Squashini

I LOVE spaghetti squash, so I try to plant as many plants as I think I can keep alive. This year I did zucchini too. I was told that I had 3 spag. squash plants and 2 zukes, which is what I wanted. I planted a little spag. squash section, and then planted my zukes a short distance away. I know all about cross pollination, we had squumpkins a few years ago. The largest, orange spaghetti squash around, extremely hard skin, but super tasty.

Anyway, long story shorter, one spag. squash plant was actually a zucchini and with the cross pollination we have squashini. A slightly yellowish, mottled skinned spag. squash, and it's super easy to cut because it has zucchini like skin, but spaghetti squash like innards, except the seeds are zucchini like.

I plan on eating the whole thing by myself, for lunch. I have already cooked it, added some Becel, sea salt, pepper, and roasted garlic.

I sure hope my plant produces more than 2 squashinis.

I'm Backing Up!

And I don't mean going in reverse.
I, Kelli W, have never really backed up my computer. Oh, I started backing up my photos, but after 2 dvd's worth, either the computer froze or I got bored.
We have been having some issues with the computer, something is always saying it's encountered a problem and needs to shut down. If I shut down every time I encountered a problem, I'd never get anything done. Anyway, our computer guy says it's Windows and we need to back everything up and re-install Windows. No problem...the thought of this scares me to death. He says use DVD's, they hold more, like 4 mbs each. Then he asks what the size of my PHOTO folder is. I tell him 14.4 mbs, he is very quiet, then he says "That's a lot of pictures." Which means at least 3 disks for photos, plus the ones for over 800 fonts, 100's of songs, many documents, favourites, email address, etc. Hours of my precious time that I will never get back His recommendation is to get an external hard drive and save everything to it instead of to disk. I can do that! It's fast, it's easy, I just have to figure out what needs to be saved.
And then our computer should run like new again.
I can't wait.

I did so much on Monday and Tuesday that I pretty much did nothing the rest of the week.

-got the van fixed.

-bought Emily some sun glasses, as you can see in the pictures, but didn't find any for me.

-took some pictures, naturally.

-found a few baby spaghetti squash! So exciting.

-went for my walk everyday if memory serves me right, or at least once this week if my memory doesn't serve me right.

-ate some Chapman's Vanilla frozen yogurt and liked it.

-cursed a dog for putting a hole in the fence and then using it to escape. The nerve!

-saw Mamma Mia and loved it. Bought an ABBA cd.

-found out that Kerry knows the words to ABBA songs.

-found a good recipe for Green Bean Casserole from scratch and am making it right now.

-made a few things I'll share later on.

-found a purple yam and glutinous mutant coconut candy at the Oriental Market and was too afraid to buy it. Mutants...Zombies...Radiation...see where I'm going with it.

-didn't watch Fear Itself even though it wasn't about zombies, I did see 3 minutes of it before Kerry told me to change back to Overhaulin' which made me cry because I am such a softy for a big guy getting his ancient VW bus overhauled.

I'm absolutely positive that even though my picture are improving, PW's actions make any photo look good. It's hard not to burn the edges of everything. I think that makes me a pictopyro. (all photos taken with my 50 mm, f1.8, ISO 800, at dusk).

Have I told you lately that I love my camera?

Ready for the weekend and it's only Monday...

We are trying to make a conscious effort to get the dogs out and about, for their health and ours. We took them to the end of a paved road and then up a dirt road and then we walked and walked a good 45 minutes into the forest, all the while I was eaten alive by mosquitoes. I've come to the conclusion that they like my Victoria's Secrets Love Spell smell. I have never gotten bitten like I have this year. I react immediately with a large white welt where the stinker bit me, and it stings when he's sucking my life blood.

I got some decent shots of the dogs, and Kerry and he got some terrible shots of me. I know for a fact that it's not the camera.

