beans, beans, the magical fruit... hee hee

yep! that's what's for dinner~chili beans and cornbread. i just know my granny would be so proud of me if she were down here, in southern california, to partake in this lovely dinner i'm fixing for tonight. i mean i even have a smoked hamhock in the beans!

(photo not indicative of tonight's actual meal. for illustration purposes only. it's actually the pic from the dinner odie and i fixed a couple of weekends ago~he made the beans. i made the bread. it was a great and delicious collaboration hee hee!)
i would like to thank albers for making the best cornmeal on the planet! having albers made my cornbread come out so fabulously! here's my recipe if you'd like to try it:
bella's cornbread~
preheat oven to 400 degrees. place 10" cast iron skillet w/fat(smart balance/butter/bacon fat) into oven to melt and swirl around the pan. once melted remove from oven and pour into a ramekin to cool. place skillet aside.
1 1/4 c albers cornmeal
3/4 c unbleached all purpose gold medal flour
2/3 c c & h granulated sugar
1 T + 1 t calumet baking powder
1/3 t arm and hammer baking soda
1/3 t morton salt
1/4 c 8th continent vanilla soy milk
3/4 c horizon organic fat free milk
2/3 c (melted) smart balance or butter or bacon fat (hee hee yeah this is the naughty part of my cornbread)
1 egg, beaten
combine wet ingredients in bowl of kitchenaid w/paddle attachment. whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl until well mixed. with the mixer on low, stir dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until incorporated a bit. add cooled fat and stir on low until well incorporated. remove bowl from mixer. pour batter into skillet and bake 20-26 minutes. edges of bread will detach from sides of skillet when done and center will be firm.
bon appetit!
i hope your weekend meal is just as hearty and tasty! thanks for stopping by, amigas, and supporting my blog! i truly appreciate you!
abrazos y amor,
bella

slip-up saturday

yep, it's slip-up saturday! hee hee! too tired to post a "facebook friday" on top of other posts yesterday hee hee!
ciao amigas! how was your week?! i hope it was fabulous and blessed! mine?! o-m-g, long! here's how it went
monday~looked for mia. it's so hard for me to let go and truly admit that the "urban coyotes" may have gotten her. but the more time goes on, so it seems. :-(
tuesday~looked for mia and worked on my stampin' studio. called my grandmother. she was in the hospickle(hee hee didn't you just love the rugrats?) bless the lord it wasn't anything too, too, serious.
wednesday~early in the morning i went to pick up ciaran-liam. omg! i love that little snugglebug! he is so sweet and loving. i get weepy at night though because i wish miabella was snuggling with us. take a look at his beautiful green eyes, mills took this pic(not sure if it's a self portrait or one of ciaran-liam hee hee):

o-m-g! he's such a lovebug!
later on in the afternoon i went to the dr. when i got home, my other dr. called and said that i need a diagnostic mammogram of the left breast with ultrasound, an abdominal ultrasound because they saw a cyst on my liver on the breast mri, and biopsies on my right breast. i told the scheduler that we can set up appointments for the non-invasive stuff but as far as biopsies were concerned i was going to seek a second opinion. i just feel like i've been going to the hospital for something almost every single week since august. i'm getting worn out hee hee! i need to stay in bed and rest more!
thursday~ watched conchobhar-versace and ciaran-liam wrestle each other and just mostly rested. the weather has been sporadic and i've been so tic'y and achy. a sore scratchy throat and sleep deprivation just made me want to lie in bed mostly. and it doesn't help that mills sleeps when she gets home then decides at 2200 every night she needs help with her geometry. i just had to tell her, "i help with homework between 1430 and 2000, please do not ask me at 2200 because i will say no"
friday~slept in. yea! been having a lot of insomnia this week and it's just been hard to get to sleep before 0300 most nights. i got my appointments scheduled at the breast care center/radiologist. 29 september i'll be getting everything done(sans the biopsies). in the evening i called and checked on my grandmother. she was back home in sacramento and doing quite well.
 today~arranged furniture in my studio and unpacked more stuff. i also watched the boys wrestle and play. i always love when cats and dogs can play and be so good to/with each other. i have such lovely kids! hee hee!
well amigas, i hope your weekend will be safe and fun! thanks for stopping by and see you next week! i have a few projects to share so bolo for those!
abrazos y amor,
bella

simply the best!

omg! i've totally been dying to show you my first project with my simply scored scoring board!

