Looking back and moving forward!

For those new to here, four years ago I slipped on water, tore off my hamstring tendon, injured my sciatic nerve, had a cadeavor tendon put in, developed RSD (a sympathetic system pain disorder).  I have had chronic pain issues since then, and the event REALLY changed my life.

Last week, I went to see a doc at the UW.  My understanding is there is not much more than can do, I just have to live with this.  For the past four years, I have had hope that somehow something could be done, it was difficult to hear that I am now stuck with this.

With that being said, it is now time to start looking at alternative  ways to do the things I enjoy doing, and to look at new possibilities.  Over the weekend I signed up for two online classes. The first is Colorlove by Joanne Sharpe.  I enjoy making journals, I wanted to learn how to make my own pages and take it to the next level.

The second class is on Craftsy and is a class on Plus Size pattern fitting.  I start a new job next week, and will need to start wearing regular clothes.  For the past 23 years as a nurse,  I have worn scrubs to work, now I will only need to do that once a week. Since it is so difficult for me to find clothes that fit up here, and I do not like the cookie cutter selection, I like to sew a lot of my own clothing.  With the changing figure as I age, need to learn how to make garments that will fit the first time.

As my world begins to expand, hopefully my blog will also. The thought also just occurred to me that this is such an ironic time to restart my life.  Tomorrow my oldest daughter will be celebrating her 37th birthday.  I think the birth of my first child was a MAJOR life changing event.

So, on to make her birthday card!

Title of your life's memoir in six words.

Last week I was listening to WPR (Wisconsin Public Radio), there was a discussion on words.  One of the discussions led to a talk on using six words to title your life's memoir.

As woman grow older, our hormones begin to assist in altering our thinking. As our uterus declines, so does our thinking of self.  We begin to think more globally and to see the world in a different fashion.

With this< I have also had this yearning to start journaling.  I have always been drawn to watercolors and more of abstract art, so I want to incorporate this into my journal.  I also enjoy scrapbooking, have spent many hours planning out scrapbook/art journals.

When the discussion came up on the memoirs, I found it quite intriguing. My title came to mind very quickly!

Crazy Horse
 
    Lightly Treading

       No REMORSE!

I had the title, now wasn't sure how to proceed.

This morning while searching the net, I found an online class by Joann Sharpe. I find I enjoy her work, so I bought the class.  It is a class on art journaling, I am SOOOOOO EXCITED about taking this calss and seeing where it will take me.

Hopefully I will figure out how to post pictures of the pages I make.

Until then,  What would be your six words to describe your life's memoir?

My Memories Version 4

I am SO EXCITED!!!!!!!

My Memories is a digital scrapbooking software that I have been using.  They have recently come out with version 4.  

Why is this so exciting!  This has now opened up a whole new world for me.

This version has a print and cut feature to use with the die cutting machines such as
eclips, Cameo, etc....

Now, instead of having to head down to my local store for embellishments, with the use of my computer, a program like Sure Cuts A Lot, and My Memories 4,  I can custom create my scrapbooking!

This is such an advantage for those of us with little space, young children, out in the country.......

My Memories comes with choices of paper, shapes, etc. You can also purchase scrapbooking kits online.  Here's what I think is great:

I like the idea of making small scrapbook albums. I'm not ultra creative, so to think of adding embellishments sometimes is over the top and overwhelms me. I am not always sure what colors go together so I am sometimes at a lost.

Now, I  buy a scrapbook kit (they have frequent sales) for which I pay about 4.99.

I like to make smaller, sturdier albums, so I buy white heavier card stock. I like using the 110 pound weight, it seems to make the albums stronger.

I open up My Memories, choose to do a blank page. I add my paper make a square or rectangle the size I want, print the background paper.  I then cut the paper out. There, one page of background now done!

Say I want to add some journaling to that page. I can use the Word Art feature, make the journaling to look the way I want.  I then load my paper into my Eclips machine, I import the word art, and instead of cutting out the the word art, I use the pens and the machine to add the journaling. Viola! A custom made page!

I am so excited to be able to use all these features and to learn more!

My Memories is not so much a photo editing software, and you will not be able to do all the things you can as with photoshop, but for those of us who want to do more with out die cutting machines and scrapbooking, this may be just the thing.

The price is also within reach.  Their scrapbooking kits are a reasonable price. They also have great sales, this week I bought many files of word art for 99 cents each.

If interested in this software, there is also a 10.00 off coupon code on my blog.

I also found there customer service very helpful. I was having great difficulty downloading the version4 which I had never had with the previous versions.  I have moved, so I thought it was something with my much slower internet.  Turned out, it was the way I had my Mac set to download!  How Mike from My Memories figured that out for my, I will never know, but he got it working!

I am so excited to take my scrapbooking and die cutting to another level, I hope this will also help others!

