Twenty Eleven!

A happy New Year!

Grant that I
May bring no tear to any eye
When this New Year in time shall end...
Let it be said I've played the friend,
Have lived and loved and labored here,
And made of it a happy year.
~ Edgar Guest

...from my heart, to yours....all the best for 2011!
xoxo

have yourself...

...a merry little Christmas!



let your heart be light....



from now on



our troubles will be out of sight....



Have yourself a merry little Christmas
Make the Yuletide gay
From now on
Our troubles will be miles away



Here we are as in olden days
Happy golden days of yore
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more

Through the years
We all will be together
If the Fates allow
Hang a shining star
Upon the highest bough
And have yourself
A merry little Christmas right now

hello peeps

My hubby really loves Peeps but it's not so much the eating of them, as it is the talking he does to them. They are on the kitchen table and every time he walks past them he says "well Heeeelloooo Peeps", like they are a long lost friend......



It cracks me up!

So anyhoo....Happy Easter my peeps!



I'm in a better frame of mind now, thank you...got a little stitching done and just decided to focus on the good stuff...I saw something written the other day and it made me snap out of it.....

"Be at rest my soul, for the Lord has been good to you"

So anyway, I'll have some stitching to show soon, in the meantime,

here's my Hibiscus tree, which I have managed not to kill yet....



she's actually pretty happy here in the sun room....



she keeps blooming, every day there are new blooms.



we did buy another one similar to this, but more "bush like" for the front porch but if it ends up being happy in the sun room we'll keep it there.

Better go check on what's cookin'. The menu for Easter Sunday is pretty big, had to start way ahead of time. As much as I enjoy cooking and baking, if there ever comes a day when it's just the two of us for a holiday, we're eating OUT!!

Blessings, y'all!

no good, rotten frame of mind

Such happy title, dontcha think? Makes you want to run away from here quick like, right?
Oy. But it's true and I'm sorry, I have to vent! Here's my day, in no particular order....
**my shoulder hurts like h*ll and I haven't even stitched in four days.
not. one. stitch.
**took my 30% off everything coupon to Kohls, prepared to do major damage, but discovered, much to my horror, that absolutely everything I tried on was just wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. Who designs clothes for "full figured", (ok, FAT), women anyway? (Someday I hope they pay). Meanwhile, I brought home three things, two of which are questionable.
**some gal waltzed out of the dressing room I was using (in between taking things back and forth), leaving both things she tried on LAYING THE FLOOR!! And the hangers on the hook, empty. I was again, horrified...
**someone pooped outside the front door of my workplace. Yes, pooped. And no, it wasn't doggie poo. Guess they couldn't hold it any longer?
**a rookie coworker thinks they know more than everyone there and yet, she makes the same stupid mistakes over and over again and admits, "every day is a new day" to her...so why the constant arguing???
** edited **


OK, rant over, sorry about that...here's something cute....



It's an old Bent Creek kit that I stitched forever ago and just needed to sew the buttons on the corners. Not sure it was done right, but I got tired of seeing it in the closet, waiting, so there it is :-)

Thanks for your thoughts on the angel Hornbook. Found a cute easel at the WalMarts yesterday that I'm going to put her on!

Happy Thanksgiving

Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'm looking forward to seeing my mother and sitting at the table (which will be overloaded with food of course) with her and my husband and three children, talking and laughing. We always have giggle fests until we're practically sick, spewing pie and holding our bellies. Good times!!

Here's something I stitched a while ago and gave away in 2004....



It's Pumpkin Row by Liberty Street Designs. I wonder if the person I gave it to ever did anything with it....

Happy turkey day y'all!

may 11th

Hope you all have a wonderful day!

PS.
Meet my present....



He's Astro's brother, and his name is Muttley. He's 8 weeks old and from the same mother and father Pugs that Astro is from.

A gift from my oldest daughter :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

May your thoughts be as glad as the shamrocks,
May your heart be as light as a song,
May each day bring you bright, happy hours,
That stay with you all the year long.

(the stitching was completed back in 2000, it's an old Twisted Threads kit. Stitched over one with Anchor threads, if I recall correctly).

2008!

Happy New Year!

It's a beautiful day here in North Texas :)

I am making pork carnitas rice bowls today with a side of black-eyed peas.
We have the peas every New Year I think, although we may have forgotten once or twice. We're not superstitious people but do like tradition.

Thank you all so much for your thoughts on my Frappuccino :) I'm going to sew the buttons on today before going to work!

