What an Honor!!

I just want to say THANK YOU so much to Ghost for this award! She has awarded me with the "Sunshine Blog Award" - WOW!! I don't even post very often - seems like life just gets in the way so much for me, I never ever expected to win an award!! Especially for inspiring people... since I very rarely even manage to put a post up, I can't imagine the posts are all that inspiring when I do - so the idea that someone finds me inspirational is just amazing to me! I do believe I'm blushing!! One of the things I enjoy about Ghost's blog is her ??Fact of the Moment?? - which today was "From the age of thirty, humans gradually begin to shrink in size." - I read that and thought "WHAT?? You mean I'm seven years into shrinkage already???" Sure doesn't seem like it, with my seemingly endless battle of the bulge! Shouldn't I be able to actually see some shrinkage by now??? Ah, well - maybe someday I'll win this war! Thank you again for this award, I do so very much appreciate it... and now, to follow the rules of acceptance, I need to name 12 blogs where I find inspiration - shouldn't be too difficult, except for the "only" 12 part! Oh, and before I forget - here are the rules...

1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post.

2. Pass the award to 12 bloggers.

3. Link the nominees within your post.

4. Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog.

5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Okay, so here goes - my personal dozen "diamonds"... (these are in alphabetical order)

1. Lucy at Attic24
2. Tina at Beansie Babbles
3. I hope I'm allowed to pick a winner that was in Ghosts' list, too... Tammy at Coffee n' Crafts
4. April over at Dishcloth Diaries
5. Lora the Eclectic Nana
6. Tea from the Foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains
7. Paulissa at Knotty Musings
8. Chase from Oh! The Cuteness
9. Liz of Rose Vignettes
10. Caroline, the Kansas Hooker
11. The Laughing Willow of the Laughing Willow
12. Amber, the Yarn Pixie

Of course, Ghost is another one of my favorites!! I also read Wormie over at Hooked on Crochet... I guess the choosing of "just 12" isn't as easy as I thought it might be!

Thanks again, Ghost!! What an honor and a fun little thing to be a part of!

I hope everyone has a wonderful day, week, month, year and life!!!

Stick it to the Man!

Just a very brief post for you today - I would love it if you would check this blog out, and this blog post specifically!! Any chance you get to create this lovely little darling, go for it!

RAINBOW SUNSHINE PLUSHIE

This is just the cutest darn thing, I'm sure you'll enjoy! Looks easy enough to make, too, that I might just try it myself... the story behind it is way cool, too.

Okay, that's it for me right now! Take care all -

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day, week, month, year and life!!!

Proud Mom Moment

Hey all - I just wanted to let you all know how proud I am today! My eldest, William, signed up to join the Army Reserve, and today he left bright and early for his first "weekend warrior" training... he's just 17 and a half, he won't be 18 until July... and he's a Junior in high school. Yet, he decided to join the Reserves - and even though I know he won't be called to go anywhere until at least he's out of high school, that doesn't diminish the pride I feel knowing he felt the call to serve his country... I actually come from a long line of Service people. My dad, my grandpa, my other grandpa, my step-dad, 3 of my uncles, my ex-husband, his brother, my cousin, just to name the ones I can think of off the top of my head. There are probably a lot more that I don't even know about! I looked into it when I was in high school, but I've always had an issue with my weight so I didn't join. Looking back, I should have just bitten the bullet and lost the weight way back then and gone for it - but if I had, there's a very good chance that NONE of my kids would be here, so I won't be going back to re-do any of this life of mine (even if I could)!!!

Not really too much more to report on today - I have done a few small things recently, a hotpad, some coasters, a tawashi and a couple dishcloths were the most recently completed crochet-related items I've made. (The pattern for the heart dishcloth can be found HERE. A big thank-you to April over at Dishcloth Diaries for designing such a fun pattern!) I'm also working on making a dozen 12" squares, then there is a scarf I've got in the works, (I actually have 3 scarves in the works - I might want to get busy on those!) along with a myriad of other projects I'd love to see completed... oh, and I still have to work on getting our tax stuff together (yay).

Thanks for stopping by - I hope you have a wonderful day, week, month, year and life!!

Happy New Year!

Welcome back! I have not posted in quite a while, and I do apologize to anyone sitting there with baited breath waiting for my next post! I just wanted to pop in real quick and say HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone! I hope you all had a safe and enjoyable entrance into 2010, whether it was spent with friends and family, or if you went to bed and let the new year come in all by itself - as long as you enjoyed yourself and were safe, that's all that really matters now, isn't it?

We had a very enjoyable time at my neighbors house - played a couple games (Guesstures and Apples to Apples - the younger ones also enjoyed some games on the Wii), ate Mexican fare and rang in the new year with noisy horns and a quick kiss to our significant others! It was quite a nice time, for sure! The only down side is I forgot my camera, so I didn't get any pictures of the festivities. Oh, well - it was still fun!!

Wishing you and yours a prosperous, happy and healthy 2010 -

Silverware

Hello everyone! I haven't posted in a very long time, and this will just be a very brief post, but I wanted to share a little something that I do when I wash my dishes, or - more specifically - my silverware. This works for those of you with a dishwasher, too - because your silverware goes in it's silverware bin. I know, because I have a dishwasher - it just doesn't work! LOL

On to the whole point of this post: When I wash my silverware and get it all rinsed off, I put it in the drainer handle-up. There are two reasons for this - first, we have the occasional fly in our house, sometimes a few flies. I can't stand flies - to me, they are just disgusting! So, I would prefer their nasty feet were not walking all over the part of the silverware I'm going to be sticking on my food or in my mouth. (Yuck) Second, and probably more important, when I'm either grabbing the whole bunch of silverware to put it away, or if I'm just grabbing a spoon to stir my coffee or whatever, having the handles sticking up instead of the sharp-pointy side means I won't jab myself inadvertently. I've done that a time or two in the past - reached in to grab a fork or something and didn't notice that steak knife sticking up and OUCH! So, my solution is to put my silverware into the drainer handle-side-up. (Upside-down, if you will) I did the same thing when my dishwasher was working, makes putting the silverware away a lot easier if you can just grab the whole kit & kaboodle without worrying about what you might be getting stabbed with.

