Sunday, January 29, 2017
Raspberry Cake
Friday, January 27, 2017
2017 Baptism Sampler
Wednesday, January 25, 2017
Mantle Plans
I took down my Christmas decorations on the second of January and was shocked at how bare and bland the mantle was. I hadn’t given it any thought the first five months I've lived here, but now I can’t stand it! So, here is what I came up with for January.
That mirror has to go, but I don’t think it can without having to patch and repair that entire section of wall, so I’m going to get creative. Well, others are creative and have given me their ideas. Option one is to replace the small tiles with different colored tiles that will better match my yet to be painted living room. Option two is to cover all the tiles with wood, framing the mirror. Option three is to build up the wall above the mantle covering the mirror. Like this;
(Picture from Pinterest)
Which of these suggestions do you like best? Or do you have another?
Back to the boring mantle. I could decorate it twice a year. In December with Christmas decorations and one set of decorations for the rest of the year, but I can’t do that. Well, I could, but that wouldn’t be me So, I’ve started with January decorations and have plans for February and March/April. I may then switch to a basic theme for May through September and have season decorations for October and November. My plan is to find, but things either at 50% or more (Joanns and Hobby Lobby) or get things for the mantle at thrift/flea market type places.
So, let’s begin. Disclaimer; most if not all of these ideas came from images on Pinterest. I searched for mantle decorations and took ideas from several images. I already had the silver buckets and I bought the filler at Hobby Lobby while it was 50%. I used tea towels to keep the filler upright. I bought the round balls at Hobby Lobby also for 50%. The flakes welcome sign is one a coworker painted maybe 17 years ago. The star of my January mantle is the took-forever-to-make-snowman!
Isn’t he cute? He better be! He sure took me a long time and a lot of glue sticks to finish!
So, that’s the mantle for January. I already have ideas for February and stay tuned for updates on the area above the built ins. Its getting a remodel too!
Click HERE if you want instructions on making the snowman.
Monday, January 23, 2017
Strawberry Banana Muffins
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Pistachio Cake
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Shelf Cover
Tuesday, January 17, 2017
Jupiter
Sunday, January 15, 2017
Cookbooks
Sure, I don’t cook often enough to need more cookbooks, but I can’t resist. I picked these up during a recent thrifting/antique run to Abilene KS with my father.
The cookbook below on the left was gifted to me NYE by my friends Pat and Sue. The cookbook on the right was one I picked up at the bookstore at the library.
They’re so much fun to leaf through and maybe someday I’ll get around to make a recipe out of them!
Thursday, January 12, 2017
Starting Over
For Christmas my mother received a food saver and she planned to share it with me (and store it at my house, you now because I have a nice large basement!). I knew the first thing I wanted to try in it; taco meat! I love Mexican dishes and I especially love cheap, whole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurants. Taco Villa, Tortilla Jacks and Taco Casa are my favorites (in that order). Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, none are on my way home or in my neighborhood.
Earlier this month my kind parents bought and brought over 3 or 4 lbs of ground beef from Herman’s Meat Market to fry up. Mom got busy frying all of it while I worked to put away $168 with of purchases from Sam’s club (twice annual sale on tp, Kleenex, laundry detergent, etc) and my father read the instructions on the food saver. While down in the basement I asked my father if I he’d help me move the power cord for my freezer to another outlet that wasn’t being used. The outlets are over my head and he kindly moved it. Back upstairs we seasoned the browned ground beef with Williams Chili Seasoning, which I use in place of taco seasoning, measured out 2 cups of meat and sealed several portions using the food saver. I was set to quickly throw together tacos, enchiladas, sanchos, nachos or even chili when the mood set it. I threw them down in the basement freezer and forgot about them.
Fast forward ten days. 6:20 am on Tuesday, I ran down the stairs to grab a Lean Cuisine TV Dinner to have for lunch that day. I had ten of them, neatly stacked in a plastic bin. I was looking for the just the right Tuesday lunch day flavor when I realized they were all soft. ?!? Um, I squeezed em. They were room temp! Thawed! Along with everything else in the freezer! I glanced down and saw what was once a beautiful roast, but was now an ugly colored roast. Bread dough had thawed and risen in its package looking like a nice soft pillow. Oh No! The entire contents of my FULL freezer; thawed! I’ll have to call in and cook everything then I can refreeze it all. No. It was past that point.
Was the door opened? I don’t think so. Had it come unplugged? No, the light was on when I opened the door. Was the freezer, which was bought after I moved in, broken? It ran when I opened the door. What happened? I shed a few tears, called my parents waking them before they're normally up, shared the news and went onto work.
My father visited that day and tested the outlet and the freezer. Nothing wrong that he could find.
He left, got home and while thinking of it, returned to test an idea he had. His test proved accurate. The outlet we moved the freezer to runs only when the basement lights are on. I don’t leave them on and I don’t frequently go down there, so more or less the freezer had been off for ten entire days. I contribute the lack of smell to the fact that the freezer was full and the basement is cool.
Of course, my trash had already been picked up. So, I unloaded and lugged up the contents of the freezer in trash bags that my father took to dispose at his house the next day when they’re trash was picked up.
Look all this beautiful ground beef!
Amd roasts, pork loin and chicken, some of which was my mothers.
There was more. It really was full.
So, now I start over. Its sad and frustrating, but in the grand scheme of things its life. It isn’t cancer, as my coworker has. My entire house wasn’t flooded, as I know some in Louisiana experienced last year. My house isn’t being swept away by flood waters or lost in a tornado or fire. It stinks, but lesson learned.