Merrily We Live

Happy 7th Birthday...

2011-11-19T15:41:00.001-06:00

...to Louis a/k/a Mr. Cupcake!!!

Oatmeal Cookies

2011-11-18T22:26:00.001-06:00

Hey, y’all! I can hardly believe that Thanksgiving is next week...and that Christmas is right around the corner! This year has gone by incredibly fast, don’t you think? Wasn’t it just Christmas a few months ago?

I made Oatmeal Cookies a few days ago...

My beloved Kitchen Aid is vintage and inherited from Darrin’s Grandmother. I don’t know what I’d do without it!

Have y’all tried Reynold’s Pan Lining Paper? It has foil on one side and parchment paper on the other. I really like it. I usually use parchment paper on my cookie sheets but I was out of it when I made these cookies. I used the Pan Lining Paper and couldn’t tell any difference. I’ve used it in baking pans to cook a couple of main dishes, too. This will definitely be something I keep in my kitchen all the time. (Reynold’s is not paying me to endorse their product!)

I only used half the dough...this half will go in the freezer. I usually roll the dough into balls, freeze it on cookie sheets, then put all the dough balls in a bag. It’s really easy to take out however many you want to thaw & bake. I just didn’t have time to do that the other day.

And here are the cookies. Some of them look burnt on the bottom but they’re not...it’s just a shadow! Here’s the recipe...

OATMEAL COOKIES (printer friendly version)

2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cups granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1-1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups oats (quick or old-fashioned)

1 cup raisins (optional)

Cream butter, brown sugar & white sugar together. Beat in eggs. Stir in vanilla. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon & salt. Stir into butter mixture. Mix in oats. Mix in raisins.

Drop by teaspoons onto greased or parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes or until done. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes approximately 4 dozen.

Veterans Day 2011

2011-11-11T02:26:00.001-06:00

Because of You, Unknown Soldier

By Courtney Tanabe

Because of you, I am here

Because of you, I am able to live freely

Yet I do not know you

And I have not done anything for you

But there you stand, ready to fight

And there you are prepared to die

For me

You've fought before

And you'll fight again

For someone you don't know

So thank you Unknown Soldier

Fighting for me

I'm here because of you

And I owe my future to you

Ravioli Lasagna

2011-11-09T19:51:00.001-06:00

Hey, y’all! Well, we got a little dusting of snow but it didn’t stay around long. It does qualify as the first snow of the season, though!

This is what we had for supper last night...Ravioli Lasagna. Cheesy and YUMMY! It’s ridiculously easy to make. It’s also way too much for just the two of us so I always put half of it in the freezer.

We had it with Crusty Cuban Bread that I made in the bread machine. I didn’t take a picture of that. The next time I make it I’ll do that and post the recipe.

RAVIOLI LASAGNA (Printer Friendly Version)

1 lb. cooked ground beef
2 bags frozen ravioli, cheese or beef (I use Louisa brand)
2 jars marinara sauce (I use Newman's Own)
grated Mozzarella cheese
grated Parmesan cheese

Cook ravioli according to package directions and then drain. Mix ground beef & marinara sauce together. Spoon a little of the meat sauce into the bottom of a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Layer ravioli and sauce in dish. Sprinkle Mozzarella & Parmesan cheeses over the top. Cover with foil. Bake at 375° for 30 to 45 minutes.

That’s all there is to it. Hope you enjoy it!

Hooky Love

2011-11-08T18:07:00.001-06:00

Hey, y’all! A long, long time ago, for a short period of time, I used to crochet...then I stopped. A couple of years ago I took up knitting but I never got past dishcloths, scarves & shawls. Why? Because I never quite grasped knitting. I never could figure out how to “read” the stitches. If I made a mistake, I had to just start all over again...unless I used a lifeline. I never could figure out where to rip back to...and then there was the problem of getting it all back on the needle again!

Then all of sudden I started becoming attracted to crochet again. And one day I decided to try it again. OH MY GOSH! It was love...hooky love! I understand crochet. If I make a mistake, I can rip back and go on. It’s just wonderful!

Then I found Lucy’s blog...Attic 24. I saw her Crochet Bag and had to start on it right away. My version is made with Sugar n’ Cream cotton...almost all my remaining dishcloth stash. It’s currently holding my yarn stash.

There is a chance we might get SNOW tonight!!! Anywhere from 1 to 4 inches!!!

Well, time to take the Ravioli Lasagna out of the oven, watch a little television with Darrin, then settle in with my hook, yarn and the first season dvd of thirtysomething...one of my favorite shows of all time.

Have a good night!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T16:58:00.001-05:00

It Sure Is Dusty In Here!!!

2011-10-29T00:36:00.001-05:00

Hey, y’all! I can hardly believe it’s been almost 8 months since the last time I posted!! A few weeks ago I was actually thinking about hitting the Delete key for this blog. Then last Saturday I got my usual weekly email from SiteMeter showing my stats. I’ve just been deleting it because obviously there was nothing to see! Well, something told me to open it...and...it showed that I had all these visitors...and I couldn’t figure out why.

Pinterest...that’s why. Someone pinned my “Make Your Own Silhouette Mats” post and other people were coming to read it! So, I took it as some sort of sign...and here I am.

I’ve belonged to Pinterest for quite some time but have avoided using it because I could see that it could possibly become addicting! But, as you can see by the “follow me” button over there on the left, I caved!

So, here I am with my blog all redecorated...oh, and a new name, too!

Above is a cute little piece I made to hang in my kitchen. Nothing fancy...I just cut it on my Silhouette from yellow card stock and stuck it in an old frame that I painted white.

Here it is hanging in the kitchen. This is the view from the kitchen, through the side entry and into the living room. Notice “thyme” under the clock...cut from black vinyl.

Be back soon...really...not 8 months from now!

Please Excuse My Absence

2011-03-09T00:37:00.001-06:00

Hey, y’all! Sorry for being MIA...the flu bug came visiting at our house. We started coming down with it at almost the end of February and are just now starting to feel like our old selves. And this was a “mild” case! One of our kitties, Rufus, was also under the weather with a stomach bug and had to go to the vet. Oh, joy!

I know I’m going to be absolutely thrilled to able to clean my house and get caught up around here! I am so ready to be back to normal.

See you soon!

Card Sketch Book

2011-02-24T23:47:00.001-06:00

Hey, y’all! I need a vacation to a warm beach somewhere. It’s snowing here again. We’re supposed to get somewhere between 1 to 5 inches according to who you believe. Then they said something about freezing rain on Monday.

Our printer went out a couple of days ago. I just thought it was just out of ink. Darrin stopped on his way home from work and bought new ink cartridges. I put them in...it printed a couple of pages and just stopped. Nothing we did made it print again. So we bought a new one. I had no idea how much the price of printers has gone down!! We ended up with a spiffy HP all-in-one. I LOVE it!

The other day Kristina Werner posted a video on her blog with instructions to make a card sketch book. She even has the pages in PDF format to download. Kristina said to staple the book together but I had a brilliant thought and decided to sew it together. Not so brilliant. I realized the cover is soon going to tear off. Next time I’ll follow the directions!

See how rough looking the top of it is from sewing it together? Oh well, at least I used my sewing machine. The poor thing has been neglected for a long time.

Here’s the inside. Very cool. Thank you, Kristina!

Well, that’s all I have for y’all today. Have a good Friday!

Make Your Own Silhouette Mats

2011-02-21T00:46:00.001-06:00

Hey, y’all! I hope everyone had a good weekend. Our weather was very spring-like...we even had thunderstorms last night. But, snow is on the way for tomorrow.

On to the subject of this post. I love, love, love my Silhouette. But their mats are not as good as Cricut mats, in my opinion. And, my gosh, the price is a little much, too. (Sorry, Silhouette America!)

I stumbled upon a couple forum posts about how people make their own mats so I thought I’d give it a try. I bought two 12 x 24 inch Cricut mats from Joann on sale for $13.49 and simply cut them down.

The pictures are not the best. I cannot wait for the photography class to start!

Sorry for the glare from my work light. These are the original 12 x 24 inch Cricut mats.

I marked the Cricut mat with the width-wise measurement from the Silhouette mat and cut the excess off with a pair of scissors.

Then I put masking tape down one edge. I did this so the sticky from the mat wouldn’t transfer to the Silhouette roller. Does it work?

Yes, it does!

It worked like a charm!

I left one mat at the full 24-inch length...in case I decide to cut something really long. I cut the other mat in half. So, for a little over $13.49 I got 3 new, good quality mats...in two different sizes. Two 13.5 x 8.9-inch mats from the Silhouette store would have cost $24.99!

It’s a good thing as Martha would say!

Sometimes It Just Doesn’t Work Out!

2011-02-17T18:59:00.001-06:00

Hey, y’all! It was 61 degrees here today! Almost all the snow is gone and it seems sort of strange to be able to see the ground.

Those projects I was working on just didn’t turn out very well. One of them was a card for a color challenge. I had very little paper in one of the colors needed. No embellishments, ink or anything in that color. But I was bound and determined I was going to get it done. Well, I did, but I’m not pleased with it.

