Baked Artichoke Dip

Today at work we are having a "Goodbye Membership" potluck. I've mentioned how our department is closing so the first wave of people are going to the other department next week, hence the potluck. I decided to make Baked Artichoke Dip. It's super duper easy and you can make as much or as little as you want. I decided I would share with all you lovelies!
This recipe is for a normal serving but I doubled everything since there are almost 200 people in our department!

Ingredients:
1 (14 oz.) can of artichoke hearts, Drained and chopped. (You can apparently substitute hearts of palm instead but I have never done that.)
1 cup grated parmesan cheese
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/8 tsp hot sauce

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Get all your ingredients together.


I buy the artichoke hearts already quartered but I think they are still a bit too big so after I drain them, I chop them all in half too. I also use real garlic cloves and chopped those bad boys up too.



Combine all the ingredients together in a casserole dish.


*Tip* After mixing everything together, there is bound to be mayo and what not all on the edges of your dish. Wipe it off now. If you don't it will bake on and just kind of look gross.

Bake for 20 mintues at 350 degrees.



Serve with tortilla chips or some bread and enjoy!

Lists 8 & 9

List number 8 is the always fun "What's in your bag?" Mine is full of pretty much all essential stuff for me.

Number 9 is a list of my favorite websites. I could have added blogs but there are just too many!

So those are my lists, I'm all caught up!

On a side note I blew a fuse so all the lights on the one side of my apartment are out. It's really annoying because it is in the living/bedroom, where I always am! The fuse box is in the basement but only the guy in the 1st floor apartment can get into the basement. The landlord was going to email him because apparently he doesn't have a phone, awesome... I really hope he does it today! Ahh the joys of apartment living!

Lists 6 & 7

More Listy Lists! List # 6 - Least Favorite Words

I didn't want to make this page very pretty or anything. I wanted to keep it unappealing since it is about my least favorite words. The first 3 all pretty self explanitory I think. Panties, Moist and Puss...those words just make my skin crawl for some reason! Now on to a nicer looking page! #7 Blog Goals. Would you believe I don't have internet at home?! I don't!! I do all this either at work or at the library on my laptop. Yes, I have a laptop but no internet. It's totally backwards I realize!!

Sometime I'm affraid my true personality doesn't come through on my blog. I edit myself a bit. I curse a lot in real life, I even type my posts with all the curses in it but then I delete them so I don't offend anyone. Also, I'm ridiculously sarcastic. I mean to the point that people who don't know me just think I'm a bitch! I don't really show you guys that side either.

I want a new blog design. The owls are cute but I don't like that it is a template that anybody can also have. Plus, it's a tad too cutsey for me. I do like owls but I like creepy, dark, halloweeny ones, not really cute ones. It's to bright also, I'm more into dark, monochromatic colors like black and grey with maybe a splash of color.

I just started making a list (oh the irony) of blog posts I want to do for about the next 2 weeks! I'm pretty stoked and feel a slight weight off my shoulders. Not that blogging is at all stressful for me but I just like to have things planned out. So now I can use the scheduling feature a lot more! Also on a happy side note, my camera is fixed!! I took the batteries out for a few hours, put em back in and WaLa!