Hope somebody out there finds this little hint at least amusing, if not helpful!!

I wish for all of you to have a wonderful day, week, month, year and life!!

Thanks for stopping by...

I just looked at the date of my previous post, and I must admit I am ashamed at myself for letting it go so long between posts! So, just a quick post today so you know I didn't fall off the planet or anything...

I recently completed a comfortghan for the daughter of one of the members of a Yahoo group I'm in - Crochet Swaps Galore! It's a great group of ladies, and we do have the occasion to put together squares for those that need some comfort. I was able to be involved in the assembly process recently. I don't know how soon I'll be doing that again, though - it took me forever to get the afghan put together... I do think it turned out well, and the recipient loved it, but it should have been done a good month, month and a half before I finally finished it. :( For those interested, here is a picture of it:

This was another project where lots of people sent me squares... but this time, I bordered each one and then assembled them. I also added a pocket on the back for her feet to stay nice and toasty - and when the 'ghan is not in use, it can be folded up and tucked into the pocket, thus making it into a pillow, and here is a picture of it folded up like a pillow:


One other small project I did up recently is a hat that looks like a soccer ball. There is a young lady by the name of Jordyn who has been diagnosed with a rare type of cancer. (That is all I know about her diagnosis.) Due to the chemotherapy she has to undergo, she either will lose or already has lost her hair. She has a love of soccer, and her favorite colors are red, orange, blue and green. Since she loves soccer, I wanted to make a hat that looked like a soccer ball but I couldn't find a pattern I liked anywhere. So I looked up how a soccer ball is made! There are 12 pentagons and 20 hexagons in a soccer ball. I made half that many, hooked them all together, added enough of a border to pull the 'gons into a sphere shape, and viola! - A soccer ball hat!




I hope she likes it, when I get it sent... I'm thinking Monday or Tuesday I should be able to mail it off... I wanted to include a couple of bandannas, too, and I just need to stitch those up.

So - that is what I have been up to lately. If you leave me a comment and I don't comment back, that's because I don't know how... I've tried more than once to comment back to people and just can't get it to work. I do email privately, but if anyone can tell me what I'm doing wrong, that would be very helpful!

Until next time, I hope you have a wonderful day, week, month, year and life!!

Chicken pot pie

Hello Everyone!!

I'm finally posting again! I probably should get better at this... anyhoo - today I decided to post a recipe that I make quite frequently - it's my daughter's favorite, so EVERY time I ask her what she'd like for dinner, her answer is almost ALWAYS "Chicken Pot Pie"...

I make it myself, with a little help from things like canned gravy and cream of mushroom soup (I do watch the nutritional values of the ingredients, for instance, I will pay a little more if the sodium is lower); I made it last night, and decided to take pictures and everything, so this is an all-encompassing post! LOL I usually make a double-batch (since my daughter loves it so much) - but if this is too much for your household, it's super-easy to cut it in half!

Okay, first, the ingredients I use:

• Most of a 3-pound bag of frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts (or all of it, depends on how much chicken I want that day)
• 2 regular or 1 large bag of frozen vegetables (we like California blend, but regular mixed veggies are great too - and I've used canned veggies with great success as well, I just prefer frozen due to the sodium content of the canned - can you tell I watch my sodium intake? LOL)
• 2 cans of Chicken Gravy
• 2 cans of Cream of Mushroom or Cream of Chicken soup (or any creamy soup you like; I've also used cheesy soups, that adds a different flavor yet!)
• 2 packages of ready-to-unroll pie crust
• a small handful of pasta (any kind you like) to soak up extra moisture
• sometimes, a little bit of pepper
  

Now, the first thing I do is put the frozen chicken in my deep skillet with a bit (maybe 1/2 an inch to an inch) of water. I don't season the meat - I just get it cooked through and to at least 170°F internal temp. Here's a picture of that:
My skillet has a nice fitting glass lid, so I don't have to worry about the water evaporating and the chicken sticking to the pan. While that's cooking, I mix up the veggies and the canned stuff... this is what that looks like:

Then I toss in my few pasta noodles - and you don't need many, believe me - but just a few will help absorb all the extra fluid from when your frozen veggies are thawing.
After that's all mixed up, I put the pie crusts in my pie plates.Now, I cut up the chicken. I use kitchen shears and tongs - just hold the chicken with the tongs and trim it with the scissors. Of course, you always have the option of cooking thawed chicken that's already chopped up, or chopping up the cooked chicken with a knife; whatever works for you! I don't like to touch raw chicken, and once it's cooked it's usually "too hot to handle" which is why I do it the way I do.

This is what the mess looks like now:
Stir,
Now I divide the glop between the two pie plates -

there is usually enough to overfill the pie plate! See?

At this point, sometimes I grind a little pepper on the tops... and then...

Put the top crust on, squish the sides of the crust,

Trim the edges and cut a few slits in the top for steam release,

put them in the oven (I usually go with 350° for about an hour, and I also put them on cookie sheets to avoid spills in the bottom of my oven),

wait, and then - viola!!



CHICKEN POT PIE!! I hope you enjoy this recipe - and feel free to customize it to your individual taste!!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful day, week, month, year, and life!!