Yogurt Smoothie

I made this strawberry banana yogurt smoothie in my blender the other day. It is such a simple recipe.  I may try adding some cranberry juice to it next time.

1 c yogurt
1/2c bananas
1/2c strawberries
1-2 tbs brown sugar (to taste)
ice is optional

Blend all ingredients and enjoy!  Of course you do have to clean the blender afterwards.
Happy last day of July as we head into August.

Swedish Meatballs

Swedish Meatballs

Salvaged Ship

My sister shared some more photos of her Baltic Cruise stop in Sweden with me. She said she would go back there. Apparently they had Swedish meatballs twice in the same day. The photo above was the Swedish meatballs at the Vasa Museum. The photos of the salvaged ship at the museum are beautiful.

Concert

Husband M and I went to the Queen + Adam Lambert in Toronto this past July 18th. It was sold out and they were fantastic. We had a wonderful time.

Paint Party Friday - Cherries

Welcome to Paint Party Friday, thanks to Eva and Kristin for always hosting! This 'Cherries' piece is done on a greeting card with my permanent markers (1 1/4" x 5 1/2"). It is based on a photo I took on a slightly overcast day.  I am going to print them up as Christmas cards, what do you think?

Weeding, Not!

My sister from California said I could share this photo of her yummy chocolate chip cookies, she loves to bake.

So the other day,  I yanked out what I thought was a weed sticking out from my neighbour's fence. It was wet outside, so the whole newly planted plant came over. I realized it was a honeysuckle plant and went over to return it and apologize. The son opened the door and took the plant back. Better than speaking to the parents I figured!

Coneflower

Scribble Picnic's been postponed until next week by our 'Enthusiast, organizer, host' Michael as life gets in the way sometimes.

So I have this coneflower to show you today from my garden.  I saw a beautiful butterfly feeding from it just hours before I took the photo, it was a pretty magical moment.

A sense of humour

church flowers

We have a new priest at our church, as happens every 12 years or so, the Vatican moves the priests around. He is older and grey, perhaps well into in his sixties, originally from Croatia. His English is excellent, albeit with a European accent. So perhaps that is why I listened more intently to his inspiring sermon in church the last time I was there, to adjust to his booming, accented voice. It was a nice surprise to discover he has a wonderful sense of humour and I found myself laughing at times. It may be that I am closer to his age and thus had a more common viewpoint. For example he spoke on controlling addictive behaviour such as alcohol, etc etc...and of course, the internet. Do you think of the internet as an addiction, I suppose it is!

Cauliflower Tots

I think my nephew got these new cauliflower tots from Costco. He says they are delicious. It may be a better alternative to Tater (potato)Tots. Apparently they also have cauliflower rice which is very popular. 

Tomatoes and Carrots

Here are some more vegetables from my sister's garden in California. She is very pleased with the large tomatoes although the carrots are small.

Josh

My husband discovered this new wine, a cabernet sauvignon from California. It was on sale at the liquor store and it is a great success with friends.  I'm not a wine drinker, are you?  I don't mind a glass of chilled white wine on occasion.

Paint Party Friday - Kayak

It's time for Paint Party Friday! My 'Kayak' piece is done on heavy paper (8 1/2" x 11") with permanent markers and watercolour crayon.

Breakfast

Husband M and I had breakfast at Panera Bread recently. We split this whole grain bagel with bacon, egg and cheese. It was just enough for us.

It was a real scorcher yesterday.  We had just been saying it's been a cool summer.

Scribble Picnic - Ladybug

Welcome to Scribble Picnic's Ladybug theme! My piece is done in acrylic on textured red cardstock (6" x 6") in acrylic outlined with a finepoint black marker.

I'm also on Instagram here.

Birthday Cake

Daughter L made this beautiful vanilla cake for her boyfriend's birthday recently.  It did not last long!  She has discovered a new whipped cream and pudding icing that she intends to use from now on.

Unlaid chicken eggs

Cute!

I was watching a cooking show called 'Chopped' on the FoodTV channel.  It was a contest where the challenge called for using unlaid chicken eggs.  I had never heard of these so I googled and found that they are 'are harvested after the hen is slaughtered or cooked while still inside the chicken.'  Here is an interesting link with photos so that you can picture this.

Ok, I was beyond grossed out.  Are you familiar with these?

Grab My Button changes

Spilled Blood Church St. Petersburg

public toilet Sweden

One of my sisters was recently on a Baltic Cruise and sent these photos.  She said St. Petersburg was the highlight, including the famous spilled blood church pictured above.  The other photo depicts a public toilet in Sweden.  Being from Florida she kept complaining of how cold it was in these places in July, that she had to wear a sweater.

I've had to change the 'Grab My Button' code on my sidebar, so if you were using it on your blog can you make changes for the new code thanks.

Baseball Game

Husband M went to a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game recently and sent us these photos. They had good seats behind home plate. Apparently it started to rain towards the end of the game so they had to close the stadium dome. The Jays lost in that night.

I had to change my blog header to another photo as I got this weird message from Photobucket which must have been hosting my old long time header image.  It was long overdue for a change anyway!

Paint Party Friday - Spilling Over

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! This piece is called 'Spilling Over' in the shade if you will. It's done on peach coloured cardstock (6" x 6"), based on a photo I took. I used permanent markers, and acrylic.

A Wonderful Time of Year

I made a quick salad the other day out of fresh leaf lettuce, tomatoes and sealegs.  The saltiness of the sealegs made the salad very delicious indeed!  I often use the Kraft raspberry vinaigrette dressing with it.

