Tuesday in Rockford

I almost forgot to post I was nominated by my wonderful blog buddy Stacy Crimson Purl asIsn't that the coolest! I am so proud! It's an honor for me to be nominated as a Rockin' Girl Blogger so I am going to take my new blog diva status to a new level! LOL! Let's see what I can come up with in the next few days. I am supposed to nominate people but I have yet to find any additional blog sites to nominate that Stacy didn't already nominate. The search is now on!

Yesterday was a fun day. I visited the yarn store on my lunch. It is a lovely store. I believe its the largest one I have been to yet (except for the one in Plainfield, IL and one in New Zealand). The name is Unique Yarns.

It's a wonderful store. I was very pleased to see many knitted projects displayed throughout the store. It was fun to look and feel all the nice yarns. I did finally breakdown and bought some sock yarn. It's very pretty. The color is grape. I thought it was more blue but when I looked at it in different light it was more purple.

The owner was very nice and helpful. She showed me around and helped me pick some yarn. She has many classes and fun things to see. I can't wait to visit more stores.

After work I went to Memories Ink in Rockford. It was right down the street from where I was working. The owner Karen invited me to crop last night and I didn't get back to my hotel room until 10:30pm! She taught a class on beginning scrapbooking and I bought some papers to start my album on my Family Reunion. I am doing an 8 X 8 album for the event. I didn't have pictures but I thought I could just make some pages to go in it. They turned out nicely. It was funny I spent a lot of time looking for papers for a layout of my mom and aunt. I didn't see anything that caught my fancy so I decided to move on to another set of pictures. I chose the family reunion. It worked out nicely. I can print the pictures off when I get home. Anyway, I used her paper trimmer, scissors and I also scraplifted some of her layouts. It was fun. I believe I created six layouts and started another before I left. If you ever have the chance visit the store. Karen is very nice and welcoming!Well it looks like I might be on my way home today. It really depends on how much time the managers and controller has at this office. I then pack for my trip to Upstate New York. This should be interesting. New York is a very scenic state. I can't wait to post pictures and spin tales of adventures for you. I have plans for yarn stores and hopefully some scrapbook stores.

Toodle loo!

Rockin in Rockford

I know what you are thinking. What the heck is in Rockford that's rockin! Well I believe life is what you make of it. Hopefully you can do the same. I am working in Rockford, IL this week and I love to go on my Scrapbook store and Yarn store crawl through the area.

Yesterday I went to a local scrapbook store called Memories Ink on State Street here in Rockford. I met the owner when the store was located in Sycamore, IL. Great store and lots of cool products. Well she invited me back today to come and scrapbook. She will be open later tonight since she has a beginners class and told me I should come and have some fun. I took her up on her offer and I can't wait to go. Since I am missing my scrapbook meet-up group today this would be a great fill in. I do have my pictures on disk and I can use some of her supplies and buy whatever I need. This is going to be so much fun! I actually have some unfinished layouts in my car too. Hopefully I will have some fun projects to show you tomorrow.

I also went to another scrapbook store here in Rockford called Captured Moments Scrapbook Superstore. I love it when stores call themselves a superstore. It makes you think you are going to this humongous store with millions of dollars of merchandise and crop space. Mind you this is a terrific store. It's just not as large as you would think with this name. Here is a picture of the store.

Anyway I had a blast! I went and spent too much money as always but I found some cool stuff. I bought three really cute 8 x 8 albums for $3.99 each. I have seen these around and they regularly cost $19.99! I wasn't going to walk away from that price. Here is a photo!

I also purchased a really cool stamp pad storage crate I can hang on the wall in my creative space. It was inexpensive and it was made out of cardboard. I will alter it when I get the time and store my stamps in it! I can' t wait. Here is a picture of the one in the store.

I also went to Borders and bought an Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 classroom in a book to help with my digital scrapbooking. I really need to learn how to use the program better so I can fix my older photos and use the program to its full advantage. I plan on doing a lot of this when I travel to New York for work. I will spend a lot of my evenings and a weekend learning photoshop. I bought something for crocheting too. It's a tips and trick book for your crocheting issues. I really needed that. I do plan on taking my crocheting with me to New York too. I have already scouted the yarn stores in the cities I will be visiting to make sure I hit them all. I plan on taking pictures of them all to post on the blog.

Well today I plan on going to a yarn store here in town. I would have visited yesterday but it closed a 5pm. No way I was going to make that after work so I decided to go on lunch today. I will take pictures and post tomorrow what I find!

See you in the funnies!

