Category: Uncategorized

Bright Pink Zig Zag Christian Cross Accessories

Bright Pink Hard Rock Feminine Christian Collection

Hot or bright pink is the most noticeable color in this design, showing in this collection of accessories with a feminine hard rock Christian theme. Because, who says Christians are stuffy?

First of all, the collection includes a tote bag, watch, and heart shaped compact. In addition you will find nail stickers, three different keychains, lapel pin, locket, necklace and a ring. Finally, see all the rest of products with this design at Pink Zig Zag Crosses at 100 Crosses

In creating the design, Auntie Shoe took a cross from a freeware font that the font maker allowed her to have. She colored it a hot or bright pink. Because it looked a little sparse, she placed in on a white, circular background that mimics a fractal-style. Surrounding the circle is a matching pink background of squiggly squares. What are squiggly squares? Squiggly squares is the name Auntie gave the background image because she didn’t know what else to call it.

Auntie Shoe and Pink

Auntie Shoe loves pink. In her advancing age, she has stopped caring what people think of the color. Yes, there is a story here. Auntie’s daddy and his friend, Lars, who Auntie adored when she was nine, discussed favorite colors in front of her. They agreed that people that liked pink were a little dull. And, as young child Auntie mistakenly believed that her Uncle Lars would not love her anymore if she liked pink. Hey, she was nine. But, in her advancing years, Auntie realizes that this is silly and she can like pink if she wishes. She does. So she does.

Auntie Shoe placed this collection at Pinterest in a group board she posts in called Accessorize Your Life. You can see a lot of different items there with a ton of gift ideas for mom and your favorite grad. It is a great place to find birthday gifts for any lady in your life. Also, there are a lot of tote bags that are always handy for any occasion.

Also, you can follow Auntie Shoe at Pinterest by clicking here.

Angel Flags 2015 Gifting Supplies

Auntie Shoe created a bunch of angels all dressed in the flags of various countries of the world. This allows you to choose the ones that best fit your family. Some items make lovely gifts, or will decorate your present in a special way. they say that each blog post should be 1000 words. I am too tired for that right now, gonna call it day and go with this.

German Shamrock Test Thingy

This is a test to see if Auntie Shoe can use some particular code correctly. So far, looking good for Auntie.

For the test, Auntie Shoe chose to use code found on Zazzle for those who have shops there. Auntie Shoe only has about a gazillion shops. The newest one with any large amount of designs is Shamrock Flags found at www.zazzle.com/ShamrockFlags. It is pretty much what you would expect, shamrocks with flags in each leaf. Makes it easy for Irish Americans, who have more heritages than just Irish and American, to celebrate themselves.

All the designs in this series feature the flag of Ireland in the top leaf and the USA flag on the left leaf. The right leaf changes, depending on the country used.

German Shamrock Watch for Kids

In our test case here, it is the German flag that fills the leaf on the right. The product shown is a wrist watch for kids. in this case, a sparkling silver one all glittery and stuff. It has green numbers that are easy to see and the German Shamrock tilts a bit to the right. Just for a bit of whimsical fun.

German Shamrock Wrist Watch
German Shamrock Wrist Watch by shamrockflags
Look at more Watches online at Zazzle

Now, just because this is a test, is no reason for you not to rush off and take a closer look at this great gift for kids. Teach them about their heritages while you also teach them how to tell time. Remember the days when you said, “The big hand is on the …”

Bet you can laugh a lot about that now. But, WOW, was it serious business when you were 5! A lot has changed since then, with most clocks and watches being digital in nature.

But, now, your kids can do the same until they learn to actually tell time without a digital device.

Diabetic Cookie Recipe Oatmeal Raisin

And, folks, THEY AREN’T TERRIBLE. Really, they aren’t. This is an oatmeal raisin diabetic cookie recipe that actually tastes good.

Your Auntie Shoe is a diabetic. So, she has to watch her sugar intake. Also, diabetics need to be careful of fat and salt so we don’t end up in the emergency room with heart failure. In essence, we are like everybody else, just needing to be a bit more careful.

