More Icy Goodness

This is my back yard just this last summer

Same back yard - slightly different angle

The tree that bends, does not break

I still had some greenery left.

I just liked this -

I've smacked my head on this branch every morning since the freeze.

I hope you're staying warm where ever you are.

A much deserved rest.

For the last post of the year (until Jan. 5) I thought I'd let you all in on why this is called Totally Tattoo'd Mother.

This is blurry, but it's my wedding ring.

This is my "Pain in the neck" ;-)

Lower back area - Soon to be a family tree for my daughter.

The top half of the above picture. It might have helped if I had had help taking the pics. but you're stuck with what I could accomplish myself.

There is a phoenix on my calf, and a really poor shot of the flower with my name on my foot. See below for better shots.

What kind of tattoos, if any, do you have?

Also - MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Winter is GREAT!

We are having a small ice storm here, and between the power lines and the trees falling down, our county has lost 50% power. Yay!

The trees and grasses are beautiful. The cars, not so much. While I was scraping my winshield this morning, I put a hairline crack all the way across it. Go me!

So That is my post for today. Hope your winter isn't so exciting. I'm going back to work now. Have Fun.

Oil Love

Yeah, don't get excited. I'm gonna tell you how to make the most yummy oil to cook with or give away as a gift (or both like me).

1st - get some clear bottles with a good lid - maybe like this with this

Once you have your bottles you'll need to sanitize them. This can be done with your dishwasher. If you don't have a dishwasher pour boiling water down into the bottle, while it is sitting in a sink of hot water (this way the bottle won't break from the shock). Then dry well (a hair drier will work well for this).

Now you'll need different herbs and spices for a variety of oils - here are a couple of options. (Feel free to substitute or add extras)

Herb Oil
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Thyme - 3-4 stalks
Rosemary - 1 nice stalk (6-10 inches long)
Garlic - 5-6 cloves sliced
Whole Pepper Corns (black or various colors is fine) - 2 Tbs
Salt - 1 Tbs for a large-ish bottle (16 oz or more) less for a smaller bottle.

OR

Hot Oil
Any kind of Vegetable Oil (the flavor of the oil won't matter too much)
Dried Chiles - 10-15 whole chiles - or - 1/2 cup crushed
Pepper Corns - 1/4 cup
Garlic - 8-10 cloves sliced
Salt - 1 Tbs for a large-ish bottle (16 oz or more) less for a smaller bottle
Sun Dried Tomatoes - 3-4 pieces (dry packed)
Thyme - 2-3 stalks

For either of these you'll need enough oil to fill the bottle you've chosen.

Okay now for the part that makes your house smell good...

For either of the oils, pour the oil into a pan that will hold everything. Heat the oil until it starts to shimmer. Put the herbs and garlic in first and let those fry? for 2 minutes or so, until the garlic gets a small amount of color (maybe kind of yellowish?). Then pull out the herbs and garlic and add everything else. Tongs work much better than fingers for this step. This step is where the oils differ, for the Herb Oil let the pepper corns go for maybe 2 minutes. But let the Hot Oil go for about 8-10 minutes. This way it will have a good heat.

Now strain these into your bottle and cork the hole (with whatever you have chosen). Once the bottle has cooled (wouldn't want to burn your fingers), wash the outside so there is no oily residue.

You can use these for a number of things. The Herb Oil is really nice to put on a pizza crust before you bake it, or use with some balsamic for your salad dressing. And the Hot Oil does really nice things for soup. Just sear your meat in the oil and go from there.

Note - If you give these away, make sure you label them. Wouldn't want anyone to get a hot mouth from their salad or anything like that. *evil laugh here*

This says it all

I don't know how she got this so right, but this is me...



Here are the lyrics:

I say I'll move the mountains
And I'll move the mountains
If he wants them out of the way
Crazy, he calls me
Sure, I'm crazy
Crazy in love, I say

I say I'll go through fire
And I'll go through fire
How he wants it, so it will be
Crazy, he calls me
Sure, I'm crazy
Crazy in love, you see

Like the leaf that shakes the bough
He moves me with just a little smile
The difficult I'm gonna do right now
Oh, but the impossible that's gonna take a little while
I say I'll care forever
And I mean forever
If I have to hold up the sky
Crazy, he calls me
Sure, I'm crazy
But crazy in love am I

Like the leaf that shakes the bough
He moves me with a smile
The difficult I'm gonna do right now
But the impossible that's gonna take a little while
I say I'll care forever
And I mean forever
If I have to hold up the sky
Crazy, he calls me
Sure, I'm crazy
But crazy in love am I

This isn't quite the version I wanted but I can't find Billie Holiday's version. And the only difference, really is that the wind should shake the bough, but this wonderful version is the closest to Billie's I can find.

