Plant your own Garden

Love yourself

COMES THE DAWN

After awhile you learn the subtle difference between holding a hand and chaining a soul, 

and you learn that love doesn't mean leaning and company doesn't mean security

 and you begin to understand that kisses aren't contracts and presents aren't promises 

and you begin to accept your defeats with your head held high and your eyes open 

with the grace of a woman and not the grief of a child. 

You learn to build your roads on today 

because tomorrows ground is too uncertain for plans

and futures have a way of falling down mid flight. 

After awhile you learn that even sunshine burns 

if you get too much 

so you plant your own garden and decorate your soul instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers

 and you learn that you really can endure, 

that you are strong and really do have worth 

and you learn and learn and you learn 

with every goodbye you learn

        - Author Unknown

At the edge of a vision

                              at the edge of a vision

 

                                               

my creative energy beckons me to originality. 
I go out for a look and see... 

  
   I think  I'll go right
-to the heart of the matter.

Down memory lane with my camera recorder
to capture the moments
at the heart of my matter.


Up-Cycled neck tie to the rescue

Of course I never leave home without my I phone Case!
These fashionably clever, functionally handy cases
are created with up cycled Neck Ties.
The leather strap looks as good as it wears. 

UpCycled I Phone Case

 100% Handmade.
Leather strap. 
Velcro enclosure for added safety.
Know where your phone is.
Fashionable, hands free carrying case.

I love mine.
Check them out. HERE

16.00 Canadian + Shipping
Inquiries to 
Handations@Hotmail.com

Is Home where the Heart is?

Lillian the Domestic Engineer
My DAZE
Read more HERE



Homemakers
labor round the clock at mustering the making of miracles.
In the name of Love they undertake to partake
in the free rearing of a humanity for its own sake.

Traditionally a Mom she has been
whether or not her heart was in it.
Assumptions and inequality
attempting to feed
 the needs of reality starved communities.

Thankfully with the potential for equality
 in our conversations traveling at internet speed
and the boomers desire to liberate humanity
domestication is finally being viewed in a new way.

Just being female no longer makes it true
that domestication is meant for you.

I'm alright with that. I believe in equality.
I hope that my Sons will each have the opportunity
to experience Fatherhood, guiltlessly.
From within the confines of a domesticity
 that is valued in a society
as a worthy and rewarding career.

The world is at work
changing the way we view the Homemaker and domesticity
and so it darn well should be.
The business of being at home is becoming less of a gender issue
and more a reality to the needs of family in community.


So be it.
Tis the differences between us that make the world interesting
-Lest we forget that.

Blessed be our children by the Love that abounds
in households being liberated the world round.

Home is where the heart is and where our children should be!

Homemaker have earned a priceless place in humanity.
Building the houses of our communities
into homes of safe growth and moral integrity. 

By investing in the value of raising humanity
we ensure the future of our own sanity.  


Perhaps the time has finally come
for the world to rally behind our "Moms"
be that a he or a she
to liberate the finances for domesticity
to help make family all that it can be.





The Society of Domestic Engineers

 Homemakers.
Domain domesticates.
A silent majority
Working universally
Laboring endlessly.
Multitasking tirelessly.
Cheering relentlessly.

 

The long and winding road
that leads to your door
should never disappear....

we've seen that road before my dear
it always leads to here...


do we really value
our Domestic Engineers?



How do we value the Homemaker in the 21st Century?
 At $97,000.00 a year "Experts" say.

At what cost do we work to keep the Homemaker from obscurity?
 At any cost, I say!


Isn't it an occupation that we must finally undertake to pay
knowing that the absence of
results in the cost being higher than we can afford to
 and much more than we should be willing to pay.

Cream Puff Crazed

 There are a few tidbits that I render so darn good that they should be considered dangerous and
only offered for consumption in and from your own kitchen, but once annually.

