rockin the red face!

its official!!! I officially paid money to be a timed runner in the 5 k for Susan G. Komen on May 7th!

I will be finding a cute way to make "rocking the red face" part of the run!!! I am so excited!
 http://sacramento.info-komen.org/goto/ruthmunger

Monday Madness!

Why blog Monday ? I don't even know- but by the time I start blogging I usually have had a comedy of errors day! It makes me wanna blog!
it feels like a hundred years ago- but was  just last Monday.....

I started running with a friend.I am amazed at my body...I am going to run this 5 k for Susan G. Komen!

Yay! I am so not "there" but feel excited that I am in the "process". I still love my food, and so may always have some weight issues, but at least my heart will be healthy! I want to be HEALTHY.  Funny isn't it? We worry about how we look in our 20's and now I am .....ekkk....40 and I worry about how I feel......I think I like 40 better.

Dare I say its been frustrating moving my brother into my craft room- my midnight access is not there and I am a tad bit sad ......still good to have him home. And we will adjust. Got to do some more cutting and gessoing today for my class project. I like gessoing. Its therapuedic like coloring with crayons. You create a white background to put your personal stamp on, and I felt a little of Monday's stress fade away. Ahhhh....the painty goodness. I associate gesso with my mom- She would feel the need to paint and just gesso over one of her paintings she had already done as we were too poor for new canvas. I was sad more than one time that she did that- and that was who she was...its good to gesso. She would wear this old white button down shirt that on the back she had screen printed a tiger.  over time it would have paint splatters- she had it until she died.  I can still see her...leaning over a painting making it white again...

I am afraid of painting the backgrounds. I am a perfectionist in my scrapbooking and the backgrounds  in the class is well, more "free". What if it looks like a messy gloppy mess? Did I mention mess?  I  am hoping to paint tonight after the E will go night night....I am excited -I guess I need to make a painty mess tonight!

Whew!

Think its been a week....yep- its been a week- I worked my fingers to the bone and made 20 handmade cards and 45 handmade flower hair pins for a craft faire that - DID NOT  make me rich! Ha!

cute litte carrots filled with malt balls!

But I got to see some amazing work done by some amazing women and.... I am officially on etsy! As of tonight I have 2 whole items up= I need to have a photo shoot soon for the rest of my babies!
my shop is http://www.etsy.com/shop/ruthiesrubies/

Again- its JUST A BEGINNING But I thought its time to start!

I am thinking constantly about my Stash to treasure(soon to be Miss ART's) class.All about me by Bethany Kartchner..I got my cropodile on its way and took my "everyday pics!" e actually put a paper bag on her head and walked around moaning - but by the time I had raced and gotten the camera- she had taken it off and I lost my magical moment- but I was laughing so hard it took a moment to remember!
I know my colors and my theme, gathered my stuff and keep gathering- wish I could stop!
 and I just made some cute ribbon flower embellishments to add to a page. They took a LONG TIME ...AND I MEAN LONG...

 I had to adapt and used hot glue and due to my CP- it took a bit to figure it out- and ya, I got a third degree burn. i was doing this at 1 am one night which is sooo not my time ( member- i am a morning person) Eva knows I think when something is afoot because she refused to go down for bed last week before 10 pm! I work at 6 am! So I was pretty sleep deprived! HA and ecstatically happy! Arent they cute? The yellow is scrap fabric- I haven't even shimmered em yet! I love them!

 Between working my "paying "job, doing craft faire items, and taking care of Eva- my husband picked up the housework slack- I felt sooo guilty . But he is a treasure!
And something very special is afoot in the Munger Home lately....The Spirit of the Lord has been working some of His magic ! Thats all I am gonna say about that for now....

Today a new friend of mine started me a running for my 5k in May- it did not run the whole mile- but I did run and feel excited to be back on the path of exercise...
I gotta go and put e to bed!  Thanks for popping by

artichoke Pasta = YUMMM Y

OK , my daughter loves PASTA. I pretty much hate spaghetti- too much of it when I was in my 20's- young, cute, but poor...i DIGRESS. Back to the pasta- I am always trying new pasta recipes and love LOVE ARTICHOKES- THIS ONES A WINNER-  I was doubtful when I saw cottage cheese- but it works - please note I added a tad more cayenne for my own taste its spicy and yummy !
Try it and let me know -

Artichoke Pasta recipe

Ingredients

• 12 ounces uncooked penne
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 (10 ounce) can artichoke hearts
• 1 small onion( I used 3 shallots instead )
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
• 1/2 cup low-fat sour cream
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add spaghetti and cook until al dente. Drain and keep warm.
2. While pasta is cooking, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Place olive oil, butter, and liquid from artichoke hearts in skillet. Cut artichoke hearts into bite-size pieces. When olive oil mixture is hot, add onion and garlic. Saute until soft and lightly browned. Stir in artichoke hearts and saute until heated through. Season with salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and oregano. Remove from heat and stir in cottage cheese and sour cream and Parmesan cheese. Toss mixture with cooked pasta and top with  more parm cheese
3. now that is done - please note toasted pine nuts would be FABULOUS OVER THIS !

Monday turned to FunDay!

I started my very first Online class with the www.stash-to-treasure.net (soon to be Miss Art's in May).
The Class is titled All about me and its concept is simple using old cracker boxes and cereal boxes to make a multimedia mini album about yourself- learning cool techniques along the way.... taught by the gifted Bethany Kartchner of Creative Ruminations. Its only $5.00 a month- YAY!

So I cut out my cracker /cereal boxes. And showed my seriously devoted husband. He is devoted because he thinks I am crazy to save these boxes, and he raised his cute eyebrows at me when I showed him all the cut out pieces. But he lets me create...and doesn't throw the boxes away! 

Today I  started to glued some of the pieces together. Well. I put little E to work or her own paint project, at our table right in front me. I okayed the use of hands as paint brushes and thats where my creative process stopped and Mommy clean up began.  As a three year old, her inate responsibility is to creatively destroy as quickly as possible - she took a mix of her paints now a green gobliny mess and smooshed them all over her hands and ...got down and put hand prints on my refrigerater, the cabinents and the wall...and dripped all along the floor and the started painting herself....I was too frazzled and frustrated to take a picture of the after....heres the cute beforenotice her talented two handed process? She ADORES PAINT-

I decided to make HER PART OF MY PROCESS  and let her Gesso her little heart out....heres the Gesso-ing pics:

notice the different dress and the towel from the clean up?

I"STAMPED" CIRCLES

THE COOL  juice box tops-cant you just see the peek a-boo possibilities?

As I said in the intro  forum for the class...I believe there wa a reason this class was in April- 5 yrs after the death of my mom. She loved to paint- in this class I  have to paint - a lot- I am going to be using her brayer, some of her beads, but this will be about me. And I am excited at this age of forty to be exploring where I have been and where I am going . When she passed I stopped EVERYTHING  creative. I just couldnt do it. I boexed it up and it gathered dust- until Eva was born. Thanks to my desire to chronicle her life- I started up again. And I am going to share my little creative process here - By the way- got a lot done this weekend - but not everything and thats ok.... I can conquer the world one day at a time!
Ruth