Fleur de Aleta

My husband and I have witnessed the dog watching TV.  This is the first time she's growled at the television though. We were watching a show of animals.  During the show it flashed pictures of animals available for adoption. (Just breaks my heart.  Both of our animals are saved from the shelter.) Penny growled at the TV.  It was even showing animals moving.. they were still shots.  I grabbed my iPhone to take a quick video.

Sometimes Tigger will join us at the kitchen table.  Sitting on a chair, as if to say, "Where's my plate?" The weather was so pretty that we opened the French doors.  It was a little windy, so I used the chair to keep the door open.  As a corner house, we get a nice current through the house.  I saw Tigger on the chair, looking outside. We use a sliding screen so that no bugs get in and Tigger doesn't get out.  He's looking at his HDTV, window of the world.

My mother-in-law she thought it was a rat on the ground.  She looked closer and realized it was a magnolia shedding before it blooms. I agree with her.  They do look like rats if you don't know what they are :)  Below is a picture of a magnolia about to bloom and to the right of it is the "tree rat" about to shed :)

It's addictive, if you haven't tried it yet, you've been warned. My husband actually enjoys the app as well, which is fun :) Here are some of his drawings.... My husband sent this one to my Mom, but she's not a big Lord of the Rings fan. She ended up calling Greg about the picture. I had to laugh at this next one. My husband sent it to his Mom. This last one is Great! My husband drew it for my cousin's son. Greg took a while with the drawing and the app flashed a message "Almost out of ink!"

O M G....  my husband said the Zucchini Boat was the best side item he has had in a long, long time!  Then he said, "It's official.  You cook as well as you bead."  (High compliment considering he's appreciative of my bead creativity .)  After another bite, he followed it up with, "I couldn't have made a better meal."  (We had pork loin spicy left overs with the Zucchini Boat.)  Totally made my day, especially as he has extensive restaurant/cooking experience! We both could be happy with the Zucchini Boat as a main dish, so though I'm calling this a side.. it might be a future favorite for a main too :) Seriously... try this recipe!  I mean... how often does a husband call his MOM to tell his Mom how great a cook his wife has become!  Yes, he did that after we ate! Ingredients: 4 medium unpeeled zucchini one medium onion one fresh tomato Italian bread crumbs garlic basil, salt, pepper Mozzarella Provolone shredded cheese Directions: Cover zu...

We have a soft, flexible, square frisbee that flies well and is perfect for our dog, Penny. If we don't "run" Penny, then she digs holes to China throughout the yard and garden. Frisbee and Laser are her two favorite games. I love the look on concentration on the picture below. Penny looks like she's doing a dance move in the next picture Some more action shots I especially like this next shot. My husband threw the frisbee but it went into the street. I picked up the frisbee and threw it back to Penny. As the frisbee was in the air, I picked up my camera and took the shot just as Penny caught it! In this next shot, my husband threw the frisbee and Penny was coming right at me. I closed my eyes and took the shot. I think it came out great! And when she catches the frisbee, this is how we walk the dog... You've heard of the Leap Test, right?? Penny has the frisbee and her hiney is up in the air, too cute. Bringing her toy inside And of course... we can't ...

This is the second variation for the pork loin I cooked.  I truly thought my husband would prefer the Pork Loin Spicy, but he said he liked both of them... equally.  He said depending upon his mood, either was great - spicy or sweet. After trying the Pork Loin Sweet, he made the comment, "It's like having supper and desert all in one." Pork Loin Sweet Ingredients: Pork Loin Onion Honey 4 Apples (I used Fuji Apples) Cinnamon Sugar Baking Oven Bag Directions: Saute Onions. Core, peel and slice the 4 apples (see below on super easy way to do this) Coat all sides of the pork with Honey.  It's a sticky mess. Put the pork in the oven bag - this is the best way to ensure the pork comes out tender Put Onions over the pork Put cut apples over and around the pork - yes, it's a lot of apples, but it came out yummy Pour cinnamon and sugar over everything.  Ok, I don't know how much, but there was a lot more cinnamon than sugar... Cut about 3 tiny holes in the cooking bag ...

