Moving the Blog

Hi all,

I am moving the blog effective immediately.  Please go see me here:

Tales of a Blended Family

Thanks all!!

Mish Mash Post

What a busy weekend!  We always have busy weekends, but this one was busier than usual.

I participated in my first craft show this weekend.  My girlfriend didn’t have enough product for her table, so she invited me along.  I brought in $190.00 for the day.  Not too shabby!  Of course my friend would not let me help her pay for the table, so we agreed that next year, I would pick up the cost.  I also bought lunch for the two of us (note to self…pack a lunch for these things…the prices are RIDICULOUS!).

I also got orders for my Jack Skelington hat!  I made one for Carla’s daughter Morgan, and people are really loving it.  Here’s a picture she gave me permission to post on my blog:

Morgan is such a beautiful girl, isn’t she?

So I made two of them and also more of my sock monkey coffee sleeve/cozies (I even made one in purple, but I forgot to take a picture, lol).

While I was at the craft show, Amy and Shane dropped my boys off to their dads, took Charlotte to dance, took Austan to a friend’s place for a sleepover and then came home and made a yummy dinner.  If that wasn’t enough, they started painting Andrew and Aaron’s room!

On Sunday Amy and Shane finished the boy’s room, while I sat down with my hook and created.  I usually feel bad that I don’t help with the painting, but now that I am making money with my crocheting, I don’t feel AS bad.  We all bless our families in different ways.

I made a delicious taco soup for dinner, and then Amy and I went off to celebrate a friend’s birthday at Applebee’s.  I love my girls so much, and we don’t get to spend as much time with them as we want.  It was a lovely 2 hours chit chatting away and eating yummy food!

I was so glad to find out that Carla and the girls FINALLY got their hats!  Here’s a pic of the ones I crocheted for her two youngest.

Kirby and Hello Kitty

Now we’re battening down the hatches in prep for the remnants of Hurricane Sandy  AKA: Frankenstorm.  Sending out good thoughts to all our friends and readers in the Northeast.  Please take care of yourselves!

Ooooh, looky at what I got in the mail!

I love getting parcels in the mail!

Last week I talked about a barter with Carla.  I made her hats for her girls, and she made me this:

And it fits my yarn and my binder full of patterns (as opposed to my binders full of women…sorry, couldn’t resist):

She also added in a cute little case

That fits my crochet hooks perfectly!

Thank you so much, Carla.  I just love it!

My Friend is a PUBLISHED author

****There are a few problems with the offer that the author is working on fixing!!  I will let you all know when everything is fixed!  Sorry, folks.****

One of my dear friends, Allison, is now a published author!  How exciting is that?  I was privileged to get to read the manuscript about a year and a half ago, and I really enjoyed it.

Allison is having a birthday TODAY and in honour of that she is giving away a free E-book of her novel “Sacrifice of Innocence“.  This is one day only and she would love it if you drop on by and grab yourself a free copy.  Please click on the picture below for the link!

“A cult has been killing children for its rituals and only one cop knows who they are. Detective Stan Brookshire knows but his past keeps people from believing in him. Can he rise above the stigma that shrouds his past and stop a cult from taking yet another innocent child from her mother’s arms before it’s too late”

Sunday Night Chit Chat ~ October 21, 2012

The “Jack Skelington” hat I created for Carla’s daughter!

Reading

• Still struggling through Twilight

Watching

• Not sure what we’ll watch tonight.  This afternoon I watched “Big Miracle” (Drew Barrymore, Ted Danson). 

Listening to

• The water running and pots banging…Austan is doing the dishes

Cooking/Baking

• I baked some carrot muffins today and I made roast chicken, potatoes, gravy and broccoli for dinner tonight

Happy you accomplished this week

• I got Carla’s special order for our “barter” made and shipped out this afternoon.
• I started creating something for my Secret Sister Swap that is due in 2 weeks.  I should have it out right on time!

Looking forward to next week

• A relaxing weekend???  BWAA HAA HAA…that never happens!  LOL!

Thankful for today

• That I got to sleep until 11 am today!  Yeah, sounds like I am lazy, but I didn’t get in until around 1:30 am from a bowling tournament, and then I couldn’t calm down enough to get to sleep right away, and I didn’t fall asleep until around 4 am.  Amy and Shane let me sleep! 

Bonus:  What is a character quality about yourself that you need to work on?

• I am pretty pessimistic at times.  I am working on being a “glass half full” kinda girl!

I hope you’ll all go over and check out what other people are chatting about at “My 1/2 Dozen Daily“

Food-Tastic Friday ~ October 19, 2012

Happy Friday, everyone!  The week has flown by for us here, how about you?  It’s time for Food-Tastic Friday!  Every week I will post my menu, and a recipe, and I hope you’ll all play along.

Here are the rules:

1. Post your weekly menu
2. Post one recipe that you will be making.  It doesn’t have to be anything fancy! (you can put a picture up too)
3. Link up down in the comment section and put a link to my blog post so everyone can get their culinary creativity juices flowing!

Weekly Menu ~ October 20 to 26, 2012

Saturday ~ Chicken Pot Pies and Salad

Sunday ~ Roast Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Veggies

Monday ~ Chicken Corn Chowder

Tuesday ~ Crockpot BBQ Meatballs, Potatoes, Corn

Wednesday ~ Sausages, Noodles and Sauce, Veggies

Thursday ~ Beef Noodle Casserole, Salad

Friday ~ Breakfast for Dinner

Our dinner on Monday will use up the leftover chicken from the night before.

