muffin

the penn state show was beyond amazing. honestly, the one thing that could have made it truly great was if jerry were still alive.....then again they probably would not have played an obama benefit. see, folks get all uppity when you discuss how the dead were not a political group. they always come back at you with counter culture and how that was a political statement, BUT they never came out and openly endorsed anyone because they knew they had big influence over people and wanted to make sure people decided for themselves, as that is truly at the heart of what the dead stood for....being your own person. that was their political statement, not who you should vote for, or who they back..... so, i digress, as usual, back to the show...... the set, one huge set, was amazing.... the almans were good, smokin even, then a long break with some obama rally up, then he had a prerecorded message where he introduced the boys...

they came out and each one came out and cheers erupted...it was amazing!

billy and phil hugged

they tuned

then it began....

truckin
us blues
help
slip
frank
playin
dark star
st stephen
unbroken chain
other one
throwin
playin reprise

encore-
touch of grey (and billy kept playing with micky, when they sang the verse he would rub the sides of his grey hair! and as a reference to the "joke" obama made before the show about how the campaign has given him a touch of grey, or something along those lines)
not fade away

we checked into our hotel room in the afternoon and spent the day on the lot, seeing old friends, celebrating birthdays and other such wonderful things! we got back about 3am, and went to sleep.

the next moring we went to penn state book store to pick up a few things for my mom and juju bean, hit up a farmers market around the corner for some amazingly tastey cave aged cheddar from 20 mins from penn state, got some organic yum green beans and a jar of organic salsa for dad (the cheese was for him too, and they polished that off shortly after I handed it over!)

we ate at baby's and I had hush puppys with fried shrimp, not as good as down south, but still good!

yesterday, i purchased tickets for NYE with Boyy & Phil. I have to wait til next week to get the Dec 30th show, but that is fine, as long as I know I have NYE, I don't care....now to arrange the flights, hotle and everything else!

oh yeah, and yesterday was bobby's birthday!

happy birthday bobby!

a lovely scone is just a great way to make people smile.

my father had his surgery and has not really been eating like before, with good reason, as his chest was opened, heart removed and so on....

so today while juju was dancing, i ran up to the most wonderful breakfast/lunch place in town, stella g's.
now most places would kill to have a shop like this, but they moved here to retire and be close to their grandkids, and lucky us, she is a renowned pastry chef and he has i forget how many stars, chef. they decided to open a little breakfast place to take up time, and well, it is divine!

last trip there about 4 weeks ago, i had the special sour cream waffle with blueberry's and turkey sausage. simply heavenly....my other had eggs benedict, lee had the other special, breakfast burrito, and dad had a simple egg brekkie with hash and such. everything was beyond good.

i stopped in and purchased three freshly made from scratch scones, lemon cream, bluberry with orange glaze and nutmeg current. they wrapped it in a lovely pastry box with a big ribbon! it looked so fancy. my mom and dad were so happy when we returned, their little ballerina bouncing into the house in her leotard, sweater and skirt in pink, carrying the lovely pink ribbon box filled with crumbly delights!

so, i guess the moral of the story is, when in hackettstown, home of the m&m, go to stella g's and eat, but be sure to grab some scones for later!

i was flipping through this awesome magazine i am subscribed to called missbehave, when low and behold in their cool sneaker section were grateful dead sneakers!
i did a little web searching and poof, today my new skull and roses high top chucks arrived!!!

they are so nice, even the insides are nice and the patch is sewn on, not that weird rubbery thing they normally have.
my next pair will be the ice cream and possibly either a stealie in black, or an owsley bear in low top black...the decisions are tough!

monday is a holiday and juju is off from school, but i will be away at the rock for change show in penn state!!!!

i am not sure yet who i want to vote for, honestly, but hey, if barak can get the boys back together after the "blow up" in 2004, i am all for it!

wow, i am very excited today!!!!

i went ahead and ordered a bunch of new patterns from sublime and suprise!!! she had released 4 new ones....

i am really excited about this as i always love new stuff!

juju has been having a good time with my brother since he came in for the operation on my father. my father, however, has made a miraculous recovery and had a pacemaker put in on friday and was relased (GASP) saturday afternoon!
we had no idea he would be released so early, in fact i stayed home waiting to hear if i could see him as i had the sniffles (and still do), when my mother called and said to bring clothes, he was getting sprung at 4 pm....good thing i got there early, because they literally sprung him at 4! usually hospitals are awful at getting folks discharged, but not there!

so dad has been here...he was walking saturday and sat at the table and at with us...since then he has been moving more and feeling better, though he is sleeping in the living room on the chair, which is understandable.