Your Auntie Shoe misses cookies. And cakes. And pies. And, well, anything that tastes good. That said, Auntie read some stuff here and there including an interview with a Greek cook who uses Greek yogurt in place of butter in baked goods. Measures it like for like, she does. So, Auntie thought this was good information for her own oatmeal raisin diabetic cookie recipe.

And, most importantly, your Auntie thought, “That I can remember”. Auntie Shoe likes stuff that is measured the same when substituted.

So, armed with this new information, Auntie Shoe went looking on the Internet for an oatmeal cookie recipe to alter. She wanted to get more carbs out of the recipe. This is hard because oatmeal and raisins have, naturally, a higher carb content than many other types of cookies.

Finally, your Auntie decided to use the recipe on the back of her aged oatmeal box, with some major alterations.

First, substitute the wheat flour for almond flour/meal. Auntie used Bob’s Red Mill. But next time she is going to use Trader Joe’s when she makes an oatmeal raisin diabetic cookie recipe.

Next, add some xanthan gum. 1/4 teaspoon for every cup of flour. That’s what it says on the package. Got that from Bob, too. You have to add this because flour has gluten and almond meal does not. Cookies look icky otherwise. Taste fine, just crumble to nothing and look stupid. So far, so good for Auntie Shoe’s oatmeal raisin diabetic cookie recipe.

Oh, yeah, remember the part about Auntie Shoe being a diabetic? Well, that means you substitute Monk Fruit for the sugar. Auntie used a brand name Monk Fruit in the Raw because it measures the same and Auntie didn’t have to do any fancy math, er, math at all, in her oatmeal raisin diabetic cookie recipe.

One thing is no one makes a substitute for brown sugar. Sooo, Auntie just used the monk fruit stuff. Tastes fine. Some think too sweet. Others not sweet enough. So, you decide.

Auntie Shoe’s Soon-To-Be-Famous Oatmeal Raisin Diabetic Cookie Recipe

Anyway….here is the list of ingredients you will need for the oatmeal raisin diabetic cookie recipe:

1 cup 2% Fat Greek Yogurt (Auntie used Trader Joe’s house brand. Make sure yours is 2% fat AND Greek, too.)

1 1/2 cups Monk Fruit in the Raw

4 egg whites

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups almond flour or meal

3/8 teaspoon xanthan gum

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 cups oats NOT COOKED

1 Cup raisins

The Monk fruit sweetener is very, very, very light. When you mix it, it flies all over the place. Soooo, place the monk fruit in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, add the egg whites and vanilla. Stir a little bit. Add about half of the egg mixture to the monk fruit.

Stir SLOWLY. SERIOUSLY, VERY, VERY, VERY SLOOOOOOOWLY. See that big mess you have to clean up all over the counter because the monk fruit flew all over the place? Yeah, you didn’t do as your Auntie Shoe said, did you?

Add the rest and stir till blended. STILL, STIR SLOWLY.

Next, add the yogurt. Stir until fully blended. You can stir as fast as you like. Once the monk fruit is wet, it doesn’t fly all over your kitchen. And, you nevermind how Auntie Shoe got this information.

In another bowl, add the almond meal, xanthan gum, baking soda and cinnamon. Mix it.

Gradually add the almond meal mixture to the yogurt mixture. Next add the oats, one cup at a time. Lastly, mix in the raisins. Now the oatmeal raisin diabetic cookie recipe is ready to be baked.

Drop them in rounded teaspoon fulls on a cookie sheet. Auntie used baking parchment paper on the sheet, not anything greasy or sprayed. Nothing stuck. Worked great. You can use your own judgement. THERE IS NO BUTTER IN THESE, SO THEY WILL STICK UNLESS YOU DO SOMETHING.

