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:

Weekend Walk

Ladybug Nairn of Braemar, lovingly known as Bug, and I took a walk yesterday when the sun came out bright and it did not feel quite as cold as it has the past few days.  Grabbed the camera on the way out the door thinking of taking pictures of the birds but that was not going to happen with Miss Bug with me.  So here are some pictures of Ladybug having a blast in the snow during our walk back through the woods and also a few of the opening that you walk out into at the end of the two track we take through the woods.

This is what Miss Bug does when ever we are out for a walk.  She is always looking and digging for little critters that is why we have to keep her on a leash or she would chase anything she caught sight of.  Since she cannot get her feet into the dirt to dig she walks a few steps and then sticks her long face right down into the snow.  She just kept me laughing the complete time we were out.

We have a lot of these little Charlie Brown trees
along the path. 

Back pond under snow.

Our garden we have out back.
We have a well tapped by the pond that we pump water from or we just pump it out of the pond.

Jeff's hunting shack he built the first summer we lived here.  The sun has started to bleach the wood out.  I really like that look.

Really neat old plow that sits out back.  I quite often think about dragging it up to the yard and planting something around it.  It really was a pleasant walk and it felt good to get out and get some fresh air and sunshine.  Hubby's surgery is tomorrow so I will probably not post for a couple of days.  Thanks for stopping in and have a great week!

A Surprise for Me!

Happy Saturday afternoon!  Happy I am!  For more reasons than one.  First I made a long list of things to do around here because this is the first weekend I had to myself for over a month.  Some of those things were to clean off this one counter top area that always collects random stuff, to work on Samantha's quilt top, finish painting the geraniums on the front of my cupboard doors and the list goes on.  I have done none of the above.  Instead I crocheted while drinking coffee and watching some of season one of the I Love Lucy Show.  Hubby has bought me seasons 1 and 2.  She just cracks me up and I have always wanted to be a red head.  Actually I have a friend who does my hair that could tell you a story about one of my redheaded moments in life.  Then I took the Bug for a long walk out back and took a lot of pretty pictures of her and the woods which is what  I was going to post about today.  And then I decided I needed to go into our little town to get a few groceries and that turned into two more stops.  First at our wonderful home decor store Kindel & Company then I had to cross the street to get a coffee at Charlene's.  Finally I decided I needed to get home and start working on that list but when I stopped at the mailbox before driving up our long drive I found a box there.  Now I will have to post the woodland pictures later because I need to show everyone what came in the mail to me today from:

And here she is sitting on my kitchen ladder looking pretty as can be!  This was truely a surprise because I somewhat had forgotten that I had won.  Also I there was more than one of us that won and I really expected to wait my turn a little longer.  But she is here now and her name is Hope.  Hope is my oldest daughters middle name so she is even that much more special. Love her Jeanette!  Stop in and say hello to Sweet Jeanette, she always has some great recipes and wonderful things going on at her place. 

Thanks for stopping in I will post the snow pictures soon.

Snow Fun

We had our grandchildren over last week during their Christmas break and had some fun in the snow.  The boys came for a night except little Lucas who spent the night with another set of grandparents.

The girls came later in the week but it was a lot colder out so we could not spend quite as long outside as we did earlier in the week.

I had my snowpants on too!

 This is hubby.  Grandpa is very careful towing the kids around the yard.  Putts along and watches over his shoulder all the while.  Unfortunately this type of snow fun is at a conclusion this year because hubby went out with the big boys Saturday afternoon and had an accident.  Does not know what he hit on the trail but it threw him about 20 feet per younger brother.  He was out cold for a couple of minutes and has a broken collar bone.  Says it is the first bone he has ever broken and it is a bad one.  Cannot get into the orthopedic surgeon until later in the week.  They have looked at the xrays and think there might have to be some surgery.  So I am waiting on the man like he has never been waited on by me before.  And I had to carry all the Christmas decor down to the basement storage myself.  Grumble, grumble I am sure this must have been planned.  Hope everyones new year has started out with a bang.  Just not quite as big of bang as ours!  Thanks for stopping in!

My Wish to You

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year and many blessings in the journey.