This could help.......

I have been trying to rid myself of cabin fever and today I think I did a pretty fair job at it!!!!! I went shopping and shopped til I dropped....literally dropped on the sofa as soon as I unloaded the truck! It didn't start out to be a day of real shopping only a day to run errands, bank, returns to JC Penny's..........oh that's where it got started!!!! Keep me out of a store!!

Right before Christmas I treated myself to a pair of earrings that I thought I just couldn't do without. As it turns out I could do better without them! So I returned them today. I had decided before I left home that I would try to remember and look for bed pillows if I went to a store that carried them. I needed several for The Fairy's Rest. After returning the earrings I remembered pillows and ventured into the home goods section at JC Penny. Well Katie bar the door....they were having their annual white sale!!!!

I came out of the store with a wide load sticker across my forehead.......I was carrying 8 bed pillows, (that's 8 'good' bed pillows cause I am very picky about my pillows and sheets) a king size set of 500 thread count Egyptian cotton sheets and a full size Velux blanket............OMG What a sale!!!! I got all of these for $103......pretty darned good considering the sheets them self retailed for $100!!!!!!! Then I had $52 back from the earrings.......so it was like all of this only cost me $51.........SWEET!!!!

So that justified me going to the fabric store, right? I mean I had already saved $127 plus the $52 I think I could spend $179 on fabric...........But I didn't!! I was a pretty good girl there........I was thinking of all my UFO's that I already have at home! I mainly went for inspiration!

However I couldn't resist buying this pattern. It is a bag made out of cotton clothesline rope that is covered in fabric. It makes a stiff bag and is really cool. I saw this pattern and a couple of the bags made up a while back and I thought I could figure it out on my own but I never could. So I broke down and bought the pattern today, came home read it and .......light bulb........... I can make that.......... but I don't have clothesline......so off we went to our 2 local convenience stores looking for good ole cheap clothesline rope and of course they didn't have any so I talked the dearest husband into riding with me on a rainy foggy New Years Eve night into the next county to Family Dollar to get it. They had it there so I bought 4 rolls........in anticipation of this actually being as easy to make as it looks ;-).......if so I want several of them!!!!! I can't wait to get it started tomorrow!!!!

Here we are at the end of 2009. I am not going to sit here and reflect on the good, the bad and the ugly of 2009. It certainly has been one to go down in history for me, loaded with good and bad. But hey life is what you make of it, right? Have lemons....make lemonade!!!!! I like lemonade!!!

I really hope all of you have a wonderful New Year. I hope 2010 brings all of you happiness and good fortune. I wish you all good health and lots of wisdom in the coming year!! tehhee...I wish the same for me.....hehehe ...........I am not going to make a resolution list full of hogwash that's always a waste of time! LOL!!!! I do however have a couple silent prayer requests that I have asked the Lord to help me follow through with in the coming year!

Goodnight! See you next year!!

Fish

I have had this fish bowl or what ever you want to call it over on my other blog and I would go over there periodically to feed the fish. So I decided to add it to this blog today! Just place your curser over the fish and click a couple times to drop them some food and watch them gobble it up!! Someone designed this with me in mind!! I love feeding our fish in both ponds here on the farm. We have a stocked pond with a couple hundred catfish, a few bream and bass. Supposedly a hundred crappie but we have yet to see one of them. We get so excited when our 3 white catfish finally decide by the end of summer that they will start coming up where we can see them!

I have about 25 goldfish in my garden pond that I can see from my living room window.......when it's not covered with ice!!!! I wish I could keep it heated so I could see my fishies year round!!

I can just sit for hours and watch them eat! Both online and in person. I really need a shot of summer here!!!! In case you haven't already been able to tell that!!

Like they always say......

where there's a will, there's a way!

I really wanted to make this Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake yesterday.

I had all the ingredients, which is remarkable in itself, but found I did not have a springform pan.

