Weekend at Mt. Monadnock

Hello friends~ I can't believe how quickly time is passing by. This past weekend was the weekend I went on the ladies retreat at Mt. Monadnock in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. My plan was to post on Monday, all about our weekend and here it is Wednesday and I still haven't gotten to it... until now, that is. Everyday I've been crafting from morning until night. I've been able to check some projects off the list but there are still many that I hope to get to before our Annual Open House. I'd love to mention it again as it's coming up on Saturday and Sunday, November 7th & 8th. If you're near Maine and would like to come, please send me an e-mail. I've already heard from some blogger friends who said they'd like to come and I can't wait to meet them!! You know who you are!! I'm so excited and blessed to have the opportunity to welcome you into my home and meet you in person.

That all being said, let me share with you some pictures of our weekend at Mt. Monadnock.

We left early Friday morning and did some shopping along the way. We arrived that evening and got settled into our room. There were seven of us in our group so we all got to room together. We had such a great time! We stayed in The Ark at the Monadnock Bible Conference Center. The original building, known as The Ark, was built in 1808. They have another house on the property with many rooms for their conferences.





They offer conferences for men, women, teen girls, singles, couples, mother~daughter, holiday for family and snow camp for kids. My kids went last year to snow camp and had a great time. My friend Tiffany, who went with me this year, and I are hoping to bring our teen daughters to the "Authentic Beauty" conference in April or May.

Our plan was to hike up the mountain on Saturday, but it rained all day Friday and Saturday so sadly, no hike for us. There is an indoor pool so there was swimming as well as laser tag and many other classes. A few of us took a dance class which turned out to be super fun and funny! Imagine a room full of out of shape, middle aged and older women trying to learn two dances in the course of an hour and a half. It was hilarious and a great workout. Most of us realized just how much we should still be practicing our Kegals.

The speaker this weekend was Maggie Rowe. She was engaging, funny and at times had us in tears. If you ever have the opportunity to go see her speak, I would highly recommend it. On Sunday, the rain finally stopped and the sun came out so we were able to go on a nice walk through the trails in the woods.
















We stumbled across this old, long forgotten bench. It just screamed, "notice me and take my picture".










The rest of these pictures are of a festive, fall display they had on the front porch of The Ark. I got a little snap~happy with the camera. I can't help myself when it comes to gourds and pumpkins and the warm colors of fall.








Anyone know if these turban looking gourds are edible??


Loved this hollowed out log filled with little pumpkins!






So that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by for a visit. I guess it's back to crafting for me. Hope you all have a blessed week! Hugs ~ Birgit

Slow Cookin'

Hello friends~ I'm writing this post tonight because I'm leaving tomorrow for a weekend getaway! Some ladies from our church go every year to Mt. Monadnok, NH for a women's retreat and I'm so excited to be joining them this year. We are planning to hike up the mountain, so you can be sure I'll be taking lots of pictures. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and the foliage will be beautiful.

Since I've been so busy lately getting things ready for our open house, I've been cooking dinner in the slow cooker a lot! I am such a big fan of slow cookers. I throw everything together in the morning and let it cook all day. Come evening, when I'm getting tired of being on my feet all day, I don't have to think about cooking supper because it's already done! There's nothing better for my hubby, than coming home from a long days work and smelling the warm scent of something yummy that's been cooking all day.

Yesterday, I made pea soup in the crock pot but since that's not everyone's favorite (although, my kids love pea soup) I thought I'd share the recipe for my homemade spaghetti sauce that I made today.

Spaghetti Sauce
1 lb. ground sausage (we like hot)
1 lg. can Tomato Puree + equal amt. water
2 sm. cans Tomato Paste + 1 can water
2 sm. cans Tomato Sauce + equal amt. water
1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese
Oregano, Basil, Garlic, Red Pepper, Salt, Pepper and 2 tsp. Sugar

Meatballs~ 1 lb. Ground Beef, 2 Eggs, Bread Crumbs, Parmesan Cheese, Parsley and Garlic Powder
Mix all ingredients together, shape into balls, add to sauce.

