It's been many months since I've been excited about anything that's been broadcast on Justin.tv. This afternoon there was a broadcast that was made just for me. I was at the movies this afternoon and when I got home and checked in on Twitter, I saw a message from twitter.com/Justintv noting a broadcast with Jamie Oliver at Justin.tv/ministryoffood. I immediately hit the link and the broadcast was long over, but the JTV archives were working just fine, so I sat back and watched.

It was a great show. He had great production values with a camera person, a boom mic that got caught in the shot every once in a while, a webmaster that monitored the chat room and kept Jamie and his guests up to date. The sound was perfect. It actually seemed to be in stereo.

The objective of the show was to communicate a movement he's begun called Pass it On. Like the movie, the idea is to teach friends and family to teach friends and family how to teach good, and healthy meals in an effort to change the way people eat. Jamie stated that the UK is the 3rd most unhealthy country in the world. Well, we all know the US claims the #1 spot (at least that's what I've read) but I don't know who takes #2. If any of you know, can you please leave a comment? I am running out of time because we've got a lot of cooking to do tonight and I have got to get into the kitchen to get the prep started so I can't take the time to do the research.

Anyway, he had a couple of 20 year old guys in the kitchen and was teaching them how to make a fish dish and a pasta dish. There were laughs and there was serious, casual cooking going on. There were viewers cooking along and that made for some humor as well. I noticed the recipes posted on his channel and the idea was that there were local viewers cooking along with them, virtually.

The funniest moment came when Tom, the guest who cooked the fish was plating up the dish. Clearly he has never put anything other than pizza on a plate, which he openly admitted. Jamie tried to teach him how to plate the food properly and it made for some good laughs.

It takes time. Imagine never having cooked a thing and being scooped up off the street as these two guys were, being thrown into Jamie's studio and being made to cook an unfamiliar dish on camera?

Since I was watching after the fact, I did not have the chat rolling in front of me. I'll check and see if I can catch it under Options when I get some time later, but it appears that there was some of the usual "ugly" being thrown around in chat and Jamie and his team were asking viewers to "keep it above board." Probably ignoring it, as they seemed to be doing most of the time, was the most helpful thing they could have done to keep it at bay.

Jamie seemed to be surprised and delighted that there were viewers from around the world watching. I suppose he doesn't exactly sit around watching JTV and hasn't been exposed to the kind of viewers and the places they come from on JTV.

A couple of Justopia viewers were in residence from blog and Twitter comments I received and they sent messages to me via Twitter and the JTV messaging system to let me know that Jamie Oliver was broadcasting and one sent me a note to tell me she sent mail to Jamie to let him know about Justopia.com and Les Moonves told me he did the same. I am beginning to wonder if they are one and the same. :) But no matter, it was very nice of everyone to keep me in the loop and for their support and I'm looking forward to the next broadcast.

i'm sitting thinking wondering about you
you are mesmerizing special and true
just when i see you
sky of grey turns into blue
just when i see you
my dreams come true

just a look into your eyes
tell me story you have inside

just a plain smile of yours
tell me sweet dreams are in store

i look at you
skin as flawless as snow
walking with dancing flow
talking with a smile that glow
i don't want to go

chocolate girl
you made my world swirl
and my feelings twirl
girl girl girl

Tchaikovsky swan lake playing in head
and forever i'll have this thread
of you in my head
in my head

The chocolate is quite sweet for milk chocolate, and we give them kudos for offering a totally organic product, though we can't say that it would stand out from the crowd without the catchy packaging and branding.

Social currency: It's ironic thus cool (though isn't this concept so last year?!)

Fat Pig Chocolate

You see, I toddled off to Coles this morning, in need of some milk, and accidently managed to go down the wrong aisle. Suddenly, I found myself staring at rows of Cadbury's chocolate. The synapses fire, and my eyes start seeking the indulgent Clinker block. Whilst the block in question was nowhere to be found, it did come to my attention that family generously sized blocks were on special. Fine, if I couldn't have Clinkers, I'd treat myself to some Turkish Delight. And better grab a bag of Clinkers, since they are on my mind. I turn, and there, hidden in the single serve chocolate, is a decadently priced, undersized Clinkers Dairy Milk.