Then I tried and tried to take a decent picture of it but that didn’t turn out either. I took the pictures the same as I always do, in the same spot, but I just could not get a good one. Tried every trick in Paint Shop. Nope. I seriously thought something was wrong with my camera. Took a picture out the window and it was fine.

So, I registered for a photography class at Big Picture Classes. It’s called “Get Great Photos With Any Camera” and will be taught by Elisha Snow. It’s a four week class and starts April 7th. I’m really excited about it! Until then I’ll just have to keep posting crappy pictures or none at all!

On a completely unrelated topic...a few weeks ago I bought a domain name. Now it seems that my new link is not appearing in Google Reader. From what I read, I thought the link would be redirected but I guess that’s not happening. So the people that were subscribed don’t even know I’m posting. (And look at all the excitement they’re missing!) I’ve searched and searched and can’t find out what to do about it. If anybody can help I sure would appreciate it.

I’m leaving you with a couple of pictures that I took in September! Yes, September. I will try to get my act together in the next few days! LOL!

My hydrangeas from late last summer. The pink ones were gorgeous!

It had just stopped raining before I took this picture. What a beautiful sunset!

Sending Spring

2011-02-14T17:05:00.001-06:00

Hey, y’all! I’m working on some projects and will post some pictures probably tomorrow.

How’s y’all’s weather today? It is 42 degrees here right now...the sun is shining...the snow is melting. It’s supposed to be in the 50s on Thursday! No, spring itsn’t here yet...snow is forecast for the weekend. You know it was gonna happen!

My sister sent this link in an email today and I thought I’d share it. What we all need to see right now...a Flower Garden. Just keep clicking on the black screen.

Oh...Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Place

2011-02-11T16:13:00.001-06:00

Hey, y’all! I hope everyone is keeping warm. Will this winter never end? It’s been so cold here with wind chills around –30 the past few nights. It’s hard to get inspired to do much of anything.

I made this sign for my studio today. It’s not a work of art but I like it! I just designed it in Silhouette Studio and cut it out of black vinyl. Then I just stuck it onto this old board I had laying around.

Here’s another shot of it. Please excuse the not so good pictures. All the light coming in the window made it hard to get a good shot. If you enlarge the picture, you can also see the labels I made for the white binders on the shelf. Those are mostly knitting patterns. I see Louis made it into the picture, too!

So that’s all the exciting news I have for y’all today! OK...I’m off to start another project. I have a cute cutting file for a little box shaped like a house. I’m going to cut that and then decorate it with glitter & stuff.

Oh, I joined Ancestry.com and have been having a great time starting a family tree. It’s so much fun looking at old census forms and things. Maybe I’ll find something really interesting like they always do on “Who Do You Think You Are?” Does anybody watch that? I love that show. It comes on tonight on NBC, by the way.

Have a good rest of the day!

Annabelle

2011 Blizzard

2011-02-03T02:16:00.001-06:00

Hey, y’all! Well, we made it through the blizzard in one piece and without the power going out. We ended up with nearly 17 inches of snow. I know people in other parts of the country didn’t get so lucky and I hope everything is back to normal for them soon.

This is our screened in back porch. This is the first time it ever had to be shoveled!

Under all of this is our driveway!

This is looking out across the street. I just think our birch tree is so pretty.

And Louis who hardly ever misses the opportunity to have his picture taken. The side porch is in the background.

Annabelle

Just A Note

2011-01-31T17:27:00.001-06:00

Hey, y’all! Bet you thought I quit blogging again, huh? Nope. My little cold was almost gone but then decided to turn into a sinus infection. I’m afraid to say I’m feeling better again because I might jinx things.

Didn’t do any card challenges last week. Didn’t do much of anything but drag around the house coughing, etc!

Right now I’m sitting here listening to very crappy music over the speaker on my old cell phone...waiting for someone to help me transfer all my stuff to my new phone. My new phone with internet capabilities! Yay!

We will be under a blizzard warning starting tomorrow. They say we might get up to 18 inches of snow. OK...that’s fine. That’s not that much snow...is it? Well, I didn’t think so until people started comparing the storm that’s coming to one that happened in the 70s. There’s been talk of snow being up over downstairs house windows & stuff. I understand that the snow will blow and all but how can it almost bury a house? I don’t know. But it’s beginning to slightly terrify me! We never had 18 inches of snow all at once in Mississippi.

I hope the power doesn’t go out. Now that really scares me! (Picturing this scene from Dr. Zhivago!)

Yikes! I’ve been on hold for nearly 20 minutes! What the heck are they doing?

Thinking it’s not too late to pack up my husband and the Kitty Boys and head South before the big snow.

On hold for 27 minutes...someone answers...they say I have to call from another phone to get this done! On the recording they say to have serial numbers from both phones...both phones must be charged up. Both means two, right? Could they not have also mentioned that you need to be calling from yet another phone? Thank you very much!

OK...y’all have a good rest of the day!

Annabelle

Mail Call

2011-01-25T23:30:00.001-06:00

Hey, y’all! How was your Tuesday? Since we seem to be feeling better it was a pretty good day around here.

Look what our mail lady left for me today...

An order from Jo-Ann’s. I finally got myself a heat gun!! And some clear embossing powder. I just started stamping and have really wanted to try embossing. I also bought an adhesive remover because I’m always getting adhesive where it’s not supposed to be. And this very cool centering ruler. Why have I not gotten one of these before?

This came today, too...

My sweet husband ordered this for me from Half.com. This is one of my favorite movies of all time. “Since You Went Away” stars Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, Shirley Temple, Monty Woolley, Joseph Cotton & Hattie McDaniel. Oh, and Soda the bulldog. It was made in 1944 and it’s about all the things that happen at home while Claudette Colbert’s husband has gone off to fight in World War II. I absolutely love their house. It is such a great movie. Thank you again, Darrin!

OK...that’s it for now.

Annabelle

I’m Still Here

2011-01-24T17:52:00.001-06:00

Hey, y’all! Just wanted to let you know I’m still around. I haven’t deserted my blog again! My husband and I have both been under the weather with some kind of sinus/cold thing for the past few days. Sniffles, coughing, etc. See y’all soon!

Annabelle

Shabby Tea Room Week #45 Challenge

2011-01-20T18:50:00.003-06:00

The Shabby Tea Room’s challenge this week is called “White and Bright”. The rules are to create a card or project using white and/or cream plus only one additional color. I used white, cream and pink for another Valentine.

I made the accordian flower. The torn notebook page and the word Love were cut with my Silhouette.
SUPPLIES

Paper: Papertrey Ink (white cardstock), K & Company (patterned paper)
Pearls: Forever In Time (Pearl Halves)
Ribbon: from my stash
Doily: from my stash

Messy Studio

2011-01-19T16:24:00.001-06:00

Hey, y’all! Hope you’re having a nice Wednesday. Since my husband is off on Wednesdays & Thursdays...it’s Saturday at our house. The temperature outside is 19 degrees. We got more snow last night, it’s snowing right now and will snow again on Friday. Perfect weather for staying up here in my warm studio with a hot cup of coffee and craft supplies.

I said I’d post some pictures of my studio. I haven’t finished decorating it yet because I’m still settling in. I put things where I think they should live...then as I actually work in it I find out that something ought to be somewhere else. I think it’s almost there though!

Well, maybe not. I just started stamping and only have a small stash of stamps & ink. I still haven’t decided how/where to store these things.

Anyway...here’s how it looks most of the time.

This is my work table. Sorry for the blinding light!

This is the other side of the room...where my computer, printer, Silhouette & paper cutter live.

In this picture you can see a corner of my cutting table on the left. And...the little used “workout corner” in the back!

I’ll post more pictures another day when it’s all cleaned up and purty!

Annabelle

CR84FN Color Challenge

2011-01-17T23:41:00.003-06:00

This is my first submission for the CR84FN Color Challenge. The colors to be used are red, kraft & brown. Here is what I came up with.

The card, flower, hearts and tag were cut using my Silhouette.
Supplies Used
Paper: Papertrey Ink (kraft cardstock), K & Company (brown patterned) & the red is something from my stash.
Stamps: Hot Off The Press (Tiny Words & Images)
Ink: Inkadinkado (Coffee Bean)
Gem: Forever In Time (Birthstone Gems)
Fiber: DMC Embroidery Floss
Annabelle

OH.MY.GOSH!!!

2011-01-17T17:37:00.001-06:00

Hey, y’all! Remember me? I can hardly believe it’s been nearly 7 months since I posted on this blog!

Where have I been? What have I been doing? I could say I’ve been off saving the world or something but that’s not true. I guess I needed to “find myself”. LOL! I just need to step back and figure out what the heck I truly wanted to do.

When I left y’all the air conditioner in the upstairs bedroom (my studio now) had just broken & a huge tree in our yard got blown over in a storm. Here’s what’s happened since then...

Got the tree cut up and hauled away...moved the bedroom downstairs...did a lot of decorating & fluffing...played a lot of computer games...got really bored...wandered around trying to find something to do...decided I really, really missed being creative...decided I needed another studio...went through all my stuff & got it all organized upstairs...and here we are.

See, nothing huge. But now I know that I absolutely have to have a place to be creative. I cannot have a happy life without being creative. That’s what I’ve learned after all these months.

