A Greeny GiveAway!

This is about beads. Sorry folks but yeah...I'm in bead mode.  

Jen over at Jen Judd Rocks! is celebrating her success of being published!  I can't imagine being published once and here is Jen--getting her happy self published SEVEN times! Yeah you read that right! Woooooooohoooooo! I know a celebrity! Woooooohoooooooo! Congratulations Jen!

Anyway, she's giving away TWO beady stash giveaways! How about that? Check out her blog for details and go over there and toss your name in the hat to receive some bodacious greeny beads! Can I say bodacious? 

I like to spread the good news and the love--especially bead love. It's just a thing I have for beads--you know? Some people call it addiction, others say it's an obsession. I think it's a bit of both! 

Check out Jen's blog--she's wild and crazy and totally into beads. I like that about her! 

A Friendly Visitor

The other day, I looked out my window while I was on the phone with a student and saw a wonderful sight. As soon as I could, I rushed outside with my camera. We had a visitor and I wanted pictures!

 That's my Fire Witch that I planted earlier. The butterfly couldn't leave it alone.  

           
 This little one intrigued me since I haven't seen that many butterflies in a long time. Beauty on the wing...

  Apparently, it really liked the Fire Witch--which smells spicy sweet. No pun intended.

The first day of the Bead Soup Party was yesterday. Lori Anderson, our coordinator has broken the party up into easy sections so this party is going to last all week long! How exciting is that?!?!? My partner, Dana and I don't get to do our unveiling until Thursday and I can hardly wait! So if you have nothing to do for the moment, head over to Lori's place and check out some amazing talent in today's world of beaders, jewelry designers, and artistic craftswomen!

Finally, Natalie of Tins and Treasures is having a stupendous giveaway to celebrate her blog's upcoming two year anniversary! And no--it's not beads so those of you who don't follow the craft can take a peek at her blog and see some of the wonderful items that are up for grabs on this giveaway! Just leave a comment on her blog by Tuesday, June 22nd and you're entered in the drawing! It's as simple as that! 

Hope your Sunday is easy and peaceful!
 

First, I slept in this morning and I feel sooooooooooooo much better! I don't sleep in that often but after the week I had, I needed the extra z's. I missed my sunrise but I really enjoyed sleeping in!

Second, to answer some questions that appeared on my blog comments yesterday. Normally, I do cook up enough on the weekends to last through the week. I know my schedule is crazy at times, especially with my teaching 4 nights a week. That schedule demands lots of pre-planning and implementation to keep relatively sane. Part of that planning is making enough food to cover those nights when I can't cook. But this week, we ran short for some reason...

D will usually pitch in and cook up something "safe" as he calls it. Unfortunately it was one of those weeks where he was busy at the lab. This week, by the time he's gotten home, I'm deep into teaching forcing us to send hand signals and body gestures to each other as a means of communication. 


D: Lifts his brows sends a quizzical look: 
Translation: Who needs to be fed?
Me: Pointing here, there, and somewhere in the vicinity of the kitchen.
Translation: I fed these bottomless pits, the back porch kitties, and Buddy on the front porch. 
 Me: Lifts the brow, sends quizzical look and chin points in the direction of the front door.
Translation: How did it go today at the lab? 
D: Frowns and shakes his head and gestures vaguely.
Translation: Don't ask...The machine is still giving us problems. I'll tell you later. 

Last night, I could tell I was starting to feel better when I made us stop watching "The Accidental Husband" to make oatmeal-blueberry cookies for my husband. Ok--I confess--they were for me too. Something about feeling better inspires me to bake cookies. I don't know why but when I feel good, I want to bake cookies. Or cook up a storm. And I feel like cooking today--black bean chile for dinner either tonight or tomorrow. I think I'll also go ahead and cook up some chicken as well. I'm running low on chicken broth. Then I can make chicken soup or chicken and dumplings or chicken casserole later.