Yay, it's Thurdsday!

Let's get down to it. I had a wrong side of the bed day yesterday and I'm ready to drink. So, what do you say we pull a chair up to the bar and hit that good lookin' bartender up for a drink?!?



I'm not even in the mood for a book so we'll just skip right to the drinking!



Since it's cold up here, we'll go for my favorite evening warm up: Godiva Cocoa



You'll need your favorite cocoa mix (just one packet)
3/4 cup Water (maybe)
1/2 cup Milk
2 oz Godiva Chocolate Liqueur
1 tsp Vanilla
Ginger
All Spice
Mini Marshmallows



I know it looks like a lot of ingredients for some cocoa, but it's really worth it. We're doing all of this in the pan, so don't pour into a cup till I say. So you'll need to follow the directions on your cocoa, but only use 3/4 of the liquid it calls for (for some cocoas you might not need water at all). Now, most cocoas are going to make 8 oz so we'll add 1/2 cup milk and 2 oz Liqueur, sprinkle a little ginger & all spice. Whisk these together and let simmer for a moment. Get your favorite mug and drop a handful of marshmallows in. Pour the cocoa mixture over the top of these.

This is so delicious. Also, I guess it would work with any steamy romance novel. That way you'll warm up in all kinds of ways.

Enjoy!

Missing you...

Thirsty Thursday

Okay, I'm sure this is already out there on some other blog, but dude, I swear I just thought about using it last night. If some one has already trade marked it, I'm sorry. If not... Yay me!

So, here goes. If I can remember, I'll be putting up drink recipes that may or may not go along nicely with a book. Since I am very blonde and also a woman I reserve the right to change this as I go along to suit my own whims. *grins*

We're going to start with Patricia Cornwell and any of the Kay Scarpetta books;

It's my recommendation that when you read one of these books, you should be drinking wine. Now my own personal choice would be a White Zinfandale (I like Beringer's), but I think a full bodied red would be more along Ms. Cornwell's taste.

Holy Crap!!!

I'd like to say I had a really relaxing and pleasant holiday weekend (4 whole days!) I would, however, sort of be lying. It has been a tradition in Jonez's family to go out and shop on Black Friday since before I was adopted in. Now, I'll admit the first year I was intrigued... What is this Black Friday, and how does one go about it??? Yeah. Just in case anyone out there is as naive as I was way back when (11 years ago). Unless you are well prepared, prepare to go down.

I have never witnessed any tragedies (for this I am VERY grateful), however, I have witnessed many acts of rudeness (I'm talkin to you line cutters, pushers & shovers) complete & outright Bitchery (yeah, that's you, stealer out of cart lady), and strangely enough some real kindness (thanks for the use of your phone, unknown lady, when forgot mine).

But this year has to take the cake... instead of going out all early on Friday, we decided to be really stupid and go out on Thursday night. Um... can I just say Holy Crap again?!? So we all (there was 6 of us) piled into a mini van at 11pm on Thursday to go to the outlet mall 70 miles North of us for their Midnight Sale. Kripes! That was nuts. We almost managed to run this guy over in a parking lot cause he just ran right out in front of us. Then we had to wait in line out side The Children's Place because they were too full. There was a woman out shopping who thought it was a wonderful idea to bring her 2 month old along. And some really grumpy pizzeria owners (to be fair we did go in just to use the restroom). And that was just the first place we went.

