A Year in Review

QUICK REVIEW

I started blogging. This has been a wonderful outlet for me. I love to have a place to show my creations and talk about the anything my heart desires.

I met some wonderful cybersisters who blog and have become wonderful supportive friends of mine. I cherish them all! Please check the blogs I visit listed.

I went to Orland for an entire week and enjoyed myself with my friend Becky. I was most proud I didn't drive Becky crazy the entire week. We visited six parks in six days which was crazy! We were totally exhausted by the time we returned! But I finally got to see all the Disney Parks and enjoy them.

I visited the American and Canadian sides of Niagara Falls while I worked in Upstate New York. I have a list of places I want to visit before I die and even though I had been to Niagara Falls before I never got a chance to really look around. Now its another place checked off my list as well as Orlando.

I started crocheting again and I am trying to advance my skills. The Ebony Elite group has been a great inspiration and motivation in this quest. What a wonderful group of talented ladies!

I went on a weekend trip to a scrapbook retreat with five fun ladies and it was a wonderful experience. I would love to do this again.

I joined another meetup group for sewing. I am very excited about this even though I haven't been to a meeting yet (which was not my fault since it was cancelled).

I went to my family reunion in Arkansas and had a good time with relatives.

I painted two rooms in my home myself. A slow start but more to come next year.

I went on three ski trips this year. I did two Midwest weekend trips to Pine Mountain in the UP of Michigan and Devils Head in Wisconsin and one trip out west to Winter Park, Colorado. I had a great time.

I didn't buy another die cutting machine! This was hard but I did it!

Bought new furniture for my creative space.

HERE ARE A FEW THINGS I WANTED TO DO THIS YEAR

Save money

Have a garage sale

Stay on my budget.

Lose 10 pounds

Meet a nice gentlemen (not the scum I usually attract!)

Do more creative projects (sewing, crocheting, stamping, woodworking)

Be more organized

Get central air conditioning for my home

Go to church more often


This is actually all I could think of at the moment but I think its a pretty decent list. I want to thank everyone that reads my blog. I do hope in the future more of you leave a comment to let me know you are out there. It would be great to meet and get to know you!

I hope everyone had a good year and I hope it continues into 2008!

Peace and Love!

Savory Sunday

Well here is another installment of "Savory Sunday". I know most of us are preparing for Christmas dinner and I thought this recipe would be perfect for a quick dessert. It's so easy and good. It's called "Impossible pie". The ingredients are simple and you put them all into a blender and pour into a pie pan. It then separates and makes its own crust, filling and topping. It's fantastic! It's basically a coconut custard pie. If you make it let me know! You won't be disappointed.

IMPOSSIBLE PIE

4 eggs

1/4 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups milk

1 cup coconut

1 teaspoon vanilla

Place all ingredients in blender at one time and blend until mixed together. Pour into a buttered 10 inch pie pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for one hour. When don, crust will be on the bottom, custard will be in the middle and the coconut on top, right where they belong!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Winter Park Recap

Boy! I have wanted to update my blog for some time now. So here goes my recap of the Winter Park ski trip.

The flight to Denver was good with no issues. When we arrived we all grabbed our luggage and waited for the bus to take us to Winter Park. The resort is about an hour and a half west of Denver. On our way to the resort we stopped at a grocery store and liquor store to grab some goodies for the weekened. I bought snacks and food for lunch and dinner (I am still on a budget) and some liquour for the room (I bought some Hot Damn! (cinnamon schnapps and butterscotch schnapps) to but in hot apple cider yum!). We also had several bottles of wine to drink too. We then loaded the bus again and left for the resort. We arrived at 11:30pm mountain time and lugged our stuff into our condos. The condos were nice. My roommates and I then decided on rooms and proceeded to drink and get to know each other before bed. We didn't go to bed until 1:30am.

Here is a picture of my condo roommates. They are in order Lynn, Keelin, Donna and me!

The next morning we got up and got ready to go skiing. We loaded up on the shuttle and off we went. It was a good day for skiing. It wasn't too cold for sure. I started out skiing with the ladies but then I ended up leaving them and skiing on my own. I had some boot issues I had to correct but overall I had a good first day. I stayed mainly on the green runs (the easiest runs around for you non-skiiers). Since I hadn't been skiing for a while I wanted to acclimate and slowly build my way up to the blue runs(the blue runs are intermediate runs). I did ski a few blue runs though. I was getting tired so I ended my day around 3pm and made my way back to the condo.
The next day I went skiing it was very cold! I mean very very very cold. The warming huts were full of people and I stopped after every run to sit an relax. I finally began to get really tired and left around 1:30 pm. I stayed at the condo the rest of the evening and even skipped our group pizza party. I just wasn't feeling fatigued and not up to hanging out with the gang. Besides I had another bad night of rest again. The last full day of skiing on Sunday I didn't leave the condo. I just laid around all day. I figured I was getting the altitude sickness I always get when I go to the Rockies. Not a good feeling. I finally got dressed around 3pm and went to get my skis which I stored at the resort. I did attempt to go out that evening and went to a German restaurant called Gasthuas Eichler in town. The food was good. This is what I had to eat.
Blue Cheese Mousse and Crackers

Potato Pancakes with Sour Cream and Applesauce

Salad with Cranberry Vingarette and bread

Beef Goulash with Spaetzle and Red Cabbage was my entree. It was good.

I always take pictures of food on my trips. This was no exception. LOL!

I made it back to the condo with the group and I did rest a bit better that evening. But I still wasn't feeling my best. I also had developed a cough too.

