Super Saturday Finds

Gosh got a late start on this post for today.  This will be quick but I am trying to keep on track and not let many days go buy before I chat with you again.  

It was slim pickins on Saturday.  

Just two finds.

Don't you love the mirrored tray.  The best part about it is that it is like a frame on the back.  The back slides off and the mirror will slide out also.  This will make it soooo easy to spray paint and I won't have to tape anything off.   I am pretty sure I want it in my craft room, I just have to decide on the color, will I hang it on the wall or put it on the desk and put pretty things on it.  Maybe a set of three jars with fun stuff in them.

The 3 part wood tray, ( for lack of not knowing what the original item was) I already have a great idea for a Christmas decoration.  Won't the 3 sections be perfect for a special 3 letter word about Christmas.  

Did you figure it out?

How about a Tortoise update! 

On Sept. 11 last year we added two more additions to our zoo that we call a home.  After taking care of my BFF's Sulcata Tortoise for a month we fell in love with her and had to have one, but as crazy as we are we got two.  We named them Keifer & Conan.  That's their names for now.  It take a couple of years to confirm if they are male or female so these name might have to change.  LOL

So here is a picture of how small they were when we brought them home. 

I think you can see that they are babies but this really does not show their actual size and how small they were.   Conan is the larger one on the left and Keifer is on the right.  We believe Conan is probably about two or three weeks older.. Not much more, if that. 

Here they are today having dinner tonight.  If you see one without the other it is very hard to tell who is who.  Keifer has almost grown to the same size as Conan.

So much for a quick post.   

I have to get back to a frame I am making.  Hope to show it to you real soon.

HAPPY CRAFTING 

BIG MAMMA LUVS YA

XOXO

Another great recipe redo.

This Sunday I started surfing and remembered I had pinned to my food board a Wonton Taco recipe that I had thought looked good and it was time to try it out.  I had come by the recipe from a little favorite blog called Heart Mind & Seoul.  Great play on words, huh?  Her tacos really caught my eye.

She used beef and of course I used chicken. 

The other ingredients I used:
2 medium skinless, boneless chicken breast.
1/2 cp sweet n spicy bbq sauce.
1/2 cp teriyaki sauce.
1 cp shredded cheese
Won Ton squares

In a sauce pan I put my chicken, bbq sauce and teriyaki sauce together to simmer.  This way the chicken will cook and create a great flavor that is imbedded in the chicken. I just set it to low, covered it and let it go for about 7 min to 10 mins.

I don’t know if any of you have ever used this particular kind of teriyaki sauce but it is our favorite. Veri Veri Teriyaki is kosher and all natural.  It’s thicker and has sesame seeds in it.  It’s also not so salty like so many other teriyaki sauces out there.  Our favorite bbq sauce is Sweet Baby Rays .

After the chicken is cooked take it out and shred it all up.  I just take two forks at it and start pulling it apart.   I throw all the chicken in a bowl & add the cheese.  The sauce that is left over from cooking the chicken, I set it aside for later.  Mix all the chicken and cheese together in the bowl, now your ready to create your taco.  

Making the wontons really isn’t rocket science.  Just hold the wonton in your palm and put a scoop of your meat mixture in it.  I keep a little bowl of water close by, which I use to close up the wonton at the top.  I just wet my fingers and pinch the top close.

I lined a cookie sheet with wax paper, sprayed it with oil so nothing would stick and lined up all my little tacos.

I’m really sorry about the picture quality.  I really have a great camera but still haven’t learned all the settings.   

Back to our wonton’s.  Remember the sauce I had mentioned about setting aside.  I now brush each wonton over the top and sides with the sauce.  This will give it a nice flavor and brown it up a little bit better.  The wonton will brown up all on it’s own, this just gives it a better head start.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and pop them in for about 15 minutes.  Remember everything is cooked already so this is just to brown up the wonton and make it crunchy. 

We chopped up some lettuce and put a little dollop of sour cream and man these were so good.  They really aren’t a dinner, more of an appetizer or would be perfect for hors d'oeuvres.  (really both are the exact same thing.. haha) 

Like I have said before our family isn’t your conventional everyday Harriet and Ozzie kind of family.   We are more of snackers than meal people so really this is our kind of dinner. 