I finished up this Birds of a Feather design a few days ago:



It's called Winter Holiday...



...and I stitched it on the recommended 28 ct. Dark Teal Green Cashel with Weeks and DMC threads. It used more than one skein of the WDW Icicle.



A fun stitch!

Hope you all are having a wonderful day :)

Christmastime is here

Oh my. That last post was written days ago and then was promptly forgotten about. I think I was considering adding something to it but got carried away with holiday preparations and forgot what that something was. Pretty much the whole state of my life right now.

The other day, I had a whole list of stuff to get done. For whatever reason I was rushing myself along...no one standing over me saying "hurry A, hurry"...just me, myself and I, happily buzzing along. Putting on a coat of face paint, then go to brush my hair real quick and JAB!! Right below my eyebrow with my thumbnail. Yes, I almost poked my own eye out. It hurt, but since I was in a rush, didn't pay that much attention to it, and par for the course, forgot about doing it. Ran a bunch of errands, talked with people, etc. Then, later on as I was driving, noticed this throbbing pain over my left eye. pull the visor down and look...imagine my surprise to see part of my skin hanging off and blood! Hmm...maybe people were too scared to ask me what happened...anyway, cleaned it off and then had a lovely scab there for days. I decided right then and there to slow myself down...getting everything done... definitely not worth poking your eye out!

and with that, some images from the tree and around the house:










Merry Christmas to my sweet friends out there. Thank you all so much for your presence in my life. Peace to you. And love too.

sugar rush

These little beauties from Sprinkles made their way into our home today:



Just in time! We need more sugar around here, that's for sure!



Done wrapping, except for those two Butter Bells there. Now to start on the holiday baking. Oh boy. Haven't started yet, so no pics....a coworker is coming over tomorrow evening so I can show her how to make some stuff. I love that....that she wants me to help her!

So meanwhile, some more random shots from around the house.

Remember when I promised pics of the new tables? Well, here's one for ya.



And a close up:



I'm never really sure what exactly I'm supposed to be displaying, or how, really. Had it all worked out alright but then needed to decorate for Christmas, so whatever.

One of my favorite ornaments of all time. More on that later :)

hugs

Today I felt like hugging a total stranger in Hobby Lobby. My friend and I were standing there waiting to check out, the lines were long so they opened another checkout. One lady offered to let another go before her but the second woman declined and said she was just as happy to stand there and wait as anything.....she was just so nice, everything about her. So they started talking a little and the whole thing made me well up inside.

Cause I've been having a big ol' pity party for myself and down in the dumps because my back is hurting worse than ever with the weather being all crazy and all and then work has been hairy too, which is always the case this time of year.

Last week was particularly interesting because two grown people got into a HUGE screaming match over a chair.

Yes, a chair. A man asked if he could have it since no one was sitting in it and the woman who was asked said no, take that one over there. And so it began. LOUD yelling. LOUD cursing. Everyone in the building stopping to watch them. The man then running up to tell me about it, like I could make the grown woman behave, like I'm the "mommy" of them all. I thought the man was going to haul off and hit her and so did she, she even said, "don't you touch me, I'll call the cops". But of course, our off duty officer (who is very highly paid by our organization) didn't show up that night.

Anyway, all that to say...sometimes our customers are real stinkers.

And my back hurts so bad I feel the need to cry and cry hard over it. Such a whiny baby...

And then you see people being kind to each other in a store and it makes you want to hug them and praise them for being so nice to each other.

I seriously debated asking the one gal if I could hug her.

But I didn't.

Should have though, don't you think? I really needed a hug anyway.


So anyway, here are some random pictures. I was too tired to get up off the couch to take these, so the views you see are from there.

Our totally 80's Christmas stockings, although I think a couple of them were done in the early 90s'. I can vividly remember being in the craft store, buying these kits, picking each one out as I thought they matched the person they were to be stitched for. Pretty sure they weren't all bought at once though, we were too poor at the time, for that.



You can see in that pic that our house is still a jumbled up mess. Look at that stack of Christmas books on the right that I pulled out. Most of them are Mary Engelbreit.

And here's a shot of the tree, again from the couch, excuse the lamp:



And another:



must've gotten up for this one, (I promise to try and get better pics of the whole thing before Christmas is over).



And my little elf pug:



when those velvet ears are upon you, you're not too inclined to move around much ;)
Plus, he's got Pug Hugs. And kisses.

misc.

Just a bunch of random things.

