Passionate blogger award

Mike Golch received this award and some true and wonderful words from Compassionate blogger (the link is on Mike's site). Thank you, Mike, for giving it to me (it is 'Good Stuff's first award!) as I do feel a passion for blogging (and won't put ads on my site, it's to express myself). I feel very blessed to have blog friends like you and I give this award to my followers on both sites (Tracy - you are passionate twice!) and those that have commented on my site (Raine's AfterMath). It's a pleasure to reside in cyberspace with you and be blessed by your passion for documenting your days and your writings.
Tart:)

The Yum-O things we make in baking class.:)

Besides cheesecake from scratch, various brownies, cookies from a box, we are making real FOOD in the baking class. THIS I am excited about!

In the three classes I have been back to we have made a white chicken chili soup which was WONDERful, ham/spinach/mushroom quiche (which I could live off of - seriously, quiche covers all the food groups and just whets my appetite for proteins and makes me want to eat the whole pie - love it, Love It, LOVE IT!) and a marvelous rolled meatloaf, that had ham and spinach inside! We also learned to make fried rice! THAT my friends is a lifetime gift. I feel blessed.

'Ranch Crispy Chicken'

I got this 'bargain bin' cookbook called '100 Best Chicken Recipes' and it has this super easy recipe for Ranch Crispy Chicken that we tried at home and it was Dee-lic-ious!

1/4 cup unseasoned dry bread crumbs or cornflake crumbs

1 packet (1 ounce) HIDDEN VALLEY Original Ranch Salad Dressing & Seasoning Mix

6 bone-in chicken pieces

Combine bread crumbs and salad dressing & seasoning mix in a gallon-size plastic food storage bag. Add chicken pieces; seal bag. Shake to coat chicken. Bake chicken on ungreased baking pan at 375 degrees F. for 50 minutes or until no longer pink in center and juices run clear.

Makes 4 to 6 servings

I also made homemade mashed potatoes and chicken gravy to go with it, and a little salad for greens.:)

cut up, peeled potatoes ready for cooking to make mashed potatoes

ATCs - I am intrigued.

ATC stands for Artist Trading Cards. Using what media you want to (collage, painting, clay, metal, drawing, scrapping) you create a card the size of a playing card (the dimensions are exact, I *think* 2.5 by 3.5) creating art and pictures on your card and you exchange them with other artists. No money is exchanged, they are not bought, they are traded. I think you can find other people to do it with over the internet. I am researching.

Then there is something called mail art. Mail as art, essentially. I guess decorating the mail you send out Is in fact considered art. How cool! I love to do that anyway, put rubber stamps, stickers and draw on envelopes. There's a whole world out there!:)

A resource for tatting/cro-tatting.

a picture of cro-tatting from the site 'MaryM's Original Daisy Boullion edging,' referenced in the website below.

You can Google this as easily as myself, but I found a great site that has pictures showing step-by-step how to cro-tat here.

Tatting uses a shuttle to create 'knots' and circles, or tiny picots, and when done over and over can create a beautiful lace that can look similar to a very fine crochet lace piece.

Cro-tat uses a small crochet hook to create the tatting, instead of the usual "shuttle" that tatters normally use.

Tatting is an art, one that you don't hear about as often as knit or crochet. My husband's aunt use to tat constantly, it was her special gift (her hands were always moving and working - constantly) and she made many special gifts for his family, until her death a few years ago when she was in her late 90's.

I would love to learn how to do it, and have noticed that my LYS (local yarn store) does sell shuttles. A few years ago I bought a VHS video on tatting called 'Tatting I - The Basics' by Mildred Clark, brought to you by Victorian Video Productions.

I also bought 'Tatting Beginner Tatting Kit Quick and Easy' (Item number 5050-K) from the Tatsy company, which includes a shuttle with instructions for making an Angel, Photo Frame, Flower, Book Mark, 2 Mini Flowers, 2 Butterflies.

I admit I haven't checked it out yet or haven't delved into the art yet, I have been holding onto it for 'one of these day' (I love needlework, stationary, and art supplies and have probably a lifetime amount of them as I have noticed that many others do as well out there, off my Amazon emails "What do you like to craft" that comes to me, but that is probably another post entirely! It's a SICKNESS! But such a fun one.) but maybe you can still get it on the web or Ebay, if you are interested in learning tatting.

Friendship is God's Special Way of Loving Us Through Someone Else.