Cook, Make, Think

I've included the probable blog posts as well so you can pick and choose what to read. Below is my todo list.

I know the calendar says "Big Wigs" but honestly I don't wear them and know next to nothing about them so why bother? I know most of the time I would be curious and go looking, I just don't want to today. Source Art is a fundamental part of the creative. Without art we would have few inspirations for things we want to try. All creatives know if you don't feed your mind the heart goes out of your work. That is true, I have experienced long periods where I made nothing because I could conceive of nothing. Always something in my life usually a wave of anger or sadness would lead me back into the creative side of my being demanding to be expressed somehow. Sometime I would get a commission like the bat houses that demanded me to create and sometimes that helps too. I don't go looking for commissions but sometimes I need a deadline to get the creative neurons moving again. I used to collect images, a library if you like of styles, colours etc that would c

Have you ever heard a good yodeler? I did once and it was spectacular. Today as yesterday I am not going to write it in my own voice but share with you what is written on Checkiday because I do not know as much about it as I would like. They actually shared some of its history and included a list of songs to listen to. Give it a listen and give it a try. Also, check out the other links on the page Sounds of yodeling will fill the air today, as it is Yodel For Your Neighbors Day. Yodeling is created by quickly alternating the voice back and forth between the low pitch chest register, and the high pitches of the head register—a register also known as falsetto. The word "yodel" is derived from the German word "jodeln," which means "to utter the syllable jo"—said as "yo" in English. Shepherds in the Alps yodeled to communicate with others long distances away, and to round up cattle. The first written record of yodeling dates to 1545. African tri

The following post courtesy of Checkiday cause I get lazy like that sometimes. Created in 2002 by Jodi Jill, a syndicated newspaper puzzle maker, National Puzzle Day is a day when people come together to play and enjoy puzzles and "reflect on those puzzles, games and even challenges in life that we embrace every day but sometimes take for granted." Teachers are also known to use puzzles in their classrooms on the day, and Jodi Jill has even created lesson plans and puzzles for it. Puzzles may be done for the pure enjoyment of figuring them out or taking on a challenge, to learn new words, or just to pass the time or stave off boredom. They may also be done to sharpen the mind, as they may improve cognitive and problem-solving skills. They have many  benefits to the mind  and may help improve memory and help with the avoidance of Alzheimer's and dementia. Anyone can use puzzles, from young children to the elderly, from the low-skilled to experts. And there are many

I do not play with the Lego much but I still have this picture in my head of a lego village combined with the mountain model I made and a train track. Though I think I would have to change my mountain a little to have room for a train. Today I am going to experiment a bit and see if the model will work or if I'm going to have to go back to the drawing board. Place holder As you can see the levels are not consistent, stuffing it with newspaper created hills and valleys I didn't want. Anyway ... I will be building a couple of small lego buildings today and trying them out on it. If it doesn't work out then I'll try again to get the scene the way I want it either by altering this display (if it is possible) or putting it away/giving it away and starting again. Though the more I think about it the more I think I should just use the lego table like I planned to in the first place. Also, Professor if you could pick up a couple more lack tables for me I'd reall

Healthy chocolate cake! No such thing you say? Well, I like chocolate cake but as a diabetic with cholesterol and lactose problems, I decided to do some research. As usual when I have something I want to research I start with google and got 183B hits so I knew I had my work cut out for me. Source This one seems close to what I was looking for but after reading the nutrition stuff I wasn't sure so I kept looking. plus a slice is over 300 calories and the point is to find a healthy option. Source This one looks good, is low in calories and has a sugar free option which is good and the nutritional info looks good too. A slice the size of the one pictured has only 95 calories and that should go down a little if I use the sugar substitute. Whichever I choose when it is done I'll share a photo on Instagram for you along with a critique.

Ever so often I need to sit down and think about the things that matter to me usually this happens when I am having a bad day. Source Today is OK but I am feeling a bit sad and I wanted to cheer myself up. I Love: 1) my family. I have a partner I adore, two adult children I love even though they both make me crazy and eight super special grandchildren. I am grateful every day for them because they all in their own way make my life livable on the really bad days. 2) watching the power of mother nature rather it is a lightning storm or a blizzard. it reminds me that we are on this planet by her will and if she really wanted to destroy us she could, it is nice knowing something that strong cares about you. 3) music the kind that gets you up moving your feet with a beat and a message. When I have a hard time saying what I am feeling I look for music to help me express it. I've even carried on a conversation using only a jukebox. Music speaks but you need to learn to liste

