Category Archives: recommend

Apr17

Show & Tell

Posted on Friday, April 17, 2009 by Dianne

I’m a bit late today-or should I say tonight as I was busy looking at my son’s paper and then I went over to Longwood Gardens for an hour.
So here’s what I’m sharing-these magical Fairyopolis books!

These are gorgeous ‘interactive’ journals based on the Flower Fairies created by Cicely Mary Barker. They span from about 1923 to the 1930s. The first book is Cicely sharing her fairy findings. There are petals of daisies to lift where the fairies have left a barely visible message.

I found this book at B*Js Wholesale, but I found the next book at Bor*ders for only $5.99-I just purchased this one on Tuesday night. It’s just as sweet as the first and the journal of Dulcie,a little girl who wants so badly to see the wee fairies. It also has a special musical pop-up section in the back.

I guess I can lend these to my niece and hope she gives them back. : )
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I went to Longwood Gardens as it was a lovely day for a long walk. I am sore from yard work and just happened upon a path where I had to do a lot of climbing. I saw a part of Longwood I haven’t seen for years-the eye of the water!

After seeing this, I thought I’d have a terrible walk to the entrance, I didn’t! The path wound around and I was so happy. I went in the gift shop and bought these for 50% off:
The sales lady said I could let them wilt and then plant them.

I went down the length of our road and spotted the camel (see the two humps) and she had a baby that was right next to her! I took this shot from the van, in the middle of the road, hence not a good shot:

I have lots of photos to upload!
I may go to a book sale tomorrow in my hometown, if I can get out of bed!
Have a great weekend!

Sep22

High Def Heaven-finally

Posted on Monday, September 22, 2008 by Dianne

Standard

After waiting 3 times, 4 turned out to be the charm, though the tech showed up over an hour late. He was just a young guy, one you’d be a bit afraid to let in your house as he wasn’t dressed in a uniform (at least a shirt or hat), from the company. It’s like night and day with how clear the picture is. All the major channels are high def (if they said on ‘The Insider’ that their Emmy coverage was HD once, they said it 50 times-geez!) Since we have to keep this system for 2 yrs, we went ahead and added 50 more channels for only $10 more a month. Bri says he doesn’t watch much tv, but he is the king of channel surfing. Not too many channels are HD yet, but just wait.

I enjoyed all the glitz of the first hour of ‘Dancing with the Stars’ and then switched over to ‘Heroes’. It’s been forever since that’s been on. Some of it was rather nasty in HD, but I like the show, what can I say.
When the news came on, one of the top stories was this:

MEDIA Pa – Sarah Palin threatened to steal the show from running mate John McCain as she warmed up the crowd at their joint appearance at a rally on Monday in Pennsylvania.

“Sarah, Sarah, Sarah,” chanted the crowd as the Republican vice presidential candidate stepped on stage in the town of Media.

“I see a lot of hockey moms out there for McCain,” she said as the crowd roared its approval. She went on to introduce her family, calling husband Todd ”Alaska’s First Dude,” before pointing out their daughters Willow and Piper.

Palin quickly launched into criticisms of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, whom she said “likes to point the finger of blame but, tell me, has he ever lifted a finger to help?”

“In order to get others to say ‘Yes’ to change, has he ever told his own party ‘No?’” she asked. “When it comes to reform, he likes to say, ‘I will,’ but has he ever been able to say, ‘We did?’”

The two Republican candidates go their separate ways again on Tuesday, when McCain campaigns in Ohio and Michigan while Palin meets with several foreign leaders in New York.

Well isn’t that special? My hometown got quite interesting visitors. Media is the county seat. They’ve been mostly Republican, but for a while they had a Democratic mayor. Joe Leiberman was even there. This is such a hot story, the local news haven’t undated their websites about it. Thanks Reuters. My favorite Palin ever-Michael Palin from Monty Python’s Flying Circus. ; )

McCain Palin Rally – Media, PA, originally uploaded by H1GHTOWER.

Sean interned around the corner from the courthouse here.

And from a few days ago (my one brother is there somewhere):

PA Media 9-17-08 Joe Biden Visits, originally uploaded by Barack Obama.

Man, I love that Flickr for photos! : )

Tomorrow is my mom’s birthday and I am going down to take her to dinner. Bri has been complaining about a sore throat on one side and he found an ulcer under his tongue. He doesn’t feel that great in general. Mom wanted to come out for a few days, but we’ll see how Bri is.

Aug29

Show & Tell #7

Posted on Friday, August 29, 2008 by Dianne

Standard

I want to thank Zoey over at Perennial Passion in my sidebar, for the idea this week for my share. She was talking about watching an old Andy Griffith Show and I remembered I had an Aunt Bee cookbook. In fact, I have several tv and movie related cookbooks:

Having a ‘Pooh’ cookbook doesn’t sound very appetizing, but it’s really a cute one with the different characters represented throughtout in sweet black and white ink drawings. Doesn’t Mint Honey Bread sound good?

Forrest Gump is all about shrimp-Mama’s Shrimp spaghetti sounds yummy. It is also loaded with Forrest reflections.

The Wizard of Oz is really sweet-features a ‘kids in Munchkinland’ party. Many of these recipes are ones we know, but renamed to go with the movie, like ‘Wicked Witch Waffles’.

Some Like it Hot is actually a good name for a cookbook! This features a nice section of mixed drinks. How does the recipe ‘Figs in Drag’ sound to you? I was also born the year this movie came out.

Cooking with Friends is a great cookbook with a mixture of coffee house style recipes plus recipes that would be favorites of the different friends. Great photos throughout too. I may pick a recipe from here to share with you.

Aunt Bee’s Mayberry cookbook is a spiral ring one. There are different sections from appetizers to desserts, many named after the characters like Beef Stroganoff Barney. This is a pretty awesome cookbook too.

I know I have a few more that weren’t on the same shelf as the above; Gone with the Wind, Frasier, the Sopranos and It’s a Wonderful Life.

These are fun cookbooks and I recommend them!

Recipe share:

Black and White Chocolate Chip Cookies

(we had the plain ones last year in NYC, the icing was black and white-yummy)

1 cup flour

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup sugar

1 large egg

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup (6 oz) white chocolate chips

½ cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375°. Stir the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together in a small bowl and set it aside. Cream the butter and sugar with the electric mixer until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Beat in the egg and vanilla until smooth. Slowly beat in the dry ingredients. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.

For each cookie, drop a little less than ¼ cup batter onto an ungreased large baking sheet. With your hand, slightly flatten each piece of dough. Leave at least 2 inches between each ball. You will need 2 baking sheets to accommodate the dough.

Bake until the edges and tops of the cookies are set, 15-18 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a rack and cool briefly. Eat warm or at room temperature. These cookies will stay nice and chewy for a couple of days.

Makes 12 oversized cookies.

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Tonight at midnight, I will do the drawing for my 4th anniversary giveaway, so add your comment for that below if you want to try to win. 4 years ago today, I started rambling on. : )