Oh, I realized I’ve also missed blogging!

So I’ll be back with some pictures of my studio...and other stuff.

Annabelle

Pajama Day

2010-06-25T14:09:00.001-05:00

Hey, y’all! We are having a pajama day today. Darrin is taking a nap right this very minute. This has been some week…swapping rooms, terrible thunderstorms, the 30 foot pine tree in our backyard falling…among other things. We are tired. Darrin took a PTO day and we are doing NOTHING today. Although I have a zillion and one things on my to-do list. Oh well, they’ll still be there tomorrow. Tomorrow when I will do a real post with pictures. Until then…

TGIF!

(static over radio) “I’ve Lost R2”

2010-06-17T22:32:00.001-05:00

Hey, y’all! I was going to do a blog post about the weekly menu tonight but I am just dog tired from running errands all afternoon in the heat! I did add some recipes to the recipe link up there if you want to take a look. Will do the menu post another day.

The thing is we’re going to be moving a lot of stuff around in the house tomorrow. Our house is a story and a half house. The half is our bedroom upstairs. The ductwork for the heat & air really need to be redone because we hardly get anything upstairs. So, we have…had…a nice little portable air conditioner up there named R2. Named R2 because it looks a lot like R2D2. Anyway, R2 bit the dust today. He still works but refuses to stop leaking water…a lot of water. According to the service tech he can’t be fixed. A new R2 will cost $400.00! Not in the budget at this point in time. Well, we could do it but…no. We’re not being cheap. It’s just not necessary.

We’re moving the bedroom back downstairs…my computer into the living room…the rest of the stuff…I have no idea. Everything’s getting switched around. So, that’s the plan for tomorrow.

The silver lining…I’ll have less house to clean. And there’s no bathroom upstairs anyway. No more stumbling down the stairs in the middle of the night. I’ll also be able to move all my seasonal decorations & miscellaneous stuff out of the creepy basement to the upstairs. All will be good.

Have a great night!

Coffee Fountain

2010-06-01T01:01:00.001-05:00

Hey, y’all! I hope everyone had a nice Memorial Day.

So, maybe this has only happened to me…

Have y’all ever just pulled up the seal on a brand new canister of coffee…and had a fountain of coffee rain down all over you & your kitchen? Or am I the only one? What a mess. Now I’m smart and do this…

Just (carefully) cut a little slit in the top to let the air out. Am I smart or what?

Nine times out of ten I always use the same amount of coffee in the coffeemaker so I just measure it out in filters. (They sort of look like flowers, huh?)

And I store them like this…with the lid on. I like these filters made from recycled paper because they don’t stick together.

Another tip. See the jumbo size popsicle sticks in the canisters? I use those to level off measuring cups. No looking around for a knife or something. I’m just a font of wisdom today!

The finished product in my favorite super duper size coffee mug. Wish y’all were here to share it with me. You’d have your own mug of course!

Wasn’t that an exciting post? Why did I bother to watermark these pictures? Don’t you know that someone has just been waiting to grab something like this up?

Hope y’all have a great Tuesday!

Just A Thought

2010-05-30T12:18:00.001-05:00

“The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.”

~Henry Ward Beecher

I’m linking this to Notes From A Cottage Industry’s “Weekly Words To Live By”.

Hope y’all have a great Sunday!

Sittin’ On The Porch

2010-05-25T19:06:00.001-05:00

It’s been really hot here…in the 90s. This afternoon we had some thunder showers that cooled everything down. A cool breeze, the smell of rain and flowers, Darrin, the kitties, hot coffee and knitting…all the ingredients for perfect porch sittin’. Here’s what I saw from my chair…

…paper lanterns (with battery operated lights…3/$5.00…Family Dollar)…

…Gratitude Shawl & Louis…

…Elvis & Louis…

…Louis again…he loves to have his picture taken…

…wish y’all could have been here with us. What a wonderful afternoon!

I’ll be back soon with news about something I’ve been dreaming about for some time that may just be coming true.

There will also be a literary-related post. (Clue in the Amazon widget over there to the right.)

No, I’m not writing a book.

Hope y’all have a great Tuesday evening!

Rain, Rain, Go Away…

2010-05-13T00:02:00.001-05:00

…Rufus wants to come out and play!

How pitiful looking is this sweet face? Darrin took this picture through the window yesterday. Rufus aka Cutie Patootie only goes as far as the screen porch…he doesn’t do outdoors.

Rufus is spoiled rotten. He didn’t have a good mama so we raised him. (His mama was not the sharpest knife in the drawer but that’s a story for another day.)We taught him how to eat…starting with chicken baby food…moving on to chicken baby food mixed with kitten chow…and then plain kitten chow. He was given showers under the kitchen faucet when he was covered in dinner from learning to eat. We taught him how to use a litter box. He liked to roll in the litter box when he was a baby. For a little while his nickname was Pepe…as in Pepe Le Pew. His first taste of people food was peanut butter & jelly. He still loves peanut butter.

He doesn’t like to be cold. He doesn’t like to get his feet wet. We bought that new litter made from recycled newspaper last week. Elvis & Louis had no problem with it. Rufus fussed at us all afternoon & we didn’t know why. Later, Darrin realized it was because he didn’t like the litter. Darrin had to go to the store at around 10:00 pm to get the litter Rufus is used to.

He likes to sleep on his back with his feet in the air. He sounds sort of goatish when he “talks”. He likes stuffed mice. He catches them & meows while carrying them through the house. So he kind of sounds like a baby. He brings us the mice he catches.

He will hunt you down if you have a bowl of cereal because he loves “cereal milk”. The best “cereal milk” is from Honey Nut Cheerios. He doesn’t like Fruit Loop milk…at all. He loves Cheetos. Sometimes I eat baby carrots. He always thinks they’re Cheetos & has to look at them several times before he’s convinced they are not Cheetos. He doesn’t eat Cheetos…he just licks them…just a couple is plenty. He also likes to lick crackers. He loves tuna. Mostly he just likes plain old cat food.

He will come to you & meow. That means he wants to be picked up & cuddled for a few minutes. He likes to be told that he is cute. He cannot figure out how to scratch his own ears. He likes to chase his tail.

I wouldn’t take a million dollars for my sweet Rufus.

Y’all have a good Thursday!

Lilac Time

2010-05-12T00:52:00.001-05:00

Hey, y’all! I’m not even going to begin making excuses as to why I have not updated this blog since April 1st. Truly, it doesn’t seem like it’s been that long. As you can see, I’ve been messing around with the design again. I really, really like this one, though.

I will admit to spending a lot of time on Facebook lately. It’s been so much fun meeting up with people I haven’t seen or talked to since all the way back to elementary school!! How cool is that?

I hope y’all have been having better spring weather than we have. Our yard has been cut but that’s all. No pretty flowers have been planted…nothing. Last Saturday we had to turn the heat on…and were under a freeze warning. Today it was a balmy 57 degrees. Rain, rain and more rain.

Today I took some pictures of our lilacs. I wanted to wait until they bloomed out a little more but we’re supposed to have thunderstorms and I was afraid they’d be ruined. They’re a little gloomy looking because the sun wasn’t shining.

The air smells heavenly…wish you were here to enjoy it. Maybe they won’t be ruined…and the weather will clear up…and I can open the windows…and we’ll be able to smell them all through the house.

Oh, here’s a picture of the squirrel’s nest in the birch tree in the front yard.

Y’all have a great day!

Yummy Good Eats

2010-04-01T12:27:00.002-05:00

Hey, y’all! Believe it or not, it got to almost 80 degrees here yesterday and Darrin thought it was time to get the grill out of the garage. Oh, Happy Day! Because that means BBQ Chicken!

Darrin’s BBQ Chicken. Oh…yum! It was soooo good! (This is what was left. I was going to take pictures of the whole meal but I just wanted to start eating.) I wish y’all could have been here. Along with the chicken we had corn on the cob (that I froze at the end of last summer) and Mountain Home Potatoes. We ate like pigs. And nothing says good like having bbq sauce all over your face and hands when you’re through!

Mountain Home Potatoes…just slice some potatoes, place them in one layer on cookie sheets, drizzle with melted butter or margarine, sprinkle with dried minced onion, salt & pepper and cook in the oven until done. Sorry for not having a temperature or time…it depends on how thick you slice the potatoes. I got this recipe from the Memphis Commercial Appeal ages ago and no longer have a written recipe.

I can’t give out the sauce recipe because then I’d have to do away with you! No true Southerner would give away their sauce recipe. If they give you their recipe, be assured they’ve left something out…no matter what they say! A long time ago I used to be on a bbq cooking team in Mississippi…boy, could I tell you stories.

Have a nice Thursday!

Annabelle

Mr. Cupcake Makes A Mess

2010-03-30T00:04:00.001-05:00

Hey, y’all ! So, yesterday afternoon I was in the kitchen making the menu & grocery list for the week when I heard a loud, strange noise. I thought it came from the basement because Elvis was looking that way. Nope, it came from the studio and here’s what I found…

this…

and this!

Who, me??? Louis aka Mr. Cupcake looking all innocent & surprised! (This is an older picture. He was nowhere to be found after the incident, of course.)

What fun to clean up soaking wet dirt.