Fresh Cream Puff with Bananas

 I consider Homemade CREAM PUFFS to be a few of those things..
Very few people know that I lack the ability to spend the evening alone, in a house with a container of Mini M&M Cream Puffs in the freezer
without succumbing to the temptation to eat the entire lot of them myself.

Oh I am well aware of the self induced, nauseated feeling that accompanies the consumption of countless Cream Puffs but have none the less participated in preserving this particularly putrid behavior on more than one occasion.

I honed a taste for the sweeter side of life when I was quite young.

My Mom has always been a master Dessert maker. Layer upon layer of visually stunning squares, homemade cinnamon buns and deep fried doughnuts served to sweeten my tooth and the memories of my childhood. Nothing beat arriving home to the sweet smell of Mom and the aroma of one of her specialties wafting from the kitchen, except to have arrived just in time for a fresh serving of the same.

 Although her products are all purchased lo-cally and manufactured right in her home there are no misconceptions over the lacking low- cal count in her finished products. No holds barred. No product banned.
These are homemade goodies born from the love of a Mother and begun in a bowl full of the love of baking. Blended from a mix of sugar,  flour, eggs and butter with a dollop of cream cheese and/or of course whip cream the concoctions were then baked into the many comfort foods of my childhood.


  I do love to bake myself but I am also certain that there are many years yet to come before the day arrives that I am finally asked to bring the dessert for dinner! My Moms desserts continue to reign supreme, garnering the natterings of many a family get together.  I couldn't be fuller, happier or more thrilled about it all. I really do savor the memory of every tasty moment.

Fresh Cream Puff with Raspberry Sauce

  I want one now! A fresh Cream Puff stuffed with real whip cream and dusted with powdered sugar  served with warmed Raspberries and a piping hot, fresh cup of coffee to which just the right amount of Creemo has been added...OMG

Hmmm I pondered but for a moment.
That's what I'll make to take. I had a dinner date that evening with friends to which I had been invited to bring the dessert!
 Funny how the minds world works..Blog and ye shall find?!!

(Cream Puffs do travel well and set up swiftly.)

Cream Puffs to go

I bake my Cream Puffs and set to cool before slicing open the tops. I like to leave a bit of the lid attached to the cream puff itself allowing  the lid to stand open once I have stuffed the center.
Others prefer to slice the lid right of the top and then gently set it back down on the top of a stuffed Puff.
Once cooled I remove any excess dough from inside and finally place the little puffs in a foil lined container to go. Pack in single layers. Cover and refrigerate for later use.
That's it , the hardest part is done.

I then beat or blend together the Cream Puff stuffing (real whipped cream)to be used in the shells. Once cooled it can be spooned into small or medium freezer bags or a pastry bag and stored in the fridge. The bag is easily and safely carted about and the corner can be snipped off to squeeze the content directly and evenly into the Cream Puff Cups when the time come and the need arises.

  I keep Icing Sugar in an old shakable spice bottle with lid that also travels well.
 A bag of Bananas, A Pineapple, fresh or frozen Berries, nuts, coconut or dessert sauce in a squeeze bottle all travel well and are instant, economical and effective ways to add the Wow to your Cream Puffs.
These really are best eaten not long after being prepared but once stuffed, the Cream Puffs can be individually fresh frozen and then stored in freezer bags in the freezer.
Now that you are aware of my relationship with this particular frozen food you will understand why I no longer partake in the freezing of Cream Puffs in my home!
See recipe below

I love the dessert design-ability of these little Puff cups but the value they have as appealing Appetizers should not be overlooked. These little cups are also just fabulous stuffed with a Crab Dip!
                 Wow the ones you love at your next gathering 
           with your own homemade  Cream Puffs!

Cream Puff Recipe

1/4  Cup Butter      Combine water and Butter and on medium heat, bring to a full rolling boil.
1  Cup Water         Remove from heat


1 Cup Flour           Beat in flour and salt until mixture begins to leaves the sides   
1/4 Tsp. Salt           and form a ball.  

