The Day Trader Joe's Made Me Cry

Last weekend wasn't my best. I was nervous about my surgery, but what was really getting to me was wanting to get the house decorated before. I was told I'd feel pretty good within a couple of days, but that didn't factor in the sinus and lung infections! Still, I have Energizer Bunny characteristics when under the gun, so I decided I would power decorate the house before. And I was making headway!

One tree up -- but this photo is from last year!

(The main reason for this was that I wouldn't be able to lift my arm above by shoulder or carry more than 10 pounds for a week to ten days.)

An Artful Weekend

I confess, I needed a wonderful weekend. A mellow one, with few obligations and much creativity and fun.

I decided to take cue from Beth L. at Gathering Dust and "make time!"

First, time in the art room -- here are a few projects I completed...

The "Cloth Paper Scissors" snowmen -- if you get the magazine, you may recall seeing snowfolk on the cover an issue or two ago.

I did two as prototypes. (I did three, till I broke the head...)


I'm rather fond of them, and I'm quite sure I'll do many more over the upcoming months.

I also spent time finishing up tags for Karla's "Puppy Love" tag book swap.

I'm looking forward to seeing the terrific tags others will do!

And to top it off, I had a great deal at Kroger with fabulous prices on fresh blueberries! It had been so many months...! I enjoyed making a blueberry pie! (Along with quite a wild and zesty pasta!)

In the evening we enjoyed the musical version of "Goodbye Mr. Chips" with Peter O'Toole and Petula Clark. No, it wasn't as divine as the original, but captivating and delightful in its own way. I remembered it when first released, and so did rick. It was fun to see it with more adult eyes.

Sunday Kate and I did a road trip to Trader Joe's in Ann Arbor. The flowers simply dazzled me.
As always I found lots of tasty things but my favorite purchase was a bouquet of beautiful roses!

Then it was off to Hollanders, a fabulous art/paper and stationer's store. It was hard to choose from all the beautiful papers for Rick's Valentine gift.

And then there were plenty of other lovely things to enjoy. Walls of boxed notes, racks of cards, books and magazines galore.

I didn't get one of these erasers, but I LOVED them!

Even the storyteller was captivating! How many art stores have a storyteller?

While in the area, we stopped at a new spice store and a place that had so many cool things for collage (game pieces, old photos, etc.) I simply couldn't start to buy things because I knew I wouldn't stop!

All in all, a splendid time, capped by dinner at Rick's (yummy Japanese food)!

And now, back to the regular world!

Jeanie's VERY Unmeasured Pasta Sauce

There's nothing special about this sauce and probably quite like the ones you make -- highly flavorful, though. Enjoy!

Brown about one pound of sweet Italian sausage with a small onion, several cloves of garlic and 4-6 large mushrooms, sliced.

Add about 10-12 diced (and pitted, obviously) Kalamata olives
Add 2 T. capers
Add 1 large can crushed tomatoes
Add about 1/2-3/4 c. red wine (I just wing it)
Add about 3 T vinegar
Spices -- 1 T or so of basil, oregano, thyme, whatever you enjoy
Salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes

Serve over mini-penne or other pasta.

(This really is probably almost everyone's pasta sauce!)

Play Date!

How fun to have an old friend visit and just take the day to play!

Suzanne and I have known each other for 40 years this year, meeting in high school through drama productions. We managed to stay friends ever since and grow together (versus growing apart). We still share so many of the same interests – knitting, craft, books, movies, theatre, travel, good food and shopping!

So, her visit had to include a number of those elements!

We headed to Ann Arbor for some shopping, first stopping at Cabela’s in Dundee, Michigan. They have these huge dioramas of the outdoors, and while stuffed animals aren’t quite my bag, they did make for fine, immobile wildlife subjects! I especially liked this white wolf.

Next stop: Barnes & Noble, where I found a tapas kit with cookbook, skewers, plates for $2.50 on sale from Christmas! Also found a great calendar to rip up and mix about for ATC elements! Then off to Trader Joe’s – a favorite! My purchases included apricot-stilton cheese, interesting dried fruit, their wonderful salsa and roasted red pepper soup!

I liked this cheery cat by their bulletin board and the beautiful flowers which reminded me – on that dark, gloomy day – that spring would be here someday!

From there we headed back to Lansing and the famous ThreadBear fiber arts, an enormous knitting store (their website is linked to this blog – check it out!). We both made purchases, though I was somewhat self-controlled! But aren’t these colors unbelievable?

Dinner time – one of my favorite Lansing dives – a Mexican restaurant called El Azteco. Then we picked up Rick and headed to the movies for Sweeney Todd. It was almost filmed in three colors – black, white and red. Lots of red. I’m a Stephen Sondheim fan, and this is a favorite, albeit a gory one! I enjoyed it, but confess I was glad we didn’t pick it for New Year’s Eve!

Christmas presents (yes, still!) followed. Suzanne shops well for me and all were perfect, but one of the most fun was knitting needles that light up in the dark!

Mr. Gyps loved it!

The time flew too quickly! But it was such fun. Now I have to get something on those needles!