An Unusual but Delicious Salad, More Jewelry and Some Help with Laundry

Hi everyone.  I want to start right off by telling you about a fantastic salad that may sound slightly unusual but it is delicious. 

I read about a similar salad several years ago and played around with the ingredients, adding and deleting components and came up with this.  Cook some bow tie pasta(any shape you have would work).  Drain it well and rinse with cold water.  Drain again and put it in a large bowl.  Add chunks of Swiss cheese, cantaloupe melon, and ham.  I took a ham steak that was fully cooked and cut it up so it the chunks would have substance.  I don't think deli ham would work.   If you have leftovers from a nice ham dinner, you are in business!  After tossing the pasta and other ingredients, add poppy seed dressing to taste.  I like it swimming in it.  Also, when you refrigerate the salad, it will soak the dressing up, so you may have to add even more later.  There you have it-easy and oh so good.  I took this to a potluck and there was none left at the end of dinner.  Let me know if you like it if you try it. 

On to my jewelry for the week.  I purchased a watch face and many interchangeable stretchy bands a while back.  Now that I am making jewelry like a madwoman, I had to increase my wardrobe of watchbands.  This one was as easy as it gets.  While in JoAnn Fabric store, I saw these beads already laid out for me.  The cats absolutely sold me.  I just put them on stretch cord, crimped the ends and added lobster claw clasps to each end.  Isn't it cute?  I am so big on personalizing accessories to my taste.  I love it when I find a craft that lets me do that. 

 The last thing I wanted to share are these cool dryer balls I made with info from Leslie at Seasoned Homemaker .  They were inexpensive and easy to make.  I love anything that makes laundry day better and cheaper so I was all in.  I do find that these make my drying time less so that is a good thing!  When I am taking my laundry out of the dryer, one will get hung up in a pant leg or fitted sheet and will fall on the floor when I shake the clothes into the  laundry basket.  You can't imagine how my cat goes crazy trying to get to it before I can corral it back into the dryer for the next load.  She thinks it has to be one of her toys and that I have stolen it!

I hope you all have a great week.  I am trying to get some things done around the house.  I tend to be kind of "unstructured" when I am off for Summer vacation.  I stay up way too late, I sleep in until 8, I stay in my robe until 11.  Generally, I am like a teenager!  I need to start getting a little more done.  That is my job for this week:to complete a to-do list.  Wish me luck!  Take care.  Nancy     

FNSI and my Craftaholics Swap

Hi everyone!  I am thoroughly enjoying my Summer vacation but it is flying by!  I was so excited to participate in FNSI last night.  First before I show you what I worked on, I want to thank Wendy from Sugarlane Quilts for taking over the hosting duties.  I also want to thank Anthea from Hibiscus Stitches for donating some really great gifts we participants have a chance to win.  I decided to work on something quick and really useful. 

I made these twist ties from fabric and pipe cleaners.  They are so useful and very easy to make.  I learned about them from Karen at Sew Many Ways.  If you click on the link, it will lead you to her tutorial.  I am thrilled to finally have long twist ties for my iron cord and large bags of frozen food.  In the past, I twisted two small twist ties together and they would always come undone.  Now, I no longer have to deal with that and they are really cute.  I customized the fabric to the room I would use them in.  I will definitely be making more! 

I also wanted to share the gifts I made for my swap partner in the Craftoholics gift exchange.  I swapped info with my partner and discovered her favorite color is purple so I made her earrings and a sunglasses case in her favorite hues. I tried a really cool technique for the first time on the earrings.  I wire-wrapped  a crystal briolette for each one.  It took several tries but I was happy with the results.

I am sad to report, I never received a gift in exchange.  I am not sure I understand how people can sign up for something like this and not follow up on sending their partner a gift.  I understand that things come up, but you should email the person and let them know.  I am not sorry that I put time and effort in making and sending her a gift, but I was sad that she didn't care enough to do the same. 




I have been working on jewelry a lot lately.  I have been learning a lot from the kits I receive. 

This was two separate kits.  It is a coil bracelet and a two strand necklace with earrings and a ring.  I have worn it and received many compliments. 

I wanted to share an amazing recipe I tried from Sweet and Savory Sarah on the Tasty Kitchen blog.  It is almond cake and it is to die for.  If you are an almond extract fan, this cake is for you. 

It is super moist and the glaze is so good.  I have a friend who loves the almond butter cookies I make at Christmas and I may have to make this for her Summer birthday! 

