Monday Recipe - Kentucky's Benedictine Spread

This spread is as much a Kentucky Derby tradition as mint juleps, y'all.  It is a genuine Kentucky creation - developed by a Louisville caterer in the late 1890's.  It's so simple, yet so refreshing!  It was originally used as a filling for little finger sandwiches, but it's also a lovely dip.

Benedictine Spread

1 - 8 oz. package cream cheese, or Neufchatel Cheese, softened
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1/4 cup grated cucumber, drained well with paper towel
2 tsps. finely chopped green onions with tops
1 drop green food coloring
Dash of hot sauce, if desired

Blend all ingredients together and mix well.  Serve as a dip, or use to spread for finger sandwiches.

Blue Monday - My Grandchildren

For Blue Monday:

Three of my grandchildren visited recently.

Here's a door tag to hang on your kitchen door when you

decide you need to go outside for a while and take a break.

Take the Door Tag Challenge!

Happy Mother's Day

SoArtful Challenge - Spanish Alley

We were presented with a lovely street scene for this week's Soartful Challenge. 

And this is the first thing I thought of.

Another Door Tag

Here's another door tag to inspire you.  Please enter the Door Tag Challenge!

Gingersnap Creations Challenge GC101 - Lonesome Dove

This is for Gingersnap Creations Chestnut Theme Challenge GC101 - Cowboys and Cowgirls.  My favorite cowboys are Gus and Call from Lonesome Dove.

I used a tutorial from Cassie's Craft Spot to create the rope 'flowers.'  Thanks, Cassie.  Check out her blog. She is involved in a flower creation blog hop this weekend.

What's rocking your world this Friday?

What's rocking MY world?

1.  My ever-lovin' cats. - Yesterday while I was getting ready for work, Fanny stepped into the shower stall, turned around and stared at me.  Now, staring at me is what Fanny DOES, so that was no surprise.  What WAS a surprise was that I have never seen her get in the shower stall before.  When I walked to the kitchen and passed the cat feeding area, I saw that the water bowl was BONE DRY.  So - do you think she was trying to tell me?

2.  My daughter Suzanne.  - I'm heading back to Kentucky to visit over the Memorial Day weekend, and Suzanne has told me that she and Jeff have decided to tie the knot that weekend!  Do you think I should wear my new hat?

3.  Door Tags. - My idea to alter door tags literally came out of the blue.  I picked up the company mail, and included with it was an advertisement in the shape of a DOOR TAG!  That was all it took for me to get excited and inspired to post my first challenge!  Please join in.

4.  Pollen.  - It's been a few weeks now since light yellow dust started descending, seemingly, from the heavens to coat everything it touches and make it look fuzzy.  That sent everyone, including me, to their allergy specialists for meds to cope with Atlanta's horrendous pollen and mold.  I'm starting to get used to it -- I THINK.  Just in time to start dealing with Atlanta's horrendous heat!

5.  New Art Projects!  A torso to alter, a challenging challenge from the Gingers, a Japanese bell project, paper mache projects, fabric flowers, Japanese paper dolls, moos, a new bracelet pattern, making gift tins, a bookmark swap, some new watercolor painting subjects.  Those things are on my SHORT LIST of things I want to do!

Here's a LOLcat to keep you laughing.

Want to see more?  Did you know I have a LOLcat blog?  Click here.

Leave me a comment and let me know what's rocking your world!

Friday Fill Ins

Here are this week's Friday Fill Ins:

1. “Justified” is my favorite TV show because the writing is incredible.

2. Go to page 45 of the book you're reading or of the book closest to you; go to the 6th paragraph and make a sentence out of 7 words from it: How important is the news to success?

3. I am a work in progress with many flaws.

4. I wish I could take long walks, but my knees and hips won’t let me.

5. Take some time to.think about where you’re headed.

6. Life needs a bit of craziness now and then.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to working on a collage.   Tomorrow my plans include shopping and cleaning and Sunday, I want to paint!

Door Tag

I threw together this tag tonight to give you some ideas.  This tag is for me to hang outside of my work room.

Check out my first challenge - the Door Tag challenge!

