Long Holiday Weekend Plans

Today was the last school day of this week, so I have a full day off to get things ready for Thanksgiving. I haven't planned my menu formally yet, but I have a pretty good idea of what we're going to have. I am pretty classic - roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry something, gravy, stuffing (for my hubby, I don't like it), pumpkin pie, relishes, squash, maybe some turnips, and also some mincemeat tarts. Oh, and homemade yeast rolls in crescent shape. So yes, there it is - I have planned my menu. Now for the shopping list . . .

Tomorrow is also my hair appointment day and cleaning day. I have the major cleaning out of the way, just little stuff.

I have finished up all my dolls for the time being. Now I am ready to start making some jewelry. I have a ton of beads I want to play with and make some dazzling new creations. Got lots of ideas. So maybe Friday evening at the Shack will be jewelry bling night.

Friday AM will be one early morning jaunt to Michael's. Last year I scored some really good deals and it wasn't crowded at all at six AM! I can always stock up on my new favorite glue; Zip Glue. It's a great quick drying, non-wrinkling paper glue. LOVE it!

So there you have it in a nutshell - my long holiday weekend plans. Oh, that reminds me - I need to pick up the rest of the black walnuts out of the driveway that we have been hulling by running over them with the car. And those will be used in future plans for Christmas goodies.

Get 'Er Done

Yep, that's me, Ms. Get 'er done. Last week I complained about all the swaps I had to make that were sending me over the edge because it seemed as if I wouldn't be able to get them done on time. Well, I am here now to crow about my ability to get 'er done! They are all finished, and will be going out in Monday's mail. Friday night's Scrap Shack get together was very productive for me, but I also spent several evenings holed up in the basement working some late hours, too. Now someone needs to come over to my house with a scoop shovel to help me clean up my mess down there! It is a disaster of epic proportions - there are some pretty precarious piles waiting for me to carefully approach them and start the sorting process so all my stuff can be put away.

Even though I fight valiantly against it, the collections of "stuff" seem to grow continuously. Should I just give up the fight and fill my house up with all the things I might someday need? I really wonder if I will ever use the rest of the VERY NICE French bread sack I tore to collage-sized bits, used two pieces for the Marie collage, then meticulously saved for the future. It's a wonderful sort of paper with an almost imperceptible pin dot pattern . . .

Maybe I need to charge up that get 'er done thing to a really high level and race down to the basement and organize like crazy. But I'm thinking (and I bet you are, too), that I am probably going to save all my get 'er done for all the important things that I fill my life up with!

Now off I go to find more important things on which to focus my awesome get 'er done powers .

Happy Birthday, Son

Happy Birthday, Son! I just wanted to let everyone know that today is the anniversary of a very special event in my life! It marks the day my wonderful son was born. Scott, thanks so much for being you. You are a kind, caring, empathetic person. You are intelligent and are not afraid to be the voice that speaks out for injustice and cruelty in the world. I am proud of who you are and what you stand for. I will always love you.

La Reine

Here are the latest dolls I have been working on. Blue one sent off already and the pink one and display collage she's shown in are in the box ready to ship off to my swap partner. I hope she likes her.

Post Script to Dolls, ETC.

Hoo-Boy! I wish I had paid more attention in business and office class when I was supposed to be learning how to type! Man, I had a big, long post all ready to go on here about how much I accomplished last night at the Scrap Shack, when BOOM! my finger hit the wrong key and I deleted the whole darn thing! So, instead of trying to remember what I had written and go into all the boring details, here is the short version: I got some things done! Made three Marie Antoinette dolls, one of which is totally done. The others are going to be easy to finish up. Finished the huge doll except for a pink feather boa which I purchased this evening (bought some more Zippee Glue, too, which I love!). On our weekly late-night/early morning jaunt to Wally World, I bought the items I needed for this evening's potluck/turkey shoot my hubby and I attended. Today I finally sat down and made the genealogy list for the goats hubby requested, made the pot-luck food (yummy golden baked onion casserole and crock-pot peanut clusters), and then we tagged goat ears. OUCH! they said. That's the update - I am getting that elephant eaten one bite at a time . . .

DOLLS, DOLLS, AND MORE DOLLS, OH MY!

I've posted before about my paper doll group on Swap-bot, Paper People Art Dolls, so I guess most people know I like paper dolls. And if you know me personally or know anything about me, you might know I sometimes tend to get in over my head on projects, and this seems to be one of those times. I recently started a swap for a traveling doll with the participants' faces as the dolls' faces. The swap has twelve people participating, so all twelve dolls will be worked on by all the participants. The schedule won't be completed until late next summer, so this is a pretty involved undertaking. My doll isn't done yet, and I'm getting a little nervous about this because I want it to be perfect. But that's not all - I've also created another fairly involved swap for a Marie Antoinette paper doll. This isn't just for a doll, though. It also includes a display folder or backdrop to go with the doll. But even that's not all! I also decided that I just had to have a Frida Kahlo doll made by another member of the group, jewelrydoll180, so we arranged a private Frida doll swap. But wait! Even that's not all! Since I love jewelrydoll180's dolls, AND I am greedy, we also arranged a private Marie doll swap! Arggggh!

