Whew!

It's been a busy few days and there was no time for the computer so hence no blog posts.  First, we went down to the city to pick up Stewie (cat that belongs to #2 son and his fiance) for two weeks while they take their holidays out west.  Lucky kids!!  Then, we went back to the city two days later to pick up #1 son, his fiance, and their cat for the weekend.  Sunday was a family reunion, held here (approx. 30 people were here).   Then it was back to the city yesterday to take RJ & Julia & Ella (cat) home.  Whew!

Today the car went in to be repaired and we have been given a really nice Nissan Altima to drive.  Nice car, but rather scary to drive because it's a bit bigger than our Toyota Matrix.  It's one of those fancy keyless cars, which completely feels so weird.  No keys - you just push a button to start it.  Very odd!!

Needless to say there has been nothing creative done over the past few days, so I will leave you with some more garden pictures.....

Final journal pages and more summer cooking

Here is another of our favourite recipes - this is excellent as a dressing over a green salad or as a cold pasta salad dressing.  It keeps quite awhile in the fridge too.  We usually make a full recipe which does make quite a bit, but we use it on everything so it doesn't last long!

ONION DRESSING

1 small onion
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1 tsp. dry mustard
2 tsp. salt

3/4 c. white vinegar

2 cups olive oil
2 tsp. poppy seeds

Place onion in blender and chop.
Add sugar, mustard, salt, and vinegar and blend.

Add oil to blender (while running) a small amount at a time.
Add poppy seeds & refrigerate.

Enjoy!!
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These are the final journal pages from my collaboration doll Shudayra.  Hope you've enjoyed seeing the details that were created for this doll and her journal.  The members of the collaboration did a superb job!!

Summer cooking and more journal pages

If you're anything like us you don't like to cook when the weather is hot.  Jack (the resident cook) cobbled this together using our favourite lasagna recipie and the slow cooker.  It turned out really good so I thought some of you might like to try it too.

Jack's Slow Cooker Lasagna

2 lbs. ground beef, browned & drained

3 cups diced onion

1 cup sliced mushrooms (canned or fresh)

5 cloves garlic, minced

1 can pasta sauce

1 c. red wine or beef stock
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1 3/4 c. cottage cheese
1 3/4 c. either mozzarella or tex-mex mix cheese
2 T. parsley (he used dried)
1 egg
6 lasagna noodles, uncooked
3 T. parmesan cheese
1/2 c. mozzarella cheese

Saute onions, mushrooms & garlic and combine with ground beef, pasta sauce, red wine.  Add spices and set aside.  Combine cottage cheese, 1 3/4 c. mozz. or tex-mex cheese, beaten egg and parsley.  Set aside.

Spoon 2 c. meat sauce into slow cooker.  Top with a layer of noodles (broken to fit), layer of cheese mixture, and then meat sauce.  Repeat layers, ending with meat sauce.  Cover & cook on LOW for 4/12 hours.  Turn off slow cooker about 20 mins. before serving.  Sprinkle with 3 T. parmesan and 1/2 c. mozz. about 10 mins. before serving.  Enjoy!

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More of the pages the girls did in the journal for Shudayra....

It's a strange world

I know, TWO posts in one day? Surprise, surprise!!

However, this is one of those rant/vent/mumble moments and if you don't care to 'listen' you'd better just scroll on down to the first post I did today and don't pay any attention to me whilst I vent.

Can someone tell me why, when someone else hits YOUR car, inflicts considerable damage and then leaves the scene that YOU are punished for it?  The ditz that caused all the ruckus didn't have insurance so, because of that, we have to pay the deductible (in this case $500).  Doesn't seem fair, does it.

At least we can console ourselves with the fact that no-one was hurt (other than our poor car that really didn't deserve it).  And the ditz has been charged with careless driving and leaving the scene of an accident, so at least that's some consolation I suppose.  

On the bright side of all this mess - we had six people come to us that were quite willing to be witnesses and gave us their names & phone numbers.  Another man stood guard (well, actually sat - on the bench) over our car and put money in the meter & told the bylaw officer not to ticket us.  Just goes to prove that there ARE nice people in this world.  The car is driveable which is good - just a pretty massive dent and a very creaky door.

Wonder if they make car-size bandaids?

Journal pages - part four

Here are some more pages the girls did for Shudayra's journal.....

Don't forget you can click on them to enlarge the photos!

Journal pages - part the three

We're back into the heat again so there won't be much actual working done around here.  The raspberries need to be picked and I'm dreading going out to do it.

Here are some more pages from the art doll collaboration journal for Shudayra...

Journal pics - part the two

Now, on to more pictures of Shudayra's journal...

$1.99 - really??? Shudayra's journal

Today was grocery shopping day and we also managed to 'hit' the Value Village second-hand store.

Nothing exciting about that - except for I spent ONLY $1.99 for all this:

Initially I noticed the package of 4 colours of DMC Jewel Effects and promptly grabbed the bag off the shelf. It wasn't until I got it home that I realized what I thought was ordinary embroidery floss was really

Lavender & Lace needlepaints Egyptian 100% Cotton!!

I scored with that one!!

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As promised, here are some photos of the pages in Shudayra's journal.

The Front Cover

Don't forget you can click on the pictures to make them larger!

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We've had rain and a break in the extreme heat - YES!!

