Summer Card Camp - Week 1

Hi All!

I joined in on the Summer Card Camp that Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner have put together. This week the color challenge was to use purple, pink, aqua blue, orange and white on your card. As soon as I saw the aqua I thought of a sky so I knew that would be one element of the card. Then I remembered seeing this 3D wall art on Etsy. I had thought it would be cute to do the same kind of thing on a smaller scale for a card. I sketched a template for the hot air balloon and the clouds and the basket. It went together pretty fast. The dimensional part of the balloon is glued on at the seam and will lay flat in an envelope but then can be "fluffed" back up. It's hard to tell in the photo, but the clouds are cut from white glitter paper so they sparkle! Hope you like it :)





Supplies used:
Echo Park Springtime 6x6 paper pad
Echo Park A Walk in the Park 6x6 paper pad
DCWV Hippie Chick paper stack
Colorbök glitter paper
American Crafts Fountain stamp set
VersaMark Ink
Martha Stewart dove white embossing powder
We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Recollections dimensional adhesive
Purple embroidery floss

I Try.

But sometimes I fail.

Let me explain. If possible.

I've been trying to keep my mind open and let in new ideas and new thinking. Get out of the pattern of doing what I've always done. I believe that the only way you'll invite new and unexpected things into your life is to change the way you're currently doing things. This sounds easy enough, but it actually requires a lot of effort. It's so much easier to just carry on the way you always do. Go here, go there, go to bed. Familiar is always easier. But familiar is not always the best or what you should be doing. Actually, familiar can be down right bad for you. We're not talking about trying a new brand of BBQ sauce here. This means taking steps to "broaden your horizons" as they say. The first step isn't to run out and buy a ticket to a far away land. It's starts in your head. It has to start there or it will never work. If you're body is doing something but your head isn't in it, it ain't gonna work. You have to have it on your mind to the point where you make it happen because you can't stop thinking about it. We've all had this kind of thing happen. You can't stop thinking about a CD you want, a pair of shoes, a new computer, a new place to eat, getting your hair cut, new clothes, going to see a movie, buying something for a family member, getting a new bike, a new bat, a new refrigerator. Whatever it is, you can't get it out of your mind and somehow you make it happen because you want it. This is how change starts. How new things open up and you see farther than you did before. You see there is more out there and it makes you smile and you can't wait for it.

And here lies the hard part. It isn't that you don't want new things. New ideas. It's the realization that it will require more effort because you will need to learn something new. Put yourself in situations that are unfamiliar....maybe even uncomfortable. In some cases the effort is minimal....but we never know how much effort is really involved until we do it. How many times have you done something and it was easier than you thought it would be? And on the other hand, harder than you thought it would be? Thinking you know how it will be before you do it is a serious road block. It's familiar tapping you on the shoulder saying you better just stay on the path you're already on. But just like with everything else, after time the unfamiliar becomes familiar and you're better for having veered off the path.

I'm trying to do this, but sometimes I fail. But at least I'm trying. Just typing all this has me wanting to turn down the new path I see ahead.


A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step -Lao Tsu

Random Memories

I've been having a lot of random memories lately. Here are a few.

The last year I was in elementary school we got to go home at noon on Thursday's. Or maybe it was Wednesday's? I forget. Anyway, I remember going home and being alone so I heated up a can of bean soup to eat on these half days. I don't remember making a sandwich, but it would seem like I must have had something with the soup. But walking home and heating up the soup is the part I remember.

I also remember being about 19...not exactly sure of my age, and I painted ceramics. This seems to be what I did most of the time. Painting ceramics of all kinds. Mostly I remember painting a ceramic house with Christmas lights and I gave it to my Mom for Christmas. I think she still has it.

When I was 15 my hair was just past my shoulders. I'd pull it up into a side ponytail and use a curling iron to create one long curl. I was always so impressed with it because it was perfectly smooth and I thought it looked great. However, I never managed to get a comment from my Mom on it. Either she didn't like it or she didn't care. So that's kinda sad, but I was happy with it so it must not have mattered what her opinion was. I honestly don't remember soliciting her opinion on my hair or clothes very much. I still don't.

In 6th grade I was kick-ass at tetherball. And I know I was because I played with a girl that was a good 3 inches taller than me and it was hard to get it over her head. But I beat her frequently and as far as I can remember, she was my only real competition.

That's it on memory lane :)

Loving This Song

New favorite song.



Matthew Morrison - Still Got Tonight

If you're not home, I'll sit here on your doorstep
Button up my coat and wait
We'll go upstairs close the curtains and we're all set
to pick up where we left again

There's question marks hangin' over us
But we won't give the time of day, oh
'Cause all we got is these few stolen seconds
And we can't let them go to waste

The stars collide
We come back to life
We come back to life
The sparks will fly
One look in your eyes
My heart's open wide

I know time's running out now
But we'll hold back the sun somehow
See the sky?
We've still got tonight
We've still got tonight

Come 9am
I'm packing every suitcase
Leave you in your bed so warm
I'll do my best not to wake you but it's useless
Can't tiptoe 'round this no more, oh

It's gonna get much harder
Before it gets better baby and that's for sure, mmm
Just say you'll wait for my footsteps on the staircase
And I will walk back through this door

The stars collide
We come back to life
We come back to life
The sparks will fly
One look in your eyes
My heart's open wide

I know time's running out now
But we'll hold back the sun somehow
See the sky?
We've still got tonight
We've still got tonight

So keep your eyes open
There's no time to close them
Just hold on
So tight now
We still got tonight
(We've still got tonight)
(We've still got tonight)

If all we got is these few stolen seconds
We can't let em go to waste

The stars collide
We come back to life
We come back to life
The sparks will fly
One look in your eyes
My heart's open wide

I know time's running out now
But we'll hold back the sun somehow
See the sky?
We've still got tonight
We've still got tonight

We've still got tonight
We've still got tonight

Mac 'N Cheese - Update

I finally made a good mac 'n cheese! I should have taken a picture...next time. On a scale of 1-10, Greg gave it an 8 :) Next time I'll cut the ingredients in half. It makes way too much for only the 2 of us.


