Baby It's Cold Outside!

I stayed home saturday to get all my year end receipts in order, also cleaned house and put away the Christmas decorations. Charlie worked at the shop, so I made my own supper, I tried the Sherried tomato soup from pioneer woman. it was nice, nothing spectacular but with the temps being in the 30's here, soup was good! I also made her broiled French bread. It was good little supper!
If you want to try the recipes here they are:

Sherried Tomato Soup

The Bread

Stay warm and cozy!

Happy New Year!

Another Christmas come and gone... It was fun, I got a new car, wine cooler and lots of fun goodies from family and friends! I will showcase them on the blog every now and then. We drove to Christy's house in California where I got to see my son, Travis, and his wife Rebecca, Christy and Jeff and the little animal sanctuary they have.

Travis decided to grow a beard! He looks like a mountain man!

Everyone watching the dvd I made for christy and jeff, it was our cruise photos put to music!

I just fell in love with Helen (she is a blind cat) but she really is more fun and outgoing then most cats I know! Then there is Popeye (he has one eye) and Pearl (she has grain allergies) Sometimes I don't know how my sister does it, the care and commitment is overwhelming but she keeps on giving!

I snuck upstairs to snap a photo of 5 cats napping on the bed.

Popeye and Neuman enjoying the fire!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Give a little bit...

More Christmas Fun!

Charlie's car quit running and has been in the shop, needs a new motor. So while we wait, he has been driving my truck and we rented a small car for me to run around town in. It was a 2012 Toyota Corolla, boy, that was a fun little car to run around in, I drove it 12 days. We decided maybe it would be a good idea to lease a small car for me and park our truck due to the gas prices.

We went down and picked me up a brand new 2013 Toyota Corolla LE, I will have it 3 years then I will get a brand new car again, hey, this lease thing sure is a nice way to go! Plus, It is a huge write off on our business!

I just love the dark grey color and it has hands free/bluetooth for my iphone use! The only thing missing is my xmradio. But it is playing my library of songs from my iphone which is about 1500 songs!

My favorite part on the car is the gauge that tells me how many more miles I can drive before I need gas, when it is full I can go about 380 miles! I think I will have to buy gas every 3 weeks!!

Thanks again Honey, I just love my new car!!

Christmas Wine!

Christmas came a little early for me, I had asked Santa for a wine cooler to replace the dishwasher, I never used the dishwasher, there is something very theraputic about washing dishes, standing at the sink and gazing out the window.

So I started doing some research and found one almost exact to the size of the dishwasher and it has front ventilation, it is perfect! The Danby Wine Cooler dwc508bls, It holds 50 bottles!

We installed it last night! it is beautiful!

Thank you to my sweetheart Santa for spoiling me once again!!

I love my kitchen!

Way better than a dishwasher!

Each shelf will hold a different wine, Pinot Grigio, Zinfindel, Pinot Noir, Riesling!

 

Butterball Christmas??

I decorated the house yesterday, so my hubby's job was to get a tree. I did not drag down all the stuff from the attic, just my Jim Shore Snowmen. I did not want to drag down the tree, I told him just pick up a little Charlie Brown tree for us....He came home with a little 2 1/2 foot butterball tree!!

 

It is really round, but it smells good and we just wanted a little tree, so it works just fine!

 

I did the best I could to decorate it and put some gifts under it!

 

Merry Butterball Christmas to you all!!

Butterball in Blue!

The boys watching football

Fireplace and more Snowmen

Lights and stockings

 

Sailing like a Boss

Sailing like a Boss!

Love this photo, see video below to see how Alex did this!

The Concert of a Lifetime!

Last night I got to see two of rocks most legendary bands, Aerosmith and Cheap Trick! Really, you cannot say Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, without including Aerosmith!

WHAT AN EPIC NIGHT!

It all started last week when I was looking to grab some concert tickets for Tanya for a Christmas gift. It is the only thing I can get her that I know she will enjoy. She does so much for me all year long and I really can't make her anything because she surpasses me in every talent, jewlery, sewing, knitting, cooking...the only thing I do know, is how much she enjoys music.

