Archive for January, 2007

Extended Playdate

January 31, 2007 at 4:15 pm · Filed under arwyn dae

We went to a friend’s house this morning for a crafty playdate, which turned into a lunch playdate. Everyone got along well, played together, the moms got to chat and we ordered pizza. It was the holy grail of playdates. This was not something that I expected when I decided to stay home, that I would begin to rate my days based on the quality and length of playdates experienced. If we had only thrown a drink in there, we might have made the news.


Thanks, girls, for a lovely morning. Thanks to Andrea for the great photos. I have serious camera envy.

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Lazy Blogger

January 30, 2007 at 9:48 am · Filed under Uncategorized

I haven’t been feeling the blogging mojo much lately. Sorry for the long absences. I thought I’d share some vintage Valentines that I’ve been picking up at an antique store over the last few weeks. Some of these will go in the same frame that housed the vintage Santa postcards at Christmas.



This one is my current fave.



There were several more that I had to leave behind, sadly. Maybe they’ll find a nice home!

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New Addiction

January 23, 2007 at 10:49 pm · Filed under thrifty

I’ve been at it again, hitting two of my favorite thrift stores last week, one of them twice in one week. At one of the stores, they practically give the stuff away. I’ll take a big stack of items to checkout, checkout person will look them over, shrug and nonchalantly say “It’s a dollar.” How can I stay away? And I always donate to the collection jar, so I’m actually helping people while I shop. So this is totally altruistic. Completely. Never mind the fact that my cabinets are going to simply fall off the wall under the weight of all the ceramic currently stored inside of them.




This coat still had the price tag on it. I can’t wait to wear this in the spring time, when the daffodils are blooming and the birds are singing, while I go skipping down the lane. I’m having some sort of Mary Poppins moment.


One of my great accomplishments of late, my organic lunch. Organic cream of tomato soup, organic wheat bread (delish), organic cheese. Changing the way you eat is hard.

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Cranberry Cold

January 17, 2007 at 5:30 pm · Filed under arwyn dae, recipes

It has been quite chilly here the past few days, though I was excited to see snow flurries yesterday. I’ll take snow over rain any day. We are tired of rain. Boo, hiss on you, rain.


However, we did get some new rain boots to help make the continuous rainy weather a bit more fun.


Anyone else craving soup and chocolate? This recipe has neither, but it certainly is yummy. Think Rice Krispie Treats with Cheerios toasted oat cereal in place of the Rice Krispies. And throw in some cranberries.


I added a bit too many marshmallows. Oh, darn! Gooey, yummy goodness. And it’s good for you, it says “Whole Grain” right on the cereal box! And fruit! TOTALLY wholesome, I swear.


This much gooeyness deserves the first five fruits of the year!

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A Do(ug)h in Dos Partes

January 15, 2007 at 8:29 pm · Filed under arwyn dae, recipes

I went all crazy with the oatmeal cookies the other day. They started out as Chewy Oatmeal Cookies (recipe from the Crisco container, sooooo healthy) and I ended up throwing so many things in that I’m calling them Kitchen Sink Cookies.


I can’t really do the “healthy” sweets, somehow cookies made with carob and flax just aren’t the same (although I’m pretty sure that’s the point). So I’m thinking lots and lots of good things and moderation in the bad things.


Four out of five fruits.
A very different type of dough: Play Doh. It is the bane of my existence, but she loves it so what are you gonna do? Pick up itty bitty pieces of it off the rug until she turns 12 and eschews all things “uncool”.


Or donate it all to her school?

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Recent Finds & Craft

January 11, 2007 at 3:25 pm · Filed under thrifty

My MIL informed me that a thrift shop around the bend from her house was having a half price sale. Nothing to do but jump in the car and make a mad dash down the street. I came away with a whole box of items for under $5. It was a bit of a maze but worth the meandering aisles and claustrophobia.

A Mikasa butter dish with matching tea cup (not pictured). They also had a matching salt and pepper set, but I couldn’t seem to convince myself that I “needed” them.


A school desk for Arwyn. This wasn’t included in the half price sale, but I paid only $5 (It was marked $7 and I didn’t even ask the guy to come down. This has never happened to me before, must be the red hair). Grandma got her the chairs sitting alongside. All we do now is sit at this table and make balls and cupcakes from Play Doh. Those little chairs were not made for my 31 year old behind. The things I do for art. Bubby is convinced Arwyn will get tetanus from the rusty spots on the desk.


A blue Ball jar and a sweet little cup painted with a bunny face. The face came off in the wash, oops, and I was informed that this now looks like boobies.