So after many hours of contemplating on whether or not another pan would suffice and many encouragements from others. Danny, Leslie and finally Terri. I decided that I better get creative. Terri mentioned that Peter The Pot Man may have a springform pan and be happy to just run it out to my house!!!!! I knew that if this idea didn't work I could always call him.

I needed a pan to make the cake in with straight sides and one that it would release from with no trouble. It was to be 9". My Calphalon skillet was 10" but I knew it would release from it no matter what......at least I thought that!! Then came the problem of having a pan big enough to hold the skillet that I could place the boiling water in. My oh my, we can surely get creative when our mouths are watering over the idea of a Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake, Can't we?

So I did use one of Peter's Townecraft dome lids turned upside down, placed the skillet in it, put a wooden spoon under one of the handles to level the pan, poured boiling water around, put it in the oven for the required time and in a couple hours it was called cheesecake!!!!


I had to leave it in the pan overnight in the fridge. I got up at 5AM.....I told you I wanted cheesecake!............flipped it out of the pan and then back up the right way. Perfect other than a few cracks across the top of the cake.....which apparently wouldn't win me a blue ribbon at the fair. In Danny's opinion I think I would get a blue ribbon!!




So I got these pictures here....see how it had released from the sides of the skillet as it was finished cooking..........and then this morning my batteries were ALL dead!! Rechargeable and all. No batteries in the house to fit either camera, so no pictures of the slice of cheesecake. You will just have to envision in your pretty little mind the perfect piece of Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake with the waves of dark purple blueberries swirled throughout each slice just so. Also you will just have to close your eyes and dream about the taste of this velvety confection as it hits your tongue and then slides slowly down leaving just a hint of tart blueberry mingled with the sweet...............



Terri also posted about her Blueberry Baked French Toast and gave us all the recipe. I plan to try that one this weekend on the crew at The Fairy's Rest.......if the Good Lord is willing and the weather holds out. We are setting here with all the snow and ice, teen's and 20's for temps and more ice is to come tonight. The boys have a big hunt planned this weekend and it's not looking very likely that will happen. Maybe we can at least get away and carry on our cabin fever in a different cabin!!!!!
Note to self:
Get batteries and take camera!

My lifesavor's.......

These were in the mail yesterday! Did some one hear my prayer requests? I have cabin fever/spring fever so bad right now. I always get so tired of the cold days of winter but never this early. I am by no means bored. Don't get me wrong there because I have more hobbies than you could shake a stick at but I am so over the snow and cold. The snow is just "laying around waiting on somemore"...as my father-in-law used to say! Well come on and get it over with!!!!
Be still my heart!
When I opened this catalog I was in heaven. I knew that there was a light at the end of the tunnel! That there was a promise of Spring!
I love squashes and cucumbers. I dream of making more of my lime pickles. I made almost 60 pints of them last year and haven't hardly touched them, I think I am hoarding them! I believe I will make potato salad and deviled eggs today!! Sounds like a warm weather meal to go along with my dreaming of warm weather theme! We had the blah blah blah winter bean soup yesterday.......but it was down right yummy!!!!! A winter 6 bean soup. yum yum!!


I love peas and beans


What more needs to be said here?
I will be able to start my own seeds for all my plants again this year since I am not working! We are always so much happier when we do that. Other than the fact I can't stand to let a single plant go to waste and feel that I have to plant them all even I do have 43 tomatoes already planted ;-)

My Blue Angel!

Heard that song?

Well this little beauty made my heart sing! Danny even liked it! I have/had a New Dawn rose on either end of my pergola that is in my front garden. The pergola is dead as is one of the roses and the other rose has gotten sooooooo big that it looks like a rose tree now. I think it is past repair. I have been promised a new pergola but he didn't get around to it this past summer but maybe this spring! What you think about 2 Blue Angels one on either side and meeting in the middle??

I told him I thought we needed a pergola at The Fairy's Rest with Blue Angel's too........he didn't give me an angelic reply to that one!!!!

