Hit The Wall – WIP Death

The blanket that wasn’t

I picked up these beautiful wools a couple of weeks ago from Fleece. They were so full of spring and promise I was utterly excited to start a new baby blanket pattern. One that I could create for all sorts of new moms through summer and fall. Vibrant colors for those new trendy nurseries, whites and creams for historic vintage and heirloom nurseries. Every taste.

Week three (yes I said three) 10 rows in, I am at a stalemate. That pattern is not interesting. It has no color pop or interest to me. It is taking forever and unfortunately like most knitters with start-itis if I don’t start seeing results and beautiful transitions in patterns (ie shawls) I get to the frogging point.

Baby Blanket was frogged last night.

I am now sick to my stomach.

Birthday Freebies

Let’s face it, every year you think about the free short stack you missed at Denny’s. Does every birthday have to be about food?

I want shoes jewelry and other things besides stuffing my face! I looked for some freebies and birthday treasures from companies I adore. Please share some if you know of others! I love makeup and nail stuff. Pedicures and underwear hahaha. Thanks to my friends at Julep for setting me up for nail polish!

 

IHOP-  Get a FREE meal on your birthday and exclusive offers when you sign up forPancake Revolution.

Moe’s-  Receive a FREE Queso & Chips just for signing up Moe’s E-World.  Also receive a FREE burrito on your birthday!!!

Red Robin-  Get a FREE Burger on your birthday.  Must join the Red Robin Red Royalty.

Sephora-  Receive a FREE Benefit Kit (That’s Real Mascara & Watt’s Up Highlighter) when you join Beauty Insider.

If you don’t want junk mail to hit your inbox, simply filter the emails out! That way the coupons and deals are automatically filtered into a handy little folder, ready and waiting for when you need them.

American Eagle – Adults – 15% off. Children receive an unknown freebie.

Aveda – Sign up at least 28 days before your bday and get a free Personal Blends Pure-Fume
Barnes & Noble – Children get a free cupcake at their cafe. Children at heart get nothing.

Boondocks offers a free unlimited pass on the day of your birthday
Borders Bookstore – Free small coffee or tea
Brunswick Bowling – Join the Bonus Zone and get a free game of bowling on your birthday.
Chuck E. Cheese’s – Their website promises a birthday special as well, which many people have said is 20 free tokens.
Columbia Sportswear – 20% off coupon
Cost Plus World Market – They won’t say what it is, but they promise a “surprise gift” on your birthday.
CVS – If you have an Extra Care Card, register it online and get $3 ECB on your birthday.

DSW Shoes :: $5.00 On Your Birthday!
Famous Footwear ::  Free Birthday Surprise!
Hallmark – 20% off coupon for one item and a free card.
Hot Topic – $10 off coupon on a minimum purchase of $20.

Journeys Kidz offers 15% off gift card for your child’s birthday
Kmart – Children get $5.00 Birthday Bucks, a birthday crown, happy birthday certificate, and birthday Fun Pack with surprise goodies!

Munchkin Radio offers free chick-fil-a kids meal, free kids meal from Chili’s, free pizza buffet from Rock Creek Pizza and free ice cream from Marble Slab

Nickelmania offers a free gift on your birthday
Old Navy – Join their email club and you’ll get a coupon on your birthday.
Proctor & Gamble – They’ll send you a batch of BOGO coupons for various products.
The Children’s Place – Register for their Birthday Club and receive 15% off on yours and your child’s birthday + coupons during your birthday week.
Toys R Us – Sign up ahead of time and once your child’s birthday rolls around, they’ll get a personalized letter in the mail. Plus, bring your child into any Toys R Us and they’ll get a hat & balloon before having their birthday announced over the loudspeaker. You’ll also get a $3 gift card in mail.
Ulta Beauty :: Free Birthday Surprise!
Walmart PictureMe Studio :: Free Birthday Portrait Collage!
World Market :: Free Birthday Gift!

Benefit Cosmetics – Hip up their brow bar as indicated on your bday and get your Kahlo’s trimmed.

Cable and Gauge – knitwear for style! Some items they have sent out as free birthday gifts include free jewelry and free scarves.

Az on the Rocks - Yep couldn’t leave my homies out. Back home you get a free day of climbing on your birthday.

Julep – Use Promo Code FREEBOX for a gift box of nail and beauty products!

