The soul is placed in the body like a rough diamond, and must be polished, or the luster of it will never appear

i’ve been working on a hexagon quilt. i plan on doing it in purples, blues and greens, all paper pieced and sewn by hand. the back will be all black, with silver latticing where the front has black. i’ll be ‘stuffing’ it with a hexagon of fleece in between layers, as i go along, working from the inside out, joining front and back as i go. i already have one of the diamonds done, and several more cut out. i can get a diamond out of an 1/8 of a yard, and i plan on checking out the remnants every time i go to the store.

…I want the cultures of all the lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible…

i’ve decided to write a cookbook. i want to combine my love of culture and cooking, and make a book with healthy, budget-friendly recipes inspired by dishes from around the world. i figure it will take me a couple of years, but so far it’s been really fun! i love learning and i look forward to picking countries that i know little or nothing about the cuisine. the first country i chose to research is Nigeria. i plan on writing 7 recipes inspired my each country/region/culture. some will be more difficult than others. i did china in an evening. Nigeria might take me a month. so far i’ve tried a recipe called jollof rice. it was pretty good. i didn’t realize i didn’t  have any thyme until it was half made, so i used marjoram in the recipe, but i think i’ll like it even better with thyme and can’t wait to try it again.

 

next i plan on working on korean recipes. i have a few good resources for that, so it should go pretty quickly.

if anyone has any favorite ethnic dishes, please suggest them, and/or share your favorite recipes!

 

on another note, my ferret seems to have moved into my bathtub. O.o he’s not able to get around like he used to anymore, so we moved him to a smaller cage. well, he didn’t like doing his business in there, so we would let him out in the kitchen and let him go on newspaper, and throw it away when he was done. then i realized the bathtub would be better, because it would be easier to clean up any… uh… overflow puddles. i also put a bowl of water on the other end of the tub, because he likes to drink out of bowls when he’s not in his cage. he got to the point he would pluck on the bars of his cage with his claws when he needed to go potty.
one day we let him out to play, and he curled up under one of my shirts in the closet and fell asleep. i decided to put him back in his cage to sleep, but i picked him up (shirt and all) and put him in the tub first so he could get a drink and go piddle if he need too. he got a drink. then crawled under the shirt and went back to sleeping. in the tub. o.O lol. he was just so content to sleep in the bathtub for the next hour and a half. i kept checking on him every so often, and when he woke up, got a drink, did his business, and went back to bed, i decided to put some food next to the water and just let him be. now we’ve got into the schedule of putting him in the tub in the morning when we get up, changing the paper ever time he goes, and putting him back in his cage at night or when we take a shower. with his mobility issues he can’t get out, and he seems very happy in there. and it’s easier to get him out for cuddles or play time. he likes to cuddle with me and my fiancé in the evenings when we watch tv. he seems to think he’s not in a cage anymore and has his own bedroom. lol. we moved squeebles into his old cage, which is HUGE for such a little rat, and she seemed confused for the first few days. i think she didn’t think she was in a cage either, and was trying to figure out how to get to us when we were on the couch. lol

i’m back

my medical issue has been long resolved, but i’ve been too busy to blog. i had a major migraine for over two weeks, that got worse before it got better. then it just went away. O.o it wasn’t my old problem returning. they never did figure out what caused it. i basically paid $100 for the ophthalmologist to tell me i had a bad migraine. >.<

we have high-speed internet again! with the deal we made with the phone company, the DSL actually ends up being cheaper than dialup! it’s insane. i’m glad to be part of the 21st century again. it definitely makes blogging easier.

i’ve been busy while i was gone. i lost some storage space and my house ended up packed with boxes and crap i had to sort through and find places for. probably ended up tossing half of it. i’m finally able to see an end to the chaos. there’s more clean in the house than just a pathway now. except the sewing room. it’s trashed. it’ll be a while before i’ll be able to get to it.

the bottom heating element of our (electric) oven burned out. we need to get the landlord to replace it, and hopefully make some other repairs, but we want to get the place a bit more presentable first. hopefully we’ll have a working oven to roast our thanksgiving turkey in! there will be no baking for now, except what can be done in the toaster oven.

