Category Archives: Brian

Jan9

Come April

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Brian and I will celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary! Now I was thinking, that I should stitch something to commemorate this most auspicious occasion. I don’t want anything too detailed, maybe a nice verse with a nice border. I’ll have to look through my many books, but if anyone off the top of their head can think of a good piece, let me know.
I did find a few I liked on the web-not in love with-I’ll see if any grown on me. Please vote on your favorite:
#1stillhavfun
We’re still having fun
by Samsarah Design
#2

silverann

It is the Silver anniversary. : )
By Silver Lining
#3milestones
Kind of small, but the beads are nice.
Mile Stones Anniversary by Kulik Kreations
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So I’m thinking about going to Longwood Gardens tomorrow night, solo, to see the ice skating show-we’ll see how brave I am. It’s an extra $5 charge and you have to get the ticket beforehand. Personally I think the show should be part of the admission price.
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I’m doing some art cards and here’s one I did for a ‘skinny’ card challenge on one of my Flickr groups called ‘Shoes and Swirls’:
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Lucky for me, I just took down a shoe calendar from 2008 with oodles of shoes to chose from. These shoes are ‘dancing shoes’ from the late 1800s.
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I’m estimating my little boy from Mirabilia’s ‘Giggles in the Snow’ cross stitch piece should be finished in a few weeks. I plan to get him and my Sleeping Kitty professionally framed as I did with a few pieces in 2007. I’ll share him when he is completed.

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People can be so peculiar -I went food shopping and kept seeing this woman from church who is really only an acquaintance around the aisles. I know her name (mushroom business), doubt she knows me. The few times I was near her, she kinda looked at me, but I smiled at her. The odd thing-she’d see other people and all of the sudden she was so sweet and chatty, even with an older guy by himself in like a custodian jacket. She got in my line and picked up a magazine so she wouldn’t have to look at me. Gawd people! No way was I going to start talking with her-didn’t really want to-stuck up woman. I always try to be nice and start upa  ‘how’s the weather’ conversation. ; )

Jan8

All kinds of busy

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I had fun picking out the photos for Carolyn’s Birthday bash yesterday! Teal/aqua is my favorite color! I’ve never been dripping in diamonds either and it was fun to pretend.

Today is my brother Ken’s 42nd birthday. I hope he has a nice day.

So…been so busy and need to take a breather, but Sean the food bulldozer has plowed through all the food, so I need to food shop later. Tuesday, we got out the deep carpet cleaner machine and did the Oriental rug we acquired from Brian’s dad. This gorgeous rug was stuck under the dining room table at his dad’s house on top of wall to wall carpet. It was all puckered and wouldn’t lay flat. It looks divine under my round table! It’s the right colors-mainly blue with pink. I’ll have to take a photo of it after I clean up the rest of the Christmas things. The cat loves it so much as it’s wool  (pretty sure it is) and plush. I also did the majority of the other rugs, having the guys move the coffee table, big chair and sofa in the family room. This proved to be the dirtiest rug. I only use Oxiclean now and it does a great job. Sean’s rug is 22 yrs old and the family room rug is 16 yrs old and both sprang back to life.

Yesterday I took down the Christmas tree. I was up and down the basement steps a zillion times. I still have the lights and a few breakables to pack up, but that took almost 3 hours. The guys got it in the coffin-like box and pushed it back up in the attic. I am rearranging my basement shelves which look like a tornado went through them. That’s a job and a half.

Today at Brian’s work, there will be an employment meeting. As of 12:10, the ‘big cheese’ hadn’t arrived at the paper yet.They are coming there after leaving the office where Bri use to work-they fired everyone over there. Wish him and his fellow office workers well. In case the worse happens, I went on the Long*wood Garde*ns website and they had a job that Bri could probably do.

Update-Brian’s job was ‘spared’ for the time being-thank goodness, but about 2-3 people lost their jobs.

Sean just went to use a Wawa gift card he got to buy us lunch. I should watch what I eat as my tummy has been in a funk. Oh well.. Off to get ready for shopping.

Jan5

Our tree is still up

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Last year I was ready for the tree to come down (it may have been too red even). This year I’m quite enjoying it. Because I had to set up my mom’s tree, it took away from me wanting mine up as I knew I’d end up taking hers down also. This year she figured it out, so I was off the hook. I took a few things off the walls and have a pile of Christmasy things to put away. My storage area looks so dishelved, I have my work cut out for me, unfortunately.

Sean and I went  out for a few hours Sunday to look around a few more stores, though I am broke and shopped out. I can’t believe how many decorations and gift bags are left over at most of the stores. I am being really selective, trying to find things to use for crafting.

