It's somebodys birthday- WHO???

Guess who turns one on Sunday.... (I made this for him to wear... announcing his age)

little baby...

getting bigger

and now you are such a big boy!

and yes we are traveling to AZ to see the big guy!! finally! I haven't seen him since Sept.

so much fun awaits.... and we will see lots of family.. the twins and girlfriend.... and Kieri's coming over to talk wedding stuff! and hopefully go try on dresses.  Yes, better sleep now.. because we are going to be * * B-U-S-Y * *

I also wanted to show you that I actually won something.  Janet over at The Empty Nest  was making scarves like crazy!!! and I won one AND a really cute flower pin that looks perfect on my new winter coat!  yea!!!

So happy for January to be over

(I'm with ya there Momza)...

Let February begin anew!...

Food Fun Friday- Artichoke and Pesto stuffed Chicken

I've got another thumbs up recipe for you.  YES another chicken recipe (and don't ask me why I've been cooking so much chicken lately!)

Artichoke and Pesto stuffed Chicken

Preheat oven to 350

6 Chicken Breasts, skinned and boned

1 package prepared pesto (chilled, small plastic tub)

1 can quartered artichoke hearts in water, chopped and drained

1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella

1 1/2 cups grated Parmesan or pecorino romano

3 cloves garlic crushed or minced

1 tsp pepper

Mix all ingredients except chicken in a mixing bowl.

Lay chicken on a cutting board, and make a slit along the thick end of the breast. Be careful to just make a pouch, not to cut through. Stuff each breast with the filling, and place in a baking dish. If there is extra filling, place it on top of each breast. Bake at 350 for 40 mins.

 

As you can see I only used 4 chicken breasts... and there was too much 'stuffing' left over.  and a little watery too.   

Mr Produce was too hungry so I didn't even get a fancy picture of the chicken breast on the plate......

He just LOVES Thursdays!!!

This is another great meal for company... And it's Atkins and South Beach friendly!!

Bloggville-creating furniture

What a cool site this is.
There are lots of designs and plans and of course PICTURES.
There are so many categories and ways to get inspired.  There are Photos, and Plans and checking out her ideas by skill level.. or search the plans by "style"     farmhouse-green-modern-pioneer.
Ana White MAKES all of this furniture and gives you the plans and help to build them. 
One of the most unique, ok well they are all pretty unique, is this console... that looks like a workbench.

cool right?

and then I just thought this metal wall was really unique, not really me or my style etc, but i just liked the look of it!

So if you are in the mood, or market to make your own furniture... here is a wonderful site.
http://ana-white.com/

oh and I think she works for the HGTV channel!

Wednesday Wisdom

It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.

Confucius

I think my house just threw up

In keeping with the Love it or Lose it theme:

We have been going through each room and keeping, or tossing or giving or selling (hahaha).
THEN painting each and every room.  We are now done with the downstairs... and have to venture upstairs, where I have my craft (junk) room,  ebay..I mean guest room and TV room.  oh boy  I'm supposed to have all the rooms cleaned out by the weekend so we can paint.
I don't know how I'm going to get it all done???... So I better go blog and read my friends' blogs and get more ideas about organizatin before I can really clean and organize!!

I ran across a great article - about organization... and Marilyn Bohn author of Go Organize! points out "No one ever says, 'I wish I'd kept more stuff"'
so that's MY daily wisdom (or nightly wisdom) as I try to organize.
here's a quick little tour of all my stuff....

 
 


It is becoming a little bit hard to manage! BUT I know that it will be worth it in the end when we are all clean, freshly painted and ORGANIZED!!!
and Like I said I think my house threw up!



Mr. Produce and his Many Jobs.

Sometimes I get a little confused with "normal" behavior. I’ve been here 22 years and I still am amazed at the things our customers do. Do you ask  your Produce Mgr for boxes- to go in the back and get the boxes right now? Do you go into the back room yourself and help yourself to whatever is back there, boxes, bags, fruit that is still on the pallet?



If I ever spruce up my resume, along with the Corporate I follow,  I will add these jobs I am asked to perform everyweek by our customers:


Chef;  How to do you blanch corn so that your corn is good? When I blanched it, it came out soggy. How can I cook it to make it through the winter.
How can I buy asparagus today and use it in 8 days.. do I blanch it or freeze it?
What type of mushrooms do you use in a salad?


Mr. Wizard; Where is this grown and what season?


Math wiz; What is the percentage of ethanol in your gas out in the fuel center?
I need 3 quarts of blueberrys, how much should I buy?


Conseair service; You are all out of toilet paper in the bathroom.
You are all out of twist ties.


Tourist Guide; Where is the best place to eat in town?
Do you know where a good fishing place is?
How do you get to the Game Farm?
How do I get to a Lavender farm?


Mr. Fix-it; The zipper on my grapes won’t work right.


Personal assistant; Will you pick out my mushrooms. (and no they were not in a wheelchair).

YOU are all out of the asparagus that is on sale. YOU need to call Safeway and ask if THEY have asparagus. Yes mam’ they do have asparagus but it is $4.99 there. Well YOURS is on sale and I want THAT price.


