12/j-c-penny-outlet.html

Okay now this is really odd, here's my front door again on a blog as JC Penney Outlet curtains!
http://pictures74.bloguez.com/pictures74/page565/

Claire's ring is all over in Germany
http://tara-buecherblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/claires-ring-2.html

Brianna's Bracelet on an Arabic site. I'm hoping this is why I get so much Arabic spam mail, I know I'm being watched by the CIA by now!
http://a7la-school.alafdal.net/montada-f9/topic-t132.htm

Shauna of "Clayton and Shauna" plan on using Claire's Ring for her wedding band, which is very sweet!
http://www.projectwedding.com/biography/list/claytonandshauna
(Not to be confused with Shauna '88)

I don't know how this happens, but it's my website on another site.
http://www.fanpop.com/external/583526

I also found my jewelry site in some French romance magazine, assorted book clubs all around the world, and on people's blogs, pretty cool!

There's a person out there, on assorted message boards hot linking to a graphic I made. Now, I don't have a problem with her using my graphic, but she posts over all over the place 1,000's of times, so just copy the picture and use it, instead of hot linking and using my bandwidth.

So what I usually do in this case, is just upload a picture with the same name so it replaces the old pic. Right now I'm reading a biography of Heloise and Abelard, so I'm going to replace the Bronze Celtic Circle file with an Abelard file named the same as the Celtic Circle, so whenever she posts Abelard will show, and then I'm guessing she will stop using the link for that picture.

So now when she post it will look like this........

She prolly won't think it's funny, but I do! What is also a bit funny is, Abelard is now on my Outlander site for a bit, till I change that. :-)
http://ivmoores.com/outlander/outlander.htm

I wonder how long till she post on a message board and realizes her (MY) Celtic Circle has been replaced by Abelard. Maybe she will think he's dreamy and keep him!

Watch I know who it is, I will keep you all informed.... like you care! *grin*

What's Happening......

2010-04-22T13:25:00.008-04:00

I know most of you think of that 70's series when you hear that, and I think of this from "A Mighty Wind".

A couple of people have asked whats going on at Scotty's house, and here's my report!Finished painting the guest bedroom. Here's the before picture. Under that paint was two layers of wallpaper. Took forever to strip. Yuck!

Scotty put up new closet doors he found in the Clearance bin! I painted and added the cute little knobs. :-)

I had some left over quilt from my guest bedroom and made some window boxes.

Scotty found another table to cut up and make a desk from.

He cut it up, and sawed every which way.....

I painted and added the cute little knobs.

Some parts still need to be stained.

This week, he's putting in a new tub, and then we can start the bathroom. Brian is going to help him take the old one out Friday, and Saturday they will put the new one in.

We had at great Easter. Ian came home for the weekend and we went swimming with the heathens at Great Wolf Lodge. And "NO", I didnt go on this sh!t! :-)

I made a website.......
http://clearlythebest.ca/

That's all she wrote!
M

This is a big f'in deal!

2010-03-25T15:55:00.004-04:00

Okay, I'm usually late to the party on making up to date t-shirts to sell for the latest political brew ha ha's.

Missed a bunch with Sarah Palin

That Joe Wilson that doesn't have any manners and called out "liar" during the State of the Union address.

But I wasnt this time!

make custom gifts at Zazzle

In two days I have sold about 90 of these t-shirts between zazzle.com and cafepress.com. Most coming from zazzle, they were featured on MSNBC two days ago.

zazzle.com

cafepress.com

What fun to watch them sell! I don't make too much from them, because I dont mark them up a lot. I love good deals and I like when other people get a good deal too! :-)

Anyway, its been really fun the last couple of days. And quite a few have gone to people in DC. :-)

M

They're Baaaaaack!

2010-03-23T09:31:00.005-04:00

It's spring! Every year a duck couple come to visit in the spring, we always see them in the yard, or for some odd reason on the neighbor's roof. So this morning when I was opening the blinds I saw the female in the back yard. I went and got the camera, had to find the right memory card to put, for some reason the others would show as full. Finally, I took about 8 pictures waiting for the duck to get out of the mulch so you could see him, batteries ran out in the middle of it all, and finally got a picture.

The female is on the far left, and the male is over the fence on the far right.

Then I go turn on the puter, sit down, here the dogs bark, and what's right in front of the window. One picture, both ducks, in about 45 seconds.

They are back, it's spring, all is right with the world!
(Meaning snow is gone, gone, gone!)

M

What I'm up to...

2010-03-14T22:40:00.012-04:00

... I won't say 5'7" either, since I'm starting to get the old age shrinking thing happening and it's depressing.

Everyone keeps asking me what's going on at Scotty's house. Scotty had carpal tunnel surgery on one hand, that pretty much put him out of commission for a while. So I finally started on the guest bedroom. Here's the before...

I hate to say it but right now it looks a bit worse than this! :-) There was wallpaper, the vinyl front came right off, and the back stayed on, and then two layers of wallpaper backing under that, and that white paint on the bottom, also had wallpaper backing under it. So it took a while to strip it all off. And it was the kind of job that you would rather do anything else...

....like see an end table out at the curb while leaving Scottys and call him at the end of the block to go over there and get it, so I can paint and glaze it!

Going out to lunch, bargain shopping, cleaning carpets, movies, baking, cleaning my desk, and working on some webpages for people.

Like Victor, Renee's honey.

Like Mags...

Stuff to sell on Cafepress... actually sold a t-shirt of this already. :-)

Then I would go and do another half wall of wallpaper stripping, find something else to do. When finally finished stripping and swearing, then I had to caulk, and then accidently used silicone when I ran out of Latex caulk, and had to figure out how to paint over that... google is a wonderful thing. Scotty is anxious for painting to be done (he's not allowed to paint, he paints like Huck Finn, it's everywhere except where it's suppose to be) so he can start making a headboard.
This one!

...but not green! So soon as I finish painting the room, and the new closets, he can build the headboard in there. Which he needed a router for, so he bought a router and some bits, lots of bits!

You know what this means?

Crown molding!

He can make crown molding now cheap!

Do you know what that means?

I'm going to start putting crown molding in my bedrooms and baths. That's about it, the floor plan is too open on the bottom floor for crown molding, except the half bath. That's the first room to be done. :-)

The oldest is home for Spring Break this week, unfortunetly the youngest is not off the same week. All are happy and healthy, with the exception of a few colds, sinus troubles, but nothing major. Like I always say...

Boring is Good!

blah, blah, blah

2010-02-23T16:58:00.004-05:00

I was just looking at comments on my blog and found this one...

Since I don't read whatever language that's written in, I would have to imagine it's a bit naughty! See the sex part?

It sort of reminds me of the Seinfeld "yada, yada, yada" episode. You know, it would go like this, "I went out with a Japanese man, yada, yada, yada, we had sex!"

Now I'm sure the comment written to me in Japanese, Chinese, whatever language that might be, is pretty offensive, but since I can't read it, who cares? I'm guessing you can't either and aren't offended either.

However I will block comments for this post, just in case the spammer comes back and yada, yada, yada, grosses us all out!

M

Oh, Canada!!!!!!!

2010-02-22T15:38:00.010-05:00

First, you need to listen to this while you read the post, to get you in the mood!

Most that know me, know I go up to Surrey, BC every year in October, and that's is near... Vancouver! I have some good friends up there, and one mentioned that she had some extra Vancouver 2010 Olympic mittens to send out. I didn't get my hopes up, since I didn't think I would contact her in time to get a pair.

I was WRONG!

She just mailed them out on Friday I believe, and here they are already on Monday! Wooooooooo Hoooooooo! The dogs were very excited to see them!

After I let the dogs sniff them, they wanted to bite them,run around the house with them, and basically get them all droolie, but they can buy their own mittens!

I put them up on the mantle with my other Olympic souveniers!

Thanks so much Lee!!!!!!!!!

M
...who is actually looking forward to cold weather tomorrow!

The Ugliest Shoes I Own!

2010-01-29T23:09:00.006-05:00

Ugly huh!

If its not bad enough they are the ugliest shoes I own, they are also the most expensive. For some that might mean a pair of $300 shoes, for me that's only about $70. I very rarely buy shoes that aren't from a discount site, or on clearance, but always name brand. I usually wear Nike, they fit me the best.

These are Skecher Shape-Ups, they are a type of excercise shoe that are suppose to firm your calves, thighs and doompa. Plus they also improve your posture because you are basically walking on balance balls. I was a bit worried I would fall and break my neck the first day I wore them, but it didnt take long to work out the whole balance thing, and you do notice that you are standing straighter right away. You have to or you will trip, fall, stumple, you get the picture.

Do they work?
Like I said I noticed my posture is a bit straighter, not sure if it sticks with me when I take them off though. I read reviews that your calves will be sore the first day, but that hasn't happened either, but my calves weren't flabby to begin with. Maybe I could wear these on my tummy! I think I have to wear them every day to really notice a difference, and I havent done that yet since we have had snow. I do have to say they are very comfortable, good for long trips, if of course you were in the car, they are too ugly to wear in public. :-)

And..... they do make you look thinner, because they add a good inch and a half to you height!

Can I recommend... not quite yet!
M

Cheryl's Cheesecake Recipe ....

2010-01-25T09:31:00.009-05:00

... that isn't really cheesecake, but it's a family favorite. When Brian's mom first saw it, she called it Lemon Fluff, that really is a better name for it. I'm guessing it's from the 1960's just by the fact that's how long we have been eating it. Cheryl always made it when she lived at home, then at 20 she eloped and I've been making it ever since. Every Thanksgiving Renee calls for the recipe, and Georgia just asked for it the other day.

So this post is for my sisters!

Cheryl's Cheesecake
Cook---
Mix 2 cups of water and 2 little lemon jello, and cook till it reaches a boil. Cheryl use to put the the pan in the fridge till she needed it, I just put it in the very cold sunroom.

Crust---
While your jello is cooling, make your crust.
4 cups crushed graham crackers
2 sticks melted butter
2 tsp. vanilla

Melt butter, add vanilla and graham crackers
(I usually add just a bit of sugar and cinnamon)

Grease pans and press graham crackers into bottom and about an inch or more up the sides. Save a bit of the graham crackers to put on top.I can make an 9x13 and a 8 in. with this recipe. Also have made some very tall 9 in round, with the pre-made crust from Keebler.

When your crust is all set in the pans.
Blend---
2- 8 oz. room tempeture cream cheese
2 cups of sugar
Add...
2 cans (not the tiny ones, reg. size) evaporated milk or Milnot.

When you have that all mixed slowly add the jello mixture. Then pour into prepared crust, sprinkle with a bit of graham cracker on top and put in fridge till set.
(I looks like this, whoever made this one, I got the pic off the internets, she didnt put enough butter in her crust so it crumbled when she went to cut it.)

Thats it!

The Office

2010-01-15T22:56:00.022-05:00

Scotty: I don't think we need to do the office it looks fine.
Michelle: It doesn't look fine, it's gross.

(you can click on these to make them bigger, but this "before" pic is bad enough small)

First Scotty had to cut a hole in a wall to make a better access panel to the hot water heater. I stayed clear it was dusty! Once again you can see the smoke stained walls from where the wall border was. I painted the ceiling earlier in the day.

Back in the summer I bought a used kitchen table and six chairs. The table was a little worse for wear, and too big for the kitchen, so I had this great idea. Cut it in half and make desks! So I painted the office walls a grey/blue, and the white parts of the table a dark midnight blue, almost black. Actually we thought it was black in the store when picking colors.

Once each table half was mounted on the wall with L brackets, Scotty made a hutch for the side that wouldn't have a computer on it.

Added some trim. I painted it like the table legs, and the chair legs and backs.

Then we needed some corner shelves.

And here's The Office...

There's a litte closet behind the louver doors next to the hutch desk, that Scotty bought a $30 shelving unit for and just built it in the closet. I got that little black clamp lamp for $2.37!

I love when I enlarge the pics and see a spot I need to put another coat of paint, like the table!

Some left over black fake leather for a window treatment. I think it's called pleather, but that sounds like a porn movie, so I'll just go with fake leather. And the chair Scotty had to have also made of fake leather, found a new home, and it's in its rightful place in the house.

We needed a picture for over his desk, and he's a WWII plane buff, so I had a digital picture he had made into a print. We couldnt find a frame that was nice and cheap, so he made a nice and cheap frame!

This room is very very small, and it took the longest of any of the rooms, I think we started in November, but the holidays hit, Scotty went back to California for Christmas with his kids. I cant tell you how many coats of paint are on the table legs, black paint ....... what a pain in the doompa! Theres still not a door over the water heater hole yet, but that will be white. :-)

I'm trying to think of how much was spent on the room, but it's a bit hard. The kitchen table was $125 with six chairs. The office only has one chair, the others are scattered throughout the house. The wood and trim for the corner shelves was left over from other projects, and the little window treatment, so that was all free. The wood for the hutch was $25, and the bead board was left over from my kitchen and bath. The "must have" chair was $99, and paint was about $35-40. Picture frame was around 17 for glass and trim. Then Scotty bought some slide rails to make a keyboard tray for the table for 8 bucks. I'm sure I missed some things but for sure it will come under $375 for the whole room even with the access panel/door he has to make.

It's a small room but has a bunch of storage space and it's kinda cool too!

Battle of the Brownie Pans!

2010-01-03T22:49:00.008-05:00

Okay.... a couple of years ago I got a Baker's Edge Brownie Pan for Christmas. It makes more edges! The edges are my favorite part of the brownie. It was a pricie pan, $34 and shipping.

I usually use a homemade brownie recipe... which is...

1 stick margarine
1/4 cup cocoa
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs
vanilla

I think thats it, Im going from memory, which can be scary.

But lately what I usually make is this...

...for these reasons:
1. They are low fat and don't taste low fat.
2. Homemade brownies never get that shiney top. I dont know what makes that shiney top on box brownies... but I like shiney things. Diamonds more so than brownies, but I'm on a brownie budget here.

I got this pan for Christmas this year, it looks like an ice cube tray.

Now there are two type of Brownie people in this world. There's the fudgy brownie people and the cake brownie people. I'm more of a fudgy brownie gal myself, but nothing beats a cake brownie warm with ice cream and hot fudge.

Here's what I have discovered after using both pans with the lite brownie mix.

Baker's Edge...
Lots of edges for sure, but higher tendency to have too much of a crunch edge to get the middle done. You know the type of crunch that is too close to burnt. Sometimes the brownies are too fudgie, almost raw. Which I love brownie batter, but not cooked brownie batter. The dogs seem to get more middle parts when I eat these. Dont worry, not enough to kill them!

Ice cube brownie pan...
I just made a box mix of brownies with this yesterday. I wasnt very hopeful about the results since the pan is very thin, and I didnt think it would cook as well as the thicker "edge" pan. I was wrong!!!!!!

This was the first time I have ever made brownies that got that tall, and were pre-cut with nice straight lines. For some reason I can never cut my brownies w/o them falling apart. These were a bit more cake like, hence why they were taller *grin*, and the only real edges on them were the regular pan edges, they each didnt have four chewey edges on each brownie like I thought they would. These were very pretty too, you could actually bring these brownies on a plate instead of just the whole pan that you cant cut straight. This pan was 19.99.

If I had to choose to have only one pan....

I would say this one! I can put it in the diswasher and I hate doing pans by hand, which is recommend with the "edge" pan, and I felt like I was getting more brownie to eat! Since a brownie is three points on Weight Watchers, size is very important.

Now if I could only remember I have special brownie pans before I toss it into a 9x13 pan!

Mmmmmmmmm Brownies!
M

An Early Chrismas Gift!

2009-12-24T10:10:00.005-05:00

On Tuesday afternoon Ian was up and actually dressed and said he was off to the library. About an hour later, he walks in with about 12 inches less of hair!

I screamed, then yelled "Oh my God!" There has been no discussions, no girlfriend telling him it had to go, it was just out of the blue for us. Ian obviously had planned it well in advance.

Here is Ian for the last 5 years...

