What High Heels?

Howdy do all! As of February 14th of this year my now husband and I have officially lived together for one whole year! This time last year my house had sold and our new house wasn't ready to move in to yet so trailer trash I became. We have a trailer at the front of our property that my Hunny lived in while making a major life change for him and moving me in. We now rent the trailer out to a pair of wonderful tenants that we luckily have never had a problem out of.

I grew up in a "dress the kitten up in clothes", all girl environment having three older sisters and a wonderful family of three girls, two doors up that I played with all of my childhood years. A.K.A. the hunting and killing of animals was not in my vocabulary. Hell.. Barbie and Ken barely lived together in the same Barbie house. It was a pretty innocent world back then. So moving to the country in my thirties in to a total boy world has been some what of an adaptation. I now own my own shot gun, I cook venison on a regular basis and I seemingly have traded in eighty pair of four inch strappy sandals for rain boots, thinsulate and shoes with tread on them. I have fallen in love with our thirty acres, the woods, our creek and my new life. All of the shoe shopping and nail manicuring every other week seems a little silly now. As our tax man said last week, "a farmer is least likely to spend a dime on himself" or something like that. I didn't want to look like a big nerd pulling out my journal to write down what he had just said but at the time it made perfect sense to me. Something in my mind has been trained by me to say... now Laurie... do you really need that? And if I can't say yes at that very moment I just give it some time and if it passes then I let it go. If I still want it then I get it. (This is not at all where this post was supposed to go)

I will report that as of yesterday I successfully received my third pair of my favorite jeans. When you find a pair of jeans that are perfect for you and it really hurts your soul when your tail end finally busts through the holes on the corners of the back pockets, it's time to check ebay. I have found and purchased not one but two pair of my favorite jeans over the last couple of years. I am currently and proudly wearing a pair right now. I would take a pick for you but really don't want to show my ass on my blog ;)

I posted a picture on flickr today of a very proud hunter.. my husband.. and his latest kill. I have to say that I feel extremely lucky and would much rather have a man that spends his down time from work hunting with friends and behaving instead of letting the devil take over his idle hands. What I'm trying to say is I'd much rather him hunt in the woods than stray downtown to the not so local noodie bar. Noodie... not noodle :). After I posted the pic I looked at it giving it the "pull back & cringe face" of the chick from girl world. It's a shot gruesome to me with the little drops of blood here and there but it is what it is and he is so proud. Not that I have feelings for wild dogs. The only feeling that killing coyotes that close to our home is the feeling of not wanting to let the cat go outside by himself for fear of him being scooped up and me never knowing what happened to him. He's a chunky little fella that any wild dog could feast on! Bless his heart. And it's legal so I'm OK with it.

I love my new life with my husband. Did I mention we are getting two piglets soon? Not to have so much as pets, I will name them temporarily, but Oscar Meyer will be losing a very good customer for a while once they get a certain size.

HHHhhhhmmmmm but alas....

Hello All. Well.. Monday evening was a big bust. We went to Walmart. We got a new TV. But we still got no Channel 8. And after having such a wonderful day I have to report that the evening was not so super. I couldn't even report back on it yesterday. My facial expression has currently changed. What can I say? I miss public television. It was worth paying a small amount when a telethon sucked me in to a cookbook and show called "The Rise of the Southern Biscuit" that I just had to have and thus fore made a donation. But there were other shows that I equally enjoyed. The Antiques Roadshow for numero uno. It got me through my single years. Every Monday night you could find me stuck to the television at seven o'clock sharp while sitting at my ungodly heavy glass table that I got whipped into taking eating my favorite single meal, a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich on toasted white bread, kosher dill pickle spear, Lays original potato chips and Smirnoff Ice. Ah.. those were the days. Not the single life... the ARS, BEC, SI & NPT.

Which by the way.. why is everything abbreviated now a days? My new favorite is LBL. Light Bladder Leakage. Not that I have it and it's a favorite but it's the fact that society has gotten so comfortable with abbreviations of medical conditions that it sounds "cooler" to accidentally piddle in your pants if it's called LBL. The next time you end a text with an LOL add a little LBL cause if it was that funny you know you did... just a little.

I also miss the documentaries on NPT, Sesame Street, Sunday cooking shows and I could never forget Tennessee Crossroads. That is a good show. Shaun and I would watch it every Sunday morning. It was a show all about Tennessee and attractions and down home, good ole Tennessee meat & three's all over the state. I don't even know who has the best bar-b-q in Tennessee anymore...even though I never tasted it myself. If the Crossroads said it then it is the best.

