Belated Birthday Gift

For my birthday my sister sent scratch and win lotto tickets.  A super fun gift idea and I ended up with a good return on the winnings.  Small problem was that it was the Florida lottery and I live in Chicago, Illinois.  I sent the tickets back to her so she could collect the winnings.  Long story short, I received a iTunes gift card in the mail about six months after my birthday.  I was like a kid in a candy store!  I minute I had the gift card in hand I went music shopping.  Somehow I bought a Glee song without even agreeing to it.  It's not even a good Glee song but one of the original songs.  My laptop mouse makes me do things I don't want to do.  But enough about Glee, I bought some great other things that everyone should at least listen to once.

I bought the entire album

I bought the entire album

A guilty pleasure song for me

A random song on the radio that I love

Lunch Home Made

On a recent trip to Trader Joe's I ended up buying broccoli slaw and tempeh with no recipe planned.  I also bought lemon pepper pasta but didn't think the three items would go together very well.  The pasta made me think of some rice noodles I had in my pantry and an idea was born.  I also found a can of baby corn.  A quick check at my Cooking Light cookbook and I started a peanut sauce.  Half an hour later I had lunch for the rest of the week.

Not to bad for just buying broccoli slaw and tempeh!

Slow to Blog

I haven't been blogging much and my follower has taken notice.  I've been given notice that I need to get on the blog ball.  Maybe with the weather getting better and the sun still out after work I will have more things to post.  I'm also not someone who is comforting taking photos of everything, so I need to work on that.  I don't want to be one of those people who have to document every bite they take but I can be better with taking photos in general.  Spring should present limitless opportunities for me to blog about.  I will try to post at least once a week and not five posts in one day every few months.

Valentines

I saw these sayings on T-shirts on etsy.  I thought they would make great valentines for my parents since they are in Ohio and I am in Illinois.  I still need to work on my finishing techniques for my embroidery.  Overall I am please how these came out.

OH How I Love You

IL Always Love You

I added a french knot to each piece to show where we live.

Biking Squirrels

My friend Laurie has a collection of squirrels.  Not sure if she really loves them or if we all have latched on to the idea of a collection and just keep giving her squirrel related items.  Laurie also rides her bike a lot, which means she also gets bike related gifts. I thought a squirrel riding a bike would be the perfect thing for her birthday!  I found an embroidery pattern of a squirrel and added the bike to the image.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  I added edges in the same fabric and used this great owl fabric for the back.

Looking at the top image, I now realize I didn't add spokes to the wheels!

Blizzard Aftermath

most of the sidewalks were shoveled great

it's when you got the the curbs that the challenge began

view looking out from my parking lot

the wall of snow by by driveway