Saturday, September 24, 2011

It's a Mystery.. and a bit lonely

I don't know how it happened but all of my followers disappeared in one big swoop!  Okay, so there were only 10 or 11 or maybe it was even 12, but they all un-followed me at once?  Something is up here and it is not my followers number. 

Makes me want to create another blog just I can "follow" me here.

Hope your day is grand and filled with a large number of "followers" and friends,
denise/deBRAT in still hot, still muggy Florida

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Isn't this just the cutest thing?

I get a crafting email and this was in today's it is toooo cute
epatternscentral.com quilting daily I have NO affiliation to them other than getting their newsletter.  Below is the info for purchasing the pattern  as i would not want to post it here and not have given credit to the the pattern people etc I'd love to make!  Maybe next year, after a job and catching up on bills.






September 8, 2011
Scrabble Jack
Greet your trick-or-treat guests with this fun, friendly
jack-o'-lantern! It's easy and quick-to-stitch!

Size: 27" tall.

Skill Level: Beginner

Category: Quilting

ONLY $9.48
Scrabble Jack

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

First Barbeque!

My Brother gave us a bag of charcoal to use on the community grill, conveniently located just one floor down directly below are balcony.  We chose this trip to take the plunge and try our hand at charcoal grilling again.  We have owned a gas grill for at least the past 20 years if not longer so this was going to be interesting.

It takes two males of high intelligence and one female of medium intelligence to cook two steaks and four hamburgers to raw to rawer stage.   One male, who shall not be pointed out exactly, towered and lighterfluid-ed the resulting tower to get it started while one male and one female took it upon themselves to add to the verbal observations of how it should be done.

One male and one female remained at the grill once the meat was to go on.  The other male went up to the condo to nuke the yams, potatoes, peas and mixed veggies and to lay out the melon, macaroni salad, lettuce leaves and pickles for buffet style eating.

One female tried to cook two steaks and four burgers on the grill to everyone's rate of done-ness profile.  Results?  The one burger left on grill to be well done for husband/male was determined to be still raw inside.  One steak was also two raw for husband/male and that must have been really bad as on the gas grill at home I've never had him say a steak was too raw for him and I've put out some really really raw meat in the form of a steak for him.  (he likes his steaks seared on the outside rare in the middle and his burgers well done).  the other male was busy observing the steak/burger shuffle on the grill being done by yours truly as I tried to find a place to "sear' the steaks. 

After the first barbeue on a charcoal grill in some 24+ years (yes, we had some years without a grill) and some online research and that day's observations both males and the female agree that it will require a much longer cook time for all meats involved in the future.

Picture below is of the results being served on the bright orange metal plates my dear mother-in-law gave to us when we got the condo.  They made nice sturdy serving platters to transport the meat back up to the condo from the grill.  Ignore the not yet melted cheese on two of the burgers that make them look even less appetizing.

Hope your grilling days are better timed than this one was!
Below are two pictures of sunrise at the condo from our balcony.  The first one the colors are much more true as to what I was viewing.  And the second one is what the camera was automatically doing to it.

Funny thing is that when I take a picture at sunset at the beach, I am usually actually seeing something closer to the lighter-second picture of the sunrise in colors and the camera does an automatic thing that makes it look closer to the first-redder picture of the sunrise below.  Bizarre automatic setting on camera in my opinion.


Lamps are at the condo!

The lamps are set up in the condo and I love them!  The shades look crooked in the picture.
 After the bench cushions are done I think the next bit of decor for the condo should be a decision as to what to hang above the sofa.  i had my eye on a piece of artwork but it runs too orange according to the comments from purchasers.  So I am thinking I might get a few pieces of canvas and use my wonderful glaze and paint samples used on the lamps and make my own artwork to hang above the sofa.  Of course, now that we have discovered Sam's Club photo shop does poster sized prints I might have a sunset or two done up instead. 

So many options, so little wall space.