See how small that little block is? Is it really my fault that it's gone already? No, I didn't think so either!

Yeah, with all things i've been up to the past few days, i have lost track of time... and month. Well, but as I woke up this morning with the sound of Christmas carols waking me up from my deep sleep. And it was really nice, a big smile on my face was painted.:-)

I always have this feeling about Christmas that i can't explain. Even the mere signs and symbols of this season, the lanterns, Christmas cards, Christmas lights, anything that has a Christmas thing in it, make something in my heart beat as if it was the happiest thing!:-) i don't know, maybe the child in me never fails to come out when the ber-months come.

I remember when we were still little children during Christmas eve, we are all gathered in our little living room in our old house, mama and papa would always tell stories about the big guy in red with all the gifts he has for us and that we should put our stockings out withe list of the things we want, while my papa would imitate him with his own version of the famous Ho-ho-ho Merry Christmas, and it was really a laugh.

Reminiscing those moments makes me even feel happier today, and better for now i can feel my body restore itself from my old-chubby-cute-and-less stressed self. And as i paint the precious times my mama having our little sister on her lap, papa on her side, ched and I with our apple cut hair, and PM with her skinny self, the three of us with our hot Swiss Miss choco drink and the mess it makes in our faces, what a pretty and happy scene we must have been if i could only go back and take a picture of us.

Christmas this time with the four of us a little grown up, this special time in Christmas eve never stopped, though we added a little more events to be done to celebrate, and our fare share of own stories to tell.

And to this moment, i have realized what Christmas is. It's not the lights, the cards, the lanters, the Christmas trees, the treats, nor the gifts little children get from their ninongs and ninangs, but it's what we share with other people, the love, the happiness, the spirit and that special feeling that paints a huge smile in our faces while thinking of Christmas even in the hot summer days, or within the outpour of rain.

And to this instant, how happier it makes me to know what great gift i have been receiving every Christmas, and how i wish it would never fade, wrapped in the fanciest, most precious and priceless thing called family.:-)

Keeping an eye on calories may seem a tad obsessive, however, it's more common sense to be honest. Don't go over the daily allowance, and try to balance crap foods with healthy foods. I am no longer buying multipacks of 2 finger kitkats. As much as I like to have them, I like them too much. Going through six in a day at 107 calories each certainly isn't "the way to go". So they won't be on the next shopping run. I am getting used to this internet shopping lark, well for food shopping that is. Buying any other goods online I pretty much have in the bag. The problem I noticed with internet food shopping, is that once presented with my "favourites list", I have little motivation to go browisng for other things, and often forget things I needed, or end up with the same all the time.

At the moment, it's not much of a problem. I buy things to make into meals, and try to substitute my cravings for chocolate with fruit. That's a real hit, however I find myself eating a lot of fruit to make up for not having chocolate snacks. Oh well, there's no such thing as too much of a good thing, surely? :)

I like this new reform I have in the way I eat, and my exercise levels are up too - I walk to and from work every day. That amounts to 4 miles a day; about an hour's worth of brisk walking. I walk quite fast, averaging about 4.5-5 miles an hour most days (My phone has a sports application. I used it a couple of times to measure my speeds with the GPS)

In other news, I went to the doctor's today about a chest pain I had. Turned out it was nothing - no way near as serious as I was expecting, and probably muscular. I think a came down with one of those temporary bugs too - No idea if they were related, however, I seem to have a kickass immune system, because these things usually fade fast. This one has, anyway.

The last time I went to the doctors' before today, was 6 or 7 years ago. I did have to make an emergency visit about a couple of years ago, but I don't count that, because it was hayfever related, and I just needed some eyedrops to calm down my eyes that summer.

In unrelated news, I received SPORE through the mail today. I can't play it though, because I am still waiting for my RMA'd (returned) hard drive to be replaced. eBuyer sent it out today at about 7pm. I sent it to them last Saturday. I hate waiting this long, for something that seems like it could be done so simply and quickly. Anyway, from what I see and hear about SPORE, it looks great and plays great too. I watched the "Making of..." DVD and "How to build a better being" National Geographic featurette DVD. I bought the Galactic Edition of SPORE. Basically, it's like an extended edition dvd box, but for PC games. I read through the art book that came with it too. That was an interesting read, and gave a look at how the designers of the game go through various stages of development.

