Fragmented Friday

I called this post fragmented because my mind has fragmented into a thousand different directions with this stupid...though beautiful...snow. It hit sometime Wednesday evening and we worked from home yesterday. By the time the day was done, I was going stir crazy. I went by hubby's puzzle he is working and inserted about 3 or 4 pieces. By that time, I was over it. 

So I moved on and checked out the few pieces left in the big Valentine's candy box that my boss and his wife got us. I found one more butter cream so I ate it.

Then I stopped at the chocolate cake I had made and had me a small bite of that. 

Then I read on my new book for awhile. I love Robyn Carr and her Thunder Point series has been awesome. I was so happy to find the most recent one in the series at the store on Wednesday.

I worked a little while on my Thirty-One planner and started setting my goals for March.

Wednesday night I had an online Facebook Thirty-One party...which I highly recommend if you want to earn some hostess rewards. My hostess just invited her Facebook friends and family and we did a little party online. She earned $40 of free products and one item at 1/2 off. I showcased some new spring products and some of these cute Easter ideas. The wonderful thing about a Facebook party is you can order online and have people at your party from all over the U.S. It's awesome.

As a result of her party, I earned some free products in our upcoming JK by Thirty-One jewelry line. I can't wait to get them.

I am supposed to get my other JK piece tomorrow. We had to do our C & C meeting over the phone so we are going to  hook up to get our amenity. We are each getting our initial necklace from the new line. I can't wait to see my B. I know I will love it.

Decided to try some pink and blue nails last night. I love having one signature nail that is a different color. It's just something I have been doing this past year. I wish I had a steady hand because I would get some of the nail paint in white and stripe the blue nail.

I am in love with this blue. It's Wet & Wild brand and I am loving it.

I kept seeing all these people posting the snowmen they had made. So I had to pop out on the porch and make one real quick. Had to use some mismatched buttons on him and I crocheted a little chain for a scarf. He's weird looking but at least I can say I built a snowman.

So now on to the power of positive thinking. I haven't polished my toes since December. So I did that this morning and slipped on my flip flops and clicked my patent leather heals together and chanted "There's no place like spring. There's no place like spring." We will see what happens.

I know what I'm making....

I have a dessert that make a lot and it is very popular. I call it the Resee's Peanut Butter Brownie Trifle. I wake up this morning and find this post on my Facebook page from my son-in-law...

I've been made aware you make this.... This has to be some kind of mistake there is no way my favorite mother-in-law would make this and deny her favorite son in law this piece of heaven ?????

So I guess I will be making this for him sometime over the next few days. I always wanted to be famous for some food that was the "best ever" that always gets requested at gatherings. I guess this is my claim to fame. Every church function we have, somebody always asks me if I am bringing this. Every Vacation Bible School I get asked what night I am bringing it. I guess it is just understood that I will make it. Whoever made this one used the miniature Reese cups. I prefer to use regular Reese's and cut them up. Here is a pic of one I made a couple of years ago.

It is definitely heaven in a bowl. It is so simple to make. The longest part is waiting for the brownies to bake and cool. It has brownies, Reese's, vanilla pudding, peanut butter, and Cool Whip. Super simple. If you want the recipe, I did a step-by-step tutorial with pictures on my blog one time. You can find it here http://mamawsplace4.blogspot.com/2010/08/saturday-snackin.html.

Everybody have a safe day. Stay warm if you are in the snow zone. We have about 4" and are expected to get another 2-4" tonight. I am going to brave the roads and go to work today so I can get some stuff done and go to the store this evening. 

UGH!!

I was in a bad mood yesterday all day. Then at 7:30 I get a text from UPS that my package couldn't be delivered AGAIN. Folks, I am located about the equivalent of two city blocks away from the main road. We had NOTHING on any road leading to me. I passed trucks literally a block from where I lived. And they STILL took my package back for redelivery. As if that didn't make me mad enough, I wake up this morning to this and it is still coming down. My hill is ice under the snow and so far nobody that has tried made it out. They all slide back down to their driveway. We are in the cul-de-sac so there isn't a second way out. 

It is beautiful but now I have the struggle of trying to figure whether or not to brave going into work.

I decided to amuse myself while I decide. So I checked out to see if there was anything good on Facebook. My daughter knows I love the vintage utility carts. I have one that I am trying to decide what color to paint it. She shared this one she found on a Good Housekeeping site. Here was the before...

And after. The change is unbelievable. I love it. Just image it with Pyrex on it and vintage collectibles. 

Then I visited Pinterest and saw some pretty nails I liked really well. I am starting to look at manicures. I am going to treat myself to one later this summer for Conference. I really like this one.

But I also loved this plain shiny pink.

I am really into the one accent nail right now. A lot of times, I do this myself with a glitter on my ring finger and pink on the rest.

I love anchors and this is very whimsical. I adore it but just can't see myself going this crazy.

Speaking of anchors, I have been seeing some cute ideas for the Thirty-One cosmetic bag that people use for a bible bag. I think this is one of my favorites. 

But I'm not sure if I like the font above or below the best.

As I have put on weight over the years, my fingers have too. My original wedding rings were lost in a move and my replacement rings have been sized so many times, they can't size them any more. I saw this set the other day and fell in love. They are a lot like my first set when we got married. Trying to decide whether I want new rings for our anniversary this year or not.

Well, I guess I need to call the boss and decide whether it is a "try to come in" or "work from home" type of day today. Have a safe day wherever you are.

I am so very tired of it all....

This weather is about to get everybody down. I am so tired of cold and freezing rain and snow and ice and frigid temperatures....etc.

I know you in winter wonderlands will agree with me that enough is enough. They are calling for black ice today so I am not sure if I will be able to make it up my hill or not until it warms up later this morning. 

