Treasury Tuesday

"Celebrate a Blue Valentines Day", a unique treasury of Blue Valentine inspired items found on Etsy, curated by AMSkrafts. My Glass Floral Key Chain from my shop on Etsy,  Dion Designs, is a part of this beautiful treasury. Click on any of the photos to be taken to the shops.

Monday Musings

Check out the sand dancer - amazing artistry for your enjoyment.

Reflections

"God rises up out of the sea like a treasure in the waves, and when language recedes His brightness remains on the shores of our own being."  Thomas Merton 

Saturday Simplify

Friday Food Feature

Delicious Carrot Cake

2 cups All-purpose Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Soda
½ teaspoons Salt
2 teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
3 whole Large Eggs
2 cups Sugar
¾ cups Vegetable Oil
¾ cups Buttermilk
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2 cups Grated Carrot
1 can (8 Oz. Can) Crushed Pineapple, Drained
3-½ ounces, weight Flaked Coconut
1 cup Chopped Pecans
_____
BUTTERMILK GLAZE:
½ cups Sugar
¾ teaspoons Baking Soda
¼ cups Buttermilk
¼ cups Butter
½ Tablespoons Light Corn Syrup
½ teaspoons Vanilla Extract
_____
Cream Cheese Frosting
¾ cups Butter, Softened
11 ounces, weight Cream Cheese, softened
3 cups Sifted Powdered Sugar
1-½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two 8-inch (or 9-inch) round cakepans with waxed paper. Lightly grease and flour the waxed paper. Set pans aside.

Stir together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.

Beat eggs, sugar, oil, buttermilk, and vanilla at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the flour mixture, beating at low speed until blended. Fold in grated carrot, pineapple, coconut, and pecans. Pour batter into prepared cake pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center come out clean. Drizzle Buttermilk Glaze evenly over layers; cool in pans on wire racks for 15 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks. Spread Cream Cheese Frosting between layers and on the top and sides of cake.

BUTTERMILK GLAZE:

Bring sugar, baking soda, buttermilk, butter or margarine, and light corn syrup to a boil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Boil, stirring often, for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:

Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add powdered sugar and vanilla; beat until smooth.

check out the original recipe and set by set photos via TastyKitchen

My French Find

Today I am beginning a weekly post on Thursday's entitled "My French Find".  I have always embraced my ancestry and loved all things French. Due to lack of time I stopped blogging on my other blog Simply French. I decided I would bring a bit of "je ne sais quoi" to this blog with a weekly French feature. 


I do love French Country Decor. Check out the online boutique Belle Escape for some great French Design selections. Click on the items for more detailed information on their website.

French Swag Hutch

Parisian Arm Chair

Buffet

Through My Lens - Wordless Wednesday

Coming Home by Denise Dion-Sullivan

Treasury Tuesday

This week I am featuring a wonderful treasury assembled from Buttons and Bottles Mixed Media on Etsy entitled "Stay out of hot water with your Valentine". Check out by the fabulous finds by clicking on the photos to visit the shops and do a bit of Valentine shopping!

Monday Musings

My favorite "Far Side" comic for you this Monday Morning:

Reflections

 It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.  Henry David Thoreau

photo by Denise Dion-Sullivan

Saturday Simplify

Friday Food Feature

Chicken Tortellini Soup

6 large chicken breasts, boned and cooked
3 (10-1/2 ounces) cans chicken broth
1 cup chopped celery
1 large onion, chopped
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 (16 ounces) package frozen chopped broccoli
1 (9 ounces) package fresh cheese tortellini
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon basil
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 (8 ounces) carton sour cream
Save the chicken broth that the chicken was cooked in; you might want to thin the soup.

In a large stockpot, combine canned chicken broth, celery, and chopped onion. Cook until tender, about 15 minutes.

Add the chicken soup,broccoli, cheese tortellini pasta, pepper, basil, Italian seasoning, and garlic powder. Bring to boiling point, turn heat down and simmer 15 minutes. Stir in the sour cream.

This makes a fairly thick soup so if you want it thinner, add a cup of the chicken broth that the chicken was cooked in.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Through My Lens - Wordless Wednesday

Big Red by Denise Dion-Sullivan

Tuesdays Treasures

Winter Whites for January. Lovely items from wonderful shops on Etsy. Click on the names under the photo to be taken to their shops.

