Happy 4th of July!

Whew! I am recuperating from the rodeo last night, so bear with me if I'm a little slow on the draw today. I'll have to tell you about it later, but right now I'm here to talk about Independence Day, The 4th of July for us here in the United States. It's a day where our pride in our country swells, and our differences are put aside in order to come together and celebrate the lives and values we hold so dear to us.

Now I could go the normal route and talk about patriotic movies, but that's been done. So today I am going to feature the alien invasion movie. Outer space aliens try to  come to our country, nay, our planet and we kick butt! Sure they have technology and fancy ray guns, but we've got pride! We've got glory! We've got crazy notions that we could win an alien attack! You mess with one of us, you crazy alien, you mess with us all!

I have talked about this movie before but it really is one of my favorite campy movies. Plan 9 from Outer Space is a classic and I don't care what you say Ed Wood is not the worst director in the world. The worst director is that guy who directed all the Transformer movies and the other guy who directed the last Indiana Jones movie. Pee-Ewww! That is some stinky directing. Now, let's see, where was I? Oh yes, Plan 9 from Outer Space. Aliens resurrect the dead, make them zombies and try to take over the world.  Guess who stops them-that's right! A red-blooded American! Not only do we out-think those stupid aliens, but we also throw in a few punches for good measure. How dare those aliens call earthlings stupid. Would a stupid earthling scratch his head with his loaded gun? Would a stupid earthling say "there" 10 times in one sentence? Would a stupid earthling...okay, the alien was partially right, but this is a fun movie that I never get tired of.

This next little gem combines two of the worst things in the entire universe. Teenagers and alien invasions (insert scream here). Teenagers from Outerspace is a delightful little romp showing that our youth of today really can make a difference. They save their small town from the horrible teenage space aliens, who, by the way, want to feed us to their monster lobster pet! One of the alien invaders loves our country and our planet so much that he decides to help us and eventually wants to stay in the good ol' US of A.

Have you ever been to Chicago? Let me tell ya, don't mess with those people! They will cut you! Okay, not really but they are a strong group of people. If you don't believe me, just ask the aliens in Target Earth. What alien, in their right mind, would go to Chicago and rough it up? The only alien dumber than that is the one from that movie Signs. Your weakness is water and yet you come to a planet that is covered by 75% of the stuff? I'm glad we kicked your butt. Now, back to the Target Earth, a group of strangers have to come together to fight off an attacking alien force and defend the United States against any further invasion. There is a wonderful plot twist that makes this film rise a bit above the normal "B" alien movie and it definitely shows how the good old American spirit of helping your neighbor is one of our strong suits.

So, what have we learned on the Independence Day? Well, for one thing, we can make some pretty bad kitschy movies but more importantly than that, when faced with adversity, we rise above our petty differences and take care of the business at hand. In a time where we seem so divided, I take great pride in today, because we can come together as Americans and enjoy a bad movie! Happy 4th everyone, don't blow off an arm.

Scrappy Dog Sunday!

My friend Bascom reminded me of a wonderful passage about our pups:

People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life -- like loving everybody all the time and being nice. Dogs already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long.

My friend Bex recently loss her wonderful Sadie. She was a beautiful girl who took care of Bex in the bad times and relished in the happiness of the good times.

I never had the pleasure of meeting Sadie but I can tell from the stories I've heard and from the pictures I've seen that she was a lover of fine cuisine.

A great big sister.

And a wonderful best friend.

As much sadness as it brings to our hearts that she is gone, I like to think that she is up in the big dog park in the sky playing with my little man Kato and other scrappy pups that have passed on but stolen our hearts.

"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace."

- Milan Kundera

Whip it Real Good!

I came across this brilliant idea from the Nutty Kitchen. They accidentally stuck the coconut milk in the fridge and in a few hours they had coconut cream. Crazy! Well, I just so happened to have a can of coconut milk in my pantry and thought I would give it a try. Here's my outcome.

The site suggested keeping the can in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Well, I have no patience at all, so I put it in for about 1/2 of that and still got cream. Remember! If you are going to do this, use whole coconut milk. I'm not even sure they make low fat coconut milk, if they do-they should be slapped for the stupidity of cutting calories on coconut milk.

After 12 to 24 hours your milk will separate and the cream rises to top (ain't that the truth) and you will have coconut water in the bottom. Save the coconut water, you can use it for cocktails at a later date.

Your can of coconut milk/cream will look like this.

Of course, you can take it right out of the can and apply it to strawberry shortcake, your coffee or whatever whip cream need you have. I however, wanted a bit more flavor to it, so I added a few more ingredients. The website where I found this did not give exact measurements so here's what I came up with.