Ooohhhhhh!!!! Oouuhhhhhh!!! Aaawwwwwhhhh!!!!

My blueberries! I have a freezer full of them too. Yep I am a hoarder! I get that honest though. My mother just "knew" that everyone would starve when Y2K hit! She had so dagummed many cans of Treet on the shelves in her cellar that they could feed all of Virginia on Treet alone for a week!!!

I was trying to decide yesterday what I wanted to make with blueberries and never got around to deciding on anything. Leslie called me this morning to tell me that she was making this! I have been to this site before.... Blueberry-Recipe.com but I don't remember if I made anything or not. I think I will find something today!

Leslie also told me immediately how happy she was that she had this same seed catalog in the mail yesterday!!!

See, great minds think alike!!!

If you are a gardener you will know where I am coming from here! If you are under a foot of snow that won't move you should know where I am coming from too! Either way I hope I have put a little glimmer of hope for warm sunny days in your heart too!!

Eye candy? Ooooohhhhhh Yeah!!

As most of you should already know by now, I LOVE SHABBY WHITE THINGS!!

Nothing makes me shiver in my skates like looking at the pictures of a shabby white room filled to the brim with well loved, hand picked, white objects of my desire!

So I am bursting at the seams to share with you some of the blogs that I frequent, or that I have just found, that fill my heart and my eyes with inspiration!

This is the look that I have been striving to achieve for the past couple years now. I think I have most of "The Bones" in place and just have a lot of painting and tweaking to do. The beauty of this type of decorating is that it is an evolving process and one never needs to think about stopping. There is always a yard sale or thrift store and maybe an antique store with just the perfect little item that can be added to the room to make it just so. Also the comfort factor! Even though most items are white they can still be used without a lot of worry about them getting dirty or worn. Believe me that is what I need since i am married to 'a dirty old man'.....hehehe a bulldozer man!

Not to mention the crafts.

I have really been inspired by all the great Christmas decor crafts that I have seen this year. Things that can be tweaked to be used throughout the year. Whether it be made out of different matierials or different colors or used in a different way from the original Christmasy idea.

Not that I made anything for Christmas, but my head is full of ideas for future Christmases and the rest of the year!!

I have to say before you head off into the land of inspiration, that I am just a little ole country girl who lives in the boonies of southwest Virginia and the only language that I speak is a little hick version of English and my Spanish is only used for ordering food in a mexican restaraunt! You will see that some of these blogs are not in English and truthfully I couldn't even begin to tell you what language they are in!

However, the pictures are universal!

These blogs are loaded down with pictures of my style! I know you didn't think I had style but I have it in my head and I am ready to pull it out of the cobwebs and get it put into play!!!!

My Style involves or includes....

white

old

(all versions of 'old' that have the same meaning)

cottage

gardeny

twigs

linen

twinkling clear lights

lace

painted anything

concrete statues

greenery

enamelware

handmade

silver

glass

and a good splash of toile

among many other things

So go yonder and dream as I do of a place to live in, sleep in, entertain in, and "be in" that looks like this!!

(click on the links below)

My Lovely Things

this one

this one

this one

and Wanilla

and Wind Lost

The Old White Cottage

Shabby Charm (check out her painted white floors)

A Heart in Provence

and one of my very favorite

Ticking and Toile

Shabby Little Shack

oops don't go there yet! That is another work in progress! I am doing the same type of decorating there as I am at home. I don't have any pictures yet because I forget my camera everytime I go down to do any work. I am loving the look that is coming together there and I feel that I could live there forever!

Leslie is not too fond of that idea though!

Maybe just a lot of family gatherings there!!

Did you hear about the Morgans?

If you haven't been to see this movie you really should go!

It is hilarious!!

Here is the trailer!

Christmas has come to town...

and we have been showered with gifts, family, friends and lots and lots of food! Did I mention gifts!!
I think everyone is really happy today with all their toys. Old and young!!

