Drum Roll Please.....

Alright, I am on a roll here..... I have sooooo many body parts laying around my work room with lots of dolls and other prim stuff in various stages of "making".... it is nice to get some of them FINALLY completed. This was part of todays "stuff". I made this wreath using a crow pattern from Sagebrush & Sassafras. Love this guy. I used this one to make a wreath...but the others (and you know there are others lying around....LOL) will just hang on the wall.

Now to get back to the 12 zillion other things I need to finish.........
Hugs,
Debbie

My Prayer Angel....

Ok, I know you are in shock!!!!! Not only have I posted twice in one week....but good grief, I have now posted twice in one day!!!! LOL

This is one of the dolls that I have been working on and I just finished the first one. As you know, you can't just make one when you have to do shows and such.....so she has 5 sisters waiting for me at the sewing table!!!

When I look at patterns or play with a design, I try to think about who would want this little gem and why. I fell in love with this pattern by Ragg Bagg Babys because of who she would appeal too. Not only is she a sweet raggedy.....but she has a purpose.....in her pocket is a rolled up scroll with a scripture verse:

"He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds."--Psalm 147:3


What a great verse to have for a doll that you want to give to someone that is hurting or going through a really trying time. But you wouldn't even have to use this verse, put your own verse in her pocket or a lovely heartfelt note. Like I said, she is something special.

I think I will take a couple to the show, a couple to our booth at the Knitting Mills...maybe one for etsy or ebay....and maybe, just maybe one to reside in my office (my friend Jen is always yelling at me for not keeping any of my own stuff!!!).

Just let me know if you NEED one of these sweeties before they are gone....I am horrible about going back and making something after I have finished a group of them. You know, there are always new patterns and fabrics that need to be played with!!!





















Hugs,
Debbie

On My Nightstand.....

When I had the newspaper...we always tried to include the books that were on our nightstands to share with our readers and friends. One of the reasons we started doing this is that I personally found so many new "favorite" authors and books from what my friends were reading.

I am sharing my list of what I currently am reading through....or trying to!! LOL Some of them have been here for awhile as I want to read them, just haven't been in the mood...but I want to finish these by September 1.

How to Smell Like God by Steven James
Scribbling in the Sand (Christ and Creativity) by Michael Card
Not Your Mother's Life by Joan K. Peters
Seizing Your Divine Moment by McManus
Breathe by Keri Wyatt Kent
The Traveler's Gift by Andy Andrews
The Sugar Camp Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini
Change Your Home, Change Your Life by Moll Anderson

And...I am currently addicted to the Women's Murder Club series by James Patterson.

As you can see, I am a bit all over the place with the books....some are for fun, some for curiosity, some for upcoming projects I want to work on and some just found their way into the stack like a stray puppy on your front porch!!! LOL

So PLEASE share with me what you are reading....I really would love to know!
Hugs,

An Invitation....

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of--throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage; but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.

---C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Tomato

Yes, there has been some talk about my total lack of a green thumb. It is just one of those sad facts of life. But I was determined to try to grow a few veggies in pots this year.

To my amazement, I actually have one tomato that is almost ripe...so let's see the savings....two large pots + soil + fertilizer + tomato cages + 4 heirloom plants per pot......one pot has 6 (yes, 6) tomatos making each tomato around $4 each.

Ok...I am not sure I am going about this correctly......LOL
Heck, at least the mint is growing and growing, and growing.....if we could just fuel something with that stuff I could make a small fortune!!!

Have a great weekend!!!
Hugs,
Debbie

Words...The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and the Strange

I am going to warn you now....this is gonna be one of those long, rambling "soap box" posts. See, it has just been clogging up my brain for awhile now and my "not posting" in so long has been because this was gonna be what got posted first.....sigh. (Please notice pretty picture above to distract you from content of post....lol)

For awhile now, we have heard about how our words affect those around us...the positive and negative. That what we say to ourselves, our kids, our co-workers, family, spouses, friends...well, it has the power to lift them up and "be all that they can be" or to drop them like a ton of bricks over a bridge at the overpass. You get the idea.... I have had several things bring me back to the theme of "words" in the past couple of weeks and I feel the need to share.......

Some of you that know me, know that I love to stay up till 3-4 in the morning working on crafts, home, reading or such...because I don't have a regular work schedule, I get to sleep late and that works. Lately, I have been doing some subbing and I have needed to get on a regular schedule...so I am proud to say I have been getting up before my family, checking out the day, getting things in order...running to the local grocery if I need something for the crock pot recipe that day. (Ok, so I know some of you have the image of me getting up at 4 am...spending a couple of hours in prayer and meditation....impeccably dressing to go out to the grocery....I need to dispell that image now....especially since this post is about words. As long as I am up before noon, I have beat the rest of my family.....just so we are clear.....smile.)