it's simply fabulous! i'm so happy i waited to purchase a scoring board until now. stampin' up! has really hit the mark with this one (the one thing i wish it did was start at 1/16" increments but its 1/8" increments rock, too)! it has a comfortable stylus to make your score lines with and awesome little place markers for if you have several projects to score in the same place! stampin' up! was brilliant to include a little compartment on the scoring board to store extra place markers and even a small treat or bone folder! i absolutely adore it!
so the first thing i created with it was a never-ending birthday card for my dear friend, anett's daughter, anne. i have been waiting to show it to you because i wanted anne to get her card all the way in germany first. so...i received a message from netti, that they received my little packages., so now i'm finally ready to share the little card i created with you. you can see more views of it on netti's blog.


i used the dsp and card stock from my starter kit! yea!
i hope you like it! this card signifies three firsts for me~ 1. it's my first never-ending card. 2. my first project i made using my simply scored. and 3. it's the first thing i created with my starter kit components!
thanks for stopping by and supporting my blog!
abrazos y amor,
bella

purr...purrrrr...purrrrrrr...

that's all ciaran-liam has done since they handed him to me today! yep, he's finally home!
omg! he's just the sweetest little kitty you'd ever want to know. i know mia would just adore him if she were here (yes, i checked again for her, at the shelter today, but she wasn't there nor was she on the "deceased list" :-(  i will just have to look on a weekly basis for as long as it takes). i think the name ciaran is quite fitting since he's a little black kitten and it's so cool he has little brown stripes in his fur when you look at him in the sun. it's like he's a mini jaguar! lol! he is also a snuggler and a kisser! he will jump onto your lap and kiss you square on your nose or lips! too funny! he's a little casanova kitty hee hee!  i told mills i should have named him "shadow" because he follows me everywhere like a puppy.
speaking of puppies, he gets on great with his big brother conchobhar-versace. they're really close in age and i think it's a good thing because they're both young enough to grow up with each other. conchobhar-versace was born on 19 february and ciaran-liam was born on 25 march. so it's fun they have a playmate (and when mia gets home, she will, too)!
omg! it's like, i can't even tell you how excited i am to have him home, finally! of course i had to document the day with a few photos!  so i made a quick page in mds with pics from my webcam(the only camera i have right now lol).
take a look at my new little purrmeister:

i took these pics, like as soon as we got home from the shelter! yes, before i gave him a bath! rofl we all know my germ ocdness hee hee! but,  o-m-g! he was so odiferous! yuck! ewww! i don't know what that smell was. now he smells like lavender baby bath, though. hee hee! and he's all shiny and  sleek, like a clean panther, now. hee hee! oh, and btw, he handled the bath quite well. he's just a sweet, sweet little boy. he reminds me a lot of mia (i know that's how i was so attracted to him everytime i saw him). he loves and purrs on anyone that holds him, just as she would. he stays right by me or where he can see me, just as she would, too! i'd have to say, i didn't know i would meet such a lovely little boy (and fall so in love even through my grief) on all the trips we made to the animal shelter to look for miabella, but i'm really, really happy to be able to have him! he is definitely bringing some light into the darkness i've felt since mia went missing.
thanks for stopping by and sharing in my joy with the new addition to "our pride"(omg! speaking of pride, if i don't see the lion king before it leaves over the next couple of weeks i may go cuckoo! hee hee! i love, love, love that movie! the seven/eight weeks i was on bedrest, when i was preggers with mills, i would just lie in bed and watch the lion king vhs over and over(among other things)! after she was born it's one thing that i could turn on to soothe her and make her less fussy! hee hee!). it's hump day so enjoy the rest of your week, amigas! hasta viernes!
abrazos y amor,
bella

well, actually, it's not a slip-up i was just too tired and/or tic'y to post yesterday.
anyway, ciao, amigas! how was your week?! my week was pretty eventful! here's how it went:
monday: online searching for miabella a bit. relaxed a bit. last day to have summer "girl time" with mills.
tuesday: school started! woo hoo! so nice to have time to myself during the day w/o being nagged! oh what a fabulously restful day it was...until she called home and said she had to come home because of a mistake on her registration card! agh!
wednesday: even better than tuesday, she attended school all day! later, in the evening, i took a look at a couple of tutorials on youtube and i learned how to make/create my own blog blinkies! so i stayed up until...
thursday: 0830 this morning working on it to get it just right! don't worry, nels already chewed me out about not getting rest/sleep. i just couldn't rest until i got the blinkie to blink the way i wanted it to.  you will get to see the blinkie(on my sidebar) once i'm done working on my tutorials for opening day. so bolo for that. :-)
friday: called the shelter because, once again, i saw a cat online that favored miabella an awful lot and i wanted to see if it was her. no, it wasn't. so my eyes started raining. my eyes were raining quite a bit today because i had another dream that miabella made her miabooboo(maine coon) sound and jumped on the bed to lie next to me. but it was just a dream. i also called the other orange county shelter near our home to see if she was there and also to check on "cat doe". later in the evening, chatted on the phone with my aunt up north until...
saturday: like 0300ish this morning. fell asleep around 0400ish and was awakened at 0630 by mills' alarm for school. i fell back to sleep then i was startled awake by the sound of hail hitting the roof and windows really forcefully because of the wind. it was a beautiful sight to see but i wasn't so pleased to be awakened so early by it. nor was the startled awake panic attack pleasant. ;-) hee hee. it was a good wind, rain, hail, lightening, and thunderstorm for sure! i finally fell asleep again after 0830/0930 (it all ran together i was so tired). lol! i also received a phone call this morning that "cat doe" was still sick and i could either wait until the 14th when his meds would be done or i could adopt him w/take-home meds. once i awakened again, in the afternoon, i called and i was told he was ready for adoption and if i got there by 1600(4pm) i could adopt him today! so that's what i did! he comes home monday, after his neuter surgery is done. so, though we're still looking for and missing miabooboo, we have added to our pride by one. his name is no longer "cat doe". he will be known as ciaran-liam. yes, sticking to my scotch-irish roots and giving him a fitting irish name as he is a black cat. hee hee!
well, i hope you all will have a fabulous weekend and safe patriot day. we will observe a moment of silence for my uncle that died on united flight 93(my aunt natalie's brother). have a blessed rest of the weekend and thank you for stopping by and supporting my blog!