I'm going to link this up at The Kurtz Corner - Tuesday Tutorials.  If your looking for other awesome ideas swing by there and check all of them out. 

FLEUR DE LIS FRAME

I wanted to show off a project I completed this weekend and add it also to Craft-O-Maniac Monday Link Party.   You should stop by there and check out everyone's great craft ideas.  There is some amazing talent out there.

  I love finding old frames and giving them a new  look.  Of course like anyone else I like to make a buck or two so I sell them over at my Etsy shop.  Go take a look at what I've got going on.  Frames are not the only thing I have at my shop.  Just click on my Etsy link located on the left side of my side bar.

I found this 4x6 picture frame a while back and loved the shape of it.  I painted the back and sides with Martha Stewart Textured Glitter Paint.   If you haven't used this you need to try it out on your next project.  It has a bit of a shimmer and after it drys, which is very fast, it is rough like sand paper to the touch.

 When I saw this paper I fell in love with it and knew I wanted to recover a frame with it.  I created a cute silk black bow and added a blinged out Fleur De Lis to the middle of it.

Here is one more frame I created this weekend. 

HAPPY CRAFTING

 BIG MAMMA LUVS YA

XOXO

Super Saturday Find

 Something I've been doing for quite some time is on Saturdays I head out early and hit thrift stores to see what treasures I can find.  In the area I live in I have approximately 8 different thrift stores.  Most are Goodwill stores but there are a few others along the way.  I like to hit. up the Goodwill Stores because if you keep track of their schedule every other Saturday it is 50% off any item.  The good thing is that 1/2 are on every other weekend schedules so every Saturday is a win for me!

I have shared a few of my finds in the past.  

Remember my Pier One mirror? 

 It was plain white wicker and weathered a bit.  I know it was Pier One since the orginal sticker was still on it.

 Here it is after I re did it and hung it over my bed.

 I thought I'd start to share with you my finds.  

Last week I felt like I hit the jackpot.  I will soon get to have my own crafting room, so I have been keeping my eyes open for items that will help me organize all my junk.. ahhh I mean my wonderful crafting supplies.. Ha ha ha.  

Here are my find from last Saturday.

  

First thing you see is that wonderful Scrabble game.  I have been looking for these games at thrift stores ever since I saw the first "Pin" and all the things you can do with the tiles.  This is the first game I ever found.  They just can't be found.  I understand it is coming back as a pretty popular game but geeezzee.  Either no one wants to get rid of them or they go faster than the ice cream in my house. 

Next the frames.  I make frames and sell them so I'm always looking for good frames ( not real cheep one with that pole in the back that holds them up)  If you'd like to see my frames you can check them out at my Etsy store. 

Way in the back is a little shelf that I plan on re painting and adding to my craft room later on.  So that goes in the garage for now.

What do you think about those jars.  I fell in love with them as soon as I saw them.  I have seen them at Target and other stores but I think they are around $19.99 and that is outta my budget for something I don't "have" to have.   These jars were a great price only $4.99 and $2.00.  How could I pass them up?  

How could I just leave those beauties sitting there empty until my room was complete.  There was no way.  So I filled them up right away.  

I use to have my buttons all in separate jars but to me it just took up to much room.  Yea sure it is easy to just grab the color jar you want and get your button but to me all the colors together just looks so much more fun.  I used the large jar for all those spare pieces of ribbon I just can throw away and know that I will use later for something.  

I will proudly display these in my room but for now they have a temp home in my bedroom craft area. 

What is the best thing you ever found at your treasure store?  (Thrift store)

HAPPY CRAFTING!

BIG MAMMA LUVS YA

XOXO

WEEKLY RECIPE REDO

Chicken & Cheese Lasagna Roll ups. 

Here is the original recipe, which I found on iVillage.com.   Look at how yummy these are.  As soon as I saw them my taste buds clicked into high gear.

