Change is Good... Right?

OK, so life is sure to bring about bigger and more important changes than this one, it certainly has in the past. But still, change is a process... This month's change - I am (gulp) leaving the world of paper scrapbooking and entering the world of digital scrapbooking. Actually its more of a hybrid since i still plan to add some real embelishments. Anyone who has seen my craftroom will have an idea of how significant this change is. But the reality is i just don't spend as much time crafting as i used to. And when i do enter the craftroom i use my time making cards and smaller projects. Lets face it, its been almost 18 months since our wedding and i have scapped all of 5 pages of it. Time to switch to something a little quicker. Tom uploaded his old copy of Photoshop CS3 and was been quite patient when trying to teach me how to use it. It certainly has a learning curve, but its what we had available and i promised myself that if i was going to make this switch it would not cost us money in the form of software and equipment. I have found many nice kits paper and embelishment kits online that are free. I thought i would share my first project with you. Actually, that was another reason for wanting to make the switch, so many of our family members are not able to visit our home (at least not often) and this is such a fun way to share our lives! Overall I am pleased with it. I wish I had made the flower smaller, it seems every time i look at the page that flower has grown larger! And i wish i had taken the time to figure out how to put an in edge so my photo's looked a little more "real". Other than that i am happy with my page. 

The print is very small since this is actually a 12x12 page shrunk down to photo size for blogging purposes.

Our Second Year as Home Owners...

We have owned our home for two years! When we bought the house we posted pictures of the painting process but since then we haven't posted much about our home. (or posted much at all really... sorry about that!) There are still many things I would like to do with our home - like tear out the carpet and linolium and replace it with hardwood and tile. All in good time...


I thought an update would be nice, so i will start with the "living room". It was the one room on the first floor i wasn't sure what to do with. Its turned into a sitting room of sorts and not so much a living room. I am sure that this room as well as other rooms in the house will evloved over time. For now i wanted the living room to share a story of sorts. I wanted there to be some Chinese influence - that part isn't as dominate as i would like - its difficult to find nice accents in Indianapolis that fit... :)  Its a work in progress, but i like where its going. I need some things for the walls...


This view is taken standing near the front door of our house I have always loved the large squared shelf in the center of the room, but in this house it never found its place like it did in my apartments. We moved it into the living room and decided to fill it with things from our lives. I few of my favorites - the house on top is actually a card holder from our wedding. To the left of that is a picture Don took at our wedding. He custom painted the frame to compliment the picture and gave it to us when he visited in March. If you look closely in the shelf's squares you will see memento's from our wedding, craft projects, pictures of friends and family and pieces from here or there that we enjoy.

The nested shelves to the right of large large squared shelf - This is my favorite part of the living room - i stiched the beads on the lamp myself (they match the beads on the curtains, which my mom made for us) The dried flowers are the flower's Michelle carried at our wedding.

The table and chairs are borrowed from my mom, i'm hoping i can keep them for a long time :) On the table is the tea set from our tea ceremony.

The Library/Office

Originally this room was intended to be a dinning room. Tom and I decided to convert it into a library/office space. My dad made us the beautiful build in book shelves. I was startled to realize that once all the books were out of the boxes we had nearly filled our space! My mom made the window treatment and also covered the ikea chair with matching fabric. Tom installed the overhead light, which was part of last years birthday present.

I have always loved dogs, as has Tom. In the background are dog books, including 3 James Harriot books (thank you Aunt Karen for introducing me to this author many years ago) You will see that there is a leash and and neck tie on the shelf. Both belonged to Joe, who we miss very much.

Our library would not be complete without a tribute to space exploration - some of these items originated with Tom (like the Mercury figure and The Right Stuff book), however most of these items are mine - mementoes Tom has given me in honor of my love of the Apollo program and the Shuttle program.

Thanks for exploring a few rooms of our house with me!
In other, more important news - At long last tickets have been purchased for a trip to Malaysia/Singapore. We are soooo excited! Tom will be home for Christmas this year and i suspect i will get to meet a lot of family :)

A new way to use up coleslaw mix

We haven't updated this in a while so I thought I'd add this little recipe that I'd make when Dori's in the mood for soup.

Got a huge bag of coleslaw veggie mix in your fridge but sick of coleslaw?  Well, fear no more!  Here's a healthy, hearty soup you can make out of it....

Grab:

6-7 stalks of celery

2 medium onions

6 carrots

Your leftover coleslaw veggies 

Along with...

