Brag Monday?

Don't you just love it when a thrown together dinner works?

I had some lovely thick pork chops but wanted to cook them in such a way as to not dry them out.

First I browned them in olive oil after coating them in seasoned flour.

Then I threw half a box of Orzo into a greased dish. I added 1.5 cups water and a packed of onion soup mix, laid the chops on top, covered with foil et voila...........an hour later dinner was ready.

I had made a bit of pear/apple sauce this morning , I steamed some cabbage and it tasted DELISH!

  

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Ok, pursuant to my last post about my secret mission, I wanted to show you what my loot looked like.

 Not too shabby eh?

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Now I was hoping to complete a project for Brag Monday chez The Graphics Fairy, but I have just spent the last hour helping Mr. Shabby download Picasa. Then I showed him how he could play with pics in Picnik. Then we had to figure out where his pictures were being saved from some email and how to find them again.
Yada yada yada...........

So here is my petit project pour Brag Monday. Needless to say, my computer did not want to print out on the velum so that caused some frustration until I taped it to another piece of paper and 'helped' it through the printer.

 I also used my very last piece of shrink plastic to print out some skull ear rings. The ink smeared....grrr. I may show you those tomorrow.

TTFN it is time to watch House now.

International Woman of Mystery

Shhhh, don't tell anyone, but I did my first 'Secret Shopper' gig!

It was sooooooo much fun and I came home saying "I could do this every day!"

My mission, which I chose to accept, was to visit a well known upscale clothing store and purchase a gift card for $20. I had to use all my secret agent skills to count how many people were in the store, how well the sales person knew their gift card policy etc.

Thanks to my amazing training.......

I was able to complete this part of my nerve wracking mission in about 15 mins. and I managed to escape the store without being spotted.

Trying to  look non-chalant, I proceeded to my car and sat for a second to calm my beating heart. Then off to my next secret location....literally 2 mins away.

Here I was to pose as a shopper (I know, hard eh?) and look around the store, finding something to purchase with the gift card. Again, a nervous wreck at having to portray a woman shopping for clothes, I discovered that the sister store was having a HUGE, ENORMOUS, GIGANTIC sale.

I was hard tested (NOT) to find anything to buy, but I worked hard at it and eventually managed to make my way up to the cash register. Here I was to secretly observe how the cashier handled the purchase etc.

By this time I had been holding my breath so long that I could not wait to escape the store and regroup. 

I jumped in my car and laughed all the way home!!!!

I had ended up with two t-shirts, four tank tops and a grey cardie, all purchased with a $20 gift card that I will be re embursed for, AND I got paid $10 for the mission!

SIGN ME UP FOR THE NEXT ONE..........I AM READY TO ROLL....

Wind Farms off the Kentish Coast and Eco-Tourism to Kurdistan

I do so love watching BBC World News.

You find out the most interesting things...

Two holiday destinations for next year might be the Kent Coast in England. There you will be able to watch hundreds of wind turbines creating energy in the open sea!

Or how about Northern Iraq? Kurdistan is supposed to be very safe and have some super white water 

rafting and great picnic areas.

http://www.iranchamber.com

I am sure you realise that was all said with my tongue placed firmly in my cheek!

To be perfectly honest, I am currently feeling very un inspired, bored and BORING.

I have no great posts for you I'm afraid, but I did finally get my 25 match boxes finished and ready for posting for A Swap for All Seasons.

Oh, and I did pick up a bit of work doing some secret shopping and merchandising!

(GIVES SELF A BIG  SHAKE)

Hey Mrs., see.....some good things have happened after all!!!!!

T T F N

New Items in Cottage and Castle

Good evening one and all!

I hope you all had a pleasant weekend. 

I am slowly going bonkers at home with too much time on my hands (how could that be, you ask yourself).

I reckon everything in moderation, even alone time.

Still, I am slowly adding more goodies to my new store on Etsy.

Fancy a peak?

This is a really lovely, heavily etched, silver plate tray.

This tray I turned into a chalk board because it was a bit shabby.

This one was fun. It goes well with the teapot one I did last week.

  You too can have your initial on a platter!

The last two are some nice shabby baskets that I can think of a myriad uses for.

I was working on a Halloween themed decoupage plate for Brag Monday at The Graphics Fairy, but I used this really awful stuff (which I have tossed in the bin) called Liquid Laminate. Pretty much ruined the project. I should have stuck with good old M P!

If it dries and I can salvage it, I will show it to you later.

I had to get out of the house today as I was going stir crazy, but I PROMISE tomorrow I will get my studio in order before I break my neck falling over all the stuff on the floor.

Mr. Shabby actually dared to come in and he didn't say a word, bless him!

TTFN

A Girl Can Dream Right?

Since I have not been working I have had to be quite frugal. Basically the only places I go are to the grocery store or Walmart (woohoo I get to look at clothes there). I am not complaining or anything. Actually I realised how little we need to live. I really don't need any clothes or shoes or bags or jewellery or anything like that. Just food on the table and the odd trip to the craft store and the thrift store.

