Springy dessert to make...

 Thinking about spring...and wanted the taste of summer (strawberries!)

 

Strawberry Sigh Layered Dessert

I love layered desserts. They always look so pretty.

It is kind-of similar to another of my favorites, our Pineapple Dream Dessert, but different enough that it warrants its' own blog.

I named it "Strawberry Sigh" because you can't help but let out a dreamy *siiiiiiiiiiiiigh* after you taste it. I ate soooooo much of this the other day I thought I was going to explode. It's probably best you don't make this unless you have some guests to share it with. Just warning you.

Strawberry Sigh

Ingredients

Crust

1 cup pecans, finely chopped

1 cup flour

1/2 cup butter, melted

First Layer

1 pkg (8 oz) cream cheese, softened

1 cup icing sugar

2 cups Cool Whip, thawed

Second Layer

1 pkg (6 oz) Strawberry Jello mix

1 1/2 cups boiling water

2 cups frozen strawberries (chopped)

Topping

2 cups whipping cream

2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 375. Spray a 9 x 13 pan lightly with cooking spray. Set aside.

Crust - Combine pecans, flour, and melted butter in a medium bowl until well mixed. Press firmly into prepared 9 X 13 pan. (If you have trouble with the crust sticking to your hands as you press it down - keep dipping your fingers in a bowl of water and that should help.)

Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

1st Layer - In a medium bowl, beat together the cream cheese and icing sugar. Stir in the 2 cups of Cool Whip. Carefully spread over cooled crust. (It helps to drop it by the spoonful over the crust and then gently spread it together.)

2nd Layer - Whisk together strawberry Jello and boiling water until Jello has dissolved. Stir in frozen, chopped strawberries. Let Jello thicken slightly in fridge and then pour over cream cheese layer.

Topping - Whip cream, sugar, and vanilla with electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Spread over Jello layer.

Cover and chill for at least 4 hours. (I covered mine and chilled it over overnight as our dinner party wasn't until the next day.)

You can try and just eat a small piece but.....good luck with that.

This is a nice, light dessert to follow a heavy meal.

Or...you know....for breakfast....

What?

It has strawberries...strawberries are fruit....

You are supposed to eat fruit for breakfast...

Be sure to stop by The Rustic Pig and Kitchen Fun With My 3 Sons for some great links.

Blue Willow hooked design

Blue Willow  From Christine Little Designs- encompassingdesigns.com     Want to hook this for my dining room.  Never thought I would buy a design as I can draw...but this saves a huge amount of time getting it all perfect.  Im going to buy this and hook it.

For all you Blue Willow fans, but don't feel that you have to hook this piece in the traditional blue and white.  Add colour to give the pattern a new dimension.  I have a beautiful plate with the willow design done in deep colours of golds, teals, blues and reds and I would send along a picture if you wish to go the nontraditional route. 

#3 - #6 Cuts

Size: 32 1/2" x 45"
Burlap - $78.95
Linen - $106.58

---

Learning as we age

 From Deanne Fitzpatrick's blog page....she was talking about getting older.  I love this and wanted to share:


The following is from one of our famous journalists, Regina Brett, who is 57. I think all of you will enjoy it!
- Regina Brett’s (Cleveland Plain Dealer columnist) 45 life lessons and 5 to grow on
To celebrate growing older, I once wrote the 45 lessons life taught me.
It is the most-requested column I’ve ever written.
My odometer rolls over to 50 this week, so here’s an update:
1. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
4. Don’t take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don’t have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It’s more healing than crying alone.
8. It’s OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first paycheck.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
12. It’s OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don’t compare your life to others’. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn’t be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don’t worry; God never blinks.
16. Life is too short for long pity parties. Get busy living, or get busy dying.
17. You can get through anything if you stay put in today.
18. A writer writes. If you want to be a writer, write.
19. It’s never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don’t take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don’t save it for a special occasion. Today is special.
22. Overprepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don’t wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give time time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will. Stay in touch.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn’t do.
35. Whatever doesn’t kill you really does make you stronger.
36. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood. Make it memorable.
38. Read the Psalms. They cover every human emotion.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else’s, we’d grab ours back.
41. Don’t audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
42. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
43. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
44. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
45. The best is yet to come.
46. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
47. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
48. If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
49. Yield.
50. Life isn’t tied with a bow, but it’s still a gift.
Warmly,
Marianna

Books suggested to read by Erica Baumeister:  I love her books so I want to read some of these books...it feels like we would have the same sort of taste...if I love her work!