1 can coconut cream ( you will actually get less of a can)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I started with 1/2 teaspoon and worked my way up)
2 tablespoons sugar (again working my way up, you can add more if you want it sweeter)
Cinnamon powder to taste

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and pour on your favorite shortcake. The end result will be more pudding like, which was really nice but if you want it more whipped cream, stick it back in the fridge for a little bit to harden it up. Either way, it is wonderful and has a very light taste.  It was an amazing tasty addition to the strawberries and I can't wait to try it in my coffee tomorrow.

Feel Good Friday!

From pinterest via tumbler via...

Oh Friday! You make me so happy. You make me smile and feel like a silly 80's song.

 Picture courtesy of AlwaysInspired (because mine sucked)

See this little guy? He's MINE all MINE! Yep! He is Leopold the Lion Tamer and he is here to help me join the circus. I've got my hula hooping down (did I tell you I bought a hula hoop) and now I just need to teach the dogs to jump through it. You would think it would be easy, yeah, you would think. Anyhoo, this lovely man comes courtesy of AlwaysInspired. I know I keep singing her praises but she truly rocks my world.

I don't understand why my dad puts this out every time I come over.  PS-If anyone knows the site or who this came from, please let me know. I found it on pinterest and really want to make one for my house.

Oh puppy, have I felt your pain.


Lion tamers, rude door mats and silly puppy, Yep! My day is complete. Oh wait, I'm sure I could use one more thing...like this pink dress.

 My Vintage Studio has many more beautiful dresses on her flickr.

Ah....that's much better! Now  I can sit back, enjoy the sunset, and watch the pups run around. Yep, it's one Feel Good Friday.

Shake Your Bunt

I love banners, buntings and pennants. They are so cute and can be seem to have made a come back. They are everywhere! I decided that I wanted to do something for 4th of July and a bunting/banner turned out to be the perfect decoration. They are so easy to make! I made mine without sewing (since my machine died). I wish I had done step by step pictures to show you how easy it is to create. Trust me-anyone make one!

 Materials
1/2 yard of 3 different fabrics
1 package of quilt binding
fusible webbing/interfacing


The first thing I did was pick out the fabric I wanted to use. I wanted red, white and blue, but not the boring traditional images. I found three different fabrics with three different designs.
 
Next, I made a triangle template. Mine is 7 inches at the top and 8 inches on the sides.

Now cut out your triangles

After I've placed my triangles out to the length and placement I want. I took my fusible interfacing and ironed the triangle between the quilting binding.

The bunting looked pretty plain to me so I decided to make little rosettes for the side. That was equally as easy and only took a few hand stitches.

Easy Peasy! You have a beautiful bunting for your next holiday or just to hang around the house. I can't wait to make my next one. It is a perfect way to get rid of scraps. Now, if the weather would just cooperate, I can hang it up outside. C'mon mother nature! Work with me!

Conversations of Love

I should tell you before I start this conversation, that I bought some sidewalk chalk for the summer. No reason, I just wanted it. I LOVE my sidewalk chalk. With that out of the way...the following is a real conversation between myself and OMP.


OMP: Hey! I said I love you and I get nothing?
Me: I wrote Pam +OMP in chalk on the sidewalk, what more do you want?
OMP: You didn't write 4EVER
Me: I thought that was assumed
OMP: I'm taking back my "Love You"

The Only Ship is Friendship

You wanna know what the best kind of ship there is...it's friendship. Okay, everyone give a collective "awwwwww" Okay, now that we got that overly sweet crap out of the way, let's talk about friends. My friends rock my world! I love them so dearly and wish they were closer so I could shower them with kisses. To honor my friends, here are a few of my favorite buddy movies. 

Son of Rambow is a delightful British comedy about two young boys who decide to make a home movie based on Rambo. It's a story of how differences can be disregarded when you have a common goal, making the best Rambo knock off ever. 

One of my all time favorite movies that I can watch over again and I find myself quoting on a frequent basis is The Sandlot. A wonderful summer friendship movie about baseball, rowdy dogs and a lifeguard named Wendy. It's funny, sweet and is wonderful for the whole family. It doesn't matter if you are a boy or girl, man or woman, you will find yourself in one of the many characters. 

 Sticking true to my old movie roots, the last friendship film is more of a buddy comedy than just a friendship movie. Bob Hope and Bing Crosby did several films together but none as great as Road to Morocco. It has everything I love, Bing Crosby, singing, super cute girl with the best hairstyles and clothes (even in the middle of the desert). Of course there isn't any underlying theme here and a lot of it is tongue and cheek but it's fun-and isn't that what friendship is all about. 

Now grab that BFF of yours, a box of jujube's, one of these great movies and prepare for laughter, tears and lots of hugs-cause that's what friendship is all about. Well, that and bailing them out of jail...Now that's real friendship.