ART JOURNAL PAGES

I started a new art journal a few days ago. I have a couple of them in progress somewhere, but I'm not exactly sure where. They disappeared when Andrew came over on a guerrila cleaning mission about 3 Thanksgivings ago. I had bought several LARGE rubbermaid containers and he proceeded to toss every chunk of clutter in the kitchen and living/dining area into them until we filled up all I had. At least two of the containers are still filled and I hesitate to unload them, because of everything that will then be spewed back into the mix. "One of these days, ma....". Who knows where that quote comes from? Any guesses?

Gosh, I get rusty when I don't do art regularly. This is the first page I did in my new journal. Messy and unfocused. . And I had a sharpie issue.

Then there is this guy who showed up on my still unjournaled page. I had been wanting to draw a long faced woman with a short hairdo that I have seen lately and really liked. Only it turned out to be this fairy or elf looking guy, with thin, droopy hair. The colors did come out better in this one though.

See the Verve widget in the column to the right? That's a new-to-me site that shows blogs all over the world. You can click on it and get a map that comes closer and closer as you double-click on it, showing registered blogs in any area of the world. So if you have a blog, you might want to register it there to get on the map. I read about it on Rice Freeman-Zachery's blog. Sorry, I can't make the .. symbol for the correct pronunciation over the e in her name. On the map, she is the blogger in Midland, Texas.

RAINBOW FLOAT?

In a really great zine I got recently in a Swap-Bot swap - Love Child from Christel Weixelman - she had a section called, "Cocktails for Sugar Fiends". I'm not that into sugar, but they did sound interesting. One, called a Shrek Float, is lime sherbert with Boone's Farm Melon Ball wine. When I finally got around to looking for the ingredients, I couldn't find that flavor of Boone's Farm so bought the Watermelon flavor and the Blue Hawaiian flavor instead. Above, pictured with Trixie-Minnie Sock Monkey is a combo of Rainbow Sherbert and Watermelon wine. It was really good! Even Trixie thought so. You can tell she had a few too many sips while I was getting the camera ready.
Anyone know what flavor Blue Hawaiian would be? The Rainbow Sherbert is gone, so I guess next up is the lime sherbert combined with the left over Watermelon, and then the Blue Hawaiian wine. I hope that works as well.

OOPS!, WHAT THE HECK! AND OH, WELL...

I cooked...not all that well, but I did cook. This is a recipe that Cookbook Junkie wrote about on her blog sometime back in January, I think it was - Green Bean Artichoke Bake. It looked and sounded good, and her write-up on it was interesting as always. So I printed out the recipe and finally got around to making it last night. The only thing I did wrong, was that after I poured the two bags of french cut green beans, straight from the freezer into the casserole to be mixed with everything else, I noticed the recipe said they should be thawed first. Oops! Oh, well... I went ahead and just figured it would be alright. ...Um, which is one clue as to why my cooking is not exactly stellar... But, anyway, the dish was really, really good, if you can overlook the fact that the green beans were markedly underdone. I'll definately be making this again... and next time I hope to remember to get those frozen bags out of the freezer well in advance, so they can thaw.

To go with that, I made meatloaf, which I had been hungry for, for awhile. It was okay. I didn't have bread to crumble into the mixture, (well, I did have the fresh, new loaf of bakery sourdough bread, but didn't want to give that up) or any leftover veggies to include, so I substituted dry oatmeal. Then I saw the bag of the last bits of crumbled Fritoes in the cabinet and thought, "What the heck." and tossed them in too. "What the heck."... yeah, that is another reason for my questionable cooking skills. Other additions were garlic, tomato sauce and chopped onion.

It turned out okay, although a little on the dull side. Darn! I forgot egg to bind the whole thing into a cohesive loaf! I just remembered that now, as I am typing this. Oh, well... And it was underdone, too. The middle was somewhat... raw. So we ate around the ends and edges and I put the rest back into the oven....and left it until it was um...VERY well done. But it is not burnt black, so I am looking forward to a meatloaf sandwich for lunch today.

STEWART'S HOME!

First of all, here are two photos, front and back, of the Spirit House Accordian Book I received in the swap from Agnies2ka/lighthouse in Poland. Notice the machine stitching around the edges of each house. Isn't it so nice?! Then she also included in the package, a wonderful vintage postcard of her hometown, Bielsko-Biala, circa 1915. Wow! I really like it!

Here is what I've been working on lately - two sock monkeys, for Swap-Bot swaps. They were much quicker and easier than I thought they'd be. The swap criteria was that they had to be made out of socks other than the traditional sock monkey socks. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to find colorful socks of the right kind (no anklets, no short tops, etc.) around here, right now! These red ones were the ONLY choice I had. Well, I didn't check the dollar stores, but didn't want to. If I ever find any more suitable socks, I may make some more.
Computer woes - aRgH! We have been unable to get the computer to connect to the internet for a week or more. Stewart arrived home from Baghdad last night, and says it is something we did to it, but he hasn't figured it out yet. He did tell us how to connect for now, though, although it is still far from right.
It is great having Stewart home for awhile again. I picked him up late last night in Corpus Christi. He has a lot planned for while he is home...mostly business and work, but a lot of relaxing, too. He said that he didn't get to see Angelina Jolie when she was in Baghdad, but she was in the embassy and walked by his office. She was in the cafeteria having lunch while he was busy doing something else. He was disappointed that he missed the Santana concert in Dubai that he planned to attend. His travel plans were delayed, and he missed it by hours.