books

Ok I will just take up a little space here to mention a friends books. William Thomas McLeod
Check out the link.
http://www.cosmicque.com/McLeod/

Decortions by the Lady Beetles

It looks like the Asian Beetles decided to decorate my pumpkins and porch. these look like Lady Bugs but are an Asian Beetle they are a lighter color then Lady bugs they also bite and secrete a yellow smelly liquid when they feel threatened that makes them taste bad and smell bad to predators. They often have one or two lady bugs with them. these are looking for shelter from the rain and cold we have been having. the spots on the cement around the pumpkins are more.
Here we have bugs that look like l

Banner time 1

As you know I am an Active member of the SCA
I am working on 3 banners for the my Baron. I just took this art work and drew it larger to use on a flag. I will keep you up dated as I do each step.

Chocolate

To say I love chocolate is not true because I do so much more then love chocolate. There are times when If I don't have it that people don't want to be around me. The funny thing is that I don't gorge out on it. I will buy a bar and it will last a week. Which is good because they aren't cheep Hersey's that I buy Hersey's is ok-ish. I buy Scharffen Berger, My favorit are these mini bars that have nibs in them. I buy them for $1.99 each at the health food store. I even keep a tube of thier Chocolate covered Cacao Nibs on my desk at all times. they have coco powder for baking or making your own hot coco recipes too. I put the minis squares in my DD bento for school. I was surfing my favorite Blogs today and found out that one of my Bento blogs was having a contest to win some. If you have kids in school or want to bring your lunch to work with you check out this web site. Bento's are awesome and so is Scharffen Berger Chocolate.
http://notexactlybento.com/?p=2065
Coming up I will do a small bit on my DD sets of Bentos again. And More on Chocolate. Yum.

head band

this is a head band I made with some sparkley yarn I found. I was looking for it is a blue but I couldn't find any. I finally found this at Joann fabrics in the section that has the pompoms. It was only 99 cents. which isn't that cheep if you think about how little yarn you get. but for a spakley head band it is a good price. It is made by crochet in a circle till I ran out of yarn. It is the closest I get to a halo. (:

Lunch Bag

This is a reversible lunch bag I made for my DD, last year.
She wanted it to have a pocket for a book and also be big enough that if she had a hard cover book it would fit inside too. she also wanted a long strap like a messenger bag. one of the fabrics is a thermal style knit and the other is a woven.

Etsy and me

I have re opened my Etsy shop. There my shop name is StrawberrySands. I was Just about to start working out side of the house I had a great job lined up and my DD got sick again. So my DH and I had a sit down and realized I need to not be working out of the house. Well this doesn't sit well with me. I have had enough of being a house wife. I don't like house work. and I end up never being done. So we had another sit down and came up with a who cooks when because I don't want to be in charge of cooking all week then get stuck doing it on the weekends too. So I will do Mon, Tue Thu and Sat. he gets the other days. I still buy the food but I like food shopping and my DH doesn't have allergies so he hates shopping for the family. And My DD will be doing the dishes on Thur nights. My DH and I haven't hammered out the dish schedule but I think the rule will be that the person not cooking will do the dishes. Also the person cooking should put away the left overs I think but that will have to wait to be seen.
But the Etsy shop gives me a chance to sell some of the things I make. I have bulk food cloth bags and Angel jewelry there right now. I will be adding a whole lunch collection of reusable bags and wraps. some of which you have seen hear already.

Cheddar Bay Bisque

Cheddar Bay Bisque (Like at Red Lobster)
2 cups of buttermilk biscuit mix (like Bisquick or Jiffy mix),
1/2 a teaspoon of garlic powder,
1 to 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
2/3 cups of milk
2 Tablespoons of butter
2 teaspoons of oregano
1 teaspoon of garlic salt.

Set oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and spray a cooking sheet with nonstick spray.

Dump into a bowl: 2 cups of buttermilk biscuit mix (like Bisquick or Jiffy mix), 1/2 a teaspoon of garlic powder, and 1 to 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese.
Stir everything together.
Pour in about 2/3 cups of milk. Stir until combined.
It gets pretty thick, and you can add a little more milk if you need to. But don’t add too much, otherwise it’ll get really sticky. the spoon will stand on it's own you may want to mix it with your hands.
Use the two-spoon method to drop lumps of the dough onto your cookie sheet.
Stick them in the oven and set the timer to 10 minutes. Now, melt 2 Tablespoons of butter and stir in 2 teaspoons of oregano and 1 teaspoon of garlic salt.
When the timer goes off brush some of the butter mixture over each biscuit. Then, put them back into the oven for another 5-6 minutes
Or until they’re lightly browned. If you’d like, you can brush them with the garlic-herb butter again and let it soak in before you serve them.
If you’re having people over, you’d better double the recipe. These will get snatched up like hotcakes. Or, you know, like… cheesy garlic biscuits

my first pewter peice made all by myself

it is a Strawberry (in case you couldn't tell)

Pumpkin top

My daughter finds nothing funny about having a chemical reaction occurrence on her hair. I however am not her. She was ok with it at first till she went to school and was called pumkin and cheese puff all day. Then her evil mom made her this!
:)

The real, Original, Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

I had a request for this. During a conversion with my friend she was saying that the toll house cookie recipe just doesn't taste as good as it did when she was a kids. To which I told her that is because they changed it. She was very happy when she found out I have a copy of the original. so here it is.
The real, Original, Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe
2 1/2 Cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon Baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks, 1/2 lb) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed (dark) Brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups (12 oz pkg) nestle toll house semi sweet chocolate morsels
1 cup chopped nuts (I never add these)

Combined: flour, baking soda, and salt, in a small bowl
Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in a large mixing bowl. Add 1 egg at a time, beating well after each addition; gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in morsels and nuts. drop by rounded table spoons onto ungreased baking sheet.
Bake in a pre heated 375 degree (Fahrenheit) oven for 9-11 minutes or until golden brown. let stand for 2 minutes (yah right): remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Pan cook variation: spread dough into a greased 15X10 jelly roll pan. bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in pan on wire rack. if you are high altitude I can also post that variant.
oh and the most important part get some milk and dunk them cookies.

More things that I am working on

here is a braid I did that is just blue and white as simple as this is it is still my favorite pattern

What I am working on, well some of it.

I am making a carry all bag as a gift out of this material
then the purple with butterflies is for a new piece of garb for my DD this The yellow is one of her old pieces that she has had for 4 years at least.
and she wants a new piece for Crystal Ball. I will be making that this weekend I made a fabric pattern already.

Cookie Wrapper

Here is today's project It is a reusable wrapper for cookies and muffins. The only sewing was to flod the corner to reinforce the button hole for the elastic to go thought. The cookies are Newmen O's the chocolate cream filled kind. there are three here but this will fit one to two regual size chocolate chip cookies too. The idea is to keep them from getting banged around and also keep them from getting moist from the Frozen drink pouch.