A lot going on...

Consumer behavior: Boring

Core Fusion: Exhausting, but invigorating

A wedding:

A gas crisis: ran out of gas, and out of money to get gas, and needed to be in school, but couldn't afford to get there... a friend rescued us.. again. Thanks Amy.

A stress induced panic attack: See above

A painful chiropractic adjustment: Just as it sounds.

First hot temperatures in several months, and they are consistent.

Salsa, beans, and jam galore... Pictures on hubby's comp, will link when I get them from him.

New feather earrings:

Chicken and dumplings for the first time:

French Onion Soup, for the first time, ever, making or eating:

And much more...


See? A lot has been going on.




 

Pesto!

Here is my Pesto Recipe!

2 cups of chopped basil
1/2 cup of olive oil ( try to use extra virgin olive oil, but not needed)
1/3 cup pine nuts, walnuts, or peanuts (mine used peanuts, it's what I had)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup Parmesan (see note below)

Most Pesto recipes use Parmesan or a similar cheese, I didn't have it on hand, and you don't want to add it if you plan on freezing the pesto. If you freeze this pesto, it works great to portion it into an ice-cube tray, then once they are all frozen, pop them out, and into a small tupper-ware container or plastic bag. Then when you want to use it, you can add Parmesan when you thaw them out, how do you do that without the mess? pop one of these cubes in a shot glass, and thaw in the fridge.

This makes 7 individual portions.

Here is mine:

The picture doesn't do it justice!

Here is my hubby's take on it:
"Extreamly flavorful, everything that bland is not."

4 star, 5 with Parmesan

Hope you like it!

MM mm Veggies!

Today was the first farmers market of the season!

And, I just got my last paycheck of the school year... a whole $99.00

So where did we go? what did we do?

We were responsible adults, and we paid bills, then we went hog-wild on the local Farmers Market!

 Basil, Parsley, and Oregano

 Cucumbers, red onions, green onions, sweet onions, broccoli.

Mt hood Strawberries, snap peas, and fresh garlic

Yep, be jealous!

Over the next few days, I'll show you what I make with all this goodness, and the recipes to make it!
 

whoa! get this SUNSHINE!

That's right, 2 straight days of sunshine!

Yesterday was my 2 year wedding anniversary! I shared it with my best friend! We are so unbelievable broke at the moment, that we had to borrow $20 from my mom so we could eat and have gas. But we made the best of it, we went hiking at Smith Rock State Park, a 3 mile muli-terrain hike in the mid 70*'s was nice.

But now I wanna go again!

See that lump of rock in the middle of that dip? looks like snoopy's shadow? no? thats just how far away it was. That is where we hiked to... called Asterisk Pass, also known as Asterisk ridge, Asterisk hill, Asterisk rock, and Snoopy rock. This trail ends about 300 feet before the actual ridge, but we went almost all the way, Adventure dog doesnt like heights.

 This is a picture from just below snoopy rock. looking back the way we had come! That gorgeous river, that is the Crooked River, feeds off of the Greater Deschutes River. Great fishing...

Look, it's adventure dog and Hubby!

 

Junuary has me thinking of the tropics

This is what I'm dreaming of:

This is what I have got:

Note, this is representation, not an actual photo from here. (Photo courtesy of Queen of Narnia)

What's this got to do with this blog, and my life? I am really really cold. Cold enough to start writing winter patterns, and even wearing a few.

So, here is the deal, Last June, I wrote up a pattern based VERY loosly on the Jayne Cobb hat from Serenity and Firefly. Known commonly as the 'cunning hat'

Here is the hat: scratch that, can't find the pic, I'll upload a new one later.

From the leftovers, and from the same idea, I made myself a matching "Ma Cobb Headband". 

Yeah, I don't have a pic of that either, but when I find it again I'll get a pic of it up.

Then, in November, I made a knit headband, blogged and pattern written up for the "Great Garter Head Hugger". 

I made notice that these were both dark in color, and not so springy... depressing. Picked up some yarn, didn't like it for the project I bought it for... can't remember what it is, but its a 2 strand bulky, looks handpainted (but it's not), acrylic, "baby" style. Nice stripe pattern.

Here is what I came up with, I rather like it!

You gotta ignore the crappy quality, it's a webcam photo, and its not so great...also, not wearing makeup, recently outta the shower, and slouched in a couch, not the greatest representation of myself.

Want the pattern?

How about a recipe...

use any hook and any yarn, make sure it's soft. 

you'll also need a tapestry needle and some buttons

crochet a chain of about 5-6 in, 

increase edge: 

row 1: 3 hdc in 2nd chain from hook, ch 1

Row 2: hdc in first hdc, 2 hdc in next hdc, hdc to end, chain 1

repeat row 2 until your headband is wide enough

Straight edge:

hdc in each hdc across, ch 1

repeat until it is about 4 in from the length you want

decrease edge:

hdc in first hdc, hdc2tog in next hdc, hdc in each across, ch 1

repeat until you get to last stitch

end tie:

chain until your chain matches the length of the first chain, this will be used to tie the headband to the right length.

bind off, embellish, and you are good to go!

Also, here is your ravlery link:

Junuary Headband

 

Meditation through art?

I have found a new love!

Along with the other million craft hobbies I have, but this I can do in class without distracting others!

ZENTANGLES!

Check out this vid:

Zentangles are a meditative doodling that can produce GORGEOUS artwork! Try it out, grab the closest pen, give yourself 15 min of uninterrupted time, and doodle!

Here is my first, it is going to be a birthday card for a friend's little girl, she is turning 1!

yep, thats my zentangle, on top of my Human Resource Management Text... procrastinating... yep...

 

Come on summer... but lets leave the bikini in the drawer!

I am NOT the skinniest person on the planet... by any measure. But I am not huge either... Hubby says it is the perfect measure of pleasantly plump...

I am not satisfied. I have decided I need to get in gear and kick my own but into fitness.

This spring, at a doctor appointment, general check up, I discovered that I was at my heaviest, ever. I told myself I would never let myself get past a certain weight...and I passed it. But not by much.

I promised myself that even though I was not the prettiest or the skinniest, I would never let myself get over 200 lbs. I stepped on the digital scale at Doc's office, to find a whopping 200.8 lbs. DAMN!

But it was enough to get me to take a different direction.

I found myself a free Google Chrome Application that allows you to track your calorie intake and burning through a simple chart. You search a food item, find it, put in your amount, add it. Search an exercise, put in your time, add it. At the end of the day it tells you how close that amount was to your daily recommended calorie budget, and suggests changes if you need them. You can network, and make friends from your area, or anywhere in the world.

You do daily weight-ins in your own home, and they keep a graph going of progress so you have a visual motivator!

I started at 195 (as of yesterday) and plan on making it to 150 by November, thats just about 2 lbs a week. If I make it faster, cool, but I wont push myself too hard, its harder to keep weight off if you shed it too fast.

Thats been deemed as a safe weight for me at my height and build.

There is such a thing as average and plus size fashion, just not very often do you find it.