November | 2015 | BulgingButtons

November 11, 2015
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Getting My Craft On

Today I had the opportunity to get a little crafty, and I went for it. The fantastic folks at Made By 2 Sisters organized a fund raising event unlike any other I’ve heard of. They created a giant drop-in pallet party to benefit a fellow school district employee who’s been undergoing cancer treatments.

What is a pallet party?

Good question. It’s an opportunity to make a unique sign for your home using easy techniques that guarantee even a novice will produce a great looking sign. Trust me, I’m no craft queen, but I’m pretty happy with my signs.

I’ve been watching this company from the start, and I’m pleased to have several of their signs. Some I’ve done myself, and others I purchased already made. The parties are so much fun, and the fundraising aspect is just further proof of how wonderful this company is.

Made this one today. I’ll distress it more and add some twine and jingle bells to the bottom, I think.

This one is also from today. It will look great with my Chanukah decorations.

This one is also from today. It will look great with my Hanukkah decorations.

This one marks my conversation to glitter (the word bonfires).

I purchased this one as a fundraiser for a different colleague a while back.

This was also a purchase. It hangs above my fireplace.

These sweet little ones sit on a bookshelf.

This one was custom made for me for Chanukah.

This one was custom made for me for Hanukkah.

I did this one last summer. It looks great in my kitchen.

I have a few others, but they’re packed away with the Halloween and Christmas decorations. These signs are so much fun, and I really love the look. I’m glad I had a chance to make more today, and to spend the time with friends. I hope the event raised a large sum to donate to our colleague’s cause.

November 10, 2015
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Pet Adoption Genius

Finding love in the 21st century affords people more options. No longer does one have to wait for parents or other relatives to provide an introduction to a suitable mate, nor does one have to subject oneself to nights in noisy, crowded bars. Modern people turn to the internet to meet a far wider variety of people than they might normally come into contact with, increasing their odds of finding love.

Not only can we encounter a wider cross-section of the population on the internet, but we can harmlessly flip through profiles, casting aside those that we don’t find suitable with the swipe of a fingertip, with no hard feelings involved. Genius.

Well the amazingly smart people at PawsLikeMe.com took the same concept and applied it to dogs. Not only do they have extensive listings of dogs to love, but they’ve taken the time to gather information about their energy levels, their independence, their focus, and their overall needs. Next, they administer a quiz to prospective pet adopters, and they use the results to match people with pooches.

This is Sunday, isn’t she beautiful?

If you’re a couch potato they’re not going to match you with a high energy dog. If you’re not home for several hours a day you won’t be matched with a dog with a low independence rating. It’s genius, really. Instead of falling in love with a sweet face and then finding out that he or she is a poor match, they find the personality traits that fit best first. From that point you can still fall in love with their sweet faces.

No, I don’t get any kind of anything from them. I just love the idea and wish I could adopt more of the darling dogs they’ve chosen for me (yes, I took the quiz, don’t tell Lila).

If you’re looking for a canine companion, I strongly urge you to check them out. Even if you aren’t, it might be fun to take the quiz and see the sweethearts that could be a good match for you. If nothing else, share their site. The more dogs that go into suitable homes, the fewer homeless dogs in the world, right? It just makes sense.

November 9, 2015
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Test Kitchen

My sweetheart loves to cook. LOVES it. And he’s very very good at it, too.

The man is a grill guru, a smoker swami, and an oven oracle. Really, he’s good.

He also loves to experiment. He gets ideas in his head for various things he’d like to try out, then he researches his ideas before planning to execute them. This is the man who, before I met him, created his own TurDucKin (turkey, duck, chicken for those of you unfamiliar with this bizarre culinary concept). He tells me it was way more work than it was worth. I could have saved him the time, had I known him.

One of his recent successes was cilantro-lime rice, similar to the rice that’s served at Chipolte. With this recipe, you actually use a lot more water than usual and end up draining the rice at the end. Who knew that would work? It did, though, and it was wonderful.

His new project is cornbread stuffing for Thanksgiving. He’s made this recipe for the past two years, and while the flavor is excellent, the texture is problematic. The first year it was sort of blobby. Delicious, but weird on the tongue. Last year he cooked it in a shallower dish, and it turned out more like a casserole. Again, delicious, but not quite right. He’s still at it, puttering away in the kitchen looking for the solution. He will perfect this recipe, it’s just a matter of time.

I dare not go into the kitchen, it might interrupt his flow. There’s a grocery store roast-chicken waiting in the fridge to join this test stuffing (doing both in one day would require an effort similar to Thanksgiving, and we’re not ready for that quite yet). The house is starting to smell good, and I’m starting to get hungry. Cross your fingers that this experiment works out. It would be great to have the “perfect” stuffing on Thanksgiving.