And on Tuesday.......

I had gotten use to the long hair, clogged drains, and hairs wrapped around the vacuum cleaner belt, but he has such a cute face, I was happy to see it again!

The best gifts of Christmas only cost about 18 bucks at Great Clips!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas to ME! :-)

Have a great one!
M

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-18T23:06:00.005-05:00

I know you are all anxiously awaiting my Christmas page, especially since I didn't make one last year. My only regret is that you can't bring into your reading room (bathroom) with you since it's two... two years in one!

http://ivmoores.com/xmas/xmas09.htm

Off to Chicago for a quick overnight. Pick up Ian at Purdue on the way, then off to dinner with my brother and two of my sisters to celebrate Christmas, and then lunch the next day with Brian's parents, then home.

Enjoy the Holidays!
M

....gotta have a picture. How about naked Santa!
Okay you lucked out, I couldnt find where I filed naked Santa, here's an old Christmas Card picture of ours....

I'm Thankful for Collin...

2009-11-24T11:01:00.006-05:00

16 years ago today,by planned C-section, Collin got me out of traveling around Chicago visiting for Thanksgiving while I was 9 months pregnant,due any day and feeling like a beached whale. Yes, I purposly planned to have my baby the day before Thanksgiving to get me out either traveling or cooking! It worked too! :-)

And I had the cutest little boy....

I don't know where the time went, but I do know that each year he gives me more to be thankful for!

Happy Birthday Collin!

2 Down - 15689752 To Go!

2009-11-11T22:54:00.020-05:00

Finished up 2 projects this week!
(As always just click on the images if you want to see them bigger!)

First was Sandy's website for her Graphic Design business. She's been working out of her home since she had Liam, and is doing really well! Sand and I have been friends since we shared lockers in 7th grade. Sandy was a piggie locker mate, she denys this, her house is immaculate, but her locker was messy! That's what I wish I had a picture of, our messy locker! Oh the website...
She made a logo quite a bit ago,

and I used that for the website. Which is HERE!

Then, while we were at Disney a couple of weeks ago, Scotty watched our dogs and needed a little project to keep him busy while he was here. Ever since we moved into this house I have wanted custom bookshelves on the family room half wall.

Oh lookie!, I found a picture of the half wall from when we first moved into the house. There's Sandy from Stenson Graphix sitting in the chair! LOL

That's Mike trying to cover his ears (not eyes Mike!), and Lego looking stunned (not bored Lego!) while I tell the stories of Sandy's messy locker! Oh the book shelves...

So while we were at Disney, Scotty made the frame. When I got home we attached them to the wall. He didn't want to do it while I was gone because he wanted to make sure I approved. Scotty is a smart man, he was married for 50 years, I think that has something to do with it! :-)

After they were attached to the wall, I picked out trim I wanted at Lowe's, and we attached that. Well, I sort of held the wood while he hammered.

Mostly because I can't hammer very well standing, let alone while laying on the floor.

Once the trim was all up, two coats of primer, and two coats of paint and sanding in between and you have book shelves!

Then today I filled them up!

Just in case you are wondering whats on the top middle shelf?? That would be all those things that are only priceless to a mom, some of the kids school projects through out the years.. A pink ceremic pig mug by Ian. A ceramic Mom mug by Collin. Eagle jar by Collin. Some kind of Blow fish by Collin. And..... "something" by Ian. I don't know what it is.

That's all she wrote!
M

Home is where the heart is.... or in this case better weather is!

2009-11-01T21:32:00.010-05:00

In the last two weeks, well since the 21st, I have been to Surrey, BC to host a gathering of net friends in honor of Diana Gabaldon's newest book "An Echo of a Bone". We were entertained by dancing skeletons Gayle and Ginny!

We had a White Elephant Exchange and by the look on my face you know it was Craptacular!

And somehow Scotty always gets the girl!

I will have more on Surrey when I make the web page. Surrey, B.C., is always cloudy and rainy, and a bit chilly. I have been going there every year for about 10 years, and can coun't the few sunny days on one hand. The sun just doesn't shine, I've decided I rather have clear skies and snow instead. Cloudy skies are a bit depressing.

When I got back I had just enough time to do some (the washing machine broke as I was washing) laundry, shop for food for Scotty (he was staying and watching the dogs) and pack for Disney.

Here's Collin and Brian on the Runaway Mine Train... I was good this year and didn't go eat an entire Funnel Cake while they were on the ride. (They line wasn't long enough, they would of come back while I was in the middle of it! :-)

Here's the close-up of them.

Florida was having an October heat wave, it was in the very high 80's and very humid, first day we were there it was 97% humidity. I have never seen my hair so curly or ugly. There is no amount of money that would make me move to Florida, I would never have straight hair again!

I will take the snow and cold, for beautiful falls and springs. Just remind me of that in February will you?

M

Let's see...

2009-10-13T23:19:00.005-04:00

Ian came home on Friday for Fall Break. Which means a lot of hair everywhere. Ive never seen someone with so much hair! Its like everywhere too. I thin it everytime I trim it. Even shave off a bit underneath..... and it like multiplies. I'm thinking when he finally decides to cut it, I will make myself a wig!

Brian is in Florida, at a Project Manager's whatever at this hotel. Gaylord something or other Resort.

E'nuf about him!

Sunday, a very cold Sunday, was the Hospice Walk with Fr. Bill. He is 85 years old, and I think Ive been walking this with for 7 years. That means hearing the same stories 7 times! *G* It's like Ground Hog Day only with walking! He actually did 2 miles! Incredible.

Today, I went to stand on Nine One One duty at Scotty's while he crawled under his house putting insulation on water pipes. Brian has a rule he is never on a ladder outside w/o me home, so it's sort of like that for Scotty, a ladder or under the house. Scotty most certainly agrees that he doesnt want to be found dead and stinky under his house. So Brian gave him some of these jumpsuits he use to wear at Bayer when he had to go into rooms that were making drugs. Scotty looked so funny I had to take a picture. It lasts longer you know! *G*

When he came out of the hole an hour and half later, most of that suit was brown!

And Ian went back to school tonight after a Walmart run, where we filled his cart up with apple pie, mac and cheese, and more frozen stuff than his cooler could hold. And... one air freshener! I asked "Who's the stinky one in the apartment?"

I did not get an answer. :-)

M

Table for One...

2009-10-01T21:55:00.013-04:00

During the warehouse furniture sale,there was a table for $97 bucks. The delivery men damaged it, and it was unusable. I looked, Scotty looked, and neither of us could find one the right size for a small eat-in kitchen. So I said...Scotty you should make one.

So he figured out what size he wanted it, bought some pine for the top. I bought some table legs off of Ebay cheap. It was just under $100 total. I have this thing for decorative trim.

Like here when I added it on my kitchen cabinets.

and here when I added it to the kitchen island.

I liked the stuff on the kitchen island so much I put it in the bathroom too!

So all that to say....I thought Scottys table needed trim too! Here's the table in the middle of its first coat of stain. I stained thats about it.

And all finished with trim.

As you can see the door still needs to be painted, and the register cover is in the garage waiting for paint. That's another day.

M

Last week...

2009-09-28T23:11:00.009-04:00

What a great week last week...

I dug a hole, that's basically all I did. I forget what I was working on, but for this project all I did was dig a hole. Not a big hole mind you, it did have small rocks in it and was very tedious if that helps my case. When Im working on stuff there, the doggers usually come with me. There's a fence in his backyard he repaired enough for them, and I would put a little temp fence across the drive way. Well, Miss Lola kept going under it and I kept finding her in his neighbors yard, or one day in the middle of the street trying to scare the mailwoman. So now theres something more sturdy,it was cheaper than wood and it looks cute.

......and "No", they wont jump over that.

Then on Saturday.......
Scotty and I went to a DG signing in Dayton, she has a new book out. Renee and her new boy toy *G* Victor met us there from Pittsbugh. They were on Renee time so that meant they missed the DG talk, and then we had very high numbers for the signing line. 180's. So we went to a little pub across the street till our number was up. Well, we went back and no Diana, nobody was there practically, just a few women sitting in some chairs. Luckily DG was taking a nature break. She came back and we got to spend some time chatting with her all by ourselves before she packed up and left, so it worked out a bit better than standing in the signing line.

So that was a good day right there, but it gets better. Brian drove up for dinner (he didnt want to leave at 9:30 in the morning with me), and Georgia, Will and Will's mom also came to Dayton for dinner. So we had a nice laugh filled dinner to officially meet Renee's new dude. I don't know who named Victor, the new dude, sounds like Brian. :-) Scotty and Victor got free muffins because they had never been to a Mimi's Cafe before. We also got free dessert from them because they asked us all to move over. Boy was that worth it!

So I have no pictures of that... I forgot my camera, and forgot that the phone had a camera too. I do however have a picture of the gift I made for Victor. Renee, says hes very sweet, and always says or does romantic things. The only thing is Renee isnt quite use to this and sometimes doesnt always notice some gestures. So I told her Victor needs a journal to write all the nice things he does down, so he can remind you later. So I made Victor a journal with this graphic.

You know I dont get together with my sisters very often, and that might be a bad thing. But... when I do get together with them, all we do is laugh, and that is a great thing!

M

Movies... gotta love 'em.... or not!

2009-09-19T22:28:00.008-04:00

Okay, the kids are back in school and I've been going to the movies a lot! Here's my round-up.

Julie & Julia
Loved, loved, loved this movie! It was very funny, funnier than I thought it would be. Beware, you leave very hungry. Which is a very hard thing to do considering you just inhaled a bag of popcorn!

District 9
I didn't want to see this one, but Brian and Collin went and said I would like it.... and I did! It starts like a documentary, and is that way pretty much through the whole movie. Set in South Africa, with some aliens landing there, and they don't know what to do with them, so they set up a camp, which turns into a city by itself. Lot's of aliens getting blown to pieces and a bit too much of the "F" word, even for me, and that's one of my favorite words. :-) If you can handle those two things, you'll like it.

Whiteout
This had some of my least favorite things in it.... it was a thriller, and it was in Antartica. Confusion and Snow... Yuck! I knew it was going to be bad when it opens with a naked girl in the shower for no reason at all. So if you would like to waste some money for no reason at all, or really like naked girls in showers... go see it.

Inglorious Bastards
I didn't think I would like this at all. It's pretty violent, but the plot it great. Basically the Jews getting revenge on Hitler.... c'mon you have to admit you would like to see that! It's one of those movies that almost everyone in it dies... so dont get attached to anyone, not that anyone is worth getting attached to.

Love Happens
Okay, this is advertised as a romantic comedy, and it's not. Not at all. My neighbor's mom came with us since it was the 8th anniversary of her spouses death, you know to kind of have something to take her mind off of it, and we are watching the movie and the plot...
A motivational speaker that helps people deal with their grief! So not a lot of laughs, I think I cried more than laughed. It was okay. It's a rental.

Today Brian and I saw...

The Informant
Was really looking forward to this, the previews were great, I love Matt Damon, and it's a comedy. Where can you go wrong? It wasn't funny. I didn't find it funny, and I think I'm a pretty good judge of funny. But judging how many times I laughed in what felt like three hours sitting there, I would have to say skip it.

Now all those movies you see a lot of trailers, this is by far the one I'm most looking forward to...

I have found with all my big screen movie watching, that when George Clooney is that big infront of you... nothing sucks that he is in!

M

Oh wait, I forgot one...

All About Steve

That fact that I saw it last week and forgot it, sort of says it all!

James Fraser's Crest!

2009-09-14T23:18:00.008-04:00

It's done! Should be on the jewelry site by next week, but here's how it came down. In the "Outlandish Companion" by Diana Gabaldon there's a picture of Jamie's crest. So I made a graphic from the b/w picture.

Sent to Bob the graphics guy at the jeweler... and he turns it into a graphic for the mold.

Then "Bob's your uncle!" or in this case "Bob's your jewelry go to guy!" you have Sterling Silver Jamie Fraser Crest!

James Fraser arms while his father Brian was alive...

And after his fathers death...

Too cute! I suppose I should say they are handsome and rugged like Jamie, but with those little flowers they are just too cute! :-)

I cannot thank Diana enough for giving me this opportunity to create jewelry from her books. I just hope everyone has as much fun wearing it as I do having it made!

M

Where the búfalo roam...

2009-09-06T00:18:00.005-04:00

Forgive the site, I was checking out new templates and found this one, but it seems some of it is in Spanish and I'm too tired to change it!

I really should make my own template, but I'm too lazy to make one. I do sort of want one with lab puppies on it though. :-)

Anyway...... about the buffalo...

Driving on Route 37 the other day, I thought I saw some buffalo grazing. On the way home I turned down the street I thought they might be at and here they are!

There was only one male.....he was HUGE. He's on the left side of the picture. Lot's of babies all different sizes. Click on the picture, it's a pretty good size, buffalo size a matter of fact.

There is something very cool about seeing buffalo a few miles from your house, and right outside a large city. Even though they are probably a buffalo meat farm. Sort of like the Elk farm a few miles up from this place. The elk all grazing with a big sign a few feet away "ELK MEAT". I have a hard time looking at them now, I just see little bulls eyes on their furry heads.

I should really spell check and proof read before I post this, but I'm too tired and lazy to do it!

Have a great Labor Day!

M

****I just have to note that I have changed this blog template about three times since this post, but I think with the brown and green I found a keeper!

Scotty's House

2009-08-24T15:34:00.018-04:00

Before I start.... just click on any picture to make it BIGGER!

So my old fart (yeah thats you Scotty!) friend Scotty who moved about a half hour away from us, let me help me decorate his house however I wanted as long as I do it on the cheap. I do ask him what he wants though and try to make it to his taste. However, he did say he is not crazy for red.... I keep telling him I used maroon! :-) He's been very happy so far, and its looking pretty good!

The House

So he gets this HUD house, that cost 22,000... yep 22, he paid more for his car! It's really cute!

The Front Room
So the first room I did was the living room. It basically needed paint. The carpets need to be taken up and there is hardwoods underneath, but saving that for another day. We hit a warehouse furniture sale here and got some great stuff! He brought mostly tools/clothes from CA. and three other things. A mink throw, a iron Indian head a friend made, and a favorite quilt of Helens, who passed in Sept.

Scotty with Helen's quilt, also with a board in his hand he was putting in an a/c unit in his office.

We couldnt find a TV stand we liked, so we found this buffet hutch top by Brohill that retailed for 1100.00, on clearance for 97 bucks! It was perfect!

I dont know how many chairs Scotty sat in before we found this one that was just right! And the Indian head. Pillow I made with left over fabric from curtains and faux leather from Ian's headboard.

Found a leather loveseat and ottoman for 400, and the mink throw. Picture's were in Ian's room in Granger.

I found some little conchos on clearance at Hobby Lobby so I added them with some leather thread on his tab tops I made of maroon ultra suede.

Brian likes to call his bedroom the "Chick Magnet Room"

Here's the before picture.

When I stripped the wallpaper, I found mold, so we had some drywall repair work to do. It has cotton insulation from the 50's! Scotty replaced it, see all the mold on the right one. Ewwwwwwwww!

Found a great suede headboard bed for him at the warehouse sale! The paint is left over from our master bath. That chair Scotty had to have, he was going to use it in his office, till we went to that warehouse sale and found a office chair for 5 bucks!

The window boxes Scotty made, and the fabric is left over fabric from a slipcover I made. It's actually the first cushion I made that I screwed up. :-)

The pictures in the bedroom are so cute! I got them at the JC Penney outlet site for 39.90. I got six of these doggers! I have two left for home here. If I didnt like the pics I was just going to use the frames, they are beautiful! Click on these and see how cute they are!

The dressers are mine that I had in a closet, the mirror and lamps are also from storage here. My closets are empty! It's wonderful!

The Kitchen

The only "before" pic I have...