over the next few days i’ll update about the projects and stuff i’ve been working on while i was away. it’s good to be blogging again. :D

ugh

due to medical problems, i’m going to be severely limited on how much i post. i’ve had a migraine for a week and don’t have an appointment with an ophthalmologist until friday to see if my idiopathic intracranial hypertension has come back or not. >.< so i don’t know when i’ll post next.

material blessings, when they pay beyond the category of need, are weirdly fruitful of headache

i’ve had a stupid headache for the past 4 days. ugh. i haven’t got much done. if i move more than to go to the bathroom, or get around too much light my head throbs and i feel like i’m going to throw up. oddly, the first hour or so after i wake up in the morning i’m fine, and it goes away occasionally, but it comes right back if im not careful.  ugh. well, i’m getting a lot of reading done, again. some day i’ll be productive.

i’ve been keeping track of what i eat, just haven’t been posting it to the menu, cuz computer light sucks. XD

::goes to curl up with the 6th sookie stackhouse book::

He that will not give some portion of his ease, his blood, his wealth, for others' good, is a poor, frozen churl

i spent most of yesterday cutting up fruits and vegetables. since i was sick, and now my fiancé has caught it, we haven’t been up to dealing with or eating the fresh produce we’ve gotten lately. then my dad gave me a bunch of extra stuff from his garden. so we had waaaay too much, and most of it needed to be frozen. i really really wish we had a chest or upright freezer! the one above the fridge to so small, and sucks, a lot.
i managed to:
dice 2 bell peppers
dice 2 onions
shuck a dozen ears of corn
slice 1 1/2 pounds of strawberries
sliced up 1 bunch green unions
cut 3 zucchinis into chunks
made a batch of black bean “hummus”
turned 2-3 pounds of multi colored carrots into carrot sticks.
i was exhausted by time i was done. and i didn’t even finish what i started out to do, i’m still cleaning out my fridge and salvaging what i can. i can’t wait until i’m over this nasty cold or whatever it is we’ve got. >.<

the “black bean “hummus”” just tasted like bean dip to me. i don’t like bean dip. so i reduced the amount of cumin, added 2 Tablespoon of tahini, and about a 1/4 cup or so of lemon juice,  and a teaspoon of chicken bouillon, to make it taste more like actual hummus. i think black beans could make a decent faux hummus, if made the same as hummus, with some added chicken broth or bouillon powder. i want to experiment with different kinds of beans, to see how cheep and healthy i can make it. i’ve come to *love* hummus, and with as low calorie as it can be made, i plan on keeping a ton of it around.

last night for dinner i made the hamburger casserole i had planned. i forgot the mushrooms, probably would have been better with it. i used canned potatoes, because i was too tired to use fresh ones. might have been better with fresh, too. i wasn’t all that impressed. it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t very memorable.

today i plan on catching up on dishes and spend some time pampering myself. there’s a ton of stuff to do around the house, but i have to keep reminding myself that i’m still sick, and the harder i push myself the longer i will be. ::sigh::

Imagination is the real and eternal world of which this vegetable universe is but a faint shadow.

i did better yesterday on my diet than i did the day before. today my plan went completely out the window because i had to work when i didn’t expect to. but i stuck to my points pretty well, anyway. i’ve moved the dinner i’d planned for tonight to later in the month.
i got a bunch of home grown produce. my dad grew more than he could use, so he gave some to me. i got some small, long eggplant, a couple of zucchinis, and a bunch of different colored carrots. there’s white, yellow, orange, red, and purple carrots in the bunch. the darker the carrot, the sweeter they are. the purple ones are my favorite. they go *great* with the hummus my fiancé made from scratch . it’s really good. i was supposed to get some fresh basil from my dad too, but i forgot it at his house. XD

spent my free time at work working on the NIN cross-stitch some more. hasn’t been a very productive few days. i’m feeling a little bit better, but i’m still not feeling all that well. time to get some sleep. g’night.

