Back to the grind!

Finally got my groove on again. It can be the hardest thing when your silly little creative mind won't let you focus for justoneminutethankyouverymuch!

Breathe.

But now I have pretty things to show for all of my mental anguish, so I guess it evens out?

I wanna be a super model...

And my hair will shine like the seeeeeee-eeeea!

There is my application

Lost my Much-ness

Thank you very much to Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" for getting me out of the funk I was in.

I had "lost my muchness" as they say and I think I might have recently found it again! As of May 1st (eeeek! Saturday!) I will be officially entering back into the world of DIY and craft that I have long been absent from. Looking at my Etsy page has been a pathetic experience since the New Year and it is about time for that to stop. Brush the dust off of the ol' sewing machine and rev up the glue gun- it's about to get crazy in here!!!

My grand idea you ask? Behold! "The year of MAKE!" -or- "52 Weeks of MAKE!" -or- "Something more clever than that!" (name TBD). But what I do know is that starting on Saturday I will be enlisting the help of the craftiest lady I know (my mom, of course) as well as several other special guests in the weeks that follow to help me turn this poor excuse for a creative lady back into the Reigning Queen of Craft!!! One amazing thing a week and hopefully that will be enough to kick start the engine and light the fire to a full blown craft-strava-ganaza!

Oh, and don't forget to go the the Maker's Faire people. It's fanfriggintastic.

Stay tuned. The fits gonna hit the shan.

Oh, and by the way. I just re-read the original Lewis Carroll version of Alice- it's wonderful.

From November to April Ain't Bad

I got myself to work today with the hope of putting up some Mother's Day windows (and yes, I am going to completely ignore the time lapse and pretend that I am really going to do this blog thing)and playing with Tyler Florence product in preparation for Earth Day!!! Look at these cool water bottles we got just in time for the festivities on Thursday- put 'em in your fridge on Sunday and you have one a day!



Also, the Mother's Day windows were very fun to put up. I feel quite proud that they don't look as crafty as they usually do. The product is all Tyler Florence- great stuff for gift ideas- glad to have good stuff finally!



More later? We'll see.

An Early Resolution

I don't know about you, but every year Thanksgiving comes and goes and I eat some of the turkey and some of the stuffing and all of the green bean casserole but end up throwing something away. I've never been a fan of the dark meat so it always goes to waste! What to do?

On a separate note, Dave and I have been signed up for Farm Fresh To You for several months now and some of THAT stuff ends up going to waste just because we don't really know what to do with it! Soooo....

That brings me to my point. Early 2010 resolution: Less waste.

I had a giant bunch of Kale (what the heck is kale?) and some dark meat, amongst some other lovely cabinet dwellers that hadn't seen the light of day in quite some time and I decided *dun dun dun dun* to make a soup! I know what you're thinking. People make soup all the time, what do I care about your soup? Well, maybe not much, but then I guess you could just stop reading. Hmpfh.

So, as I was saying, I made soup. This soup:

Erica's Super After Thanksgiving Dark Meat Turkey and Kale Soup (good title, huh?)
*All measurements are in official Rachel Ray speak*

What you need:

-About 1 cup of turkey leftover from Turkey Day (dark and white together!)
-A large bunch of chopped kale (don't know what to do with kale? Try this.)
-8 cups of chicken broth (I used two big guys from TJ's- free range, yummy)
-2 cups of water
-1 chicken bouillon cube
-1 large onion, chopped into small pieces
-3 carrots, chopped up small
-6 or 8 small red potatoes, cubed. Don't bother taking off the skin, it's yummy too.
-4 cloves of garlic (more? less? depends on who you are eating the soup with), chopped or shredded
-1 tbsp. of butter
-1 cup and a half or so of basmati rice




What to do:

-Saute the onions and garlic with butter until slightly browned.
-Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a huge soup pan
-Add sauteed onions and garlic into boiling broth then add remaining ingredients after you have chopped the heck out of all of them!
-Add the water and bouillon cube and make sure the mix is still at a rolling boil
-Once all is boiling, then reduce to a simmer
-Let simmer for about an hour and a half, stirring often



There! Mu-ha-ha-ha. No waste. Plenty to give to people (you know, in the spirit of giving). Freeze it! Eat it! Enjoy it!

Oh, and so as not to waste the bazillions of apples that we got in our FFTY, Dave made this ummy-yummy Apple Raisin Crisp thing. And then made ice cream. What!

The Day After...

Got up early. Went to the only store that I really needed to go to and guess what? They were CLOSED. Hmpfhff.

I'll start a blog I thought!

I had this amazing revelation on my way to Thanksgiving dinner tonight- I will start a blog! I have lots of pictures and ideas and VERY IMPORTANT THINGS to say! Therefore, other people must know!

Well, gosh darn it. I guess I had that same thought about a year ago.

So take 2.

This photo is in honor of my 10 year High School reunion this Saturday. I wish my hair could do that.