I'm not a country kitchen type person, but the house really lent itself to that, and Scotty liked hoe the old wallpaper border lookrf on the soffet, and asked if I could do something like that. The color, if you have been to my house, my whole house is this color and I had some left in a five gallon can. I first got the pictures, I saw some cute real samplers at Old Time Pottery...cheap! That whole wall of stuff cost 25 bucks, and bought wallpaper on clearance on the net. :-) The ceiling fan was there, and in decent shape I just replaced the globes.

We dont know what the old owners had as a back splash, but it was some type of fiber board, with contact paper and wallpaper over that, with large gaps. First I wanted to put that faux tin ceiling panels on it. But that turned out to be too expensive (very cool though!) and I used paintable wallpaper instead in a tin tile pattern and painted it high gloss. The stuff is cool! It hides large flaws, and is easy to paint, and is only 12 bucks a double roll at Menards.

Look at the range hood...... its not almond... its white! Its left over smoke residue on there I cant get off. It will be replaced later.... but people dinna smoke in your house... eeewwww!

He bought all new appliances. :-) If you look at the cabinets over the stove, thats the faux tin ceiling sample. I just cut it up and put some gold leaf on them to replace the Shakey's Pizza stained glass plastic that was in there...too cute!

The border didnt cover the whole soffet, so I wallpaper above it. The little pictures on the right.... they are tiles.... 69 cents a piece!

That's our spare microwave, its too big, and Scotty just ordered a countertop dishwasher, so I said... you need a Baker's Rack for the little corner and you can put a smaller microwave on there, I know just the one, its on clearance at Walmart for fifty bucks! And.... its now here! Next day I came back with it, and he had already put an outlet on the wall.

The pictures, wallpaper, back splash, trim for floor, curtains, trim paint, Baker's Rack, chairs, (he still needs a table).... I did the kitchen for LESS than 200 bucks! I have his new sink window curtain on my dining room table waiting to be hemmed, and it just needs a little something more, I dont know what though...... oh maybe a button trim along the bottom. *G*

What's cool is..... Scotty is a handy guy, if theres not an outlet on the wall and he needs one, there's one there the next day. He's a wood worker too, so if I need any little pieces of molding or anything... it's done the next day. The only difference is...in California he use to chop a tree down and mill the lumber, and here he has to go to Lowes!

So...... you can see why I haven't been blogging much because I usually have a paint brush in my hands. Everyone says... Oh youre so nice to do this or that, but when I have total control and can do what I want, its not me being nice, it's me having a blast! :-)

Next.......the outside deck and garage, nothing exciting there!

Home Alone....

2009-08-23T13:23:00.005-04:00

Collin started school on the 12th, so he starts his third week on Monday. Ian left for school yesterday, seemed a lot smoother. He's in an apartment this year, located on campus
http://www.housing.purdue.edu/HTML/Housing/Hilltop_Apartments/Default.htm

It's Ian and two other friends he knows, one his roomie from last year. We spent Wed, Thur and Fri painting a table he made. It turned out better than I thought it would. I thought by the end, the "P" wouldnt look like a "P". :-)

He has also changed his major from Engineering to Computer Graphic Technology... I think thats it. :-) It's a much better fit for him, he's a bit more on the creative side than the Sciences, and he will enjoy his work instead of dreading it. Plus Im hoping he gets some cool software. *Grin*

The time I wasn't painting a table, I was painting Scotty's kitchen! That's finished, and I will blog about that with pictures soon. It's amazing what a can of paint can do!

Monday I have the house to myself again, well me and dogs. Can't say I will miss ESPN on during the day!

Happy Sunday to you all!
M

Twenty......

2009-07-25T22:43:00.007-04:00

Ian turned twenty this week, we celebrated today since he worked the night of his birthday date. Like most Moms, I cant believe I'm old enough to have a 20 year old. I liked their birthdays better at this age....

Or even this age....

Even though Ian just got moolah for his b-day, I don't know ... the excitment in their face just isn't there anymore! :-)

I think he has requested twenty chocolate cakes with chocolate icing for his birthday! Where as Collin is maturing..... last birthday he wanted White Chocolate Cheesecake!

......and didn't even care if it cracked and sunk a bit, but as you can see could barely contain his excitement.

Next time maybe I will light the candle under their..... oh nevermind! :-)

M

250th Order!!!!!!!

2009-07-21T15:19:00.007-04:00

(link here!)
Wooooo Hoooooooooo!
The Author's Attic, my novel inspired jewelry site just received its 250th order!

It's been open less than a year, and I'm looking forward to bringing in a couple of new products in time for Christmas!

Thanks everyone for being so supportive!

M

Catching up....

2009-07-16T21:28:00.003-04:00

Let's see...

Ian is on his way home from Wisconsin, he just spent some time up at a friends cabin with some other friends.

All the boys here are off to Chicago to see a Sox game on Sunday.

I've been busy helping a friend fix up thier house. If anyone remember's my computer mentor Scotty??? He was looking for a small house to fix up and live in for a few years and found one about a half hour north of here. With my parents gone it's sure nice to have someone their age (well a little older) to help and tell you everything you do is wonderful and appriciates everything!

We have been to lot's of movies.... all recommended.

The Hangover - funniest movie I've seen this year!
Public Enemies - little long, but cool if you grew up in Chicago and live in Indiana. Plus it has Johnny Depp which makes time go waaaay faster!

The Proposal - predictable but fun.

Still have to see the new Potter yet.

I haven't been reading anything, I've been stripping wallpaper, replacing drywall, caulking.... and more caulking. I don't think I can stomach another Lowe's, Home Depot or Menards trip. Harbor Freight gives me a headache, that place ...... stinks! :-)

Staining the deck this weekend... OMG I can't tell you how much I detest spending 200 bucks on stain. It's crazy!

Oh and lot's of clearance shopping... I love clearance!!!

Hope you are having a good summer and it's going a wee slower than mine!
M

Civil War in Four Minutes

2009-06-24T12:18:00.004-04:00

I meant to post this w/our Springfield trip, this was the neatest thing we saw at the Lincoln Museum.

It's the Civil War in four minutes, how the borders change with the battles. You might not be able to see it, but in the lower right corner is the casualty numbers rising as the war continues.

You can find it

Here
Here
or Here!

Bad Michelle, bad!

2009-06-16T23:36:00.003-04:00

I've been a bit busy lately, and haven't spent as much computer time as I usually do. Which basically means... it's warm out! :-)

As of right now, Brian is in Mexico City for a week. He said it's an experience, that he has never really seen a rat walking along the sidewalk with people in a city before. He's anxious to come home.

Brian and I had an overnight last weekend in Springfield, Illinois. A friend and I made a pact if Obama won we would meet up in Springfield to toast him! Well, we did meet up and had a wonderful time together, toured Lincoln's home together... didn't realize till the drive home that we forgot to toast!

One of the coolest things we saw at the Lincoln Museum was this little video.... The Civil War in Four Minutes. I found a link tonight for it.
http://www.livevideo.com/media/playvideo_fs.aspx?fs=1&cid=0AAE7142624E434EACC767A347D626A8

If anyone of you have heard me talk about my computer mentor and old fart friend Scotty for the last ten years, he's moving by us. About 30 miles away. His very adult kids moved back home, so he left! :-) He wanted a cheap little house to move into and fix up, and Indiana is cheap! He's a retired mechanic, and great woodworker, so Brian and I are starting a "to do" list for him. Hopefully he doesn't read that before he moves in.

This little guy starts Drivers Ed this week!

Somebody tell me where the time goes?

Hope you all are enjoying your summer!
M

And the winner is.......

2009-05-11T22:05:00.007-04:00

Me! Well, it was really Fiona Graham, but I feel like it was me. *g*

Friday and Saturday I was in Jackson, Michigan meeting up with net friends for a Diana Gabaldon event. Friday night it was a reading and signing at the library.

Saturday, Diana has some writing seminars, I don't go to those, since you can prolly tell by this blog.... there is no help for me! After the seminars was a luncheon, that I did attend. I bought a Brianna's Braclet to raffle off at luncheon. BetsyG and Colly helped me sell tickets, I wouldn't of been able to handle the crowd if it wasn't for them. When finished over 550 tickets were sold, and $528.00 was donated to the library's Word Wise program.

Instead of numbers on the tickets, well at least the first 450 tickets, I used character names out of the books. This sounded like a good idea when I started, at 200 I marveled at Diana's ability to think up names, but at around 300, I was beginning to think I was nuts for thinking of this, and wondered how in the heck does one person come up with that many names?

I did notice a bit of a pattern though, there were a lot of "J" names, a bunch of "Geordie"s, other initials I don't remember (I know this memory thing is sad), and thankfully only one "Loaghaire". I did include names of animals, and appendages such as Bonnet's "Leroi". I really wanted "Leroi" to win, but to no avail.

I lost my voice due to allergies about two weeks ago and was just getting it back on Thursday. But lost it again on Friday, Michigan is about two weeks behind so they were in full bloom, so I lost it again. Which was a bit embarrassing getting up in front of about 225 people sounding like Peter Brady when he became a man!
(I just had to post this picture I thought it was so funny, it looks like Im trying to catch flies with that huge mouth open.)

Diana picked the winning ticket which was... "Fiona Graham"! To which I looked at Diana, and said, "Fiona Graham?" To which she replied, "You know her, Roger's Fiona." Me, "Oh yeah!" Phew, nothing like forgetting a character in front of the author. :-)
This is what the little tickets looked like.

After the luncheon was over, Lynn, the gal that won the bracelet came up to me and asked if I was the same "Michelle" that started the Katherine Swynford Yahoo Group? I said, "Yes." And she preceeded to tell me years ago I posted a recommedation of "Outlander" on the group and that's why she read the book. I just thought that was the neatest thing!

(Lynn the winner, Diana and moi)

While cleaning up these two older women came up to me and asked if I was the "jewelry lady" and I said, "I am." and they wanted to show me what they got for Mother's Day... it was jewelry from my website. They said they also got Dove chocolate, and I couldn't imagine anything better to go with my stuff, since my favorite milk chocolate is Dove! :-)

Then dinner with buds and Diana, and then I came home. Ian was home from school, and had a nice quiet Mother's Day with the boys!

Lola's Spoooooooooky Birthday!

2009-05-07T09:29:00.005-04:00

So, I do make cupcakes. They are more for us than for Lola, esp. since they are chocolate cupcakes and chocolate is a no-no for dogs. So I go to put one candle on a cupcake and I have all that type of stuff in a little box in my baking cabinet.

I see one pink candle laying out of any candle box in the bottom of the supply box. With all boys we usually always have pink candles. :-) So I dig out the pink candle and go to put it on the cupcake, and there is a Montana hair on it. Hair gets everywhere with dogs, but usually the inside of cabinets, well the top cabinets are safe.

Maybe it was just his way of saying....
Don't forget me.
I'm okay.
I'm still here.

or maybe..... I want a cupcake too!

Of course there is the singing and then we scare the crap out of the dog with fire!

M

Happy Birthday Lola!

2009-05-04T15:25:00.004-04:00

Lola is one today! Just a year ago this week, we lost Montana and a big chunk of our hearts. What we didn't know was, two days after Montana died, Lola was born... and was meant for us.

Lola sleeping under my desk chair her first week with us.

Lola trying to sleep BY my desk chair today.

Puppies do heal the heart!

M
.......and yes I made her cupcakes!

I have a feeling mine will be of food....

2009-04-17T23:34:00.009-04:00

So when I was looking up the last words of Napoleon to double check I had them right... I found this site with people's last words. I thought it was kind of interesting!

Especially those of people that were getting excuted, some were jerks till the end...

Kiss my ass.
Who: John Wayne Gacy
Note: Those were Gacy's last words before being executed by lethal injection.

I did not get my Spaghetti-O's, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this.
Who: Thomas J. Grasso, d. March 20, 1995, executed by injection, Oklahoma.

Remember, the death penalty is murder.
Who: Robert Drew, d. August 2, 1994
Note: Executed by injection, Texas

...some thought they were comedians, not murderers.

Well, gentlemen, you are about to see a baked Appel.
Who: George Appel, executed by electric chair in 1928.

Hey, fellas! How about this for a headline for tomorrow's paper? 'French Fries'!
Who: James French.
Notes: French, a convicted murderer, was sentenced to the electric chair. He shouted these words to members of the press who were to witness his execution.

Yes...A bullet-proof vest
Who: James W. Rodgers
Note: Asked if he has any last requests before facing a firing squad.

Now for the law abiding citizens last words.

...some funny

Am I dying, or is this my birthday?
Who: Lady Nancy Astor
Note: In her final illness, she awoke on her deathbed to see her family at her bedside.

Now, now, my good man, this is no time for making enemies.
Who: Voltaire (attributed), when asked by a priest to renounce Satan

Leave the shower curtain on the inside of the tub.
Who: Conrad Hilton when asked if he had any last words of wisdom.

...some that are just too good, they must of thought of them before hand.

Now comes the mystery.
Who: Henry Ward Beecher evangelist, d. March 8, 1887

All my possessions for a moment of time.
Who: Elizabeth I, Queen of England, d. 1603

Thank God. I'm tired of being the funniest person in the room.
Who: Del Close, improviser, teacher and comedian, died 1999

.... some you know they weren't planned.

I can't sleep.
Who: J.M. Barrie, author of works including Peter Pan.

Can this last long?
Who: William III of England, when his doctor told him that he was ill.

Wait a minute…
Who: Pope Alexander VI

...some just sad.

I'm going to go be with Gloria now.
Who: Jimmy Stewart, speaking of his late wife

Hello.
Who: Graham Chapman, Monty Python's comedian, to his adopted son who had just arrived at the hospital.

I'll finally get to see Marilyn.
Who: Joe DiMaggio, talking about his former wife, Marilyn Monroe

....and some of food.

That was the best ice-cream soda I ever tasted.
Who: Lou Costello

I just wish I had time for one more bowl of chili.
Who: Kit Carson, American frontiersman

I should never have switched from Scotch to Martinis.
Who: Humphrey Bogart

Let me change that, I have a feeling mine will be of chocolate!

Josephine B

2009-04-13T14:10:00.019-04:00

The Josephine Bonaparte Collection by Sandra Gulland
The Many Lives and Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.
Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe
The Last Great Dance on Earth

Her website and more on the books

I have never read historical fiction before and the French were the good guys, so I really enjoyed this series. It's written in a journal format, the journal being Josephine Bonapartes. I haven't read anything on Napoleon before either, and basically knew he was short with a big tummy,lost at Waterloo and was exiled to an island. That was the extent of my knowledge, the guy has gotten a bad rap it seems in general, he wasn't that short 5'6", he won way more than he lost, and he's named in an ABBA song, who could ask for more?

(Napoleon)

The story is basically of Josephine's relationships with family, her island upbringing, her first husband, her children, Napoleon, and Napoleon's wacky family. It seems Napoleon's sister Pauline was known as a bit of a floozy, you know the type that let's her nips show in paintings of herself.

(Pauline)

Josephine is portrayed as a lovely person actually, a wonderful mother and a faithful wife to Napoleon, and she spends quite a bit of money.
She wasn't suppose to be beautiful but it's said she had a beautiful voice. The exact same thing is said of Cleopatra. I'm guessing as much as they had bad teeth in those days, that they maybe had bad eyesight too. *grin*

(Josephine)

So these types of stories always gets me googling. There is so much on Napoleon that you could spend years on here and never read it all. He talked .... a lot! Quotes of him are everywhere, he said this...

"Women are nothing but machines for producing children.”

I'm thinking he said this when he was around a bunch of guys, you know how men talk when they are soldiering and their wives are safely in another country! Since Josephine saved his letters we also know some of his quotes from letters to her. Things like.....

"Goodbye, goodbye! I shall go to bed without you, sleep without you. Let me sleep, I beg you. For several nights I have felt you in my arms; a happy dream, but it is not you."

"Oh, my adorable wife! I don't know what fate has in store for me, but if it keeps me apart from you any longer, it will be unbearable! My courage is not enough for that."

