Photoshop... don't fail me now

I so need a new header for this blog.  That picture of my sweet cherub faced child is REALLY OLD!..

Suggestions?  I see a lunch time Photoshop session coming on.

Hello 2015.. A little early but hello

I had intended on sleeping in this morning after arriving home at 2:30 am and finally falling asleep at 3:30am.  My stoopid cat had other ideas.  9am rolls around and she starts in with the meowing.  The sad pitiful kind like "I..am.. Starving.. If you don't feed me right now I shall surely die!!!".  Then she walks on my face.  So there will be a cranky Mel today.  Stoopid cat.  No nip for you today. 

I can't even go back to bed either.  Once one of us are up, she cries is she find us.  Kitty dementia has set in.  When you have a 16+ year old cat, you get shit like that.

She stands in the doorway of our room and pulls that pitiful meow again, even more so.  " mom? Where are you? Where did you guys go??".  We are in the next room!!! So we call her in and she gives us this look like "you didn't tell me you were in here!".

I really want to take a nap..... Why doesn't someone just declare Jan 1 as official stay in your jammies and nap day?  Who's with me!

So long crappy 2014

Let's face it. 2014 was a craptastic year.  Too many people died or were ill.  Too much stress and drama.....and not enough laughing. 

So I say F#%* you 2014!!!

I am ending 2014 on a high note.  With my husband and kid and some friends with a very raunchy game of Cards Against Humanity.   Yes, I will likely be snorting and laughing at inappropriate comments that are all racist or sexist I some way.  I care not!!!!  I will laugh. 

I have to laugh as the worry is getting to me.  No to mention I accidentally went a shade more auburn on my hair than I intended.  Talk about making an impression on my clients. 

Alright 2015... Let's do this.

Throw Back Thursday.. well Friday.

I'm a day late.  Oh well

Halloween 2008

Look at how little!!!!!

It is almost Halloween right?  Right??  

Looking for: Blanket Fort

Today is one of those days where I want to build a blanket fort, get a bag of double stuffed oreo cookies and watch scary movies all day.  I do not want to deal with certain things as its adding huge amounts of stress to my life.

So I'm going to show you something that makes me happy

And if someone would bring me this, i would be happy too. 

Need I say more?

Some things never change

She is a baker at heart.  Still making the same face too.. 

Moo

Random Cow

From the Buffalo Zoo.
I love this cow.

Good Grief..

Wow.. I am a total slacker.
Time to start this going again since well, I'm a slacker.

Things on the home-front are crazy busy.  Kid has Band and Dance so if anyone wants a trumpet serenade, let me know.

I have started gaming again with the hubby.  After an 11 year break, I am now part of a regular gaming group and we are playing D&D.  Yes, kicking old school.. well, 5th edition but its D&D.  The goal was to get me out of the house as I'm still working from home and I've reached that level of "OMG, will someone other than the Cat talk to me and can I please leave my yard??".  Now once a week, we go to a friend's house, chat, play with the dogs, eat and play D&D.

Here's to hoping my sanity comes back.

New year

I again am slacking in my posting.  Why you ask?  Because I am lazy. I don't get paid to do this you see so I shove this to the bottom of the list.  And it was Thanksgiving and Christmas which just takes over everything.

With any luck I will be posting more due to a simple little tablet the husband got me for Christmas.  Best gift next to my roasting pan.

I should have been posting during the Blizzard of 14 but I didn't. So there.

Fa la la la...

No.. I have not decorated yet..  but I'm planning.  Pintrest has been my crack and there is no getting off of it.   And to make matters worse.... I got my kid on it!!
We agreed she could use my login on her kindle so I can see what she's pinning.  Its fun to look at what she's pinning.  Often, she's off in a flash to the craft drawer looking for something.  "Mom, I need your little scissors!!"

You can check out her 1st board here.

She also found tons of Perler patterns as that is her new addiction as well.   Oh the mind of a 10 year old is funny.

HOLY CRAP!!!

Its done!!  The great 2013 Purge of the Dining Room is DONE!!  Only 1 injury.  Lots of "Hey Hon... do we need this?" and even more of "Nope..  ditch it".

Next.. the family room.  That will be a bit harder because I will be contending with the girl's stuff.  And some electronics.  But it will be done. It has to be..  that is where the Christmas tree will be going.  Its really only one section of the room..  so maybe Sunday...  buhahahhahahahha!!!

Post Purge

I've done as much as I am going to in the Dining room and all that is left is the table.. the great black hole of stuff that I'm note sure what to do with.  Toss or keep.  If I keep, where?

I tossed an entire bag of craptastic fabric yesterday and still didn't have room for the good stuff.  I either have to start making stuff with what I have or part ways.  I also found a shoebox of Tapes..  yes.  Tapes.  I think we have most of them in other formats so I really want to toss them.  But I was stopped "just in case we don't" .. so I have to do a bit of documentation before I can ditch them.  I don't use the tape player in the car for tapes at all. its just there.