When the first batch baked, Auntie Shoe discovered that they do not spread like normal oatmeal cookies. DUH! No butter…Sooooo, in subsequent batches, Auntie used a spoon or her fingers to spread the cookie dough out a bit. ‘Cause, honey, those suckers do NOT budge unless you help them. Just be helpful to your lovely little cookies and all will be well. They pretty much look like any normal oatmeal raisin cookie.

Auntie Shoe read that cookies made with almond meal need a lower temperature for baking, as well as a lower time. This includes her oatmeal raisin diabetic cookie recipe. Soooooo….

Oven at 335 degrees. Seriously, 335.

Baking time about 10 to 12 minutes. Cookies came out chewy and nice. Cool on wire rack for about 10 minutes before eating.

Even the person in the household that NEVER likes ANYTHING that is healthy, actually likes this oatmeal raisin diabetic cookie recipe.

Keep them in the refrigerator. They have yogurt in them, not butter. Yogurt spoils faster.

Makes about 40.

Carb count? About 6 per cookie. That’s what it averaged when Auntie divided the number of cookies created into the total carbs for the entire oatmeal raisin diabetic cookie recipe.

Calories? About 37 per cookie. Again, added up all the calories for all the ingredients and divided by the number of cookies baked.

Meantime, the blog has a nag feature for a picture. This is the best your poor old Auntie can do Picture of oatmeal raisin diabetic cookie recipe

Now for all the disclosure stuff…Auntie Shoe makes her living from selling items with designs she creates at various print-on-demand sites all over the Internet. She does NOT receive any compensation from any of the people whose ingredients she purchased to make the oatmeal raisin diabetic cookie recipe. Not a dime. Honest. These tradespeople have no idea Auntie even exists. She just went to various markets and stores in her vicinity and bought stuff like a normal person.

If you feel you must compensate Auntie Shoe for her lovely recipe, visit any of her shops. Just look at the menu above for “Auntie Shoe’s POD Shops”. Or click here for her shops at Zazzle.

Just Testing

This is another test of the Auntie Shoe broadcasting system. We are attempting to ascertain whether or not one can actually create a proper blog post from one’s phone. Well, using it to post, anyway.

It is interesting to try this. Typing on a little teeeeeeeeeensy keyboard is quite the challenge. If it weren’t for autocorrect, I  sure I would appear quite the fool.

Although, the absence of autocorrect has never protected Auntie from the appearance of foolishness.

Reading the post back to oneself is not an easy task. Scrolling back does not seem to be encouraged by this particular way of posting. That said, it can now be put forth that posting to one’s blog via phone is, indeed possible

 

Happy Whatever-you-celebrate

Toksie Turbie, Santa, Zanta, The Mrs. Clauses, Waldorf and your Auntie Shoe wish you a

Merry Christmas

Happy Chanukah

Happy Kwanzaa

Happy Holidays

Merry Meet

Or whatever you celebrate, celebrate with love and peace in your heart. Take joy in your celebrations!

This is a Test

This is a test of the Auntie Shoe broadcasting system. I have accounta at Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook and more. They are supposed to be set so that posts from this blog show on these accounts. Your Auntie Shoe wants to test this system to be sure that posts aren’t showing up on one account more than once. That’s annoying. Don’t want to annoy.

Toksie Turbie Arrives in Crudville

Toksie Turbie Takes a Fall

Ms. Toksie Turbie arrived in Crudville in a most unusual fashion. Having fallen from an airplane, she landed, safely and miraculously, on a very large and very convenient hay stack on Farmer Frank’s farm.

Farmer Frank sighed and said, “Here we go, again.” With that, he picked up the baby (Toksie Turbie was only a few months old) and took her to Sheriff Stephanie. Sheriff Stephanie looked at the baby, looked at Frank and signed, “Oh, Frank, agaaaaaaaaaaain?!”

Sheriff Stephanie took Toksie Turbie to Mayor Mike. Mayor Mike looked at the baby, sighed a loooooong, sloooooow siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh and said, “Ooooooh, Stephanie, here we go agaaaaaain.”

