The other night we whipped up this delicious Chicken Taco Soup from one of Rachael Ray's recipes. She created the recipe for children's lunches, so the soup was not very flavorful, but we took care of that with some taco seasoning. We also used a regular salsa, since we couldnt' find any of the verde.

If you decide to give this one a try, don't be afraid to go with a spicy salsa, it's so spread out, you won't taste the heat unless you add in tabasco. There are quite a few changes we will make next time, so I'll post the revised recipe once it is perfected.

And this is what it takes for me to cook or cut onions anymore. No, it's not mood lighting.



Tonight Greek Chicken with Pasta was for dinner.
You can find this one in My Recipe Book on the sidebar.

I'm pretty peeved that I forgot to hit the macro (close-up) setting on my camera, and was doomed to a pixel-y picture. And I was looking forward to getting a good picture for my recipe cards. We were out of the angel hair pasta we would normally use, so I guess it was not meant to be.




Justin and I started talking about letterboxing again, and about planting our own boxes at Berry. And that got me thinking about book-making. I gave it a second try & created this little spotted book, which turned out nicely, but I will need to try yet another glue next time. Last time I tried a cover with a spine, which did not work out well, and covered up all of the pretty stitching. The open cover is definitely for me.



And here's a little project that got lost along the way. The girl that ordered the brown pre-made patchwork skirt wanted to get an applique added to the front. I had been thinking an applique would look great there, but never decided on one. She chose an Athenian owl, which I think turned out lovely, and great with the shades of brown.

I feel like I have been working on 100 things lately,
but have been really bad about taking pictures & updating ;)

I've decided I want to make more animal appliques for Phunky Monkey ~ I have been really uninspired for appliques lately, and have just left them off a lot of things. When I do pick one, it seems like I'm just choosing between a flower, shroom, word... I should let my love of animals show ;) (if there is an applique you'd like to see, don't be shy about suggesting something either!)

So, I'm about finished with a brown bear dress, and today I'll be working on this bag ~



For a long time I've been collecting fortunes (from cookies) to pair up with photos for a scrapbook/albulm type of thing. There are so many fortunes that are really funny when you use them as a caption for the right photo. I finally collected enough to match about 30 or 35 pictures, then I bought a box of cookies to match up the remaining few. I ended up with 40 pages (one picture and fortune per page).

Unfortunently, a lot of these would not be funny to other people (other than our friends), without me having to explain what is happening, who the person is, etc. So without much explanation, here are a few ~
( 4 pages ahead... )


I had small pieces of paper left over from cutting the pages for the albulm. I've been wanting to try making a book for a while now, so I finally it out. I learned a lot of things and will make some changes next time, so look forward to seeing some nicer books in the future. I would like to make these for letterboxing. I'm not really sure what I will do with this book and it's black paper, but I do have silver sharpies, so I'll probably just jot notes in it.

( black page book )

This weekend we went to Berry to find our first letterboxes. We found 5 boxes (out of 6, the last one I think is missing) and took a photo of each spot to add to our book. The pictures are of the landmarks that the boxes were hidden near, and a few extras for fun.

If you've never been to Berry (in Rome, Georgia), it is a beautiful place. It only has about 2,000 students, but it is the largest campus in the world, and most of that is fields, woods, and such.

( 8 pictures... )

We went to Hobby Lobby to pick up some wallet supplies, and grabbed the block carving tools and a stamp pad while we were there. Turns out both were on sale, so it was the perfect day to buy them! (We had already bought a carving block earlier) I practiced a bit with the new cutters and new block. The block is Speedball brand (we couldn't find an eraser large enough) and it cuts so easily and smoothly. Last night I finished up our 'personal' stamp for when we go letterboxing. (This is the stamp we will mark in the books of the boxes we find) Apparently most people like to keep their stamp very secret, but I don't think we care, so here's a pic ~ The picture is pretty much life-size (about the size of a business card, but not quite as long). Now, the grainy texture to the black is because of our stamp pad. It has a fabric cover over the top that makes the ink look pixelated, which I'm guessing is on purpose. It is a neat effect, but we want some solid ink to really pick up all of the stamp details for our book so we'll have to pick up another one.

I also whipped up a custom wallet yesterday ~
(Here is an inside view.)

I talked to my friend Katie about a name for our Letterboxing group, and we decided on "The Pod People"... (probably because I wore that shirt I stenciled at our last get-together and then we had to watch the movie because a few people had never seen it.) I headed out to Staples to find a good eraser to carve to make our stamp, but they had closed already.

I decided it was probably better for me to make a practice stamp first anyways,
and ( here are the results along with a quick tutorial )

I think Justin and I have discovered a new hobby ~ Letterboxing!

Bascially, someone hides a box (tuperware) in an out-of-the-way area and leaves clues on the website http://www.letterboxing.org/ . Inside the box is a book and a handcarved stamp. You carry your own handcarved stamp and leave a mark in the book. You also carry your own book and use the box's stamp to mark your book. There are many variations, like leaving items in the box that give clues to a second box, but they will always contain a stamp and book. Re-hide the box, mark the find on the website if you wish, and look for another or plant your own box. (For more information, read the FAQ on the site)


I think everything about this interests me ~ looking for the boxes, hiding our own boxes, carving the stamps. I've also been interested in making some handmade books, but had no real reason to make one. I think it would be fun to make the books inside the boxes as well.

We were going to grab a friend and head out to Berry College campus today, but could not get ahold of her & will probably try again later this week. We have no book, no stamp, no ink pad, and no way of buying them any time soon it seems, but thought it would be fun to look for them and then come back to stamp later on. I get so excited about new project/adventures I want to run out right away. ;) I'll be sure to post more here about creating the stamps, books, and so on.


There is also another variation called Geocaching, where you use GPS to leave the co-ordinates for your box. You leave small items in the box, and the next person trades them out with new items. More can be found here ~ http://www.geocaching.com/