We're going on an Acorn Hunt!

I have had so much fun browsing through everyone's Fall/Halloween decorations. I came across PB Decor Ideas over at A Pumpkin and A Princess and was inspired to make my own.

The kids had picked up some acorns in the yard the other day so I knew this would be something they would like to help me with.


At first Big Bro seemed much more excited to collect acorns then Little Sis but after he had collected a few, he was done with it.


Little Sis showing off her acorns she collected.


Big Bro caught a blurry, but cute picture of Me and Little Sis


This was the final product. I will probably add a few other things and was looking for more of Fall colors for the ribbon but this will have to do for now. We have lots of acorns that are left over as well. Any suggestions of what to do with those?

The glass vases I found at Dollar Tree for $1 each. The candles that are in the smaller vases came in a 5 pack for $1 and are Green Tea spice scented. They actually smell pretty good.

I know my picture isn't nearly as good as the natural lighting on the PB one, but I thought it turned out the acorns turned out pretty cute. The kids also enjoyed helping on this one.

Favorite Friday

Welcome to Favorite Friday #2!

So, on my favorite Friday's I'm going to list a favorite of mine. It could be a product, place, really anything. I'm then going to link to a favorite that someone else has created that I want to show off.

I would also love for you to comment with a favorite of yours.

Today I'm listing my favorite flavor of Pillsbury Toaster Strudel.


It is the Pillsbury Toaster Strudel CINNABON Cinnamon Roll Strudel. Yummy! I've had a hard time finding these in several locations. Locally where I am I've been able to find them at Lowe's Foods and occasionally at Wal-mart. I looked on their site and didn't even see the flavor there. If you haven't tried them, you should. It is good.

If you have had the Pillsbury Toaster Studel, what is your favorite flavor?

A favorite post that I'm going to share this week is by A Pumpkin and a Princess with her PB Decor Ideas. The reason why this is my favorite this week is because I was inspired by the acorn decoration which I will be posting about next.


Pottery Barn picture from her post that inspired me.

Also check out her Halloween Candy Jar. I plan on making it as well. Super cute!

Sunday songs

Our congregation at Church sang "You are God Alone" this morning and I just heard it again on the radio.

I wanted to share it with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMXpHhr_NkA

We had a great service this morning. We had the pleasure of having Vocal Union with us this morning.


Photo from http://vocalunion.com/

They are an acappella group from Nashville, TN. I could just listen to them all day.

You can hear one of their beautiful songs here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H5cQKd3z4c

One of the Men in the group mentioned they had performed previously at Carnegie Hall and a blogger had emailed them to ask if they had a soundtrack or a band playing in the back. They are amazing though. The one guy sounded just like a set of drums. If you've never heard them, definitely check them out and see them live if at all possible.

After we heard Vocal Union, Pastor Jon had another great message. We had a great attendance today for our Anniversary service. There were a lot of faces that I hadn't seen in a while.

After service we had a great lunch on the premises.

This afternoon I watched some football with the hubby and kids.

It was a great day!

Cooking it up for lunch tomorrow!

Tomorrow at church we are having our 27th Anniversary. Everyone brings food and we eat after service.

Here is what I have cooked up.



Salsa Chicken and Rice.

You can find my recipe for it here.

I haven't baked it yet, I will wait to do that in the morning. It is all ready to go in the oven and look like this though.



Simply Herb Bread with Herb Butter Spread
I forgot to get a picture of the Herb butter. It makes the bread even better though. Yummy!


Absolutely Almond Pound Cake
Oops! I got grate marks on the pound cake. This was from flipping it over onto the cooling rack while it was hot. Oh well, is still tastes good.

and good ole Southern Sweet Tea.

I know this is a hodge podge of stuff. It's not necessarily meant to eat together though. For those not familiar with pot luck dinners, all the food is set on a long table or in this case lots of long tables and you just come down the line and pick and choose.

Looking forward to our church service in the morning and looking forward to the food and fellowship afterward. :)

Favorite Friday

Welcome to Favorite Friday #1!

I thought I would start a post for Favorite Friday. I will probably eventually do a link up here but haven't figured all that out yet. :)

I worked on making a button yesterday for Favorite Friday but it is still a work in progress. If anyone wants to take a look over at my sidebar and see what I'm doing wrong that would be very helpful!