Yesterday, I headed out to the grocery. We have a fairly decent size produce area at my local stop..and while I was contemplating whether the celery I needed to purchase was now gold or silver plated due to the current price....I see a woman close to me hold up a melon and yell across the section to a young man working on a fruit display..."Hooty-Hoo....Hooty-Hoo". Now apparently, there is magic in these words because as soon as she started yelling them, the teenage boy that had been by her side, simply disappeared. No seriously, I never saw him leave, run, hide in the aisle...he was just GONE! Sadly, the first yelling of "Hooty-Hoo" did not get the expected results of the produce guy appearing at her side, so once again the call went out..."Hooty-Hoo"...at that time he did turn around to see what nutcase had entered the produce section. And she was able to ask her question about the price of the melon on hand.

OK...PLEASE explain to me how I missed the memo that tells you to yell "Hooty-Hoo" in the middle of a store to get someone's attention...rather than to simply walk your ample behind over and politely ask the question????? Speaking of lost memos.....

I know this has been going on for awhile...but I can't begin to tell you how irritating it is for me to hear young women (sadly, older too) call each other "b*tches and ho's". Having grown up in a home with a father who had NO value for women except in a servitude type manner...having worked in offices where women felt lucky to get anywhere above a secretarial status--and even if they did, they were still expected to be the ones to serve coffee and "wait" on the other men in charge. To have heard those words used about women to make them less than what we were and are...to make them fun and hip....simply makes me ill.

My friend, Robin Chaddock, recites a poem during one of her talks called, "Standing on The Shoulders " and I wanted to share a bit of that:

"We are standing on the shoulders of the ones who came before us

They are saints and they are humans, they are angels, they are friends

We can see beyond the struggles and the troubles and the challenge

when we know that by our efforts things will be better in the end."

(Joyce Johnson Rouse)

It makes me sad to know all the struggles, the hardships and just ugliness that many women endured to help us have it easier in the workplace (and there are still places that you would never know any changes have occured)...and yet we are raising a group of women that spit on it with every utterance of those words. And don't even get me started on women willingly being degraded (as if that is they way women are supposed to be treated) on many music videos.

I don't know....do you think we could make it hip for them to instead use "Hooty-Hoo"?

And one last thing, that is the reason this whole line of thinking even got started. I received an email last week from an acquaintance.....now understand, this is not the first one of these for me to receive....it was just the straw that broke the camels back. So I want to make something crystal clear....

I don't CARE who you vote for. I want YOU to care about the candidate you chose. I want you to personally research who you vote for...NEVER RELY ON "BEARING FALSE WITNESS" EMAILS that are sent out during EVERY political campaign. These lies are sent out every, every voting season and all have heartfelt scriptures, missionary sitings and such that tell us that who ever candidate they are lying about will send us all straight to hell if we vote for them.
Good grief people.....wake up and think for yourself. If you understood the workings of our government...you would spend far more time on your congressional research and voting than wait every 4 years to go up in arms.

Frankly, I haven't been thrilled with the voting possibilities since the group first threw all their hats in the ring and I am still sorting some things out. But christians thinking that the "bearing false witness" verse doesn't apply to the political process need to get a grip and do some soul searching.....and take a good look at how big their god is....cause my God can handle things, without my having to resort to lies, threats, and scare tactics.

Hey, I have been around long enough to remember the emails that went out that the Russian president Gorbachev (sp?) was the anti-christ because of a birthmark on his head!!!!

Ok...so after all of that, maybe "Hooty-Hoo" looks pretty good....

Nuff said!!!

Hugs,
Debbie

The Hamburger Trail......

Hello All....

Lately, I have been finding "contentment" in getting back to some home stuff that I let fall by the wayside when I had the shop. And while I still have lots to do with our booth, upcoming shows and some new ventures.....working from home allows me to get back into the groove of "homekeeping."

One of my favorite things to do, when I don't have to clean up beforehand...is to cook and get us on a schedule. This week I signed up for "The Grocery Game"...if you haven't heard of this or checked it out...please do!!! I have wanted to get back into the couponing thing...but everyone that I knew that saved huge amounts, also spent HUGE amounts of time working the coupon game...and I just don't have that. For $1 for 4 weeks to try it, you get to put in the grocery stores in your area and she sends you a list of specials, unadvertised sales and where to find the coupons to get the best deal. It is all about learning to stockpile so that you can shop from your own cabinets...so your shopping list is more about perishables and speciality items you want to buy. (Ok the commercial is over....but I really love this!!!)