The next day we were leaving for home by 1pm so we spent the day shopping. I wanted to buy my mom some jewelry for Christmas so I ventured out and did some shopping. I still wasn't feeling very good but I did it. I thought this was promising. I did find the jewelry and stopped for something to eat and walked back to the condo. I was pretty proud of myself even though I was tired. The bus arrived shortly after my arrival back at the condo and we loaded up and left for dinner. We had a wonderful bus driver that took the scenic route for us since we were early and we were able to go through the beautiful canyons. We also went through Golden, Colorado where Coors is manufactured and he gave us some nice touristy information. Great ending.

I finally make it home that evening and I was so exhausted it wasn't funny. I went straight to bed and slept in my clothes because I was pretty cold. The next day I was as sick as ever and its been horrible every since. I am now battling the flu. I made an appointment to visit my doctor and she gave me a prescription for antibiotics and told me to stay at home to rest. I still feel like crap and I am doing nothing but coughing and sleeping all day. I hate this crap! I hope I feel better by Christmas. I would hate to spend Christmas sick.

So now you know why I haven't updated my blog all week. I have been too sick and exhausted to even consider it. Say a prayer for me! I really need it! But I look to the good side to this believe it or not. I haven't been able to spend any money shopping all week! LOL! That's a good thing!

I am going to leave this post with a fun picture of me during happier times on my trip. I hope you all have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A very long review

Hey folks! It's been a long time for sure. I guess I am going through some type of mini fatigue thing. I do hope to get over it soon.

This past weekend my mom had a dinner party for my family. It was nice. We had around 1o people over and we fixed a ham, fried chicken wings, meatloaf, macaroni and cheese, broccoli and rice casserole, string beans, sweet potato pie, chocolate cake, almond cream cheese pound cake and an impossible pie. I think there might have been more but you get the idea. Everyone enjoyed themselves and I believe ate a bit too much. They had those eyes half opened look to them. LMAO! It was fun though. I was quite tired afterward. My back was beginning to bother me a lot and I cleaned as well as I could and I ended up staying the night. Sunday I was very tired and didn't go to church but I stayed and cleaned my mother's home for her. I left late Sunday night and I was still not feeling very well. I don't know what to think about that.

Anyway that was the weekend for me. I cooked Friday night and went to my mother's house early Saturday to help her and that was it for me!

I was supposed to start packing for my Winter Park, Colorado ski trip last night but I didn't get a chance. I went to sleep early. I did stop on my way home today and bought my brother's Christmas gift and some ski socks for the trip. I am getting a bit excited. Woo Hoo! Three days of skiing! I hope I don't get altitude sickness. I better start drinking tons of water now!

I did want to show off some of my scrapbooking work. I completed several layouts and I have more to complete. Hopefully I will have them done on my next meetup.com meeting on the 20th.

I finally did it! I couldn't help myself! I treated myself to the upper tier of the Clip It Up! Adrienne eat your heart out! LOL! I got a couple of coupons from Archiver's for 30% off anything in the store. The first thing that came to my mind was the Clip It Up Upper Tier! I couldn't resist! I think this will be it for the month on hobby supplies! But I am so glad I got it! It's fabulous!

I also purchased a set of circle stamps. I have been wanting these stamps for some time. I wanted to use them on some layouts I had made but I worked around them. I finally decided to just go ahead and buy them. Now I am kind of regretting it. I have a tendency to buy stuff I really want and never use it. It is just stored in my craft limbo area (I call it my creative space but you get my drift) and I never use it. I must stop this!
This is my layouts from my family reunion I attended in July 2007. I started these layouts in August and I have yet to complete them. I like them so far.

This is my my mother's oldest sister (or my Aunt) Waverline. She isthe oldest sibling in my mother's immediate family.

This is a picture of my Aunt Waverline and my mom (Ivory). The "S" is for sister.

This is my Mom (Ivory). She is the second oldest.

This is my Aunt Ethel. She is my mother's youngest sister. She is the fourth sibling.

This is my Uncle James (we call him "Geek" and don't ask why because I don't know). He is the youngest sibling at number seven.

This is my mother's first cousin named Robert Jones. He is a character. This is my first cousin Cedric. His father is my mother's brother Clarence. This is my Uncle Clarence's wife Wanda.

This is my first cousin Christian. She is my Uncle Clarence's daughter. This is my Uncle Clarence. He is the sixth sibling in the family.

This is my Uncle Robert (We call him Bunkus and again don't ask because I don't know why). He is my mother's oldest brother. He is the third sibling.

This is my Aunt Waverline's husband Ira.
I like this picture of my Aunt and her husband. The "L" is for love.
This is my cousin's daughter Ja'Maya. She is her youngest daughter. She is adorable. This is my cousin's oldest daughter Diamond. She is really cute. I hope you all like the layouts I showcased here. I have about three or four more layouts to complete for the reunion and I hope to have them completed soon. I will have them posted soon.

I was very disappointed the previous weekend. I found a sewing meetup group and we were supposed to have our first meeting the first Saturday in December. I went scrapbooking on the Friday night before and I got up late but I was preparing to go. I checked my e-mail and saw that the group leader had cancelled the meeting! I was all set and ready to go too! I felt if someone had zapped all my energy. I was so disappointed! But the upside is the weather was not good. We had some freezing rain here in the Chicagoland area and it was very slippery and traffic was not good. So it all worked out for the best.

I know this has been a rather long entry with all the pictures so I will end it now. I do plan to post a recipe this week. If I have internet access in Colorado I will post my adventures skiing. I want to update you on my crochet progress too. So stay tuned!

Smooches!