Sundays songs....

Time to bake....

It is time to bake. I am going today to look for my mixer. The kids gave me money for my birthday to get the mixer I have been wanting. It has been out of stock so I am going some other places today to get it so I can start tomorrow baking for Christmas gifts.

I will be making my standard chocolate chip and peanut butter cookies, plus trying to make some pecan crispies. But I am also going to make some cake mix cookies and frost them as well. They are very inexpensive and not very time consuming at all. You simply disregard the directions on the cake mix. Instead, you mix a package of your favorite cake mix, 2 eggs and 1/2 c. of oil. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes. If you want to frost them, let cool about 10 minutes. Lightly frost each cookie. Here is a trick. If you stick the frosted cookie back in the hot oven for 3 seconds, it will dry the icing and make it set up better so you can stack the cookies. These were a Duncan Hines Swiss Cake Mix where I added 1 teaspoon of cinnamon to the cake mix and used Texas Sheet Cake frosting recipe.

Here is the frosting recipe. I sprinkled red and green on the frosting before I stuck them in the oven for the 2-3 minute set-up time.

1/2 c. butter

6 tbsp. milk

4 tbsp. cocoa

1 tsp. vanilla

2 c. powdered sugar

Bring butter, milk and cocoa to rapid boil. Pour ingredients into mixing bowl; add vanilla and powdered sugar; mix well.

I am going to make these, some lemon ones with lemon glaze and some spice with caramel icing. 

Meet my friend...

Meet my friend Stephanie....

Stephanie is a beautiful young lady who is a dear friend of my daughter and I. She has a loving heart and an unshakable faith in God and His power. She has a very devote husband, Andrew, and one precious daughter Lilly. Sounds like a wonderful life, right?

There is just one thing that breaks my heart in her story. Stephanie has Cystic Fybrosis.

God has been with her every step of her journey. When she was diagnosed, they told her she wouldn't live past 16. But she did. She was told she may never be able to have children, but she is so blessed with Lilly. 

She just turned 30 in June and the past couple of years her health has been declining and she has to return to the hospital more and more often. Each time, she seems to take longer to bounce back and her oxygen levels are harder and harder to maintain to the point where they need to be. Not too long ago, she had an extremely bad spell and I know we were all so worried. It seemed this was the worst she had ever been and the horrible numbers on the readings refused to go back where they needed to be. But the next day, she started improving and was up and smiling her usual happy self.

But this last time she went in, the news wasn't as good. This horrible disease has attacked her body for so long and so hard that is at the point that they told her it was time to start talking about a double lung transplant. She has already been to Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville a couple of times and has started the long drawn out process of testing, filling out form after form and learning about what all is involved. 

But with true Stephanie spirit, she is clinging to her faith as she goes through this process. There are many things that could go wrong, but there are many more that could go right. She used to just use her oxygen tank very rarely. These days it is a constant companion and she spends most of her time at home staying away from the germs and contamination in the air. Recently, her mom, who is a good friend of mine, posted something on Facebook that touched my heart.....

From Stephanie's Mom...

To Stephanie, with everything you have coming in the near future I knew when I saw this I had to share with you. For 30 years you have lived with and dealt with Cystic Fibrosis and never let it get in your way of your dreams.You are a strong young woman and a wonderful wife mother and most of all fantastic daughter.I admire the courage you have in just your day to day struggles.God has a plan for you and I have always known in my heart you would be a inspiration to others. Our whole family and all our friends are behind you on the decision you have made for the lung transplant. If I can't be with you for the whole journey just know I am there holding your hand the whole way.You will always be my baby girl and I will do whatever you need me to do. God has this I'm certain of that. All my love mom.

I posted this today in hopes that each and every one of you will whisper a prayer on her behalf. She has a long, hard road ahead of her. My heart goes out to her and her family. But with God's mercy and grace, anything can happen if we just place our faith in him. 

After insurance, her out of pocket expenses are expected to be around $75,000.00. Her husband will need to move to Nashville to be with her and money is going to be very tight. Please visit her Go Fund Me page at Go Fund Me-Stephanie Goodall if you feel led to make a donation.

DNA - It's amazing

On my birthday, one of my nieces made my day when she called me her "crazy free spirited fun loving aunt". I've always thought of myself as free spirited and fun loving, but I never realized that others see me that way. (We will ignore the crazy for now, because that is just obvious). She posted it with a picture of me (Left). My sister commented I looked just like my Aunt Elsie. She was Daddy's youngest sister. And I have always thought I looked like her and Daddy told me that a lot as I got older. So I went in search of a pic of her to compare. And OH WOW. I do look like her...even more than I realized. I loved my Aunt Elsie dearly so this thrills me to pieces.

On the other hand, one of Daddy's other sisters, Aunt Tookie, who we also loved dearly always had the prettiest smile. When I came across an old picture of her when looking for Elsie, I thought "Wow, Rachel has Tookie's smile". Check it out. (Rachel -L, Tookie - R)

As I was going through the old pics, I found one of my Great Aunt Myrtle. Her name was actually Chloy but they called her Myrtle. Not sure why. But when that picture popped up I amazed. I have a second cousin Patti who is the spitting image of Myrtle. She passed long before Patti or I was born so we never new her. But isn't it amazing that there is such a resemblance between Patti and Myrtle who would have been Patti's great, great aunt. Just shows that your gene pool can carry on for years to come. 

I've been pinning.....