I won't mention here that our outdoor wood furnace quit working this morning as we were in the middle of a huge ice storm. Well since I mentioned it.......Danny called the man who sold the furnace to us and installed it, just to speak to him about what might be the problem. Christmas Day in an ice storm is not the time that a service call should be made, right? Well this guy is the most wonderful person to do business with ever!!!!!! Told Danny that it was the water pump and asked Danny if he wanted him to come to our house or for Danny to just pick it up at his place. Danny said not to worry about it until tomorrow or Monday. After all we have a heat pump too, so we wouldn't be cold.

After a couple hours the man called back and said I am coming out anyway. He left his family on Christmas Day to drive across the county, replaced the pump and wouldn't take any pay for it!!!! Can you believe that there really are good people out there like that?? Told Danny that our "word of mouth advertisement" would pay for his pump!!!!!

I hope you and yours are just as happy and blessed as we all have been today as we celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ!

We are now in chill out mode with our full hearts and tummy's!!

Love to all!

Becky

Enough already....

no more poking fun at my daughters. We all sure did have fun with that though. All the memories that can be pulled up from just a picture, wow!! I told you we didn't need alcohol to get a good laugh going!!!

So now on to my serious side here.....

you didn't know I had a serious side?

Yeah......I was "seriously" crazy when I bought this butt ugly yellow chair several years ago with the wild idea that one day "I" would recover it!! HAHAHAHA

see I can always laugh at myself
just look how ugly
but it had "Good Bones"

and there is NOTHING that a good coat of white paint can't fix

I slapped 2 real good coats of my faaaaaavorite Olympic high gloss enamel latex paint on it and I mean every where on it, vinyl and all.
What's it gonna do "ruin it" if it doesn't work out?

I sanded down some areas ....just so......and now it is a new beautiful, useful, shabby chic, designer chair!!!! If you look really closely at the pictures you can see the faux painting technique that I used to mimic linen fabric.

Faux enameled vinylinen!!

Bet ya never heard of that before! Actually this fabric is very soft and pliable and I feel that it will last a good while with out cracking too!!!

I love it!!

I think I'll do the sectional sofa next! What ya think?

and look at those ugly painted floors....yucky.... I am going to have to do something about those and soon....

I have plans ;0)

of course it involves a can of paint!

So can you tell that I might not always be fun and games now?

Wrong!!

I have fun with most every thing I do as long as there are fun people around me!

That's why I like my girls so much. I didn't like them when they were young and hadn't developed a personality like mine............LOL!! Just kidding!! I have always loved these girls cause they are the best ones ever!!! They sure give me a reason to live!!

