I've Been Busy

But not really busy with anything

newsworthy.

Well, maybe implying that anything I write

about is newsworthy is a bit 

of a stretch, but you know what I mean. 

I've been gone a lot. 

The weather is great (?).

And I'm getting ready to be gone again. 

Oh, but some girlfriends came by and 

we did get these done:

Embrace A Family Easter Baskets. 

65 of them. 

So there's that. 

See you in April?

Loose Meat Sandwiches

Otherwise known as 

Maid-Rites

 I love that they serve them with a plastic spoon stuck in the wrap.

You need it.

Remember the Roseanne show?

Toward the end when it got weird?

Not the weird when they won the lottery, 

just before that. 

Roseanne and her sister Jackie opened

a diner that specialized in 

"loose meat" sandwiches.

That term always creeped me out a bit. 

But then many years later some show on Food Network

highlighted a diner that served just that. 

It got less weird when Food Network gave

it its blessing.

Funny how that works. 

On our road trip to Kansas we passed through

Iowa and saw a billboard that advertised

Maid-Rite. 

We had to stop. 

We love gastronomic field trips. 

Lucky for us it was lunchtime. 

The order-taker(?) asked it we wanted

onions, mustard and pickles. 

I like to order new things the way the locals like it

so what the heck, 

give us everything!

They were actually pretty good. 

Don't know if we would stop again

but by the same token, we weren't 

unhappy we did this time. 

As for getting things the way the locals like it, 

that would explain this:

That's chicken-fried steak. 

The local way. 

LOTS of "white" gravy, 

the amount of which was a little intense.

My verdict on this was about the same as the Maid-Rite.

Glad I tried it. 

Not half bad. 

Don't know if I need to again. 

My heart thanks me. 

Omi

Omi went home to be with The Lord.
I was privileged to help walk her home.

The important walk had already happened.
She was already celebrating with The Lord.
There was one last walk to make here.
The earthly remains of Omi needed to be
taken to her home.
To her Kansas home,
to lay beside her husband.

The service Mike's dad had planned didn't fit into
any "funeral service" I knew of.
There was no pastor.
There was no organ.
There was no carpet of flowers.

There were twelve of us.
We all knew her and loved her.
Mike's father spoke and read from the Bible.
He marked his mother's passing.
We all smiled at random remembrances of
Mutti.
Thea.
Tante Thea.
Omi.
I can't think of any better way to have honored
Omi's life.

We all saw her home.

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

Remember this?

Here's the journey:

There was a technique I saw on Pintrest that

I was anxious to try. 

Read: 

had to do it NOW, 

can't run to the store, 

where is there a canvas in the house?

Well, looky there!

A willing victim, 

er, participant!

So the technique is crayons hot glued to a canvas.

All the examples I saw were on blank canvases and, 

honestly, I was wondering what if there were some sort of pattern 

behind the crayons.

So, lucky me!

OK, you hot glue the crayons on and then using a 

blow dryer you melt the crayons. 

 Very cool, huh?

I used crayons that repeated the colors in the painting. 

The ones I've seen have been done in rainbow progression. 

All the comments I've read also tell you to use only

Crayola brand crayons. 

That makes sense, I would imagine you need the 

correct ratio of wax to color additive. 

Next time

 (because there will be a next time)

I'm going to try a heat gun and see if it goes faster,

or burns the paper off the crayons as Val wondered. 

I've had comments as to why I would ruin my painting.

 I don't feel I have. 

I rather think I have enhanced it.

And I had the perfect room for it. 

With the added bonus that my powder room 

now smells like a box of crayons!

Van Gogh Correction

I loaned my membership card to 

The Art Institute 

to Ben and Viki.

Viki felt she would like to thank me with a little

something.

That's a Van Gogh finger puppet.

Ben wondered if I would really enjoy that.

Viki asked him, "have you *met* Merry?"

I like my puppet a lot. 

But there was something wrong with it. 

Do you see it?

Fixed it.

Peeps Vase

This was a really cute idea.

And the pictures on the internet looked really cool. 

You get two vases, one smaller than the other,

place the one inside the other and then line the space

between with Peeps.

Easy.

In theory. 

Just try finding those two vases. 

The good news is I found acceptable containers at

Goodwill.

That's a rather smallish vase with a votive holder inside.

The chances to find a vase big enough to accommodate

another vase inside along with the width of Peeps

on all sides is 

slim to none.

I wound up freezing the Peeps, 

cutting them in half, coating the sticky backside

with cornstarch and smooshing them down between the two containers.

It works. And probably would look better with a different

choice of flowers but, hey, six roses as Aldi for 

four dollars and two "vessels" from Goodwill for 

three dollars means this 

whole little endeavor only set me back seven bucks. 

I'm good with that. 

And now the next time you see something on the internet and think, 

"How easy is that?"

You'll know, look to the details. 

The devil is in the details. 

I'm A "Doer", Not A "Thinker"

Which explains a lot of things.

But today I am going to explain these:

I see this stuff on Pintrest and am just not

satisfied with possessing the "pin" on my "board."

I must make it. 

Otherwise, what's the point?

(to my way of thinking)

So, I jump in and Do.

Here's where the "Think" part gets in the way:

Eh, you win some, you loose some. 

Mini Corn Dog Muffins

 Or, what a box of Jiffy corn bread mix and 

three hot dogs will get you.

I won't tell you where this idea came from. 

(rhymes with interest)

These are great!

Really good with a dip of yellow mustard. 

It really is just a box of Jiffy mixed as instructed 

with a chunk of hot dog popped in the middle.

Baked at 400 for about 15 minutes.

I'm thinking a summer potluck.

Fourth of July?

Margarita Friday?

Well, maybe not.