We spent enough time up there and driving that when we got back to town we were right on time to get to all the 4 o'clock openings (yeah, we didn't really have a plan, totally flying by the seat and all that stuff). So like some geniuses we went to Kohl's (don't do this without a map, list & several friends) and got stuck in line for like an hour (probably only 20 minutes but still - Time Is Money People!) Then we went to Meijer and shopped like we had all the time in the world (by this time it was like 7 and we still had loads more places to go). We left Meijer and decided to break for breakfast... mmm... Then we thought Menard's would be a good spot cause they had been open for a while and should be quieter... yeah I think everyone else had that same idea. That was the idea from hell I tell you. We almost wrecked into like three different people who wouldn't stop long enough to let us get out of their way. Aghhhhh. So we left and went to the South (insert your own scary sound effect here) side of town - also where we were all from anyway (duh some times we can be so slow) and poof... every one was nicer, and dude it was way calmer. So we hit Menard's, Walmart & K-Mart all in like 3? hours, maybe? I don't remember, by then we were laughing at shadows, at one point we almost hit a racoon, a deer & a bear (yeah, the bear was a bush & mailbox but that doesn't mean we didn't see a bear) all in like a mile long stretch of road.

Then we went for the big finish at Darlington Farms (no website, but they're a place where you can get all of those things in the fundraisers your kids bring home for $1.39 each). We finally got home at 1pm on Friday, tired & happy. with a whole bunch of crap!

Also for anyone who read this all the way through, go see this, it's a super fun game (all four chapters).

Merry Gentry

I have been reading this series for a little while now and I must say... Looooove IT! So we have a Fairy Princess who is still going through all of the drama before her "Happily Ever After." Oh, and don't forget, she is totally having sex with anything that might meet her fancy, so she can bring magic back - She's bringin magic back (yeah) them other fairies don't know how to act (yeah). Okay, enough JT.

If any one reading this needs to get some Hott back in their life pick up a Merry Gentry book by Laurell K. Hamilton. Cause let me tell you... Whoo! That shit is fire. I really enjoy series books because I like to get really involved in the character's lives. I also really hate series books, cause then I have to wait... and wait... and w a i t... aghhhh. Stupid authors can't just spit the whole series out at once so I can read it and be done. I truly hate the waiting part can you tell? Anyways... I know there are other sites out there dedicated to the subject of specific books, or series' but I like to read all kinds of stuff, so this is not what will ever happen here. However, I will come back to these books whenever the next one comes out because that is how I roll.

Now, I won't be doing a report or anything like that, all I have to say is that if you enjoy reading romance novels (yay smut) but also happen to like to read books with action, mystery and substance (yay thinking) AND you happen to particularly enjoy reading just because (yay escape) you can have all three in these books. I like to call them cake. Cause you get all the important things (eggs, milk, flour) and all the extra things (butter & sugar) and together they make a really wonderful treat - CAKE.

So go out and pick one of these up (they're in order on the first link) and have yourself a little birthday celebration (you can even use the candles later when you're all heated up and stuff).

Digital T.V.

I am so tired of hearing the PSA's for the change over to Digital Broadcasting that are playing, oh, I don't know, at least every hour on every "free" channel in my neck of the woods. Um... these PSA's have been airing since early this year. Now, I'm not sure if these companies think every one is completely stupid, or they just don't kow that every one has seen them. But either way... I AM SO TIRED OF THEM! yeah, it's that bad. Now for anyone who hasn't seen one, but for some reason reads this blog - here you go -



I can't find any from our area, but I can see how this would be equally annoying. (although at least she's a cute lil ole Lady) I just thought I'd share the pain. Have any of you still not gotten your box, new T.V. or whatever new direction you are going?

Remember - LAZY

I got this from Persnickety Ticker
Um... yeah I totally stole it off of her blog - remember - LAZY

OK, the rules are simple. Copy and paste the list, putting the things you've done in bold. I'm not tagging anyone, just play if you feel like it.

1. Started my own blog

2. Slept under the stars

3. Played in a band
- Does "RockBand" count?

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than I can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyland/world

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis

10. Sung a solo

11. Bungee jumped

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught myself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown my own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept on an overnight train

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitchhiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of my ancestors

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught myself a new language

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had my portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain

53. Played in the mud

54. Gone to a drive-in theater

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason

64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma

65. Gone sky diving

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had my picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chickenpox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a law suit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Had sex outside
- Might I add - Best Sex EVER!

Wake Up Alone

Yeah since I am at a total loss for words I give you this -



Crack-smoking, coke-sniffing, liquor-drinking, and whatever other derogatory things you can come up with can't compete with this voice. If I think about this song too much, I hurt.

Also I love this one -



Thank you for putting up with my lazy. Also enjoy my vocal crush. Who are your favorite voices to listen to...