Speaking of birthdays, today is my youngest son's birthday.  He turns 19 today.  We took him on a two hour car ride yesterday to have him experience the best all you can eat buffet around.  He is such a fan of those things and is actually entertaining to watch as he loads his plate numerous times!  Where he puts it, I have no idea as he is not a big person!  The buffet happens to be at a huge casino so he also got to play keno for the first time and he enjoyed it.  We had a nice day.  My other son came as well as my mother and father in law and my sister in law.  It was wonderful to have everyone together. With both of my sons over 18, we seldom can do things as a family all together anymore. 

We have a graduation party to attend today and I have to make my son's birthday cake as the family is coming over tonight for cake and ice cream.  I hope you have a wonderful week.  Take care.   Nancy 

Another Bracelet to Match and the Best Banana Cake Ever!

I was at it again this week!  I had a necklace and earrings I had purchased on clearance at(of all places) Cracker Barrel.  I had to try to match it and make a bracelet.  I call this my carnival set and it was a blast to replicate the colors and the really cool beads.  I headed to Etsy and found very similar beads very inexpensively.  I also used some of what I had.  When I received the beads I ordered, I got to work making dangles.  I am getting better at that!  I measured out enough silver chain for a bracelet using one of my favorites as a guide.  I put a clasp on each end and added all the dangles.  I am very pleased with the bracelet.  I think it matches beautifully. 

I joined the Craftaholics swap again this year and have already received my partner's info.  I decided to try a brand new jewelry technique on her gift.  It took me several tries, but it was interesting to attempt something new.  I will share that soon after she gets her gift.

  I went to the dollar store last week and found the rainbow pill holder for a dollar(shown to the right in the picture above).  It works wonderful for small jewelry findings.  I purchased the set of similar containers for ten dollars on sale.  I hadn't been to a dollar store in a while but I can see it pays to pop in there from time to time to see what you can re purpose.  I also got a graduation card for fifty cents for a distant relative and six c batteries for two dollars for my Mickey Mouse pendulum clock.  I felt like I had kind of scored! 

Last, but definitely not least, is the best banana cake I have ever had!  It is slightly labor intensive, but oh so worth it.  Preheat your oven to 275 degrees.  Grease a 9 x 13 pan.  Mash 4 very ripe bananas in a bowl; set aside.  In another bowl, mix 3 cups flour, 11/2 teaspoons baking soda, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.  Set that bowl aside.  In a large mixing bowl, cream 3/4 cup butter and 2 cups of sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in 3 eggs and 2 teaspoons of vanilla.  Alternately add your dry ingredients you had set aside and 1 1/2 cups buttermilk.  I didn't have buttermilk so I put 2 teaspoons white vinegar in a two cup measuring cup and added milk to the 1 1/2 cup mark.  I stirred it and let it sit a few minutes and it was just as good as buttermilk for this recipe.  After all of that is added, add your bananas gently folding them in.  Transfer your batter to your pan(it is a lot of batter) and put it in your oven.  The recipe I went from said to bake for an hour, but I baked it for an extra half hour.  My toothpick came out dry.  I cooled it and made a cream cheese icing and put it in the fridge.  It has received rave reviews from the boys and my husband.  Enjoy! 

I hope all the dads are having a wonderful Father's Day out there.  I have one week left and it is Summer Break for me.  Have a great week and take care.  Nancy 

Cookie Bars, My First Jewelry Design, and All About Pillows and Mattresses

Hi everyone and happy Sunday evening.  I want to jump right in and share my first original jewelry piece. 

The bracelet you see at the bottom of this picture is the first piece of jewelry I came up with without a pattern or a picture.  I modeled it after the necklace pictured at the top of the picture.  I had a difficult time locating beads to come close to those in the necklace, but I am pretty happy with what I found.  The chain was a heavier gauge than I would have liked but I worked with it.  It was fun to start putting something together, and just see where it took me.  The perfectionist in me can find several mistakes and flaws but I am my worst critic.  I can't wait to start my next jewelry project! 

 I wanted to share these delicious cookie bars.  I got the recipe at Real Mom Kitchen .  I changed out a mixture of cherry and white chocolate chips for the chocolate chips and they were fantastic.  It is great to have an easy recipe like this to make homemade cookies without having to stand there and drop them tablespoon by tablespoon onto cookie sheets and wait for each batch to come out.  My family definitely enjoyed these! 

