In the coming New Year

Sorry I haven't posted in a while.

I have decided that 2012 is going to be a year of change for me. Throughout my life I have tried to do things for people and taken care of people and never really taken care of me. I have had a lot of people in my life that have been negative and somewhat hateful.  I have to start surrounding myself with positive energy, love and kindness. I believe that family is NOT whom you are related to through blood but with those that are caring and loving to you. I will be separating from those that are not loving, kind and caring of others and me. I have started this already.

I am very luck to have a loving husband and two wonderfully sweet children. I want them to have a whole and centred person for a wife and mother. I would like to have friends that are caring and kind around me. I already have some but wish more to be included into that circle.

I am going to work on me. I am going to leave the negative and bad in the past. I can’t change the people and things that want to be that way and am tired of dealing with it/them. I am going to focus on the positive in my life and surround myself with it. 

I need to put me first, when it comes to my health and happiness.

I am not going to stress about things I can’t control. I am Not going to be used anymore without receiving care and love back. I enjoy helping people and making others happy and I am going to continue this. Sometimes the littlest things you do for another person can make a world of difference to them. 

I hope that 2012 brings only good things and happy times into everyone lives!

Fall and Pumpkins!

Well this is my Favorite season! Fall has all the good stuff. The change of temperature, falling of the leaves, Thanksgiving, and my all time fav Halloween!

I was in the market this week and what do my eyes land on but sugar pumpkins!!! If you ever see them pick one up they are great for making anything that calls for "canned pumpkin". They are sweeter than your average jack o lantern pumpkins. I only use the sweet sugar pumpkins for cooking. I usually buy a few and steam them and put the puree in bags and freeze them. This way I can have fresh pumpkin pie/cheesecake/muffins really anything that takes pumpkin all year.

So today I thought I would share with you the simple steps of processing the pumpkin to use in any recipe that calls for "canned pumpkin".

These are my two beauties that I brought home! :) (I think I need to go and get a few more before they are all gone)
So to start all you need is a knife, spoon, steamer (either a plug in one or a steamer pot on the stove works fine) and some time.

Wash off your pumpkins so we don't have any dirt on them.

Then cut it in half and scoop out the guts. (if you want you can save the seeds and cook them up as a nice snack after)

Cut the pumpkin into small slices and pop it skin and all into the steamer. It took two steamers full for this pumpkin. I set my steamer for 40-45 min. This is pretty simple isn't it :)

Then you want to let the cooked pumpkin cool off and when that is done just take a spoon and scoop the meat off the skin and plop it in a bowl.

Doesn't it look good! And believe me it smells so good in the house right now :) It's so simple you will wonder why you bought canned pumpkin in the first place! Each pumpkin makes (depending on size) approximately two or so pies worth of pumpkin

Mmmm...now the only thing I have to figure out is what am I going to make with the pumpkin first :) 

Happy cooking everyone!

The Challenge won

OK I give up on the 30 day challenge. There is just too much going on in life right now to get it done. I will try it again some day :) Sorry for anyone that was following it.

30 Day Photo Challenge :day thirteen

A picture of your favorite band or artist.  Well at this time in my life I guess I would have to go with Danko Jones.

Here is a picture of him I shot at his last concert in Vancouver BC. He has a cocky attitude and a great stage persona. If you like rock and roll check him out :)

30 Day Photo Challenge :day twelve

A picture of something you love. That is easy :)

My Kids :)

30 Day Photo Challenge :day eleven

 A picture of something you hate. I hate that their are people out there that can and sadly do treat animals poorly to the point of killing them with out a second thought. It makes me sick!

I don't want to put up some of the graphic and horrible pictures that are out there of animal abuse so here is a image to stop the abuse.

30 Day Photo Challenge :day ten

A picture of the person you do the strangest things with. LOL My best friend and hubby would be the one to fit that bill :)

30 Day Photo Challenge :day nine

 A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most. My Mother for most of my life has helped me get through the good times and the bad.

30 Day Photo Challenge :day eight

A picture that makes you laugh!

Wow there are so many pictures that I have that makes me laugh. To share one is the hard part on this one.

 Hope you got a laugh out of this like I did :)

30 Day Photo Challenge :day seven

A picture of your most treasured item

Hmmm.......... I would give up most everything that I own for the right reason. The only thing I think I couldn't let go would be all my photo's. They tell where I have been, what I have gone through, and what I was thinking or feeling at times throughout my life.  Now how to show a picture of this??

Well this isn't my image but I think it conveys what I am thinking when I think of all my photos.

30 Day Photo Challenge :day six

 A picture of a person you’d love to trade places with for a day.
 This is a hard one...... I am happy being myself. I guess I would want someone famous that had an exciting life. I guess if I had my choice (which today I do lol ) I would want them to have a ton of money so I could have some fun :) Can I choose a time in that persons life? Well since this is my post I will say yes to that :) Ah just for the fun of it I guess I choose.........

