Stamping and Sewing

What I'm up to today...stamping swirls on Aida to be stitched later...finished with 'girlie' cross stitch and have cut out fabric to make a bright, sunny tote. Thank goodness the TV repairman is coming to fix it! I pretty much never sit down and watch anything straight through. However, it is my background noise during the day. I'm also a little disappointed because the vet changed Xena's appointment till later so I can't begin my 'Temecula Park' project till all shots are done. AND, I can't take her to be groomed before company comes for same reason. Darn! I wanted her to look all purdy for company!

Dragonfly!

Isn't it beautiful?! It just happened to land next to our fountain a few minutes ago and pose so nicely for me! Enjoy.

Exploring the City Through Parks

Yesterday, I stumbled upon a cool blog called Ashville Walks. This person is exploring his town through different walks and documenting with photos. As I told him, I found it very inspiring. Since moving to my town last year, I have noticed that there are a lot of neighborhood parks. Boy are there a LOT; 36 to be exact! Now I know I had complained about lacking motivation to get back into exercise; but now I have found my muse. Next week, my puppy will have had all her shots and can begin to go out in public, so she and I will explore all of the parks in my town. Some are within walking distance, some will be when we build up our stamina, others we'll have to drive to. I am looking forward to finding the similarities and differences between them and also getting a little more fit! My first park (Stephen Michael Linen, Jr. Memorial Park---what a mouthful!) will be a few blocks from my house. This will be Xena's (photo, right) maiden voyage on a leash. We have practiced a little and she has presented her stubbornness a great deal. It seems her bottom becomes super-glued to the ground when she hears the 'click' of the leash into her collar.

Cross Stitch Girlie

Well, here's how far I got yesterday. She's coming to life! I hope to finish today and make a little purse with her. I must admit, I flaked on my sewing and half finished a skirt...just not into it at the moment.

Why A Blog?

I'm not sure what direction this blog will take. I DO know that I started it to save my sanity! Since moving here to be with my fiancee a year ago, I have not been able to find a suitable job. I'm a teacher with experience, and I know everyone thinks we always need teachers...NOT so in this area. There are wayyyyy too many of us and not enough jobs and now even more cut backs. So, the obvious option is to substitute. Let me tell you about substituting! It stinks, exceedingly. Now, I don't mean the kids, they're great(ok, mostly). What I primarily mean is how you are perceived and treated by 'regular' school staff. I would say about 80% of the time you are treated as lesser beings. People are very dismissive and ungrateful. Now, I am a reasonably confident person and a highly qualified teacher. However, after a year of being treated disrespectfully on a daily basis; it starts to wear at your self-esteem. You CANNOT complain or you will not get any more work. Other secondary reasons that it sucks are that you never know where you will be going or what hours on any given day, you don't get paid on holidays or all summer, no benefits, the pay is less than what daycare workers make(no kidding!) and last but sadder to me is that you don't make any friends isolated in a classroom in different places all the time. So, I've had my pity party for some time now. I've lost motivation, have gained weight and I don't feel very worthwhile any longer. This is such a difficult adjustment for me. I'm 43, on my third career, highly ambitious and capable. Yet now I have nothing to challenge my active mind and nobody to share with, essentially. Enough of that! I saw 'Artful Blogging' and peeked inside one day. Oh my gosh! Fabulous stuff! It made me feel like doing some of my hobbies again and not so alone as I peruse all the lovely, creative blogs out there. I hope to make some friends along the way here and delve into some artwork that I've yet to try. If nothing else, at least I have this space to go to each day and share something positive that I have done. It already is making me feel more like myself again. I know I'm not just a teacher, fiancee, mother and perhaps I have been too driven, too career-oriented for most of my life and have placed too much value in that as my worth. We shall see where the journey leads...

Great Recipe For Diabetics

This is one of our favorites. It's pretty simple and very low in carbs and flexible in serving size.

Low-Carb Chicken Dijon

3-5 chicken breasts
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup white wine
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
1 to 2 tsp. granulated garlic
1/2 to 1tsp. dry dill
salt and pepper

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Brown on both sides in med-hi pan with a little olive oil. Add all other ingredients and stir. Don't worry about the mustard being a bit clumpy; it will dissolve after a bit. Simmer on med-hi for about 10 mins. till reduced(thickened) by about a third. Place lid on and reduce heat to low-med, simmer for about 15 mins. till done. If you want the sauce a bit thicker, just take the lid off and simmer a bit longer. This will hold well on low for a while , so I make this when I am not sure when my fiancee will be home. Serve with a little sauce on top. The sauce is fabulous over rice or veggies too! I'm off to drag out the sewing machine and finally finish things I started a couple months ago! I'll show you tomorrow!