Savory Sunday

This recipe I found in a Better Homes and Garden magazine years ago. It was lost for some time and I finally found it in a stack of old recipes! I have one thing to say about this recipe. FABULOUS! I made these delicious shrimp and poblano pepper tamales and I instantly fell in love with them. Let me first say I was not a big fan of tamales. I was used to those commercial tamales which just tasted like slightly flavored corn meal to me. I wasn't impressed. I then began to taste authentic tamales (when the corn husks) from my Mexican American friends. I really enjoyed them. The flavor was fabulous. Then I found this recipe and I let one of my Mexican American friends try them too and they were very impressed. I had to share the recipe.

Here are my pros and cons of the recipe.

PROS

The taste is so good you will want to make a double batch

The presentation is good. Pretty impressive to those who have never made tamales

Low Calories. Only 110 calories each

Easy to freeze

CONS

Labor intensive. Takes time to prepare ingredients. Lots of chopping and measuring. Also assembly.

You may need to go to a specialty store for some things (A Hispanic grocery store should have everything).

I found my tamales were a bit sticky. I wonder if it was just me.

Overall this recipe is easy but well worth the trouble. The next time I make it I will definitely make a double batch. Totally delicious!

SHRIMP AND POBLANO-CHILE TAMALES

28 dried corn husks (3 to 4oz) or fourteen 9-inch pieces of foil
1 cup chicken broth
2/3/ cup canned cream-style corn
1/3 cup milk
2 cups masa harina
3 medium poblano chils
1 large red bell pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup finely chopped onions
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
1/2 pound peeled and deveined uncooked shrimp, chopped
1/2 cup lard, butter or shortening
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 cup coarsely grated chihuahua, muenster or monterey jack cheese
1/2 cup coarsely grated Queso Fresco or crumbled mild feta cheese

Guacamole

Directions

1. Cover corn husks with hot tap water in a shallow baking dish.

2. Bring chicken broth, creamed corn and milk just a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Gradually add broth mixture to masa harina in a medium bowl, stirring with a wooden spoon, until well blended; cool.

3. Heat broiler. Line a broiler pan with foil. Arrange poblanos and bell pepper on a prepared pan and broil 4 inches form heat 10 to 15 minutes, turning until skins are evenly charred. Wrap in foil and let stand 15 minutes. Peel, sed and dice chile and bell pepper; transfer to a medium bowl.

4. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and cook 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic, reduce heat to medium and cook 1 minute more. Cool, then combine with chile, bell pepper and uncooked shrimp.

5. Beat lard, baking powder, salt and sugar together in a large mixer bowl, until smooth. Gradually beat in masa harina mixture by spoonsfuls, beating well after each addtion. Continue to beat 5 to 8 minute smore, until mixture is light and fluffy. Stir in shrimp mixture and cheese (mixture will be stiff).

6. Drain and rinse corn husks; keep covere with a damp towel (or follow foil directions below). Flatten one husk on work surface (overlapping two husks if small) Spoon 1/4 cup filling in center of husk. Spread into a 3-inch long log. Roll up lengthwise. Secure each end with string. Repeat with remaining husks and filling.

To prepare tamales with foil: Cut each foil piece in half to make two 6 x 9 inch rectangles. Spread 1/4 cup filling in center of each rectangle. Fold all sides in to form 2 X 3 - 1/2 inch packets. (Can be made ahead. Place tamales in resealable plastic storage bags and freeze up to 1 month.)

7. Place steamer rack in dutch oven over 1 inch of water. Arrange tamales (unthawed if frozen) in rack. Cover; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and steam 30 minutes. Serve with Guacamole, if desired.

Makes 28 tamales

Nutritional Information

Nutritional facts per serving
calories 110
total fat: 6.5g
saturated fat: 3g
cholesterol: 22mg
sodium 173mg
carbohydrate 10g
fiber 1g
protein 4g

Here is a link to the recipe on Ladies Home Journal website too. http://www.lhj.com/recipe/recipedetail.jhtml?recipeId=37980&searchResults=true&showSearchNav=true&recipeNumber=3&resultCategory=kitchen&searchType=null&adCategory=&_requestid=58839
I just found it and I am feeling pretty foolish now that I have typed this thing out! It was reprinted in Better Homes and Garden! Geez!

Bon Appetit'

Miss me?

It's been one of those weeks. I miss posting. But I have been very busy and tired. I must get back to exercising again. It helped a lot. Now I get home and sit on the couch and watch television. But the heat hasn't given me much option either. I don't have central air yet and its brutal.



