kandeland

Screw Diet and Exercise!......

I'm just going to buy myself a Fun House mirror!

Yummy Gumbo

I made gumbo the other night (Fat Tuesday!) and it was quite good! Thought I'd share the recipe with you...it's a variation of a few recipes I found online and altered to my taste.

1. Brown a pound of cubed chicken breast and a pound of sliced sausage in a few Tbsp. olive oil. Remove with slotted spoon and set aside.

2. In the same pan saute 1 chopped red pepper, 3 minced cloves of garlic, I chopped onion, 3-4 chopped celery ribs, and about a 1/2 pound of sliced okra. Cook until tender.

3. Add 1 tsp. of thyme, 1 Tbsp of Cajun seasoning and some salt and pepper. Stir and cook for about 5 minutes.

4. Add 3 (14.5 oz.) cans of chicken broth, 1 (14.5 oz.) can of diced tomatoes (with green chilis), the chicken and sausage to the pan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes.

5. Add one pound of raw shrimp and cook another 10 minutes.

6. Scoop one cup of cooked white rice into a bowl and pour gumbo around it.

I served it with bread and my new favorite drink:

And make sure you invite company because it makes A LOT!

where I spent Monday

At a wonderful place called Letchworth State Park, known as the Grand Canyon of New York...

Blue skies all around...

crispy, fresh air...

dumb look on my face...

winding pathways...

pretty waterfalls...

storybook bridges...

5 foot icicles...

cute guys in streams...

suicide-optional overlooks...

rocky staircases...

tree canopies on rock balconies....rainbow view included...

mist and green water...

train tracks in the sky...

a mini Grand Canyon an hour away...

winter break

Well hello! I feel as though I've been away for awhile. This past week was quite hectic, mostly because instead of teaching one class a day, I taught two. So my evenings were spent making lesson plans, instead of kicking back and visiting my favorite blogs! But now I'm on winter break, and will get to catch up on everything here in blogland that I've been missing!

So how was your Valentine's Day? That just flew right by, didn't it? I never even showed you the house pillow I made my mom...

I made it out of some of my favorite rose fabric that was left over from Scarlet's bedroom curtains. The green roof is from an old fabric placemat!

So anyway: Winter break! It came at the perfect time. Just after I was able to put in a bunch of extra hours at work the last few weeks. I'm good and ready to relax now. Last night it began with Scarlet and I watching movies and making a big tray of snacks! This morning we lounged for awhile and then got to work on creating a book that Scarlet said she wanted to write and illustrate. She brainstormed her ideas in bed last night so was ready to go this morning. My job was to make the covers and type her words out to make it look neat. Cause this is a "real book" ya know!

It's called The Three Little Hearts. About three little heart friends that meet a bear, who they are initially afraid of, but then have fun with. Here are some pages....

She was so proud of herself when she got to sit down and read me her own book! Freaking cute! (as Vivian would say!)

So after bookmaking I decided to try out two new recipes. The first was simply Roasted Red Grapes with Thyme that Kai emailed to me...

So easy and addicting! These would be so good as a side to meat I think. Thank you Kai!!

The other was a variation of this recipe except that I used quinoa instead of amaranth because the store only had amaranth flour. Look at these yummy ingredients in the pot...

The end result was good: Quinoa Pumpkin Coconut Porridge!

I just love trying new recipes, and there are so many great food blogs out there now that I can't even keep up! But since I'm on break this week I'm hoping to get to a few more.

After a little cooking Scarlet wanted to drive down to the beach to feed the crazy seagulls donut holes!

She cracks me up because she gets such a kick out of it! She talks to them and names them the whole time!

So here it is evening and I think I will end winter-break-day-one with some reading and maybe baking...

I'll be back in a day or so, but if you are also home enjoying winter break I hope you get to realx and do what you love...xo

loving brights

I've been gluing and painting again...

being messy and just having fun...

playing with magazine images...

and lots of bright color!

More Valentine's goodies!

I'm finally ready to show some recent Valentine's swapping I did!

The first was between myself and 4 lovely friends. I made them these sewn and painted winged hearts that I realized were probably Ruth Rae inspired yet I didn't think of it at the time! But I love her sewn hearts and must have been trying to channel her!