And all around Good Sport; I can’t wait for Superwalmart to open. ( I do not work at Superwalmart). 
I can't wait for Grocery Outlet to open. 
Is your store closing?

a smile for today

Food Fun Friday - Austrian Paprika Chicken

I found this in the South Beach book,
It is GREAT... Mr. Produce said that this was a thumbs up, way, way up.
This is definately something you could serve to company, yep, THAT good.

Austrian Paprika Chicken
2 tbl butter
2 tbl vegetable oil
2 chicken broilers, cut up, about 5 pounds
seasoned salt
4 small onions, quartered
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbl paprika
1 C chicken stock
1 C sour cream

Preheat oven to 350
Heat butter and oil together.  Brown chicken carefully in oil on all sides.  Add salt.  Remove chicken from pan.
Place onions and garlic in oil and saute until onions are golden.  Add paprika, stock, and sour cream.  Stir constantly until mixture is smooth.
Place chicken in casserole and cover with mixture, making sure to scrape pan well of all drippings.
Bake, covered, for 1 hour

Bloggville-crazy domestic

Crazy Domestic is a fun blog I read...
and where the guest poster Katie from food wine and modpodge  is the writer of this month's workshop:

I need to print that out and tape it to the wall and door of every room in my house!!!
Right now she is mostly talking about clothes- what to keep and what to LOSE- but I am taking her advice and using it throughout my house.

Crazy Domestic is thoughtful like that, they offer a monthly workshop,

 and Domestic Tips

 and they have Link Parties,

 I mean who doesn't like parties!!!! especially ones that you can attend in your jammies!!!! during the early morning hours... when you really should be getting ready for work and making lunches....ahem

I can't stop saying this!

Wednesday Wisdom

The beauty of memory is that it still sees beauty when beauty has faded.

Paul Boese

de-clutter, pack, clean - blog - repeat

*all in all it feels great to be cleaning, and boxing and de-cluttering and discovering...oh yeah, the discovery's that you make when you go through the piles of boxes in the closet...
"I forgot I had these!!!"
or
"why do I have so many of these, I have a problem"  those are my thoughts when I was boxing up ALL my old ornaments from Christmas, my 'obsession' I call it...and this year I made 4 more wreaths and gave 3 away... and I have all these boxes of usable ornaments left.... (hahah can't find picture now... like THAT's unusual) but let me tell you there were 5 boxes (regular plastic bins) full of Gold, Red, Green, Blue, Pink and Silver ornaments... to use on wreaths whenever I get the time to create again... (and that does not include the 4 boxes of carefully stored antique ornaments)  it's a sickness.

I also have been craig-listing a few of our belongings...

and if postage wasn't so expensive (did you know it went up Jan 1st, not the 44cent postage but all packages large and small, heavy and light)  I'd sell stuff on ebay.. but that postage just kills all deals!  Maybe a garage sale is in our future????? and you all know that Sequim is the home of the killer garage sales!!!

All in all it feels good to LOVE it or LOSE IT

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF MY NEW BLOG DESIGN

I am so excited!!!
I have been wanting a new, my very own, blog design for a long time now.  I just didn't have the time to figure anything out.... and along came the fairy blogmother:

actually I read about her new company on her blog that I follow: oops! i craft my pants

She started her new fairyblogmother and was asking for people that wanted new blog designs.  Well I jumped at the chance.  Erika was great to work with and believe me I asked a lot of questions!!! She was really helpful even with my dumbest questions.  I am so excited because now I don't run across other blogs that look like mine, I am unique
****AND best part of all I got the tabs I have always wanted.  I mean even I have a hard time remembering which recipes I have posted or people ask me for 'that' certain recipe or sometimes I need a copy of something I've made and NOW...I can just look it up. 
and I can remind myself of my tutorials... ahh I long for the days I could make things
(this cleaning,painting,organizing,moving,sprucing up TWO HOUSES, let alone calming my mother down and helping her  LOVE IT OR LOSE IT.....) but alas there is a time and season for everything. 

What I'm trying to say is........I can't say enough good things about about Erika she was great to work with!   If you are looking for a change or just a little sprucing up or added fun for your blog she's your go-to gal!

love ya Erika!  she's a little mama to be.

Food Fun Friday- Italian Bake

We are eating healthy, and are on a Atkins/South Beach kind of thing.
I can't remember where I found this recipe, but I finally tried it and thought it was really good.  Notice there is cauliflower instead of some sort of starch.  It was great, can't wait for lunch(left overs tomorrow)

next time I would:
*add A LOT more seasoning!!! much more! 
*more cheese too!!! yum yum
*use the whole head of cauliflower (oh and maybe? grate it next time, you see in the picture I just chopped it into chunks.

Italian Bake
1 lb lean ground beef
6 slices of bacon, chopped
1 sm onion, finely chopped
4 ox. green pepper, finely chopped
1/2 head cauliflower, grated
15 ox can chopped tomatoes, pureed in a blender (I did not puree this)
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp garlic powder
3 oz grated cheddar cheese
3 oz grated mozzarella cheese

Preheat oven to 350
In a large frying pan, brown the beef, bacon, onion and green pepper.  Drain fat, and then add all of the remaining ingredients, except the cheese.
Mix thoroughly, Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
Transfer to a large oven proof dish and to with the cheese.  Bake for about 10-15 minutes, until cheese is brown and bubbling.