I plan to do more updates like this in the future. I'll most likely keep them to Friday End of Week updates, but may make mid-week or beginning of week updates instead, or as well. Dunno, let's see how it goes.

Bye for now.

It was odd this morning, after my smoothie I wasn't hungry again. All morning I was ok, and thought, wow is the worst of the hunger pangs passed? Have I gotten used to them? Has my body adjusted? Around 1:00 I ate my orange and yogurt, and just like that- my hunger was woken up. And I was so hungry. And I almost ate a chocolate, but it probably had 50 odd calories in it and there was no way I was going to jeapordise my soup for a bit of chocolate! Soup will fill that gaping hole in my stomach, a bit of chocolate will not.

I did however eat a few leftover chips when I came home, after working out they were only slightly more than 1 calorie each. GOD THEY WERE GOOD.

Working my arms with the weights on them on my walks to and from the train station. Hopefully burning lots of calories and keeping my muscles active.

Also- I met Ringo Starr last night. And that was cool. Even if you don't like him much, MOM, you have to admit that it is pretty cool.

i put a hershey's piece in my oatmeal again and it was delicious again.

like an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie. yum. i encouraged tommy to do the same but he ate his oatmeal plain. he must be sick or something.

i'm going to go eat more chocolate now! which reminds me...yesterday we stopped by "edible arrangements" in natick. they were having an anniversary party and giving away gift certificates, and had a raffle and free samples. i sampled a chocolate covered strawberry, a chocolate & coconut covered apple, and a chocolate covered orange. it was kinda awkward as the actual party ended and they were starting to clean up and tommy and i were the only ones there when we walked in...but i have no shame when it comes to free things- especially food.

the strawberry was the best. the rest were eh. but we got TWO gift certificates for a box of six chocolate covered strawberries. they have to be redeemed by the end of this month so i think i'm gonna go get a box today! YUM!

Na obra, os autores Terry Horne e Simon Wootin analisam como a dieta, o ambiente e o estresse afetam a capacidade ...

Leiam mais neste post.

Apenas um comentário. YEAH!

I've had Carole Walter's Great Coffee Cakes for a while now and while i'm always reading through it and tabbing recipes i want to make, i've always been all talk and no action until now. It wasn't a tough call deciding what to go with first- i was in the mood for something chocolatey and given how Carole Walter has tons of recipes incorporating her homemade streusel, chocolate brownies topped with chocolate streusel. more chocolate and almonds sounded really good.

I rarely ever cannot decide if i like something or not but these unfortunately had the dubious honour of falling into that category. While i really liked the streusel and the texture of the nuts and chocolate chips, i can't say the same for the texture of these brownies. They were really more cakey, a quality that i don't care for in brownies. I mean if i wanted cakey brownies, i would just have chocolate cake. Don't get me wrong though, these weren't bad at all. They just weren't really my sort of brownies.

But it was nice to know J's dad and bro liked them. In fact J's bro only just tasted them- a whole week after i made them- so maybe these do get better with time. While I would happily whip up a batch of them for him, i don't think these will be making a second appearance in my kitchen otherwise- they really are just too much work for something i don't really care for. Plus there are a million other things I can't wait to try from the book.

While i'm at this, can i just completely show off a little playstand i built Coco a couple of days ago. It's nothing much really, especially compared to other homemade playstands i've seen but it works just as well. So now Coco gets to sit with me on his portable playstand while i'm on the computer or reading my book around the house. I just hope of all things, he doesn't choose to start parroting Barney's 'It's gonna be legen- wait for it- dary!' with all the How I Met Your Mother episodes i've been watching. Gotta love that show :D

Edited to add- J's brother just dropped me a note begging (his word) me for more of these brownies, saying they're the best he has ever had, and the recipe. I know what i'll be happily doing this weekend :)

Chocolate Chocolate Streusel Squares [Adapted from Carole Walter's Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More]

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups sifted plain flour
1/4 cup sifted Dutch-processed cocoa powder
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
85g unsweetened chocolate, roughly chopped
80g unsalted butter
2 tbsp corn oil
2 large eggs
2/3 cups castor sugar
1/3 lightly packed light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup sour cream
1/3 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped almonds

