Mariannes Motifs

Tomato Crop of the Day

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Pressed Glass Crudite Plate in Action

I decided that in addition to addng grill marks to the hot dogs, I would cut up some veggies to go along.  I had bought some radishes last shopping trip, I have plenty of cherry tomatoes from the bushes growing on the side of the house, and I had carrots and celery on hand. 

Wait, I thought, this is the perfect opportunity to use the pressed glass crudite plate I picked up at Goodwill!  Voila, what was once fresh raw vegetables has now become.... Crudité.  Isn't that an awesome divided plate?  I snagged that right up when I saw it.  I love old pressed glass.

Blah Day

I woke up with a bad headache this morning so today was mostly a wash.  I got some good rest anyway...  Now  its time to make dinner, get kids in baths, do my work clothes laundry, and get the kids outfits picked out for the week.  I have them put together five outfits for the week on Sunday and that makes the school mornings a lot easier.  I like it how they are both getting dressed on their own now.  My boys are growing up on me!

I had no idea on until I looked at the ccc web site that you could get so many cool car floor mats.  Check out the chrysler custom floor mats for example.

Now I am going to make a gourmet meal of hot dogs and beans.  You don't get this kind offancy dancy cooking just anwhere.

 

HexiPuff Mania

So this chick who blogs under the name "TinyOwlKnits" wrote a pattern for a knitted quilt made entirely out of stuffed knit hexagons.  The woman has a cuteness level of about 1 million, but I was immediately enthralled by the idea of knitting tiny hexagons out of sock yarn.

I bought the pattern even when I was totally broke that day, by digging into my PayPal funds I make blogging.  I have more sock yarn that you can shake a stick at due to dizzysheep.com's daily yarn deals over the past couple of years.  (It's sad, I know)

So I now have six of these little guys knitted.  They knit up really fast so they are perfect for a short attention span knitter like me.  I am not stuffing mine - it's too hot in Georgia for that nonsense.  They will get sewn together for a little sock yarn double sides blanky.

This is Tiny Owl Knits cute video on how she came up with the pattern.

the beekeeper's quilt from tinyowlknits on Vimeo.

 

My HexiPuffs "in action" shots.  They decided to hang out in the tomato plants.  Or maybe they grew there.

 

Saturday Chit Chat

Happy Saturday!  I hope my friends and family in New York keep staying dry as hurricane Irene comes.  Atlanta got a rip off because we could really use some rain and it totally missed us.

Last night the hubster made home made biscuit dough donuts.  Yumm.  Now that summer is coming to an end its a good time to get sale prices on pool equipment, so check out PoolSupplyUnlimited.com pool heat pumps.  We have a community pool, but when we vistied our friend in Tampa it sure was nice to be able to have the kids jump in the pool right out the back door.  You have to make sure everything is fenced in and locked up though for kid safety.  Down in Tampa people have their pools in a screened in patio - you know why - so the ALLIGATORS don't climb into your pool.  Yikes!

Of course we have our crazy wildlife issues here too - a black bear was spotted just down the street from us next to the river.  Apparently this is the same bear that was in highly populated Sandy Springs last week and seems to be traveling along the river back north now.  Serious yikes!

 

  

 

Writing a Book

I've been mulling around the idea of writing a book for most of my life.  When I was a kid  used to staple together stories about my cat.  One time in college I wrote about 11 pages of a romance novel.

The other day I came to the realization that with four blogs worth of content over the course of four or so years, I have already written the equivalent of a book.  I started thinking about some of what I think are my best posts.  What if I looked at these posts as a series of essays?  What if I took these essays and edited them into a coherent package? 

Between the tools available from Amazon, and Smashwords I could format an ebook and upload it for sale at most of the major ebook markets.  I also found a website that has TONS of wonderful information about self publishing an ebook - selfpublishingadventure.com

I don't expect that I will make thousands of dollars publishing my own non fiction advice book, but I know that the experience will be a positive one for me.  As well, being a published author will be a great tool in my toolbelt professionally both as a blogger and in the business world where I hae another life that involves technical writing and project management.

 

First Day of School

The kids are safely off on the school bus for their first day of 1st grade and 3rd grade!  They picked out their T-shirts.  Adam has a Ninjago Lego shirt and Ben has a Diary of a Wimpy Kid shirt.

Today's Tomato Crop

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Crock Pot Pork Chops

Lunch was grilled cheese sandwiches and dinnner is already in the crock pot.

I took pork chops and browned them and put them in the slow cooker.  Then I sauteed one vidalia onion and added some sweet hungarian paprika.  Then I added a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup and about a cup of water.  Cooked that up for a minute and poured it on top of the pork chops.

I plan to make some stove top stuffing mix.  The soup and stuffing mix are both low sodium so hopefully it will turn out good.  If I get motivated I will cut up carrot and celery sticks, or else will microwave up some steam in the bag veggies.

5 Things I Like

Let's talk about brand loyalty - here are 5 things I like.

 

1.  Carmex.  I can't live without lip balm and Carmex is my poison of choice. 

 

2. Kollage Square Double Point Needles These are the best dpns for knitting socks and anything else in the round.  The square shape is more comfortable and doesn't slip out of my work as I am knitting.

 

3.  ASICS sneakers.  They fit my feet really well and I like the look of the Onitsuka Tiger styles.  I wear these to work every day - in a couple of different colors.

 

4.  LEGOs.  These are the best toys!  Fostering creativity and always coming up with something new.  They are durable and well made too.

 

5.  Tropicana Low Acid Orange Juice.  I have Crohn's and get heartburn pretty much at the drop of a hat.  This low acid OJ lets me enjoy my orange juice without having to worry about heartburn later.