Moved My Blog

I am not going to be posting at this blog, I am using one blog for every thing instead of two. Find me at www.shinymoonbeams.com

Happy New Year

It's very apparent to me that I am no longer interested in blogging at least on a personal level. So I have decided to give up this blog. I can no longer come up with things to say about my life because the things in my life sometimes drive me insane. Thankfully I have been blessed with a wonderful husband and he is a great help to me. I feel it is better to not say things sometimes then to whine about the things that you cannot change. God is really the only one that can show us how to deal with problems effectively, but first we must let him and secondly of course sometimes we have to ourselves make drastic changes in the process so God can show us how to be comfortable and happy in a situation that you cannot change perhaps forever. Yes it's one of those kind of problems.

I have been concentration a lot on my craft. Many crafts which help the stress for me. These past weeks I have been fascinated with making angles, angel earrings, angel suncatchers and pendants.
Here in this photo I have taken Swarovski Crystal Beads and created some lovely angel pendants and suncatchers.

I have been working on my craft blog and will be there blogging, so if you're interested to read what I have been up to as far as crafting goes then I hope to see you there.

Here is a photo to show the difference in size between pendant and mini suncatcher.

I really love this idea because it makes it personal when someone can have a little angel for their birth month as a little crystal suncatcher or a pendant.

I just made these so I have not posted them to my website yet, but will get it done this week. 

I do hope all my blogging friends have a wonderful new year and may God Bless you and give you a blessed happy new year!

Here is the address to my craft blog 

http://www.shinymoonbeams.com

Merry Christmas -The Greatest Gift of All -

The Greatest Gift of All

In the greatest of all passages there is described the greatest of all gifts. If it is a gift from God, we know apriori that it is a great gift. Jesus once asked if any father would give his son a stone when he asked for bread, or a snake for a fish. If, He said, you give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give good gifts to His? (Matt. 7:9-11). God, then, is a Father and He will only give good gifts to men. (cf. James 1:17).

The best of all possible gifts God has given -- Jesus Christ. And John knew, as no one else, what a remarkable gift it was! What was the gift like? A gift of the Word made flesh and dwelling among men. What was Jesus like? (Have we not all asked that question?) "Full of grace and truth." What did men see when they saw Jesus? Glory, glory like an only child has from his father. What did Jesus bring when He came? "Grace and truth." What did Jesus come to do? To make known to the world what God is like, the God no man has as yet seen. (John 1:14-18). To this John adds that they had been privileged to drink of Jesus' fullness, fullness so extraordinary that it could only be described as a fullness consisting of blessing upon blessing. (1:16).

Hope your Christmas is Blessed

Hugs Kat

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving!

Today I am cooking for a party of 12, my family and 2 good friends that are like family to us and so they come to every family gather we have just about. We are so thankful for them and our precious family. We are thankful that even though we are afflicted with many ailments they are not serious and all my family is doing well, cancers have been cured in two family members over the years, God is good. We are so thankful our ancestors came to this wonderful land we call America so long ago, from Scotland, England, Ireland mainly. I have read about my family ancestors in the civil war and other wars, their struggles for us to get where we are, may we take care to preserve our heritage, that God has blessed us with. We will eat the traditional Thanksgiving day feast that I will prepare for my family today. It's a lot of work but I enjoy doing it.

Remember when I posted this recipe? Thanksgiving Blessing Mix, well I am posting it again or the link rather because now I have a photo to go with the recipe.
You Can print the recipe from this link.
http://www.shinymoonbeams.com/2011/11/thanksgiving-blessings-mix.html

I made the cute eat pie stick and some place cards for Thanksgiving, I am doing a lot of paper crafts, you can check out my craft blog for all that I have been doing craft wise. 

THANKSGIVING BLESSINGS MIX

2 cups Bugles brand corn snacks

2 cups small pretzels

1 cup candy corn

1 cup dried fruit bits or raisins

1 cup peanuts or sunflower seeds

1 cup M&Ms chocolate candy

16 Hershey's chocolate kisses

In a large bowl, gently mix all ingredients except Hershey's Kisses. Place 1/3 to 1/2 cup Blessing Mix in small cellophane treat bags. Add one Hershey's Kiss to each bag. Close bag with chenille stem or twist-tie.

I made a card stock attachment that reads:

THANKSGIVING BLESSINGS MIX

Bugles: Shaped like a cornucopia or Horn of Plenty, a symbol of our abundance.