But.........

I really would like some furniture in my living room!

It has been empty for about two years now since getting rid of the HORRID old stuff that was in there.

We have a nice den that we re-did before the bottom fell out, so we don't actually use the living room, but I am just saying.......it would be nice.

So today I went virtual furniture shopping! Money was no expense (since I wasn't really spending any) and I gave myself free reign to dream.

For some reason I found myself looking at kitchen tables and thought that if I had a different sort of eat in kitchen, this would look good.

Isn't it lovely? You could change the chair covers to suit the season or occasion.

This looks really comfy and casual. I love slip covers because you can change those out too.


Or how about this?





Loving this one, but don't think Mr Shabby would be into it. What am I saying?! He had his den!





Now this set has potential. Classic lines and a neutral colour. I could put some great hand made cushions on it to jazz it up and it would go really well with my sunny yellow walls. I am looking at the bare bones here of course. I love to mix things up with bits of antique stuff like side tables etc, eclectic looking lamps, you know the sort of thing. I hate the idea of walking out of a store with a living room in a box.


I think I am on to something....ideas are forming in my head......


WELL A GIRL CAN DREAM RIGHT?

Input Needed on Die Cut Machines

Drinking my coffee in bed this morning and catching up on my blog reading, I happened to see on HSN, that Cricut has brought out a new machine.

If I had the money I would really invest in something like this but it is $500!!!!

I had my eye on the Silhouette for Christmas, and it comes in at a much better price.

Does anyone have any input on which is the best machine all around?

Thou Shalt Not Procrastinate

Well hello there dear blogmates. I hope everyone is well and having a good week. My week has been much better I am glad to say.

 Yesterday at the crack of dawn Mr. Shabby left to go and work out of town until the weekend. I thought I would be bored stiff without him being here, but to be honest I have enjoyed the quiet (no yelling about blowing up tanks or getting one shotted in his War game). I bought some Chinese take away yesterday and enjoyed it for both lunch and dinner. Mr Shabby does not care for Chinese food, total meat and taters guy.

 I even got a couple of movies from the Red Box since Mr Shabby had taken my beloved lap top with him so I couldn't watch Netflix whilst working on my matchboxes in bed (I love doing things like this at night).

So here are a few of the matchboxes I have been making for A Swap For All Seasons. I am almost done with them, all 25, but now have to make a tiny something to include on the inside of each.

They were a lot of fun to do. 

 I ventured out in my car today and went to my favourite thrift shop "Angel Aid" where everything is always half price! Seriously cheap and I can always find something good.  Like............

A vintage brayer for 50cents, a book of old sheet music for a dollar I think, some vintage stamen for a quarter and that lovely milk glass candle stick for $2. Warms the cockles of my heart, it does, to find such goodies.

While I was in the kitchen cleaning up I had a total brain wave. I had a couple of things laying out, not knowing what to do with them. Would you like to see the result .........

How cool is that then?! Two dollars got me a pretty celery green welcome sign on a painted tray.

Think I am going to sell that in my new etsy shop I hope to have up and running tomorrow.

I will tell you right now, this job hunting business is bloody exhausting. You know what bothers me the most? You fill out a million trillion applications online and have totally NO CLUE as to where they go! Does anyone ever actually see them or do they just float around in cyber space?

I did put in an app at my local grocery store however, and make a point of speaking to the manager so she could put a face to the name. Again, I shall have to wait and see what happens.

I am going to link this post to Frugalicious Friday as I think I was quite frugal this week (well apart from the Chinese).

TTFN

Love and Lust

Love and Lust by Anne Lambdin featuring a crossbody handbag
I have a penchant for fabulous leather sachels and chunky boots for this fall.

This is my first Polyvore set so I am not sure that it looks that great but I thought I would have a go.
Here is something else lustworthy. Have you tried these puddings yet! OMG, talk about delish and only 60 calories each. They are so good you could eat at least two in one sitting.

I hope everyone is having a nice extended weekend.....

TTFN....

John Derian Interpretation

Long time no see again dear bloggeroos.

Depression has raised it's ugly head chez moi, so I have been forcing myself to do things I usually enjoy.

One of them is making stuff, the other is blogging. Well today I post and you get to see the fruits of this weeks labour.

Last week I did a post on John Derian's collection for Target that launches on Sunday the 5th (weird day to choose I reckon).

I was inspired and knew immediately what I would try to emulate.

It has taken me all week to get it together enough to actually finish it, but here it is....

It was so easy to do but the only thing I don't really like is the way the antiquing came out. I did finish it off with a coat of polyurethane to protect it from water so I can wipe the brown stuff off if I want. I was clever enough to do that step last in case of the above!

I also managed to clean all my floors and carpets today...again forcing myself....so tomorrow it is all about the dusting. Fun times.
I think I may have something else to show you tomorrow so stay tuned.

Forgot to say I am linking to Frugalicious Friday over here >>>>>

TTFN