Alphabe-Thursday

C is for Chicken

C is for chicken, but not the Chicken Spaghetti  recipe from Pioneer Woman Cooks cookbook, although it was yummy! It makes a lot and there is just Jeff and I so we ate it for dinner three nights.   No, C is for the chicks that I am getting ready to place my first order for to fill up the chicken coop hubs built last fall.  Here are the beauties I have on my list:

I put this scrapbook page together last night with pictures from the catalog I am ordering from and a picture of our coop that hubby built this past fall.  I expect I will start a scrapbook when the little ladies come so I might as well get started for Alphabe-Thursday.  I am planning on all girls because I really just want friendly egg layers.  It was really hard to make a choice because I wanted them all.  So I had to make my decision by the descriptions not the pictures.  I made my choices by picking breeds that could be free range or confinement, cold tolerant, docile and and not very broody.  I am hoping to free range some but we have fox and I think we will have to add a fenced section out the back end of the coop.  The company I am ordering from will try and send the gender you order but I might get a rooster in the bunch.  All that I can say about that is he better not be mean or he will end up in the Pioneer Woman's Chicken Spaghetti.  I am linking up with Jenny Matlocks Alphabe-Thursday here:

Go on over to Jenny's and check out all the other party participants entries.  It is always fun to see all the different ways everyone uses the letter of the week.  Thanks for stopping by, I hope everyone is having a great week!

Sweet Give-away

Go here http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2010/01/surprise-wedding-and-giveaway.html
for a chance to win this

 

Pretty cool huh?  Go on over to Jenny Matlock's for a chance to win.  And while your there browse around a little while.  You will certainly leave with a smile on your face!

Top 3

I forgot to tell everyone that I was one of the top 3 in this weeks ABC Christmas Challenge.  Woo hoo!  I won the blinkie to add to my blog.  It is my first blinkie so hopefully I can manage to successfully get it to appear where I want.  That has been a problem for me in the past, so we will see.

Alphabe-Thursday

 B is for Bible

The Bible's that I own have all been gifts from special people in my life.  My mother bought my first Bible as a Christmas gift.  She wrote inside the cover that I was 11 and dated it 1968.

As you can see it is the King James Version and was even personalized.  The next Bible I received from a friend that actually lead me to my personal relationship to Jesus.  That friend explained what it meant to be Born Again and after a few months attending a spirit filled church and spending time with this friend I made that step in my life.  I was a single parent at the time and my girls were all very young.  I would not have had the funds to buy a Study Bible so it was very precious to me to receive one as a gift.

It is very worn now because it has by far been the most used of my Bibles.  It is heavy though and got quite a banging around carrying it back and forth to church, so my oldest daughter bought myself a slim line NIV Bible as a Christmas present. It is definitely  my most treasured Bible.  It actually resides in my car so I am never without it  if I need it for church or study.

As you can see every Bible I have owned has been a gift from someone loved.  But we should always remember the original Giver of the Word itself is more precious than any other.  "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."  Matthew 4:4

I am linking up to Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday.  You can write about anything that starts with the letter B this week.  You can even share your favorite recipe or picture.  So go on over and check out what everyone else is writing about this week and share something yourself!
http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2010/01/alphabe-thursday-b.html

Hope you are having a great week and thanks for stopping in for a visit!  

B is for Bell

It is time for the ABC Christmas Challenge.

This time around we needed to include a bell and glitter.

I used glitter around the star edge and also Stickles  around the edge of the oval shape. I think you can see that I hung bells on a wire and poked it through to the other side before mounting the stamped image.  I think if you click on the picture you can better see those details.  I am hoping that when I am done with these challenges that I will be able to pick out a card I like best and be able to quickly have some ready for this next Christmas.  I need to be truthful and say I am having a hard time pushing myself to work on these because I am just not in the Christmas card making mood.  But I do like this one a lot more than the first one from a couple weeks ago.

Parade of Homes Desk

Debbie at Heavenly Humor is asking us to post about an area she picks each week in our homes.  I have not participated yet because we have only lived in this home for two years and I have not made any of the rooms mine yet except the guest bedroom and bath.  They turned out really nice so if she ever picks guest rooms I can share.  So what excuse would I have to not show my desk where I blog.  Well lets just see.  I am going to be real here.  I was going to clean it off put everything where it belongs.  But to tell the truth it only looks like that 25 percent of the time.  It sits in the back bedroom where we have a miss matched bunch of beds for our grandchildren when they stay.  There is a daybed (painted copper for really cute room in previous house where I crafted), a little pink plastic toddler bed, a porta crib that never gets put down, a bassinet and also a high chair because I don't like keeping it out in the dining area.  The carpet has needed changed since we moved in and the walls, well I won't go there.  So like I said I am going to keep it real.

The book open on top is new.  Its Blogging for Bliss and a lot of fun to look through.  My Bible study journal that I am using at Debra's blog http://adayinthelife-commonground.blogspot.com/ is sitting on top of my dictionary (which I need to use a lot) and I have been taking tons of notes to remind me of the next craft I would like to try when I find one at some of your awesome blogs.  No one else has linked up yet so I think you are all cleaning!  You know that wonderful hymn "Come as You Are" or it might be a worship song I have sung at church.  Well this is how I am in this particular space.  Promise you though the rest of my home does not look like this.  Well I did just finish the Valentine wreath that I posted about yesterday so that area may need a little straightening.  Chuckle. So I hope everyone else goes over to Heavenly Humor and shares because I have finally stepped up to the plate.  http://heavenlyhumor.blogspot.com/2010/01/parade-of-homes-desk.html







I could use the excuse that I fell on the ice and hit my head this afternoon, but the truth is it looked like this before that.  Thanks for stopping in I always look forward to your visit!

