That Pink Stuff

This recipe recently came my way courtesy of a fruit recipe swap on swap-bot. I made it yesterday and it is yummy.

That Pink Stuff
1 small container cool whip
1 small can sweetened condensed milk
1 large can drained crushed pineapple
1 can cherry pie filling
1 cup chopped pecans
Dump it all in a large bowl and stir until well combined.
Chill at least 7 hours.

I only had chunk pineapple at home, so when I went to the store to get some of the other ingredients I did not have on hand, I knew I wanted to get crushed pineapple. I even saw the crushed pineapple on the shelf. I reached for the crushed pineapple. By the time I unpacked my groceries, it had metamorphosed into chunk pineapple. How does this happen? And it isn't the first time. Oh, maybe with pineapple it is the first time, but how does the cream of mushroom soup I reached for become vegetable beef (also a lovely soup, but not so good in tuna casserole) or the pistachio pudding become butterscotch. How?
Some may say that I am the common denominator and that when it comes to shopping I do not have good eye-hand coordination, but no, I believe it is some sort of early teleportation experiment being conducted by scientists in area 51 trying to reverse-engineer some alien device they have acquired.
I sure hope they work out the bugs soon. This is getting annoying.
Anyway, if you have been subjected to their experiments, just cut up the chunks into smaller pieces.

Maybe Aliens Look Like Cows

Have you seen this lamp? It is so clever.

Giddiness

I just got a thrill when I peeked in at Whip Up. They have a post about granny squares complete with pictures of granny squares to inspire you and one of the pictures is of my granny spirals (form this pattern on Crochet Me)!
I am reminded of the line in "The Jerk" when Steve Martin's character (a.k.a. the jerk) gets a copy of the new phone book and finds his name list there: "This is the kind of spontaneous publicity that makes people." O.K. maybe it isn't quite that kind of publicity, but still. . . I am tickled.

New Kitchen Rug

A new kitchen needs a new kitchen rug and this is ours:

The best part is that I used a lot of yarn up. It is mostly double strands of worsted weight yarn, thought there is some rug yarn and even a sport weight in there, too. It is so comfortable to stand on.
I just chained a length that seemed right to me and did each row in single crochet. The beginning and ending tails of yarn were left hanging and tied together in three row groups. Trim the ends to make a short fringe.Easy-peasy.

zentangle quilt

zentangle quilt
Originally uploaded by jdphoenix

Look at what my daughter did with my zentangle sampler. She colored it and gave it to me for my birthday. Yes, that was back in February, but she only just posted it now. I think it is beautiful. If you click on the picture it will take you to where she posted it on Flickr. You should be able to hit the "all sizes" button above the picture and get a larger image to see the detail.

Needlebook Swap

There was a swap on Swapbot to send a needlebook to one partner. My partner said in her profile that she was getting married soon and that she is using pink and white and cherry blossoms in her wedding to this is the needlebook I came up with for her:


The battery on my camera gave out as I was taking pictures and since we moved recently, it took some time to find the recharger. Sigh. The inside pages have white flower trim appliqued on them. Very cute, but no pictures. The inside pages are a darker shade of pink.
I am also in a bottlecap pincushion swap so since that was on my mind, too, and I already had the felt out, my partner got one of those, too. Then, while looking for something to tie the package up with, I came across some pink cotton yarn. So, of course, she got a dishcloth, too. I think it is a sweet little package for a soon-to-be bride and she was happy with it, too. That is what counts.
Here is another picture of the pincushion:

I really like how that picture came out.

Rosa's Tuna Salad

Shortly after I began my current job (about 4 years ago) one of my co-workers, Rosa, came in the break room and made the most wonderful tuna salad.

There is no hard and fast recipe for it but this is the basic formula:

• 1 can of tuna, drained and broken up
• juice of half a lemon or 1 lime -- sprinkle on the tuna and mix

You will have to decide the amounts/proportions of the following vegetables based on your own tastes and on what you have on hand:

• tomato
• cucumber (I like to partially peel in and to seed it)
• bell pepper (any color)
• onion (red, white, yellow, or like this time green)
• avocado
• jalapeno pepper (try to add at least a bit, it adds a sparkle)

Chop up the veggies and toss them in.
Salt and pepper to taste.

This is very healthy and is delicious on crackers or just at is.

Pincushions and Needlecases Mosaic

1. Floral Buttons Needlecase, 2. Needlecase Rotkaeppchen, 3. biscornu 12, 4. Bottle Cap Pincushion #208, 5. Pin Cushions, 6. Ocean Scene Needlebook, 7. linen pincushions, 8. Periwinkle Flower Pincushion, 9. Three freshly made needlecases!

Catching Up

Of course there has been crafting going on:

This was inspired by this post on Laughing Purple Goldfish. Just a warning to those who get dishcloths from me: you may be getting ones like this this year. I am also working on a rug for the craft room and/or kitchen based on this design, too. This on is all in cotton yarns, the rug will be in double strands of acrylic yarns.

I have also been working on the Crochet a Granny Square a Day 'til the End of May project. These are some more I have done:

and

and

There are more but I am not so good about taking the pictures in a timely way, and I will have to sort out which are still waiting for their close-ups.
I have decided that I will border them in an off-white yarn before I join them together. Perhaps they will be a poncho, or a shrug or a bag or two. Their final destiny is still up in the air. They are getting quicker to make as I have learned the pattern and overcome my own difficulties with it. For instance, I now know that the center should not be tightened until I have finished row 2. The first two stitches of row 2 are much easier that way.

I have also been working on some swaps for swap-bot. These are for the Striped ATC swap:

and these are for a handmade zentangle postcard swap:

We were allowed to do something beyond a plain black and white tangle, if we wanted. I tried coloring these according to the recipients' color preferences in their profiles. It makes me nervous to send these out. Did I get the size and weight right? I back them with plain paper after I'm done to write the address on. Will that stay stuck on? Always happy when I get the ratings for handmade postcards. Well, for anything, but especially those.
The picture is a bit fuzzy. Sigh.

The Thing About Musicals

The thing about musicals is that that never happens in real life.