That African violet is pretty pitiful looking, huh? I bought it a couple of months ago because I was craving something growing. I’ve never been able to grow these. But that doesn’t stop me from buying one every now & then.

Louis was not hurt. The bowl didn’t break. The water in the bowl did not fly into my computer tower. And I got a blog post out of it. All is well.

(How bad is it that I had actually taken the pot out of the chair and was starting to clean this up when I thought, “I could put this on my blog!”? So, I put the pot back in the chair and took pictures!)

Annabelle

Holiday with Matthew Mead Give-away!

2010-03-29T14:55:00.002-05:00

Hey, y’all! Happy Monday! Check this out…

“Head over to Holiday with Matthew Mead to find out how you can win the opportunity to have your blog or online shop mentioned in the magazine. Holiday with Matthew Mead is a "book-azine" celebrating and offering inspiration for the Christmas holiday season. To be released in October 2010, Holiday is offered via online orders only - in limited quantities - and will not be sold on newsstands. But, by simply following the BUY HOLIDAY MAGAZINE link below their banner, you can reserve your own copy of this beautiful magazine, with guaranteed delivery of the magazine straight to your mailbox! Holiday with Matthew Mead is144 pages of holiday inspiration with well-known and admired designers, bloggers and top-notch features, printed on beautiful paper and not drowning in ads!

Now, head on over for your chance to win!”

Annabelle

Purses & Mouse Traps?

2010-03-28T15:43:00.002-05:00

Hey, y’all! Hope y’all are having a nice Sunday. I’ve challenged myself to a daily post for two weeks. Think I can do it? What are the odds? Think they’ll get wind of this in Vegas?

Here’s what I hope to get to this afternoon. Maybe not…seeing as how the afternoon is almost over and I have a couple of other things to do first. But I’m hoping.

This is the coolest purse. Besides the two outside pockets you can customize the pockets on the inside and have as many or as few as you want. I bought the pattern from Indygo Junction. All the fabric came from Fabric.com. The pattern was bought about 6 weeks ago. Then I had to work the fabric into the budget. At last I have all the supplies.

And what do you think I’m going to do with these?

Yeh, Darrin wanted to know too when he saw mouse traps on the “to buy” list! I saw a little project using mouse traps. He just said okay…he gave up asking questions a long time ago. Maybe I should have gotten bigger ones. The directions weren’t too clear. Really, it’s a cute project!

As soon as I figure out what I’m going to do with the kitchen window, I’ll show y’all the “Pantry Project”. I am so in love with my pantry!

Y’all have a good night!

Annabelle

Dollar Tree Decorating

2010-03-27T18:29:00.005-05:00

Sometimes I don’t know what I’d do without Dollar Tree. I want my house to look cute but we’re not rich folks. The wall above my couch has really bothered me for a long time now. I had a wreath hanging on either side of Darrin’s grandmother’s mirror but I didn’t like the wreaths or the way they looked. The other day I found some “faux” silver trays in Dollar Tree and thought they might work.

Here’s a shot of the hangers I made for them. Just a large paper clip stuck on with hot glue. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

I traced around each tray on wax paper to make templates, cut them out and poked a small hole where the hanger was. Then I was able to tape them to the wall with painters tape. Easy to move around until you like the arrangement. After that I just put a nail through the hole in the paper and tapped it into the wall.

This is a risky thing with our delicate plaster walls. Sometimes a big chunk comes out of the wall. No problems today.

I think they look pretty good. I hung a grapevine/forsythia wreath in the middle of the mirror to add a little something.

Another shot of the living room. There’s a little peek of my studio through the doorway. That desk used to be my computer desk. The middle section is a keyboard tray. The silly magnetic closure broke and short of taking the desk apart, there was no way to fix it. Stick on Velcro worked for a while but then the thing kept falling open. Yesterday I hot glued it shut! Problem solved.

Some old pictures of my maternal grandparents. The smallest picture is of the sporting goods store they owned in Nashville.

Old pictures of Darrin’s paternal grandparents. Also one of an aunt & uncle taken in Paris at the end of World War II. The door you can see to the left leads to the side porch.

The entertainment center. Oh…and Louis on the coffee table! The basket under the window is one of his favorite spots.

This picture didn’t turn out so well but here it is anyway.

Maybe now that it’s getting warmer and the sun is shining more often, I’ll come out of this unmotivated, depressed, anxious place I’ve been in. Gosh, it seems like it’s been winter forever. We didn’t have much of a summer last year either…it was so cool and rainy.

Hope y’all have a good weekend!

Annabelle

Bon Mardi Gras!

2010-02-16T19:14:00.002-06:00

Laissez les bons temps rouler! In other words…Happy Mardi Gras! Let the good times roll! Even stranded here in Illinois this Southern girl cannot let Mardi Gras go by without a King Cake! We haven’t had one in a couple of years because they were nowhere to be found up here. Darrin stopped by the grocery store today & found this one. There were only 3 left so we were lucky! Yum, yum.

Have a good night, y’all!

Annabelle

Gram's Best Brown Sugar Cake

2010-02-14T15:26:00.004-06:00

Hey, Y’all! Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you’re having a wonderful day. If you were here, you could have a slice (or two) of this yummy cake I baked last night.
Gram’s Best Brown Sugar Cake…I got the recipe from a Kraft newsletter.
Doesn’t it look delicious?
And it is, too! This cake is not too sweet and very moist. It’s good for breakfast, too! (Don’t ask how I know this.) Since you’re not here to eat it, I’ll at least give you the recipe.
GRAM’S BEST BROWN SUGAR CAKE
(Printer Friendly Version)
1 – 2 layer size yellow cake mix
1 – 3.4 oz vanilla instant pudding
4 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup oil
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans (I didn’t put these in)
2 teaspoons powdered sugar
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat first 6 ingredients with mixer for 3 minutes or until well blended. Add brown sugar and nuts; mix well. Pour into 12-cup fluted tube pan (Bundt pan) sprayed with cooking spray. Bake 1 hour or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan 15 minutes. Loosen cake from sides of pan; invert onto wire rack. Remove pan; cool cake completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.
Annabelle

Walking On Sunshine

2010-02-12T15:31:00.002-06:00

…and don’t it feel good! Yes, the sun is shining here finally. It’s supposed to snow again tomorrow & Sunday….but it’s gorgeous today.

I should be cleaning and doing some laundry but I thought I’d post a few knitting pictures instead. I like knitting small items because I just can’t seem to stick with a large project. Bookmarks, dishcloths & socks are about all you’re going to get out of me.

This dishcloth I’m knitting is called “April Showers” designed by Deborah C. Tilley. (I can’t find a link to the pattern.) I’m using Lily Sugar ‘n Cream in Country Blue & size 8 needles.

The bookmark on the left is called “Gull Wings” and was designed by Barbara Breiter. I knitted this using Aunt Lydia’s crochet cotton. Knitting lace with size 2 needles & threadlike yarn is a good way to take my mind off of things. I have to concentrate so much I can’t think about anything else! It hasn’t been blocked & starched yet.

Another bookmark about 1/3 finished. This is called “Lace Heart Bookmark” and was designed by Darilyn Page. Again using Aunt Lydia’s crochet cotton & size 2 needles.

So, do y’all have big plans for Valentine’s Day? Darrin (my husband) has to work but we’re planning on going out to eat sometime next week. We have a gift card for Olive Garden so that’s probably where we’ll go. Yummy!

Okay…off to take some pictures while it’s all bright & sunny in the house. It may take a little while working around the dust & dust bunnies but I may be able to get a few good ones! Hmmm…I could clean instead of taking pictures…nope, not today!

Have a good rest of the day, y’all!

Annabelle

Hey, Y’all!

2010-02-09T21:06:00.002-06:00

It was just Christmas a few days ago, wasn’t it? And now…poof…January’s gone and it’s almost the middle of February! I’ve been using the many snowed in, freezing days to get some projects done & to do some “nest fluffing”. Here’s a list of some of the things I’ve gotten done or am in the middle of:

turned 2 tall bookcases into a pantry in the kitchen
knitted 2 bookmarks
started knitting dishcloths again
turned a candy box into an index card “idea” box
rearranged my studio…TWICE!
started sewing again
took everything out of my kitchen cabinets & rearranged
got every last one of my digital photos tagged
made a fountain
unmade fountain (Elvis Kitty caused small flood in living room)
am about to paint sides of pantry bookshelves with chalkboard paint
got a new dishwasher (which caused rearranging of kitchen!)
have been doing a lot of cooking & baking

That’s all I can think of at the moment. One of the most important things I want to do is post on this blog! I love blogging believe it or not…I’ve just had trouble coming up with something that didn’t sound dull.

We got about 6 more inches of snow since yesterday. No more until Friday. We’re in for more below zero weather, too. But, this is nothing compared to other parts of the country.

Okay…off to watch Idol (recorded on the DVR).

Annabelle

Here Comes Santa Claus!

2009-12-24T15:06:00.003-06:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Annabelle

Baby, It’s Cold Outside!