Stupid Camera

So my step sister, Karyn and her husband Keith had a baby in January. She's my first neice, the first grandbaby, everything!! When I went to visit them in the hospital my step mom, Lonnie asked me if I would paint a piggy bank for the baby, Lindsay. She had a stock pile of these giant porcelain piggy banks that she got from her sister or something and this was the last one. Lindsay's whole nursery is done in a red and black ladybug theme. Lonnie wanted me to put Lindsay's name and all her birth info, date, time, weight and length. I had put this off and put it off for 2 months!! After doing it, I have no idea why. I guess I just wasn't 100% satisfied with the ideas I had for it. Once I was done with it I really liked it though and it was way easier than I anticipated.
I saw everyone this past Saturday at one of my Dad's band's gigs so Friday night I hunkered down and painted the big piggy up. I put 4 ladybugs on it total, 2 big ones toward the back, a medium one on the right frontish side and smaller one on the left front. On the left side I wrote her name in red kiddish kind of handwriting with little black dots all around the letters to make it look like the ladybugs walked around the letters. Each ladybug had black dots showing a path where they had come from, out of the money slot, from the underneath and around the tail. Then I put her birth info under her name.
I wish I had pictures. My camera is being a total jerk right now and not taking pictures, it says "Card Locked!" but the card isn't locked!! I was trying to find the manual but I didn't finish the piggy until about 1:30am and then had to get up at 8:00am to go get my brakes done before leaving for my Dad's at 11. So...no pictures.
I did get to feed Lindsay and hold her for such a long time! I've never known a tiny little baby before, none of my friends, cousins, siblings, etc. have any kids yet. It was so amazing to feed her and hold her and burp her and bounce her on my knee! Of course a few people made comments about when will Jeremy and I have one of our own, we just sort of laughed it off. We know what we're doing in our relationship and kids are not happening yet!!

Anyway...I do think that this project is one of the reasons my crafting has come to a complete hault. Everytime I wanted to start something new I wouldn't let myself because I kept thinking "I have to do that pig first!" So now it's done and I have a whole slew of crafts to work on!

Here's hoping you all are having a lovely Monday!

List #5

The original prompt was Weekend Goals but since it is Sunday I changed it to be This Weeks Goals.

I used colored pencils again to make it look like a lined piece of paper. It totally reminds me of my notebooks in school so I decided to doodle all over it like I would have back then =D

I have to finish the book before Sunday for our Book Club meeting. It's a really good book but it's 566 pages, whew!!

We have overtime available at work right now, allegedly for the next 3 weeks. I'm not so sure it will last that long so I'm going to suck it up as much as I can for now! I need to save for Florida!

I have to clean out my closet. I have two closets, one is small and I keep all my linens, kitchen cleaning stuff and other odds and ends I can't fit anywhere else. I have a normal sized one that I have clothes hanging in, all my shoes, laundry basket, air conditioner, christmas decorations, extra blankets, etc. I just need to clean out what I don't wear or need anymore to make space! It's a disaster!

I want to go to Joanns to get some nice springy fabric to make some buntings (one that you could possibly win!!) and I want to dye these lace curtains I got a few weeks ago. They're just white but it's so boring!

I also need to go to the mall to get another pair of jeans and some undies!

Oh and most importantly...enjoy all the time I do get to spend with Jeremy. I see him every Thursday and Saturday. Not much else because he works so much =(

I hope you lovelies are enjoying your weekend!

Instax # 9

This ladies and gentlemen is Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. Delicious, delicious Turkey Hill Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream!!


I have a terrible sweet tooth. So bad that I think I just have a whole head full of sweet teeth! It's funny too because my body lets me know if I've been eating too much sugar, I get canker sores. Gross little canker sores on the inside of my mouth. Ususally I'll use some Anbesol to help get rid of them but other times I think "This is punishment for eating all that sugar when I shouldn't have!" and I'll just let it run it's course. Slighly masochistic? Possibly!

Anyway...the two things that I love more than anything and really are the only massive amounts of sugar I will consume are ice cream and ANYTHING involving caramel. I'm positive that my affair with ice cream stems from my father. He also loves ice cream and while growing up we would always eat a little bowl of ice cream after dinner. I remember he, my sister and I all sitting on the couch stirring our ice cream until it got about the consistency of a milk shake. I have NO idea why we did that but we did it a lot. I also remember scrutinizing every scoop of ice cream my mother dished out making sure that my sister and I had perfectly even amounts! I mean there is no way I could allow my sister to have even a possible morsel more of ice cream than me!

