My new home

I'm still here, I promise! I moved to my new place a week ago and haven't had internet until last night so I have been watching tons of DVDs. Here are the pictures of my new place.

Entering downstairs

Upstairs. There is a dresser off to the left

Sorry for the sideways picture. It refused to rotate. But this is off to the right of the above picture

Tiny bathroom. I was pretty much sitting on the sink to get this picture.








So welcome to my new place!

Yikes!

So yesterday was only the second day of NaNo and I'm already falling behind. I think I wrote something like 100 words yesterday so I have...er around 3,000 to write today if I don't want to fall further behind. So...YIKES!

I'm going to warn you now there is a kind of, but not really, icky picture a bit further down of my dog's cyst. It isn't really graphic, but I just figured I'd warn you.

I was also going to try to post some about the Regency dress because I've finished the patterned pieces (not patterning the 60 inch by 40 inch skirt piece and then 60 by whatever back skirt), but I am off to the vet later this morning with my poor little elderly Australian shepherd dog. She has had a cyst the size of a large grapefruit on her side for somewhere close to two months now and it is pretty large. The problem is we have had it drained around 5-6 times by now and it just keeps filling back up so we have to keep going back. It isn't bothering her as far as we can tell, but then you run into the possibility of it bursting (when just makes me gag to think about). Apparently it is common for older dogs to get cysts and they can be caused by just falling and hitting something kind of hard. We are starting to get to the point where we have three choices: keep draining it which there is a risk of infection every time we have it done, surgery to put in a drainage tub (again gagging over here) or surgery to try removing the cyst pocket. So when we take her in this morning we are going to discuss it with the vet.

Cyst (on the left) from above

Slightly hard to see, but you can kind of see the lump of the cyst

Rita, my dog, has been through so much this summer and it is just kind of sad that she has. We almost had to put her down earlier this summer, but she is one strong little girl. I thing Rita's personality was switched with a cat a birth because she is terrified of water, even if it is just sprinkling she will go and hide under the grill cover to avoid getting wet. Well, that makes bath time rather hard. We generally take her to a self serve dog wash place since they have the raised tubs and the dog fur dryer things. She has always tried to escape the water so we go in pairs to wash her so there is a backup person to help keep her in the tub, but in early June/late May the only time in a long time my dad went without me she managed to twist away from his grip while he was switching back to Rita's collar and she jumped out. She slipped and hit her head and didn't get up, even for a treat. Heck she didn't even or rather  couldn't even wag her tail. She was paralyzed from her neck down. So my dad rushed her to the vet. They did x-rays and ran tests, but nothing was very conclusive. We were told that there was the chance that she would recover, but they couldn't tell us to what extent. So we took her home and I sleep in the utility room on the floor next to her so if she needed to go out I could carry her because my mom can't pick her up by herself and my dad had a really early shift at work. When I had to take her out she could move her front legs and kind of support herself on them, but her back legs still weren't moving so I had to hold her up and sort of waddle around the backyard with her. We went back to the vet the day after the accident and they were amazed by her being able to move her front legs. So again we went home, this time we had an appointment a week later that Rita walked into to the shock of all of the people working at the vet's office and us as well.

Sorry for the longwinded post, but if it wasn't this I probably wouldn't be able to post one until Friday.

This is even better than a cupcake covered in frosting and sprinkles!

So I have the date set for when I get to meet my little sister! Of course I'm going to have to wait three months, but at least we have it all set up and ready to go. I'm literally bouncing off the walls at the moment!


C (my birth mother) and I talked for almost an hour and got all the details of flight dates and what not set. And we also proceeded to get into a debate of who was paying for the flight. I've set aside money to go, my parents offered to pay half and C told me before that she has been saving up practically since she handed me over to the agency so that if I ever wanted to come see her she could get tickets for me (and it brings tears to my eyes every time she tells me that). What we decided yesterday was that since she has some sort of frequent flier miles with one airline that she would pay and, in her words, I am "more than welcome to attempt to pay her back while I am there, but good luck on that". I think we are both just as hard headed as the other so it could be interesting. Anywho, I'm planning on spending five days with her and my sister and her husband in February! And I get to see my sis, K, and her school dance team at competition as well. I didn't have a chance before we meet for the first time t put together a photo album of me growing up so I'm planning on making on to take with me that she can keep.

