God is good! Life is good!

Haven't posted in a while - and boy! do I have news.   I am making a career move - after 32 years at Memorial Hospital, I have accepted a job as Interface Engineer with a company that makes medical devices.  I will work from home 95% of the time - love it!
It will be very different - and at least in the beginning I will probably really  miss my office mates with no one to talk to during the day.  Buddy may get tired of hearing me talking to myself.
My last day at Memorial is May 16 and I start the new job on May 19.   I'm excited for the new opportunity but a little scared.  Currently I am the 'go-to' person for so many questions and after May 19, I will be the one with the questions :-)  But that is good and I will learn and grow.  My experiences at Memorial will be a good basis to build on.

Other things - we had a great Easter (except Tom worked and missed out on our festivities)  I made brunch for the family and we had a little egg hunt for the granddaughter. She was a little apprehensive of the cold, wet eggs but she really loves plastic ones.

                                           

She looked so pretty in her Easter dress

                                       

We wore her out :-)

                              

Grandpa did get to see her last week.  She loves books and will look at the same one over and over. The Monster at the End of This Book is one of her favorites.  She seems to favor the color blue and stares at Grover on every page.

                                      

Have made some pretty decent meals lately too.   At the end of the 12 week challenge, I came in 2nd place.  Won some money!   I was within 2 pounds of my goal so I signed up for a second 12 week period but this time I am doing maintenance.   I've bounced up and down a little but so far have stayed within 5 pounds of my initial weight.  I can't be more than 2 pounds over my initial weight to get my money back at the end of the 12 weeks - so need to get serious again.   Going through the job interviews made me hungry - I am a stress-eater and it doesn't matter what I put in my mouth, I just have to put something in it :-)

                            

The other night I made White Lasagne  It was so good!  The fresh asparagus and mushrooms really make a difference.  The Ragu sauce is very good and Walmart had them on sale this week so I got a couple more jars.

                            

Tonight we had grilled steaks, corn on the cob, Kale Salad and French bread.   My husband is not a big fan of raw kale.  He doesn't mind some in soup but not raw in a salad.   I told him he would love this salad and wish he had more.    He did like it and said the kale was not so strong tasting.   I made the dressing using yellow onions today since that is what I had so it was not 'pink' lemonade dressing.   It is such a good, fresh tasting dressing.   

Tonight, my daughters and I saw a community theater production of Willy Wonka.  It was fun.  A friend from church and her son had parts in the play and a couple friends from church sat behind us.  They have upcoming productions of Annie and Meet Me In St Louis.  What fun!

Busy Saturday

I've been busy today - but I love it :-). Started by going through all our VHS tapes to gather home videos so I could get them put on DVD. Dropped them off at Walgreens and they are on their way to     the company that will upload them online and I can edit, name, rearrange etc. then I can choose what to put on DVDs. 

They had a 20% off coupon so figured I would just bite the bullet and do them all. Had 10 tapes but some don't have a lot of footage on them. Hope they work okay.  It was sort of scary sending them away because I don't have copies :-( but they weren't much good as they are. 

Then spent the afternoon getting ready for Easter. 

Yesterday I washed up a bunch of the plastics eggs. DD#2 had used them at work for the kiddos to play with. They loved them but some wound up in their mouths do thought it might be a good idea to give them a nice soapy bath.  And yes! There are some camouflage ones on the bunch :-) 

When I got out the mugs that I use for dying eggs, I dropped the tin and a couple of the mugs broke. These are the cups that my mom used and I have had them got at least 20 years myself. When we had the dye in them we found another one had cracks in the bottom and was leaking. So down to 3 cups. 

So I took these 3 out of my collection to use for the years to come. The one on the left shows the bones on the x-Ray when hot liquid is poured in. Won't that be fun?  

Some of the eggs had a natural stripe when we dyed them. Kind of neat. 

Some we made stripes by dying the egg then wrapping a wide rubber band around the egg and placing it in a darker dye. And one I dipped half way in one color then the other end in a second color leaving a white stripe

DD#2 made her favorites by wrapping tightly in a paper towel and dropping small amounts of the dye solution onto the paper towel. The circles are from the pattern in the towels. 

My mom always took a little bacon grease on a rag and polished the eggs. I don't have a jar of bacon grease so I used a little bit of olive oil. It sure makes them shine. 

While going through my mugs I found some I thought I should have out - these are ones that Tom and I had from before we were married.

I thought these were nice for spring. 

Forgot I had these. I should have these out all summer long. 

The one is from 1982 and has the statistics on the back. 