Brown sausage, onion and garlic. Add all other ingredients. Bring this to a simmer. While it is simmering add meatballs. Simmer for 5-6 hours. The heat from simmering sauce will cook the meatballs.


This makes a large pot of sauce so I usually end up freezing enough sauce for another meal.
ENJOY!

Have a great weekend everyone! See you on Monday! Hugs~ Birgit

New Olde Cupboard & Projects

Good morning and Happy Monday friends! What a beautiful, sunny day today in my little corner of Maine. I'm hoping to get outside today to finish cleaning up gardens and planters. I'll still need to bundle up as it's quite cold today and I'm not a fan of cold weather, so you can be sure I'll have many warm layers on.

Last week I mentioned that my sweetie and I built a cupboard. He hung it up for me yesterday and I've been having fun playing around with what I'm going to put in it and how to decorate it. Keeping in mind that I'm also getting ready for our open house, so much of our own belongings get put away to make room for the goods that I'm selling, so it's all just temporary for now until after the open house, which by the way is Saturday & Sunday, November 7-8th from 9:00am - 4:00pm. If you're in the area of looking for a day trip, I'd absolutley love for you to come!! I would so love to meet some blogging friends and this craft open house is always worth the trip. There are 5 homes involved this year and we're all so excited because of the great response we had last year from our visitors. We are a group of several crafting friends who open our homes up for the weekend (on the same weekend) so you can go from one house to the next browsing everyone's homemade goods. We're all within 5 miles of each other, so the trip is not burdensome and we provide maps at each of our homes to all the locations for your convenience. If you're interested in coming, please leave a comment or send me an e-mail and I'll get you directions if you need them or you can simply enter 400 Morse Rd., New Gloucester, Me. on your GPS. I'll also be mailing out invitations so if you'd like to get one in the mail, I'll do that as well.

With that being said, are you ready to see the cupboard we made?? Well wait no longer, here it is in all it's glory.




I'd like to find a tea towel to drape over the cupboard door but for now I just used a scrap piece of stained fabric over the door which softens it up a bit.

The gameboard on the left is one that I made last week.

Well, what do you think? Did he do good?? I think he did. It took him less time to build it than it did for me to paint it and finish it. Yes, this is for the open house sale as well although, he promised me he'd build me another one if it sells.

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I've also been working on making up some signs and gameboards for the open house. Here's some pictures of them.







This is a set of stacking boxes I painted up for the open house.

I've been working on many other projects for the open house too, but I need to have some surprises for my visitors, so you'll have to wait for me to take pictures of the house all set up to see more.

Well, sorry this is a short post today, but I've got lots to do and little time to accomplish it in. Have a great week! God Bless you all and thanks for stopping by for a visit. I do hope you'll leave me with a comment as I love to hear from you all! Hugs~ Birgit

Creamy Chicken and Rice

Hello fellow bloggers! I hope you're all doing well today. It's cold, cold, cold and there's possible snow in the forecast here in Maine. I'm snuggly and warm by the woodstove, as I sit here typing this. I started out participating in Colleens Recipe Pool and then missed a couple of weeks because of computer issues and life. Now I'm back with an easy, rich and hearty recipe to share with you that comes from a past issue of Quick Cooking. It won 2nd place in their monthly contest and it's a winner for sure in our family. Get out some chicken and get out some rice and enjoy this tasty dish!


Creamy Chicken And Rice

4 cups cooked rice
1/2 cup butter or margarine (divided)
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
2 tsp chicken bouillon
1/2 - 1 tsp seasoned salt (I used less than 1/2)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp pepper
4 - 5 cups cubed, cooked chicken
2 cups sour cream
1 1/4 cups crushed butter flavored crackers (I used Ritz)

Spread cooked rice into a greased 13"x9" baking dish, set aside. In a saucepan, melt 1/4 cup butter, stir in flour until smooth. Gradually add milk, bouillon, seasoned salt, garlic powder and pepper. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat; add chicken, cheese and sour cream, stir until the cheese is melted. Pour over rice. melt the remaining butter; toss with cracker crumbs. Sprinkle over casserole. Bake uncoverd at 425 degreees for 10-15 minutes or until heated through. Serves 6-8.

