Six Word Saturday: Crafting

I wouldn't be complete without it.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. It's time to sleep, but I can't.


2. Don't try to cheer up Marvin ... and don't forget the towel!


3. I'm trying to decide if getting a booth at a craft fair would be a complete waste of time and energy.


4. "_____", that was the last funny comment I received.


5. Please send me customers with lots of money to spend.


6. You might as well stop telling me to leave, 'cause I'm in it for the long haul.


7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to crocheting, tomorrow my plans include crocheting more and maybe the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby and Sunday, I want to craft!

Hap-tea Winner

Mad Hatter by karen.tkr, on Flickr

I finally found a minute to let Random.org draw a winner - comment number 4!


Anonymous said... I loved the challenge posed by your post. Unfortunately, I honestly don't know what the significance of choosing Hat Day for the date to have the entries in by. Unless their is a tie-in with preventing colds (wearing hats & tea). I have been googling, and honestly don't have a better answer... Regardless, thank you for the giveaway, and I woud love to win!!
terry (underscore) thacker (at) hotmail (dot) com


I'll be sending you and e-mail to get your address to send your goodies.

Julie got an extra entry for guessing why I chose Hat Day - Alice in Wonderland! Who wouldn't love to wear a crazy hat and have tea with the mad hatter?

Apple Dumplings

I finally got around to making apple dumplings again and taking pictures to share with you, so without further ado... *Warning: long post with lots of pictures*

Start with two rolls of cheap crescent rolls, two wedged, peeled green apples (Don't eat any! Moral to come later in our story), and cinnamon-sugar mix.

Preheat the oven to the temperature on the rolls (375F in this case), and line your cookie sheet with foil so clean-up is easy.

Roll out the first can of rolls and sprinkle liberally with cinnamon-sugar mix.

Take a close up picture and be really proud of how it turned out considering you're using an iPhone.

Place an apple wedge on the wide end of the triangle of dough.

Roll the dough around the apple wedge from wide end.

Wrap the corners of the wide end of the triangle around the apple so that the three points of the triangle meet.

Place the roll so that the gathered points of dough are on the bottom of the dumpling. Space the dumplings an inch or two apart.

Repeat with second can of dough. 

Make sure you don't eat an apple wedge while you're wedging the apples or you'll have a lonely, sad, apple-less crescent roll like me.

Bake according to package instructions (13 minutes for the Great Value brand) until light golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Become the apple of everyone's eye when you declare that these are for dinner.

Take another good picture and pretend you're a real foodie/photographer.

Enjoy!

Six Word Saturday: Life with Kids

fast, crazy, messy -

but worth it

...eventually

Friday Fill-Ins

1. When I looked out the window this morning I saw frost on the country club grounds.


2. How someone could hurt a child doesn't make sense to me.


3. Remind me to take care of myself.


4. Giving gifts is something I love to do!


5. TP is toilet paper - duh.


6. I cleaned the refrigerator recently and I found out that I'm apparently a scientist.


7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to working on an OU hat and scarf set for my big sister, tomorrow my plans include church and Sunday, I want to keep plugging away at sorting the girls' laundry!

What's with today, today?

Empire Records name badge for a geeky swap

 

...and a geeky Empire inside joke...

What's your favorite line from the movie?

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Discussions are fine, and even encouraged, so long as they are civil and respectful.


2. It almost always hurts to say goodbye.


3. I think it's time I learned to tune out the insulting self-talk.


4. Seeing Michael's dimple puts a smile on my face.


5. Maybe sometime I might think I'm worthy of something good.


6. Knowing what's right gives me strength.


7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to a quiet evening of nerdvision (I hope, if I can find something good on), tomorrow my plans include enjoying Michael's grilled hamburgers for dinner and Sunday, I want to sort the girls' clothes and plan to get rid of about 3/4 of them!

Hap-tea Holidays!

Tea by Laurel Fan, on Flickr

I'm a holiday junkie, but not in the typical sense. I like weird holidays. I like them so much I've actually managed to get people to pay me to learn about them and write about them - more than once! I've just discovered a new holiday: January is Hot Tea Month. How did I not know this? Anyone who knows me knows I love my tea. Extra points if you know which is my favorite! +20 coolness factor if you know how I take it. Also, today celebrates another love of mine - Trivia Day, so how about some tea trivia? Here are some interesting tea tidbits I discovered:

• Tea from the herb Camelia Simensis was first enjoyed by the Emperor of China 5000 years ago.
• Colonial tea was very bitter. The severely overcooked leaves were salted, buttered, and eaten.
• Tea is second only to water as the world's most popular beverage (take that, nasty old coffee!).
• 50 billion cups of tea are consumed in America each year; 40 billion of them are iced.
• The first tea bags were silk, created by Thomas Sullivan in 1904.
• Black, Green, and Oolong teas are all made from the same type of tea leaves. The difference is in the fermentation during processing: Black is fermented, Oolong is semi-fermented, and Green is not fermented.
• Herbal teas don't actually contain tea, but peels, flower leaves, herbs, and spices. They have no caffeine.
• Speaking of caffeine, tea only has 40 mg per cup, whereas coffee has 99 mg per cup.
• Tea must have a caffeine content of approximately 5 mg per cup in order to qualify for the "decaffeinated" label. 
• Black and Green teas have antioxidants called flavenoids.

Still not a fan? Check out these health benefits of tea:

• Consuming 30 oz. of black tea daily can reduce Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL, or “bad”) cholesterol levels by more than 10 percent.  Study participants who drank four cups of tea per day had significantly lower risk of death following a heart attack – a decrease of up to 44 percent.  
• A Dutch study found that the incidence of heart attack decreased by 43 percent in the study participants who drank more than three cups of black tea per day.  
• Heavy smokers who consume four servings per day of green tea can have up to 31% lower levels of 8-OHdG (a biomarker for oxidative damage to DNA) in white blood cells. Oxidative damage to DNA is one factor which increases cancer risk and the researches suggest that a significant reduction of DNA damage found with green tea drinking may help reduce cancer risk in smokers.  
• Women who drink the equivalent of 2.5 cups of tea per day or more have a 60% drop in rectal cancer risk, as compared to women who drank less than 1.2 cups of tea per day. 

It's cold and flu season. Aunt Crystal says, "Drink your tea to fight viral infection!" Research reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that people who drank 3 cups of black tea per day produced 5 times the amount of germ-fighting cells than those who drank coffee, suggesting that tea drinkers have more ability to fight viral infections such as colds and flu than non tea drinkers. I don't know about you, but I can't stand being sick. This sounds like a perfect excu-- *ahem* reason to drink tea.

So, care to join me for some tea? Leave a comment and I'll send a tea care package consisting of a dozen tea bags in a variety of flavors to the winner. Enter by midnight on National Hat Day: Sunday, January 15. An extra entry goes to the first person to tell me why I chose that day!

Disclaimer: This giveaway is not sponsored. I received no compensation for hosting this giveaway.

A Wish for the New Year