A Year in Review

QUICK REVIEW

I started blogging. This has been a wonderful outlet for me. I love to have a place to show my creations and talk about the anything my heart desires.

I met some wonderful cybersisters who blog and have become wonderful supportive friends of mine. I cherish them all! Please check the blogs I visit listed.

I went to Orland for an entire week and enjoyed myself with my friend Becky. I was most proud I didn't drive Becky crazy the entire week. We visited six parks in six days which was crazy! We were totally exhausted by the time we returned! But I finally got to see all the Disney Parks and enjoy them.

I visited the American and Canadian sides of Niagara Falls while I worked in Upstate New York. I have a list of places I want to visit before I die and even though I had been to Niagara Falls before I never got a chance to really look around. Now its another place checked off my list as well as Orlando.

I started crocheting again and I am trying to advance my skills. The Ebony Elite group has been a great inspiration and motivation in this quest. What a wonderful group of talented ladies!

I went on a weekend trip to a scrapbook retreat with five fun ladies and it was a wonderful experience. I would love to do this again.

I joined another meetup group for sewing. I am very excited about this even though I haven't been to a meeting yet (which was not my fault since it was cancelled).

I went to my family reunion in Arkansas and had a good time with relatives.

I painted two rooms in my home myself. A slow start but more to come next year.

I went on three ski trips this year. I did two Midwest weekend trips to Pine Mountain in the UP of Michigan and Devils Head in Wisconsin and one trip out west to Winter Park, Colorado. I had a great time.

I didn't buy another die cutting machine! This was hard but I did it!

Bought new furniture for my creative space.

HERE ARE A FEW THINGS I WANTED TO DO THIS YEAR

Save money

Have a garage sale

Stay on my budget.

Lose 10 pounds

Meet a nice gentlemen (not the scum I usually attract!)

Do more creative projects (sewing, crocheting, stamping, woodworking)

Be more organized

Get central air conditioning for my home

Go to church more often


This is actually all I could think of at the moment but I think its a pretty decent list. I want to thank everyone that reads my blog. I do hope in the future more of you leave a comment to let me know you are out there. It would be great to meet and get to know you!

I hope everyone had a good year and I hope it continues into 2008!

Peace and Love!

Savory Sunday

Well here is another installment of "Savory Sunday". I know most of us are preparing for Christmas dinner and I thought this recipe would be perfect for a quick dessert. It's so easy and good. It's called "Impossible pie". The ingredients are simple and you put them all into a blender and pour into a pie pan. It then separates and makes its own crust, filling and topping. It's fantastic! It's basically a coconut custard pie. If you make it let me know! You won't be disappointed.

IMPOSSIBLE PIE

4 eggs

1/4 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

2 cups milk

1 cup coconut

1 teaspoon vanilla

Place all ingredients in blender at one time and blend until mixed together. Pour into a buttered 10 inch pie pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for one hour. When don, crust will be on the bottom, custard will be in the middle and the coconut on top, right where they belong!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Winter Park Recap

Boy! I have wanted to update my blog for some time now. So here goes my recap of the Winter Park ski trip.

The flight to Denver was good with no issues. When we arrived we all grabbed our luggage and waited for the bus to take us to Winter Park. The resort is about an hour and a half west of Denver. On our way to the resort we stopped at a grocery store and liquor store to grab some goodies for the weekened. I bought snacks and food for lunch and dinner (I am still on a budget) and some liquour for the room (I bought some Hot Damn! (cinnamon schnapps and butterscotch schnapps) to but in hot apple cider yum!). We also had several bottles of wine to drink too. We then loaded the bus again and left for the resort. We arrived at 11:30pm mountain time and lugged our stuff into our condos. The condos were nice. My roommates and I then decided on rooms and proceeded to drink and get to know each other before bed. We didn't go to bed until 1:30am.

Here is a picture of my condo roommates. They are in order Lynn, Keelin, Donna and me!

