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!

Haunted Haunts...

I know I am late with the Halloween stories. But bear with me on this one. In Illinois there is a prison called "Statesville". Every year a farm not far from the prison has a Haunted Prison and City of the Dead you can visit along with a pumpkin patch for children with a corn maze and rides. I thought I would go check out the Haunted Prison. I called my girls Becky and Jodi and asked if they would be interested in going. We had a hard time coordinating schedules but we finally did it on Tuesday evening. I kind of scouted it out on Monday to see how much it cost. It was $30 friggin dollars! But the way the lady explained the whole thing it wasn't something I didn't want to miss. I called my girls again and we finally decided to go Tuesday evening.

There was four of us all together. A decent enough group to do a haunted house. We bought our tickets and went inside the farm pumpkin patch area. We were chatting and then I saw this really gross looking port-o-potty. I started to go over there to scout it out for a great gruesome picture. Take a looksy!

Now you know I am not the type to miss a great photo opportunity! I walk up to this monstrousity only to have it squirt me in the face! I had water running down my face and I stood there screaming! I even went as far to do the "DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!" like Florida on Good Times! You all know what I mean. To make matters worse the security guards were doubled over cracking up! I was so disgusted and freaked out I didn't know what to do with myself. I just stood there making hacking sounds and kicking my legs out in frustration! They really got me!

So I am still a bit shaken so I start to where the security guards are pointing me to the line for the Haunted Prison. I didn't have my glasses on and I was still wiping water out of my eyes when this friggin ghoul jumps out as I am walking through the entrance towards the line. I screamed like I lost my mind. I was then stooping with my hands on my knees just shaking and thinking "DAMN! not again!". O.K. By this point I was thoroughly shakin' and I wasn't sure if I could go on with the Haunted House. It wasn't starting out too good for me as of yet.

So most of the security guards are ghouls and there is this big cage full of people. So I am like "why are they standing in the cage?". I kept walking and I see this ghoul making creepy noises staring at me and walking towards me. I started to walk away and this other ghoul comes from the other side. I start to freak and my friend points me in the right direction to go into the line so I run over there. Now remember. I HAVEN'T MADE IT TO THE HAUNTED PRISON YET! I want to make sure you guys realize this! The line was super long and we had to wait. While waiting these creepy ghoul prisoners would come up from no where and just scream and scare you. There was this one guy in ghoul make up and a prison jumpsuit chasing people with a roaring chainsaw. Not Good! Here are some of the stars of the waiting line. The costumes were over the top! Now this poor child was a psychotic clown. I thought it was a young boy but my friends said it was a girl. She was all of three feet tall. My friend Jodi brought her Mom who is seriously afraid of clowns. They kept messing with her because they got great screams out of her. I was quite freaked out myself! There were two and the other was normal size but a bit chunky and would crawl through the crowds and just appear behind you and scream. My nerves were shot and my throat was dry while standing in line. This was not going well.

Here is another ghoul that would come up from behind and pull these gross things from it nose. I kept running through the line hiding from this freak!

He was posing from me but I was so freaked out I couldn't take the picture. My friend Jodi took the camera from me and took the picture. I didn't want to see it. Really nasty stuff.

When we finally made it through the line I learned why they had all those people in the cage. That's how they measured the amount of people which went in at a time. The crowded us in like sardines and then told us the rules of the Haunted Prison. Then they led us to the entrance and we were packed in and they started the show.

I don't think I can explain this Haunted Prison. All I can say was I have never been so terrified in all my life. It's inside of a barn and they really go all out with the prisoners/ghouls and there are scary scenes. It's a maze inside! You have to find your way through! It starts out with a big grand opening meeting room with the warden who makes a speech then two guys get electricuted. This cage came down and it looked like it was going to hit me in the head and I staggered back and lost my balance. I was sitting on the floor with my knees in my face. We were packed so tight in there I couldn't get up without help. Very scary. When we finally got going I was not doing well because every time I turned a corner someone jumped out and scared me. We ended up getting separated from Jodi and her mom so it was just me and Becky. Poor Becky had me clinching the back of her sweatshirt and screaming in her ear. They chased you but didn't touch you "on purpose". We went through these narrow hallways with sliding doors with ghouls making eerie sounds and scaring us to death, these big pillowy things that made you feel like you were going through a vagina (I kid you not!), narrow odd shaped corridors and other heinous scenes. This was the longest ten minutes of my life! I was ready to come out in two minutes and it seemed like it would never end. My friend Jodi and her Mom never caught up with us inside. We were on a mad dash! But when we got out of the Haunted Prison there was another place for us to go through called the City of the Dead. We went through this one and it was shorter but just as scary.

Overall I was scared and thrilled all at the same time. I didn't think it would be as big of a production as it was. I was not able to take as many pictures as I would have liked because I was shaking most of the time from fear and watching out for ghouls. But overall this was the best Haunted experiences I have ever encountered. It will be hard to beat this and if something did I think I would have a heart attack for sure. My blood pressure and adrenaline was at an all time high for sure.

If you would like to see more about this place go to www.stateville.org. Just watch the intro and you will see a lot of what I saw. The clown in the red and white checker room was something I had to go through as well as all the other characters. I kid you not! I think there was easily over fifty ghouls in this place. Now I know why they charge so much! LOL! Also this is not a place for small children. It's too much for adults as it is. I also went to another site and found many more haunted attractions. It's called www.hauntedhousechicago.com. I am hoping to get a group together next year for some fun. I think going as a group would be a better idea.

I hope everyone had a safe and pleasant Halloween. I know I stayed in the house and under the covers with a knife! LOL!

See ya later ALLIGATOR!