Turkey ala King

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Happy Spring! I know for most of us it doesn't really seem like it yet.....So let's make some warm, cozy, comfort food. Recently I got together with the Soul Sisters for our first meal swap. Jennifer Juniper got the ball rolling....We all made a dinner that we could freeze....Got together at Joy's house for a wonderful lunch and a craft ...and brought along our dinners. I didn't take any pictures....so click HERE to see all the fun over at Hope Studios....Jennifer did a great job at putting it together for us! I made a turkey dinner casserole for everyone and with the turkey I had left over I made Turkey ala King. My mom used to make it when I was a little girl and I swear I haven't had it since then.....so I googled a yummy recipe and got busy.

It turned out sooooooooooooooooo good. Even better than I remember my mom's being. And it was soooooo super easy! I remember her putting it over those little puffed pastry boats from Pepperidge Farms....I didn't even know if they still made them???? But there they were in the freezer section.

Here's the recipe if you'd like to try them.....I'm thinking next time I will just use a roaster chicken...because it's not every day I do a turkey and have leftovers to make this :)

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. butter
4-5 fresh mushrooms- sliced
1 Tbsp. flour
1 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 cup chopped, cooked turkey (or chicken)
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
In a large skilllet over medium heat, cook butter until golden brown. Saute mushrooms until tender. Stir in flour until smooth. Slowly whisk in chicken broth, and cook until slightly thickened. Stir in cream, turkey and peas. Reduce heat to low and cook until thickened. Season with salt and pepper. 4 servings.

Done. That is so easy!

I actually doubled this recipe and it was perfect for our family of 5.

Island in the Sun

It was a trip of a lifetime!!!!!! Chip and I celebrated our 20th anniversary in Barbados! We had an A.MAZ.ING time! The highlight of our trip was finding this desserted beach. I have been to Barbados many times when I was younger with my family and we came here. It was on my wishlist that I could find it and bring Chip. I asked a bunch of Bajans (the locals) and no one had heard of it. Well...that didn't deter me....we rented a car one day ( and I have to say Chip did a GREAT job of driving on the opposite side of the road on the crazy, skinny roads!) and I got us right to it. It was literally the prettiest place on earth with THE BLUEST water.

This picture was taken from the top of the cliff looking down.....absolutely no one or nothing there.

There is a very narrow staircase cut out of the coral cliff that takes you down to the beach and this is a view of the burned out old sugar cane plantation house up above overlooking the beach.

I will always treasure this in my heart.

We stopped at one of the 1,200 rum shoppes on the tiny island to have a rest  :)   ....and then continued on to Bathsheba....a breaktaking beach further up the coast.

We took a tour of the Mt. Gay rum factory on it's actual 310th birthday! They have been producing rum on the island since 1703.

Here's a view of the beach from our resort. I could never get tired of it.

We enjoyed dinners out, the steel drum bands, limbo and even karaoke one night! I got him a backgammon game for Christmas to bring along and we played everyday. We didn't have our cell phones or watch t.v. once.

And how about this sunset from our balcony every night?

It was just the most perfect week....The hardest decisions every day were which bathing suit to wear? Beach or pool? Rum punch or rum runner?????? I'm already dreaming of going back.......ahhhhhhh.

Coffee Mug Cozy

Who wouldn't love to have a cozy for their coffee mug?? I finally whipped one up for myself....I made these as a little treat for my Soul Sisters for Christmas this past year. They take next to no yarn....perfect to use up some extras in your stash. I had seen several different ones on Pinterest....But I ended up combining a few of them and making my own pattern.

