week & St. Patrick's weekend

Our City Hall through the trees

 It's been a good Spring Break week and weekend. Got to take a long walk with my dad, sister, and sweetpea earlier this week. This weekend I went to the bi-annual giant consignment sale and bought the baby a pile of clothes for her next size up. Such a good deal. Several pieces still had the tags on them. Took some time organizing a pile of hand-me-downs too. I love space bags! They are amazing for tasks/storage like this.

Also went to two yarn stores during our area's yearly "Yarn Crawl." I was responsible and only bought 3 skeins to add to my large stash. I have plans to make this owlet sweater for sweetpea with the pretty rich blue I have here... and some fingerless mitts for my good friend and daycare provider with this....

I was into blue that day it seems.

Also baked up two loafs of my Irish Freckle Bread...I started this tradition about 6 years ago or so. It is a recipe I found online. We used to have my Nana's recipe but it literally disintegrated it was so old and worn. This recipe is delicious. Would be happy to share if you'd like!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

baking & st. patrick's day

Irish Freckle Bread

The past two nights, after work I have been baking. I enjoy baking but I have been tired this week thanks to daylight savings time. But my guy really wanted me to make his family's recipe for Whoopie Pies and I had promised him I would this weekend and never got around to it. So...it was my own fault :) They are very rich and I really can only eat a little bit of one. They are huge...and full of all kinds of bad stuff.

Tonight I made my Irish Freckle Bread in honor of my holiday - St. Patrick's Day. I am always so proud to be Irish but especially on that day. About 4 years ago I found the recipe and decided it would become my own tradition each March 17th. It's a long story but my Nana once had a recipe for Irish Freckle Bread but it wasn't handed down to my mom so I decided we would start our own. It is so good. I use cranberries instead of currants or raisins since I like them much better. I just took it out of the oven and the apartment smells so good and I can't wait to have some with my coffee in the morning. I plan on taking half the loaf to my parent's tomorrow for them to enjoy.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

a christmas girl's night

our tree in the sunshine

Hosted the monthly Girl's Night last night. Had SO much fun preparing and then hosting. I love having people enjoy my food and home. I cooked a big Christmas ham dinner for everyone...apple pie, red velvet cupcakes and lots of cookies. My friend brought a beautiful Christmas punch and we ate, laughed and had a Yankee Swap. It was our usual group but with the wonderful addition of two old friends we recently reconnected with this year. We all went to high school together and have been friends all this time. I loved it.

Some more scenes from the night....

my table decorations...rosemary tree that I hope I don't kill!

Favor boxes I filled with cookies and decorated with an ornament for the girls

Pretty Christmas punch one of my friends made.

Sweets. Cary watched me bake for two days!

Today I spent some time at local yarn shop, visited my parents and knitted. Had dinner with them and now I'm home waiting for the snowstorm and Cary to come home from work. Looking forward to a snow day tomorrow. Hoping to play with my December Cocoa Daisy kit while I watch the snow come down.

Happy Saturday!

let the holiday preparations begin

Holiday preparations underway! Started my Christmas cards last week. Did buy a set of 10 so I can simplify and not get stressed out making so many homemade ones. They will all be different but based on the same design. Here are two of them...only have three made and about 30 left to go!




Today I also tried out 3 new cookie recipes...

Hazelnut Roly Polys - Dec/Jan '10 Country Living

Strawberry Jam Thumbprints - Dec/Jan '10 Country Living

Coconut Macaroons - Food Network Magazine Dec 09's 50 Holiday Cookies insert

...we'll see how they taste! Cary is expected home shortly after being away for guard this weekend. He will be my taste tester. He starts back to work tomorrow. The company he was laid off from found 40 hours/week for the month of December. That is something to be grateful for.

Yesterday spent the day shopping with my sister (complete with a shared peice of Peppermint Cheesecake from the Cheescake Factory!) and I got it all done except for 3 things I need to pick up/pay for next weekend. Feels good to have found some meaningful things for people. Still need to finish knitting one gift as well.

I have kept busy this weekend but fun busy. Looking forward to a vacation coming up in a few weeks and a Girl's Night to host the weekend before Christmas. I love this time of year!

Happy Sunday!

catching up

The Bella's Mittens I knit: you can find pattern on Ravelry.com fashioned after the Twilight movie.

What I have been up to lately:

• Falling asleep so early at night (7:30pm last night)...like an old woman. Haven't been feeling well physically for a few months...no clear reason. Not terrible...just contributing to a feeling of been unmotivated.


