Category Archives: blogging

Dec17

Free stuff coupons!

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Actually it’s buy one get one free for the Glad Wisp Flameless candles. I priced them and they are $8.99 at one store and are probably cheaper at another store. You have to install a small file that can print out coupons. I worry about my mom using lit candles, even electric candles in her windows as we found a burn mark on her sofa! These would be ideal for her! Update-I got two at Walmart today (they only had a few left) and I only had to pay $6.97! Yeah.

The other offer is for a Gus the groundhog free calendar. He’s the ‘other well-known groundhog from Pennsylvania’. Just fill out the form and confirm it through the email you get. Sponsored through the PA lottery.

Updated-thanks to Sweet Pea for the heads up on the free sample of the new Shania Twain perfume called, Shania Starlight.

Enjoy!

Dec16

12 Things about me Christmas Hoopla

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Here are the golden rules:

1. List 12 random things about yourself that have to do with Christmas.
2. Please refer to it as a ‘hoopla’ and not the dreaded ‘m’-word…
3. You have to tag specific people when you’re done. No “if you’re reading this, consider yourself tagged” stuff is allowed…then nobody ends up actually doing it. The number of people who you tag is really up to you — but the more, the merrier to get this ‘hoopla’ circulating through the blogosphere.
4. Please try and do it as quickly as possible. The Christmas season will be over before we know it! Let’s involve as many people as possible!
5. Please give Andrea some link-love as the “Hoopla-Creator!

  1. I always have to get my Christmas cards filled out and mailed by the first week of December. To me, if you aren’t wishing your family or friends at least a yearly ‘hello’ you are missing out on the togetherness factor of the holiday.
  2. My grandparents planted evergreen trees in their backyard in the 50s. After my grandfather passed on, my grandmom and mom built the house mom lives in now. A few years when the budget was tight, selling those trees helped buy us gifts. There are still some left and they are really tall now!
  3. I love to think of themes for Christmas decorating as not to have the same thing every year. This year it’s red and white and cardinals and candy canes. In the past I have lined up the candy canes along the front; this year the candy canes are in my umbrella bucket on the front step!
  4. I really like a spotlight on the door, but I usually have different wreaths, many that I have fashioned, over the years.
  5. We started the tradition of getting dressed up and going to one of our favorite restaurants on Christmas Eve. It’s right up the street from my mom. Afterwards, we visit my brother and his family.
  6. My pets always get a stocking and gifts. : )
  7. Another thing we just started doing is going to midnight mass in a nearby town. They have a fabulous choir and attending this service really stirs my soul.
  8. Cookie baking is my thing. I go crazy! I try to bake all my cookies in about 2-3 days. I have to make chocolate chips first, just in case I run out of time, I have them!
  9. I usually make the Christmas dinner. I may have pot roast or ham or even lasagna. But not all in the same meal.
  10. Although I love real trees, the fear of fire is in the back of my mind since we have two heat ducts right where we usually put the tree. I am really happy with our artificial tree and will use different decorations to make it look different each year.
  11. As a child, my favorite Christmas book is ‘Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree’ and I own a copy now.

  12. If I miss ‘It’s A Wonderful Life’, I feel I’ve missed a little piece of Christmas.

I tag: Lee, Carol S. and Zoey.

Nov15

Googleville

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Zoey, over at Perennial Passion inspired me to recheck my statcounter which was still associated with blogspot. I changed it to this one. Not sure if it will work correctly, but I also went to the ‘recent keyword activity’ page….so weird- Google search
Why would some people look up some of that stuff? I mentioned that I once used a Cheryl Ladd exercise mat where you put on booties and slide back and forth. I had to chuckle about the yard long bean search. I don’t think Carter Oosterhouse is gay, but mentioned about being friends with gay guys maybe? Who knows.

At least I was the top two searches for this one:

Knothole

And just because this is so darn cute and a real photo:
Penguins

After these little guys are rescued from oil spills, the volunteers put these little sweaters on them to keep them warm and to up their survival rate. I want to snuggle with them, don’t you?