Now that all the shopping is finished and the presents are wrapped. I have a little cooking to do and then "Come on Christmas" I am ready and also I am ready for it to be over and the decorations placed all snug in their beds for 11 months and get back to finishing those wild ideas that I have conjured up for my house. I have to get this stuff done before gardening season begins. I am sure it will take me all winter to get the inside stuff done..........................well maybe many winters!!! I better get started!!

~~~

I would also like to Thank Terri from the bottom of my crazy little heart for listing me on her "Most Influential People List of 2009"!

I have never won an award!!!

I am humbled!

I would like to Thank my family, my agent, my fans, my record label, my publisher............

Oh I am on the wrong stage here....sometimes I just drift off like that........there's probably a pill for that............

Terri, I love you and I am here for you any time you need a good laugh!!!

Hey with 5 kids she should have a lot of days that she needs a good laugh!!

Robin Suzanne

my eldest daughter

has always been the prissiest thing to hit this family, even in the crib

she has had an obsession with shoes since she was a toddler, I am sorry Eric, she cost us a lot of money when she was at home too......

watch out Eric this could be a girl and be just like her......... oh no....

Prom ......... not Halloween like Eric thought........

didn't the girls in his highschool wear their hair with a little bouf like we did?

(Check out all the pics of Robin in the background)

we had to have an escort to get us thru town to the photographer for this picture...he had a wide load sign on the front of his truck...... and a special height permit......you know for bridges and overpasses.....

what can I say about this one.......well for one thing.....I was not always a licensed cosmetologist but I tried anyway. All the girls got new do's that day...Robin liked her's the best of all three of them.......she knew she would be in sports illustrated soon....

then she tried to learn how to cook.......rough day too......this is supposed to be a red velvet cake but it wasn't red......did we leave out something?......better stick to modeling honey......

maybe a career as a model for the Humanes Society? I hear they like scantily clad babes holding puppies!

now the hair always had to be just so.......a roller set was perfect until she mastered the curling iron.....

now I have saved the best for last...... (yeah I know I was hot in this picture)

I told you I was an aspiring hairdresser during these years...poor kids were my guinea pigs........the day before we left for the beach I put a home perm in Robin's hair.....well it was sorta curly and didn't blowdry or airdry well........ (the frowns weren't because of the bad hair day but because we had to leave the beach)...........

a few years later, after we had many many many laughs over this picture, Little Ceaser's came out with a commercial mentioning their promotion for 2 pizza's and a perm!! OMG TOO FUNNY!!!!! So go on over and watch the clip and see if you can spot Robin in all her glory!!!

I hope you enjoy this as much as we have!!

I wouldn't be doing this but she was so prissy and I am just that type of person!

So Leslie........

did you say in your comment from the previous post that you didn't have mall bangs in the 80's? That you didn't do fur?

How about Camaro's?

Did you do Camaro's?

In the 80's?

No?You were right it was 1990!!

Mall bangs!

Spiral perm!

Fur coat!

Camaro!

Straight Legged jeans!

Scrunchy socks!

.......drum roll...........

and saddle oxfords!!!!

GUILTY!!!!!!!!!!

I still love you!!!

On the other hand, I, myself couldn't do mall bangs........

until 1991!!
I don't even know what this was called!
And what's up with your dad's shirt?
I mean who dressed him that day and let him out of the house?
I mean he had lots of hair and it had color, natural color too, but still that shirt??????


I remember Jason, Robin's first husband, riding behind me in the car that day and fussing because he couldn't see around my hair!!!!!! LOL!!!!! So I guess he just stared at Danny's shirt the whole trip!!!


Now Robin you can stop laughing anytime now because tomorrow is YOUR day!!!!!

The song remembers when....

( photo courtesy of GM Photostore)

I just heard my favorite and most memorable Christmas song,

Deborah Allen's ~ Rockin Little Christmas!!

(fav non hymm)

I remember hearing this song on the radio for the first time and wheeling around and heading right back to the local record store to buy the 45. Yep I am that old! I wasn't old then. I was a really cool chick riding around in my 1984 Camaro Z28, black as shown in this picture but it had a red stripe around the skirt! I had the short shag that was very heavily highlighted...well "Frosted" as it was called then! I always wore those huge earrings so famous in the 80's, mainly fans or seashells or just big ole painted hoops that everyone owned to match their every outfit!!

