A Horse of Course!

Over the weekend, I found this little guy at Goodwill. He's made of leather and is so well made.

I don't know how old he was or even who made him.

He's going to sit next to my Steve Cilla gargoyle and guard the front door.

He's cool, huh?

Chasing the sun

Kat and Sophie together at the tippy top of the football stadium. We were there to watch Trent's halftime marching band.

Heather's delicious burrito

vegan style.

Yeah, it's vegan and I was cleaning out the fridge. You gotta eat those veggies before they go bad, right?

Listed below is what is in the burrito. You can do this, too. It's easy and it saves you money because you just kinda throw every vegetable you have left in the fridge plus a couple of potatoes. Don't put potatoes in the fridge. You know that, right?

1/2 sweet onion, chopped.
some garlic

Put this in the pan and saute until onions are translucent. Oh, don't forget to add a little olive oil. Not a lot. If your vegetables start sticking, add some water to the pan.

2 small potatoes, chopped. Do not peel off the skins.

add potatoes, stir around and let cook for awhile. add more water if you need to.

1 zucchini, chopped
1/2 or more red bell pepper, chopped

do I have to keep saying, "chopped" or have you figured this out already? Just assume everything from here on out is chopped.

can-o-black beans. rinsed
1 cup-o-corn

keep stirring this around so it doesn't stick.

1/4 c or so of nutritional yeast. I just like this stuff. It looks like fish food, but it adds a nice taste and some B12 vitamins or something like that.
1 T cumin or more. I like more.
Salt
Pepper

at the last minute, add:

handful of spinach
mushrooms

That's it. Don't cook the spinach or the mushrooms until their mushy. Start serving before that!

Add to tortilla, wrap it up and garnish with fresh cilantro and sliced avocado. You don't need cheese, dammit! Eat a burrito without cheese. It's actually pretty darn good.

(Oh, I wasn't trying to be preachy there when I said, "dammit". I was just joking)

Take a picture, post it on your blog and try to impress your friends!!

Don't forget salsa.

Have a great day.

Pictures I promised

but never delivered.  Ooops, I forgot.

I'm trying to catch up here...

First day of school pictures...

Trent going into 7th grade.

Kat going into 4th grade.

Study these because you'll need to remember what they looked like when I post the last day of school in May. They always wear the same thing on the first day and the last day and then I make you guys guess which is which.

While we're at it, can you tell which photo(s) I edited in Lightroom and which one(s) I edited in Picasa? Have I mentioned lately how much I HATE post processing photos?? What a bore.

The Rambuton

The strange and expensive fruit I bought just for photographing...

 

Yeah, it's in milk for no other reason than it looks weirder that way. 

 

We ate them but they were, ehhhhh. It was much more fun to put them in bowls and take photos.

The Vintage Camera

I bought this at a yard sale for $2.00.

The camera is from around 1961-1963. I don't know if it works and I don't really care so much if it does or doesn't. It's now part of my "collection". I now have three vintage camera and three of anything makes a collection. Right?

I think I'm just about caught up now. Here is another picture of Dancing Devil Ellenor just for fun.

I just realized that maybe you didn't see the first one. I think I posted it just on Facebook. Hang on, let me find it....

Have a great day!!

Popcorn is popping

Kat got her braces off today! Yahoo!!

I remember last October when she was told she was going to need them. You would have thought it was Christmas around here. She was SO EXCITED.

She was excited until they were actually on and knew what they felt like.

Ever since then, she has longed for the day when they would come off.

Well, that day is today!

All off! We are all eating popcorn and chewy caramels as I type this!

You're Rad Me & You

Yeah, you are.

This post is actually about a couple of layouts I have completed over the last couple weeks.

The first one is of Trent from many years ago. I was cleaning up my desk and didn't want to throw out the scraps of paper so I turned it into a layout instead.

I added some newer product to the older product and came up with this:

There is some older BasicGrey, newer Cosmo Cricket, older MME and really old Heidi Swapp. I used Gelatos on the background. I scribbled with a few colors, placed a circle/dotted template over the scribbles and then used a water brush to blend it in. Circles from the template still formed even though I was brushing over the template.

Some of it was a little too bright so I used my old standby, gesso, to dull it back down.

This is pretty much all new stuff. New Crate Paper. Some misting in the background with Heidi Swapp templates and Chalkboard mist.

I filled up a tiny envelope with sequins, sealed it and then added loose sequins around the page.

Tammy at Blue Moon Scrapbooking gave me a push to get something done right away with this new stuff. I like it when I get assignments! 

Hidden journaling is on a tag that pulls out from behind the doily.

That's all I have for right now. I'm having a difficult time functioning as I'm dealing with some emotional issues and a small health scare.

Some days it takes everything I have to just keep moving and making it through the day. My depression and anxiety dragons take over and it sometimes takes me a few days to squash them.

So, in other words, I really don't have anything fun or witty to talk about. I don't even have a new picture of my hot pink bra on my desk. You can look at my previous entry for that.