There’s even a song for the penguins in sweaters!

Here’s a paint shop pro challenge I did, it’s clickable:

Penguin beach party

Nov13

Mini card Moos

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When I signed up for my pro account at Flickr, I was offered some free  mini-cards by Moo. Today they arrived from London, England! There are 10- 1″ x less than 3″ matte finished cards. I guess it’s all the rage over at Flickr to trade them! You have to be sure you use an image what will fit in that space. What a nice surprise for a somewhat blah day for me (super achy from all the stress).

Mini cards

Nov5

Presently a quote to live by

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Knowledge is power.
Sir Francis Bacon, Religious Meditations, Of Heresies, 1597
English author, courtier, & philosopher (1561 – 1626)

 

I’ve been giving Oprah (or was it Dr. Oz) credit for this and here it was Sir Bacon. When I saw it was Sir Bacon, I thought of Kevin Bacon for some reason-oh, he’s from Philly.   ; )
I’m reading up on call-backs and have gotten some interesting opinions, etc. I know my pals in blogland are being quiet on the subject-but knowledge is power people! I read there are only 10% of call backs from standard mammograms, but out of 1,000 mamms, only 5 are bad ones.
If you haven’t had a mammogram lately and you are over 40, do yourself a favor and get one so you know stuff. Ok? : )

I’ve had a quiet weekend. Two of my art pals and I are making tags/squares for our Christmas calendars. We are trading 8 to each other and then will have to make 15 for our own. I had so much fun making them today (they are only 2″ squares on my calendar). I’m up to 21 and need to make 10 more. I haven’t made the actual calendar part yet. I thank Artsymama in my blogroll for the inspiration when she posted her Halloween calendar purchase.
I also started a piece for our blogland Cross stitch lottery. On January 1st, some lucky stitcher will win all the submitted finished pieces. I wouldn’t mind winning them. I haven’t checked lately, but I think there are at least 20 participants.

This daylight savings is messing me up a bit. I better hit the hay soon. Have a great Monday!

Hope you like my new blog format. I couldn’t stand all my sidebar stuff on one side and I think my photos look better too.

Oh-my ’57 Thunderbird made the top right corner of Elijah’s Love quilt-and it’s an awesome quilt! (clickable)

Elijah’s Quilt

Oct26

Just curious

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Found this on the MySpace page of a high school alumni. Gee all those other Dianne Cs? Wow! How about you? Brian has almost 1,500(!) and Sean 404. With my maiden name-only 13 other Dianne Ks. And some of my family-Mom-20, Ken and his son-150, Colleen-17,  Victoria-33 ,Dave and his son-430, Patrick-72 and MaryAnne-only 2!

HowManyOfMe.com
Logo There are
140
people with my name
in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?
Oct22

Many thanks

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I appreciate your comments on my entry from last night. I haven’t heard anything from my pal, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be good news unfortunately. Another friend from our group gave me her phone # and we chatted this afternoon for about 20 minutes or so. The dialects were traveling full force from the lady with the Philly accent to the lady with the Louisiana accent. She had her ear bent back good. Have you heard that expression before?

The fires are horrible out in California! They were showing the smoke from the radar on the news earlier and it was like nothing that I have seen before. My late paternal grandmom lived in Santee, a suburb of San Diego.

Fires in Orange County California

I watch ‘Dancing with the Stars’, mainly if I am interested in certain ‘stars’. Tonight, the performer who happens to be my age, and that’s Marie Osmond, passed out after she performed a strenuous dance-the samba. (the comments here are weird) They broke away for quite a bit and she was back for her score, a little shook up, but okay. She said she wasn’t breathing right, but after looking at the video, I think she was hyperventilating. Us premenopausal gals better be more careful. : )

I got a nice comment from Tootie, the gal who made the tags on the Halloween tree below. She was flattered that I had them on my blog-why not, they are so cute! I’m bidding on some Christmas tags she made, just as sweet.

