Beautiful Blogger Award, part one

Out of the millions and millions of bloggers, I am slowly carving out a little niche of friends in the blog world. I have found a positive and interesting set of bloggers during the year that I have been blogging and last week three of them nominated me for the Beautiful Blogger Award. I don't know its origins, but the Beautiful Blogger Award is a way for bloggers to get recognition and to find new blogs that they may be interested in. I am happy that others have recognized me.

Let me tell you a little about the nominating "committee".

First there is Lili at Creative Savv. Lili's blog focuses on living a frugal lifestyle, but really it is much more than frugal living tips. It is a how-to manual for just about any project you want to try around the house. She tackles diverse projects from resealing her driveway to mending her worn sheets to baking bread and making rice milk. She writes clearly and often. Quite frankly, I don't know how she has time to do all of her projects and write about them too, but she does.

Next is Rebecca at Doggone Thrifty.  Rebecca talks about living a thrifty life and her blog has a lot of tips for doing things in an economical way. Even if you've been in the frugal world for a while, her posts will remind you of  thrifty practices and add some new tips. She also throws in other things like a recipe for chocolate zucchini muffins that I hope to try soon.

Finally, we have Economies of Kale (I call her Kale, for short).  Kale is a PhD student who has been a vegetarian since she was 13. Her blog is the go to place for tips on getting by with not much income, (read grad student's salary) and great vegetarian recipes. One thing that I especially like about Kale's blog is that she is a very busy person, so her tips and recipes are quick and easy to do.

So thanks to all of you on the nominating committee.

There are two more parts to receiving this award--telling seven interesting facts about yourself and nominating other blogs that you would like to receive the Beautiful Blogger Award. I'll talk about these in part two of this post in a couple of days.

The Creative Process

or How to Make a Mess

By nature, I have a very analytical, logical mind, and the arts such as painting and drawing are not easy for me. I don't seem to have a vision, as many artist do, that I am able to translate into a beautiful creation. But that doesn't mean that I don't like to try.

What works best for me is starting with a group of objects and to create something from them. For example, I sometimes make beaded jewelry and my favorite way to do this is to start with a mixed bag of beads. I then see what combinations of shapes and colors please my eye. Also I need a pattern to knit, but I like to try different colors and textures of yarn. And I think I have mentioned before that my favorite way is to cook is to make something with whatever ingredients are on hand. That is how my creative process works. In other words, I'm not a visionary artist. I'm a make-do-with-what-you-have artist.

The problem with the make-do-with-what-you-have artist, or at least the way I work, is by the time we try out all of the combinations that we want, our work space in is chaos. You might call us the entropy enforcers. Things would probably work better for me if I stopped occasionally, and sorted out and cleaned up my work space. Then I would better know what I'm working with.

But what would be the fun in that? It would be a lot more fun when I'm done because the clean up takes so long. However, I guess all artists have to suffer. Sigh...

Thankful Sunday--September 9, 2012

I am thankful for Klondike bars and ice cream in general.

Mint chocolate chip is my current favorite.

A Second Look Follow Up

or What's that bug?

Webworm moth

In the last Second Look post, I didn't have a chance to identify all of the pictures as I usually do. Now that I've had a bit of time to do research, I have identified the yellow and white bug that was on my sedum. It is an ailanthus webworm moth. The bright colors you see are the upper wings of the moth that it has folded around itself. The hidden bottom wings are a nondescript brown.

The webworm moth is native to South Florida where its host, the Paradise Tree, grows. However, it has found another host which has brought it to my area in the Mid Atlantic--the Tree of Heaven. The Tree of Heaven is a fast growing, invasive tree with soft wood and  leaves that smell like rotten peanut butter. However, woodpeckers seem to like it for making nest cavities--in my yard anyway.

After noticing the webworm moth for the first time this week, I have seen several more on the sedum. However, I have not yet seen one with its wings spread. Maybe soon.

Until next week.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailanthus_webworm
http://www.insectidentification.org/insect-description.asp?identification=Ailanthus-Webworm-Moth

Food Waste Friday and True Food Confessions--September 7, 2012

It's time for Food Waste Friday, when the Frugalgirl encourages us to post pictures from the previous week of wasted food from our household. This accountability hopefully will help us to be more careful with our food and maybe save some money.

Also, I am using this public forum to encourage us to eat out less which includes better meal planning. You can follow how we are doing in this endeavor by reading True Food Confessions.

This Week's Food Waste

No one at my house likes this.

This week I had to get rid of some moldy cranberry sauce. I got it to use on ham roll ups, but it turns out that no one likes it that well. I knew that I didn't like it and I found out the others only like it with Thanksgiving turkey. News to me. Thankfully I only bought a small can.

This Week's True Food Confessions

A sampling from our dinners this week.

This was a very busy week during which we started out cooking, but couldn't keep it up. After having a very tender pork roast that we cooked in the pressure cooker, mashed potatoes, zucchini continental, hot dogs, and spaghetti with fresh tomatoes and spinach, we began grabbing what we could. We had frozen dinners, snacks, pizza, sub sandwiches, and a church dinner. When things got really busy, we probably could have had more home cooked meals utilizing the crock pot and make ahead casseroles, but we weren't that coordinated. Maybe next week.