Mini chipboard albums to hold wallet-size photos - c'mon ya know a Grammy's gotta have photos with her at all times! Since I'm a long-time collector of bar coasters, that's what I used for the covers. One for me, one for my daughter in law.













Last night, we had Orange Chicken, a recipe I got from allrecipes.com. It was quite good.














Here is the original recipe -- we doubled the sauce ingredients (except the onion soup). We also marinaded the chicken in the sauce for 1/2 hour prior to cooking.

1 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, or to taste
8 chicken thighs

In a small bowl, stir together the orange juice, soy sauce, onion soup mix and garlic powder; set aside. Rinse chicken, and pat dry. Place chicken thighs into a 9x13 inch glass baking dish. Pour the orange juice mixture over.

Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour and 30 minutes in the preheated 350 degree oven, basting every half hour. If using boneless chicken, reduce cooking time to 1 hour.

She's Here!!!

Caroline Jayne entered our lives late Friday night -- @ 11:35! We live 2 1/2 hours away from the hospital, but got there in time for her birth. My how things have changed since we had our boys. I never imagined we would be able to hold her when she was only 2 hours old! Anyway, we just love her to pieces already!














For this weeks OWH Stars & Stamps sketch challenge, here is my card.













Supplies: stamps (Heidi Grace, Savvy, Inkadinkado), dies (Nestabilities), Punches (EK Success, Fiskars)



Been making a lot of smoothies lately and here is my favorite:


















Orange Juice Smoothie

6 oz. orange juice concentrate,
thawed (1/2 of a can)
1 c milk
1 c water
1 t vanilla
¼ c sugar

Blend juice, milk, water, vanilla and sugar.

The original recipe calls for 8 ice cubes, but, I found it made it too foamy, so I eliminated them.

Welcome Baby Card

Created a very pink card for our son and daughter in law to celebrate their precious bundle of joy:













Supplies used: pp - Fiskars, dies - Slice, Nestabilities, Embossing Folder - CB Swirls


And since I love the simplicity of Willow Tree figurines, I thought they might like this to commemorate her birth:












That's it for today!

Using a sketch from CPS, this card was made using A Muse and Hero Art stamps and Nestabilities Dies. Kinda simple, but it's my style!


















Tried a new recipe last night -- Chicken saute with Mango Sauce. It was from the cooking.com website. We really liked it; the sauce had a little kick to it!













Chicken Saute with Mango Sauce

4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
¼ c flour
½ t salt
freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 T olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 t fresh ginger, minced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded & minced
½ c chicken broth
½ c orange juice
1 T brown sugar
¾ t cornstarch
1 mango, cut into ½-inch dice
2 T lime juice
2 T chopped fresh cilantro


Place chicken breasts between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. Pound with meat mallet to an even thickness, about ½ inch.

Combine flour, salt and pepper in a shallow glass dish. Dredge chicken in seasoned flour, shaking off excess.

Heat oil in a large, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until well browned and no longer pink in the center, 4 – 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate, cover and keep warm.

Add jalapeno, garlic and ginger to the pan; cook over medium heat, stirring, until softened, 1 – 2 minutes. Add broth and deglaze, for 1 minute. Mix orange juice, brown sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Add to the pan and bring the sauce to a simmer, stirring. Cook, stirring often, until thickened and slightly reduced, about 4 minutes. Stir in mango and cook until heated through, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and stir in lime juice. Spoon over the chicken and sprinkle with cilantro.

OWH Sketch

This is a card I created for the Operation Write Home Sketch #9:













Supplies used: Unity Stamps, Nestabilities Dies, EK Success Punch, gingham ribbon, Uniball Signo Pen

Just finished this book last night:


















And, surprisingly, I really liked it. This is the first Nora Roberts book I've read. I guess I steered away from her books thinking they were icky sweet chick-lit books. I picked it up thru Paperback Swap. It has turned out to be a good way to pick up books that you might not actually want to buy, but think you might like to read. Anyway, back to the book -- from the cover, you might think it was about a blushing bride. Well, it is actually about a group of childhood friends that go into business together as wedding planners. There are 4 books in the series, so I just started book #2 -- Bed of Roses.

That's it for now!

March has become a hectic month for me -- 2 birthdays and, not to mention, we are still awaiting the birth of our granddaughter.

Anyway, to go along with my sister's birthday gift, I made her some fabric coasters. They're pretty simple to make and they are not perfect, but, then again, neither am I!













And, another daffodil photo!

After quite a few days of dismal rain, the sun is finally out on a consistent basis! This past weekend we caught up on our favorite shows recorded on our dvr -- The Good Wife, Law & Order, Undercover Boss, CSI (Vegas), and Kitchen Nightmares. We also watched The Hurt Locker -- not a movie for everyone, but, we thought it was very good!