“Man was made at the end of the week's work, when God was tired” –Mark Twain

i had to go into work for a few hours in the afternoon yesterday, even though i’m still not feeling well. at least i’m starting to get a little better, though. the swelling in my throat has gone down, and i don’t feel quite as week and achy, but i still get tired very easily. i tried making dinner last night. i’d been looking forward to trying the recipe, and i thought i was up to it. i probably shouldn’t have. half way through i just wanted to be done with it, and it didn’t turn out as well as it probably could have. i did really bad on my eating plan, but at least i recorded it. and i’ll do better today. i plan on comparing what i actually ate, to the plan, on the menu page. i have to work again today. hopefully i’m not pushing myself too hard and make myself sicker. i just need to make it through the next 2 days, and then i can rest for most of the rest of the week.

::thwaps blogger::

every time i try to save, blogger screws up my formatting. so if my menu looks like suck, it's blogger, not me. also, chloraseptic cough drops are wonderful. *heart*

wake up feeling green, sick as a dog and six times as mean

i’ve been sick since sunday. i feel like shit. my throat and sinuses are swollen, my throat feels like someone took sand paper too it, i can’t sleep for more than two hours at a time because coughing wakes me up. and i have a really annoying mouth sore. and the soonest i can go to a doctor is probably monday, if i can at all. which sucks. really sucks. and i’m weak and i ache all over. yet i still don’t have a fever. which is very confusing. i’ve barely gotten out of bed since sunday. when i do it’s to play games on the computer to distract myself from how miserable i am a the moment. one good thing (and only one) has come out of it. i’ve gotten a lot of reading done. i have a bunch of ebooks, and i’ve been reading those on my little ancient pda. i read book 4 (dead to the world) of the sookie stackhouse books by charlaine harris in a day and a half. i’m reading a few short stories before i move on to book 5 (dead as a doornail). i’m posting july’s menu today. it’s not done, but i’ll update it as i feel up to it. i’m headed back to bed. g’night.

All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind. - Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC)

i’ve been working every day since the 19th, which is unusual for me. i usually only work a couple days in a row. so i’ve been busy with that, and my schedule has completely suffered. i haven’t gotten much done except some work on the NIN cross-stitch. and i’ve been playing too much frontierville on facebook. XD it is sooooo like harvest moon 2.0 or something. lol

i plan on posting my monthly menus again, starting in july. i also plan on recording how closely i stuck to the plan, too. i figure if i keep it public it’ll help by making me more accountable. i tried that for a while, and it worked pretty well.

my fiancé did the grocery shopping this week, and he did a *really* good job getting some produce. he got 5 peaches, 3 pounds of strawberries, 4 pounds of grapes, and a couple zucchinis, all for less than a dollar a pound! he also got a pound of cherries for $1.50, which is a pretty good price for cherries, and 9 ears of corn for $3. i have a lot of healthy stuff to be eating this week. :D

True power is held by the person who possesses the largest bookshelf, not gun cabinet or wallet.

it’s been a very productive 10 days! so productive i haven’t had much time to post. i got all the kitchen curtains done, a couple shower curtains done, hemmed a pair of pants for my fiancé, and worked more on the NIN x-stitch. my fiancé got the childproof latches installed on the cabinets, and we almost have the baby gate to the kitchen situated. we have the living room all situated now. we sandwiched the couch in between two bookshelves shelves, and have a table-like shelf behind it with blankets folded across it, and throw pillows. it’s a really cozy little area now, and i’m really really happy with it. :D i’ll post pictures eventually. we watched a movie called ‘doubt’ this week. it’s really good. the whole movie makes you doubt everybody’s assumptions, including your own. it’s very much like a rorschach test. i recommend it. the highlights from the past week’s menu were crock pot stuffed peppers, meatloaf in the crock pot, and tonight we’re having chicken divan.

