Sunday goodies, end of month, and fun.

First off I want to say thank you to all the blogger's from all over the world who have stopped by my blog and so many other blog's to say hello during the  One World One Heart event. ::waving::

(and if you are  dropping by to join the giveaway, you can access it by clicking on my sidebar where my previous posts are at. I hope you do keep coming back. )

I'm taking a big break today and picking mustard greens, turnips, and spinach from the backyard. I think we are pretty much having just different types of veggies later for dinner. We had a big breakfast this morning,  so that will take care of us till late this afternoon.

Washed them  individually and now they are cooking. Greens.

Here's the spinach and the turnips. I love turnips.

AND THE REST OF THE TIME IS BEING SPENT WATCHING MICHAEL JACKSON'S CONCERTS AND LISTENING TO HIS MUSIC. I AM AND ALWAYS WILL BE A FAN OF HIS.

THESE PICTURES DOWN BELOW ARE FROM HIS BUDAPEST CONCERT AND IT IS GREAT. OF COURSE I WENT OUT AND BOUGHT THE DVD "THIS IS IT!" AS SOON AS IT CAME OUT. WE SEEN THE MOVIE BUT THERE'S NOTHING LIKE HAVING THE MOVIES TO WATCH HERE AT HOME.

So it is easy going day today. Taking a break from the quizzes and reading and just kicking back and enjoying the good life. Later today I will drink a beer.  Yes.

That is correct. Gloria will have a beer today. Mexican beer. We'll watch the Grammy's later this evening. You watching them? I hope you are all enjoying your Sunday. Hubby can't stop working so he is outside  mowing our lawns. I did help him pick the veggies and that's enough work for today.:DDD So today is the 31st. of January and the end of the month. I hope it was a great month for you all. Enjoy February.

My word for the day is "EASY" and that's because I'm taking  it EASY all day/night.

Saturday Tidbits (and more stuff)

Good morning fellow BLOGGER'S!

It has been one heck of a week!  Seems like when things pile up on you they really do.

Today is another day though and I am going to have my coffee, watch Rick Bayless do his cooking thing at 8am and just relax a little before I get back to paperwork and quizzes.

This coffee looks pretty good although I'm sure I wouldn't be able to do my name with whipping cream as this shows. So I was going through some of my picture albums and I decided to look at my Chorizo's album and ran across this picture I always loved. (below)

So here the beautiful baby Chorizo is laying on her pillow with her baby. When I look at her face and the brown/reddish hair she had I feel this urge to hug her and hold her. She had her lady like way about her and always seemed to understand everything I said to her. She truly is missed. Here she had just taken a bath and I had blown dry her hair and gotten her snack and got sleepy, so she went to her bed with her baby in her mouth and was lying down getting ready to take a nap. Chorizo was young here, maybe 4 years or so. She lived a few months short of 14 years old. We had her since she was a little pup. Just wanted to share that although I'm sure I've shared words about her many times before.

So I guess we have begun this year with a lot of things that need to be tended to,  including medical things and hopefully everything will be okay.

All in all, it was a great month.

 I can't believe this month is over tomorrow. I'll be back later, just wanted to touch bases.

I almost forgot, todays word is "HOPE" and that's because I HOPE that whatever obstacles we are faced with, that we will be able to handle with calm and understanding.

2010 ONE WORLD ONE HEART BLOGGING EVENT

2010 One World One Heart

Blogging event January 25th - February 15

LISA 

COME FLY WITH ME, LET'S FLY AWAY TO PLACES UNKNOWN.

WHAT IS ONE WORLD ONE HEART?

Lisa created this event in 2007. She wanted to bring blogger's together from around the world and have blogger's meet blogger's and have giveaways in the process. Her first year in 2007 had roughly 85-90 participants, and then in 2008 she tripled that number. Last year she proudly says  there were 911 participants that represented 28 countries. She hopes to beat that number in 2010. You go Lisa!! This is my first year participating,  and I'm very proud to be a part of this fun event. Congratulations Lisa on reaching so many people throughout the world.