Valentine Wreath

A couple of weeks ago I was surfing through the blogging community and found a really great Valentines Wreath along with the how to instructions at http://littlebirdiesecrets.blogspot.com/2009/01/just-little-more-than-month-until.html.  It is really easy so if you want to make one for yourself pop on over to Little Birdie Secrets for the how to because I am just going to show you the items I used not the step by step.

First off I would like to tell you this was a very inexpensive craft to put together.  The styrofoam  wreath (Hobby Lobby) and the one yard of fabric (Walmart) was a total cost of about $4.00.  Everything else I used were things I had in my craft stash.

    















This is what it looks like when you are finished following the instructions from Little Birdie Secrets blog.  But as my husbands always says I can never leave well enough along.  So next I drug out some very wide white lace and cut off a yard or so and tea dyed it.

Then I made some tags..

And preceded to pull it altogether like this....

The finished project.

A close up of the tags after they were attached.

I am going to link up to Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Nite Special even though it is Sunday evening because Donna gives you the whole weekend to join in on the party.  So go on over to Funky Junk Interiors and check out all the other neat things that everyone else is entering into the fun with!

        http://funkyjunkinteriors.blogspot.com/2010/01/followers-event-draw-6-old-post-road.html
Also linking up to:

Thanks for stopping in!  I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Alphabe-Thursday

I am joining a new party at Jenny Matlock's blog that is being held every Thursday for 26 weeks.  Each week we are to write about something that starts with that week's letter.  If I understand the instructions it can be a picture, story, recipe or anything that includes the letter of the week as part of it.  I am entering late this week because I was away last night and did not get on the computer.  But we can have a one day late link up this first week so if you stop in here go over to Jenny's and check out the other participants and see if you want to join in with  the fun.  There are some prizes involved also.

A is for Ann

Ann...

Patricia Ann - My mother

Peggy Ann - My little sister

Samantha Ann - My Daughter

Natalie Ann - My Grand Daughter

Ann was the first thing that popped into my mind for the letter A.  There are a few in my family with the middle name of Ann.  Lovely ladies and a young girl.  I think I have always been envious of my sister's middle name.  So much so I picked it for my middle daughter's middle name and talked my younger daughter into using it also for her daughter.  I think it is such a pretty name.  It sounds dainty to me.  But a middle name needs to work with the first name and Ann just does not sound correct after Brenda.  Brenda Ann.  Nope.  My middle name is Ray.  Brenda Ray.  I have to admit it works.  My Dad's name is Raymond.  I believe the story goes he wanted a boy pretty bad that first baby.  I always wondered why I did not get the Rae spelling like the other girls I ran into while growing up.  But now I am very proud to have the middle name that is so close to my fathers first name.  We certainly see things differently when we mature don't we?  Ann, still love the name and hopefully I will have a great granddaughter years from now that I can push it off on yet again.

Go check out the other participants here:

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2010/01/good-morning-class-alphabe-thursday.html?

Thanks for stopping by!

Skillet Dinner Betty Crocker Style

Hubby is sure having a hard time with adjusting to managing with his left hand only.   I've been trying to make meals that are finger friendly or something you can scoop up without having to cut in some way.  I left him home one day with lasagna all set on a plate to warm up in the microwave and he had a ruff time cutting his lunch into bite size pieces.  He likes those "Helper" dinners that you make in a skillet but I do not want to make them often because I know how much preservatives they have.  So I was searching through my cookbooks for something I could throw together this evening without running to the store for ingredients and I found in my very old Betty Crocker cookbook Spanish Rice.  Well this recipe is very much like that "helper" in the box dinner that you make in one skillet, except I had to use two skillets. 

Spanish Rice

1/2 pound bacon (about 10 slices), cut into 3/4-inch pieces

1/2 pound hamburger

1 medium onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

2 cups water

1 cup uncooked regular rice

2/3 cup chopped green pepper

1 can (16 ounces) stewed tomatoes

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano leaves

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Fry bacon until crip: drain on paper towels.  Cook and stir hamburger and onion in 10-inch skillet until hamburger is light brown:  drain.  Stir in bacon and remaining ingredients.  Heat to boiling: reduce heat.  Cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, until rice is tender, about 30 minutes.  (add small amount water during cooking if necessary.)   6 servings

Believe it or not we did not have an onion in the house, but I used a quart of my home canned stewed tomatoes which have quite a few onions in them.  This was really good and I would think some might put it in the comfort food category.  And the house still smells good too.

I want to thank everyone for their prayers and well wishes for my husbands broken collar bone and the surgery he had on Monday.  It was very broken up and it took about 1 1/2 hours for the orthopedic surgeon to put it back together but the surgeon believes it will mend well now.  Thanks for stopping by I hope everyone is having a good week. 

A is for Angel

I was not ready for the first ABC Christmas Challenge.  We do not have a scrap booking shop or a craft shop in our little town so I tried to make do with what I had.  I used a stamp that I had not used in years and colored with watercolor pencils.  Did find the Debbie Mum button at the variety store in town so that covered the angel theme. Next I made a charm out of shrink plastic that I cut with a spellbinder die and added some beads to cover the charm or bead rules for this challenge.  Added a little glitter around the charm/tag but it is hard to see in the photo. Hopefully I will be more prepared for the next letter in the challenge.  Because I would really like to keep up with this challenge and have my cards ready before next Christmas season. Here is what I have to link up to the challenge: