Still Awake

I'm still up and its after midnight. Its rainy and storming outside. I got on the treadmill after dinner. It was 98 in the garage I thought I was going to pass out so I only did 20 minutes. Way to hot and humid for me. I have the day off work taking Skip to the hospital to have tests done. Taking along my crochet so I can make some more flowers. I had a request to share the pattern for the flowers. I'll type it up over the weekend and post the directions. Thanks for asking!

Hope everyone' week is going well. Friday is just around the corner!

Stamping Trails
Karen 209

Dinner at Buca

Took Skip out to one of our favorite Italian restaurants Buca. There is more to that name but I can't spell it...at least not at 10:45 pm when my brain has pretty much shut down for the day. Skip has to have some tests done on Thursday and he'll have to fast all day tomorrow so he wanted to have a meal today that didn't include any of my low fat food. Poor guy...sometimes I feel for him. He doesn't need to lose a pound but he tries to adjust to my eating requirements. I came home and let my food settle for a bit. Don't worry didn't overeat. I did get on the treadmill and did a work out with a resistance band. I'll be heading for bed soon.

Kat made this beautiful card for me. So nice to get happy mail! Thanks for the encouragement Kat I need all I can get to keep on track.

Stamping Trails
Karen 209

Long Day

Worked all day, came home had a quick dinner then we took off to the Medina County Fair. It was fun. Watched the demolishing derby. First time either of us saw one. Lots of cars being banged up. Several of them caught fire, one was flipped on its side. Good time had by all! Wish I would have remembered to bring the camera but I forgot it. Saw some really pretty draft horses and lots of other farm animals. The drafts are my favorite thing to see at the fair.

Well I'm beat so I'm off to bed. Before I go though I have a really easy chicken crockpot recipe for you. We had it tonight for dinner

4 chicken breasts
1 can healthy choice cream of chicken soup
1 can healthy choice cream of mushroom soup

Put the frozen chicken breasts in the crockpot. Mix the soups together. You can season the chicken with pepper, garlic powder, onion flakes and I like to use just a little red pepper flakes. Pour the soup over the chicken and cook on low all day. You can serve this over noodles or rice. We did open face sandwiches with it today and just added a side of peas. YUM!!!! Point value is really low on this one.

Stamping Trails
Karen 209

It's Sunday

And I'll have to go back to work tomorrow...darn it all anyway! Mary I did get the Pat Catan coupon and I did use it. Thanks! After I checked out I happened to see a Circuit Pumpkin carving die I wanted so I asked how much it was. Turned out it was on sale but because it was 26 dollars on sale the clerk made me a friend and I was able to take 7.77 off that too. COOL! Love Pat Catan's

Went to visit mom this morning. She is doing good. Brought her some new coloring books as she likes to color. I'm going to need to get her more crayons she uses them a lot. Poor thing has to use her left hand to color. Has no use in the right one at all since the last stroke. Although she started out being left handed and back in mom's school days they cracked your hand if you wrote with your left so she was forced to use her right, so technically she just went home to using her left hand.

Me and hubby went to the mall this afternoon. Had lunch at Subway...he's trying to be supportive of my food needs. After lunch went to see Inception. Not a bad movie Leonardo is a good actor. Skip didn't like it.

Well I have to run...gotta get my happy butt on the treadmill and sweat a bit. Then I'm going to color my hair. Gonna wash that gray right out of my hair. LOL I am showing my age by quoting that commercial.

Connie I mailed your birthday box on Saturday morning. You'll have it tomorrow. Hope you enjoy your goodies and I hope Logan had a wonderful second birthday. Talk to you soon.

Stamping Trails
Karen 209

Do This Not That

Okay so I got the pearl cotton at Pat Catan's this morning and made a flower to dye. I decided to use Pumpkin Pie reinker. So I started out my putting several drops of ink into a container, then put the flower in...mistake. What I should have done was add some water to the ink bath before putting the the flower. I was able to save the first flower by putting it back in the bath that was diluted with water. At this point I made another flower and dropped it into the dye bath you can see by the photo that the one on the right is lighter than the first one. I blotted the flowers with newsprint after taking them out of the bath just to adsorb some of the water. Then I had a thought......how bout making some designer paper? Got out some cream cardstock an while the flowers were laying on the newsprint I took the cardstock and pressed it on top of the flower and continued to do that in a random fashion and I got some pretty cool designer paper. Aren't I the clever girl? On to the card. I used the handmade designer paper for the background. I ran it through a Cuttlebug folder. Autumn Day stamp set by SU!. Because I was to lazy to cut part of the Old Olive strip to even it with the layer I just rolled it up till it was even then used a library clip to hold it in place. I like the look....sometimes it's a good thing to be lazy!

Stamping Trails
Karen 209

More Flowers

I'm just loving all these crochet flowers! I got pretty fast at turning them out. Each one takes about 10 minutes. The cream color ones were done with pearl the rest are made with floss. Turns out I didn't have white cotton so I need to make a run to Pat Catan tomorrow and pick some up. The box is made with a Big Shot die sold through SU! I forgot I had a package of corduroy buttons so I used one of them for the center of the flower. I'm happy how it turned out. Lots of endless possibilities to use these flowers on cards or other projects. I may play around with some more flower patterns or use different size hooks just to change them up.

Took the day off from work. I have to share this great cake recipe with you. I made it this morning. Called Cherry Surprise Cake

4 cups mini marshmallows
1 box yellow cake mix
1 can lite cherry pie filling
10 oz of diet sprite
2 egg whites

heat oven to 350, spray 13x9x2 pan with cooking spray, layer all the marshmallows in the bottom of the pan.
mix cake mix, eggs, and sprite in bowl
pour cake mixture over the marshmallows
spoon cherries over the top of the cake
bake for 40 minutes. It's really cool how it works. While baking the marshmallows rise to the top of the cake to form the frosting while the cherries sink to the bottom of the cake. It was really good. I say was because it's all gone now. Sarah stopped over and had some John had some, and even hubby who doesn't like most of my lighter recipes loved this cake....so it's gone.

Stamping Trails
Karen 209

Chocolate Oatmeal.......

Where have you been all my life? My new favorite breakfast is dark chocolate oatmeal. Made with dark chocolate Hershey powder mixed with 1/2 mashed banana, dash of fat free milk and cooked rolled oats. Looks odd but it tastes really good!

Thanks to my friend Lisa I found the pearl cotton thread I was looking for yesterday. I remember while talking to her this evening that I put the thread in with my mom's quilt. I was using some of the thread to tie the quilt with. So I'll be able to make more flowers.

Skip and I went for a long walk at a local park. It's a great work out. Lots of steep hills and slopes, and it's just a great nature hike. Took us little over an hour of hiking to explore it all.

I have tomorrow off so I'm looking forward to that. I really needed a mental health day!!!

Stamping Trails
Karen 209 (did you notice? I lost a pound. Go Me!)