2009-12-09T14:13:00.002-06:00

Well, y’all…I had visions of my blog having a Christmas theme & that I’d be posting pretty pictures but I don’t know when that’s going to happen! I use(d) Paint Shop for all my graphic design/photo editing & it has decided it doesn’t want to play with Windows 7. Because of this problem added to the other problems I’ve had with Paint Shop & less than the best customer service from Corel (other than them recommending other products of theirs!), I’ve decided to make the switch to Photoshop. I’m presently taking a crash course in Photoshop.

In other news, we are under a blizzard warning for the rest of today. It’s a balmy 19 degrees here with a wind chill of 1 (ONE) degree. The wind chill is supposed to be somewhere around –20 tonight! I don’t know exactly how much snow is on the ground because I haven’t turned on the television today.

It’s a good day to stay in and play computer, drink coffee & stay warm. Tomorrow I’ll maybe go outside & take some snow pictures.

Christmas is in 15 days & I have not decorated at all! Well, other than my computer desktop. My Christmas Spirit is nowhere to be found. I thought the snow would help, but no such luck. Gosh, I’m usually decorating everything that stands still long enough. It seems like Christmas got here so fast this year. Wasn’t it just Christmas a few months ago? It sorta feels like “Christmas With The Kranks” around here!

Anyway, while I’m learning Photoshop, I’ll be taking breaks to read all of your blogs & looking for my Christmas Spirit.

Thanks for the comments & welcome to my new Followers! (And now you’re probably wondering what kind of dull blog you signed up for!! I promise it will get better.)

Pray that we don’t lose power today…I don’t want to be found in the dark gone nearly crazy because of the lack of coffee & the internet, with my knitting needles frozen in my hands! At least I’m not alone…my husband is off work until Friday.

Stay warm!

Annabelle

Happy Thanksgiving From Our House To Yours

2009-11-25T23:42:00.002-06:00

Before I go any further, I just want to say thank you to everyone who takes time out to visit here, leave comments & become followers. (I’m sorry I didn’t get to answer all the comments on my last post.) I hope that all of y’all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

So, are y’all ready for Thanksgiving? It’s just going to be my husband & myself this year but you couldn’t tell it by looking at the stuffed full dishwasher earlier today! We got everything ready today so tomorrow all we have to do is pop everything in the oven & do the last minute stuff. Here is our menu:

Roasted Whole Chicken with Rosemary & Thyme

Green Bean Casserole

Sweet Potato Casserole

Dressing

Gravy

Homemade Rolls

Cheesecake

A lot of food for two people but Thanksgiving only comes once a year. And the leftovers will be just as yummy.

It’s supposed to snow tonight & tomorrow…but, we’ll probably only end up with about an inch which will be gone on Friday. It didn’t seem that cold when I went out in the backyard earlier with a flashlight to cut some rosemary for the chicken…it was just rainy & really chilly!

I’m going to go rest up now for a full day tomorrow…cooking, eating and hauling all the Christmas decorations out of the basement…YAY!!

Sleep tight, y’all!

Annabelle

Happy Birthday, Louis!

2009-11-18T00:29:00.002-06:00

Approximately 5 years ago today one of our kitties, Louis, was born. We brought him home when he was about 6 months old. We don’t know where he was born or what his life was like before he came to live with us. One day, my husband’s mother called us from the school where she used to teach 2nd grade and told us about this cute little orange kitten that she & her co-workers had been taking care of for a couple of days. They were trying to find a home for him. Someone had just stopped their car in front of the school, put Louis out & just left him there. Maybe they were trying to recreate the scene from “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” where Audrey Hepburn/Holly Golightly puts Cat out of the taxi in the pouring rain….which always makes me sob. Audrey/Holly does go back & rescues him but she never should have done that to begin with. But, I digress. Just look at this face…

So we drove over to the school and, of course, fell in love and knew he had to live with us. Off to the vet for a checkup, shots & neutering. Then we brought him home to meet his brothers…Elvis & Rufus. (Harry came to live with us later.) They were less than thrilled.

Louis really is one of the sweetest cats ever. He never claws or bites and purrs all the time. If any of y’all ever come to our house, though, you’ll probably never see him. He takes off to hide as soon as someone other than us comes through the door. We have no idea why. Actually, he used to hide if someone knocked on the door. It’s just recently that he’ll hang around to see if they’re going to come in or not.

What a sweetie…also known as Cupcake. OK, my husband does not call him Cupcake! Louis was actually named after Louis Armstrong. All the kitties are named after musicians. Elvis (Presley not Costello, although I do like Elvis Costello), Harry Connick, Jr and Rufus Thomas.

So, for his birthday, he’ll have a little tuna…

then play in a box for a while…

then probably have a little catnap…

Life is good when you’re a spoiled kitty!

Have a good day, y’all!

Annabelle

My Monday

2009-11-16T18:08:00.002-06:00

Hey, y’all! I hope Your Monday is going good. Mine didn’t start out too well. I woke up dizzy as a rat because of my sinuses. If the weather would settle down, I’d be good to go. Today the high was in the low 40s with gusty wind & rain. (I sound like a meteorologist!) After a few hours, I felt better so I got a few things done around the house. Should have done laundry…but didn’t. I do have some yummy Sticky Chicken in the crockpot for supper…which won’t be until around 8:30 when my husband gets home. I don’t know how I’m going to wait that long with that aroma wafting through the house!

How many of y’all have upgraded to Windows 7? I got a free upgrade from Dell and installed it on Friday. I will say that it was the easiest upgrade I’ve ever done. It only took about 2 hours. Knock on wood, I haven’t had any major troubles, just a few minor glitches. It sure is a lot less fussy than Vista.

I got some knitting done while babysitting the upgrade. Check out the huge mistake! I did that last night while I was trying to knit & watch a movie at the same time. I’m not so good at that. I’m not going to rip it out either…something else I’m not good at. We’ll call this my humility block even though that really applies to quilting.

This is an ice bucket that I found at the Salvation Army a few weeks ago. Don’t you think it will be cute all decorated up for winter? I don’t really care for the handle but it’s attached with screws so it will come right off.

I had a terrible time taking pictures today because it was so cloudy. I kinda like all the light reflections here, though.

This is a Santa from Goodwill…$5.oo! Notice the 1998 tag on his sack. Someone took good care of this Santa because he’s in perfect condition.

I hear a rustling behind the scenes! Is it Santa’s reindeer?

Peek-a-boo…it’s Louis! So much for me trying to hide stuff with the white board. Couldn’t resist posting this picture. Louis is so photogenic and he loves having his picture taken. Louis’ birthday…his 5th…is on Wednesday. I plan to do a post of his story. Life could have gone badly for him but, thank God, he ended up with us.

Well, Monday may have not started out on a high note but it sure has improved a lot! And since my husband is off tomorrow, Wednesday & Thursday…it’s TGIF here! (The 3 days off is great…but it’s due to a cut in hours. Everyone…including the bosses…took a cut in hours so nobody would have to be laid off during this recession.)

Hope y’all have a terrific Tuesday!

Annabelle

Pride And Projects

2009-11-11T18:56:00.011-06:00

Hey, y’all! First of all I’d like to express my appreciation and thankfulness to all VETERANS past & present for serving our country. Thank you for standing in the way of danger defending a vast number of people you have never met and probably never will meet. Thank you to the ones in my family who have served…my Uncle, a Major General in the Civil War.. down the line to my Chief Petty Officer Dad, who was a member of the United States Navy for twenty years.

Shoot, now I’m all teary-eyed…

Remember the little table from this post? Here’s another picture in case you don’t feel like clicking that link…

It was just a few inches too short to comfortably use for “dining” so my husband added some wooden blocks to the legs to make it taller. There was a problem in the end. Some kind of stains showed up on the top after sanding & using 2 coats of Kilz. The weather was not warm enough to take it back to the garage for more sanding, sealing or whatever. What to do? I have to drive miles to get to a Hobby Lobby or JoAnn so I ran to Hancock in search of oilcloth. They didn’t have any. I ended up with tablecloth vinyl which I stapled underneath the top. Not the look I was going for…but it will have to do until next spring.

The bench was being used on the back porch as a coffee table but now here it is as seating. It’s just the perfect size for this tiny corner in the kitchen. This corner is a work in progress. I think I need to paint the poster frame and definitely add something beside that. I’m still not sure what to do with the little niche the in the wall. I’m guessing it had a shelf & was used for a telephone in the past. We found the little niche when the paneling was taken down during the remodel a few years ago. I kinda sorta wish we’d sheetrocked over it but I thought I could do something with it at the time.

I’ve started knitting again. Thanks to Abbie who crocheted the scarf & wristwarmers here…aren’t they gorgeous? Ever since I saw those pictures, I’ve been wanting to knit again. Some of you may remember that I ~~stupidly~~ generously gave away all my knitting stash (among other things) a while back. Yesterday I stopped at Ben Franklin and picked up some new needles & some Sugar ‘n Cream to start a project. The plan is to knit strips of different patterns and join them all together so they become a blanket.

As you can see, I already messed up! And I’m not ripping it out! I started with this rather than the wristwarmers that I really want because I haven’t knitted in probably close to a year. Just getting warmed up again.

My knitting stash…all in one picture!

So small compared to what I had. But, that’s okay. What I had completely overwhelmed me. This time I’m going to keep things to a minimum. Y’all are going to help me stick to that, right?