Napoleon divorced Josephine because she couldn't produce any children, he thought it was him until his mistress had his baby. Although whatever I've read it says that Josephine did have an affair. It tells after the divorce of Napoleon's little visits to see Josephine just to talk, since they had a friendship as well. I'm not sure if this happened, but would of been nice if it did.

So in my googling for pictures of Josephine, this picture came up....

you might not recognize that, but if you are a devoted follower of Heloise and Abelard you would! You've heard me talk of them before, and I have a website dedicated to a historical fiction novel about them. Well, Jospehine heard or read of their story and had their bodies brought to Paris and buried together. I'm guessing she was a bit of a romantic, but not sure if that explains the male and female mummies, relics of the Napoleons Egyptian campaign, she bought.

If I had to make a decision on whether I liked the lady or not on one thing... her bringing Heloise and Abelard together again would put on the "like" side.

I will leave you with Napoleon's last words...

France, army, Josephine...

Maggie with the waggily tail...

2009-04-06T22:19:00.006-04:00

It was about 12 years ago, I was bestowed an honor, I got to pick out a puppy for my sister Georgia's family. Gretchen had a wonderful black lab named Hank. Hank's breeder was Cheri in New Lenox, and that's the breeder I went to to pick out Georgia's black lab.

We lived in Granger at the time, so when Ian was at school, Collin and I made the trip to Chicago to pick out a puppy! I don't remember how many were in the litter, but I do remember we got to pick from quite a few. I don't even know how old they were when we went to pick them out. If you know me in the slightest bit, you know that being surrounded by puppies is pure heaven to me.

Georgia wanted a black female, because she just loved our Lieber.

There was one female that stood out from all the rest, she had a little colic running down her nose. I thought that was kind of a nice feature in an all black dog, something to set her apart from the others. Collin and I knew, this was our girl or their girl.

That little black girl with the messed up hair on her nose became Maggie. When we moved to Indy, Maggie would stay with us most times during family vacations. I called her the "Human Speed Bump", she would just plop down anywhere and you moved.... not her. For a girl she had a really low "woof", and it sounds just like that ... woooof! Just one woof, no need to expel more energy than necessary.

Really tall for a lab too, we were thankful she didn't want to sleep in our bed at night, but was content to sleep on her little blanket from home on the floor by us. Maggie was just happy, all the time, her tail never stopped wagging.

..... and then comes the call out of the blue, that Maggie is gone. And all you feel is sadness. Not only for the loss of Maggie, but for Maggie's family, because you know what they are going through and unbearably hard it is to get through.

But you know, from losing two of your precious pups that all the tears now are worth all the years you had with your pup. That if given the chance again, to go through what you have to go through now with their death to have the 12 previous years of their love, companionship and comfort, that you would do it all over again in a minute.

We will miss you Maggie here in our home, I can't imagine how much you will be missed in yours.

God Speed Maggie!

Henry VIII es mas macho!

2009-03-27T00:21:00.002-04:00

Since nothing exciting is happening around here, here's what I've been reading and watching....

--Books

"The Autobiography of Henry VIII
with notes by his fool, Will Somers"

This was pretty good, it was written like Henry VIII's journal, so it's Henry's way of explaining a few things like...

-Why its okay to chop the head off a couple of wives.

-Marry a wife while the other wives head is still rolling on the ground.

-Convince your self that a really really fat man is really quite attractive.( I'm thinking Rush Limbaugh can somehow trace his roots to Henry! )

Funny how Henry looks at things totally different!

I also read "Fearless Fourteen" by Janet Evanovich. These are always such fun reads! The problem is, I can never remember what they were about a week later just that it was funny!

--Movies

I think I've only seen one, "Duplicity" with Clive Owen and Julia Roberts. It's a bit confusing. Don't see it if you don't want to sit there and pay attention, and it's a bit slow. My neighbor almost fell asleep..... then Clive took his shirt off!

--Treadmill

I'm watching HBO's "Rome" again on the treadmill. This time with one of the special features on, sort of like "pop-up" Rome. Just little windows come up explaining this or that, for example....

It was okay for a husband have sex with their slave.

Totally understandable to kill your wife and children if the wife had an affair.

Cows were okay to sacrifice, but not to eat.

You know, things like this that would help you in every day life!

Spring has sprung here, it has been nothing but blue skies and beautiful warm days. Which for us means.... dirt and mulch! So you can see why I'd rather talk books and movies.

Elton and Billy....

2009-03-12T14:33:00.002-04:00

Okay you all know me, and you know I don't really "do" concerts. I'd rather listen to people on a nice clear CD. Boring I know, but that's me.

But, I've always regretted not seeing Elton John and Billy Joel in concert about ten years ago in South Bend. So I was determined to go this time when they started touring. So I joined Elton John's fan club so I could get good tickets, and the first date that popped up that was doable for us was March in Cincinnati.

That was two days ago. Last concert I was at was Billy Joels farewell concert about fifteen years ago. That's a guess I dont know how long ago it was.

The stage looked like this......

That's about the distance we were back, but up about ten rows on Billy Joels side.

Billy Joel's piano rotated when he alone, Elton's didnt. Billy Joel seemed more concerned about connecting with the fans, and he introduced members of his band, and talked a bit between songs. Elton didn't really say anything, just got up and bowed after every song.... a bit of a diva, but you knew that. Billy Joel was a lot more physical, Elton really looked subdued compared to Billy Joel.

Then they talked about their ages... Billy just turned sixty, and Elton will be sixty-two. Funny about concerts when you get older and depending on the band.

-We sat more than we stood.

-The only boobs you see shaking are usually on the middle aged men going up and down the stairs.

-I saw more beer guts on women than men.

-The woman next to me clutched her purse in her lap the whole time.

-The woman in front of me must of watched too much Seinfeld and thought Elaine was a good dancer.

-For some reason older woman think they look cool in a solid shiny silver top that makes them look like an anorexic baked potato, which dances like Elaine from Seinfeld by the way.

-Canes, have never been to a concert that I have seen so many canes! I take that back, when I went to Bobby Vinton with my mom.

-Older men go to the bathroom a LOT, get an aisle seat dude!

-At one time the video screen was tinted blue and Billy Joel now looks like Mr. Freeze

All that to say, it was a great concert! Billy and Elton play first together, rotating verses on each others songs. Then Elton solo, and then Billy solo, then they got back together again and they end with Piano Man. It was over three hours long.

Worth every penny!

The dogs have their collars all is right with the world...

2009-03-02T14:31:00.014-05:00

Okay, I'm anal about dog collars. It started with Lieber, she had to have a red one!

Even when she had bone cancer in her leg, and we brought a special harness collar so we could help her walk up and down stairs, we made sure it was red.

Montana our only boy, he of course was always blue. It went with his green eyes.

Okay, then puppies had to be pink!

Lego

Lola

When the puppy develops a personality then it's time to pick a grown up collar. Lego, was a bit feisty, a little wild... so when I saw the leopard collar it was all Lego! Look how well it went with her Minnie Mouse ears on Halloween.

Now, she's 7 and she went through two leopard collars. But then I couldn't find that leopard collar any more and hers was getting a bit... gross. But it wasn't as gross as the orange polka dot one we replaced it with. Ian said she looked fat in it! :-)

And then there was the rainbow phase. Lego is confident in her sexuality so that wasn't the issue, it was just too... you know, unicorn, rainbows, fairies... too cutsie. I'm not into cutsie.

Meanwhile... Lola was in her own collar Hell. Her pretty pink ribbon one, was not very good for playing with the dog next door, it would be in shreds by the end of playtime. So we tried the dreaded orange polka dot in a pinch, it nearly killed her.

While out shopping a few months ago at Sears of all places, we found a leopard collar! Lego was freed of her imposed Fairyland crapola collar, and Lego was back to her spotted leopard self.

We still hadn't found one for Lola yet, let's try Lavender. We did, and it didn't say "Lola"

Then today at Target (Target has the funnest/cheapest dog collars) there it was... a pink collar with a ribbon of pink and orange paisley print. It said "Lola" all over it, you know, the whole nice girl who likes to party but stays aways from the bad boys type of girl... dog.

She didn't exactly party after I put it on her, but it is so her!

And... just in case you are wondering... Lego's Aunt Maggie wears green!

M

My Bad!

2009-03-01T20:19:00.010-05:00

Man, I have been bad at updating, been a bit busy.

There have been some new products added to the jewelry line...

A little how this works. Some items of Diana Gabaldon's are taken directly from a description in the book, like the ring or Brianna's Bracelet. The Running Stag brooch is a take on a piece of cover art from "Fiery Cross", another variation of the brooch from a book description will come later.

Here's some "before" pics

I work with a great guy named Bob at DeSignet and he makes all the final grahics you see.

As far as the Running Stag he made about three different versions and I picked what I liked from each and he combined it all, and.......

and the cute little "Da Mi Basia Mille" pendant, I drew a rough sketch of what I wanted and he decifers *g* that and makes a final design.

The Celtic Dragonfly, I sent him pictures of features I liked on others I've seen and he made it into what you see.

With the new items, I had to redo the whole Gabaldon page on The Author's Attic site...

I also made a You Tube of the Outlandish jewelry, to post on things like Facebook, and .... You Tube. :-) The music is from Emma Beaton, I made her website, and the pictures are from Marcie, who I met up with (along with Chirre) in Scotland a couple of years ago. These things are just so much fun to make!

I'm very happy to say, that the DeSignet was very happy with the sales so far, and we will hopefully have even more new stuff soon! This is so much fun. I basically work with two people, Bob a designer, and Marie who does everything!

So if it seems like I'm on the puter a lot.... I am! :-) But did read a book... "The Many Lives and Sorrows of Josephine B" It was pretty good, it's a historical fiction of Neopoleon's wife Josephine. It ends right when she marries Neopoleon. I have always basically read historical fiction related to England, and this was my first one with French history. The French are always the bad guys when I'm reading. I did find it interesting, I thought the French women could at least have an opinion.

Saw couple of movies...

"Slumdog Millionaire" Very good!

"The Reader" Very very good!

If I had to pick one for the Oscar, I would of went with "The Reader". Also saw "Confessions of a Shopaholic", it was cute. Oh, and I had a colonoscopy, which could of been a comedy in itself.

That's all she wrote!

M

Nothing in Spanish is Nada!

2009-02-09T20:55:00.007-05:00

I've been trying to put together a little site of all the web pages I've made, and I'm finally almost finished. It's not totally done, what's left is an "About Me" paragraph, and since I don't think I'm very exciting that's the hardest to write. So someone else is writing it for me, nothing like having an author as a friend to help you out *g* Thanks Cindy!

While I was making this site, a neighbor asked me to make a website for her, and I have to say it turned out really cute! Since hers sounded more fun, I finished hers this weekend. She didn't want it real matchie matchie, which I have a hard time doing, since I'm very matchie matchie, so it's an eclectic matchie matchie.

The website: The Ellie Tree

Robin is an independent sales rep, she brought over her samples from the Knotty purse company, and they were just gorgeous, and very green! :-)

I had a hard time coming up with a site for myself, mostly because if I think of a style I really like, I usually go for medieval or Celtic looking things, and didn't want a graphics website to look either, I wanted simple.

Red has always been my favorite color, but recently I seem to be drawn to blues, more calming, I must be getting old! Actually the tan m&m was always my favorite and I'm still a bit distraught they stopped making it.

My first attempt at some sort of heading for the website, I went with something more simple. :-)

All that to say here is my simple blue website that has a bunch of graphic and website work on it.
Graphics and Websites by M&M

I didn't have a title for this post, I thought something would come to me while I was typing..... and nada!

M

Man Cave

2009-02-01T21:31:00.004-05:00

Anyone that really knows me, knows I can't stand football, even the sound of it in the background. Hence why in this house it's usually watched in the Man Cave... the basement! Don't feel too bad for them, the Man Cave is quite nice.

I did offer the wide screen TV in the family room to them, seeing that it is a bit of a waste that America's Funniest Videos was playing on it when the Super Bowl was on, but I wasn't taken up on my offer. Some things just can't compete with the Man Cave!

The dogs aren't into football either and were given a nice rawhide to chew on. Lola thoroughly enjoyed hers and was wearing part of it on her nose.

This dog makes us smile every day!

Saw two movies this week. "Taken" with Liam Neeson, it was really good, and "New in Town" with Renee Zellweger that was pretty funny, was a bit slow at the end, but most of those romantic comedies are.

It was sunny and 40 here today, we went grocery shopping with no coats, it felt like Florida!

M

Snow Day!

2009-01-28T12:37:00.004-05:00

We finally got hit! It's been missing us all winter, we have had barely an inch at one time. It's been nice! That little streak ended last night!

We got about 11 inches. Brian is working from home today, and working at home... shoveling!

All's Quiet on the Midwestern Front....

2009-01-27T10:18:00.004-05:00

I tell you it's been really quiet here... which I rather enjoy. Once you have a year of Hell, you never take the "quiet" for granted again.

Let's see saw two movies last week...

Last Chance Harvey with Dustin Hoffman, who just looks wonderful for 71, and Emma Thompson. I like both these actors but it should of been called "Last Resort" because that's when you should see it. It's terribly slow, takes place in London and you could actually feel the time difference, it felt like it was five hours long.

Then with Collin and a friend (don't worry we didn't sit by them) we saw "Paul Blart, Mall Cop", it's rated PG, and it was really really funny! Cute, not very "kiddy" at all. Adam Sandler was a producer and I always like the music in his movies, you can tell he picks them himself, and it always 80's or 90's music, and there is always a song you have totally forgot about and then you hear it and remember you loved it.

In "50 First Dates" it was this one...
311 "Whenever"

"The Wedding Singer"....
Elvis Costello "Everyday I write the book"

......and totally forgot about this one till we saw "Mall Cop"
Survivor "I can't hold back"

I'm not a huge Adam Sandler fan, but I always like the music in his movies, yes even "Zohan". Okay, maybe not "Zohan". :-)

We just got missed with a snow storm, looks like it hit Georgia's.... sorry, well not really, just glad it's not here! :-)

M&M
....missing the 80's.

Mii and Wii

2009-01-14T21:19:00.007-05:00

Okay, I did the Wii Fit the other day. When you first log on it, it will ask you all sorts of questions about your height, year you were born, birth date, etc. Then it weighs you. It was about 4 pounds off, but I think that was because it was on carpet.

It calculates your BMI, and tells you if you are overweight or not. Then somewhere in there your little Mii either shrinks or gets bigger! My Mii, got a wee bigger, that was a bit depressing to watch!

Me as a Mii!
Brian has informed me my real Mii on the Wii is much better looking!

You do these little balance things and then it pops out your age Wii Fit age.

Then it has four areas of exercises, Yoga, Aerobic, Strength, and Balance. I think... I could be wrong. It gives you about four exercises in each category to start, and you can have a demo of each one and then you start doing it.

You can pick your own trainer, male or female. I picked a male since I don't want to look at a cartoon figure thinner than me bossing me around!

Wii Trainer, let's call him Sven!

That first time on there took me about 90 minutes to do 30 minutes of exercises. But a lot of that was putting info in, learning how to do the exercises, shooing the puppy away and trying to figure out how to use the Wii! I had never used it before.

I didn't feel like I got much of a workout, but my thighs sure hurt the next day. Now that I have what to do down, I'm sure the next time will go smoother and faster and be more productive.

I'm on the last season of Remington Steele and have been fighting a cold so I've been sticking to the bike for the last couple of days.

There is nothing better than shedding some pounds to a young Pierce Brosnan!

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm Pierce!

Yikes! It's January!

2009-01-10T20:16:00.005-05:00

I am not sure where the days went, I'm sure they are around here somewhere! Here are the days I'm looking for:

December 16th - I picked up Ian from school, his last exam was that night so he got out a few days early.

December 24th - It was just us here for Christmas Eve, made a prime rib, ate entirely too much of it. We let the kids open their big gift early since Rock Bank II got here earlier than expected, meaning before Christmas. We played that night, I only sang, funny how when I sing the dogs start barking and attack me! But lo and behold I scored rather high with the songs I was familiar with, a few bars of "Hungry like a wolf" anyone? Yes, it was on "Easy"!

