Fabulous Fakes

Back when I was a younger woman, the only way to make Christmas candy was to pull out the big heavy cast iron pot, and slave over the hot stove, in the hopes that, what ever you were making, would not burn.
Otherwise it was trashed and you had to start over.

I guess it was about twenty or so years ago now, that I attended a women's night with my church, where they proceeded to amaze and delight us with homemade candy, while we worked on other projects. At the end of the work night they had a stack of papers with those delicious candy recipes on.

Imagine the chatter that ensued when we saw the lists of ingredients!

Allow me to share.

Just a note: "Summer Coating" can be replaced with microwave melted chocolate chips and work just fine.

Dollar Mints
Melt chocolate flavored "Summer Coating" over warm water, in a double boiler. With a fork, dip "Ritz" crackers into coating. Tapping off excess. Slide coated cracker onto wax paper. When it has hardened, place into a shallow, plastic container (such as Tupperware) Make layers, with wax paper in between, placing small balls of cotton with a small amount of mint flavoring on them in a few places between layers. Put the lid on tightly and let stay 3-5 days. The peppermint flavoring will permeate through the coating and the crackers.


Peanut Butter Bites
Spread peanut butter on a cheese cracker (I like Nabisco Cheese Nips). Top with another cracker, making a sandwich. Dip into melted chocolate flavored "Summer Coating", slide coated sandwich onto wax paper and let harden.

Turtles and Frogs
Line a Cookie Sheet with foil or waxed paper. Brush with shortening. Pile small mounds of nuts, leaving an inch to an inch and a half between mounds. Unwrap a Caramel and pinch into a flat disc. Lay on top of a half of a walnut or pecan and slip into a 300 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Watch it carefully! You want the caramel to just soften and encase the nut. Dip in chocolate flavored "Summer Coating".

OR
Place twisted pretzel's on a foil lined cookie sheet sprayed with Pam, Place a Rollo on top, slip into oven until the Rollo is softened, remove from oven and press a walnut or Pecan half into the center.

Candy Spiders
5 oz. Can of Chinese noodles
1 Can Salted peanuts
2 6oz. pkg. Butterscotch morsels
Melt morsels and add other ingredients, mix then drop by the teaspoon full on waxed paper.

Hello Dollies
Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1 Stick (1/2 cup) melted butter in a 9X12 cake pan.
Sprinkle 1 Cup of Graham cracker crumbs over this. Sprinkle 1 Cup of coconut, then 1 pkg of Chocolate chips. Cover with a can of sweetened condensed milk and bake at 350 degree's for 15 to 20 minutes.
Cut into squares and serve.

Now for my favorite fakes...

Rocca Rectangles

Line a large cookie sheet or Jelly roll pan (10 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches) with tin foil. Turn the edges of the foil up to form a pan. Spray with Pam. Put a single layer of Saltine crackers on top of the foil, cutting the last row to fit.

In a heavy pan put:
2 cubes (1 cup) Butter
1 Cup Brown sugar

Bring to a boil and allow to boil for 3 minutes, stirring as needed. Pour carefully over crackers and use the back of a tablespoon to cover. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 7 minutes. Remove from oven and sprinkle a package of chocolate chips over the top, can slid back into cooling oven to help melt them, then use the bake of a tablespoon to spread the melted chocolate over the top, can sprinkle chopped nuts over the top (If you like nuts that is).
They break into squares really easy when they are warm or cooled.

Cheater Cherry Chocolates

Use a sheet cake pan or large cake pan 9x 13 inch.

4 packages of semi sweet chocolate chips
3/4 Cup chopped Spanish peanuts
3/4 Cup Chunky peanut butter
1 Can Cherry frosting
20 to 25 (30 if using a large pan or want a thicker center) Large Marshmallows

Melt 2 pkg. chocolate chips and peanut butter and peanuts in microwave safe bowl, mix. Spread in the bottom of the Pam sprayed pan. Chill in fridge while you melt marshmallows in microwave, then add the can of frosting, stir until mixed in good. Spread this over the top of the chilled chocolate layer. Chill while you repeat the top layer of chocolate and peanut butter and peanuts. Spread over the top of the chilled cherry filling. Chill. Cut into squares and eat or wrap or set on a plate and enjoy.

Kids, Kitty"s & Colds

Almost everyone at our house is in different stages of colds. I say almost, because so far (knock on wood) I'm doing good.

Colds in noses, colds in chest's, colds in the kitchen where they spread easier. So Its break out the Clorox to wipe counter's, door knobs and chairs time of year.