The Art of Eating – MFK Fisher
The Awakening – Kate Chopin
Baby – Patricia McClachlan
Bel Canto – Ann Patchett
Beloved – Toni Morrison
Blackbird House – Alice Hoffman
The Blind Contessa’s New Machine – Carey Wallace
Broken For You – Stephanie Kallos
Chocolat – Joanne Harris
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant – Anne Tyler
Emma–- Jane Austen
Enchanted April – Elizabeth von Armin
Garlic and Sapphires – Ruth Reichl
The Giant’s House–- Elizabeth McCracken
The Girl in Hyacinth Blue – Susan Vreeland
Guernica – Dave Boling
Here at Eagle Pond – Donald Hall
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
The Language of Baklava – Diana Abu-Jaber
The Lottery and Other Stories – Shirley Jackson
The Madonnas of Leningrad – Debra Dean
My Family and Other Animals – Gerald Durrell
A Natural History of the Senses – Diane Ackerman
Olive Kitteridge – Elizabeth Strout
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake – Aimee Bender
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek – Annie Dillard
A Room With A View – E.M. Forster
West with the Night – Beryl Markham
The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman

How to Find More Time for the Things that Mean the Most to You This Year

“Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week’s value out of a year while another man gets a full year’s value out of a week.”
Charles Richards

There are many important things in life.
Your family and friends. A hobby perhaps. Working out and staying healthy. Reading, learning and growing as person.
But finding the time for what is most important in life is not always easy. It sometimes feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day.
But even if it may not feel like it, there are often ways to improve how you use your time. In this article I’ll share some of the most effective strategies I have found for doing so and for shaking yourself out of a rut and reconsider how you actually spend your time.
Focus.

With a lack of focus on what is most important in your life it becomes easy to spend too much time and energy on aimless actions or work. On things that aren’t really that important but you do out of old habit or other unhelpful reasons.

To become more focused:

• Write down your top 4 priorities where you see them every day. To keep your attention in the right place it is essential to remind yourself every day of what is truly most important to you. So think about it and reduce what is important in your life at this moment to the top 4 most important priorities. Write those four things down on two notes and post one in your workspace and one your night table.
• Reduce distractions. Ask yourself: what are the 3 most common distractions that keep me from doing my work in a focused way? Figure out how you can prevent those things from distracting you. It could be by shutting the door to your office, by putting your phone on silent mode for an hour at a time or by having notifications for email shut off.
• Find balance. If you just work and work you will quickly become unfocused and the longer the week drags on the more tired you become. To work smarter try using a timer – on your cell phone or use an egg-timer – and set it for 45 minutes. Then put in a drawer or somewhere where you can’t see it.
  During those 45 minutes dive in and immerse yourself in the no-distraction zone and your work until the clock rings. Then set you timer for a 15 minute break where you get away from your work space if possible. Take a walk, go for a snack or have a conversation about something else than work.

Simplify.

One of the smarter ways to simplify your life and to free up time that we explore quite a bit in the 31 Days to a Simpler Life Course is to set limits.

Here are a few key areas that you can set powerful limits for:

• Your daily input. Reduce the number of blogs, newsletters, magazines, book clubs, podcasts, TV-shows etc. you follow. Just keep the ones you are really getting something out of.
• Email. Just check and process your email during one chunk of time once per day. Instead of checking it 10 times or more each day.
• Social activities. Write down a list of the social activities you are involved in after school or work. Maybe you are involved in a club or an activity that it is not as fun or rewarding as it used to be. Maybe you want to rearrange your priorities a bit to focus on something else this year.

Minimize or eliminate.
What else can you eliminate or minimize besides the things listed above? Some meetings at work or in school? Redditing or some online forum you hang out on a lot?
Question and reconsider your own habits regularly instead of moving along in the same old tracks just because it what you usually do. See if you want make changes to make more room for things you would honestly get more out of.
Find unnoticed free time in your day.

One final tip. There is often quite a bit of open travel- or waiting-time during a year. What will you use your such time for this year? Perhaps you would like to read more while riding the train or listen to audio books while waiting for a meeting to start or while you are out driving your car.

Even if you only have 20 minutes of commuting time each day then you still have a many, many hours in a year that you may want to, at least partly, use in a new way.

Image by bogenfreund (license).


P.S: If you are serious about making small and big changes that matter and that stick in 2013 then join us in one of the Positivity Blog courses:

- Stop feeling lousy about yourself and start creating a life of self-love where you feel you deserve good things and happiness and dare to follow your dreams - with The Self-Esteem Course.

- Minimize the clutter and the unnecessary. Maximize your relationships, health, effectiveness and the things that mean the most to you - with the Simplicity Course.

- One small task each day for 31 days to simplify your life step by step - with The 31 Days to a Simpler Life Course.

Copyright 2006-2013 Henrik Edberg.

Here is my rug that I am still working on.......but I am trying to do hooking on it at least 2o min a day.  Its working...I see progress.  I read somewhere ...dont worry about finishing...think about starting each day...each day a new start...and then it will get done...a different way of looking at it I like.

Wondering what this would look like in all blues and whites and greys...again, just for myself...my living room as a rug.

 Want to do this as a quilt ....there is a show coming up about children....but not sure I have the time to finish it by the show.  Would be fun to find the fabrics for this quilt...all those cute happy prints are so in right now.

 I want to needlework these for my living room

This took forever

I saw this on a page on The Welcome Mat..and she found it on Pinterest...dont know where...sorry......I laughed and laughed ...This definitely has to go on everything I make!  Let everyone know....THEY BETTER APPRECIATE this gift!  It took forever...with LOVE and CARE to make...just for them.  Even if I made it myself...to remind me to appreciate what I finished!!!!

Making slippers of wool

 From Wanda at The Welcome Mat...wanted to have it where I could get at it later!  How fun to decorate these when done!!!