Sweet Victory!!

I have been having a war with my closet, it has been going on every year for the 13 years we have lived here. We have 2 closets in our Master Bedroom, Honey Bunny got the long one with mirror doors, I chose the walk in one, small walk in one, I have to add.

Every spring I start working on the house, as you can see from recent posts I have been doing a lot from painting the garage, cleaning out junk, buying new furniture, it never changes, every spring I go through this nesting phase, HB has gotten so used to it, he never even says one little word, just follows along with my plans. He comes home and says" what's new today dear"?

The war of the closet started because I have lots of purses, yes, I am a purse Ho! I admit it! I needed to have a place to store purses, but I am also a sweater Ho, please tell me you fold your sweaters not hang them!!! Oh, the horror of seeing a hung sweater, mercy, mercy on their souls.

 I needed a place for folded sweaters, that was mandatory. Hmmmm, I have tried everything to make my closet work.

This spring the game has changed, with the help of pinterest, I found a solution: A WALL OF SHELVES!!! So simple but it eluded me all these years!

I now have baskets for my purses, and scarves and mittens and gloves, I now have hooks for my hats and belts and everyday purses, I have a shoe bag for all my sandals and flip flops, and best of all I have shelves for my shorts and for my sweaters!!!

Sound the alarms, ring the bells!! The war is over!!! I win!! Hahahahahaha!
Take that you little hole in the wall of a closet!! I win, I win!!

A place for everything and everything in it's place,  Right side: jeans and pants hung on the bottom rod, shirts and blouses on the top rod.  Middle: The new shelves (100.00 in supplies at Lowe's) they hold sweaters, shorts for summer, small shoes and the bottom floor is for boots. Left side: hooks hold  all my hats, you have to wear hats in summer in Las Vegas or you will be a leather couch before you know it. My favorite "Tanya" purses hang on the bottom row of hooks.

Shoe bag hung on door holds tennis shoes and sandals and flip flops for summer wear!

I love my closet now! May peace reign over this room for many years to come!!
Hooray!! The war is over!!! I am so happy I could kiss someone!!

Comfy Cozy!

Nothing says loving like new furniture! I asked for a new couch for my birthday this year, it arrived yesterday! It is so luxurious!

Two POWER recliners, no more banging your legs against the foot rest to shut the dang things! Just a push of a button and you can relax a little or a lot, all the way flat for power napping! A console to keep all the remotes caged and to hold drinks!
I just love it!! Thank you Honey Bunny!!!!

Macaroni Grill's Rosemary bread!

Have you ever ate at Romano's Macaroni Grill?? If you have, you know what I am talking about when I say 'I saw it and had to make it"!
I was surfing cooking blogs and came across this copycat recipe and I knew I had all the ingredients, I even got to use a twig of rosemary off my herb plant! Whoo-hoo!

Here is the place I got the recipe, thank you so much for posting this recipe Jen!
Jen's Blog

Ingredients:

 1 Tbs. active quick yeast
1 Tbs. sugar
1 cup warm water
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary

Topping:

2 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted
1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
Coarse salt

Mix yeast, sugar, and water in a mixer till frothy. Add 2 cups of the flour, salt, oil and rosemary and mix till smooth (approximately 3-5 minutes). Add enough flour to make a soft dough. Form into a round loaf and place on a lightly greased pan. Brush the loaf with butter using a pastry brush. Sprinkle with rosemary and coarse salt. Let rise till doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake in a 450 oven for about 20-25 minutes

Here are my results, I made two small loaves instead of one large.
The way to eat the bread is to slice it and dip in Balsamic vinegar and olive oil with some cracked pepper! This bread was amazing, just like MG's!!!

Surprise...Surprise...Surprise....

Charlie reads the newspaper and I read the Internet news sitting at the kitchen table having our coffee each morning, today as he was reading, he stops and says "hey, that's our race car!"

 How fun is that to be featured in the newspaper??!!

A picture of our #29 race car advertising the Bullring where they go racing here in Las Vegas!

 The season starts this Saturday for them, the cars are all fixed up and ready to go!

Good Luck Boys!!

Crock pot meals are perfect for Saturdays!

Peach BBQ Pulled Chicken Sandwiches...