My skirt with tears is always wet - I have forgotten to forget

it’s been a productive few days. on saturday i started a skirt made out of some really beautiful crinkle textured purple/black chameleon cloth. i made it into a simple, floor length, straight skirt. the cloth it’s self is so pretty it doesn’t need any further embellishment.

the actual fabric is a bit darker and a little less blue.

i also got the itch to do some x-stitching. it’s been quite a while. i picked up an old project i haven’t worked on in months, that i started years ago. it’s a cross stitched screen shot from NIN’s the perfect drug video. it’s very detailed and stitched on some of the smallest aida i’ve ever worked on. it’s going to take years to complete. just the highlighted section took me a better part of 4 hours.

there’s some water stains on  the fabric, but once embroidered over it won’t be visible, so i’m not worried about it.
it’s a screen shot of within a few seconds of this one.  

yesterday i didn’t get too much done. i wasn’t feeling well and slept most of the day. because of that i couldn’t sleep last night, and ended up playing magic: the gathering with my fiancé until 3:30 in the morning. lol

today was a lot better. i got a ton of cleaning done in the living room, it’s just detail work now. my fiancé has gotten a TON of cleaning done in the kitchen the past couple of days. <3 i can’t wait to get it all done and make a couple minor cosmetic repairs in there.

as far as projects go, i finished knitting a dish scrubby and i’m attempting to cover a few old potholders with new fabric. they’re horribly stained, but still functional.

me and my fiancé watched mutant chronicles while we had dinner. it was pretty good. *very* steam punk, and a bit on the gory side for watching while eating. i tried a  new recipe - turkey taco skillet. it came out pretty good. i need to refigure the points, because that’s A LOT of food for that few points. if it’s accurate it may be one of my new favorites. very filling and quite good. i used regular rice instead of instant, and had to keep adding water, and it took much longer, but it was still really good. i had mine on a bed of lettuce with some diced tomato, taco salad style

I reached for sleep and drew it round me like a blanket muffling pain and thought together in the merciful dark. --Mary Stewart

spent most of the day working on the embroidery for my Sister’s childrens’ christening blanket. it was used (though, unfortunately incomplete >.<) when my godson was christened. it will be used again for my Niece’s christening. i have most of the border embroidery done. i still need to finish the words on my Niece's block, and put a certain cross on both of their blocks. i plan on giving it to my Sister, to pass down in her family. hopefully others will enjoy using it for their special occasions, marking each celebration with embroidery.

an overview of the blocks. names have been blurred for privacy.

embroidery details

twilight drops her curtain down, and pins it with a star

my fiancé and i are working on sewing some curtains. i discovered that i like cloth shower curtains better than plastic ones. they don’t let out water like i thought they would (well, at least if you don’t let them ‘puddle’ on the lip of the tub), and they don’t get sucked in while you take a shower. and you can wash them a lot easier. we’re also working on sewing some curtains to go between our kitchen and living room. it keeps some of the heat out of the living room and saves on the electric bill. and hides a cluttered kitchen when we’ve slacked off. XD  the kitchen curtains and one of the shower curtains will be (mostly) black satin. <3 i plan on upgrading  the kitchen curtains and the window curtains to velvet eventually. <3 <3

we plan to start babysitting to earn a little extra money, so tomorrow or early next week we’re going to install some baby proofing  devices, like cabinet latches and locking doors. the latches will keep the kitten out of the cabinets when we get her, too.

i had to work yesterday. my fiancé ran errands and picked up some goodies while he was out. found strawberries for $1 a pound! at aldi’s. we also got a refillable aerosol can for oil. will save a lot on the grocery budget, and is way more ecologically friendly.

goals for this week and next:
finish the curtains
baby proof
make covers for the couch pillows
get the living room 100% clean

hot hot hot

posted a few more recipes (the ones linked below).

rat update: we settled on the name squeebles for the rat. she’s completely comfortable with us now, taking treats from our hands and contentedly exploring the couch and not trying to run off. she’s also already begging for attention, jumping up on the wire of her cage every time we walk by. she’s still in a smaller cage because she’s still small enough to slip through the wires of the bigger cage.

it got up into the lower 80's today. we're trying to use the air conditioner as little as possible, so i didn't get a lot done before dark today. i’m thinking about staying up at night when it’s cooler and sleeping during the day, when i can.

