Happy New Year 2017

Hope it's a good one......

VEGAS, BABY!

Merry Christmas to me!!

My son came out to visit for 2 days!
We took him out to dinner, he loves sushi so we took him to Tides for his birthday dinner...Wow, that was really good! He got the Shashimi Quartet and the Skinny Dip, so good! I love the shrimp tempura there and the ahi! After that we went to play bingo and he won the very first game and got 50.00!! How fun was that?!!

The next day I took him over to The Art of Shaving so he could learn some things about taking care of his beard and he got a beard trim and some nice stuff to keep it looking clean and smooth. His wife, Rebecca could not come out as they have lots of rescue, foster animals and someone needs to look after them. She loves Travis's beard so he wanted to make it look nice for her! Sweet!!

We did a little christmas shopping and then came home. I recreated a class I took at Surlatable, it was Tanya's Christmas gift, we learned to make Gumbo and Red beans and rice, peel and eat shrimp, and bananas foster! That was fun, My hubby and Travis thought I was going to burn the house down lighting the rum on fire but I showed them, it went just fine and they loved the dessert! I passed on making the gumbo, this was enough food! Roumalade and Red lobster biscuits were added to the mix.

After dinner we sat around the table and learned how to play Mexican Train Dominos, by the rules, not just our own made up rules! Lots of fun and strategy going on!

I hope Travis and Rebecca and My sister and her husband can come out in the summer for a pool party, that would be lots of fun!
Merry Christmas everyone and I hope you get to be with the ones you love even if it is only for 2 days!

Celebrate Me Home....

I struggled with decorating this year, it is so tough to get all the boxes down from the attic...but my hubby really wanted a little Christmas cheer, so I got most of the stuff down while he was at work.
I knew he had his Christmas party at Key insurance office from 3-6 so I got to decorating while he was gone.....I love my snowmen, and now I am so happy I decorated:

The tree is a 6 foot fake, it is already strung with lights and folds up in 3 pieces, pretty easy to put up, just have to unscrunch the branches and make them full looking.

The jukebox area, snowmen are everywhere!

More snowmen and our Santa hats for going out

All my Jim Shore snowmen on the fake fireplace, I tried to collect all the ones of snowmen with cats he made.

And when I got all done decorating and I sat down with a glass of wine, my favorite holiday song came on, Celebrate me home by Kenny Loggins, the perfect end to a long day of decorating!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Wintertime, soups and crafts...

Almost winter in the desert, the air is really cold and crisp, I am wearing my scarves and boots and sweaters. Making lots of soup and keeping busy in my craft room.

I wonder if we will get snow this year??? So Fun!

I love to make the copy cat version of Olive Gardens Minestrone soup, so good!

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 large onion chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 cup fresh or frozen and thawed green beans
• 1/2 cup zucchini, sliced
• 4 cloves minced garlic
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 cans (15-ounces) red kidney beans, drained
• 2 cans (15-ounces) great northern or small white beans, drained
• 1 (15-ounces) can tomatoes
• 2 tablespoons minced parsley
• 1 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano 
• 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 3 cups hot water
• 4 cups fresh baby spinach
• 1/2 cup small shell pasta

Instructions

1. Measure olive oil into a large stock pot and heat on medium.
    
2. Put the onion, celery, garlic, green beans, and zucchini into the pot and saute for about 5 minutes or until the onions become translucent.
    
3. Add the vegetable broth, drained tomatoes, beans, carrots, hot water and spices to the pot.
    
4. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for 20 minutes.
    
5. Add the spinach leaves and the pasta and cook for an additional 20 minutes.

I usually serve with salad and garlic bread. Yummy!

I have been busy making Christmas gifts, and cards:

I made this bingo cup for a bingo friend I play with, so fun, made it with the Cricut!

I love this fun card, made with Lawn Fawns gingerbread men:

Cracks me up!

Hope you are enjoying the cool weather and making fun stuff, summer will be here before you know it! 

Simon Says Monday Challenge!

The challenge this Monday is Trees!
So I whipped up this little card using the trees from Lawn Fawns Cheery Christmas stamp set, and Season's tweetings birds!

Hope you like it!

Simon Says "Make stuff!"

I am so crazy for stamps and dies....I love making cards and I love to be in card swaps. Once or twice a week I will be making a card for the Simon Says Stamp Challenges, I will post my cards on here so I can link to the party! Each card enters me into a drawing to win 50.00 to spend at SimonSaysStamp, Love, love, love that place!

I added their challenge badge to my sidebar in case you want to play along.