Begin the Campfire

How to Build a Campfire for Cooking – instructions courtesy eartheasy.com
The object is to have all the wood turn into coals at the same time. This gives an even fire with no flames reaching up to burn your food or blacken your cookware. It also yields the longest cooking time from the coals.
	Prepare the site  - Select a fire site at least 8′ from bushes or any combustibles. Be sure no tree branches overhang the site. – Make a U-shaped perimeter using large rocks or green logs. If using logs, they’ll need to be wet down from time to time. If breezy, have back of firepit face the wind. – Put a large flat rock at the rear of the firepit to act as a chimney. The “chimney rock” will help direct the smoke up and away.
	Lay the kindling  - Fill the fire area with crumpled paper or tinder. – Lay kindling over paper in layers, alternating direction with each layer. Use thin splits of wood or small dead branches. Do not put kindling down “teepee style”. The whole fire area should be covered with the kindling stack. – Set a bucket of water near the fire area. Light the paper to start your fire.
	Build the fire, grade the coals - When kindling is ablaze, add firewood. The wood should be all the same size, as much as possible. Use hardwood or hardwood branches if available. Distribute wood evenly over fire bed. – As soon as the last flames die down leaving mostly white coals, use a stick to push the coals into a higher level at the back end and lower level at the front. This will give you the equivalent of ‘Hi’, ‘Med’ and ‘Lo’ cook settings. Or, level the coals to your preference.
	To cook, set the grill on rocks or wetted green logs. Put food directly on grill or in cookware and prepare your meal. If cooking directly on the grill, a small spray bottle or squirt gun is handy for shooting down any rogue flames, usually caused by food drippings. As the fire diminishes, bank the coals to get the most heat from them.After cooking, add wood for your evening campfire. Before retiring, extinguish thoroughly and soak with water. Turn rocks in on fire bed. It will be easy to reassemble the next day if required.

New Favorites: Camp wear

Reblogged from Fringe Association:

I have got camping fever, people. West Texas road trip fever. Live in a van fever, even. I'm way past due for an outdoor adventure, and editing a book of camping recipes (with corresponding drool-inducing images of savory foods in cast-iron skillets over open fires) is not helping. Then along comes the preview for the new issue of Pom Pom Quarterly.

Read more… 150 more words

Campfire Knits - those perfect things to wear, knit and enjoy out in the wilderness. I am so longing to go camping this week.

Be Fabulous

Yes He Does

It is definitely a Brian Eno day.

Highlights from the week:

Pixie has decided to go to prom, been a mad dash for hair dress and more. She looks great so far. Last piece is indeed the dress.

Pixie tried to give blood the other day (now that she’s 18) and was very saddened (she actually almost got teary) to learn she could not because Iron and Hemo’s are down. Yep she’s potentially anemic. Doctor’s visits underway. 

The Great Move is in full swing. Things are getting packed and packaged and donated. Goodwill should be loving me now. Between housewares clothes and kitsch I have restocked their store. I would have loved to do a carport or garage sale. Unfortunately packing all this up, to then try to sell it, to then pack it back up only to donate it… Yep. Too Much Work. 

New Car Had First catastrophe. We went on a GPS induced route of madness last night and ended up in a puddle. A puddle that was almost as deep as my tire wells and prevented us from moving. J had to drive an hour to come get us and then pull me out with the Jeep. He’s my hero. Ok, is it crazy that I find him incredibly sexy when he is fixing or making something? Like when he’s all manly and crawling through mud to hoist my car out, I just want to rip off my clothes and yoddle like Tarzan. *Sigh* so cute. Sorry. Car is great no issues just covered in mud.

Blog. You may have noticed its appearance has changed a little. I am trying to decide if its time to go Pro and really have a big kid blog. With my sixth anniversary gone I am really thinking it might be time.

Then again time is something I am not always graced with between life wedding kid graduation college and all these “big life” events that keep flying at me. I joked with J the other night “watch now I will get pregnant”. I regretted it almost as soon as I said it. While I am convinced my uterus has gone to Fiji, you know just when you least expect it .. Life hands you a funny.

 

I leave you with this Friends – The Pixies. I think sometimes J forgets I was a child of parents who loved me to love music. Haha. We had dinner the other night and our waiter was singing Pixies. One of my faves. Always has been. J commented the same and asked if I had ever heard of them. I just smiled. 

 

Happy 6th Blogiversary LuLu

 

Six years already ….

 

On April 11th I celebrated owning talking posting running this little blog for six years. I think that is longer than I ever had a LiveJournal (Kym made me think about that yesterday) and even longer than I have had a MySpace or FaceBook account open. Well I take that back, I think I had my FB open in 2007 but I wasn’t really interested in posting in it.

I have talked about everything on this blog from personal, fashion, crafting and even my time in SecondLife.

It has been a seriously epic journey and even at times when my world was quiet or I wasn’t feeling up to par on being social, this blog has certainly kept me company. I have had reader friends come into the blogging world and leave. I miss them and appreciate their contribution.

Happy Six LuLu – You have been a good companion.

Cheesecake Tips: The perfect custard

 

You found the perfect recipe. You work slowly carefully even kept the house quiet.
Yeah no your famous cheesecake looks like stretch marks.
After my post for the famous Chocolate Turtle Cheesecake I had a friend call me. She tried it (yay) but came off with a heel cracked mess of a cake. What happened? How do I fix it?

It’s Easy!

