Wednesday, April 21, 2010

I'm all random today. Sorry.

 **My brisket came out FABULOUS, if I must say so. (And who else around here is going to say it for me, right? lol) I ended up just making my own recipe out of a hodge podge of recipes that some of my favorite bloggers had posted/stuff I readily had on hand. It basically boiled down to: 1 cup ketchup, 1/2 bottle of chili sauce, 5-6 cloves of peeled/crushed garlic, TB of dry mustard, packet of onion soup mix, 1/4 cup of so of brown sugar, and 2 chipotle chilis (and a little of the adobe sauce they come in). Mix it up, marinade if you want, stick in the crock-pot on low for 8-10 hours. Skim off the fat when it's done and then reduce the sauce on it's own in a pan. Throw sauce over meat and eat. YUM! Only thing I would do differently? Add more chipotle peppers. Those things are killer hot (to me) but two didn't seem to give it any heat at all. At least not for a 5 1/2 lb. brisket. So MORE HOT PEPPERS next time. :)

**I would be a liar if I said I WASN'T desperately jealous at seeing this project that Mary Kathryn posted about the other day. This is so up my alley it makes me want to weep. It's incredibly detailed, endless, and epic in scale - what's not to love? I was halfway to figuring out how big a piece of linen I would need to do it myself before it dawned on me I needed a project like that like I needed a fork in the eye. WANT, BUT DO NOT NEED.Bye bye hundreds of colorful houses. *sniff*
(picture is from her flickr feed)

**I HAVE been trying to do some new beads for an update (which is long long long overdue). The problem? I'm so not into it, it's scary. I'm totally fine with doing custom orders because that seems to say 'do your job' to my head and I get to it but just doing stuff randomly on it's own? NOT FEELING IT THIS MONTH. But I'm doing a thing here and there so it will get done soon. Promise. :)

**I should do a bigger post on the nightmare about us trying to buy a new (HD) tv. The short story is: fell in love with tv, tv is too big for entertainment center, went shopping for new entertainment center, which cemented the decision that the rugs in the living room/hallway have to go and be replaced with a wood floor (continues what is already in the kitchen/dining), which led to discussions on expensive area rug to also buy. Is this normal? You start a debate about which tv to buy and you end up in a $4,000 hole? Or a theoretical hole as no money has actually been spent right now. We went through this last year when shopping for new couches and what did we end up with? NO COUCHES (STILL need those) but all new paint colors in 3/4's of the house to 'theoretically' match with the couches we liked. I feel like this time we're going to end up with new flooring (which actually *IS* needed) but no new tv. Which is no biggie because our current tv still works but we've had an HD TiVo for about 3 years now - with no HD tv. EPIC.FAIL.AT.SHOPPING.

9 comments:

Jennifer said...

Hi Melanie, Thanks for following my blog and your lovely comments.Have never seen your blog before and I love your xstitch and beads!! Beautiful. My son and I watch 'Lost' and we are on last yrs season still and catch an episode whenever we can , way behind but love it. Your pin pillow is beautiful! great photos!

Melanie said...

Thanks so much, Jennifer!!! This blogger blog is new to me this year. I used to just blah, blah, blah on the front page of my web site but there was no commenting feature and some people don't like to email so I switched to over here and it's been great! I love hopping through blogs and seeing all the goodies and eye candy. :)

Nancy said...

I'll say it too - your brisket was delicious!

That is a beautiful project Mary Kathryn is stitching! A good project to keep in mind for the future?

Melanie said...

Thanks, Nancy! :)

Pretty Things said...

I just wrote an article about losing my muse -- I can't seem to do anything new, either. But my problem is I don't want to do anything custom, either!

Melanie said...

Lori - I opened up that post you made and was going to comment but honestly, I'm so in midst of it myself I wasn't sure what to say. :(
I know for me part of the problem is not being able to walk away completely for a break to 'refresh'. I did model stitching for a needlework store for about 5 years and stitched for myself at the same time and it got to be too much so I quit it all and walked away for 5-6 years. It wasn't fun any more - it was a burden. I've only recently gotten back to it and it's been great but how does that translate to glass? Walking away for 5 years in this business means you are out of the business. Forever. So it's a much bigger step. It's hard to bridge the gap between doing enough to keep things going but not doing so much that it completely kills your desire for it and drives you insane. Fine line there indeed. :(

Dani - tkdchick said...

Wow youre right those DMC houses is an epic project
and so cool.

Leslie said...

Your brisket sounds good!

I like the DMC project too.. neat idea.

Have a good Friday.

Melanie said...

Thanks, Leslie! You too! :)

I can *see* that DMC project framed and hanging on my wall. Oh yes. *grin*