4 Eggs                    Beat in eggs one at a time.

Drop by teaspoon onto baking tray and bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes or until tops are a golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on rack before slicing open tops.

 The cakes do puff a bit when they bake but they do not spread out on the tray an awful lot so they can be baked a bit closer together than a cookie which tends to spread out more.
 That's it. That's how simply this fussing is done.                 
 

Raw Cream Puffs

Baked Cream Puffs

 This may be a good time to spread a little love across your apron and your chin by way of a little strategically placed icing sugar.  People who have not made Cream Puffs seem to have the impression that making cream puffs are a lot of work. In the name of honoring this myth I indulge in the tradition of sprinkling icing sugar on self before serving!

Filling

1-2 tsp.  Instant Pudding. 
Vanilla is typical but any flavor of your fancy will works. Mmm try Chocolate or Butterscotch.
2 Cups Heavy Cream  
Combine pudding and cream and beat with electric beater for 2 min. Refrigerate for several hours. Scoop into Pastry Bag or plastic baggy for storage and later use. Squeeze content out of corner of cut bag,
evenly into the Cream Puffs.

Fresh Cream Puffs and Bananas

Serve up your Cream Puffs on a pretty plate stuffed with Vanilla Cream and serve with half a sliced Banana and a shake of powdered sugar.
  Mmmmm, doesn't it look delightful?

Fresh Cream Puffs with Raspberries

 





Serve them with warmed Raspberries
and Coffee after breakfast in the Sun

The Cream Puffs and the great company was enjoyed by everyone.

   Indulge yourself and enjoy today!

Make your own Instant Pudding Mix Click Here
 

Where in the World would you find The World's Largest Easter Egg?

 Lillian the Domestic Engineer
 Get EGG Cited

  
The World's Largest Easter Egg is found in little old
Vegreville Alberta, Canada!

The Vegreville egg is a giant sculpture of a pysanka, a Ukrainian-style Easter egg. It is the largest pysanka in the world.^[1] The work is built of an intricate set of anodized aluminum two-dimensional tiles congruent equilateral triangles and star-shaped hexagons fashioned over an aluminum framework. The egg is 31 ft (9 m) long and three and a half stories high, weighing in at 2.5 t (5,512 lb).^{[2]
 Click Here for more} 



To Build a Pysanka: Professor Resch, computer scientist at the University of Utah,was responsible for the entire Pysanka concept which required the development of new comptuer programs. The Pysanka is really an immense jigsaw puzzle containing 524 star patterns, 2,208 equilateral triangles, 3,512 visible facets, 6,978 nuts and bolts, and 177 internal struts. The Pysanka is recognized around the world as not only a unique artistic masterpiece but also an achievement of nine mathematical, architectural and engineering firsts. The design represents the first computer modeling of an egg.
Symbolic Meanings: This Pysanka (Ukrainian Easter Egg) symbolizes the harmony, vitality and culture of the community and is dedicated as a tribute to the 100th Anniversary of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police who brought peace and security to the largest multi-cultural settlement in all of Canada.

More INFO HERE!












 

Naugahyde. The Urban Myth

the Naugahyde, so you know!
Exists only in the minds of the gullible.. as it did in mine so many years ago.
Twas Fred the foreman in the commercial Bookbindery where I worked  that convinced me so. 
 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Naugahyde (sometimes abbreviated to Nauga) is an American brand of artificial leather (or "pleather" from plastic leather). Naugahyde is a composite of a knit fabric backing and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic coating. It was developed by United States Rubber Company, and is now manufactured and sold by Uniroyal Engineered Products, LLC, a privately held company. Its name, first used as a trademark in 1936,^[1] comes from the Borough of Naugatuck, Connecticut, where it was first produced. Uniroyal asserts that Naugahyde is one of the most popular premium pleathers. Naugahyde is manufactured in Stoughton, Wisconsin.^[2]

Advertising campaign showing the fictional Nauga character. Note that the Nauga's skin is made of vinyl.