I made these sausage balls (just like every year at Christmas time):



1 pkg Jimmy Dean hot sausage
8 oz shredded smoked cheddar cheese
2 cups Bisquick

Mash it all together with hands shape into balls and bake at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes.

And finished this:



Star Bright Snowman by Ewe & Eye & Friends
Stitched over two on 32 ct. Tapestry Teal by Lakeside with one strand Anchor.



And we had the sinful dessert, which was really good, according to my family. But I don't eat many things containing pumpkin, so I can't vouch for it. I gave some of it to my friend Patti, for her and her hubby to eat later that day, didn't hear anything back about it, so who knows if it's good or not.



Here's the recipe anyway:

1 16 oz can pumpkin
1 12 oz can evaporated milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
3 eggs
1 box yellow cake mix
1 cup chopped pecans
2 sticks melted butter
8 oz softened cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
2 cups Cool Whip

Mix together can of pumpkin and evaporated milk; add sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and eggs. Pour into greased 9 x 13 inch dish. Top with cake mix (crumble dry mix over it all) and pecans. Pour butter over top. Bake at 350 for 50 to 60 minutes.

While it cools, mix together in medium bowl, the cream cheese and powdered sugar until combined. Fold in Cool Whip. Smooth over cooled cake, top with more pecans if you want.

And speaking of my friend Patti, look at the ornament she made me for Christmas:



Isn't it adorable? And she also made this project bag, which I managed to talk her out of:



The little button has a snap underneath it, so you can change the card on the front that has your project info on it. Isn't it cool? I love it!

Got our Christmas cards addressed and mailed out. It took me almost 6 hours. We haven't received even ONE yet and I have to wonder, if we didn't mail any, would we even get any in the first place. Very time consuming and expensive these days.

Tree is up. This year it has mostly Mary Engelbreit ornaments on it and the ones that aren't are either red or have a whimsical feel. It had to be a shiny and bright tree. Oh, how I wish we had some of the old Shiny Brite ornaments for it! We're tired of most of the old stuff we have and just boxed it up for the kids to have someday when they're moved out or whatever.

My little blog has almost reached 100 posts. And in the past few months has had over 10,000 hits. Can anyone believe that? You'd never guess it, I think. Just who are all these people anyway? Surely whatever I'm posting about here is just not that interesting!

redneck holidays

Sorry for the blog break, I was recovering from Thanksgiving! We really had a nice one, despite one particular relative driving me absolutely insane, the food was all good and my hubby and kids said it was the best Thanksgiving meal I'd ever cooked. Score!

So I thought I'd share my secret. I know it's a little late, but maybe you can keep it in mind for next year.
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Are you ready?
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Here it is:
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And just in case you can't figure out how to get it out of the can, it comes with instructions. Oh yes, it does!!




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Somehow I'm picturing you all with a face similar to this one:



LOL! Just kidding folks!

Hope you got a laugh out of that one ;)

It was actually something my DH requested that I make for him on his birthday. I had to work that night, so his official birthday dinner wasn't until the following Sunday (at The Cheesecake Factory...YUM), so when I was getting ready to slice and fry for his sandwiches, the back of the can just cracked me up! I've been opening cans of Spam since I was a kid and have to admit, it's a skill! But now they have the instructions right on the can, so anyone can do it!!....it's just too funny.

Spam. People either love it or hate it. We have it about two or three times a year, always fried and in sandwich form and it usually makes my husband sing part of the old Monty Python Spam skit which is good for a laugh or two!

So anyway....I brined a turkey, best thing e.v.e.r. OMG, I'll never make a turkey any other way. So tender and juicy! We used the Williams Sonoma brand of brine mix, it was wonderful!

We had all the regular stuff to go with it, cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce (always from the can and after 30 years of slicing it, my mother tells me I'm doing it wrong!), pies, and then these:



the only thing I got a picture of during preparations because my camera battery died.
They were from the November issue (I think) of Everyday Food, shown here:



Super easy but they were HUGE when I baked them the next day, I'm not sure that we really liked them that much....they smelled and tasted great but eh. Nothing to write home about. Of course, everything else was to die for, but alas, no pics.

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well and are gearing up for the holiday season now. I'm almost done with my shopping already! Yippee! Now I need to get my list ready for what all needs to be baked and what candies to make. Probably the same stuff as I always do, my peoples would probably kill me if I deviated any from the norm, lol! They wait all year, or at least that's what they say!

Stitching wise, working on a big sampler, will try to post of photo of that soon :)