I've been a craftin'....

This is a candy box I made for Jim's boss. It will be filled with Rocky Road candy. The skull on the top of the box is embossed. It came out very nicely if I do say so myself and of course I DID!!! lol.

These are a few recipe cards I made to go with the dog treats I made and put in some "BOO" bags for my neighbors. Nothing super special, but I thought that they came out cute.

These are a few of my layered cards. The "Don't Open" card has a picture of a heavy person necked with a pumpkin airbrushed on their bottom. Hee hee. I'm so twisted I even scare myself. LOL.

Here are a few of my 3D cards. There is something on every card that stands out. These are my favorite to make, but they really take time cutting out all of the images. Yep I do them all by hand and not with a fancy die cut machine. I like it better that way.

And this was my first attempt at a pop up card. The image on the left is the cover and the image on the right is the inside. It's too plain for my taste. Something is missing. Well it was a first attempt anyway. Will have to work on this method a little more.

I hope you enjoyed my creations. I enjoyed making them.

Cookin' up some Halloween

I invited mom and Kelly over to make some Halloween goodies. I went out and picked them up first thing in the morning and then we checked out some stores for some sprinkles and frosting. We finally got home and started in. Unfortunately, I forgot to buy some cream cheese for the slime cupcakes. So that project is out.

We decided to make some cutout sugar cookies. I found a fantastic sounding recipe from land o lakes. Lots of butter....should have been my red flag. I made the cookie dough and then wrapped it and put it in the fridge.

While we waited, we decided to make some chocolate covered marshmallows. It was interesting at best. Some of the marshmallows had gotten warm so they got sticky. By them getting sticky, it made them hard to push onto the sticks. We got them on though. I have to admit, some of the ones we made looked like colorful turds on a stick. Good thing we were covering them in chocolate. White chocolate that is. LOL. This is what the good ones looked like before we coated them in chocolate.

The colored marshmallows are fruit flavored and the white ones are regular marshmallows.

After we put them on the sticks, I took them over to the double boiler on the stove and started coating them with chocolate. As I covered them in chocolate, and mom and Kelly put the sprinkles on. Needless to say I still have orange and brown sprinkles all over my stove and counter in the cracks and crevices. LOL. After they dried they finally ended up looking like this.


While I had the double boiler full of chocolate, we ended up making some peanut butter eyeballs. I made the peanut butter balls the day before and had them in the fridge. They are basically peanut butter, butter, and powdered sugar. What is there not to love about these?!?!!

This is as far as we got with them too. We forgot to buy the red frosting to make the veins. It's a good thing that I had some mini M&M's, because we forgot to buy those too. LOL. I guess you could say that we really didn't plan very well!!!

We sat around for a little while reading Halloween cookbooks and magazines. Finally, we thought it was time that the cookie dough was chilled enough. So I grabbed my bucket of flour, and my marble rolling pin and off to the table I go. I dust the table with four and of course I had to dust mom with flour too. It's hard to see in this photo but she didn't even know I did it.

No wonder she looks so happy about being floured. LOL.

This is Kelly before we started rolling out the cookie dough. Get ready watch the progression....

Here's mom cutting out the shapes. Notice Kelly is starting to nod off?!?!?!

Yep, you guessed it. We worked her too hard. I even fed her a bunch of Halloween candy and chocolate!!!!

Well as it turned out the dough was too soft and I couldn't get it off of the table, even with a spatula. So we ended up spending the rest of the day watching television, and Kelly ended up finally getting her nap.

All in all it was a fun day. Talk about a comedy of errors though. Mom and Kelly went home with some chocolate covered marshmallows, peanut butter eyeballs, and half of the sugar dough. As far as I know they have survived thus far. Who knows the fate of the goodies after that.

Breakfast the most important meal of the day

We have all heard that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, right. Well for me it's becoming the most difficult to swallow. Literally. I'm not sure if it's because the muscles in my throat or stomach tighten up or what but food is hard to swallow first thing in the morning.