Which reminds me...We are running out of green chile! I have only three small containers left! How can that be?!?!? We ate it of course. Chile season isn't until July-August so I'm really feeling desperate here. *sighs* I guess this summer, I'll have to roast about 60 lbs of chile so it lasts us through the next season. I already know we aren't going to lower our consumption of green chile--that's like asking us to cut off our right arms. It's not gonna happen--ya' hear? 

I'm rambling. Which means I'm needing another cup of coffee and some exercise. There's another winter storm brewing on the horizon. I see the storm clouds are already rolling in overhead. That's another reason I want to cook. In case the power goes out and we have to drag out the camping stove to heat things up. I want simple meals that can heat up easily. 


What do you do to prepare for another visit of Old Man Winter?


PS: Don't forget! Every time you comment, you get entered into my first blog giveaway. The drawing will be held in the morning! Thank you!

The Good Ole' Days

A friend and I were talking a while back how things were different when we were kids. For instance, holidays meant special dishes and desserts that were only prepared for that particular holiday. And as kids, we did not get dessert every night after dinner. It was reserved for special times or to mark a special event. And soda? Soda was also for special occasions, like holidays or camping trips. 

I remember as a child being allowed a can of soda a day, any flavor I wanted, during  holidays such as Christmas or 4th of July. During our camping events, I remember opening the ice-cooler that contained soda cans in pretty colors that were snugged in thousands of ice cubes. I was allowed one per day. Sometimes if things went very well, I was allowed two. I remember my sisters and brother and I sharing sips from each other's cans because we all chose a different flavor of soda and wanted to try as many flavors as possible so we could make a decision which soda to choose the next day.

I remember my mother making both "Blueberry and Cherry Delight" for 4th of July and my father's birthday a month later. It was the dessert of summer because it didn't require baking or heating up the kitchen. Mostly, our dessert--if we had any during the hot late spring and summer months were fruits and fruit salads. We just didn't consider them as dessert so much as regular food.
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I recall the days when cakes and cookies and ice cream was for extraordinary occasions. The only time we had a container of ice cream in the freezer was when it either someone's birthday or we were celebrating a special occasion--like company was coming for dinner or relatives from out of town were staying with us. Cookies were an occasional treat and whenever my mom felt like baking  up a batch. Once they were gone that was it until the next batch. 

I also remember going to out to eat at a restaurant or even a fast-food joint was reserved for special occasions instead of being the main source of eating. I remember the first time my beloved gramma took me to Arby's. I must have been about 5 or 6 years old and it was a magical moment in my life. We went to this too modern looking place and had lunch--just she and I. I don't remember why it was just her and I or what the occasion was, but I remember enjoying my time with her and it was marked by lunch at Arby's. 


Both my friend and I noticed that it's different in today's society. That going out to eat at a fast-food joint or a restaurant is considered more of the norm, while staying home and cooking is the occasional special treat/occasion event. That drinking soda is something one can do every day and all day long, rather than save for special occasions. That cookies, cakes, and ice creams are staples in our kitchens for daily consumption. That we were healthier as a society and as a nation when meals were prepared from the beginning rather than from convenience. 

Do you remember the television ads that first listed Hamburger Helper as a nutritious meal that took less time preparing? My mother wasn't the only one who jumped on that bandwagon. I remember when she used to make beef stroganoff from scratch, including thinly slicing the potatoes, mixing the sauce with fresh sour cream. It was one of those meals that was so good, but we couldn't eat any more because we were stuffed. The first time she bought Hamburger Helper it was beef stroganoff and it tasted nasty. We complained and she told us that it was nutritious food, even if it came out of a box. By the time Hamburger Helper came out with Tuna Helper, our tastebuds had been killed off and the pre-packaged foods did taste good. 

It seems like it was a major achievement to be able to serve your family a meal that only took 30 minutes or less to prepare.  Pop open a can or two, tear open a box, slice the top of the package off and presto-chango--you have a meal fit to serve...well...anyone who was hungry. It would not serve our nutrious needs, but it will fill that hungry hole in our middle for a little bit. 

