Monday Musings

Oh my goodness! It's Monday already!
And I don't have any photos to share with you from my week! It's been a laid-back one for me - and oh how I needed a week in town to be at home and sort and clean and cook a little - and paint and play and read a little...
And I'll admit that parts of our house looks like a disaster zone - my sweetie cleaned out the oldest's room and all the stuff he left here when he moved out over a year ago is strewn throughout the living / dining area -- but he's making a dent by coming by every few days and sorting and taking some home... I made crockpot bolognese sauce from here one evening -

[her photo, not mine] and have to say it was better as left-overs once everything 'married' together [chili is that way too, don't you think?] - and I made southwest stuffed peppers from Real Simple magazine [feb. 2012] - both were delish. I also gave the brown betty a go [from The Pioneer Woman's food network show on Saturday] using a couple of apples we had on hand and some leftover hamburger buns [cut the recipe in half, obviously.]
I organized my cricut cartridges a bit and made labels so I can easily find the one I want - like I use them so often - lol... also organized my growing collection of journaling tags in a handy little carrying box, and sorted and organized my alphabet stickers. [Getting ready for a few upcoming weekend crops.] And I've had time to paint a few evenings - using that endless supply of alphabet stickers [it's the ONE addiction that I cave on anytime I'm near them...] as backgrounds - so fun! Here's one and I'll share another one during my next post on my
One Little Word - Inspiration.
[Quick tutorial: I bought this wooden plaque at The Dollar Tree [$1] - love the little iron hanger - randomly covered it in left-over alpha stickers - spelling out peace in the middle; then painted it allover in blue with a green stripe over peace. Dried overnight - scrubbed the alpha stickers just a bit with my sanding block and outlined the word peace; added smaller stickers for the quote. Glued the ricrak with E6000 - then covered it all in glossy mod podge. ]
I also read Ann Voskamp's book, One Thousand Gifts,

over the weekend [again, her photo, not mine,] - SUCH a poetic writer - and it's a wonderful book - not at all what I was expecting - I'd not read anything about the book, just assuming it was a compilation of some of her best blog posts - instead she takes the reader on a wonderful story of her inadvertent study of thanksgiving and joy. And it's always refreshing for me to see that I'm not the only one who struggles with fear and anxiety. Very good.
And I watched three movies this week - Moneyball [a little slow for me, but I am so not a baseball fan...], Joyful Noise [loved it - great music - want the soundtrack -- can we get soundtracks on pandora?], and Cowboys and Aliens [weird, just plain weird.]
And I went to a follow-up doctor's appointment. Things are good. It's just time to get healthy.
And lastly, we had a raccoon family holding my car hostage last night as I went out to get something -- HUGE raccoons! But quick enough on their feet to scurry off before I could snap a photo...