I grabbed this recipe off Tasty Kitchen this morning, it was so easy and I had the ingredients on hand, so I dropped it in the crock pot at 7:30 am and at 4:00pm dinner was on the table. Fabulous!
It is adapted from Marie @ The Little Kitchie blog by Amber onto The Tasty Kitchen Site.

You will need:
1 package chicken tenderloins or breasts, mine were frozen still, no problem, the crock pot defrosts!
2 cups BBQ sauce
1 cup peach preserves
some chopped onions approx.  1/4 cup
 3-4 cloves garlic


Place the onions and garlic in the crock pot, top with BBQ sauce and peach preserves, top with chicken and cook for 8 ours on low. While cooking whip up some coleslaw and grab some of those wonderful Hawaiian rolls, they now come in mini sub size, perfect!

My coleslaw recipe is: 1 bag coleslaw mix (just cabbage & carrots), 1/2 cup mayo, 1 cap full vinegar, 3 tblsps olive oil, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp celery salt, mix and chill. Always perfect!

When chicken is done, remove it from the slow cooker along with some of the sauce, and use a fork to shred the chicken. Place on a roll and add some coleslaw! Wonderful!

* Amber adds avocado to hers, but I prefer my avocados for breakfast and this sandwich did not need them, the sweet chicken and coleslaw paired great!
 
 Photos courtesy of Amber and Tasty Kitchen

Herbs De Casa Deguevara

I have been wanting to grow my own herbs since I started cooking with fresh ingredients, they are so expensive in the store, 3.99 for a bunch and then I only need a little snippet from them and then they sit in the fridge and rot! Ugh!

But I do not have a green thumb, my sister can grow the Sistine Chapel from a Lima bean, but not me, I missed that gene from the gene pool of life.

But I did a little research and this should work, as long as I remember to water them, they are sitting on my windowsill above where I do the dishes, how can I forget? We will see how well I do, keep your fingers crossed for these poor helpless herbs that have fallen under my care!

Here is what I did, I bought mason jars, pebbles, soil, and herbs already on there way to growing.
Put a layer of rock on the bottom of each jar added some soil and the herbs, then a layer of rock around the top and watered well.

I have Rosemary, Thyme, Basil, Parsley.

Good Luck Little Buddies!

Birthday Blowout!

Birthdays are so much fun! I love to spoil others on their special day, I have always thought birthdays are your one day that is no one else's, unless someone you know shares your birthday!

But for the most part it is your day to be treated like a king or queen!

Well, I guess others feel the same way and I got treated royally!

I have gift cards to restaurants from Deb and Travis and Rebecca, hand knitted gloves for my scrapbooking retreats

 from Tanya, if you want to make your own she has info on her blog : www.beadandneedle.blogspot.com 

A new frog prince and Chianti bottle from my sister, Christy. I want to have a collection of Chianti bottles for over the refrigerator. Dishtowels and pot holders made by Tanya. Lots of cards from stamping friends. Pink gloves from Ronna, paperweight and cosmetic bag from Deb.

 

 

 I am so amazed at the gifts from Tanya, she is so talented in all she makes and she can make anything, knits, sews, solders, quilts, makes jewelry.... 

 

She made me a whole set of solder necklace charms complete with SRV, George Michael, Boy George, the dancing woodstock girl. clovers and violets, even a charm that has a quote by Jim Morrison that says " some of the worst mistakes of my life have been haircuts"!

We all know how much I hate to get my hair cut!

She also made the rosary chain to hang them on by hand! Stunning!

Fronts

Backs

 BUT WAIT, THERE"S MORE.....you have to see this purse, my horrible photography does not do this justice, it is amazing, even my husband loves this purse!!

 It is made with Monkey fabric!! How "Jackie" is that!!! We all know I love monkeys, but they have to be cute adorable monkeys, with nice faces, these monkeys are fabulous and they are playing music! I love the soft black/gray color...I have not put this purse down!! It will go everywhere with me!! It features a huge vintage coat button for an accent as well!!

Last year I took her to see Aerosmith and Cheap Trick for her birthday, so I think she went a little over board for my birthday this year...hmmmm, how do I top Aerosmith for her next birthday, perhaps a phone call to Mr. Robert Plant is in order to set up a private concert???

The monkey bag!

Detail of stitching around the monkeys and plants, that Tanya does on her own sewing machine!