spent most of the evening catching up on chores, and cleaning the house. we’re wanting to childproof the place so we can start babysitting. going to take a bit of work. the place is a deathtrap with sharp sewing and craft supplies all over, and wires running all over the place. but hopefully we’ll get it done by may.

found a surprisingly good, cheep, individually wrapped slice cheese today. at least good for only being a point per slice (50 calories, 3 fat, 0 fiber). it’s a generic; “shopper’s value”. we got a pack of 12 slices for a dollar. it’s trans fat free too, which is good. it actually tastes something like cheese instead of a slice of oil. still can’t compare to real cheese, but it’s not bad for the points.

what i worked on today:
worked a tiny bit on crocheting the lace i intend to use on my wedding veil. cleaning. not a very productive day.

what i ate today:
grapefruit spice smoothie - 8 points
banana - 2
brei with cheese – 3.5 
motzah grill cheese - 3
small motzah grill cheese - 2
grapefruit - 2
chicken chinese stirfry - 6
tofu stirfry - 2
rice -4
total: 32.5

squeak!

went to the doctor yesterday. it went fine, except there were some weird/funny moments.  “do you have irregular periods?” “well, not since the hysterectomy…” that, and i was talking to the nurse. we both went to school with a guy who was recently found dead in a cemetery (i didn’t really know him well). we were talking about what happened while she took my blood pressure – “you’re blood pressure was a little high, but we were talking about dead people.”

we’re thinking about naming the little fuzzy usdi. it’s cherokee for baby/small/young/diminutive/etc. we haven’t decided yet though. here’s a picture of her. :D we’ve only had her two days, and she’s already coming out to look at us when we pass her cage, instead of slinking away to watch us from her cardboard house. 

starting monday i’m going to start being strict on my diet and exercise again. anyone want to be my diet buddy so we can nag each other? hehe

what i worked on yesterday:
cutting out fabric for a pair of scrubs/pjs for my fiancé.
a crocheted pot holder

shopping spree

it's been a while since i got to do any shopping. with a tax return coming we decided to get some things we've been needing.

here's the highlights:
a new scale
a couple patterns and some fabric
chia seeds
a new pet!

we adoped an adorable little rat yesterday. :D cheep to feed, easy to look after, and affectionate as hell, rats make great pets! :D i'll post a picture soon. we haven't named her yet. anyone have any ideas? :)

busy week

i've had a lot more workdays in the past week than i usually do. thursday i have a ton of errands to run, friday i have a doctor's appointment, saturday and sunday i work again. i can't wait to get some rest next week. At least i have today off.

i've been working on sewing a summer wardrobe when i have the time. i've gotten one skirt done, several more cut out, and a shirt cut out. i've been designing, drafting the patterns and cutting the fabric. my wonderful fiancé has been doing most of the actual sewing. Thursday i plan on getting some supplies to make him some t-shirts and pants to wear around the house.

i also plan on getting a new scale. I gained weight over the holidays. And then my scale broke a couple months ago and i've slacked off a while. >.<  It's time to get back on track.

what i worked on today
menu planning and crocheting a pot holder with some rich purple yarn

what i ate today
2 hash brown with cheese and ketchup
stir-fry broccoli and cabbage
2 pizza burgers
carrot fries
a couple slices of home made bread

i’m back… sort of

well, i have a connection now, but it’s dial up. at least it’s something. i’ve decided to do all my blogging here, instead of having a separate blog for my sewing and craft stuff. i'll be writing about diet, budgeting, crafts, designs, and what ever else i feel like.

i recently got an ancient PDA (palm m105), and i love it. :D most of my posts will probably be written on it.

 

what i worked on today:

organizing crochet cotton. i’ve taken some of the spools out of old VCR tapes, and i’m winding crochet cotton, yarn, and such things on them.

installing programs on my PDA.

 

what i ate today:

beef and cabbage sandwich pocket 
same thing for lunch 
1 grapefruit
24 croutons (they sort of taste like chips, but aren't as bad)
honey mustard chicken
baked french fries