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Sunday, October 23, 2011

Spooky!!

I absolutely love country living.
There is one thing I miss about living in town.
(and this is the absolute only thing I miss)
Trick-or-Treat night.
When we lived in town, the street we lived on
was literally invaded by little ones
in all shapes, sizes, ugly, pretty,
scary, odd, everything you can imagine.
Sometimes the parents would dress up with their kids.
It was great.
So, because I miss it so much, I invited some family and friends
to bring their kids out to our 'haunted' house
to trick-or-treat us
(hopefully it's all treats!!)

So I made these little 
from my hero, Monica Solorio-Snow
I'm going to fill them with Halloween goodies
to pass out to the little monsters kids.


(note: to see this picture better, click here. Blogger was giving me troubles  uploading this properly)
 
I seriously love this woman.
She cracks me up like no other.
And when I say she's my hero,
I really mean it.

So check out her blog
to see what she's all about.

I guar-an-tee
you will love her like I do.
So this is my SHOUT OUT
to one of my top 5 favs.
YOU GO GIRL!!!

I bow to you, my little zombie.

Have a good one folks!

xoxo
Cindy

Saturday, October 22, 2011

What's New!

So...it's been a busy, busy week.
I have my scrappy goodie done for the Scrappy Swap on Flickr.
I've always wanted to make one of those fabric baskets
I've been seeing everyone doing.  Now I know what the buzz is all about!
They are FUN to make.
You can find the free tutorial 
I will be making lots of these.  It was fun just digging through my scrap basket
to put this little bunch of goodness together.
And here it is!


I also made another Anywhere Bag by Melissa of 100 Billion Stars.
LOVE her!
It's OK for me to say that.
She knows.
~Hey Melissa!~
LOL
 You can buy her pattern by clicking here
I made it out of pretty basic fabric this time to tone it down from
the skull bag I made previously.
Just depends on my mood as to what the bag will end up like.
And you can do the same!
This is a GREAT bag and I get compliments on the one I carry all the time.
So what are you reading this for?
Work it people!
:o)
But seriously,
no pressure.
I just love this bag.
And I get a little overly excited when I love something that much.
Do you feel for my family now?
No wonder my boys hide from me when I walk in the room after not seeing them for a while.
 

 And my oldest son turned 24 this month.
Can you believe it?
It seems just like yesterday I was holding my brand new 9 lb 15 oz baby boy.
What a great day that was.
Now I have to crank my neck to look up at him.
He's 6'3"
I'm 5'6"
And I am so very proud of the young man he's becoming.

My godson, Matt, is on the left.
He's my cousins oldest son.
Jesse & Matt are best friends
and have been since they were tiny tots.
I love them both dearly.
But boy, when the two of them are together,
they can drive me a bit nuts.
Just sayin...

I hope you find a lot to be grateful for on your list today!

Until the next adventure....
Happy Creating!!

xoxo
Cindy

Friday, October 14, 2011

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!!!

Hello!!

And Happy Announcement Day!

And Happy Birthday to my mom!
You know, I'll admit, I don't know what I'm doing in blog land sometimes.

I wanted to make sure this was fair, so I used the Random Number Generator.

And when I copied the box, it didn't copy correctly, so there must be some code I'm not finding.

But anyway....it let me copy the most important part, with the exception it changed the 7 to 100.
Ugh...I really did have 1-7 in there, but for some reason it keeps changing it back to 100 when I copy.
I cross my heart I picked from 1-7.
If any of you know how this Random Number Generator works,
can you email me?  I don't want this to happen again for any future giveaways.
In the meantime, I'll try and figure it out too.

True Random Number Generator 
 
 
 
 Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Congratulations, Sarah!!

And thank you to all who entered!  I appreciate the time you take to read
about my 'not so exciting' life.  LOL

HAPPY FRIDAY!!
XOXOXOX
Cindy



Sunday, October 9, 2011

Recipe, Giveaway & More!

Hey!
I'm sorry I'm late getting this posted.
I was in kind of a slump.
I don't think I ever mentioned this, but 2 1/2 years ago
my husband's job of almost 25 years was eliminated.
For the past 2 1/2 years he's been a 'temp' employee.
Anyhoo...he had an opportunity to apply for a pretty awesome job...and so he went for it.
He scored high on his test.
His interview went incredibly well.
They gave him a tour
(no one else had made it that far)
and for the first time in 2 1/2 years, we had hope.
Hope of a secure future.
You never know how much that means to you until you loose it.
Friday he came home from work.
He came up to my sewing room
and looked at me with those sad, brown eyes.
He had received a voice mail from this business.
He didn't get the job.
Ugh.

But we continue to have faith.
Heck, we aren't the only ones in this boat.
So God must have better plans for my little Skeeter.
He's a good man.
And I do believe deep in my heart
God has something great in store for him.
But if you are the praying kind,
and could keep my sweet hubby in your prayers,
along with everyone else out there looking for permanent employment,
we would greatly appreciate it.