Spicy Mac 'N Cheese

I pound cooked elbow pasta
16 ounces Cheddar cheese, shredded and divided
8 ounces Monterey pepper jack cheese, shredded
2 teaspoons flour
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
4 tablespoons sour cream
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup milk
1 cup half-and-half
1 cup Panko bread crumbs
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pour cooked pasta into baking dish. In a large bowl mix together all the jack cheese, half the cheddar cheese, flour, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, dry mustard, nutmeg and sour cream, egg, heavy cream and half-and-half. Pour over the pasta and incorporate together. Cover with remaining shredded cheddar. Sprinkle panko crumbs over the top. Melt butter and drizzle over panko crumbs. Bake uncovered until top is just beginning to brown, about 35 minutes.

Mystery Song

Posted this on Twitter last night after a tortuous day of trying to remember the words to a song I heard yesterday afternoon. Just curious if anyone will know what it is. Let me know your guesses based on what I remembered about it. Well....maybe I'll give you a little extra info. Sung by a man. Very popular in night clubs and reached #2 on the billboards...this according to Wikipedia. Also, it's not "I Wanna Be Your Lover" by Prince.

What do you think it is?


KittenAtPlay
I was going crazy this afternoon. You ever hear a song and want to download it but forget what it was when you get home?

KittenAtPlay
I've been trying to recall the lyrics all day since I had no idea who sang it or what the name of it was. Pure torture.

KittenAtPlay
All I could remember was it was an 80's song and had the word "lover" in it. Oy.

KittenAtPlay
and there was a part where he said half the line, paused, then said the full line. something about lover. that's all I had.

KittenAtPlay
I finally found it by Googling "be your lover, 80's"

**Updated**

Here's the song. And possibly the worst 80's music video. But I didn't have MTV when I was growing up so I didn't see very many of them...it's sad to think there are worse videos out there. So just listen to the song :)

Mac N' Cheese

The truth is, every time I make it....it's not very good. I mean homemade, not out of the box. If you can't make it out of a box, then you might just consider eating out.

Greg, on the other hand, can make mac n' cheese and it's always good! And his is a very simple recipe. No fancy roux or tempering eggs. Just noodles, milk, cheddar cheese, salt & pepper. We always end up going back to his recipe.

But then I come across recipes like this and think maybe this will be the one that redeems me. I mean, it does look good and she makes it all sound so good, but so did the others. Very tempted to try it....

Things I'm Loving Right Now

Vanilla Skies
by Natasha Wescoat

Two Birds on a Branch Gold Necklace

This Flickr Stream

Browsing this food blog

Window Shopping - so dangerous!

Nerdfighters

I stumbled across this YouTube channel and found these brothers to be pretty amusing. I'm also amazed at how fast they can talk. The video below is just their FAQ and not nearly as amusing as their other videos....so give them a view. The one how on to make a baby is the first one I ever watched. Maybe you'll enjoy watching them, too.

Vlog Brothers

Recipe

The other night I made a curried mango chutney to go over a Thai chicken dish. To the best of my recollection I've never had this before. Reason I say this is, I've stayed away from curry for about the last....oh....18ish years. Why? I got food poisoning after eating curried shrimp. You can imagine how disgusting that whole experience was for me. I never wanted to see or smell curry again. And to make it worse, I was in Indiana! We were visiting Greg's family and staying at his parents house. So on top of the whole bad curry disgustingness, I had to be at my worst with his parents. Traumatizing. Anyway, I guess 18 years was the key number for me to get over it all because I went for it and made the chutney due to such good reviews on it. I have to say....it was awesome! And not a single bad memory of the shrimp so I think it's safe to say I'm over the trauma of it :)

A few things about this recipe. I didn't know how to pick a ripe mango. I smelled them and got nothing. So I just picked 2 and hoped they were ripe. One of them was ripe and juicy and the other wasn't. And it was hard to cut...sort of like a potato, but it was even harder to cut than that. However, I figured since I was cooking it, it would be ok. I always hear cooks say that if you use unripened fruit in recipes that will be cooked, it's ok. Turns out, at least in this case, this is true. The mango got very soft and was sweet. The overall flavor of it is a hot/sweet taste. Both Greg and I liked it.

It says a lot that Greg liked it. He's a picky eater but has become more adventurous and will try new things. It used to be I was limited to only going to places he would eat at because he wouldn't try anything. He'd say it was gross even tho he had never even tried it! That's changed and he's realized he has been missing out and limited himself. Now we enjoy trying new things together :)


Curried Mango Chutney

Try this over chicken & rice or for dipping anything fried (shrimp, chicken tenders, fish). Also would be great with pork chops! If you use it to dip things in, the mango should be diced pretty small.

2 cups diced peeled ripe mango (about 2 mangoes)
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon chopped peeled fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon salt

Combine ingredients in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 15 - 20 minutes or until most of liquid evaporates and mixture is thick, stirring occasionally.

Wednesday Laughs

This is one of Greg's favorite's.




The best part of this one is when you hear the scream after the dog goes in the room!