Musings

I am sitting in front of my front window of our new residence, soaking up the warm morning sun, watching the barren trees lightly sway with the morning breeze. Christmas and New Years are now over, the peace and quiet allow me to reflect on the past  year, what I hope for the New Year.

The past year has been one of challenges and change. My husband and I have been remodeling this house, having moved in two weeks ago.  There is still LOTS to do, but I have a bedroom to sleep in that is 90% finished, and a great bathroom.  Walls have been taken down and rebuilt. My son has done an excellent job with the drywall and painting. The color in the living room is quite mellow for me, allows the light from the sun to reflect. Their is a warmth that comes through, even when it is gloomy and dark.

Anyone who has ever tried a remodeling project will attest to the stress it puts on a relationship. There were many times I wanted to just stop and back out, something inside would keep me going. Add to that my chronic pain issues and my sympathetic pain disorder, I'm amazed at how well we have come through this.  I hope to post some of my projects, even the mundane such as cleaning the wood furniture.

Not much baking has gone on in the past year in our home. My two biggest baking accomplishments of the year were the wedding cake I made in August, and the baking demos I did at the MN State Fair.

I have enjoyed developing and baking recipes made from cake mixes.  One of my goals for the new year, is to come up with a recipe that uses cake mixes, but can be made in small amounts at a time.  With families being smaller, a large cake is not always practical.

I will also post more of my scrapbooking projects. I really enjoy spending time making mini albums using my new Eclips die cutting machine, so watch for those in the future.

As we get closer to spring, you will also find gardening tips, stories of my garden. Two summers ago I started a new garden out here, using the Square Foot Gardening method.  I am amazed at how well the garden did.  This past summer, I had a row that was based on the Lasagna Method, I have never seen tomatoes grow so high with such a huge yield!  Looking forward to trying that again this year!

I encourage those reading this, to take advantage of this quiet time in winter, to think back on your past year, to those thing you may want to change, new goals for the next year. This is a great time to sit back and recharge for the busy months ahead..........

Lasagna Garden

Last year I started a garden on my husbands families farm. We are going to be moving there this December. It is about 20 miles away, so I was not able to be there all the time to give it the watering it needed during this low water past summer. I have 9 beds that are 4x4 which I stared last year as square foot gardens. This past spring I put in a lasagna bed. In the lasagna bed the main things I grew were 12 cherry tomato plants, a few cantaloupe plants and a couple of bean plants.

To our surprise, the cherry tomato plants grew to 8 feet tall! Not only have we had plant growth, from the beginning of July until the frost last week, we were getting at least a 5 quart bucket of tomatoes every other day! In an area where are growing season is so short, never thought I'd actually get melons, we had at least 10 melons that I picked prior to the frost. Phenomenal results!

I am now going to plant the rest of my garden in the lasagna garden. My brother in law has horses, and he grows the hay, so that is readily available to me.  In the other beds, I also have the same tomatoes planted, that only got about 2 ft tall.

I found one of the best reasons to do this type of garden, is the way the beds are able to hold in the moisture. Great way to use whatever water is available!  The lasagna garden may be the way to garden in the future, giving the way are water situation has been lately. As far as I can tell, instead of pulling all the old plants out of the garden, I just cover them up with hay and let them compost over the winter.

Since I have gone to no soil gardening, one of the pluses is being able to get into the garden as soon as the mixture is thawed. There is no tilling of soil, very little time is spent weeding. as there are very few weeds. I am still able to spend in my garden,  instead of spending it pulling weeds, I was able to spend it tending to the vines, planting seeds,etc. Even though a vast portion of my garden froze last week, today I am going to work on getting my garden ready for next spring!

Coming!

Hello everyone,
Sorry I haven't gotten the recipes up, I've been kinda busy with school and all (SO much homework - even in the first week). I'll get them up as soon as I can! Sorry about the wait!

Maple Pecan Bundt Cake

Here is my recipe all have been waiting for.  Sorry for the long wait. Thanks all for your patience.  We ended up camping at the State Fair for two weeks. During that time, we did not have any internet. We also packed up our daughter and got here back off to college. During the fair, there was some sort of viral thing going on, slow moving the past few days since we got back home on Tuesday.

Maple Pecan Bundt Cake

1 yellow cake mix
1 small box instant vanilla pudding
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
3-4 eggs (depends on size of cake mix and moistness desired)
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 325
Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Mix on low speed until all are moistened
Beat at medium speed for 2 minutes
Spray Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray just prior to filling
Pour batter into bundt pan. Batter will be very thick. Even out as much as possible.
Bake @ 325 form 30-60 minutes. Cake is done when toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Let cool in pan for 10 minutes
Put a plate on top of the pan and flip the pan over, so the cake now sits on the plate
Dust top with powdered sugar
ENJOY!