I am a believer in Echinacea, I have taken it every school season for years and I have been lucky enough to not get sick often, and if I do, it doesn't hit hard or last long.

Years ago a nurse told me that if you start taking it just before cold and flu season, stop a week before Christmas break, then start taking it again at least 5 days before you go back to school. I tried it, I pass it on to you.

Kids and kitty's. Kitty's and kids.

They have so much energy!

I often wish I could have just a little of the energy they have. But would it make me more worn out?

Playing together yesterday under the pine tree's was a great way to spend an autumn morning.

She wanted to bring the little black and white guy home with her, but alas... Old cat's are not always nice to kitty's, and we have an OLD ornery cat that lives at our house.

I know. Because when we got home she followed Tiny Dancer's every footstep into the house, smelling and sniffing. Later when we went out back to play? Old and ornery Pooka would not even look in Tiny Dancer's direction. She would not speak to her, and I believe, she may have even  given a raspberry in her general direction when her back was turned.

Maybe today she will be forgiven?

Glad That Is Done...

You know I realize that there is Spring cleaning to be done after being shut up in the house all Winter, however, I really am not fond of the Fall cleaning bug that has bitten me this year.

Ok, it has bitten me harder this year than in years past.

Typically when it bites, it is to take care of things in the yard. Not the house.

We merged families earlier this year, maybe that has something to do with it?

I have been planning to get some things done, I thought I would have gotten them done long before now. But now didn't come until this past week end...

But first-Bottling waits for no man, woman, or child...

Salsa was a group project.
It goes much better when you have a group.
We each took an ingredient and went to work, the combined efforts turned out tasty!

I was on peach detail. I enjoy doing peaches.

I was tired at the end of the bottling marathon, so I postponed the cleaning project I have been procrastinating for a very, very long time, for just one more day.
Saturday rolled around, reluctantly I forced myself to face the dread pile of craft, that lay wait in the basement...  

Honestly, I do not know how I let it get in this condition. It embarrasses me to show you. Maybe it will prompt me to not let it gain a life of its own in the future.
A girl can dream can't she?

Ok. Brace yourselves...

I have been collecting things for a while. Every one with good intentions of completed projects. Unfortunately, few have come to fruition. But that doesn't stop me from hanging on to every single thing...

The crafting table my good friend, Yvonne, gave me years ago is hidden under layers of...

Fabric.

First off you know you have to make a bigger mess to clean the old one up right?
I laboriously dismantled the offending mountain... separating things into stacks. Then sorting through each stack and separating yet again. This time into junk it, donate it, and store in in new tubs, stacks. Once that was done I put the tubs- that I love- back into an island with walking space around it so everything is accessible.

Funny how things folded and put away take up so much less space.
Truth be told I didn't really get rid of a lot of stuff...I just arranged it in a manner that I can now find things in.
(I would also be very happy to receive any Levi quilt ideas you may want to share as I seem to have collected quit a few to turn into quilts).



And looky-looky!! The table!!!

I unearthed long forgotten projects that included but are not limited too...
Balls of torn sheets, rolled and ready to crochet into rugs...

The one that made me laugh the most was the little bag of...
Poopy Duck's I started in probably 1990 or before... 

It was a good week end.

It was a productive week end.

It is a week end I can say that I am glad that is done...

The Week End Plan

There is a great phenomenon about to occur at my house.

If people were privy to it, I gar-o-tee, they would be bringing their lawn chairs, cold drinks, and camera's.

The speculations, bets and other such wagers would be filling the air so thickly you would think you were at the horse races.  

With a gasp and pointing finger Bertha Mae would declare, "Oh my WORD! Ethel. Would you look at THAT!"

To  which our dear sweet Ethel would breathlessly reply, "I can hardly believe it!

Is she...?

She isn't really going to...?

Clean her craft heap this week end is she?!"

Well...that is the plan.

Expecting The Unexpected

It is true that I do take a camera almost every place I go. Because you never know what you will see or how you will see it, or what you might miss.

I love photography because it has brought me a whole new way of looking at...well everything.

I notice people and things that might have slipped past me if I weren't looking at everything "as if ", through my camera's lenses.

There are a lot of photos that are only in my mind, because I didn't have a camera with me at the time. So I remedied that as best as I could like this.