We've been watching a fair amount of educational tv lately, not because we want to become educated, but because nothing brainless is on. So we watch what I think might be a 20/20 spin off, not sure because I never pay attention to the title. Last week it was The Outsiders and it was about a guy that lives amongst the bears, not like that guy that got himself and his girlfriend eaten by bears, this guy is totally different, anyways we learned(the whole idea behind watching these things is to learn something)that bears climb trees, black bears and grizzly bears and that it's a myth if someone tells you that a certain type of bears can't climb trees. Soooo...that brings us to this picture...at the bottom of the tree there was a large rock, the tree had about 8 feet of branches cut off to make a 'ladder', even some branches nailed on in a few spots, and it had this 'sign' attached to it. So my brain tells me that if there are any bears, and they can climb trees, this tree with the sign must be like the Block Parent Tree, you grab the rock, use the 'branch ladder' and climb fast. If the bear follows you, you drop the rock on the bear. This is Kerry showing you how it's done.

Dogs, drinking water, from Kerry's pack. After the walk Linus tried to crawl into his ice cream bucket of water, he was that hot. Poor thing, we laughed so hard as he tried to figure out how to get his big self in that bucket.

A squirrel/chipmunk, can't tell. His eyes are red from the flash, I hope, and not rabies.
And this week the show we watched was about kids with Tourette's Syndrome. It was very interesting. It's one thing to actually have Tourette's, this show opened our eyes to how the families deal with it. I found that the evil mosquitoes made me flail my arms and legs uncontrollably while avoiding the blood letting. This was for 1 1/2 hours, I couldn't imagine having to live like that. This is me, killing mosquitoes, looking kind of chunky.

A couple of tired and hot dogs. My friend, Karen is taking a Gel Nails course. She needed some models to practice on and I thought "what the heck? I'll do it." So today was the day, after work she did them for me.
Emily draws almost all day. She learns from tutorials on-line and from reading anime. She has books and books full of drawings like these. She's also taught herself how to draw using her Bamboo tablet and PS7, and now PSE5. We don't know what to do with her. All photos are SOOC and taken with my 50mm lens.

brian and the spelling bee

Sweatshop beginings and other good things

It's taken us awhile, but Emily and I finally finished making her a monster. We had a hard time, Mr. Mochi, the first draft, barely survived his brush with the dingo. He is managing with one arm and is in need of a bath. We decided to start from the beginning with Funkmaster Jingles Twotoothe. Funkmaster because "He looks like a gangster with his sleeveless shirt and toque", Jingles because he has a bell in his innards, and Twotoothe for his 2 teeth.
She did a great job sewing up the top of his head and can cut straighter than I can, tomorrow I have some buttons that need to be attached to some pants and some pj's that need hemming. This teaching her to sew will pay off in spades!

This is it...The last of the cherries. I don't know if it was the fact that this was the end, or if they really were riper, but this last bucket was by far the tastiest. It is even better with the crumb topping and ice cream. This was lunch.
And while Emily slaved away with the needle and scissors, I made 3 little Web Info books. It's hard to see in the picture, what with my fave. lens set at f2.5, but each page has room to record the website, the password and any other pertinent info you might want to record. One for me, one for Emily and one for my Mom. Thanks to Sue for sharing the template. Thanks to Chatterbox for putting out new paper!

Good Bye

We made an executive decision to not watch Fear Itself ever again. 2 weeks ago, it was the gross, flesh eating, voodoo chanting zombie like guy, this week, it was full blown zombies. It was scary, it was gross, and yet we still watched it for an hour. We even talked about not watching it, but I said I had to see the ending, had to. Then I laid in bed and discussed why Shaun slept over at his friends, why he called so late, and what we would do if he came home a zombie. That was the final straw. We will watch re-runs or nothing on Thursday until the new shows start in the fall.

I made some stuff this week. I was very inspired by Donna's Designing Layouts book so I used it to make a few layouts using pictures I had printed ages ago. It feels good to get those done.

I also finished a couple layouts from Tracy Kyle's class I took over a year ago. That feels good too.

I made some cards using the new In Colours.

I got the inspiration for this last card from my pajama bottoms.

