Birthday Continued

And it gets better.....daughter sent me two apps for my iphone; she is feeding my digiscrap addiction. An app that lets me transfer photos back and forth wirelessly between iphone and computer. No more emailing myself. And an escrap app that I look forward to using. Now I can digiscrap on vacation!!!!! I do so go into withdrawal when I am away from my computer with PSE and MM installed.

Hubby bought me a book store gift certificate. He tried to find a digitalscrapping book but they had none (they never do....) and I have actually bought all that are published, from Amazon. So I will go and buy a book to read.

Am going out for sushi tonight. Have been craving that for awhile and we have a Groupon. The downside (actually upside) is we have to eat $45 worth of sushi. Oh, I can SO do that!! I will try and remember to take pictures of my food before I inhale it!!!

Birthday

What can make a 63rd birthday tolerable? This edible arrangement from your son and his family! I did a happy dance when i got it. Lots of chocolate too. Yummy!

Unfortunate style

Why oh why did my mother put my hair into a ponytail? But then there are the knees.....

Dingbats

I discovered dingbats today.  I read a tutorial in PSE magazine again and decided to explore.  Dingbats are fonts that are drawings instead of letters.  I downloaded a whole bunch of free sets.  Then I made this border (I colored the dingbat just like you would a coloring book.  Fun.)

Do not know where the black background comes from. The background is actually transparent. Blogger put the black on it.

I just had to try it out in a scrapbook page. Since I have committed to rework the McLeod album pages, I used it on a new pic I was sent of my older cousins. voila.  Since this is a heritage photo, I desaturated the colors in the flower border.  I realize that the dingbat design is not heritage, but it is cute, and it IS a picture of children..............

Zeuss Land

We also spent a day at Universal Theme Park. The destination was Harry Potter fir Sawyer's birthday, but alas, that segment is small and the crowds large. We had to get a time pass and it was for 6pm. So we spent most of the day in Dr Zeuss land. It ended up being lots of fun.

Disney

Spent the past week in Florida with my grandkids and their parents. Did a 12 hour marathon at Magic Kingdom. As we left the park, the Electric Parade was a grand sendoff.

Kung pao chicken

Got a recipe from newspaper and made this last night. It looks better than it tasted. But hubby did like it. I usually do a sweet/sour type glaze on chinese stirfry and this was strictly savory. Too salty.

The technique I did like, though, was to mix chicken cubes in a slurry of cornstarch and water. Made a nice crust. Although I am using my deep fat fryer next time. That oil in the skiller splattered everywhere!

Barbie's Birthday

I spotted this tweet today and it caused me to reflect on my own "Barbieless" childhood.
From Magnum Photo tweet:
This week in 1959, the first Barbie doll made her debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York.

I was 11 years old when Barbie appeared.  My mom did not approve of the doll.  Of course everybody I knew got one eventually.  Except me.   My Mom compromised with this doll:

My mom bought me Elizabeth instead. I also had the Ginny Doll (My name for her, anyway).  My mom made extensive wardrobes for both.  I still have those clothes, as well as the dolls.

Research update:  I was quietly trimming edges off scrapbook pages to put in an album when the name "Cindy" floated into my mind (or maybe Sissy....it has been many decades).  That was really my name for the doll (I think it morphed into Elizabeth in my mind when my mom made the Queen Elizabeth outfit for her) I could not believe my mom actually spent money on a Madame Alexander doll, but then I discovered the reference to this: Cissette arrived two years after Cissy as the smaller, cuter and more affordable version of Alexander's popular glamour doll. The same mold was also used for other dolls during the Cissette period, including Sleeping Beauty (identifiable by her flat feet), Margot (with heavy eye makeup and upswept hair) and Jacqueline (heavy eye makeup and sidepart hairstyle). The mold continued to be used for the Portrette series and other dolls in the '60s, and is still in use today. Cissette was reintroduced in the late '90s.  Note the "cuter" term.  Mine WAS cuter than Barbie.  My mom would surely think her more suitable than Barbie.

More research:  This other doll I named Ginny and I found out this online:  Little Miss Ginger remains among the smallest of the fashion dolls made during that time period.

I got my first Barbie doll when I bought one for my daughter. I still think the Elizabeth doll is prettier. Barbie made it, though. The power of Marketing.

Japanese dinner

Inspired by Mad Hungry with Lucinda.
The salmon is pan seared and glazed with soy, honey, and sesame oil. Thevspinach was wilted this afternoon, dresses with vinegar, soy, sugar, and sesame oil and chilled. Steamed rice. Jenni's roasted sweet potatoes. Melted coconut oil, brown sugar, coriander, s&p poured over the potato chunks and roasted til caramelized at 350•

Breakfast

Easy oatmeal. Put raw old fashioned oats in casserole. Add flax meal and frozen blueberries. Pour water over just until mixture is submerged. Microwave For 2 cups oatmeal I did three minutes. Serve with milk or nondairy beverage. Leftovers warm in microwave, so make a big batch like I did. For one serving just use 1/2 cup oats.

