It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

All my Christmas decorating is done except for our tree, which will be done soon.  Jess & Neal are coming back from Seattle for an early Christmas celebration next week, so I want the house to be all ready.  Here's a look at some of my holiday decorating this year.  You'll definitely see some Pinterest-inspired looks.  Feel free to pin any of my photos you would like to keep for inspiration.

This is the dining room view from the kitchen.

 

And here's a closer look at the fireplace:

 

I used a lot of stuff I already had around the house and in storage in the basement.  I just picked up everything white, silver, gold, or glass and used it in my decorating.  Here's some even closer pics:

I bought the hurricane candle holders from Joanne's on super clearance because they were FALL items, but I knew they would work great for Christmas.  I already had the tin square behind them.  The tall glass container is from Jess & Neal's wedding, and I filled it with old-fashioned rock candy for a little color.  The mercury glass vase is an antique I've had forever.  The sparkly mirror came from my bedroom, the snowflake piece is actually a Christmas card holder with clips behind every snowflake, but I just use it plain.  I added simple greenery and pine cones, plus some red berry picks I got at the dollar store.

I already had the brass candlesticks and large sparkly candle holder.  The covered glass piece is another leftover from Jess & Neal's candy bar at their wedding.  I filled it with dollar store silver and gold jingle bells.  I picked up the antique lamp at least 15 years ago in an antique shop.  The little snowman is a bell that I received as a gift from my piano teacher when I was about five.

 

Here's a close-up of my table centerpiece:

I already had the silver charger from Pier 1 and the little white bowl.  I only added greenery, some white jingle bells, pine cones, and candles.  The red Christmas-y balls are a purchase last year from Target, but I noticed they are selling them again this year.

 

Here's the arrangement on our buffet:

The runner is from Target.  Again, all the glass pieces are from Jess & Neal's wedding candy bar, which you can see HERE.  The tallest one is a snow scape, the open dish holds old ornaments, and the piece with the lid (that you can barely see behind the little tree in the wooden box) has old-fashioned ribbon candy in it.  The little white trees on the left and the polar bear on the right are from Jess's Snowbaby collection.

 

And some close-ups:

I'm gong to add a little house to the snow scape, but I haven't found it yet in all my stuff.

 

These are all ornaments my mom gave me that were on my childhood Christmas trees.

 

These were my favorites:

They have little Christmas characters in them, and I used to love looking at them when I was little.

 

Here's the pie safe.  Sorry the picture is so poor.

I kept this area pretty simple.  I put some wrapping paper rolls and ribbon in a small blue tub on the floor.  I decided to leave our family picture where it usually hangs, but I added a picture of our front door after a snowfall for a holiday touch.

 

Here's a close-up:

 

My phone (Yes, we still have a land line) and Ipod speaker had to stay here, but I added a Christmas place mat and a wire basket.  A Christmas-scented Yankee candle and a mason jar filled with candy canes are in the basket.  The little snowman is a photo holder, and I always put out my old pictures of my kids with Santa in it.

 

And a few more random decorating pictures:

 

My dad made this bookshelf and the duck on the bottom shelf, and I always fill it with holiday decorations.  This year I included a Christmas scrapbook of my kids through the years, more of my kids' Santa photos, the jingle bell box I made last year, and other miscellaneous decorations I've received as gifts and/or accumulated through the years.

 

This antique wooden bowl is always somewhere in my house.  For Christmas I added pine cones and some cheap gold picks from the dollar store.

 

And finally, to remind me of warmer climates during a chilly Iowa holiday season, I used a white tray (again a FALL clearance item from Joanne's), a glue glass bottle topped with a silver door hanger from the dollar store, a conch shell and some white jingle bells.

 

More pics of my tree when it's trimmed are coming soon.

 

Seattle Apartment Layout

This layout is of Neal & Jess's new home in Seattle.  The insert on the tag has their address (which I blocked out).  I started this page several weeks ago and just haven't been back in my studio to finish it.  I think I was done in under five minutes once I got back on task.  I took the pictures when we were there this summer, and I have a whole second trip to Seattle to work on now, plus Chicago, plus Buffett, plus New Orleans, plus Galena, plus Christmas projects!

Galena Girls' Weekend

There's nothing better than a good laugh (and a few cocktails) with close friends.

Where Have I Been?

I haven't had time for much crafting lately.  I've been traveling!  First, at the end of October, we went to New Orleans: 

Tom and I hanging out with the Who Dat?! Nation in Championship Square in front of the Superdome before we watched the New Orleans Saints beat the Buffalo Bills.

One of the floats we saw in the Krewe of Boo parade.  Halloween is a big deal in the Big Easy--lots of celebrating and costumes.

French Quarter architecture and colors.