Just call me "Slacker"

I know I haven't posted in a while, and really there is no good excuse, HOWEVER, I will offer up the only one I have. For anyone out there reading this and doesn't know me, I am LAZY. I am fully aware of this, and I try to work around it most of the time, but it catches up to me occasionally. I also have the added benefit of being a perfectionist on top of the lazy. This together means that if I can't do a job 'perfectly' I just don't do it. I can't allow myself to half-ass anything. I'm not sure what the term is for that, but I think it's just cause I'm lazy. The less things I can do to my own standards the less I have to do. YAY! Only really not so yay when I need to get things done that I know won't meet my standards. I have found that if someone comes over to help, I don't mind so much how things get done cause, I didn't do it all, so I don't need the perfection. Yeah, does that mean I am enabling myself? Hm...



So the real reason I haven't posted anything is not because I couldn't do it to my standard, but just cause I'm lazy. Okay this is not even the post I want to put up, but I'll leave it here just so anyone that wants to know, can.



As an aside, a friend of mine and I were singing karaoke online at her house the other night and it was a total nerdy blast! If you really want to you can check us out here.

Disappointment

All of the posts on costumes and I forgot to take a picture of me, Lu (my daughter) or Jonez. I did get pictures of some of the costumes that I either helped on or did all of.
This is DJ, she decided she wanted to be a dead Prom Queen, so she dug through her closet and found the dress she hated the most, and we destroyed it. She also thought that it would look cooler if she wore it backwards like her neck had been twisted all the way around. So we stuffed the front of the dress and flattened her front. I think if you click on the picture you can see better. The dress has been stained and ripped and all manner of degradation.
This is her front but the back of the costume. We had a grand old time ripping her bow, and tearing her sleeves. She told me getting a good tire tread across her dress was kind of a bitch though. They had to paint the tire with black paint then roll over the dress. Also since this dress was made of some kind of non stainable material they had to paint the blood & dirt on. Rolling around in the mud didn't do a thing once the dress was dry.
This here is Caca, she was going to be a "hoodlum" but we talked her into beeing a Zombie - much more in the spirit of things don't you think? We stabbed and stomped and stained this shirt and pants combo to it's current glory. Oh and I guess if you look closely you can see my daughter's head in this picture. I guess I'll have to make her put her dress on just so I can get a good picture of it.



This is Grandma, she wanted to be half man, half woman. We went good willing and found a pair of pants & skirt to go with this color shirt, Then I sewed them together. Then I made the shirt more girly on one side and added pearls & a tie. She did her hair and make-up the morning of Halloween so she could wear the costume to work.

And last but not least we have - Wonder Woman. This costume was a pain, but it turned out so good I can't complain too much. You can't really see her cape here, but she did a really good job on it. Also not seen are her super stripper boots. They are here if you want to see them.


So you can see the pictures better, just click on them, I had to do all kinds of weird stetching and stuff so they would fit on the page properly.
Now I know I shouldn't be so disappointed but, I really wish I had remembered to get pictures of our little family and not just the members of our bigger family. Oh and the animals did a fine job with all of the people running around in costumes.

yay!

No new posts till Monday, cause I am not gonna be working tomorrow. It's the rare Friday off! Woot! Also since I won't be here I thought I'd wish everyone a great Halloween. Kisses!

It's Wednesday, I'm Lazy

I've strayed

Okay, so originally I thought I'd just blog about books, but it turns out I kind of really like Halloween. So I apologize to anyone who began with me and now is all... WTF girl? I'll be back to books soon. But I thought maybe I could keep going with other random stuff. Who knew I would like doing this so much?!?

Anywho, I just thought I'd update anyone who was maybe a little curious as to how a book blog got turned into who's being what for Halloween, and how I'm helping. I do have some crafty tendancies (insert evil laugh here) as some people tell me, so I'll probably keep going with crafty stuff sometimes.

Halloween is my busy season in the crafty department so it will definately ease off after Friday, however I will post some pictures of various costumes in finished form with the wearer inside, just so everyone can see the finished product.

Tell me if you're doing any costumes this year. Is it something you have to do or something you love?

Captain Schmaptain

Okay, so here we are getting ready for a Halloween party and Jonez decides that Captain Spaulding is out the window - yeah, I totally bitched too much, what? It was way creepy, he is entirely too much like that creepy ass clown guy - Now he is Mr. Lupinya, Pishaw Lupinya (say it out loud) the Russian Assassin. He did his costume all by his little self and everything. Are you ready for this? Top to bottom -




- Plain Black Woolie Cap









- Plain Grey T-Shirt












- Plain Black Trench Coat















- Plain Uniform Pants












- Plain Black Work Boots






Can you say easy? Turned out something like this (only with a 45 cal.)

