A Delicious Recipe to Share

I don't have any stitching pics to share today but Fear Not! I have been stitching. I just have been working on my exchange piece for the Rotating Designers Exchange. You know those pesky rules that you can't show what you are making till your recipient gets it first??? Yea I know...bummer.... but I really wish I could. It is going to be a cute little piece when I'm done. I'm actually done with 99% of the stitching. My next step is finishing it and that part worries me. I've never finished any stitching before so I'm really hoping all goes well.

I wanted to share with you all a delicious dinner recipe I found. I am all about easy recipes that are not much fuss. I am a single mom, who can't afford to spend a ton of money on groceries. Plus, I don't have the patience to make three course dinners every night. My brain just can't handle that after a day at work! So yesterday, I went interwebs searching and found this recipe on the Campbell's website. Yes, the same company that makes the yummy soups in the red and white can that has been around forever. The dish is called "Zesty Beef and Rice Skillet". It is delicious and budget friendly. You all have to try it!

 It only takes five ingredients:
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
1 (1 pound) boneless beef sirloin steak, cut into strips
1 jar (16 oz) Pace Picante Sauce, ( It can be the mild kind or spicy kind)
1 cup of Swanson Beef Broth or Beef Stock
1 cup of uncooked regular long-grain white rice
Chopped Parsley for seasoning (optional)

Directions:
~Over Medium-High heat, heat a tablespoon of vegetable oil and add the beef strips.
~ Cook until well-brown. Pour off any fat.
~Stir in the Picante sauce, the beef stock/beef broth and rice and bring mixture to boil.
~Reduce the heat to low and let cook for 20 minutes.
~ Sprinkle in some parsley for added taste

Done! It is so easy and tasty. This would also taste great in burritos or tacos. BTW, don't make my mistake and buy the ready cook rice. You know, the kind that's pre-cooked and you only have to zap for 90 minutes to be ready?? Yea lets just say that mine came out a little soupy like cause my rice couldn't absorb much of the liquid. It was an honest oversight! I realized the rice was the wrong kind the minute I poured it into the pan. **Sigh** I proudly admit that I am a blonde and have my blonde moments. It happens! Anyways, my dinner came out great anyways and it was devoured. Enough Said.

Three cheers for the holiday weekend coming up! That means Monday is an official stay at home and be lazy day. Yay! Plus, I want to give a big welcome and virtual hug to all my new followers (friends). :D

Happy Stitching and Cooking!
Jen

Trick or Treat!

Can you believe Fall is upon us and the kids are back in school??? Good grief this summer flew by. When I was a kid, summer felt like it dragged on for an eternity. By the time July came around, I was ready to go back to school. Now the weeks just fly by like nothing.

So with Autumn time comes what?? You guessed it...Halloween! A day when eating candy is your reward for enduring the stressful time of costume hunting. This year, Halloween is going to be extra special..for my son that is. Not on Halloween Day per se' but the week before. We are taking him to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party in the Magic Kingdom. I've heard it is fantastic and Disney goes all out. I can't wait.

Now to get on to the point of my post, I have a Halloween card to share. Tada!

Through another blog, I found Cupcards to Go. The owner, Cassandra, puts together wonderful card making kits that include coordinating papers, ribbons, card blanks with envelopes and embellishments. She is having a sale right now on past kits and other items. If you are a card maker (I know a few of my followers are :D ), you should head on over and check out her site. Personally, I'm a huge fan of buying kits where all of the supplies are coordinated for me. Deciding on colors and coordinating embellishments is a stressful process for me. I would rather have that done for me. I'm the same way about quilt kits. I would rather buy those than pick out the colors for a quilt myself.

For this card, I bought the October 2010 kit from Cupcards to Go. All of the supplies were Halloween themed. I also purchase some extra papers with the chipboard embellishments for a few extra dollars. The supplies are a mish-mash of different companies, so I don't know what came from where. I can tell you the card is a 4 1/4" by 5 1/2", using 4 different papers, one ribbon, rhinestones, and silver stickles. I just love the papers. I hate spiders, but I love the spider paper. The moon, candy corn, stars and cat are chipboard embellishments. FYI: regular tape adhesive doesn't work with chipboard embellishments, you have to use tacky glue.

I'm going to enter this card into Fab's Making Halloween Cards Challenge. The theme is either Black Cat and/or bunting/banner.

Gotta run! My honey is waiting on me.