For the last 30 to 40 years, we have been bamboozled into believing that we are entitled to have dessert or soda whenever we want it. We are now finding out that some of those chemicals that they mix to preserve "food" and to make prepackaged foods taste better are actually as addictive and as damaging as methamphetimines.  Thanks to global farming, we can have strawberries in the winter months. And we don't have to grow our own.  We are so removed from our food that we lost our connection to it and how it feeds us.  

I'm supposing that is the sign of progress--that we can have our desserts whenever we want them--even if they replace a meal. But I miss the old days when we marked special occasions with something special, instead of something we do every day. Maybe I'm just getting older?!?!?! 

How about you? Do you miss those days or are you glad you can just reach for what you want, when you want it? Do you have personal rants about our foods? How do you feel about health and food in general? 

PS:  Don't forget about the giveaway! 

 

My Trip Into Cessation

If you've been following or reading my blog for any length of time, you know I have some health issues that came to fruition when I became seriously ill nearly two years ago. I've been making lifestyle changes and working at either improving or maintaining my health ever since. You may also know that I'm an ex-smoker. 

Yeah, yeah--Bad Cathryn! Bad! I know this. But I'm concentrating on the EX part of that relationship or label. And I guess smoking, like any other addiction, is a relationship. I smoked for over 20 years, going through two or three packs a day. I remember starting out smoking and barely going through a pack a week. But as time went on, I smoked more and more.  I had been "working on" quitting for about three years before I actually did. I had quit smoking about a dozen times already, only to seemingly "fail" and take it back up again. The longest I had actually quit smoking before was six months and I don't know why I started up again. The next to the last time I tried quitting this habit I jones so hard (that's addict-speak)  that all I thought about was smoking. I thought about nothing but cigarettes, lighting one up, inhaling that lovely (I'm in addict mode ok?!?!?!) smoke and breathing in those toxic fumes like breathing in my mother's homemade cookie aromas. I would dream about smoking. Each day was pure torture. I couldn't be around people who smoked and I could NOT be around people who smoked. I obsessed about smoking to the point where I was failing my classes in my last semester before getting into my undergraduate program because I couldn't focus on what needed to be done. So I started up again and told myself that I simply wasn't ready to give up my addiction.

I found out later, according to several drug and alcohol treatment counselors, that giving up smoking is sometimes harder than giving up heroin. That was not comforting at all. I never believed myself to be an addict of tobacco or having the same problems of a heroin addict.  I was NOT an addict. I could quit any time. Denial can be a useful tool at times. 

When I decided I needed to quit, I did my usual mode of researching into the best way to quit. I didn't want to rely on drugs or patches or gums. I had tried those before and they didn't work for me. I read some research that said for smokers to quit successfully, they had to break the smoking habit. Withdrawal was hard enough if the habits weren't changed first. So I started breaking the habits of where and when I lit up my cigarettes. Alright--my conscious is bugging me. I played with breaking the habits of where and when I smoked. For three years. 

Then came pnuemonia. Yep--that illness that keeps air out of your lungs. Mine was pretty acute and I couldn't breathe. It's amazing what you will sacrifice in order to be able to breathe. I realized that this is what I could face later in life if I didn't make a serious effort into quitting this habit. Not being able to breathe hit me hard and suddenly, being able to breathe became a much more prodigious habit than smoking. So I quit in the middle of pneumonia. And a week later, ended up in the hospital for the first time. 

Quitting back then still wasn't easy. Each month I tried to celebrate my cessation. The first month, I didn't want to go anywhere in the car because seeing other people smoking in their cars made me want to leap out of a moving vehicle just to grab their cigarette. I couldn't watch movies where people smoked because I counted the cigarettes being smoked. Huh? What do you mean we saw this last year, Honey? I don't remember it...Oh I see now. There were people smoking and I was obsessing over how many cigarettes were being consumed--of course I don't remember the plot! No, I didn't realize that my favorite actor was part of this movie. I was an addict back then, remember?


