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.