My favorite is chocolate chip cookie dough and Turkey Hill makes the best!
I pretty much never have sweets in my house, if I don't buy it, I can't eat it. Every once in a while though, I'll splurge. Last week while grocery shopping I needed to get some pretzels for work because I kept eating my coworkers and wanted to replace them for her. What happens to be in the same aisle as pretzels at my grocery store...the ice cream!! I haven't had some in freaking forever...literally months so I splurged!! And boy oh boy am I glad I did!

Sidenote: In the background is a card Liz gave me a few years ago but was so perfect I had to frame it. It is a quote from Ozzy Osbourne "The downside of being outrageous is that you have to go around explaining your fucking self to people." So true Ozzy, so true!

Hehe! Anyway...do any of you have a serious sweet tooth? Or are you more of a salty snack kinda person?

Have a wonderful weekend!!

List #4

Today's Playlist



Totally lame but I didn't really listen to any music yesterday. Only on the way home and this is all I remember.
Also, that is some sheet music from an old newspaper, 1948 to be exact!

My First Guest Post!

So last week the wonderful Allison from over on Crafted Love asked her readers if anyone had any spring cleaning tips or tutorials for a feature she started the first day of Spring and will be going to the end of the month.


I quick hopped on the opportunity because I had JUST cleaned a bunch of my tarnished silver jewelry. I had some more stuff to clean and thought it would be a useful tutorial for everyone, especially since it's so easy!

So go check it out now! Spring Cleaning: Cleaning Tarnished Jewelry

List #3

I'm so happy I took this project on. I totally look forward to it every day now!! I did laundry last night and then dishes and had no desire to work on any of my WIP crafts BUT THEN I remembered the lists!! This was a quick easy, peasy one!

The red is felt with a design sort of stamped onto it. I bought it over the holidays wanting to make little felt ornaments but I never did =/
Things I am looking forward to...

Florida Vacation in August. Jeremy's mom bought a time share last year and invited us to go down to Daytona Beach the first week of August. Although the sun and I don't generally get along because I am white as a ghost, I do love to just lay on the beach under a giant umbrella and listen to the ocean. I've been looking up fun things to do like a deep sea fishing trip (I probably won't fish, I'll just hang out on the boat while he does), Parasailing, Jet Skiing (I'm sort of scared of this) and a airboat ride to look for alligators!!

Camping at the Cabin. A friend of mine invited us up to her familys cabin in the Poconos next month! They own half a mountain and we are going to camp all weekend! I looove camping! We've always just done normal tent camping in the woods. Growing up that was our vacations and then as I got older I like to go with friends. There's something so refreshing about hanging out in the woods, swimming in lakes, hiking around, drinking and cooking over a fire, sleeping under the stars and waking up with the sun. Amazing!!

I still have to get my car fixed...it's being a jerk!

Rib Tattoo! I'm waiting to hear back from the artist right now but I am sooo stoked. I've been wanting this tattoo for almost 3 years now and FINALLY have the loot to spare!

Finding out about my job. So remember when I was hoping to get laid off and work part time and start my crafty biz. Well I'm not getting laid off, I was offered another position in the company but I have NO details as to when that will start, what my shift will be, etc. It's very annoying!!

Sunshine!! Holy shit I am sick of snow and ice and cold weather!!!!

Finishing my Granny Square Afghan. I've been slacking on it but I know I'll finish it soon!

Going down the shore. Just another fun summer activity. Walking along the boardwalk and laying under a big umbrella on the beach.

So that's some of what I'm looking foward to right now!

List #2

I'm loving the 30 Days of Lists project. It brings just a little creativity into my day. I haven't been feeling very crafty lately so this will hopefully recharge my batteries so to speak!

Things I'm Good At...



I love the sticker on the bottom, it's supposed to be like a spooky fence. It came in a pack of Halloween stickers. The white one on top is just the backing from the sticker =D
Also I can't find my glue stick!!! It's driving me crazy so I've been just using elmer's glue. Which I don't mind but isn't very good for paper because sometimes it gets wrinkley, ya know?! I have to make a Joanns run this weekend for fabric (spring bunting in the future!!) and I HAVE to remember to get a new one!