Yeah... um... everyone (yeah all of them) thought he was this guy -

Funny, but soooo not right!

Aww Crap!

So, I just found out that instead of a werewolf, Jonez wants to be this guy -

Yay me. I am so thrilled. Ewwww. Now I have to get him to decide which version he wants to be, so I know which costume we have to get together. Here are his choices -

In case you aren't familiar with this particular character (yeah, I had no idea who this guy was) He is Captain Spaulding from The Devil's Rejects and I guess he had a part in House of 1000 Corpses too. Either way *shivers* I am gonna have a hard time being around him on Halloween, cause nothing says spooky like a fucking killer clown! I guess I'm off to find him something to wear.

Wordless Wednesday - Canine Edition

I am totally Cheap...

Ok, I totally forgot to take pictures of the girl's costume for the blog (cause I am so blond like that). So, instead of pictures, you're going to get a cheap Christmas idea.

I am nothing if not totally cheap. Here you go: I take pictures for my own pleasure. I'm okay at this if I have enough time to really work with my camera, I am also totally enthralled with putting makeup on other people, and I love to do hair. (Do you see where this is going yet?)

So, for Christmas I am giving the girls under 16 certificates to have a photo shoot with me. Hair & Makeup included. I will then send an 8 x 10 & disc - with all the pictures from the shoot - home with them. This way the parents get a gift too! - See cheap.

However, I'm still not sure what to do for the boys in the family. The photo shoot would still be nice for the parents, but there really aren't too many boys in the family who would enjoy it. That makes it not a gift for them. - What do I do? Help me if you can, I'm open for original ideas.

Once again, I apologize for my blondness. I'll try for pictures this weekend.

Oh! I forgot to tell you... The Wonder Woman costume is coming along brilliantly! We got the top and bottoms sewn together. The belt is made and was being attached last night. I got the eagle drawn and cut out, it was also being attached last night. She's having to do a lot of the sewing on her own, because the band on the bottoms is so very stretchy she has to actually sew it while she is wearing it - very awkward. But once it was all pinned together it looked so good! Also she found these weird beer can coozies that are really 2 snap bracelets glued to foam, that we cut to fit her wrists and added gold lamé to them to make her wrist cuffs - or as she likes to call them - gauntlets - They look pretty good. So now all that needs to be done is - find her a skin toned body suit - make her crowny thing - finish up her cape (if she still wants it) - and add all of the stars to everything. Not really too much.

Then I have to sew the Man / Woman's clothes together so it will be easy to get into and voilá MIL will be done too! - We found her clothes this weekend at the goodwill. Yay! I'll let you know how everything else is going, Monday maybe? Who knows? Not me that's for sure.

Enough Procrastination

So, I am onto a new book. I am now reading Genesis of Shannara - The Gypsy Morph by Terry Brooks. If you don't know who he is, you have probably never read any Fantasy Lit. I'm not saying he's the first, the best or anything like that. It's just kind of like the statement - If you don't know who Stephen King is you've probably never read any Horror Lit. I guess that's not really a good comparison, how about - If you don't know who Shakespear is you've got your head in a hole probably never read a play - no that's not it either. All I'm saying is that Mr. Brooks has an abundance of titles in the Fantasy Genre. Yeah that works.

On to the book itself. It is the third in a series of books coming after The Word and the Void books and before The Shannara books. I started this series completely by accident. I went to the library and saw Armageddon's Children , picked it up because I used to read Mr. Brooks when I was in, I don't know, like middle school maybe? So, I was all, hm... maybe this will be good. And yeah, it was pretty good, but the biggest pull of this series is that he keeps leaving people hanging. I have to read the rest of the books so I know what happens to everyone.

Now I've read the first two books of the series so when this one came out (I was totally watching for it) I got on my library's web site and put it on hold. So come back if you care to see how I feel about it, or if I find another quote I just love.

Also on for tomorrow... My daughter's new costume - still the dead bride thing, but maybe with pictures - If I can freaking remember to take them. o_o I am totally a blond.

Wordless Wednesday