WELCOME to my blog, you are always welcome here. I'm happy to meet with you and hope you will like what I am giving away. I have not one, but TWO original works to give away and I'M THROWING IN a couple of bangles from my shoppe as well. So there will be 3 winners in the giveaway. GOOD LUCK FELLOW BLOGGERS!

The first is called COPPER WOMAN  and was created last year. I had never worked with this medium before and loved it. The last one in the group is the giveaway. 
Hope you'll like it too.

ACRYLICS WAS USED, PIPE CLEANERS

THIS IS THE FINISHED PRODUCT (at the bottom o f this text) THAT YOU WILL BE GETTING. I ADDED VARIOUS ITEMS TO IT TO GIVE IT MORE INTEREST.

YOU CAN CLICK ON THE IMAGES FOR BETTER VIEWING.

THE SECOND GIVEAWAY  WAS CREATED ON JANUARY 1, 2010.

Acrylics, some pastels, inks, and a non-toxic sealer. I will sign and date it for you on the back.

and finally the painted wooden bangles from my shoppe.

These bangles are one of a kind, all are hand painted with acrylics, and sealed with a non-toxic sealer.

For your chance to win, all you have to do is leave a comment here and have a LINK to your blog or email address so that I may find you when you win. The winner will be drawn by random and will be announced here on February 15th.

To participate in this event yourself, please click on the One World One Heart button on my sidebar.

Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting my blog, it is always great to meet new people.  

Hectic Week and next will be the same.

It has been a hectic week. I have spent so much time on the computer reading for the practice quizzes and had completed a fairly good amount of the quizzes and I find out I signed up for the wrong version. I was studying the 45 hour renewal version 2 and I should have been doing the version 3. I could have hit myself over the head with a tamale, but I didn't. Instead I counted to 20, not 10 and selected version 3 and had to start all over again. They have upgraded the testing and I' m finding this just a wee bit more difficult. No, a lot more difficult. So it is going to take me between now and the beginning of April to really get it down pat.


Plus the fact that I have to get all our paperwork together for our taxes. Our appointment is next Wednesday and I've got to add everything up and take it down to the accountant. So life has been a little rough this past week or or so. The only computer time I have spent is today for just 10/15 minutes to do some commenting and the rest of my time has been at Allied Real Estate Online School for studying. Oh, I did go on Twitter for just a couple of minutes, plus the time it is taking me to do a this post. In any event, I'll study for a few hours later this afternoon and then come back and check on your blogs to see what's going on.

Tonight I am making NOPALES w/Hamburger Meat and chili.

I plan on making some rice and a few corn tortillas. I love nopales. Whenever I cut them off, clean them, slice them, I am taken back to memory lane. These nopales unfortunately though, are store bought since I don't have any on my nopal plants. I'm hoping that this year I get a lot. If you want to see my nopales plants, you can go here and have a look at last summers growth. We ate them all.

Tomorrow I'm getting all the tax paperwork ready after I get back from exercise and I chose the living room to clean today. I guess the good thoughts I have are that once I am done studying and the taxes are done, life will be back to normal. So that is about it for now. Just wanted to say hi and hope all is well. Time to go make arroz (rice). My word for today is "HECTIC"   that's basically because it has been one heck of a hectic week. :D Take care.

nada stuff

My word for yesterday was "WORDLESS,"  if that is a word. why? Because I didn't post.

Today's word  is "AGAIN" and why? I didn't post anything again, except these few little words. That's why. I have just been so busy with the quizzes and running around here and there and then sleeping in that made me rather lazy. I'll be back with good to go tomorrow. Right now I have to get ready to watch American Idol. I picked up the dvd "This Is It." We've already seen the movie but this weekend we'll watch it on our big screen tv. Got to go. I miss you all. Do you miss me? :D Take care.