Here is Wednesday's challenge, Christmas to die for! I had to use a "die" in my card. I used Lawn Fawns Sprinkled with joy oven set to make this card:

This was the most fun I ever had making a card!!

Whew, time is flying by!

It is starting to get chilly here in the desert...
I broke out my sweaters and boots...
I am spending more time in my craft room, creating fun things...
My latest obsession is Lawn Fawn and Mama Elephant stamps and dies, they make the greatest cards!
I am using my Spellbinders machine,

I won it 2 years ago at Expo, so glad I am finally using the heck out of it!

Here are some fun cards I have made so far...

Made using LawnFawn alpaca stamp and die, dotted hillside die, and their plaid paper pack...I am learning to watercolor color my stamped images, really enjoying that process.

I also made this shaker card, shaker cards are my favorite thing to make!

The glass and the blender have beads and stuff, shake them up!

Here's a sample of how the stamps and dies come:

I have this set and will be making some Christmas cards with them! So fun!!

If you are interested in getting your own stamps and dies and so much more, head over to:

  Simon Says Stamp online store

Or if you are looking to get me something awesome for Christmas they have gift certificates..hint hint wink wink!!
Hope you are creating fun things and trying to enjoy the fall season, go bake a pie and make someone happy!

Ontario Expo 2016

Last scrapbook trip of the year!
We shopped, ate, shopped, ate, shopped, drank wine!

Not sure if we got much work done but we had fun!

Our two table mates decorated their side of the table and won the jungle theme contest!! I forgot to take photos of it, dang it! It was cute! They were a fun set of girls to hang out with.
Thanks Johnie and Mindy for the laughs!

Mindy and Johnie, Mindy made the masks!

Christy in the Jungle!

ROWR!!!

We had beautiful weather!!!

Scrapadoodledoo!

That's Me!

Hope everyone had a fun weekend!

Annual Music and Squirrels Weekend!!

This is our second year of Music and Squirrels Weekend!

My sister comes to town and we meet up with Tanya for a concert and a Vegas Day.

This year it was Keith Urban and the Bellagio and Zia Records!

Every October we are hoping to get together for a concert here in town.

I book a mini suite at the Delano/Mandalay Bay, 2 beds and a couch. We meet up on Friday and hit the concert, then we don't have to drive anywhere just take tram back to hotel, we can have drinks and no one drives home!

We get up in the morning and have breakfast and go exploring in Vegas. We went to the Bellagio to see the Fall display! Squirrels! Then we took Christy over to Zia records to buy some Kieth Urban and more...

Sunday, Christy and I headed to Bingo. Christy won 25.00! Whoo-hoo!!

We met up with Tanya for breakfast then she had to go teach a class at Sin City Knit Shop.
Christy and I went shopping and I took her to the new scrapbook store in town: The Paper Bunny, great store!

We had such a great time this year! I can't wait to see what we see and do next year!!
They love to stick me under short signs:

I am vertically challanged at 5'2" so this sign was perfect!

Thanks for a GREAT weekend girls/squirrels! I love you guys!

Autumn calls for Peach Pie!

My neighbor, Wally, gave me some peaches, they looked like they had come from a gift basket, a real nice gift basket! 4 of them in a beautiful box. They were gorgeous peaches! I let them sit out for a couple days to ripen a bit more and then decided to make him and I our own little peach pies!

Wally lost his wife of over 50 years this summer, so we have been keeping an eye on him and making sure he is ok, and I have been sending over some home cooked meals once in awhile. He has daughters who come and visit but I still worry. I can't fathom losing my spouse after that many years together! Charlie and I are almost to 30 years married and morning coffee and Sunday naps sure would be missed without him!

But on to happier things, Wally is keeping busy and doing great according to him! So on to the peach pie...I went to you tube and my go to chef (chef John of FoodWishes) had the most amazing peach pie recipe. I chose to make mini versions since Charlie does not like peach pie, it would just be a pie for me and one for Wally.

You can search you tube for chef John at foodwishes, he has great recipes and I love the way he talks and teaches cooking.

But the quick version is this: Slice your peaches and add a sprinkle of salt and 1/2 cup of sugar, mix and let them sit for 1/2 hour, drain the juices only into a pan and cook it on medium until reduced to a thick syrup, set aside. To your peaches add some flour, sugar, a touch of cinnamon, a touch of cornstarch, and the cooked syrup you made, mix well and pour into crust filled pans. You can use homemade crust or pillsbury pie crust. Chef john shows you the easiest way to make lattice topping, My pies looked so wonderful!! But oh man, the flavor was over the top delicious, the secret is that little touch of syrup, I just know it!

I have a recipe for Lemon Chicken Romano to share but maybe another time, a cup of coffee and a slice of pie are calling to me!!