Scenes from the Creek

Every once in awhile, I think about how lucky we are to live where we do. We are minutes from everything, the big lake, ski hill, many little lakes, the trestles, mountains, and creeks. We don't ski, but Kerry does mountain bike on the ski hill, and I don't enjoy the beach, much to Emily and Tara's dismay. I detest sand in my cracks, it chafes, I hate the lake weeks, the dead bodies, etc. But I do like going to the creek, we did it lots as a kid, here in town, and in Rock Creek/Westbridge. We swam, fished, and floated in the creek. I love the sound of the water rushing by, it blocks out the sound of everything else. I love the fact the water is moving, so if a dog pees in it, the current has moved the pee water along in milliseconds and I don't have to worry about swimming in it.

All the following pictures were taken with my 50 mm. f 1.8 lens at 400 or 800 ISO. Almost all have the PW actions Boost, Slight Lighten, and Quick Edge Burn. Love them.

Emily's new bathing suit. She's convinced we can wear the same sized clothing, bless her heart!
That's our Flying Dutch Girl, Sally, running through the water, love those ears.
Kerry's water shoes, NOT. He doesn't have white socks on, that's just his crazy farmer's tan. He decided to wear shoes and socks to the creek and then declared that he would wear his most beautiful LEATHER shoes into the creek, minus the socks. He says he planned it that way. I plan not to buy him new shoes when he discovers these ones are toast.

Looking for Linus's contact lens.
I wish everyone was looking at me, but why would they? They never do. Anyway, see that fallen tree behind Kerry's head, it goes across from the island to the bank. Emily decided to try and climb across it, or slide across on her bum, notice the branches, anyways, she didn't make it very far before we heard the squeak of her falling over the sound of rushing water. It's not a good thing that she fell on the rocks but I did notice that the water under the tree is significantly deeper than the rest of the creek, because I saw Linus actually dog paddling in it. If she had fallen in there, she probably wouldn't have gotten all scraped up, but we probably would have lost her to the current and found her in the lake.

Sally is making me a jaccuzzi foot soak. Such a thoughtful girl! This is especially nice because I had just finished whacking my foot on the rocks to dislodge the bug on my toe.

Linus after the swimming, with grass on his nose, like always. Such a handsome boy, even if he is wet and smelly.

Linus, after the after swimming pose, but before being allowed in the house, with grass on his nose again, it's a different piece. Kerry is drying the baby off, with my good towels.

It's my Mom's birthday today. Me and Emily are taking her for lunch before she heads off to work. I think everyone should get the day off on their birthday.

Still no word on the postponed Anime Evolution Convention, I think we should still go on our trip, Kerry says maybe not. Maybe would should do some stuff around here, which would bring us back to the top of this post...

I've only got a minute

I am the kitchen minion to a small private tea party today. Emily and Eli decided to have a tea party this afternoon. I had to pick up a few groceries so that they could have some decent tea party food. I know I could have tossed them some carrots and some freezies and locked the door but they were so cute making their plans that I had to try and make it better than that.
Jaynee and Eli made brownies and I, without any helper, made cupcakes, and finger sandwiches and poured a bowl of cornchips and cut some pickles. They have iced tea in the tea pot and frozen yogurt tubes for later. They are sitting out on the patio furniture, dogs are not allowed out either, which makes Linus cry.
This means I get the toss offs for lunch. I had Lipton's French onion soup with the crusts from the finger sandwiches and the broken mini cupcakes. At least I got my can of diet Coke. I think my shift finishes soon and then I can enjoy my CK that came today.
I feel like a house elf. (I just finished re-reading Harry Potter again, what do you expect?)

This Week in Review

We got a 'real' patio set. A grown up one. Matching chairs, table and umbrella. Had to, after Tara and Jaynee complained about how uncomfortable our plastic green chairs were. Jeez...you feed them, put them by the pool, make them iced coffees and they complain about the seating. Talk about peer pressure.

Anyway, that's not the exciting part...you know on Christmas morning when the kids play with the boxes and not the good stuff that came in them, it happens with everyday stuff too. It happens with grown ups and dogs....Here's Kerry and Linus in their fort. You would not catch me in a box with that dog...He gives hot boxing a new meaning.