I also sent them these clay hearts I showed you before....

And since I had some extra time I made them little initialed hearts as well...

I had such fun with everything because I LOVE everything heart-related!

So look at the great things I received from them...

From Vivian I received this adorable needle-felted ladybug...

From Heather this incredible and super-cool layered heart...

From Sandy this sweet and fun cupcake....

And from Tammy this wonderful Victorian heart lady....

I just LOVED all four of these!! (ahh...my dear friends are just so talented I'll tell ya!)

Another swap I participated in was hosted by Viv and was one to one. I had the sweet and over-spoiling Cheryl as my wonderful partner. I sent Cheryl some handmade hearts that I posted a week or two ago...

And she sent me loads of goodies!

Beautiful fabric hearts with lots of beadwork, an embellised cherub, a mother-and-daughter knitted hat set, xo Scrabble tiles...

Wonderful and creative paper art that I adore!! Cheryl makes some awesome stuff! I was so happy to get to swap with her!

And something else fun that I JUST received in the mail today was a cute little paper-bag heart that came as a surprise from one of my favorite blog girls, Linda !

Thank you for the unexpected happy mail Linda!!

So now I'm going to get off the computer to deal with the "most bored kid in the world" and try to wrack my brain and come up with something to keep her occupied for a bit! I'm so drained because I just got back from teaching two classes in which I talked pretty much NON-STOP for 6 hours. What I wouldn't give for some solitude right now! No such luck though. I will be back sometime soon with some more art journal pages so stop back and visit!

and this is what i did...

On Friday I....

-gave myself a chocolate face mask and sipped some Cabernet

-went to a dive bar for a Guinness, followed by a trip to the movie theater to see "Contraband" with Mark Wahlberg (not "with" him unfortunately, but featuring him)

-hopped in bed and slept very well for 8 hours

On Saturday I...

-met Vivian and Jenny for breakfast and good conversation and laughs

-hung out with Scarlet at a bookstore, a bakery, and an antique store where she "egmired" a few items! and bought some good bread...

-then drove home through some pretty scenery on a sunny day

-and came home and made swiss chard soup

-and ate pretty candies

-then went out for some red wine with a friend and laughed a lot

-then parked in a Tim Horton's parking lot and watched a sweet little fox frolic in a grassy area and listened to old time Delta blues on the radio

On Sunday I...

-woke up and went to a Buddhist ceremony at my former (and favorite) student's new temple

-and ate some traditional Burmese food that was being cooked in the garage!

- then came home and did 6 loads of laundry

-lit a bunch of candles and cleaned and straightened

-then pulled out of a bunch of paint and set Scarlet and I up at the kitchen table to get messy and play

-next up...cooking fettucine with roasted vegetables for dinner

What did you do?

Good riddance January

Happy February. I'm so glad to say that. Last month, well....a couple descriptive phrases just ran through my mind, but I don't want to offend anyone, so let's just say: sucked.

It had it's good times, good moments...but I'm just happy to get on with a new month. February is usually good to me. And I have a week vacation coming up, so that will be nice.

I am happy about journaling lately. Around the holidays I really slacked on it, and so now it feels really nice to play around in a few art journals.

It allows me to let go of some heaviness. And I need to do that because lately I've noticed that I'm not as "light" as I usually am. Petty things, petty conversation, people discussing weather too much, well, it's all just really getting under my skin. I've been too contemplative I think. Maybe I just need to lighten up. (God, how I've always hated that term- "lighten up" !! My stepfather used to say that to me as a teenager occasionally and I'd want to spit nails.)

So I need to just let it all go, carpe the shit out of this diem...as the saying goes, and yeah, lighten up again.

So I'm going to keep on journaling, keep on thinking good thoughts, let myself off the hook for not being able to save the world...stuff like that.

Oh, and keep reading lots.

World's-most-awesome-friend Kai sent me this book that I've been wanting to read:

Cause she's just nice like that. Just got it in the mail today and I'm going to hurry up and finish the book I'm reading now so I can dive in to it. So thank you Kai!

Ok, gotta go. Have a wonderful first day of February!