NEW NIGHTSTANDS

So I am happy to say we have now bought all furniture for our bedroom that matches!!YAY! We got two new nightstands and a dresser that match the TV Stand we found at the thrift store! We haven't put together the dresser but next week on vacation we are putting it together and then rearranging the bedroom so I'll add pictures next week of the bedroom fully put together!

Here's Chuck putting together the nightstand (with help from the dogs)


Here it is all put together! And Belle is modeling for you :-)

These are so awesome because now we both have matching night stands and we have so much more room! We can easily fit our alarm clocks, glasses of water and lamps. I also can fit my book and the phone without trying to figure out how to make it fit! I am so so happy! The drawer is deep and has lots of space and now I can keep my books and magazines on the shelves and not littered all around the house!

Corn Bread Hamburger Pie

So tonight I tried out a new recipe :-) We are going camping this weekend and I'm not sure I'll get to try one out on Sunday. I might be making Pizza Joes cause they sound and look easy but we shall see. But point is: I wanted to still try a new recipe!

I made Cornbread Hamburger Pie

Ingredients:

1lb ground beef
1 tsp onion powder
1 can condensed tomato soup, undiluted
1/4 cup salsa
2 tbls ketchup
1 package corn bread/muffin mix


Some of the ingredients....

You brown the meat and drain. Then I added the soup, salsa, ketchup, salt and pepper, and onion powder. Mixed it all together. Let it heat up for a few minutes.

Then you put it all in a casserole dish and put the cornbread mix on top of it. Place it in 400 degree fahrenheit oven and bake for 20 minutes (or until cornbread is baked all the way)

I forgot to take a picture of when it first came out, so here it is after we've dug into it :-)

I just place it in bowls and we had this only for dinner. It was very filling!!! I liked it but we both decided we wanted to leave out the salsa, it just didn't taste quite right, but without the salsa it would be awesome! I guess Chuck and I just aren't big on mixing salsa into anything. Almost all recipes with salsa mixed in we decided we would prefer without. We will just leave the salsa to the chips :-)

So another successful new recipe to add to our dinner menu, especially since it was so easy and can be done on busy nights! Plus its a nice warm dinner to have a cold night :-)

My Pretty Rose

Chuck suprised me with this beautiful rose! I just had to take pictures, it's such a beautiful red!

Snickerdoodles And Tapioca!

"And for dessert I've got snickerdoodles and tapioca"...If you've seen New In Town with Renee Zwelleger, you know exactly what I'm talking about :-)

I started going through the new cook book I got from the Betty Swap I did and I saw snickerdoodles. I suck at making them but I love them so much! I decided to whip up a batch for us for dessert! So I combined all ingredients!

I chilled for 15 minutes, then I tried rolling them into balls. No such luck with me LOL they were just a little too sticky and I didn't have the patience tonight LOL. So I just dropped them onto the cookie sheet (with my new cookie scoop) and then sprinkled with cinnamon sugar! Popped into the oven....

And they came out looking like this:

YUMMY!!!

They actually didn't turn out as bad as my other ones LOL. They just aren't like the ones other people bake or that you can get at a bakery! But they work! Now I'm just wishing for some tapioca pudding :-)

Sunday Dinner - 9/27/2009

So tonight we decided to try something new with Pork Chops! So we gathered a few ingredients and got out the crock pot!

Ingredients:

2 Pork Chops
1 cup beef broth
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tbls montreal seasoning
1 tbls garlic salt


Then we mixed it all in the crock pot!

And added the pork chops!

We put the crock pot on high for 4 hours!

TA DA!! We had cooked carrots, mashed potatoes and pork chops!!

Dinner was so good! The pork chop meat just fell off and was so juicy and light! The seasoning was the perfect little spice! Definitely a repeat dinner especially since we didn't have to turn the oven on :-)!!

Pet Pictures

I just wanted to include some cute pictures we took :-)

Here is Buster and Belle sleeping together :)



And here is Buster Roo just relaxing on the loveseat :)

Betty Swap Package

So I participated in a Betty Swap through my a scrapbooking site I belong to! And I got my package from my betty yesterday!!! Just wanted to post pictures of my goody!!

HALLOWEEN/FALL DECORATION TIME!! WOO HOO

So Chuck was really anxious to put out his new Halloween decoration for his village! Unfortunately once we started unpacking we realized it was all the Halloween decoration and we are missing some Fall decorations. I think they got put in with the Christmas stuff last year after we took it down and put up the Christmas stuff. But here are some snapshots of some Halloween decorations!

This is one of the shelves above the TV, there are three shelves!!


Here is one shot of the village, that's the haunted mansion we got last year. We had to wait on this one until it got closer to Halloween because it was the display model! But it was worth the wait!

The new piece this year is the one all the way to the left! It's a mortuary/graveyard. It's fun!

I wish we could have gotten all the items lit up to show in this picture but we couldn't...So you will have to trust me that it looks AMAZING!!

And these shelves are in the dining room wall! On the shelves there are leaves laid down underneath all the figures and candle holders :-) These are my favorite!!

So that's about it. We added more decorations but I only took a few pictures. And I am hoping to find my other fall decorations this week. I love my little scarecrows and I would be heartbroke if they got lost somewhere!!

Now I just need to light some apple cinnamon candles and a pumpkin spice latte :-) I am so excited we are moving into Fall and I can't wait for the weather to show that it's fall!

Sunday Dinner 9/20/2009

So we weren't doing a new recipe tonight because I was supposed to be going to a pleasure party but I wasn't feeling up to it so I stayed home! So Chuck put this together :-)

Potstickers, Egg Rolls, and white rice!! It was so YUMMY!!


And AFTER: We devoured it! It was so good and worth turning the oven on even in this hot weather!

