I Think I'm Ready!

It seems that Christmas is coming way to fast this year and I actually think I am ready!  Just a quick trip to the grocery store and the pet store (gotta keep the poopies happy!) and I think that will do it!  I have the menu planned for Christmas Eve dinner (lasagna, garlic bread, salad, and cannoli).  I get so burned out with turkey and ham by this time of year, I try to find alternative things to eat!  For Christmas morning I will be doing a crockpot breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls and fresh fruit salad and for the rest of the day just snacking.  I have lined up the fresh veggie platter, crackers, cheeseball, summer sausage, a couple of other dips, a fruit platter and lots of homemade goodies.  Ohh, and I can't forget the special "egg nog".  At Thanksgiving we made the bourbon, pumpkin milk shakes (really good!) and I was thinking of how I could do an egg nog shake along the same lines-haven't figured it out yet and that may have to wait until next year.

I am looking forward to the week between Christmas and New Year's to relax, visit friends, and work on some projects that I have had in mind since I moved in Sept/Oct.  As always, my list is three pages long, but I am hoping to complete at least five projects during the week. 

I wish everyone a very happy holiday season and the best in the coming new year!

Things Are Progressing and Holiday Pictures of the Boys!

Packages are mailed, the decorating is almost done, and the Christmas baking only has a little to go-I'm almost ready for the holidays!  I have to quit browsing all the special edition holiday magazines as I get more and more decorating ideas, things to look for, and more recipes to try-I need to start this stuff in June to be on top of things! 

I finally received some current pictures of the boys at one of their holiday parties, (Jake is in the 92 shirt and Matty in in the green and black striped shirt).  It has been over two years since I have seen them-they are getting sooooo big!  The day is coming closer when I can fly them from east coast to the west coast, gather their twin cousins,  and pile in the van and head to disneyland! 

Yesterday, I had to be in a different area with an hour to waste before a meeting and what better way to spend my time then to thrift!  I ended up spending about $12.00, this after I said I wouldn't buy anything again after the move!  I ended up with a tin santa plate and bowl from Hallmark, with the prices of $10.00 and $5.00 still on them-I paid .50 and .25, a complete set of stampin up Christmas stamps (5) for .99, two bags of vintage bulbs, one .99 and one for .49. a Boyds Bear statue (I collect them) for .99, a set of christmas burner covers for .49, a german glass ornmanet for the main tree for .50, two jingle bears, one small for .75 and the large one for 1.00, two sweaters for 1.00 ea, a Thomas the Train calidiscope for Matty (he loves Thomas the Train) for .50, 4 packs of 20 ea plastic page covers for my notebook of collected recipes for .25 ea, and some genuine silver Fender guitar pick earings for 1.99-I think I did pretty well for just needing to burn a little time! Once I go home I put a fire in the fire place and spent the evening wrapping gifts-I haven't finished but a couple more nights and the task will be complete. (For me this is the part I like the least!)

Slowly checking things off the list while sipping a little egg nogg-hope your days leading up to the holidays are joyous ones!

Even At Work The Decorations are Going Up!

The bosses had meetings all afternoon yesterday, so a couple of us decided to decorate the bosses office doors.  For the main boss, we made his door a reindeer stable, and the second boss is a big Denver Broncos fan, so we had to come up with some sort of theme.  I opted for a charlie brown christmas tree meets football meets more specifically the Denver Broncos.  The pictures aren't fabulous, but I think you will get the idea-we had a lot of fun, the bosses loved their office doors and we brought a little christmas spirit into the office.

I am still working on sewing projects ad nd hope to have most of them done this weekend, along with the rest of the decorating.  This weekend will be my last class of a year long set of classes on my contemporary art journal-we will be attaching the signatures to the covers and putting the finishing touches on the books-of course along with an end of year potluck.  (Go figure-we are going to eat again!) 

Today, along with the entire week has been cold and windy-I think I am going to make soup and hot biscuits tonight for dinner.  I have been using my crock pot off and on, but I have a feeling if this weather continues, it will be a permanent fixture on the counter for the rest of the season!

Fall Is Down, Christmas is Getting Up!

The last couple of days have felt more like fall than winter here. The winds have whipped up and all the leaves in the world are on my front lawn!  But at night, the weather turns cold-yes it's winter!  The main tree is up in the living room, and the wreath's are hung over the fireplace and on the front door, and even the Chritmas bakings has started.  I still have three more trees to put up, change the quilts, arrange the pointsettas and change out to the winter dishes, but things are comming along nicely.  The best part is all my Christmas shopping is done-yipee!  I love all the sights, smells, and feel of the holiday season. 