Well here is my weekend in review. I went to Arkansas for my family reunion. My Mom wanted an early flight so we had a flight at six in the morning. Here is my recommendation. DON'T DO IT! You have to get up very early in the morning (like 3 am) to make your flight (depending on how far you are from your airport). Flying out of O'Hare is very sketchy at times so I try to arrive around an hour and a half before. By the time we made it to Arkansas and drove to the hotel our room was not ready. We had to kill time until 1pm! We arrived at 10 am. Mind you we had been up since 2:30 am and I didn't go to bed until midnight. We were tired and there wasn't much to do in town but go to Wal Mart, Sonic for hamburgers and to the birthplace of Clinton. We also visited my mother's brother and then we were able to go our room. Anyway the reunion was the same as always. We sat around and chatted with relatives and then we ate. Everything is focused around food. I was MC for the bingo and raffle and then I sat around and chatted with family and crocheted. The trip ended on a sour note though. I lost my cell phone at the airport. Bummer!



While on my trip I did work on my new cardigan. It wasn't coming along well at all. I am good at the stitching but my tension is way off. It goes from lose to tight as I work. You can see the shaping change. I was almost through with a sixteen once skein when I decided to start over. I then started over again and unraveled ten rows! I kept getting tighter as I went. This is my one major problem with crocheting. TENSION! Everytime I pick up a project I change tension. You should see some of my completed blankets. Terrible tension. But now that I recognize the problem I make sure my tension remains the same. This last go has been pretty good. The yarn is really nice too.



Anyway I am a bit sad this month. I will not be around for my monthly scrapbook meetings. I will be out of town for work. Boo Hoo! But I have decided to work on my digital scrapbooking which shouldn't take as much gear as regular scrapbooking. I have wanted to learn more and I have all the materials to do so. I can do it on an airplane, restaurant, airport or hotel room without a lot of stuff. Perfect! I just can't wait to get started. I should have three weeks of practice by the end of the month. Look for links to the pages.



I also received my ski club trip information for the 2007-2008 season. The ski clubs posts their trips and allow people to sign up at what they call "Trip Kick Offs" during August. This allows people to schedule far in advance and to start paying for their winter trips. Great deal especially for me. One of my ski clubs (out of two) will be going to Japan for a week! I really want to go but the $2000 price will keep me from attending. I was considering pushing the finances but I think I will just pass (unless I win the lottery) at the moment! Another ski club will be going to Switzerland. That one costs $1375 but it includes meals! The Japan trip includes the airfare, lodging and trip to the hotel. The Switzerland is the same but with meals. Neither offers the lift tickets because people can decide for themselves how often they would prefer to do skiing or whether they will do any skiing. Some people who are in a ski club do not ski but go on the trips and go sightseeing. This is very common and the ski clubs get terrific deals on travel. I have decide though at this point to only go on a trip to Winter Park this December. It's $550. More in my price range. That should be sufficient for me. I get to have a bit of fun and the price also includes lift tickets. I have to pace myself or win the lottery soon.



Well tomorrow I plan on posting a surprise for everyone to see. Stay tuned and check back later in the evening!



See ya later gators!

It's been a while

Well the past week has been a blur to me. I was very busy with work and getting ready for a weekend away. I missed posting. I think I will try to post a bit more often in the weeks to come.

Well this past weekend I went to a scrapbook retreat in Central Illinois. It's called the All American Scrapbook Company retreat in Mt. Auburn, IL. It's held at a Christian camp. Now when I say camp I mean a building with bunk beds. We haul all of our gear ( which is a haul if you could see what I have) and scrap continuous throughout the weekend. This time I did an extended weekend (from Thursday to Sunday) instead of the usual Friday through Sunday. It was a good time. I really enjoyed myself. I am very proud to say I completed nineteen layouts! Yup you heard me right nineteen! Around fifteen of the layouts were 8 X 8 and the rest were 12 X 12. I was especially proud of one I made for a friend of her daughter. She is a cute little girl. I saw some patterned paper in my stash and realized it would be perfect. I actually put the layout together in what I consider to be a reasonable amount of time. If you would like to see my layouts you may check my website.

Getting back on Sunday late I was exhausted but I managed to get the truck unpacked. There were three of us in my Mom's truck and we had it loaded. It's amazing to see how much stuff three scrapbookers can bring on a weekend getaway. It's funny.

Now I am getting ready for a trip to Arkansas for a family reunion. I need to pack and prepare my house for the return. I am not looking forward to this actually. It would be nice to see family but the reunions are typically boring. All we do is sit around and talk and eat. That's it. No real activities. Just sitting around a hot lodge looking out at nothing really. BORING!

Well I do plan on taking my crocheting with me and a book. I will make the most of it. My cardigan is not finished. I think I will work on it next week. I just need to sew it together. It has me a bit puzzled though. I am just now realizing I am not sure what type of thread or yarn to use since it is a specialty yarn. I am a bit confused. I still need to make it to a few yarn stores so maybe I can get some help there. But in the meanwhile I have started on a new project. It's another crocheted cardigan. It's cute. I like it a lot. I bought some really nice yarn at JoAnn's to use with it and I think it will turn out beautiful. I will post a picture at a later date.