I had the

white leather fringe coat just like Deborah wore in the video of this song. Her's didn't have fringe but I had one with and one without fringe only they were white. My eldest daughter got me in plenty of trouble because of these 2 coats too. Long story!! I wore the collar turned up just like she did too. My hair was not long enough to crimp like hers but rest assured it was punked up enough!!

I had the jeans that had the straight legs but they had to be folded down just so and rolled up just so so that your cool socks showed. I also had some really cool short lace-up boots and all sorts of leather and suede ones that were scrunchy boots. I would wear those flat cool boots one day with my pants legs rolled up.........just so......and the next I would wear my cowboy boots and a pair of straight legged Levi's with the pants legs in or out depending on the mood!!

I worked with my best friend and she was famous for wearing colored pumps with her jeans and she would sometimes talk me into wearing the same thing to work. We were called "The bobsy twins".......they were just jealous because they weren't as full of coolness as we were!!!

My oh My!!!!

Funny how a song can send you on a quick blast to the past isn't it?

Now girls, don't be ashamed of your mother's reminiscing here because I could tell some stories about your fads too!!!

I have also heard that the famous folding and turning of the pants legs of the 80"s is coming back now!!! LOL!!!! I can't wait! I will surely look like Humpty Dumpty now!!!

So there you have it! I was in my hay day in the 80's and I know that was eons ago because Morgan will get us girls together and ask for us to tell her some stories of things that happened "Way back in the olden day's. You know Granny back in the 80"s"

I want to hear some of your blast's from the past!!

Winter.....

doesn't officially start until tomorrow...so what do you call this?

I call it a dismal disaster!
these ice daggers are heading right for the windows

with 20 degree weather I am not really hankering to have to replace windows so I had Danny get out there and break these biggest icicles off. I suggested that he take a really long stick and hit them. I looked outside and he was standing up under this huge sheet of melting snow and ice hanging off the side of a steep roof using the short handled snow shovel to knock this ice off!!


He obviously hasn't had a roof full of snow fall on his head like I have.......
but we won't go there girls!!!

Shut up Robin!!!


Our snow total here in the valley was only 14" anyway that we could measure but our local news reported last evening that we were under 26" here in the valley.........our phone started ringing off the hook with family making sure that we were coping under that much snow!!!!! We aren't sure where those folks were that measured it at 26" but it must have been in a snowdrift!


and for the record Hallmark has ruined my Christmas............yes ruined it.....I should have my house cleaned and lots of cooking and baking finished by now but they put all those sappy deliciously heart warming Christmas movies on there around the clock and I can't hardly pry myself or my husband away from the sofa and TV to get anything done! We made a pact this morning that we would finish the movie that we were watching and not watch the next one so we could both do some things around the house......I cooked lunch, did laundry and dishes and finished wrapping presents....he knocked down icicles, shoveled 3 1/2 miles of paths around the farm so that I could feed tomorrow if he works, among other outside things. We fixed our plates, ate lunch in front of the TV and didn't move for 2 more hours!!!!!!!!
I had to catch Clark Griswalds sleigh ride before I got up to blog..........LOLLOLOLOLOL!!!!! ..... now my Christmas movie watching is complete, not finished but I am complete even if I don't get to see anymore!!!!!

Makes a good photo op......

have 4 wheel drive will travel........ I think he wanted to get out of the house so he could have some male companionship...hehehe......so we had to go to our favorite hardware store and stand around the stove for a while letting him chat with the boys about how we would get back home, and get inner tubes for a night of sleigh riding/snow tubing at Leslie's house with the grandkids, she has a super big hill and 4 wheelers to pull us up to the top of the hill!!!..........this barn and farm is owned by his boss and I have always loved it. I have wanted to get a good picture and paint it in oils but I never have took the time to get a snapshot of it til today......I told Danny as we were going down the road to stop immediatley if I yelled "Kodak Moment!!" and he did......Look at that blue sky!! This was not enhanced either!!
we are surrounded by tree farms every where even Leslie has a tree farm...... maybe the trees will slow me down if I come off her hill too fast tonight.....

main road......