 

Last weekend, the family trudged up to Apple Hill, walked around three Christmas Tree farms before finding the perfect tree-now I know why I have a box tree each year.  The girls were getting tired, the tree was on the top of the van and it was off for pizza.  It was foggy and overcast in the valley but one we got up into the hills the weather was beautiful0-sunny and a little warmer.

This comming weekend I am out of town but I am taking the sewing machine and projects to do, hopefully I will have pictures to post after the weekend!  Have a happy start of the holiday season.

Busy, Busy, Busy This Holiday Season

I have been so busy since the move I haven't had time to do much of anything.  I am still in the midst of unpacking boxes and STILL looking over things to get rid of.  I did take some time out to make a day trip to Apple Hill and pick up some of the most wonderful pears!  I have cooking with pears every since, lots of pear crisp and I think I may be doing some pear butter or preserves-haven't decided yet. 

I am all finished with classes this year except for my contemporary journal ending class next month.  So much to catch up on.  In the last month or soI have taken a Wizard of Oz Book, a Tim Holtz like book necklace, and yesterday I took a class, the perpetual claendar.  The pictures are the class samples as I have not completed my calendar yet, and the Wizard of Oz book I haven't taken pictures yet, when I do I will post the picture.

 

I have all my Christmas shopping done and am now on to the sewing part.  Not a great deal to do, just need to get it done!  This Friday while everyone is out shopping, I will be putting up the tree and start baking the Christmas cookies.  I have managed to fit in a little junking/thrift store shopping, which I swore I wouldn't do again while I was moving as I had so much junk that I had accumulted that I couldn't imagine wanting or needing anything else!  In the end I took five van loads to the thrift store and I am still dejunking.  This move has taught me to be very selctive as to what I do buy now, and also to have a really good idea where the "thing" is going so that I don't just buy because "I like it" but ultimately have no place for it.   During the move I found thirty five bins of Christmas "stuff", which I will be going through, keeping very little and letting the kids have the pick.  Everything else will be going!  I also manged to ship the Thanksgiving package off to the grandsons, sooooo one more thing off the list to do!    I am keeping myself busy, but more relaxed this year.  I decided I would avoid as much of the commercialism of the holidays as possible.  For now, the big turkey is defrosting in the frig-waiting to be put on the barbecue on Thursday, all the supplies are ready for the big feast and family will be arriving-truly a wonderful time of year. 

The Move Is Almost Complete!

This is exactly what I should have done!  Just picked up the entire house and dumped into the new house!  I am now down to the little stuff and boy what a challenge to look over things at the same time as deciding what to move.  It is amazing that with all this "stuff", I have started a list of things that I need to replace/or buy to fit into the space of the new place.  Since I have lost a room, half of the double car garage is now going to be the craft space-which gives me really a lot more space than I had.  My concern is the summer months might be to hot-I am toying with the idea of running the air conditioning duct into that area or walling in a room within the garage to run air conditioning into-great another project!

On a more artistic note-I attended a couple of classes last week, a neighborhood watch wall hanging (as soon as I take pictures I will post them), my art journal class and this week i will be taking a class on a Wizard of Oz Book.  Again I will hopefully remember to take pictures and post them!  i am also starting to make a list of the Christmas projects I would like to get done. (Did you see I said like-not sure if I can definately get them done with everything else going on!)

With the weather starting to get a little cooler, I have again brought out the crockpot for ease in fixing dinner-how does that line go "just fixit and forget it".  I love my crockpot, I can put everything in it in the morning and when I return from work, the meal is ready.  I tried this recipe I found on a blog (don't remember which one) a couple of days ago-it turned out great
Crockpot Love - Cheesy Italian Tortellini

Ingredients
1 lb of mild ground italian sausage
1 14oz can of diced tomatoes with italian herbs, undrained
1 15oz jar of marinara
1 9oz pkg of refrigerated cheese-filled tortellini
1 cup of shredded mozzerela cheese
1 cup of fresh sliced mushrooms

Directions:1) In a skillet, cook sausage over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until brown, then drain.
2) Spray the inside of your pot with cooking spray. Then mix in the beef mixture, marinara sauce, mushrooms nd tomatoes.

3) Cover and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours.