Remember my goal was going to cook three times a week but realistically there is no way I can do it. I have so many projects going on (which you will be seeing very shortly, *wink* *wink*) that there is no way I can cook a full meal that many times a week.  I decided that once a week would be just fine.  Another thing is that I want to try to bring back a tradition.  Since I was little we would head to my grandma’s house on Sundays.  A big breakfast or dinner was routine.  So I am going to try to keep that tradition alive with the kids and my cousin Heather.  She is feeling a little alone with her immediate family and I want her to know that this is her house.  That this is her family and she can count on us anytime, plus I need someone that is crazy enough to be my the Guinea Pig.  LOL.

Check out how easy this recipe is.   Only 8 items.  2 Prep Steps & if you can spread peanut butter on a piece of bread and roll it up you have dinner made.  

Ingredients

3 cups chopped cooked chicken  ( I used 1 lb ground chicken)

** ok so I changed just one thing. 

1/4 cup milk

1 cup Ricotta cheese
1/8 teaspoon white pepper

1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
8 lasagna noodles, cooked and drained

1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
2 cups Prego Spaghetti Sauce 

Mix all the cheese and milk together in a bowl. Cook the noodles & drain. 

That’s if for prep!  

Any monkey can do it. I did it just fine.  LOL.  

Next spread a little sauce on the bottom of the dish.  Take your noodle and lay it out.  Spread your cheese mix along the noodle and roll.  Place it in the dish seam side down. 

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat!

Once your dish is full of roll ups take the rest of your sauce and spread on top.  I added a little extra parmesan on top.  Then cover and cook.  375 degrees for 30 mins. 

I did everything exactly as the instructions called for so what the heck happened.  Mine did not look anything like the picture. 

I'm sure the horrible picture doesn't help. 

Well what the heck.  Who cares what it looks like before the oven.  I popped it in and 30 minutes later here’s how it looked.

The exact same!

It just didn’t matter how it looks.  It was soooo good that we didn’t have time to care what it looked like.  We scarfed it down so fast that I had to check the pictures to remember what it looked like.
 

All in all I think there are only two things that I would do different.

#1 I would add Mozzarella Cheese to the mixture and then grade it on top.  There is no way you can ever have enough cheese in Italian food.

#2 Forget the silly rolling up.  Just layer, layer, layer.  There wasn’t any difference between regular Lasagna & these roll ups but rolling the noddle.  Forget it. 

The most important part is that everyone liked it.  It was healthy and no left overs to clean up.

I've got to get back to crafing.  I have a great project to show you tomorrow. 

Recipe choosen!

 I surfed my Pinterest and made a decision. 

I am going to make Chicken & Cheese Lasagna Roll-ups.  

 Don't they look good.

This recipe was found on i-Village.  Another very simple dish which only has 8 ingredients and 8 steps.  My kind of recipe!

I'll be back to let you all know what the family thinks. 

Happy crafting.


BIG MAMMA LUVS YA

XOXO

My first recipe redo!

As I had posted just prior to this I told you I had made a life changing decision. I am going to pick something from Pinterest and let you know how it worked out for me.  Remember I decided I was going to make Pot Pie Cupcakes.  You can see the original recipe here.  Remember my disclaimer – I probably will change up a few things.  LOL  

I pretty much had almost everything in my pantry but the chicken. 

Ingredients: 
Pillsbury biscuits
Mixed Vegetables (I don’t like using frozen it makes it to watery)
Cream of Mushroom Soup (original calls for Cream of Chicken but we like Mushroom)
1 cup of shredded cheese
1 lb of chicken (I used chicken strips, original called for a breast of chicken)
Salt & Pepper

The recipe is so simple.  Cook chicken – Duh..   I love when recipes tell us to do these things, like the disclaimer on coffee that says be careful item may be hot… LOL..

Back to what I’m here for.  Mix everything in a bowl.  Just to let you know I did not use the whole can of each of the vegetables, only 1/2.  If you want to double the recipe then use the whole can. Just way too much. 

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees and grease the muffin tin.   In each cup place a biscuit.  