So, on my favorite Friday's I'm going to list a favorite of mine. It could be a product, place, really anything. I'm then going to link to a favorite that someone else has created that I want to show off.

I would also love for you to comment with a favorite of yours.

Today I'm listing my favorite paper towel!



Bounty is my favorite! It is thick and while sometimes a little pricier then other brands you don't have to use as many sheets to wipe up. You can also usually find coupons in your local paper for Bounty along with other Procter and Gamble products.

Now, if you will... share with me your favorite brand of paper towels.

A favorite post that I'm going to share is Busy-at-Home Basic Homemade English Muffins. Don't those look yummy! I definitely want to try these out myself.

I made a button!

Yay, I'm so excited because I learned how to make a button tonight. You can check it out on my right side.

I'm going to be using this on Friday's. I will also make another button just for my website and maybe a few more. It is very basic, but at least I was able to do it. I followed a fabulous tutorial over at Following the Footsteps.

Don't ask me if you have questions though because I don't know what to tell you. :) This was my first button and I'm very proud of myself.

UPDATE:
Ok, so after messing around with it, I still don't have the code figured out. It is way to late tonight though. I will have to play around with it again tomorrow.

It is now up and running! A huge THANK YOU to Kris over at Yakety Craft. I wouldn't have been able to do it without you! Go check her out and show some love. She is just getting her blog up and running.

Toilet Paper Pumpkin

I first saw these cuties over at The Sweet Life . She had an easy tutorial and these are the most simple and fastest things to make.

I bought a 4 pack of toilet paper from The Dollar Tree a few days ago to use for these. My intention was to make 4 of these but my kids saw me making it and wanted to try it as well. It is so easy to do I just had to let them make their own.

I used brown paper bags, fabric the size of my cutting board (probably around 18x20), toilet paper, ribbon, and scissors or a rotary cutter.




Put your toilet paper in the bag and cut off the top. Leave enough to stuff inside your toilet paper and save the piece you cut off for your stem.


Center your toilet paper on your fabric and do the same as you did with your paper bag. Push the fabric into the center until your pumpkin is covered.


Take the piece of paper bag you have remaining and fold it twice lengthwise then once the other way.


You can then tie a ribbon onto your stem.


I then sat them on some candle holders.


The kids excited about the pumpkins they made. :)

Garlic Gourmet Chicken Breast

Garlic Gourmet Chicken Breast
Submitted by Debbie Carson (MD)

Ingredients
4 tsp. Garlic Garlic™
1 tsp. Seasoned Salt
1 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 cups crushed herb-seasoned stuffing
3 Tbsp. melted butter

Directions
Combine first 4 ingredients. Add chicken to sour cream mixture; coat each piece well. Cover; refrigerate overnight or up to 24 hours. Remove chicken from sour cream mixture; roll in stuffing. Place in ungreased baking dish; drizzle with butter. Bake at 425° for 20 minutes or until golden brown. Makes 4 servings.

http://www.tastefullysimple.com/tryourrecipes/recipes.aspx?rid=3277&src=s

Pillowcases for Craft Hope to benefit terminally ill children

I came across Craft Hope over at Craft Gossip. Craft Hope's current project is ConKerr Cancer. September is Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month. The project includes making pillowcases for terminally ill children. If you're interested you still have a little bit of time. The deadline is for the project is September 15th.

Here are the pillowcases I made today. There are a few Ladies in my church that have also made some and we are going to mail them off together.



The pattern they have listed is pretty easy to follow. It just requires basic sewing skills, so go ahead and make a few!

Baby Bling Shoes

I've had these canvas shoes for quiet some time now. I bought them in a wholesale set with lots of Children's clothes. The brand is Jaffa By Oink Baby. Oink Baby makes some super cute clothes. When I first got the lot I was able to sell a lot on ebay later on I was having a hard time moving them. So, since I've been hanging onto them for so long I decided I would add some bling to them and see if they will sell it my Etsy shop. I haven't listed any yet. Trying to decide on how much to list them for. Tell me what you think. I found several embellished with Swarovski and they were like $80-$90. Whoa! I'm thinking around $20? I have some dark blue ones also, but wasn't sure if I could sell those to a baby girl. Any ideas of embellishing baby boy shoes?

Sausage Manicotti

I found the recipe on All Recipes and have used it lots! I'm not a Ricotta cheese fan, so I like the fact that it uses cream cheese instead.

