Welcome to February and the American Heart Month! Hope you are wearing your red today, February 5, 2021—National Wear Red Day! This is a day that is near and dear to me.
On July 18, 2011, while jogging with my BFF, I began to feel some bodily discomfort and a little nauseous. But, we were jogging—who doesn’t feel discomfort when they exercise? We slowed to a walk and turned towards home. The closer I got to the house, the drowsier I felt. I told my BFF that I was going to go inside and lie down for a nap, hoping that the nausea would subside. Fortunately, both she and my husband, who was traveling at the time, urged me to call my physician. It was the call that may have saved my life. Once the doctor heard my symptoms, he told me to go to the Emergency Room immediately. I was experiencing a heart attack. The cardiologist later called my episode a fluke. A rogue piece of plaque had lodged in the knuckle of a vein in my heart. But that fluke required the placement of stent in my heart. As I near my tenth anniversary, I urge all women to be aware of the symptoms of heart attacks in women. Follow this link to learn more. It may save your life or that of someone you love.
Recently BloomingDaisiesCrafts was contacted by a client regarding a custom order. Her request was not the usual variety; i.e. different fabric liner or color of zipper. She requested a Work In Progress (WIP) bag with handles. As with all custom orders, I was happy to “work some magic”! Looking at the pictures, I hope you will agree that it turned out really cute. This little bit of R&D for BloomingDaisiesCrafts produced a product business worthy! After making this one bag, I made notes for minor improvements. A new prototype is on the horizon. Be on the lookout for its entry onto the BloomingDaisiesCrafts website in the near future after the numbers for materials and labor have been crunched and the product perfected!
On somewhat the same note, I think people are gearing up for future Christmas projects! This past weekend BloomingDaisiesCrafts had a run on the WIP Christmas Bags. Personally, I have a couple for Christmas and a couple of Thanksgiving/Fall. Oh, and Halloween! Well, let’s be honest, I have them for any and all holidays and whatever prints I like! These are the perks of being in charge of Research and Development and making (and keeping) the prototypes.
Now to get back to BloomingDaisiesCrafts business! In case you are wondering, the difference in WIP and Project Bags/Q-Snap Bags is the ability to expand. The WIP bags are meant to store the magazine and maybe the cloth (or an entire kit) until it is time to begin stitching. Once the project is started, it can be switched to a Project Bag/Q-Snap Bag. The hardware can be whatever works best for you and your work. The purpose of the Project Bag/Q-Snap Bag is to contain all of the accoutrements that come with needlecraft hobbies--even the frame. The new bags would be used when you want to carry your project locally to work on it. However, they are not nearly as sturdy as the Project Traveling Bags-but that is another blog! BloomingDaisiesCrafts is proud to offer multiple choices!
And as we are already one month into 2021, here is an update on my New Year’s Resolutions:
Keep Losing Weight: So I’m still slowly losing the weight. I’m down 2.3 pounds from January 1st!!! I’ll take that with my happy dance (oh, the calories burned!).
Walk the dogs: The girls and I have been walking 2-3 times a week. Rosy is improving with every step. I want to keep slowly improving Rosy (and Bella’s) activity level and I know I will.
Use the kayak, bikes and boat at least 1 time a month. My husband and I used the boat twice in January. I need to switch up the conveyance though. Maybe I need to change the resolution to 1 time each per month…
Eat more veggies: Yeah, this is probably my worse progress on a New Year’s Resolution but I’ll get there. I bought celery and radishes this past week. Now to actually remember to eat them! My sister eats vegetables at every meal. Every. Meal. She adds cauliflower or broccoli to her eggs in the morning and eats a large salad for lunch. She roasts multiple types of vegetables five nights a week. She cooked them when she visited, prior to Covid, and I liked the flavor. I have to remember to start doing this again as it is so easy!
Roasted Vegetables
Large jelly roll pan per vegetable type
Aluminium foil
Cooking spray, olive oil adds more flavor
Gallon size food storage bag
Olive oil
Favorite vegetable-cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, Brussel sprouts, sweet potato, sugar snap peas, asparagus, etc.
Your favorite seasonings-garlic salt, seasoning salt, paprika, Italian seasoning, lemon pepper, etc.
There is no need to preheat your oven.
Line the pan with aluminum foil for easy clean up.
Spray foil with cooking spray.
Clean vegetables and cut larger veggies into bite sized, fairly uniform pieces.
Place vegetables in food storage bag and add approximately 3 Tbsp olive oil. Toss to coat the vegetables. Use the same bag for all or most. (Optional: coat the broccoli when on the pan with cooking spray to get a better coverage.)
Pour the vegetables onto the prepared pan and evenly distribute for consistent cooking. Season with your favorite seasonings. Cauliflower-garlic salt, Sweet potatoes-paprika, etc.
Place pan(s) in the oven. Set temperature to 375 degrees—use the roasting option, if available.
Cooking times vary per vegetable (15-30 minutes). You may want to stagger when put the pans in the oven. For example, sugar snap peas cook much more quickly than cauliflower.
Now for the news about the albatross around my neck: Tardis Progress! I am working hard to get Page 5 done. Right now, I am approximately halfway thru page 5--hopefully more when this is published. And no I'm not finished with more. I had to frog the black by the Tardis. I was 1 row off. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! And with roasted vegetables!
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