WEBBVILLE Spokeo..(insert scary music)

This isn't a blog- but a web site that is pretty freaky. It's a site called Spokeo.com - a new online USA phone book w/personal information


You put in your name AND IT FINDS YOU.... and what your phone number is...and what your address is... and how much your house is worth...and who lives at that address...and how old YOU are...and how much your income is!!! and your approx credit score... AND more.
You can also put in phone numbers and it wil tell you the same thing.
and email addresses.
yuck, I don't like that!!!  (I also found me with my old house info from 5 years ago... )

You DO have to pay a fee to get ALL the information on someone..(like their posted pictures, approx. CREDIT SCORE,  etc)  but for someone wanting to do something BAD or scam ya (like I said you just put in 'their' address... like the guy across the street... and you can know EVERYTHING about them and their family.. NAMES OF THE KIDS..)

This does not make me happy.  I can see bad things happening!

I did find this on somewhere about removing yourself:  Remove yourself by searching for yourself on their site, copying the URL of your page(s), then go to the bottom of the page and ...click on Privacy button to remove yourself. 

Big Brother is watching, and taking notes.... AND SHARING THEM (for a fee)

In the site (way down at the bottom) they have a blog and there is a post is about: How Our Opt-Out ystem Works

I know that they think it is a wonderful site and they have OTHER "blog posts" about how to use the site and how it can help you remember who people are, etc.  But???...  I do try to see both sides of a situation, and I just don't like this one! 

WHAT DO YOU THINK???

Wednesday Wisdom

It is easy to sit up and take notice. What is difficult is getting up and taking action.

Al Batt

THE upcoming wedding.

Have I mentioned that there will be a wedding in our family this year?

Kieri & Russell are getting married Labor Day Weekend!

This is cause for celebration!  yea!  and cause for going on a diet,

and cause for looking at all sorts details as to throwing a wedding bash unique like the engaged couple.

a daunting task.

so, just thought I'd throw out a few pictures I've found that I like, I mean She likes (hehe) 

ok so only a couple of things are certain:  the colors: Red and black and the cake (they got to taste 16 cakes)... 16 cakes!! wow, here, take home these 16 (little) cakes and EAT THEM!!!! and tell me what you think.  Oh yeah, glad it wasn't me or else my "healthy" eating would be totally out the window.

So here is their cake:

now here are pictures that I would like to see/make/do for their wedding:

 It seems that a BRIGHTly colored pair of shoes is the way to go nowadays

 love the black and white of this arrangement 

love the pearls in the redflowers... don't think they are roses... hey they'll match the shoes.

 She really wants black or dark red cala lillys

 love the sash and pin

love the table arrangements, simple but elegent

oh it's fun to dream

LOVE IT OR LOSE IT

This weekend we (well Mr. Produce drove, I napped) drove down to see Grandma Katherine in Chelais, and saw almost the whole fam-damily there. *Had to snap a picture.  Katherine is 90 1/2 now.. and has gained 20 pounds in the last 6 months.  She gets tired easily but in good spirits and always knows what to say to make you giggle!

Her hat is always on, it helps to keep her little head warm.  We are so thankful that she feels good and in good spirits and has such great kids that keep a close eye on her!-

I emptied (yes... you should have seen it before) my china cupboard.  I am going to put it on Craigs list.

although.... I am tempted to take out the glass and turn it into this (as seen on Taradara)

but..... I have to actually LOVE it.
That's my new mantra

LOVE IT OR LOSE IT

I say that to myself with EVERYTHING I touch and pack.  DO I LOVE IT??? if not lose it!  That is a GREAT way to pair down (de-clutter) your house.  I mean why in the world am I keeping some of this stuff if I don't LOVE IT.  Some of the stuff I do like, or frankly say "I just might NEED that"  (ok Lisalulu, now you are sounding like your mother)...

LOVE IT OR LOSE IT

keep saying it over and over and over and over and it will make sense!!!

I CAN'T BELIEVE WHAT I'M SEEING

Just a quick post...

i can't believe it but I have reached 100 followers!!! A-M-A-Z-G-I-N-G
Her blog is The Fifty Factor and I have been following it for a while now and it's a great read! totally cool

THANKS TO EVEYONE FOR MAKING ME FEEL POPULAR!!!

that's it for now because I have a day off and I have to:
-finish packing up the front room (the front room is on the list for re-organizing next week... and the china cabinet has got to go!!!)
-put stuff on craigs list
-put stuff on ebay
-finish the laundry room floor (room got painted)
-finish putting the upstair bathroom back together (it also got painted) (love you Mr. Produce)
-grocery shop
-take my mom shopping (she can only handle one store...so probably Hallmark)
-laundry-kitchen dishes and all the other Saturday activities that make life clean
it's a hard life, I know, but someone has got to live it!    NOW GET TO WORK!