Announcement

So I'm a pretty bad blogger, and I've been trying to be more active on my other blog, callalilyjewelry.wordpress.com, but that's not working out so well either. So starting Monday, I'm engaging in a challenge on that blog. So go on over there and encourage me!

My free activity in April

mmmm, bread

Love making bread, especially this one which is so easy.

Start by dissolving 1 pkg of instant yeast with 1 1/2 cups of lukewarm water.
Add 1 Tablespoon sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt, and 1/4 c. olive oil or another oil.
Then add flour 1 cup at a time until dough is tacky but not sticky. It'll be about 3 cups.
Let this rise for at least 2 hours. Then turn risen dough out on floured surface, knead a few times and add more flour as necessary to keep from sticking. Shape into 4 loaves and transfer to grease bread pans. Let these rise for at least 30 minutes, then place in a 400 degree oven. After 5 minutes turn down to 375. Let bake for about 20-25 minutes total, until bread sounds hollow when thumped. So delicious!!

Not exactly as imagined

Is this black? I don't think so. Purple maybe. I was so excited for my black and white tulip arrangement, but it's more like purple and not yet blooming... oh well, at least I've had some success!

Mike & Sarah, 4.4.09

We had a great time at the wedding of one of D's oldest friends, Mike, and his awesome new wife Sarah. Statesboro, GA is strangely small and big at the same time. It's downtown is a one block intersection of North, South, East, and West Main streets, and yet I couldn't get our GPS to recognize any Main Street in Statesboro! But then, from there it is really spread it along a highway. Anyway, the gardens were beautiful and we had so much fun all weekend, we really needed a rest after we got home. And I forgot to charge my camera battery the night before the wedding, so I have no pictures of the bride and groom together, only of Sarah getting ready. Oops!

ANOTHER blog? but you barely use this one?

Ok, so I started another blog, only for the jewelry biz, to help promote and post inspiration. I am equally slack about it, but hoping to become less so. And then maybe I'll be better about keeping track of my life here too! Check out the jewelry blog!

They got what they wanted!

89-72!!!!
Record points scored in the first half (55), first half margin (21), steals (Ty Lawson, 8). Every tournament game won by double digits- undeniable proof we were the best in the country!

Maybe my thumb's more gray? or brown?

(not because of a bruise, because I have a black thumb when it comes to plants)
But look at the tulips I've been forcing! I think it might be a success.

Belated Birthday Blogging

I'm a little behind schedule (hours away from 2 weeks, but here are birthday highlights

mmmmmmm 411 millionaire pie.......



Hula hoopin' for exercise? yes! (neither one of us can do this for more than 15 seconds...)


I'm stuck in my present (it's a sewing machine, yay!). I asked for help, and d reached for the camera!!

It was a great day. D made me his great french toast for breakfast, we had mimosas and went to see Slumdog Millionaire, which better win some awards tomorrow, it is soooo good! We both really liked it, which hasn't happened much recently.
After some hula hooping and fun with the new *pink* iPod, we went out for great sushi, and then made cupcakes at home and watched new Office DVDs. Awesome day!

Actual winter

As I drove home from work in snow flurries, I realized I hadn't posted pictures from our last snow, two weeks ago. It was the first time we'd had more than a dusting in I think 6 years!



4 inches!

A little local history for MLK day

Yesterday, I took the youth to a program at Ashbury Temple UMC to hear some people speak about Durham's place in the Civil Rights struggle, and it was really informative. A teenage girl from Hillside highschool was arrested for refusing to move to the back of the bus in the 1940s, years before Rosa Parks' famous sit-in. And a group of teenagers from Ashbury itself (one of whom was one of the speakers) were arrested for sitting in the white section of Royal Ice Cream parlor 3 years before the Woolworth sit-in in Greensboro, which usually makes it to the history textbooks.
Also, I learned that Durham was known as the Black Wall Street starting in the late 1800s because of a large number of black owned banks, and because of over 120 black owned, not fronted and secretly owned by whites as in Harlem, Atlanta and other large cities, businesses, it was put up as an example by early civil rights leaders like Booker T. Washington. Unfortunately, all this progress was destroyed when the city built the freeway right through this thriving business area, and the promised shopping centers were never built. It is a shame that such exemplary progress was lost for the sake of easier transportation, and that I never learned any of this in my years of North Carolina history in school.

Christmas Recap

Yay! Sisters with new aprons!

Traditional Christmas Eve at Ichiban!

Here's installment 1 of way overdue festivities


old friends!

Dad? not blinking?

My bro & sis being silly

Proud sisters with our choirboy!

On the 3rd day of christmas my true love gave to me:

It had a bow and tag and everything! Isn't it beautiful? Cleared of old food, cleaned out and organized! See that ketchup? It's next to mustard and pickles, since you almost always need those together! Such a sweetie!

Is "recessionista" a word?

Who says we have to cut back on luxuries in these hard times? Today I had a steam facial while I set the iron on "Self Clean". And, when water dripped out on the floor, I grabbed a rag and presto! Clean floors! I'm like the Martha Stewart of the new economy.

Happy New Year!

Well, 2008 ended wonderfully, with a clean fridge (more on that later..) and a yummy late night meal from our new cookbook. And 2009 started with a bad cold and 2 flat tires! But the second day of the new year has been better, with some major bargain shopping and good times together. Soon to come: Christmas pictures!