Ugh, now comes the hard part. Waiting...and waiting...and waiting....and guess what? MORE WAITING!


On a separate note NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) starts tomorrow and I still don't really have a plot idea. That could potentially be a small problem, you know, just a really small, insignificant, massively huge, little problem. I'm off to doing some reading of plots up for adoption and possibly adopt a poor, lonely, starving little plot from someone. I am beginning to wonder if I might be crazy to attempt NaNo in the middle of everything else I have going on, but I'm going to give it my best shot. Hello 50,000 words (hopefully) in November! If (when) I figure out my plot I'll let you know.

Crab Rangoon Part 2

So this time around I decided to try adding some say sauce into my mixture and figured that I should probably sort of, but not really follow a recipe. Mind you I'm not gong to be making 48 rangoons during a test so I scaled it down with a few grumbles resulting from trying to do math in my head while converting between teaspoons and tablespoons. I ended up doing the conversions online. I also have read that spraying them with cooking oil will help get them golden brown and keep the ends from getting too crispy.

Grrrrr, still very crispy edges

 The innards of this batch was getting closer to what I want, but still not quite there. Part three will be using some worcestershire sauce in place of the say sauce. Here is the filling recipe from today:

5 1/2 tbsp softened cream cheese

3 tbsp imitation crab meat chopped up

1 1/2 tsp soy sauce

Mix together. Put a small spoonful in the middle of wonton wrapper. Seal wrappers and spray with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

I also got more ribbon today! Be prepared for more bows.

Solid grab bag from The Ribbon Retreat in comparison to Tangie. She then tried to burrow in it.

Baked Crab Rangoon

Well, this is going to be an uncommon thing I can almost guarantee you. Sorry. But you get TWO posts today! This is also because the food won't last long enough to be photographed tomorrow and if I put off this post I'm going to forget.

I have a very nice love affair going on with crab rangoon, but it is also a very picky love affair. The name of the dish along giver you a hint as to what is in it: Carb Rangoon. I'm going to give you three guesses as to what is one of the ingredients and your first two guesses don't count. And the winners are anyone who guesses CRAB! It was a very trick answer wasn't it? And then you have cream cheese, green onion, salt, pepper, mayo (?), worcestershire sauce, fresh ginger, garlic, soy sauce, yada, yada, yada. I'm not a fan of having all that extra stuff in them and no, not all of them are in every recipe. I just like my crab and cream cheese. I also wasn't wanting to fry them so baked it was. Don't get me wrong, I love fried goodies, but I  had gross friend crab rangoon earlier this week so I was attempting to be healthy.

Crab Rangoon

I baked them for 15-ish minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit. They were good, but are missing something (maybe fried taste). Anyway I still have a lot of imitation crab meat and wonton wrappers left and I have to use the crab meat soon so more experiments for taste will occur during the next week or so. I should probably measure next time around too. 

While I was playing with the wonton wrappers I tried a few more things. I either need to spray the foil with non-stick stuff before I try the soy sauce flavored thingys or just fry them. The ones I was trying to imitate were baked so back to the drawing board.

Failed attempt to make soy sauce flavored stick/wafer things. They stuck to the foil. Might have to try frying them as well.

And dessert! I think I need to brush the wontons with melted butter next time before sticking them in the baking cups or try something to get the cornstarch stuff off the wrappers cause it makes them taste a little weird. Or maybe I'll brush it with egg and sugar? They were decent though. No recipe used on it either just some melted butter, chopped apples, cinnamon and brown sugar.

Apple pie in a wonton wrapper

Fun, fun, fun

So I'm going to guess that at least a few you you have heard of Sampler Village. What do you mean you haven't heard of it? Go check it out now...I can wait. And while you are over there and decide you want a box, they are going fast as in there are only 9 left when I checked a while ago.