The Artful Bag Challenge - May - Playing with Paper

For The Artful Bag Challenge:  Last weekend's Royal Wedding was so inspirational.  It taught me that if I thought I had seen the craziest hats ever, I hadn't seen NOTHING yet!  So with these memories fresh in our minds, I thought it was the ideal time to play with paper and create a handbag to match Princess Beatrice's one-of-a-kind hat.  Here's the hat, in case you have forgotten. (And how COULD you have forgotten?)

And here's the paper handbag I designed:

Dress Up Challenge 2011 - Peter Paul Rubens

I created this for the Dress Up Challenge 2011.  This month our inspiration was the paintings of Peter Paul Rubens.  Rubens created lush paintings of ladies who didn't watch their waistlines.  And judging from the number of ruffs ladies in his paintings are wearing, the ladies weren't worried about comfort either!  The ruff was a very fussy collar-type accessory containing innumerable highly-starched loops.  They took a LOT of fabric to create!  And they could not have been comfortable.  I felt that my dress just had to contain a neck ruff.

That ruff took me hours to create!  I first tried to create it out of paper, but I found out very quickly that paper would not be the way to go with such a small ruff.  So I settled for ribbon and I didn't cut a length - I just started looping it and left the ribbon on the roll, not cutting until I was done.  I probably used about half of the ribbon roll!  The rest of the dress was easy by comparison.  I decided to use Juliet's fantastic dahlia fold tutorial to dress up the skirt.

Door Tag Challenge! (My first blog challenge)

Have you ever made DOOR TAGS?

Here's an idea that's new to me.  I know that a lot of you make gorgeous tags; but have you ever made a door tag?  If you're wondering what I'm talking about, I mean the type of tag that you hang on the doorknob when you stay at a hotel letting them know that you do not want to be disturbed, or to please clean your room.  Think how much fun it would be to create tags for your own home?  You could make tags for your children's rooms, for your own room.  Even the bathroom!  My creative juices really started flowing when I thought about what a neat idea this would be for gifting.  Imagine giving a gorgeously decorated "do not disturb" tag at a Bridal shower?  Gifts for students who live in dorms.  Your office at work or at home, maybe?  Happy Birthday Door Tags.  There are endless possibilities.


Are you interested in creating a door tag for a tag challenge?  Create a tag, post a photo on your blog, and come back here to add a link so that everyone can see what you created.  If there's enough interest, we might even consider a door tag exchange after the challenge is over.


There aren't many rules here.  Make the tag using paper, fabric, or any other medium you may choose.  The tag should be small enough to fit into a 4 inch by 9 inch envelope, just in case we decide to trade.  If you google DOOR TAGS, you'll see lots of ideas.  And if you google DOOR TAG TEMPLATES, you will find many types of shapes and sizes to use.  If you want your tag to utilize a ribbon hanger, that's fine.  It should just be easy to put on and take off of the door knob.  Double sided tags would be interesting.  I just KNOW that you creative people will come up with some fabulous ideas!  Here's a few pix I found on the Internet to fuel the fire:

 

Of course, there has to be a prize!  But I don't want to make this a competition.  I'm sure there will be so many gorgeous tags that it would be impossible to pick a winner that way!  To make it simple, I'll just throw all of the names into ... Random Number Generator... and choose a winner.  You may post as many tags as you like.  (I just signed up for this linkie-thingamajig and I don't think there are any limitations -- but we'll find out!).  You will get one chance to win for each tag you create and link below.  What is the prize?  I haven't decided yet - but it will be worth it!

You have until Monday, June 6 to make and link your tag.  I would like to end the challenge a bit sooner; but I'm visiting my children in Kentucky over the Memorial Day weekend, so I need to make the challelnge end the following week.  This gives you a full month to create and post tags!  Please let me know in the 'comments' section if you are interested in participating -- and I sure hope you are!

Key Tags

Lovely Les has done it again!  A while ago she posted a great tutorial that really got me going.  I have created these key tags.  Check out her tutorial to see how I did it.   The tag at the top is the one I am using currently with my own keys.  The three tags below it are ready for images that I haven't chosen yet.  This tag was really a great help to me!  Take a look here:

My grocery store tag that I carry on my keychain was so old that the hole had ripped.  I had written to the store to get another with the same number, with no response.  After I made this tag, I photocopied my grocery tag and decopaged it onto the back of the key tag.  And it works!  Thanks, Les!  Here's a tag I made for my friend, Tee.