After some prep work for tomorrow, I threw together this dinner. Shrimp tacos with tangy lime dressing, spicy black beans and fresh pineapple. 

Now it's time to put together some Easter baskets. I love holidays - especially since DD#1's family will be worshipping with us tomorrow. Just wish DH did not have to work.   

Easter blessings everyone!  Remember the reason for Easter - the One who died that we might have eternal life. He rose again and ascended into Heaven.  Some day he will return and gather his children. 

Book launch reception and more cards

Some church friends and I attended a book launch reception for Rachel Wisdom and her first novel, A Shopkeeper's Daughter. Rachel's parents and grandparents are friends at church. It was fun to be a part of the celebration and I am looking forward to reading my autographed copy. 

Before and after the reception I spent some time in the craft room playing with some new ideas and products.  I've always liked paper doilies. I can remember using them in early elementary art classes especially around Valentine's Day.  I've seen some cute cards recently that interested me so gave some of them a try. 

 Here you use just a portion of the doily.   That was a pretty simple way to enhance a card. 

Using the half doily on opposite edges of a piece of cardstock I tied them together with some baker's twine. Another cutie. 

I've also seen several ideas for adding color to the doily. I decided to try some sponging. It works pretty well but you do have to be careful to not tear or crumple the doily.   

I sponged this one using Pear Pizazz and combined it with Daffodil Delight and Pool Party. 

Here the doily is sponged using Gold Encore ink ( so glad Stampin Up has that back in their catalog). I used the brushed gold paper for the card background and the flowers. It is ya little glossy so stamped the flowers using Black Cherry Stazon. It matches Cherry Cobbler pretty well. This will be a great golden anniversary card. 

Then I grabbed my stack of new products.  The designer series paper and stamp set are all in the Occasions mini catalog. The stamp set is a Sale-a- brat ion item  I saw where one demonstrator suggested putting a piece of waxed paper between the paper and the due. It certainly made it easier to pop out the paper after cutting. I think I'll be needing a second roll of waxed paper to store in my craft room.

For this one I randomly stamped 'love', tied on a few pieces of linen thread and added some punched flowers, leaves and a heart. I'll use this as an anniversary card. 

Hope to get in more cards today but first church, running over to see this cutie and pick up some things from her momma 

and making something for a food day at work tomorrow.   The 12 week weight loss challenge is nearing the end - 2 more weeks - and I'm pleased to say I am getting close to my goal. This is when I struggle the most because I tell myself it's okay to splurge, I can always lose a few pounds.  I'm just thankful the challenge ends before the first birthday party - so many goodies planned for it that I know I won't be able to pass up. 

Finally some play time

It has been weeks since I have been in my craft room. Avoiding the mess and had some knitting ptojects to finish up. My daughter came over to work on some things for this little one's first birthday in April 

so I had to clean up so we had room to work. 

Our first project is a birthday banner. Stampin Up sold banner kits last fall that use 5 x 7 canvas panels and a heavy jute.  I had purchased one as well as a replacement pack to make a second banner but had not even opened them yet. What better reason??? 

The kit has 3 different styles of flags and 3 different background stencils. There is also a stencil for the open circle and 26 alphabet stencils.  We sponged using Melon Mambi for the background, retired Pretty in Pink for the circle and Gold Encore ink for the letters.  It says happy birthday and the plan is to use it for many years to come. 

To separate the words I made a flag with a cupcake stamped on it and colored it in using blender pens and ink. From a distance it dies not show up very well so think I will use a sharpie to outline it. 

I have to add some adornments and photos through the year but pretty satisfied with how this part turned out. 

 

I also started playing with a chalkboard to record her statistics. 

The chalk marker in the spring mini catalog is really nice. I used some watercolor pencils to color in areas. These are just doodles that I experimented with. I think the final one will be 12 x 12 and we will put it in a scrapbook (whenever we get started on that) and plan to do one every year. 

Another party idea is to wrap miniature candies with some pink party designs. 

The Stampin Up rollers and ink cartridges make that so easy. The hard part will be handling the candy without losing any to my mouth. One thing I crave during my weight loss challenge is chocolate so having it in the house might be dangerous 

While I was in the craft room I got a bug to sort through all my designer series paper.  How much is too much ???  I have lots and lots and decided to divide into some groupings like juvenile , feminine, floral, geometrical, plaids and stripes, nostalgic, fun and games, etc.  while sorting through that I pulled out some odds and ends to make a few cards - you know I can't play without making at least a couple cards. 