The next morning we got up and got ready to go skiing. We loaded up on the shuttle and off we went. It was a good day for skiing. It wasn't too cold for sure. I started out skiing with the ladies but then I ended up leaving them and skiing on my own. I had some boot issues I had to correct but overall I had a good first day. I stayed mainly on the green runs (the easiest runs around for you non-skiiers). Since I hadn't been skiing for a while I wanted to acclimate and slowly build my way up to the blue runs(the blue runs are intermediate runs). I did ski a few blue runs though. I was getting tired so I ended my day around 3pm and made my way back to the condo.
The next day I went skiing it was very cold! I mean very very very cold. The warming huts were full of people and I stopped after every run to sit an relax. I finally began to get really tired and left around 1:30 pm. I stayed at the condo the rest of the evening and even skipped our group pizza party. I just wasn't feeling fatigued and not up to hanging out with the gang. Besides I had another bad night of rest again. The last full day of skiing on Sunday I didn't leave the condo. I just laid around all day. I figured I was getting the altitude sickness I always get when I go to the Rockies. Not a good feeling. I finally got dressed around 3pm and went to get my skis which I stored at the resort. I did attempt to go out that evening and went to a German restaurant called Gasthuas Eichler in town. The food was good. This is what I had to eat.
Blue Cheese Mousse and Crackers

Potato Pancakes with Sour Cream and Applesauce

Salad with Cranberry Vingarette and bread

Beef Goulash with Spaetzle and Red Cabbage was my entree. It was good.

I always take pictures of food on my trips. This was no exception. LOL!

I made it back to the condo with the group and I did rest a bit better that evening. But I still wasn't feeling my best. I also had developed a cough too.

The next day we were leaving for home by 1pm so we spent the day shopping. I wanted to buy my mom some jewelry for Christmas so I ventured out and did some shopping. I still wasn't feeling very good but I did it. I thought this was promising. I did find the jewelry and stopped for something to eat and walked back to the condo. I was pretty proud of myself even though I was tired. The bus arrived shortly after my arrival back at the condo and we loaded up and left for dinner. We had a wonderful bus driver that took the scenic route for us since we were early and we were able to go through the beautiful canyons. We also went through Golden, Colorado where Coors is manufactured and he gave us some nice touristy information. Great ending.

I finally make it home that evening and I was so exhausted it wasn't funny. I went straight to bed and slept in my clothes because I was pretty cold. The next day I was as sick as ever and its been horrible every since. I am now battling the flu. I made an appointment to visit my doctor and she gave me a prescription for antibiotics and told me to stay at home to rest. I still feel like crap and I am doing nothing but coughing and sleeping all day. I hate this crap! I hope I feel better by Christmas. I would hate to spend Christmas sick.

So now you know why I haven't updated my blog all week. I have been too sick and exhausted to even consider it. Say a prayer for me! I really need it! But I look to the good side to this believe it or not. I haven't been able to spend any money shopping all week! LOL! That's a good thing!

I am going to leave this post with a fun picture of me during happier times on my trip. I hope you all have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS!

A very long review

Hey folks! It's been a long time for sure. I guess I am going through some type of mini fatigue thing. I do hope to get over it soon.

This past weekend my mom had a dinner party for my family. It was nice. We had around 1o people over and we fixed a ham, fried chicken wings, meatloaf, macaroni and cheese, broccoli and rice casserole, string beans, sweet potato pie, chocolate cake, almond cream cheese pound cake and an impossible pie. I think there might have been more but you get the idea. Everyone enjoyed themselves and I believe ate a bit too much. They had those eyes half opened look to them. LMAO! It was fun though. I was quite tired afterward. My back was beginning to bother me a lot and I cleaned as well as I could and I ended up staying the night. Sunday I was very tired and didn't go to church but I stayed and cleaned my mother's home for her. I left late Sunday night and I was still not feeling very well. I don't know what to think about that.

Anyway that was the weekend for me. I cooked Friday night and went to my mother's house early Saturday to help her and that was it for me!