Oh…  now opening the “Pop Fresh” Pillsbury biscuit container needs a whole blog entry in it self.  First these little blue tubes scare the crap out of me.  You rip off that paper that never rips off correctly.  It says "start here" and one eighth of an inch into it you a little piece in one hand and the whole tube in the other.  Now your fighting to scrape up with your fingernail another “start” piece and this goes on at least three more times.  Yea you get all the paper off but now and your holding something that looks like the end of the toilet paper roll only heavier and still no POP! There were three of us at this thing, my cousin, my mother and myself. We even called my daughter in to help us. We squeezed it, took a butter knife to it, slapped it against the the edge of the counter (remember when that's all it took to open these damn things) and after about 5 mins. of us handing this thing off like a hot potato... I can’t remember who finally got that thing to POP but it did and don’t ask me how it happen. 
Pinch me… I was having a nightmare.  That damn blue tube!!!!

Ok, so the biscuits are open and in the bottom of the tins.  Just scoop your mixture on top of your biscuit and slide it into the oven.  Cook for 15 mins.  Let stand for 3.
Your finished product!

Now here comes the real reason why we are here.  How was it?  Mixed reviews.  Once they were out of the oven they smelled great and looked even better.  Now for the true test, how did they taste?  The mixture was very good, the biscuit not so much.  They were very heavy and didn’t rise very well.. not at all really.  

All in all it was a good appetizer or snack but not a dinner.
My mom’s imput:  “if you have the tiny-mini muffin tins it would be a great party finger food.”   

Things I would do to maybe make it a little better, at least for us.  I will use Grands biscuits next time.  They are much more fluffy and really rise.  They have layers, like an onion.  Anyone remember where that line is from?  If you do then you're as old as I am.  Ha Ha.

I think this is what they call ADD.  I get so side tracked.  

The other thing is the next time I make this, and I will, I will take each biscuit and not just “plop” the biscuit in the bottom.  I will mold it into a little cup so it comes up the sides a bit and then put the filling in the biscuit cup.

Well there you have it my first Recipe Re Do.  I think I would rate this a C-  not a fail but just average.

Happy Cooking all!~

I've made a decision!

 Now this is not a life changing decision for most but for me it is. 

I am going to start cooking!   LOL.

If you know me and 99% of you don't but I just don't cook.  First I need to say I CAN cook, I just don't.  Since all my kids are older, I'm a single person that worked full time, and the kids always were off doing their own thing, why cook?  No one is there to care or appreciate it.   I am not not working and maybe out of bordom or ....  naaa I know exactly why. 

PINTEREST!

Hi, my name is Mary and I am a Pinteerestholic.  HaHaHa.. No, really I am.  As I scroll every day, I see all these great recipes and dishes that "are so easy" to make.  Well I want to see for myself.   So my goal is, at least 3 times a week, I am going to pick an "easy" dish to make and show off what happens right here.    I'm going to be your Guinea pig.  If you're like me I see these Pins and wonder "Really, it looks good but is it that easy and is it good".    I'll be telling you the truth and I will give you a play by play here.  

I must warn you, we are not a beef eating family so everything will either be turkey or chicken. 

Decision made:  This will be my first pick.

Chicken Pot Pie Cupcakes

In case you want to check out my food board it's called FIND THE KITCHEN.

 Check back soon and I'll have the outcome for ya all. 

Disclaimer: I am notious for changing a recipe to suit our own family and if any changes are made I will make sure all is noted. 
 
BIG MAMMA LUVS YA  

XOXO

Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge #165 card.

I look forward every week to see what the new sketch is . 

This week it did not fail me. 

I was looking through my stamps and realized I had not used a little pack I have from My Little Shoe Box.  It’s called Home Tweet Home. 

I like to add a little something to the inside.  Who wants to open a card and it just be Blah.  So stamped a border with one of my Martha Stewart border punches and stamped Mr. Tweetie’s little friend up in the corner.

I have some sewing to do tomorrow so I hope I can show you some pillows I am redoing real soon. 
Have a great Craftin Week.

