Happy Halloween!

Meet Prisoner K98URSHOOS!! (get it K9 8 your shoes!) LOL it took me a while I must admit ;-)

Kristen bought Boo a costume for this year! He's never had one before so he's not used to wearing shirts and hats. He doesn't seem to mind wearing the shirt but the hat doesn't stay on for long!

Here's wishing you all a fun and safe halloween night with your little goblins. You'll have to wait until tomorrow for pictures of Kristen this year ;-) I'll leave you with a sweet blast from the past.... her first halloween costume (she was 11 months old!)

What to blog? and a BIG thank you!

There are some days I just don't know what to blog about. I think I worry too much that my blog might be boring, and it stops me from writing a post at all .... that was kind of the case the past couple of days.

When I'm not blogging I'm usually knitting :-) And I've been knitting a lot of 'little' things lately. I usually just post my knitting projects on my knitting blog, but because knitting is a part of my every day life, I decided to share today what's been on my needles this week (just now and again, cos, ya know, I don't want to bore you!) ;-)

So, here's the 'little' things I've been knitting this week. . . .

As you can see, they are hat and scarf sets for your wine bottles! Celebrate in Style!

The stripey ones are knit in our local college football 'Texas Longhorn' colors :-) I am thinking of selling them at the craft fairs I go to with Cheryl? Of course the Santa one looks cute for this time of year, and I'm also working on a pink one and a blue one (with some G-I-R-L letters, and one for Boys too) to celebrate the birth of a new baby! I thought they'd look cute around a bottle of Champagne.

I'm also working on some hat and scarf sets for kids (again in college football colors, and the 'rivals' colors!). So, we'll see - they might sell, they might not!

I want to give a BIG personal thank you to Sherri at Sharing with Sherri. Remember I won her pretty Fall Giveaway last week. Well my goodies arrived last Saturday! (Last Saturday, and I'm only blogging about it now - bad blogger!) Sherri kindly sent the package priority mail and it was here before I knew it. Oh my, the goodies in it were so nice... (here's the picture from Sherri's blog)

Here's me wearing my new apron. I just LOVE this, and it is sewn beautifully. I will be wearing it all through Fall and Thanksgiving.

Those copper measuring cups are awesome, I love them and want hubby to hang them up for me somewhere, I just haven't decided where yet. And the tin was full of lovely teas and coffees and hot chocolate, can't wait to try all of them :-) Thank you again Sherri, your generosity knows no bounds.

Have a wonderful Friday ya'll ;-) If you stop by for a visit, please leave a comment and say hi, I'd love to return the visit if you have a blog.

Behind again....

Goodness! Why can't I keep up around here? I missed doing a post yesterday for 'Posh Porches', but then I figured I'd already shown you my porch decorated for Halloween, so I didn't worry too much about it. Here we are, Tuesday already and I don't have a recipe to share with you either!

I'm just gonna say hello :-) It's a lovely sunny morning today, much different than yesterday when it was pouring with rain and very dark when we went out to school. Today Kristen is home 'sick'! But thankfully she's not really sick? Her tummy was hurting her this morning, that is usually a sign of bad eating (don't I just feel like a very bad Mommy) gas and constipation (sorry for the tmi). I thought she would be ok in half an hour or so and I was right, she feels fine now, but this morning she could hardly stand up to get ready her tummy was hurting so bad. So now school for her today, which means no play time tonight outside with friends (that's just my rules) and I'll be making sure we get some healthy food in us today ;-)

Now I have to get on and clean house and catch up with a million other things I feel behind on. Hopefully I'll have time for blog-hopping later.

And the winner is.....

We did it the old fashioned way - placed names in a hat (and extra entries where appropriate) and pulled out a name. The winner is . . . . . . Jessica of The Pelkey's Place

Congratulations Jessica, can you email me your address so I can get your prize mailed out to you :-)

(denise@deniseschulz.com)

Friday already?!!

Just wanted to make a quick post to say good morning to you all. It's a beautiful sunny Fall day here in Austin. The sky is a clear blue, and the temps are very cool, right now only about 52, but a high forecast of 75.

I had an early start to my day at 4am when I was awakened by the smoke detector in our bedroom going 'beep' every 30 seconds :-( (hubby was lucky, he slept in the guest room cos he has a cough right now and he worries he may keep me awake!). There was no way I could get back to sleep and I didn't feel like trying to change the battery that early for fear I would set the thing off (which has happened before), so finally at 4.50am I crawled out of bed and went and made a pot of coffee. . . I've been up ever since!