4) Stir in torellini and sprinkle with cheese. Cover and cook on low for an additional 15 minutes.

I really didn't need to add the sausage and if you have a vegetarian in the household just the tortellini will do.

That's about all for now, I have to get back to the one million things still left to do on my list!  Have a great day!

Didn't Quite Make It!

Okay, so my vow to post more often just didn't happen.  I guess with the stress of the move, a million and one things to get done, and that nagging thing that always gets in the way called work-I fell down on posting.  With this move, I have managed to rethink what is important to me and started dejunking!  I have way too much and with all that stuff, I spend my time cleaning and making room instead of enjoying what I have.  While I love to go thrift/junk shopping, I am going to really think about purchases and make sure I have a place for things and adopt the rule that if I bring something in, something must go out!  I did decide to graduate to a bigger bed and after looking in antique shops for a headboard/footboard and finding the prices were way out of my league, I decided to just check Craigs list.  I have not even looked at Craigs list in months!  Well there it was, a beautifuly wrought iron whitel headboard and footboard for $25.00!  I immediately texted the seller who sent back a message that the bed was spoken for and was suppose to be picked up that evening by 5:00 pm but he would text if it didn't happen.  Well-around 5:01 he texted and said it was mine if I wanted it.  I made the thirty mile drive each way to pick it up-practically brand new with the tags still on it!  Now I just have to buy the mattress!  Anyway, I needed to get away from the packing on Sunday so I took a drive up to Sutter Creek to wander through antique stores.  In the second one I was in there was a vendor who had a tool box full of metal junk, I dug around and found the front of a postal box complete with dial and little window for $1.00!  I will be converting it to a frame once I get moved. 

Additionally, I have taken three art classes back to back and have not signed up for as many this quarter due to the move and the holiday schedule.  Here are the last couple of classes I took, one was a steampunk dress form made with a wire form and tags and the other was a steampunk bird mounted to an antique camera.

 

Please forgive the glare of the pictures, the flash caught the watch face on the steampunk dress form and this was the best picture I have.  I will be uploading additional pictures as soon as I can get some taken.

Have a great day and I am going to adhere my goal of posting once a week!

A Little Antiquing Today..

Am patiently working through the office/craft room, cleaning out and getting rid of things that I just have becaue they were a "good deal"-I am passing them on to someone else.  I took a break this afternoon and went to the antique mall just to look around-yeah right!  After looking through the entire mall I came out with, an antique train case which will be used to carry my art supplies to and from class-I really need to reduce the amount of stuff I drag to class!  I also picked up four vintage stamps for my collection, a beautiful glass jar to showcase them in, an old sewing basket to display my small chubby books in, a Boyd's Bear statue to add to my collection, and a two tier french rack (I love this I just don't know where I'm going to put it yet!).  I even bought a couple of Halloween things, a runner and small halloween plaque-all in all, a good shopping trip.

I have no art classes this weekend so I can devote most of my energy to finishing up the organization of the office/craft room-still lots to do, but I know I will feel a sense of accomplishment once it is done-

Here is another receipe I tried this week for a silent auction/bake sale we had at work-these are easy peasey and so deliciuous.  I know I got this recipe off the internet, but I don't remember which site to give credit to.

Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter Cookie Stackers

7 tbls softened butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup creamy p-butter (I use chunky)
1 egg
1 tbls pure vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup Cap'n Crunch Cereal, crushed with rolling pin

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  In a stand or electric mixer, beat the butter and sugars until well
combined.  Beat in peanut butter until combined then beat in the egg and vanilla.
2.  In a large bowl mix the flower and salt.  Slowly add to wet ingredients on slow speed.  Add in Cap'n Crunch Cereal until just combined.  With a medium cookie scoop, scoop dough onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet.  With the tines of a fork, press gently forming a criss cross shape over tops. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until baked to your liking. 

Makes 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

Hope you enjoy this one.  I still need to take come pictures of projects, and download all of the pictures onto the computer to upload them here.

I'm Getting Better...

About my blog, it has only been not quite a month since my last post.  I have not reached my inteneded goal of at least once a week, but I guess I have to start with baby steps!