we live on a dirt road and have about 1/2 mile of it to get to the main road.....the dirt road had a drift that we went thru that was up at the top of our big 3/4 ton pick-up ..up to where the windows start..........I freaked out!! I was screaming.......when we got thru he said...."Now that was a Kodak Moment"..........then when we made it to the main road there was only one lane open....kinda scary going around a sharp curve on the wrong side of the road!!

here we are coming back thru the drift ......the camera didn't capture how deep the drift was and we were actually almost thru it by the time I got the picture snapped......I had to have a little talk with Jesus before I tried to get a picture!! ......for those of you that know me you would understand why I wouldn't want to be stuck in a snowdrift that kept my truck doors from opening!! Better yet, why no one else would want to be with me in that situation!!!!!!

How high's the snow, honey? 2 feet high 'n rising...

Remember Johnny Cash's song, "How high's the water honey?"

Well this is snow and a lot of it!
My back deck, thru the window, can't get the door open, still snowing, more expected til 7PM tonight, it's now 6:27 AM

this rocker is in it's stationary position (you know with no one rocking in it, unless that's Frosty sitting there) and it rests comfortably at my knees when I am sitting in it, I measured and I figure this is about 19" of snow!!!!


you can't tell by these pictures but it is still snowing pretty heavily........Someone Please Take It Back..........I like a White Christmas as well as the next person but come on now......bad timing! There are 2 major highways that are shut down, 77 and 81............all the Christmas travelers stranded in this......oh yeah it's roughly 25 degrees out there too........the National Guard has been helping on 81 and set up a shelter that now has more than 300 stranded motorists..........not the way I want to spend my holidays and I am sure it's not theirs either.....PLEASE PRAY FOR ALL THE FOLKS WHO HAVE TO BE OUT THERE FROM RESCUE PERSONNEL TO STATE HIGHWAY WORKERS TO TRAVELERS!!!!





My crazy husband doesn't take a weather man seriously. He thinks they always feed us hogwash. If He was doing a job for one of these folks and they tried to question his skill at his profession he wouldn't like it nary bit now would he?....but....he wouldn't listen to them calling for snow yesterday and heed warning, so he waited until after the roads were very well covered and everyone and their brother was out on the roads, to head home. It took him 3 1/2 hours to travel a one hour trek. I told him I didn't want to hear about all the crazy people who almost made him wreck!!!!!!!!!!! Men!!!!
at least he got home safely.......



while I was getting my pictures my power started flickering really seriously .......... woooooo I made a mad dash to "draw up some water" and now I feel that I am ready if it does go out. If you don't hear from me in a few days you will know what's happened.....I have 3 batteries for this laptop but there are issues with batteries and this laptop.........long story!!

and the dearest husband who doesn't believe in a weatherman did not get the wood in for the wood cook stove like I asked him to do.......... his little hiney may get cold and hungry!!! We don't have heat when the power is out even though we have that great outdoor wood furnace, takes electricity to blow that heat inside!!

So I hope all you guys out there are safe and warm today!!!!

Love,
Becky


update 9:50 AM~~~ not snowing and may not get any more~ wooooowooowooooo!!!
Dearest hubby got out and measured the snow and it was only 14" on the table! I stand corrected. Must have blown under the rocker cause I know I have more than 14" from my knees to the floor!!
25 miles of 81 shutdown, more than 1000 cars stranded and more than 100 tractor trailers stuck in the snow!!! OMG!!!
I still have electricity!!

Playing with my new toys......

I know that you all know what my mailbox looks like by now. Sorry, but it just happens to have been the most photogenic object around my house since I bought my new camera. I am trying to decide if I like my camera or if it's going back to Target or Craigslist or ebay!

random.....

All the girls (daughters and granddaughters, the boys were hunting) went out Friday night for a girls night out! Robin decided that I should take my camera so we could get some blog worthy pics of all the fun. It was all of 12 degrees out when we left and my crazy car has to tell me "Baby it's cold outside"....as if I couldn't tell that when my buttocks hit those frigid leather seats???? Hey at least they are heated!!

(did I mention the boys were hunting? Crazy? yes!)

But this ended up being the only picture that we got that night...could have been the cold temps but I believe it was all the laughter and tears that got in the way. I mean who is thinking about getting a picture when you are trying to keep from peeing your pants?

