so what is in your drawers?....

inspired by Adrienne's post about what was in her drawers....here are some of mine...ACK! I can't believe I am sharing these....the crevices of my home...the dark hidden things, that make you cringe to even think of some one else seeing them....
Lets take a quick tour...the front room....it has a library table with two drawers, and two end tables...what did i find in there?.....ooooh here is the first one...piles and piles of miscellania..a base for a broken clock, a baggie full of christmas replacement bulbs, a metal ball...a cookie cutter, a wheel for those pop the wheelie thingiess the boys had...I think those are all broken by now and the ropes that hold Mr Blowup Frosty and Mr Blowup Frankenstein down in the wind...among other things! I do blame some of this on that gorgeous man i live with...he is wonderful at helping pick up..BUT...he sticks it all in the drawers, rather than in the kids rooms or the closet or where ever it may belong and he doesn't know where...the good news is...the floors are clean..! *disclaimer* this is not a complaint...just an observation..I would much rather have to clean the drawers out once in a while, than have it all on the floors...


Hey! this one is rather organized and has no unwanted items...a drawer next to my favorite seat..it holds my tarot and angel decks only....
By the front door...not terribly crammed..Hey! that is where I stuck the catalogs from Dream Street....and wow~ I totally forgot about that wooden bear and clothes....saving it for grandkids I suppose...it has been there for I don't know how long...so I guess it is safe and can continue to stay there....
this is a miracle...a completely empty drawer!!! Halleluyah...okay i have to confess...Art just painted the coffee table and two end tables...so all the drawers except the phone book drawer are empty....for the moment at least...
Last but not most certainly least on our 'drawers in the house' tour(there are few more..the bill drawer and one or two more) is the MOTHER of Junk drawers...the kitchen junk drawer..you could create a complete survival kit from this drawer....Survivor man beware.....
na nah.......nah na.....(think Jaws theme here)...the suspense is building...here it is...the JUNK DRAWER of the Century....a close up!..are you scared?

and a top view.....super size the picture to see the enormity of the contents...doesn't it send chills down your spine....of excitement maybe?..since mostly it is altered artists that read this blog...lots of opportunities waiting here....you know..the scary thing about this really...I had cleaned it out less than 6 months ago....and this is how fast it filled...yikes!!!

so....now it is your turn....show me your junk drawer...and pass it on...post a link in the comments section..lets play a game of it...

MSG

wow..i was just reading that page on MSG...it is kind of scary...I have had some of the worst reactions and believe me it was terrifying! here are the ones that I experienced all at once on one of my most severe times:
rapid heartbeat
palpatations
nausea
flu like achiness
dizziness
lightheadedniss
loss of balance
disorientation
anxiety
panic attacks(yeah this helped the whole thing even more ....phew!)
insomnia(gees i wonder why!)
chills and shakes
numbness in my face and hands and feet
shortness of breath
chest pain
flushing
and a weird feeling in my mouth...sort of runny..kind of like when you are going to throw up...

I had all of these all at once..I thought I was dying....the adverse reaction developed suddenly. I never had to watch what I ate before..but one night after we had eaten chinese I woke up with all of these symptoms...the good news is i remembered that my brother got headaches from MSG..so i was smart enough to go see if there where other reactions...bingo!

so you might want to watch out...It is in my understanding that allergic reactions/sensitivities can come on suddenly...I guess your body can only tolerate so much of things..and one day....it is the straw that breaks the camel's back...kwim!?
just thought i might share this...some people have never heard how bad MSG is actually for us...I avoid certain restaurants because I know their proprietary season contains MSG~...

Tuesday night's dinner....

I apologize if you find my food pictures boring..but I am trying to make food amore fun and healthful point in my life...a hobby of sorts...Rather than throwing that frozen pizza in the oven just to save time...I am making dinners a fun part of my day...and taking pictures of the pretty dishes actually adds to the fun! I would also like to add if any one is interested in "recipes"just say so and I will be happy to add those too..i just thought that i wouldn'tpush it..lol! I hjave been told by any visitors that I am a really good cook...I do have to admit..I haven't killed any one yet....so it must not be too bad...rofl!...I guess my lasagne has a reputation..some one working on concrete here a couple of summers ago asked me about my lasagne..so guess what!? I made a lasagne lunch for the whole concret crew...about 8 guys the next day..they left with a smile on their faces..rofl!

Last night i tried something I have never made before. I made homemade chicken pot pie!...I usually hate anything pie...the crust makes me sick to my stomach..I realize now that it is probably because it is full of transfat, when you get pre-prepared crusts and on commercially made pies and pot pies...bleh! So, instead, I thought I would make a bisquit topping...'made from scratch' bisquit topping..with butter instead of shortening...another bleh on my list..I think I have bought shortening once in my life and regretted it!