 The first day of Chinese New Year/ Lunar New Year begins on the new moon that appears between 21 January and 20 February.   In 2020, the first day of the Chinese New Year is today, initiating the  Year of the White Metal Rat . Why is that important to me? Because I was born in the Year of the Rat which makes this an anniversary for me. I've seen 60 winters since then. This year is a double anniversary in that I was born in the year of the Metal Rat and this is again a year of the Metal Rat. It seems like an odd thing to celebrate but as I was reading about it today I found many things that seemed important to know about the coming year. Source It is going to be an uncertain year. Patience and caution should be your motto. Think twice before taking action. Seems like I should make one of those my word of the year. What do you think patience, caution or think twice? Beware of false friends they could betray you and take what is yours. Keep silent or think deeply befo

On January 24 at 1:24 p.m. (local time) smile,  throw your arms in the air and laugh out loud. Join The Belly Laugh Bounce Around the World. For more ways to enjoy this day check out their website

Source Today I am reading about body acceptance and self love.  The search term I used on google "celebrate your body" which lead me to a book on puberty but at the bottom of that page was a link to this place. After reading the introduction I decided I wanted to know more about this subject so I clicked the link to their main web site. While I love their logo and introduction once I got to the web site I was less impressed. There are a great many useful articles but to get access to anything else requires you pay a fee so I went back to my original search and began again. Sadly I actually had to go to page 2 of the search before I could find anything of interest. For some reason that book on puberty had the whole first page to itself. Anyway ... I found Gala Darling  and decided to take a look at what she had. I found an article called "How to Practice Major Mega Supreme Body Love ... Daily" that actually made some important points to help foster a posit

Today is Library Shelfie Day. I know some of you have gone to all e-books but I have not. Some of these books are quite old and others don't have e-book equivalents available or the e-books cost almost as much as the paper book. I like my e-books but paying $20 for one bugs me so I don't usually unless it is a book I need for something I'm learning. I keep thinking I should use the bookshelf for what it was intended while another part of me just want's to throw it out because it takes space and doesn't supply workspace as it is too shallow. I like having everything handy and the Kallax 5 x 5 works great for that. Which do you prefer e-books or paper books or a combination? What does your bookshelf look like? Please comment below.

Thing number 1 Sweatpants came along in the 1920s Thing number 2 The first sweatpants were knitted grey jersey Thing number 3 They were invented by a man (Emile Camuset) to make exercising more comfortable And that basically covers the history of sweatpants. Today is a day to wear your sweatpants out in public not just to exercise but for the whole day. Since there are many different types of sweatpants now-a-days you can still dress them up a bit for work like wearing leggings under a dress instead of nylons. Still looks nice but is far more comfortable. Fashion Forward ways to wear sweatpants I used to love wearing my jeans back when it was easy to find the right size, alas those days are gone but I've noticed in the last year jeans I can wear! Old Navy has them No they are not Levi's they are called Jeggings and come in a lot of the same styles as blue jeans do except that they are leggings. Which means they look like jeans but are much mor

Annie Hopkins I salute you! http://www.3elove.com Embrace diversity. Educate your community. Empower each other. Love life. Annie Hopkins (1984-2009)

By definition, a true artist is one who breaks the rules, shifts an art form in another direction and makes people think in new ways, all while being true to their artistic vision. A true artist then is an outlaw because they don't follow the convention of the day. I think I am a dilettante more than a true artist. At least that is what I've been called because I spend only as much time as I need to get a basic understanding of a craft. I usually will only make 3 or 4 pieces then move on to something else. I may incorporate some of what I learned in the next craft to catch my interest but sometimes it is years before l use those skills again. The lighted village display I made for my daughter is an example of that. I took what I knew about miniatures, creating scenery then bumped it up a size or two. The first piece The second piece I have a third piece as well but it needs a bit more work as it doesn't match the image I have in my head a

Most of the coffees sold in supermarkets are made cheaply and taste bitter.  There are two types of coffee beans. Arabica beans are considered the premium, best-tasting type of beans. Robusta is less expensive to grow, but tastes far inferior. Some blends mix both types of beans, but the best coffees are made from 100% Arabica beans. The first step to improving the taste of the coffee you’re drinking is to ensure you are drinking a blend made from only Arabica beans. After an Arabica is grown, it must be handled correctly in order to produce gourmet coffee. The first important step is to harvest the beans by hand so only the truly ripe coffee cherries are picked. The cherries are then water processed and sun dried before being roasted. The beans must then be perfectly roasted to avoid burning or removing too much of the bean’s natural flavor. Proper packaging, using containers that allow the coffee to “breath” are also essential to keep it fresh until it’s ready to brew. Source