I was supposed to start packing for my Winter Park, Colorado ski trip last night but I didn't get a chance. I went to sleep early. I did stop on my way home today and bought my brother's Christmas gift and some ski socks for the trip. I am getting a bit excited. Woo Hoo! Three days of skiing! I hope I don't get altitude sickness. I better start drinking tons of water now!

I did want to show off some of my scrapbooking work. I completed several layouts and I have more to complete. Hopefully I will have them done on my next meetup.com meeting on the 20th.

I finally did it! I couldn't help myself! I treated myself to the upper tier of the Clip It Up! Adrienne eat your heart out! LOL! I got a couple of coupons from Archiver's for 30% off anything in the store. The first thing that came to my mind was the Clip It Up Upper Tier! I couldn't resist! I think this will be it for the month on hobby supplies! But I am so glad I got it! It's fabulous!

I also purchased a set of circle stamps. I have been wanting these stamps for some time. I wanted to use them on some layouts I had made but I worked around them. I finally decided to just go ahead and buy them. Now I am kind of regretting it. I have a tendency to buy stuff I really want and never use it. It is just stored in my craft limbo area (I call it my creative space but you get my drift) and I never use it. I must stop this!
This is my layouts from my family reunion I attended in July 2007. I started these layouts in August and I have yet to complete them. I like them so far.

This is my my mother's oldest sister (or my Aunt) Waverline. She isthe oldest sibling in my mother's immediate family.

This is a picture of my Aunt Waverline and my mom (Ivory). The "S" is for sister.

This is my Mom (Ivory). She is the second oldest.

This is my Aunt Ethel. She is my mother's youngest sister. She is the fourth sibling.

This is my Uncle James (we call him "Geek" and don't ask why because I don't know). He is the youngest sibling at number seven.

This is my mother's first cousin named Robert Jones. He is a character. This is my first cousin Cedric. His father is my mother's brother Clarence. This is my Uncle Clarence's wife Wanda.

This is my first cousin Christian. She is my Uncle Clarence's daughter. This is my Uncle Clarence. He is the sixth sibling in the family.

This is my Uncle Robert (We call him Bunkus and again don't ask because I don't know why). He is my mother's oldest brother. He is the third sibling.

This is my Aunt Waverline's husband Ira.
I like this picture of my Aunt and her husband. The "L" is for love.
This is my cousin's daughter Ja'Maya. She is her youngest daughter. She is adorable. This is my cousin's oldest daughter Diamond. She is really cute. I hope you all like the layouts I showcased here. I have about three or four more layouts to complete for the reunion and I hope to have them completed soon. I will have them posted soon.

I was very disappointed the previous weekend. I found a sewing meetup group and we were supposed to have our first meeting the first Saturday in December. I went scrapbooking on the Friday night before and I got up late but I was preparing to go. I checked my e-mail and saw that the group leader had cancelled the meeting! I was all set and ready to go too! I felt if someone had zapped all my energy. I was so disappointed! But the upside is the weather was not good. We had some freezing rain here in the Chicagoland area and it was very slippery and traffic was not good. So it all worked out for the best.

I know this has been a rather long entry with all the pictures so I will end it now. I do plan to post a recipe this week. If I have internet access in Colorado I will post my adventures skiing. I want to update you on my crochet progress too. So stay tuned!

Smooches!

Hey!

Hello my blogland friends!

It's been two weeks since I have posted. Last week I meant to post the day after Thanksgiving but I never got the chance. I'm a busy woman! I have a lot to update you on! Let's start with some scrapbooking.

Here are my layout I made of my brother. I have Creating Keepsakes Easy Pattern for Scrapbookers by Brenda Arnall. I decided to use the first pattern to make these layouts of my brother. It took me a few weeks to complete it because I wanted to go through my stash of scrapbook materials to find embellishments. Finally I gave up and bought some inexpensive embellishments at Archivers. I am proud of these layouts and my mother loves them too. My brother's name is Keith and he is mentally handicapped. In the journal box I wrote all about his place in our family. Brother, son, nephew, grandson, cousin, friend etc. Here are some of the many faces of Keith. I often wonder what he is thinking when he makes these faces.
These two layouts are actually a double page spread. I had to tweak my design of the patterned papers. I like this layout. I bought this metal embellishment which said "brothers" and I cut off the "s". I really like how it looks. I love the picture of my brother laughing at the top. He can be pretty silly at times. He can also be very happy and jovial when he comes home. He doesn't stay with my family. He lives at a center for the handicap. I may add a "to be" with the "Happy Home" circle at the bottom. I think it will be more appropriate.