Chocolate Streusel
80g unsalted butter
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup castor sugar
1/4 cup lightly packed light brown sugar
2 tbsp sifted Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven at 175. Line a 13"x 9" baking pan with aluminium foil and set aside.
2. To make streusel Place butter in a medium-sized saucepan and heat till almost melted. Remove pan from heat and let butter cool a bit. In a medium-sized bowl, whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and sugars together.
3. Add the dry ingredients in and using your fingers, mix well. Let streusel stand for 10 to 15 minutes and get on with the batter.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder together and set aside.
5. Put the chocolate, oil and butter in a bowl and zap it in the microwave in 15 seconds bursts till chocolate is melted and set aside.
6. Beat the eggs with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. Add the sugars in gradually, beating well. The mixture should be thick. Add the chocolate mixture in, mixing well.
7. Alternating the flour mixture with the sour cream- starting and ending with the flour mixture- add the flour mixture in three batches and the sour cream in two, mixing till just combined each time. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
8. Sprinkle the streusel, then the chocolate chips and almonds, over the batter, pressing them down gently. Bake the brownies for 30 to 35 minutes till a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Turns out all it means is, palm oil [originating either in Africa or in the US] is a very healthy oil. It's high in saturated fats, but it's also high in antioxidants and vitamin E. Great, right? Not so fast... when they fractionate it, they heat it so that the oil separates into 2 parts: oil that has lower and higher melting point. Then they skim off the stuff that has the higher melting point, which is more stable, much like trans fats used to be and discard the rest. They use this oil in a lot of baked goods, confections containing chocolate - and microwave popcorn. Commonly used oils are palm oil, palm kernel oil and coconut oil. Both Palm and coconut oils are very healthy and great to cook with if you can find it [Trader Joe's carries coconut oil which I use in place of vegetable oil - it has very little flavor, so it's perfect when you don't want your oil to interrupt the flavors of whatever you're using it for...]. Palm kernel oil is oil they get from pressing the pit of the palm fruit - which doesn't really have much nutrition in it to start with, but it's much harder to get oil from the pit than it is from the fleshy, pulpy fruit itself. 

So, what's the bottom line? 

The good news: This fractionated variety of oil is NOT half a step away from being straight-up plastic like hyrogenated oils were and does not appear to cause cancer like trans fats do.

The bad news: The fractionation process pretty much strips any health benefits from palm oil, rendering it [pun intended] void of nutrition, and you're left with just a bunch of saturated fat... which many believe to be one of the causes of heart disease. 

So, if you have to have your popcorn, fractionated palm oil won't cause cancer, but it could add to your waistline or the walls of your arteries. I, personally don't think saturated fats are that bad. They're very stable and they're a nice, slow source of energy. Too much of anything is bad for you, so I apply the same rule to saturated fats... I also believe that there's a much higher risk of coronary disease if you have sugar issues. If your blood sugar is too high for too long [unchecked insulin resistance or pre-diabetes to full blown type 2], the sugar corrodes your artery walls, then your body sends in the cholesterol as a sort of spackle, to try and patch the damage so the walls can heal - but cholesterol is sticky and things like saturated fats can stick to it and form a sort of microscopic barricade in your artery as it sticks to itself, as well. If you have normal sugar levels, no need for cholesterol patching, and the increased risk of heart disease from eating saturated fats goes away. All things in moderation... I'm not giving up steak anytime soon, and as long as I keep my sugar nice and balanced, I shouldn't have to. 

As for fractionated oils - I'm glad they came up with a more natural way of stabilizing oils for processed food, but I won't be eating it anytime soon. I'm just glad that if my hubby decided to have some microwave popcorn when we watch a movie, he's not eating a measured dose of cancer-causing plastic. Now, I am by no means a doctor, I just do a LOT of reading on this sort of thing and have come to my own conclusions. I'm not recommending anything, just stating what I think, pertaining to my own diet [and concern for my husband's]. I think we all should know more about what we put into our bodies so we can make our own educated decisions about what we're willing to subject our bodies too - or at least understand the consequences if we choose to eat something unhealthy anyway...

Photo credit: Novatek Filtration, Sweden

Voltei, naquelas! Com uma vontade imensa de tomar um Frapuccino de chocolate com creme, mas como meu trabalho é longe, não tive a oportuniidade aiinda. E pra piorar mais a situação (por isso que eu digo nessas horas não tenham um amigo que trabalhe perto do starbucks), ele fica me fazendo ficar com mais vontade aiiinda.

Mas ele disse que vai pagar um pra mim!!! *------------------------*

\o/

"Enfim, pra finalizar, as canecas do ‘Starbucks @ home’ que são lindas, e te deixam com vontade de comprar todas. Preciso comprar pelos menos duas. Umas pra mim e uma pra srta Bittencourt ;]"

Palavras ditas por ele mesmo. \o/

beijos :*

Segundo a engenheira de alimentos Priscila Efraim, da Universidade de Campinas (Unicamp), “as pesquisas sobre os flavonóides no chocolate têm mostrado benefícios como a diminuição do risco de doenças cardiovasculares, diminuição do colesterol e melhoria no sistema imunológico”.

Os flavonóides funcionam como antioxidantes no nosso corpo, combatendo os radicais livres, tão famosos por apressar o nosso envelhecimento e provocar doenças como o câncer.
No chocolate, esses flavonóides tem sua origem no cacau. O problema é que, segundo o estudo da pesquisadora, durante a produção do chocolate, em média 70% dos flavonóides são perdidos devido a reações bioquímicas na fermentação.

Em pouco tempo pode estar disponível no mercado um superchocolate, muito mais rico em flavonóides que os existentes nas prateleiras e ainda mais saudável para a nossa saúde. Isso porque os pesquisadores estão trabalhando no desenvolvimento de novas técnicas de fermentação do chocolate.

Fonte:saudenainternet

Fitness Motivational Poster - Chocolate Underground ~ ep01

The Chocolate Prohibition law.

Chocolate is now illegal. The story takes place in present day, the Good for You Party has won the election and announced the amazing Chocolate Prohibition law. They prohibit all sweet things, including chocolates, because they are harmful to ones health.

Washoku

The concept of washoku, pervasive in Japan to the point that many people aren't aware they're following precepts dating back at least 800 years, is almost unknown outside the country.

Q: During the past 30 years, sushi has become almost as American as apple pie. What is washoku?

A: "It has several meanings. Washoku is written with two characters. The first, "wa," has two meanings. It can mean indigenous to Japan, so when it is used before another word, it means Japanese. "Shoku," the other character, means anything that is consumed. So washoku means the food that is indigenous to Japan. Western food would be yoshoku. The second meaning of the "wa" calligraphy is harmony. So washoku is also the harmony of food. If you layer those together, you have the harmony of food that is indigenous to Japan.

Five questions For Elizabeth Andoh, San Francisco Chronicle, January 22, 2006

I've had a jar of Nutella sitting in my cupboard for some time now waiting for it to be used up so I decided to do a Food Blog Search and came up with more recipes using Nutella than I could make in my life...ok, maybe not, but there were a bunch of them that looked good.  I chose a filling recipe using Nutella and made meltaway cookies to smoosh in between them to make sandwich cookies.

These days I can usually pass up any type of chocolate chip, oatmeal, peanut butter cookie.  Not that they aren't good, but have been eating them my whole life, they aren't anything new.  These Fudge Metlaways I could not keep my hands off.  The cookies melted in my mouth while the fudge filling...did whatever it did.  Ha, so much for my description.  Anyway, I recommend everyone trying these out if you're up for something new.

See you next week.  I'm off to Scottsdale until Tuesday.  104 degrees here I come! 

Fudge Meltaways

(Recipe adopted from:  Recipezaar and The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook)

Cookie:

 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cake flour

3/4 cup cornstarch

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Sift both flours, cornstarch, baking pwd and salt into a medium bowl.  Set aside

Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar at medium speed until smooth.  Scrape sides as needed.  Mix in vanilla, decrease mixer speed to low and add flour mixture just until combined and smooth dough forms.

Use about 1/2 Tbsp of dough to form each cookie.  Roll each into a ball and place on lined baking sheets.  Flatten with a fork to about 1 and 1/4 inches in diameter.

Bake sheets one at a time until the bottoms of the cookies begin to brown, about 25-30 minutes.  The tops should not change color.  Cool on pan for about 10 minutes and transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Filling:

1/4 cup Nutella

3/4 powdered sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp vanilla

4-6 tsps water

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl with a fork or mixer.  Add more or less water to get the consistency you desire.

Assembling:

Spread fudge filling on the bottom of one cookie.  Press another cookie into the fudge filling to make a sandwich.

Someone's definitely eating my share because although I have several vices of the culinary kind, chips aren't among them.

Now if it was chocolate...

The creaminess, the high quality ingredients and the hazelnut content (13%) makes Nutella one of the most famous bread spreads (It is from the Italian company Ferrero.)

Galaxy .. "Gives you a share of country goodness"!!!

KFC - Zinger burger

Shawarma

Sausages/ Chicken Franks/ Fish Fingers/ Meat balls/ Chicken Nuggets

Hot Dog

...more later on..

It's an obsession about food.

It's an obsession about your body.

It's an obsession with thinner, more beautiful people.

I constantly think about food. I spend hours looking through recipe collection websites, imagining the exquisite flavours of crispy pork belly in a sweet, sticky sauce; the aroma of freshly baked chocolate cupcakes with sinfully sweet, rich caramel frosting.

Food has always been an obsession for me, regardless of my weight. My parents placed fairly strict restrictions around the types of food that we were allowed to eat when we were growing up. Chocolate was an occassional treat. Icecream was allowed once or twice a week. I cannot recall ever eating a bag of crisps at home. Takeaway food was, at most, once a month. We ate, on the most part, really healthy food. Lots of salads, vegetables, pasta and lean protein.

I think that is what started my unhealthy obsession with food. I remember my grandmother sent this huge slab of chocolate filled with fresh, crunchy almonds. We were, of course, allowed a small piece occassionally. That wasn't enough for me. The thought of this delicious chocolate sitting, waiting for me, in the kitchen freezer was too much to bear. I used to sneak down to the kitchen when mum and dad were watching television and snap off large pieces of chocolate, dash back to my room and gleefully shove it down my throat, before venturing out for another piece.

To this day, I find it difficult to leave chocolate in the fridge.

There is a second part of my childhood that has had an equal impact on my food obsession. Portion sizes.

I was a very active kid. Our television viewing was, again, restricted. So, I spent most of my time outdoors - riding my bike around the neighbourhood, climbing the 'mountain' (ha) behind our house, swimming and playing plenty of sport (netball, softball, running).

All of this physical activity resulted in an insatiable hunger for food. I would eat as much at dinner when I was 12 years old as my father would eat. My home economics teacher asked us to record what we ate over a day and bring it to class as part of a nutrition exercise. When I read out what I had eaten the previous day, my home economics teacher asked me to repeat it. I can still remember it.

Breakfast was six weetbix with skim milk. Lunch was a chicken and salad breadroll and an apple and orange. Dinner was six sausages, potato and vegetables. And until I left university, my weight was never higher than 53 kilograms (117lbs)! I was so active, my body needed and burnt that many calories!

Sadly though, it means that now I have a real problem with portion size.

Oh yum. There are fifty billion things I want to eat at Cannelle et Vanille, including these molten chocolate cakes... *droooool!*

Ahem, yes. Back to my birthday. Which was awesome. I picked up a copy of the book I have waited literally four years to finally see, talked to many friends and loved ones, and received a ton of online accolades this week (for some crazy unknown reason!).

Many thanks to April, of Crafting with Cats, for her way-too flattering writeup of my blog and pottery. It was really sweet. Be sure to check out her amazing handmade shrines! And thanks to Sharon, the fabulous jewelry crafter behind Manamoon Studios, and Rita, kitty-toy maker extraordinaire at Casbah Kitten, for both giving me an "I heart your blog" award this week! And last but not least, thanks to talented crocheter Sherryl, of A Day in Crochet, for awarding me the "Brilliant Weblog" recognition yesterday.

Whew! You guys totally rock! Thank you! (I'm supposed to tag other people, but that'll have to wait for another day...)

P.S. Contest winners will be announced sometime after midnight EST Thursday. Last day to sign up!