This morning I made myself some scrambled EggBeaters and diced ham. I took a few bites ( probably bigger than should have been) and chewed it up really good (so I thought). Well it came back up with a vengeance! So now what do I eat? Ok, cottage cheese is soft. I got the same feeling from a few bites of that. Now granted my throat is goofy from the upheaval but I wasn't going to take any chances. I stopped eating for awhile to let everything settle down.

I ended up eating some of the soup I made the other day, the spinach soup. Oh it's so good, which is a good thing too because it was the only thing going down and staying down this morning.

So now the hunt begins on things I can eat for breakfast and how slow I have to eat to try them. I am actually starting to not CRAVE food so much any more. Is that a good thing? I'm not sure....the jury is still out on that one.

Wet and windy weather = baking time

I am having my mom and sister come over tomorrow to decorate some cookies and cupcakes for Halloween. Since my kitchen is so tiny, I decided to do all the baking today.

The tentative baking schedule for today is:
Slime cupcakes
Chocolate cutout cookies
Sugar cookies
Peanut butter eyeballs
Chocolate covered marshmallows
Dog bones - 2 different types (really for dogs)

Not to mention, I have to come up with something for dinner, clean house, do laundry, and go some more crafting. Whew. I wish I could say that this is going to be a pain....but I can't. I love doing this!!!

However this morning has started off rough. I am still testing what I can and can't eat. This morning I tried some cereal. WRONG!!!! I lost it all. Which I should have known but I was able to eat it before the fill, but now the band is too tight. It's really a good thing, just I'm hard headed and I always have to push the boundaries. So after the cereal experience I decided to have some egg salad out of egg whites. Normally I would eat 4 egg whites, which equals 4 ounces of protein. I don't know if it was because I lost food before and my throat was sore, but I couldn't eat all 4 eggs. Well I ate them, but I lost some too. I now have no desire to eat anything what so ever.....at least for a few hours.

All in all it is getting a little easier. It's just taking me awhile to get my head back into the game plan.

Well it's time to fire up the ol' oven and mixer and get to cookin!!!!! Not sure how long we will have power with this storm so computer time is going to be short today.

Confetti Chicken Chowder

Last night I made this soup and it was soooo good. I wanted to make something light for dinner but I wanted something that had some substance to it too.

So before I go on here is the recipe:

Confetti chicken chowder

1/4 cup margarine
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup all purpose flour
6 cups chicken broth
2 cups chopped, cooked chicken
1 10oz package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 cup half and half

In a large saucepan melt margarine over medium heat. Add onion; cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until tender. Stir in flour; cook and stir for 1 minute. Stir in broth; cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Add chicken, spinach, and nutmeg. Stir in half and half, heat through.
Serves 6 292 calories.

Sorry I didn't take a photo of if, but it was really good. The best part was that I could eat it and use it as an entire meal. With the spinach, onion, and chicken it filled me up well as much as 3/4 of a cup could.

I am still measuring my portions. I am finding that different things are effecting me differently. Thankfully this soup was a good one.

So I hope you try it, if not then there is more for me!!!! LOL.

Getting used to my new stomach

Ok so it's not a "new" stomach but trust me it feels like it. After my fill on 10/7 I am having experiences that I should have had months ago. I would imagine that this is what the bypass patients feel.


So far the food that I have been able to eat has been soup, cottage cheese, yogurt, and bananas. Oh and yes the occasional Kit Kat. Hey at least I fessed up to it. Surprisingly enough the candy goes down easier than anything else. That sucks!!!


Last nights dinner I begged Jim to go get Jimboy's tacos. I wanted a taco salad with no guacamole or beans. Basically it's just meat, lettuce, tomatoes, and olives. Well when he came home, they had messed up the order and we got a ton of food. Unfortunately it was nothing I could eat. I tried though. There was a meat and cheese taco that I tried. I should have known. The tortilla, I think got stuck. Actually, I think the whole thing got stuck. I lost it all. Which was probably the best thing for me. So after my throat recovered, I ate some cottage cheese.