Well, enough rambling from me. My wonderful husband is doing the cooking tonight and it’s almost time to eat!

Have a good night, y’all!

Gorgeous Blogger Award

2009-11-03T23:05:00.005-06:00

Kathleen at Rural Maine Life passed this award on to me! Thank you very much, Kathleen. Y’all should stop by her blog and read about the cool stuff she finds at the auctions she attends every week!

I’m supposed to tell you six things about myself that you may not know:

1. My favorite TV channel is TCM because I love old movies the best…even some silent movies like Harold Lloyd’s.
2. I have met many (and still know some) famous people…mostly musicians. I’m not a name dropper, though, and will not be talking about them here.
3. My great, great, great uncle was Lew Wallace, who among other things wrote Ben Hur.

Edited: My uncle wrote the book Ben Hur...actually the complete title is "Ben-Hur: A Tale of The Christ". There were 3 movies adapted from this book...the best known being the 1959 version with Charlton Heston which won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

4. I’m very interested in the paranormal because I’ve had several “experiences”. Check out Ghost Hunters on SyFy.
5. I hate to drive.
6. I LOVE the beach…especially the Gulf Coast area. Someday when we win the lottery we may live there. I’ll take my chances with a hurricane. It would be heaven on earth to step out my back door and be on the beach!

Now I’m supposed to pass this award on to 6 other bloggers.
1. The Pumpkin Seed
2. House of Whimsy
3. Montrealaise en Californie
4. Daisy Cottage
5. Cheap Frills
6. Vintage Be Joyful

OK, I’m off to play a computer game for a little while. Sleep tight y’all!
Annabelle

This & That

2009-11-03T22:20:00.002-06:00

Hey, y’all! Did you notice I changed my blog theme AGAIN? I absolutely love playing with Paint Shop and making new themes…in case you haven’t noticed!

I haven’t been posting because I’ve been in sort of a blogging funk or something. I’ve had stuff to post about but either the pictures didn’t turn out or what I had to say sounded dumb. Sometimes I look at all the beautiful blogs out there and just start feeling “not as good”…pictures aren’t as good…my home doesn’t look as good…can’t write as good…do you know what I mean? Well, if it turns out that only a few people or even only me reads this blog it’ll be okay. It doesn’t matter if I only ever have 6 followers or 600. This blog will still be a sort of journal of what I’ve accomplished or thought or felt…and in the end that’s all that matters!!

This is a picture of my house. I love this picture. I especially love all the leaf shadows.

I painted some old frames I had, printed some images of seahorses & ended up with these cute pictures for my bathroom. Our main bathroom is teeny tiny and it’s narrower where you come into the bathroom because of a chimney. It’s really hard to get a good picture in this area but here they are.

This is a new wall arrangement in my kitchen. Just an old frame I had that I spray painted white, a wreath that was in my studio, and a sign made from an old board. By the way, thanks to Nichole for telling me about the trigger for spray paint cans. How did I not ever hear about this? I need to beat up the sign a little bit…I just haven’t felt like taking it down!

And last, here is a cute table I found at Goodwill a couple of weeks ago for $15.00. It’s been redone and as soon as there’s a sunny day, I’ll have a picture of it to post.

One more thing, the people that live across the street from us have had their Christmas tree up & lit in their front window since 2 weeks before Halloween!

Annabelle

I Am A Terrible Blogger!

2009-10-20T01:25:00.003-05:00

Hey, y’all! Remember those thrifting goodies I posted about on August 31st…a looong time ago? Well, here are the before & after pictures!

Tomorrow I’ll be painting the cutest little table I found at the Salvation Army last Friday. Hopefully it will not be next month before I post pictures of it!

Annabelle

Bedroom: Before & After

2009-10-02T19:47:00.002-05:00

Better late than never…here are the before & after pictures of our bedroom. Laying the floor was not really hard after we got the hang of it. It just took some time. The railing wouldn’t have been so bad either if we hadn’t had tool trouble. After we figured out what the heck we were supposed to be doing & got the tools working the job went pretty fast.

We still need to actually paint the railing. That’s going to have to wait because we’ve just reached our limit with house projects at this point in time. I still need to do some decor tweaking, too. I need more stuff! But, oh my gosh, I still can’t believe the difference!

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Like I said, I still need to do some tweaking…it’s a little bare in spots. But what a difference! We love it! Hope y’all enjoyed seeing the pictures.

Annabelle

BOO!

2009-10-01T23:55:00.002-05:00

Hey, y’all! I scared y’all by posting, didn’t I? I can’t believe I haven’t posted since September 8!! Where did the time go? We just had so many little projects to do around here & we just decided to go ahead and get them finished. I’ve got lots of things to tell y’all about & lots of pictures to share. So, I’ll be back tomorrow. Nite!

Annabelle

Just Saying Hey!

2009-09-08T16:47:00.002-05:00

Hey, y’all! I didn’t mean to disappear but we’ve been super busy around here. We painted and laid 384 square feet of wood laminate floor in our bedroom. Oh my gosh…I can’t wait to show y’all the before & after pictures!!! We still have to put the railing around the stairs and change out the light fixtures. I’m afraid I was not as much help as I could have been the second day of floor laying. I stepped on a piece of the laminate that was on top of what had just been laid and went sailing across the floor. I rolled my ankle & fell on my butt! My ankle didn’t swell too much and everything is okay now.

Besides that I’ve been spray painting those thrifting goodies I showed y’all in the last post. (I can’t finish today…my spraying finger has given out!) I’m working on my sister’s birthday card as we speak and I’ve gotten into fall nesting mode. Been washing curtains, throws, etc…cleaning…making everything sparkle and shine. Then I can get out all my fall decorations!

Have to run some errands tonight so we’ll have two full days to finish up. It will probably be Friday before I post again…with pictures.

Y’all take care & have a great rest of the week!

Annabelle

Thrifting Goodies

2009-08-31T00:43:00.002-05:00

I hope y’all had a nice weekend. I didn’t get a lot accomplished…I was just really lazy. But, I’ll be making up for it with all the hard labor I’ll be doing this week. I spent a lot of time playing on Facebook. It really frustrated me when I first joined because I did not understand how it worked at all. It was like I had some kind of mental block or something. It’s fun now…especially when you run across someone you haven’t seen in a hundred years!

So…on to the stuff I found at Goodwill the other day. I got everything for less than $10.00. It was mighty slim pickins’ though!

A breadbox…don’t know if I’ll actually use it for bread or what. After I pry that awful tile thingy out & use some paint it should be pretty cute.

Both of these need paint. The starfish is for the bathroom & the basket is for potatoes. That starfish is really big.

Ugly, ugly chalkboard. As much as I love kitties, these two will be leaving! (I do like the expressions on their faces, though.)

Aren’t these plant markers cute? They were only 88 cents a box…I got 4 boxes. I know I’m going to use some in the kitchen in my herb pots…don’t know about the rest of them yet.

I was hoping to find some plates to hang in the kitchen…there were none. NONE! It’s getting hard to find anything good in my area. I probably won’t be working on these projects this week with everything else I have to do but you never know.

Y’all, it is supposed to go down to 42 degrees here tonight! Fall is here!

Have a great Monday!

Annabelle

Sunday Afternoon

2009-08-30T15:46:00.002-05:00

Sorry…no pictures again. Except the one of me over there. I absolutely hate to have my picture taken because I always end up looking goofy or worse. Anyway, I’m not thrilled with this one but I guess it’s okay!

Sears is delivering our new dryer tomorrow. Yeah…I get to do laundry! ?! It’s a good thing to have dry laundry.

We are not getting carpet after all. We have decided to put laminate in our bedroom. I don’t want carpet…I don’t know what I was thinking. Real hardwood is so not in our budget. We are going to do it ourselves. Please pray for us! Darrin (my husband) has helped someone install it so at least one of us has some experience. I’ve watched people do it on HGTV plenty of times. Does that count?

So this week…paint the bedroom, get the floor put down and put up the new railing around the top of the stairs. Piece of cake! Ha!

Hope y’all are having a great Sunday!

Annabelle

Happy Monday!

2009-08-24T17:24:00.002-05:00

Wow…it’s been so long since I’ve done a real post! It’s been busy around here…that’s my excuse. The weather here has been gorgeous. It’s been a really cool, rainy summer. Since I detest hot weather (even coming from the South!) it’s just been perfect in my book. One day this week it’s only supposed to get to around 67 degrees! So, I’m more than ready to start my fall decorating…but, I guess I’ll wait until at least September.

Today I’m trying to get a few ideas together for my sister’s (Carol) birthday card. She’s the only sister I have so it has to be special. Actually, I have a half-sister (Tracey) somewhere. I’ve tried to find her from time to time with no luck. I hope she’s doing well wherever she is. I would love to at least meet her someday, though.

Of course I need to choose paper…

and perhaps some ribbon…

glitter or chalk?…both I think…

I have to use my new Bic Markits…

and then I suppose I’ll be forced to use this big ol’ monitor to look for some digital stamps and/or an SVG file to cut from the stash on my computer! Life is hard sometimes!