A marketing campaign of the 1960s and 1970s asserted humorously that Naugahyde was obtained from the skin of an animal called a "Nauga". The claim became an urban myth.^[3] The campaign emphasized that, unlike other animals, which must typically be slaughtered to obtain their hides, Naugas can shed their skin without harm to themselves.^[4] The Nauga doll, a squat, horned monster with a wide toothy grin, became popular in the 1960s and is still sold today.^[5]

Mom are you Listening?

 



              Mom are you Listening?

   MOM, did you hear me??
 Did you call to make an appointment with the dentist for me today?
 Mom do you remember where I put my keys yesterday?
Can you unplug the toilet in the basement today?
 Do you know where my winter toque went to?
Mom will you type up an Resume for me?
Can you go to the bank for me today?
I can't find my computer cord do you have one I can borrow"?

License to Drive

 

 Lillian the Domestic Engineer   HOME
License to Drive

It is the subject nightmares are made of. It is a force much larger than one can imagine and way beyond your Parental control. It is a powerful tool to the highway of Life where you can go as fast as you like until you get caught or run into somebody head on in reality.

It is the fear of midnight knocking at your door and the Dread of seeing an Officers face ...and then hearing no more.

It is the panic that parks itself in your gut every the car is out.

It is your own thoughts that keep you awake while in vain you attempt to shake the fear that your late driver can and will create.

Top Mommy Blogger. VOTE HERE

Lillian the Domestic Engineer HOME

Welcome

I CRAFT anytime. COOK, usually on time. CLEAN well, most of the time. PARENT all the time and BLOG in my free time!
Lillian the Domestic Engineer My DAZE Crafty, curious, creative, emotional, frugal, humorous, honest, industrious, intuitive, insightful, exhausted, Mother Opinionated, organized, trustworthy, passionate, polite, persistent, patient, practical, sentimental, wondrous,  Woman, Human, Partner, Parent, Daughter, Sister, Aunt, Friend,

Welcome to my world.     Lillian the Domestic Engineer     I like to think that I have aged gracefully and weathered wisely along my journey.  I accept that I may be a little pickled  but I like to regard this as a result of having been well aged and blended splendidly. I have laughed as I have cried. I learned as I tried. I have embraced the blessings of good fortune  and good health with solid values and in good morale. I have encountered many a hard and painful growing lessons endeared only with good humor and in good faith.  I have grown to know and to embrace my life experiences as lessons in the plan of the ever changing plans. Plans are made to be changed. Only a fool never changes ones mind! As I believe we are the harvest of the seeds we plant, I so believe in the need to sow, to savor, to harvest and discover, to live, to uncover.  To learn, to laugh, to register and to rediscover as I work at being conscience of the journey.  I excitedly gaze into my future with hopes and dreams of fulfilling my potential ( I will grow up one day and discover what I want to be)  as I enjoy the many splendors of watching my children blossom into young men full of potential. At my life I look graciously ahead and with gratitude, I look behind. The passing of time has made up my mind.   Survival really is all a matter of mind.  The truth really is If you don't mind it doesn't matter. There is probably not another Soul around willing to get at her! Look as you should learn to hear, selectively. Learn that to Liberate is to Deliberate  and you will find the freedom to pee alone while talking on the phone! Don't forget to laugh (at yourself)  along the way and to forgive yourself for the things you will do and say.. Oh for the Love of a Mother! My Handsome Family Yup, that's me. A MOM! I no longer answer  without the sense of entitlement that I'm entitled to but rather when I'm asked by those I meet,  "What do you do?" I Proudly proclaim (perhaps with no brain, as a result of having allegedly lost a quarter of my brain through the birthing of each Son)  "I'm the lucky Mom of four great Sons  and right where I want to be." A Domestic Engineer, I am indeed. What did you say you do?