When we got home, Sean headed for a pal’s house to watch the Eagles football game. He missed out on a good roast beef dinner. I cooked most of it before we went out and had Bri keep it warm at 170. I only had to do a few things like cook the potatoes and warm up the peas. And how neat was it the Eagles won! Our local sports teams are in general doing great this year.

Sean and I are hoping to go to Longwood Gardens tomorrow-our second try. The kids are going back to school, so that should cut back on the crowd. Then Sean heads back to school on Saturday.

Cosmo Capers blog has been getting lots of hits because a pal added him to a cat blog. I just can’t keep up with everything!

Hopefully my next post will include pretty photos!

Jan3

Photo Hunt-Hope

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PSHunt

Happy 2009 Flickr pals!, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

A whole new year to ‘hope’ for good things to happen.
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Not a lot going on. We still have our Christmas stuff up and keep it up until the 6th or so which is ‘Little Christmas’-Epiphany.
Friday we went over to Bri’s dad’s house and took up a few rugs that were on top of the wall to wall carpet-they were all bunched up. We took one for the dining room. It needs to be aired out and cleaned.
Having some tummy issues-I know I’ve been snacking at all hours this past week-not good for me. I swear by Activa and Equalactin. : )
After we left Bri’s dad’s house, we went to Chili’s Restaurant-not ideal food for me to be eating and then hit BJs Wholesale where Sean got stuff for taking back to school. My best buy there was 5 ink cartridges for my printer at $50-I saved $10 buying them pre-packaged. Bri was happy to get Perrier water.
Not sure what the weekend will bring. Hope everyone is warm and happy!

Dec31

New Year’s Eve

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Don’t forget to leave a comment to try and win my necklace above!

Not much going on…making more cookies as my nerves are bad.
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Chocolate Cherry Cordials Thumbprint cookies (made with the same named Hershey Kisses-got half off at Wally World last night too) Tastes like little brownies with a hint of creamy cherry goodness.

Bri’s dad went out this morning to get his hair cut, didn’t call us and we thought the worse when we tried to call him for over an hour. Bri was on his way over there when he called us-finally. We got Bri on the cellphone before he got too far.
My mom woke me up this morning thinking I forgot to call her as her clock said 11 am and it was a bit after 9 am. Yikes!
We plan to get them both ‘Life Alerts’ soon. Too much worrying.
Bri is going to get me some Arbor Mist to toast in the new year. I sure need some!
Update-my Arbor Mist is chilling and Bri also got me some Peach Fuzzy Navel Wine cooler. : )

I had purchased two orchids from a Hawaiian seller at Longwood Gardens in March. One didn’t make it, but lookie here-one is blooming again!
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Dec29

Full House

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Since both Brian and Sean are home, I do indeed have a full house until they go back to work and school. Bri hasn’t been feeling good-tummy issues. I gave him an Equalactin today, so I hope that settles it down.
Sean and I are going to my hometown and I’m getting my hair done and doing a little visiting.
Here’s a few photos I took of a 99¢ bouquet I bought last night. Gotta love bargains like this. I love the lime green, burgundy and white:

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I was looking to change my blog theme, but they only had this 3 column design. I decided to take the photo of me and the graphic off the header to clean it up a bit instead.

We are hoping to do a few day trips over the next week.

Dec25

Pass the cookies-Merry Christmas!

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To all my pals in blogland that I call my friends-Merry Christmas. I have made some newer blog pals that I have enjoyed getting to know. I think back on my second grade teacher who taught use this little song in round-‘make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other is gold’.

Here are my cookies for this Christmas-

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7 layers cookies, Russian Tea cakes, Sour Cream Drops, Sugar cookies, Rum Raisin squares, Mini Reese’s cup cookies and peanut brittle.

And one of my favorite gifts from Brian-
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Adorable little mushroom salt and pepper shakers from Anthropologie! I thought they were just mushrooms for my collection. : )

I also got a GPS for the van-which will be great if I get into going antiquing in unknown parts along with some books and music CDs. I highly recommend Sarah Brightman’s Christmas CD-it’s beautiful!

Brian and Sean got new watches-Bri a Ford Mustang one and Sean a new Penn State one. Sean got almost everything off his Amazon wishlist-a cool big book on the history of Penn State Football with removable ‘artifacts’ like old banners, etc. He looked at it for a long time.

It was nice to have my mom here this year. We took her to midnight mass at a church in Delaware. We sat off to the side instead of in the middle pews and it took away from hearing the choir as well. I saw her singing quite a few times.

