Sunday Food and Pets Post - Sore Tooth Diet

"Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet" 😕

Hi Friends :)

How is your Sunday going? I finally had a great night's sleep and I'm going to try to eat some solid food today, yippee!

🍁🍁Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends🍁🍁! 

Alex and I have decided we are postponing Thanksgiving dinner for a few days until I can really eat again. I've been on the "sore tooth diet" (coined by Joyce!) since September 25th. It's been brothy soups and milked-down pudding with the occasional herb tea - I haven't had cheese for 19 days...oh, the humanity... ME without cheese... on the plus side, so to speak, I lost 9 pounds, but I know I'll gain it all back as soon as I get back to my regular diet of comfort food!!! :) I hope next Sunday's post will be filled with delicious goodies!

This whole ordeal got me thinking about those crazy fad diets from my youth. I know these types of diets started many decades ago, but I remember a lot of them from the 1980's.

Hmmm...I would totally follow the "Wine and Cheese" diet if I could get away with it! Did you ever try any of these fad diets? 

I never did these diets, but I did eat Slim Fast bars for breakfast and lunch and Snackwells cookies for dinner! I did this a few times a week to keep my weight down. Gosh how unhealthy! Now I eat whatever I want and I cook much healthier meals; but limit my calories a few times a week to keep my weight at a healthy level.

I'm so glad I never fell for these! They are dangerous!

I was aerobics-obsessed too. I had every Jane Fonda workout, either on cassette or on video tape!

Does anyone remember the "20-Minute Workout" that ran on television in the 1980's? It was a Canadian show, so I don't know if it made it to the U.S. networks or not. I did this workout nearly every day. I have to say, it was a great workout but these women lol...they were exercising AND selling sex as they say! They were scantily dressed and the poses were so provocative! They often had that "come hither" look on their faces as they stretched out, it was a riot!

I have a gentler approach to fitness now though - walking, rebounder jogging, gentle stretching and yoga. I had to cut out the dumbbells while my sciatica was flaring up, but after my mouth is all healed, I intend to restart a weight workout three times a week. What do you do to keep healthy and active?

Marlene, Jack and Baby Oscar - is it me or do they look like they're up to something???

Another secret conference with Baby Oscar and Jack! These two are joined at the hip, it's adorable.


See you on Thursday for Rain's Art Date - our theme is Creatures In The Night!

Thursday Art Date: Horror and Scary

Hello Friends :)

Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Horror and Scary! What keeps you tucked tightly under the covers on a dark and scary night?? :) Tweety Bird was just minding his own business, heading downstairs for a midnight snack when he heard a little creak behind him. Do you believe in the Boogeyman? Though it very well could be Sylvester trying to frighten the poor little bird!!!

Sitting in a dentist chair is a scary thing. Monday's procedure went very well with my new dentist.  I'm still not eating anything solid...but my seven and a half weeks of pain are almost over. I feel like slugging that first dentist for not noticing the infection last month. How can you trust anyone these days??? Doodling helps to displace the need for vengeance lol! 😉 I'm a slow healer though, so I'm still taking pain killers. The antibiotics are finally done though. My body needs a break from pharmaceuticals.

When I was a kid, I used to watch Scooby Doo cartoons every Saturday morning. This episode scared me so much that I refused to go swimming that summer. I had nightmares! Reading Nancy from Little Homestead in Boise's post about her visit to a Maritime museum sparked this memory! (Don't worry Nancy, he doesn't scare me anymore!! ) 😊

I thought I'd create a scary looking deep sea diver in watercolour...maybe the ghost of one who was lost at sea! I took some time to look up the history of underwater diving and this contraption is called a "diving dress". They were used all the way back in the 1400's up until the early to mid 1900's. I'm still afraid of what's under me when I'm swimming in the lake though...

Here's a scary fella! The Wolf Man - I tried to recreate Lon Chaney's 1941 character in watercolour. Alex and I have been watching a scary movie every night so far this month and we intend to keep it up until Halloween! The movies vary from the old 1920's and 1930's classics to some very awesome B-movies from the 1960's and 1970's! We're saving the latest Halloween movie (2018) for October 31st! That's all for today folks! :) Please see the link  widget below and visit our friends to see what they've created for today's art date!!

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Riding Hood - Acrylics September 2017

October 17th: Next Thursday's theme is Creatures in the Night. Click on the link for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! :)

Thursday Art Date With Rain. Click on the link for a description of the art date as well as a list of upcoming themes.

Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please don't include a link unless you participate in the art date!

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Sunday Food and Pets Post - Who Wants Cookies?

Who wants cookies? Who doesn't??? :) Dana at the very top doesn't like to mingle with the pack, so this was a rare shot getting them all together! I took about 30 photos in "burst" mode and made a little animation gif! :)

Frost on the ground means Jack is now wearing his winter jacket!

Poor Charlie...she was out running like a maniac in the backyard and she somehow tore her dew claw...shudder, right down to the quick. We are healing her at home with hydrotherapy, antibacterial solution, Polysporin and bandages. She's doing well. :)

To try to keep myself distracted from my tooth pain, I've been making more cheese - a Colby and another Jarlsberg. Other than that, the only food I'm eating is still just soup and pudding. The antibiotcs finally kicked in yesterday and my molar is sore and sensitive, but I no longer have thoughts of Hari-Kari. 😉 Wish me luck tomorrow for my appointment!

See you on Thursday for some horrific and scary art!! :)

Thursday Art Date: Ghosts and Ghouls

Hello Friends :)

Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Ghosts and Ghouls. Daffy was bragging to everyone he knew that he had this Super Hero audition "in the bag" - that the producers would see how courageous he was and he'd make the perfect Super Hero! Then Bugs showed up, the stinker! I did this with Sharpies, Prismacolor Pencils and a little watercolour for the background. What did you come up with for our Ghosts and Ghouls theme?

I was inspired to paint this ghost ship after reading the legend of The Flying Dutchman - a ghost ship that is cursed to sail the oceans forever. It's said that any sailor who sees this ghost ship is doomed to the sea.

This was fun to paint! A ghoulish Reaper seeking his next victim! I painted this with watercolour.

My Old Dentist

Thanks SO MUCH to all of you who wished me well in the last post! Between going back and forth to the dentist and just the general upkeep of the house and taking care of the pets...I'm just pooped and haven't had a free moment to answer comments! But I read all of them and my heart is full of gratitude for such a wonderful community of caring people!!  💖

I basically have had nothing else going on in my life but dentistry, antibiotics, painkillers and lots of sleep. I saw the new dentist again and all should be resolved next Monday! Gosh I can't wait to be out of pain. You want a prisoner to talk? Mess with his teeth! 😧  Now that's torture...I'd sing like a canary! See you on Sunday for my weekly food and pet post (minus the food probably, I've been living on soup and pudding!)

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My Favourite Fictional Characters: The Headless Horseman, The Raven, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (January 2018, acrylics)

October 10th: Next Thursday's theme is Horror and Scary. Click on the link for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! :)

Thursday Art Date With Rain. Click on the link for a description of the art date as well as a list of upcoming themes.

Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please don't include a link unless you participate in the art date!

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Sunday Food and Pets Post - Angry Tooth 😩

Hi Everyone,

I had a great week of meals planned and I was going to share a bunch of yummy recipes...but I've only eaten a few times this week and it's mostly been soup. I have a dental issue that feels like lightning bolts going through my gums and jaw! I've been to two dentists so far and I'm on my way back tomorrow hopefully. I can't handle the pain anymore. I have an exposed nerve from a receding gum line and it's brutal. Wish me strength friends!

I'll still share some great news though! Alex and I opened the Jarlsberg cheese a few days ago and it's PERFECT!! It looks, tastes and smells just like a sweet Swiss cheese! (I posted a 3-minute video of us opening it and tasting it on Rainy Day Cheese Making) I made it at the beginning of August. Look at those beautiful "eyes"!!! :)))

We made a fondue last night with the Jarlsberg. Pain or no pain, I wasn't missing out on a cheese fondue! Alex cut the crusts off my bread cubes, it was a lot easier to eat that way! Delicious, I'm so happy I started cheese making again!

It's apple season! I made some apple spice muffins - I basically took my Pumpkin Spice Muffins and replaced the pumpkin purée with homemade apple sauce. This recipe is so versatile!

I had some leftover frozen puff pastry and caramel sauce, so I made a Caramel Apple Strudel. I didn't eat any but Alex said it was really delicious! I become incapacitated at times from the pain and completely lose my appetite. Alex is taking such good care of me that I want to make sure he always has a sweet treat to eat. (I'm a poet and I don't know it) ;)

Loyal Hound Dog Jack - he sits by the bedroom door every morning waiting for Alex to get up.

