oh the ick of the sick

 I spent three hours in urgent care yesterday, mostly sitting around waiting. The cough that had been occupying my body turned vicious and it was decided I needed antibiotics and a round of steroids. I appreciate that while I do not have insurance, I was able to pay for a consult and after, meds. I did not exactly appreciate the lecture I got for having chronic asthma and no primary care practitioner. I felt too poorly to snark back and for that I feel even worse. It's a twisty bunch of knots this whole uninsured thang I have to live with. Mister and I applied for numerous packs and both of us were rejected for various reasons, the most annoying being the very things that would be greatly benefited from having  insurance...you know, things like breathing. Ahem. That said though, we live in a place where for a great price you can get some sort of help or relief. Ick, yes but fortunate.

At 3am, I was oh-so-very rudely awoken by the hackiest of hacks, I jest now but it hurt, quite badly and I was scared and utterly freaked out. It took me four hours before I could rest again. The mister was a trooper, he too was super freaked out but ya gotta love a guy who gets you into a hot shower and washed the dirty dishes while he brews hot tea for you.

 Enough of all the ickity ick...I got a little crafty last week...here's a peek...

the lost weekend

 I have no idea what I did this past weekend. Some of it, sure but the rest? No idea. Friday was lost, my allergies stole the hours away. They also took off with a few hours from Sunday, not as many but a few. Thankless beasties. Hour stealing and wheeze leavin' beasties. Oy.

I pitter pattered about at some level. I stitched a little, napped a smidge, thrifted an even smaller smidge, spent oodles of time with family, thoroughly enjoyed watching (and maybe singing along to) Grease 2, and I made cheese and bread. I made cheese and bread..this bread and this cheese. It is crazy how easy they both were. The bread was gobbled up pretty quickly, the cheese will be gobbled up for dinner soon...it will be paired up with this soup that I hope to make tomorrow (thank you 101 Cookbooks, Honest Fare, and The Kitchn). I did not clean or return phone calls. I need to clean and return phone calls. I was out too much and then out of it for the rest of the time. Bad beastie allergies.

 This week will be full of the usual suspects. There will be baking, cooking, work, crafting and attempts at cleaning. There will also probably be too much netflix watching and if I am lucky any naps taken will because I want to nap not because I can't keep my eyes open. Happy Monday everyone, make it a good one!

what happened to friday?

 I was up and out early for job-o number one and ran around all day too busy to let my mind wander. By 11:45, at closing circle time I was yawning as if I hadn't had a nap in forever. By the time I made it home and ate lunch and sat down, I knew it was a losing battle. I had a list (as usual) but instead, I watched a dvd and grew all sloopy eyed and ate too many m&ms. Even the two cups of green tea (and super slugs of coke) didn't help. My allergies had returned with a full vengeance kicking out my sniffer and adding a rumpus room in my chest. By 7:30, after an attempt at reading and a solo round of bananagrams, I was out for the count. I woke up about an hour ago and the mister and I chatted about this whole car buying thing we're in the middle of. He was awake because of the party allergens tickling my throat making me cough, cough, cough and all the worry he has in his head to make sure we negotiate a good and honest price. He's now back in bed and I'm drinking green tea, tip-typing up this thrilling encounter. I am super bummed the sniffer gave up without a fight and I really want to go out for breakfast but I am usually disappointed. I think the best thing about going out for breakfast is the company and lately I have been feeling more and more that the mister and I lack company (other than ourselves and family) in a BIG way. Man, it is hard to make friends in your 40s. I really wish we could have people over for food and fun but we don't have friends up here (I'm working on a few lovely ladies so who knows, maybe some day?) and even in L.A. we didn't have people who would come over for food and fun. We tried but people were/are busy and who has time, right? Now I'm feeling all pity-party. Piffle. Let's just add that as another goal on my list. Make Friends. I kinda suck at that. About as much as I suck art keeping a tidy casa. I keep mentioning those boxes? Yup...still there and even more collapsed and fallen over than before. Oy.

Today I still may go out for breakfast. I want foody food. Then I have work to do and fun to do and cleaning to do and by golly, something WILL get crossed of the list. I need to plan a craft night...though I wonder if anyone would show up. I probably need to ask people first, right? Would you believe I am actually shy? Yes. Yes I am. So there ya go. A tale of sleepy sleep, vacationing sniffers and a girl and her mister sorely in need of friends. Let the adventure begin!

be my valentine: red velvet shortbread bites

 I really wanted to make cake batter shortbread bits but I had no yellow cake mix in the pantry. I did have Red Velvet cake mix and since it is the month of lurve I thought why not? So I mixed up the dough and liberated my cookie press and got all cookie happy until I discovered the sad truth. Cake mixes have baking powder and such in them...my happily pressed cookies oozed into blobs and showed no hint at their pretty pressed selves. Back to the drawing board I went and I came up with these red velvet sandwich bites which were totally inspired by these photos from Heather of Sprinkle Bakes.

