Barn Window

This is probably one of my favorite projects I've made so far. Brad's Dad and brothers tore down the old 120 year old barn last summer. Beofre they brought it down, Brad and I went to see what could be salvaged. I took the hayloft door, which is the header of my blog and a barn window. Of course my inlaws thought I was nuts to take it, as it was soooo beat up and dirty. I didn't quite know what I was going to do with it, but it sat lovingly in my garage until last week.
I had an At Home America party, and was able to get a lot of things for free, and half price. One of the things I got for free was this fantastic cross. I saw it and knew exactly where I was going to put it! So, out came the window, as it needed a lot of work. I had to keep the fiberglass on, as I tried to take it off, and some of the wood started breaking, oops! Being that burlap is all the rage these days in blogland, I thought I would head to my favorite place ever, Crafts Direct to see what I could find. I was able to score some burlap for .50!! I hot glued the burlap onto the fiberglass, nailed the cross in, and hung it up!

I thought about painting the window, but I really wanted to keep the original look. My inlaws came over today for the football game, and they couldn't believe that I wanted the window!! I hung it up over the stairs going down to the third level. Looks perfect!

I made a fantastic purchase this weekend at a thrift store, and can't wait to show it to you, hopefully on Tuesday I can get the post up!!

Posting to:

Metamorphosis Monday
It's So Very Cheri
DIY Showoff

Make It For Monday at Cottage Instincts

Pumpkin Pie

I love Thanksgiving, love the smells, the sights, the sounds. I thoroughly enjoy every part of it. This year it's just our family and my Mom and her husband, nice and quiet. However, my husband so rudely informed me not to make a boat load of food. Seriously??!! It's THANKSGIVING! It's all about having a ton of food and getting so stuffed it's hard to breathe:) So far I plan on making the turkey, potatoes and stuffing (thanks Donna!). Buuuuut, I found a really yummy recipe for a sweet potato casserole, and cranberry sauce, so I might attempt those too. Will anyone eat the casserole, probably not, but it's one of those things that needs to be on the table, right??!! This was my project for today (besides cleaning the house, finishing laundry and taking care of 7 children:): Pumpkin Pie!!! I stick with my good ole Martha Stewart recipe. It's so yummy and super easy!

Pumpkin Pie- Martha Stewart

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Crust- This crust I have always used, it came from an old cookbook.

1 1/5 C. all-purpose flour
1/2 shortening (I like to use lard)
1/2 tsp. salt
3-4 Tbl water

Mix flour, salt, cut in shortening until crumbly. Mix in water a Tbl at a time until right consistency.

Pie

1 Can solid pack pumpkin
3/4 C brown sugar
1 Tbl cornstarch
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 can evaporated milk

Roll out crust, place in pie plate, whisk pie ingredients together, place in pie plate over crust. Reduce temperature to 325 degrees, bake 50-60 minutes. Mine seems to take a little over an hour to make. Now, my crust is not the one she shows, so remember that in the directions:)


I pray that each of you has a wonderful, safe and blessed Thanksgiving. I have so much to be thankful for, and I am also thankful to share my life with all my wonderful bloggy friends:)

Much love,

Oh My

Have you ever gotten so excited about something that you actually start jumping up and down, and then realize that you're sitting on the couch, so you're actually bouncing up and down???!!! Well, I did just that because...........I WON MY FIRST GIVEAWAY!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my goodness, dear sweet Rachelle over at Fingerprints On The Fridge had an awesome Christmas giveaway, and I WON!!!!!!! THANK YOU Rachelle, I cannot wait!! So, head on over to her blog, she has some fantastic ideas and you will love her sense of humor too:)



P.S. Hubby is sitting here staring at me like I'm a crazy woman....

Bar Stool Revamp!

I love to entertain, truly, truly looooooove to entertain. However, I feel myself go red in the face whenever someone pulls out a bar stool to sit on. They are u.g.l.y. Nasty stains from kids spilling and playdough encrusted. Yuck. So when I had Girls Gourmet Club last Saturday, I ran (okay drove) over to Crafts Direct to try and find some fabric that I could re-cover them with. Quickly. If you know me, then you know that I don't wait for things. If I want something, I buy it. Okay, within reason.

I happened to find a fabric for $4/yard. Good enough for me! I brought it home and had hubby help me re-cover these bad boys. I love the fabric, and it looks great, but now with it being so light I keep them covered with towels during the week because I KNOW they will have milk spilled on them, or frozen blueberries (did I mention that these are like a raging addiction for Alayna??!!) dropped on them. *sigh* My goal would be to sew (haha!! You see, I don't sew...) something that I could slip over the chair, and remove to wash. But I would have to actually learn how to use my sewing machine (yes you heard me correctly, I HAVE a machine, just don't know how to use it. Sad, I know). Maybe this should be my New Years resolution. Anyhow, this is how they turned out, LOVE the fabric, and I'll just get used to seeing towels on them, unless people come over:)

Linking up to Metamorphosis Monday and It's So Very Cheri

Thanksgiving Stuffing

Little muffin is over her fever, it was only a one day ordeal, but we had a lot of fun hanging out, and crafting! I made an advent calender with Hattie's idea over at The Little Red Roost out of scrpabook paper and my Cricut machine. I can't wait to show you how it turned out! Then we made some Christmas decorations for the girls' dollhouse, stockings, trees, etc. Lots of fun:)

Now I am in the meal planning mode for Thanksgiving. So far it is just us and my Mom and Step Dad. I really want to make my own stuffing this year, and I have made one before, it's my mother-in-law's but I'm just not sold on it. Sooooooo, anyone have some scrumptious stuffing recipes to share??? Pretty please??!!!