Are we done yet? Nope - I am also making a huge, jointed doll (this is the same doll we are making for the Traveling Round Robin Self Doll Swap) for a friend to give to her husband's boss, AND another one like it as a surprise for the above-mentioned friend. This isn't even mentioning the pair of Thanksgiving-themed dolls I made last night to go out in tomorrow's mail! Or the profile surprise swap I am in or the bead projects I have in mind or the wreath for our front door that I made last night, or. . And that all these things are due by the end of November? And that I said I wanted Thanksgiving at my house?

Did I mention I sometimes get in over my head? And that I hold a full-time job? Or that I have a husband, three dogs, three cats, 25 goats, and four fish? And that my house is actually kind of clean? And that I cook now and then? I need to stop now and go someplace quiet. Seeing this in print is even scarier than having it in my head! I better get my butt off the computer and down to the basement and GET BUSY! BYE NOW!

The People Behind the Blogs

I already spend way too much time on the computer, but I sure wish I had more time to spend browsing through people's blogs! Last night I hopped on here and noticed I had a comment on a post, so I stopped to read the comment. From there I was drawn to the commenter's list of interests, so I clicked on one that was a common interest. That took me to whole list of people who shared the same interest, and suddenly, there I am cruising through various blogs. My problem is that I am nosy. I will be merrily reading someone's blog when out of the blue I will wonder about some little piece of their personal lives. That sends me off sniffing for their little bits and snippets of their lives and lifestyles and I never do finish reading whatever it was they thought important enough to share in that day's entry.

The other bad thing I do is start off reading one person's blog, notice a link they have that looks interesting, click on that link, and never finish reading the original person's entry. Then, I get lost in such a convoluted web of open windows and links that I don't ever find out what I was looking for in the first place . . . Adult ADD, maybe?

Confusion

Today I am feeling confused. I feel as if I do not know how to teach or how to do my job. I feel like I am out of my experience area and that I am not doing my students any good. I also feel like my job is mostly an "add-on" type of job and that I'm just a warm body that is filling a spot that has been created so the school district can get federal dollars.

Crockpot Peanut Clusters

Okay, this is not going to turn into a recipe blog or one about my cooking adventures, but I am posting a recipe here today for my Facebook friends. Last night I stayed home from my weekly jaunt to Deb's famous Scrap Shack so I could make these peanut clusters to take to a friend's Halloween bonfire. Easy, right? Well, you know there is always a fly hovering in a corner somewhere just waiting to get into your ointment, and last night was no exception.

Richard saw a crockpot he liked last week at Meijers that was on clearance. He didn't buy it then, but when he went to the store on Friday afternoon to pick up the ingredients for the candy, he bought it, so we decided to use it last night for the peanut clusters. About two hours into the cooking time, I smelled what I thought was Richard making some toast. Turns out it was the candy, BURNING! Sure enough, that crockpot was defective, and by the time I smelled it, those peanuts were burnt black! The chocolate was all bubbled up and charred. Talk about nasty. . .

So at 11:00 P.M. last night we made a run into Marion to get more ingredients. We loaded up the OLD crockpot with the stuff and Richard fired it up at five this morning, and at 8:30, I was spooning out mounds of chocolately-peanutty goodness. (Somehow it just isn't as appealing at that hour.) Of course, I had to whine to my friends on Facebook about burning the first batch of candy and having to remake it, which naturally led to people wanting to know what I was talking about. So, that is why I am posting the recipe here. Now if any of my FB friends want the recipe, they'll have to follow the link I'm posting and come here and read my blog to get the recipe. That's kind of a sneaky way to get readers, right?


Crockpot Peanut Clusters
Two 16 0z. Jars of dry-roasted peanuts, one of them SALTED and one UNSALTED
Two 12 oz. bags of semi-sweet chocolate chips
Two 12 oz. bags of white choc chips or equal amount of almond bark or white dipping coating
One 4-8 oz. bar of sweet German choc.

Layer in crockpot in order given - peanuts MUST be on bottom of crockpot. Do not mix. Cook on LOW for three hours w/o lifting lid. Turn off, mix well, let sit in crockpot for twenty mins. Spoon out in heaping teaspoonfuls onto wax paper-lined cookie sheets. Let set for a few hours in a cool place. Makes about seven dozen peanut clusters. Warning: Addictive! Store any leftovers in an airtight container.

Okay – here are a few things I have found out from making these:
There always seems to be a little too much chocolate left in the bottom w/o enough nuts so you could probably cut down on choc a little or add a few extra nuts.

You can change up the kinds of chocolate you use to suit your tastes or suit what you have on hand.

Don’t lift the crockpot lid while they’re cooking b/c water could run into the chocolate and that ruins chocolate.

I absolutely KNOW putting the chocolate on the bottom will make them burn because one of the teachers I work with did it at school when we made them with kids one year.