It's like a Disney movie outside in the hot sun these days, with birds hopping on fences, squirrels and chipmunks everywhere.  I even saw a pair of skunks walking on the other side of the street early the other morning, luckily they were headed up the street!  All the neighbourhood trees are dripping with fruit, mulberries, cherries...

So the Swarovski crystal heiress got married and had the most beautiful crystal wedding dress, you can see it in this link.

Scribble Picnic - Fill in the Blank

Welcome to Scribble Picnic's 'Fill in the Blank' theme! My piece is done in acrylic on textured purple cardstock (6" x 6"). The dot/line prompt inspired me to do fireworks!  I can't wait to see what everyone else did!

I am now on Instagram, you can find me here.

A good buy

I was out walking this past weekend with my friend S. We passed by the church garage sale that morning and decided to have a look. It was well organized and I found this book pictured by Barack Obama for $1. Apparently Barack wrote the book (before he became president) and according to The New York Times can actually write. 

He already sounds presidential in this book, from the Democratic point of view of course, he cares so  much about America and its people.

Leaving the sale, we continued our walk, past this house with 3 bing cherry trees full of cherries growing in front of their house. I love bing cherries so I tasted one, it was pretty good except a lot of the cherries were not in good condition.  I'm sure the birds will be happy anyway.

At the hairdresser

Thanks to our rainy summer, the local weeds as pictured above have never looked more beautiful!

I was at my hairdresser last week. He sometimes gives me his magazines as he knows I enjoy reading some of them. This time was no different and he assured me it was the latest issue of Canadian Living. Then the esthetician brought me a cup of coffee with 'no sugar' the way I like it. Then the assistant hairdresser said 'oh, you have your coffee, I just started making one for you!'   I'm trying to say I love the attention I get here sometimes, lol.

Now my hairdresser must be at least 65 by now, it's been a year since his wife passed away.  He told me he is thinking of retiring or perhaps getting a part time job.  The responsibility of running a business is getting to be too much for him these days.  At the same time it is important to have something purposeful to do.

Sunday Sketches - Strawberry

Welcome to Sunday Sketches! Today's piece is entitled 'Strawberry' done on cardstock (4 1/2" x 6 1/2") with my permanent markers, outlined with a fine point black marker. It's based on a photo I took of a strawberry I saw in my garden the other day, hiding under the leaves.  It was not fully developed.

Alexandra is closing Sunday Sketches after a 9 year run, we thank her and will miss the co-op.

Banana bread pudding

I had some leftover banana bread and some leftover chocolate banana bread.  I found this simple recipe for banana bread pudding and it is a keeper!

First, you cube the banana bread and place them into a 9" x 13" pan lined with parchment paper.  Pre-heat the oven to 350F. Then you  whisk together 3 cups of milk, 4 eggs, 1 tablespoon of sugar (I used brown sugar), finally 1 teaspoon of vanilla.  Pour it onto the cubes and bake for 30 minutes.  I covered the pan with foil after the first 10 minutes as the cubes began to brown.

Do you think you might try this?

Paint Party Friday - Frills

Welcome to Paint Party Friday! I saw this pretty gown in a magazine and decided to dress my lady in a version of it! This piece, called  'Frills' is done on cardstock (4 1/2" x 6 1/2") with my permanent markers, outlined with a fine point black marker.

And for my regular followers, please see yesterday's post which didn't manage to publish until later that night, my error.

Peonies and Roses

Whoops, I just noticed my post for today didn't publish, here you go!

Daughter L went to a fancy wedding shower recently and brought home one of the table arrangements. It was so beautiful as pictured above, love the pinks of the peonies and roses.

Unfortunately by the next day, the large pink peony had changed to white, the florist had dyed it.  Well it was a beautiful pink while it lasted.

Scribble Picnic - Watermelon

It's time for Scribble Picnic! This week's theme is 'Watermelon' and here's my piece in red cardstock (6" x 6") done in acrylic. I love all kinds of fruit and who doesn't love watermelon?

On memory loss and aging

Here is an interesting article which discusses whether your memory is normal for your age.  It has a good list you can read through, to determine what's a normal memory mistake and what is not.  For example it says it is normal to forget an acquaintance's name but not the name of a close loved one.

And happy Independence Day to our friends in the U.S.!

Total solar eclipse

I noticed these pretty roses growing on the side of our church wall.  They smelled so good that day.

So apparently there will be a total solar eclipse on August 21st of this year for the first time in 99 years.  It will be visible across all of North America.   Here is some good information on viewing safety from NASA.  Use certified eclipse glasses only from recommended manufacturers.  They said you should never look at the eclipsed sun through an unfiltered camera or other optical device.  More interestingly, never do this while using your eclipse glasses. 

I ordered some eclipse glasses from Amazon, however son K says he would rather not risk his eyes by forgetting instructions and would be happy to just see film that others publish.

Sunday Sketches - Gown

Welcome to Sunday Sketches! This is a greeting card (4 1/4" x 5 1/2") based on a pretty gown I saw. It's done with my permanent markers, outlined with a fine point black marker.

Canada 150

Happy First of July and Canada Day, celebrating 150 years!  I did this unfurled flag piece on red cardstock (6" x 6") in acrylic outlined with a fine point black marker.
 
I saw this neat planting in a shopping centre parking lot:

And husband M celebrates a birthday today on Canada Day! Daughter L got him this pretty cake:

L made these salted chocolate chip tahini cookies for us and they are beyond delicious. Here is the recipe.