Yeah...and the Iowa Hawkeye's lost the football game this weekend.
That was the icing on the cake, I tell ya!

Now on to happy thoughts!!
So here's what I worked on this week.

A cute dog and matching pillow case.  
Hhhmmm....who could this be for?


And I made these to sell at our local craft shop.
Three Ghastlie pillows and two Iowa Hawkeye pillow cases
(I hope they sold before the game!)


 And the recipe I told you I was going to post the other day?
Well...it's my own, made-up version of chicken roll-ups.

I was scrounging for something for supper.
I had some leftover lasagna noodles and a few pieces of boneless skinless chicken breasts.
I boiled the breasts in chicken broth.
Once they were done, I took the chicken out and shredded it,
then started cooking the noodles in the chicken broth.
(So far I had 8 noodles and 3-1/2 chicken breasts)
To the shredded chicken I added cream cheese (about 5 oz) and sour cream 
(just enough to make it easily spreadable)
Then added some parsley flakes, garlic powder, salt & pepper.
(all to taste)
Set that aside.
In a skillet I melted some butter and added some flour.
By this time, the noodles are done, so I laid them out flat on a cookie sheet.
To the skillet mixture I added the broth from the chicken/noodles
( just to make it almost creamy...just keep adding by the spoonfuls until it turns into a thick, creamy mixture,
but not too runny)
Let this come to a boil and add your garlic powder (yeah...I'm a garlic junkie), salt & pepper to taste.
Once you've added that, pour in a 14 oz can of petite diced tomatoes - juice and all.
(this is why you don't want your mixture too runny - the juice from to tomatoes will finish it off)
Stir, turn the heat of, and get ready to prepare your noodles.
Spread the chicken mixture on each noodle, then sprinkle with shredded cheese (I used cheddar).
Roll them up and place them into a greased 9x13 pan.
Once you have all 8 roll-ups done, take  your sauce and pour over the noodles.
Top with shredded cheese and cover the pan with foil.
Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.
If you try this, let me know what you think!

And now on to the best part of this post!
As I've mentioned, I've been the very lucky winner of a few blog giveaway's, so I would like to return the favor.

Halloween is on of my favorite holiday's.
So in honor of that, I got you some of these cool little things.


This stuff is SO much fun! 
The skull tray is a silicone one that you use to make ice cubes.
Then you have your Halloween cupcake cups with little happy toothpick decorations,
along with a set of test tubes filled with sprinkles for whatever you choose to sprinkle!

Here's a close up of the tray

Are these cute or what?

And all you have to do is leave me a comment telling me what you love about Halloween.
Any favorite traditions?
Any favorite costume?
Any favorite memory?

If you want to follow my blog, that's even better!
If you want to share this giveaway on your blog, or twitter, or whatever, that's ever better times 2!
But the only thing you HAVE to do is leave a comment and make sure you're not a "No Reply Blogger".
To make sure you're not,
click on this site.
does a beautiful job of explaining this.

So I can't tell you if you've won, if you're a "No Reply Blogger".
This is open to my International friends too.
Only one comment per person.

The drawing will be held on my sweet mommy's birthday, October 14th, so you have until midnight
October 13th to leave me a comment for your chance at these cool Halloween goodies!

Good luck, my friends!!
xoxo
Cindy

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Goodie Swap Package 2

Hello!
I received my second mug rug and goodie package 
from Linda.
I love it!
I was hoping I was going to get one of these thread catchers.
And let me tell you,
I started using is ASAP.
It's so much nicer then throwing the threads on the floor and sweeping them up later.
LOL

Thank you SO much, Linda for such a thoughtful package.
There was the CUTE cupcake mug rug,
a beautiful fat quarter
two thread catchers,
a needle case,
(thank you!  I needed one!)
postcards,
and an Ireland calender.
(which I LOVE)
Ireland is on my bucket list
and these pictures make me want to get there FAST!


Did I win the jackpot or what?
I had two wonderful partners to send to, 
along with receiving from 2 amazing partners.
It was the perfect swap.

So, I got to thinking,
"what am I going to do with all of these wonderful swap gifts?"
So I decided to use my sewing room wall
to help display them.
I didn't want to store them away.
I wanted to see them all the time!


So here's to the beginning of a beautiful, growing collection from all over the world.
From the USA I  have Alabama & Illinois covered.
From other countries I now have Denmark, Ireland & Australia.
All this just makes my heart swell.

I have two things coming up this week, so make sure to keep a look out.
I have an awesome new recipe to post
AND........

I AM HAVING MY FIRST GIVEAWAY!
Yep.
Sure am!
I have been so blessed to win some pretty nice things from other blogger giveaways
that it's time for me to pass it on.

Stay tuned!
xoxo
Cindy