Category: HOLIDAYS

4th of July – Small Town USA

This is one of the reasons we left the hustle and bustle of large town west coast. Small town 4th of July parades. It seems like you either helped set up the parade, were in the parade or both. The kids on the floats call out to the kids on the street by name, everyone waves and smiles and politeness abounds. They honor the war heroes and veterans. The kids hang out waiting for the parade to start and then run out to cash in on the candy thrown by the floats.
We’ll try for some fireworks pictures later, but no promises, I may just enjoy them. Because it gets dark so late here, they won’t go off until 10PM.

Tamy

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Favorite Ingredient Friday ~Easter Edition~Heavenly Hash

My entry is actually for after Easter, what do do with those leftover ham scraps.
hosted by Overwhelmed with Joy

1 – 2 pound package frozen diced hash brown potatoes
1 can cream of celery or cream of mushroom soup
2 cups diced ham
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
3 cups grated sharp or longhorn cheddar cheese (about 12 ounces)
1 cup sour cream
1 bunch green onions, finely diced
1 cup crushed potato chips

Mix soup, sour cream and thyme until smooth. Add the ham and green onions. Add in the cheese and blend well. Fold in the hash brown potatoes. Bake until top is slightly golden, about 1 hour. Sprinkle with crushed potato chips and bake an additional 10 minutes.

I like to serve this with fluffy scrambled eggs.

Great for brunches or large groups.

It's Easter and I'm so Blessed – Look what was just delivered!

My Easter Swap Pal Jill, over at Baliwick Designs, sent me this super fantastic Easter Basket full of goodies.

Up through the center of the adorable ivy covered basket was this beautiful purple German bearded silk iris which I ironically have a bouquet of here in the house to remind me of my antique ones in the garden. I only get to those in the spring and summer.

All around the flowers were all sorts of goodies: a new pair of gardening gloves and packets of flower and herb seeds, purple floral lavender sachets (which are perfect for the spare bedroom), black currant scone mix (which is my favorite by the way), a See’s Candy Bordeaux Egg (my absolute favorite all time candy that I can’t get here), hand made scrap booking tags, a loofa and some wonderful smelling soap, pastel Chinese take out boxes full of candies, the cutest resin rabbit, a “B” magnet, a floral initial T, a spiral note book that will fit oh so well in my purse, C Howard’s Violet mints and the most wonderful surprise of all was the bag addressed to hubby and one to the dogs too! How perfectly sweet she is to remember them. I have been so blessed with this Easter swap partner. THANK YOU JILL!

Easter Swap Basket

I participated in Bella Enchanted’s Easter Swap this year and was partnered with Jill over at Baliwick Designs. I had a lot of fun putting together this basket for Jill. I started with a Vintage 1980’s Hallmark Easter basket with stenciled blue bunnies and pink crimped paper grass. I found this adorable wire chick in my stash and put a cute purple bow on him and filled him caramel filled Hershey’s sticks, Ferrero Rocher and a bag of pink gourmet jelly beans. Easter baskets are all about fun right?

Oh, and lots of candy. I found an adorable shaggy bunny, a Mr. & Mrs. Resin bunny statues, some sparkle painted egg refrigerator magnets, a couple of egg tripod stands and pastel painted eggs, blue and green polka dot napkins, 3 fat quarters in Easter prints, mini stringed carrot garland, cherry bath crystals for a bubble bath, and I peppered the basket with Hershey’s kisses, Chiclets (remember those?), Russell Stover Marshmallow eggs, Ghirardelli dark chocolate caramel filled squares, caramel filled Cadbury eggs and chocolate truffle eggs and then accented the basket with yellow lilies and of course PEEPS, green chicks and pink bunnies. I sure hope she likes it.


I had to borrow Jill’s picture as hers is adorable!

Collage Art I had to share for Valentines Day

I originally found Catherine at Art from the Heart & sewing on paper during OWOH One World, One Heart), but immediately fell in love with her work. I purchased this piece from her ETSY shop and it’s already here and even better in person! Many of you know, but most don’t that I have a penchant for weddings and sentimental images of weddings. Hubby and I are finally having our “Happily Ever After Fairy Tale Ending”, but it was a long time coming after surfing some very rough seas and we take it very seriously. So, this piece that Catherine crafted is very special to us and it was just in time for Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Sweet Goodness Hanging Heart Swap

I just opened this great swap from my swap partner Heidi for the Sweet Goodness Hanging Heart Valentines Swap hosted by the Sweet Goodness Girls over at Sweet Goodness Swaps. I especially love the felted ornament Heidi, thank you so much. This swap showed me how small the world can be when Heidi and I realized we co-existed in my home town while she worked for the newspaper I grew up on for several years. We probably passed each other on the street or in the mall and never even realized until the blog world brought us closer together. Ironically we both live 250 miles fro there now and only 5 hours apart.