Now, grab a cup of coffee/tea/whatever and sit down for a cautionary tale.  Just because you spend a fortune and test drive a mattress for three minutes does not mean you will have blissful, healthful sleep.  It does not have a happy ending at all-at least not in our case.  We purchased a Tempurpedic mattress, the Cloud nonetheless, a little over a year ago.  It set us back almost two thousand dollars.  We thought it would just take some getting used to.  To skip to the chase, we threw even more money at it, buying various toppers to soften it as the name "cloud" was completely misleading.  By the time we were finished, my husband and I had not slept through the night without waking up in pain for over six months.  We broke down and bought a new mattress which was also expensive(about half the price of the first one) and while my husband was very comfortable on it, my hips continued to wake me up through the night.  I definitely liked it better, but it still wasn't perfect.  You won't believe what now has me sleeping through the night, every night:  a $10 body pillow!  I read on line what people have used to help control hip pain when they sleep.  My chiropractor had suggested putting a pillow between my legs as I am a side sleeper but the pillow kept slipping out when I fell asleep.  A body pillow is very long so it doesn't slip around so much.  I used one when I was pregnant and it saved my life but I didn't think of it for sleeping in general.  I can't believe the difference!  So now my husband and I are both sleeping.  Where am I heading with this?  Other than to give you some unsolicited advice about mattresses,  I wanted to show some flannel pillowcases I whipped up with some cute teacup fabric I had on hand.  I thought my body pillow needed some cuteness!

 I had enough fabric to make a couple of spare cases for the smooshy log shaped pillows we sleep with.  I hope I didn't lose anyone with that lengthy gripe session about mattresses.  Remember, it is only my opinion.

My school year is running down.  I have a week and 2 days before pre-k graduation.  I can't believe my first pre-k class is going into their junior year of high school!  I have enjoyed all the years I have done this.  I recently ran into two kids in a department store who were from my first class.   They both came up to me and gave me a hug.  I can't tell you how proud I was to see what a wonderful young man and lady they have become.  We talked for about fifteen minutes.  It gave me a warm feeling and makes me happy I do what I do. 

I hope you all have a great week.  Take care.  Nancy

A Birthday Gift, Yummy Bars and an Old Favorite

Happy Sunday everyone.  There were some local festivities this weekend and everyone in town holds garage sales.  We were no exception.  My husband had last week off and he pretty much took on the rummage sale work.  I helped this weekend.  Between that and getting my flowers planted, I was busy.  I love it when my flower pots are all filled with beautiful color.  It makes the whole exterior look fresh and pretty. 

A good friend celebrated her birthday this past weekend.  I could not be with her to celebrate, however because she moved all the way cross the country almost two years ago.  I decided to make her a gift of jewelry. 

I was very happy with how the earrings and bracelet turned out.  She is a silver kind of girl and I hope she likes these.  I am learning quite a bit from the kits I get each month and I am ready to start branching out on my own.  I have some jewelry I am going to try to match to make companion pieces.  I will show you when I complete them.  I find beading relaxing and I can't wait to start designing pieces myself. 

I also returned to a tutorial that I have used several times before-and I will several times more!  These watchbands from Cluck Cluck Sew are so addictive and fun.  I don't think I will ever have enough of them.  I get compliments every time I wear one.  I am thinking of ordering another watch face in a bronze metal.  I also love all the brightly colored watch faces.  Decisions, decisions! 





I also wanted to share a yummy treat I tried after reading about it in a link party a while back. 

They are pineapple poke bars and they were devoured pretty quickly.  My husband loves pineapple and this recipe uses fresh pineapple.  The sauce on top isn't too sweet as it is made with sour cream.  It is definitely a keeper recipe.  Don't you love to try new things you see on these blogs we connect with in the link parties?  It has really broadened the meals I serve my family and my crafting choices.  I love it! 

I ordered a memorial stone and had it personalized for Billie.  I really appreciate all of your kind comments and emails after my last post.  I have come to realize as time passes that she was very ill and it would have been nothing short of criminal to keep her here for my selfish reasons.  I feel confident my husband and I did the right thing letting her go.  In the mean time, Mickey is getting more loving than she can handle!  But I think she is ok with that because she misses her big sister too.

Have a great week.  Take care.  Nancy

Hi Again...

Hi everyone.  I have had another long absence from blogging and I have a lot to share.  I have discovered a very talented person and her blog.  Allison from Dream a Little Bigger gave me some great inspiration on how to jazz up plain, inexpensive sneakers.  I started out with white canvas tennies from Walmart at a little over five bucks. 

 


 I transformed them into fancy wingtip spectators with just a little fabric paint and a paintbrush.  I love how they turned out.  The picture just doesn't do them justice.  I have since bought another pair of white sneakers and I feel the need for some saddle shoes coming on!  Check out her blog.  She has some great ideas.