Madonna in the 80's or 90's

 I think it might be fun she had a lot of fun and adventure in her life both good and bad. It would be interesting to be in her shoes for just a little while.

30 Day Photo Challenge :day five

 A picture of your favorite memory. Well I can't just have one for this. Both of my children's births are my favorite memories. They are my world.

when my son was born

when my daughter was born

30 Day Photo Challenge :day four

Day four is a picture of your night.

This is a hard one. 

My night is sleeping some of the time. It is a lot of times star/moon lit (at least right now in the summer). It is spent feeding my daughter at odd hours. It's cuddling on the couch with my husband and watching a little bit of TV or a movie. Since I am in or doing most of those things it's hard for me to get a picture of that. The last chance I got to take a night shot was months back so here it is :) hope you like it.

It's off my back porch. I haven't had time to edit it but it's not to bad the way it is :)

30 Day Photo Challenge: Day Three

 Day three is a picture of the cast from your favorite show. So here are some images of the cast from the show Red Dwarf. It has been a long time favorite of mine :)

this is most of the members of the show out of costume 

 

This is one of my favorite little snippets :) hope you enjoy

Oh and by the way..... anyone want any toast?

30 Day Photo Challenge :day two

Day Two : A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest.

Well that is an easy one :) There is no other person that I have been closest with the longest. He knows everything about me :)

My Husband

Love you sweetie :) He is going to love that I used this photo of him :) But I love my corny man :)

30 Day Photo Challenge :day one

The first challenge is a picture of yourself with ten facts


The Facts!

1.   I am a Real redhead
2.   I have two children whom I love with all my heart
3.   I have a small dog named Buster and no he isn't brown
4.   I don't seem to like to stay in one job for too long unless it is always changing and challenging
5.   I like most anything Muppet's
6.   I have a collection of Mr. Potato heads
7.   I prefer a Truck (not a ford) to a car and will never own a mini van!
8.   I can be a little spacey at times
9.   I have a wonderful loving husband
10. I like to create things/art/ food.

Me

30 Day Photo Challenge

Ok I am going to start doing this on the 16th of Aug and see if I can post each day for 30 day. It will be a little bit of a challenge but I think I can get it done. If anyone wants to join me the more the merrier :)

 

Here is the list

Day 01 - A picture of yourself with ten facts
Day 02 - A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest
Day 03 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show
Day 04 - A picture of your night
Day 05 - A picture of your favorite memory
Day 06 - A picture of a person you’d love to trade places with for a day
Day 07 - A picture of your most treasured item
Day 08 - A picture that makes you laugh
Day 09 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most
Day 10 - A picture of the person you do the strangest things with
Day 11 - A picture of something you hate
Day 12 - A picture of something you love
Day 13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist
Day 14 - A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without
Day 15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die
Day 16 - A picture of someone who inspires you
Day 17 - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently
Day 18 - A picture of your biggest insecurity
Day 19 - A picture of you when you were little
Day 20 - A picture of somewhere you’d love to travel
Day 21 - A picture of something you wish you could forget
Day 22 - A picture of something you wish you were better at
Day 23 - A picture of your favorite book
Day 24 - A picture of something you wish you could change
Day 25 - A picture of your day
Day 26 - A picture of something that means a lot to you
Day 27 - A picture of yourself and a family member
Day 28 - A picture of something you’re afraid of
Day 29 - A picture that can always make you smile
Day 30 - A picture of someone you miss

Monday Loves and Likes

Over at Filth Wizardry she has some great ideas for art, crafts and teaching. I am in LOVE with her idea to reuse the first step big building blocks to learn to spell and create sentence structures. I can't wait till my little ones are a bit bigger. I will defiantly be doing this one with them! I have some blocks but I know I am going to be hitting the thrifts and garage sales with getting more of these blocks in mind :)

Monday Loves and Likes

Well where I live was the towns festival this long weekend. So this Monday there was a parade and a whole bunch of activities. This was the first year that I took my son to them. Passed years I thought he was to young and most of the things were on right when he was napping. So we got to spend some Mother son time today which I loved :) Dad was nice enough (that and he doesn't really like parades and crowds) to stay with our little girl while she took her naps and we went and had some fun. My son loved that there were motorcycle cops and fire engines at the parade but he thought that the bagpipe band was a little too loud.

he even stopped for me to take his picture.

At the park later in the day he got to go on his first pony ride. HE LOVED IT! 

my little pony rider :) on Apache 

 

Over all it was a good day :) Though I (the whitest woman on the planet) got burnt :(  But still worth it to see the smile on his face.

Monday Loves and Likes

I just saw this today and had to share :) I LOVE these pigs!! If I had a farm I would be getting a few that is for sure!

Are they not cute!!!!

Mangalitza is a name for three breeds of pig grown especially in Hungary and the Balkans known also as a curly-hair hog.


Now all I need is a winning lotto ticket (as does everyone else in the world) and I will have me some furry little Mangalitza piglets!  Hmmm.... I think the male would be named Herbert :)