Took Kristen to school as normal, then went grocery shopping. Jason is working from home today so he helped me carry the groceries in and I just put them all away. Now I need to gather up laundry and get on with a few household chores.

There is still time to enter my GIVE-AWAY if you haven't done so already.
You can CLICK HERE to go to the post and leave your comment.

I will draw a name later today, so check back tonight and see if you're the lucky winner.

Speaking of winners, I am thrilled to say I am the winner of Sherri's sweet Fall give-away :-) You can see her button in my side bar on the right. Sherri already emailed me to say my package is in the mail. I can't wait. These give-aways are so fun to enter and help you meet lots of lovely bloggers. Be sure to pay Sherri a visit if you haven't already, she has the most sweet blog.

Tablescape Thursday - Think Pink!

I'm tickled pink (:-) to be able to bring you a tablescape this week. My favorite color is pink, and in honor of 'Breast Cancer Awareness' month I wanted to put together something simple, easy and 'cheap', again this one cost me zero dollars because I had all the stuff already in. The plates and glasses are the same but I used the pink place mats I got back in April for my Easter table this year.

It's a rather eclectic look. I used a cream tablecloth (which actually looks white in the photos) then added my pink place mats and on top of that the red charger plates. The checkered napkins have a burgundy and green look to them (bought with Christmas in mind a few years ago) and the table is scattered with pretty pastel silk flowers (that I used at the Easter table also).

But I think it turned out quite pretty, don't you? The centerpiece is the vase of beautiful roses my neighbor/friend had delivered to me last Friday for my birthday (I just realized I didn't post about them on here, because I added it to my Facebook status!)

The white napkins are wrapped with a pretty pink ribbon (again from the Easter table) with silk flowers added.

I added my two new birthday gifts (from my inlaws) pretty Willow Tree ornaments. The one above is called 'Angel of Miracles' (she's holding a baby duck in her hands), and the one below is called 'Angel of Hope'. I only had about 6 of these in my collection so I told my mil that I wanted to start adding to it (I think I'll put more on my Christmas wish list), they are so pretty ;-)


evening shots. . . . because everything looks so pretty by candle light




In honor of BCA month I am giving away this pretty pink scarf that I knit. It's also my way of saying thank you to you all for following my blog and leaving your very sweet comments.


CLICKING HERE will take you to that post. I hope you will take the time to leave a comment for a chance to win.

Pretty Outside

GIVE-AWAY!

Don't forget, there's still time to enter my give-away this week. Click on the scarf above to go to that post and leave your comment.

I wanted to quickly share some 'outdoor' pics before I head off out for coffee with a friend this morning :-) I was 'prettying' the front porch area up this weekend with 'mum's and more pumpkins, which I have to say by the way are ALL from our garden out back (more about that another time). . . . I'll post more later today, but I wanted to link to Susan's blog this morning, so here's my 'pretty outside'

I took the above picture to show you the 'before' of the fence. Yesterday I planted a Yuletide Camelia but didn't get a chance to take an 'after' picture. I'll do that tomorrow (it's raining today) and tell you more about it.

Also, you can click here to see my 'Halloween Decor' out front' which I posted about last week.

MY 'Chicken Corn Chowder'

CLICK HERE to enter my Give-Away!

I haven't posted a recipe for a few weeks but I have a really nice one to share with you today, so I'm linking up to Lisa's blog for Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, and Jen's blog for Tasty Tuesday. I've made this soup 3 times in the past 2 weeks. The recipe is from this Soup Magazine that I bought last year. . .

It's actually called Potato and Bacon Chowder, but because I like chicken corn chowder I thought I would follow the recipe but add the corn and chicken at the end (corn chowder usually has potatoes in it anyway!) and it came out yummy! Here's the recipe the way I did it...

What you'll need:
2 medium potatoes
8 slices of bacon
2 stalks of celery
1 cup of onion
1 (14oz) can of corn
2 cups of chopped rotisserie chicken

1 (14oz) can chicken broth
1 can condensed chicken soup
1 and 3/4 cups of milk
1 cup of sour cream

First peel and chop the potatoes in to bite size pieces, boil in water until tender then drain.

While the potatoes are boiling I then slice the bacon in to small pieces and saute that in my cast iron pan (you can use any skillet).

When the bacon is cooked remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels, then cook the 2 celery stalks and the chopped onion in the bacon fat!

While the onion and celery are cooking I then add my 'soupy' ingredients (chicken stock, chicken soup, milk and sour cream) to another larger skillet and start heating that up . . . .

Give this a gentle whisk to mix everything together. Then I add in the potatoes, the drained bacon, and drained celery and onions. . . .


