Bad Casserole and Surprise Landing

I saw this video for a Bacon and Potato Strata and thought it looked good enough to make myself.  The elements seemed tasty individually, so why not together as a casserole-type dish?

Bacon and Potato Strata by Philadelphia Cream Cheese Video

They make it seem all lovely and easy ... something you would have at a family dinner.  That is not what I got.  Even the potatoes and bacon did not cook up the same as in the video.  Just look at the difference after sampling the dish and lacking the shredded cheese.

Ughk!  (Tasted better than it looked.)

Taste-wise, without the chive and onion flavoring in the cream cheese, the "Strata" is good, however the creamy filling is not.  That creamy mixture is closer to quiche filling than a nice casserole, not that I am much of a fan of either.  The most disappointing part was feeling like I wasted a great-priced package of bacon!

On the bright side, look what dropped by this morning just outside the patio.

View directly from patio door at my eye height.

Starting to bring the balloon down.

Deflating the balloon.

A number of hot air balloons at a lower elevation this morning became thinner like the one seen in the picture above, not a result of photographic manipulation in this instance.
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Okay, I'm off now to finish the Coursera course on the Python programming language.

ABQ QCS Festival

The worst part about this show was probably the title.  There is just no easy way to say "Albuquerque Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival" and in the past 5 mins, I cannot think of a better way to say it or describe the shindig.  Textile Art Show?  ...No, the festival was more about working with fabric, primarily quilting fabric, than the creation of the fabric.  "Quilter's Creation" might work as a title but then you would loose out on the non-quilting booths.

The 9:30 AM crowd on the "slowest" day of the festival, Friday.

These days, I admire quilters and quilts but am more inspired to create wearable art of the clothing persuasion.  This is what I was hoping to see as part of the "sewing" aspect of the Festival.  Sadly, there was not a lot that could be classified as part the fashion aspect of sewing.  What modicum was there consisted of two large booths of trims and part on another booth that had vintage patterns 40s-60s for $2 each!

Once again, though, I am getting ahead of myself in the story.  

Since my Mother and I are on a limited budget and the cost of admission covered all three days of the Festival, it was decided that I would go Thursday, figure out the bus and walking route to the fair ground venue, whilst my Mother would use the same ticket on Friday.  I had just enough money to go to the Fair and an all day bus pass.  I got there super early, being the fifth person in line about an hour before the doors opened.  Perhaps it was also the green dress I had just made that brought me luck for the Door Buster Giveaway.  This being the first year for the Albuquerque Quilt, Craft & Sewing Festival, if you arrived before 9:45 AM (doors opening at 10 AM), you got a ticket for one of the $500 cash prizes.  To cut a long story short, the prizes were $100 (1), $50 (4), $20 (5), $10 (10), and I got a ticket with a green star = $50 cash!  And they gave away $500 in cash all three days so I took my Mom the next day with me and she won $50 on Friday!

Some of the free items I got on the first day, Thursday.

Now I could actually enjoy the show and not just look at booths I thought my Mother would like.  There were tons of other prize drawings at individual booths and show prizes every day, none of which I won.  Some of the exhibitors had "Make 'n Take Workshops" that were reasonably priced and still others had free hour-long seminars. With close to 60 exhibitors and all the seminars, it was well worth more than a single day's outing for the over 50 crowd. ...No, I was not the youngest person there but I was one of the few 30-somethings.

Of all the free little gifts and creative ideas on display, I was most inspired by the Less Than Traditional Quilting Charlie's Way which is a quick and easy way of making mock Cathedral Window and circular quilts without the fuse; see Charlie's Demo Here.  I have a nice stock pile of "Dia de Los Muertos" and Japanese art inspired quilting fabric that has been in want of a project for quite some time.  And isn't finding a use for your stock pile of fabric nearly as good as getting free spending money?!  ...In retrospect, it might have been better to use some of that cash for the quilt batting.

Here are some of the items I got with my $50.

All of these patterns were only $2 each!  

I only wish they had had more patterns from the 1940s.

Youthful Foray Into Quilting

Here's a quick little story from my childhood while I try to finish writing up some projects.

Previously folded block sample straight from the storage box.

When I first started to learn about sewing, quilting seemed like the best way to practice stitching and colour arrangement.  I had one quilt book, The New Sampler Quilt, but I do not recall making more than a block or two.  The colour scheme of this photographed block leaves a bit to be desired.  A reminder that the only good thing to come out of the 1980s was some of the music!


At the time, quilting seemed like a lot of precise work that I did not have the patience for during my single digit years.  Plus it would have taken a lot of allowance money to get the fabric I wanted...and there were better things to do with my time.

Even with machine sewing, not getting these notches
to match up is probably a reason why
 I did not continue with quilting.