COLD DAY/EVENING, TIME FOR SUNDAY DINNER

Hi everyone in blogosphere. Here I am on Sunday just ready to kick back and relax. The day went by fast, fast and faster than a speeding bullet. For once we stayed in bed till about 8:30 and then had coffee, fed the family pet members and just about that time decided to go out and have breakfast. We didn't want the same thing at the same place (Perko's) where we always go, so we headed to McHenry Avenue and found a Mexican restuarant. We had their brunch which was not bad. A variety of differently prepared eggs, bacons, hams, potatoes, chili verde, chili colorado, and just about everything you could think of. We just had eggs with bacon, a touch of this and a touch of that and of course champagne. Oh yes, I had two glasses.

So that was this morning, We then went to other places and didn't get back till almost noon. We stopped and looked at the 3 wheel bikes, they are nice. Husband decided to clean out the garage and chop up a cypress tree that fell down outside in back. I cleaned up the house a little and put away my paints and listened to what is going on in Haiti on CNN. That's pretty much it! Dinner time rolled around and I decided to get rid of the roasted chicken in the frig by making soup and that is what you see below here.

Chicken soup made with broth and bouillon cubes. Small potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, and wee baby shells (pasta).

Here is a bowl of it ready to be eaten.

I also made corn bread, but it started to fall apart a little, it was still good.

Then for the heck of it I made a cake, added lemon, lemon zest and baked it.

Used white sugar with zest of lemon and lemon juice for the glaze.

....and there it is, waiting to be spread.

SUNDAY was a good day. It seems  like there were no worries and yet we know there is so much heartache going on in this world right now. We count our blessings and wish there was more we could do besides donate a few dollars. We pray for these people who have lost everything they own and also pray for the souls that are lost. It amazes me that I can feel so fulfilled and still feel guilty about feeling fulfilled. I would say that my word for today would be "BLESSINGS." I am so thankful every day for everything that we have worked so hard for,  and I always count my blessings, because things can change in a split second.

VIVA LA VIDA, as I always say.

Mambo Dancing Dog

VERY SMART FAMILY PET MEMBER

To Collage or NOT To Collage

I like the idea of cutting things out of magazines or using your own shrunken down paintings and then pasting them, but isn't there supposed to be a THEME? This sure doesn't have a theme. I have no skills when it comes to collage or pasting "STUFF" on this

16 x  24 canvas. I used some of my paintings, material for the dress and hearts, cartoons from the newspaper and the background  was wrapping paper that I received for my birthday. I didn't want to toss out the paper with all the pretty flowers. I also used pictures of flowers from our summer garden last year, gel medium, and some acrylics. How does  it look? I kind of like it, but what do I do with this creature now? lol. So that's my glue and paste  kind of stuff. I'd much rather paint. This is okay once in a while. Besides this "collage" (I guess that's what it's called) I've also been studying. I bet you've been busy too.  Have a great weekend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

HI DAD. I WANT TO WISH YOU A JOYOUS HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY ON THIS

22ND DAY OF JANUARY, 2010. YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN 97 YEARS TODAY.YOU LEFT US ON AUGUST 17,2007 AND YOU ARE MISSED VERY MUCH. THIS IS A  HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONG AND I THINK YOU WOULD HAVE LIKED IT. YOU WOULD  HAVE BEEN MOVING YOUR HEAD SIDE TO SIDE IN TUNE TO THE MUSIC.

Your little home is still there. Empty,  but with many voices bouncing off the walls.

Your kitchen with lots of room and always filled with family. The pot of coffee on that counter top always brewing.  Even though we didn't live at home anymore, dishes were always washed in that sink after we had eaten.

There you sit dad listening to your son-in-law.

And there we are, YOU, MA and ME when we were younger. I remember this day very well. Dad, we love you very much and you are missed. I'm happy though that you are now HOME with MA.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!

Einstein

E is equaled to m-c squared

It's raining, It's pouring, Gloria is Snoring! :D Not Really, just keeding.