What else…oh, I know a whole lot of you are thrifters and trash to treasure lovers…so, go over there to the left and click on the Flea Market Style link. It will lead you to Matthew Mead & Ki Nassauer’s blog about their new magazine!! Could it get any better? Go check it out. We need this magazine, y’all!

Okay…that’s all.

Annabelle

Redecorating Finished!

2009-08-16T02:28:00.002-05:00

Redecorating my blog is finished. I know it’s not fall yet but I just couldn’t wait any longer! I went back to a two-column template because that just seems cozier & homier to me. I can’t seem to get enough of blog design. I already have some ideas for Halloween, Christmas & winter…and I’m ready to get started on them. I’m going to be designing my hubby’s movie blog, too. Feel free to tell me what you think about this design in the comments. Goodnight, y’all!

Under Construction

2009-08-15T06:04:00.002-05:00

Please pardon the way things look. I’m redoing my blog yet again! The 3rd time since May! I think the typewriter keys are a little too big, don’t y’all? Well, I need to go get a little sleep because it is… 6:00 in the morning!!! I have not gone to bed yet!!! Where has the night gone? I swear it was just midnight a few minutes ago! I keep saying to myself…”I’ll just fix/change this one little thing”. Don’t you hate to have to stop when you’re on a roll? Gosh, I’m just rambling. Goodnight/morning!

Swish, Swish, Swish

2009-08-13T23:29:00.003-05:00

That’s the sound of me cleaning the dust & cobwebs from my poor blog.

I’ve been dealing with computer issues but have come out the other side with a brand new computer AND a honkin’ big 23” monitor!! So much pretty real estate for SCAL & Paint Shop X2!

Besides the computer issues my hubby had a 9 day vacation so we had a staycation. I have done NOTHING creative in all this time. I’m hoping that will change soon.

I’ll be back in the next day or two with a real post. See y’all soon!

My Studio

2009-07-24T23:46:00.004-05:00

Today is the day for the “Where Bloggers Create” blog party! I hope y’all enjoy visiting my little studio…I know I’m looking forward to seeing yours!

Karen Valentine of My Desert Cottage is the host of this cool party. If you click the button over there to the right you’ll find a link list of everyone participating.

Here we go with my tour. My studio is only about 8 x 10 so don’t blink or you’ll miss it! If you read the very first post on this blog you’ll find out that I used to be the “crafter of all trades”. I purged almost all of my stash except for paper related items. This accounts for why I don’t have a huge stash…yet!

This is what you see standing in the doorway. My work tables are two hollow core doors fastened to bookcases. I went to Lowe’s looking for something inexpensive to make a bulletin board and the nice man there showed me these huge unframed boards for $10.00! I stapled on scrapbook paper to make it purty. There’s only the tiny little to buy list on it because I don’t want to mess it up yet. The shelf thingy on top of the table are two storage units turned end to end on their sides. I want another organizer/shelf system there…I just don’t know what yet.

This chest of drawers and the plastic drawer units are to the right of the doorway.

Another drawer unit to the left of the doorway. This one holds mostly scrap paper & chipboard. The closet is behind the door…and no, sorry you can’t look inside! My skeletons are in there! Not really…just other miscellaneous craft stuff.

The little birdies hanging on the wall. I love the bluebird in the top one…isn’t he cute?

A shot of the top of the work table. I made the ribbon jar out of Goodwill finds…a large glass bowl/compote and a glass plate for a lid. All the pails came from the $1.00 section at Target. In the bottom cubbies are my Cuttlebug, Xyron, trimmer & fishing tackle boxes filled with brads, eyelets, buttons & other doodads.

My “faux vinyl” wall. You can read about it here. I love my wall! On the table are the guillotine cutter and my beloved Cricut!

I love my Cricut! This is the baby Cricut. Do you know how I got it? First of all, let me tell you that I used to watch the Cricut Expression infomercial & get butterflies in my stomach…oh yes I did! I wanted one so bad but I couldn’t afford one. My wonderful husband won his fantasy football league championship & gave me half his winnings! So, I found a baby Cricut on EBay and I love it just as much! (My husband is pretty cool, don’t you think?) I also got the Sure Cuts A Lot (SCAL) software to use with it and now I can cut anything my heart desires.

Miscellaneous stash in drawers.

And…here is where I “talk” to y’all!

I really hope you had a good time here…and I’m so tickled that you came to visit. If you want to join my list of followers you’re more than welcome.

OK…I’m off to visit other places “Where Bloggers Create”.

Flowers, Kitties & Squirrels…Oh My!

2009-07-21T16:47:00.004-05:00

Well, it seems that Mary Lou at House of Whimsy and I kinda sorta had the same idea for a post today. Check out her flower here.

These are some paper flowers I made on Sunday. They are in Sobe bottles. I wrapped some wire threaded with beads around one of them.

Well, just one kitty…Louis watching Flo Rida on Ellen yesterday!

And a squirrel caught in the act of trying to raid one of the bird feeders. Notice that he’s even brazen enough to look right at me. No, not brazen, he/she is almost a pet. We feed them peanuts.

Today is my favorite kind of day…it’s rainy and only 66 degrees…it feels like fall & I love it. I’m even burning an Autumn Leaves candle!

Hope y’all are doing well!

Guest Designer

2009-07-14T01:16:00.002-05:00

Are you wondering where you are? Yep, I redecorated my blog already!

I am this week’s Guest Designer at Digital Tuesday!!! I had a lot of fun creating this project! Cora gave me these digital stamps to work with…

and I added them to this image (also from Cora’s collection)…

and ended up with this notebook…

Materials: Printed papers (K&Company); digital stamps (Cora Harkins Collection); digital image (Cora Harkins collection); composition book; chipboard letters; wooden photo corners; white acrylic paint, medium brown chalk; watercolor pencils; Sobo craft glue.

Thank you, Cora!

Ciao Bella

2009-07-05T23:28:00.002-05:00

No reason for the title except that I watched Moonstruck for the 5,000th time last night. Needless to say it’s one of my favorite movies in the world & still makes me laugh!

I hope everyone had a fantastic 4th of July weekend. Our’s was quiet but we did get to see the neighbor’s fireworks last night & that was fun.

I was going to post some news and some purty pictures but it’s late & I’ve got a headache (and I’m drinking nuked coffee…blech!). I had a project to get done that I just got the info for today. It was due a week from Tuesday but the deadline got changed to Friday so I had to get it done today. This is going to be a busy week and I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough time later on. You know how projects go…they don’t always turn out the way you planned or imagined.

Anyway, just wanted to drop in and say Hi! and thank everyone that has dropped by & left nice comments!

Nite, y’all!

Wordle Wall

2009-06-28T14:38:00.002-05:00

Hey, y’all! I hope everyone is having a good Sunday. I’m doing laundry & some stuff around the house. See, today is really Wednesday around our house. My husband is off on Wednesday & Thursday so that’s our weekend.

Here is a picture of the Wordle Wall. It looks really good in person…I just can’t take good photos.

I wanted to do this out of wooden letters or vinyl but since I didn’t have either of those things (or the money in the budget to buy them!) I resorted to using scrapbook paper. I just picked a different font for each word or words & cut them with SCAL & the Cricut. We used that silly putty like stuff that you use to hang posters. It’s gone from “I” to “We” now because my husband actually stuck them all on the wall. He’s 6’3” and I’m 5’3”. He was able to just stand there with no problem. I would have had to get a step stool & probably move the table to hang them. Gosh, I sure can get off the subject, huh?

I’m not going to lie…it was a real booger putting them on the wall…thank goodness for the laser level. I was planning on cutting more words to hang in the area above Create…but, my husband just gave me a look…nuff said! Anyway, I think this looks as good…no, better than vinyl. (Does vinyl come in patterns?) And it was a heck of a lot cheaper.

Y’all will have to wait until the “Where Bloggers Create” party to see the rest of my studio. Well, it’s not finished anyway so…

It’s A Party & You’re Invited!

2009-06-27T23:20:00.004-05:00

Karen Valentine of My Desert Cottage is having a “Where Bloggers Create” party on July 24th. Click on the little badge over there to the right (under the Ward Cleaver quote) to get all the info!

I signed up because it will be fun to see fellow bloggers’ creative spaces…and…it will force me to finish up my studio. Until this afternoon all the walls were still bare for goodness sake!

Instead of doing my chores I did some fluffing in here instead. I (with my husband’s help) made a Wordle wall. I’ll post some pictures tomorrow. I just know y’all are holding your breath to see them!! It will be the highlight of y’all’s Sunday, right?

We had a scary thunderstorm earlier. It was as black as night, thunder, lightning…and then…the dang sirens went off. That sound is just terrifying, isn’t it? (isn’t it sounds so proper…if you were hearing my voice you’d hear “idnit” which is Southern for isn’t it). So, I turned on the TV and the national news was on. Nobody saying “seek shelter immediately”…just nothing. It wasn’t a tornado…just high winds. I don’t get it. Down South they only blew the siren if there was an honest to God tornado. Sometimes here they’ll say there’s a warning that lasts for an hour or so. Shouldn’t that be a watch? I thought a warning was because something is happening right now!!! It’s so confusing. Well, anyway…

Nite, y’all.