I'll share some timesaving tips that I use when making this or any recipe that calls for cooked chicken. I buy a large family pack of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and boil them until they're cooked. I use what I need for the cooked chicken recipe and then cut and freeze the rest in freezer bags. I also strain the chicken broth and put that in the freezer as well in 2 cup portions. Then, when I have a chicken recipe I want to make, I have the cooked chicken all ready in the freezer and broth if needed as well.

If you try this recipe, let me know what you thought of it. It's a great, hearty dish on a cold day like today. Enjoy!


Hugs~ Birgit

Finally Back and Playing Catch Up!

Phew! I thought I'd never be back online!! It was a rough several days without our computer but we're back up and running, thankfully. I'm still struggling with learning how to use Windows Vista and slowly trying to work out the areas that say are incompatible. I'm so thankful to my niece, Jessica who has tirelessly offered her help to me through all of this. She truly is a sweetie and I love her dearly. Thank you Jessa!!

So much has been going on in my absence in blogland, I feel the desire to catch you all up and the need to catch up on reading others blogs as well. I've missed visiting everyone and seeing what you're all up to and working on. I found myself with so much time during the day to complete other tasks so what does that tell me? I spent waaaay too much time on the computer! Please bare with me as I try to recap what's been going on and know that I'm looking forward to coming for a visit and seeing you all again. I was so surprised to come back and find that I even had a couple of new followers in my absence so thanks for joining me!

First and biggest milestone that happened while I was away from cyberspace was that my sweetie and I celebrated our 20th anniversary on October 7th. Wow~ 20 years! When I look back and realize that I was just a young teenage girl of 15 when we first started going steady, I shudder to think that it could be my daughter!! Don't get me wrong, I'm totally in love with my hubby and wouldn't have changed anything. We've had our good times and bad but through it all, we're both so committed to each other and our marriage and family and for me, my promise before The Lord to love him in good times and in bad. I think couples who are thinking about marriage should look at it as a lifelong commitment and not something that may or may not work out. You have to work at your marriage and work hard at it. Love that person through the bad times because love isn't and shouldn't be casual. God loves us unconditionally and that's how He calls upon us to love others.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8a sums up what love should encompass and we should all strive for that kind of love.
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

We should never give up on love or our commitment to the one we vow our love to. The beautiful thing to remember is that God loves us so much that even when we fail, he continues to love us unconditionally. That' being said, I'll get off my soapbox now.
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We also celebrated my mom's and dad's birthdays in the beginning of October and their anniversary is coming up on the 16th as well. They've been incredible role models for me and my sisters and our families as they celebrate 48 years together this year. Thank you for loving each other so much, mom and dad. You've been inspiring to myself especially, in your love and devotion to each other.
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In my last post, I mentioned that my sweetie and I went to a cash and carry show in Mass. We'd been looking for a dry sink and found just the one that would fit in our little hallway and not take up too much space.



Do you like it?? It was so hard to choose as we saw so many that we really liked but now that it's home and in its place, I realize it's just perfect! The little cubby on the left lifts up adding more hidden storage, which is always good.