I know my Calendar says Hot Head Chili today but I think we covered that a bit yesterday so I thought Instead I would talk about Ben Franklin since this is his birthday Ben Franklin was a very accomplished man. In his 20's he created a plan he called "A project of moral perfection" and he spent his whole life working on it. Today in celebration I thought I would take a look at it because let's face it, he was amazing!  A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman and diplomat. Polymath is another way of saying Renaissance man which you can see from the above quote  he was. At an early age, he realized that his argumentative ways were rubbing people the wrong way so he decided to reform himself. In his late 20's he sat down and wrote a list of virtues he thought were needed to arrive at "moral perfection" temperance silence order

How do you appreciate a dragon? Source I'm reading a book It's book four in a series I've been reading for the last 30 days or so about an accidental heroine named Aisling Grey and her green dragon mate . It is one of the better series out there in my opinion. For certain sure each time I begin one I have a hard time putting it away until I finish it and that is always a good sign of a good book. Book 1 I prefer my romances with a twist of fairie and very little porn and this series is perfect. But that is not the only way you can appreciate a dragon today. Yeah, I know another one of those but you see Checkiday is where I get my best ideas. Those special days just send me into freefall creativity and always give me ideas for things to do during the day. Like today has several subjects I will look up for the learning portion of my day including Prohibition and Religious Freedom. Usually, there is a food holiday as well which may interest me in experimenting in

Where would I be without this resource? Lost and uninformed! Which is why I always send a little money to them when they ask for support. Not a lot but then sometimes 3 bucks can make a big difference. Today I thought I'd have a little fun. I played what I've heard called Wikipedia roulette. Normally I would click the "Random Article" button on the left to get started but today I started on their birthday page. The Rules Always click on the first link in the body of the article unless you've already been where it leads then choose the next one. The link must be the first one in the body of the article not the first on the page (though often they are the same but not always) If you are in a competition the winner is the first one to 10 links. If not then challenge yourself to keep clicking until you get to a page without a link or 25 whichever comes first.  Reading the articles is optional but highly suggested you might learn something you didn't

My home really isn't well organized, normally that doesn't bother me because I have lots of room to spread out. Normally. Right now GD#1 is staying with me until she finishes College and since she is creative like me there is a lot more stuff around than normal. We've added a Kallax in the bedroom for her clothes but the living area is quite crowded, partially because of my Kallax and partially because there are now two desks in it and various other shelving units. My Kallax is like the one above except that it is full of milk crates which are full of my crafting stuff and books. Replacing it with something smaller is not an option but maybe I can reorganize it a little. If I can do that I can remove two of my biggest headaches. I have a 3 shelf bookcase and a small portable filing cabinet I would love to get rid of and I will if I can relocate their contents elsewhere. Thus the reason I need to go through the contents of the Kallax and get rid of things I am not go

The day should be celebrated by cleaning your desk. You will need a plan of attack to make the process run smoothly and to ensure that your desk will stay clean. Here are some ideas on how to effectively clean off your desk. First, you should literally clean off your desk. Take everything off of it and out of the drawers.  Dust, wipe down and disinfect your desk, both inside and out.  Sort everything from your desk into four piles, giving everything a spot right away.  Make a pile for things you will keep with your desk, things you will throw away, things that belong somewhere else, and things you aren't sure if you need or not.  Put the pile of things you aren't sure about into a bin and pack it away. Plan on going back to it in a few months. If you still haven't found a need for things at that time, get rid of them. When putting your desk back together, make sure all your supplies are put back in spots where organization and accessibility are kept in mind. 

Growing up if we didn't drink water we went thirsty but sometime after my 10th birthday mom let me drink tea. Red Rose Orange Pekoe, it was the only kind she bought and I think she mainly bought it for the little porcelain miniatures that came in each box. I was well into my twenties before I had my first cup of coffee and well into my 30's before I began to drink Coke. I'd tried other soft drinks before but you can't find them much now. At least not here. I've been trying to get back into the habit of drinking tea but coffee and coke are not easy things to stop drinking. The withdrawal from them comes with a colossal headache that lasts a week or so. You would think with the fibro I would have a high tolerance for headaches but it ain't so. Today is hot tea day and I have a whole box of David's Teas sitting in my cupboard so I decided that the only thing I'm going to drink today is tea. Wish me luck! Did you know that tea was discovered 47