 

St. Louis Cathedral from Jackson Square.

A cool sign with Iowa ties AND my name we saw at Molly's at the Market pub in the Quarter. 

 

And then after a few days at home in Iowa, last week we went to Seattle for our daughter's birthday:

 

Tom and I at Volunteer Park in Seattle.

 

Neal and Jess at Fremont Peak Point Park.

Me with Jess (the birthday girl) at Volunteer Park.

Now I'm home for three full days, and then it's a girls' weekend trip to Galena, Illinois.  Seems like my trips have me going to colder and colder destinations.

 

Lots of scrapbooking in my future!



Easy Chicken Pot Pie

 

Fall is here and so are those cravings for comfort foods.  My friend Lori made up this recipe for Chicken Pot Pie, and I love it!  I was going to go on here about what a fabulous cook Lori is, but now that I think about it, I've never actually eaten anything she has prepared.   She talks a lot about recipes and meals, so I can say she talks a great game.  (I'm 100-percent sure she's a great cook.  I know she loves it.)

 

Anyway, here are the ingredients for the pie:

 

Pie Crusts (2)  (purchased or homemade)

2-3 Cups Cooked Chicken

Frozen Peas or frozen peas and carrots or whatever vegetable(s) desired

Pepper to Taste

Teaspoon (or so) of Tarragon

3 Cans Country Fare Cream of Chicken Soup

4-8 oz. Cream Cheese (optional)

  

Cook the Chicken.  You can buy chicken already cooked, you can buy it and cook it yourself in the oven or on the cook top, but I like microwaving mine.  I have a pottery container (you can get one from Pampered Chef or, like me, get one for about the third of the price at Wal-Mart ).  Put just a little bit of water in the bottom of the dish and add chicken.  I usually use chicken tenders (the strips), but chicken breasts were on sale this week, so I went that route.

 

Chicken before microwaving.  Barely any water in the bottom of the dish.

Cook the chicken, covered, for approximately 8 minutes.  My dish has a lid, you just can't see it here.  One of the chicken breasts was pretty large, so I had to cut it into fourths and heat it an additional couple minutes.  If you use chicken tenders, 8 minutes is usually plenty of time--just cut into it after you cook it and make sure the pink is gone.  The chicken turns out very tender and juicy.  We make chicken like this all the time, and just add BBQ sauce or leave it plain.

Back to this recipe:  Cut up the cooked chicken into the size of chunks you like.

 

I'm including this picture so you can see the cans of Country Fare Cream of Chicken Soup.  I'm not sure if this is a local brand or not.  I know it's available in Iowa Hy-Vee stores.  If you don't have it in your store, you'll have to experiment.  Lori says it's a good consistency because it's between a gravy and a soup.

 

Heat one can of the soup and mix in the cream cheese.  (Avoid adding gourds--they're just in the background.  I should have moved them.)

 

Mix all the pie ingredients together:  chicken, heated soup and cream cheese, vegetables, tarragon, and pepper.  It looks like this:

Note to self:  use a bigger mixing bowl next time.  You'll notice my mixture now has corn in it.  Just before this picture was taken, things went bad in my kitchen.  I hadn't noticed that one of the cans of soup was actually cream of mushroom.  It kept itself hidden from me until after I opened it--even going so far as to hide in the back of the picture of the soup so I wouldn't notice.  After I opened the can of mushroom soup, I went to my pantry thinking I was all smart in the kitchen and grabbed a can of creamed corn to substitute.  I opened that can, then discovered it was regular corn, not creamed.  Believing all cans were scheming against me, I was lucky to at last open a can of creamed corn.  I only used about three-fourths of it, because it was larger than the can of cream of chicken soup called for in the recipe.  I imagine Lori is laughing reading this now whilst she has a healthy dinner in the oven, some bread dough rising, and perhaps some vegetable canning underway.

 

Pour the mixture into the prepared pie crust.  Lori heats her bottom crust for 8-10 minutes at 425 degrees to avoid sogginess before filling it.

In all honesty, I think if I  make another full-size pie, I'll just omit the bottom crust completely.  (I imagine Lori throwing up her spatulas in despair now.)

 

I used homemade pie crust, because it is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE THING TO MAKE.  See my post on pie crusts HERE. 

 

After you add the filling, put on the top crust and trim to fit.

 

Crimp the edges and add some slits for steam to escape.  I'm a weirdo, so I made mine look like chicken tracks:

 

Bake for 40 minutes at 400 degrees.

 

And here's the finished pie again:

 

My serving wasn't quite so pretty, but it tasted wonderful:

 

FYI:  This is a small sized plate--I did not eat half the pie.

I will definitely make this chicken pot pie again.  I'd like to get some individual-sized pie pans and make them that size and maybe even freeze them.  Try this recipe.  Hopefully, I've bolded the real important parts of the instructions, and hopefully your canned goods will cooperate.