A can of diced tomatoes

A can of V-8 juice (8oz)

3 cans of beef broth (8oz)

1 packet onion soup mix

Raid the spice rack for....

Onion powder (2 tbsp)

Garlic powder (2 tbsp)

Black pepper (1 tbsp)

Cayenne pepper (1 tsp)

Parsley (1 tbsp)

1 bay leaf

Would be nice if you had....

A smoked ham hock or leftover smoked, pulled pork (About 2-3 cups worth)

And a 4-quart pot to put it all in.

So chop up the celery, onions, carrots and coleslaw mix and just toss it into the pot like you see on the Food Network.  Toss in the ham hock or pork next.  Then throw in the spices, onion soup mix, V8 and beef broth. Finally, pour some hot water over the the whole mix until everything is covered.  Heat until boiling, stirring constantly, then cover, lower to a simmer and let it all sit for a an hour and a half.  

Serve hot with a dash of Tabasco, more salt to your preference, along with buttered rye bread.  Great for cold weather!  Put the leftovers in some food containers and refrigerate for up to three days, and after that I'd recommend that you freeze the lot.  The best part about this is that the flavors improve as long as they're in the  fridge.

Alternatively, if you don't have coleslaw cabbage, use a head of fresh cabbage instead.  Cut the core out and toss that in with the rest of the soup mixture.  The cabbage should be chopped up into 1" square pieces.

walkin' in memphis - last day

Sarah is all dressed up for an afternoon with the girls.

I can't believe my flight leaves tonight, our time went so fast! Today we are going for lunch, then a little shopping. And hopefully we will find some cupcakes!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Walkin' in Memphis - Day 3 - Downtown

Today Janelle, Sarah and I explored downtown. We had a great time eating lunch at Huey's, taking a peak at Beale Street and walking along the Mississippi River on Mudd Island. My time here is going by really fast!! Today Sarah let me hold her for awhile, that was a fun moment. Sarah prefers her momma, so there isn't a lot of lap time, but i get all kinds of smiles whenever I talk to her, so we are for sure friends! (Buster on the other hand is more than happy to sit in my lap!) We had dinner at Corky's BBQ, which was excellent. Now we are just chillin' in the living room, getting ready to watch a movie. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings! 

Who could help but love this baby?! 

Momma and Sarah, ready for lunch at Huey's

Sitting up like a big girl in the high chair

Toothpick's in the ceiling - put a toothpick in the straw, 

use the straw like a blowgun and stick the toothpick in the ceiling

3 kinds of sliders on homemade buns! 

Beale Street

A very small part of St. Jude's 

Downtown Memphis

Mississippi River from Mudd Island 

Mudd Island River Walk

Houses on Mudd Island 

Walkin' in Memphis - Day 3

Holdin' myself up!!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Walkin' in Memphis - Day 2 - best picture of the day

Lovin' the stroller ride

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8

Walkin' in Memphis - Day 2 - Memphis Botanic Gardens

Today we spend the afternoon at Memphis Botanic Garden, it was a little early in the season for some flowers, but it was still very pretty. We had a great time walking around and enjoying the weather. Sarah sat up in her stroller like a big girl! She did a great job, although there was a time or two that she got annoyed with us. So much fun to just hang out and have good girl time. 

Sitting up like a big girl!

pretty 

shasta daisy

in the "big backyard" kids garden

there was a great play area for kids

4 leaf clover

biggest clover i have ever seen

hi!

play house in kids area

swingin' with my momma

random funny moment - i wanted to use the "facilities." 

To bad the giant window was stuck wide open!

Janelle and Sarah blocked for me!

took lots of pictures, she never once looked at the camera!

then we tried the white flowers for background

But Sarah did not like this like idea AT ALL! 

dogwood 

Japanese Garden

Random stack of target carts. No idea...

Walkin' in Memphis - Day 2 - Buster

Meet Buster the Boxer. He is my newest fur friend! We have met before, but this is the first time we have really hung out and got to know each other. Now we are buddies! Buster is a sweetheart who has NO idea that hes a bit large to be a lapdog. I'm laying on the couch watching tv on my laptop. Suddenly there is a small calf.. err, i mean a boxer, making room for himeslf next to me on the couch. Except there isn't room, so he just tries to take a nap on me instead. I've also found he likes to "sneak" into bed for cuddles. Except he isn't very stealthy! Buster, please don't tell the crash cat i'm cheating on him with a dog. I'll be in soooo much trouble!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8