abrazos y amor,
bella

tgifacebook friday

ciao, amigas! what a long busy week! omg! i'm worn out this week! here's how my week went:
monday~ we went to funeral services for my dear great-grandmother. o-m-g! the SPIRIT was so present, it took your breath away!  it's an incredible feeling to feel the spirit so strong!
 tuesday~i mostly sat around home and rested. i had a lot of tics and speech problems, so i just stayed around the bed today. i did make it out to the post office to mail some little things. twenchie may be pleasantly surprised when she opens her envelope. hee hee!

wednesday~i mailed some cards to a couple of my great-aunts. grandmother's passing really prompted me to get out of denial regarding the mortality of women in my family. i suppose since grandmother was well into a century old i took it for granted that we'd have five maybe even six generations of girls going for a long time. i still have four great-aunts to get cards out to. i'm also going to send cards to other family members. you know, there's no time like their living years to let the ones you love know that you do. grandmother's funeral snapped me out of my habit of procrastinating!
i tried to adopt my little kitten today but after everything was said and done, it didn't come home with me because it has a kitty version of kennel cough. oh and the funny story~all of this time, as i've been going over to the shelter to look for miabella in the kennels and on the "deceased list", i've been visiting with this little kitten and it's supposed to be a girl. rofl after i filled out my adoption paperwork i was allowed to wash my hands and go hold "her". well when i went to put "her" back into the kennel i noticed "she" was indeed a "he" if you catch my drift! rofl! so instead of naming her stella, as i'd hoped, i'll be naming him ciaran-liam. so i'll have conchobhar-versace(omg just realized i've been leaving off the "n" in conchobhar!) and ciaran-liam(he's a black kitten with gorgeous green eyes) :-) he looks a lot like the kitten pictured below:

thursday~ more bedrest. it's been a tic'y week hee hee! i am really worn out this week. it's like not only do the spasms hurt, they're tiring! but you know, it's like an earthquake, you just have to get into the doorjam and ride it out! that's how i always view my dystonic storms. i was able to sleep a lot today and really rest.

friday~ this morning i awakened to the sound of woody in our bamboo in the backyard. huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huh huhhhhhhh! yep a woodpecker was in our bamboo! he looked just like this:

just kidding! hee hee! he actually looked more like this:


 had my breast mri early this afternoon. it wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be. lynn and chris were very fabulous at making me feel as comfortable as possible. i was mainly concerned with getting too hot or too cold thereby setting off more dystonic tics but they kept me comfortable. i didn't need a sedative afterall! it was about 20 minutes or so~a far cry different than the one i had for 60+ mins at the huntsman. i have to admonish all of you to remember to perform your bse's and keep your mammogram appointments!

mills decided to put a red patch in my hair. she says it didn't have ammonia in it, but, omg!, it burned. she washed it out and put conditioner on it. we'll see how it turned out.  i'll post pics once it's all dry.~like tomorrow hee hee!
over the weekend~going to rest and keep working in my studio. going with odie bear to his best friend's bbq and bowling birthday party on sunday. i hope my bowling arm will be up to par hee hee so i can have a great game hee hee! you'll be calling me "the dude" next week hee hee!


 this is labor day weekend. it's the end of summer! please stay safe, amigas! enjoy your nice long weekend! happy back to school! yay! school starts tuesday for us! woo hoo! as always, thank you so much for stopping by and for your support!



abrazos y amor,
bella