Sunday, August 30, 2009

Fall and Halloween Beginnings

Last year during Fall I saw these pumpkins on many of your blogs and fell in love with them. This year i decided I was going to grace my home with them. I placed them in my Swan dish and they are on the coffee table in the living room. I love em!
Being Sunday and just grazing at home, I am beginning to go threw all my Halloween Decorations. Its simple, I have to much. Much of it will go this year. I'm still on my quest of de-cluttering and that includes all my decorations. I will sacle it down to my favorites and thats it. My kids can pick thru it--the rest is going to be donated. AND.. I have alot. This year my plan is to have several big things--a few small things and thats enough. I dont know if there is such as thing as "classy scary decorating" but that is where I'm at...like Martha Stewart. I cant wait to put her witch up. I pulled out a couple of things to start placing around the house. I cant officially go nuts until after Labor Day and even then--I'm kinda pushing it. But hey, I'm one of those that feels the holidays (all of them) are way to short so I like to enjoy the decorations long before the "official" day.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Perfect Sunflower

I love having sunflowers towards the end of summer. I looked this weekend at the couple of stores I was at and they werent in the prettiest shape. When I came home from work yesterday I saw this on my coffee table. Isnt she pretty?

Baldyman went out to the flower shop and picked one up. I love how they have a matching vase. Sometimes, the perfect flower is just one pretty one. I missed planting sunflowers this season, totally forgot, so going to the shop to get one is something we just have to do this year.
Do any of you have sunflowers that you can just walk outside and pick and enjoy for a few days?

Sunday, August 23, 2009

A storm and a Duck Rain Coat!

Here's Ms Ellie outside playing in the rain. She's wearing a little duck rain coat I found for her. Isnt she adorable? She wouldnt talk to me or look at me so I could get the front of the coat. It has a duck face. She's been a real little monster lately. This was a weird storm we had last week, you could literally see the rain coming like curtains and you had time to get inside. We have a small set of woods behind the houses where we live and you could also hear the rain in the woods before it hit us.
I tried to capture the rainbow, maybe if you click on the picture and enlarge it, you will be able to see the rainbow. These are the summer rainstorms I enjoy, they dont last all day and they still allow you to be outside. There wasnt much lightning with this one either so as bad as the sky looks, Ellie was able to play outside.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Boo--well almost Boo!

More Halloween goodies I found this weekend! I found this witch at Marshalls. It sits on a stand and is made of out of like plywood. I think she's adorable. I'm thinking I'll place her on the front porch.
Its possible these are her feet. Sadly, she may have been pulled apart, well thats the vision I have since its Halloween and I like to think scary thoughts. These will grace my front door as a greeting.
AND....I already started using this glass. Ghouls just want to have fun. What woman dosnt love a good hearty laugh and a good glass to drink something from. This was purchased from Kirklands. They have some really cute Halloween stuff this season. I found a ton of goodies there, but this was my only purchase. Hope your weekend was great!

Friday, August 14, 2009

Middle of the night monster!

Every morning I kid you not, I wake up to this! Every rug in my house is messed up. Doesnt miss a room.
These are my new ones, and last night she must have really been mad because she really messed this one up.
and here she is, the middle of the night monster of the house....Ms. Genie. She's on guard right now watching the UPS man. Whenever the UPS man comes she runs thru the house like a nutcase, barking and howling. When I get a package she's really insane. I dont know why she does this at night--but when we go to bed I can hear her start scratching at the rugs and pulling on them. By morning, she's hit every room.

Do any of your pets do weird things around your home while your sleeping?

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Homemade Bread Pudding-Biltmore Recipe!

Does this NOT look so good you could eat the entire pan? I LOVE LOVE LOVE bread pudding. I've tried many recipes and this one will be the one I keep and use. The Biltmore Estate Asheville North Carolina makes this bread pudding. I've been wanting to try this for along time and finally yesterday since it was a rainy day here I did some cooking. This is so good alone, I dont mind forgoing the Caramel Sauce...hey you probably need to save some calories anyhow. My guess is this is about 2000 per look!

8 Cups Cubed day old bread 1-3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
9 eggs 1 Cup Sugar
2-1/4 Cups milk 3/4 butter melted
3 tsps vanilla extract 1-1/2 tsp cinnamon

Place bread cubes in a greased 9x13x2 pan. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, milk cream, sugar, butter, vanilla and cinnamon. Pour evenly over bread. Bake uncovered 350 for 40-45 minutes until a knife in center comes out clean. Let stand for 5 minutes before cutting.

Caramel Sauce:

1 Cup Sugar 1/2 Cup water
1 TB Lemon Juice 2 TB butter
1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream

Bring sugar and water and lemon juice to boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook until sugar
is dissolved and mixture turns amber color ( this takes awhile) Stir in butter until melted. Add Cream, remove from heat. Serve over pudding.

*And yes I added raisins to the recipe,,,I cannot eat bread pudding without a raisin in every bite.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Cards, What do you do with them?

For all of the special days in our lives thruout the year, so many of us get blessed to get so many beautiful cards from our loved ones. I dont know about you, but i HATE to toss them out. Cards are expensive, cards have alot of sentiment, and you know when someone has taken time to pick out a card with thoughts of you in mind.

I have cards all over the house in piles because I cant toss them out. At Christmas I pull out favorites from years gone by and some that came from special people. Those are easy to deal with because they are packed away for most of our year.

What about the cards we get for Mothers and Fathers Day, our birthdays, sweetest day...etc. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions on what to do with them or Just exactly what do some of you do?

Monday, August 3, 2009

Welcome Baby Eli to the World!

Elijah Gregory was born today! I was there and cant even remember the time..but it was around noon. I was privilged once again to see another grandchild enter our world. He's a beautiful baby boy and one of the calmest babies I've seen ever. Whats funny is his Daddy (my oldest son) did just as he did when he entered the world, he just looked around and kept looking and checking things out. I still remember laughing at how he just laid there and looked around.
Above photo is of Baldyman and Eli, and here is me and Baby Eli.
Here he is just minutes after birth--not even cleaned up and already looking really good.
AND....proud Mom and Dad, Toshina and Jason. She had a very early trip to the hospital so I know she's pretty wore out. Hopefully Eli will be as calm at home and she can get back on her feet real quick.

All the babies are born now--safe and sound. This makes #5 of grandchildren for me and Baldyman. We were talking today at how we had 5 children and now we stand at 5 grandkids.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Farmers Market, Day at the Lakefront

On Saturday, (sniff-sniff) I had to return my car. My lease has come to an end. I was going to take before and after pictures of it, but decided to just let it go. I'm now joining the ranks of driving around in a clunker BUT no payments! Which means more money for things like Farmers Market...so my sadness ended real quick! This is Rose and Jim by the fountain where the Farmers Market is held in Kenosha. She is holding my flowers because she was to cheap to buy her own.
This is a photo from a little park where all the boats are docked. Its very pretty here.
This is the farmers market. In the background are all these condos, which I think would be a great place to live right now. Baldyman dosnt agree and so I wont get to live on the lake by the Farmers Market with a huge fountain view. He is mean.
This photo is of me laying in the little water sprayers. What? You dont see me? Well look real close, I dont have any makeup on to cover my green color and i'm laying on my back....ohhh you didnt know I was a turtle in my real life--Well I am!
And this is me of course. I'm holding the flowers that I paid for--not Rose. Again, she was to cheap to buy her own. I bought another Halloween item-which I'll post later. I dont want to depress you that its actually coming. We also bought some fresh veggies which we will eat today and of course these flowers! It was a very nice day.