I went to tickmaster and saw Aerosmith concert in Las Vegas, I thought, there is no way I could ever afford that and it is probably sold out, Nope! Tickets were still available!!

I grabbed two..emailed Tanya and said "Merry Christmas, you are going to see your guitar god Joe Perry, pick me up Saturday night because Charlie is at the racing banquet.

So we raced down to the MGM, had dinner at the cafe and went into the arena.

All I can say is Cheap Trick is good, Robin Zander sang my favorite: Golden Slumbers, oh my, his voice is so beautiful:

 

Then the stage was cleared and a hole opened up from the floor and Steven Tyler and Joe Perry pop up and began the greatest show on earth...they rocked, they rolled, Steven danced and shook his little tushy all over that stage! We heard all the great songs and some new! And I must say Steven is looking great, very healthy put on weight turned it to muscle, he even has a little six-pack going on!

Joe Perry played his guitar like no tomorrow, and the drummer, Joey Kramer, did a drum solo that blew everyone away!

It was so wonderful to see my favorite Aerosmith songs played live, the first encore we got, Steven came out of the stage with a white piano, playing Dream On, sooooo beautiful, I thought "oh that was perfect" but then they turned that into my all time blow the speakers out in my truck song, cause it has to be loud...Sweet Emotion!!!

Oh Sweet Jesus! It was EPIC, EPIC I tell you!!!!!

So Merry Christmas Tanya, I hope you enjoyed that gift as much as I did!!

Here is a tribute to Steven Tyler with the song Dream On, thank you Steven for your amazing vocals, your outstanding showmanship, you are truly a legend!

 

 

Christmas shopping on Etsy!

Hey,
If you would like to support artists that make handmade items for Christmas Shopping, check out
2BagsFull (click the name to go there)
Vicki has a list of many etsy shops that are offering cool deals for christmas!
Tanya put up some of her cool western clutches in her store www.beadandneedle.etsy.com :

So Cool!

I am offering Free Shipping in my store: www.PeaceLoveandArtshop.com and as always some cool harmonica necklaces!

Gregg Allman inspired harmonica necklace!

Salmon, Ears, and Laughlin!

Hey,
I wanted to say instead of cooking a turkey this year, I adopted one from The Farm Sanctuary , so my hubby took me out along with James and his son, Brentson. We all went to Lucilles BBQ, I had the most wonderful Grilled Salmon with mustard sauce, melted in my mouth so good! Honey still had his turkey dinner with all the fixings but I did not have to cook it and I did not have to slave in the kitchen or clean up any mess! It was a wonderful day!!! Thank you honey for supporting my choice this year, even though we ended up at a meat place, I still had the choice not to eat meat!

Also, we just got home from a quick little trip to Laughlin to see my sister and her hubby for Thanksgiving fun. We stayed one night at the Aquarius, nice place! Very clean, nice rooms, great restaurants, we ate at the Italian place, delicious calamari and mushrooms appetizers, the guys had spaghetti and meatballs, I had shrimp alfredo, Christy had salmon, all very delicious!

Great Place!

Christy and I walked over to the outlet mall and did a little shopping, and I got more holes punched in my ears at Piercing Pagoda, I now have 3 in one ear and 2 in the other, I want to get the upper part pierced but they do not do cartlidge, gotta go to a peircing place for that! Anyway, we had fun hanging out, next stop is a California Christmas to see my son and his wife!

Now I get to buy lots of earrings! Fun!

Happy Thanksgiving...

The kitchen

I decided to go with a different theme in my kitchen, the retro never fit..so on to a wine motif! I asked santa for a wine cooler to go in the place of my dishewasher, I never use my dishwasher and a wine cooler would just be grand, since I am expanding my tastes to pinot noir, grigios and merlots! So I changed my motif to Wine! My friend Tanya made me new dish towels, napkins and curtain!! OH MY LORDY! They are to die for! I really don't want to use them as they are gorgeous, but my cherry motif ones she made were just the best towels in the world to use, well, out with the old and in with the new! I am thinking of hanging my favorite wines (empty bottles) along the soffets, need to find one bottle racks. Maybe 3 on each soffet.
I love my "NEW" old kitchen!!

