CuteKittyPunk

  Dried up alliums -colored with spray paint I wanna be a witch. I figure that I'm already a practitioner and have been for years. It's probably in my DNA. I love witchy things.  If casting spells - or - what I like to call baking, crafting, and mindfulness are basically the same thing - then I'm down for that.  I've even, in more recent years, been getting dirty with the earth. And I often think fondly of my grandma when I'm on my knees pulling weeds. She absolutely loved being in her garden.  Part of me wants to make up a new name for my witchy self.  Here are some ideas: Twila Willow Annalies Witch Hazel Ella Bowie šahiyena (pronounced like cheyenne/ shay-enna) shiloah Allium* Twinkle t'witch moonbeam bowie kimbee-klute orchid alliums I think some of these names would make great names for my elf dolls that I'm creating.  Now some goals for my witchy future that I have are: learning how to tune into my intuition... better tarot card reading using a crystal

 Lately I have been supporting Crow in their desire to learn about Celtic and Nordic paganism. I have been doing a bit of research on my own time as well. And the funny thing is - I find myself somewhat fascinated in the occult... but not really?! I'm a skeptic. Ever since I left Mormonism and all that it required - which was everything - all my time, talents and monies... I find myself very hesitant to dive back into another religion.  I have been living happily these last 7 years Mormon free. Free to believe what I want and practice life according to the dictates of my own conscience.  Four years ago, I got into organizing the St George Gingerbread Parade. I poured all of my energy into it and now, I have not so much interest in it. I'm still going to design, bake and decorate a few gingerbread houses for the Jubilee of Trees... but I'm just a supporter now... not the all important founder/executive director.  I'm so happy to take a backseat approach now.  How and whe

I've been making Dutch style pancakes for years. Pretty much ever since I moved to Holland with my Dutch husband and then along came the kids and they would request them for dinner quite regularly.  I met this Dutch lady, Tonie Kuurstra and she taught me how she made them - and she used to operate a bed n breakfast so she made a lot of them. I went to her house one time and she had stacks and stacks of them. She made them with butter, too as I recall... and that's how I usually make them as well. However, today, I experienced the most scrumptious griddle-like perfect pancakes and no butter was used. So, here is what happened. Yesterday, the doctor's office called me with the results of my blood test... and it turns out that everything was good except in one place it said my fat or lipid was too high. I need to cut back on the fat intake. Which makes sense because I cook with a lot of butter. :D So, even though I used the full fat milk in this recipe, the big difference was

Freepik Ingredients:  2 Tbsp fish sauce 1 Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce or Teriyaki sauce 5 Tbsp light brown sugar 1 Tbsp rice vinegar 1 Tbsp Tamarind Concentrate/Tamarind Paste 1-3 tsp Sriracha hot sauce or Sambal Oelek 1 Tbsp sesame oil 1 Tbsp chinese sesame paste or Tahini Directions: Combine sauce ingredients in a bowl or in a shaker bottle. Add to prepared noodles, vegetables, and protein source. 

 This morning my son wanted to bake peanut butter chocolate chip cookies from the dough you buy at the store but I said, let's just look up a recipe in a cookbook and if we have all the ingredients then we can make it. So, the cookbook I looked in first is called Chocolate Never Faileth. It's a book my mom got for me and it's probably from the Deseret Book store with a name like that. Very Mormon sounding. Anyway, we found a recipe and then tweeked it a bunch. Then, after the first batch I got this awfully good idea to add Oreo cookie pieces to the batter and then I baked a batch of those and they were amazing! So, I'm going to include it here so I can find it again and bake it again. Yum. 😋 Click here for Print Version. Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies with Oreo Crumbles  By Melissa Daams For the Dough On speed 2, cream together  2 sticks butter, softened ¼ cup peanut butter 1 cup granulated sugar ¾  cup brown sugar 2 eggs 1 tsp vanilla extract Move to Speed 1, Add 1 c

Since the last time I posted here in 2017, my kids have grown up quite a bit. I have kept busy with arts, crafts, new business ventures, part time jobs, homeschooling, shuffling kids around, travel, growing old, aches and pains, self care, new friends, old friends, and so forth. O bla di o bla da - life goes on. It's so true my friends. I don't know what's going to unfold next in my life, but it just keeps getting better and sometimes the same, but never worse - thankfully. Since 2019, I started crocheting amigurumi and I have kept up with that. In 2020 I started selling my amigurumi at the Modern Farm and Artisan Co-op - even that place has gone through some changes. It started out a nonprofit but now it's a regular for profit business but still largely supports small businesses and makers like myself. I used to go in there twice a month to work my shift but now I don't have to anymore. They take a 25% cut from my sales and that pays the employees that work there i