Quick Chicken-Corn Chowder  (recipe courtesy of Spark Recipes)

Ingredients

* Butter, salted, 1 tbsp
* Onions, chopped 1/4 cup,
* Celery, 1/4 cup, diced
* All-purpose Flour, 2Tbs
* Milk, 2%, 3 cup
* Chicken Breast Boneless Skinless, 2cups, chopped
* Sweet Corn, Fresh or frozen, 1.5 cup
* Thyme, fresh, 1 tsp
* Pepper, red or cayenne, 1/4 tsp
* Salt, 1 dash
* Corn, canned, cream style, 1 can (14 3/4oz)
* Potato, raw, 1 cup diced

Directions

Melt butter in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, and celery; cook for 3 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Add Flour; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in milk and remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil; cook until thick (about 5 minutes).Number of Servings: 6

It’s super quick and easy, which is great after a long day!

 

Hope you’ll play along…happy meal planning!

Trading Talents…

I have found a really great way to save money is to make trades.  It can be trading your talents (carpentry, sewing, needlework, etc), or trading your time, or trading services.

One of the best ways to save a bit of money when you’re a parent is trading babysitting with another couple.  You can go out and leave your kids with them, then they can take a turn going out and you can watch their kids.  Getting good care is expensive and it can double the cost of a night out sometimes.   

When my mom was young, my grandfather would drive a lady places she needed to go, and in return she would give the kids piano lessons.  It was a win/win situation for everyone involved.

I have also heard about ladies who get together with their girlfriends and have a clothes trading party.  You bring your gently used clothes, as do your friends and you swap clothing.  It’s a great way to save money and a fun way to spend time with your girlfriends.

I have been lucky enough to be doing some trading of my own.  Carla emailed me the other day and set up a trade with me.  I created some hats for her and she’s used her sewing talent to make something for me in return.  I just can’t wait to show you what she’s made me and what I made for her, but we will share those in another post once we get our packages in the mail.  (at least I hope she’ll share, lol).

What about you?  Do you do any trading to save money?  What do you do?

Food-tastic Friday ~ October 12, 2012

Good afternoon!  Time for another installment of Food-Tastic Friday. I would love to have all of you play along.  It’s a way to get ideas and recipes for what sometimes can be really monotonous:  Meal Planning.  We plan our menu every week and then grocery shop accordingly.  This helps us cut down on costs at the grocery store.

Here are the rules:

1. Post your weekly menu
2. Post one recipe that you will be making.  It doesn’t have to be anything fancy! (you can put a picture up too)
3. Link up down in the comment section and put a link to my blog post so everyone can get their culinary creativity juices flowing!

Menu ~ Saturday October 13 ~Friday October 19

Saturday ~ Salsa Couscous Chicken

Sunday ~ Turkey Pot Pie

Monday ~ Roast Beef, Potatoes, Veggie

Tuesday ~ Slow Cooker Beef Barley Soup and Fresh Bread

Wednesday ~ Ham and Mushroom Quiche, Salad

Thursday ~ Balsamic Flank Steak, Rice, Veggies

Friday ~ Lasagna & Caesar Salad

I love this time of year, hearty soups and stews are my favourite comfort foods.

We found this recipe at All Recipes for a crockpot Barley Soup.  I put the link to the recipe up in the menu, but here’s a copy:

Slow Cooker Beef Barley Soup

• 1 1/2 pounds of boneless lean beef cubed
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 3 cans beef broth
• 6 cups water
• 4 stalks celery chopped
• 6 carrots chopped
• 6 green onions chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley
• 1 cup barley
• 1 tsp dried thyme

Directions

1. In a skillet over medium heat, saute the beef in the oil for 5 minutes, or until browned. Stir in the salt, pepper and garlic powder and place seasoned meat in a slow cooker. Add a little water to the skillet and stir to pick up the browned bits. Add to the slow cooker.
2. Add the broth, water, celery, carrots, green onions, parsley and barley. Cover and cook on low setting for 6 to 8 hours, or until the vegetables and barley are tender. Add the thyme just before serving.

Sounds yummy, doesn’t it?  We’ll let you know!

So, what’s on your menu this week?

Car Woes Update

Last week I talked about how Murphy had come to visit with both cars for 3 different things.

I am happy to say that other than the tires that we purchased on our credit card, all the labour and the other parts for the cars have been paid for with cash.  We were able to cash in some hours that Shane had banked and that pretty much covered it.

What I am truly thankful for, is that we went to the mechanic that my parents have been going to for years.  He didn’t charge us an arm and a leg.  At Canadian Tire, where they put the new tires on, they told me that I would have to replace both front wheel bearings (only the left front was loose) and have an alignment and it would be 2 hours labour.  They quoted us $500.00.  I am happy I said no, because the mechanic said that we only needed the left front, and that the alignment wasn’t necessary as everything looked good.  One hour labour and the part came to $177.00.   Three hundred and twenty-three dollars savings!

I honestly think that Canadian Tire was counting on me being stupid and scared to drive on the loose bearing.  I won’t be going back there again, that is for sure!

So cross all your crossables that we are done for the time being and we won’t have any more car trouble for a while.

So much for a lazy day…

I said in my post earlier today that I wanted to have a lazy day…that didn’t happen as planned, LOL.

First I made this Sock Monkey Hat.  Isn’t this the cutest thing?  This is made for a toddler girl:

Then I made a Mince Pumpkin Loaf that you can find the recipe for on our recipe page:

Then I finished off the purple hat in this custom order…it’s ready to go!

Then I made these Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars…so delicious!

Then I made the Thanksgiving Leftover Casserole for dinner.  So the lazy day wasn’t so lazy.  Poor Amy was sick in bed with a nasty cold, Shane painted.  Tomorrow it’s back to work. 

I thoroughly enjoyed my long weekend…how about you?