I also purchased a Clip It Up for myself. I bought this back in October before my hobby spending freeze. It allows you to hang all your embellishments so you can see them instead of sticking them in drawers, files and totes. It handy and I have found it to be most useful. Unfortunately this thing is not cheap! I paid around $60 for it. But so far is has been worth it. I love the ability to spin it around and find what I need. I hope to get an upper tier! But that can wait until I get my budget more under control. I have a lot more stuff to add to it.

I also bought the Autumn Leaves Designing with 2008 calendar. I bought this back in October too. I was a real spender before the realities of the market set in! LOL! I love these calendars! I have been buying them for about four years now. I like how you get inspiration everyday. I love to come to my craft room and check to see the latest inspirational idea. If I see an idea I want to try I add it to my page kit along with papers and embellishments. It makes it so easy to complete a layout. It's just perfect! This is me at one of my crops at the Creative Studio. This is where I started the layout of my brother. I was exhausted since coming back from New York earlier that day. I wanted to get out and scrap and I did. I crashed at 10pm. I needed to go home! LOL! Yes those are all my bags and I left my scrap box at home. I carry a lot of baggage when I go scrapping! LOL!

Tomorrow I will be at the Creative Studio again for an evening of scrapbooking with my friends. I hope to complete the family reunion album.

I think I will end my blog update here. I have tons of things to write about and I don't want to overwhelm you with too much information. I want to write about my crocheting, sewing, Christmas shopping and more.

Stay tuned!

Wonderful Wednesday Recipe

This recipe I made years ago. I was so impressed when I took the casserole out of the oven. It looked exactly like the picture! Except I used an oblong pan. It tastes great and has a wonderful presentation. I am sure you will all agree!

I had an addiction to cookbooks for some time. Luckily I have moved on from this to my scrapbooking, crocheting and sewing addictions! LOL! I bought those little recipe books you find at the check out counter everytime I went to the store. This is from Best Recipes Casseroles, Stews, Soups & More No. 10 copyright 1991 by Publications International Ltd. These little cookbooks are great! I do hope you try this casserole. It's a chicken pot pie. Very delicious! I would serve it with a hearty salad and a fantastic dessert! Very tasty and the presentation will wow your family and friends!

DAIRYLAND CONFETTI CHICKEN

Casserole

1 cup diced carrots

3/4 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup diced celery

1/4 cup chicken broth

1 can (10 1/2 ounces) cream of chicken soup

1 cup dairy sour cream

3 cups cubed cooked chicken

1/2 cup (4 ounces) sliced mushrooms

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon pepper

Confetti Topping

1 cup sifted all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teasponn salt

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1/2 cup milk

1 tablespoon chopped green bell pepper

1 tablespoon chopped pimento

1 1/4 cups (5 ounces) shredded Wisconsin Cheddar cheese, divided

For casserole: In saucepan, combine carrots, onion, celery and chicken broth. Sommer 20 minutes. In 3-quart casserole, mix soup, sour cream, chicken cubes, mushrooms, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Add simmered vegtables and liquid; mix well.

For confetti toppng: In mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add eggs, milk, green pepper, pimiento and 1 cup of the cheese. Mix just unhtil well blended. Drop tablespoons of topping onto casserole and bake in 350 degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until golden brown. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup cheese and return to oven until melted. Garnish as desired.

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Favorite recipe from Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board 1992

Bon Appetit!

A late weekend in review

Well I consider the weekend a partial bust! I did get some things done but I didn't do what I really wanted to do. I really wanted to sew!

