Monday, July 28, 2008

Sad, sad, sad

I forgot about something tragic that happened this weekend! I had a little collection of sweet plates on the wall in the dining room. Two little floral-y pink ones and one with sorta sage-y green around the edge that really set the other two off. Wouldn't you know that I bumped the green one off the wall and broke it!!!! Wah! I never had noticed before that it was a limoges plate from France, with the marking of S&G San Francisco. I have had that plate probably since I was in high school since before I cared about things like that! Oh! such a horrible thing - I will never be able to replace it! Does anyone have any ideas of what I could do with the broken pieces??? I saved them thinking MAYBE I could glue it back together -but it would just look too tacky! I have put a temporary replacement plate up, it's yellow and got all kinds of Oregon landmarks on it. Just not the same...........
On a lighter note - now I'm on the hunt for a proper replacement!

Taco Soup

I feel that I should share my favorite recipe of late! This recipe is from Jan, she shared it with me and now I'm sharing with you!
Taco Soup
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into chunks
1 onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, cut in smallish pieces
1 can stewed or diced tomatoes
1 larger size can tomato sauce
1 can corn, undrained
1 can kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
1 package taco seasoning mix (I like Taco Bell brand, if I don't have that specific brand then I add more ground cumin and some chili powder to give some more oomph)

In frying pan put a teensy bit of oil, add chicken and onion. While the chicken is cooking on medium heat put all other ingredients into a pot and turn on medium-high heat. Cook the chicken just until it is no longer pink in the middle and then add chicken and onions to the pot with the other ingredients. Heat through. Grate some cheese to put on top of each serving in the bowl. You might also like to add avacado or sour cream. Sour cream is not for me, but hubby said it was good.
This makes two large servings with extra for lunches. You can easily increase the recipe! Or, Jan uses ground beef. Personally I have a distaste for ground beef so I use chicken. You could also buy the pre-cooked chicken to make it faster.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Jen's Blog Swap!


I'm pretty new to blogging - so this is my very first swap! It seems like it will be really fun! I've checked out other blogs via various links and honestly I have been blown away! (in a good way) there are so many talented and creative people out there!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

In my head - a top ten of sorts!

I was down to visit my Mom this past weekend and she is such a creative powerhouse! We looked through her quite impressive and beautiful vintage fabric. She has it divided by actual vintage and reproduction - love it! She had two actual flour sacks that were such a nice pattern and still assembled as a flour sack with a dusting of flour on them! So fun! But, now I am getting to feel a little overwhelmed and like my head is going to *explode!* because I have so many ideas floating around in my head and no time! Weekends are only so long and after work I am either too tired or have to make dinner, clean, laundry, etc. Maybe it would help to list some things I'd like to do??

1. Mom gave me some lovely tea towels that are just plain right now that I'd love to embroider on. I bought some "Aunt Martha's" iron on patterns that are so super cute and have the days of the week and lots of other cute designs.
2. Also in the vein of embroidery - found some vintage pillow cases that are embroidered on the edges but need to be laundered so need to do that. I'd also like to add to the the embellishment in some way (?).
3. Make tote bags. Mom sort of commissioned my sewing help in one of HER projects. But the fabric looks fun and girly so will be good. Only problem is I haven't really lined bags before, I usually do an enclosed seam and she wants them lined.
4. I would like to make a new bible cover either embroidered or cross-stitched.
5. I have some quilted fabric that I'd like to make a pretty table runner out of that would make it nice and easy to put hot things on the table without ten million hot pads underneath. I'm thinking it will have scalloped edges and seam enclosed with bias tape. I might also cross stitch a design on it. (Can you tell I have an itch to stitch?)
6. Stuffed turkeys! Mom was very generous with fabric this last weekend and I picked out some fun brown-ey fabrics for turkeys.
7. I also found the cutest set of clear rubber stamps in different whimsical birds and owls with funny sayings. I'm thinking these will be perfect for my all-purpose cards that I never got to at my long weekend.
8. I'm looking for a fun yellow/black/white big flower printed fabric to make a fun flowy dress out of. I have absolutely NO fun summer dresses!!!!!!!!! What happened with me? It just doesn't make any sense that I have no fun dresses OR skirts!
9. Oh! This one is sort of silly. BUT, that said - I want to knit a steering wheel cover for my car. I bought a pretty cotton that is variegated pink, white, and tannish and I'm thinking I can just make like a thing rectangle and sew elastic around the edges to make it hold onto the steering wheel. I feel like the cottong would be nice to hold onto while driving.
10. Well, I can't just have a list of nine things so I need to add a tenth! I wasn't going to put these because I had already put them on my previous list of things I wanted to do - BUT! I still need to make those darn yellow scrub pants! And some doll clothes, and put a button on this pair of lined camo pants I made for my husband like three years ago and allllll they need to be finished is a stupid button - but for whatever reason I hate doing button holes! Maybe I should move that to #1?

