Monthly Archives: February 2012

The other day I was reading a bag of  Del Monte potatoes.  Yes, I read a bag of potatoes.  I didn’t set out to read it, but as I was searching the bag for the perfect baking potato, I noticed it said “Helpful Tips”.  I snarkily thought “Oh yeah!  What sorts of revelations could these tips possibly hold”.  Wasn’t my snotty little self surprised when I found some of the tips to be…well, helpful.  I said a silent apology to dear old Del Monte and decided to share what I learned.

1. Be humble.

2. Sprinkle sliced potatoes with a pinch of flour when frying to make them golden brown.

3. Insert aluminum or stainless steel kitchen nail into each potato to promote uniform baking.- I didn’t even know such a thing existed.  I doubt I will ever buy kitchen nails as I bake my potatoes in the microwave, but I was educated none-the-less.

4. Whether for stew or mashing, potatoes should be boiled whole with their skin in tact to help preserve their nutritional value.-  It’s way easier and faster to peel a cooked potato anyway.

5. When mashing potatoes it’s better to add warm milk than cold and adding a teaspoon of baking powder before mashing will make them light and creamy.

You never can tell where your next bit of knowledge will come from.

Der and I spent Sunday afternoon re-roofing our back patio.  This is what happens when you give me a gallon of roofing adhesive and a paintbrush.  It was on my legs, my neck and even a dab or two in my hair.  I had to use paint thinner to get it off. Yuck!

Working on a house that we love is well worth it.  That’s one less thing on the to-do list, only about a hundred more things left.

It sits in a bud vase made by my wonderful grandma.

I found the feather at Rooster Cogburn’s, and I love it.

I think it’s beautiful.  It reminds me of a human ribcage, in a totally uncreepy way.

What more do you need?

In case you hadn’t noticed, I am currently smitten with embroidering on vintage book pages.

There is a main Gem Show at the Tucson Convention Center that charges admission and I hear it’s pretty cool, but I couldn’t bring myself to pay for it, when there are plenty of great Gem Show tents to visit for free.  We didn’t even scratch the surface of what there is to see.

It was fun, but a bit stressful for me. The amount of vendors and cool stuff they bring with them was overwhelming.  Most vendors have a lot of high priced and/or fragile merchandise and I was petrified one of the boys, or for that matter I, was going to trip and knock some priceless object over. Much to my relief no such horror happened.  Phew!

In between my heart palpitations and constant reminding of the boys to look but not touch (poor guys), I somehow managed to take some photos.  I could spend a week  visiting the different booths and not run out of cool things to look at and photograph.

This tent had really cool dinosaur bone replicas and lots of signs that said “You break it, you buy it.” and too many 4 and 5 figure prices to count.  We didn’t stay too terribly long, though it was amazing, I don’t think my blood pressure could take it.

Bricks of various stones.  Der and I thought it would be fun to make a very expensive wall with these.

Close up of a gorgeous rock.  I have no idea what kind it is.  It looks like topography to me.

Ami said, “Take a picture of these lovely shells mama.”.  So I did.  I adore it when he calls think “lovely”.

I am in love with these skull beads.  They look just like candy.  I hadn’t planned on buying any beads, but these ones spoke to me.  I bought 2 strands and can’t wait until I figure out what I am going to do with them.

The bead choices are endless.  I found myself thankful I wasn’t there to buy beads.  There were too many  to choose from I would have been frozen by indecision.

Oh how I love this color.

Chicken beads!

Look at all the scorps!

Mountains of African beads.

These ones remind me of snakes.

These beads are so thin and there are millions of them.

Giant wooden sculptures.

Pregnant bellies are so beautiful.

This chair and the one below are completely covered in seed beads.

I asked the men sitting in the back how many hours it takes to make one of these chairs and they said “months”.

The price for this one was $1,950 and worth every penny I should think.