Ok, are you back yet? I hope so because I'm going to continue on while you wonder why you haven't heard of this funness before. And yes, funness is totally a word. Anyway, today I got my Autumn Celebration sampler box of goodies in the mail. Upon opening the box there were two things in the box: a tissue wrapped something and another box (please insert cheesy dun dun DUNNNN music here).

And it has tulle which is destined for more bow making and more Em Bear modeling

Inside the teal tissue paper was the edible portion of the goodies including Coe's Homemade Style Noodles, a black raspberry lollie, harvest spice sugar cookies, an old-fashioned chocolate chip cookie and a mint. I'm trying to be good and not eat all the sugary goodies at once, but I won't deny that the temptation is there.

And the non-edible goodies in the box I had to divide into two so you could see better. Some of the items smell so good that it is imaginable that they could be edible. I mean, I guess you could eat them, but I don't think it would end very well. And I take no responsibility for it if you try. One of the soaps, Peppermint Tea Soap, was a thank you from Traci who started and runs Sampler Village.

The bath goodies: soaps, lip balm, lotion, soy tarts, soy candles

Other goodies including the tea that was in the box :cupcake toppers, hair flower, paper embelishments

Em Bear was going to come out and model the hair flower since my hair is kinda icky right now since I just went on a 3 mile walk before i got my package, but he went into hiding.

I will say that opening it around Tangie was rather interesting because as you know cats will sniff just about everything and then get persnickety when it is too strong. Then you get the 'you are mean' glare while they slink off to sulk. And I will admit that it can be a bit overwhelming for those of us with sensitive noses after a while. I'm going to sort things out later by scent so it isn't a mishmash of scents combined.

I also can't wait for the Nov/Dec Holiday Hoopla boxes to be out (Dec 1st)!

Links to the Sample Stores in my box (23!!!) (in no particular order) I also haven't tried every sample yet, but when I do I'll let you know:

Groovy Spookieville (Ella Dean was this month's mayor)

Coe's Homemade Noodles

Purrfect Gifts

SBS Teas

Gingerbread Cupboard

e.e. cookies (Temptation was too much. That was one really good cookie!)

Fortune Cookie Soap

Amy's Sweet Dream

South Texas Naturals

Candle Kitty

Hurraw!

Almond's Grace

Just Scrappin' Happy

craftee mcgee's

BirchHillCrafts

Kittycrossbones (not open at the moment due to moving, but open again soon)

A Penny For Your Thoughts

Appleford Paper

Southern Girl Bakery

Favors For Me

Arychic4lyfe

WhysperFairy

Metropolis Soap Co.

On a side note, Jennifer Grey wasn't eliminated last night on Dancing with the Stars! I was really excited about that. Though I still think that the bum slapping on Brandy and partner's part was no necessary and was rather vulgar.

I love opening mail

As some of you may remember I posted about winning a give away from Shana over at Blaze'n'Crochet well, here it is!

Bag full of goodies

Every thing shot (minus the bag)

Em Bear being a bow model

I think Em Bear is going to have a gender identity crisis after modeling the bows.

L to R: Lip balm (wild berry flavor), iron on cupcake patch, owl stuffie and coffee cozie. Em Bear is also wearing a ribbon head band that kinda blends in with his fur.

From left to right: a desk note pad, small notebook, and a 2 year calendar

Somehow I didn't get individual photos of the really fun run-ons and book mark (already in a book, Blue Bloods, which I just discovered I am three books behind since I have read the first 2). I'm not sure how she did it, but somehow Shana got into my head as everything is something I had one my list of things to get and you can never have too many hair things. For example I just finished up my last tube of lip stuff yesterday afternoon and I finished the little notebook I keep in my purse last week during CPR/AED/first aid certification class. And I needed a new purse/bag.

Thank you so much Shana!

And because Em Bear wanted his own picture

Em Bear acting cool (or at least trying to)

And yes my stuffed animals have their own personalities...what are you going to do about it?