Window dressing

inside looking out

This is the window of our sweet little wine shop wineschool101.com

It is so hard to get a good picture of this Rosé all Day themed window. The glare is too much for my camera phone to handle. This is where I get to be a little crafty at work. 

I was able to use regular craft paint outside because the window is set in where the rain can't get it. Last year I made giant paper flowers that looked similar to these (craft store) flowers but they faded in time and I am short on time these days.
 Speaking of short on time... look at these cork strings

This was a labor of love! It took hours and hours to drill through all of the corks and then stringing and knotting them but I am thrilled with how it came out.

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

Pie crust is one of my worst subjects, pie crust and frosting cakes. In a blind taste test no one would know but I can't make them look pretty. There are worse things. 

Today while figuring out what to make for dinner while also figuring out how to not go to the grocery store, this came together...

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

Crust:

2 sticks of cold butter cut up

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup cold water

Filling:

1 onion diced

3 celery stalks diced

3 carrots diced

1 cup frozen petite peas

1 lb chicken breast chopped

Veg oil

1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup half & half

Tbs butter

Chicken broth 2 cups

Salt, pepper, garlic powder,  herbs de Provence 

In a food processor, pulse flour and salt. Add butter and pulse until it resembles coarse crumbs. Drizzle most of the cold water and continue to pulse until it starts coming together. Turn out to a floured board and work in remaining water by kneading. Make 2 discs, wrap in plastic and refrigerate. 

In a large sauté pan cook veggies in some veg oil until they just become slightly tender. Add a tbs of butter and  Make room for chicken, season everything with salt pepper, garlic, and herbs. Sauté until fully cooked. Sprinke 1/4 cup of flour and stir until cooked. Add 1 cup of broth until combined, add 1/2 cup half & half and stir until thickened. Add remaining broth, stirring constantly. While we are on the broth subject, I purchased this by accident 

And decided to try it. I like to flavor things myself but this worked really well for the sauce, it gave it a nice rich taste. Nice job College Inn!

You want the sauce pretty thick but not pasty. 

Let that sit and cool a bit. Preheat your oven to 375 and get your dough out. Roll it out pretty thin and see how many mini pie plates you can get out of the first rolling. I have a variety of sizes here; 3 individual tarts, 1 topless ramekin, and a small pie dish that's bigger than a tart but smaller than a pie because my husband would not be full on a tart size. So, you line the plates that you are using,  you may have to roll out the next disc for the last one but that's ok (says the unskilled pie maker) the tops use less dough to cover. Scoop the filling with a ladle and put a top on it. Crimp the edges (do it nicer than mine). I had extra filling so that's how I ended up with that topless ramekin. Waste not, want not. Brush tops with egg wash, and cut some airholes. 

Bake on an old baking sheet, because they will probably leak, for 30-40 minutes until golden and bubbling. 

 

Death by baking

If spring doesn't arrive soon, my family may die from homemade baked goods! By the looks of it, Spring is taking its time. 

When it's cold out, I cook and I bake and then I bake something else. I typically work 7 days a week for weeks at a time but I had the ENTIRE WEEKEND OFF. It was glorious and dangerous at the same time. Yesterday I baked these unbelievably good oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. 

This wouldn't be so bad if I didn't try to kill my family with these potatoes for dinner. 

They were delicious. I tried to make them less deadly by using smaller potatoes, using less cheese and bacon 

Oh and burning the parsley by forgetting that they were under the broiler. 

Oh, and the day before I made this apple pie that was declared as "the best pie ever" by three family members. 

Crumb topped Apple pie with homemade crust, two types of Apple and a brown sugar and oat crumb topping. 

It really was quite good. 

Here's a double tip for bakers, although maybe everyone does this already, I don't know. 

I store my flour in a lock-tight plastic bin and dedicate an entire set of measuring cups to this bin. I never have to search for or dirty a separate cup for flour. Also, because I have a ridiculously small counter area, I open my silverware drawer and place my flour bin on it while I'm working. I do this with Baking sheets as well when I need a little extra space. 

It's not oilcloth!

A cute little baby gift for Sheena at JoAnn Fabrics. I have mentioned Sheena before but I'll refresh for any new readers. Sheena is a super-friendly young lady that works at my nearby JoAnns. She has a smile that lights the entire store and talks to everyone that she sees and if she really likes you she will hug you hello and goodbye. (she must like me cuz she's always hugging me!) Sheena is having a baby girl in a few weeks and they are giving her a little baby shower today in the store. I whipped these up last night while watching CSI. I tend to avoid pink gifts because it's usually been done to death.
Hope she loves it!