This was the first year my husband has ever gone with me to Mass. so I was worried at first that he'd be bored. He ended up having a great time and he really enjoyed looking at all the handmade stuff and the furniture especially. He came home inspired by all that he saw and even built me a wall cupboard this weekend, that is close to being finished so I can share pictures with you next time. My sweetie is a builder by trade and when he comes home and is home on weekends, that is the last thing he wants to do is build something. I've asked a few times if he'd build me this or that and he'd always say "when he has time". The time never came for him because he simply didn't want it to. I would read all the posts from all you ladies who's husbands eagerly build great things for you and longingly hope that mine would someday do that for me. Again, don't get me wrong. He's a great husband and a great provider for our family but it's like the cobbler who's children never had shoes and the plumber who's home always had the leaky faucet. He also surprised me when I came home from church on Sunday with another shelf and a candle holder to hang off from a shaker peg! I can't even tell you how excited I was that he took the time to make those things for me to surprise me with them when I got home. Let me tell you ladies, I'm so looking forward to what God has planned for the next 20 years of our marriage.
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We had a couple of fairly warm, sunny days out and I've been waiting for a dry day to harves the Sweet Annie that I grew this year.



I hung it on this little fence in our garden while I continued to gather them into bunches and tie them up. I ended up with 6 really good sized bunches for crafting and hanging throughout our home.


Here they are hung on a peg rack in our living room to dry. Sniff, sniff... can you smell that?? Mmmmm it smells so sweet and good, no wonder it's called "Sweet Annie"! Don't you wish you had a scratch and sniff screen?
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One of the crafts I just recently learned to make was painted canvas floorcloths. I was amazed at how many steps there are in finishing one of these. Now I understand why they are so very costly to purchase, they are a lot of work! Sorry for the poor quality pictures. There wasn't a lot of natural light on this day so I had to use my flash and turn on the lights and that caused some glaring in the photo's but you'll get the idea. This is the first one I made. It is a floorcloth to go in front of the kitchen sink. It measures 2'x3'.



Here's a closer view of it, again sorry for the glare.




I also made a small table runner that measures 11"x24".



I've made a couple of table toppers and some candle mats as well, but they're not quite finished. I'm also still working on the floorcloth with the Shaker Tree of Life on it for my mother in~law. I'll post pictures of them when they're done but for now, here's the picture of one of the table toppers. The photo quality is terrible, they really do look better in person.



I guess that's all I have to share with you for today. Blogger has been extremely slow for me and taking forever to load pictures so I it's a good place to stop. Besides, I want to finish the floor cloth and I have a wall cupboard waiting to be distressed. Thanks for stopping by and visiting me today. I hope you'll leave me with a comment as I love to hear from you. Hugs & blessings~ Birgit

Computer Woes

Hello everyone and a warm hello to all my new followers. I just wanted to say thank you for being so sweet for visiting me and following my blog. I've been super busy with crafting, getting ready for our open house coming up in November. I have been working on a new craft that I'm so in love with... are you ready to hear? ....
Painted canvas floor mats! So far, I've made a floor canvas for in front of my kitchen sink and a table runner. Currently I'm working on a floor canvas for my mother-in-law for Christmas using the Shaker Tree of Life design. I'll have to post pictures in a later post because our computer is having fits and isn't working right now. Long story, but the short end of it is that my daughter thought she was loading the disk for the wireless router so they could use their school laptops at home and we realized that she had loaded a disk from her old laptop of the Windows Vista program (which I don't like). Anyway, it worked for about a week and then it said that it's not a legal copy of Windows Vista so our whole computer shut down. I can't even put in the correct disk to load back to our regular Windows XP version. Needless to say it's frustrating and I miss not being able to blog and visit everyone's blogs with my morning routine. It's really opened my eyes to how much time I spend on the computer. I'm going through withdrawals!! So, I'm using my son's school laptop just to update my blog and let you all know that I didn't fall off the face of the earth.

Over the weekend my sweetie and I went to Marlborough, Mass. for the Marketplace Square show where we picked up a dry sink for our home that I'll have to post a picture of that later too. Sorry, no pictures in this post! I'm one of those that likes to put pictures in every post. I know how much I get out of looking at others pictures with their posts. It's just fun and inspiring.
Anyway, I guess that's it for today. Sorry I don't have more to share but hopefully we'll get our computer issues worked out before too long. Thanks again for stopping by. Enjoy your fall and be blessed! Hugs~ Birgit