Pretzels: Arms folded in prayer.

Candy Corn: Hardships of the Pilgrim's first winter. Food was so scarce that the settlers survived on just a few kernels of corn per day.

Nut or Seeds: Promise of a future harvest, one will reap only if seeds are planted and tended to with diligence.

Dried Fruits/Raisin : Harvest gifts of our bountiful land.

M&Ms: Memories of those who came before us to guide us to a blessed future.

Hershey's Kiss: The love of family and friends that sweetens our lives.

Isn't this a wonderful recipe? Are you counting your blessings?

Psalm 145:7 

They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

These cute graphics were made by Countryside Haven, she is no longer online, they are so sweet. I got them many years ago.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Cookies Anyone?

How is everyone good I hope? Are you ready for Thanksgiving? for your tummies to expand with delicious food...... with family and friends. I know I am. 

As a thank you to my neigbor for allowing us to use his water this week so we didn't have to stay in a hotel, I baked him these cookies today.

Neiman Marcus $250.00 Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Now I don't know for sure where this recipe came from, but I have had it since the late 90's when I had a website on geocites.

I posted the link to the recipe below and started putting all the recipes in PDF files for easy printing. 

You have to try this cookie recipe, it really is the best. It's great for a church crowds because it makes a lot about 112 small cookies. 

http://www.krystalkats.com/Recipes/NM.pdf

Wet

It's so chilly out and I cannot believe it's going to be Thanksgiving next week.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving I am not a good blogger so just in case I don't get back here, I want you all to have a blessed Thanksgiving day.

I was almost feeling normal again when I woke up to a huge problem yesterday. Last week the city of Lincoln was working on my neighbors main water pipes, the cities side for that particular house, what they say is their responsibility. Well they left and now my house main pipes broke at the main box causing water to run like a hose into the gutter and into the drain in the street just as if I left the water on full blast, can we say ka-ching to a huge water bill.
Lincoln water came to my house yesterday morning after I called them, but before I had a chance to shower and get some water into pitchers. I had to answer the door to the water man looking like one tousled woman in my mismatched PJ's and fluffy bathrobe. This was so embarrassing to me. Gees!
I told him to leave the water on for a bit because I had to shower and save some water, he got so angry with me. I was wow dude it's my water running down the drain and I am paying for it thanks to you, now I am going to take a shower and put some water into pitchers.
He left never to return, I almost regretted that decision but at the same time I wouldn't even have water to wash my face, hands or brush my teeth. Eww!
Well Steve was in the Bay area all day for a meeting and he could not get back home or even answer his phone, thankfully he was not anywhere near these outburst of riots to add to my worry.
In the meantime I had taken my shower and began calling LIncoln water right away and I could never get them to come back out, they said it's not their problem the line is on my property not theres.
So I went to look in the main water line box and it was full of water gushing over and I could not turn off the water it would run all day unless I called a plumber.
Well no plumber until 4pm and the water spilled into the gutter all day.
The plumber charged me $150.00 and said it would be $1700.00 to fix. I said I can't have him fix it until my husband comes home so they just shot it off and I paid them and they told me what they thought it was saying it was the cities fault.
Steve called his friend Fred and his son who are construction workers and plumbers and they came out in the dark and tried to fix it, but it could not be fixed last night it was to dark. Fred, Steve and my neighbor fixed it up so my neighbor is funneling his water into our home through a hose until tomorrow when they can see properly. At least Fred will not charge us that much as the other plumbers because he is our friend and Steve works on his cars, corvettes and vintage trucks.
It's just fishy to me that after 7 days of the city out here working on my neighbors main water lines that ours is now broke. Fred says it's due to pressure and I am unable to get the city to answer to me why they came onto my property and got into my main box last week. That is not even something they are allowed to do is run a hose from your house, let alone ask me such a question, it's their problem to fix. The already charge us outrages cost for water, the bill was $80.00 for the month of September.

Day 2 no water, still the city cannot tell me why they were into my main box last week. They say it's a coincidence that now my line is broken, really! I don't think so. I guess I will have to let a judge decide if it's a coincidence or not. 


Who among me would think that if the city worked on your neighbors main for seven days, would say it's a coincidence that your main is now broke?


I actually have no photos today to share imagine that, well I do actually but I had to rant here, I don't know how I am going to handle this, meaning legally or just except the cost, I think it's the principe of the thing though how they lie about being in my main water line box after I said they could not funnel a hose from my house to wherever or whatever they were going to do. It's all 
very suspicious and strange. 




