Happy Dance

Finally.

Finally after I'm not sure how many months, since mid-summer anyways, this:

Does not look like this anymore!

Whew.

Hurray!  After much delaying, and procrastinating, and a little more delaying, we have finally replaced the microwave.

A little back story:  Ours, rudely, died outta the middle of nowhere.  No warning.  No weird sounds, no flickers, nothing.  Just no heat.  So we (I) swore a little, possibly more than a little, and proceeded to delay.  Then Grandma moved in...with her microwave!  Paving the way for me to delay some more.  THEN, her microwave died in a fit of internal lightning.  I silently thought that maybe I would actually have to cough up the money and replace my microwave.  However, my mom showed up with possibly the oldest microwave left in the free world, and after scrubbing it and disinfecting it (like only my mother could), we used that. 

Why did I finally get off my butt and get a new microwave?  Well, as much as these things take time, as in, I need to make sure I 'like' it before I buy it, I just wanted my damn counterspace back!  How did people survive without over the range microwaves!?!?!

On the upshot, I have one more thing to add to my 100 Things Before Spring pile:

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful.....

Hate me because I ate up all your counterspace!!!

100 Things

I'd like to think I keep a pretty purged out house.

So, when I thought about trying to purge out a 100 things before Spring (at least), I wasn't sure where I was going to come up with this stuff.

Sure there is a little mountain multiplying in the dark of the storage room.

There is probably a little pile multiplying in the back of my kitchen cupboards.

Maybe  a wee pile multiplying in the bathroom.

Still, I wasn't sure I could find a 100 things to give away or sell before Spring.

Ahem. 

I give you my 'storage and staging' room, also known as Gigi's room* to the kids. 

 

Like I said, I just don't know where I'll find a 100 things....

I still need to haul up the stuff from the storage room.   Ryan and I decided it would be better to bring up the stuff to this room, find our storage room again, and have some space to paint projects!

Plus, this will hopefully make me get off my arse and get this stuff either sold or gave away.

Anyone want any of this stuff....anyone??!

*This was Clayton's room that we gave to Grandma while she was living here.  The kids started calling her Gigi so they would know which Grandma we were referring too.  They still call it Gigi's room even though she hasn't lived here for a month.  Blade says she needs to move back, so that when Clayton is at work during the supper hour we will still have 6 at the table!

Sweet & Sour Sauce

Possibly the easiest and the best tasting sweet and sour sauce.

3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup ketchup
3/4 cup water

• Combine brown sugar and cornstarch in a small saucepan.  Add ketchup, vinegar and water.
• Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until mixture bubbles and thickens

That's it.  Just that simple, and yet it tastes SO much better than the store bought stuff. 

Mmmm.

Subway art, my way

My hand is a little sore.  My arm is a little sore.  I haven't painted in a really long time.

But I got it done.  Even before Christmas!  Go me.

It started off with using Wordle  to inspire me with the placement of the words.

Decided on something finally.  I had tons of screen snips.  I could spend hours hitting randomize on that site.  Anyways.  Here's a shot of the words on the canvas before painting.

I used our projector and traced the words on with pencil.

Words all painted.  Looks good with a white background, but I wanted black.  Sometimes, if I'm doing a black background and using the projector I'll just print the picture or words in white and then either draw the outlines on with chalk, or paint in the dark with the projector on.  Yes I've painted in the dark.  Lots.   But it's freaking cold in the basement and I wanted to paint at the kitchen table.  So I painted all the lettering first.

Then I outlined in black. 

Here's where I stopped for the night.  All the eyes and faces are for the kid's amusement when they woke up in the morning!  They were quite fascinated with the painting.  Blade was so happy his name was in brown, because it's his favorite color!! Um, not really, it isn't, but he's a sweet child and he was just excited to see his name and everyone else's on a painting.  Hehe.

Finished Painting.

It now hangs in the kitchen.  The colors look a little off in this picture, but here's the inspiration for these particular colors.  It hangs about 15 feet to the right of the gigantic painting I did 4 years ago for behind our table.

Side note:

Hunter came home from school and seen the painting with just the letters done.  He says, "Did you do that with Wordle?".  I was like .. um yes, thinking in my head, how do you know about Wordle?  Hunter: "Oh, yea, we use that at school when making our Power Point Presentations!"  