Dana - he never seems to sleep, he's always observing!

Leo, following the sun rays across the room.

Sweet Charlie - giving me her bedroom eyes!

Big nose Marlene, she has a polar bear face!

Big ball of Baby Oscar :)

Misty River

It's dipping to freezing overnight pretty much every night now. Last year we got snow in mid-October, I'm hoping for a late fall this year!

See you on Thursday for Rain's Art Date! Our theme is Ghosts and Ghouls...I may have to draw some kind of evil tooth ghoul for this theme!!

Thursday Art Date: Mechanical

Hello Friends :)

Welcome to Thursday's Art Date, today our theme is Mechanical. I guess this is what Bugs Bunny's insides would look like as a wind-up wabbit!

Frankenstein's Monster (Boris Karloff) (Watercolour)

I'm no longer in denial about summer ending and I'm embracing autumn!! This time of year, I have an acute case of Halloween fever and I've been thinking about monsters lately! I love the Frankenstein movies...my favourite monster was played by Boris Karloff, but Robert De Niro also did a fantastic monster. A recent version is called Victor Frankenstein and it's so well done! But I think my favourite rendition is Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein.

Everything about Dr. Frankenstein's monster is mechanical, I wouldn't want to run into him - day or night! But he's what Hollywood would call the "anti-hero"...you are horrified by him, yet you pull for him in the end.

I'm pretty proud of this watercolour - I've often said I CANNOT draw nor can I do portraits...but this one turned out so nice! :)

My Fall Equinox Table Setting

Speaking of mechanical, we had to go to the mechanic on Monday. The button to regulate the heat and a/c stopped working. We were on the hunt for a new mechanic. Our former mechanic took THREE hours for an oil change the last time we went. NOT because he was busy! But because he kept yackity yacking it up with his buddies! So, we found a new mechanic and he did the job fast and efficient, whewf - it's always scary trying to find a good mechanic! Apparently the heat console just gave up from 5 years of wear and tear...everything is made of cheap plastic these days!

Anyway, that left us exhausted so I made my Fall Equinox dinner Tuesday night instead of Monday.

Every dish was inspired by the harvest! We started off with some Canadian Apple Cocktails. Apple and cinnamon with some Canadian Whisky and orange bitters...such a cozy, warming cocktail!

For an appetizer, I made Fried Green Tomatoes with Dipping Sauce. Appetizer I say...this could easily have doubled as a meal. I have never made these before and they were SO SO SO GOOD!!

So good in fact, I can't stop talking about them and I made more last night! Instead of fussing about the fact that hardly any of my tomatoes were red when I picked them, I found a great way to enjoy these green tomatoes! Aren't they pretty?

I was a little apprehensive about frying them - only because I find that the smell of fried oil NEVER leaves the house! But someone suggested grape seed oil. I decided to try it and though there is always a definite fried-oil stink about doing this, it didn't linger and we definitely didn't taste it on the food! Now I may try to fry other foods again! :) (Onion rings, I hear you calling me!!)

The dipping sauce was fabulous. I could eat these every day.

I'm obsessed with these lol...this is the inside, they kind of look like my lemon squares!

Okay, enough about the tomatoes! For the main course, I made an Apple and Butternut Squash Bisque. Really, one of the best soups I've ever made! I tend to make lots of food when I'm in the cooking mood, so we had plenty of leftovers last night.

The pièce de resistance!!! Caramel Apple Tart. Oh...wow. That's all I can say...this started off simply as an apple tart. But I added the caramel sauce at the last minute. I subscribe to a lot of food site newsletters and the caramel sauce recipe kind of fell into my lap right before dinner. It was a GREAT addition to the tart!

That is just a teaser of the yummy food I have planned for the next week! :) See you on Sunday for my weekly food and pet post! 🐶🐶🐶🐱🐱🐱

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Watercolour Ghosts (October 2017)

October 3rd: Next Thursday's theme is Ghosts and Ghouls. Click on the link for ideas and inspiration! Remember it's all about creating. You can showcase your paintings, drawings, photography, sculpting, baking, poetry...whatever you like! :)

Thursday Art Date With Rain. Click on the link for a description of the art date as well as a list of upcoming themes.

Don't forget to add the URL link to your post (not your blog) to the link gadget below to share your wonderful creations! Please don't include a link unless you participate in the art date!

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