• A guest at a N. Maine Halloween Wedding which was fun and unique...elegant and eery at the same time. Candles. Jack-o-Lanterns. Dark red roses. Black. A Nightmare Before Christmas cake.


• Work...work...work. Somewhat stressful waiting to see how the Governor's budget cuts may/will impact my clinical job.


• Knitting. Finished my mittens... which I love! Can't wait for snow...


• Ali McBeal on DVD. Hours and hours of laughter to go...


• Attempting to get back to my exercise routine that I let slide when I got sick. Slowly...walked a few miles several times this week. Feels good to be back.

What I want to be up to this weekend:

• A day with my sister tomorrow. Lunch and shopping. Overdue.


• Knitting circle. I haven't been going lately....need some help with checking the guage on a hat I started last weekend. Knitting with beads...a whole new thing for me.


• Vacuuming. Dusting. Cleaning up my apartment. Wierd but I like taking care of my home and I haven't been good with it lately. It makes me feel great to have a clean, organized house. Nesting comes out for me especially at this time of year.


• Cupcakes to be baked.


• Scrapping with my October Cocoa Daisy kit I haven't used yet.


• Reading before bed.


• Burning my Pumpkin candle.


• Taking a walk in unseasonably warm weather we ar due to have on Sunday.


• A quick trip to the apple orchard for some cortland apples and cider.

Happy Friday!

the weekend

So I was in the mood to get a few treats on the way home from work friday after a verrrry long week. I found myself some Converse in my color. Aqua. Love them! My sister will be proud - she's always been into Chucks. I also got a pair of jeans and a bright white t-shirt at Target. I wear white t's all the time. And a cute blue-green fun scarf. And some cute earrings. All for not too much money. I love Target.

Yesterday made some of Cary's mom's special recipe Chocolate Chip Cookies. Some for him and some to take over my friend's house. Mmmm. Guess who else will be eating these while she is snowed in today?!

Last night was my monthly Girl's Night. We had dinner cooked by one of the girls and lots of talking and catching up. I was tired and not feeling so well but managed to stay awake through Sex & The City: The Movie...which I saw in the theatre and loved.

I got a pile of blank Strathmore ATC's in the mail that I ordered from Dick Blick. I was running out of the one little assorted pack I had and my LSS didn't have any left. Now I will be set for the rest of the year and the 52Q group. Here are a few others I have worked on in the past few weeks. Some are complete and some I haven't done the journaling on yet. I am not quite up-to-date but getting there...I really do like this project. It's a nice chance to do a little artwork eac week and really think about an important topic. It is very similar to things I incorporate into my work as an Art Therapist only this time it's for me.

Week #4: When I look into my eyes I see....

Front: StampIt square stamp. Denami Design circle of dots stamp. SEI swirl stamp. Various letter stamps. Black pen. Watercolor pencils. Water brush.

Back: Denami Design circle of dots stamp. Autumn Leaves journaling circle stamp. Black pen.

Week # 5: Today I Feel....

front: Date stamp. Close to my Heart date journaling stamp. River City letter stamp. Black pen. Watercolor pencils. Water brush.

back: Watercolor pencils. Water brush. Black pen.

Week #6: If I could do it all again...

front: various letter stamps. Denami Design circle of dots stamp. Hand-drawn flower with black pen, Watercolor pencils and water brush.

I haven't journaled on the back of this one yet.

Later today I might work on #7 and #8 and be right on track...as I sit here and wait for a SNOWSTORM! Cross your fingers that tomorrow will be a snowday for the college...day and evening classes since I teach tomorrow evening...

Also hoping to finish my2nd glove to finish out the pair...

Happy Sunday!

Just have to say that Pillsbury "Fun-fetti" cupcakes are AWESOME! These little treats have been going fast...and it's only me and Cary eating them! I got these cute cupcake papers from Macy's home section...they are Martha Stewart and they were on sale for less than $2 for 75 of them. I don't usually treat myself to little things like fancy cupcake papers but it's the holidays and I really appreciate little details! These treats are getting me through a very busy somewhat stressful week. Looking so forward to long weekend that officially begins tomorrow at 2:30pm. Countdown...

weekend in review

Cover of my Summer 08 Mini board book

I had a nice, relaxed, quiet weekend. Didn't check everything off my list but did do a lot...chores I wanted to get done and fun stuff.

Including:

Got some acrylic paints, gesso and a small canvas. Did some work on one I started with water soluable oil paints I have...not done yet. I hope to post it later when I get some more done with it. It is a theme of Just Be. Live. Relax.

