I have to admit

I have to admit I've been super busy these past few weeks.  I've been making all kinds of fun new stuff for Christmas gifts, baby showers and what not..  My living room looks like a fabric tornado had gone through it.  My kitchen island is now doubling as a sewing work station with rotary cutter and mat,  not to mention the 50 lb old sewing machine sitting in the middle of it.  Today's goal is to finish a "Welcome to the World Pack" for Cam's baby Patrick and "You're a big sister" gifts for her girls/ Christmas gifts (since I'm so late in getting it out).

 
 





Tomorrow's Goal.... Clean the house after work because my parents and aunt are coming over on Friday so that we can go to a wedding of one of my cousin's on Sunday and my house is about the half way point.

The Baron and I had both been quite sick and it's not been fun.

There seems to be little to no hope of my decorating for Christmas this year.  Past years looked something like this.

 

A stolen recipe with tweaks to make it my own

I stole the basic recipe from Allison at Broken Fortress.  She called it Hamburger Soup.  I call it quick veggie soup.  Below is her original recipe and my improvements and notes follow.  It's a super quick and easy soup.  The things that take the longest are coping the onion and garlic and in my version heating the frozen veggies and cooking the pasta. 

Original Recipe 
Ingredients:
1 Tbls Olive Oil
1/2 a med sized onion, chopped
2 Tbls minced garlic
1 lb ground beef
1 can condensed tomato soup, plus 1 can water
2-14 oz. cans beef broth
1 small can of corn
1 cup cooked macaroni, wagon wheel, or small shell pasta

Heat olive oil in a skillet. Add onion and garlic until the onions are just soft. Add ground beef, season with salt and cook until meat is longer pink.

Meanwhile, in a 5 quart soup pot, pour in beef broth, tomato soup and water. Bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer. In another pot, cook pasta to package directions.

When meat is cooked through, add to beef soup mixture. I highly recommend draining as much of the fat as possible. I didn't do such a good job and after storing in the fridge it all came to the top. So rinse your meat before adding or drain fat really well. Add corn and pasta and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

My Notes: 
We had this for dinner tonight. I made a few changes to the basic recipe. I cooked frozen mixed veggies on the side, boiled my pasta in my beef broth which gave it flavor. I strained the pasta allowing the person to put as much or as little pasta in their plate and makes it easier to keep leftovers.  This way the liquid in your soup isn't being absorbed by the pasta.   I also added fresh black pepper to taste. It was really good.  The Baron served himself twice. In the past I've used Progresso Fire Roasted tomatoes. I find it gives a more complex flavor to the soup than the condensed tomato soup does.  YUMMM!

Just a video for thought

Sound quality isn't great but it might make you think.

This weeks projects

This week I have been making gifts for friend's children.

The cassock, surplice, chasuble, and chalice veil are gifts for a 4 year old's birthday present.  I will try to get pictures of him in it from his mom.

These are a sibling set.

There is my Star War t-shirts. 

  Update: Here is my little friend wearing his cassock and surplice.

A comment I wrote for Cam's Blog

Ok so Cam at A Woman's Place wrote a blog post on her guidelines for choosing dresses and skirts. (Click her for a direct link to that post) While I was commenting I realized it was a SUPER LONG comment so I decided to also post it here on my Blog. Hope you enjoy.


Skirt Length
Just my opinion on shirt/ dress length.  I like skirts that are actually to my ankles (why ?  Because they make me look thinner)   Ok I’m going to say it.  I’ve got some major curves and they aren’t all in the right places.  Anything that is above about mid-calf (almost as a rule) makes me look shorter and like my hips are about to explode.

Fit
 I like semi-slim or A-line skirts.  This choice is often dependent on the fabric and the season.  Summer more A-lines and winter more semi-slim and straight. (not stead fast rule just an observation of my  trend.)    I have no kids to deal with and once again Semi-slim (not pencil skirts look best on me).   I want to hint that I have some kind of shape but I don’t want you to see my shape like an outline. (No tight butt tuck or hip to thigh cling for me)

Fabric
In the summer I want something flowing and kind of flirty. Winter I want thick and structured.  In the summer I ALWAYS seem to wear a legged corset or old fashion pantaloons (Keeps my thighs from chapping when they rub together and helps to remain modest even if my dress creeps up a bit or you can kind of see thought the fabric).

