Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart

Tomato and Goat Cheese Tart, originally uploaded by CatherineScanlon.

I love to cook - and last night (on my birthday) I made this Tomato Tart. It was so yummy, the crust was a corn meal dough with goat cheese underneath the tomato....it was yummy. I don't usually eat cheese (or any dairy) - and this was the first time I'd ever had goat cheese, I thought it tasted pretty good. You can find the recipe in the June issue of Health magazine on page 136. I'm going to scan it and send it my friend Shawn so if anyone wants it let me know and I'll happily send it to you too!

Though next time I am going to try it with soy cheese so I can stay clear of dairy...it bugs my digestion.

Well, ta ta for now...and if you haven't checked the I Inspire Me blog, you need to. Lots of great inspiration over there!

I Inspire Me

It's a new week - and there's loads of NEW inspiration over at the I Inspire Me blog - and I hope you'll all play along! I was inspired by those small pieces of paper on this page that say:

d=devotion k=kindness b=a better community and an equation that looked like this: d+k=b

I found these little pieces of paper in the Little V's pocket after he spent a couple of days researching Albert Einstein at school. They brought tearsto my eyes - at what an intuitive, sweet and kind-hearted boy he is. I used blue Bazzill to resemble the color of his little snippet and went from there! BTW, the KI is sprayed with blue denim Tattered Angels!

The TURTLES are back...

She's Laying her eggs, originally uploaded by CatherineScanlon.

and making a mess of our lawn! This one made a huge mess over our septic tank, and I think she laid her eggs there too! I fixed it up, but this is the second time I"ve taken the rake and spread the dirt back to it's former glory, sans grass. Turtle season is just starting too, hrmph!

Sorry I've been so MIA, just can't seem to get myself on the computer much at all....but I'm feeling guilty about not blogging and not keeping up with my friends that blog too.

School is out, and that means Little V is home with me. This week he has a half day Summer Bible camp that he's going to. I've been using the time running errands after dropping him off so he doesn't have to be bored with in and out of the car.

I got my hair cut today, about 2 maybe 3 inches off. Of course I came home and put on a ball cap and worked out in the yard so it was promptly messy, but that's ok. I got some yard work done and the basketball hoop has been repaired and back to being a boredom stopper... :-) Ate ice cream today as a little treat for the Little V, now I've got a stomach ache....why do I do it to myself anyway??

Tomorrow - I'll be 42. Not sure how I feel about that right now. I'm feeling old and chubby and out of style. Maybe that's why I got a spanky new hair cut?? Maybe that's why I am in such an artless rut?

Happy Father's Day!

A few quotes on Father's Day! A truly rich man is one whose children run into his arms when his hands are empty. ~Author Unknown

It is much easier to become a father than to be one. ~Kent Nerburn, Letters to My Son: Reflections on Becoming a Man, 1994

The words that a father speaks to his children in the privacy of home are not heard by the world, but, as in whispering-galleries, they are clearly heard at the end and by posterity. ~Jean Paul Richter

Any man can be a father. It takes someone special to be a dad. ~Author Unknown

Happy Father's Day to all the father's out there - especially my husband AND my own father!

Working...

Bug, originally uploaded by CatherineScanlon.

Have I mentioned that I love adding plastic (or real) bugs to my projects?? I'm pretty sure I have...but anyway. Just wanted to share a few images of some things I've been working on. I finally completed, got approval and mailed all my assignments to EK this week and decided to start working on a submission for the Fall/Winter issue of Sew Somerset. (oh, and I've got several things coming out in the Special Holiday edition to, found that out on Friday - excited about that!!)

I'm working on several fun things for my submission and these two images are sneaks for you. In other areas, I'm really worried and sad for my friend Leslie who's son is in San Antonio being treated for injuries he sustained in Afghanistan. To the point where I check her blog several times (no more than that) a day to see if she's posted an update on how he's doing. The last couple of days have been pretty tough on her. I'd appreciate it if you could continue to keep them all in your prayers!

In other news, I Inspire Me is LIVE....go check it out and play along!! The pages that everyone created for this challenge are AMAZING....I'm really happy to be playing along with this. I hope you'll all play along too!

Little Visitors!

I was cleaning up my flash card this evening and forgot I had taken these little gems this spring. We had a little infestation of lady bugs in our downstairs bathroom...on some days I took 1o or more outside, only on nice days though. Every once in a while over the winter we'd see one walking around the house. I was always careful to pick her up and put her someplace safe... I hope we don't get to many next year!

Hope you all had a great weekend!

i Inspire me..you inspire you...Lana Inspires Me too!

My good friend Lana Rappette asked me a few weeks back to join her in her challenge blog, I Inspire Me and I am so glad she did. First, I'm in such a slump, both personally and professionally. Personally, I just hadn't been able t0 make a hill of beans look good, a dry spell of sorts. Rather than force myself to be creative I just rode the wave. Until Lana. THANK God for Lana because she asked me to play. And that got me to thinking out of my box and I made something. I also had a couple of assignments for Ek Success due for the summer show that needed my undivided attention. And thank God for Ek too - because I had to complete the assignments. And I did. And I love them. But anyway, I digress. The challenge was to be inspired by something that I was already inspired to do. This is what Lana has to say about the challenge:

I got this crazy fun idea and thought it might make a cool inspiration blog that we can all participate in! The idea is simple; I inspire me & you inspire you! Thus the title "I INSPIRE ME". Not enough description? What if I said it like this: we get our page ideas from ourselves by looking around at what we already love and have chosen to have in our lives.

So, I have been loving this photo I took of my new storage unit my Dad made me a while back, just loving the simplicity of it. So, I used it as my inspiration. And, I am happy - no ecstatic with the results! This is what Lana had to say about my take on her challenge:

By Cat: She used eclectic elements against a stark but warm background just as she has in her office bookcase. Cat's interesting self portrait contrasts in black. More warm browns & yellows are picked up in the details. And the topic of interest is even more relevent, she says she "IS NOT wrinkle free". Now her antique inspirations have an even deeper meaning.

THANKS Lana. Also, what's been saddening me this week is another DEAR friend Leslie. Her son was hurt in some kind of bombing in Afghanistan last week. If you could all please send your prayers her way I would really appreciate it. He's at the Burn Center in San Antonio, TX right now but the burns aren't the what's so serious, it's the head wound he received. She needs all the good vibes we can send her way! LOVE Ya Leslie!