~Update~ Steve did a barter with his friend Fred who owns the condo in Monterey so we were able to get it fixed with the barter deal they made.

The city said it was a coincidence and that was that. So we had to fix it, I hate to see what my water bill will be next month. GRRRRRR!  That part really makes me mad! 

Count it all to Joy and Thanksgiving Blessing Mix

I have been away for about a month except for yesterday's post about Elizabeth. 

I have been so stressed out these past months and when I am stressed I am also depressed and the last thing I want to do is write in my blog.

I feel a little better today, I hope that will continue for awhile. Everything is fine between my husband and I just thought I would get that out, it's not the thing that depresses me, he is a huge support for me and I don't know what I would ever do without him. I hate to even think of it, it scares me so much. 

Every since I met him he has been the kindest man I have ever known. 

So even though I have been so stressed out you have to count it all to joy when you look into Baby Rylans little sweet face and my granddaughter Morgan's eyes. They really are the sunshine in my life. I always remember singing to my kids and Morgan you are my Sunshine. I have not yet sang that to Rylan.

Here is a photo I took of him yesterday while he was visiting me with his mommy. Kirsten goes back to work in about 10 days, it's going to be so hard for her. She cries every day to leave her sweet baby. I used to tell her that would be hard on her but she did not believe me until she had Rylan.  

Here is a Thanksgiving Blessing Mix my friend Lori sent to me in a email in 2007 that I found in my old emails this morning. I have some emails saved to an external harddrive. 

I hope you enjoy it and you can copy it and pass it along, it's pretty cool and so fitting for this time of year.  

THANKSGIVING BLESSINGS MIX

2 cups Bugles brand corn snacks

2 cups small pretzels

1 cup candy corn

1 cup dried fruit bits or raisins

1 cup peanuts or sunflower seeds

1 cup M&Ms chocolate candy

16 Hershey's chocolate kisses

In a large bowl, gently mix all ingredients except Hershey's Kisses. Place 1/3 to 1/2 cup Blessing Mix in small cellophane treat bags. Add one Hershey's Kiss to each bag. Close bag with chenille stem or twist-tie.

I made a card stock attachment that reads:

THANKSGIVING BLESSINGS MIX

Bugles: Shaped like a cornucopia or Horn of Plenty, a symbol of our abundance.

Pretzels: Arms folded in prayer.

Candy Corn: Hardships of the Pilgrim's first winter. Food was so scarce that the settlers survived on just a few kernels of corn per day.

Nut or Seeds: Promise of a future harvest, one will reap only if seeds are planted and tended to with diligence.

Dried Fruits/Raisin : Harvest gifts of our bountiful land.

M&Ms: Memories of those who came before us to guide us to a blessed future.

Hershey's Kiss: The love of family and friends that sweetens our lives.

Isn't this a wonderful recipe? Are you counting your blessings?

Good Bye Elizabeth

Yesterday I learned some shocking news about an online friend Elizabeth. I have known her since about 1996 or 1997. We met while sharing website we made through Geo Cities a close knit country graphics lovers group of gals. She always had a beautiful website, all the cutest ever country graphics. Her website was adorned with her love for tea and her dog at the time Tequila.
A very private person always since I have known her, you knew very little about her. I did read back in many of her last post and notice that she did talk about how she was feeling a lot. It was very subtle.
She was only a year older then I, I'm sorry to say it was her birthday recently and by the looks of her facebook page it seems she might have been ill that day. From what I understand she passed away on October 22nd. Her birthday was October 3rd and I don't see any posts from her on that date or beyond. My imagination can only wonder what must have happened, what she must have gone through. It saddens my heart to hear this about her. There is speculation that she died from Hepatitis but this is a mystery to me as to why she would die from that. I hope we can find out more about why she passed away soon.
The last I have heard from her was October 1, this was her favorite time of year.
She was a huge Beardie Collie lover and she had lost her beloved Tequila a few years ago and then later after much nudging she eventually got Buddy. Her husband worked away from home a lot so I know Buddy her dog was a huge comfort to her.
She had moved from New York to Mississippi and seemed to love it very much, she loved to take photos like me and loved her Mac Computer as much as I love mine.

She had a thing for purses the name brand kind, loved to read and watch movies and drink tea and visit with her friends and take walks.

