Wednesday, December 30, 2009

from my mom's noodle

mom's way better with flowers than i am


the greenery is a sweet potato vine that strouted in a pot somewhere in her house

the red amarylis you see on the table are probably great great great grandchildren from the ones in the wagon from several years ago:

she wrapped all of the artwork in her house with gift wrap to look like presents

and added coordinating folded stars and tiny packages made from greeting cards to the walls

each gift had a different color scheme


the gift tags are her calligraphy--many saved from the past--one says "from eva" who is gone now. here is a close-up of her folded handmade stars:


this is a "martha stewart everyday from kmart expandable bamboo trellis" covered with lights on the deck outside the kitchen window


on the tiny 2 foot inside the house, are knit dolls i used to play with when i was a kid


here's my attempt at decorating:

Monday, December 28, 2009

Ham Croquettes

One of our family holiday food traditions.
From the Better Homes and Gardens Meat Cookbook, 1960.

Original recipe was deep-fried and used saltines.
Mom developed a baked version using techniques she learned
watching Cook's Illustrated on TV.

Brown the crumbs on the stovetop:

Nice close-up from my new camera.

Making the gooey white sauce.

Mixing in the ground ham.

Breading with egg white for maximum crunch.

Yuckky fingers.
Ready to bake, just 12 minutes at 375.˚

Don't forget to make more eggy white sauce as a topping.

Finis. Hope you like washing many pots and pans!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Score some S'mores

Click here to see my "five minutes" on Food Network.

I Felt Like Making S'more Pins


I used to have this Snoopy pin on my ski jacket in high school. You can see what I was thinking last November and how my idea has changed here.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Silver and gold, silver and gold (but not for Xmas!)

I spotted these gold and silver pumpkins in my neighborhood. They are REAL pumpkins. Maybe she was inspired by the gold and silver lions up as THIRSTY's in Osseo:

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Friday, October 2, 2009

AccessVikings.com TV spot

My initial concept was for the guy to act like a valley girl -- then Ryan McArdle hit it home - he morphed into the ultimate "accessvikings.com fan".

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Raspberry Rascal

Fricken Furniture !#$%?

The hubbub is not about the f-bomb in my world. (See the video here.)


It's about the barrel furniture I spied on craig's list last year:

The price was $400 for the entire set. The seller was from Oakdale, MN.

And no--I did not buy it. But was highly amused by it.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

1963 was a very good year.


Even priced at a $1.95, I couldn't pull the trigger.

A quick sneaky photo in the store, and I'm good to go.

Fair Finds

Judy's first of course.











Sally's Hot Man

This early layout (about 8 feet across)
edited down became this:
The eyes are speakers (the backs of them are big magnets). The nose is a cable from Mike's camper. "That camper had every accessory on it from the Kmart automotive aisle!".


Sunday, June 21, 2009