At one point in my semi-burgeoning quilting career, I had the crazy idea that I would run away to Europe, preferably in the warmer months, and piece together a quilt to keep me warm in the winter months.  In my nine year old head I could do this with just my little Dorothy basket, cheap thread spools/needles and scraps of fabric, specifically the swatch packets my Mother got from Keepsake Quilting.  Did mention I was going to do this all by hand and with just the money in my piggy bank?!

Keepsake Quilting Swatch Bags
1 bag has 300 swatches of 1.5" sq blocks
So, the three bags have 900 squares

This is as far as I got...and not even outside the country!
14 X 8 squares hand stitched together

Probably the only decent and even stitches within the whole block!

While I still want to stop hoarding and travel to Europe, preferably before I am 40, I like to think that I know myself well enough that I will probably remain just an admirer of quilts until I loose interest in garment construction.

The Camelizer

Here is another awesome money saving tip I just found...and it's FREE!

It is called The Camelizer.  It is a nice little addition to your internet browser that only shows up when you use Amazon, Best Buy or NewEgg.

Just look at their product info:

Features

• View Camel price history charts without leaving retailer product pages.

• Easy access to the complete price history data on our site.

• Works on Amazon (US, UK, DE, FR, JP, CA), Best Buy and Newegg.

• Supports Chrome, Firefox and Safari.

This is my own "research" on the gidget for a genealogy book I am hoping to get with all my $5 Amazon redeemed SwagBucks!  This little addition shows you the lowest price, highest price (and not just Amazon's price but sellers on Amazon as well), create a price watch, and you can view price fluctuations from 1 month up to 1 year.  It sits as a tiny brown camel button next to your "favorites" star on the Chrome browser...and did I mention it does NOT cost anything?! 

Lucky Friday the 13th!

I just found two old, unclaimed and still usable, $5 Amazon gift cards on my Swagbucks gift card account!  The best part is that all of the Amazon gift cards are electronic, so I can just load up my Amazon account with these digital dollars.  Looking forward to purchasing those professional genealogy books I cannot afford.

Whoops!

Okay, that "small break" was not supposed to last nearly a month.  I had planned to update/post about the sewing convention and projects but then the temperatures jumped to 95+ degrees F (35+ degrees C) for days on end with little to no wind.  It had been the kind of heat that makes you pass out and become a the replacement bear rug.  ...I have every intention of getting back to all my projects and with any luck, doing something more with my time.  Like getting back to all those damn things I meant to do, despite the heat, and the reason for starting this blog.  And like most things, I am usually a couple of years behind trends, whether it be music, internet bursts/waves and technology, though the latter really isn't my fault since I do not have the money to keep up!  So I am thinking of doing the 101 in 1001, which is 101 accomplishments in a 1001 days, or 2.75 years.  That's not too hard, right?

Well while I am working on that list, here are some interesting things I learned today!

1. Bank of America and Visa actually want to help you save money. ...Well, have more money to invest with them but they do have some interesting ways to go about saving money via life hack ideas, or the way the grandparents did things before "time saving" products invaded our lives.  Some ideas seem worth trying:

• Don't buy dryer sheets.  Use a clean piece of aluminum foil crumpled into a 2-3 inch diameter ball instead.  Supposedly it works for up to six months; they do not say how many loads of laundry this equates to.  For that fresh smell of dryer sheets, read the rest of the article to learn more.
• Find out which items of clothing you wear most often and donate the rest by "turn the hanger around when placing an item back on the rack. After one year, the clothes that are still on backwards hangers can go, and then rest can stay."
• And not sure how to make a meal with those leftovers in the fridge?  They recommended this site: bigoven.com ...find recipes, create grocery lists and plan a menu.

2. You can search the internet, shop online and get "free" perks too.  This one I did for a while two years ago and have gotten back into it this summer: SwagBucks.  Totally free and sometimes addictive, this no-card-needed site allows you to all the things you shouldn't be doing at work or school and get free stuff in return, such as gift cards from Amazon, Target, Dominos, Mortons, Royal Carribean and the like.  If you just search the internet or watch some of the videos, it will take you a while to get any "bucks" worth redeeming.  The last time I did this, in an active month, one in which I was really trying to earn SwagBucks daily, I was able to redeem ~$35 in Amazon gift cards.  The lazy way of doing it takes a bit longer.
Anywho...should you find yourself inclinded, here is my referral link, which gets us both perks: swagbucks.com/refer/exlibros 

3. Another cool thing I found today, which can also score you major points with SwagBucks if you purchase through them, are Diamond Candles!  They are exactly what you think they might be: large scented candles that have baggy sealed diamond rings in them for only $25 plus S/H.  Now, the majority of the rings are worth $10 but there are a number of real diamond rings that value at $100 to $5000!  Apparently it only takes an hour of burning to get to the ring but you still have hours left on the candle to be in aroma heaven, in 27 different varieties.  Even if you do get a $10 ring, it is still a fun gift and a new way to surprise your significant on one of those major holidays or anniversaries.

This is their video.