I took her last two photos from her blog to post here to remember her by. This last photo she had on her blog is of a tea candle in the leaf trivet, it's so fitting of her to leave a bit of light behind when she went away.

      

Here is her wonderful and constant companion Buddy.

 She said he could not be a show dog because his eyes were one brown and one blue, but that is very unique and kind of cool to me, how silly for that not to be a show dog!
It's all I can imagine is Buddy looking everywhere for his beloved Elizabeth.

Good Bye Elizabeth I will miss you so much!  

Happy October 1st

The weather has turned to fall just in time for the first day of October, I cannot believe that fall is here, it seems like a long year to me, but at the same time, time seems to be flying by.

This week I was very busy, Shock!, Steve had the five days off like I said in my last post, I spent a day with Kirsten and Rylan and we made flowers, we are working on a project. We are using McGill's Paper Punches to make the flowers.

Here is the flower we made. Kirsten made the flower I painted the edges and cut the shapes using the punches. Didn't it turn out so pretty? this is a sunflower.

Here is a photo I took of Rylan and Kirsten while they were here.  

Rylan is 6 weeks old already, he sleeps to much during the day and then cries all evening long driving Kirsten to tears. I told to try and stimulate him during the day to keep him awake a bit. 

He is so cute but still so tiny. Newborn clothes are still a bit big on him.

On Thursday my mom came up and we made two chocolate pecan pies for Shane's birthday.  Friday I had the family over that's 9 of us now not including Glenn, Kirsten's husband who is on the road or Rylan who is to young to sit at the table.  I have a growing family!

I have a recipe that I make a lot for myself that I made up and thought I would share it with you. I have pretty much given up beef and am eating only fish, chicken and turkey, that is not to say that I never have a steak or some other type of meat, but generally I don't eat it. It's not because I don't like eating beef, I do, I just think fish, chicken and turkey are healthy choices we also eat a lot more beans such as black beans and refried beans and a lot more fruit these days. We had gotten out of eating healthy and we are back on track though I did eat some pie for Shane's birthday.

Here is the recipe California Salmon Patties, it's located for download in a PDF file for easy printing on my crystal suncatcher website. 

Have a happy first day of October!

Into Nature

What a beautiful time of year.....so many great things to photograph. When I take photos of all the wonderful things God put on this earth for us to enjoy I get so excited!

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth... God saw all that he had made, and it was very good." (Genesis 1:1, 31)


Hope everyone is having a great day! I am going to see my new grandson this Friday and my daughter. Last week I went to the movies with Morgan and we seen The Smurf's it was a cute movie and I had fun seeing her and being with her. 


Steve had a mini vacation this week, five days off, so we went to dinner with friends in Old Sacramento to my favorite Restaurant called Joe's Grab Shack and then another day we went to a movie (Contagion) it was good, one day we were lazy and another we went shopping and bought an iPad (which I really really like), then another Steve went to visit a friend and I stayed home and took photos and made a fall wreath which I have not photographed yet. Imagine that! It's pretty cute and made of paper.   


I really like what blogger has done to the photos, you can see them all in a slideshow, blogger is so wonderful now and easy I am so glad I am using it! It's so much faster and easier to manage then wordpress, which you yourself have to constantly update, which is a HUGE pain for the busy person who just wants to write and blog. 


Click on the photos to see them in a slideshow. I l o o o v e...this feature! what do you think? I love all the new things that blogger has done it's great!


Have a great week!  

Monarch Butterfly from my Garden

Hummingbird from my garden

Roses from my garden

Garden Spider Very Big

Recap Blogger Posts

I posted several times to blogger last week all at once. I have several titles I had written and posted them all in one day when I had time, but no one had a chance to read them before I added my last post. So here they are if you care to read any of them that may interest you.

I will go back to 8-15 and start there, that's two days before baby Rylan arrived and I was super busy helping my daughter with the baby after his arrival and before.

Three Recipes for Ezekiel Bread (Ezekiel 4:9) August 15

Baby Rylan Arrives August 31

Banana, Pumpkin, Blueberry Quick Bread Recipe PDF Printable August 9

 Labor Day Weekend Fishing Trip to Sugar PIne Placer County CA August 9

The Sea (Redecorating) August 9

My Memories Digital Scrapbook Software August 9

 Our Little Owl August 10

Our Little Owl

For Kirsten's baby theme I made owls for Rylan, his quilt for one and now that he is born I crocheted a cute owl hat for him.