You see, nearly forty years ago, when all these people were small themselves, another baby had fallen from the sky, from a different airplane. No one knew how this happened. No one ever figured out how the first baby fell out of the plane, nor did they ever figure out how Toksie Turbie fell, but fall they did.

And, well, the first time did not go very well for Crudville.

Crudville and Mortimer Thaddeus Snodgrass III, Morty for Short

At this point in our story, it is important to learn a bit about the first baby that fell on the Farmer’s haystack. But first, we need to know a little bit about Crudville.

There is no “B” in Crudville, but if there were, it would stand for BORING. Not just any kind of boring. A special kind that looks like this:
BBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG

Why was Crudville so boring? Well, for one thing, ALL the houses and all the farms and all the shops and all the everything were painted beige. NO other colors were allowed in Crudville. It was against the law to paint anything any other color than beige. Yes, really, not joking. It was against the law. All the doors, all the window jams, all the fences, all the walls, EVERYTHING, including the furniture, were painted beige.

Now, there is nothing wrong with a beautiful beige home or a beautiful beige shop or a beautiful beige anything, including the furniture. Beige is a perfectly OK color. But if EVERYTHING is beige, it is really
BBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG

Plus, everything had to be the same shade of beige. So, with all the furniture and the walls being beige, sometimes people couldn’t find the sofa in their own house. It was beige, same shade as the walls. Lots of times people in Crudville only found a place to sit because they bumped into the furniture. In spite of the bruises, they wouldn’t change the law, they just kept bumping into things.

And, everyone dressed alike in the same shade of beige as the houses and the shops and the fences. It was so bad, some people lost their babies when they were just crawling on the floor. Yes, the floor was beige, too.

All the homes were exactly alike. Three bedrooms, two baths, dining area, kitchen, period. Same floor plan. All beige paint. All beige bathtubs, sinks, and unmentionable utilities. Everything matched and you could hardly ever find anything.

BBBBBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG

Crudville had all kinds of laws to make sure that it remained boring. It is how Crudvillians liked it. You couldn’t dance in Crudville. Considered too frivolous. You were not allowed to ride skateboards or roller skate or play with any toys. Again, too frivolous. There was no TV or video games and absolutely no computers. Again, too frivolous. No reading either. Books were declared frivolous.

Now, this is what Mortimer Thaddeus Snodgrass III, Morty for short, had fallen into when he fell out of the plane all those decades ago. Crudville and Morty never got on. Because Morty loved hats. He had sixty-four of them by the time he was nine-years-old. He could ride a unicycle (which he rode incessantly) and balance the hats on his head at the same time. AND, worst of all, NONE of the hats were beige. Not a single one.

The town council passed ordinance after ordinance to try to force Morty to behave properly. NOTHING worked. It was bedlam from the time he fell from the sky till the day the circus came to town. Yes, circuses were banned, too. Again with the frivolous thing. But, not before the circus master gave Morty an audition. Now, as you can imagine any kid that can balance sixty-four hats on his head while riding a unicycle got hired on the spot.

And that’s how Crudville got rid, er, bid farewell to Morty and he began his own magical adventures in the circus. No one in Crudville ever gave Morty another thought until Toksie Turbie fell from the sky.

So now you know why Farmer Frank, Sheriff Stephanie and Mayor Mike were so concerned about Toksie Turbie.

Here they had the cutest little baby girl, who had fallen from the sky just like Morty. Not only that, Toksie Turbie fell in the same farm on the same haystack (well, it had new hay) as all those decades earlier.

But, the trio was heartened by the fact that Toksie Turbie was beige. Her hair, her eyes, her skin and even her teeth were beige. “Maybe it won’t be so bad this time”, they said.


A beige Toksie Turbie laying on a beige sofa in a beige house.
This is a beige Toksie Turbie laying on a beige sofa in Farmer Frank’s beige house.

Well, we will just have to see about that.

Watch this space for the continuing adventures of Toksie Turbie.