I had planned to sew on Saturday. I had no plans and I had all day to do it. What did I do you ask? I slept most of the day and then watched television! I was too tired to sew or even really consider pulling out my sewing machine! Arrgghh! I woke up around 9am. I didn't get home from scrapbooking until 12:30 pm. I came home brushed my teeth and cleaned up and went to bed. I then got up and prepared to make Adrienne's Potato Soup. The only thing I did was bake the potatoes! There were four of them! After I baked the potatoes I took a nap. When I woke up I was still very tired! I mean really really tired! I finally pulled myself together went out to get gas and go grocery shopping at two stores. Then I came home and sat down and watched television and did some crocheting (but not much). I was just too pooped! The only reason I could come up with was the cold/virus thing I have and the late night crop (I am really not a night person. I am definitely a morning person). I think it through me off.

Anyway I did finish Adrienne's baked potato soup on Sunday morning and I took it to my mother's home for dinner. It was very good. She liked it a lot. I added an additional can of cheddar cheese soup, some milk and made more bacon. I also bought some dinner rolls too. Great for the winter! I suggest you make it! It's pretty easy! We ate it and preceded to take a nap! LOL! I went home watched Cold Case File and that was it!

Now Friday night was my most productive night. I went to a crop at Scrap Addict a new store in my area. I worked on two layouts I made at a CTMH scrapbook class the first time I went. The layouts were ready for photos and I found two of my mother that fit perfectly.

The lady in the upper right hand corner is a friend of my mother's. Her name is Gwen and she is one of the sweetest and the classiest lady. She has been a wonderful friend to my Mother. I thought her picture would be just perfect for this layout.

I also made this Disney album. I bought the kit at Scrappin' Deals for my Disney photos of course! I just need to find the right pictures to put in it!

I also worked on may layouts of my brother I had worked on at a crop last month. I still need to finish some details then I will post those. I had a kind of brain freeze while I was at the crop but then I got my second wind and really started to come up with some ideas. I wish they would have come earlier though.

I am hoping to do some sewing this weekend. I did wash a lot of clothes Sunday morning and I also washed the fabric for my latest and greatest project. It should be simple and easy! Wish me tons of luck!

Here is the fabric I am using. I bought it at Wal Mart. I just washed it so it is wrinkled!
Remember to check out Wal Mart's fabric department if you sew. You can find some awesome deals there!

Well this is my weekend recap. I hope you enjoyed it!

Buh Bye!

I have a cold...

But I am doing pretty good. I am congested and a bit tired but otherwise I am functioning well. I sleep a bit more but that can also be attributed to a visit from good ole Aunt Flo! She arrived last night with all her baggage! Gotta love her!

Anyway last night I went to my monthly Close to My Heart Scrapbook evening. This wonderful lady charges $8 for four scrapbook pages. She is very talented and the pages are awesome! This monthly get together will remain in my budget since it is reasonably priced and I love her pages. I have an entire album of her pages I need to find pictures to put on them. I will post the pages as I find pictures.

But I thought I would show you what I completed last night. This page is one of the two page layouts we made last night. It's called snow friends. I love it! I plan on putting pictures from my ski trip to Winter Park, Colorado in December.
This is the second page. I love it! So many pictures I can incorporate into these pages!
I can see ski pictures coming to mind as I look at them! This page is really cool too! It's a Christmas layout! I will go to my Mother's home and take pictures with the family to put into these layouts. They were fun to make. We sponged the background paper to give it a textured look. I love it!

I can see pictures of my Mom, brother and me in these photos. So nice!

Have I ever mentioned I love idea books? I bought this one at the October scrapbook evening. When I got it I couldn't wait to get home to browse. I will definitely not purchase anymore idea books for some time. I have plenty and I don't use them often enough. I could save hundreds of dollars if I didn't buy them!
This was a special they had last month. It's a greeting card layout you could send to family. The layouts are like 6 X 6 and they come with an envelope. I think I will make the layouts but give them to my Mom as a small album. I am sure she would appreciate them.

Overall my evening went well and I met some wonderful people. My cold was definitely under control and I didn't feel too bad. I am doing well and I think the cold will run its course and I will be back to normal.