If you'd like to make one yourself keep reading:

materials:

a little bit of worsted yarn

size 6 needles

cable hook

2 buttons

Cast on 56 stitches with size 6 needles. Knit 2, then purl two at the beginning of every row. Work a 4 stitch cable, then knit 2 until there are 4 stitches left in the row. Purl 2, then knit 2. On the wrong side you knit the first and last 4 stitches of every row. Continue for 16 rows then bind off. Work a buttonhole on row 4 and row 14. Sew the buttons on the opposite end. You're done. These literally take just a few hours. Get knitting :)

More Jars

I love my jars. You can click HERE to see another little post I did on other jars I love......Here are a few I keep out all winter. My dad's girlfriend gave me the snowman one on the left. It makes me happy. And the one on the right I got the day after Christmas a few years ago. They are both from the Hallmark store. And how perfect is that snowflake votive holder I got at RiteAid drugstore? ahhhhhh.....snowflakes. Don't get me started. I love them too!

Well look what I scored on at my Goodwill last week. Another Hallmark jar. With snowflakes AND mittens. MITTENS. LOVE THEM TOO. You can't really see it....but the knob on top is in the shape of a little jingle bell....

The same day I got the mitten jar, I got this merry days jar. From the Hallmark! And today I scored on ANOTHER one. I couldn't just leave it there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup. You guessed it.  Another jar from Hallmark. And mind you almost all of them still had the Hallmark sticker tags on the bottom. But I only paid .99 cents for him and $1.99 for the the other ones. I know I can't keep all of them.....So some of them may turn up as a treat for someone special next year :)

Knitting and sewing. And painting.

Wow. I can't believe it's almost the end of January. I have been loving my days. It's been snowy and cold and I've been very busy knitting, sewing and painting!! A lot. I always like to get started on my Christmas knitting in the days right after Christmas...and this year I got going on mittens. I like to have several pair in my stash. I even knit a red pair for Cub's bus driver for Valentine's Day. And for the record I don't need to look at the pattern anymore and I can knit a pair in 2 hours and 10 minutes without a potty break.

Look at this!!!! A hot water bottle cover. Who woulda thunk? I had seen one knit in cashmere on Restoration Hardware's website when I was looking around at Christmas time for $119! ....and I saw another one in my Country Living issue knit in alpaca on a farm in upstate New York fpr $68. So of course the Treatgirl decided she must need one and googled "free hot water bottle patterns" and found one for herself. I tweeked it a little bit and just used some Lions Brand yarn I had in my stash. That was the easy part. I didn't even know where to find the hot water bottle!!! Just in case you need one....they have them at Walmart for  $4.87.

Chip went to Nashville a week ago and and that also set off a flurry of sewing and painting. It all started with a new rug by my front door......Which lead to painting the office. And then the dining room. Which meant the front hall, powder room and upstairs hallway. And CindyLou's bedroom.  I did that all on my own. HE'S GONNA HELP me with the stairways, kitchen and great room. Hopefully by February 14th!! That's my deadline. :) And if I wasn't painting walls....I was painting on my ceramics. I making the cutest little things ever. NO pictures yet.....maybe later this week. Wheh. Then it was sewing new pillows. I had been around to TJMaxx and Marshall's several times and didn't find anything that spoke to me....But the down pillow inserts I had were perfectly fine. So I just got some fabric and made them myself.

And another set for the love seat....See my pretty snowman tree in the background?

Which lead to a new cover for the window seat in my kitchen.

 And if I wasn't painting or sewing I was knitting these adorable little hearts. I had forgotten all about them until a friend stopped over for a quick little lesson the day I was painting my dining room. It was a wonderful break and I was happy she inspired me. Click HERE for the pattern. Chip is away again all next week.......It's on to the kiddos bathroom re-do! And maybe a little more painting and knitting :)

It Took Me a While.....

 Happy New Year!!!!!!!!! I hope everyone is happy and heatlhy! The last few weeks have been a blur and I've been wanting to share so much....it's just life has gotten in the way. And my new phone..... Santa brought me the Samsung Galaxy and I know I'm going to love it some day.....but I'm still learning and it's getting frustrating. Anyhoo....I took these pictures of our Soul Sister Christmas party and it's taken me this long to figure out how get them off of my phone and into the computer. Yikes!!! Our annual Christmas get together was actually in January this year........so I'm not as late as it really seems. One of our sisters was very sick so we post-poned it until January 2nd. Which was sooooo nice. We met at our traditional little restaurant....

