A Walk in the Park

Today I ran an errand during my lunch hour and it only took 10 minutes so I stopped at the new park near our house.   Saw some ducks....

and geese....

Checked out the horseshoe pits.   Even have benches for spectators.

This is the view looking across the lake.   It was a beautiful day and I made 3 trips around the perimeter of the park in a half hour.

They also have birdhouses.  They look like gourds but they are not.  Not sure what type of bird is attracted to these - but may have to do some research on that.

As you can see below, they are not finished with the park.  My husband says they are to put in a ball diamond. 

I think I'll be walking there often during my lunch hours. Gets me out of the house and burns some calories.   Come back refreshed and energized. 

Supper tonight was French Onion Chicken sandwich and a Lay's taste test - Mango Salsa (wavy chips) and Bacon Mac 'n Cheese (regular chips).  The Bacon Man 'n Cheese won hands' down here.  Now if they were just wavy too :-)

Still need to taste the Wasabi Ginger kettle chips - I'm not even trying the Cappuccino. 

And another very good chicken recipe that I made last week, Baked Mushroom Chicken.

Little Hats, Big Hearts

I've been knitting hats for the Little Hats, Big Hearts charity. The red hats are to raise awareness of heart disease which is the most common birth defect. The hats are distributed to neonatal units for the children there.   From one skein of yarn ($2.99 at Michael's) I got 8 hats using a quick free pattern I found.

And I used the rest of the red yarn with some other ends of yarn to make 2 more hats. 

These won't work for the Little Hats Big Hearts since they only use red hats but they will be donated to Mosaic Pregnancy Center 

Along with some other hats and blankets I have made with my surplus yarn.

Yes- I have a large surplus of yarn - and still more to use up :-)  And this week I bought more to make some baby afghans.  3 nieces (2 of Tom's and 1 of mine) are expecting and 2 other ladies at church.  Babies everywhere!

Speaking of babies,  haven't posted a granddaughter photo lately.  She's not a baby any more.  Here is my recent favorite photo taken at a local park. It was a little chilly so she had to wear shoes and a jacket - didn't like either one.

More Whale Fun

I played with the Oh Whale set again this evening. We have a baby shower coming up for a little boy. 

The whale is stamped blue on blue. I think he might need a little pearl or rhinestone for his eye. 

What a cute little bib card. It was really fun to make. I know I'll be making more of these. 

This one has a shaker on it.  I filled it with the little pieces that are part of the die. 

Couldn't stop without making a couple girly baby cards. 

Thinking of writing something like 'hoping you make a big splash in your birthday ' on the inside. Any other ideas? 

And I had to make one more anniversary card. 

This one is waiting for its sentiment. 

Owl cards

I have the Owl punch but have not made very many owls. 

I made this one Sunday morning for a young man in our church. He turns 11 this week and his mom arranged for Hagrid to bring him a birthday cake with his invitation to attend Hogwarts ( and a trip to Florida to the Harry Potter park) 

The owl is white to sort of resemble Hedwig. The inside said 'Hope your birthday is 'owl'some' 

So today I played a little more. I like the off center circle. 

And another birthday card. 

And a couple love birds for an anniversary card. 

I am also challenging myself to use some of my Pinterest treasures this week. I made our menu using recipes I have pinned. 

Crockpot chicken and dressing casserole. 

Thai red curry soup and homemade pita flatbreads. 

Crockpot porcupine meatballs  these are very similar to a recipe my mom used with a large skillet. 

Whale fun.

PI borrowed the Oh Whale stamp set from my sister and I finally got some time to play with it. Had a to of fun ! 

Made all of these tonight. 

I own the Big Shot die that goes with the set but never bought the set. The die also has a heart, anchor, fish, star, and spout spray cut outs. 

I recently purchased the roller with the waves. 

This was the first one I made. I had no idea what it would become - hadn't even picked out the colors when I started putting it together. 

I like the Get Whale Soon sentiment. I'll probably make a few more with this layout. 

I need some baby boy cards so the blue whales were put to use there. 

I really like the Calypso Coral with the blue. I drew the spout spray with a white gel pen and love the little anchor touch. 

Another little anchor. I plan to play with this design some more. 

I am always needing more anniversary cards.  I'll probably play with thus design too.

And I can't blog without including a recipe or two. 

My Pinterest recipe tonight was Chicken a Shepherd 'a Pie.  We all like Shepherd's Pie so thought I would try this. It was good but I think I would prefer it with a biscuit topping like a Chicken Pot Pie. 

It was simple to make. I just served it with some watermelon. 

Monday Menu

I haven't done this for a while but here is the menu for the week.  It usually varies a little (or a lot) as the week goes on but this is a starting point to insure I have ingredients for these meals.


Monday - Red Thai Curry Soup
                 Pocketless Pita Bread (Modified to use the bread machine to mix the dough.   I am trying to get a soft flatbread like at Olga's. I also tried using 1/3 whole wheat flour to 2/3 white flour )

Tuesday -  Crockpot Porcupine Meatballs
                  Freezer Corn

                  AuGratin Potatoes 


Wednesday - Easy Chicken Shepherd's Pie
                      Peas


Thursday - Leftovers


Friday - Honey Glazed Salmon
              Couscous
              Lettuce salad


Saturday - Church Picnic - I am taking a fruit tray and yogurt dip


Sunday - Crispy Chicken Wraps
               Refried Beans

Cupcake cases

Here is another card I cased from the catalog.   I used different colors and a different cupcake stamp set but the angled stripes and row of cupcakes are the same. 

I used the new IN colors for this card.  The frosting on the blue cupcake is some retired DSP. 

This would also be a cute card with a "One of a kind" sentiment.  

The multi-colored frosting is also some retired DSP.

More retired DSP.  I need to use up some of the old DSP so I can buy the new :-)

More retired DSP - each cupcake is unique on this card.   They all look delicious.

And one more design - a simpler one.