December 25th - We opened our gifts in the morning. I got a Wii Fit ... very cool! (actually I haven't used it yet) Brian's parents, Aunt Sylvia, Barry and the kids all made the trek out here for Christmas Day. More beef, a roast beef in the crock pot (I was getting sick of cooking), pies coming out of our doompas. I ate so much on Christmas Eve I had a couple of scoops of mashed potatoes on Christmas and thats it! More gifts and more Rock Band.

The dogs opening their gifts, they are the only ones that dont run from the camera.

December 27th - Brian and I went to Chicago for the day. Ian worked, and Collin decided to stay here and doggie wrangle. It was raining cats and dogs in Chicago, the entire day. We had lunch with Sandy and Mike, and then met up with Georgia, Will, Jamie, Kim, Mike, Renee, Elise and Waylon ... I mean Scotty for dinner. It's a bit trying to drive 3 hours home with a full tummy at 9:30 at night.

December 28th - Ian bought Daddy and Collin Purdue basketball tickets for Christmas so they had to leave for the game at 2. At noon, we discovered for some reason our sump pump stopped pumping and we had a bunch of water in the basement. Saturated carpet by the excercise area, the TV, and the back bedroom. Thank the heavens I bought a carpet cleaner last fall and we got a major portion of it sucked up. Took awhile to dry and then all it needed was a good steam cleaning and deorderizing. (which actually didn't happen till today)

New Years Eve - Ian was out, Collin had three kids over, Brian was in bed at 9 sick, and I don't have a clue what I did that night.

January 2nd - Brian and I went to Dallas for the weekend to visit Brian and Cheryl and their herd of dogs! We went to the Canton Flea Market which we are told is one of the biggest in the states, and we made it through two sections, our legs were tired and my Brian couldn't handle any more obese men in overalls. If we weren't flying home, I would of bought tons .... some cool furniture there! Sunday we had dinner with two net friends Angela and Ren, they took us to this local family style restaurant called Babes. It was great chicken, but not as great as Angela and Ren.

From the 6th on, not sure where those days went. Brian went back to work, Collin back to school, and Brian also got Bronchitis, and were packing up Ian to go back to school on Sunday.

And that brings us to Saturday, January 10th, 2008

M

Dog Days of December

2008-12-10T10:19:00.009-05:00

Lola survived her spaying surgery. It amazes me how well dogs do after surgery. Especially after I caught her hopping up into the raised flower boxes in the yard. All those stitches ripping apart inside is the first thing you think of!

Lola napping on what's left of her morphine meds.

She had her dew claws removed, this breeder didn't remove them and I never thought of asking before hand, I will now. Because not only will it cost you an extra 100 dollars, your doggie has to wear booties if it's raining to cover the little bandages. Booties on dogs, it's not natural, and it's not happening here. Of course the booties that the vet sends you home with are made with empty IV bags and gauze, and last about two minutes on their feet. So we cover the bandages with Saran wrap, and take her on her leash so she doesn't run around in the rain. Thankfully it stopped raining.

I have to admit the bandages are kind of cute.

She looks like a little race horse when she is walking around, or a misplaced dog from the 70's. Remember when people wore sweatbands as an accessory.:) Not me!

Lego sprained something over the weekend, and was walking on three legs when Lola left for the vet. So Lego spent Monday sleeping the whole day and is back to normal finally today.

Doggies are all here and accounted for, it just doesn't feel right when one is here w/o the other.

M

Crazy Neighbor Sugar Cookies

2008-12-05T09:46:00.012-05:00

Back when we lived up in Granger, I had a neighbor, yeah the crazy neighbor, who gave me her sugar cookie recipe. This was the best sugar cookie recipe out there, very much worth her craziness. I've been making them for over 15 years, pretty much knew the recipe by memory except when I lost it, and for the life of me couldn't remember the amounts of anything!

For about three or four years, (can't remember that either, seeing a theme in my blog?) I tried various sugar cookie recipes and none even came close, so I gave up the quest. Then out of the blue one day over the summer the recipe came back to me, so I quick wrote it down so I wouldn't forget ... again.

Here it is:

3 Sticks Butter or Margarine
2 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 salt
2 tsp. vanilla
5 cups of flour

Chill dough and roll.

350 for about 10 minutes

Theres one thing I do when I bake cookies that is never according to the directions. You know when they say to mix the baking soda, powder and salt to the flour? I don't do that, I cream my butter,sugar, eggs, vanilla, and then at the end add my baking soda, powder and salt, and then the flour. I noticed I don't get that baking soda taste in the cookies.

It's 10 a.m., have to order my Elton/Joel tickets.....here's a Billy Joel song while I'm gone, this is "our" song. Of course I picked it, I had "The Stranger" 8-track it was on. *G* If left to Brian to pick "our" song, he would of had some hard rock song! My favorite Billy Joel song is "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant".

OMG $390.00! I really regretted not going about 7 years back, because I thought it was too pricie. I still think it's too pricie, I would rather buy a TV, diamond, anything that last longer than four hours, but it's not worth all the years of "could of, would of, should of's", so I just bought them. March 10, in Cincinn, it will be my B-day present. Actually it's more like $430, because I joined Elton's fan club to make sure I could get tickets. I've been to two other concerts in my life, Rare Earth when I was maybe 10, and Billy Joel, and Billy Joel we were up in the last row of the United Center and he was still good. So we will see how this goes...

Since I don't have a picture of my sugar cookies, here's my favorite Elton John song...

You know sometimes on YouTube, the comments are actually better than what you are watching or listening to, in this case:

Yeah, there was a time I could relate to this song severely. Now I'm debating which of five hot waitresses will I date!

On that note, back to cookies. I make a lot of my dough ahead of time, freeze and then bake half of it in one weekend for the cookies I send to my siblings, and then closer to Christmas I bake the other of half of the dough so we have cookies for guest and for US!

Happy Baking!
M

Oh, just in case you forgot who "Rare Earth" is or it's before your time! You Ready?

Stuff

2008-12-03T16:21:00.007-05:00

I haven't done much since the last time I posted.

What I did:

Made a website for an up and coming folk singer! A sister of a good friend.
www.emmabeaton.com

Cleaned and cooked for last Saturday. Mim, Norm, Sylvia, Barry and family came out and we spent the day together.

Lot of laundry. Ian came home and then Brian is in Chicago all this week for a prep class for a big test he has to take next week.

Went to the vet. Lego got a infected anal gland, and "yes" it's as smelly as it sounds! Montana had one in the spring, seems we have a lot of pain in the asses around here.

What I didn't do:

No Christmas decorations at all! Since we had company Saturday, Friday was spent picking up the house and cooking, and Sunday Brian left, so they didn't get put up. Now it's too cold for me to go out there and do it, and since there's no warm up coming, I doubt they will get up this year. Every year I seem to hate this cold weather more. Its so damp lately everytime I go out in this cold my chronic bronchitis kicks in.

Oh, also what I didn't do. I didn't make stuffing on Thanksgiving! How the heck does a person forget to make stuffing on Thanksgiving? I do believe I'm officially losing it!

I haven't made cookie dough yet either, I'm way behind this year. I guess it's time to take the pumpkin off the porch!

Okay, I need a picture...

Our Christmas card from 2003, I do believe I remembered stuffing that year!
M

Happy Birthday Collin!

2008-11-24T09:17:00.014-05:00

Well, my baby boy turns 15 today. What always amazes me is how young kids look when they are 15. Brian was 15 when I met him, and he's never looked that young to me.

This is what Collin will always look like to his momma!

He was my little Thanksgiving baby! He was a planned C-section and the date chosen was November 24, seeing that Thanksgiving was November 25 that year. We were in South Bend and the last thing I wanted to do was host a Thanksgiving dinner, or drive into Chicago to go to one when I was a week away from my due date, which was the 29th. (I think) So I planned it that I would be in the hospital for Thanksgiving. One of the best decisions I ever made!

I remember Brian and I getting on the elevator when we got to the hospital, it was early like 6 a.m. and a woman comes in and says, "You two must want a girl!" And then we said, "What makes you say that?", and she says, "You both have pink shirts on." It was the early 90's Brian had a pink polo on I'm sure, it was that whole "Real Men Wear Pink" fad! *g* I had whatever pink top fit over a huge tummy. It didn't matter to us, girl or boy, we really did just want a healthy baby.

Collin's middle name is Johnston. We wanted a family name from Brian's side, didn't care for Norman (Brian's dad) or George (Brians grandpa), so Brian's dads middle name was Johnston, he was named after the Dr. that delivered him, so that's what we went with. If I could change anything about his name, I would of spelled it Colin. But Colin Powell was big in '93 and everyone pronounced his name like part of ones poo anatomy, so I put the extra "L" in so people would say Collin not colon. The bad thing was, all those trips to Disney World, you could never find "Collin" on things, it was always "Colin", I always felt so bad for him.

Okay, so I asked Collin what cake he wanted for his birthday, his choice, it wasn't chocolate with chocolate, it was...

White Chocolate Cheesecake

Heat over to 300.

Make any sort of crumb crust you would like for the bottom. Sometimes I use Oreo, sometimes chocolate graham crackers, Nilla wafers, today I used cinnamon sugar graham crackers. Just maybe 2 cups of crumbs and 2-3 tbl. melted butter. 1 tsp. vanilla depending on what you chose to make crumbs with. Press into bottom of springform pan.

Mix:
3- 8oz. room temp. cream cheese
1-14oz. can Sweetened condenced milk
3-large eggs
2-tsp. vanilla
1-tbl. corn starch

mix till smooth and then slowly add 1 bag MELTED white chocolate chips.

(just heat in micro at 50% power, first for a minute, stir, then another minute stir, and then do it at 30 second intervals, just always cook at 50% power and you shouldnt get clumpy chocolate)

Mix till smooth, pour into springform pan with your crumb crust.

Bake at 300 for 90 minutes, yeppers an hour and half! Then leave the cake in there and turn off oven, and let cake sit in hot oven for 45 minutes.

Also... I put a 9x13 pan filled halfway with water in the pan in the oven also while the cake is baking. This prevents the cheesecake from cracking on top.

Cool. Refridgerate.

That's it! It's WONDERFUL! Especially with a little bit of Hershey syrup drizzled on each piece. I got this recipe back in 1998 from a net friend named Rie. She made it up from scratch, I think of her everytime I make it. Wherever you are Rie... spanks!

My favorite Collin picture...

And to Collin, you are everything a mother is grateful for in a son, I give thanks every year on this date that you are mine!
M

(So Im in Target and I'm thinking, I think I posted this recipe before, the last time I made it. *g* I should of posted the pumpkin cake with brown butter glaze. God thats good!)

Lola gets to 2nd Base

2008-11-22T20:43:00.009-05:00

If I'm not mistaken the "bra" is second base right? I get an email from DH the other day and he asks me if I saw Lola's surprise? I wrote back, "No." A little bit later I go up to take a shower and my pink bra is laying across the sink, with a wire sticking straight out of it, one strap off, and little bite marks all over.

I thought ... Gross, how did Hugh Hefner get in the house?

Then I realized, they weren't denture marks on the bra but bite marks, dog bite marks. Must of been Lola!

I thought I heard heard her around 4 a.m. walking around, seems she went into the third closet (were spoiled, we each have our own closet, the third one is clothes thrown on the tub) and pulled my bra off and chewed it a bit. Now if you remember it was only a couple of months ago she got a pair of my CLEAN panties and brought them outside to delight the neighbors, and this month it's the bra.

It seems Lola is a tad confused and is going around the bases backwards. It should of been the bra first and then the panties, right? Bra-second base, Panties-Grand Slam? Li'l bit of trouble with this since DH hit a home-run sooner rather than later in our relationship. *g*

Bra appears smaller and prettier than in real life

Besides the bra and CLEAN panties she has taken, she hasn't chewed anything in the house, and has just been a little dream pup! But, that said, we will only have one Christmas tree this year, decorated from about half way up!

Pardon me Roy, is that the cat that chewed your new shoes?

2008-11-15T14:57:00.014-05:00

You'll get the title later.

So one of my Surrey Gathering in Canada stories is about shoes. Every year we get Diana a gift for taking the time to be with us. It's getting harder and harder to think of things to surprise her with that are fun. But earlier in the year, one of the sites I make graphics on was now selling Keds you could customize yourself! Cool! So I asked the Surrey group and we decided it was a go.

So I first had to come with a graphic to use. Recently a friend(Hi Janice) asked me to make Diana's family crest for a gift, Diana had mentioned in one of her novels what hers would be if she had one. The motto being "Cur Non" meaning "Why Not", with three hippogriffs and some standing stones.

I started with this...

and made this....

(that's actually finished and framed on a tile Janice and I gave her for her b-day)

So I wanted to use that in a graphic for shoes that wasn't obnoxious and you could wear with jeans. I came up with this...

Then you make all the sides, the top, heel, all according to their specifications, and load them up and zazzle will give you an idea of what they will look like...

And here is how they turned out...

Will she ever wear them? I don't have a clue! :-) But... I bet if she stands very still, closes her eyes and concentrates of Scotland, clicks her heels, one, two, no three times and then opens her eyes, she will be standing in the same spot where she started from!

The title...When ever I think of shoes, I think of this punchline to an old joke...

Roy had a brand new pair of shoes. He goes to visit his friend. Being polite, he removed his shoes and leaves them at the door. While visiting with his friend, the friend’s cat discovers Roys new shoes, likes the smell and proceeds to chew them up. Roy goes ballistic. The friend, feeling very bad, has a dilemma: he has two cats. One of the cats enters the room at that moment.

The friend then asks: Pardon me Roy, is that the cat that chewed your new shoes?

Repeat the punch line to the tune of the Chattanooga Choo Choo.

When I went to Florida with Gretchen and her family when I was.....10 or 11 I think. We sang that punchline while in the car all the way from Chicago to Florida, and I would guess very loudly while going through Chattanooga, TN. It is truly a wonder we both made it alive till the end of the trip, no bruises or anything!

That's all from a rainy cold Indiana Saturday,

M

Busy as a sick bee!

2008-11-13T09:36:00.007-05:00

I know I haven't updated in a bit...

The Author's Attic page has kept me busy. Since I last updated they have created a new Claire's pendant and earrings.

I've made a webpage. Fairy Door anyone?

They are too cute, and it comes with a little story about the fairy that lives there. Friend Cindy who wrote Exit Unicorns, makes these.
Hidden Realm Fairy Doors

I went to Vancouver to hang with my net friends, I will post separately about this one, too much to tell. Always too much fun.

Came home from Canada and got hit with the flu and cold, and now a sore throat. It seems that eating left over Halloween candy all day does not cure all. This was our first year none of our kids went trick or treating. :-(

Was feeling sorry for myself and made the mug cake posted below. Didn't care for it, it's easier just to make a pan of brownies I thought. Gotta share the brownie pan again just in time for your xmas giving!
Baker's Edge Brownie Pan!

Now I admit I was praying for rain for walking the mini-marathon, but the flu took care of that for me and on the mini morning I couldn't even walk up the stairs and missed it. Although extremely happy to report, neighbor Robin triumphed! Walked the Hospice walk with Fr. Bill in October, and he was very interested to see if I was going to make this 13 mile walk, and was under strict instructions to "let him know". Well, I sent him my number!

Caught up finally with Grey's Anatomy! Missed the season premier, it was off the website before I could watch. Blond dude Kevin McKidd (or something like that it's early) from HBO's Rome is on it now, he has a way of playing soldiers. :-)

As far as movies, saw The Dutchess, it was good. We will all go see Bond this weekend. Going to see The Changling (I think) tomorrow.

Read three books-two with Henry the VIII connection. "The last wife of Henry VIII", who was Catherine Parr it was pretty good. Had the feel of "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "The Virgin Lover", by Phillipa Gregory, it's about Queen Elizabeth's relationship with Robert Dudley. Actually I have about fifty pages of that one to go, it's not too griping, wouldn't recommend. "Bet Me" by Jennifer Crusie, I usually enjoy all of Crusie's books, but this one I couldn't recommend either.