I think I will try a new recipe this week but I'm not sure what yet. I'll need to look around my cookbooks and try something new, but it's supposed to be so HOT that I won't want to turn the oven or stove on in this house! Maybe I'll give BBQing a shot! Chuck usually does it but I should learn how LOL!

Just a Quick Hello

So we took the pups to Petco to get groomed today and Roxy had her little mane trimmed :-) She was looking quite scruffy! And Buster Roo doesn't need a haircut but the dog loves bathes and was so happy when I picked him up. Roxy on the other hand wasn't as happy, but these cuties are looking clean, feeling soft and smelling much better :-)


Roxy now mane free :-) And they left her little beard which we love...she has gotten so grey so she looks like a little old lady half the time :-)

Sunday 9-13-2009 Dinner

So this Sunday I was on my own with the new recipe. I did Bacon Cheeseburger Pasta!!

Ingredients

6 strips bacon
8 oz penne pasta
1 lb ground beef
1 can tomato soup
1 cup cheddar cheese

First boil noodles, cook bacon, brown and drain meat. Cut bacon into pieces, toss the meat and bacon in a pan with the tomato soup.



Cook for about 5 minutes to heat up the soup mixture with the meats. Then place into a casserole dish or bowl with the penne pasta, top with cheddar cheese and let sit for a few minutes to let cheese melt.

The table set :-)

And the whole meal :-) Some yummy french bread, somewhat rustic style, with garlic seasoned green beans and the pasta mixture

It was actually pretty yummy. It was really bacony so I will probably not use as much bacon next time. But it's definitely one to add into our menu. I am so excited we are adding so many new recipes, we haven't had a boring menu week yet :-)

Craiglist STEAL of a DEAL

So last sunday my mom got me looking around on Craiglist for furniture and I am so happy she did!! We found these two side tables for $25, for both!! They are super sturdy and my mom said they are real maple wood. We are going to refinish them and paint them the same green as our throw pillows in the living room. We want to add a little more color and the green will make them pop :-) We also will replace the knobs to make them match and probably get espresso color to match the shelving!

We were so stoked about this find because they really are in great condition for only having to pay $25 and the bonus was the person we bought them from was only 5 minutes up from our house :-)

Now we just have to refinish and paint. They are in our living room now but when we take our vacation in October we are going to make them pretty. But I couldn't wait because our old tables didn't match and I love that they match now!

The only next thing we need to do in the living room after this is hang the TV and then find an table for under the TV to match the Espresso colored shelves. I can't wait to get the living room finished. Then we will have a completed living room and dining room. Slowly but surely we are getting our condo in order! Next up tear out the carpets upstairs and put in the flooring.

New Fabric

The other day I picked up this fabric to make a table runner for the fall season :-)
It only took me about an hour to do the table runner which turned out great. I was a little bummed at first when the fabric wasn't long enough to hang off the table but then I realized it's better so our cats don't play with it.

Here it is with the fall floral arrangement I mage. I am so happy the colors don't clash, I was a little worried but I just had to have the flowers and I just fell in love with the fabric.

I had just enough left over to make a couple little "covers" for our end tables. Which we got off Craigslist recently, which I'll post better pictures next :-) I'm not really sure what to call these but they are just enough to tie in the table runner to the living room tables.

This is the little side table I use all the time so the fabric won't get seen much, I always have magazines or books LOL, but it works. They are a little small but they work.

Overall it was a successful sewing day. I will probably get my Halloween ones done this week.

Engagement Card!

So my old roomie and best friend Jenny got engaged the other night while in vegas with her now Fiance :-) She moved up to Washington when her family moved to Idaho after our lease was up at our apartment and I have only seen her one time since then (it's been 2 years :-( ) And I miss her so much, so I am bummed I won't be able to celebrate when she gets back from Vegas. But I am so Happy for her! So I wanted to handmake her Congratulations on Your Engagement card :-) This is what I came up with. And since I can't be waiting at her doorstop when she gets home I picked up the Fall/Winter Issue of the Knot magazine and included it in a package for her! The two of them are perfect together and I am so happy for her!

That's a picture she had on her Myspac of her and her Fiance Jamie. The sticker below says "Two Hearts Become One"
I love this quote and it fits these two perfectly!

I was very happy with how the card turned out! I love it and I hope she and Jamie loves it :-)

Apple Pockets

I made these yesterday and they taste like little apple pies :) Perfect with a cup of coffee or some hot chocolate :)

First I rolled out some premade pie dough!!

Then mixed together the apple pie mix (also premade, I was lazy ) I added cinnamon and sugar because the apples were just plain.

I cut the pie dough into squares and placed some apple filling in the middle.

Then I folded up the edges and made them in little "pocket" squares.

Then baked them for about 20 minutes in 375 degree oven.

Some of them stayed closed some opened. Out of the first batch I made only 4 came out decent looking, which I brought down to my Paps and my Sister, they love Apple Pie :-) This batch was some I made after to work on making the pockets better :-)

Christmas Card + Recipe Swap

So I just signed up yesterday for a new swap on one of my favorite sites. And I've already finished half of it :-) I did the cards last night and it was so much fun! I love anything christmas. The middle part, the presents is a stamped embossed and then the bows and ribbons are outlined with my favorite STICKLES!!! The pointsetta stickers are from the Recollections collection, they come 4 in one pack for .99 cents at Michaels :-) I am very happy with how these turned out, now I just need to add the recipes.

A Little Hello Card

So I made this card to send with a letter to my Aunt Stacy and I was so torn cause it's one of the first cards I've made in a long time and I love it! The little dog is a stamp that I embossed and then colored in with crayons :-) Who would of that that crayons wouldn't look bad.