In Like a Lion, Out Like a Lion

Not gonna lie, March really sucked weather-wise except for a handful of precious days.  We had a hell of a howler on the last day of the month.  Roads were flooded, creeks over their banks, etc. Pretty sunsets from time to time.  

Of course we lost that hour switching over to Daylight Savings Time which I have always hated.  Standard time is real time.  People are always kvetching about how early it gets dark.  It's only a period of time of like 60 days tops.  If that.  The light already starts coming back by mid January.

So my peace embroidery has taken over the craft table.  What a mess.  

The floss situation on the other craft table got completely out of control.  I spent some time trying to get it somewhat organized and discovered that I have A LOT of duplicate skeins.  So I made this meme to remind myself to look at what I have before trotting off to the store to get more.

Now I can start stitching again and only pull out ONE skein per colour.  That will keep it under better control.

Started this diamond painting.  It's OK.  It was only $5.  It came in a very flimsy package unlike the more expensive kits.  The plastic sheet over the adhesive surface was ripped and the adhesive is so-so.  If this one is going to be displayed, it will have to be framed for sure.  The other thing is that it's only the peacock design that gets the tiles.  The background is preprinted already.  Finally, the tiles are round, not square. They fit together better than I thought, but I prefer square.  It's going fast though.  At this point I'd put in about an hour at a time over 3 days.

And of course I made my hubby's fave pineapple upside down cake for his birthday.  He loved it.  As did I.  Last year I did it as a bundt but it seems too dry that way so I went back to the 9x9 cake pan.  We don't like cherries so I don't use them.

I finally had a rainy, pajama day where all I did was do some crafts and a few chores.  Besides working on the diamond painting, I did this saturn Makit Bakit kit.  It only came with red, yellow and glow in the dark but I dipped into my stash for the other colours.  This project went sideways the first day I worked on it.  I was nearly done when my arm hit the pan and sent everything cattywampus.  I had to back away till the next day when I started over, carefully putting the crystals back practically one at a time.

I ended up having to bake this THREE times.  I had to fill in spaces with more beads and remelt it. Then I found that I skipped a dark green section and had to put it back in the oven again to fill it in.  I guess all the extra work paid off cause I love how it came out.

I got a ton filled in on the peace sign, now that I can actually locate the floss I need. 

It's really going fast now!!

I really hope we start getting some warm temps soon.  

Temporarily Sidelined

We recently came into a bumper crop of Snocaps candies, which was always my fave movie candy.  But I certainly didn't need 50 or 60 boxes of them so I started doling them out to my friends, esp. after a Triple Choc Chip Cookie recipe showed up on Pinterest, which called for Snocaps.  You can find the recipe HERE.  Let me just add that the raw dough is pretty darn delish too.  I substituted peanut butter chips for the white chox in the recipe.  They should be called 'Triple Chip Drops of Heaven'.  I got about 33 cookies from the recipe.  Oh, the peanut M&Ms are Russell's.

Peepers peepin'

It was my honey's birthday at the end of March.  

I decided to make him a pineapple upside down cake, from scratch no less.  I'd also bought the box mix as a backup plan.  What I liked about the scratch one was that the ingredients seemed much healthier, plus it was going to make a smaller square cake, not the 9x13 pan size, which neither of us needed to be consuming. HERE is the recipe for it, which is from the Betty Crocker website.  It came out pretty good....I only encountered one problem with a pineapple sticking to the dish but it flipped without breaking.  The brown sugar also kinda pooled around the sides and edges more than in the middle.  But hey, he loved it and that's all I care about.  This is, incidentally, the first from-scratch cake I ever made.

All he said he wanted for his bday was a kiss from me, but I got him the M&Ms and a scratch ticket too.

We went to visit his family over the weekend and his sis treated us all to Seafood Sam's take out for his birthday lunch. "Himself" borrowing someone's reading glasses in order to see the menu and sticking his tongue out at me for taking a picture.

One brother and one sister weren't there but I still took a fam photo of his other brother Jimmy, their dad Jim, sister Grace, Russell and Ma.

Carrie and her adorable kids Katie & Abi were there, and my future sister in law Janice (she's married to Jimmy, and we went to high school together too; she was in Russell's class and her sister was in mine).

So anyways, I'm sidelined from doing crafts and anything else that requires the use of my right arm.  We had torrential downpours on Sunday and I slipped on the wooden deck and went down in a crumpled heap on my right side.  I spent that day watching a bunch of Harry Potter movies and weeping off and on.  Finally saw 'Deathly Hallows Part 2' and the floodgates really opened then.  Wow, that was a sad film.  The fall also affected muscles on the left side as well including a slight twist of my left ankle.  Back hurts, neck hurts, every goddamn thing hurts.  That means I can't craft, clean, grocery shop, or do anything else for that matter.  Taking the dogs out is really, really hard because I have to have both leads in my left hand and they are very strong dogs. I still can't go on any day trips yet because it's still icky off and on, and while there are sunny, clear days, everything is in that post-winter drab & yucky mode. Nothing's in bloom.  I have no further blog posts drafted at the mo past 4/3, because I haven't taken any new pics or done anything of import in the craft room.  I'm still working on the butterfly cross stitch and I started a new project, both on hold till my arm stops hurting.  I will be minioning with Tina's Terrific Team for Blogging from A-Z April 2014 but am not participating as a blogger.  I am sure I will get back to a regular posting schedule by next week, hopefully, but I just need to take a little break for a few days till I get better.