PW Fans - did you know . . .

Ree's new Foodnetwork show airs this Saturday, August 27th at 11.30am (could be earlier or later depending where you live). You can click HERE to see a sneek peak.

You may remember that I started 'cooking my way through' Ree's cookbook back in early 2010. I would post a new recipe that I had tried to my cooking blog, aptly named 'The Cooking Den'. Then a few months later my friend Melanie wanted to join in with me. We decided to each take turns picking a recipe to try and I started posting about it here on my daily diary. You can see a link over to the left showing all posts about PW. I also had intentions of reposting the recipes to my cooking blog but I got a bit behind with doing that. Half way through summer I think I stopped cooking from the book, it was just too hot and I think Melanie had gone on vacation so we just didn't do it each week after that.

Now that Fall is on it's way (I hope!) I am getting the urge to start cooking again, from my PW cookbook :-)  And I am so excited about her show too. From the preview it looks like her first recipe will be chicken fried steak, one of her hubbie's favorites. That is definitely one of my hubby's favorites too, but I think he'd prefer to just go out and order it rather than me cook it! Of course I'm not a bad cook, but I must admit that the few (and I mean VERY few) times I've tried to cook this I never seem to have great success. I followed a Paula Deen recipe once and the batter just seemed to fall off when I turned the steak over.

I've been trying to update my cooking blog with the recipes I've made so far from Ree's book. Some recipes I've actually tried and didn't even get around to blogging about! I will try to update those soon too. I did make the Jalapeno Poppers on New Years Eve and managed to get one quick picture before they were gobbled up. They were SO good, and I don't even like jalapenos!

I've also made her beans and corn bread. . .

Hopefully soon I can make a blog post about these recipes, and others that I've tried, and add them to my cooking blog. My aim is to start making something each weekend from Ree's cookbook. If anyone wants to join in by all means do so. You can get recipes off her site if you don't have her book. We don't have to cook the same things, I'm not even sure what I'll pick for this weekend, I'm leaning toward some scones because I have all the ingredients in, but nothing is set in stone!

Rumor has it that Ree has another cookbook coming out too, I just haven't heard when.  Are you a PW fan?

It's Here!!

First day back to school today, and here's my sweet little Fifth Grader!

We had no problem getting up at 6.30am this morning and quickly slipped back in to our morning routine . . . waffles for breakfast, then up stairs to get ready, put on new clothes and shoes, carry new 'Justin Bieber' backpack, and take photos before we drive to school! I think it's going to be a great year! 

The question now is, "what will I do all day, every day?" ;-) Ha! no worries there, I've always found plenty to fill my day til 3.30pm when Kiki gets home. Today I need to go to Target and return the chair slip covers I got. There's nothing wrong with them, but I ordered one from Walmart at the same time too to see if it was just as good a quality. I wasn't expecting it to be because the slip covers on Walmart's site were $8 cheaper than the Target ones. Guess what? They are the EXACT SAME slip covers!!! Same brand, same quality, SO, I'm taking Target's back (which were $17.99 each) and ordering more from Walmart (which were only $10.99 each) - it obviously pays to shop around!  

Still on the dining room subject, I actually received the chandelier last week that Susan had suggested on my Inspiration Board. BUT, I'm returning it :-(  I was shocked when I got it and saw that the candle sconces on it were not at equal distance apart! There's only 3 candles on it, this is the chandelier,

Now, don't those candles look like they are equal distance apart? Symmetrical?  Two candles were at one end, only 6" apart, and the third candle was about 10" away from those two? It just didn't look right at all to me. I called the company and the lady said from the pictures she could see (and she said she's looking at a LOT of them!) it looks like two candles are closer to each other?!!!  Errrr, Hello! It might be helpful to put those other pictures on your website!! This is the only photo on there, and if I'd seen that the candles were not equal, I would not have ordered this. Shame really, because I really loved the crystal on it. So, now I have to ship it back. It cost $30 for shipping to me, and probably will cost $20 to return, so I've spent $50 with nothing to show for it - I'm totally BUMMED :-(

I won't be ordering any more big items on line that's for sure. I'll have to look around the stores and see if I can find something similar. 