MOJO Monday 253

Here is a card that I made for my kids “Granny”.  On the 23rd of this month she will turn 80!  She is so young at heart.  I thought I also would enter this card in the MOJO Monday 253 challenge.  Isn't this sa great sketch.  
The poka dot back ground paper comes from a 2008 KI Memories stack.  Solids are from my DCWV solid stacks and the honey comb impression plate is a Tim Holtz design.  The flowery paper is a new stack I just got but I believe since it was on clearance it must be an older DCWV stack.  It is called The Gilded Orchard.  I just got the new SU Daydream Medallion stamp set and also coordinating dies that goes with it.  They are so much fun.. you can layer them or use them one at a time. 

Well I hope you like this one.  I’ll need to make another one for Granny for the kids to give to her.  So come back and see what I come up with.

Another Thank You challenge card

I made this card for The Sweet Stop, Sweet N Sassy Stamps Sketch Challenge.  #SSS170.  Their sketch caught my eye.  First it is so simple which I like that.  I’m not a huge fan of tons of layers and I love adding a bow to a card.  Take a look, isn’t it a sketch you should keep handy and use over and over again.

Knowing I was going to make another Thank You card I went through my stamps and found a set I had not used.  It’s by Hampton Arts the Ditto line.  If you shop at Michaels then you should know this line.  Very Cheep and they have some really cute stamps.   The set has two stamps the large saying and then a smaller stamp that is a scroll with a heart and two little flowers. 
I started searching though all my flowers and could not find any small enough to add to the card.  I did find the last two I had of these very little flowers… so perfect but they were white.  That would not work since I was stamping on white cardstock.  I thought, what if I colored them?  Here is a picture showing you how white they were. 

I grabbed three of my red Copic, starting with the deepest at the top and going to the lightest at the tips. 

I think they turned out great and now I think maybe I just need to buy white flowers and I can make them any color I need.  LOL   I won’t but now I know I can hi-lite flowers and give them different dimension.
Have I lost you.. I got kinda of crazy about these silly flowers but I guess I surprised myself by taking a situation that I didn’t have the right item and turned it into something that worked out perfect for what I needed..

On to the finished product. 

Thanks again for stopping by and please tell your friends. I would love more followers. 

Hero Arts challenge.

This little 4x4 card  is for the Hero Arts monthly challenge. 

Their monthly challenge theme is:

I’ll be making quite a few Thank You cards coming up.  My daughter in WA likes me to keep her supplied. 

Back to the challenge.  Hero Arts gave us these three sketches to pick from.  I think you can tell which one I chose, but I will be making the other two in the next couple of days.

This was the first time I use the new Hero Arts Framelits I got a while ago.  These guys are hard to find.  I happen to run into just one at JoAnne's and snatched it up.  I haven’t seen them again.   These are so easy to use and stamp so nicely.  I used dimensional to pop it up and added a little bling. 

Keep your fingers crossed for me.  Winners get a $50 shopping spree and now that I’m out of work (again) I don’t get to go shopping like I use to for my craftin goods.
Better start on the next card.  Hope every one has a great week and don’t forget to drive safe.  School starts again this week.  At least out here it does.

CAS-UAL Friday Challenge Card.

Wanted to share with you the card I created for Cas-ual Friday Challenge #CFC64.  This week the project needed to feature “things you see in the sky”.  What else works in the sky than a cute little plane flying by saying Thanks.   I used my little cloud stamp from Imaginisce.  It’s from the Happy Camper collection.   You probably can’t see but the cloud on the far left is popped up with some dimensional foam.  I picked the paper from a 6x6 pad by Jillibean Soup called Apple Cheddar Soup.  This paper was very simple blue with little poka-dots but you should check the series out. Such adorable paper.
The little plane and it’s swirl of smoke came from a little mini set by KaiserCraft.  It’s called Little Man. I also popped up the plane.  I am beginning to really rely on my mini stamps so much more than my large sets.  At least for quick simple cards.   Last but not lease don’t you love my little banner.  Thanks!  I have a great set by Pebbles, it has 9 different sayings on different banners.  Now all I need is to find a die set that I can make this work with.  If you have any ideas I would love to hear your suggestions.
One last thing is I used Stampin Up colors for all my inking. 
The blue is: Tempting Turquoise 
The green is: Old Olive
The Orange is: Tangerine Tango
Well thanks for stopping by and I hope you like my simple little card.