We had shrimp and chicken carbonara last night:

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It was good-very rich with maybe a wee bit too much garlic. The recipe wasn’t written well and I skimped on the sauce-but in retrospect, I didn’t use all the milk product it called for. I think I would do a breaded chicken next time and not put the shrimp in with the sauce as it was hard to peel.

Tonight we had ‘Surf and Turf’! I cooked the sirloins from BJ Wholesale and cut them in half as they were huge. I bought two lobster tails and cut them in chunks so we all got some. Also made the green bean casserole with fried onions in the can; Potatoes and sweet potato au gratin and asparagus. It was a great dinner and everyone enjoyed it.

The fellows took Brian’s dad some dinner and his gifts, so mom and I are hanging out relaxing.

Hope everyone had a great day!
The entire song from above:

Make new friends,
but keep the old.
One is silver,
the other is gold.

A circle is round,
it has no end.
That’s how long,
I will be your friend.

A fire burns bright,
it warms the heart.
We’ve been friends,
from the very start.

You have one hand,
I have the other.
Put them together,
We have each other.

Silver is precious,
Gold is too.
I am precious,
and so are you.

You help me,
and I’ll help you
and together
we will see it through.

The sky is blue
The Earth is green
I can help
to keep it clean

Across the land
Across the sea
Friends forever
We will always be

Dec23

Santa’s letter to me!

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Santa’s letter to me!, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Wow-I can’t wait! I think what I want is still on back order though!

My baking for today-minus the Rum Raisin bars-Sour Cream Drops-heavenly goodness-thanks for the recipe Jennifer; Microwave Peanut Brittle and Sugar Cookies-these are vintage Tupperware cutters like the ones my mom had. I would suggest not to save sugar cookies for last-too frustrating.

Cookies and Candy Goodness for the 22nd of Dec.
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Congrats to Missy and her family over at A Treehugger’s Wife-she welcomed Seamus 12-18 in a water birth and said it was a great experience. So happy for her.
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Please keep Brian and his fellow employees in your thoughts as the newspaper company where he works is going through hard times. All the papers (7 I think) need to be sold, except the one where he works, or they will be shut down. At Bri’s work there will be employee changes. He’s been there and in the different offices for almost 11 years now. Things will be going on in early January.

Dec21

It’s really almost Christmas now

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Yesterday I felt a bit frantic as every cookie recipe I looked at called for something I needed to purchase. Bri and I went on an early evening shopping trip to an almost empty store. They didn’t have unshelled pistachios for a cookie I want to try (recipe from Jennifer) and a few other things. Today I made ‘candy’ (I say that loosely)- Chocolate Cherry Bourbon Balls that my pal Warren said I should try. Brian went for a booze hunt in the basement and came up with a gorgeous bottle of Taylor Kentucky Bourbon. It had a ’68’ on the bottle, and sure enough it was from 1968! Bri did a Google search and found the exact bottle. The little balls are very potent! I don’t know how many anyone will be able to eat without feeling tipsy-lol.
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A condensed ‘I recommend’-
What made my day was finding a recipe for Peanut Butter Pinwheels which has to be the exact recipe from one of Peg Bracken’s ‘I hate to cook’ books. I made them as a teen and loved making them, smelling them baking and eating them! I made some and the following are photos of the rolled up peanut butter dough with the melted chocolate inside, to the finished product. I may bake a batch of easy peasy 7 layer cookies when I finish here-all in one pan-and finish up the rest tomorrow.

    Making Peanut Butter Pinwheels

Recipe for
Peanut Butter Pinwheels-
Taste of Home-Best & Loved Cookies and Bars (there is a new edition every year it seems-I only have last year’s issue which I recommend)
Sent in by Kandy Dick
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 Tablespoons milk
1 1/4 cups All-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (6 oz) semisweet chocolate chips
In a mixing bowl, cream shortening, peanut butter and sugar. Beat in egg, and milk. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; add to the creamed mixture.
Roll out dough between wax paper into a 12″ x 10″ rectangle (I think it could be a wee bit bigger). Melt chocolate chips; cool slightly. Spread over dough to within 1/2 inch of the edges. Roll up tightly, jelly roll style, starting with long side; wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes or until easy to handle.

Unwrap dough and cut into 1/2 inch slices. Place 1 inch apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield about 4 dozen.

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Brian took some outdoor shots-we need to get the tripod out, but here’s an what it looks like:
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The bluish lights are LEDs that I had on the Christmas tree a few years ago. They are very energy efficient.