I have been so busy lately.  I have taken six classes in the last month and will post pictures once I remember to move them from the camera to the computer.  On Sunday, when the cable guy came to switch over my phone service and internet, he needed to get into the off/craft room-yeah right!  So I pulled everything off the floor and into the livingroom.  I then proceeded to clean out, get rid of trash, get bags ready to donate and also donate to the upcoming silent auction at work.  At the end of four hours, I had six bags of trash (why do I keep some of the things I do!), four bags to donate to GW and two bags of stuff for the silent auction.  I sometimes wonder why I buy supplies that I have no use for-my only explanation is that they were on SALE!  Anyway, I am still working through putting all the stuff away and then I can start on another pile of "stuff" that I pulled out of the room almost a year ago that has been in the garage that long.  Which makes me wonder, do I really need these things if I haven't used them in all this time?  Anyway, it felt good to finally make some progress.  I even thanked the cable guy for motivating me to do a job I had put off for quite a while.

I now can get to the things for my art classes that I want without having to try and figure out what I did with those things-and then just buying more because it is easier. 

Anyway, I am now looking forward to working on some projects to get ready for Christmas.  Mostly, sewing and the grandkids birthday presents.  I think I was totally unmotivated because of the mess I had in the room.  I am starting to actually want to craft at home now. 

On another note, I have dediced to go back to clogging after an almost ten year absence.  I am in need of serious exercise for before and after my surgery and just the work exercise unmotivates me!  But, I do like to dance, so, that will be my form of exercise. 

Until Later-

WOW! Has it Really Been five Months!

I am slowly getting caught up on all my projects and getting back into the swing of updating everything in my life.  This past month, we have had at least 10 people retiring and it put into a thinking mode about my own retirement.  Which led me to, what kind of craft room I would like to have and how I would change the one I presently have.  I came accross an idea that was appealing to me-it seems that some ladies are finding old travel trailers, parking them in the backyard and fixing them up and using them as their craft/woman cave sort of places.  The more I thought about this, the more I liked the idea.  I could have a getaway place and not have to take up an area of the house with my crafting things.  Besides, with the space so small, I'm almost certain only one other person and possibly one of the dogs would be all that would fit inside-my escape paradise.  I came accross a picture of a person who had just located one of these trailers and is going to start the fix-up soon.  As I did some research on this, I found some great ideas for decorating and really making this space my own.  I am now in the process of collecting pictures, themes, and ideas to make this a/my reality when the time comes.  Here is the pictures of what I am talking about:

I just think this is the cutest! 

In addition to thinking about retirement, I have been cleaning out closets and figuring out what to keep and what to donate.  My biggest problem is that when I take things to donate to the thrift store and feel a sense of accomplishment, I then make a quick turn around in the store and end of defeating my purpose by buying more "stuff" that I "can't live without" and dragging it home thereby defeating the purpose of the original intention which was to gain more room! 

Anyway, I am going to try and be a better blogger, at least once a week.  I really enjoy the blog world and having a permanent record of things that I have done or am doing.

Ta-ta for now!!!!

Where Has The Time Gone?

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted!  Life sometimes just get in the way!  I have taken a couple of classes and I will be posting the pictures of the finished projects soon!  I still have lots of sewing and general artsy projects in the que and hope to be finishing those up also. 

Over the weekend I did make some fabulous chicken (vegetarian) burritos, and so easy too!  I have included the recipe, all I did was substitue Morningstar Farms chicken planks for the bonless chicken in the recipe.  These turned out yummy!

Easy Shredded Chicken and Bean Burritos

Ingredients:
3 Chicken Breasts, boneless, skinless (I used a bag of Morningstar chicken planks)
1 Taco Seasoning packet
1 cup Water1 can Rotel
Flour Tortillas

1 can Refried Beans (I used the vegetarian)

Cheese
Jalapenos (optional topping)
Salsa (optional topping)
Sour Cream (optional topping)
Directions:
1. Spray crock pot with cooking spray.
2. Place Chicken Breasts into crock pot (frozen or thawed)
3. Cover with Taco Seasoning, Water, and Rotel.
4. Cook on High for 4-6 hours or Low for 6-8 hours.
5. Take Chicken out and shred

6. Put back into sauce in crock pot.
7. Heat up Refried Beans on stove or microwave, and heat up tortilla's in microwave for a few seconds.
8. Layer tortilla with the following:

layer of beans

big pinch of shredded cheese

shredded chicken (don't be shy!)

a few jalapenos

9. Roll Burrito up, cover with cheese, melt in microwave.
10. We used the fresh japenos, salsa and avacado for these-yummy!

That's all for today, I will be back soon with pictures of the creative projects I have finished!