Aaargh, crumb season!!!!

New Hampshire has black fly season, Vermont has mud season, California has wildfire season.

Here in Connecticut, we have crumb season.

That’s right. Twice a year, just a couple of weeks before and after the spring and autumn equinoxes, the light from the south shines at a very unique angle.  In some ways, I look forward to it, because it shines in and lights up areas that only are hit by the sun in spring and fall. In that way, I know that spring and/or autumn is on the way.

However.

The light from the south also shines at such an angle that EVERY bit and crumb that doesn’t get swept/vacuumed/wiped up shows on any horizontal service, usually in high enough relief to throw a shadow!!!!

And great leapin’ fragglerockers, it drives me right over the edge!!

I spend an inordinate amount of time wiping, bending down to check for crumbs, wiping, bending down to check for crumbs, etc.  Let me repeat that word — inordinate!!!!

Sometimes, out of total frustration, I use the vacuum cleaner.  Is that gross?  I guess it is, if I have to ask.

Sometimes I just wipe the whole counter/table/stove down and sweep the floor after.

Also gross?  Don’t care!

Thanks to this bi-yearly phenomenon, at a time when I should be cheering the light that is heralding spring, I’m longing for night so that I can turn on soft lighting that won’t show the rage inducing particles.

I am normally so able to let many things just go that would drive other people to distraction — but this just pokes at me like a rock in my shoe.

Thankfully, it’s only twice a year.  It’s like having your teeth cleaned, and easily as much fun!

Liking this a lot….

 

 

 

 

 

Almost done with this journal — 3 more pages to go.

 

 

 

 

 

Best Glue Ever — another shameless plug

This stuff rocks!!

It takes a lot to impress me and I’ll admit that on many things, I sometimes  set the bar a little too high.  But, I’ve been art journaling now for about a year and one of my pet peeves is that in all that time, I haven’t been able to find a glue to do everything that I want it to do. Really truly. I have a box in my craft room that is filled with partially used tubes of  glue that didn’t make the cut.

Best Glue Every by ScraPerfect is by far THE best glue I’ve ever used.

1. It doesn’t string.
2.  It doesn’t have a horrific odor for the neighbors to complain about. It IS sticky — unbelievably so!!
3. It can be used as a permanent adhesive or as a re-positionable glue.
4. It has a super thin applicator point that makes it so precise that it just about makes me cry!!
5. The cover for the bottle has a little enclosed bit for the tip to fit into so that it doesn’t dry up.
6. And finally, if you get it on your fingers, and if you’re anything like me that’s a foregone conclusion, you can rub it off.

Honest!!!

I’ve tried it for just about everything except for collaging some magazine images.  I’m hoping that it holds up there as well, because even glue that claims it won’t wrinkle paper DOES wrinkle it and sometimes I could just about lose my mind trying to get it to lay flat.  Oh I will be such a happy camper!!! I will finally be able to move onto something new to obsess over!  😀

 

 

 

Detox Smoothie Update….

I am nothing if not relentless once I want something.  It might not seem like much but I really want to like these smoothies.

My personal new and improved Marcy version:

• 1 cup of coconut milk
• 1/2 cup of pineapple
• 1 kale leaf (there’s no use in making it if I have to use 3 as the original recipe ordered, the taste of the kale just makes not want to drink it) (Also, I’m going to be using baby spinach once the kale is gone)
• 1 tsp cinnamon — but I might try again and cut down on this, a little too cinnamony!!
• 1 tbsp of honey (shameless plug — I’ve been using raw organic honey, much MUCH less sticky and gooey compared to processed honey and it’s supposed to be better for you)

This was definitely drinkable, with the taste of the kale nearly eliminated. I think I’ll stick with this recipe even if it is a super large size — it’s an nearly full 16 oz tumbler once it’s mixed. Uber filling!!!!

Of Monsters and men — Yellow Light

These guys have the most amazing sound!!!!  Nanna and Braggi’s voices complement each other’s in a very unique way!!!

A story of a detox smoothie…..

A couple of the ladies that I work with have been drinking detox smoothies, and the base ingredient of these smoothies is kale.  I found a smoothie recipe on Pinterest with ingredients that I thought I could live with. I picked up some kale and a couple of other items for it at the grocery store.

I had a premonition when I reached for the kale and the automatic mister came on and soaked my head.  Moving on…

So kale looks like this:

But I can attest that it tastes like grass!!

 

Wow, it is SOOOO incredibly green!!  And it really is this color after you’re done making it.

Thanks to the pineapple and coconut milk, it stepped over the line from OMG this is the worst thing I have ever drank to OK it’s not fabulous but it’s not a plug your nose and chug it down kind of drink either.   The aftertaste leaves a bit to be desired.

All in all, it’s borderline palatable and SOOOOO filling!!!  I think having one of these around 8:00 or so would fill me up so that I don’t snack.  After all, not all nutritious and healthy food tastes heavenly!

I think the next time I make it, I’m going to add half of a banana and a table-spoon of chia seeds. Anything to kill the taste of the kale further. And I’m also going to make it half as big as the one that I had tonight.

Now all I need is a chaser after I drink it…..maybe tequila.  I wonder what wine goes good with kale?

 

Waiting game…..