 ...We played the guess-the-waiters-name game. I was there early and he introduced himself to me and I still didn't remember it!! So I got to play too :) Here I am with MarzipanMom.

Of course we had our ornament exchange. Always homemade for less than $10.

Here are the sisters with a little extra treat I knitted for everyone....

Coffee cup cozies!! They all loved them.....Can you believe I didn't make one for myself??? I might have to do that.

And of course we conned our waiter into taking our group shot too. This year the day after the party I ran into my local Walgreens to buy my 6th tree just for all of my precious Soul Sister ornaments. I tried to sneak it in, but Chip noticed. Oh well....I don't care. It is perfect!!! And I already know what I'm making for 2013! Hope your holidays were happy!!!!! Bundle up and keep warm!

Merry Christmas to Me!!!

Aren't they THE. CUTEST. COUPLE EEEEVVVVER???? They make me soooooo happy! I have embarked on a new craftiness venue and I'm so excited about it...Ceramics! It started when I was trying to find the christmas tree with all of multi-colored lights on the tips that my mom made when I was a little girl. Come to find out she gave it away...I saw some at a craft show over the summer....but they were pretty pricey. A friend at the gym told me about a ceramics shop in a nearby town...in the meantime, I remembered my mother-in-law had made a tree like the one I was looking for.....So I turned my attention to a  Mr. and Mrs. Claus that I has seen on ebay.

I called the ceramics shop a week ago Wednesday to see if they happed to have them, and they did! Helen, the owner of the shop, asked if I wanted them done for THIS Christmas? Well, duh...Of course! She said she didn't think even she could get them done in time....Well, that's all I needed to hear! There are classes on Wednesday nights and Saturdays......I ran right down there that night and got started. I painted and painted...I brought them home and worked on them for hours....Went back last Saturday for hours, painted more hours at home and finished them up last Wednesday....Ms. Helen does the faces for you and sprays the protective coat.....But all in all, I am just thrilled with my first project. I'm hooked!!!! Ms. Helen declared that I was her best new student she ever had.  I can see a lot more ceramics in my future. It's like when I was little and loved to color....and the results are much quicker than knitting :)

While I was waiting for Ms. Helen to work on the faces and spray Mr. and Mrs. Claus I made a few other little treasures. Look how sweet this ornament is....

And Santa's little boot, too!

There are shelves full of things beckoning to be painted....I just need more shelves in my house to hold everything I want to make!

I've also been very busy doing a few other little things that have made me happy this Christmas season....

                                               

  We've lived in our house for ten years now and I've toyed with the idea of decorating our banister several times...but just never did. Well, this was the year. I got the garland for $5....and the rest of the stuff from the Dollar Tree and snowflaked it out.

 I just love it! I wish I had a plug nearby....I'd wrap some little white twinkle lights in it....but oh well. It's pretty the way it is :)

Remember when I made pickles at my dad's over the summer? After my lesson I sent the pictures to my Aunt Emily, and in return she send me this picture Christmas card from my first Christmas. I c an't believe she still had it 47 years later????  I just had to frame it :)

Here is the craft I put together for Cub's class at his Holiday party at school. Another thing I'll treasure always.

Oh...ANOTHER treasure. I had a little note Cub wrote to Santa 2 years ago....I copied it on the copier and framed it too!

While I was looking around on ebay for the Mr. and Mrs. Claus I wanted to paint....I came across these cutie patooties. i just had to have them...they're vintage and take me back to when I was a little girl.

And I conned the kiddos into painting me these sweet little ornaments. I know they really didn't want to....but they played along. When they dried, of course I slapped some Mod Podge on them and glittered them up! 

I was feeling a little stressed last week when my wrapping and baking wasn't done....but  look at all of these things I was doing? And all of it got done.....I have to keep reminding myself it always does. So in these last few days I hope you're enjoying the season. It's the most wonderful time of the year!