New design process...

I'm in the process of really stepping into a new design process. That seems to be the only way I can conceive in making this all happen.
There is a dream ... a dream of what I want , what I need,  and what I think I can handle and they all go hand in hand. One without the other won't work as well. One without the other could be failure. However I won't know until I try and right now try try try is the name of the game. For now let me show you my little Pearlie Mae , the little poodle goat who keeps me grounded.
The new design process is exploding in my head. Now it's time to make that happen...  new design process here we come

Smoked and delishious!

My sister loves to grill, BBQ, and just plain cook out. The other day she did a big brisket. I also did some chicken and we used the BBQ sauce I made from scratch. Omg it was all so good!
My sister definitely needs a real smoker.... she is just so damn good at it!

 

She marinated it all night. Simple seasonings like fresh sea salt and cracked pepper.

 

 

She prepped her coals in the Weber. It took a while and it was so cool to watch her get it hot and ready. She had a pyrometer on top to keep an eye on the temps. 350 degrees was her goal.

 

 

My BBQ chicken. Sorry for the fuzzy pic

 

 

 Basting as she went, the brisket smelled so amazing. 

I will post more pics later on, but your mouth should be watering quite a bit by now!

Cheers,

Spamulatte

 

Labor of love

This project, 6 months in the making, has been one of the most fun creative journeys.

Best breakfast

I'm sitting here watching home improvement shows while I eat one of my favorite breakfasts.
Fresh avocado with a little lemon juice, cottage cheese, and Greek yogurt with goodies.

I love my Poodle!

Catching up...sorta

Today and tomorrow are going to be my drop dead deadline to get all my details done for my taxes and send them off to my bff in California. I find that it is a very upfront portrail of what has happened in the past year. How the money comes and goes is very interesting to me, yet I look at stuff I didn't need to spend money on and wish I had thought that out better. Ah the past.

I have stressed over my new spreadsheet to record my material life so much that my sister in law has taken notice and keeps asking "is it done now"? I tell her not yet, as I tweak this column and add that formula. I guess I do love spreadsheets. I do wish I had a wee bit more knowledge of it, but then I wish that about all my computer programs.

I am not sure if I posted info or pictures of the Christmas present I was making for my little brother and his wife yet. I began it in October of last year and I am just now beginning to find the finish line on it. It has taken on a few changes, as the artist in me agonized over each element. A few things completely changed after I painted them, and a new portion began. It has been quite an undertaking, but probably one of the most satisfying project I have done in a long long time. Also while unemployed and living in the spare room of my sister and sister-in-law, a good diversion from my current unemployed circumstances. I have called it the BROTHERBANNER. I have even given it it's own hashtag.  #BROTHERBANNER (you can see more on my Instagram pages here: https://www.instagram.com/phawkinsbead/

So here is an update. I will go into more detail in the next blog post as to the how-to came about.

January 2, 2016- Good thought processes

Good morning Tuesday!   I woke up like this morning with gratitude and freshness. I am pretty happy about that. 

On New Years Eve, we went to Delmonico's for dinner, an early 4pm dinner. It was perfect!  The dinner was awesome as well. I mean come on, it was Delmonico's! The steak was the size you might use for a family pot roast so I only ate 1/4 of it. Had a lovely glass of Riesling and skipped desert. 
Then we came home, fed the girls and then headed off to the bowling alley. The local Bowl-a-roll does a New Years eve thing where you have a 2 hour span, you get a lane, shoes and unlimited bowling for the 2 hours. You can also bring your own food. So we went bowling!

Now let me back up a little.......the day before me and my sis went to Bowlers World and had our current old bowling balls looked at and re-measured to our now older (fatter) fingers. hahah After they redrilled them, they had a little bitty 3 foot bowling alley in the back that you leaned over and bowled with it to test the fit. Pretty neat. 

So long story short we had a blast. I only was able to bowl 2 games. Between my left knee pain, and my foot pain, it got worse and worse. I was in an awful mess. Shot about 4 good shots and that was it. The rest of the game was just ....well disappointing. 
Its funny, people are saying how good they were at bowling, or they used to bowl well, or whatever, and I bit my tongue and did not say I used to bowl so good I was on TV. Yup. TV.  I want that body back!!!!!  My body was completely against me. Older, heavier, swollen, painful and broken. Again these are things to change. 

I was in so much pain on the first day of the year that I did very little. I could hardly walk. I may not be able to bowl much right away, but by the end of this year, I hope to do it a lot! I think a fall bowling league position will be my goal!

I also did not journal on the first day of 2016. I used that day to just relax my body, but also to relax my mind. I fixed breakfast/brunch for us and then we watched two movies. The first made me feel like a terrible mom and the second was minions. hahahah

Today's journal is this. I plan to make little journals for a bunch of my friends and mail them off. I made an elaborate one for my friend in California, and that made me think that a smaller version of it would be lovely for a lot of other special people. So that is my activity for this weekend. 

I hope your new thoughts for 2016 are coming together for you!

With encouragement,
Spamulatte

p.s. Jan 1st was a no bra pajama day as well. I think I have a new tradition.