Was working on Nancy E. Turners webpage last night and something is in the works there, she won't tell more than that. :-) I tell you authors can keep secrets! It's not a movie but I'm guessing a mini-series of her Sarah Prine books. Fingers crossed, these would be a great series! I LOVE LOVE LOVE these books!

I activated my Facebook page, that thing drives me nuts, but since Colleen has to keep sending me pictures separately, Mandi starts every email with "this would be a lot easier if you were on Facebook", guilt won out and it's under email lolmichelle at yahoo dot com So to those that have been posting for the last......I dont know how long and it looks like Ive been ignoring you, I haven't, it wasn't activated, but it seems people can still post.

God is in his heaven, Obama won the election, Sarah is back in Alaska ... all is right with the world!

M

Happy Birthday Montana!

2008-11-02T21:03:00.003-05:00

I miss my puppy boy!

Promises and Pups

2008-10-20T23:32:00.008-04:00

Sunday...Brian and I celebrated our 23rd Anniversary! He surprised me with peanut donuts from Dunkin' Donuts. Halloween will be the 31st anniversary of our first date! LOL Shit were getting old, and I still have that navy sweatshirt jacket, just had it on the other day.

Lola is six months old!

She is getting really stocky in the chest. She is an extemely calm labrador! She loves to ride in the van. She has just been incredibly good...still bringing mulch and sticks in the house but not as much. :-)

Most importantly.....her nose is still shaped like a heart! :-)

I have been missing Montana like crazy lately. Pumpkins make me think of him, and pumpkins are everywhere this time of year, he loved them!

It's a wonder we ever get another dog, losing them is so hard.

I'm off to Canada in a few, have a good week, and better weekend!
M

MMMMMMMMMMMug Cake!

2008-10-18T23:59:00.006-04:00

Okay I just saw this recipe on one of my reading groups (Thanks CathyS!), I haven't tried it, and prolly wont till I come back from Surrey. But I can't wait! I guess it's going around in emails, I havent received it from anyone yet though, so it was new to me. I'd like to figure out the WW points on it too, maybe I can do it a bit less calorie wise and see if it's a nice subsitute for dinner! :-)

Enjoy!
M

(This is my favorite mug to drink out of.....or maybe to eat chocolate cake out of!)

CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE
1 large Coffee Mug
4 tablespoons flour(that's plain flour, not self-rising)
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons baking cocoa
1 egg - slightly beaten with a fork
3 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons oil
3 tablespoons chocolate chips (optional) (I used a few chopped walnuts instead)
Small splash of vanilla

Add dry ingredients to mug, (I actually use a bowl and then dump it into the mug,sprayed with PAM to bake.) and mix well.
Add the egg and mix thoroughly.
Pour in the milk and oil and mix well.
Add the chocolate chips or nuts (if using) and vanilla, and mix again.
Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes at 1000 watts.
The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! It will sink back down as soon as the micro stops.
Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired. EAT! (this can serve 2 if you want to share-it's really too much for one person - unless you're having a really bad day!)

And why is this the most dangerous cake recipe in the world? Because now we are all only 5 minutes away from chocolate cake at any time of the day or night!

Change for a five?

2008-10-15T10:02:00.005-04:00

Friday, picked up Ian for fall break, and he was home till Tuesday. You can tell he is in school and getting a ton of homework, he made use of his time at home. Lot's of visits to the pantry and went to the show twice, was out every night. Nice to see Collin and Ian together again. Yes, I did his laundry.

Sunday was the Hospice Walk in South Bend with Fr. Bill. He is 84 years old, and we walked maybe a little under a mile. He is slowing down a bit, but just a couple of months ago took a trip out west to see Bryce and the Grand Canyon. Even walked about a half mile down Bryce, and said it was a bit tough. Which means the people that he was with were hoping he wasn't going to keel over on them. In his words....I'm not much for old cathedrals, all that history, nature is where God's presence is. To which I always reply...I'll take the old cathedral. I had to brush two eight legged things off me, I was natured out. It's a bit like the movie Ground Hog's Day sometimes with stories, but always worth the trip.

Went to visit my Granger neighbor Patty, and her new yellow lab puppy Ellie. It's a bit sad to go now and see all these houses where your friends all lived, and most have moved on, and think of all the laughs you use to have. Even sadder to see the house you put so much into taken over by rednecks with wishing wells!

My jewelry site is up and running as of yesterday! I have been just crazy lately with finishing the site up, reading and re-reading for typos, trying to remember which is reverse and regular etch, and getting the photos together, checking every link to make sure it goes to the right place. Making a silver bracelet copper, because the copper sample isn't done yet. Sending out about 900 emails from my Claire's Ring inquiries, I'm at about 300. OMG I'm working! :) I did make a couple husbands day, since I just helped them figure out what to get for their wives for Christmas.

Here it is in all it's glory...

The Author's Attic

Yesterday Ian forgot we had a puppy in the house and left a five dollar bill and two quarters on the stairs. I found a chewed up, well part of a chewed up five dollar bill, and only one quarter. So in that irritating mom yell, called for Ian to help me find the other quarter, hoping it wasn't in Lola's stomach! Envisioning large vet bills or a dead puppy from blockage, we looked everywhere. Finally I found it on the door mat next to the doggie door. Phew!

Next week Surrey!

Sunday in the Park with....

2008-10-07T00:02:00.005-04:00

We drove up to see Ian for lunch on Sunday. It's no surprise to any of us left behind that Ian misses the dogs more than us. So the three of us humans, and two canines took a little road trip to see Ian.

Brian had found a nice little county park with trails, so after lunch we took the dogs for a walk.

Ian said his roommate was a bit messy. This is when I nearly fainted. He said he leaves food wrappers around and doesn't put stuff in the garbage. I think I did faint after that comment. I cannot tell you how many pop cans and Li'l Debbie wrappers I have picked up from my dear son.

Payback is sweet!
M

.......it's happening again. Collin went for a hair cut with Brian last week and asked to start growing it out.

Under Where?

2008-10-02T09:57:00.011-04:00

I was out shopping last night and my phone rings, which is sort of a rarity with me, seeing that either I can never hear it, or I forget it at home.

It's Brian. He says, "Lola has graduated from socks, she's got a pair of your underwear."

I said, " Where did she get those?" I bundled up laundry that day so I know there wasn't any on the floor at least. "Did you get them?"

Brian says, "No, she's outside in the backyard with them."

"You got to be kidding me, go get 'em!" I paused. "Is there a soccer game in the field, are there any neighbors out? Just go get 'em!"

Well, I was hoping if Lola was gallivanting around the yard with a pair of my panties they were at least a pretty pair with lace or something, thank God I don't own any thongs!

But no, just a CLEAN pair of plain cotton hipsters, not white, but almost as boring.... off white! Did I mention they were CLEAN!

(CLEAN objects in picture are most likely larger than they appear)

Puppies.......gotta love them!
M

It's getting close!

2008-09-30T11:20:00.003-04:00

The website has landed!

The Author's Attic

deSignet just sent some final drawings to be approved before they make the samples, some of my designs and some of theirs. It's pretty neat to sit here and make a graphic up and then seeing the final product all finished. I'm anxious to see my "Mrs. Darcy" bracelet.

They basically have given me full reign on picking what to sell, coming up with any designs I think people would like, and best of all I get to make my own webpage and graphics. And if it does well, we will just keep adding more, there's a whole library to explore!

I'm starting out with jewelry relating to these authors/books:

Charlotte Bronte-Jane Eyre
Anya Seton-Katherine
Jane Austen-Pride & Prejudice
and the gracious Diana Gabaldon, my favorite you know. :-)

Here's a litte quote bracelet...

Can I hear a little Woo-Hoo please! :-)

M

Li'l Lola Update!

2008-09-24T23:52:00.005-04:00

The mornings have been cool, so Lola and Lego go out and sit a spell. I took this through the blinds, if they see me they get up, but you can see how big she is compared to Lego.

She's losing that little puppy face.

But still looking still looking like a baby compared to Lego. She's five months old and about 45 pounds.

She's been really good! Not one accident in the house since about 6 weeks old, we can leave her alone in the house and doesnt chew a thing.

Oh and I have to tell you.....way less hair in the house since The Furmintor came! :-)

M

The Horse Hair Bracelet Lady was Right!

2008-09-23T23:00:00.010-04:00

That would be Angela! :-) She told me I needed "The Furminator" and asked if I had one, I didn't know what the heck she was talking about, she explained it was the best shedding tool ever! So, I said a have a shedding blade that works pretty good, and she said it wasn't good enough!

So a couple of days later in the mail was "The Furminator". I made and help Angela with her websites and she spoils me. *G*

So anxious to use it, I get Lego outside.....and I have to say it works much better than a shedding rake. I got a ton of hair off her, and lots less the next day. And her coat is really really soft. She's always had a nice shiney coat, but its nicer!

But I wanted to see how it worked on a long hair dog. So Lisa, the next door movie going neighbor lady, has a Brittney Spaniel Maggie and I sent it home with her yesterday.

Maggie before

She said it worked great and she is off to buy "The Fuminator"!

Maggie after

(Okay thats not Maggie, that's one of those Mexican hairless dogs, I don't have an after picture. No worries, Maggie still has hair.)

I didn't want to recommend it till I knew it worked on longer haired dogs! It does! It's great! It does seem to cut down on the hair!

Speaking of Maggie, she is about to get a little sister. This weekend Maggie and family are going to check out some puppies. They are five weeks old!

Okay, I did ask if could go with! I'm officially a Puppy Whore!

M

"Indulge your imagination in every possible flight."

2008-09-22T21:49:00.011-04:00

A long time ago, in a place far far away... well, it was a year ago August right outside of Niagara Fall in New York. I went to visit a jewelers that I have been working with for a couple of years now with Claire's Ring.

Claire's Ring
is a ring, a friend (Hi Janice) and I wanted to have made from a favorite book. We got permission from the author, and started on a labor of love. I found a jeweler who I really liked their Celtic jewelry they made and they agreed to take it on. One year and hundreds of rings later, I finally got to meet Marie, who I was talking to on the phone and in emails for over a year.

I also met Reg, who is the owner, and they gave me this really cool cuff bracelet based on the ring design to say "thanks".

I began to tell him how there are so many people out that love books, and there is nothing made especially for us, with the exception of bookmarks and a piece of jewelery here and there. Reg said, "If you put some things together, I'll make them and we can sell it." Sounded good to me.

So I drew some designs up, and added some things they had already made. I asked permission from my favorite author and one of the nicest people around (even before she gave permission *g*)Diana Gabaldon to make the jewelry mentioned in her series, and even the cool cuff bracelet.

So here is the first piece of jewelry I have ever designed. They are little bracelets to put quotes from favorite books on. Right now there are two.

From Jane Austen's "Pride & Prejudice"
Indulge your imagination in every possible flight.

From Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre"
Make my happiness - I will make yours

I thought they turned out really cute!

Right now I'm in the process of making graphics, a website and getting prices from the jeweler for a few pieces we're ready to sell now.

Here's my logo I made...

Hopefully it will all be done and uploaded in a couple of weeks!

M
...who is always amazed when she does spellcheck and doesn't find something!

Just in case you are wondering....

2008-09-18T09:26:00.011-04:00

...which side I am on this video explains it. :-)

It's a bit bland but it will answer your questions. It's the first time I've seen anyone in this campaign discuss womens issues in such depth. It's long, it's a half hour but it discusses health care, flex time, equal pay for women, securing pensions for everyone in detail.

Also taxes for seniors, no taxes for seniors making under $50,000. One of the reasons I wanted to post this is it explains about Social Security and privatizing it. I am so against this for the simple reason that people cannot manage a credit card, how the heck they going to manage the funds for their future, especially with the market the way it has been the last couple of days. Not only would the gov't have to bail out companies they would have to bail individuals that can't handle money.

If you knew my mom and her story...social security saved her. That is all the income she had, if it had been privatized all those years ago, she would of had nothing. Because she worked as a waitress and every quarter she earned was used to provide for her children. She didn't have a savings account till she left my father at age 42. When she died at age 71 she had 2000 in her account, and around a $700 monthly social security check, thats it, and she was thankful for it. Thank God my dad died early otherwise her monthly SS check would of been hundreds a month lower. You see it's based on your income, as a waitress my mom made $1.25 an hour.

Even me, the news junkie learned two things new: McCain wants to tax your health care, meaning the services you receive, in my case since I had outpatient surgery, it was easily over $12,000 last year with surgery, meds and Dr.s visits, and this is nothing compared to some I know. So don't get cancer or have major surgery because that would easily add $100,000 for you to be taxed on. I also didn't realize that McCain wants to get rid of companies buying group insurance for their employees and that employees would get a tax credit and pay for their own. I know people who pay for their own health care, it's expensive and it sucks, and there isn't a tax credit in the world that would cover it! Universal health care scares a lot of people, but what people don't realize is that your employer will still be providing your health care if you are that lucky now. It's for the waitresses, the part-timers, children, the small businesses that can't afford health care for their employees. Private insurance will still be there.

One of the things that piss me off about elections, is that people vote for the candidate with the personality they like and not the issues, at least 30% of the population votes this way. You're picking a president people, not a friend. I have quite a few friends, a lot than I can relate to, do I want them as president......no f'in way! Sorry guys there isn't one of you I want to be president, or myself for that matter. Gives me the heebies just thinkin' about it.

I'm an issues person, and I also vote for who will make a better world for my children and my future grand children.(Oh man, I'm getting old!) You know were doing okay, and my life is most likely half over, I'm using my vote for my children.

Here's a site to see where you stand with what candidate on the issues...
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/MatchoMatic/fullpage?id=5542139 I hope it sides with the candidate you have chosen, otherwise you have a lot of work to do.

I'm fully aware I can't change anyone's mind on which way you will vote. But I want people to vote knowing what issues they aren't voting for as well as for, and take responsibility for that vote.

All I really want to say is educate yourself! I know you all don't like watching news all day, but there are things you should do because you have the privilege in this country to vote, and that is to educate yourself on the issues and candidates. Don't pick a candidate on little tidbits or sound bites of campaign crap. If you see something hokey, go to snopes.com or factcheck.org and that will clear things up for ya.

So next time you are on the net, go to a news site that brings together articles from all media, print and video, and in a non-partisan way. I like politico.com for that. Just don't watch one biased cable news station, flip the channel. I cannot stress enough to watch the debates and see who knows their stuff, don't vote because the person running is someone you want to have a beer with. That's how the last president was elected, and proof is in the pudding...or ale for that matter.

I once again turned the comments off for this post, because I know if you are committed to your candidate I can't change your mind, just like you can't change mine. :-) Just asking you to make an educated vote!

Phew, I had to get that all off my chest!

Tax Plan Comparisons

2008-09-15T14:26:00.003-04:00

I found this on the net the other week on the CNN site, it's the only place I've seen it layed out in table form, and thought it made interesting reading.

(Just click on the image to make full size)

I turned off the comments for this post, on the basis that it might get political. I can't keep my mouth shut or clean lately with this election. :-)

M

Truer Words Have Never Been Spoken!

2008-09-12T08:22:00.004-04:00

Yep, you read it right, "Hand over the chocolate and nobody will get hurt."

I was thumbing through a magazine and saw a little ad for Wall Words in the back, went online and browsed. I've been looking for something to put on this blank spot on my soffet (sp?) for a while. Yes, Gretchen there is a blank spot on one of my walls. :-)

If you watch Devine Design on HGTV, she uses these decals quite a bit. Take a look at the website they have some really cool & fun ideas! Every phrase imaginable, or you can make your own.

http://www.wallwords.com/

As far as price, with an online coupon and shipping this phrase was about 30 dollars.

It was pretty easy to put on the wall, and looks just great, clean and neat. Hardest part of the whole process is centering it.

That's all she wrote...or decaled.