Yep, that is about the size of it. It has been storming part of last week and all this week and it is supposed to continue. This will be a short post because I've got studying to do over here . I've been with this school for every renewal and I like that you can study online and take the final online and print out the certificate. Very reasonable as well. They are a nationally accredited school. They have a lot of different career classes but I just do my RE renewals. It's mainly for renewals because if it's the first time taking the test, the person would have to go to Sacramento to take the test.

I haven't had time to post because the studying takes a lot of my online time and then there is house cleaning, cooking, washing, etc.

Right now as I type,  the thunder is starting and it is going to be a doozy this evening, so they say.

I'm making mini meat loaves for dinner, sauteed squash, boiled potato w/butter and chives. Quick meal which gives me a little more time to study chapters. I also started doing a decoupage on canvas. I don't normally do this, but it's fun tearing out pictures from the newspaper or magazines and then glue them down with the gel. It's not one of  my favorites to do, I'd rather paint. I might still paint something on the canvas.

I don't think I posted yesterday but that's because I was caught up in the many chapters I have to read and the quizzes I have to take at a later date before the final.

I've been thinking about the blog and the people who blog and why we blog like we do. I know that I  have met many wonderful people and made friends and shared so many life stories and it's good that we can communicate this way. You know, I see it as this window into another person's soul. That's pretty much it. Why? Because we don't talk, but send out our thoughts, it's really our souls baring themselves. I think that we have this need to just express ourselves and with blogging, we get to say what we want. Don't you think?

I haven't posted any words for the day, but I think "THUNDER"  will be my word for the day. I am not afraid of THUNDER, in fact I love the sound it makes. Sharp loud cracks to long low rumbles.  It reminds me that rain is to follow, if not lightening. There is a lot of activity with THUNDER and it keeps growing and growing as if warning you to watch out, here comes the rain. It excites you and makes you want to go outside and run around. I used to do that when I was a kiddo. As I type, here it comes and fast. VIVA LA RAIN!

Time to go and make dinner and listen to the thunder and hope that it doesn't cut out my electricity. Have a great rest of the week. Take care.

The Little Jar that lived on....memories rekindled and repeated.

Once upon a time there was Gloria who at one time was a young and eager little girl wanting to  learn the trades of the "kitchen." She had a good instructor, her step-mother Celia who was all to eager to teach her, as this of course would eliminate some of the duties and be passed on to the "little one." The first thing taught was the making of "tortillas." To this day, rather than buy them at the store, Gloria makes her own and every time the tortillas are made, she can hear her step-mom instructing her on how to make the "masa" and how to roll the tortillas. Well she still rolls them a little off,  but they are better than the store bought ones.

She also learned how to make posole except that with her posole (beans, chunks of pork, hominy), she kicks it up a notch and adds  habanero.

Today she decided to use store bought "mole" that comes in a jar. This type was the green type of mole. She  had never tried it before but it was in the pantry so she'd give it a try.

So as she was removing the mole from the "little jar," memories unfolded right in front of her eyes. She remembered her step-mom saying to her, "Gloria, don't throw the jar away, we could use it for a glass."

She stood there for what seemed like 5 minutes just looking at the jar.

Now this little jar sat on the counter after taking the label off and washing the jar. Gloria just looked at the little jar which now seemed like a little glass and in fact was a glass. She had to save it. She kept hearing those words, "don't throw it away."

So she saved  it and decided to  put it to use. She poured herself a glass of orange juice and remembered her step-mom with a smile. Here's to you "ma."

So my word for today is none other than "REPEAT," because there is nothing better in life than remembering your parents loving words as they tried to teach you about the things in life that would one day REPEAT themselves in you. (if that makes sense) It does to me because for a moment there I was at home on the ranch listening to my step-mom and repeating what she once told me not to do,

"don't throw it away".

This is a painting I did for my mom, many years ago.

Take care and Viva La Vida!

ORANGE you glad for candy?