Happy Crafting!
Jen

Progress Pics - A "J" is Made

I sooooo wish this weekend would not end. It was awesome. The perfect lazy weekend....well almost. Since school begins today for my son, I had to leave my couch to pick up some essential items **cough** school supplies**cough**.  Procrastination much?? Yea very much so. ;)

Besides that my weekend was great. I stayed inside with my boys and we ordered in food on both days. God bless those restaurants that deliver. Now enough babbling... on to the fun part of my post!

This weekend was International Hermit and Stitch Weekend hosted by Joysze at Random Ramblings, and Boy Oh Boy did I do that. I worked on three projects this weekend. Yes, 3! The first is my Nora Corbett "J" Fairy. It is so fun knowing that so many of you are a fan of this design and are enjoying my posts about it. I have a lot of followers whose name starts with "J".

 

(click pick for detail)

My goal this weekend for this design was to finish the "J" part of the design. Not only did I finish the stitching, I finished all of the beading and even re-beaded the very top where the flower is. Now all of my beading is correct. I'm really loving the earth tone colors of this design especially the predominant green colors. It reminds me of my birthstone. I am a May baby which makes my birthstone Emerald. The next part of the design is the fairy sitting on the "J". I will start on her this week...or at least try. Lately work has been dragging me down. All I want to do when I come home is just veg out in front of the TV and do nothing.

I also started stitching my Exchange piece for the Rotating Designers Exchange. I can't show or give any details yet except that it is a design by The Prairie Schooler. That is our chosen designer for this rotation. It is a cute design and I already know how I'm going to finish it. My sewing machine will be really grateful that it will finally get used after so long of being ignored. Actually the sewing machine will be thanking me more than that soon since I plan on working on a quilt or two in my near future. I love having a variety of projects going on. This way I don't burn out on one project.

I also began stitching the Tree of Stitches design by Abi at The Stitch Specialists Yahoo Group. I started stitching the tree trunk, but I haven't quite finished it yet. I'll make sure to post pictures of it on my next update.

Thank you for stopping by and an even bigger THANK YOU for your lovely comments. The encouragement from you wonderful bloggers is what keeps me motivated to keep creating.

Happy Stitching!
Jen

A Stitchy Card, Some Stash and Other Updates

Grab a chair and a drink for this post my friends. I have a lot to share. :)

After five hours of reading on Friday night, I finished the 7th Harry Potter book. I was full of mixed emotions to say the least. It ended well, but being a big fan and knowing that it was over made me kind of sad. Needless to say, there went my creative mojo on Friday night. I posted my personal review on the book on my reading blog here in case you were interested to read my thoughts. If you have any of your own to share, feel free to comment over there also.

In brighter news, I sat down to make a card tonight...finally after a couple weeks of no cards. I had the strangest feeling like my paper stash was calling to me, like it was feeling neglected...no I'm not crazy I swear! ;) I had this design in my head for a while. It is a really fun card cause Why?? Well... because it is Christmas and it has stitching! (Click the pic for better detail)

Most of my stash is from Paper Wishes. I love their selection of papers and embellishments for papercrafts, cards and scrapbooking. They carry these stickers called Dazzles and they are fantastic. They add just the right glitz and final touch for your project. The gingerbread man, house and peppermints on this card are from a sheet called "Stitched Gingerbread People Stickers". The package comes with instructions on how and where to add stitching to give it the stitched detail. I did the stitching with DMC Color Infusions Metallic Thread. BTW my stitching friends, I would not recommend this thread for actual cross-stitching. I'm not even sure you can use it for that. It splits like you have no idea. I will take Kreinick any day of the week. I finished off my card with some more glitz by using Gold Stickles (glitter glue) in a stitch pattern around some of the papers.

Next I wanted to show off my stash I got this weekend at my LNS. Of course, I went there for something particular in mind, but left with more. I blame mother nature for that. It rained HARD while I was there forcing me to stay. Believe it or not, that is not the first time that has happened to me. So what else am I to do while waiting out the weather??? You guessed it...inspect the merchandise! It took a lot out of me not to walk out with more, but my Visa was sending me messages that it would burn up in my wallet if I dared to grab anything more. :D So here are my goodies:

The new Just Cross Stitch Halloween Issue, a "Listen Honey, Life's a Stitch" pattern, A Beyond Cross-Stitch Learning Kit by The Victoria Sampler (the pattern focuses on learning Assisi Embroidery) some Weeks Dye Works and Gentle Arts Threads, a piece of 28 CT Waterlily Evenweave, and some new Piecemaker and John James Needles. Now, my bill tab was running just fine until I found the pattern on the left. "J" is for Juggler by The Victoria Sampler. It is part of an alphabet series and I happened to see the leaflets sitting on a table waiting to be put on the shelf. I fell in love with this pattern. I kind of had to turn a blind eye to the $30.00 embellishment packet but Oh Well...