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Samuel the Magnificent aka Sam aka ChaChee

This is Sam. He is a weimeraner that we took from some friends who needed to find him a new home. He is papered and his papers say Samuel the Magnificent and we call him Sam or Sammy. And, I also like to call him ChaChee, much to the chagrin of my husband. He is a very sweet dog, kind of well behaved. I say kind of because he does good when no one is around. When I'm around he wants to tear things up and run around crazy! Case in point, this morning. I got out of the shower and he came bouncing up with some sort of drooly substance in his mug fur. So I'm like, what did you get into???!!!! Nothing in the living room, or dining room or kitchen. I go into the bedroom to get dressed and there it is - a 5 lb bag of flour torn open on our bed! What??!!?? Are you kidding me? Like I'm not already running late, now I had to clean up flour dog mess! Argh! And he wasn't wanting to get off the bed! He was extremely proud of his mess and yummy new toy. He took a big bite of flour as I was lunging for his collar and it was a dry smacking sound reminiscent of peanut butter stuck to the roof of his mouth - LOL. I did finally get him OFF the bed and the mess semi cleaned up since I had to jet to work! I HATE coming home to a mess!
but..........he is super cute

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

And the verdict is......

As far as I could tell everyone liked their totes! Yahoooo! I wish I had had more of the polka dotted fabric b/c it seems like those were the ones the ladies gravitated to.
Last night was SUCH a great bible study! So good. So intense. We are doing Beth Moores' "Breaking Free" and the way that Beth breaks things down is so understandable and relatable. It makes it easy to apply to daily life - which is what I think people need. On my own I don't always put things together. I won't go into details but I feel things changing and that is scary and exciting. And it's inspiring to see God working in the other ladies as well!

Monday, July 7, 2008

All about totes


Okay, so apparently I had BIG plans for my extended weekend..........and this is all I got done on my list! It's better than nothing I suppose. So, the bag at the far left is the prototype that I bought at the Beth Moore conference in Boise. I LOVE it! It's a perfect bible study tote - the workbook and bible fit just right and there's a pocket for pens and whatnot. I made 3 of the dark brown, two polka dotted ones and one of the khaki. The khaki was the first one so that I could work out the kinks and my pattern. I think they turned out okay, now hopefully the other ladies will like them! Tomorrow night is bible study so I'll have to let you know Wednesday if anyone even wants one.
I took the pic in my "spare" room which is also my craft/sewing/guest/linen closet/catch-all room. You'll have to excuse the mess. I was thinking this morning how fun and productive it would be to buy some clear totes and pull everything out of the room including the bed and paint and re-organize the room. What color would I paint it though???? I think that's my problem - I want to paint but have no idea what would look good and bring in lots of light, be a good guest room/whatnot room color. So far the only room I've done is the family room.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Long weekend plans

Okay, so first things first! Fourth of July weekend I must get some things done, and they are:
1. Make tote bags. This is a fun little project that is also going to be a surprise for my bible study group. I found some fabulous fabric on super sale at Joann's last night and so I'm thinking they will be cute. Although, sometimes what I think is cute other ppl don't so we'll see! I tend to like bright and pink. I'll post a pic when done.
2. Knit! I started a cute blue baby blanket for my husband's cousin and have not gotten it done yet. I just heard that she could have the baby any day now even though he's not due until August. The thing is, it's hard to just sit still!
3. Sew some more. I have a scrub pant pattern that I bought some nice yellow fabric for and it has been sitting in my sewing room taunting me. I bought it to go with my black Steelers scrub top and since the colors are black and yellow I thought it would go nicely.
4. Read (possibly in the hammock). I have been reading the Left Behind series now for like 2 years. Seriously I need to finish it already! I am on book 9 out of 12 so I'm almost there!
5. Scrapbook!!!!! And make cards. I seriously have not cropped anything since like April at the retreat! I'm getting behind and I just can't stand that! Plus, I'd love to make some all-purpose cards to have on hand to send to friends and family and whatnot.

I am now looking at my list wondering if I will have time to do everything? On a completely off the subject note, I have realized that I really want a Ronco rotisserie! I have a rotisserie but it's one of those old-school open roasters. It does a good job, and frankly there's nothing really wrong with it. BUT the Ronco one is enclosed and can roast a turkey and chickens and stuff. Now, I just have to convince the hubbity bubbity!