Ingredients:

*3/4 cups confectioners sugar

*1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, soft

*1 cup red velvet cake mix

*1/3 cup flour (more if your dough feels too sticky)

Mix all your ingredients together with a wooden spoon and chill until firm. When mixing ingredients, mix butter and sugar first then add 1/3 cup of flour until incorporated. Next, add the cake mix and then add more flour if the dough is too sticky. I popped my dough into the fridge overnight and let it come to room temperature before rolling.

Roll dough into small balls (smaller than a large marble) and place on cookie sheet covered in parchment paper.

 

 

 

Fill a small bowl with rainbow nonpareils and coat each cookie with the rainbow goodness. Bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes, the cookies will flatten out considerably.

Once cool, swipe a smidge of cream cheese frosting to the bottom of one cookie, placing another on top, sprinkle sides out. Enjoy!

oh dear

Today I made the realization that not only am I becoming my mother but I am becoming my grandmother as well (not really a bad thing, just a thing thing). This discovery hit me on the head as I walked around the tiny casa this morning only half dressed for work. I was only half dressed in an attempt to keep my sorry too-big-for-me jeans from having to be tugged up even more than usual when it was time for me to crawl around with the kiddos at job-o number one (which by the way, is my only job right now, my allergies got the best of me at job-o number two so I am on standby until they move to their new location). I thought that if I waited until it was time to actually walk out the door, maybe the falling off part of my jeans could be delayed. Then, as I stood at the kitchen sink eating a banana and mumbling to myself I realized I was kinda cold and I looked down at my self and busted out laughing. Not only was I half dressed, I was crazy-lady half dressed. There was my top, it was on, and my skivvies, of course but then once you got bellow my knees the wonkiness showed. I only had one sock on (purple, red, orange and cream striped knee) but both fuzzy slippers.

Yeah. Crazy.

Why one sock you might ask?  I grabbed my pile of clothes from the bedroom to change in the bathroom as I had already opened the blinds in the bedroom but one of my socks was not a part of the grab. It just ditched me and left my left foot wanting. So there you have it. Whereas granny would clomp around her Glendale apartment in brassiere, knee high tan stockings and matching 1970s clompers, I bring in a new milleniumish flair with one stripey sock and fuzzy slippers.

sticks and stones

 I am not a knitter. Nor do I pretend to have any skill with a crochet hook. It is what it is and I have had friends gleefully chuckle at my ineptness yet that doesn’t stop me from buying yarn. I seem to lean towards grey and more grey and I have no idea why I continue to peruse the yarn aisle when I get the chance. Since I have a small mountain elevating in my very craft-cluttered living room I felt it was time to do something with all that happy (though not fancy) fiber. After sitting on our old sofa that is in desperate need of covering with my eyes darting from one pile to another I spied a small bundle of sticks (yup, sticks) which immediately made me get up to see if I had my beach rocks within sight.

Thinking back to making friendship bracelets and the happy calm that comes with knotting  knot after knot, I scooped up some yarn, sticks and stones, grabbed a pair of scissors, popped an episode of Wonderfalls on and began knotting and knotting and knotting some more.

Here is the wonder I came up with:

 You might be thinking this is simply a rock with yarn wrapped around it but you are wrong. It is a rock, yes and there is yarn, yes but the yarn is not simply wrapped, it is knotted and if you look closely you will see a tiny pattern running across the surface of my flat happy beach stone. Instead of simply wrapping, I whipped out the magic of the friendship bracelet knot. You can do this as well, it’s really easy, all you need is a palm-sized flat rock or larger. Grab a length of yarn and tie it around your stone and begin wrapping as you would a friendship bracelet, replacing the rock with the center thread.

 

 

 As you knot, always pull in the same direction to create that happy bumpy dance across the surface. Add another color if you like or, switch it up and knot around a twig or stick. To create more patterns, thread a large eyed needle with embroidery thread or yarn and weave it in and out across the surface of your yarn wrapped stone. Keep all untidy knots to the bottom or use shorter lengths of yarn and knot on new lengths and keep them visible for a folksy look. You can use your rocks as desk decorations or paperweights. Glue two or three atop each other for added oomph or simply use them as building blocks.

 So what are you waiting for? Toss on a sweater and a pair of comfy sneakers and hit some nature for a rock hunt, don’t forget the sticks!