Just imagine life without Bob Ross on Saturdays and you have imagined my life without NPT. Of course we could just pay for cable or satellite and we'd have it but who wants to pay for TV? I reckon I'll just do without. LOL... LBL

What a Good Monday

Well I hope everyone in Tennessee enjoyed the beautiful weather over the weekend! I have to say that Saturday, even though it was gorgeous outside that I stuck with staying indoors. My sister Mary Evelyn and I stumbled upon a craft on Friday that made use of a box of one million vintage buttons that we bought at the big Crossplains yard sale that we had to try on Saturday. Three hours in to it we had missed out on some major sunshine. It's weird to say that I've gotten used to staying indoors this winter. It's just been too cold. I will still bundle up and venture out to the woods on the weekends but staying out there for long isn't fun.

Yesterday however was a different story. The sun came out and I think the temperature got to around 64! I had the house windows open and towels out on the clothesline. I fell right into the day like a pro. I have so missed the crunchy feel of line dried towels and wash cloths. It's a comfort of our home that I love. I got the house clean and in tip top shape. In the afternoon my Dad came over and we went walking in the woods and in the creek. We walked down the cold crick to the waterfall and further to where our creek meets the larger creek behind the church camp that backs up to our farm. I picked up a good rock to use as a door stop in our bedroom. At one point I lost a rock that I had chosen. I sat it down to help Miss Pepper get down off a ledge by the waterfall and forgot to pick it back up. Luckily I found two more which prompted me to realize that I had lost the first one a ways back. Silly me.

When I go into the woods I am generally packing the necessities. Camo over-the-shoulder bag with binoculars, camera, telephone and bottle of water and handy walking stick in hand. None of those things actually came out of my bag yesterday, but it was too full, so I thought, to put the new door stops in so I carried one in my left hand and the other in the elbow of my left arm. With all that in tow I can't believe I made it back up the hill! When we got back to the house I realized my binoculars were sitting on the porch rail where I left them when Dad got there. I guess I was excited to have a friend walk the woods with me!

Hey.. I wanted to remind White House-ians that the White House Library (which I love) is having their annual book sale this week. After I went to the dentist this morning and got a tiny filling in the back of my #10 tooth I stopped by. I was looking for Country Living magazine back issues and Honey I found them! I bought 12 issues for $1.00! I also bought VHS tapes Vegas Vacation, Christmas Vacation, Meet the Parents and the second season of Friends on DVD. I topped it off with one hardback book to read because I'm out of books right now that I like to read before bed. It had a pink, blue and yellow cover and the back of it said it was hilarious so I bought it. I like funny stories before bed.. hence why I married Shaun! All in all I spent $3.50 at the book sale extravaganza! I was pretty proud walking out to the parking lot.

So, when I walked through the living room into the kitchen this morning, my hubby was sitting at the table eating his cinnamon rolls I made and drinking coffee "listening" to the TV. The tube(if it has one) finally went out this morning. I turned the fan on in the living room because it had a bad burn-y after smell. Long story short we are going this evening to purchase a new one and I am SO excited because there is a good chance that with the reception on our new TV I may just be watching Antiques Roadshow this evening!!!!!!! I haven't been able to watch it since the whole "change over" to digital TV came about last year because we can't pick up channel 8 anymore with our rabbit ears! The new TV won't require the use of our loving converter box because it will be DTV ready. So... wish me luck!

To top off a wonderful morning, my Granddaddy came by right as I was getting back to work from the library and dentist and asked if I could go eat lunch with him... Well Yeah! I just don't turn down lunch with Granddaddy.. he even let me drive his car. Luckily.



Like Kermit the Frog said "Rainbows have nothing to hide" :)

GBBC 2010!!!

Hey Y'all! I am so excited about The Great Backyard Bird Count. Mainly I am excited about piling on warm clothes, packing my binoculars and bird book in my little camo shoulder bag and heading into the woods this Saturday and Sunday. I have a few species that I am looking for in particular that don't do bird feeders. I will be watching and counting the birds that I see at my feeders too but to me it's exciting to seek and find. Plus I think we are supposed to see a little bit of sunshine this weekend so that will go well with my hunting.

It's fun to get involved and to get kids involved in bird watching. You really don't have to spend but about 15 minutes counting what you see. There is a simple data form that you can print before you count. It is mainly used if you do not have internet access but can help log what you have seen and how many of each species at one time that you see. Copy and paste this link. http://gbbc.birdsource.org/gbbcApps/input It will take you directly to where you can print the data sheet, where you can find a list of birds in your area to look for, and where you can diretly submit what you've seen.

Click on the The Great Backyard Bird Count picture on this page with the people on it and it will take you directly to the birdcount.org website.

Thanks for participating and have fun!

How To Say "I Love You"

Howdy Doodle All! Valentine's Day is this Sunday and I figure that everybody that stops by my blog already knows how to say I love you in english. So I looked up a few more versions of I love you in other languages just for fun and I thought I'd share a few with you. In case you want to surprise you're lovie on Sunday morning with telling them that you love them in Polish!

