Thanksgiving wrap up...

 I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving weekend! We had a very relaxing 4 days =) Last Wednesday I made the cranberry sauce for dinner on Thursday. I received this recipe several years ago from a friend and have been making my own cranberry sauce ever since. Last year I began substituting agave for the sugar and can't tell the difference.

 This is what it looks like when it has cooked for about 10 minutes.

 Then I just put it into jars for easy storage and gift giving.

 I also made the candied sweet potatoes on Wednesday. I used both sweet potatoes and yams.

 I received this recipe from my sister in law, I did substitute agave, but still added the brown sugar. These are the best, the hubby LOVES them.

This year I baked only one pie. Since it is just the hubby and I, we don't really need two pies! haha! So Pumpkin it was... made with agave and wheat crust. YUM! The pie was baked on Wednesday too.

 I made a few little changes to my center piece...

 set the table using cloth napkins and cute little place settings =)

 On the back of the hubbys I wrote what I was thankful for...

 He knows me too well, he immediately turned it over to read what I had written.

 Yum, dinners ready!

 The candied sweet potatoes ready to be eaten.

 One of my Pottery Barn inspired candles...

 A full plate of food!

Pie for dessert, with homemade whipped cream... 

We spent the day in our jammies, it snowed and was cold... Scott did go out and shovel the driveway and to buy me a newspaper so we could look at the Black Friday ads. By the time dinner was over it was raining and most of the snow was melted =) gotta love that.

Today I have a mountain of laundry to do, some groceries to buy, I am going to try my darndest to pack up at least a couple boxes of books from the bookcases downstairs. Take down Thanksgiving decorations, and finish wrapping the last of the Christmas presents.

I am going to try to make a batch of chocolate covered cherries too! Guess I better get moving!

Have a fabulous day!

Random November 16, 2010

 Yesterday I finally couldn't take it any longer and lit a fire in the upstairs fireplace. It really wasn't that cold outside, I think it was 50, but it was raining and we were expecting a wind storm. Okay and I had a new Christmas magazine =) and a big mug of chai tea!

 A few years ago my Mom-in-law and Dad-in-law sent us these pine cones for the fireplace that are coated with something that makes the fire all different shades of blues, greens and purples. I absolutely love to use them, both inside and outside when we use our fire pit.

 This is my new favorite salad... baby greens, roasted chicken breast (cubed), almonds, sliced apples, Gorgonzola cheese, topped with olive oil, red wine vinegar, sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Yummy good, sometimes I stuff it into a pita too!

 We had quite the wind storm last night!

 I really thought with all the noisy branches hitting the house, roof and windows that there would be more downed branches.

 The nice thing is that all these branches will get used in my Christmas decorating =)

 While I was out photographing all the branches and piling them up, I noticed even more mushrooms.

 These are so tiny and cute.

 See?

 Of course, I still love these ones. I know my friend Jessica has these growing in her yard too.

 The front one almost looks like a button mushroom.

Kind of a boring post I know. I just haven't been feeling very creative so far this week. I've kind of had a tummy bug for a couple days. So I have just been hanging out reading Christmas magazines, a book about composting (I plan are starting in the spring) and studying up on chickens.

picture from heatherbullard.typepad.com

picture from heatherbullard.typepad.com

We have decided our house will be going up for sale January 15, 2011! So be prepared for some final home improvement posts, and a few days of silence while I am busy packing up things in boxes ;)

Have a pleasant day,

Coffee sacks and cookies

 Yesterday was quite a productive day! I finished all the laundry, cleaned the house, picked up some groceries, and did a little sewing. Above is the bulletin board I am working on using one of the coffee sacks I picked up at the Ruffles and Rust show over the weekend. I am using a frame I already had... but decided to paint it Heirloom White since I still had a can laying around. I will return tomorrow with the finished bulletin board!

 With the leftover part of the sack I decided to make a sample pillow, boy does that stuff fray like crazy! Ha! Andrea came over to sew her pillows, but I told her I would play around with my sample pillow for a few days before we made her pillows. I did double sew around all the edges and so far so good.

Today I am going to finish a couple projects since the sewing machine is out. Maybe sew on a couple cards too. It is another blustery day out side. Usually the winds don't come until November, so they are a couple weeks early this year. Luckily we are all ready for winter, lots of firewood, water, batteries, and canned food that can be warmed on the fireplace or the propane stove =) just in case!

 I made cookies and banana bread yesterday using wheat flour and oat bran in both. Somehow I didn't get a picture of the banana bread. The hubby has given the thumbs up on both!

I am thinking my sample pillow needs a little foo-fooing maybe some ruffles or flowers?

Quick update on the house hunting: we are headed back to the "Laurie House" tonight, but we did hear last night from our realtor that another couple has looked at the house 4 times and were putting an offer in today. "If it is meant to be it will be" is the motto we go by! We lost the house we are in 2 times to other buyers, before it finally became ours.

Thanks for stopping in today!

{happy} canvas and cookies

 I had every intention yesterday of finishing some of the projects I have going in the crafty studio... mini books, Christmas cards, Thanks banner instead the only thing I managed to finish was this 12x12 canvas. I had originally planned it to be on a 24x24 canvas, but liked this better. This is one of my very favorite pictures we had taken by carlyteephotography in our Valentines Day mini photo shoot.

 I chose some paper that went well together and cut them into 4x4 squares. It reminded me of a quilt, so I added some buttons, and one of my crochet birdies from etsy.

 I have had the vinyl saying for quite a while, I bought it at Treasury when it was still open. I am very pleased with how this came out, for now it is hanging in the dining room. I am still waiting for recipe cards from family members so this fills the spot for now.

 I discovered a lost jar of Traders Joes peanut butter yesterday in the cupboard that was close to expiring so I made peanut butter cookies.

 I used the same recipe as here, but I didn't put in the almond extract, I replaced 1/2 the butter with  peanut butter and replaced 1/2 a cup of oat bran instead of the wheat flour. I doubled it, since I wanted to use as much of the peanut butter as possible, and I didn't use the cookie press, just dropped them on the cookie sheet.

They were even better than normal peanut butter cookies! The hubby loves them (and Koko too!)

I will leave you with a sneak peak of the view from the house I am looking at this morning, my realtor couldn't get me in yesterday... so I drove by 3 times and parked. Can't wait to see the inside, I have already decorated the rooms I can see in the pictures! I HOPE this is THE house. 

Have an inspiring day!

Painting, dinner and reading

 My chalkboard cupboard project is not quite done yet but here is a couple of pics while you are waiting!

 I am actually loving this one now too! haha!

 Green Apple paint YUM!

 the other one is Heirloom White.

 The chalkboard paint takes a little while to dry, and I have been sanding in between layers, I may need to get the spray on kind.

 I received the BEST thing today in the mail from my best friend Kari! Thank you soooo much Kari! Have you seen these? I wish I would have had one when I was doing all my traveling! It holds the VIA packages of coffee IN it!

 See?! Very clever, thank you again Kari!

 I am craving BBQ beef sliders... so I am going to attempt to make a healthy recipe for them. I have  a little roast in the crockpot with some red wine. I will let it cook for a few hours then drain the wine out and add some homemade bbq sauce using agave and shred the meat.

 When done I will place them on these whole grain dinner rolls and serve with homemade healthy coleslaw! If it tastes okay I will post my recipes=D

In the meantime... I am on the final book and cannot put it down, so it may be a reading day! haha! I stayed up WAY too late last night reading ;)

Hope you have a great Tuesday!