We have winners - and Shudayra, continued

Here are more of the details of my collaboration art doll Shudayra.  Hope you're enjoying seeing these!

Tomorrow I will start showing you the journal pages in more detail.

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AND,

Drumroll please.....

using totally scientific means 

(namely assigning everyone who entered a number and having my dad pick two numbers - VERY scientific!!)

here are the two winners of the ephemera envies....

Gail V

and

Luluslovlies!!!!

I have your snail addy Gail and will be contacting Luluslovlies for yours.  Thanks for playing and answering my flower question!

More Shudayra - and - winning!

Above are some more pictures of the details on my doll.

There are more to come tomorrow!

A few weeks ago I won a giveaway on the Craft Gossip site and my prize came in the mail yesterday.  There are some great patterns in this book - ones that I think any man (or woman, for that matter) would like to have knitted for them.  I think Jack is going to receive a pair of socks from the pattern in this book (which is something he would NEVER expect after the last sock fiasco).  These are made using worsted which means they wouldn't take a lifetime to knit.  Sizes in this book range from small to 3 XL.  There are ten basic patterns in the book along with some witty writing describing how men are different from women in their clothing likes and dislikes (who knew???).  

Thank you Craft Gossip!

Specs on the book:  'Knits Men Want - The 10 Rules Every Woman Should Know Before Knitting For a Man' by Bruce Weinstein.  Published by STC Craft.  ISBN #: 978-1584798408

We're havin' a heat wave.....

....a TROPICAL HEAT WAVE!

 Yeah, we topped 100 degrees fahrenheit today and we won't discuss what the humidity level is.  Supposed to be hotter tomorrow. 

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So, because I'm hot and haven't spent much time in my studio today (altho it's in the basement and you'd think it would be cooler, it isn't because there is NO air circulation) .... I remembered that I never did show you the final pictures of my Art Doll Coolaberation doll and her journal.  I will post pictures of Shudayra and her journal over the next few days.   I worked with the most incredible group of artists on this project and enjoyed every single moment of the process.  I hope you enjoy seeing Shudayra as much as I love having her for my very own!

Cool cat and framed!

It's hot here.

Very hot.  

Cosmo agrees because he's all 

s-t-r-e-t-c-h-ed out on the

basement floor absorbing the cool.

It's a day not to be too strenuous and certainly not a day to be outside unless you have to.  The air here is hard to breathe at the moment so we're rather grateful we can stay inside where the air conditioning is doing it's level best to cope with the outside conditions.  Feel so sorry for the little birds - there was a goldfinch outside the window with it's little beak open panting in the heat.  Have to keep the birdbath filled today!

All I've managed to accomplish today is to finish up my inspiration board and get it hung in my studio.  If you embiggen the picture you can perhaps see the paint chip on the left.  Those are pretty much the colours my studio will be once the re-do is complete.  

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And....

don't forget to enter my giveaway by 

leaving a comment on my previous post!

Another giveaway - so soon??!!

Yeah, well - I'm shoveling out my studio as you know and yesterday I went through my paper ephemera and there are two big envies of it up for grabs.

Let me see....

what do you suppose I should ask you to do?

hmmmmmmmm......

I KNOW!!!!

I would like you to leave a comment on this post telling me what your favourite flower is and why.  That's not too hard, is it?  Two names will be drawn on Wednesday night and two winners will each receive an envelope of goodies in the mail.  Good luck!

and

I'm a dummy to forget to wish all my Canadian friends a happy Canada Day July 1st.
However,
I'm not going to forget to wish my American friends a happy Independence Day!

Welcome - and - slow makeover

 WELCOME!!!

First, I would like to welcome all the people who have signed up to follow my mumblings in the past few days.  Wow - who knew that many people might be interested in what I mumble about!!  I hope I can manage to keep you interested at least a little bit.

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The great studio Shovel and Turf is progressing, albeit VERY slowly.  The worktable still looks pretty much as it did yesterday, only it's now covered with whole different junk  stuff.  The little shelving unit has been pretty much filled.  Jack very nicely spray painted this plastic drawer unit (previously red) yesterday and this morning I've spent some time re-organizing it and adding more goodies to it.  Amazing how much I managed to get into it that was previously taking up precious real estate elsewhere.

My new sewing machine has found a home on the repainted little table, along with a resurrected basket that's holding scrap paper and now looks like this.....

And, the garden is now looking a little bit like this....

Those are mostly potatoes with some green onions and I think those are beets (forgot to take note when I took the picture).

Yesterday - and - today

Yesterday was our monthly CQTeers meeting - this time it was here in my studio - which, of course, needed a huge shovel out before guests arrived!  The shovel out, due to lack of time, ended up being a turf-everything-into-plastic-bins-and-shove-it-behind-the-door.  Then I just had to hope they didn't have any reason to look behind the door!!

ANYWAY 

This is what we made during our program time....

Today I made the decision that, because I had to put all the afore-mentioned turfings BACK into my studio, I might as well make a job of it and REALLY do a clean out.

THIS IS WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE RIGHT NOW ON MY WORKTABLE!!!

No, I won't be showing you the rest of the room. 

Do you see that little corner shelving unit on the left?  Well, I painted that in what will be the trim colour in my studio and some of that junk stuff on the table belongs on it.  I just want to be sure the paint is completely dry before I load it up.  Oh yeah, and that pile on top of the sewing machine?  That's mending.  Sigh.