Well, I'm jumping off here, going to get ready to head out to Target. Hope you all have a great day.

A few last days. . .

Hi everyone, I'm still here! I had intentions of posting more this week but here we are Thursday already and I haven't done anything since Sunday night!!  This week seems to be a little crazier than usual, today even more so. It was piano lesson this morning (for Kristen) and we got finished there I headed to Walmart, thought they might have some sneakers we could pick up for school, but they didn't have much of a selection. We'll have to head out again tomorrow to hunt for some!

We're just home and having lunch. Later this afternoon we can head up to the school for 'meet the teacher' night, and to take up our school supplies. After that I'm headed straight out to book club. Our meeting is a little different this month, we didn't read a book but we're having a fun movie night instead. We picked something most of us had already seen (so we can still chat too without missing what the movie is about) - Mama Mia, starring Meryl Streep :-)  We're having a pot luck too so it should be a lot of fun.

I'm also busy this week knitting baby hats for a local photographer! I've teamed up with someone that will use my hats as baby photo props and in exchange for the hats I can use her photos on my Etsy store to sell more. I'm excited about it as the professional photos I've seen on Etsy really do help sell the hats - and goodness knows my photographs leave a lot to be desired!!! For instance, here's a little pear hat I knit ready to sell for the Fall . . .  (I took the photo, lighting is terrible!)

and here's one I found on Etsy with a professional photo. . . .

HUGE difference right! So, that's what's keeping me busy this week. I'll be back in a few days and hopefully next week once school starts I'll have even more time to get organized on here and post more.

Made a start - need your opinion!

Well, I've made a start on my dining room re-do! Remember the Inspiration board Susan did for me . . .

and remember my dining room . . . .

The first thing I wanted to do was repaint the black buffet and put it back on the other wall (where the picture is). I ordered some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (which seems to be all the rage in blogland right now) and is perfect for me, because it requires no sanding or priming! Color is Old White.  The lovely Debbie from DebbieDoos answered a ton of my questions on how to paint this and more importantly how to wax. Thanks Debbie, I couldn't av done it without ya ;-) So here is the buffet now . . . .

and here it is against the actual wall it will stay on . . .

My original thought was to leave the top black, so it stands out more against the cream wall. But I'm not totally convinced. This is where you can help - would you paint the top to match the rest, or leave it black? Here's a better picture of the top  . . . 

Other things for the room include:

Chandelier - ordered, on back order

Chair slip covers - ordered, being shipped this week

Curtains - need to get a curtain pole first then try curtains I already have from Ikea and buy some faux silk ones from Target to try. I'll be asking your opinions again when I get them ;-)

Orchid - bought from Target (you can see it on the buffet)

Mirror - still looking for one

Bench - not getting one yet, but will keep my eye out for something at a yard sale that I can re-do!

Lamp - using one I have, and will add burlap to the shade this week

Picture - swapped the one I had, for one that was in my bedroom, darker shade so it stands out more on the wall.

Tray - using one I have, just not sure what to put on it yet!

Burlap runner - yes, got this one from Etsy.com - love it.

Rug - not yet, I'd prefer to get one when I get wood floors (one day!)

Here's the before again . . .

and here's the after . . . .

It was hard getting pictures today because the sun was streaming through the blinds. I'll be taking more photos as I finish off the room.  Do let me know what you think about the buffet. . . black top, or cream?

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I managed to get those ugly handles off the buffet so I'll be going to look for new ones tomorrow!

Linking up with  Between Naps on the Porch for Met Monday.

Book Club Friday

I did it! I read the second Harry Potter book last week after watching the first movie (again) but this time with Kristen. She kept saying she didn't want to watch it, but she sat all the way through it and later admitted she really liked it. That is the reason I picked up the 2nd book last week, and I read it in just 3 days.

 

 So, this week for Book Club Friday, I'm reading book # 3, The Prisoner of Azkaban. Oh, and for the record, we watched the second movie (as soon as I'd finished reading the book) earlier this week!  I am loving the books. I forgot how great a read the first one was, how I couldn't put it down. And the second book was exactly the same, even though I had seen that movie a few years before - still a fantastic read.  I loved watching the second movie straight afterwards too, seeing little differences here and there, but again, still a great movie to watch. I've seen only the first 3 movies of Harry Potter, so after this 3rd book and re-watching the movie, everything will be a new experience for me! 