I applied my SU Decor Elements to our side door. This is the door we use all the time, so I thought it would be better here. A W for Welcome, or Women Rule, Wonderful, or Wipe Your Feet, Watch Out(dog warning), Work in Progress, Williams or Woof. I quite like it. It wasn't the easiest thing I've ever done, if you've seen me work, I'm not a measuring girl, but you so have to be if you want this stuff to look good. And you have to do lots of rubbing, you might get bubbles, which if you look really close on the other side, you will see, but if you say anything, I won't open the door. Plain and simple. (with lots of patience and rubbing, you can get rid of the bubbles)

I haven't been taking that many pictures, but when I did, this is what I got. It's common knowledge that no one is safe, and if you don't move fast you will be a subject. And that's why I have a picture of this icky fly. See, my camera is soooo awesome it can make this fly look good, even though he probably just came from a pile of poop or something equally nasty to humans but delicious to flies. I think he looks like Jeff Goldblum.

Here's a slightly better picture...I would probably scream more if a ladybug landed on me than if poop fly landed on me. Don't know why. It's supposed to be lucky if a ladybug lands on you, if a poop fly lands on you, you stink.

For year's we have had these pop bottle bird feeders, not attractive, but they hold up in the weather. Only thing is, we haven't had any birds. Zilch, zero, nada, none. But for some reason this year we have lots, even though we live in the shadow of the meat eater. I guess little birds like to live dangerously. They are porking up too. We have to fill the 2 litre bottle every other day. Sometimes, one bird will sit at the feeder and eat and toss seeds to the birds on the ground, very smart, very nice to share.

Kerry's at Silver Star mountain biking today, Shaun's at work at the Harvest, Emily is still sleeping but has beach plans with the Ways, so I get to hang with my peeps today!!! I will be trying to be creative, and as I have been trying to do for months, searching for the 2 or 3 packs of flowers I bought a few (6) months ago. I know I have them, I remember opening them, fondling them, and putting them somewhere, but I just don't know where. I picked up Donna Downey's layout book and am feeling very inspired.

UPDATE: after months of looking I finally found my flowers. I mean really, who's idea was it to take them out of their original containers and put them in an empty SU Hodge Podge Hardware tin?

News from the trenches...

that's the Cherry PIcking Trenches, of course.

We started picking, and then stopped. Cherries are later this year, but our cherry fruit fly spray was put on 21 days ago and the info sheet says to "pick in 21 days to avoid re-infestation". I read that as "pick on the 21st day to avoid worms, pick fast, eat faster".
But it's the 22nd day and the majority of cherries aren't as ripe as they should be. Never mind that we have picked 15 pails. They were ripe enough. We've given 6 pails away, eaten 1-2, have 5 sitting here and are in the process of drying 2 pails.
So we are waiting until Sunday to see if the rest of the tree ripens up, either way, the cherries are coming off.

What I have learned....
-Cherries stain, they stain your clothes, kids' faces, fingers and nails, and counter tops.
-I can eat half an ice cream bucket of cherries with no ill effects.
-Spending what seemed like a lot of money on a cherry pitting machine years ago was a VERY good idea. After washing, and de-stemming an ice cream pail of cherries, I can pit it with my handy-dandy Kirsh-o-Matic in less than 10 minutes. I think that's between 5-7 lbs.
-Drying cherries is a good idea, even if it takes 24 hours to dry 2 ice cream pails worth and 1 hour to eat them.

Sneak Peek

It's like Christmas in July at my house!


I have a preview of some of the new products from the 08-09 Idea Book and Catalogue.


This is the new scallop punch. Love it.

Brilliant Blue is on the left, Pacific Point on the right.

Old Olive, left, Kiwi Kiss on the right.

Cameo Coral on the left, Tangerine Tango on the right, it's orange.

Sage Shadow on the left, Baja Breeze on the right, it's bluer that I thought it would be.
Pretty in Pink on the left, Pink Pirouette on the right.
Bravo Burgundy on the left, Red Riding Hood Red on the right. Looks kind of bright be we need other types of red. The flowers on top are the original Classic Ink colours as pictured above. The bottom row of flowers are the new In Colours, in the following order...

Pacific Point, Baja Breeze, Tangerine Tango, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss twice.

This is a W from the Decor Elements line, think wall art, mirrors, picture frames, windows...

The ink pad is for size reference.

This one is going in my scrapping room.
Buttons...