Coming to Life

Well, there's been a few chaotic days with summer school and football starting. Thankfully, the logistics are worked out now. I've been working on my cutie girl cross stitching a bit. Doesn't she look weird so far? I love how a picture comes alive when you create. I bet all artists feel that way about their work, no matter what type of work. Today I'm going to get new glasses. Thank goodness! These ones are driving me nuts. I think I'll make my easy low-carb chicken dijon for dinner today. Another great recipe for diabetics. I'm always trying to modify recipes to be low or no-carb for my sweetie. I'll post that for tomorrow! I think tomorrow will be a sewing day. Gotta catch up all those projects. If I say it here, I make myself accountable and I will do it.

Saturday

Yesterday we went to the San Diego Fair. Spent wayyyyyyyy too much money on a fountain, two mahogany models planes(one of them was one D flew for many years), a majogany train and ordered a built-in BBQ. He has been dying for one for a year and the price was just too good to say no to! I started one of my girlie cross stitches last night when we watched Stargate...partially, we went to bed before it ended! Son came home from camp last night, he had been at Vandenberg AFB for a week. He looks great! I guess it was miserably hot all week and not much AC; into the 100's. So, he showed me all the marching maneuvers he learned and had lots of funny tales to tell! Now, after 3 hours, the novelty of being home wore off and off he went to stay with a neighbor for the night! Sighhhhhhh.

New Goodies!

I know, I know. I was going to finish all my old projects before I bought new stuff! But, it was payday and the craft store was calling my name. I got several new cross stitch patterns. Yummy cute girlies, cool 'parisian panache', delicious french chefs and some totally adorable ladybug bears and bee bears. On a funny note, I finally succumbed to the size 11 aida because my eyes just can't hack the smaller squares anymore! Plus, there was this cute FREE pattern for a darling little purse; which I could totally envision in brown and pink like my favorite summer dress and I just have to make it! As far as my checklist, I did complete another June scrapbook page, so I am all caught up on scrappin'! I'm sick of the altered books...tata for a while and I haven't been in the mood to sew. My rationale is that I know I can finish my three sewing projects in one day. So that could be 'any' one day. So I'm off to see if I can update my slideshow with the new scrap page and try to remove the annoying pic of me that is NOT supposed to be there. THEN, I will go watch a movie and cross stitch my lil heart out for the evening. Mmmm...I might break for some chocolate ice cream. Hee hee!

Journals

Lately, I have been a bit obsessed with journals. It started with "Wreck This Journal" (http://www.wreckthisjournal.com/) that I saw an ad for. This is great if you are in a creative rut. It has also been a fun bonding activity for my teenage son and I. I got one for each of us. Then I found out about the 1,000 Journal Project (http://www.1000journals.com/ ) and had to get the book on that. Also, I went to a film festival to see the documentary about it. If you've never heard of it, check out the site. It is a really fascinating experiment into humanity and creativity! The obsession went further. See my new page added to the slideshow scrapbook (right).

This and That

I had a fun and productive day! First I added to my altered books. Although, I must admit, I wasn't 'feelin' it today. It looks like these two will be my first and my last. Been there-done that kind of thing. That's okay, it served it's purpose for me to learn some collaging techniques so that I can begin to delve into some harder projects. Hopefully, I will get them finish up tomorrow so I can display them in my craft room/D's office. Also, I completed my June "12 in 12" scrapbook page. Basically, I take 12 photos on the 12th of each month a terrific idea that I got from Simple Scrapbooks (Stacy Julian). Mine looks nothing like hers and is very free-form. Anyway, I set the whole book up over the winter(above) and now I just have to add photos, journalling and embellishments each month (below). It's a good snapshot of the year in review. I keep the supplies I used to set it up in a folder so it's easy to grab the matching stuff when I need it.

Oh, this is amazing!!!! I went to the craft stores and bought NOTHING. Simply UNHEARD of, for me! I know, it sounds untrue. Here's what happened: I got so inspired and excited by yummy new yarns and cross stitch patterns that I simply couldn't choose and of course, I couldn't afford to buy EVERYTHING I wanted! AND, I have promised myself to finish up all my hanging projects before I begin anew. (We'll see how long this resolve lasts.) Furthermore, I am almost done updating my inspiration binders and recycling old mags. So, I'm off to finish that and possibly do a scrap page for my 2008 random book (see slideshow, right). Okay, seriously, I HAVE to do yucky chores first (grumble).