...

Have I ever mentioned he's 9 folks??  NINE, and they are making Power point presentations in school..with wordle.   School rocks these days!

Getting things done

When asked what I was possibly going to do with myself now that all the kids are in school fulltime, I always answered "Get a job I guess."

Well, it's been almost 4 months. No job.  But somehow the days are still busy enough, and once in a while I actually get something done.  Hmm.  It may not have been those kids slowing me down....

Yesterday's Projects:

Fix a poor dog's tail

Patch the holes in some well worn ski pants

(It is indeed winter in Canada this week!)

Today's Project:

Painting some subway art, my way

I'll let you know how the art turns out.

Ryan just wanted know if it would be done by Christmas.

Funny man, that husband of mine.

A amusing story to end this very short post with.

Yesterday, I did fix Hunter's ski pants.  I also fixed Blade's.  He had a rip in the butt of them.

Blade was sitting at the table, having a cup of hot chocolate with Ryan after playing in the backyard.  I was discussing that I had sewn double layer patches on Hunter's pants.  Blade perks up and asks me if I sewed his pants.  I said that "Yes, I sewed the hole in your bum."   Blade looks happy at that thought and then says "But not the real hole in my bum".   ....  Ryan and I just looked at each other dumbfounded, then laughed our own arses off.

You can't make this stuff up.

Grandma's Cream Scones

So the title says Cream Scones, but these are really biscuits.  Okay, no, they are scones.  But that is only because if you add sugar to a biscuit recipe it makes it a scone instead.

Ahem.

Grandma's Biscuits

3 cups of flour    
1/2 cup of sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup margarine
2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup milk

• Mix together dry ingredients.  Cut in margarine
• Make a well and add in milk and eggs.  Mix well.
• Roll or pat out to 1" thickness on a lightly floured surface.  Cut into rounds.
• Bake 20-25mins at 350 on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Makes 2 dozen or so.


TIPS:

• Make sure your surface is floured or they will stick to it!
• Use a wine glass or small jar to cut out biscuits.
• These might stick a little to the sheet if it's not so non-stick anymore.  Put them on parchment paper or make sure the bottoms are slightly floury still.

Baked Potato Soup

Possibly the best soup ever.

3 med potatoes                
1 cup of carrots, thinly sliced or chopped
1/2 cup frozen peas or corn (optional)
1/2 pkg of bacon, diced
2 celery stalks, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1/4 cup plus 3 tbsp. of flour, divided
6 cups of chicken broth
1/4 tsp salt and pepper
2 cups of milk

• Scrub, pierce and microwave potatoes until tender.  In small pot, cook carrots and/or peas/corn until tender.
• Meanwhile, in large dutch oven or pot, cook bacon until crisp.  Remove to paper towel with slotted spoon.  Saute celery and onion in leftover drippings until tender. 
• Stir in 1/4 cup of flour, cook and stir until browned.
• Gradually stir in broth.  Bring to boil and add salt and pepper.
• In a small bowl or shaker, mix the remaining flour with milk until smooth; add to the pot.
• Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until slightly thickened.
• Peel and cube potatoes; add to soup along with the other vegetables.   Add bacon.  Cook and stir until heated through.

Serves 6-8.

Make a batch of Grandma's Cream Scones to go with it!

TIPS:

• Sometimes I drain the carrots etc, sometimes I just add all the water to the pot, depends on how thick it looks and how much water is left. 
• I cook the carrots in a small pot separately for about 5-8 minutes until mostly done, and then add the frozen vegetable right on top.  Bring back to a boil and add to the soup when done.
• To make less soup, don't add as much broth. 
• You can always thicken it with some cornstarch mixed with water, or thin it by adding more broth or water as well.
• Test that bacon out while it cools, waiting to go into the soup.  I mean, you wouldn't want to wreck the awesome soup by not pre-tasting the bacon.......

Storm's New Desk

A while back, (before Halloween decorating madness took over the house!), I rearranged Storm's room.  She's really been wanting a desk in there, but I wasn't sure how I was going to get one in without taking something out or stacking furniture.  I even went so far as to measure her shelf unit(?) that was in there already so I could get a desk and stack it on top, sort of buffet style.

Then I eyed up the boy's desk.