When I was in college, I would go to my classes in the morning and when I came home (at my parents' home), I would go swimming. Even as a young child, I loved to swim. It was one of the reasons my parents decided to get a pool. They saw how much I loved the water. It was something about the quiet of the house, swimming alone, the simple back and forth, relaxing yet moving my body in the water. It's been a while since I swam at my parents, but I did so just recently. After taking Penny to the bark park, I decided to go for a swim and it was wonderful. After the first shock of cold water. You know that second step into a pool? If you can get past that second step, you'll be fine. It took me a little while, but I made it into the water. I did a couple of laps and then realized someone was watching me! A brown and tan striped cat was on the other side of the pool enclosure. I don't know how long it was there, but when it saw me watching it, the cat got down on hi...

My husband asked me how I was going to cook the pork loin.  He wanted to know if I was following a recipe.  The problem with not knowing how to cook something is .... there are so many options to be found on the Internet!  I wanted to use all the ingredients. Some things don't go well together though.  Instead of lumping all the ingredients in one dish, I decided to cook two variations.  Of course, it helped to do so when I realized the package contained two long slender slabs of pork loin. The first is:  Pork Loin Spicy Ingredients: Pork Loin Onions (I used two, but I had enough for both recipes) Garlic (either minced or fresh cut) Liquid Smoke Blackened Seasoning Pepper Salt Worcester Sauce Baking Oven Bag Directions: Saute Onions While the onions sauté, cut little holes into the pork and stuff it with the garlic pieces. Add liquid smoke Put the pork in the oven bag - trust me, use the oven bag, because it makes the pork come out super tender! Add the sea...

My friend, Kristen, sent me an email that I thought was pretty cool. Have you ever played "fetch" with a dog? What about throwing a ball into the pool and the dog goes after it? One photography decided to get a zoom lens that was water proof and took pictures while underwater as the dogs went after the ball. Pretty neat shots! * Note, the email from my friend did not state the photographer's name. If you know it, please advise in the comment section.

Watermelon on a warm summer day. Cool watermelon, just out of the refrigerator - is a delight. My Dad taught me that you have to tap the watermelon and if it sounds hollow, then it's ripe. Good to know. Now, let me tell you a quick story about friendship and watermelon. I could tell you about childhood memories and having fun eating watermelon in the backyard with my cousins or the watermelon fights... or how my Dad brings slices of watermelon to Mom to eat for supper. But no.. this friendship has to do with a little more stink. This happened back in 1995. I picked up my friend, Kim, and we went shopping in my car. She mentioned the smell. I told her that it started a couple of days ago and I couldn't figure out what was causing the smell. It was sticky sweet and putrid. Rotten sweet. Then Kim heard something rolling around in the trunk and asked about it. I covered my face with my hands and cried out, "OH NOOO!!" Yeah, you probably guessed it. A waterm...

X-ray.... X-rated... Xerox copier machine. What about ex-husbands or ex-bosses. I imagine that wouldn't count for a topic because of the silent "e". Ah well, then I'm left with nothing to share for this post. Wishing everyone in blogging land a happy day!

I'm going to ramble for a second about beading, but the neat stuff is at the end :) I'm working on a variety of sea creatures, 3D, beaded animals. One of the beading books I have is titled "Wild Animals." I bought it years and years and years ago. I never tried making the 3D animals, because the peyote stitch made me pull my hair out. I finally did learn the stitch, the simple odd and even count. I can even handle the tubular peyote and round peyote... but add increasing and decreasing peyote while doing odd/even/tubular -- it makes me want to scream. After creating a few sea animals, I became determined to make the sea turtle in the Wild Animals book. It's coming along very nicely. In the below picture you can see the shell. You can't tell it, but the shell is nice and puffy, 3D. Ok moving on. I still have the head, legs and tail to finish on the turtle. Wish me luck! I showed my "turtle shell" to my friends who also bead and they thought ...

When I posted on Facebook for book recommendations, I was given a really nice list of potential reads. And.. my friend, Kim, stopped by for a visit.... and she gave me 16 books! Kim is known for sharing her books, which is super incredibly sweet. But you know, she gets me hooked on these VERY LONG SERIES and some of the books can be very long within those long series. A lot of the ones she's shared have included vampires, werewolves, etc. I did a book review on some of them. So, I started reading this latest series. Book one, titled, "A Quick Bite".... there are some corny lines in it. One example, a vampire said, "We were taught not to play with our food" - meaning don't torture the humans. It's easy reading, most definitely. But this might be the first series that I'm not sure if I want to go past the first book. Anyone else read these?