The fabric has wine names!

This fabric has the wine bottles!

Love the napkins!

Going to put empty wine bottles along the soffets!

The curtain has wine bottles or on the reverse the wine names!

Gorgeous!

My mat from walmart!

Put my wine picture back up, I am glad I hung on to it, I just love that picture!

My wine calendar for the new year!

The Library

I finally carved out a little space for myself...like a craft room, exercise room, kitchen is not enough, I have to have it all, my husband is lucky he gets part of the bed to sleep in - well, he does have to share that with the cat! Hahaha!

I moved my treadmill to the guest room and put a little 150.00 recliner from walmart in the spot, added a little sign (Keep Calm and Read Books) and a reading lamp, and BAM! Instant library!

 I have books in every room in the house, I love to read and just recently got back to some serious reading. The only reason I have a TV in the house is for listening to music, a few little shows here and there and a movie now and then, but I like to sit and read in the evenings while hubby watches garbage on TV. Now I have just the cozy little spot do that in!

My ramblings on a friday night

Hey, just a post about some things going on...
I have to share this scarf my friend Tanya made me, it is amazing, I can only hope one day I can knit like this:

My cowl scarf by Tanya, lovely!

Rock and Roll bio's!

I am reading all the bio's of rock and roll people I can get my hands on.. it all started with Greg Allmans bio...I am now reading Cyndi Laupers bio and it is amazing....I also read Patti Smith's, which was heart wrenching...Cyndi had a tough go at it as well...ok off to read the second half so I can get on to Neil Young's bio....I am sure it will be fascinating, he has had a disabled child from birth, due to drugs maybe??? hmmm....only the bio will tell! Rock on- but rock on in a clean way people!!! Just cause they legalize it does not mean it is safe!

My Concert book!

I usually make scrapbooks for all my travels and life as I know it. But I was struggling on how to scrapbook my concerts, I see quite a bit more now that I live in Las Vegas. It would have taken many many scrapbooks, I wanted a fast way to keep track of all my shows and music legends I see.
I saw this photo album at JoAnns and decided it would work great! I just made little postcards of each concert, I had most of the ticket stubs for the concerts and they fit right in! This book holds 300 postcards/photos. So I will be able to keep all my shows in one place and look back easily! It had a place for memos but I just put the year for each concert, on the back of each card I wrote my memories. On the cover there was a spot for a photo, I added my favorite music quote: "Where Words Fail, Music Speaks"

I have 61 slots filled, from 16 years old to 47 years old. I did not add some small shows, I mainly stuck to big names. I have seen lots of little vegas shows and lots of tribute bands but did not put them in here. Otherwise it would fill up too fast. This is just for the big stars! I hope to keep filling it each year. I have seen some really good bands and singers!!
Rock on, Jackie

Chicken Burritos

I am not a burrito fan, but I know my hubby likes them so I decided to try to make a nice burrito for him.
I decided on chicken, beans, rice.

This is how you get dinner done:

Start with the chicken, I love this chicken that is frozen, just 10 minutes in the frying pan and it is ready for soups, burritos, tacos, salads and more. Great grilled flavor! It comes in chopped and strips, I would have used the chopped here but the store was out so I used the strips and chopped then after cooking.
I also chose Zatarains red beans and rice, great flavor for a burrito!!

Start cooking the rice with directions on the box, and cook it down until thick, fry up the chicken. Next chop lettuce, shred cheese, chop tomatoes, onion, avocado. You can also have salsa and sour cream on your burrito.

Heat up the large burrito size tortillas, I like Guerrero's brand, it is big but thin so you don't get that real thick over powering flour taste. Perfect!

After tortilla is nice and hot, plate it and add your fillings. Roll and tuck the sides and serve! My husband was really happy with these burritos! The flavors just went so well with each other! The rice beans and chicken were a perfect combination. Enjoy!