I pretty much follow the recipe but add more Mozzarella cheese, use the whole box of Manicotti and more sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground sausage
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 2 cups mozzarella cheese, shredded
• 1 (16 ounce) jar spaghetti sauce
• 12 manicotti shells

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add manicotti shells and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.
3. In a skillet over medium heat, brown the sausage; drain and keep hot. In a large bowl combine cream cheese, 1 3/4 cup of the mozzarella cheese and sausage.
4. Stuff noodles with cheese and sausage mixture; place in baking dish. Pour sauce over top of noodles and sprinkle with extra cheese. Bake for 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

This is what the cooked sausage, cream cheese and Mozzarella look like before stuffing your noodles. I use about 2 cups of Mozzarella in the cheese mixture and then top the manicotti with another cup. I could eat this stuff by itself. Sounds gross, but it is tasty! Like I mentioned earlier, I also cook the whole box of manicotti. Just don't stuff the noodles too full or you won't have enough for all of them.


Suggestion: After the noodles are done cooking, spray your pan with cooking spray and put the noodles in it to cool a bit. Very important to spray your pan so your manicotti doesn't stick. As you can see some of my noodles come apart, but that is no biggie. I use my fingers to stuff the noodles. It's much easier then trying to use a spoon. I forgot to take a picture but you then add your sauce. The recipe calls for 16 oz, but I use a whole jar. They are usually about 26-28 ounces. I then top the sauce with a cup of Mozzarella cheese.


Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes then enjoy!

Fall/Autumn Fabric Rag Wreath

I posted a tutorial on how to do this the other day. They are easy to make but just time consuming.


This one is hanging on my front door.


I've sold this one and had lots of people wanting me to make the Halloween wreath in my tutorial also, so I need to get to work.

I also posted one of the Halloween wreaths in my Etsy store.

Organizing Fabric

Ok, for all you organizers out there, I need some help!

I have LOTS of fabric and I'm not sure what to do with it all.


I have 2 of these 3 shelved bins stuffed full of fabric. I also have lots of fabric that is just sitting around waiting for a spot somewhere.

Anyone have some suggestions to help me organize a bit better. Should I just buy another one of these bins or does someone have a clever way to store fabric?

Any suggestions would be great and I'm a visual person, so links to a picture of how you store your fabric would be great!

Just by glancing around on other blogs I've found these:
http://blog.petitdebutant.com/2008/10/organize-your-fabric-stash.html
http://thedomesticdiva.wordpress.com/2007/06/30/sewing-room-organization-challenge-part-i-fabric/
http://houseonhillroad.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/05/my_little_space.html
http://www.judymartin.com/Sewing-Room-Judy.cfm
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/2968013530055697428wSQxzc
http://home-and-garden.webshots.com/photo/1109747537043438530BZwMtF

I'm sure there are dozens more, but I'm done for the night.

A Tastefully Simple Dinner!

Tonight for dinner we had Smoky Bacon Pork Chops, Oven Roasted Balsamic & Basil Potatoes, and a salad with Vidalia Onion Dressing.

You can view our new Fall-Winter e-catalog or just check out my website.

The Smoky Bacon Grill Sauce was a Spring-Summer item, so it's availability isn't guaranteed.


For the Balsamic and Basil Oven Roasted Potatoes, I diced up some potatoes and onions. Probably 4 small ones. I also added some onion as well. I then added a little Garlic Pepper Seasoning (which is also a Spring-Summer item, and I'm very sad to see it go) some Seasoned Salt, and Balsamic & Basil Dipping Oil. I very rarely measure ingredients unless I'm following a recipe. Even then I usually just add ingredients until I think it looks right.


These are the yummy potatoes and onions after they baked @ 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes, stirring a few times while they cooked.


For the pork chops, I sprinkled on Garlic Pepper Seasoning and Seasoned salt. I then rubbed it into the meat. I also drizzled a little bit of olive oil onto the pork chops so they wouldn't stick to the grill. After the pork chops were almost finished cooking I brushed on some Smoky Bacon Grill Sauce. I have found that if I add the sauce to a small bowl then apply to the meat I don't use as much. I may sell the stuff, but I still like to let my $ go as far as it can. :)


These were the yummy pork chops after I took them off the grill.


I also had a simple salad with lettuce, carrots, onion, croutons and Vidalia Onion Dressing.