Tonight I started to alter a book. What you mainly do is paint or glaze over the pages/words in an old book and add elements to them. I didn’t do that at first, I added a page of a pretty vintage girl. You are suppose to take out pages so that your ‘altered’ pages won’t make the book too bulky. I was just ripping instead of cutting, so my 1909 book was getting a little wobbly. I hope it will stand up to my altering. Will share some photos soon.

Two more days and Sean will be 21! He seems a little sad, but he says it feels like all work and no leisure time for him lately. He may treat himself (and maybe take a friend) out to dinner on Friday when he only has one class. He was complaining about having a big test on his big day. He’s struggling a bit, but it’s a transitional part of his life. He’ll be fine, I know it.

Be sure to catch my new video of my paint shopped pro altered digital artwork in my Vod pod.

Oct5

Holiday Cooking Recipe exchange

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Holiday Cooking
I was invited to participant in this again, thanks Overwhelmed with Joy! Here’s my post from last year. I’m going to post a real winner first. Thanks Bisquick!

Melt-in-your-mouth pancakes (they really do!)

2 Original Bisquick® mix
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs

1. Heat griddle or skillet over medium-high heat or electric griddle to 375°F; grease with cooking spray, vegetable oil or shortening. (Surface is ready when a few drops of water sprinkled on it dance and disappear.)
2. Stir all ingredients until blended. Pour by slightly less than 1/4 cupfuls onto hot griddle.
3. Cook until edges are dry. Turn; cook until golden. To keep warm, place in single layer on cookie sheet. Cover with aluminum foil, and place in 200°F oven up to 10 minutes.
(Total time will vary; cook or bake time is per batch.)
High Altitude (3500-6500 ft): Decrease baking powder to 1 teaspoon.Makes 14 pancakes
*breakfast* *dessert*

My father-in-law must have his coleslaw with his holiday meals

Tangy-Creamy Coleslaw
1/2 (16 ounce) jar coleslaw dressing
1/4 cup dill pickle juice
1/ teaspoon celery seeds
1 small cabbage, coarsely grated or finely chopped
1 large carrot, coarsely grated or finely chopped
Stir together first 3 ingredients. Add cabbage and carrot; toss to coat. Chill 1 hour. Serve with slotted spoon. 6-8 servings
*salad* *side*

Good for breakfast on Christmas morning:

Bacon and Cheese Strata

6 slices bacon
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard with seeds
12 slices firm white bread
1.5 cups shredded Gruyere cheese (or Swiss)
9 large eggs
2 cups whole milk
1/2 tsp.salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
Cook bacon in the microwave on doubled paper towels and cover with single paper towel. Cook until brown and crisp-3 minutes and let stand 5 minutes. Crumble coarsely.
Grease 9″ x 13″ ceramic or glass baking dish.
Spread mustard on 1 side of each bread slice (to me this is a lot of mustard). Arrange 6 slices mustard side up, in the baking dish, cutting to fit. Sprinkle with half the cheese. Top with 2 Tbsp of bacon, then remaining bread slices mustard side up.
Beat eggs, milk, salt and pepper in a large bowl with a wire whisk until blended. Slowly pour the egg mixture all over the bread slices; press bread down to help absorb eggs. You may have to spoon the eggs on the uncoated bread. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bacon. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes, or cover and refrigerate overnight.
Preheat over to 350. Bake strata 40 minutes or until puffed and golden and knife inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand at least 10 minutes before serving. Serves 8.
*breakfast* *side*

This is the most tried and true recipe this year, though I have made the others too.

Microwave Oven Peanut Brittle

1 1/2 cups dry roasted peanuts
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup corn syrup
1 pinch salt
1 Tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
Directions:
Grease a baking sheet and set aside. In a glass bowl, combine peanuts, sugar, corn syrup and salt. Cook in microwave for 6-7 minutes on High (700w) Will be HOT; mixture should be bubbly and peanuts browned. Stir in butter and vanilla. cook 2-3 minutes longer.
Quickly stir in baking soda, just until mixture is foamy. Pour immediately onto greased baking sheet. Let cool for 15 minutes or until set. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.
Makes one pound. Great for a gift.
*candy*