Shabby challenge...

This is an old picture, I'm guessing from the 70's (?) of my grandparents on my mom's side.  Grandpa and Guacs sang constantly together and with their kids.  Grandpa played the guitar beautifully, too.  Family legend has it that Grandpa joined the school choir only to have the teacher tell him to mouth the words because he couldn't sing.  Apparently Grandpa took that as a challenge, because he taught himself how and had a rich baritone voice.  One of the songs I particularly remember him singing is Galway Bay, which is a hauntingly beautiful song.  The music on this page is from another Irish song called "Peg o' My Heart"

This sheet music is from a box of music that I got from Guacs.  It was in pretty shabby shape, but I thought it would be perfect to use on a page!

The quote at the bottom says, "Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, and the things you never want to lose"  (Only they spelled lose as loose.  Funny!)  That quote is from "The Wonder Years".

You can see other inspiring pages at Let's Get Shabby.

He really is ruggedly handsome...

I'm looking forward to the new season!  Not great acting, but I love the whole premise of author working with detective and basing his main character on her.  Now where are they going with this storyline?






Also can't wait for this one!




The jury's still out on this one, since I haven't seen all of the episodes.  I liked the beginning of the season.  And Anna the Visitor is just amazingly creepy!

Leftovers...disguised and served up warm.

I know a lot of people who don't do leftovers, but I can't see dumping food that we paid good money for down the drain or in the trash.  90% of the time I eat leftovers for lunch.  Sometimes I pack them in lunchboxes for the kids.  My high-schooler has open campus at lunchtime and comes home to leftovers.  He usually just raids the fridge and heats it up in the microwave.


Since I volunteered to make fried rice for the third graders, I made a huge batch of rice and ended up with a lot of plain white rice.  Sometimes I add milk and some sugar and simmer it on the stove for rice pudding.  Today I added some other leftovers and some canned veggies to make a baked rice casserole.  There's a can each of green chilis, black beans, corn, cream of chicken soup to add some moisture, a cup or two of salsa, and the last of my taco seasoning from the Amish store.  (Sigh) 

It'll go into the oven for about 30 minutes and I'll probably serve it with shredded lettuce, sour cream (cuz everything is better with sour cream), maybe some cheese, more salsa and chips or tortillas to make it a whole meal.

 

And for dessert, some cupcakes baked in cones.  Just make a regular cake mix and spoon it into cones instead of cupcake wrappers, and bake for 15-20 minutes.  Then they can be frosted or put a little scoop of ice cream on top.

Oh, no!  There was some cake batter left!  Whatever shall I do with it?


Yeah, I'm putting it in a mug and popping it into the microwave for an afternoon chocolate fix.  Not to be confused with my morning chocolate fix.  Can't play favorites, you know.

Cute back-to-school stuff to craft

I Love

1. Etsy
2. back to school anything
3. office supplies
4. fabric
5. lunch
6. sending my kids off to school

I've stumbled on some fun back-to-school themed crafts and ideas, so I'll share them here.  That way I have them all in one spot, too.

Etsy has a How-Tuesday blog that features some fun things to make, and this week incorporated lunch bags, ice packs, pencil wraps, book covers, you get the picture.  Cute stuff!  And most of it is pretty easy.

Sew, Mama, Sew has some adorable embroidery patterns from Sarah Jane Studios.  They're so cute!  Could someone please embroider something for me?  Please?

And how could I leave out these adorable banner stickers by Jenni Bowlin?  They're the perfect little ending.

A Post Title I am Proud Of...

I am not very creative when it comes to titling my blog posts, usually just giving a little blurb about what I'm writing about.  Which is exactly what this one is.

Fried Food and Chicken Poop

So, yesterday I made an 8 hour round-trip drive with Andy. Well, 3/4 of the drive was with Andy and the other 1/4 I drove a mini-van back to his place of employment. This drive was made in the afternoon and evening, so the kids arrived home on the bus from their place of education. When they left for said place of eduction that morning, I didn't know that I would be gone when they came back to the home-base, so I didn't have dinner made for them.

Their Auntie Tara (sometimes know as Auntie Booby) came over and made cookies with Nattie, so I called her up to tell her that the kids could cook up some hamburgers and throw some salad on their plate and call it good. She took me up on it, and when Andy and I arrived at home-base the smell of fried food hit us like a brick when we opened up the door.

Andy's way to solve the problem of the smell was to open up the window in our bedroom. Whoa. Fried meat is not pleasant. The chicken barns are not pleasant. Add them together and you have downright biological warfare possibilities. I'm thinking about bottling it and contacting the Pentagon. There are possibilities here, I'm telling you.

The SITS girls are hosting a week long Back to Blogging event, with a washer and dryer set as a prize!

The contest is sponsored by Standards of Excellence, Westar Kitchen and Bath, and Florida Builder Appliance.