I have eagerly been looking forward to March 10th this year. Besides the fact that February is FINALLY over,  a few friends and I are running (yeah, no make that walking!!!!) a 5k race here in called the O’Putnam 5K (to tie in with St. Patrick’s Day) with the proceeds going to our local high school activity fund.  It’s a loop course that travels along several streets and roads in our town.

All registered — tee shirt paid and ordered —  plans made where and when to meet –what to do after — and blast it all, it snows!!!!!!!  I’m talking a FOOT of this crappy stuff!!!  It had all stinkin’ winter to snow and it waits until two days before the O’Putnam 5K race!

My question now, is whether they will postpone the race, and I haven’t been able to find anything telling me that will be the case.

Cuz here’s the thing — and thinking of this made me realize that I AM getting older — it’s going to be dangerous running and walking with snow banks that haven’t been pushed back yet, and traffic will be sharing the road with us.  And as in all states that get snow, there are  idiots on the highways that don’t know enough to slow down to a safe speed while talking on their cell phones because they’re UBER important and have to be available day and night and drinking their coffee and smoking their cigarettes and —–  yeah, I get a little “soap boxy” sometimes!

So I’m waiting for The Word — and if it’s not The Word that I’m hoping for, I’m thinking about Plan B, which would be not walking at all, and that would be a shame  as referenced in paragraph 2 above.  But Plan A could be potentially dangerous, especially for ladies like me that have achieved “a certain age”……….

S*I*G*H

 

 

A very easy way to lose weight…..IMHO

Yup, this is essentially my new way of eating.  Notice I said “new way of eating” instead of my new diet.  Because let’s face it, if you’re going to lose weight, you need to change your life, and I started with food.

I needed to find out what works for me.  And after trying Atkins, Weight Watchers, Low Fat, and any number of other ways to eat in hopes of losing weight, I was cruising for something that made sense to me.  I found a website that listed a shopping list food guide for low glycemic foods.  Hmmmmm….

Click to access GI-Foundation-Low-GI-Shopping-List-web.pdf

So I’ve been eating foods only from that list. If you click on the url, you’ll see that it’s a quite extensive list.  The foods that are missing are foods that have been processed, or altered in any way.  Like bread — sugar — chips — cookies — soda — all gone from my house except for my coffee in the morning.  Two sugars and cream.  There are some things you just can’t forgo, y’know?

Okay, getting off the track here. Think about it. A hundred years ago,  there wasn’t any processed anything.  Meals were made from scratch with fresh foods and people didn’t have the weight and health issues that we have now.  It’s so simple.

I’ve lost eleven pounds in about six weeks or so.  Without a whole lot of exercising I might add.  Without being hungry. An added extra — I’m not as “brain foggy” as I was a few months ago.   This is what works for me.  I think it would actually work for a lot of people.  You just have to finally convince yourself that there is no magic pill or magic diet that you can ingest that will melt the pounds off you.  I finally got through to myself on that fact.

Source: naturalnews.com via Skinny Ms. on Pinterest

Winter tipping point…..

Today was/is one of my favorite days of the year — that’s so far as a day in February can be a favorite.  When I went out to get in my car at 7am, the air felt a little different, a little more inviting.  It even smelled and felt better, the cold air wasn’t freezing the inside of my nose.  And best of all, I could hear tweety birds calling to each other — not necessarily spring tweety birds, but they were much more active than they have been all winter.

To me that is the first day that winter starts to think about being spring.  The warmth isn’t there yet, but it’s even better because you know that it’s on its way, even though it’s still chilly.  A winter tipping point, winter starting to tip over into spring.  Noticing those first signs has always been exciting to me.  I like seeing the small changes that I know will escalate into that full blown warm spring day.

But for right now, it’s just starting to think about it…..

Just paint it !!!

Sweet Baboo and I have been kind of going around about our kitchen sink.  It needs to be replaced.

Badly!

Some background.  We did a complete rehab on our kitchen something like 7 years ago.  Baboo had his eye on a composite kitchen sink.  Composite = $69 instead of the $350 sink that I wanted.  Frugal has never been my strong suit, and what I know about sinks could fit in a thimble.  I just let him go with it.

It wasn’t long after we installed said composite sink that I noticed a couple of hairline cracks.  Nothing severe, just visible if you got your face down about 3 inches from them.

Hairline cracks multiplied.  Stains started appearing and nothing would touch them.  Except for toilet bowl cleaner.  Which of course took the finish off the sink and made it worse, although it would be a bit whiter for awhile. The sink strainer and rim were losing their silver color.  I knew it was just a matter of time before my $350 sink would be sitting in the middle of the kitchen waiting to be installed by Sweet Baboo and darling son in law, who is 75% plumber.

I have now been mentioning monthly that we need to get a new sink.  And monthly I have been given assorted excuses.

We’ll do it this winter.

We’ll do it this summer.

We’ll do it this spring.

We’ll do it after we get back from our camping trip.

We’ll do it after (insert favorite holiday here)

etc.

Somewhat fed up, I somewhat kiddingly told him that if I couldn’t get a new sink, then we should just paint the blasted thing because I couldn’t stand looking at it anymore.

So.

I now have a painted kitchen sink.

Honest, I can’t even make this stuff up.