Catching Up...In Theory

Yesterday afternoon, I spent the day reorganizing all my craft junk so that I can get to completing all those half-done projects. I thought of showing pics of before and after cleaning...WAY too much for the before shot to fit into the camera frame! Ok, so here's the list of things to finish while my son is away at camp:

1. altered books(2)
   
2. sew the two skirts and dress that have been cut out for a month
3. Egyptian sampler cross-stitch(save for WINTER!)
   
4. Fabric collage purse
   
5. 1,000 journal project scrapbook page
   
6. Monthly scrapbook pages(2)
7. Post 2008 scrapbook album
8. Cut out and file magazine articles to inspiration books
9. Family canvas collages(3).
10. Work on my "Wreck This Journal" journal

Hmmm....is that all??!! I think I'll add another layer to my altered books. I really don't know what I'm doing here. No plan, no theme...I suppose it's basically an experiment in collage techniques. I'll share some of my favorite pages at some point. I'm so excited that I was able to upload a slideshow! At first I tried Flickr--that was a no go after a myriad of attempts to troubleshoot it. So, I deleted that account and went for Picasa. THAT is so much more user friendly and worked immediately! Have a fun day!

Building the Blog

So I didn't do a whole lot this weekend. Just made Father's day cards really quick-like. But, I did get the media drive situation fixed. OK, I didn't do anything, my sweetie bought a new media drive and installed it. I spent this morning creating a banner for my blog and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Frankly, I am totally new to mixed media art, but am fascinated with it. I've created some doodles to add to artwork(see the 'girlie' in the banner) and I scraped paint across muslin for the first time. That was fun! I'm happy that I can post pictures now! Today, I think I'll work on photographing my 2008 scrapbook album for a little slide show. Oh, and a pic of myself. You know, do the hold-the-camera-at-arm's-length acrobatics about 20 times till I get a decent one!

Cooking for Diabetics

Personally, I cook for my fiance who is a diabetic all the time. I'm constantly reinventing recipes to make them lower in carbs. So far, I've had quite a few successes after a (ahem) a few failures and I just thought others out there might be looking REAL food that tastes GREAT for your loved ones with diabetes. We hate panty-waste-cardboard-tasting food and favor garlic, onions, spice---BOLD food. I try to keep it fairly simple and don't usually spend more than 30 minutes over dinner---WHO has time for more?! Tonight, one of the things I am making is an awesome spinach salad. It was inspired by a signature salad of Outback Steakhouse that has lovely tart bleu cheese combined with crunchy sweet walnuts and a citrus dressing. The dressing I make is courtesy of Rachel Ray. She had it on another salad, but I knew it would be perfect for this one. The flavors of sweet, tart, and salty are truly harmonious and explode in your mouth. I apologize for not having a picture; there is a problem with my PC at the moment that I will fix this weekend and I'll post it then. Stay tuned for my no-carb cheesecake this weekend! And now I'm off to craft a Father's Day card for my sweetie.

Spunky Spinach Salad
2 servings

Hint: Make the dressing first so the flavors meld a bit. Also, use 1/4 onion--it's easy to hold and grate, then chop the rest for the salad.

Fresh spinach (however much you want to eat)
3 tbsp. crumbled bleu cheese
3 strips of turkey bacon cooked and crumbled(just save some from breakfast)
3 tbsp. of toasted chopped walnuts(just heat them in a medium saucepan for 3-5 mins. toss around often--I just do a bunch and store them in a resealable bag tossed in the pantry for next time)
1/4 chopped red onion
3 sliced radishes(optional)
1 orange-peel and cut the segments out(supremes) OR use 1/3 of a can of unsweetened mandarines

Arrange spinach on 2 plates. Divide all other ingredients and sprinkle on top.

Zesty Onion-Paprika Dressing
1 tbsp. grated onion+juice--I grate it on a nutmeg grater or fine side of grater
3 tbsp. vinegar(any, I like to switch it up)
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tbsp. paprika(an actual use for the stuff!)
1 pkt. of Splenda(I think that's about a tsp. if you have bulk)
salt and pepper to taste

Whisk. Pour over salad and serve. Accept copious amounts of praise on the fantastic taste!

Alternative: Add hard boiled eggs or chicken to make it a main dish.