I can't believe it, but I actually spent some time recently on Pinterest. It seems like forever. I haven't shared any Pinterest finds in a long time. But now that I have a room that is 1/2 empty, I decided to go looking for ideas. My favorite way I ever had my spare room was for a craft room/office. Since the kids never sleep in spare room anymore (they like my bed or the couches better), I decided to change things up a little. I definitely want to get into sewing some next year. I want to start early and make some things for a local little craft fair in October. Here are some need ideas for the sewing/craft room area.

I love fabric, but have a hard timing figuring out how to store it so I don't have pull it all out all the time. Check out this. And I have a beautiful mahogany two drawer file cabinet that I don't use for anything. I could do this so easy. Looks like they just used the hanging file folders and draped the fabric over them. Super simple. Super easy.

I love this yarn idea. I can't build anything, but I do have a shelf on my bookcases that is tall for a TV but I don't have a TV in it. So I could maybe find some cheap fabric cubes and stack them on top of each other, open end facing forward and put yarn in them.

Check out this idea of covering secretarial chairs for a craft room. This would be so cute, but so out of my area of expertise. I'd have to find a great how to video before I tackled this.

The options would be endless since there is so much beautiful fabric.

What a brilliant idea. Simply glue heavy duty magnets on the back of a plate for a nice place to put your pins while you are working without worrying about them falling off into the floor or all over your table.

I do a lot of things were I need to iron a small piece of fabric and despise having to drag out my big old ironing board. What a cute idea to make a small table top ironing board and use drawer pulls as legs.

Another version is to pad and cover an old wooden TV tray for a quick easy set up to iron. Plus it would be easier to store than a big ironing board.

I love silhouette pillow. The ideas are endless. And with the no-sew Wunder Under, you just iron it on and go.

What a cute idea for a pillow. Simply make your pillow by stuffing it with a cheap soft bed pillow and then making the matching fabric around the middle (or even a coordinating fabric) and you would have cute pillows to go in front of your pillow shams.

I may change up some of the decor or my walls as well. How cute is this for just putting fabric in embroidery hoops to make wall hangings.

Lots of things to think about. Hmmm....

It's my special day...

Today is a special day and I hope I don't sound conceited by blogging about today. But you see, it's my birthday. And not just any birthday. This is a huge one. 

Yes, that's right. I am the big 6-0. Or as I saw on one sign.

Me at 2 weeks old. Awww.

Me now.

Have a great Tuesday.

Weekend Wrap Up

I hope everyone had a great weekend. I had a Saturday and Sunday off for a change. I realized I forgot to post this pic from the past weekend. It is the entire family at Dixie Stampede. Top row L-R: Garret, his girlfriend Hannah, Caleb, Me, Michael and Chris. Front row L-R: Jamie, Alexis, Colby, Shelby and Diana. We had such a great time.

Saturday night started off busy with the Spring Premier for our new Thirty-One line. These pics are some I snapped from the catalog page so they aren't great. But these are just a few of the items I am excited about come spring. I am such a fan of the All About the Benjamin billfold. It has so much room and is always a solid color leather. For the first time ever, it is coming in leather with a pattern. Definitely went on my wish list the moment I saw it.

They make a lot of big totes and I have quite a few. But for the first time in a long, long time, they made a tote I fell in love with that comes in the large size or a mini size. It is straw with a navy leather piece down the center that can be personalized. Yes, please.

One of my favorite purses they ever made was a demi purse. I have been asking for years if we will ever get it back. Well, it came back with a few new twists....it now has longer straps so it is a shoulder bag (yay!), it is a little wider at the top instead of same size from bottom to top and the most exciting is it now zips!!! I am in love with the blue stripes.

But I think the thing that has me the most excited is the large utility tote with the starfish on it. Beach bound! I have got to have this for sure.

After premier, I met up with my daughter-in-law and picked up Alexis and Colby. Then went to my daughters and got Shelby. We went to the parade and they got to ride the train in the parade. And I had left my phone down the hill in the car. But afterwards they wanted their pic with the fire truck so I did get that. We had a great time even though it was a very small parade this year. 

Later that night, we had chocolate pudding, but Colby wanted a blue icee. Needless to say, we had to have a face washing after we ate.

I had posted on Facebook Saturday evening a memory about my sister-in-law making the best peanut butter fudge and mentioned how much I was craving it. I go to church Sunday and a friend of mine handed me a bag and had this in it.

Turns out she saw my post right before she was ready to cut the peanut butter fudge she had just made. It is exactly the same recipe my sister-in-law always made. So I ended up with some great fudge. 

I sold my day bed. It was way to big for the room it was in and everything I need anything out of the supply closet, I have to lift heavy boxes up over the end of the bed to get to what I need. So now I feel like an artist with a blank canvas. One half of a room to totally redo however I want. 

I have this really cute jar my daughter got me one year and I have decided to use it for my 2017 jar. Every time I think of something I want to look for (a new shower curtain, a new desk chair, etc.) or any place I want to go, (Esau's Antiques, Clinton Antique Fair, Mom's, the beach) I am writing it on a piece of paper and putting it in the jar. That way it isn't on a list somewhere that I lose or toss out because a notebook gets full. Plus I can write it down the minute I think of it. Even carrying a few scraps of paper with me to jot stuff down on to put in the jar when I get home from work. 

Well, that's it for the weekend. Sunday was a relaxing afternoon and evening. Stopped by the store and then went home and vegged out all evening. Ended up going to bed at 9:30 and slept till 6:45 this morning. I was exhausted. Feel refreshed and ready to tackle whatever this week may bring.