One of the great deals I purchased this week was two LARGE packages of the good ground beef. What did I do with it???? The first package, I browned the entire package with a little onion and salt. After it is browned.....I put it in the strainer and rinse with warm water to make sure all extra grease is rinsed away. When it cools...I put one to two pounds in each freezer bag....this was it is ready for tacos, sloppy joes, casseroles, pizza, spaghetti sauce and more.

The next package....I took half of the meat and put in a large crockery bowl. I mixed up a batch of meatloaf mix. Chopped up onion and green pepper....added italian breadcrumbs, a couple of eggs, tomato sauce and meatloaf seasoning. Mixed it up.... Then I pulled out my jumbo muffin tins...I lined a cup with plastic wrap that was larger than what you would need just to line it. Press in meatloaf mix to fill muffin cup......then wrap over the extra plastic wrap to seal it up.....remove from tin and place on cookie sheet. When you have finished all of your meatloaf mix....place all on cookie sheet and put in freezer to freeze. Once they are frozen, pull out and place in freezer bags. These are ready to pull out for an easy meal.

With the other half of package two..... I browned the meat with onion, italian seasonings and salt.

I made up pizza dough (recipe to follow) in the bread machine (EASY). I made one large pizza to serve the family that night. (Sprinkled cornmeal on my baking stone (Pampered Chef type), and worked the dough onto the stone....used Ragu Pizza Sauce on top and then top with favorite ingredients--i used green and yellow peppers, onion, groundbeef mixture, tomatoes and lots of cheese). After throwing this in the oven....I pulled out aluminum foil round cake pans (from the $ store)..put a little cornmeal in the bottom of each, and then made personal pans in each of these to freeze....turned out WONDERFUL.

I had some of the meat left from the pizzas....so the next day, I pulled out the crockpot...threw in the leftover meat, two cans of spaghetti sauce, 1 can of tomato sauce, mushrooms, finely chopped carrots and celery, onion, peppers, italian seasoning, salt, pepper....let this cook in the crockpot all day....finished with salad, rolls and pasta...for a great meal....

Guess what.....I have some sauce left over, so tomorrow I will be using it to make crockpot lasagne...... See what one day of cooking can do......leave you with several wonderful meals in your freezer that are far better than any fast food or purchased frozen meal...and the $$$ savings are great...especially with all the rising costs!!

Let me share with you my favorite pizza crust recipe....sadly, I can't find where I got it at, I know it was from one of the OAMC lists I belonged to awhile back...so if I find where I got this, I will gladly share that!!

GARLIC PIZZA CRUST

2 pkg yeast (or 2 Tbsp of bulk yeast)

2 c. tempid water

2 Tblsp sugar

1/2 cup oil

1 tsp. salt

5 1/2 - 6 cups flour

3 cloves crushed garlic

Dissolve yeast in water and add sugar...wait a few minutes...add oil and salt and garlic...mix in 3 cups flour and whip about 10 min. till it leaves the side of the mixer bowl...add remaining flour w/dough hook or by hand....knead till smooth ...allow to rise twice in the bowl...punch down...oill baking sheets...use fingers to press out to the edges.

Makes 2 pizzas, cookie sheet size, let rise a bit and top....bake at 425 degrees for 20 min.

This makes 2 cookie sheet sized or 12 after school snack size pizzas.
(From Debbie: I just put all the ingredients into the bread machine and run it on the dough cycle. When it is time to rise, I take it out to put in a large crock bowl, and cover to allow it to rise. If I forget and leave it in the bread machine.....it will rise OUT of the machine....yep, a mess!!! LOL)

OK...I gave you lots of info, hopefully, it is some you can use! And a side note....I am working on a new online radio show with a couple of friends....Creative Living 101. It will be on Blog Talk Radio and when we get started, I will have access to it through our blog site. We are so excited about this as we want to have lots of home, friendship, faith, cooking, books and more info on this show with some great guests to share with you.



Have a great week!!!!!

Hugs,

Debbie

Happy Fourth!!!

Wishing you all a wonderful 4th weekend....may you have fun with your
family and friends....


Don't forget to count your blessings.....

I will be back soon with some fun info on a new adventure or two...

HUGS,
Debbie