I was reading and backtracking on some recipes on a newly found blog at katy's posts,  when I ran across this recipe. It is from the Food Network. I decided to make some candied orange peel since it's been a long time since I made it. I'm doing something different to spice it up a bit. I'm using HABANERO. My addition of habanero follows the 1 1/2 cups water.

 Candied Orange-From Food Network Kitchens

.Prep Time:25 minInactive Prep Time:4 hr 0 minCook Time:1 hr 13 minLevel:

IntermediateServes:

about 2 cups peel.Ingredients

•6 thick-skinned Valencia or navel oranges

•4 1/2 cups sugar, plus extra for rolling

•1 1/2 cups water

THIS IS MY ADDITION:

2 HABANERO's-prick the habaneros with a needle about 6 times all around, drop into the sugared water with the peels and let the habaneros melt into the orange peels. Ayeeeeee hot!! 
I did not add as much sugar as it called for.

Directions
Cut tops and bottoms off of the orange and score the orange into quarters, cutting down only into the peel and not into the fruit. Peel the skin and pith of the orange in large pieces, use the orange for another recipe. Cut the peel into strips about 1/4-inch wide. Put the orange peel in a large saucepan with cold water to cover, bring to a boil over high heat. Then pour off the water. Repeat 1 or 2 more times depending up how assertive you want the orange peels to be. (Test kitchen liked the texture of a 3 time blanch best, it also mellowed the bitterness. But it is a matter of preference.) Remove the orange peels from the pan.

Whisk the sugar with 1 1/2 cups water. Bring to a simmer and cook for 8 to 9 minutes

(If you took the sugar's temperature with a candy thermometer it would be at the soft thread stage, 230 to 234 degrees F.) Add the peels and simmer gently, reducing heat to retain a simmer. Cook until the peels get translucent, about 45 minutes. Resist the urge to stir the peels or you may introduce sugar crystals into the syrup. If necessary, swirl the pan to move the peels around. Drain the peels, (save the syrup for ice tea.) Roll the peels in sugar and dry on a rack, for 4 to 5 hours. Return to the sugar to store.
*******************************************************************************

So these are my ORANGES  and my
HABANERO CANDIED ORANGE PEEL.

.

Oranges from the backyard

Peeling the oranges

Oranges waiting to be juiced.

Nothing like good from the tree orange juice

For the weekend juice. Delicious!

The peels in their water and sugar. I also tossed in two habaneros so it will be a HOT sugared rind.

Just about ready. I took a rind out to taste and it was hot/sugary and wonderful. When they were ready, I took them out and laid them on two baking pans. Sprinkled a little more sugar and that's it.

Here are some of them. I'm going to box some of the rinds and give to friends. I won't eat alot because of so much sugar. I will though  have a few. They turned out really good with the HABANERO because the sweet with the hot just intensifies the flavor of the orange peel. Awesome!! Nothing gets wasted. I'm making orange marmalade with the pulp and anything left will go to the chickens. Nothing wasted.
VIVA LA ORANGE!

If I could be anywhere......

IF I COULD BE ANYWHERE...THIS IS WHERE I WOULD WANT TO BE. IN FRIDA'S KITCHEN. THIS PICTURE IS FROM A BLOG I VISITED AND I ASKED IF IT WAS OKAY TO USE. I DIDN'T TAKE THE PICTURE, JUST BORROWED IT. JUST WANTED TO SHARE HER PICTURE OF THE KITCHEN, IT IS SO AWESOME. I DON'T KNOW WHERE SHE GOT THE PICTURE BUT IT IS BEAUTIFUL. CREDIT GOES TO WHOEVER TOOK THE PICTURE.

