Why you should come visit the lonely Crewses in Atlanta...

We took another trip to Atlanta, and no, there were no final decisions made on a house. We can't seem to find one either of us like more than 85%. But look what does live in Atlanta! I'm so excited... Can you hardly contain yourself?! Half my current furniture is probably going to fall off the back of the truck on its way to GA. I'll just have to replace it, is all.

A guilty little pleasure of mine, and current supplier of my low carb bread, Trader Joe's is an awesome grocery store with organics and all kind of cool stuff. You just have to see it. My sister kindly introduced me to it in Nashville, but I haven't had one locally before. There are 6 Trader Joe locations currently in Atlanta.


Phipps Plaza/ Lenox Square
aka HUUUGE mall.


The infamous
Piedmont Park

The DOG PARK, Yay!!

Screen on the Green

It's Giant.

Here's some more stuff we can go do when you come visit us...Atlanta Attractions including something called Turner Field.

Greta's bag is packed!

Goin to Georgia to house hunt again. Greta's makin the trip with us this time...she feels strongly about it as you can see, as we ditched her the past two weekends. We have five houses lined up to took at. May the force be with us!

Plumeria update

So the yard is still doing this at least each afternoon, but at least the plumerias are taking advantage of it. I thought they were duds for a while, and came out this morning and saw this. Even the one I thought Greta chewed to death has a little sprout.

(thought deceased)

Mike Cole's Jalapeno Brisket...es yuuummy.

-10lb-12lb brisket
- Jalapenos

-1 bottle Claude's BBQ Brisket Sauce

Using a sharp, thin knife, cut a pocket in the brisket from the thin side of the meat. Be careful not to pierce the 3 sides, the top or the bottom. stuff with seedless/stemless halved jalapenos. Hold brisket, pocket up and pour Claude's BBQ Brisket sauce (2 ounces per pound of meat). (Optional: Marinade in refrigerator overnight about 10 hours or longer in Claude's sauce. )

Place brisket in a roaster pan with the fat side up, and pour the sauce over it. Seal pan with foil or with tight lid.

Cook a 10-12 lb brisket in slow oven at 250 for 7-8 hrs (13-15lb at 250 10-12 hrs). Remove from oven and cool, cut off fat, slice or shred meat. The sauce can be used as a natural gravy, remove fat from sauce by cooling in refrigerator, fat will float to top and can be taken out easily.Serve sliced brisket with mashed potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob and a salad or vegetables. Brisket can be used for sandwiches or Brisket Salad.

Side note: Mike (Josh's stepdad) used John Henry's Texas Brisket Rub, but wasn't super impressed. So he said next time he was going back to Claude's sauce, because it's what he normally uses and likes better. I gave you links in the recipe to find both. I think they sell it at sams possibly, or you can order it, OR use your own that you know is good.

I created this as best I could with Mike's direction, and a couple online brisket recipes to find the right direction wording, so if Mike is reading this and feels he was misrepresented, he should email me corrections and I would be happy to oblige.

Bon Appetite!

(not recommended)

(Recommended)

Mexico

We went to Mexico! Not really, we went to Ft. Lauderdale this weekend and went to "Mexico" a flea market type place with a farmers market, pony rides, coconut drinks...etc. Pretty cool.
Click here for the rest

Happy Unhurricane Day!

Day 5 of rain...and the after party

After being cooped up for 5 days there was a little pent up energy floating around, amongst everything ELSE floating around. When the storm finally let up, we took a little trip in the yard to check things out and play in the puddles.

11am-day 5

Greta says, 'what happened here?'

At first glance, a pile of tree debree

At second glance, a pile of fire ants floating on a raft of fire ant larvae...disgusting and very discouraging. You can't even drown the little creatons.

I'm never going inside again, and you can't catch me!

Storms-bad. Puddles-Good.

Check out our 10-day forecast!

More pics HERE

Wordless Wet Wednesday

Kinley Lenea-1 month

Brandie and Philip went and got pictures taken for her first mother's day. Here it is.

Atlanta visit #1

We made the trip up to Atlanta to look at some houses and meet some people about a job or two. House hunting will require one or two more trips, we think. Campus was gorgeous! Very clean and just very...square. They probably have airborn sensors floating through campus that measure your right vs left brain function and zap you accordingly, or send you away on the stinger shuttle if you are thinking too abstractly. There are some images of a house we looked at, but with further investigation on online house rental, I think we can do a bit better, and maybe a little closer. I really liked the house though (even though i didnt get pics, sorry), and there was an herb garden all ready for me in the back! Anyway these are some pics of the campus and that house...CLICK HERE!

Wordless Wednesday

For the love of her squirrel

Kitty Hammock

I made this fabulous ninja kitty hammock for Amelia from leftover fleece scraps. I am always trying to come up with stuff to do with the scraps; I just hate to waste them. I just chopped it and tied it around the laundry basket, tight. Im not sure I would consider it a success or not, as you can see. I think she misunderstood...
However she has been in it for an hour or more, so maybe it was me that misunderstood.

Placemat/Dishtowel Pillows Preliminaries

I plan on making some fancy pillows in my future. Look at all these fabulous prints I found (mostly dishtowels with a few placemats mixed amoungst them) at Target.

And WORLD MARKET CLEARANCE RACK
TADA!
Isn't the Lobster cute? I don't know what I'll do with him, but with ties to Hampton beach, I'm sure I can come up with something inspired.

Sewing inspired by Denise Cosby

So I thought I would try out some clothes makin. With visions in my head of that Cosby episode where Denise makes Theo a Gordon Gartrell designer shirt, you know

I ventured to

the dollar fabric rack at Walmart, and found these...

Not too shabby I thought ($1.50/yrd really but still), and then delved into patterns. I was really focusing on things that looked not too piecey, or elaborate, because I am quite aware of my limitations as a skilled seamstress. These seemed the most beginner friendly, and they were only $3.44.

I made skirt B, and I looked like a mermaid. However I forgot to take a picture of it before I chopped it up, so I created a reenactment of the mermaid suit for blogging purposes. It looks better when the table wears it, I promise you.

So, I decided to chop the bottom flounciness off for the most part leaving a ruffle at the bottom. It was a good first attempt I think, but not yet wear it in public quality, not due solely from my pathetic hem-work (though it left something to be desired), but the fabric was cheap like I said and didn't lay well atoll.

And the directions SUCKED. Maybe my sewing jargon knowledge is lacking, but I really think they gave me little to go on.

Zoo trip with the Batick babies

Click here for the rest of the pics.