Take care and thanks for visiting and for your comments. :)

What the Hell?

Someone came into my scraproom and made a mess on my desk.

I don't understand why people (kids) think they can come in here and leave their messes all over. I bet I know who it was. It had to have been Kat. Trent never comes in here except when he's hungry and wants me to cook something.

Here's a closer look:

Sure, just come in here, cut up my BasicGrey and leave the papers and the scissors sitting out.

GEEZ!

... and LOTS and LOTS of MEAT

I think the kids are trying to tell me something.

The last time I bought any meat was 11 days ago and it was for a Labor Day BBQ/get together.

I've been trying to avoid meat and animal products. I'm not ready to totally commit so I'm not going to go into great detail why I've made this switch.  It's just a personal decision I've made and a challenge I'm trying to achieve. Just please don't mention it to my mother. She freaks out when I do stuff like this.

Several, ahem, decades ago, I was a vegetarian. My mother always tried to give me turkey on Thanksgiving.

"Oh, have a little turkey. It's Thanksgiving. You should have some." My mother would say this as she's inching a plate of turkey closer and closer to me.

Not eating any meat means that I've been cooking like a mad woman.  It seems like all I do is buy fresh produce, whole wheat flour, and bake and cook.

I'm on my feet for what feels like hours. I need new shoes now.

Yep, I've just justified purchasing new shoes because I cook all day.

The kids and Erik have been willing to try all the crazy meals I've been making and some of them pass their taste test. I guess not all do, though and I found this on my refrigerator.

I'm not ready to give in quite yet. I'll make them some nice pumpkin oatmeal cookies without any eggs or butter.

They'll change their minds.

Mice on Ice!

Ok, they're really not on ice, they're on my desk on some beads.

"Mice On My Desk"

no, that isn't nearly as catchy as "Mice on Ice!"

It's been awhile since I've posted anything about the mice. The boys did have a birthday about a month ago but I haven't posted anything about the girls. They like attention, too, so here they are:

PRESENTING:

FILMSTRIP

She is squeerific!!  She is tiny and gentle. She won't try to run away when you put your hand in the cage. When we first bought her, she was the smallest. She was either really young or the runt. We've decided she was the runt.

Filmstrip runs at least 17.9 miles everyday on her wheel.

I named her because I was tired of Katrina's names. They were all cutesy and some of them were named after goofy Vampire books. Which brings me to...

TWILIGHT

Twilight is a pain in the ass. It's nearly impossible to catch her and when you do, she poops on you. You can tell just by looking at this picture that she is ready to high tail it to the back of the desk.

 PUMPKIN PIE

Pumpkin Pie, or Pumpkin for short, was from Trent's science teacher. She gets new mice each year and gives away the mice at the end of the year. We fell in LOVE with Pumpkin the first time we mouse sat her over Fall Break. She walks right into your hand and wants to be loved and petted. 

When we adopted her in May, she was a porker. She has lost a little weight, maybe because she enjoys the wheel a bit, too. 

She is by far the sweetest mouse we have ever had. She is also the only female mouse that will take Cheerios from my hand.

 HABOOB

 

In the picture, it looks like she's saying, "I come out for cookie".

Haboob also came from Trent's science teacher. Poor Haboob. She's a little shy and a little feisty. You can rarely catch her. She has longer hair and her left eye seems to always be a little runny. It's like she's allergic to something. Maybe cats.

When we first got her in May, we thought she was on death's door. Over the summer, she perked up but now she's back to her weird ways. She's breathing very heavily and I frequently find her alone in the corner at the bottom of the cage. I think she's close to death but every morning when I check on her, she's still kicking.

The cage really needs cleaning but I don't want to stress her out. But, ugh, it has to be done.

Hang on little Haboob. 

RUN!

It's a 10-legged spider!!! And he's destroyed the backyard!!! RUN!!!

I pondered for a moment over the monkey costume but ended up with the spider. I always feel stupid buying the dogs costumes to wear. It seems so "first-worldy" and silly. I'm throwing money away.

But gosh darn it, it's a spider and Manny looks good in it.

I don't know if you can tell, but he's feeling pretty fancy, too.

So, there's 12 bucks down the drain. At least I could take pictures and share them. That's always worth it. 

 

Layover

Here it is. It took me at least a week but I finally committed to finishing it and getting it photographed.

What's sad is that these pics are so old, that I can't really remember (and neither can Erik) where our layover was. I think it was Vegas but I'm not sure. I'm settling on Vegas.

It took the longest time to find the PERFECT black font for the title. If you saw my pile of black alpha stickers, you would probably look at me like I was nuts.

I settled on some Scenic Route stickers. They're practically vintage.

Thanks for looking. :)

Zoe in black and white

Ha Ha! That's a joke because she already is in black and white. That's all I have. Sorry.

I may have a layout to post in the next couple days. I have it sitting here, it just needs some journaling and epoxy dots.