My girls are crazy! If you ever see us all together you would think we had been drinking for hours. Trust me we don't even have to think about caffeine to get us going, let alone booze!

You should be at my house for a meal! The men have given up on trying to teach us some proper etiquette! There has been more than one mouthful of sweet tea spit across my table after a wonderful meal!! Not kidding! Memories!!

As if we aren't good enough at finding something funny in every situation our offspring will come up with something on their own. Poor kids, we have ruined them!!!!



just because




Newest playtoy!!!

My Christmas gift from Leslie, an MP3. Thank You Leslie!!

My life has been changed for ever. I am such a music junkie and this gives me my fix whenever I need it! I have a lot of habits, most of them bad. No I don't drink, even though most would think it when my girls are around, don't smoke, don't do drugs (even though I do have a new pot addiction)....hehehe.......cookware that is!!

I have spent hours downloading music to my MP3, from LimeWire and all sorts from my laptop from my seriously crazy amount of CD's.....OMG I am such a junkie! Hey this MP3 helped me get a lot of housework done yesterday too!

Did I tell you that I am addicted to food? Well I am! There I have come clean! You now know all my bad habits.

Remember my new stove that my dearest honey bought me back in the summer? Well this is my first try at cookies............I have NEVER been able to make edible cookies. They always looked like lacy, black, frisbees! Have you ever seen a lacy black frisbee??

' come on around to my house'...... Oops sorry there....this MP3 is getting to me....Katy Mitchell was singing loud and clear in my ears as I am typing. From the Nights In Rodanthe CD!!!

Good stuff!!! Better with cookies!!

anywhoooooo....

these chocolate chip cookies were just perfect....no I am not kidding....I do have to toot my horn here.....they were blue ribbon worthy. I have never tasted a chocolate chip cookie that good in my whole long life! Seriously they are so good that I am scared to even try to make another batch because they will never be that good again. If they are as good I will so be getting a job as a spokesperson for Samsung!!

now on to my pot addiction........

My new Townecraft Cookware......has changed my life forever too.

I have changed my thoughts and habits completely with this method. I have not burned anything since the sweet potato incident the first night. I am learning. I am learning. I am learning. It is so different. I was telling Leslie the other day I was trying to add antioxidants to my diet because of my sarcoidosis and telling her that the way that the food was prepared had a lot to do with how many antioxidants remained in the food. I told her that this new cookware was supposed to help hold on to the antioxidants in the food. ............now do you know what she said to that........brat....."Oh, I see, you can better absorb antioxidants from burnt food."

Brat!!

Remember Peter's pizza that was the best pizza ever? Danny has been begging me to try pizza in the electric skillet that came with my set. So last night I did.

I used my newest homemade crust recipe and Ragu pizza sauce. The pan was sprayed generously with Pam. The dough was patted gently into a cold pan. I browned some of my homemade italian sausage, put it on the sauce and topped it generously with a lot of mozzarella.

Cover the pan turn it to 350 degrees and cook for 10-12 minutes. Don't peek! That is my hardest part.....I am a pot watcher. I set the timer for 10 minutes. when the dinger went off I had to check it. It need just a little more time so I waited for 2 minutes. I let it get just a tad too brown on the bottom....Peter said 11 minutes and he was right. The cookbook said 10-12. Of course that's what I get for thinking that I knew what I was doing!!!

finished in the pan.....

Yummy...double triple yummy!! See the black flecks of crust on the plate?.....they weren't really black just a little too dark but not burnt..............super duper easy pizza!!!!! Good thing I can make pizza at home because we will never be able to eat out again due to the cost of these pans!!

So that's what I have been doing.........playing with all the crazy settings on my camera.....baking cookies...... playing with the girls.......playing with my MP3.........playing with my pot addiction and lots and lots of eating!!!!!!

So since I have now bored you to pieces I have a new blog that I have found this morning. Lisa is the most talented woman in the world! I know you think I have been exagerating a lot today but this has all been the truth and this is no exception.....just go on over and check her out.....make sure you have cookies and a cup of coffee cause you may get hungry!! I am warning you!!!!


(the chocolate chip cookie recipe was from my pink Better Homes and Garden cookbook, if you would like this recipe I will be happy to post it. Oh yeah, that's right, you guys have always been able to make "perfect" cookies all along!!)