While I have you, I would like to talk about a new series that I will be chatting about called "Life downstairs". I live upstairs from my parents, you can call them Frank and Ro. This adds a bit of interest to my daily life. Here is an excerpt:
Tomato plants were "buy one get one free" last week...this is huge in "life downstairs".
Frank- Hey Ro, I'll go buy 2 and then when I come home you go buy another 2 and then when the shifts change I'll go get another 2.
Ro- *grumblegrumble* OhforcryinoutloudFrank!
Later that day Ro realizes that Frank bought yellow tomatoes and now has cause to torture him all day.
Frank- Hey Ro, I think we should plant these now
Ro-*grumblegrumble*OhforcryinoutloudFrank! It's too soon, even the idiot on the news said so.
After an entire day of heated discussion Frank has a plan.
Frank- Hey Ro, let's keep the tomatoes in the wheely cart in the garage and bring them out during the day.
Ro-*grumblegrumble*OhforcryinoutloudFrank! Fine.
So, everyday at 9:00 am the tomatoes come out and Frank lets Ro know when the sun moves so she can wheel the tomatoes to it. Every night at 5:00 the tomatoes get put back in the garage.
This is life downstairs.

Ridiculously cute *updated* 04/14

I know that dishsoap bottle aprons are a little cheesy but they are just so cute in oilcloth and all hung up together!

Thank you for your nice comments. I have licked my wounds and am over it now. I tried to email the editorial assistant and it seems that she may have blocked me because it kept coming back undeliverable. Oh well.
I saw an interesting comment from Tracy at fabric.com saying that she has a gift for me and my readers...I'd better go email her!
****UPDATE*****
Tracy from fabric.com would like to offer my readers $5.00 off their orders this week only The coupon code is "blogwork" and expires 04/21/09. You should check them out, I always shop their clearance first and find amazing deals and the service is always excellent.

This isn't going to be pretty

I was so excited to come here with some happy news after a loooooooooooong absence. You see, I figured it was better to stay away until I had something nice to say... that ain't happening today unfortunately.
A while back I was approached by the editorial assistant at a certain magazine and asked if I would like my bags to be in an article about gingham. After "I came to" I whipped up a few and sent them off awaiting the May issue. I didn't tell many people because it would be kind of braggy and I'm really not like that. I saw the new issue at JoAnn's yesterday and ran to it (imagine slow-mo with music in the background). I could hardly keep my hands from shaking as I found the article.

My bags aren't there.

There must be more at the back of the magazine...the back is still good, I'll settle for anything... There were 5 more gingham products in the back.

Again, my bags aren't there.

So, I am sad. Life is a struggle at best lately and this was something I was really looking forward to. Something actually about ME in a world where nothing is about me ever.
ok, I need to go sew now. I'm sorry to dump my pity party on you.

teacher for the day

My Julia won "teacher for the day" in her 3rd grade class. You win by getting the most 100%'s on your spelling tests and she didn't miss a single one all year!
She found out on Friday and worked on a lesson plan all weekend:
early snack time
first recess
movie
late snack time
2nd recess
fun
fun
more fun
the best part is that her teacher is a student for the day...gym uniform, pig tails and all

I'm finishing up the teacher's scrapbooks tonight and then I may start working on a quilt...
stay tuned

you still there?

I think this time of the year is more hectic than Christmastime.
Honestly!
Lots of softball, lots of school activiities like today's pinning ceremony:
Gabby and her 7th grade class received their 8th grade pins today. It's such a nice thing. Each 8th grade student "pins" a 7th grade student.




Sorry, no cool crafty pictures, I've been churning out oilcloth bags per usual.
I'll be back soon, I promise!

Half-assed winner

Me: Julia, quick, pick a number 1-13
Julia: (dressed in game uniform shown here) Um, one.

Congratulations to Sarah http://thehouseofkrom.blogspot.com/
She was comment number 1 and therefore wins the half-assed bag contest! I have your address on file already and will mail it out on Tuesday.
Thanks to everyone who stopped by!
Happy Memorial Day.

200th Post!!!

Hi there friends,
Welcome to my 200th post. Grab a cup of coffee, call in sick to work and prepare to read 200 amazing and rare facts about ME!
Kidding!
I would like to take a few minutes of your time to say thank you. Thanks for stopping by and for leaving me comments even when you know that I almost never respond. In my perfect world, we would all walk in each other's kitchen doors and grab a cup of coffee sit down and chat for hours...you know, like those 1950's housewives. Alas, that is not how it is. I have 10 minutes to publish a half-assed post, you have 2 minutes to read it and comment and we all move on. I love to read each comment that is left, (except from that spammer guy named Adam) thank you for taking the time, it makes me so happy :)

How about a little half-assed giveaway contest?



Cute bag, why is it half-assed?



Because I never plan things out and I don't draft patterns.



Because I sewed one part of the handle fabric insideout (but it doesn't really matter much)



Because I said I would give a lunch bag away but I am up to my arm pits in oilcloth orders, it's the last thing I want to do for fun right now.

Because I love to give failed prototypes away.

