d's delights- cooking and crafts

A while back, I saw a pin about mod podging a page of an old book with a heart cut-out around a glass jar and making a candle holder. Well, I decided to try it with old music that I had. I also saw a pin about mod podging tissue paper over something to make it look more vintage or opaque. Here is my creation:   The bow is light blue thule.

Do you feel like your office or living room is just one big place full of generic looking organizers?   You know, the magazine holders, the plastic hanging file folders…the stacked paper holders? I sure did!   But I did something about it that allowed me to use my crafty skills and creativity touse. First, I got really tired of looking at the cardboard magazine holders I got to organize my smaller music scores and loose sheet music and octavos.   So, I got some scrapbook paper that I had a lot of, and covered the magazine holders.   Now, instead of ugly cardboard magazine holders, I have colorful ones that make me happier to look at!   I liked that so much, that I decided to do it to the plastic ones I had too!   Eventually, I figured out how to mod podge them to make them look a little more professional, and sturdier. The trick here, is to get paper that has some coordinating patterns so that if you are doing more than one, you have something interesting that doesn’

One of the challenges that have faced me since getting married has been trying to make healthy meals for myself and my husband.   Because a lot of the core of my work is done in the evenings, it leaves little time to give some good thought to making nutritious and delicious meals that we will both eat.   You see, my husband is somewhat of a finicky eater… and it is hard to put a finger on what he will and will not eat!   For instance,he won’t eat soups or stews, but he will eat beef and noodles and mushrooms.   He won’t eat cheese on his hamburger, but he will eat pizza… And the big one that all of his friends and family like to give him a hard time about… he will not pour milk over his cereal.   He has a glass of milk beside his dry Cheerios.   I tell you this not to make my husband feel bad about his weird eating preferences (He could survive a week on ham sandwiches, chicken patties and frozen pizza) but to give you an idea of what I am dealing with.   Trying to get him to eat hea

Photography- Another Fall Session Attempt I was so excited to take Will to a Pumpkin Patch to get some good Pumpkin Pictures of him. Unfortunately, he had not had a good nap, and he was a little grouchy… not so much grouchy, but just not his normal chipper laughing self.   Despite that, and despite the fact that the weather was cold and overcast, we still got a few good pictures that will be fun to relive in a few years. I decided to edit these in order to bring out the colors and make them more artistic images.   I deepened the colors, which works well on overcast pictures and ones with a lot of out-doorsy green.   I sharpened a few, which brought out the contrast in the nature, such as tree bark and hay.   I also used a bloom on some which softened up the skin and portraits.   Look, I don’t by any means say I know what I’m doing with this editing stuff.   I have just done a lot of experimenting to see what works well.   I use an editing program which is free called Pho

Weight a minute… Today I wore a pair of size 20 pants.   Yep, I’m just gonna say it.   I’m going right out there with what size I wear.   There are some things that you feel ashamed of and that you should hide, or not be transparent with, but I am going to go with this one little part of my life that I COULD have some amount of control over.   I can’t control how much money my husband makes, I can’t control how many voice students I get (I can influence , but not control totally)and I definitely cannot control how many diapers Will poops in or how much he needs to eat.   I CAN control what I put in my mouth.   I really can.   I don’t like to, but I can.   So, yes, a size 20 is awesome considering that before I got pregnant, I was wearing a tight 22… and during pregnancy wore a 24+. I would like to wear a size 16.   I think I could feel relatively good about that.   It’s not the 10-14 that I wore in my swinging single days (before hubby re-introduced celebratory strawberry sh

My Smooooothies… I came up with this basic concoction for fruit smoothies after seeing or trying some other recipes that just didn’t work for me.   You can change it up however you like- but the basics are:   Juice, Yogurt and FROZEN Fruit. In a Blender: (In this order) 6-8 Oz Orange Juice 1 6 Oz can of Pineapple Juice 8 Oz Plain Non-Fat Yogurt (You could use vanilla or a flavor, but I try to stick to the plain) 2 Bananas (frozen or not) A couple of handfuls…cups of FROZEN Fruit… Take your pick-berries, mangos, peaches, pears… NOTE: I find that pineapple do NOT do well in the blender, that’s why I use juice. A squirt of lemon or lime juice (to use as a preservative) Blend it all up in pulses. You could also add a dash of vanilla extract and or cinnamon.   Cinnamon is nice when you use peaches. The key, I think is in using the frozen fruits.   It gives it a good consistency and makes it instantly COLD! You can keep this in the fridge for a day or two… but I find min

Snack Time! I would say that one of the hardest things to do when you are trying to watch your eating habits is to try to figure out what kind of snacks to have.   We know by now, that instead of leaving outsnacks altogether, that it is wise to just choose some healthier choices inyour snacking instead.   It keeps your blood sugar levels in balance and you don’t go into that crazy OHMYGOSH IMSOFREAKINHUNGRY I COULD EATEVERYTHING RIGHTNOW mode.   Eating healthier snacks more often also causes you to avoid making that easy trip into McDonalds for that side of fries and big ol’ Coke.   You also want to feel like you’ve been satisfied after a snack, and that you may have even been a little naughty!   So here are a coupleof quick snacks that I’ve been eating a lot of to quell my temptation to eatcrap. Apples and Peanut Butter Cut up anapple… any kind, but I’ve been using Granny Smith because the tartness goes wellwith the peanut butter.   Spread some REAL peanut butter on the sli

Soup for the week... I decided that I will make my Black Bean Soup for this week’s soup.   I find making a soup once a week to have for quick lunches is great, and I can also freeze some for a wider variety later.   So far, I have the Turkey Chili and the 8 Can Taco Soup frozen for those days when it just ain’t gonna happen!.   I have been making this recipe since about 2003.   It is a favorite of mine.   I normally use dried beans that I soak overnight, but I decided that this time I will use canned beans for time’s sake.   I’ve never done that before, so it will be a bit of an experiment.   It is not difficult to make, but time consuming, in that you have to think ahead of time to soak the beans, and it takes a good hour and a half to two hours to cook.   But, it’s great to make for those Fall/Winter weekends when you are stuck inside. Here’s the OriginalRecipe: (From South Beach Diet Book) 1 ½ C DriedBlack Beans 6 Cups Water                (Soak beans overnight it 6 CW