ON ANOTHER NOTE SINCE I DIDN'T POST YESTERDAY, MY WORD FOR YESTERDAY WAS "CONCERN"

WE STARTED OUT THE YEAR GOOD BUT NOW MY HUBBY IS HAVING PROBLEMS ON THE SIDE SIMILAR TO WHAT HE HAD A FEW YEARS AGO, "H E R N I A"

I HOPE IT'S NOT THAT AGAIN. HE'LL BE GOING TO THE DOCTOR NEXT WEEK TO GET HIS REFERRAL AND THEN BACK TO THAT SAME INTERNIST WHO DID THE LAST OPERATION. SOMETIMES YOU THINK THAT DOCTOR'S DO THINGS TO YOU WHILE YOU'RE  UNDER SO THAT YOU CAN BE BACK IN NO TIME AT ALL. I SHOULDN'T THINK THAT WAY, CAN'T HELP IT THOUGH.

SO NOW WE WAIT AND WITH THE WAIT COMES THE "CONCERN", HENCE THE WORD FOR TODAY., AND YESTERDAY.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

IN PRAYER

"IN PRAYER"

SO HERE SHE IS. I PROBABLY COULD HAVE TAKEN MY TIME WITH HER BUT IT'S LIKE THE BRUSH WANTED TO HURRY UP AND GET DONE.

Maybe so that we all could remember to always pray. Perhaps she wanted me to complete her so as a reminder that prayer is always needed. That will be my word for today.

PRAYER

If you haven't prayed in a while, now is the time to do so. The people in Haiti need our prayers of healing. I will pray for them tonight.

What DIRECTION am I going in? Oh by the way, this is my 600th post!

ADDED A LITTLE MORE TO THIS POST AT THE BOTTOM SINCE IT IS MY 600TH POST. WHOOPEE!!

Hi/Ho! Hope everyone is okay. I'm good to go, another year older but I'm wiser for it and thankful for everything including all my blogger buddies. So today is Wednesday, and I've decided not to go to Curves this morning because I started on a painting and you know how it is when you get started with a painting, you just can't put the brush down. I had posted before about this paper/papel I received from my blog friend Bob  called PAPEL AMATE. The link below is from that post.
http://glorv1.blogspot.com/2009/12/happiness-is.html

In any event, last night the urge to start a painting took over and I didn't know what to paint, so I put the brush down. I happened to be passing by the table where the papel was a little later and came up with this, which you can barely see.

Then this came along and I let it rest of a little while. I really am liking the feel of this paper and I'm not sure what else will come of this painting but as I go along, I suppose it will come to be.

I continued on not knowing where this would lead me. Why did this woman have white hair? Could it be I was thinking of AGE, because it was my birthday? No, I don't think so. It looked like it was a NUN but I wasn't sure. I mean what do NUN's look like? I left the painting and went to bed. It was a long  birthday day and I was tired.

This morning when I woke and went to make my husband's lunch and coffee, I came right back to the painting and stared at it. I picked up the brush and added a little more.  I thought it had to be a NUN, what else could it be? I sat there and looked at it and then remembered I had to pour my husbands coffee  in a thermos.

So this is where I am at and I'm not sure  if it will continue in this direction. I do have to say though, that this papel is very easy to paint on and accepts the paint readily. So that's it for now. I will continue to paint but what do I do with the background? I don't know, maybe nothing. It looks like her head covering is some sort of veil,  so I guess I will continue in that direction. What she is wearing leads me to believe that she may very well be a NUN. I don't know how to paint NUN'S and I'm not even sure what they wear. I'll have to bring up a picture of a NUN somewhere.

So I guess today's word is not NUN, but DIRECTION. Sometimes in  life we are not sure where we are going or what we are doing. We can be sure of one thing though, we are the ones that always select the DIRECTION in which we go. Hopefully in a good DIRECTION.

Be Back Later. Viva La Vida! (thx. Bob, for the papel.)

I'M BACK WITH THE LADY. I TITLED IT "AT PRAYER" I DO THINK I OVERDID IT WITH THE BLACK PAINT AND I MAY GO BACK TO THE WHITE VEIL. FOR NOW THOUGH THIS IS WHAT I HAVE. WHO KNOWS...MAYBE I'M DONE. SO HERE IS THE LADY
"AT PRAYER"

SO THAT'S IT. TAKE CARE AND HAVE A GREAT THURSDAY!