Chloride and veggies

The weekend went by in a blur and I’m kind of reeling this morning. It could be because I haven’t had any coffee though.

Paul had to work on Saturday, but he was out of work by nine and we decided that we were going to take off and check out the town wide yard sale in Chloride with his parents. We all loaded in to their van and drove the 20 miles to the teensy little town out in the middle of nowhere. I made them stop the van so I could get a picture of the sign:

Chloride only had around 150 residents, but because of it’s mining history it’s become a bit of a tourist stop. There are gunfights, a few small shops, and this past Saturday they had their town yard sale. It was kind of neat to soak in some of the kitschy tourist stuff (like a renewing of wedding vows followed by a gun fight) and hit some thrifty shopping at the same time.

The wedding vows went quick, and the shoot out even quicker. You could hear the gunshots through the entire little town.

We walked across the entire “Main street” and then drove my mother in laws van around the other couple of streets. I found a few bags to store projects in and a brand new set of hot curlers for $2.00.

After we’d perused all the little yard sales and I’d gotten my Crocs absolutely covered in goat heads (Seriously, there were probably thousands embedded in each shoe!) we started heading out of town. At the last side street before you reach the highway there was a yard sale sign so we veered to the left and followed a dirt road for a few miles. That yard sale was the gold mine. I replaced two of my cd’s that were stolen years ago (TLC Fanmail and Alanis Morisette Jagged Little Pill) and the first 7 books of the Shannara series by Terry Brooks (In hard back!) as well as a whole bunch of paperback sci-fi books for Paul for a whopping $5.55. Before we left the yard sale I walked across the road and took a picture of a cactus in full bloom because it was beautiful.

I got a little more sun than I expected during our jaunt so now I’m sporting a bright red neck, nice ghost-white shoulders and red arms from the midpoint down. Hot! I got a nice chewing out from my husband because of it, so I suspect we’ll be picking up more sunscreen soon. Years ago I got a sunburn on my back so bad that it was blistered around where the edges of my bathing suit were and even after all this time - 10 years or so - there’s a part of my back that is darker than the rest. I can’t blame him for bitching me out I guess…just have to be more careful next time.

The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful. We went out for breakfast yesterday at Golden Corral (One of our favorite buffet places) and that’s going to be my last high calorie breakfast for awhile. I’m finally going to start keeping track of what I’m eating and try and lose a “little” weight. I picked up a ton of veggies and some fruit yesterday when we went shopping and I joined a site called The Daily Plate. It’s similar to FitDay, but I like the layout better and it seems more user friendly. I haven’t logged anything in to it yet, but I plan on starting to use it today. It even has a calorie calculator to figure out how many calories you should be eating for your weight to lose x number of pounds per week. It’s nifty!

Anyway, I’ll leave you with a picture I found way too cute not to take yesterday:

I left a drawer where I keep a lot of my hand knits open the other day and Gutter’s decided it’s the perfect little hidey hole for him to sleep in. I’ve left it pulled out so he’s been in it most of the last three days. Adorable old snot!

 

Busy with boring stuff

I’ve spent pretty much the entire day between reading the best of Craigslist and catching up on cleaning from the weekend. It’s been made slightly less boring by a link that Vegas Jenn sent me. At Chore Wars you can create a character, join/create a horde and get experience points and gold for doing chores. If for nothing else, it prompts me to get my butt in gear and try to get some much needed cleaning done.

My bento for today isn’t very pretty, but it’s functional and tasty:

Homemade chicken and rice soup with carrots and celery, whole wheat saltines and chocolate pudding for dessert.  My tummy has been off for the past few days, more than likely because of the nacho cheese we used on our homemade shredded beef nachos we made on Friday night.  They bothered Paul too and I think it might be due to the spiciness of the cheese.  I’m a total wimp when it comes to hot stuff and Paul doesn’t really care for it either so we almost never eat spicy stuff.  Oh well…that’s what we get for caving to our cravings.

That’s about it.  Nothing exciting happened over the weekend, we stayed home and I slept a good portion of it away.  I started a top for my mom for her birthday.  It’s called Valpuri, from Berroco.  No, I still haven’t learned my lesson about hating cables.  They’re beautiful and I think my mom will like the top (at least I hope she does) so it’ll be worth it.  If I can finish it without throwing it across the room.  We’ll see.

 

mmmm, krab!

Today’s bento!

I know a lot of people hate fake crab, but I like it. It’s not as good as real crab of course but I still think it’s tasty. I used a whole wheat tortilla, spread about a tablespoon of cream cheese on it, added about 2 ounces or so of broken up fake crab, some lettuce and some dill to the wrap. The ends are never pretty so darn…I had to eat them while I was making my bento. In the smaller compartment is one of my vibrant easter eggs and a half a tangelo. My monkey holds some cucumber slices in his head and some wasabi ranch in his belly!

 

Early/late

I’m late posting my bento this afternoon but I actually ate several hours ago.

I decided to have leftovers today since I made way too much spaghetti the other night.  Nice and simple spaghetti with meat sauce and parm cheese, a few small rounds of garlic bread and a green salad.  I used a Lock & Lock box for todays bento because I was STARVING by the time I ate and it’s quite a bit bigger than my other bentos.  I cleaned my 18 gallon fish tank from top to bottom this morning and of course I skipped breakfast because I got sidetracked.  Besides, who wants to eat when they’re covered in fish water?  Not me!

