Sunday, March 25, 2012

Hello there!

Wow, it's been a while since I posted on here.  (I'm so sorry!)  I have a million and one projects going on right now and am so excited about them.  I've been trying new recipes- Irish Car Bomb cupcakes, pork and potato meatloaf, sauteed spicy celery, and good old chicken noodle soup among others.  Can you say yummy?  I know, I know, the cupcakes weren't exactly WW friendly but sometimes you just have to treat yourself.  

The soup was so delicious and so incredibly simple.  Here you go (a little mini post within this post).  Saute up your choice of veggies.  I love, love, love veggies in my soup.  As far as I'm concerned, the more there are, the better the soup is going to be.  I made up a huge pot (and I've been eating it for the last couple of days) so here's my list of veggies:  several stalks of celery, three small to medium yellow onions, one bag of mixed veggies (I used Birdseye Steamfresh mix with corn, peas, carrots, and green beans) and one and a half small heads of cabbage.  Now I know that seems like a lot of cabbage but there's a reason.  See this is the second time I made the soup this week.  The first time was oh so good and somehow I managed to drop the tupperware on the way to the fridge.  Chicken soup everywhere!  I was so mad about it.  I only used half a head of cabbage in the first batch and liked it so much that I decided to use a whole head in the second batch.  As I was making it, I decided that I couldn't just let the first half go to waste so into the soup it went!  So pick your veggies and saute them however long you like.  I just did a few minutes for everything because I like my veggies on the crisp tender side.  Meanwhile, boil two pots of water.  In one pot, you're going to boil your pasta.  In the other, you'll be making your broth for your soup.  I did it this way to avoid overcooking the pasta.  As you finish sauteing each batch of veggies, go ahead and throw them into the broth.  Congrats!  You've started your soup.  Toss in a can or two of chicken.  I used white meat Tyson and I shredded it up a little bit.  As for the pasta I used alphabet (because it's just fun) and ditalini (the little tube shaped noodles).  Boil the pasta for a minute or two less than the package says.  Add salt, pepper, parsley, and garlic powder to your soup.  Finally drain your pasta and stir it in.  When I put the leftovers in the fridge, I separated most of the broth from the veggies/pasta.  That way the pasta doesn't absorb all of the broth.  You can just add broth each time you heat up some to eat.  Ok, I guess that wasn't really a min post!

On the sewing front, I'm working on several table runners, a few wall hangings, and wallets.  Of course I also have a ton of other sewing projects that I want to get to yesterday.  I'm also working on a few jewelry ideas using knit fabrics.  I'm also trying to find my jewelry wire to work on another idea.  I've got a few ideas for fabric flowers that I've been tossing around in my head that are about to become reality.  I just got in an order from Unity stamps and I couldn't be more excited to use my new stamps!  The most important one of the bunch isn't for the front of my cards- it's for the back.  I picked up the Unity copyright stamp so now I can actually sell my cards that I've made with my Unity stamps!  

Have you ever played with Pinterest?  It's the greatest thing since sliced bread!  (I couldn't help but through that cliche in there!)  If you have, then you know just how wonderful it is (and how addicting).  If you haven't, then you need to be- it's a visual bookmarking system and it's so full of inspiration!  

I guess that's it for now.  I'll be back later to share some projects with you.  

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Crazy Eights

First off- confession- I stole this off of a friend's blog because I just thought it was a pretty neat thing.  So thanks Amy!

8 things I did yesterday:
  1. worked out a new pattern for a tea wallet
  2. Finished rereading A Fistful of Charms by Kim Harrison
  3. cleaned off my desk
  4. watched a new episode of Criminal Minds
  5. took a nap (it was a lazy kind of Sat. and I wasn't feeling well)
  6. folded laundry 
  7. played with my new stamps 
  8. basted a wall hanging  
8 things I look forward to:
  1. Zumba!
  2. reading a new book by one of my favorite authors
  3. starting a new project
  4. finishing an old project
  5. the Marilyn Manson concert May 5th (and related the new album whenever it comes out)
  6. every five pounds that I lose
  7.  one day owning a house
  8. possibly crafting my own batik fabric in the summer
8 things I wish I could do:
  1. own my own store- half of it would be papercrafting supplies and the other half fabric
  2. make enough of a profit from my crafts so that I wouldn't have to work unless I wanted to
  3. go back to Berlin for a few weeks and while I was at it, hit up Italy, France and Ireland
  4.  meet a few famous people- in particular Marilyn Manson, Tim Holtz (he's famous in the craft world) and Gloria Steinem.  
  5. buy a long arm quilting machine and an embroidery machine
  6. while I'm dreaming about my own business- I'd love to start designing my own line of rubber stamps
  7. come up with enough money to pay off all of my student loans
  8. grow about four more inches (yes I know that this one is impossible)
8 show I watch:
  1. Criminal Minds
  2. Bones
  3. House
  4. C.S.I. (Las Vegas, N.Y. and Miami)
  5. Grimm
  6. Once Upon a Time
  7. NCIS
  8. Family Guy
  9. Law & Order: SVU
  10. The Daily Show