I did it just so we could take photos of him, but he can fit better into by winter, but for now it was fun to snap some shots of him, but he is was a wiggly worm on Tuesday and we couldn't get him to keep his eyes in the right spot. He is just learning how to focus.

    Rylan is Wearing a Cute Crocheted Baby Cap.

It's very hot and does not feel anything like September. After a nice summer we are finally get a heat wave. I am so not liking this.  

My Memories Digital Scrapbook Software

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http://www.mymemories.com/

The Sea

When Steve and I were in Monterey and Carmel in July we seen a really pretty ship clock by Rhythm. We were not able to find the clock while we were there so when I got home I went to our local jewelry shop that is a family run business. The people are so friendly there. I knew they sold Rhythm clocks so I asked to see their catalog to look for the ship clock by Rhythm. I found it quickly and it was a decent price so I ordered it and it took about three or four weeks to arrive. I was so excited to pick it up finally a few weeks ago and while I was picking it up they had two darling starfish tall candle holders, I thought perfect! so I bought two matching starfish candle holders.

I knew I had no place to put it that would fit with any themes in our house except our guest bedroom which is beach theme. I didn't want to put it in there since no one would ever see it, unless they were in the guest room.
Steve is always talking about wanting to buy some paintings to hang over our mantel in the great room so I talked to him about what he would think if we put the clock on the mantel? he liked the idea but we would need some paintings. He said he wanted a ship in the waves. Though I liked the idea of the sea, the ship and waves seemed a bit boring and perhaps a bit mysterious, and wanted something more soothing and quaint.

Two weeks ago on Saturday night about a week after Kirsten had Rylan, her husband had made it home for the week and we invited the family and mom out to dinner to have mexican food at El Chorito's. The family is my son and his wife and my granddaughter and then Kirsten and her husband and her two step kids, and baby Rylan along with my mom. We had a wonderful family dinner in celebration of our new family member. But while on the way there Steve and I took a detour to look at art and we found some we liked that was affordable. After I had purchased the clock we were out looking for some art and it was so expensive for everything we liked. In any event we happened upon some and brought it home and Steve hung it above our mantel and it looks great! We're very happy with our new look and I am very happy we didn't have to repaint our one cranberry wall!

The new paintings is of a little town in Italy by the sea il mare, il Maditerraneo. To the west of Italy is the Ligurian Sea (Mar Ligure), and to the Tyrrhenian sea (Tirreno).
Traditionally Italy villages are constructed by protective locations, often in the hills above the sea and that is what these paintings remind me of. I think it looks a bit like Taormina, Sicily, but I am not sure about the Palm Tree in the painting, I just never really thought Italy had Palm Trees.

The little mirrors inbetween the paintings were taken from the guest room and brought into the great room to seperate the paintings, they have little starfish, clamshells and nautical's around the mirrors.  

I also finally removed the blue and white birds from the mantel to keep it simple and clean.

The white candles were removed and replaced with buttercup gold candles. 

Labor Day Weekend Fishing Trip to Sugar PIne Placer County CA

We had a great fishing trip this past Labor Day weekend to Sugar Pine for a little fishing trip. I was surprised the Lake was so gorgeous tucked away in a serene and not crowded atmosphere located in Placer County CA, not far from our home near Foresthill, it was not over crowded at all for Labor Day weekend.

My husband had been there fishing before with our neighbor, but I had never to the lake. The lake is a watershed to the American River and boating is only allowed at low speed. The lake is surrounded by Sugar Pines and apparently there is a path all around the lake that was hiked throughout the day as we were there by several hikers, the lake is easy for hiking. Though we did not hike around the lake we fished from the bank, we were not able to catch any fish other then a tiny trout that we threw back into the lake. I was thinking because it was Labor Day weekend and many were swimming near us that we were not seem to catch any fish.

All and all it was worth the short drive from our home because there was no traffic to fight to get there going through sleepy Foresthill. The Foreshill bridge looked to be having updating but we escaped the inconvenience because of the holiday. The lake has a camping ground area and they were full. We will definitely be back for another fishing trip really soon and hopefully catch some trout or bass.

Here are some photos I took of the lake, it's just gorgeous. We brought our little pups Edee and Effie on our fishing trip and I brought little beach chairs for them to sit on because they are pampered pets. The jumped right up in them like they deserved them and knew the chairs were for them.

Happy Fishing!