Sweet Goodness Valentines Swap

So I’ve been pondering a myriad of ideas for making my Valentines swap for the Sweet Goodness Valentines Swap. Then I visited the Pink Kitchen, OOPS now known as There’s no Place like Home and Leigh Ann gave me an idea on where to start with her use of buttons. I have 4 old mason jars full of miscellaneous buttons and that’s where I started searching for all the pink, red and white buttons I had. So here’s a peek at some of the components of my creation. Ironically my cousin Jenn needed some and while I was sorting through these and chatting with her, I was able to find the ones she wanted also.

~*~*~*~HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!~*~*~*~

I’m going to do my traditional list, but I think this year I will be more realistic.


1) Lose weight ~ I know every year EVERYONE says this one. This year I got a head start after the bout of pnuemonia and flu throughout December. I already lost the first 10 pounds.

2) Get organized ~ another one that EVERYONE always says. Once again I got a head start though. Last year was devastating for us with the move, the military red tape, the fraud from the previous owners of this house and probably a few other things. But, I started this past week at putting together the office/studio/workshop and it’s already going well.

A place for everything and everything in its place…


3) Start in January to hand make next years Christmas presents ~ Once again, I started already so the hitch will be to maintain a schedule and actually follow through. Wish me luck. And look for peek-a-boo pictures to come (after all we can’t give away what’s what or who it’s for before next Christmas).

4) Be happy ~ Worry less ~ Smile more ~ Be more productive ~ Spread joy ~ Make a difference

I wish you ALL health, happiness, tranquility, spiritual well being and prosperity in 2008 and may we ALL be able to face our challenges with much strength and grace, and may we receive ALL our blessings with thanksgiving and appreciation.

Christmas Wish

For a very long time I’ve dreamt and wished I could make everyone’s Christmas gifts each year, but time usually wins out and I end up going shopping and shopping some more looking for the right gift. This year I received a very special gift, a hand made quilt from my cousin, Jennifer, a very talented artist. Ironically, she says I picked out the fabric a couple of years ago when I was visiting. It’s so me.

Every hand made piece has a story and this one is no different. My very first hand quilted piece is a tree skirt that I made for Jenn back in 1991. It has had an interesting history itself (survived a fire while stored in her mother-in-law’s basement when they were moving), but was a cornerstone piece for myself and Jenn falling in love with quilting. From there she earned her degree in the arts and became a teacher and taught just about everything from clay to textiles at some point in time I think. She hand dyes her own fabrics as she did with this quilt. That too adds some weave to our family history. One Christmas not too long ago she dyed fabrics and used them as wrapping paper. I saved them and you can now find them in the quilt I made my mom which is the pink & green one in my quilt entry.

She hung this quilt at her show this past November in Kansas City. I think they really do look like cathedral windows. If you’d ike to see her other fabulous hand made, one of a kind quilts, log into her blog, What I did at School Today. I’ve hung the quilt between 2 pictures to draw out the colors. Ironically the picture on the left was given to me by my grandmother, but was painted by Jenn’s mom as was the one to its left. The picture at the bottom is of us at her wedding and she made the candle to its right for me.


She’s inspired me to actually get busy. That is my New Year’s resolution ~ to hand make everyone’s Christmas gifts for next year.

Major Catch up Time

We went to California for a surprise (and boy what a surprise it was) birthday party for my sister-in-law Bobbie (White sweater with sister Marilyn) and ended up staying for Thanksgiving. We really enjoyed our time with Bobbie and the family! With all the travel time and both events, the month just got away from me.

As soon as I got back I had tons of laundry, cleaning, Christmas prep like wrapping gifts & shipping packages, and like a fool I signed up for a 4 day stained glass class in the midst of it all. But the worst was that I came home sick and proceeded to get even sicker before it was over. Today’s the first day I feel like a human being again. I do like the stained glass piece though and am happy to have found a new hobby that hubby and I can do together.
During this time was the end of a 3 month long swap that I was participating in. I had a great Sweet Goodness Holiday sister Jenn. She sent me the pictures on the left (Thanksgiving box and the Christmas box with place mats, tea towels, hot cocoa, potpourri, cookie cutters, icings, cider mixes, chocolates, corn, knitting needles, chocolate coffee, peppermint bark, ornaments and more) and I sent her the pictures on the right for Thanksgiving and Christmas (snowman candle holder and tree like taper candles, knit cap, snowman ceramic buttons, snowman dip spreader, snowman cookie press, 2 quilt patterns, tea towels, leaf coasters, mobile, cat tails, dip mix, cookie cutters, tealights, First magazine and for her birthday a combined copy of the 2 cookbooks I’ve written for the family).

I was also participating in a Christmas garland swap for GAGA for Garlands and had a great partner Fanny. She sent me this wonderful peppermint themed garland that fits just perfect around my mantle. I went with the jingle bell theme and did a looped quilted garland with bells for her.
So, I’m fairly up to date for now and will start fresh with the new year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all…