Autumn calls for Peach Pie!

My neighbor, Wally, gave me some peaches, they looked like they had come from a gift basket, a real nice gift basket! 4 of them in a beautiful box. They were gorgeous peaches! I let them sit out for a couple days to ripen a bit more and then decided to make him and I our own little peach pies!

Wally lost his wife of over 50 years this summer, so we have been keeping an eye on him and making sure he is ok, and I have been sending over some home cooked meals once in awhile. He has daughters who come and visit but I still worry. I can't fathom losing my spouse after that many years together! Charlie and I are almost to 30 years married and morning coffee and Sunday naps sure would be missed without him!

But on to happier things, Wally is keeping busy and doing great according to him! So on to the peach pie...I went to you tube and my go to chef (chef John of FoodWishes) had the most amazing peach pie recipe. I chose to make mini versions since Charlie does not like peach pie, it would just be a pie for me and one for Wally.

You can search you tube for chef John at foodwishes, he has great recipes and I love the way he talks and teaches cooking.

But the quick version is this: Slice your peaches and add a sprinkle of salt and 1/2 cup of sugar, mix and let them sit for 1/2 hour, drain the juices only into a pan and cook it on medium until reduced to a thick sauce, set aside. To your peaches add some flour, sugar, a touch of cinnamon, a touch of cornstarch, and the cooked syrup you made, mix well and pour into crust filled pans. You can use homemade crust or pillsbury pie crust. Chef john shows you the easiest way to make lattice topping, My pies looked so wonderful!! But oh man, the flavor was over the top delicious, the secret is that little touch of syrup, I just know it!

I have a recipe for Lemon Chicken Romano to share but maybe another time, a cup of coffee and a slice of pie are calling to me!!

Making fun stuff with my Cricut machine!

I just love my Cricut machine! I have the Cricut explore air. I can make so many things with it, but my favorite thing is making iron ons for shirts.

Of course, every crafter has to personalize their machine, mine has a cat and a bird!
Both designed and cut on the machine!

First you design what you want your shirt to say in the design space on your computer or ipad. There are tons of fonts, and designs to use. I can create where ever I am on my iphone or ipad then when I get home I can just connect via bluetooth to my machine and cut it out using the iron on vinyl from Cricut. So much fun!

Here are some of the things I have been making:
Every scrapbook trip I design a new wine/coffee  scrapbook shirt for me and my sister. We like to enjoy a little wine and a lot of coffee while at our retreats.

I can also make cute baby gifts like the onesies I made for a baby shower I am attending:

I love to go in my craft room and design and create, not sure if it is cheaper than therapy but it sure is fun!

Happy Fall!!

As promised, I am back to post a soup recipe for the first day of Fall 2016!

You can always find my tried and true recipes over on the right column, just click posts that have recipes, I have clam chowder, cheeseburger soup, gazpacho, ham potato, plus plenty of other good things I have labeled as recipe posts.

So this soup recipe is for tomato basil soup, it goes great with grilled cheese sandwiches;

Enjoy!

• 1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes (Splurge on the best brand- San Marzano)
• 
  
• 1 11.5 ounce can tomato-vegetable juice cocktail : V-8 juice- I like the spicy!
• 
  
• 1 14.5 ounce can chicken broth

• 10-15 fresh basil leaves, cut into thin strips, use to your liking I usually do 10 and taste, they can be powerful sometimes.
• 
  
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 
  
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter 
• 
  
• I know the butter and cream is a bit much, I like to think I am balancing that out because of the V-8 juice!

Directions:

1. In a large saucepan, combine the tomatoes, vegetable juice, and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat, and stir in the basil. At this point, you may puree the soup if you wish. Add the cream and butter; return to medium-low heat, and stir until butter is melted. Serve with a Caesar salad or grilled cheese sandwiches!

Autumn is almost here!

I  love summer but I also like a little fall, only for the sweaters and boots I get to wear!
I have some cool fall outfits I am anxious to wear.

The next best thing for fall is all the delicious soups to eat, I love soup. I have plenty of recipes coming up so stay tuned....Chicken pot pie soup, Cheeseburger soup (oh it is so good!) and I make a copy cat Olive Garden minestrone that the hubby loves, and I can also make the Zuppa Tuscana soup as well. I will attempt to knit again this winter, hoping it will catch on with my hands and brain this time.

See you back here on September 22 for the first day of Autumn and a soup recipe!

Had to Share!

I found this card at the grocery store....it totally wraps up me and my hubby's relationship!

That's us in the car on a Friday night!

Yep!

29 years together....we still can't figure out where to eat!