Merry Christmas From Florida

When I went to Florida in April, I was mesmerized by the white sands and the abundance of seashells. I literally brought back 10 lbs of sand and shells. I wanted a way to display some of the prettiest ones I found. I went to Michael's and got a box of do-it-yourself glass ornaments. I choose the cube shape because I wanted a shape other than the traditional ball. As you can see, I filled the ornament with sand and my shells. Because the trip was for our 1 year wedding anniversary, I decided to include one of the "love" charms from the champagne glasses at our wedding. I took some ribbon scraps, also left over from the wedding and hot glued it to the top. The words are just written with a fine point sharpie. Presto, a memorable Christmas ornament!

Grandma Crafts Are For All Ages

Well I finally finished a project I have been working on for about a year. Sometime last year Jim and I went to Michael's craft store. For some reason we were in the latch-hook rug section. Jim saw this rug kit and told me I should get it. I thought about it, but decided not to. It was $20.00 bucks and I wasn't sure I would have the patience to finish it. I tried doing latch-hook when I was a kid and I just couldn't get into it. Time passed and every time I went to Michael's I would think about this rug and how cute it was. Finally I had a 40% off coupon and I decided I would give it a whirl. To my surprise, I found that I now enjoyed doing latch-hook. It gave me something to do while I was watching my Netflix. I actually finished the yarn part of it in July, but I finished putting the binding on it yesterday. I know latch-hook is totally "old lady" but I reminds me of Rusty and Marty and I think it's cute.

More Than a Dishrag

Ever since I started knitting, the only things I have made are dishrags. They were a great way to practice different stitches and didn't take that long to make. While I am still making dishrags, I decided to try and make a hat. My intention was to make a hat by knitting in the round, but then my mom gave me one of those knitting looms. So I tried it out and made a hat and scarf set for myself. I love the loom knitting! It's so fast. I finished the hat in one day, and the scarf only took me about two days. The only downside to loom knitting is you can only really do a stockinette stitch. That's okay though because that's usually the stitch you use for a hat. I did go out and buy a circular knitting needle, and I will learn how to properly knit a hat in the round, but for right now I'm diggin' the loom.

Experimental Cooking

After being inspired by Jessica Seinfeld's cookbook, I decided to do a little experimental cooking. I came up with Pumpkin Sweet Potato Bread. It's very moist and healthy. Overall I am pleased with its outcome. After making this, I realized I really am my mother's child. Here is the recipe I made up:

Morgan's Pumpkin Sweet Potato Bread

1/2 c. Brown Sugar

1 Large Egg

3 Egg Whites

1 1/4 c. Orange Juice

2 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Baking Powder

1 tsp Allspice

2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Nutmeg

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Cloves

2 tsp Vanilla

1/2 tbsp Grated Fresh Ginger

Zest of 1 Orange

1 c. Whole Wheat Flour

1 c. Oatmeal

1 c. White Flour

1/2 can Pumpkin (about 7 oz)

1 Small Sweet Potato

1/2 c. oil

1 c. Chopped Walnuts and Pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash sweet potato, prick with a fork, and microwave for 5 minutes. In a blender, combine whole wheat flour and oatmeal. Blend until it is a fine powder. Mix all of the ingredients in a bowl with a hand mixer, except for the sweet potato and nuts. Peel the sweet potato, cut into chucks, and place in a separate bowl. Using the hand mixer, puree the sweet potato. Add puree to the mix and blend until smooth. Hand stir in the nuts. In a greased pan, pour batter and bake for 35-40 mins until done.

Blending the whole wheat flour and oatmeal into a fine powder, eliminates that "heavy" taste that whole wheat flour can sometimes have. This bread isn't super sweet because I don't like sugary breads. So if you do, you might want to add more sugar.

A Bed for the Boys

I have a blanket that I made for myself about five years ago. It's velvety on one side and fake fur on the other. I adore this blanket! So do my cats. You can see Marty on it below.

Since the cats seemed to love it so much, I decided to make them each their own. I went down to Joann's fabrics when they were have a 50% off sale on fake fur. I found a strange, but intriguing fur that looked just like Marty. I bought 2 yardss of it for about 6 bucks. When I got home I found an old piece of fabric that I knew I wasn't going to use on anything else. With the fabric and an old red zipper, I proceeded to make two pet beds. One is just a straight blanket that lays at the foot of our bed. Jim had an old pillow that he has had since he was born. I couldn't bring myself to throw it away, so I took the remaining fabric, made a bag and slipped the pillow inside. I put a zipper on the side so I can take the pillow out when I need to wash it.

The pillow bed is on the left and the blanket is on the left.

The picture below is the other side of both of them.

As you can see Rusty loves it!

One Month Down...Two to Go!

Today's long run offically completed my first month of marathon training. To change things up a bit, I decided to run along the American River bike path. The plan was to run for 90 minutes. My goal was to get in at least 9 miles. It was quite a pleasant run. Normally I run through the neighborhoods. I might see a few kids walking to school, or a few bike riders, but on the whole I typically do not see a lot of people. The bike path is so much different. Bikers, walkers, runners and roller bladers are every where. Running through the streets of Folsom can be a bit boring. Passing all the runners on the bike path was very motivating. When I felt tired, I would see another runner coming the opposite direction and I could take comfort in knowing they too were feeling the pain of running. They felt the same way I did. The only downside to being with other people is the extra effort one uses saying hello to everyone. Having not had a lot of human contact while running, I initially enjoy saying hello. I started the running with a very chipper "Good Morning" to everyone I passed. As the miles pasted, I tamed down to a "Hello" then "Hi". Eventually it dwindled down to a wave, then a nod, and finally a lifting of the eyebrows. It was still fun though. The river was beautiful and I entertained myself by watching the kayakers (my music died 30 minutes into it) Ultimately I would classify this as a great run. I ran 9.64 miles at a 9:22 pace. I came home and downloaded my running data from my GPS and discovered I ran about 90 seconds per mile faster than I did last year. Over the past year, I have burned 107,437 calories and have ran 820 miles. When I look at those calorie numbers I think, if I've burned that many just running, think how can I possibly not be at my goal weight? Kinda cool, yet depressing all at the same time.

Marty...A Saga Continued

Well Marty seems to be getting better. He is eating on his own and I no longer have to force feed him. He eats both his dry food and his wet food. I cannot tell you what a relief I feel. Over the past few days he has returned to his normal behavior. He is still rather skinny, but you can tell he has gained a few pounds. Marty is meowing and playing like he use to. He had another liver enzyme test yesterday and the results came back good. Although his billirubin count is still not normal, it has decreased by half. That means his liver is becoming healthy again. As for the FIP, he does have it; however, I learned there are two types. One that he recovers from and one that he doesn't. At this point, we still don't know which one he has. We will be able to test him again in about three weeks. If the count goes down, then he has the non fatal FIP virus. My hopes remain high because of the progress he has made. Wednesday night I was in tears. I was convinced that I was going to lose him. Then Thursday morning rolled around and a miracle happened. Marty ate all day long. It all happened so fast. I was thrilled! So I'll let you know in a few weeks how the FIP test comes back. In the mean time I am going to enjoy having a happy cat around again!