I woke up to snow today. Terrible. I'm over snow, I want sunshine and warm weather! I totally have the winter blues and just want to get outside already!
Have a good day my lovelies!

30 Days of Lists!

Last month Nicole told me about this awesome 30 Days of Lists projects but I was so stressed out about my job and what not that I just didn't want to take on anything that required any kind of committment.
A few weeks later and I am feeling better, well not totally better. I'm in a bit of a rut and I need some inspiration and I loooove lists so much I just decided to jump in!

Here is my title page which I really like a lot. I've never used these chipboard letters before but they are super cute!

And here is my first list! A few things about me...



In case you can't read my handwriting it says

I love to craft...it might be a problem!

I am a good friend.

I am the happiest I have ever been!

I am a procrastinator.

I am far more domesticated than I or anyone else ever imagined!

I have a lot of scars but I love them.

I love him more than I ever thought was possible!

So...that's just a few things about me. I used a colored pencil to make the blank page look like lined paper and I really like how it turned out!

"Bobbing Along..."

First off...welcome new friends! I've had it in the back of my mind that when I reached 50 followers I would have another giveaway and somehow you all snuck up on me =D
So now I will be thinking of something to make for you! I really want a new springy bunting like the one I made for Christmas. Would that be lame if I gave away the same sort of thing as I did last time?
Hmmm...my thinking cap is on!

Anyway...did anyone see the Supermoon on Saturday? Holy Moly it was beautiful!! There wasn't a cloud in the sky here in PA so we had a stunning view of it all night!

via

On Sunday when I was looking up pictures of it online I learned something so silly that I wanted to share with everyone!
Ever since we were little, my sister and I have been obsessed with the movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Have you ever seen it?! It is AMAZING! I seriously watch it like once a month still. The spell that Ms. Price recites to try to turn people into toads (but they always end up turning into a nice, white rabbit) is "Filigree, apogee, pedigree, perigee!" I know what Filigree and Pedigree mean and I always just assumed the other words were some weird Britsh thing, haha! WELL! Turns out apogee and perigee refer to the distance from the Earth to the moon. Apogee is the furthest point from the earth. Perigee is the closest point to the earth and is when the moon appears larger, supermoon!
So...just a little fun face that I thought I would share, I love when I learn weird little things like that!

Have a lovely second day of Spring!

Erin Go Bragh!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!!

I am Irish, almost 100% Irish (there's a bit of English but we don't talk about that part, ha!) My family's last name was actually Towey until it got changed to Toohey at Ellis Island. I remember in 6th grade going to Ellis Island and making rubbings from the walls with my relatives names on it. My Nana once told me that her uncle was once part of Sein Fein. The Irish Republican party whose objective is to end British rule in Ireland and it is a bit controversial. She said that he had to be snuck out of Ireland so that he wouldn't become a political prisoner. In book club a few years ago we read Ten Men Dead which is about the 1981 Hunger Strike of the Irish political prisoners, namely Bobby Sands and the 9 other men who perished while fighting for their rights.

It's so weird, since I moved from Jersey to Pennsylvania whenever I ask people "What are you?" they're all Dutch, everybody...it's crazy! In Jersey people were always Irish or Italian and some English and German mixed in. It's so weird to be somewhere that everybody is the same!
So I decided I wanted to have a St. Patrick's Day party at work and half these people didn't even know what the holiday is about!! One girl didn't even know what bagpipes are, BLEW my mind to say the least! So of course I had to educate these people!
I grew up thinking the holiday was to celebrate the day St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland, which isn't true. When I got older I learned it's a feast day and celebrated on the day of his death. St. Patrick is credited with converting a lot of the Irish pagan population to Christianity. This is also where the shamrock comes in to play. He used the 3 leaves to help explain the Holy Trinity that Christians believe in.
Fun Fact: Since it is considered a religious holiday, until the 1970's all pubs were mandated by law to be closed on St. Patrick's Day in Ireland!