Another Day, Yet Another Card

2009-06-27T15:09:00.003-05:00

Y’all are probably getting tired of looking at cards, aren’t you? I think this will be it…for a few days at least!

This is my entry for this week’s card sketch at CPS.

The flower, scalloped circle & hello were cut using SCAL & my Cricut. I used a purple button from my stash in the flower center.

OK…off to do laundry & pay bills. No more playing until my chores are done!

Thanks once again for all the comments! I’m truly tickled when someone takes time out of their day to do that!

Cupcake Challenge

2009-06-26T15:17:00.003-05:00

Pink Persimmon is hosting The Cupcake Challenge. To enter you have to “create your own Cupcake inspired creation”. The deadline is tonight at midnight (Pacific time).

Here is my Retro Cupcake Birthday card.

The cupcake was cut using SCAL & my Cricut. I also used a lot of Stickles Diamond. The font for the sentiment is Fabulous Fifties. I printed this in brown and went over it with a bronze colored glitter pen.

Have a good weekend, y’all!

2 For Tuesday & A Birthday

2009-06-24T16:47:00.002-05:00

Hi, y’all! Thanks for all the nice comments that have been left here…they really mean a lot to me!

Below is my project for Digital Two For Tuesday.

Here are the two images that Cora posted for us.

I combined them in Paint Shop, printed the image, colored it with pencil and cut it out. I ran two pieces of plain green cardstock through the Cuttlebug with the Textile embossing folder. Since these weren’t big enough to cover the area under the image, I embossed another piece of cardstock using the Swiss Dots Border embossing folder. I used this strip to cover the seam. (You really can’t see it in the picture but I’m telling you anyway!) I adhered the embossed cardstock to the card, then adhered the image on top with pop dots. I feel like it needs something else but then I’m never satisfied!

This is my hubby’s birthday card. My hubby is all about movies!

The card is made from gray cardstock with a piece of burgundy cardstock adhered on front. I went to Wordle and entered in a list of all Best Picture Oscar winners. I printed it, cut it down to fit and adhered it to the front of the card. I cut the film strip using Sure Cuts A Lot & the Cricut. The pictures in the strip are courtesy of IMBD. I adhered this to the Wordle piece. Then I added the star brads down the side.

That’s it for now. Y’all keep cool…or…warm & dry…whatever the case may be!

Blog Candy

2009-06-23T00:27:00.002-05:00

Rowena at Paper Scissors Paint Create has some fantastic blog candy to give away. Go check it out!

How is y’all’s weather? We went from cool & rainy to hot & humid. We’re under a heat advisory even. Yuck! I don’t like hot weather.

Creative Tuesday…I Mean Wednesday!

2009-06-18T00:05:00.002-05:00

Y’all must have sent some creative mojo my way because I actually got one and a half projects done. The half project is my hubby’s card for his birthday on Friday. I’ll post that after he’s seen it.

Cora at Clearly Vintage has started a new blog called Digital Two For Tuesday. It’s a digital stamp challenge blog. She posts 2 digital stamps and anyone can participate by using at least one of the images in a project. Y’all should go and check it out!

Below is my project from the preview.

I used Cora’s baby stamp which I colored with chalk & cut out. All the papers are from the DCWV Spring Matstack. I covered a chipboard tag with paper & distressed it. The partial alphabet came from a digital image I have on my computer.

EDITED: Wow…I’m really tired! Anyone notice the title…Creative Tuesday? Today is WEDNESDAY! Actually it’s Thursday now!

Y’all have a great Wednesday! I mean Thursday…oh, whatever!!

Don’t You Hate It When…

2009-06-16T17:02:00.002-05:00

you rush around to get all your chores done so you can get into your studio to create and when you finally get there your mind goes completely blank??

I have 4 projects to create…FOUR…like today..because I won’t have much time tomorrow! Ideas have been running around in my head all day…where did they go? I feel paralyzed and my brain is frozen. Y’all send some mojo my way please!

It Worked!

2009-06-16T00:37:00.002-05:00

Oh, my gosh…I may post more often now because this is so easy! I didn’t even read any directions! How cool will it be not to have to fight with pictures? Y’all should try this. By the way, it’s free! I am so easily amused! Nite, y’all!

P.S. The picture below is of our lilac out front.

Windows Live Writer

2009-06-16T00:31:00.002-05:00

I downloaded this the other day & am just getting around to checking it out. OK…I actually tried it a few minutes ago and got a 403 error when I tried to publish. I Googled it and found info that I needed a Windows Live Writer album in the Picasa Albums thingy. It’s supposed to be really easy to add pictures…here goes.

Wow…here it is with the Photopaper setting. How easy was that? Way easier than with you know who!

There’s a place down at the bottom that has all the categories from Blogger. You can instantly insert pictures, links, albums, video…lots of stuff.

Let’s see if it publishes this time. (Am I a geek or what?!)

A Sunny Day In June

2009-06-11T22:56:00.015-05:00

Today was beautiful. It was only in the 70s...a great day for doing some yard work. Here are some pictures of our yard...

Headed up the driveway to the backyard. (Don't look too hard at the chipped paint on the porches...we're getting to it.)

These are Stella D'Oro lilies. These are so easy to grow & bloom all summer.

Now we're in the backyard. My poor little plants just aren't growing. They're no bigger than they were when I put them in a couple of weeks ago. I think (hope) that it's because it's been so cool. We got black mulch this year for the first time...I love the way it looks.

Gosh, I love my porch!

This is new as of yesterday. I got this washtub at The GW (Goodwill) for $12.00. I planted rosemary in it. Yeah, I know it doesn't look too pretty behind the hydrangea. There was a little door there when we moved in (so you could crawl up under the porch & hide or something!!) and it fell off. I look at & think "need to do something about that" and then the hydrangea gets big, covers it up, and it gets forgotten.

Back down the driveway. Thanks for visiting!

Croquet Anyone?

2009-06-04T21:53:00.009-05:00

I found this in my garage the other day. I've had it for several years and can't believe I forgot about it. It got a bath and the cart will soon get a coat...or several...of spray paint.

Excuse me...I'm trying to take a picture!

Well, I give up!

In The Garden

2009-06-04T21:29:00.014-05:00

Louis says Hi!

My flowers and things are not doing well. They didn't last year either. We've Miracle Grow-ed and everything but nothing seems to be growing or spreading. They just sit there. Maybe it's because it's been so cool & rainy...I don't know. Here are a few closeups...larger shots just look pitiful!

Larkspur

Coreopsis

Metal Birds

Real Birds

Yum...tomatoes!

Pretty In Pink

2009-06-01T20:04:00.011-05:00

Don't y'all just love that movie? I still think Andie should have ended up with Duckie. How can you not love Duckie? At least we can see Jon Cryer on Two And A Half Men. That show is hilarious! But, I digress...

This is a card I made on Saturday for my niece's birthday. It's pretty & pink! I ran a circle of cardstock through the Cuttlebug with the Swiss Dots embossing folder. Then I colored a chipboard letter with a marker and "painted" over that with Stickles glitter glue (Diamond). The flowers (camelias to be exact) were cut using SCAL & my Cricut.

Here's a close up of the flowers. This was the first time I'd made any and it was so easy. They look almost like real dried flowers in person. I added little rhinestones to the centers for some bling.

I added the ribbon using a tutorial I found. It's the best way IMO. (OK...I had a link to the tutorial but for some strange reason only a blank page comes up when you click on it. If you Google "Stamp With Lisa + ribbon tying" it should come right up.)

Hey, Y'all!

2009-06-01T14:42:00.007-05:00

Harry and friend.
I love this picture. Harry just walked over & sat down beside the dog.
What are they looking at I wonder?

Welcome to my new blog! I had planned on posting a picture of my front porch or some outdoor shot but the sun just won't cooperate today. Why the change? I really, really disliked my old blog...especially the name. And...I made other changes in my life as well.

Not long after the first of the year I just got a huge urge to simplify and change things up. I started with my "artistic-ness" and my studio. I used to sew, knit, do counted cross-stitch, play with paper, and do other various crafts. In my studio were all kinds of crafting supplies, sewing stuff, fabric, cross stitch supplies, knitting supplies, patterns, magazines, stuff I'd printed from the computer for projects...not to mention my computer groaning with the weight of all the stuff I'd saved on there! For longer than I care to admit I really didn't accomplish anything because I'd go into my studio, start looking at and through stuff and become overwhelmed with it all. I could never decide what I wanted to make or where to start.Then I'd sit down at the computer and surf for more stuff or just give up and play a game!

So, I decided I'd pick my favorite thing and just concentrate on that. I picked paper because I've loved playing with it ever since I was little. I pulled out everything in my studio, sorted it out and...GAVE IT ALL AWAY! (Except for things related to paper, of course.) A whole pile of yarn, needles, patterns, tools, etc. went to one person. The cross-stitch stuff to another...and so on. Those ladies were happy! And so was I. I did keep my sewing machine and some basic sewing supplies. What a relief not to have all that stuff hanging over my head...literally...because it was all upstairs...ha ha!

Not only that...we swapped my studio and the master bedroom. Now we have a huge room. (A huge room that needs a lot of fluffing up...but we'll get to that.)

Well, I better get this posted before it turns into a book. Y'all come back soon.