#MOM Let Mom know you got there

 Lillian the Domestic Engineer
    Click above to visit Home Page



My Mother had a great deal of trouble with me, but I think she enjoyed it - Mark Twain
The Mothers Heart is the child's schoolroom. - Henry Ward Beecher

#mom Let Mom know you got there safe. 

"Give me a call when you get there"  my Mom always insists. 

"Give me a call if you're going to be late " my Mom ever requests. 

"Give me a call if you're not coming at all"  my Mom forever commands. 
                           

 Show Respect              Call me.                  It's Common Courtesy  

Now that I wait at the end of a night for a sign of Son on the line,
where the absence of activity gives birth to the natural doubts that grow fear, now in my Parental mind.
I can rest with a little ease knowing that my kids have seen and heard the same expectations
coming straight from me.
Oh it's someone Texting me with the promise of a Hi Mom, it's me.
"I am warm and dry but won't be home tonight. Love you Mom. See you tomorrow. Goodnight!"
Now I lay me down to sleep knowing everything is alright....

 CALL ME. MOM Just thought I'd share this cool Web Site I found. Check it out! 
#MOM Click HERE

Sunshine, Sunshine

 

Sunshine and S.A.D.

 
Tis the top of a frigid winter morning in Alberta.
It may be cold out there but I do see the sun shining in
as it rises from the earths horizon.
Its light eventually floods in through the frosted window pane
 brightening the room and warming my soul.
The Sunshine means the world to me.
It improves my constitution and brightens my days.

I speak from experience.

I would take a sunny, crisp 40 below day over a dreary,
wet 5 above day, any day!
I struggled with some degree of S.A.D. for most of the
24 years that I lived on the wet ,West Coast of our great Country.



I now understand that even liquid sunshine hurts if you get too much.

Rain, rain go away

       
   S.A.D. does not require sunshine to bloom.
        It prospers in the rain!
 







 SAD link -
What is Seasonal Affective Disorder?
Many people experience seasonal changes in feelings of well being and in energy, sleep patterns and
eating patterns, to a greater or lesser degree. The winter blues or February blahs are common. But some people experience powerful changes to the degree that it becomes a form of clinical depression, called Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.)

Rain, Rain Go Away.

 Day after day after day of winter west coast rain would dampen my spirits and darken my days.
My frustrations would mount and my head would hang with my spirits as dampened as my mist soaked bangs.
Mold would grow in the pockets of my wet rain coat and my dearly loved Cowichan Sweater 
would begin to smell like wet goat!

Rain, Rain go away I need a little light my way!

Lillian the Domestic Engineer

Sunshine, Sunshine come my way..
 It may be cold outside today
but that's OK
I'm now living in sunshine country! 

My flowers and I bloom here all year round!

I plant my winter garden and decorate my soul with the flowers
I now paint on frosted windows.




Outside the wind howls and the snow does blow but my indoor garden looks beautiful against the white snow.
The Sun warms my face as I paint away, my sights set on the glory of another bright day.

Paint flowers inside today
CLICK  for Window Splashes and other colorful things

Sunshine, Sunshine.

 Paint on! 

I bloom in every season and think that
a little Goofy is great!

 

I do miss the mountains and the fresh ocean breeze
 but the sunshine means so much more to me! 

Alberta sunshine

                              Top Mommy Blogger

                        Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote Daily!   
                                   
                                                

                           

I'm going to get A Round Tu It!

List of To Do's

 ME .. a name I call upon
 Hey... a name I answer to

 Mom..a name they gave to me   
 I...the Queen of Domesticity

Lillian the Domestic Engineer
 Click to visit my Daze



 

The lists of have to DO's,
 should DO's,
 would like to DO's,
 have yet to DO's
 gotta get around To Do's
and the would rather not get to DO's,
 all require an awful lot of Want to DO!

                            

 
Line up! I'm going to get A Round Tu It