M

How do you say "sucks" in German?

2008-09-02T11:45:00.009-04:00

Let's say it was used in the sentence "The Indianapolis German Ocktoberfest sucks." or "Never have I seen another festival that sucks as much as the Indianapolis German Ocktoberfest.", or maybe in question form,"Truly is there an Ocktoberfest in all of America that sucks as much as the Indianapolis German Ocktoberfest?"

Ian was home for Labor Day weekend, in which he took some time both Saturday and Sunday for some labor of his own, he worked. We think he came home to visit with the dogs though, it was ruff on us.

So Sunday we decided to go to the Indy Ocktoberfest for dinner, it was held at the State Fair grounds, so we thought it might be pretty good. We have since decided that everything we attend at the State Fair grounds usually sucks.

So 6 bucks a head to get in, and we had four bratwurst and two Pepsi's for a total of $26.00, add that to the $24.00 to entry fee, and we were there a whopping 30 minutes, spent $50.00. Yes we saw all of the Indianapolis Ocktoberfest is 20 minutes, it took us ten minutes to eat.

We thought there would be a German music stage. There was but the lady was singing a Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin song, I can't remember which.

(Brian hanging out with Dean & Frank)

Then there was another music stage and that band was singing an Elvis song.

(Okay, Elvis is lederhosen is just wrong!)

For the life of Brian and I, we can't understand why people diss Disney food all the time for being too expensive. Brian usually says, "They have never eaten at an airport.", but I'm guessing his new reply will be "They have never eaten at the Indianapolis Ocktoberfest."

So we get into the little shuttle to take us to our car, and I say to the boys, "How do you say 'sucks' in German?" It seems in Ian's five years of German and Collin's one year "sucks" was never used or taught. I guess that's a good thing.

Okay so let's go to an online translator and put in the sentence:

"The Indianapolis German Ocktoberfest sucks!"

Appearantly there isn't a word for "sucks" in German, since this is the translation that popped up.

"Die Indianapolis Deutsch Ocktoberfest sucks!"

Okay, or we can translate that to:

"Die Indianapolis German Octoberfest, it sucks!"

So we stop at Dairy Queen on the way home, for the incredible value of $11.13 we enjoy three medium Blizzards and one chocolate covered waffle bowl turtle sundae! All is right with the world.

Auf Wiedersehen!

M

I hate to tell you this but...

2008-08-25T09:40:00.004-04:00

Lola took up smoking! And the way those eyes look, me thinks it's those funny cigarettes too!

Send your smoke-free puppy vibes!
M

Mass, Meatballs and Merrells

2008-08-21T14:47:00.017-04:00

Bunches of ya have heard about me talk about Fr. Bill, I just adore this man. He's pictured in a another blog post below. He is now 84 and still living life to the fullest and best of all appreciates my sense of humor. :-) He has a niece in the next town over so when he comes for family events he stays at my house because I have less dogs. The niece has five which is too many....I have two.

So I clean like crazy so he doesn't think I'm a pig, and put him in my foo foo girl guest bedroom and hope he doesn't take too close of a look of the "Bad Sunshine Sue" quilt and find the stipper. Something I just can't explain but just love and it still brings a smile to face whenever I see it. :-) Here's a link on it that explains it all and it's well worth it!

M&M's Bad Sunshine Sue Quilt

He didn't think he would make it back home in time for a mass, so we had a little morning mass here at home. I was a bit nervous about it, mass at home, in my house, it was a bit strange to me, so I asked my neighbor to come over for a little support. I didn't know she would have to do the reading, I owe her one. :-) Peace be with you neighbor!

Fr. Bill knows I'm not the best Catholic, and he asked me what Mass Day it is? I said......I don't know what I said, St. Michelle maybe? It turns out it was St. Pius X Mass Day, which is the church we belonged to in Granger...it's where I took my Catholic classes, became Catholic and met Fr. Bill...I thought it was pretty neat.

Back to the Moore Mass. So Fr. Bill gets his "Mass in a Box", "Mass to Go", "Mini-Mass" ....I could go on and on, but won't,and we sit down at the kitchen table, light a candle and have a little mass. He has some wine in a Dasani water bottle. It's funny when you are not in a church with 300 people how you forget what the responses are that you have repeated thousands of times. We were a bit nervous....we sort of mumbled stuff or just forgot it in general. I had printed out the creed before hand, thankfully we didn't do that part.

It was very pleasant and a nice way to start the day. When he was done, I said, "Is this where we get up before you and run out the doors before you?" I hate when people leave mass before the Priest does. I don't know if they realize that this is incredibly rude, it's similar to getting up at the dinner table and leaving when dinner isn't even finished. One priest told me too..."we know everyone that leaves early!" :-)

Then I spent an hour on the phone with my bestest friend in the whole wide world...what's her name?
(Wishing I had a goofy picture of the woman.)

Then Lisa and I went to lunch at the Macaroni Grill, I had half a meatball (oooooooh that's where the meatball comes in) sandwich and a cup of Chicken Toscana soup, which is my all time favorite restaurant soup.

Got home.... first time Lola has been left for 2 hours by herself...she did beautiful, didn't touch one thing. We don't crate train, nothing against it, just it's been easier with me at home and the other dog as an example for the puppy. She's is growing like crazy, shes 26 pounds of love! The other week I discovered her nose is shaped like a heart!

Then got home and the UPS man came to the door with my new winter boots! Now the last winter boots I bought is when we lived in Vermont and went to an outlet mall in Kittery, Maine.....so 1988! LOL

If you have ever had a pair of Merrell shoes, they are the most comfortable things and spoil you rotten for anything else. So I saw these Merrell snow boots last winter and wanted them, but would never win the bid. I wouldn't go over 65.00, they retail for 140.00. So then these popped up last week for a "Buy it Now" and I did .... 50.00. They are just the cutest things and with my boot purchasing record should last me till 2028!!!!

They came, they are perfect.....love them! I love Ebay!
(sekret message to Janie- you need these boots!)

That's my day so far.
M

The Long Goodbye....

2008-08-17T22:21:00.017-04:00

It's 1989 you have a baby boy, and you think he's going to be a baby forever...

But he grows a bit, and starts to pick up your bad habits.

but he clings to something from his baby years and you think "I might not have to put a brick on his head after all."

Then the birthdays start to come faster...

And the blond hair starts to get darker...

And longer...

The next thing you know, you are filling your pockets with Kleenex while Dad packs the van with college things...you know like a TV and a XBox...
(Brian always pays homage to brother-in-law Will)

Then you leave him in a dorm room not even the size of your sun room with his roommate Pat(left) and another bud Max(right) to begin the next phase of his life.

You get to your car, and you haven't used one Kleenex, you are just so happy he has this opportunity you never had, has his friends around, got the good grades and got it done,then there's the thought of "How is he going to sleep with his head inches from the ceiling?" and that other small incentive that you really don't want to embarrass him in front of his friends by crying.

It's not till you sit at the computer putting together a blog post of your saying goodbye to your little boy that you need to take the Kleenex from your pocket, and realize you didn't put quite enough in there.

M

Two...two... two websites in one post!

2008-08-12T22:54:00.002-04:00

Sue Wilkenson the wonderful lady that did the acrylics of Lego and Montana, and the graphites (there's one to the left) of the boys when they were wee ones, has a new website....made by moi! :-) Always fun to put your own dog and kids in the graphics! *grin*

Here's her site,take a look at her portfolio she is just incredible!

The Art of Surprise

The other site I wanted to share is The Pioneer Woman Blog, this woman has a great sense of humor, great recipes with pictures, and she's a wonderful photographer who shares all her tricks! She was just about to move to downtown Chicago when she met and married a rancher in Oklahoma. She is now a stay at home mom in the middle of nowhere missing Starbucks.

The Pioneer Woman

Not the Pioneer Woman,
M

It's All in a Name!

2008-08-11T23:23:00.008-04:00

All our labs have been from AKC breeders, you pay a lot more, but their hips, eyes, now elbows are "certified", meaning they haven't been bred with a dog that isn't certified, in labradors that means certified no bad hips, eyes and elbows. So let's say I buy a pet store dog (i.e. puppy mill) or one advertised for around 250.00 in the Sunday paper, there's a good chance that those dogs will cost you a fortune later in vet bills and will be very very hyper!

We like English labs, they are calmer, stockier, big chest, with a bigger head, compared to a field/hunting lab which their coats are oily,bodies are leaner, smaller heads and usually a bit hyper.

All that to say once you get a AKC labrador you can register it with the AKC. You don't have to but we do just for a silly little certificate with your dogs AKC name. For example:

Lieber

My dad had a dog named Lieber, and I thought it was the cutest German name, so I always knew my first dog would be named that. Lieber's AKC name was "Das Lieber Hund"

Montana

was "ManChuno's Future Promises" the breeders named him, since he was already a year when we got him. He was suppose to be a stud dog hence the "future promises" instead he was a lazy dog who was perfectly comfortable with no pink crayon duties what so ever. Although he did have a crush on the old Brittney Spaniel next door Maggie. We are thinking Maggie was a cougar! :-)

Lego

She is named after Lego's because that's all the kids ever played with when we got her. So the man who invented Lego's name was Legot. Lego's AKC name was "Wegot Legot" So you moms and dads know exactly who to curse when you step on a Lego in bare feet.....Legot!

Which brings us to Lola!

Lola's name just came to me one day in the car, there was no rhyme or reason to it. The kids didn't like it, so we tried for another name but just couldn't find one we all liked. We wanted to name her either after Montana or a German name, so we looked at cities in the state of Montana and didn't care for any, and all the other German names besides Lieber sounded too harsh. I did like Gretel though. So Lola it is, with her full AKC name being... "Miss Lola M" The "M" is for Montana, we really wanted Montana in there somehow when we found out Lola was born the day Montana died.

I just updated Lola's picture page if you want to take a peek HERE!

Hmmmmm wonder what my AKC name would be, I'm thinking...

Ms. Poopie Picker Upper for the rest of her Lifer!

or just.......

M

Head Swapping...

2008-07-30T14:41:00.018-04:00

There is one phrase I hear all the time, "Just don't let her get a good picture of your head!"

I have this habit of head swapping. I started simply on my annual Christmas page. This one Brian seems to bring up a lot...

(I would just like to point out if I have swapped this head now, I would of made sure the color of his head matched his ass!)

One Christmas I gave each of my family members a little frame with a fitting picture of them, with their head swapped of course!

Not every daughter can fulfill their mothers dream of marrying Bobby Vinton

Or give your sister an opportunity to have a beer with the Nicholas Cage! She likes him, don't tell Will!

Your neice and nephew can thank Dave in person since they met in a Wendy's parking lot.

Turn your brother who thinks hes Waylon actually into Waylon.

Headswapping can help when family members are uneasy about you at times! Like ease the fear of who I travel with when I travel to Canada with my net friends every year!

Who else can give family and friends their own currency? "W" can't even do that! To bad too because a li'l extra currency
(I think it was $472,000,000,000 yesterday)
coming his way might do him some good!

And the famous......how else can we ever dream of socializing with the rich and famous, or dead and famous for that matter!

Do Disney with Martin Luther King on his very own day!

Doesn't every 9 year old think he is Eistein???

Me and Chuck! Positively to die for!

Mel, before I found out he was a jerk!

My personal favorite, me and Fr. Ralph! I know it's naughty, heaven help me!

Now I have to say there is one person who loves my headswapping! That would be Fr. Bill, he had a very special birthday one year,he...

camped with Abraham Lincoln in Gettysburg!

sat with Joe Damaggio in the dugout!

met Elvis!

and is it not every Catholic's dream to meet the Pope? Let alone sit behind him and give him some pointers or in this case some Kleenex!

In my own defense, sometimes its not a head at all....just a conveniently moved hand! The queen has never had so much fun before she met me! You go girl! (You might want to click on this one to enlarge, let's not kid ourselves size does matter!)

The only thing is, sometimes a headswapper will get a picture of the headswapper one day in her email or in this case posted on the internet!

(Just a shout out above I did not put my own head on the Madonna, I'm in enough trouble for Fr. Ralph!)

We all know I have a high opinion of myself but Madonna? I think not! Oooooor maybe Modonna wouldn't be so bad!

Have you had your head swapped today?

M

Barry '08

2008-07-28T09:53:00.018-04:00

On the 24th of July Ian celebrated his 19th birthday. He wanted breaded pork tenderloin and mashed potatoes for dinner. Everyone always whats to know what the birthday person had for dinner! :-) His gift was...we paid for half of this loft contraption for his dorm that raises the beds up in the air so they get more space below. So instead of a very very small dorm, it's just very small now.

Later that night Barry came with the kids for the weekend. On Friday morning everyone minus Collin and me (we don't do rides so we puppy wrangled) went to King's Island in Cinncinn. They left at 9 and came back around midnight all pink from the sun.

Barry bought one of the pictures they snap when you are on the ride. I forgot which roller coaster it was on.

Left to right: Barry, Cassie and Doug. They are actually upside down, so Im guessing those smiles are frowns then? :-)

On Saturday, all headed out to see The Batman. Later that afternoon Brian and Barry went golfing. While they were gone, I did a bit of head swapping. Cassie and I, since we are brats, hid the new improved picture all around the house and in Barry's stuff, so he would find them through the night and day.

Left to right: Barry screaming like a girl, Barry screaming like a girl, Barry screaming like a girl.

Since the picture made us laugh everytime we looked at it, and made people happy, we felt it needed to be everywhere! I wonder if he found the one inside his gas tank cap yet? :-)

And if this reminds you of Shauna '88, she is safe and sound here!

Lola update! She was 12 weeks on Sunday, potty trained, going through the doggie door, her and Lego play and sleep all day and are buds. Here's the vicious puppies going at it, they do this around six times a day. Who would think biting each other could be so much fun?

Lego has basically taken over training, its the nice thing about having two dogs, they entertain each other and there's no "Puppy Hell". Here Miss Lola is on Friday when her Uncle Barry was screaming like a girl. I talk big for someone that her last roller coaster ride was that Mad Mouse at Playland around 1970! :-)

This week, Collin registers for high school, he starts Aug. 11. Ian leaves the following week, I'm thinking we need to take a pool on how many weeks he goes before he does laundry!

That's all she wrote...

M

Just catching up.....

2008-07-13T16:12:00.001-04:00

Lola is getting bigger and more loved every day. Her and Lego are playing lots better!

Do me a favor, if you have one, hug your spouse today! One good friend of mine, Marcie from my reading group, her dh has been in the hospital over three weeks due to complications from kidney stones. He has just been moved into a regular room and finally showing improvement. Marcie put together my sister Renee's love quilt when she was going through her cancer treatment.

Another reading group friend Melva lost her husband to cancer this weekend...just too sad. Just breaks your heart. So if you can work a little "help Melva's heart heal" prayer into yours it would be great.

People can say what they want about meeting people from the internet, but I have to say I have never met a more caring group of people than I have online.

Stay healthy!

M

We have contact!

2008-07-08T23:00:00.005-04:00

I thought it would take three days before Lego really accepted the puppy and would lay by it, I was off a bit, it took about three weeks! Today they bonded over tearing apart a stuffed hedgehog. Why they like taking all the stuffing out is beyond me.

This picture also gives you an idea what my floors look like, theres toys, milk cartons, water bottles...everywhere! Sort of like at Disney World, the park is planned with a garbage can every few yards so there is always one near so you dont throw trash on the ground. It's like that with toys so there's always something to chew on instead of chewing on my furniture.

I have been cleaning for about a week and half, vacuuming twice or three times a day, steaming carpets and furniture...the van. We took Lola to the vet for her puppy shots, and the vet said she had fleas. We think Lego got them at the cabin in Kentucky, and gave them to the puppy. Not real bad. So two flea baths, and a monthly flea treatment...they are gone.

Last Sunday I steamed all the carpets,furniture, the bed, toys, the wood floors....washed everything...just to make sure they dont come back.