1- Slow baking.
Even if your recipe says 300 for 1 hour (as mine does) Turn the heat down and do what I do not what I say (LOL) Bake your cheesecake for 1.5 – 2 hours at about 250. Let it set in the oven another hour. Custards cook (much like a steak) while resting.    I don’t always have the time to do this, and if I know I am going to be decorating the cake (chocolate topping cherries etc) I don’t worry about it. Usually all of my cakes are decorated but sometimes you want your top to bare. I mean who wouldn’t right.. want a bare top… (eyeroll)

2- Grease Lightning.
Two methods – grease the pan or the parchment. Grease your pan. If using parchment, once it’s lined and stuck to the side then grease the parchment. Honestly to me that’s like double the waste double the work. Greasing the pan prior to crust and batter pour prevents the cake from rising up the sides so far it separates around the rim (rim cracks are ever so unsightly).

3- Batter Abuse.
Dont over beat your pour (haha) batter. Mix “dry” ingredients first (cream cheese) then add dairy (eggs sour cream) after its been mixed in a separate bowl. Eggs congeal, they’re the sticky bits of your custard. When cooked too fast they curdle. When beat they respond with the air that’s been allowed to creep in and they rise to the occasion by puffing your cake out like the State Puff Marshmallow man.

4- Waterbath.

This is the fancied up version. It’s simple fill a jelly pan with a couple of inches of water. After your cake is constructed wrap the pan in foil. This prevents any water from seeping in (and it will if left unattended – it’s a springfoam pan for petessake). Place pan into bath gently making sure to notice water level as you lower. You don’t want the water obviously to go up above the pan.

Waterbaths are perfect for cheesecakes. The water in the pan never reaches above boil. As the water heats up to that point the water converts to steam. Huh.. Physics. This also by the way creates a humid baking experience for your lovely batter. Custards like moisture. Moisture good.

So you have created a sauna for your custard. Lovely. But what if the water runs out? Well cooking at 250 for over an hour (1.5 – 2) I am sure it will. Put more in. Simple. Just have it ready gently open door – pour close softly. Yay !

Once cake is done turn off oven and let all of it sit. Including the bath. One Hour.

 

Perfect Cheesecake!

 

 

State of Grace

I am going to print that out yo

There are more definitions for “grace” than most other words in the dictionary. It is one of my favorite words. It is a word my lady ancestors put right next to grit, drive, strength and stubborn. I like this word very much.

Famous Grace:

Amazing Grace:

Grace – By Enstrom – Original sepia print. Hand painted versions by his daughter Rhoda are seen all over the world. Click portrait for story by his nephew Bruce.

 

The Great House Adventure – Or “Get It Done”

 

 

We got tomatoes into the ground last night in the front (full sun) garden bed and cleared the full (shade) bed down in the back yard. I am excited for this growing season. Last year was the first test run and while J got some good tomatoes, some of the other beds didnt generate. We were surprised to see Lettuce, beets and some stragglers from last year coming up in the shade bed.

Our timelines have been non-existent. We haven’t talked about anything wedding moving or house related. Let me rephrase that:

Comments are made “when you move in” and left at that. I am a planner and decided this really doesn’t fit into my inner zen any longer. It seriously STRESSES me out. As previously mentioned in some of my other wedding/relationship/planning posts – I CANT STAND IT.

What on earth does that have to do with the picture above? Inspiration.

Dear Husband,
We have two houses to cram into one. Many lives, involving everyone we love to fit in as well. We have not set a date, finalized my ring, decided on what kind of wedding we even want or started the first and biggest priority, the house renovation.

So here is my list. It is going on a white board and getting planned. Period.

Bedroom Renov:
- Are we doing carpet or wood?
- Are we doing the bathroom or just updating for now and tearing it out next year?
- There is no leave it, at some point it does need to be done. Whether that be
lightly or fully gutted. Its dated old and honestly slightly scary.
- The main bath also needs a pick me up so perhaps we could plan a two-fer and          get both done at the same time? Looking at it the other night it needs a little love. – We have to finish the closet period. Its not suitable for a closet at all and must be done.
- What is needed to get that done?

Combining Houses:

- What are we putting where?
- I need to pack whats going in storage whats going in our house?
- I want to decorate our home. What colors are forbidden

Wedding:

- Finalize the ring. Really I love you, I should not have to be telling you this haha. I know you want it perfect and I know you want my input. Pick some places and lets start asking questions and visiting. I know gems I can help with this part. It’s not traditional nor very romantic but I can help.
- Pick a date.
- Start planning somewhere something.

 

 

The Baked Meatball

Not Glamorous but oh so tastie !!!

Inspiration Pulled from Alton Brown – but with out the pork or lamb. I got my little fellas a little crispy but they were still yummy. This recipe was easy and a win. I vote also for make ahead meals and freezer stashing.

Ingredients

1 pound ground round
5 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and drained thoroughly
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan
1 whole egg
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup bread crumbs, divided
Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground round, spinach, cheese, egg, basil, parsley, garlic powder, salt, red pepper flakes, and 1/4 cup of the bread crumbs. Using your hands, mix all ingredients until well incorporated.

Place the remaining 1/4 cup of bread crumbs into a small bowl. Using your hands, shape the meatballs into rounds, roll in the bread crumbs. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden and cooked through.

I plopped mine in my sauce and simmered just a bit to get the sauce flavored and mya meatballsa savored.

Yes I have been speaking in an Italian accent during this whole writing process.