Snowy page

I am continuing to scrap my old photos of my grown kids. Here Jason is building a cute snowman. I wandered through my snow themed didgi stuff and used a clever template. This is harder than it looks! Quick pages are so much easier!

Picture Size

Regular readers might have noticed that the pictures I blogged from my iPhone just got smaller.  When I upload them to the blog there does not seem to be a way to adjust their size and they swallow the page.  I discovered I can log in on my desktop and shrink them.  So I did.  Looks much better

Yummy burger

We used our gift certificate for dinner at The Wine Shop in Foxcroft Village last night. We had a lovely bottle of wine, a cheese and charcuterie platter, truffle pomme frites, and this yummy burger. Leftovers for lunch today.

Thanks, Jason and Lindsay, for the enjoyable evenung!

Doggone Cute Cake

My grandsons are lucky. Their mom makes clever cakes for their birthdays. I need to go through my pics of their birthdays and collect the cake pics for a scrapbook page.

This is the cake she made for Grif. Cutest cake I have ever seen. Wish I could have seen it in person! (we are spending next week in Orlando with them....but the cake has been eaten)

Buffalo chicken

Here is a pic of the final product. The secret to crock pot wings is to crisp them in a hot oven before serving. Any sauce recipe can be used in the crock pot

Chicken wings

I am preparing buffalo style chicken wings in the crockpot. Here are the 'chicken wing portions' as named on label. What is missing? Drummettes.

I will be aware of the terminology next time. At least we won't be fighting over the drummers portions.

Chicken labels

See this label?

Spring is springing

Got the full blogging app today so am uploading a picture of a "popcorn" tree ready to explode into a frenzy of white flowers. These Bradford Pear trees grow fast and fall apart. Our neighborhood has lost a lot of them but we have enough remaining to put on a real show every March.

Blogging from my iPhone

I just found this blogger app that should let me blog from anywhere I am with my new toy. This is a test. Since it seems to work, I will download the full app so i can also post pictures i take with my phone. Wonders will never cease

Bacon for Brasket

I'm on a roll with blogposts.  You might not hear from me again for awhile.

Anyway, I love this picture of my son when he was little.  I love the way he is examining his bacon.  So I played in PSE and made this page:

End of February

February breathed its last yesterday.  It was windy all day, and bad storms last night (which missed us except for the rain).  Today is March 1 and it is gorgeous.  No wind.  No rain.  Which means this month is really gonna get us at the end.  Oh my.

Anyway, in attempt to become a better food blogger, I took photos of the dinner I made last night.

Phillipine Vinegar Chicken legs, rice, and wilted kale with garlic and balsamic.  Delicious.  I admit to forgetting the whole peppercorns and it tasted just fine, without having to pick out all those peppercorns while eating, so I recommend to omit that ingredient.  Just grind in more pepper.

Fresh strawberries, sprinkle with brown sugar and let it dissolve a bit.  Then for the aha finish....I opened a bar of dark chocolate and took out my garlic grater and grated some chocolate on top.  Oh my.

Squirrels

I have been having fun looking at all the free wallpaper pics available to my iphone and downloading them to play with in PSE.  I saw this picture of a squirrel and decided to share my squirrel story with you.

Yes, he is cute.  I have a lot of squirrels in my backyard.  Probably because I have so many trees.

Many years ago I decided to get a bird feeder.  I went and bought one designed like this one:

You see that rod at the very front?  Well, it is what the bird has to stand on it to get food to drop into the feeding tray.  If a squirrel lands on it, the seed feeder slams shut and nothing comes out.  The squirrel is too heavy.  OK.  That is exactly how it works.  

My squirrels spent hours trying to figure out how to get into it.  Without success.  Then one day I saw a squirrel literally hanging from the feeder, holding on by his paws, which were gripping the sides of the feeder, not touching that pressure sensitive rod.  His chin   was pressing on said rod in order to get to the food.  His head is the same weight as a bird.

Guess what I did?  I marched outside, unhooked the feeder, dumped out the rest of the seeds, and shoved it into my garage.  Several years later I took it to Goodwill Donation Center.

By the way, don't think my actions caused the birds in my backyard to be underfed; neighbors to either side of me have built  bird havens for the feathery friends.  I get to enjoy them as they fly back and forth.

So that is my squirrel story.