This little Lola has me up at 5:30 with the birds.....and Brian! :-) It's wearing me out, I feel like a new mom, but she is worth every minute. They are just so cute when they are this little and it doesn't last long, I just have to get as much puppy breath as I can!

Have a good Wednesday!
M

Lego, Lola and Cheryl???

2008-07-03T12:25:00.010-04:00

Everyone keeps asking me how they are getting along. Lego is coming along, they actually played together last night in the yard. Lego growls when she plays, and it confuses the puppy. It's a different growl of course than her "Get your tiny black face away from me" growl, but a growl none the less. Lego really wants to play, Lola really wants to play, but they just can't figure it out quite yet.

I have a picture of Lego playing with Montana when she was 12 weeks, so it s/b happening soon.

It's been a full week, and I need sleep! She does great at night, but it's those early mornings that are killing me.

Here's Lola yesterday...

See her little white hairs on her chin and chest, I don't think they will stay but they are very cute while they are here.

So I get a call from Gretchen last night and she says some guy has uploaded some photos to the Classmates.com Class of '72 site...and there's Gail and Cheryl in there. I will just share one of Cheryls since I'm not sure if Gail hurts people! Although Gail is looking pretty hot in her pics!

Cheryl, did you borrow that jacket from Georgia or Renee? :-)

This guy was also on there, not sure who he is, but he looks like if you dated him his hands would be all over you! You wanna wrestle baby?

Okay back to puppy wrangling!

M
....to be honest right now not much to wrangle, she is sleeping under my desk with her little puppy head on my feet.

Hip Hip Hooray!

2008-06-30T11:15:00.003-04:00

Renee's hip surgery went really well! They were a bit worried that the cancer treatments would make it beyond repair, but the Dr. was pleasantly surprised and said it looked good. She has the best spirit and is so positive about her healing, she just astounds all the Dr.s that work with her!

I have the best sisters in the world...I really do! Here they are at Cheryl's sons wedding in May...

Left to right:
Renee-The hardest worker I know, doesn't let anything get her down, and introduced me to the love of reading, and most importantly laughs at all my jokes.

Cheryl- She's my foo foo girl consultant, we are a great shopping team, she's even crazier about dogs than I am. We also travel well together and I laugh at all her jokes.

Georgia- She is loyal, fun, sweet and the most generous of us all and, and she laughs at all of our jokes, plus she is the only one that got mom's cute nose! Anyone who meets Georgia just loves her!

Whenever we get together all we do is laugh....we really do! I'm thinking it's because we don't live next to each! :-) It really is a treasure each time we get to visit!

Have good Monday!

M

There will be no living with me...

2008-06-28T23:01:00.001-04:00

until this puppy gets a little older.

Lego Boating and Lola...

2008-06-26T15:12:00.004-04:00

We're home! We took a small vacation to Lake Barkley in Ketucky. Beautiful, beautiful lake, lovely area, but unfortunetly I booked a place online and the pictures of the accomadations were nicer than the real deal. Brian said it looked like the average log cabin...meaning lot's of bugs dead and alive!

We rented this cool pontoon boat with a slide, so it had two decks. Lego was also able to come on board, her first boat ride. She is sleeping in the picture, we went on a two mile hike that morning, and she was just wiped out.

There was a big state park in between Lake Barkley and Lake Kentucky, they had Buffallo park you could drive through. It was Africa hot and in the afternoon we didnt think we would see anything. They have 70 buffallo in the whole park, and as soon as we drove in we saw about 30 of them feeding right there.

There was a mix-up in our boat reservation, and so we ended up doing all the things we planned in one day, and we called the breeder and asked if we could pick up Lola a day early. I booked a hotel room in Louisville just in case they said "no". Thankfully they called the next morning and said we could pick her up that afternoon, I never saw four people pack up so much stuff so fast and get in the car.

Breeder was about an hour outside of Louisville. We drove up and the puppies were in a pen outside.

There were two female blacks and we got to pick which one we wanted, they looked exactly alike, so we picked the one with the biggest head. :-) She's home and resting...

...and get this,
we're filling out the AKC paperwork and it has the puppy's birthdate listed on it...
May 4th. It was the day Montana died. So we took it as a wonderful sign that it this puppy was meant to be with us!

Lego is steering clear of her for now, but she's coming around. Soon as she picks up a toy and sets it beside the new puppy all will be well.

And yes, she slept with us!

Damn M...

2008-06-20T22:52:00.012-04:00

The bathroom is done...except for the "M".

The mirror I bought was silver with a glazing, but it looked gold next to the gold walls, so I made a bit more silver. Here's a close-up of the light fixture I got too on clearance marked down to 49.00 from 125.00, so both mirror and fixture came to 80 bucks.

The cabinet doors are on, and new hardware. Should of bought the hardware on Ebay, saw it at my favorite little knob store for half-price from what I got at Lowes.

That picture now has Ian and Lieber in a pool, instead of some married couple we don't know.

We added some decorative trim to the beadboard that even makes Scott's tissue look good, be sure to enlarge this one.

Today I spray painted and put silverleaf on a bunch of little frames and a mirror I bought. I filled the frames with pics of the boys when they were kids in the tub in sepia tones.

I have to do the damn "M" again. I don't know why but I've always wanted one of those big initials like Mary Tyler Moore, and the name fits too. :-) This is the "stunt M". I had bought scrapbook paper and did each slant a different paper, and then outlined it all...took me forever to get right. Then I went to put this new type of glaze stuff on it I bought, and it all rippled.....grrr! So ripped and sanded that all off, and went to work with the paper I had left in the scrapbook set, then went to spray some shallac on it. I sprayed adhesive on it instead, this is why I shouldn't get out of bed before 9 a.m. So I just tossed some little flowers on it, and ribbon on the sides and it will have to do till Hobby Lobby runs its scrapbooking kits half-price again, so I can rip it off and start all over again. I mess up too much to pay full price.:-)

And all done...

I prolly won't post now till we get the puppy which is Thursday. We can't wait! Lego needs the company, we didn't even realize till after Montana had passed that Lego had never ever been left alone she's either been with a person or Montana has always been with her. So she goes a bit nuts when we leave her alone for long periods...poor baby. The two Maggie's are still here till Sunday. We have deamed Li'l Maggie the Piggiest Eater, and big Maggie the Canine Speed Bump! They all get along, they are really really good dogs, but it's a nice reminder that three dogs are a lot of work, and I need that reminder sometimes.

Have a great weekend!
M

What's a Doula?

2008-06-19T17:34:00.008-04:00

Do you know? I didn't have a clue, till a friend of mine asked me to make a website for her, she is starting a doula business. I didn't know what a doula was, not a clue.

Turns out a doula is someone who will begin a sourdough starter for you, make one batch of dough and then kneed the dough till its final rising stage and then bring it to your home to bake. Oh wait...that's a doughla!

A doula is basically someone to help your through your pregnancy and the birth of a baby. I thought it was someone that tried to talk you out of any drugs, but that's not the case they support you in whatever you choose. Me, I'll take the drugs...always!

My favorite website is always the one I just finished. Carla, the doula, found a cool celtic knot graphic on the net, so cool I wish I thought of it! :-) She contacted the artist and got permission to use it on her website.

And she found some scrap book paper she liked and I went from there. The most time consuming but what I enjoy doing the most is making the logo.

My first tries..

Then the keeper...

I experimented and made lots of knots and stuff...
I didn't use any of them.

then I gave a baby some beautiful green eyes,

and then lot's of little grapics to make it look at pretty.

Put it all together and you got a website.

Trinity Doula Care

All done!
(Well, almost all done, I have a few things left to do.)

M

I was rude to a wingnut today!

2008-06-18T23:06:00.008-04:00

So we are watching two dogs this week. My neighbor's Brittney Spaniel named "Maggie" and my sisters black Labrador named "Maggie". I've come to the conclusion if there is a household with Irish blood in it, they name their dog...why yes..."Maggie!"

Day 1, is like.....Oooooooo my doggie friends are here, but there's a little stress from all the dogs.

Day 2, is like... we all like each other let's play.

Day 3, well the visiting dogs are very happy, because they have realized they get little new foods mixed in with their blah dog food, they get to go in and out through the doggie door whenever they want, and all is good. But the home dog is feeling like...I've shared my toys, my house, my master...when are you leaving?

Day 4, they all settle in.

So on this Day 3, Lego and I sneek out of the house for a little walk in the woods, for a little quality time. I'm sure you have those county parks, that are all wooded and have the dirt paths scattered throughout.

We get to the woods and for some reason Lego always takes a dump as soon as we get in there. She is such a good dog is practically doing her business right next to the doggie dump station. The dump station being where they have little plastic bags and a trash can for your dogs doo-doo, because God forbid you let your dogs go in the woods and you leave it there to naturally disintegrate instead of throwing it in a plastic bag to be thrown in a garbage dump.

Im picking it up, and a woman comes down the path with a stroller a toddler in it, and baby in a backpack on her back, and two dogs on flexi leashes. First of all, there's not a lot of places you can go with a stroller on a nature hike, one gravel path, about one block and that's it. If you have a dog you know that a flexi leash is a long retractable leash but mostly cord and if you have more than one dog you spend most of your time walking untangling the cords. And there was an umbrella in the mix somewhere, I don't remember if it's on her head, attached to the stroller or what? She looked like a "one man band" but instead of instruments it was babies and dogs.

So Im waiting there for her and her dogs to pass by, and the dogs are coming right at us and she says, "Would you mind if we all just got to know each other a bit?"

To which I said, "What the F#$& are you?", oh wait, that's what I thought! I said, "You know I'm standing here with a bag of dog poop in my hand, if you could move on that would be great."

I don't know if that was rude or not, but she's got two dogs coming to meet my one dog, the last thing I want to see is her fall with a baby on her back. She seemed a little offended that we didn't want to do the whole dog sniffing each others asses scene, but went on her merry way, albeit a bit slowly while telling her older child maybe some other day.

So Lego and I take our walk in the woods and on the way out, I see something standing a few feet from where Lego left her little gift to nature. It looked rust colored and huge, and too big to be a deer, we walk a bit further, it was a deer, two deer, a Momma and her baby feeding. No stroller, no baby riding on her back, no umbrella on her head...and no the momma deer didn't ask "if we could just get to know each other a bit?" either before they ran off.

(stunt deer)

I thought for sure the deer were going to run into the road and get hit and that was by punishment for being rude to the wingnut.

Thankfully no roadkill, we drove home and Maggie and Maggie were happy to see us!

M

Mmmmmmmm!

2008-06-13T12:26:00.004-04:00

You all know I hang out on the Internet, and I do know it scares some of you! :-) But how I figure it is that the people I hang with read really really big books, and that sets them apart on an intelligence level from 99% of the population. So actually someone you work with that doesn't read really really big books is a bigger threat of murdering you with an axe than my good net friends. We jokingly refer ourselves to as "axe murderers" since that's what the general population seems to think of us.

Now what does the title "Mmmmmmmmmm" have to do with axe murderers on the Internet?

Cheesecake Baby! Preferably White Chocolate Cheesecake!

We are going to my sister's Georgia's tonight and I'm bringing a White Chocolate Cheesecake. I pulled out my recipe I got from a net friend and the date on it is October 28, 1998, and I thought, man 10 years already I've been socializing with these axe wielding readers and I'm still alive!

(This would be Jack who I met on the Internet.)

I wanted to post the recipe since it is so wonderful!

The big book reader I got this recipe from named Rie created it herself...I've never had a better cheesecake, and I've eaten quite a few(too many) in my 45 years.

White Chocolate Cheesecake

Heat over to 300

Mix-
1-14 oz. can Sweetened Condensed Milk
3-8oz packages of Cream Cheese
3-large eggs
2-tsp. vanilla or the seeds of one vanilla bean
Approx. 1 tbl. of corn starch

Next, melt 12 oz. of good quality white chocolate
(I use one bag of white chocolate chips, name brand though. Heat one minute 50% power in the micro, stir, then 30 seconds on 50% power, stir, and then in 10 seconds increments at 50% power, stir till all melted. Or you can melt in a double boiler)

Add melted chocolate slowly into the cheesecake mixture.

Pour slowly into prepared crust in a spring form pan.

For crust, I have used-
Crushed Nilla wafers with a little bit of cinnamon, vanilla and melted butter.
Crushed chocolate graham crackers with a bit of melted butter.
Crushed Oreos with a bit of melted butter.
(of all I tried I like the chocolate graham cracker the best)

Make sure you put a cookie sheet under your spring form pan, in case any melted butter leaks out of the crust.

I also put a 9x13 pan of water in the oven so the top of the cheesecake doesn't crack.

Cook at 300 for 1 1/2 hours.

Turn oven off and let sit in there for 45 minutes, this will also prevent it from cracking from the temperature change.

Refridgerate, and then eat as much as you can before you bring it to someones house and have to share it!

M

Lola...la la la la looooooooola!

2008-06-10T14:32:00.004-04:00

We have put a deposit on a puppy. A black female lab, who is named as of right now...Lola! Brian and I like the name, my two sons...don't. But they haven't thought of anything better so it's still Lola. Ian's "Peanut" didn't make the cut. :-)

Everyone is a bit surprised we didn't get a yellow, but the yellow hair is worse on my allergies and they shed more, so we wanted to try two blacks. Thought about a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog...

...but they have a life span of usually 8 years, and we just can't do that short of time and when it comes right down to it, we just love our labs.

Here's their 10 day old picture...

And here they are on the first adventure outside...

Unfortunately I don't know which one is ours...just one of those black ones. :-) We pick her up end of June.

Hope the dog days of summer are going well for you!

M

Side Note: The song Lola by the Kinks is here:

LOLA
Most of you may not of realized that Lola was about a man who was dressed as a woman. I swear everyone thinks Lego is a boy, when she is a girl. It's just a black dog thing. :-)

Class of 2008

2008-06-04T23:15:00.003-04:00

Last Saturday our Ian graduated High School! He makes us proud, he graduated with an Academic Honors diploma!

I was waiting to post a picture because there was a professional photographer at the ceremony, that took the kids picture when they shook hands and received their diploma. So yesterday I went online to get it, and Ian was no where to be seen, nor a lot of other kids in his row.

Wrote the company...yada...yada...yada...turns out the photographer had flash problems and it must of been during Ian's walk. Offered a free cap & gown sitting, which would be great if I didn't have to rent another cap & gown for 70 bucks! It's always something! :-)

So a backyard one will have to do.

It was a great day! Grandpa & Grandma came down for the ceremony, which was held at the Pepsi Coliseum, on the Indiana State Fair Grounds. We then went out to eat at Stir Crazy. If you have one of these places near you.....try it......it's great!

Time just goes too fast!

One day you are holding a little baby in your arms, the years rush by, and it's time for them to start their own journey.

Ian is quite the boy...man. Smart, funny, and compassionate, I can't imagine not seeing him every day. It's worth repeating...he makes us proud.

M

Beadboard and No babies!

2008-05-25T12:40:00.001-04:00

Something got the little baby birds...besides me and my trimming. Poor things.

We got lot's done on the bathroom yesterday. We have a bit more trim work to do, and I have the cabinet doors to finish.

Georgia and Will are coming today for a visit........woo hooooooooo!

Have a great weekend!
M

Beadboard & Babies...

2008-05-21T22:36:00.003-04:00

I was trimming some out of control lilac bushes yesterday, just chopping away, only to discover I came this close to cutting a branch that had a cardinal's nest in it.

The nest is a bit exposed now, Im hoping the stupid neighborhood cats (sorry cat people) dont get the babies. Ive never seen little baby cardinals before.

Brian got the beadboard up last weekend. We are really slow with our home improvement projects. Im going to paint some this week.

We have put a deposit on a puppy, a black female and will pick up end of June. The breeder is in Louisville. Didn't go with Lego's breeder because of cost of picking it up in Virginia, between gas prices and hotel it would tack on an extra 500 bucks. Plus we wanted one by July so Ian could get some puppy time in before he heads to Purdue. When I get a pic of her, I will share.

Hope your week is a good one!

M