On my last post, I mentioned that I needed to find my magnetic board for my cross-stitching charts. Since I could not find it, I went to Joann's and repurchased it along with the easel. I love the fact that I can use up to 5 coupons on one purchase at Joann's! One of the comments I received was that they had never heard of this item, so, here is a photo:





It is real easy to keep track of where you are on the chart -- just place the ruler under the line that you are on!












Last night, we had Chicken Cacciatore made in the crockpot.














Chicken Cacciatore

2 ½ - 3 lbs. chicken pieces
1 onion, chopped
¼ c oil
2 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce
1 t oregano
1 (28 oz.) can crushed tomatoes
1 t salt
½ t pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can mushrooms, drained
½ t thyme

Heat oil in large skillet over medium-low heat. Brown chicken on all sides.
Drain excess fat. Transfer chicken to crockpot.

Mix remaining ingredients in a large bowl and add to crockpot. Cook on low for 6 – 8 hours.

Back to my roots

Well, after pondering whether to do the embroidery sampler or not, I decided to go back to my roots and pick up counted cross stitch again. This was one of the first needlecraft hobbies I took up as a teenager. When I lived in Massachusetts, I would frequent a lovely shop in Plymouth, called The Sampler. Although they had quite a variety to choose from, I found myself drawn to the primitive styles. So I just placed an order with them for 3 new charts from Heart in Hand. I only wish there were some decent cross stitch shops nearby.

I moved twice, though, since I last cross stitched, I cannot find the magnetic board and stand I had to hold the charts. Oh, well, I can probably pick one up at Hobby Lobby or Michaels. I did find a couple of primitive charts in the garage that I loved. Since I've done the sampler and the heart, I guess I'll do the house.













That's it for today; we are in the midst of a horrific thunderstorm!

Lately, I've been intrigued by the project that Amy of inspire co. has started. It is a 39-square embroidery sampler. You stitch one square a day. Hand embroidery and cross stitching were the first crafts that I can remember doing. It began while my mother was the manager of the Windsor Button Shop in Braintree, Massachusetts. There was one entire wall of buttons in wooden boxes. And, they had clerks (button ladies) behind the counter just to take the boxes down for the customers. The remainder of the store was yarn and sewing supplies.

Here is the famous button wall:














Anyway, back to the 39 squares -- The project began on March 1, so I'm 10 days behind and I only have colored linen at home. And, since it is pouring out, I am not going out today. Unfortunately, I cannot find my embroidery hoop!
I did buy this wonderful stitching book last year and did a few projects on felt.














I'll leave you with a photo of Zoe & Brady waiting for good weather!

New Toy

So, I finally bit the bullet and got a Bind-It-All! My 1st project was an 8 x 8 chipboard baby album for my son and daughter-in-law's 1st baby. But, apparently, I gave it to them without taking a picture of it first! What was I thinking?! I'll get a picture eventually.

This is my second project -- a simple post-it noteholder.













On Sunday, we had one of our favorite chicken recipes -- Beer Can Chicken. There was enough leftover chicken for Chicken Tetrazzini on Monday.












Chicken Tetrazzini

noodles
leftover chicken or turkey
½ c grated parmesan cheese
¼ c shredded cheddar cheese
1 ½ T parsley
can of cream of mushroom soup, diluted with ½ c milk
chopped mushrooms

Place cooked noodles in greased casserole dish. Add meat on top.

Mix soup with milk. Pour over meat. Top with shredded cheddar, parmesan, parsley and mushrooms.

Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 – 40 minutes.


Another sign of Spring!!!

It's finally here...

Spring in Georgia!! After an unseasonably cold winter, the weather seems to be getting consistantly warmer. I know, how bad can it be in the South in the winter? As a transplanted New Englander, we deal with the cold, but, the native Georgians don't like this kind of weather AT ALL! And, they are not used to snow 2 years in a row! Anyway, Spring has sprung, and it is supposed to be 72 degrees here today! So, I'm off to the back deck to finish up a book.


The daffodils started popping up last week!













This is a birthday card I sent to my great friend last week for her birthday. I got a bit of the inspiration from the cards blog. I eliminated the heart that was dangling from the ribbon and I think it could be used for pretty much any occasion.












Take a look at this funny video from Jimmy Kimmel:

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

Have a great day!

Just Waiting

Yet another lapse in blogging, but, I've been rather busy in baby shower stuff!

Decided to try my hand at a diaper cake for the mom & dad to be. Mine was not as elaborate as others I've seen on the web, but, I knew I wanted to use the Eeyore topper I had purchased, and, thought it would be overwhelming if I put more items on it.




















The favors I made were from a tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers and worked up very quickly. I used the Spellbinders Nestabilities rectangular scallop punch on the front.














Created a banner welcoming our grandbaby, Caroline, using Nestability punches and the Slice card, Animal Crackers for the lettering.