At this point everything is hot (don't boil the soup) but I let this simmer for 30 minutes on very low because the celery is usually still a little firm (I like it soft in soup).

We had this soup last weekend on my birthday with crusty white bread, and garlic bread. It was something I could do ahead of time then just transfer to the crock pot to keep hot :-)

I've never made a chowder before but this turned out better than any canned ones I've had. Give it a try - it's super yummy!

I'm also linking to

My latest knit. . . . A Give-Away!

It's my birthday this weekend, so to celebrate I thought I would have a 'give-away'. It's also my way of saying thank you to you all for reading my blogs and taking the time to leave your sweet comments.

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month I wanted to knit something pink.... and I wanted to give it away to a lucky winner on my blog :-) I chose this beautiful 'Breast Cancer Awareness Scarf from Ravelry.com. Knit with Patons Baby Bamboo, it is a mix of 45% bamboo and 55% acrylic and is super soft. I love it (might have to knit myself another one!).It's machine washable too :-)

For a chance to win, it's simple really. . . . just leave a comment here and your name will be entered in to the drawing. I will draw a winner next Friday (Oct 23).

For an extra entry post about this give-away on your blog and link back here so others can enter too. (leave a separate comment to say you've done this).

For another extra entry 'follow' my blog. (leave another comment to say you've done this).

That's 3 chances to win :-) Make sure I have a way of contacting you (email, blog site etc) if your contact info isn't in your profile).

I will draw a winner next Friday (Oct 23).

I'll also be posting this give-away on my Knitting Blog but duplicate entries over there won't be counted - a maximum of 3 entries per person will be allowed. This give-away is open to non-USA residents.

This little girl. . . .

This little girl turns 60 today!

Here she is with her Daddy, probably not even 6 months old :-)

This little girl is the proud Mamma of one sweet little boy, who grew in to an amazing man, who is now a paramedic.

This little girl is a grandma to 3 beautiful little kiddies, Ben, Thomas and Olivia . . . .

This little girl is the oldest of 6 kids, the precious first born of Edgar and Ethel Rodgers . . . .

This little girl can remember holding me in her arms when I fell out of a pushchair(stroller) being pushed too fast by my big brother! She cried along with me and held me close . . . .

This little girl would sit and talk to me for hours on my bed when I was in a mood, or sad, or upset, always making me feel better with her words of wisdom . . . .

This little girl loves her Saviour Jesus Christ and told me all about Him, planting a seed in me that has brought me where I am today in my faith . . . .

This little girl is still a little girl at heart . . . .


This little girl is 14 years older than me, this little girl is my big sister . . . .

I love this little girl . . . . . and I miss this little girl SO much.   I wish I could be with her today and celebrate 60 wonderful years. 

To the BESTEST BIG SIS in the whole wide world. . . . I LOVE YOU! 
Happy Birthday Jean :-)

falling behind

I've hardly sat at my computer since I posted last Friday! The days are just going too fast I can hardly keep up. On Saturday morning I got up at 5.30am - yes, you read that right, 5.30am, and I was out of the house at 6am to head off to a craft fair with my neighbor Cheryl. Of all the days we would be sitting outside (the fair was in an old market town) it was probably the coldest day we've had so far this year.

After the long hot summer we had I don't want to complain about the cold, but to say we sat there shivering all day, would be a little of an understatement! The guy across from us was selling 'snowcones'! But when he realized the sun wasn't coming out and the temps weren't going up as the weathermen had predicted, he quickly changed his signs to coffee and hot cocoa. Let's just say, he got a lot of business after that. Which is more than can be said for the rest of us. The high never got above 55 degrees and the 'fair' was pretty quiet compared to other months (it's held the second Saturday of every month), at least it didn't rain. And to be honest, Cheryl and I still enjoyed the day together. I think she's going to do it again next month and I'm sure I'll go with her :-)

Last week Kristen sold her Power Wheels 'Monster Truck' because she wanted an electric scooter. I took her out on Friday after school and we found one in Target....


She LOVES this thing! It's been raining quite a bit since she got it, but every time there's a break in the rain, she's out there riding it. I took some video on my camera (specially for Nenna to show Cameron) ;-)

Yesterday was Columbus Day and the kids were off school. Jason stayed home and worked in his office here too. When we're all home I tend to put housework aside, but today I'm having to catch up on it all as I haven't done any since last Friday!

I'm so behind on visiting blogs too, but I hope to catch up this week. It's forecast to be wet and cold for a few days so I'll be staying home and trying to get organized and on top of things!