A well worn Glasbake soup dish. Why didn’t that come off in the wash?


Arwyn’s new fave, the fuzzy Ernie blankie.


Two vintage pillowcases for my growing stash of fabric, even though I don’t sew. Yep, I’m one of those people. I have every intention of having a (working) sewing machine one day. The fabric with the blue dots may soon discover his true destiny as a valance.


And finally the beaded tree that wasn’t. Wasn’t finished, or even started for that matter, by Christmas. There’s always next year.

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Cooking 101

January 9, 2007 at 7:29 pm · Filed under recipes

It’s my first new recipe of the year! I’ve been watching a lot of Rachael Ray lately and I made her Tortellini en Brodo. I even got all fancy and served it up with some crusty bread and peppered olive oil for dipping. It was Yum-o, as they say. That’s wilted spinach you see floating around in there. I’m not big on wilted anything, but it was pretty good. My only complaint was the cheese melted into one big glob on the bottom of my spoon as I was eating.



I’ll give it a three and a half out of five fruits.
Last night I whipped up this veggie dip. I forced Bubby to eat raw vegetables, how cruel is that?


I got the recipe from Bubby’s aunt’s boyfriend. The first time I had it I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. When I made it myself it was good, but not quite the same somehow. I even bought the same brands of sour cream and mayo that he used, so I’m not sure what the difference is.

Uncle Dave’s Veggie Dip

1 8 oz. Daisy sour cream
8 oz Hellman’s mayonnaise
1 tsp Accent*
1 T dried minced onion
1 T dried parsley
1 T dried dill weed

Whisk together mayo and sour cream well. Add rest of ingredients and mix well. Place in fridge and let stand overnight.

*Accent is basically MSG, so if you are allergic or averse leave this ingredient out.

Four out of five fruits.

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Red

January 4, 2007 at 6:27 pm · Filed under Uncategorized

Bubby’s new nickname for me. I got my hairs did yesterday, getting my inspiration from a Stacie doll of all things. I think it’s a bit darker than this photo shows.


What happens when the only vegetable in the house is an onion and you really really need to go to the grocery?


Why, breakfast for lunch, of course. My brother and sis-in-law work for the jelly maker. I worked there one summer in college. It was really hot. My brother took requests and gave us a sweet gift box for Christmas. Now I have to eat my way through four jars of jelly.


I used the divided plate I bought for myself Arwyn. My food touching other food on my plate causes me angst. Most of the time I just deal with it and I’m better than I used to be. But I’d really prefer if every plate on earth were divided. How else can you have syrup with your smokey links and ketchup with your eggs without it all running together? My grandma used to have a stash of plates at her house just for me. Ok, I don’t know if they were actually purchased for my use, but I used them at every meal I ate at her house.


I used to do this thing where I would pick someone else sitting at the table and every time they took a bite of something, I would take a bite of the same thing for the entire meal. If they took a drink, I took a drink. I don’t think anyone ever caught on, but wouldn’t that be really odd and annoying if you were, say, my brother’s girlfriend? She probably just thought I stared at her a lot.

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Got Da Funk

January 2, 2007 at 7:53 pm · Filed under arwyn dae

Anyone seen that Honda commercial? That’s where it all started …

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New Year, New You

January 2, 2007 at 6:44 pm · Filed under introspective

I’d almost forgotten about the notes I had scribbled a couple of weeks ago about my resolutions but after reading Hannah’s post I resolved to dig out the notes. See, one resolution fulfilled already! I’m not really big on resolutions, per say. No reason to set yourself up for certain demise, I say. It’s kind of like dating that bad boy you can’t resist. You know it’s going to end bad, but you do it anyway.

Our lives have seen a lot of changes this year- some good, some not so much. I have struggled with many of these changes and felt helpless in the face of others. When I see the losses others have recently suffered, it makes me realize how much I have, how many wonderful people I have in my life, and thankful that somewhere along the line I made a few good decisions. I have often felt that something was missing in my life, that I wasn’t doing what I was “supposed” to be doing, but had no idea what that might be. I have felt unhappy and alone more times than I care to remember. My resolution this year is to be happy. To spend less time thinking about what I don’t have and more time thinking about what I do. To let the important people in my life know they are loved. Like Hannah so eloquently wrote, I will choose to be happy. Maybe that’s all it takes.

On a lighter note, I’d also like to keep track of any new recipes I try this year and have some sort of year end round up or rating system.

Also happy 200th post to me!

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