Any way, the recipe search had quick results...I made up the pot pie ingredients and gravy all on my own including a bit of spicy natural chicken jalempeno sausages....for just that little bit of zing~...easy peasy gravy with flower in the liquid...and just found a recipe for butter/buttermilk bisquits. Since I didn't have buttermilk I substituded a bit of sour cream...about a 1/3 of a cup..but ended up adding the rest of the milk in anyway...But the sour cream added a delicious flavor

the first Picture is of the chicken,chicken sausage and onions cooking in a bit of chicken broth..I use every thing MSG free...that is nasty stuff and I have adverse reactions to it...almost 3/4 of the ones listed...
Here I have the biquit batter mixing in my barely used mixer...i keep forgetting I have the darn thing...rofl..but I have drug it out twice this week..yay!
here it is fresh out of the oven..and I have to say...this was THE BEST bisquits i have ever had..the boys said so too...Turner even ASKED!!!! to try it..now that was a first..he is a food puritan..nothing can touch each other..nothing can be mixed...meat in one pile..an inch inbetween...noodles in another pile..veggies in another. Okay so he only ate a few bites..but that was monumental!!! here is the yummy inside. I mixed in frozen peas and a bit of a frozen veggie soup mix. I feel better about my use of frozen vs fresh not that my mom told me that they are saying in most cases frozen is actually better because all of the vitamins are frozen in right after they are picked...fresh could be sitting around quite a while before being consumed...phew! frozen lasts so much longer..therefore is more economical!

so I am very happy to report supper was a hit with every one last night...and it sure did taste good! I guess if the cook approves and had ahard time not picking at the left overs...it must have been good...LOL!!

art nite became pizza creating nite...

Well I had the best intentions to get back up to my studio last night to make some more art things..but ended up spending a fun time making pizzas with the boys...yum yum! the boys are thrilled when they get to make their own! I flatten out the dough for them and then put the sauce on and they get to do the rest~

Here is Jonathon adding cheese to his pizza

Turner creating his...
threee scrumptious looking kid pizzas..made just how they want them...

Mom and Dad's loaded pizza...it is nice to make your own from scratch..including the sauce...because other than the pepperoni I know exactly what goes in it!~ Light cheese is another plus so it is a bit healthier for you than gobs and gobs of cheese that doesn't agree with either one of us anyway...LOL~

can you smell it?..mmmmmmmm Art said it was the best pizza he ever had...now wasn't that sweet?!
this was my morning view today...two handsome men ready to go off in the world to start the day...the first two out the door...Ty is getting so tall...and Artie looks so super duper handsome in his tie...mmmm mmm..gotta love a man in a tie!

Today i went to the gym..yeah yeah tell you something you don't know..lol....but after that yay! I got to meet with my local art group over in kalamazoo at For the ARt stamp store...The Altered Sisters are so fun the spend time with..it has been too few and too far in between times..so it was an extra special treat today for me! 5 of us also went to lunch at a delicious restaurant called Martinis..great Italian food! What a nice day today...

so now time to clean up..the builderguys should be close ....I can vacuum AFTER they leave..and then dishes and time for football practice....and then make supper and put babies and me to bed...days just don't have enough hours in them some days....other they have too many..lol!

maybe there will be time tomorrow to go play art....and play with someof my new stamps I got today...one of my favs is a Michael DeMeng one...bought for a RR I will be playing in soon....perfect for one of the themes of the "dark hearts and wings" or something like that...verra cool stamp! almost like it was made for that theme~

and the winner is..........

Well Jonathon wasn't near by for the drawing..so i picked the next one up to help me out...Turner was more than happy to help....here he is as he picks the winning name....(sexy in his boxers..lol!) and with no further ado...the winner is:
Congratulations Fran! I will get that out to in the next day or two.....
I hope you like it!!!
xoxox
angela

good morning...

What a beautiful day it is...and was yesterday! WE started out early though...Tyrus had his first football game and we had to be there by 9:30....now on normal days that isn't really early but it is saturday for cripes sake...Any way the weather was perfect...65 and a bit sunny and no humidity...perfect football weather!~

We enjoyed sitting and chatting with some of the other parents and watched the game that started at 10:30..fortunately it had short quarters....Tyrus got to play the whole game..he is starting line up for defense...i have no clue what position he is in but he is in the front row toward the center...and then they won....last quarter with 2 minutes to go they scored a touchdown...the one and only one in the game...and held the other team off the rest of the game..YAY!

then we had a bit of lunch and came home...around 2!! amazing how fast a day can go! after cleanup and spending a bit of time with ARt....the rest of the day I spent doing some artwork!! Double yay! I worked on the rest of the tiles for my local group. Each person picked a theme and handed out these cardboard tiles that Joanne provided. they seem to be made out of coaster material..with rounded edges..very cool substrate for artwork. The intention is for each artist to hang them together creating a larger panel of art with all of the tiles attached to each other to make a "quilt" of sorts~