My husband and I got my parents hooked on blue berry pancakes. This happened while we were on the San Francisco vacation . We bought the blue berry pancakes from IHop for breakfast during our stay there. Dad found frozen blue berries at the Sam's store and made his own version of the pancakes. As Mom says, "They are ugly but they're yummy!" Below is a picture. We went to my parents for breakfast and they served the blue berry pancakes, fresh squeezed orange juice, milk and to the left you can see a plate filled with fruit - slices and layers of apple, pear, plum, banana and strawberry :)

No, nothing happens to your ears if you watch too much TV. This is something my aunt Didi introduced to us: This is actually a nifty idea. My husband likes to go to sleep with the television on. But I like the quiet. My parents are opposites too, one likes the tv on, the other doesn't. TV Ears allows the person who wants to hear something in order to sleep, actually hear the TV while the TV is on OR off. But the other person doesn't have to hear the sound. How nice is that! Didi turned it on and I tried the TV ears... it might also be a great option for someone like me who has bad hearing. Instead of blasting the TV on high, I can wear my TV ears and watch something without my husband saying, "Turn it down." Meet my aunt Didi (Mom's sister) Didi is an artists. She paints in various mediums, draws, makes clay models, does stained glass and is a photographer. I'm sure I'm missing a number of other artistic qualities. She did the beautiful painting...

Another item off of my bucket list - Woot! I have always wanted to go to a performance by the Celtic Woman. I love the music and have down loaded quite a few songs on my nano-ipod. The ladies who sang did an outstanding job. One particular singer was exceptional, come to find out that this is her first time singing on tour with the group. Kudos to her for a job well done! It was enjoyable, not just hearing the songs, but also how the singers would take a moment to talk with the audience. I liked hearing their Irish accents :) The violinist was cool. At times she had the grace of a swan, the way she would elegantly turn the bow above the violin... and then she was energetic, dancing, twirling, flipping her hair... she was twirling 360 degrees around, hair flying, playing fast on the violin... I was waiting for her hair to get caught up in the bow! Great performance. At times an Irish tap dancer came on the stage to join the violinist. It's that stiff kind of tap dancing. I...

When I told my husband that I was going to cook stuffed bell pepper, he replied, "Almost ALL of the taste is from the seasoned ground beef, so make sure that tastes good." It was the best advise and of course, it made a lot of sense too :) Ingredients: Ground beef Bell Peppers Rice Parmesan Cheese Onions, Celery, Parsley Garlic Powder Blackened Seasoning Worcester Sauce Taco Seasoning Salt and Pepper Directions: Saute the onions, then add celery/parsley/other veggies and sauté for a little while (I like them to be a little crunchy) Add ground beef and brown Add garlic powder, blackened seasoning Add Worcester Sauce, just a little bit of taco seasoning and salt and pepper While this is cooking, start the rice. And cut the tops off of the bell pepper; gut the insides to remove seeds. Chop up the bell pepper tops and add to the ground beef mixture. When I knew the ground beef was cooked, I sampled the flavor, added more seasoning/spices until I had it where I wanted it. I can...

Roses and Ribs, an interesting combination, but it's true for this past weekend. My husband and I went with my parents to visit my grandmother. Meet Olive, or MawMaw, as her grandchildren call her: Don't mind the frown, she doesn't like her pictures taken. I think it's where Dad gets his "frown with the camera" idea from. MawMaw enjoys laughing and she LOVES her roses! MawMaw has a huge amount of land. She used to raise chickens, roosters, cows, turkeys and so forth. She's planted rows and rows of vegetables. She'll be celebrating 85 this year and still tends her garden, but she doesn't have the live stock any more. Here are just a FEW pictures of MawMaw's roses. Believe me, there are tons more pictures. She grows roses all the way around her house and in various parts of her yard. Mawmaw calls this her Peppermint Rose: And this is her "Knock My Socks Off" Rose. I thought it was just a bug on the rose. It was cool looking, w...