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Shake, Shake, Shake: Shake Your Donut

Okay, now that I've got KC and The Sunshine Band playing in my head now, here we go...
For a little effort and not much money, You Too Can Have a Fake Yet Tasty Donut in Minutes!

First assemble everything needed:  Tube of Refrigerated Biscuits, opened and a small amount of your preferred filling.  Flip top back over the filling and squeeze the edges tightly closed.  I made 8 donuts and 9 holes (unfilled).   Put cinnamon sugar in a brown paper bag.  Have dish ready to put donuts into.

Heat your oil (on electric setting from Lo to 9, Setting 3 was hot enough for me.  I tested the temp by looking at how free flowing the oil was and putting in 1 of the donut holes.  Then I added the rest, cooked on first side for about 2 minutes, flipped them and cooked about 1 minute more.

Carefully put donuts in brown paper bag as they are done cooking.  Shake, shake, shake to cover with cinnamon sugar.  They're going to be super hot, be careful and then put them in your bowl. Step back and enjoy the aroma and the view.  Resist the urge to eat immediately, they are hot. Make your tea and then indulge.

This recipe floats all over the internet, and I finally made these.  I almost never deepfry any foods, so I just used my regular pan and a bit of oil.  If I make these again, next time the filling will be peanut butter and chocolate chips; might make them with bread dough as twisties with either powdered sugar or the same cinnamon sugar.    These work out to be about 10 cents each not counting oil, energy, etc.  Must dance now to work off the donuts, see ya...

Robert Frost and My Cat with Sunflower Mixed Media Collage


Nothing Gold Can Stay
Mixed Media Collage
   by Robert Frost


This is my entry to Inspiration Avenue weekly challenge and this week the theme is Sunflowers. 



Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.  So Eden sank to grief, 
So dawn goes down to day.   Nothing gold can stay. 






I used a page from a children's book, lottery tickets (the nonwinning kind- ha ha), raffle tickets (also the nonwinners), braided string, fabric cat, ribbons, other paper, card scrap, and paints.  

The gel finish altered the colors in the center of the sunflower, I haven't decided if I'll try and touch that up or leave it be.  Click on the image if you'd like to see the collage in a larger size. Thanks for stopping by!


ETA:  Here's a scanned image, not sure which is coming out better.  
Also- hope Hurricane Irene passes you by and safely.

  

Feels Like it Should be a Sunday this 'n that and more

Feels like Spring Cleaning for me, I'm giving a little makeover to the blog and if Picnik would stop being persnickety,  I would've finished the fixes, but it's not meant to be.  (If you haven't tried Picnik yet, it's great!) You know when you get aggravated and the bad energy just gets spread all around, well that's it in a nutshell.

We have had bad news all week, my cousin passed away, my husband's cousin also passed away and another relative of his, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's.  Plus, a neighbor also passed away a few days ago.    

Lucy did not make things easy for us, she required a vet visit and 3 prescriptions after her two night stay in the kennel.  The vet said Lucy had stressed herself over being away from us.  In earlier posts I wrote about how we got her and what she went through, Lucy is a velcro dog and has abandonment issues.

I'm counting my blessings, well, not counting, but feeling thankful and trying to manage with the personal and world wide news and the trickle down and trickle wide splashes that I can't do anything about, and still I care.    The earthquake is another of those surprises this week.  It swayed my computer monitor back and forth and rumbled a bit, but nothing else.  Still, it was weird and I'm glad that it wasn't worse for those closer to the epicenter.  

On a lighter note, this is the blog's 200th post, I only noticed that before I started typing.  Nothing to mark the occasion , the makeover I suppose, but I've done those several times before.  I made the favicon, and it seems so teeny tiny, I don't know what the fuss was about, maybe it's bigger to your eyes.  When Picnik is working well for me again, I'll fix the banner, it seems a bit blurry, or it could just be that I've been staring at the monitor too long.   Did you ever hear someone say, "blood will be shooting out of my eyes?"  

So, it feels like it should be a Sunday, my head is other places, extra praying required what with the world news and everything else.  Tomorrow on to other things, keeping in mind the blood in my eye situation.  No, I'm not kidding.

If you're interested in entering a giveaway, here are two that are offering lovely items:

Birthday-Blogversary-Giveaway at The Krafty Cupcake

and

Icy-Big-Blog-Giveaway at Wright Story  hurry on over, they are closing soon.