i cannot get over how fast he is recouping or how little he looked cut up. apparently his doctor was THE guy for nano surgery and makes minimal cuts. in fact, have you heard of the new gall bladder surgery where they go through the stomach down the throat via the mouth? yeah, the big time experimental one? he is that guy...that is what he does, he specializes in it...just amazing!

back to the juju bean...she is going to stay home from school tomorrow. she was not feeling well tonight when lee took her apple picking and she was a bit sick, so since they have not had that much time together and he leaves wednesday, i figure rather then have her come home from school tomorrow and have a ton of shool work , making their time together very little, she can stay home and hang out with uncle lee and get her tummy feeling better!

i love to craft....craft anything

i am no expert, rather i am a beginner who loves to make all different things, but nothing is complicated.

i knit, but only the basic stitches, i bead, but simple stuff, and so on and so forth

i would love to learn more complicated things, but have no one to teach me and written directions are so impossible for me to follow. i don't know if it is the dyslexia that makes it so, but unless i can watch someone do it or have them explain it to me as i do it, then i cannot learn it no matter how hard i try.

i am currently working on an apron i am embroidering for a friend. i am using some of the patterns from sublime stitching (which i sell at my etsy/website http://www.creativemuffin.com) on a basic black three pocket apron. Niki from Bar 46 (http://www.bar46nj.com) asked me to make her one for the days she wants to wear dresses or skirts and still have her bottle opener on her.

i have roller skates and a unicorn, i will be free handing a rainbow above the unicorn and metallic stars around the roller skates. the middle pocket will have the bar 46 logo on it and i just hope she likes it.

so while i am not the most experienced crafter, or skilled, i do make all different things and sell them on my site. i love making the mr. t chocolcate lollipops and stitch markers are fun!

ok, so as a crafter whore, i love going to the bust craftacular every year...the most amazing items and dj's and open bar and....well just too much to try and list, you just have to go and experience it (http://www.bust.com/Craftacular/BUST-Holiday-Craftacular-2008.html)
so, anyway, i decided to try and apply for it. i paid my ten dollars and if, huge IF, i make it in, it is 240 additional for a 8' x 30" table and two chairs to vend...

i do not expect to get in at all, but still it is a nice idea and if i did, i would probably pass out. i submitted stitch markers and mr t chocolate lollies as samples of only some of the stuff i sell, so we shall see....

on to other things now........

today is my mother's birthday. she is currently at the hospital as my father needs a pacemaker and a defribulator and my dad was refusing it earlier (he has been exhasuted from not sleeping and half out of his mind because he slips in and out all day long, about 1 min awake, 1 min sleeping). she and my brother will be there today, everyone else will stay away in an effort to let him get as much rest as possible. the procude he is in now is about 2 hours and i am just about at my wits frayed ends....

i am trying to keep very busy to keep my mind off of it, but it is hard, so i am going to go and rescrub the sink or something....

the surgery went well...they ended up having to do a double bypass and replace the two valves.
they have him on a temp pacemaker, but when they try to take him off of it, his heart rate drops to 30-36 bpm

it was a little scary, but he was actually standing and marching in place the day after the surgery. he had some bleeding, they ended up giving him 2 transfusions. initially during the procedure, he did not need any and that really pleased the doctor, but then he kept leaking, so they had to give him two, kept him in icu for two days, now he is in cardiac care unit.

he goes in tomorrow for the icd and pacemaker...it is a very routine procedure, but with everything going on, i am really still on edge.

i am going to kept this short and not go into the debate that is on and all that hoopla, i will let this evening go for now and watch silly movies....

my father is having heart surgery tomorrow...

this is his third one, so he knows what it is like and all of that. the thing is he is super stressed about this one. he has convinced himself that he is high risk even though the doctor who is performing the operation has said he is not.

he and my mom have been married for over 49 years ( sept 12 was their anniversary) and they are very close. met in college, married after they graduated, wrote love letters when they went to two different colleges their junior and senior year, and so on.....

they have been not really speaking because of how bad the stress is on my dad. i have been that one between them for weeks now, and it has really been wearing on me.

last night, while waiting to leave for the movies (which was not the best choice by the way...good movie, but with my dad going in for surgery tomorrow, seeing ghost town last night not, such a good way to fuel my already overly emotionally state) i sat at the upstairs computer and was going to play a little text twist. when the screen came back from screen saver, there in front of me was my dad's obituary.

that was one of the most awful feelings i have ever had. i have only lost one close family member, my grandmother, and that was 8 years ago.

