Product Review

Dunkelberg Designs

Deb Dunk as we call her on the Homefront noticed that I mentioned I was having problems with my pictures. The models looked great, the rest of the photo quality was not comparable to my shop standards. She offered her Professional Photo Editing Service and I couldn't be happier. She is worth every penny for sure! Here are some of the things she's done; before and after shots.

I highly recommend Deb for any Graphic Artistry Work! Consider this a personal and business reference! Thank a million Deb, you gave me my time back at the sewing room doing what I love most. Creating fun new clothing for kids.

Children's Book Review... of a Sort

So this is a bit different than the book reviews that I have been doing. We went to a Children's Yoga Story Time presented by Yoga Instructor Kristina Scott and our local Library. It was SO neat and I was so pleased to see how well my high energy child responded to the calmer side of Yoga.

Kristina started them out by doing lots of wiggling and shaking. This helped most of the Preschoolers to get all the wiggles out before the real Yoga and Story Started.

Then the Story, Rooster's Off to See The World started. The story had many animal characters in it. Every time she read an animal all the kids would act out how that animal would act. This kept them very actively involved in the story.

Rooster, Cat, Toad, Turtle, Fish... they got to act them all out one by one. The basic story line is that Rooster went off to see the world and as he traveled he met each of the animals who joined his journey. In the end each one decided that home really was where they wanted to be.

Kristina, then had the kids all calm back down and end the story on a quasi meditative note.

I was more than impressed with this and can't wait for the next one she does in October.

Scrumptious Saturday #12

Irish Stew

Please don't be mistaken, this is NOT my original recipe, but I am so thankful I tried it. The recipe is taken exactly as printed in the October 2008 issue of of Cuisine at Home.
"Traditional Irish Stew recipes are usually made with lamb, and lamb stew meat works great here. But if you're not a fan, feel free to substitute beef instead."

Makes 8 cups; Total time: about 1 1/2 hours

2 lb. lamb or beef stew meat, cut into 1 1/2" cubes, seasoned with salt and pepper
1/4 cup of olive oil, divided
2 cups onion, diced
2 T. garlic, minced
2 T. tomato paste
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup dark beer (Guinness is best choice)
2 cups beef broth
2 cups chicken broth
2 fresh thyme sprigs
2 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 cup carrot, chopped
1 cup frozen peas (keep them frozen until ready to use to prevent soggy peas)
1 cup savoy cabbage, sliced
salt and pepper to taste

Brown lamb in 2T. oil in a large pot over medium - high heat, 8 minutes. Transfer lamb to a bowl and set aside; reduce heat to medium.

I got the lambs meat, carrots and garlic at the local farmers market. The lambs meat came from Laurel Creek Meat, check them out. Boy does it make a difference!


Add 2 T. oil and onion to the pot and sweat, covered, until soft, 5 minutes. Stir in garlic and tomato paste, and cook until paste darkens, 2 minutes. Add flour, stir to coat and cook, 1 minute.

Deglaze with beer, scraping any bits from the bottom of the pot, then add both broths, lamb meat and its juices, and thyme. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 1 hour.

Stir in potatoes and carrot(s). Cook until potatoes are tender, 12 minutes, then add peas, cabbage, salt and pepper; simmer 5 minutes.

So the recipe calls for being served with Mini Cheddar Scones and to be honest I didn't have the drive to tackle that one with the stew. So instead I got a package of Bisquick Brand 3 Cheese Biscuit Mix, and instead of 1/2 cup of water as it called for I used a 1/2 cup of Rachael Ray's Chicken Stock, and added in some more fresh thyme (stripped the leaved off the stem). It was really good, I wish I could have smell-o-vision for you all to know how good this whole meal smelled.

SCRUFFY FAMILY PHOTO

All Scruffies are up for adoption, each one needs a new home with someone to love and care for him or her.

Each is a hand altered bear. He / she is 6" tall sitting and fits nicely into any little loving arms for hugging and snuggling. I've added lavender to the stuffing in a separate cotton bag and each bear will have a special heart sewn onto him or her.

Each Scruffy will have adoption papers and an individual story. Whats so great about this Beddy Bye Bear? Lavender is long reputed to help calm the nerves and allow sleep to come more peacefully. My daughter inspired this idea when she started sleeping with her boo boo bag every night. I decided that we needed something a little more fluffy to fill that role and the first Scruffy was born.


These are pretty much listed as is. If you have a special request please contact me and I'll see what we can come up with. If the desire arises I can see if Scruffy has larger brothers and sisters for adoption.

**eyes are not stitched, but are permanently affixed plastic**

Personalized Tote Bag

So for this year at Preschool the teacher prefers to have a tote bag as opposed to a back pack. She says they fit better in the cubby's which makes perfect sense to me. So in an effort to make something nice and personalize it here is what we did.

1) Start with a commercial ready to decorate tote bag for $2.47 and if you plan it well you can get it for 50% off (as we did).

2) Go to a website with free coloring pages and select your picture. We used Free Coloring Pages and selected one from the sports section looking for something that resembled a gymnast.

3) Right click on the picture and "copy image" open Paint from your desktop and paste the image into the paint program. Utilize the paint program to "color" your picture as you choose.

4) Cut picture from Paint and put it into a Word Processing program to add text as desired.

5) Remember to go into the Print Properties and be sure to print your work in Mirror Image (yes I made the mistake AGAIN and had to reprint). Print it onto a iron on T-shirt transfer, iron it onto the bag.

6) Decorate as much as your heart desires. We are not finished as this one will need to be jeweled and trimmed in some lavish trim of some sort. That is for after school tomorrow!

Hope you and your kids have as much fun as we did!

When we finish it tomorrow I'll post the last pictures. Look for them sometime in the late afternoon.

Treasury Made it to the Front Page

Titled: Another Gold for Aqua Man - Rock on Michael Phelps!

TAG YOU'RE IT!

I've been tagged! Remember playing tag as a child..."You're It." Well this past week I was "tagged"; maybe you will want to play too.

I was tagged by Teresa of MayRae, Life Craft Love

Here are the rules:

1) Link to the person who tagged you

2) Post the rules on your blog (this is what you are now reading)

3) Write 6 random things about yourself (see below)

4) Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them (This is only a game)

5) Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog

6) Let the tagger know when your entry is up

Random items about me...

1) I was raised in Orlando, FL.

2) I am very motivated and spend very little time doing "nothing."

3) I have written over 200 poems.

4) I had my first business idea for the bath and body products over 5 years ago, but the Children's Clothing line came to fruition first.

5) I work for my mom's Interior Designs business in addition to having two of my own businesses.

6) My best friend and I have been friends for 24 years now and can step into each other's house after years apart and know where everything will be (even if we haven't been to that new house before).

People I’m tagging:

1) Beth of Beth's Jewelry, Art & More

2) Jessi of Two Seaside Babies

3) Emily of Ella Bear Bowtique

4) Jennifer of Monster Bug Blankets

5) Terry Ann of Just So TerryAnn

6) Liz of Fray Baby

You're It!