I used to dream about trying to smoke. In my dreams, I would find a fresh pack of cigarettes but not a lighter or a match or a stove or any kind of naked flame or flint or a magnifying glass or if I found a magnifying glass, it was at night. And in my dreams of trying to get this pack of cigarettes smoked, my best girlfriend would show up. She would give me that look--the kind that made any adult squirm like a bug on a pin--and tell me,  "If you smoke that, you have to start over from day one. You can't just go 7 months and 4 days without smoking to light up once and be able to claim being smoke-free 7 months and 5 days tomorrow. You have to start over from ZERO."  And in my dreams, I knew she was right. I wasn't allowed to smoke even in my dreams. 


I can tell you the craving and the urge and the desires to smoke became less and less, but it didn't happen right away. It took me well over a year before the craving, urge, and desire to have one cigarette faded. From time to time, I'm even tempted in my dreams to have one cigarette--with my dreamself telling me it's not real if it happened in a dream and it's ok to smoke in the dream because it's not real and that it doesn't count against me. I turn around in my dreams only to see my girlfriend giving my dreamself that look and I walk away from temptation. 


Today, I realized that my two year cessation anniversary is coming up in less than 10 days. I realized that I'm healthier for giving up that addiction--although many would claim I traded one addiction for another (my beading). Nonetheless, on February 22nd, it will mark two whole years since I've had a cigarette in both real life and my dreams. And I feel like celebrating!


To celebrate, I'm hosting my first blog giveaway. I'm going to make it easier for you all to share in the celebration than it was for me to give up the smoking habit:

All you have to do is post a comment to my blog between now (today's post) and on Sunday, February 21st, Midnight Mountain Standard Time. For every comment you make on my blog posts, you get entered into the drawing that will be held next Monday, February 22nd. You will need to leave me a way to contact you if you win the prize, either an email address or a blog address. That's it. No requirements to start following me or no go-here-do-this-twitter me-blog about me...Simple is sometimes the best. So just comment on my blog between now and Sunday, February 21st to be entered into the drawing for the prize.

Oh the prize! I almost forgot! 

 

I'll draw one name out of the hat/jar for this pair of earrings...

 and then I'll draw another name for this pair of earrings.

PS: If the winners do not respond within 48 hours of the drawing, I'll redraw new winners.

1000th Sale Celebration!

If you have been reading this blog at all, you know I'm not only into our cats, but I'm into beading. If you have been following my blog for any length of time, you know I'm totally addicted to beads. Not only am I totally addicted to beads, I'm a own  beads by bead artists, such as Terri Stone, Mary Ellen, and Ivy Koehn, who create such lovely beads that makes my addiction more complete. 

My name is Cathryn and I'm a complete bead addict. To make matters worse, I own beads handcrafted by bead artists and I shop at exclusive bead dealers. What's more is that I have no intention of giving up my addiction. NONE--do you hear me? They will have to pry my coffee mug out of my left hand and my strand of beads out of my right hand when I die. And they won't get the smile off my face at all. :D

Yes--I lost it to the Addict for a minute, but I'm back. I promise. Swear to it!

If you have been following my blog any length of time, you know I own a couple of cases of Terri Stone's beads and I like to make jewelry from her beads. All right already--I like to make jewelry out of all the beads in my collection but I'm trying to make a point here. Bear with me please. 

Terri Stone of TLSClayDesign is nearing her 1000th sale. In fact--as of this writing, she's a mere 66 sales away from that magical number. To help her celebrate that milestone, I created this set for her to give to the person who makes that one thousandth sale. 

 

 

A close-up of the earrings

That's right... to all of you out there in BloggerLand, the person who happens to make that 1000th sale at TLSClayDesign gets the set, made with Terri's beads. Here's your chance to own some jewelry made from beads created from a talented artist!

Stay tuned to this blog for more details of the 1000th Sale Celebration at TLSClayDesign!