These are so much fun to make!

Look what I got in the mail today!

From Tee's Egg Swap.  I received this darling egg from The Cranky Queen.

I had to photograph both the front and the back so you could see the entire gorgeous creation.  She said she made this in honor of my kitties.  Now, wasn't that a dear, sweet thing to do?  Why, she's not cranky at all!  Thank you so much, Tiff.  I will really treasure this.

Experimenting with the Dahlia Fan Tutorial

I am so inspired by Juliet's Dahlia Fan Tutorial! I have many things I'd like to try with this technique.  Over the weekend I experimented using scallop-edged circles to create the 'petals.'

I thought it would take 10 petals to complete the circle, but I think that was too many.  So I glued a petal - north, south, east, and west - in the middle of my larger scalloped circle.  Then I glued a petal in between each of those petals.  So I used a total of 8 petals to complete this design.   I think if I had not used the scalloped circles, 10 petals would have fit.  Anyway, this was just an experiment. One of many to come! 

Ruby Tuesday - at Callaway Gardens

This photo was taken last year during a visit to Callaway Gardens.

Blue Monday - A shopping find!

This is for Blue Monday. 

I just find the darndest things at the Goodwill!

Monday Recipe - "Nobody Better Steal My...Grape Butterfinger Salad!"

Pictured: 1/2 recipe with too much dressing

One of my painting friends served this salad at a get together.  Now, I'm diabetic and I thought I would pass.  But one after the other, my friends all tried it and were raving; so I tried a spoonful.  Oh my goodness - what an incredible flavor!  I've never tasted anything quite like this!  You must try this recipe.  Take it to a pot luck dinner and you will be the hit of the event!

The recipe calls for you to use 2 different colors of seedless grapes.  This is mostly because the dish is prettier if you do.  At my Publix store, red grapes were $1.79 a pound and green grapes were $4.99 a pound.  So I used all red grapes.  It really tastes the same anyway.  I think the dish would go farther if you halved the grapes; but that's a lot of work.

Internet versions of this recipe call for a lot more white and brown sugar; but my friend said she used a lot less than the recipe called for and believe me, it was delicious just as it was!  I used Splenda and Brown Sugar Splenda.  Of course, there is no diet-conscious substitution for the Butterfingers!

GRAPE BUTTERFINGER SALAD 

2 cups red seedless grapes
2 cups green seedlessgrapes
4 oz of fat free cream cheese, softened to room temperature
1/2 C fat free sour cream
2 tbsp. of sugar
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 crushed up butterfinger candy bars on top.

Just mix together everything except the grapes and candy bar.  Fold in the grapes.  Put in a pretty bowl and top with the crushed up butterfingers.  The amount of butterfinger depends  on how deep/wide your bowl is.  If you have leftovers, I'll be very surprised!

This is not a quilt blog, but...

My niece, Barbara, makes beautiful quilts and works part time at a quilt store. I visited her shop a couple of years ago and was amazed at the fabulous fabrics available for making quilts!  I don't have the urge to make quilts at this time; but who knows what will happen in the future?  Meantime, I know that quilt fabric stores are great sources for lovely fabrics to use in collage and other artwork.  With that in mind, I visited Red Hen Fabrics in Marietta Saturday.  It was a lovely visit!  I got to see lots of lovely quilts and found some nice little fabric remnants.  Here are some pictures.

Here's what I bought:

The blue fabric at the top of the photo is a fat quarter.  I really fell in love with this fabric!  The next 4 pieces are "fat eighths" which contain plenty of fabric for artwork.  The geisha fabric at the bottom is 1/4 yard.  These pictures were so pretty!  You can look for these things to show up in my artwork.

Fan Card

I used Juliet's tutorial to create this card. This is the first time I tried the tutorial, and I'm not completely happy with the color combinations on the fan.  It's going to be so much fun trying different combinations!  I really love the dahlia fold.