Top side
I tend to wear a skirt and top because dresses are hard for me to find due to my size 12 top and size 16 to 18 bottom.  . (I have a fairly large bust for the size of my waist).  I’m kind of a strangely shaped hour glass.  When I have a V-neck top  I wear my cami-secrets (my husband calls it my boob bib), and if that’s not appropriate to wear because of the neckline  (like a scoop or a square) I find if I pair it with a sweater it seems to be better.  The two dresses I do own and wear out of the house have fairly high neck lines but are almost always worn with a sweater,

Questions you might be asking your self.
Does she always wear a skirt/ dress?  It really depends.  I seem to flow in and out of wearing skirts.  Right now I wear a lot more jeans than I used to.  I find I wear more jeans in the summer (strangely) but I find that my choice of whether or not to wear skirts is really dependent on if I can wear sandals.  Since I live in Houston and their are only about 6 weeks of "cold" days where sandals are not practical during the winter I wear them year round.  Location also seems to dictate my skirt wearing, For example I was in Colorado last week.  I'm from the flat lands and I quickly discovered that the majority of my sandals had 2 to 4 inch platform heals.  In my opinion I can't walk up and down hills in sandals so I didn't wear the skirts I packed,  Now I'm in Minnesota and I think I might break out those sandals so skirts are once again an option. I always wear skirts to mass because it just feels right.

Why does she care about her skirts so much?

It's because they make me feel more feminine.  I like to feel like a lady and skirts help me to do that.  They also force me to act more to like a woman. My mother always told me you're going to act the way you dress and people are going to treat you the way you are dressed.  So if you're going to dress like "a woman of the night" other people are going to treat you that way.  If you dress like a business man by wearing a pant suit your coworkers are going to treat you like one.  If you wear a skirt you act like and possibly others around you will treat you like a woman.  Personally I like men opening doors and pulling out chairs for me and I find men tend to do those things more often when I'm wearing a skirt,  It's almost like by wearing a skirt they feel like you are giving them permission to treat you like a lady instead of like just another man.

Two weeks of Creations

I've been very crafty in the past two weeks.  I've been honing my sewing skills with making burp cloths and matching teething necklaces.  I am now moving on to making baby butt ruffles. 

My baby girl set

My first butt ruffles 

Burp cloths and teething necklace

Personalized gift 

I also made a really good chicken Marsala.  I didn't know how it would turn out so I didn't take pictures as I went and it was so good that I didn't take pictures before we ate.  All I can show you is my left over sauce. I quadrupled the sauce because last time I made it we ran out of sauce.  I am including the recipe. (just so you know I'm making more chicken tomorrow so we can have left overs. because it was SOOOO yummy. 

Ok so since my looks so icky there I'll steal some off of the Allrecipe.com site. It's from the same recipe I just added stuff as can be seen in my modification section. 

Chicken Marsala

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour for coating
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded 1/4 inch thick
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 1/2 cup Sweet Marsala wine (pick a good one not a cooking quality) 
• 1/4 cup cooking sherry (drinking quality) 

Directions

1. In a shallow dish or bowl, mix together the flour, salt, pepper and oregano. Coat chicken pieces in flour mixture.
2. In a large skillet, melt butter in oil over medium heat. Place chicken in the pan, and lightly brown three minutes on one side and two on the other. Turn over chicken pieces, and add mushrooms. Pour in wine and sherry. Cover skillet; simmer chicken 10 minutes, turning once, until no longer pink and juices run clear.

My improvements 

-  Season chicken before putting in flour with black pepper (I used fresh ground), dash of ground red pepper, Italian seasoning, pinch of salt, dash of parsley.  Whatever you have left in the way of seasoning and be added to the above amounts in flour. 

- Take the chicken out after browning it and set aside so the breading doesn't get mushy.  (just make sure it's cooked through but if you pound it I promise it will be cooked) 

- At least triple the sauce if your having it over pasta.

-Thicken with corn starch water slurry if eating over pasta so it coats your noodles

- Add fat free half and half at the end (or regular if you don't mind the calories) 

- I put I can't believe it's not butter to add flavor at the end.  (use about a table spoon) 

If you make it let me know how yours turned out. 

Praying for Tripp

As some of you know I lived in a small town in South Louisiana while I went to graduate school. This is a story about a little boy from a town right next door. I think I may have taken a class with his mom at some point because she looks familiar.

Well anyway, This little guy needs some prayers because he's developed EB a very painful skin disorder which is life threatening. Many prayers are requested. You can read more about him and his family and even about EB on his mom's blog "EB"ing a mommy. Please pray with me for little guy.

**** Update****
Tripp died yesterday 1/14/12. I will continue to pray his little soul and for his family to find closure and see God's hand in this life and death.