Playing the Tourist at Home Photo Editing

A new month and a new aceo challenge.  This time the challenge is being a tourist in your own hometown. Ideas were churning, and I settled on editing photos from something I see on on the side of the highway and someplace I keep saying I'm going to visit, but haven't- and I've been here seven years!  The mural is actually black and white and I've edited and manipulated the photo to give an edge to it.



This little icecream stand is one of several in the area and I pass it regularly, but have never been.  Since it's open seasonally, I'd better get a move on- need to watch out for the teddy bear family, they seem to have taken over most of the seating...  I edited the photo, changed colors, put some "sprinkles" and a "cherry" on top, added the candy, added the clothespin note on the side, framed and toned it.  I don't know how those teddies got there.  Just kidding.


Add your aceo to the blog, click that link at the top of this post.  Entries taken for a few more days.

Jo-Ann Fails ABCs Update

Dear o ann fa r and raft stores  remember this post?

A little update, I received this email from JoAnn on July 4 at 6:59pm:


"Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores Customer Service.
Please be assured, your concerns are important to us, and we will respond to your email in the order it was received.
If your matter needs an immediate response, please call us at 1-888-739-4120 Monday through Saturday between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. Eastern time.

=======

Subject: Product Inquiry

name: New End Studio
address:www
city : blogspot" 


From July 5th until now, August 19th,  there has been no response from the company.

By the way, I drove the distance and returned the package to the store.  On the way home I stopped in a depressing, dark, and somewhat dirty discount store- the type of store that if you bother to "hunt" you can find a bargain.  I found a stencil there for 25 cents!  It wasn't exactly in the material I was looking for, but it had all 26 letters, plus lowercase letters, plus numbers, and some symbols- it'll do for now.

Would you drop this or keep after Jo-Ann?


Through the Icy Woods Photo Editing Winter Backyard Fairytales

Just in case we need a little relief from the heat, the theme at Inspiration Avenue blog this week is, "Icy."  With so many ideas and not enough energy I decided to use a photo of mine which I took last winter.  After adding this and that to it on Picnik , here is the result.  Click on the image if you wish to view it in a larger size.

Do you see this in your backyard?

Pearls and diamonds, a knight on a horse, now I am unmasked and ready to start a new adventure.  He awaits... 

August Theme Sunkissed Aceo

Layers of colors, a little crackling and the result for the theme this week over at Inspiration Avenue
is this bright, cloudy, flat, textured, and metallic, optical illusion abstract aceo.  The theme is, "Sunkissed."    The aceo means several different things to me, I'll let you make your own conclusions.  Please visit the blog and see all the contributions.  Join in and add yours!

What's Doing Wednesday? Bookmarks and Giveaway

I think it's okay to post these as all of the recipients probably have received them by now.  When I packaged up the books for the Giveaway Winners, I decided to make some bookmarks to send along.  This was my first time making bookmarks, and I learned a thing or two (actually more) in the process.  I may try making them in the future, as long as kindles and ebooks don't make a real, honest to goodness, in your hand/lap/table, etc. book
with texture, and heft disappear!

Front




Heavy paper, patterned paper, clippings, pages from a book of children's stories, string, and beads.


Reverse
















Christmas card fronts,  stencilled and painted, with a ribbon attached in between two matching shapes.


Different colors and shapes for different moods.  Next time, ribbon instead of string.  I didn't have any ribbon to suit, and used what I had on hand.  I'm drawn to navy blue, so that was the basis and the rest followed.



Susan shared the Giveaway on her blog Tea Diary.  I always forget to take a photo of what I send, so I hope she doesn't mind me sharing the photo from her blog post:
She has a pretty blog, shares her love of tea and thrifting,  and other things.

With Trees We Live Aceo

A few words on "Trees"... 

A seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible. ~Welsh Proverb.


I hear the wind among the trees
Playing the celestial symphonies;
I see the branches downward bent,
Like keys of some great instrument,
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


Inspiration-Avenue blog theme weekly challenge is The Forest for the Trees.  I didn't have time to make a brand new item so I am showing you the photograph I took some years ago after stopping roadside in northern New Jersey.  From this photo, I made an aceo which ended up like the image below.



ACEO inspired by above photo.
                             
Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise we                           cannot eat money.   ~Cree Indian Proverb

Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars...and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful.  Everything is simply happy.  Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance.  Look at the flowers - for no reason .  It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are. ~Osho

If there's still time for you to add your work to the challenge, please do, or bookmark and enter next week's theme challenge.  



I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree                            
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
~-Joyce Kilmer, "Trees," 1914

                                   
I hope you enjoyed the quotes, courtesy of The Quote Garden.


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