Lawn Fawn

There was a whole lot of fun going on at Papertrix, yesterday.  Because I design for Cindy and the shop, she allowed Kate (another shop designer) and myself to sit in on two classes taught by Lynnette Kauffman, who is a member of the Lawn Fawn design team.

Here is a photo from the first class:

 And here are the cards we made in the first class.  I love the googly eyes on the owl.

 In the second class, Cindy joined us!  Having her at the table with us was a real treat as she rarely sits down and rarely sits in on a class.  I think she saw how much fun we were having and had to jump in. (Cindy, me, Kate, Emily.) You may visit Emily at her blog:  We'll always have Paris.studios.

 In the second class we made these cards:  I love the little cottage in the Sweet Christmas card.  The set has many embellishments to personalize to each person's style.

 The big thrill for me was that I WON the Sweet Christmas stamp set and the Winter Fox stamps and a 6x6 package of the FaLaLa paper in a drawing.  Love the Fa La La paper says 36 sheets of fun.  (I apologize for the flash bounce off of the cellophane.)

I love taking classes.  I always learn at least one new technique or style. In this class, I learned to give the cards more depth as in stamping the snowman's arms on the paper when the snowman stand out in front of that layer.  And layer the snow and edging with stickles.  Oh, how I love me some stickles! I'm certain Lynnette will be back again.  Be sure and watch the Papertrix website for new classes in the new year. You may find Lynnette at her blog Netter's Notables. For more stamp sets and lots of inspiration visit Lawn Fawn. Another reason I love classes is we always have a lot of fun.  Lynnette brought delicious cookies with red and green m&ms and we all created and learned and munched and exchanged blog and pinterest websites.  (And admired Emily's fingernails - OPI's It's my year and exchanged hair product ideas.)
What a great day of pre-holiday fun! Thank you, Cindy.

I did this!

When my girls moved into their new house - I gave them a hard time about not hanging stuff on the walls.  Now I understand. I painted the master bedroom this spast summer and when I painted,we took down everything and filled in the holes. We wanted to start over. It has taken months to do anything at all.

Recently, when I was at Papertrix, I found this wonderful sheet of Graphic 45. I'm sorry to say I don't think you can get this paper any longer. I thought it was beautiful and instantly thought I'm going to frame this and hang it in the master bedroom!

I went to Michael's and all I could find was an inexpensive brownish-black plastic 12x12 frame. (It does have glass.) I didn't like the dark frame but knew I could fix it. The fist thing I did was to use my all time favorite paint - Golden Acrylics Titan Buff and started applying with a brush.  Not covering completely with differing amounts of paint. I took some old t-shirt material and started rubing out the paint.  After the buff dried I took some Golden Fluid Acrylic Burnt Sienna and painted some on here and there.  Again, I rubbed with the cloth.  Then it looked too red to me.  I took some Golden Fluid Acrylic Titanium white and brushed over all here and there.  Again rubbing with the cloth. Finally, I achieved the look I desired. It doesn't even look like a plastic frame any longer.

 Long before I ever painted the room, I bought this decal at Target. There was only one bird in the tree originally and I added a few more. The birds are all separate and you just stick them where you want - which is fun.

This is all we've done so far.  Still lots of wall space but I haven't decided what I want to do.  Plenty of time...

Thinking outside the box

What is better in the fall than baking?  It makes the kitchen all warm and cozy and makes the house smell wonderful. Recently, while shopping at Kroger, I happened upon some box cookies.  Very simple recipe.  I picked up some cream cheese frosting in a can.  I baked the cookies on my Pampered Chef stoneware. 

Then I allowed the cookies to cool and iced them.

Dug finished off a dozen in the first night - he swears he did not but mysteriously, half of the cookies were missing.  They were delicious.  I may make up a couple of batches to have for Thanksgiving.  YUM, Yum, yum.  If you can handle using a box mix, I recommend these. 

Let me say this about that

Note to readers:  This is my soap box.  If you disagree with what I have to say, move on to the next blog.  (Easy Peasy) I do hope you'll come back, though.
First, let's go back in time to 2011.  It was the day after Thanksgiving and my friend and I were on the circle in downtown Indianapolis for the lighting of the Christmas tree. Some country band was performing.  When they started singing "Proud to be an American," everyone joined in.  Tears streamed down faces.
I am very proud to be an American.  Case in point:  when I went to Paris this past May and read that the French wore black shoes and if you wore anything other than black shoes, they would know you were an American.  What did I do?  I ran out and bought a pair of Paris pink tennis shoes! 
One reason I think America is great is that whenever we want someone to win - we genuinely believe they are going to win. High school basketball, Big Ten football, you name it - if we are cheering for someone, we believe they will win.
Same with this election.  If we are democrats, we can't imagine anyone would vote for Romney.  If you are Republican, you can't imagine anyone voting for Obama. I have an interesting, checkered political past. I was born and raised in Indiana.  In a small eastern-central Indiana town.  Everyone was Republican.  And I do mean everyone.  We cheered the Republicans in our small town parades. When it came time for me to vote at the tender age of eighteen, I registered as Republican.  Of course I did.
Then, my daughter started to show me the light.  I started to lean the other way.  I fell in love with Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton.  I remember being on a plane one time and this guy assumed I was a Republican.  (I think I'm an old hippie and I don't look like a Republican at all.) But this guy starts going off on Nancy Pelosi and how much he hated her and how she should keep her mouth shut.  I smiled and said "I love her."  He didn't speak to me the rest of the flight. Long after Hillary Clinton wasn't elected, my son informed me it was time to take my Hillary for President bumper sticker off my car.  It was tough for me to do.  I peeled it off and stuck it to the mirror in my bathroom where it is to this day.
Five years ago I moved to Bloomington.  If any town in Indiana is blue, it is Bloomington.  Don't get me wrong, we have our fair share of conservative Republicans.  It is almost divided.  But it is divided.  The rest of the state and all of the little towns about the state are red as blood.
I can't tell you exactly what year it was that I started to vote Democrat, but once I did, I didn't turn back.  I asked if I could change how I was registered.  The woman said "it doesn't matter, you can vote however you want." Well, it matters to me.