Bought a 12x12 album to start Cary's book. Might save it for a Christmas present.

Visited my parents and unexpectedly picked up my sister from work today.

Baked an apple pie, lasagna and made homemade chicken soup to free me up during the week and have some good lunches and leftovers.

my apple pie. my favorite recipe and dessert!

Went to the apple orchard for cider, cortland apples to eat and some for my pie. Love the smell at the orchard. I could just stay there all day and take it in.

Vacuumed...but think the vacuum broke. Made a "crack" and then shut off...wouldn't turn back on again. Uh Oh.

Did 3 loads of laundry.

Got into the holiday spirit. I know it's 2 days after Halloween. And I'm not talking putting up Christmas decos yet. But I'm starting to get excited. Seeing ads with red & green. Collecting ideas for my Christmas cards. Getting ideas for gifts I want to give my family. Also thinking about doing Ali's album idea for the days leading up to Christmas. Started gathering up stuff I have to start putting that together. Need to order covers and gather a few more things to make pages out of.

Bought a set of sheets and a new large sauce pan...stupid things I needed to get.

Grocery shopped.

Found out that my closest mall is getting both a Sephora AND an H&M next week! Yeah! That could be dangeous...I haven't been to that mall in awhile....

Updated the journaling on my July, August, September layouts in my 2008 Album. Started the rest of the September and October page. Still need to order the photos.

Finished my 08 Summer mini book....

I used a mini board book that I've had for ages and didn't know what I wanted to do with it...until now. I have been gathering ideas and the photos for a month or so. I bought the Memory Makers Passport Collection page kit to use. Also used some of their new tiny alphas for each page title...layered these over a stamped Journaling circle from Autumn Leaves. Stamped those in a bright green to highlight the other green accents. That was a color I saw everywhere this summer and loved.

Here's the cover...used some chipboard numbes and lots of ink on the edges. Also used a little green acrylic paint so that the title would stand out a little better. It's hard to see but also mounted the photo on some bright green cardstock mounted on the light blue paper from MM.

An example of one of the spreads. I used the same light blue as the cover on the top of each spread. This is where I stamped the bright green journaling circles and created titles with the MM mini alphas in cream. I used a variety of the MM Passport Collection patterned papers for the bottom of each 2 page spread. I mounted the photos and then used a little cream acrylic brushed on under each photo so I'd have an opaque surface to journal.

Closeup of one of the pages. Love this MM paper...esp the paper that looks like a collage of postcards.

Closeup of the journaling circles...the colors are much better in real life.
Pages about the Red Sox game we went to. I scrapped each of these events in my Random Album in more detail and also noted many in my 2008 Year in Review Album...but I wanted a quick, visual overview of the highlights of the summer in a small album format to have out in the living room for people to check out.

Another page...


One more page...

So...I had fun. Have a few more things I have to do today. Iron clothes for work tomorow. Unload the dishwasher. Boring. But I also can't wait to try my lasagna and pie and enjoy Desparate Housewives tonight!

Thanks for reading!

cookies make everything better

Good news...our program is staying open! So, no money freak-outs for me again today! But this does re-motivate me to really get back to finding a new position. Maybe something entirely different for a change. I really am burntout where I am currently. I've been there 5 years and need a change to compliment my teaching. Maybe within my field. Maybe not. I feel this responsibilty to stay in the field right now since I'm teaching it at the college level but I need a break. Maybe I can find a place to do one art therapy group per week and work a fun, regular job the rest of the week in addition to teaching? We'll see. I just always feel this huge sense of responsibility and have trouble with change and worry about making mistakes constantly. But every "risk" I've taken up to this point in my life have brought some of the most wonderful things into my life.

This has really been an overwhelming week and I need to just relax. I get so stressed out too easily. I am also still processing everything that happened this weekend and re-evaluating my priorities. I want to be happy and enjoy where I go each day. Life is just too short not to.

As for other stuff...I just finished making chocolate chip cookies. When we went to Maine, Cary's step-mother made him his favorite cookies and he was begging her to pass on the recipe to me and she did. They are soooo good with a secret ingredient to make them almost cake-like. Cary keeps teasing me since so many people at this funeral were asking about his intentions with me...marriage, etc. He was teasing saying, "She's applying for the position." He was joking today that the cookies are part of my application. But...in all seriousness...I hope they are half as good as his mom's! Tough competition! We ate hers during the 6-hour ride home and they were good...