i have lost friends, very close ones, but it cannot come close to the awful feeling i had when i saw my dad's obit....gut wrenching does not even begin to come close.

but, i have these amazing people in my life who have been there for me so unconditionally, i cannot begin to express my gratitude to them for their friendship that asks nothing but gives me such support at this time...

there is so much more i wanted to add to this, but i have had it opened and pecked at it all throughout the day, that i need not only to put this to bed, but myself (and i started this about 1pm today and it is now 2 am)

goodnight...

so i love to bake...like love love.....

part of how i got the nickname muffin is because of my baking skillz, and yes it is spelled with a z because they are that amazing, or so i am told..normally i am not a big ego person, but when it comes to certain foods, yeah i know i got talent, yo...just representing for myself 'cause if i don't then who will? don't hate the playa, hate the baked goods the playa produces...

ok, so enough of that.....yesterday i had to bake a little something for my juju's bake sale at school, so i decided on my favorite banana bread.
unfortunately for me, i had no ripe bananas on hand, so bought four of them and when i got home, i went to town....and i am going to share this recipe with anyone who is willing to read my drivel

mind you, i try to make everything using all organic ingredients, so i won't bother saying organic in every piece, just know it is organic

four really ripe bananas, the blacker the bedder (teehee) MASHED, sometimes it is nice to have them clumpy, other times I use a ricer to get them like baby food for a nice smooth bread

1 egg

1/4 cup melted butter

a generous splash of apple juice (about a 1/4 cup to half, but only use 1/4 in the wet, and use more later if too sticky)

1 1/2 cup flour

1 cup sugar (sometimes i use half sugar half honey or something along those lines, also if you love apple, you can use some apple sauce in place of the sugar...)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

cinnamon to personal taste (depending on time of year I love more in fall and winter and just a little in summer)

If you like, you can use nuts or dried fruit as well, but again depending on time of year I either add tons or nothing!

mix the wet together, being careful the butter is not hot as it can cook the egg if added when it is too hot or too fast...drizzle it in slowly to warm the wet...

sift together the flours, sugar, salt, baking soda and cinnamon. add slowly to the wet, mixing well and not adding too much to create the flour crop dusting of me and my counter!

heat the oven to 350 degrees F...

grease a bread pan (I use the 9x5 usually, or I think that is the size) with your choice, I use butter, but pam or what have you will work well

once the mix is well incoperated and smooth, if you notice it seems a bit sticky, or really think, add spalsh of apple juice to thin it a bit...now careful, you don't want it runny, but a nice smooth thick is fine

Now if when you would add any dried fruits or nuts.....sometimes I sprinkle the top with brown sugar or a granola mix

bake for 65 mins....once you take it out check it with a tooth pick in the middle...if it comes out clean, it is done...if not put it in another 5 mins and recheck

sometimes it is fun to eperiment with things in these breads, like using coconut flour in place of a bit of the flour, using whole wheat, using apple cider instead of juice...whatever...this is your bread to have fun with!

I love baking them and giving them to friends randomly just to see their face light up when they know what they are getting, one of muffin's surprise filled 'nana breads!!!!

it has been a while for me and blogging...i used to blog a lot, you know LJ for many years, then a bit on blogger here, then vox...

i realized i was living so much of my life on blog that i was living to blog....

i had some major life changes and decided to go out and live and not feel the need to make everything about posting, or remember to post, or what have you.

lately i have felt the urge to go back into my blog and thought that maybe making a new one to signify the fresh start may be a good thing. it is a pretty crazy train of thought rationalizing about whether to blog or not to blog.

my father is getting ready for heart surgery come tuesday and it has been really hard on us, my mom and myself. they are not really speaking or if they are, it is curt and short.

mind you, they love each other, they have been married for 49 years this past september and it is not that. it is the sheer amount of stress my dad is having with the surgery (his third open heart) and he convinced himself he is high risk, when his doctor's (some of the best heart guys on the east coast) tell him he is not.

my lil business on the web is rolling along fine. i would love to be able to stock more in it, but i am getting there slowly.

i applied to the bust craftacular in december, and while I would not sell the sublime patterns since jenny has a booth there every year, I would love a chance to get my stitch markers and onesies and Mr T chocolate lollipops out there to a main stream market.

well, who knows...i am not counting on getting in as i go to the craftacular and i don't think i am nearly as cool or funky as those vendors i buy from, but a girl can dream big!

today is talk like a pirate day...yargh

I have been so busy this summer suddenly flew by before I got here to blog about it!

I guess actually going and living out i the world is better about living in bits and typing it all out...doing it in one big summer wrap up seems like a logical idea!