Here a recipe, there a recipe, everywhere a recipe

I collect recipes.  Recipe books, magazines, scraps of paper, it doesn't matter.  I even have them all over my computer.  I have a bookmark folder with recipes, a file on my desktop, and a Pinterest board...or 2, or 3, not to mention the random links all over the place.  Recipes and craft supplies vie for my attention all over the house.  I can spend just as many hours pouring over food blogs as I can over crafting blogs.  I have to really set limits for myself, or I'll get lost forever.

Last year I bought Living Cookbook to try and sort out some of the clutter.  I haven't even begun to delve into what this program can do.  So far, I have typed in some family recipes and imported some of our favorites from the internet.  I am really hoping between Pinterest and this software I can get rid of most of this.

This program is supposed to store recipes, do the nutrition for them, make menus and shopping lists and a bunch of other stuff that I am not even sure I need. But if I can do a nice menu/shopping list from it, it'll be worth it's weight in gold.

On a side note, I just googled how much a CD weighs, about .58 ounces.  Then I googled the price of gold per ounce, $1785.  That makes this program a steal by my own twisted logic!  And it also proves how easily sidetracked I can get.

This doesn't even begin to show you my collection.  That's only 1 file folder of magazine and printed recipes (I have 3).  That's only 3 magazines I haven't searched through yet (I have 6 sitting on my desk).  That's only 3 or 4 of my cookbooks (I have a couple of dozen, and that's after the great purge of 2011 when I got rid of about 100).  And you can only see 4 or 5 of my recipes cards from the Great Recipe Organization of 1993, which failed. (I have a ton of those).

Here's the only problem I have found with the cookbook:  It doesn't automatically import a recipe when you cook it.  Nor does it automatically account for any changes you regularly make to a recipe.  In fact, the only way to import recipes to this program is to actually do it!!  No mind reading. No magic.  No recipe teleportation. (and how stupid is my spell check that it doesn't know what teleportation is??  I need spell check for geeks apparently.)

Just do it...or sit here, gather all kinds of recipes, toss them on your desk, photograph them and then blog about it.  I think we all know where I stand on this subject.

Sugar Skulls and the Fear of Sewing

I hate sewing.  Really, really hate it.  My sewing machine (named Mr. Sewandsew) have a hate/hate relationship.  He's a necessary evil in my crafting hobby since I don't have cash to throw around to get other to do this dirty deed.

Because I hate sewing, I am not very good at it.  Lucky for me, I usually only have to sew a few inches at a time for ornaments, small bags, etc.  Unfortunately for me, I am this >--< close to finishing Celtic Banner by Butternut Road.  The plan for this is to sew on a nice backing and some tabs so it can be hung from the handle of an faux antique axe.   This banner is about 6 inches wide and 4 feet long....FOUR feet long. How can I sew a straight line for 4 feet??  I cant.

This is where my sister in law comes in.  She's a seamstress. Like a sew your own wedding dress and have it look beautiful type of seamstress.  So at a recent family dinner I was talking to her about helping me finish Celtic Banner.  Hearing me talk about my stitching, my oldest daughter chimed in that she had been meaning to ask me if I could stitch her something.  With how many words I know and how freely I use them, I still cant express how excited I was to have one of my children actually want me to stitch something for them!!

All she wanted was a sugar skull.  So, after we came home, I jumped on the internet to find a good sugar skull design.  I went through pages and pages looking for just the right design and came upon this Etsy site. Bombastitch.  They have some great sugar skulls, so I grabbed a couple right away.

I finished stitching up the first one this afternoon.  I haven't had time to clean the cat hair off of it or iron it yet, but I couldn't wait to show it off.  I changed up the colors from the original design to match my daughters decor.

Bombastitch Sugar Skull (v1)

Now I need to figure out how to finish it.  I guess I should start by asking her if she wants it framed, made into a pillow or whatever.  I had thought about contacting Jill Rensel and having her frame it.  Maybe cut the mat in the shape of the skull and paint/cut some Day of the Dead style roses on the mat.  Or I can always frame it myself, but without all the flourishes that Jill does.

It's about the journey

Sometimes life changes you and sometimes you have to change life.  I am working on changing life.  And for once it's my life.  This blog is going to be part of it.  It will be filled with recipes, crafts I am doing or have done, stories about gaming, thoughts about books I am reading or whatever else I need to get out of my head and onto "paper".  There probably wont be much rhyme or reason to it.  I'll just be putting it out there as it comes.

So, let's start this new journey and see where it leads.

Me in Mt. Lassen National Park