Anyway...for the party I decided to make a traditional Irish recipe, Colcannon. It is a dish made of cabbage, kale, or other greens, and potatoes boiled and mashed together. I used Kale.

Ingredients
1 pound kale
1 pound potatoes (I actually used almost 2 lbs.)
2 leeks
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 pinch ground mace (I used nutmeg)
1/2 cup butter

Directions

* Strip the Kale off the stalks.
* In a large saucepan, boil Kale until tender; remove and chop or blend well. Set aside and keep warm.
* Boil potatoes until tender. Remove from heat and drain.
* Chop leeks, green parts as well as white, and simmer them in just enough milk to cover, until they are soft.
* Season and mash potatoes well. Stir in cooked leeks and milk. Blend in the kale and heat until the whole thing is a pale green fluff!
* Make a well in the center and pour in the melted butter. Mix well.

Here we go....
Get all your ingredients together.


Strips the leaves off the stalks of the Kale and boil them in a big pot.


Peel and cut the potatoes and boil them too.

Once the Kale is boiled for a while, take it out and chop it in the blender. I didn't get a picture of this but it pretty much looks like Popeye's spinach, ha!
While the potatoes are boiling cut up the leeks. These ones were GIGANTIC so I think I only used one total. Use both the white AND green part. Oh and don't forget to rinse the leaves because there will be dirt jammed in there!
Put the leeks in a pan with the milk and simmer for a little while.

Mash up your potatoes, I used my hand mixer. Also put in the salt, pepper and nutmeg.


Put the Kale, Leeks with the milk in with the mashed potatoes and mix it all up.

And serve it in your cute Pyrex dish!

This is so yummy and just an over all good comfort food. If I were to make it at home for dinner I would totally shortcut and used instant potatoes.
I hope everyone has an awesome St. Patrick's Day!!

And my favorite Irish blessing...

May those that love us, love us.

And those that don't love us,
May God turn their hearts.

And if He doesn't turn their hearts,
May He turn their ankles
So we will know them by their limping.

Lil' Shamrock

Last night I whipped up this little guy because I've had St. Patrick's Day on the brain! The shamrock is a little bigger than a quarter and the frame is 2 1/2" X 2 1/2". I've had this frame for a while and after I stitched this lucky little guy up, I realized he fit and looked so perfect with the gold!

For each petal on the shamrock this brings a wish your way.
Good health, good luck, and happiness for today and every day.

I'll be back tomorrow with a traditional Irish recipe that I'm making tonight for a work St. Patrick's Day party tomorrow!

Instax #8

So I completely forgot about my 52 Photos in 52 Weeks Project!!! I cleaned up my apartment and put my camera in a drawer and well...like they say 'Out of sight, Out of mind'.
Oops!!
Anyway...back on track, here is number 8!



I had to repot my plant from work last night and I love it sooo much. This is him. He started out as a cutting from a coworkers plant. I've had him since before Christmas and he started out as only 5 leaves and look at him now!!