I know I should have waited a couple of days for my back to feel better before messing with that fish tank but I had my last lonely guppy die this morning and I didn’t want to leave it sit.  My ancient goldfish is now inhabiting the large tank and I can finally break down the 10 gallon tank I had him in.  Tonight will be a liberal dinner of non-asprin and ibuprofen I think.

 

Fruit & fiber

Here’s today’s bento:

I’m calling this my “I feel like crap and don’t really want to eat but know I need to” bento. It’s just strawberry yogurt, cantaloupe, grapes, a few dates and a few bland cinnamon cookies.

I also wanted to post a picture of the latest dishcloth I’ve made

Over the past year or so I’ve started this cloth around five times. I always got confused or bored with it and tossed it down, but it was this weeks cloth for the dishcloth group on ravelry and I decided to finally bite the bullet and finish one. I used Sugar n’ Cream striping yarn and I really like how it turned out. You can find the pattern here.

I think I’m going to go crawl onto the couch and pretend that my back has been magically replaced with…I don’t know…something that doesn’t hurt.

 

Today

Today’s bento:

Frozen grapes, cantaloupe airplanes and cucumber cars!  Vanilla yogurt for dipping.   Teriyaki chicken wings and onigiri with ground beef filling topped with cayenne.

 

Introducing - my first bento!

Here’s my first bento!

In the smaller section there’s pickled mushrooms on a pick, sharp cheddar hearts and stars and in the little cup there’s papaya and dates. In the larger section, onigiri (rice ball), a tea egg, sweet & sour meatballs and fried cabbage with sweet pepper flowers. Hello Kitty is storing dark soy sauce.

It doesn’t look very big (to me at least) but there is plenty of food in this little bento. I’m loving this…really good food and most of it was already done for me because of cooking ahead yesterday. It’s a world better than eating dry cereal straight from the box because I don’t feel like cooking!

 

Monday Catch up!

I had a really nice weekend! I spent the whole weekend shopping, crafting and cooking - what better, right?

Friday, after we’d ran errands ( you know, paying bills, all that pain in the butt stuff) we went to GameStop and I picked up Leisure Suit Larry (Magna Cum Laude). It’s a smarmy, mature rated game and it’s funny as hell. I rented it some time ago and really liked it. They had a used copy at GameStop and with the credit we had on our card I got it for free! After that I hit the Dollar Tree that was conveniently next door and found a few bento supplies.

I got the Hello Kitty bento there. I also picked up some little plastic picks there.

We hit Safeway after that just to pick up some soda for Paul, but wound up leaving there about $50 poorer because of the great deals we found! They had grapes for .75 a pound and I started buying up some supplies for my bento lunches.

Even though Paul was tired I made him take me to another dollar store before we went home. I don’t think it has a name…now that I think about it. I picked up the other two bento boxes shown above, as well as some tiny cookie cutters and a HUGE bag of chopsticks for a buck. There were probably 200 packages of chopsticks in the bag!

I wandered around there and was thrilled when I came across these:

They’re obviously not top quality, but I think they’re nice starters. I plan on making some mods to them. The little hutch’s doors don’t open, but if I can find some super tiny hinges I’ll be changing that. I think the second piece will become an entertainment center and I might put the desk in my crafty room. I read on the package that there are six different furniture pieces in the series so I think I’ll be popping back over there periodically to see if I can find the other three.

I finished some knitting this weekend as well! I’ve noticed a growing trend in the grocery stores of racks upon racks of reusable shopping bags. At .99 apiece they’re a good deal, but why buy them when I can make my own that are not only bigger, but cuter and more unique?

I used this pattern on size 15 needles. The body of the bag went super quick and I modified the pattern to in the round so I wouldn’t have to seam the bag. I also picked up only 60 stitches for the top on size 10 needles. The handle felt like it took forever, but I think it was just because I was impatient to finish it. I hope to make several more of these. It holds an unbelievable amount, probably more than I can comfortably carry at once!

I also promised pictures of the miniature foods I’ve been making, so prepare for several more pictures!

This is my favorite so I’ll post it first! Chocolate cake with vanilla frosting, covered in purple fondant with a teensy white flower on top. I cut a piece out of it so you could see the frosting inside It’s just barely an inch across.

Tiny potatoes and carrots!

A perfectly toasted loaf of french bread.

A dozen various donuts - two maple bars, two glazed, two apple fritters, two jelly filled, two frosted, and two cinnamon twists!

Three super tiny hostess cupcakes. These little suckers were so fun to make but hard! Those squiggles on the tops were so hard to make! The cupcakes are only about 1/4″.

A whole bunch of crisp red apples! I need to make a little basket to put them all in.

Finally, a set of eight plates.

They’re currently unfinished. I need to sand them smooth, paint them and glaze them. I’m looking forward to making matching bowls and a little scared of the challenge of making cups to go with them.

Hope I didn’t kill your connection with all these pictures! I plan on posting a picture of my bento lunch this afternoon. I know y’all can’t wait!

 

Must look away!

Can I just say that this could become a serious new obsession for me.

The idea of making healthy, portion controlled, CUTE lunches is almost impossible to deny.  I’ve already spent about two hours reading about bento and I have a feeling I won’t be detoured despite preparation and cost.

Oh dear.