Sick Monday:(

I have an easy day as my little muffin Alayna is sick with a fever:( Poor baby. She got up this morning and was on fire, 102 temp here we come. She's been mostly napping and watching cartoons. So we have had a lot of snuggle time which I love:)

The last week had been crazy busy, and a wee bit stressful, so Mama has not done a lot of cooking, hence no recipes last week. However, I did want to share with you some pics and recipes from our "Girls Gourmet Club" that was held here on Saturday night. There are four couples that we do a lot with, and we decided a few years back to start a "Gourmet Club". Each couple takes a turn hosting and creating a meal plan. The host couple gives out the recipe, and they are in charge of the main course. It has been such a blast trying new recipes and just being together. So, Saturday night was our turn, but with the guys hunting, we decided to have the girls only, and ohhhhh what fun we had! I went with a chocolate theme (as I am truly a choco-holic!). My menu was:

Chorizo-Chocolate Tapas
Pepper-Crusted Tenderloin Steaks with Shallots, Port and Chocolate (you have to scroll down)
Butternut Squash Ravioli
Steamed Vegetables
Tiramisu Dessert

Now, unfortunately the dinner was a bit of a disappointment. The Tapas were AMAZING!!! Truly, that was the best part of the meal. The steak was good, but the sauce got too thick, and just didn't turn out like I had hoped. The Butternut Ravioli didn't turn out either, so she ended up making a soup which was awesome! The dessert, not sure what happened there, as she ended up making more of a cheese ball thing, lol! The best part was just being with great friends and enjoying some delicious wine. Nothin better than a girls night!! I did want to share the tablescape that I did. Nothing fancy, but I made everyone their own chocolate body scrub, and put it into these beautiful cruets that I found at a garage sale this summer. I made nametags with my Cricut machine to add to the cruets. Beautiful!

On my antique dresser, I scrapbooked a page with the menu on it, and then had the wine and wine glasses on my tray. Nice little beverage area!

Entertaining is truly one of my FAVORITE things to do, to me there is nothing better than good friends and good conversation in my home!

Thanksgiving Traditions

Today is the first day of It's So Very Cheri's Thanksgiving Traditions party, and also a Thanksgiving party at the Bungalow and I wanted to make sure and post about some of my memories from Thanksgivings past:)

I absolutely LOVE this time of year, with fall weather hitting, Thanksgiving on it's way, and Christmas not too far behind. I know many people don't like this time of year because of all the craziness that the Holidays brings, but I savor every minute of it! Growing up, I remember "cooking" my Thanksgiving meal as my Mom was cooking hers. I had this little plastic turkey (that was actually my Mom's from when she was a little girl) that I would "cook", and I remember thoroughly enjoying putting my time in:) My turkey was probably a little tough tasting, but hey, I was only 5:)

When I was 8, we moved from Mn. to Ky. as my parents took on a missionary position there. We had never lived away from our extended family, but this would prove to be an amazing adventure! I remember how Mom would make each holiday sooooo special. Thanksgiving she would set up the card table in the living room, put out her best tablecloth and accessories and we would eat out meal there. We would always have the "normal" meal, turkey, stuffing, potatoes, corn and pie. But the best part was the jello. Mom made orange jello with cut up carrots and celery, and then she would place it on lettuce leaves (and you thought you had no entertaining talent, Mom!) to look fancy. I thought this was the bomb! Sooooo fancy! And if the thought of vegetables in your jello makes you want to gag, you HAVE to try it, it is really exceptional:) (In fact, that is what Mom will bring to our home for Thanksgiving)

And of course, what did we do the day after Thanksgiving?? No, no, shopping was NOT in the itinerary....

Putting up the Christmas tree!!!! That was almost as exciting as opening gifts Christmas morning. My Dad truly enjoyed getting tangled in Christmas lights and being poked by the tree branches (artificial, baby!). We would crank up the holiday music and decorate until we couldn't decorate anymore.

I have followed many of these same traditions, except my family won't eat the jello:( Suckers. The day after Thanksgiving, we turn on the fireplace, make some hot apple cider, and go to town. I LOVE every second of this, and I love how much my girls get into it. Yes, the Holidays can be very stressful, but if we remember the REAL reason why we are celebrating it, it truly is a magical time of year.

Blessings,

Holiday Planner

I know I had mentioned a few weeks back about how I do my planning for the Holidays, (blame it on Mommy brain forgetting:) and I am now finally getting around to posting about it! I made this two years ago as a desparate need to organize my gift giving/cooking/cards. I found a bunch of these three ring binders at a garage sale awhile back not knowing what I would do with them. All I did was scrapbook a Christmas page with pics of the girls and our family and inserted it to the front. Inside I added some Christmas planning pages that I found online to help me stay organized. I love that they have pages meant for homemade gifts to keep you on track, holiday meal planning pages, and regular gifts and card keeping lists. This helps me out SO much so I don't have 50 lists laying around:)

Two-Timing Frame

My camera has been acting wonky lately, so I haven't been able to post any pics. I *think* I've gotten the kinks worked out, and I wanted to show you my revamp for a Halloween picture I bought at Crafts Direct for $5. I love the Trick or Treat side, and wanted to keep the pic on my porch, but with it not being Halloween anymore I decided to flip the pic over and make the other side into a Thanksgiving picture. I used some scrapbook paper, and my Cricut machine to create the letters. I love how it turned out, and love that I can now use it for two holidays!!!

Linking up to:

Metamorphosis Monday

It's So Very Cheri

The DIY Showoff