Are you a vegan? or have an allergy to cow's milk? I have the allergy plus diabetes so if I want a sweet treat I have to be very careful what I eat and sometimes it is really hard to find something healthy and tasty. For the record, I have not made any of these yet but they are definitely on my to-do list! First, though I have to get some of the ingredients like cacao and secondly, I need to stop eating all of my bananas before I can make something with them. The three recipe's that are on my todo list also happens to be the closest to chocolate that I'm ever going to be again. I love ice cream but it is permanently on the NO list because 1) it is how I started to gain weight in the first place & 2) it is made with lots of sugar and cream Did you know that bananas can be substituted for cream in a lot of recipes? I didn't until last year when I made my first batch of banana-based Ice cream. (I was going to link back to that but I guess I didn't take any

I am not good at keeping plants alive but I would really love a couple of houseplants. I decided I would take a look around and see what the experts suggest. I am what is considered a black thumb that is someone who has a notable inability to keep plants growing. Considering that my father & my son are both green thumbs makes me feel that I should be able to grow anything but it just ain't so. As I was reading I realized that most of the plants in our home were the hard to kill kind which makes me feel better cause maybe my mom was a black thumb too. Snake Plant ZZ Plant Pothos Plant Heart-leaf philodendron Aloe Spider Plant Of these six the Heart-leaf philodendron seems to be the hardiest it and the Pothos plant (it is sometimes called the Devils Ivy) Pothos Plant Heart Leaf Philodendron They look similar, don't they? The main difference seems to be that the Pothos plant has variegated leaves while the Philodendron doesn't. I checked Et

I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to talk about today as today is Healthy Weight, Healthy Look Day and Word Nerd Day. In the end, I decided to go with Word Nerd as I had already discussed health a time or two in the last nine days. Besides, I love words. So what is a word nerd? The word for them is logophiles and they are the people who read with a Dictionary and a Thesaurus beside them. They are the ones who know where a particular word comes from and share that information with everyone who asks. How do you become one? well, it helps if you find you have an abiding interest in words and where they come from, it isn't necessary though. Start out simple, read (a lot), if a word is unknown to you look it up in a Dictionary and/or a Thesaurus. It really helps to make some books and movies much simpler to understand in the context of the story. Play word games like Words With Friends online or in an old fashioned word puzzle book. Join one of the Word A Day grou

On January 8, 1981, Joan E. White of Syracuse, New York, was reading the newspaper when she came across a story about a California couple who offered to worry for others in exchange for a fee. White believed this approach to facing the world's problems was flawed and decided to create an organization to counteract the worriers. She founded Joygerms Unlimited and designated January 8 as Joygerm Day, on what also happened to be her late mother Nora's birthday. Shortly after forming Joygerms Unlimited, White began responding to requests from people asking to join the group; she allowed people to join free of charge, as long as they sent her a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Although Joygerms Day was unofficially first held on January 8, 1981, when the idea for it and Joygerms Unlimited came about, it didn't become a "national" day until 1985. The goal of the day is to "smile, hug, grin, and win over at least one grumpy grouch." It is a day to sprea

Did you know Diamonds and other jewels are actually old rocks? The stones we use in our jewellery was a part of a rock before humans got ahold of them and gave them value. Rough and Cut Ruby Old rocks are also very useful for telling us about the past just like old trees are. Fossils contain a history of what came before recorded history in the way of Flora and Fauna. That cubic zircon you disdain because it is not a real diamond comes from the oldest type of rock in the world ... in the world! 4.4 billion years ago in fact! Diamonds came later the oldest was formed about 4 billion years ago. Now that all the sciency stuff has been told let us have some fun. Old rocks also make good pet rocks. I have two in my desk for when I need a reminder that the earth has been here much longer than I have been. Go take a look outside if you can to find a pet rock of your own. You can find the training guide Gary Dahl included at Scribd Source They are also good for making

I love my beans! They are bundles of goodness! Did you know that 6-11 % of a bean is protein? Plus one of my favourite beverages starts out as a bean! Find out more I know, I know but what about that embarrassing side effect well from what I've found out the more you eat them the less that becomes an issue and until then there is always Beano or some other aid you can use. Black coffee is good for you More trivia for you, "There are more than 40,000 varieties of beans". Imagine the possibilities! They come in a variety of styles from raw, fresh from the vine to canned and pickled. With that kind of variety, you could eat beans for every meal for a whole year and still have more to explore. Here are a few that you are familiar with and maybe one or two you aren't. Source And there are so many different ways they can be used from art projects to muffins. I thought to round out the day I would share a couple of my favourite recipes with you. Chi