the april bed

 trying to bring the spring inside. i don't think i will tire of the pink, orange and yellow combo anytime soon. at least i hope i won't. check out scrumdilly-do! for the how-to. happy april!

 

pinterest: recipe round-up

I was on the ball the last few weeks regarding groceries and dinner. I am still wandering happily through pinterest-land pinning away all sorts of pretty and have been trying to weed through and actually utilize those happy boards. Here are a bunch of recipes that happened...

korean bbq tacos

Super duper tasty, I cheated and used Trader Joe's Korean BBQ and added additional ginger and garlic. The meat cooked up so much in the crock pot, it was like butter. Will definitely make these again.

thai grilled peanut butter sandwich

 

 

This is my own original recipe and still a favorite. Had some bean sprouts left over from the tacos and didn't want them to go to waste. Served with roasted green beans. Yum!

homemade falafel and quinoa tabouleh

I love me some falafel and the weather was warm enough to get a bit summery. We had a bag of dried garbanzo beans from a local farm so I soaked 'em up and went at it. The falafel fell apart even though I followed the recipe as it was. I ended up adding an egg and some flour to get it to all stick together. It was delicious. The tabouleh was awesome. The last time I made quinoa tabouleh, the recipe called for way too much parsley. This recipe was perfect. I forgot to add the mint but it was still really tasty.

quick curried chickpeas

The curry chickpeas were crazy easy and super tasty. I used a can of organic fire roasted tomato sauce and served it up with roasted curry cauliflower and homemade cucumber sauce. Will totally make this again!

This week I will be using up what we have and attempting a no-spending kind of week. We are almost out of milk and apples o there will that. Wish me luck! What have you been cooking lately?

two days later...

and two sites away from some of my favorite peoples...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

it's like shared experience but extended.

on simple things, bus wheels and a much needed camping adventure

It's the simple things in life that really make my heart smile. The song of the mockingbirds in the morning. The scent of most anything when the nose is working. A cloud that sails by faster than a go-cart. Adam ant on the radio, the mister whistling and finally sort of mastering a song on the ukulele (hey, The Wheels on the Bus is a song).

Freshly folded vintage linens. A jar of embroidery thread. A hot waffle dinner with family and a bowl full of prettily colored jordan almonds (even the box was pretty).

I'm all about simple things even when I am wanting for fancier. To keep it simple this week, the mister and I are trekking out for a much needed camping weekend. The last time we pitched our tent was in Oregon at the tail end of The BIG Road Trip. We're are much in need of a mini road trip and look forward to hitting the road with Dr. Eleanor Teeth and all our gear. Our destination is the Pinnacles National Monument and then onward for an evening at Henry Coe. May there be hot meals cooked on the car engine, good tunes and amusing radio. Hikes will be hiked, books will be read, pictures will be taken and adventure will abound. Have a happy holiday weekend and I'll see ya when we get back!

fun with egg cups

 I picked up these wee egg cups a few months ago with the intention of doodling on them. Thank goodness I found where I stashed them! When I was a little girl, every Easter, we decorated hollow eggs. My mother had a collection of ladies in pretty hats and oh how I adored them. Sadly, none of the ladies remain but I made up my own version using a wee bottle cap and vintage earrings. 

For my half-faces, I simply doodled with your good old sharpie pen. The felt bow-tie was glued on with e-6000 so these little pretties are not exactly washable. 

 

They do however make for a quirky egg display. 

Dig his bottle-cap hat?

wishy-washy aka I took over fifty pictures of this face and only one came out halfway decent...

I should have just bought a t-shirt instead.

Sometimes, I imagine that if you were to look up the word contradiction in the dictionary (they still have those, right?) you might see a picture of me. I always feel like I am at odds with myself. I do not do well in social situations and prefer to hide out at home where I am safe from awkward moments and yet when I am at home and safe from awkward moments I feel a smidge bored and a whole lotta forgettable. But when I am out and talking to people I have a constant dialogue in my head mostly made up of the words "stop talking, stop talking, STOP TALKING!" And I say that in relation to the blather my mouth is spewing forth. Yeesh!

I want to be liked but am too afraid of being stupid so I hide out and yet I speak up and out against things I think are unfair or unjust. I have little patience for what I imagine is stupidity but I am not exempt form doing and thinking stupid things.

I tend to lean towards the idea that my way is right or better or easier and yet I am always fearful of doing everything wrong. I already know that if we were to arrange four boxes of people doing the same thing whilst playing this song, I would be the thing that was not like the others.

I am not a fan of my face and don't say but I like your face, this is me, blathering on about um..me and I'm not a fan of my face...especially right now since I seem to have found that weight I recently lost. It has camped itself out on my face (among other areas). Though, on the oft chance of taking a stellar picture of said face (one where the chins are nicely cropped out) I will post it here to tomorrow. But if there is one thing that will bum me out more than the non-working sniffer it is looking at and searching for one single good picture of THE face.

The other day, I decided I need a new icon picture for FB and Pinterest and blogger, et al. I bathed and moisturized and brushed everything that needed brushing. The good mirror (the only mirror actually, thank MAUDE it is a good one) showed me on the way to looking decent. I applied mascara and lavender eye powder, a smidge o' pink to tint up the cheeks and my too-young-for-me red lipstick. I stood in the good light in the living room, picked up the Rebel, aimed it at where my face should be and took a few pictures before reviewing them.

And then I cringed a cringedy-cringe as I looked at that trio of dopplegangers that could not possibly be me as I had good hair just moments before. I ran into the bathroom (the very same one I left an egg in but I will share that story later) to view the disaster only to be greeted with a decent me. I sighed, took a breath and decided to try again, this time using the powershot as it has a flip screen which is really good for making faces at the camera.

More than fifty-shots later (and two changes in eye-wear) I plugged both cameras in for some editing and felt my mood plummet down, down, down. I am well aware that my face isn't awful and that looks are not the MOST important thing. And I am well aware that it is what is inside that counts and on a good day, I think my insides hold up nicely but man oh man what a way to feel down when not one single shot looks presentable. And I took them myself! With lipstick on and cute hair as evidenced by the good and only mirror in the tiny casa. Yeesh! I must be balding or losing my photo mojo or maybe I really do need a hair-cut, I don't know. So after too-many-to-count photos that got dumped in the virtual trash I am stuck with one. One single not-so-awful photo of this mug that is mine (though I see evidence of allergies, oh droopy, droopy eyes). Am I vain or what?

In retrospect, I probably should not have attempted this whilst watching America's Next Top Model. Yeeash. I need a new hobby...or another job...or a new lipstick (one that is a leetle less red?).