Steve Winwood Concert

I finally got to see my signiture song sung live! Oh, it was a magical night! I have always loved Steve Winwood's voice. I was so happy to see him and he sounded amazing! Plus, we were just about in the front row! Here is my photo of him, I did not have to use zoom:

We started the night at TGIF for dinner, it was me and Charlie, James, Tanya, then we added James's son Brent, then we grabbed Kathy and Howard from Vegas Machine. We all ate 3 plates of nachos, then we added Jack Daniel burgers, I had cajun shrimp pasta which was delicious! After dinner we all split up, Charlie and James headed to the John Pinette show (very funny comedian), Tanya and I headed to the Palms for Steve Winwood.
Loved the show and the night of fun and friends!! It just does not get any better! Well, he did not sing Arc of a Diver, which I really enjoy listening to. We did hear The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. It was amazing! If you want to get into some really good music, you must get your hands on some Blind Faith and Traffic albums, his early stuff with Eric Clapton and many more greats! Music to lose yourself in.

But here is my favorite jukebox song of all time hope you enjoy this acoustic version of Can't Find My Way Home:

Salmon in whiskey cream sauce

Tonight I made Salmon in a whiskey cream sauce. It was pretty good! Got the idea from a friend, thanks Chris!
My husband actually ate 1 1/2 pieces, he said "oh, I really don't care for red fish" But he had seconds!
I call that a win! I also had roasted red potatoes with rosemary and roasted asparagus, a loaf of french bread as well! I had a glass of 2006 Gallo Sonoma Reserve Pinot Noir wine, nice wine!
I am going to try to cook fish once a week. If anyone has a recipe to share I would welcome the help!

Having Fun!

My hubby decided to wander the swapmeet on sunday morning, I am glad he did! He called me up and said he found a pool table for 300.00! So I drove down picked it up and now we can play pool in our backyard (lot cheaper then playing at the bar!)
Thanks Honey!!

What I ate Friday!

Last night Charlie and I went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. (The one in Green Valley district area)

When scrapbooking in Anaheim CAlifornia, the girls and I would walk to the Cheesecake Factory there and we had some pretty amazing dinners, so I told charlie lets try the one here!

I am not a fan of the seating, I prefer booths for privacy and comfort, here for two people you get seated at those long tables and benches where you basically sit with other people and eat.

But I went along with it, and I ordered the wasabi crusted ahi tuna steak, WOW, it was delicious!
Served over brown rice with slivers of veggies mixed in. I would go back and sit on the floor just to eat that meal again!!

So there you go, another place to eat, but you have to go early, we dine at 5:00 to beat the dinner crowds and this place gets packed, by the time we walked out it was wall to wall people waiting to eat!

Craft room update!

Since I won the scrapbook armoire, I had to redo the room, all my scrapbook stuff will be housed in it and all my paper will be along side in the bookcases. I really like how clean and organized my room is! Every plastic container is labeled and I know right where to find everything!
I almost have it complete but I have to wait for joanns to send me some more 14x14 cases to organize all my scrapbook stickers and embellishments, then it will be done, I ordered them online at a price of 4.99 each, they are normally 9.99 so I will wait to save that kind of dough!! But for the most part I have every craft in it's own place, and now that I bribed Tanya into teaching me to knit I will have to find a place for knitting supplies! I made her a favorite lunch she likes, buffalo chicken salad with blue cheese dressing -  in return she taught me the basics of knitting! Everyone be prepared - you are getting scarves for christmas!! hahaha!!

This wall is rubber stamps, crafting supplies, and counter has printer and cutter, the bottom cupboards are filled with fabric for sewing!

Next wall, has long counter for working on, the far right the cabinet has a roll out trash can!

next wall has Sam's perch, he sleeps there all the time looking out the window to keep an eye on the hood!

The first bookcase houses all my beading/jewelry making supplies, then you see the new armoire and 2 more bookcases.

This is the wall you see as you walk in, it has all my jewelry that is for sale on etsy, and tons of magazines!

The new piece, I added write on/magnet boards to the top doors.

The table top pulled out. lots of space to work.

The bottom cupboards, waiting for the cases to put all my stickers in, cats, travel, misc.

close up of the stamps and the craft supplies

My albums, stamp pads, and paper, paper, paper, paper!!

I hope you enjoyed my craft room tour! I will be in there working away making jewelry for my etsy store and scrapbooks of my many travels!