Now it is time to feed the SEO NAG MONSTER. It wants an outbound link. So, for now, I am going to feed it the link to one of my shops. Then it will shut up. You can visit my shop and if you find something lovely, you are welcome to buy it.

ink.flagnation.com — designs using flags of various countries.

Toksie Turbie, Mortimer Thaddeus Snodgrass, III, Crudville are the properties of Auntie Shoe. Invented solely by her. Auntie Shoe is the pseudonym of a real live person. All writings, images, etc are solely owned by Auntie Shoe. All images and writing are ©AuntieShoe 2013 or © 2013 Auntie Shoe. Either way, all this stuff is MINE and Auntie will be very cross if anyone steals from her.

Toksie Turbie – an Introduction

Hello, World, Toksie Turbie is Almost Here

The world is about to be introduced to a new character. Her name is Toksie Turbie and she is eight-years-old.

Toksie Turbie is named for the actress with a cool name, Toks Olagundoye, who plays Jackie Joyner-Kersee on ABC TV’s THE NEIGHBORS (8:30 PM Fridays, but check your local listings). Ms. Olagundoye was kind enough to allow Auntie to use her name for the character. THANKS, TOKS! BTW, following Toks Olagundoye on Twitter is a terrific experience. She’s got a great sense of humor and it is lots of fun conversing with her. There is also her Facebook page and her website. You’ll have a blast!

OK, enough about Ms. Olagundoye with the cool name. You are here to find out about Toksie Turbie.

Decades ago, before Auntie Shoe was an auntie, she had some wee little cousins many years younger than herself. Her job, a pleasant one, often was to keep said wee ones quiet. This was not always easy. So, the future Auntie Shoe would gather aforementioned cousins around, sometimes under a great big tree in the front yard of a place called Willow Glen. If weather did not permit sitting under said tree, the secret room was, at times, employed. Or, adventures on the flying bed would occur.

Wee ones gathered, Shoe would make up stories about a young person called Mortimer Thaddeus Snodgrass III, Morty for short. Morty had a magical wishing ring and a magical wishing hat and he had magical stuff happen all the magical time. Only one or two of these stories have survived because no one wrote them down. This is unfortunate.

Several years ago, when Auntie Shoe had a different persona on a place called AOL, she wrote a newsletter for children for a very brief time. She took some of her stories, one or two about Morty, and placed them in serial form in the newsletter.

One day, Auntie (though she was not yet, Auntie) was contacted by the parent of a child who received the newsletter. The parent had a book series for children in the works and was very concerned that Auntie might think her work was being copied because the book series was about a boy with magical powers. Some kid named Harry, as Auntie recalls.

Auntie read, in an instant message, all the lovely things that the parent planned to write, the plans the writer was making and how the series of books was being plotted. Auntie assured the writer, “Honey, I just sit down and make stuff up, planning has nothing to do with it.” And, thus, Auntie’s opportunity to request the petty cash fund from what became a billion dollar enterprise was lost forever. Yeah, honesty pays off, right?

All this said, it occurred to Auntie that someone, somewhere might think that Morty’s character was stolen or borrowed. In the interest of avoiding unpleasantness, a strong, fun, female character named Toksie Turbie will soon be born on this blog.

Why? Because your Auntie Shoe needs something to write about on this blog. And making stuff up to entertain people is what she does best.

So, watch this space for the continuing adventures of Toksie Turbie.

Now, the SEO thingy Auntie set up has a nag feature. It will want a picture of something. NAG, NAG, NAG it does until it gets its way. Having no picture to provide you of Toksie Turbie, Auntie Shoe will provide something from one of her designs. Yes, you can purchase it, if you wish. Frankly, Auntie doesn’t mind if you do. Not one single bit.

So to please the Nag Monster:

Hiawatha I'm Home on Women's T-shirt, not Toksie Turbie

Nag Monster should shut up now. And Auntie loves her design. Makes her laugh. The pilgrim in the crow’s nest on the Mayflower landing on Plymouth Rock shouting, “HIAWATHA, I’M HOME!” always makes her laugh.