French ~ Je t'aime

Spanish ~ Te Amo

Polish ~ Kocham Ciebie

Hawaiian ~ Aloha wau ia 'oe

Slovak ~ Lubim Ta

Swahili ~ Nakupenda

Icelandic ~ Eg Elska Thig

Creole ~ Mi Aime Jou

I haven't decided which one to use on my Mister yet. Any of them them is sure to get the same response from him.... HUH?!?!

Valentine Sweetness

Good Day All! I truly hope everyone had a great weekend. I was able to find some much needed alone time for craft projects at home yesterday so I have a couple of things to share this week before Valentine's Day gets here. Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorites. Even when I didn't have an actual Valentine the one day set aside for love always seemed so neat. Although every day should be like Valentine's Day in my book.

Today I wish to share a recipe for a very pink cake that is perfect for the one day filled with red and pink! It's a recipe that came to me by surprise. My Grandfather's wife, Granny Martha made a special strawberry cake that we all loved. When my Grandfather was moving a couple of years ago he let me pick some of his cookbooks to take home with me. While reading a book of sweets one day I found Granny Martha's strawberry cake recipe written on a piece of paper in her handwriting tucked in between some pages. I surprised my Grandfather with it on his next birthday and have made it many times since then. It is always a crowd favorite and due to it's dark pink, fluffy and moist texture topped with pink strawberry icing with seeds popping in your teeth... crowd favorite is a well deserved name. I hope you enjoy it as much as we always have.



Strawberry Cake

1 box white cake mix
1 small box strawberry jello
2 Tablespoons flour
4 egg whites
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1/2 cup chopped strawberries

In a large mixing bowl beat egg whites until light and fluffy. In another mixing bowl combine all other ingredients and stir until combined. Fold egg whites into cake mixture. Pour into greased baking dish. Place in cold oven. Set oven temperature to 275 degrees and bake for one hour. Toothpick check the cake. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer if the toothpick comes out not clean. Allow to cool before icing.

Icing

1 stick softened butter or margarine
1/2 cup drained, chopped strawberries
4-5 cups powdered sugar

Mix ingredients for icing together. The original recipe says to use only a box of powdered sugar. I have found that to get any kind of consistency this isn't enough. I use almost one whole bag of powdered sugar. I kind of estimate on how many cups here because I haven't actually counted.

Store covered cake in the refrigerator.

Show Your Love

Hiya folks! Here's a fun little sewing project that you can do for Valentine's Day so you can "show your love." What you need is a sheet of felt, a sheet of paper, sequins, seed beads, thread, a needle and a safety pin.

First, cut heart shape out of the piece of paper. If you aren't real good at drawing hearts you can trace one from a cookie cutter or whatever else you have. Next trace the heart onto your felt. You want to cut out 2 hearts. Next, you want to begin sewing sequins and beads onto the top side of one of the hearts. Once you have the entire heart covered you'll need to whip stitch the other heart on to the back of the sequined heart to both hide and protect your stitching. When you are finished stitching around the outside of your heart be sure and run your needle into the back to bury the final thread after you knot it. And last, thread your safety pin in to the back of your heart and apply to whatever you wish!

I found the safety pin that is shown at a local craft store in the jewelry supply department. If you are using a regular safety pin you can stitch it on to the back heart before sewing the two hearts together.

I hope you enjoy showing your love!!

Hey Look!! It's me!!

Gee whiz y'all... I have just been refusing to blog. I don't know what it is. I've been busy cooking, crafting, creating, and renting the heck out of library books! I call it renting for some reason. I was always intimidated by libraries... I think it was the fact that I had to be quiet that pushed me away. I do remember to silence my cell phone every time I go in and I have become quite the regular at our tiny local library. Even a tiny library houses tons of books I've found. I have been glued to my latest rental... Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafting. Wow. The things I never knew. I got out my post it notes and started tabbing pages. My grocery list has grown this week too as far as crafting supplies goes.

I wanted to share some pictures of what I have made so far. You'll have to rent the book to find out how to make them yourselves... evil I know. But I have been having so much fun. Last night I read about marbleizing, like on paper or anything for that matter. I think I'm just going to have to ask for this book for my birthday. It's a good one.


I am sad to report that I may just get kicked out of the library yet because as I was picking the book up off of the copier from imaging a recipe for bath fizzies I tore a page. Talk about the gasp heard round the world! Yeah.. that was me. I feel like such a common criminal. They are sure to revoke my library card when I tell them what I did. I'll probably leave out the copying part but I for sure can't hide that tear... it's a big one. Mama always said I can't do anything halfway. They probably have some of the acid free tape that's better for the books.


P.S. Please don't tell Martha.