Thanks, Lori, for the recipe!  And thanks for giving me permission to blog it.  You're welcome as a guest blogger anytime! 

Buzz and Bumble Thank You Card

Someone I work with gave me some fresh honey last week, and I have all these "bee" papers and stamps, so I thought it would be fun to make a bee-themed thank you card.

I used b&t papers from CTMH's "Bee and Bumble" paper pack with CTMH Cocoa, Sunset, and Cashmere cs.

I random stamped bee from the "Bee and Bumble" Workshop on the Go stamp set on the Cocoa cs.  The little bee and his flight path on the lower right are from a zip strip on one of the papers.  I couldn't find a "thank you" sentiment stamp I wanted to use, so I free handed it.  All edges are distressed with brown ink.

I also added a piece of the bee b&t paper to the inside of the envelope.

 

I really like the honeycomb b&t paper, but I didn't end up using it on the front, so I added a panel to the inside of the card and another stamped bee.

 

Yellowstone Geysers Layount

First of all, I realize the pictures on this layout are not all actually "geysers," but that was a much better title than "geothermal areas," don't you think?

Anyway, I copied this layout pattern from Linda Rodriguez's layout titled "Tea Party" in the Creating Keepsakes book Fast Scrapbooking with 4x6 Photos.  I used the CTMH paper pack "Buzz and Bumble" because I thought the colors brought out the colors of the minerals in the photos.

The left page is pretty simple.  I used a zip strip from one of the papers and then cut a couple more strips the same size from another of the papers in the pack.  The flourish is from CTMH.

 

(That's Tom on the walkway.)

I used a CTMH alphabet stamp set that must have came with a special offer, because I can't find a name for it.  I can tell you it was not fun to cut out the letters.  Why didn't I use my Cricut for the title?  Because I'm not that smart.  I just don't use my Cricut that much, and the thought never occurred to me until I was half done cutting out the stamped images.  argh.

 

The journaling element idea was also taken from Linda Rodriguez's layout.  I used three tags and glued them together.   Then, I wrote across all three tags.  I altered my handwriting to make it look a little more vintage.  (I wrote short letters and stretched out the space between them.)  I distressed the tags with brown ink.  I didn't really have anything to journal about, so I described the different geothermal areas at Yellowstone.  I hope Wikipedia's info was accurate.

Another Yellowstone Park Layout

I love looking at all my pictures from Yellowstone.  I used black cs as my base for this two-page layout, and then layered it with a blue b&t paper from the CTMH retired "Lucky" paper pack.

 

I stamped the bottom of the blue b&t with black ink and a stamp from the Tim Holtz Visual Artistry collection.  It's the same stamp all the way across the bottom; I just stamped it at different angles and heights to make it look different.  The sentiment is from CTMH's retired "Happy Journey" stamp set.  The ribbon and butterflies are also CTMH.  The black bling flourishes are from Recollections.

 

I used dimensional adhesive on the sentiment to pop it up.  The butterflies are only glued down the middle so their wings pop up for extra dimension.

 

 

(I'm so glad we were lucky and saw a bear!)

The second page has some CTMH New England Ivy and Chocolate cs pieces. 

 

It's partially hidden, but I stamped a mountain scene with CTMH's retired "Beautiful Things" on the cs piece on the upper right.  I colored it with water color pencils and added just a little bit of sparkle with a Spica pen.  The white flower and black embellishments on this page are CTMH.  The grey centers of the flowers are from Recollections.

Halloween in Wonderland Shadowbox

The inspiration for this Halloween-themed shadowbox came from Pinterest, where I saw a shadowbox from the blog Meme's Art Place made using the same theme.

The papers are from Graphic 45 and are the "Hallowe'en in Wonderland Collection."  I've been hoarding the set for a couple years, so I'm not sure if it's still available.  I've seen similar collections with a Wizard of Oz theme, and those tempt me as well.  The tray/shadowbox is from 7 Gypsies.  The embellishments are miscellaneous finds from my stash.  I also used ribbon, Stickles and Liquid Pearls, and I edged a lot of the papers with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink by Ranger.

 

Some of the papers are flat against the back of the tray, and I glued some to the top for depth, and I like the shadows they make.  Here's a close-up look at my favorite--the creepy hand reaching toward the white rabbit.

 

And here are some other close-ups showing the various embellishments:

 

It's hard to see, but the pocket watch's face on the right is covered with shiny Stickles.

The Mad Hatter's bowtie and socks both have Liquid Pearl highlights.

 

This project was fun and probably only took 1 to 1 1/2 hours, mostly because the papers all matched so I didn't have to make a lot of paper/color decisions.