Karamboola

One December 

BijouxOdalisque

Pat Adams Art

Kay's K9s

Monday Musings - Happy Birthday Dr. King

From Americans Who Tell the Truth

Reflections

Our thoughts are quieter than rivers, Our loves are simpler than the trees, Our prayers deeper than the sea.  Thomas Merton

Saturday Simplify

You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.  Winnie the Pooh

Friday Food Feature

Taco Casserole

1 lb ground beef
1 (1 1/4 ounce) packages taco seasoning
1 (15 ounce) can black or refried beans
2 cups monterey jack cheese ( we like mixed cheddar  / jack)
1 cup salsa
2 chopped onions
1 small can sliced black olives
1 chopped tomato
2 cups corn chips

Directions
Brown ground beef and drain.
Add taco seasoning and cook according to package directions, adding proper amount of water.
Crush corn chips and place on bottom of 8" x 8" dish.
In pan warm beans until hot.
Add 1 cup cheese and 1 cup salsa. Stir until combined.
Pour beans over corn chips in dish.
Add beef to top of beans.
Sprinkle remaining cheese over top.
Sprinkle onions and black olives over cheese.
Bake in a 375 degree oven until the cheese is sufficiently melted.
Take out of oven and sprinkle chopped tomatoes on top. Wait a few minutes, then serve.

Thinking Green

I am pretty tired of all the endless daily junk mail. Apparently, the average adult receives an average of 41 pounds per year in junk mail. The United States Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 44% of junk mail is discarded without being opened or read, equaling 4 million tons of waste of paper per year, with just 32% recovered for recycling. I found a few more statistics from the website Native Forest which I find pretty astounding:

• The majority of household waste consists of unsolicited mail.
• 100 million trees are ground up each year for unsolicited mail.
• It wastes 28 billion gallons of water for paper processing each year.
• More than half of unsolicited mail is discarded unread or unopened; the response rate is less than 2%.
• The result is more than 4 million tons of paper waste each year.
• It is difficult to recycle, as the inks have high concentrations of heavy metals.
• $320 million of local taxes are used to dispose of unsolicited mail each year.
• It costs $550 million yearly to transport junk mail.
• Scarce landfill space disfigures rural areas and pollutes ground water.
• We each get about 40 pounds of junk mail a year, more than a tree's worth per family!

If you are like me and are ready to do something about it, here are a few steps to help get you started. This information was taken from the website Ecofuture.org. For more tips visit this link.


According to the website Ecofuture there was a Federal law passed in 2000 says that you have the right to tell companies not to sell your name. But the law was written in a way that allows financial institutions to hide notices of your rights in fine print. Not that it is easy to eliminate your name from the numerous lists that exist but perhaps in this new year I can perform one task a week! Here are some suggestions:

• Write the Direct Marketing Association Mail Preference Service, and also write the major credit bureaus.
• Contact all of your banks and credit card companies and tell them not to release your name, address, social security number, email address, or phone number to anyone else for marketing, mailing, or promotional purposes. This is very important, because of the 2000 privacy law.
• Similarly contact your credit union and mortgage company.
• Contact all magazines you subscribe to.
• Contact mail-order companies you have done business with.
• Contact all organizations you belong to, universities, and schools.
• Contact airline frequent flyer and hotel programs you belong to.
• Contact your cable TV company and long distance telephone carrier. Just about anyone who sends you a bill will sell your name.
• If you move, don't fill out the Post Office's permanent change of address (COA) form. Make it a temporary (10 month) change and then notify companies and friends. This way, the information will not be entered into the permanent COA database and released to others. Permanent COA information will be provided to third parties, but temporary COA information won't.
• Contact your phone company and change your listing in the phone book. Request that your name only be listed without your address (most phone companies do this without charge).

Through My Lens - Wordless Wednesday - Resting Place

Ancestral Grave by Denise Dion-Sullivan

Treasury Tuesday

A beautiful treasury entitled The Snow Queen filled with gorgeous items curated by Shelby of the Happy Blue Bird on Etsy. Click on any of the squares to visit the artists shops on Etsy.

Monday Musings

I would love to have this space as a second home in France. I especially like the all in one storage closet, bathroom, loft unit that is featured. Would be perfect if we ever move into a small flat in any major city. Check it out:

Reflections

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the 'Universe', a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest - a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security. ~ Albert Einstein

Saturday Simplify

Now let us welcome the new year full of things that have never been. Rilke

Friday Food Feature

All I can say is Yum and so simple!

Through My Lens - Wordless Wednesday

Red by Denise Dion-Sullivan

Tuesday's Treasures

A new year is here once again. For many it is a time of new beginnings filled with hope and promise. Here are some featured artists from Etsy with some interesting items to perhaps inspire your new year.  Click on the name under the photo to visit their shop.

Under the Sun Prints

Lynn Cobb

Wall Decal Depot

Felt Natural

Robins Art

Extending my END OF YEAR CLEARANCE SALE. 50% OFF EVERYTHING presently listed in my Supply Shop - The Artists Closet on Etsy now through Sunday, January 8th at midnight. Simply use the code 50OFF in the coupon code box that appears when you click on "Apply shop coupon code" upon checkout (located on right hand side under credit card/paypal signs) and 50% will be automatically deducted. MUST USE CODE when checking out to receive discount. Stock up on some great supplies for the new year!  Here are a few items from the over 300 supplies I presently have on sale in my shop:

Calais rubbings

Bright rings

Paperie Cezanne

Monday Musings

Happy Birthday My Dear Husband   

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare