Visual Designs by Chris

Chris Durnan

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Green dish.. “3 dish”

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We are going through a food rethink here in the Durnan house. Recently, we have been doing “not less then 3” with most meals. The three being a combination of vegetables. So the side of our plates are filled with some combination of 3 or more veggies.

Last night, we cooked the 3 dish, but we bounce between cooked and raw. Surprisingly my son is jumping in and enjoying it.

This dish was alot of green veggies.
*zucchini
*asparagus
*peas
*onion
*fresh rosemary
*smidge of garlic
Tossed and heated up just so the zucchini was starting to cook and the onion had that shiny sheen when its cooking.

Normally, my son would hem and haw but he ate this and said it was good. He was eating away til he realized the teeny chunks were asparagus and those slowly got left behind. But the rest got eaten. And there were other veggies in the dish so no worries.

My son tossed his with some turkey italian sausage and gfree noodles and of course for this child no plate is complete without a little cheese. So parmesan.

I also had some noodles and my hubby passed on them. He is avoiding “the box” when it comes to food as much as possible. Love it! He is doing such a great job.

Our “3 dishes” mean the veggies are filling our plates.

I have some red russian kale growing on the front porch I shoulda snipped a little of that to. Maybe next time. Oh and fresh cilantro, but that woulda changed the whole taste. Fresh cilantro is very strong.

If you have any lots of veggies recipes, send them my way. Cooked or raw. I am lovin’ it.

Have a wonderful day!
Enjoy!
Chris

Time Machine

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The best part about having a child in the house is watching the creativity and the imagination. How boxes get squirreled away to the room to become other things. We are on a massive cleanout as we work on countdown to birthday. And these boxes are getting moved out but here is one worth keeping. A box time machine. This has controls and doohickeys galore. It is the beginning of the term “upcycling” we use as adults. A serious upcycle when a box can become a time machine. Gives me a fresh perspective on creativity daily. Also makes me look at the simplest object and imagine what it could be. I hope my Cowboy and I help our son keep up his creativity and imagination. I think later in life you need these things to think outside the box. To think past what things are meant or supposed to be and think more about what they could become. If you see my husband or I leaving the hardware store with random fittings and parts and we can’t really explain what its for… just know we might be retrofitting a time machine.

Have a wonderful day!

Enjoy! Chris

Thank you card using Chris Durnan’s cutter file

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Here’s another card using a cutter file from Chris Durnan’s Quarterly Membership Club. You can find the club in her store here. This file also came with a coffee pot. I absolutely love how versatile her cutter files are. I cut the swirls and Thank you on my Cricut and layered them on a brown card blank. Instant card!

Thanks for looking,
Sussann

Digi-Cutter Files offered in SCUT, GSD, KNK, WPC & AI (SVG) at www.visualdesignsbychris.com

Happy Easter

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I hope you have wonderful plans today to spend time together. There is a religious aspect to this holiday for our family, but it has become more a day of the three of us really spending a day together. I cherish these days and the memories we make. This morning my son went on his yearly treasure hunt for a basket filled with more craft supplies and to-do’s then candy. He excitedly digged through the magic kit and the stickers that say “top secret”. Now we are off to spend the rest of the day together.

There are a few candies here and there. These ones in the pic are one of my favs from baskets when we were little made by See’s candy. And their Bordeaux egg. So yum. I slice it in teeny slivers and can make it last a week. Do you have a favorite?

Happy Easter to Everyone! May you enjoy your day with loved ones and make memories.

Enjoy!
Chris

CAD: A little birdie..

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Today’s theme at the Card A Day Blog is congratulations. The outside of this card reads… a little birdie told me .. and the inside reads … congrats are in order.

I had to take this picture outside because the birds are chirping and the sun is shining. Yeah! Love our sun in Arizona.
Have a wonderful day and wonderful weekend!
Enjoy!
Chris
Visual Designs by Chris

To get quick fun updates of things going on, you can join my facebook page.

My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

I am wary… .. journal moment.

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I am wary of food.

One of my goals this year was health. Not exercise, fat, food, diet, all those trendy things. but Health.

I have devoted myself by joining rss feeds and news sites about all of those things. Exercise, food, diet and more… And through this I have become wary. I used to be a coupon shopper. Now I don’t find I need them. I am avoiding the box. We are running out of cereal in my house and my son is questioning why I am not replacing it. I have had him sit with me and read labels. We look the items up we don’t know what they are and usually we are like What? Yuck? or it just seems like a rabbit hole of information.

So it seems in this journey for health I have started some real change and revamp in our home. There are not coupons out there for a basket full of veggie items. I wonder is anyone else out there getting scared like me when I think of food? I could just eat it anyways which seems to be the general consensus, but to what end? To my end. and/or to my learning lessons for my son’s end. I am not perfect. I eat some of those boxed items because they are easier to grab, but slowly the thought of it is making me cringe more with every grab.

Little things that are starting to make me cringe.

BTH? In most of our preserved food, but illegal throughout the world other then the U.S. Why? is it the lobbiest are just that good at pushing harmfuls through the “powers that be”.

Corn.. the kind that makes bugs stomachs explode so that it can  be grown without the pest problem. But reportedly won’t do that to humans or cause any issues. I don’t understand the difference between when the bug will eat it or I eat it. Is the Corn Smart? Does it know what’s eating and not to blow up my tummy, my husbands or my sons?

Milk? Did I really read that they can put aspartame and sugar in your milk and not label it as such.

Diet foods with out any nutrition make you feel “not full” which means you eat more. So why not just eat the most non engineered food available and enjoy a smaller amount?

Did I read Carrots are washed in Chlorine? like the pool?

And this article about Junk Food and the heads of major corporations.. I don’t even know how to wrap this article up in a paragraph. I have gone back to it 4 times to read it in it’s entirety and really grasp it. I still can’t come up with a “short of it” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html

And then I have to ponder…
Why are there not nutrition classes in the schools? If this is such an epidemic of obesity going on, why are we not starting from the bottom. Why are there not nutritionist explaining it to our children? To help us from the start make habits from the get go instead of trying to understand it at the age of 40. I think kids would understand it. My son will be 9 next month and he often can tell me when he had to many sugary items. When he feels he needs water. When I ask him what is on his plate for food at a gathering with a buffet, he can tell me protein, carb, dairy instead of burger, bun, corn, etc. so I think they would get it. He knows there is a reason I am asking him what his vegetable is.  I think the reward of even just a few getting it and passing it on would be so helpful. I have to ponder if this is something I could suggest to my son’s school. Is there a healthy school award? Then it would be worth it. They like their awards. Again I ponder for sure.

This is just my thoughts for today. I am sure I will have more.
All things I have to think about more or research more.
But this is where my journey for “health” has lead me.

How about you?

Enjoy!
Chris

To get quick fun updates of things going on, you can join my facebook page.

My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

I hope it’s full of jelly beans..

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Saturday is my Card A Day Blog and I wanted to highlight Esther’s Bunny Gift Boxes. I know it isn’t a card per se. But I never was good with following rules. It is just a cute project from our VDBC Gallery. 
Thank you Esther!!!

I decided to offer this file as a $1.00 deal for this weekend. So if you are interested in getting it and also searching out our growing “less then a dollar” section. You will find this file.

I have converted this file to include more file types with it. I design and format and you can open it however you’d like. Offered in AI, GSD, KNK, WPC, MTC, SVG, DXF. Enjoy! – Chris

To get quick fun updates of things going on, you can join my facebook page.

My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

What’s going on….

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This is more a journal post for me. I print my book out so I have it to look back on in the future. I realized I haven’t journaled in a while. And I know my Dad in Wisconsin reads my blog. (Hi Dad) to see what’s up. Here is a little bit of an update.

Here is some of the items I have been having fun doing lately in life.

First the sunsets here just get better and better. My hubby took this one and it just was beautiful. I am ready for the warmer weather and longer evenings. Get so much more done in the evenings. 

 I made jalapeno jam from a recipe I found online. My hubby thought it was delish! He ate it on crackers and  washed it down with wine. I found it super spicy, but in the teeny little bit I tasted it was sweet and then heat came on. yum. but not to much for me. I love to can. So I have 5 in the cupboard and will make some more to get us through the year.

Out latest two projects. Feed Lot and Grocery store meat scare me lately. Reading and watching all the health food and other items has made me really look at what we are eating. These two will be hanging with us until it’s time and enjoying the good life of good food and no pressures of the feed lot. I also started a garden again. more on that later. 
This is black berry lemonade concentrate. My son thinks it is absolutely YUMMY! so he wanted to drink them all right away. We are trying to pace ourselves. I wanted to try  it but I don’t think I will be adding this to our yearly canning list. not alot of return for the time invested I guess to make it. it was a fluke and I tried it. However when it is 110 here. I might change my mind and want some over ice. 
The two canning recipes are on my pinterest canning board. 
http://pinterest.com/chrisdurnan/canning-goodness/
And this photo my hubby took has reiterated to me I MUST by a new point and shoot camera. my phone one is frustrating and my previous one has quit working. So it is on my list. Currently I am looking at a Sony. But this was my son’s first basketball game! Woohoo! He was so excited. Their uniforms were reversible and so/he changed about 5 times because he didn’t know what color that needed to be. Love him. He was thrilled to win, but more thrilled to play. His Grandma and Papa came and his Tia Michele and our god daughters. We all cheered him on. Great time! great game!
This past weekend was our first Saturday’s of Upward Basketball. I cannot say enough about how positive everyone has been. Also, we went to a Scouting event and Dalen earned his archery belt loop and I got to go horseback riding Sunday and catch up on things. 
Really a glorious weekend. Hope yours was to. 
Have a wonderful day!
Enjoy!
Chris

To get quick fun updates of things going on, you can join my facebook page.

My files in the store can be located here. Thank you for stopping by!

card using Chris Durnan’s cutter file

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How cute is this coffee cup?! I cut the background in black and the foreground in a pattern. I put it on a card base that I stamped with a coffee ring rubber stamp and the greeting “Thanks a Latte” using chalk inks.

This coffee cup is only one small portion of the file. And better still, this file was part of Chris’s Quarterly Membership Club. For $10, you get 20 digital cutter files.You can find Chris’s QMC here and her digital cutter store here.

Thanks for looking!
Sussann

Digi-Cutter Files offered in SCUT, GSD, KNK, WPC & AI (SVG) at www.visualdesignsbychris.com