I am a woman.
My daughter and her wife are gay.
I have a granddaughter.
I believe a woman should have the say as to what she does with her body.
I am a woman and I don't want to be in a binder.
I can't imagine Romney having any of my interests in mind.  Or paying any attention to me.  I am middle-class or lower middle class.  Even though I qualified for "hand-outs" at one point in my life, I never took any.  But shouldn't it be the "Christian" thing to do?  To help those who are less fortunate than we are?  It doesn't seem this is Romney's point of view.  He has made his fortune by swallowing up small companies and putting people out of work.
Yes, I am so Democrat now I can't imagine being Republican.
Funny how that has worked out for me.
This seems to me to be one of the most important elections of my life time.
Do I think my guy will win?  I certainly hope so.
If he doesn't (and this in no way indicates a lack of confidence) I will have to move to Ireland.  Surrender my American status.  It is beautiful in Ireland.  No taxes.  Rain and fog, which I love.  They kind of speak English. Seems like a good idea to me. Plus, I can't stand the sound of Romney's voice and don't want to listen to that for the next four years.
I've already heard rumblings from my Republican relatives that if the Dems win, it is because we cheated somehow.  They haven't even lost yet and they are whining about the Dems cheating.  Please.
May the best man win.

To die for chicken enchiladas

I always wanted to make chicken enchiladas, but until last night, I never had. I love enchiladas, but to me they are never quite right.  I can easily creep myself out about food in restaurants.  And if I make something well, I will never order in a restaurant because you are darn tootin' I'm going to like my version better.

I came across this recipe on allrecipes.com and thought to myself "that looks do-able!"

I printed out the recipe and went to the grocery to buy the ingredients. 

 

 

Original recipe makes 6 servings

Makes servings USMetricAdjust Recipe (Help)

1 tablespoon of butter

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 (4 ounce) candiced green chiles

1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup

1/2 cup sour cream

1 1/2 cups of cubed cooked chicken breast 

1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese, divided

6 (12 inch)flour tortillas

1/4 cup milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking dish.
2. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter and saute the green onion until tender (about 3 to 4 minutes). Add the garlic powder, then stir in the green chiles, cream of mushroom soup and sour cream. Mix well. Reserve 3/4 of this sauce and set aside. To the remaining 1/4 of the sauce in the saucepan, add the chicken and 1/2 cup of shredded Cheddar cheese. Stir together.
3. Fill each flour tortilla with the chicken mixture and roll up. Place seam side down in the prepared baking dish.
4. In a small bowl combine the reserved 3/4 of the sauce with the milk. Spoon this mixture over the rolled tortillas and top with the remaining 1/2 cup of shredded Cheddar cheese. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly.

We use the chicken breasts in a bag (which are quite good) and I cooked the chicken in a covered dish with vegetable broth in the microwave.  I made four breasts which was a little more chicken than I needed, but I just added a little extra sour cream and cheese.  I used sharp cheddar cheese. I didn't have garlic powder but I used garlic salt.  And we felt it needed a little salt, anyway. I can't tolerate much onion at all, so I left the onion out.  The green chilies didn't hurt me at all. Next time I will use a different dish to cook them in.  This time I had my dish all buttered up and I just crammed all six in.  It was o.k., but next time - a bigger dish.

I can go forever without cooking.  (He was single before me and can cook.  The man can cook.  Believe me, he isn't going to starve.  Some might say he cooks more than I do.) But when Fall and Winter come along...there is something about cool temperatures that make me want to start banging around with some pots and pans. And when I find a good recipe, I am very intent on making it.
These enchiladas are GOOD.  Doug just kept yumming and umming and carrying on.  He had one left-over for lunch today and left me one to have left-over for my dinner.  Even warmed in the oven a day later, yum, yum, umm, umm, these are GOOD.
O.k., go make this recipe, now.  You'll be glad you did.
P.S., if you have a better chicken enchilada recipe, please share.  (Or any recipe for that matter.) Once I make a recipe, I am all about changing it up for the better.