I had these balloons - colored and mounted - left over from a project so whipped up some birthday cards. 

I had a random scraps of this Tangerine  Tango design so grabbed my color coach and one of the color combo suggestions. The one that I liked used Pacific Point and So Saffron.  I stamped up a bunch if Fabulous a Phrases and started putting them all together. 

I pulled out some Early Esoresso for a few cards. 

And a few more. 

Another combo listed Old Olive and Tempting Turquoise. I used the print for some paper piecing. 

I got pretty creative in the kitchen too (Tom had lots of cleaning to do after supper - that's our deal, I cook and he cleans up afterwards. I do try to clean up as I go but he dies the dishes that need hand washed and always wipes down the countertops whether I do or not )

Broiled salmon with avocado cream, broiled asparagus, orange rice and cheesy tomatoes. Pretty delish!!

Leftovers glamorized

I had some fried apples and cranberries left over from the other day so made me a delicious dessert tonight. 

Wrapped them up in a warm tortilla reserving a little of the sauce to drizzle in top. A  small amount of whipped cream and it's done. 

It was very delicious and much fewer calories than a piece of apple pie. 

Recipes and a salad box

My salad box- got this idea from my friend Rhonda.  Lots of salad ingredients washed, cut and ready to make a salad whenever we want.  I love it and use it to make a salad as a side dish, main dish or make up a quick lunch to take to work.   The large box holds smaller containers with all the prepped veggies.  I did make one change - a piece of freezer tape with the date I filled it on each container.  Helps me to know quantities to prep in future boxes so we don't have cut up veggies going to waste.  It has also been convenient when making soup or stir-fry.

My box usually has -

Lettuce - although if there is not room in the box for the lettuce, I keep it in the crisper drawer

Carrots - diced

Celery - diced - this does not keep as well diced so I only do a little at a time

Radishes - sliced

Onions - diced

Green peppers - diced

Mini sweet peppers - sliced in rings

Cheese - feta, blue, parmesan, asiago - whatever I have that is grated and ready

Dried cranberries

Laughing cow wedges - not to put on the salad but I often take a salad with crackers and a laughing cow wedge for lunch. 

At times, depending on what I have on hand, I might add

Olives

Bacon bits

Hard boiled egg - diced

Green onions, sliced

Black beans

Garbanzo beans

Cucumbers (Husband really likes them but they don't keep very well once they are sliced so I usually just keep the whole cucumber if I have room for it.)

Some other recipes I have made that I will be making again -

Chicken Verde - no photo but I will be making it again soon!

Ranch Chicken Salad - uses dry ranch dressing mix and it is very tasty.  I found a jar of dry ranch mix at Sam's.  It is so handy to have around to add a little flavor to meats or veggies when cooking.

Greek Yogurt Chicken Parmesan - also uses dry ranch dressing mix. 

Icy morning = warm breakfast

It is an icy, wintry morning here.  Sleet and freezing rain during the night and some snow today.  So we are homebound - but that's okay.  We have power and lots of food - plus a DVR full of movies and lots of yarn for knitting. 

I offered to make French Toast for breakfast since eggs, bread and milk are the pre-storm necessities to pick up at the store, but my daughter preferred pancakes. 

Since I am on the weight loss challenge - wanted to do something healthier than syrup drenched pancakes.  I am not a big syrup eater anyway.  I like my French Toast with butter and jelly, or cinnamon sugar - no syrup.  Sometimes I eat pancakes with just butter or often with canned fruit filling and whipped cream - no syrup.



This morning I had a couple apples that needed to be eaten so sliced them up and made Fried Apples and added a few dried cranberries.  Two pancakes, 1/4 recipe of the fried apples and two slices of turkey bacon - under 300 calories.  It sure hit the spot and was not only warm but filling.

Some other 'keeper' recipes I have tried lately.

Blueberry Cobbler - a very simple dessert using fresh fruit.  The recipe, from a slow cooker cookbook I have had for years, suggests using blackberries, strawberries or a mixture of berries but I think it would also be good with sliced apples or diced peaches.  

Thai Chicken and Orange Glazed Carrots was a big hit with my husband.  The chicken was a little spicy so the sweet orange flavored carrots were a great side dish.  I did not measure the orange peel I used and I think it was a little more than what the recipe called for.  It sure made a difference in the dish.

And this meal did not even use any recipes - just made it up :-)  I will be adding it to my recipes blog just so I have it for future reference.  That blog is becoming my personal recipe box.

Teriyaki Chicken Kabobs and Stir Fried Vegetables