As you may well know I encourage everyone to take a camera, for those unexpected things. I however often don't follow my own very good advice. And yesterday as I headed out the front door moving with determination up the the street on my way to church, I happened to glance down only to see a child looking up at me from a very unlikely place. I stood there a second and looked, silently debating weather to go back and get the little pocket camera I usually have with me or to continue on and take a picture of it when I got back.

I turned around and got my camera because...

Like a river, it may not be the same one I passed on the way home.

Here are a few other reasons I take a camera with me for those unexpected times.

Finding the expected as well as the unexpected is some of what helps us discover the beauty and joy there is in life.

Grab your camera when you head out the door and see what you can find :)

Time

Time flies on gossamer wings.

It is so hard to believe that school is back in session!

Why I remember not to long ago, wondering if summer would ever really come, and now here we are pushing the last week's of National Zucchini month!

Time is something we either have to much, or not enough of, it can be a friend, an enemy,  it can  often be an invisible healer, it can leave us feeling robbed, if we let it.

Like water under a bridge, once it passes it can't be called back.

That is why I like photos so much.

A picture can freeze a second in time, to be looked at through the years. Triggering memories and feeling's in an instant.

Why, remember the Summer you felt like you could fly?



She could run as fast as the wind.
Fly through the air with the greatest of ease. Swing so high she was sure her toe's could touch the sky.
Her bike could become anything from a horse to a motorcycle in just seconds.

Time was when she had no cares in the world.
The biggest thing to worry about was if her friends could play and what to do in the afternoon's when it was to hot.

Time passes. 
There is no way to stop it.
Unless you set some of the house work aside, grab your camera and go play with the kids' while they are little :)

Flying

Ever wish you could fly?

When I was little I used to fly in my dreams. Above the tree tops, over the houses, swooping like the birds, taking off like Superman, landing with precision in places of my choice.
As I have grown older my dreams of flying were forgotten someplace along the path of my life. But now that I am entering the "youth of old age" I am learning about different meaning's of flying...why I am learning to let my pencils , paints, and imagination fly across pages, canvas' and with my camera's. I am learning that I can do lots of things I always limited myself on in the past, by believing that 'I can't", I told myself so many times through out the years but now I am waking up and seeing that indeed I can do many things I either didn't dare try or didn't think I would succeed at.

I may or may not succeed, but I am finding that the fun and freedom of trying, of spreading my wings and learning new way's to fly, are every bit as exciting as when I was little and would try to touch my toes to the sky while swinging as high as I could.

I think it helps to fuel my imagination when I take photograph's and find among them treasure's that fly... 

I read about some very wonderful Flying Lesson's while reading kelly rae roberts book.

Later I learned about this book this month. Thinking about getting it.

This Camera or That Camera?

After going out in my trusty little kayak.

(Which I am  *vacillating between names on at this time).

The conclusion was drawn that a little camera was needed to help capture some of the memories.

So a shopping I did go.

Not wanting to spend a lot I headed to my local Wally World to see what I could see.

This is how it went down...

Me: "Hello :) Would you like to sell me a little camera please?"

Guy #1: "No." *Ambling on over to the camera counter.

Being one who is ususally up for some friendly *banter, the game was on for both of us as we joked back and forth...

Me: "Well if you really don't want to I can go some place else to make it easier on you :)"

Guy #1: "No, really that would not make it easier for me. In fact it would cause me much *angst."

Me: "Wheeell now, we wouldn't want that to happen."

Guy #1: "So what is it your looking for? You look like you have something in mind."

Me: "I need an inexpensive little number to tuck under my life jacket or into a shirt pocket."

Guy #1: " We have a waterproof camera on the rack, it comes highly recommended by eight year old girl's taking pictures at the pool."

What the heck. I got it.

It doesn't zoom worth bean's, but what the heck.

It has the ability to take photos that look like thiz...

But I still wanted one of the thin ones I was looking at over on the counter, you know to stick in a shirt or purse pocket.

After looking over two different one's for an extended five minutes, I chose one that was on sale...in red.

Yes. I am sometimes that way. I am not ashamed to admit I chose it because it was red.

I saw no other real differences. 

It doesn't zoom worth bean's either. But I like it ok.
It takes photos that look like thiz...

Going back to the same store the next afternoon with one of my sister's, so she could make a spur of the moment, sort of calculated purchase of a smaller cannon she has wanted for a while now.

Me: "This is the other camera I was looking at yesterday."

Guy #2: "Well it sounds like you two know exactly what you want. May I ask why you chose the Sanyo over the Kodak? Personally I like the Kodak's over any of the other's in this case."