My creative space has come along nicely too. I just need to find a desk. I hope to get one by the end of the year. I first want to pay down some bills. I have been a spend thrift this summer. I need to find something to bring in a little extra income.

Well my update is complete. Stay tuned for more details!

Cas...

Good Day

Well today seems to be much better. It seems things I have had an issue with are now good. First thing would be my printer/scanner. It was the inkjet cartridges. They needed replacing. I thought this was odd because my printer usually tells me when the cartridges are low. I mean actually tells me! My computer always has a message which comes over the speakers when I am printing or if there is an error with the printer. I did need to reinstall the drivers though. Weird!

Second thing was my hair! I had a great hair day. It actually looked good. I was able to make it look a bit more fashionable. I felt cute actually. I styled my hair and dressed for work a bit more fashionable and I felt a lot better. This may work out! At least until I get my braids again. I really want them back! I have starting sweating in my head already and this is not good. It might be a fro before you know it!

Third thing was I received a package today. I didn't expect one but I found one on my doorstep when I arrived home. I was a bit paranoid when I saw it. You see I watch Court TV a lot and I saw a Forensics File episode where a husband sent his wife a bomb wrapped up like a present and left it on the porch. It killed her unfortunately. When I saw the package I started thinking about who could be angry with me. No one really but you can't be to careful !LOL! Anyway this is what I got.

It's a radio and speaker case. It also has a pocket for a portable CD player/MP3 player and twenty CDs. How cool is this! It came at a perfect time too! I am going away for the weekend so I can use it when I need some music! Sweet!

This is a magnet with a picture of my cat Edgar.

This is a pillow with a picture of Edgar. Isn't it cute! Edgar seems to like it too. I put it on the floor close to his scratcher and he sniffed it and really checked it out!

These wonderful gifts came from my job. I thought it was a wonderful surprise. The adminstrative assistant had asked me for some pictures of my cat. I thought it was to submit to a contest for pet pictures on the job. Well it wasn't! LOL! They sent it to me because we did a good job getting some work done. It's great to be appreciated by management. I am lucky to have such a thoughtful department.

Well as you can see I had a wonderful day. It rained here and I still believe it was a beautiful day. As the song goes "what a difference a day makes"!

As for the recipe I spoke of the other day I will post it. I suggest you do not count on it this week. It's a very long recipe to type out (but not a tough recipe). Maybe next week. I am a bit behind on a few things I need to take care of first. But I will post the recipe. I highly suggest you read my blog next week for it.

Toodle loo!

Another weekend gone by

Well my weekend did not start off too well. I can't seem to get my scanner to work. I can't seem to figure out what is wrong with it. The light keeps blinking. I think I may need a new cartridge but it usually tells me when the ink is getting low. I can't seem to get it to stop blinking. I need it for work too! I looked high and low for my instruction manual and I can't find it. I have used it frequently and I definitely have misplaced it. I don't know where it could be. Totally frustrating!

On to another blight on my weekend I went to get my hair done. I have worn braids for the past four months. I dyed my hair in December to try something different. I have dark hair. Very dark hair which tends to be hard to color. It's also very coarse and dry. My picture on blog was taken shortly after I got the color. To make a long story short. My hair began breaking off. I mean really breaking off! It became shorter and more brittle. In April I began to wear braids. I love braids! They are so nice. Well I tried to make an appointment on Friday to get my braids redone and the woman who does it was out of town. For the next two weeks! Arrghh! I was so sad. But I needed to get my hair done. So I had it permed and styled. She had to cut a lot of the colored part out which left me with shorter hair than before. I now look like Florence from the Jeffersons. I hate this hairstyle! I mean really hate it. My mom thinks it looks cute but I hate it with a passion! It's definitely an older woman's hairdo. What do you think?

Well I at least think it is a pretty good self portrait of myself. I had to tweak the hairstyle she gave me. She had it styled away from my forehead which is not flattering. I have a very square forehead which needs framing. So I combed some angled bangs to the front. The back is short (where most of the breakage occured) but not tapered. I can't wait to get my braids back. I do not enjoy rolling and styling my hair.

Well I am not going to continuing whining about my my weekend woes fortunately. One good thing came out of this weekend. While I was searching for my instructions to my scanner I found a recipe I couldn't find for years! I am so excited. It's a really good one too! Very tasty. I can't wait to make it but it won't be soon because I will be out of town for the next two weekends. I will post a picture when I make them!

I hope everyone had a good weekend!

Smooches!