I also completed my latest kit of bracelets and an extender to combine them into a necklace.  I am really into this whole jewelry making thing!  Do you see the beautiful blue agate bead in one of the bracelets?  I found some more on E bay and purchased them so I can make a necklace to match.  You know how matchy-matchy I am!  I may dismantle the extender at the top of the picture and make earrings too!  I don't think I will ever use it to join them all so I may as well get some good use from the beads.  I have a friend with a birthday coming up quick so I thought I would make her a bracelet and earrings.  I will share how that turns out. 

On the food front, I wanted to share a breakfast-for-dinner menu I made recently.  I made lazy chiles rellenos from the Pioneer Woman.  I changed her recipe up a little by cooking up peppers and onions to put in the bottom instead of canned chiles.  I also serve it with warm flour tortillas instead of corn ones that she suggests.  I think you should make recipes your own.  It is half the fun of cooking. 

I also served buttermilk breakfast cake from Moni at her blog Zu Haus at Home.  It was wonderful.  The whole family loved it.  When I have breakfast for dinner, I try to make a coffee cake or serve fresh fruit to balance the savory with something a little sweet.  Our family finished off the rest of this cake at breakfast the next morning. 

On a sad note, we lost a very important member of our family recently.  Our beloved chocolate lab Billie got very sick and we had to make the decision every pet owner dreads.  We had to have her put to sleep last Saturday.  Our vet confirmed that we had no choice.  She had stopped eating and drinking and her organs were shutting down.  We couldn't bear to see her suffer any longer.  She would have been 14 on June 11th.  We had her ever since she was 8 weeks old.  She was the best dog, always loving and kind.  Everyone loved her.  The emptiness in this house and in our hearts is considerable. 

I hope you all have a great week.  I will be working on my flowers soon.  The weather here has been kind of goofy.  It was unbearably hot and muggy.  Now it is damp and chilly.  My thoughts are with the people in Oklahoma that have been devastated by tornadoes.  Take care and be well.  Nancy 

 

Hello There Strangers!

Happy Sunday everyone.  I took a little two week break from blogging and I missed you guys.  I have been very busy though and I am anxious to share what I have been up to. 

To start with, I want to share this yummy dish I served to my family.  It is called Chicken Rarebit and I played around with a recipe I found online and basically geared it to me and how I like to cook.  I began with a rotisserie chicken and pulled and shredded all the breast meat.  I am not a dark meat fan but my husband and youngest son eat that for lunch the next day.  Anyhow, I set the meat aside while I soften a finely chopped yellow onion in about two tablespoons of butter in a small frying pan.  You just want to soften it so try not to get it too brown-just translucent.  Add the shredded chicken to the jar of cheddar cheese sauce in a saucepan.  Add a generous dash of Worcestershire sauce and the onions you just cooked.  Let this mixture simmer on very low heat.  Meanwhile cook up some bacon-I cook mine in the oven for about 15 minutes at 400 degrees.  Wash and chop up some cherry tomatoes.  Toast up some bakery Pumpernickel bread and slice it in half.  Assemble your open faced sandwiches in the way shown in the picture.  They are delish.  Everyone loved them.  Enjoy!

I also wanted to share my newest passion.  I have really enjoyed making jewelry.  The above four pairs are the earrings remaining in the earring kit I received that I showed you last post.  I am really learning a lot and I find it so relaxing.  Not to mention the fact that I love jewelry so it is a win/win! 

 

 

  I even altered an existing purchased pair that I only wore once because they were way too long and didn't look right on me at all.  I love the shorter version.  It is just what I wanted.   I can't wait to see what kit will come next! 

Last, but not least is some sewing that I did for my oldest son.  I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but he is going through nurse's training.  I decided to make him a scrub with his name embroidered on the pocket.  I used Simplicity 4644.  I really don't enjoy apparel sewing so this was a labor of love.  The neckline gave me fits and after I finished it, I realized it was a little big so I washed it.  Then I found out it will have to be ironed every time I wash it.  Well here is a well-known fact about me-I HATE to iron!  I only iron when I absolutely have to so there you have it.  I just made more work for myself and have no one to blame but myself!  Oh well, at least his name is on it and nobody else in his program will have one like it.  I wanted to show him how much we support what he is doing and we are rooting him on.  I think I accomplished that. 

I go back to work tomorrow after a week off.  It is going to be a long haul until June.  I started exercising again over my break so I hope I can keep that up.  It really does help me in so many ways.  It gives me extra stamina which I will need!  I am getting excited to get my flower gardens ready for nice weather.  It is still quite chilly here but the sun is warm and better weather is on its way.  I hope you have a great week.  Take care.  Nancy