During this exchange, a Stranger man comes to the counter looking things over, having overheard our conversation he added, "I like the Kodak better. so much that I bought two of them!".

Brows furrowing I said, "Well, I guess I bought the wrong one."

Guy #2: "You have fifteen day's to return things."

I went home and gathered everything up, making it look like new as I could, trudging up to the service counter I explained I wanted to return it, there were no problems, I just decided to go with the Kodak after all.

So I took it home. Tryed it out.

It doesn't zoom worth bean's either.



It takes photos like thiz...

Plus it had this nifty little feature with the name of "Photo booth"...

I didn't like it as much as the Sanyo, so I returned the Kodak and got the little Sanyo back that made me a happy camper, and I shall tell you why;

Sanyo has a couple of features that are pretty cool, like, sunrise or sunset abilities, but the big kicker for me, was that while I thought the photo booth thing on the Kodak is really a cool thing, it did not out weigh the difference between the panoramic abilities.

The Kodak had a small, solid square area that you have to try using your best guessing skills to overlap to make it line up, making it very hard to use this sort of bind guessing technique, while the Sanyo has a full side line, that is transparent, so you can see what the heck your doing!

Provided the lighting is right and the boat doesn't drift, or your foot doesn't slip :) 



Vacillating= not resolute; wavering; indecisive; hesitating.

Ambling= to go at a slow, easy pace; stroll; saunter.

Banter= and exchange of light, playful, teasing remarks; good-natured raillery.

Angst= an acute but nonspecific sense of anxiety or remorse.

Simply Dangerous

Why is it that some day's you feel like you are trapped in something you don't know how you  got yourself into? Let alone how to get yourself out!

Sometimes what looks to be ok can turn to danger in mere seconds.

I walked out the other morning to de-bug the little blow up pool in the back yard, imagine my sadness when I saw what looked to be a drown Dragonfly.

It must have thought the water's surface was a solid object? Possibly just trying to get a drink of water? Whatever caused this tragedy, I was pretty sure the outcome was not at all what was expected.

I found a leaf that was big enough to retrieve its golden remains, gently sliding its tip under the waters surface I began to raise it slowly out of the water. To my shock, the tiny legs began grabbing for the safety of the leafs edges, groping its way up the leaf toward my hand, had me a little worried.
I'm a scardy cat when it comes to bug type critters.
So I hurried over to our raised box garden, where I knew other dragonflies of the same, as well as differing colors, like to hang out.
Selecting a nice, all be it half grass hopper eaten potato leaf, where the morning sun would be kissing it's surface for a while, I coaxed it off the rescuing leaf onto the wing drying leaf.  

I found it interesting that once set down and comfortable, other dragon flies came near then settled onto nearby leaves, as if setting up a watch of sorts.

Some flew around my head as I was setting it on the selected spot, and after I stepped back a couple came right in front of my face, then hurried off.

So many lesson's that early morning.
Now I check the wading pool every morning...Just in case something seemingly simple turns dangerous in mere seconds.

Summer Dresses

As she dances through the respectably slow summer day's, she pauses to show every one who will stop, just how magnificently her dress twirls.
Just like Peaches & Cream, Strawberries & Rhubarb, Apple Pie & Base Ball, Grandpa's & Butter Scotch candy's, it seems Summer & Dresses are inseparable combinations. 
They go surprisingly well with bare feet, don't you think?
She loves how the skirts dance when kissed by the breezes of running, spinning, or swaying. Often looking down to watch it swing as she walks. 
Feminine is not a concept she associates with her dainty little summer dresses, even though they help her feel beautiful...
Even while packing a handful's of grass hopper's. 

The wonderfulness of summer dresses are not only enjoyed by the little girl's, but by many of the girl's of varying ages as well.
I watch as a white haired woman sashays down a hall enchanted by the sway dancing at the hem of her peach colored dress, spontaneously stepping so as to make it swing just a little bit better.
Even teenager's and Mommy's like the dresses of summer. The long one's, the short one's, and the one's in between.
Or the women out walking, some watch the way the hems of their broom skirts flit and flutter with each step, billowing like butterfly wings with each step of their sandled feet.

I love Summer Dresses, don't you?

Perfect

How would you describe a perfect Summer day?

Being a person of many words, I would like to take this opportunity to show you some things that can make for just such a perfect Summer day...

"Dirty hands, iced tea, garden fragrances thick in the air and a blanket of color before me,
who could ask for more?"- Bev Adams,

"You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4th, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism." - Erma Bombeck