What I really love about this chart is that it includes Specialty Stitches. It will be great practice for me and I just so love the colors in it. Super pretty. For you sampler fans, I would look into these patterns. They are all beautiful.

In other stitch news, I worked on my Nora Corbett "J' Fairy this weekend but nothing worth showing. I worked on re-beading some areas. Just when I thought I was attaching the beads right, I found out I was still doing them wrong. :/ I was 0 for 2 in beading! So I made it my mission to fix them, not all of them though. I'll post a pic when I make more progress on this design.

I also joined my first stitching exchange over at The Rotating Designer Exchange hosted by Angela. My exchange partner is .................J/K! I'm not going to say. Now wouldn't that be a major faux paux on my first exchange experience. :P Our first designer is The Prairie Schooler! Very exciting and this is my first time stitching a chart by this designer. I already have the pattern and materials picked out.

I have also joined The Stitch Specialist's Group on Yahoo. If you have been watching others stitch the Tree of Stitches pattern, this is the forum of which they are a part of. In fact, the hand dyed threads and Waterlily Even weave fabric I bought was for this design. I was picturing the tree in Autumn colors. I hope I chose my colors well. I am really looking forward to watching this design grow and learn the new stitches. I am very eager to expand my stitching know how. The stitchers on this forum are very friendly ladies too. I'm sure I will get great feedback and help as I truck along stitching the design.

Till next time friends, Happy Stitching!
Jen

Another weekend gone...

Don't you just hate how fast the weekends go by? It is one thing for the weekends to go by fast, but have you noticed the days go by faster when you are on vacation...I have. I had four days off this weekend. I took off last Thursday and Friday. Thursday was my son Christian's 7th birthday. I took off Friday just because. I was not about to take off Thursday only to have to work on Friday, you know what I mean?

I was not in the mood to do the birthday party thing this year. It is too stressful and expensive and I wanted to do something different. Well we decided to take Christian to Grand Rapids Water Park in Riviera Beach, FL. It is about a two hour drive from Miami. Not too bad unless you are a 7 year old child then it feels like days that you are sitting in the car. We had about two hours of fun thanks to the weather. An FYI about Florida in the summer...not only does it get unbearably hot and humid, but it rains, rains, rains and oh! rains!. Not to mention we are the lightning capital of the world. Well as luck would have it, it rained at the park. It did stop, but since thunder could still be heard, the lifeguards kept everyone out of the water. Bummer! Well on the upside, we received free passes to come back. That made me happy considering the park tix were not cheap.

Then to add to Christian's birthday weekend, I took him to see The Smurfs movie and then to Chuckie Cheese for some games on Saturday. If you have kids, The Smurfs is a really cute movie to take them to. We saw the non 3-D movie. I really wished I had bought the 3-D passes instead. So don't make my mistake, see it in 3D! Chuckie Cheese...well what can I say...a zoo as always where the parents let the kids do whatever they want! Not to mention, you have to spend a bazzillion dollars on games just to get enough tickets so your kid can get a somewhat decent prize. I'm really glad birthdays are once a year. I'll leave it at that.

I managed to get some stitching time in yesterday and today. Yay for me! I would have had more but today I had a bowling tournament and was away most of the day for that.  Here is my progress on my Nora Corbett "J" Fairy:

This is the "J" by the way of the design. I'm working down the length of the letter. I'm working on the letter first and then I'll move onto the fairy. I did two more of these mid sections of stitching and attached the beads. This picture is not as closeup cause the flash of my camera causes a crappy glare of the beads. Can't have that!

Hope you all have a great week and are able to get some stitches into your projects.

Till next time, Happy Crafting
Jen

Some more stitchy info about me...

I created a new page on my blog that I wanted to invite everyone to view. It is called "My Model-Stitching." I am a model-stitcher for X's and Oh's Designs, a Canadian based cross-stitch design company. I actually just finished a new model that I can't show yet because it is not yet released to the stores. It is a beauty and I can't wait to show it to you. I have only done five model stitch designs and I enjoyed all of them. One day I will stitch them all for myself. I couldn't keep the model. I say one day because there are many other charts in the to be stitched pile as it is. You stitchers know the feeling. ;)

Let me know which one you like the best.
Jen