I grew up in a house FULL of plants. My mother has quite a green thumb and even when we lived in little apartments, we had a garden with veggies growing on the deck and house plants everywhere inside! Now she has a giant green house, a huge veggie garden, a cute little English garden in front of the kitchen, a lily garden on the outside of the green house and a shade garden along her fence. When I have a house one day, I will definitely have gardens!!
Anyway...when I moved into my first apartment, I decided I needed tons of my own plants! My Mom gave me lots of cuttings from her own plants to grow and then I bought a few of my own. She even gave me a huge Mother in Law's Tongue plant that was older then me!! In my first apartment, all my plants thrived and I loved them all so much.
Then my sister and I got an apartment together and all of my plants died. It was so depressing, it was definitely something in that apartment. All my plants got some kind of fungus or mold or something, after a year...they were all dead. So for the 4 years we lived there, we had no plants. I just had a little English Ivy at work to bring some green into my life. Then a coworker of mine said that she would give me some cuttings of her Devil's Ivy and I was ecstatic!! So here he is just a few months later. He outgrew the original pot (well not really, that one was just ugly). Plus I really love these kind of self watering planters. There's a little spout thingy at the bottom and you just pour the water into the hidden resevoir, that way you don't risk over watering your plant. One of the top ways to kill a plant is by over watering! Which I totally learned when I was a newbie house plant owner. Anyway...this wondeful plant has reminded me that I should try and get some plants into my new apartment (well not so new, April 1 will be one year!) It is one of my goals this month to get at least one plant for home, if not more!
Do you guys have any house plants!?

We're Zombies...on a Clock

So remember this Amazing Find?! Well I got it in the mail on Saturday! I had received an email with the tracking info which said it would be delivered Saturday. I spent the afternoon staring out the window and when the mailman came I was stalking him like a hawk, watching his ever move until he got to my building!
I tore it open and saw pure awesome!!







Jenny from Off Her Rocker Art was a complete pleasure to work with!! We exchanged quite a few emails to get all the details worked out; hair color, eye color, what we'd be wearing, etc. The shirt that Jeremy has on is one of my favorites of his. It says 'RooK' and has a big rook chess piece on it. He wore it the third day we hung out and he told me that he plays chess when I asked him about it. That totally made me realize that there was more to him than meets the eye. Every time he wears it, I'm reminded of how amazing and complex he is. I'm wearing an angel wing necklace that is one of my absolute favorties which Liz got for me a few years ago while she was in Boston.
I am so happy with how this turned out and I highly recommend you all check out Jenny's shop, you won't be disappointed!

Book Review: Unbroken

The book we read in Book Club for the month of February was Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.


It's a true story and so, so good!
The story is about Louie Zamperini who grew up in California, had a bit of a trouble childhood but as a teenager he started running. And holy moly did he run!! He ended up breaking all kinds of state and country records and eventually went to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. He shook Hitler's hand...creeeepy! He ended up traning again for the 1940 Olympics which were supposed to be held in Tokyo. However, WWII broke out and Japan backed out of hosting the Olympics. They were then supposed to be held in Finland but also because of WWII the Olympics never happened. Louie ended up being drafted and becoming a bombardier (the guy who actually drops the bombs out of the planes) in the US Army.
Around page 100ish the book got a little slow. I think it was because they went out on a mission and I was expecting the plane to crash. The book opens with a scene of Louie stranded in the Pacific ocean. That didn't happen for a little while though and I just had so much anticipation!
Then it happened, the plane crashed and I don't want to give any major spoilers but let me say this...punching sharks! This man punches sharks!! The amount of time he is stranded in the Pacific ocean is unbelievable. I had to remind myself multiple times that I was reading a true story.
Eventually he ends up in POW camps and is transferred to a few different ones. The things that man, and all the men endured at the hands of their Japanese captures made me cry. Multiple times I was reading this book at night and crying or getting choked up.
When the war is declared over and Louie returns home, the war isn't actually over for him. The post traumatic stress and the horrors that haunt him was so overwhelming. He turns to drinking to try and drown out the war.
At book club Liz told us that this book has some controversy behind it because people believe it to be propaganda. At the end Louie turns to God and is saved by Billy Graham, the evangelical preacher (you've probably seen him on TV.) I do not believe this book to be any sort of propaganda, this is just what happened to Louie. It never once says that everyone needs to live their life for God and all that. Louie lives well into his 90s and doing all sorts of crazy things in his old age! Skiing, skateboarding and gets back into running. He ran the Olympic torch in 1984 past one of the now destroyed POW camps he was enslaved at.
I highly recommend this book and give it 5 stars!