AMANDA'S BASKETS: From the Sublime to the Rediculous

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

From the Sublime to the Rediculous

Okay, yesterday was cold, wet and gray.   High in the mid 60's.   Guess what the temperature is today?   Right now, at 5:45pm it is 91 degrees and sunny!!! All I can say is - WOW!!!   And they are calling for rain for the next three days.

One excellent thing...my house stays cool (which is good because I do not have air-conditioning).   And the warm sunny day was fortunate because I needed to get some laundry done and until today, the weather was not cooperative.

I am involved in a mail art swap and today I did get some postcards put together.   The leaves are done with watercolor.   I used a page from an old (1918) Good Housekeeping magazine for the background, antiquing it with orange and brown stamps.

I also made a collage of some of my pictures taken out and about in Maine...

The studio is still a mess, but I'm getting there....two boxes are packed for Goodwill, third one up and started. You know, it is nice to get rid of things that I know I will not use again, but others may enjoy having the opportunity to try out.

Remember my goal is to keep about 1/4th of the stuff that I had in storage. It's taking a bit longer than I anticipated because most of the 'stuff' was in boxes, not furniture. Actually, I have very little furniture, but even there, I will be getting rid of some of the larger pieces.

I figure that I will be in a studio apartment in NYC and won't have room for much anyway...so why not edit my belongings now rather than when I can't move because I brought too much 'stuff' with me.

Thanks for dropping in...
Keep cool if it's warm where you are...
See you tomorrow...

CRAFTING IDEAS

I am always looking for a small piece of paper to write down something which will later be disposed of. I decided to use some of the scrap paper of which I have a ton. I mostly use the paper for glueing projects. I decided to cut the paper into a small size. (Six pieces from a piece of copy paper.). But just having them sitting on my desk would get messy without a container. So, using a cardboard box, I cut it down to size and using a hot glue gun I glued the ends together. Using a picture from a magazine cut into pieces and stick craft glue, I glued the pieces to the box inside and out. I also used some decorative tape for the outside edges. And to finish the top corners which were not covered, I used straight pins with colorful tops. Looks nice and works well.

MAGAZINE IDEAS

(New) One article in the Farmer's Almanac 2024 is a list of trends. One I knew about is the trend to downsize in just about every area. Another trend that I was surprised about was called ''The Human Library' which offers people on loan to talk about specific subjects. Finally, more folks are adding pets to their family and as a result, stores are adding more pet food, toys and medication to their offerings. There's also a nice garden article which suggests mixing vegetables and flowers together for success.

RECIPE IDEAS

Have you every made Cherry Dump Cake. It calls for 2 cans of Cherry Pie Filling (21 ounces), a white cake mix, 1/4 -1/2 cup butter, melted & 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans. In a 9 by 13 pan, spread both cans of cherry pie filling. Add the melted butter to the cake mix and break apart the resulting mixture and crumble it evenly over the pie filling. Sprinkle the pecans evenly over the mixture. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 35 - 45 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Serve with vanilla ice cream. Fast, easy and very delicious.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

What if you want to establish better habits, then decide what habit you want to work on. Again, try an easier one first for that good feeling of success. Let's consider more exercise. Start small. Don't try to run a marathon right away. Set the amount of time, the type of exercise and when to do it to begin making sure that it is within your reach. If it works for you each week add a bit more. Walking is one of the best ways to get good overall movement but there are many exercise videos on YouTube of varying lengths and difficulty to check out. Change your exercise routines to eliminate getting bored. For hardcore exercise with weights, give yourself a day in-between to recover. Even on days you would rather not exercise, do it and see if you feel better. It takes an average of 66 days to establish a habit. Just think 66 days to establish a good habit for a lifetime. Sounds like a good thing to me...how about you?