Valentine Cookies

Today instead of playing with clay, I've been playing with sugar cookie dough. There is a group in our church called Creations of the Heart. They are a group of mostly Spanish speaking women who get together once a week to talk about problems they have at home, seeking employment, etc. This Sunday they are having a bake sale to raise money for their group. I am donating some Valentine cookies I baked. Also, I am donating two of my Valentine bracelets for them to sell and to keep the proceeds. I am glad that I am in a situation where I can help others.

Cookbooks with Wonderful Memories

My niece Emilie is getting married this Saturday. I wish that Bob and I could go to Indiana for her wedding, but we can't. Last Saturday she had a wedding shower and her friends brought dishes of food and the recipes for her. I was invited, but again, I didn't get there. So instead, I made a cookbook with all of the recipes I have from Emilie's Grandma Jacquie, great-grandparents and a great-aunt. I scanned around 30 recipes that have most of their original hand-writing on them. I printed the recipes out and took them to Office Max to be bound with laminated covers. I found photos of Emilie from when she was little and used the photos for the front and back covers. I LOVE recipes and cooking and I have been collecting recipes and cookbooks for a very long time. I was fortunate to have gotten a lot of wonderful family recipes from my grandparents, as well as my ex-husband's mother and grandparents who were all great cooks. Since I missed Emilie's sister's and brother's weddings, I made cookbooks for all of them too, with photos of them on the covers. I hope they will enjoy trying out some of their family's recipes, enjoy the stories I included on some of the recipes and looking at the photos.

Homemade Beads!!

Today, I made my first Polymer Clay Beads!! What FUN! Thanks to my brother and his wife, who gave me an Amazon.com gift card for Christmas AND my birthday. I ordered the polymer clay and a book on how to make polymer clay beads and I made my first beads today. They are so easy! I decided to try the easiest ones first. I took the orange clay and white clay and mixed them together. You can buy all of the fancy tools for rolling the clay thin and for piercing the holes, but I used my rolling pin to roll out the clay and my cake tester for piercing. I used the toaster oven to bake them and Voila!! New beads! I started stringing them to make a necklace and I ran out of the clay beads, so I went into the kitchen and made more of them. How easy is that? Here is my first polymer clay beaded necklace. I can't wait to make more!

Bead for Life

This is a photo of a necklace, earrings and bracelet that I made from paper beads that I bought from an organization called BeadforLife. Their mission statement is this:

Beadforlife creates sustainable opportunities for women to lift their families out of extreme poverty by connecting people worldwide in a circle of exchange that enriches everyone.

These women beaders and tailors are primarily impoverished women who are hardworking, intelligent, and strong in their desire to improve their lives. They make gorgeous handcrafted paper beads from recycled paper and turn them into necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. Because the beaders use recycled, colorful paper, the beads help prevent environmental degradation. What was trash becomes beauty, money, food, and hope.

This organization takes donations, so I am going to donate my time to make anyone who wants a necklace, bracelet and earrings from these Ugandan paper beads and who is willing to pay me for the materials only. I will charge you $15 for each necklace and I will donate $10 IN YOUR NAME to BeadforLife. If you would like a bracelet, I will charge you $20 for each bracelet that I make and I will donate $15 to BeadforLife. For every pair of earrings that I make, I will charge you $8 and I will donate $5 to BeadforLife. You do not have to select these designs. If you want to tell me how you want your necklace, bracelet or earrings, I will be willing to make it how you want them. I cannot, however, determine the color, shape or pattern of the beads.

Donations to BeadforLife go directly towards eradicating poverty in Uganda. 93 cents of every dollar is invested in community development work fighting extreme poverty, including projects in health care, vocational training for out-of-school youth, affordable housing, and entrepreneurial skills development. BeadforLife is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization (tax ID: 20-1683139). Donations are tax deductible.

If you want more information on BeadforLife, you can visit their website at www.beadforlife.org

Give me your order now and let's help these women who want to help themselves.

New Artwork Added to Moody Gallery of Art

Did you know that the Bob and Linda Moody household have their very own art gallery -- The Moody Gallery of Art? Well, we do! We have many talented family members and we have chosen to display the artwork from all of them in our home. We still have yet to receive art work from a couple of family members, but when we do, we will display them proudly. Here is a painting by Jezreel Bell, Bob's 8 year old grandson who lives in Bentonville, AR. Jezreel painted this last year when he was in second grade. He gave us his piece of art work when we were at their home in December and I finally bought a frame and hung it up. If you would like to see our other pieces of artwork that we have displayed in our home, you can see them at this Shutterfly album website -- share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8EbMmLJq3aKK6A

Enjoy!

Tacos, Gelato & Cannolis, Oh My!

Can you recall some of the first times you tried a certain food? I can. I was eating some gelato today and it reminded me of the first time I ate it. Bob and I were visiting in Florida and we went to Downtown Disney in Orlando. He introduced me to gelato and from then on, I was hooked! It is so creamy, cold and wonderful tasting!! There is a gelato store in West Village where I live now and it is really hard for me not to just walk over there every day to get some. I also remember the first time I ate tacos. My ex-husband, David and I were skiing in Vail, CO in the early 70's. Everyone sits outside to eat lunch, even though it is cold. But, after skiing the slopes, you actually feel warm when you sit down to eat outside. We ordered these tacos and they were the best food I had every eaten. Again, I was hooked! And then there are the cannolis. Bob and I went to Boston in October 2002. I won some tickets to fly anywhere that Southwest flies, so we chose to go to Boston. I had never been there. I have a cousin who lives near Boston and a brother who lives in Groton, MA. I wanted to visit them and I wanted to see the changing of the colors of the leaves, but we were too early that year and we didn't see much. We took a walking tour of the Freedom Trail in downtown Boston, even though it was in the 50's and drizzly. We walked on our own, at our own pace. There was a bakery with cannolis in the window. I had never had cannolis, so Bob talked me into going inside to eat one. Oh, boy! They were so delicious!

Bob and I love to eat out and we could be good food critics. We watch these shows on TV too of food critics like Guy Fieri from the "Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives" on Food Network. He goes around to unique restaurants all across America and eats wonderful dishes. Bob and I are kind of picky eaters though, and I'm sure we wouldn't try some of those dishes, such as octopus or snake stew. But, I still think it would be fun to travel around the U.S. and try some different places to eat. When we travel we do seek out the local hang outs to eat. We've encountered some good ones and some bad ones. But, this gives us something to talk about and remember.

Getting Geared Up for Valentine's Day

Today I had the car so I decided to go to Northpark Mall to walk for exercise, have my favorite La Madeleine's French Onion Soup for lunch, look at jewelry to get inspired and for a change of scenery from being in the apartment. Even though I have it written on my calendar that Bob is taking me to my most favorite restaurant, Adelmo's, for dinner on Valentine's Day, it did not dawn on me that I should get out my Valentine jewelry that I have made and get it posted on my website! I am in the process of rephotographing all of my jewelry for my Etsy jewelry website, so this was a good chance to take all new photos of my Valentine jewelry. I will post all of my Valentine jewelry to my website -- www.neeneeandcheechee.etsy.com -- later today. Check it out!