I can normally handle the bad weather, but when it causes my UPS man not to deliver me a box of goodies, I get a tad upset. I was supposed to get a Thirty-One shipment on Friday. At 7:30 Friday morning, the tracking said "Out for delivery." I even passed a UPS truck delivering in my neck of the woods on my way home. 

By 8:00, no UPS man so I checked the tracking and it said "Rescheduled for Monday delivery." WHY? He was just a few blocks from my house and we had nothing on our road that day. I just live literally 2 minutes from the main road. It is just one hill that is the problem and it was totally clear on Friday. 

I was not a happy camper. But hopefully he will redeem himself and deliver today. If not, I am going to call them and go pick it up. I am very excited to see what everybody ordered and to get it delivered to them. 

At least knowing is SHOULD be here tonight gives me a good reason to be glad it is Monday....which sounds weird because I am never glad it is Monday.

Sunday Songs

A new pasta salad and easy chocolate fudge

For those of you who like pasta salad, I wanted to share a recipe that Hubby created a couple of years ago. It has been a huge hit everywhere I take it. We even have a few people who pay him to make big batches for their family or events. I posted it about a couple of years ago, but had a request recently to re-post. So here it is again, back by popular demand. 

He uses the Garden Rotini noodles for it. It takes the one pound box size. Keep in mind you could substitute any ingredient or quantity to make it suitable to your own tastes. These are just the way we did it.

This recipe is when he made a double batch , so the quantities are doubled. But you can cut it in 1/2 for a smaller amount if you want. In a double batch he uses four carrots, two cucumbers, one jalapeno, two red onions, two containers of cherry tomatoes (tommy toes), two Granny Smith apples and two red apples of your choosing. We used Jonathan's in yesterdays batch but we have made it with Red Delicious as well. Just pick your favorite apple.

The double batch uses three bottles of the large size Zesty Italian dressing. You can substitute the dressing with your own favorite. This double batch takes 1 1/2 bottles of Bac'n Pieces (Bacos) and a small can of chopped black olives.

Cook and drain your noodles and place them in a big bowl for mixing purposes. 

Peel and chop your veggies. Core your apples and it is your personal preference if you want to peel them or leave the peel on. 

Pour the dressing over the entire mixture. 

Stir it around to thoroughly mix it all together. Be gentle but mix well. 

And you have a nice hearty bowl of pasta salad. 

The first time he made the salad, we were having a "kitchen day". We both were in the mood to cook or bake. So he asked me to make this fudge recipe he found on Pinterest. Yes, that's right, my man is a Pinterest man now. He loves creamy chocolate fudge, but we don't make it a lot because it gets expensive to make and it takes quite a while to make it. But this only had two ingredients. Hershey's milk chocolate chips and Eagle Brand condensed milk. 

All you need is a microwavable mixing bowl, an 8 x 8 baking dish or metal cake pan and a spoon. 

You pour one and 1/2 bags of the chips into the mixing bowl. I use my Pampered Chef pitcher because it is easy to pour out of when I'm done. 

You cover the chocolate chips with the milk. 

Put it in the microwave and heat it until all the chips melt. Take it out a couple of times in the process and stir it to keep it blended well. 

Mine took about 2 minutes, give or take. Remove it and stir really good till all the chips are melted and blended well with the milk. 

It recommended lining your baking dish/cake pan with wax paper. Well, I did. And I didn't like it. Next time I will probably butter the bottom and sides of my pan. That's what I do with all my other fudge recipes. The wax paper kept pulling loose when I was trying to smooth it out in the pan and you couldn't get in the corners as well as you can in a buttered dish. 

Refrigerate for a couple of hours till it sets up and then remove it and cut into pieces. Hubby is a muncher and likes his fudge in bite size pieces so he can just grab a couple when he has the munchies so he cut his up small. I am more of a cocoa fan for fudge but he loves it with chocolate chips. He said this turned out really good. 

Our part of the world is still in the winter madness. We had snow last night around midnight, turned to freezing sleet and rain over night, in a few hours it is supposed to be rain and snow mixed and then turning to rain by 1:00. It is crazy. Our Thirty-One C & C is at 2:00 today and we are finding out about a new line of products so I really, really can't wait to go. Hope the weather gets its act together so we can all get out. In the meantime, all this talk about food is making me want to bake. I may make some cookies for my meeting. Have a great day and stay safe and warm.

Discovering Cloche

Cloche is French for bell. Now, many of you may already know about using glass domes in bell like shapes to cover a variety of collections. But I just discovered it on Pinterest and I am in love with all the unique things you can do. Here are some I found that I loved.

Wouldn't this one be a great gift for someone who is a birdwatcher?

Love the beachy-nautical theme to this one.

Talk about super simple. This is so elegant looking but so easy.

I love this, but the chocolate bunny wouldn't last long around here.

I have got to remember this for Christmas. I have several loose nativity sets and this would be an awesome display.

I have seen this one before in a jar. I really want to do one of these this year. 

A neat way to display all the pretty seashells I find at the beach.

Very vintage looking and perfect for someone who loves to crochet.

Okay, now I have to find one of those red bubble gum machines and paint it and fill it with pearls. Too cute. I just sold one in a yard sale about 3 years ago because I couldn't figure out what to do with it.

I see lots of vintage Victorian era items but have no idea how I would display them. This would be cute.

This is the simplest one yet and one I just have to do at Halloween. Just too, too adorable. 

I want to do some craft projects so bad but everything I want to work on I am missing part of the project and with the weather this week and what is coming again tonight, I fear it will be awhile before I can get out anywhere to get any supplies.