Because this is already made and that's easy!
So, if you like this dishtowel grocery bag-style tote (that's what I was shooting for people!), leave me a comment and I will draw names on Saturday morning.
Thanks for reading!

thirteen

I have 2 teenage daughters now, Gabby turned 13 yesterday. She's so cute, we still have to bake pink cupcakes to bring to school. I'll bake her pink cupcakes for as long as I'm able, just to make her happy. We had Gabby's first emergency room visit last week. She was jumping on Fabio's trampoline at his beach house(seriously, I can't make this stuff up)and she hurt her ankle and had to be carried home by her friends. Anyway...no break but she spent a few days in an aircast and on crutches.
There is also a rumour of a boy that "likes" my Gabby.

I have TWO teenage daughters now.

Lots of busy-ness around here this past week. My shop got blown out again (yay!), softball games, sports banquet, field trips to Boston and Newport RI, yesterday's b-day and another in 2 weeks, emergency room, etc. etc.
Enjoy your weekend!
PS-
My next post is 200...maybe there will be a lunchbag giveaway...just saying

Open Letter to My Neighbor

Dear kooky neighbor,
You've got to know that you're house is falling apart, right? I mean, do you just not care? You're cement porch is crumbling, You're roof was so bad, the roofers felt bad just slapping on a sixth layer of shingles. Roofers don't really feel bad about much...no offense to roofers but they typically do the job and leave without saying much, I heard these guys arguing with you and saw them shaking their heads. Your chimney is about to blow off the house.

You have birds living under your siding, in your AC, in the eaves. You have squirrels living in your attic!
You make a nice living. You don't pay a mortgage. You received an inheritance. Why do you want to live in this eyesore, fire trap?
Sincerely,
Carol who prays the tree between us doesn't ever come down.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's day to all you moms!



To those of you that aren't moms...go find a mom and give her a hug.

I am off to church where we will have the May Crowning, celebrating the Mother of all Mothers.


Julia and the other communicants get to wear their dresses again and crown The Blessed Mother while singing my favorite church song, "Ave Maria".
*weep*
Have a great day ladies!

Open letter to all of the idiots that can't merge on I-95

So, you all thought it would be a good idea to have a little fun with me on the highway the other day? Pretending like you never merged onto the highway before, what a hoot!
Balding guy in the pick up truck- you were really great with the hand gestures and yelling, after you nearly killed us both by dropping your speed to 10 MPH after you got in front of me.
Polite older woman in the sedan- have faith and just trust that you indeed can do it. You just accelerate and merge, not crawl and stop. You confused the hell out of everyone around us. Sheesh!
Middle-aged mom in the minivan- Perhaps the kids were on your last nerve, so I will cut you some slack. For the love of all things good, please don’t hesitate when merging. Be assertive and go! You had plenty of time and I was waving you in for crying out loud!
Young, scary thug boy- where on earth do you have to be in such a hurry that warrants you to cut me off and weave in and out of cars. You are a moron and I hope all your tires are flat.
Who was it that sent you all to annoy me? C’mon, you can tell me…I’ve calmed down considerably now and I won’t be mad.
Elderly couple in the middle lane along side of me- I’m terribly sorry if you heard me screaming obscenities, I am PMS’ing something awful and I really couldn’t help it.
Sincerely,
Road Raged Carol

The last of our 1st communions

Not sure if that's a happy thing or a sad thing.
I do know that we were very proud of Julia today.

She did a very long reading at the mass today and was a total rock star. She stood on the step stool at the pulpit and read loudly and perfectly to hundreds of people without the slightest bit of anxiety.


Julia is a seriously picky eater, honestly, she has major food/taste/texture issues. It's really bad. Anyway, we were so afraid that she would gag on the host and spit it into her hands and we would have to change churches at the very least, possibly change religion but she did it!


We came home and had a lovely little brunch with immediate family and a few friends and in a little while we're going out for dinner. The 1st Communion girl picks Outback Steakhouse...yum!

The old soul

Just look at her. Curlers in her hair, wearing an apron, curled up on the couch with a magazine on a Friday night.
Actually, it's Ms. Julia's 1st Holy Communion tomorrow morning and we have been busy baking and hair curling for the big day.
More pictures after tomorrow!

not much excitement

A little remnant bin therapy:

I had to stop by JoAnn fabrics to see my favorite employee, Sheena, and gift her with an oilcloth lunchbag. Sheena is a college age girl who is ALWAYS happy and smiling. She hugs her favorite customers at least 3 times each visit. I wish I brought my camera with me so you could see her!
I gave her a bag like this:

I thought she would cry.
Other than that, my life has been all about softball. Here's pictures from Julia's first game (they won!)


Gabby's team is undefeated 3-0 and Sammy's team doesn't start games until June.
Yikes!
I need to make lunches...have a great day :)