They really didn't end up using it for much after I got rid of the old computer that was on top of it (which they also didn't use much).  Blade had his toys in the drawers and it was holding their fish tanks.  That's about it.

One issue.  It was black.  I love black furniture.  I really do.  But Storm's room is white.  (How did that happen?! I don't know.) 

So I decided I'd need to paint it.  The paint job was long overdue anyways, for a desk that has been around for forever. 

And then came Halloween Madness. 

And so it sat.  And sat.  And got used in the decoration and planning of the kids Halloween party.

You can see it in the background here.  It had two 2x4's screwed onto the back of it and covered with our old skeleton couch cover to make a entrance way for the kids to go through and block off part of the sitting room where the games would be played.

Anyways, my long winded point  is, that I finally got it painted and totally done and in her room!

Here are some pics.

Looks better already.

My original plan was to just paint the desk and leave the drawers black.  But then I looked at them closer.  Ugh.  So I thought I'd cover them with paper, which was great but I didn't like the black edges you would still see, and I didn't want to wrap the paper around.  So I painted the edges.

I raided Storm's big book of paper and found some that would go with her wall color.  Of course, there was only 4 pages of each design in that book.  Of course.  So after some minor indecision I picked out two co-ordinating papers.   As you can see, I didn't even bother to paint inside the big drawer. 

I was a little annoyed at the one drawer (the first one I did, of course) that it was wrinkly and bubbly.  Mod Podge and I are still not the best of friends.  I just decided not to stress over it. The desk was ancient, it was going to be okay that it wasn't perfect, Storm would never care, and I wouldn't have to look at it every day. (Can you hear me chanting that to myself?!?!)

I decided I had better put a plexi-glass top on it as this is the child who loves her Sharpies.

To quote Toy Story 2:  She's an artist.

 

So since I had a whole clean white top to cover, I thought I'd grab some left over paper and her poster all about Storm Riyan Sweet to go on top of it.

Ain't it sweet!

I love, love, love this desk now.  And so does she.


She's in heaven.....the top drawer is full of Sharpies.

Oh, and Mod Podge and I are back on speaking terms.  After the desk had totally dried overnight, ALL the papers totally laid down flat and perfect.


Barbie photo from here.

I do have a point, honest.

I have a favorite coffee cup.

It's really not that much to look at.  I like the shape of it though, and the size.

A couple of months ago, as Ryan was taking it out of the dishwasher the handle broke off of it!

I was slightly sad, but he said he could maybe fix it with crazy glue.  And he did.  And it seemed to be holding up pretty good.  Every once and a while we would pull on the handle hard to see if it would come loose and drop hot coffee all over me, probably just as I was about to leave the house.  That is how these things work.  But it was always on there good.

Last night, just as I was dumping out my old, cold coffee right near the drain in the sink, the handle came off again and the cup clunked into the sink.  I moaned and groaned a little, but was happy I had gotten as long as I did out of it.  Ryan looked at it, and said, "Well, I can try and glue it again."  So out came the crazy glue.  He put it on, pressed hard, etc.  Then, well then, he held the cup part and let go of the handle....and it fell on to the ceramic tile and broke in 4 places.  LOL

Oh my god, I laughed.  Poor Ryan's face. 

He thought to toss it in the garbage, but I told him to just leave it on the counter.  I was thinking, in my head, that I'd take a picture of it, in pieces, to amuse you all......

I came down this morning.  Looked on the counter.  No cup.  No pieces. 

Looked in the garbage (ew).  No cup.  No pieces.

Then I looked over by the toaster.  And there was my cup, all glued back together again!

What a guy.

He says "Just maybe, don't hold it by the handle..." 
She says "So just like if it didn't have a handle at all ..."
Next time I'm sure it will take the opportunity to break, full of hot coffee, and over the ceramic tile...

2060

The other night Ryan went through the time machine. 

2010

2035



2060



  

  Or so it seemed...

Yes, my husband willing shaved the top part of his head off for me.   Well, actually I just trimmed it really really short and he decided to make it totally authentic and shaved it. 

The things this man does for me!!!

I'll have to post a picture of us together on Halloween night, after I get them from my mom.

One last picture, of my grandpa, just because I found it as I was trolling my folders looking for a good picture of Ryan's dad and because I miss him.

That's a good enough reason for me.