But significant progress has been made.  It will look sweet for Thanksgiving.

Purging - Part 3

My dining room is slowing returning - things are going into their proper places.  I even bought a new bookcase for my "hobby".  I have some 2 dozen books dedicated to Medieval Manuscripts, and paints, and a paper..  they needed to be in one spot.

I tried the Restore for a bookcase - no luck so Valu Home Center sale was my option.  Its coming together.. 

But lesson learned today... Make sure you have enough Garbage Bags and a pace how much you throw out.  My garbage tote is almost full and its Tuesday.  Garbage pickup is Monday..  

Here are some progress shots..

The table is the holding spot of doom right now.

This corner was where the hobby shelve were (a crappy wire shelf unit).  Now its just the chair and by basket.

the Purge.. part 2

Note to self..  WEAR SHOES!! When doing the whole Purge/Clean thing...  wear shoes.  Why you may ask?  I was doing a quick clean/purge/move this morning during my lunch.  I emptied one of those tall hard plastic cabinets and started to move it back to the laundry room.  Down on the toe it went.

The big toe is now black and blue..  and the whole foot is throbbing.

WEAR SHOES.

How to Purge stuff

With the upcoming holiday season and that looming dread of "where do i put everything so I can get the tree up" I made the decision to start the Great 2013 Purge.  It started at my mother's house - bags of baby clothes that just needed to go. 5 bags. All donated from my mom's house.  Yes, I know, I could have held a garage sale, made a little cash but really?  I'm not doing that at in November.

And we instituted a new rule - If you go into the attic, something must go.  For good. I have 3 bags of kids toys that need to go somewhere for donation. I'm on a hunt to find a good home for them.

So how do you purge?  Here are some things to keep in mind..
1) Have you used it in the last year?  No- purge it
2) Does it make you money?  No- purge it
3) Is it Broken?
4) Do you love it?  No- purge it (If you loved it, why didn't you use it in the last year silly?!)
5) The whole "well we might need it later" crap has got to stop.

That is where we started.  Several bags of clothes from us and a big bag of garbage.  My challenge if getting rid of the extra baggage, the crap, the "why the hell did I keep this" is underway.

The cool thing I did find in the attic..  french  soup style crocks..  I own them.  will I ever use them?  I don't think so.  But I may come up with a great gift basket idea.........

One day more.........

I've been humming One day More from Les Mis this morning.  Today is the kid's last day of Summer Vacation.  Last night, her nerves kicked in.  Poor thing.  New school, a class probably 3 times what she is used to and new teachers.  We just need to get through this week.

I need to get through this week.

Can I has nap now?

We are finally home from our family vacation to GenCon.  What is that you ask?  4 days of Geekdom - gaming to be exact.   Role Playing Games, board games, card games, video games...  you get the idea.  The 3 of us went and we ALL went full  on geek.  Here's some of the highlights.. more to come as I am so freaking tired.  Indiana is a long way from NY.

Damn Travel

I'm home finally after 4 weeks of travel since the last week in June.  2 clients (3 visits total) and a corporate meeting.  One thing that I have the hardest time with while traveling is eating.  Most of the hotels have a comp breakfast or in the case of our corporate meeting, we had 3 meals a day plus a snack and booze.  I tried really hard to be good but 1)the food was really good 2)I had to eat and work at the same time 3)I was working in my down time so exercise didn't happen (running through the airport doesn't count).

What is a girl to do?  I would love to try those shakes they advertise from the various companies but I just can't put my faith in a product that costs so much money.  So I went shopping today and picked up Strawberries, cantaloupe, bananas, celery and carrots.   I would love to say no carbs but HA!  that won't happen.  I start clean this week.  No ice cream, no pop, no munching at night.  Water or iced tea (unsweetened stuff I make) only.  Coffee only in morning.  No sugar.  Minimal carbs and walking after dinner.   Lets see if I can get back on track for fall.

4th of July cake

We are heading over to our Niece's house for a 4th of July get together.  I wanted to try something new and here's to hoping it turns our ok.

Strawberry Shortcake Flag cake

The idea is this -- Take some premade cake, some strawberries and blueberries and cool whip..  and WHAM!!  A cake.
Here's what you need.

Cake - I used pound cake. You could use the Standard Strawberry shortcake cake.. or angel food.  I used Sara Lee as it was handy.  1 cake worked.

Cut the cake up

Then layer it in the pan. You may need to get creative to cover the bottom like I did

Then make sure you have enough strawberries to make your flag.  I laid them out to make sure I grabbed enough.

Take the rest and smush them.  I used a quart.  I added some sugar to sweeten them up a bit.  They are not local Berries so wanted to make sure they sweet.

Now, pour them over the cake and then spread the Cool Whip on top.

Lay out the Strawberries to make the Red stripes on the flag

Now, use the blueberries to make the field of blue.  

Pretty huh?  Happy Fourth everyone!  

UPDATE:  It was good.  Not too sweet, just the right amount of strawberry.  Kids even liked it.  Its a keeper.