I have to pay attention to what and how I eat now. Small bites, I mean SMALL bites and chew, chew, chew. I'm not sure if I'm feeling a full feeling but I seem to quit eating around a half a cup of food. BIG change from my previous eating habits!!!!

Going back to face the surgeon

Well October 20th is my 1 year anniversary of having my Lap Band done. I wish I could say that I am where I would like to be, but I am far from it!

My last band fill was on Feb. 13, 2009. I had lost 20 pounds in 6 weeks. My surgeons assistant was very pleased. In fact he didn't give me a fill now that I recall. He told me that he wanted to see me back in 2 months. I knew right then that I should have said no. In fact I tried to get him to see me in a month and he didn't think it would be necessary. So we booked the appointment and went home.

Some time in that month I decided to go on a feeding frenzy. My thing was chocolate cake. I had added stress like mom didn't have a car and I would have to taxi her and Kelly around. Money was an issue, like always. And there were more but I don't want to bore you with the details.

In that month, I gained 20 pounds!!! I thought, that's ok I have a month to get it off. Well it never happened. In fact I gained another 5 pounds. I went from 325 lbs to 350 in a month and a half!! I canceled my appointment and rescheduled for the next month. The next month came and the weight is still hanging on. So I canceled again. This time I didn't reschedule.

I worked hard at the gym, but I was also eating a lot of food. I have to admit, it was not all good food either. I was settling once again for fast food or buffets where I would eat too much. Sometimes being in a hurry I would eat too fast and then lose what I ate. After I lost it, I would then come back to the table and eat again. Since I was taking my mom and sister around the trips would take all day. So rather than packing a lunch, we would eat out. This was making things hard in many ways. Money was getting tight, and so were my pants.

Now I have to admit that I was able to keep my weight to the new 350 lbs for the 7 months. But I couldn't take it anymore. I had my surgery almost a year ago and I have only lost 20 pounds. That is disgusting!!! Any way you look at it, that is disgusting!!!

So I broke down and made the appointment with my surgeon on 10/7/09. I worried about it for a month, but I knew I had to go back. I was not feeling hungry or full, I was eating probably 3000 calories a day again. What was the point of going through all of this if I was going to throw it all away. Not to mention the previous months episodes helped me get my mind back into the game.

The day came and it was time to face my surgeon. No excuses. Tell him like it is. I can feel my heart pounding and my mind racing with how to deal with his disappointment. I have to stay strong. I need his help. Well when Dr. Le came into the room I could see his disappointment. He said that he wasn't going to throw the book at me but.... He was actually understanding when I told him that I was too embarrassed to come back since I had gained the weight.

We talked a little and then it was time for the fill. He checked to make sure that my band was not leaking, then he put in 2cc's of fluid in. Now I have a 14cc band in. I have now 10cc's of fluid in it. I have never felt any restriction from any of my other fills. This is one of the reasons my surgeon gave me a larger fill. Normal fills are only 1cc at a time until they get the right amount in.

I drank some water and had no problem with it going down. Dr. Le said he wanted to see me back in a month. So my next appointment is Nov. 6.

After a fill you are supposed to eat only liquids. So I got some soup which had roasted corn and shrimp in it but I chewed it up really good. I ate about a cup of soup and I didn't feel full. I didn't even feel a restriction. I started to worry. I ate the same thing for dinner with the same result. Great! What if this isn't going to work.

The next day's breakfast I decided on some cottage cheese just to be safe. Well I felt a restriction but it was in my throat not my stomach. It took me an hour to eat 6 ounces of cottage cheese. I figured out that I was going to have to make myself eat slower, smaller bites, and chew, chew, chew. Yes I know....this is what they told us BEFORE the surgery. But I never had a problem so it sort of went out of sight out of mind. Well now it's back in sight.

For dinner we had some breaded fish. I could only eat about 6 ounces of that before the breading was getting stuck. So rather than pushing the issue, I stopped eating.

This is going to take some getting used to again, since I have been so lackadaisical about the whole thing. In fact I'm noticing that taking my medicine takes longer too. So I guess I'm back on track. I have updated my weight goal for losing 10 pounds by my next dr. appt. So the journey starts again.