I have an idea! I will post how well I am sticking to my budget on the blog. So far I have only spent $14 on scrapbooking this month. That includes my cards from last week plus these four pages. Hopefully I can keep my hobby budget under $25 this month. I do need to buy some thread to go with my top I plan on making Saturday. I may need something else but we will see.

Keep it real yall!

The past few days

Here is where I am with the cardigan back. I have made some progress but not much. I had to unravel 22 rows because my tension was really bad. But the good news is that I am not discouraged. I will complete this cardigan! It may not be soon but soon enough! This past Saturday night I went to a TAC (The Angel Company) card buffet party. I made only three cards. She had some terrific cards for us to make though. I had to be careful of my budget of course. I will use one of these cards for my Christmas cards this year!

This is a photo of little Charlie. This weekend I dog sat for my neighbor. This is a puppy. He is super friendly and loves to be held. I first would like to say I love dogs. But I will not get a puppy! Too much work! I spent the night running this dog outside to poop only to have him come back in and poop or throw up on the carpet. Also the whining at night was a bit much. He also kept soiling his bedding so that wasn't good. I really felt sorry for the pooch though. He is lovable. But way too much work!

My plans for this weekend were to work on my sewing on Saturday. This did not work out for me. I did however get the pattern cut out. It's one big piece! I just need to sew a few seams and I will be done. I picked this pattern because it was so easy. I thought for me to get back into the swing of things this would be best. I can't wait to cut it out and sew!


The pattern had two pieces which had to be taped together matching these circles. It wasn't as easy as I had expected. Those darn circles didn't line up properly. I finally got it together though. It's a good thing! I was starting to get aggravated! LOL! Not a good thing for a sewer but in my defense I wasn't feeling my best.

My mom was mad at me on Sunday because I didn't make it to church. But I felt really bad for the puppy since it was in a cage all day by himself. I didn't think it was nice to do that to him so I wanted to spend some time with him. I wasn't sure when the owners were coming back in the afternoon so I stayed with him. I missed communion but I thought it was a good cause. My mom wouldn't speak to me for a while but she finally got over it! LOL!

This Monday was not good. I didn't feel well at all that morning. I did feel better in the afternoon. Late in the afternoon I received an e-mail from my job explaining there was an elimination of jobs within the company. I was working with my manager today and he was shocked to hear the news. He began to slowly panic which made me panic. He called one of the other managers to learn there was another e-mail which was sent out right after I received the first e-mail. They eliminated four positions within my department! A director (mine), a manager, an auditor and an administrator. Three of these people have been with the company longer than I have been with the company. I have been with the company seven years. This was not something we saw coming. But we should have. I work in the real estate field and the market is terrible to say the least. It was a shock to see who they let go. Very sad. These were good people I respected. I was very sorry to hear they lost their jobs. I am now very nervous and trying to think of ways to curve my spending. You never know who will be next!

So while saying that I think I will not be going to CKU next year. That's $345 I could use to pay off a bill! I am also instituting a serious budget. I really need a good one I can stick too. I think I will make all my Christmas presents. HA! Lofty idea but a good one. I will just be a little more frugal until the market picks up again.

I also have a cold now. I am so congested. This started on Monday and the stress from my job didn't help my situation. I have a busy week planned and now I must rethink it because I am not feeling up to it. I had a dental appointment on Monday in the evening. That hygenist was very thorough to say the least. I never had that much scrapping done before. GEEZ! But at least I have some clean teeth!

Last night was my scrapbooking evening. I didn't make it. I went home and fell asleep. Besides I didn't want to share my cold with anyone. I hate I missed the fun but what can you do. I needed to rest.

Tonight I have a Close to My Heart scrapbook evening. I think I will go to this. It's only for about an hour and I like the pages we will be doing. I don't think this will be too much. I don't want to lay around and let the virus take over. I will medicate myself well so I don't get others sick.

Well I think this is a good update. I hope all is well out there in blogland!

Please keep my co-workers and me in your prayers.

Catch you all later!