The first one here had a Johnny Depp theme...since no one had jumped at doing a Pirates of the Carribean one...i had to~The second one is a "cool colored Dragon" theme...i love this dragon stamp i have and was tickled to have the opportunity to play with it! Used mainly papers and things that were close at hand...one year i will have no scraps..HA!this third one is actually made on a piece of unprimed canvas...it ran a bit when i sprayed on the Color Mists through the stencil..but i liked the effect! This is Susan's wings themed tileand my personal favorite an ABC-reading themed one for Chris...it reminds me of some of Adrienne Hurtt's work!!!....i miss that girl..

so now I am off to see if i can fix Ty's internet so Art can have peace on his..and do a bit more art today...today's prject is to get the Diva Dictionary pages made and ready t mail for tomorrow...my word is Carp....i already made an image a while back for this and added it to my last collage sheet...so that part is done..oh one more image..i have been playing with more fairies like my cupcake fairy...this is a tooth fairy..i had some one ask me to make one...in none cute colors...well these fairies are all "cute" so that is hard to do..but it is not in light pnk....if you would like to use her in your artwork go ahead...since i have a rather small audience here..it is fun to share with all of you!! All of her accesories are handpainted...I painted the wings along with a pile of others and her wand and teeth accents last night too! What a fun artfilled evening it was!

and I thought it couldn't get worse....

Phew!!!! what a week! Busy is an understatement...We did have some fun and happy days though~ The most exciting thing is that Jonathon...my baby started Kindergarten on Tuesday..and lucky me, it is now an all day Kindergarten...YAY!! i seriously thought i was going to cry my eyes out...but I did not shed a tear! I have the feeling it has to do with the fact that I have been doing the mom thing for 23 years now...6 kids...I deserve this!..yay~ Although, I have to admit....the solitude was short lived...After getting the kids on the bus, I went to the gym for 2 hours....got home and Dave the Builder(I seriously thin his name should have been Bob...rofl!!) was there...but yay!..he was leaving for the day at 11:30.....I had solitude for 3 and half hours.....wow! it was quiet. Well, that was it for the week...Dave and Carl and Rick got there the next morning at 8am sharp...and then Art had the day off Thursday and Friday....there is always next week...I NEED solitude.......i am crazed any more...4 kids all summer...construction....ack~

okay any way...here is Jonathon with his new school clothes and backpack...
here is the crew waiting for the bus...aren't they cute all lined up?...
and off my baby goes to school....I had a laugh this morning..drenching rain..so I volunteered to drive them to school...Jonathon was upset that he couldn't ride his "bus A"....lol!~
Tuesday was reeeeeally busy....first day of school....and also football practice for Tyrus and picture day for him....he looked so handsome in his game uniform!....so what else did i do this week...Well on Thursday i made a jaunt over to Kalamazoo to go to the fabric store..I bought a black velvet piece to make sure that Art would like new black velvet curtains for his theater...he decided the burgundy ones didn't look that good with the black carpet...so of course i said it would be okay to make new..fixing the old ones wouldn't be much less work...besides I reeeeeaaaally have wanted a velvet cloak for ages..and burgundy sure would look nice....i am also working on the design of the new costumes for the theater meet...So I get to Kalamazoo...and took Ashton for lunch...the kid acted like he hadn't eaten for a week....and then he borrowed my Expedition for his new room mate to move a few things while I waited for Stephanie and Christopher to show up so I could measure her for her costume.....what a long day..and to top it off as I was going home there was a traffic back up on the highway...a fender bender on the highway...and then off to football practice again!

Today started out with a huge SCREAMING sinus headache at 5am...a weather front came in and caught my sinuses off guard...bleh! It took half the day to get rid of it...and i felt like crap until 5 or so...as we were at Tyrus' instrument fitting....he is going to either play trombone or percussion(if he makes the audition for a spot of 6 kids)

sorry mundane details...it really was a long week~
here is a special present I got from the Art to Art swap from the Altered Art Divas...Jennifer Whitmer sent me this gorgeous hand made book...all sparkly and beautiful with awesome quotes in it...WOW!~!!




the pages are cards that are removable from the folded spine...I have no idea how she did that...it is incredible...
sooo many pages......and did i say it sparkles?...i love shimmer and sparkles..... I was looking at Stephanie's Myspace to find new pictures of her and found this one of her and her boyfriend Christopher....isn't he adorable?...my goodness look at those eyes....I have to say he is sooo sweet and cracks me up with how patient he is with Steph....she even says so...I can't wait until the rest of the family meets him...he is so nice! I am hoping that he becomes a permanent addition to our family...and what a wonderful addition he will make if he does!...keeping my fingers crossed!~
as recap...all I have to say again.......

Phew what a week!

And if you have read this far.....*SSSSSMMMMMMAACK!!!* kisses to you!