 

What can I say about this book? Most of you will probably have read it by now (more than once perhaps) but for those who haven't, well I'd have to say, "what are you waiting for?". These books are SO good, the three main characters so endearing. I don't know what else they all get up to in the coming books, but one thing I do know, I've got some good reads ahead of me ;-)

 

Next week is our last full week of Summer vacation! The kids here return to school on Monday, August 22nd. I'm always amazed at how quickly each season of the year passes. Not that we're moving in to a new season yet here in TX, it is still so very hot. Not one day in the 10 day forecast is below 103. We're all just praying for rain right now - surely it must come soon!

Sweet Bliss!

A few weeks ago I tried this delightful bottle of wine. Bet you can't guess why I picked it! Just kidding, of course you can guess I picked it because of it's cute label. I LOVED IT as soon as I saw it. What's not to love about a white chocolate dipped strawberry on the label.

I'm not a huge fan of overly sweet wines, although when it comes to white wine I do prefer a sweeter one than a dryer one. I much prefer a Riesling to a Chardonnay for instance, but some of them can be too sweet. I thought this pink wine would be overly sweet too, but my local grocery store was handing out samples one Saturday afternoon and when I tried it I was rather surprised. It was lovely and fruit,y sweet but not too sweet and really quite refreshing.  I took a picture of the back of the label . . .

The best word to describe this wine is YUMMMM. Aromas of fresh strawberry jump from the glass and harmonize with flavors ranging from white peach to watermelon. This wine is unbelievable delicious with bbq chicken and it's positively indulgent when paired with red velvet cake, strawberry shortcake or gelato. After all, everyone deserves a little Sweet Bliss.

Doesn't that just make you wanna go out and buy a bottle ;-)  I googled the wine and found they have a really sweet website too. Check it out HERE (or click the picture below)

They also have a sweet white wine . . . I just love this label too (although I haven't tried the white yet)

and a sweet red (I also have to try), chocolate dipped cherry, YUM!

I've been watching my 'diet' this week, trying out something new (I'll talk about that in another post) so I won't be drinking wine this weekend. I'm watching my carbs, so instead of wine I'll be trying a gin and 'diet' tonic :-)

CHEERS!

All about the boy!

Wow, midweek already and I haven't been here since Friday! As you saw from my last post, Friday was Jason's 40th Birthday!!! He took the day off work, but it was just a quiet day of relaxing at home. Saturday was the day we celebrated, with our friends/neighbors and my inlaws, over at Cheryl's house! You're probably wondering why not our house? Well, Cheryl has the pool, remember, and it has still been over 100 degrees every day, so we knew her place would be best, so the kids (and anyone else that wanted to) could get outside and play. Believe me, if there's no pool to keep cool, there's no way you want to be out in this heat!

Here's Kristen and Jason in the pool on Friday night - Kristen is holding up 4 fingers and making a '0' to show her Daddy is 40 :-) Here's a few more pictures from the afternoon and evening. . . . 

 Birthday boy and Mama! She said this was harder on her than it was on him! I'm sure she's still wondering where the last 40 years went!!

For the record I think the camera added about 20lb to me in this picture!!!

I forgot to get a close up picture of the cupcakes I made. I put pictures of Jason when he was about 7 on top of them!

Our gracious host Cheryl :-)

The days are flying by, next week is our last week before school starts! I wish that would indicate the weather will be turning cooler, but usually it doesn't. The lowest temps in the 10 day forecast is 103! (the lows at night are 75!). I am so ready for the heat to be over.

In the meantime, I am gathering my supplies to redo my dining room, based on Susan's Inspiration Board :-)  So far I have an orchid plant from Target, a burlap runner from Etsy, I've ordered chair covers from Target online, bought the Annie Sloane Chalk Paint for the buffet and ordered that gorgeous chandelier (which unfortunately is on back order, but only for 2 weeks). I can't wait to start pulling it all together, but probably won't make a start on it til Kristen goes back to school. 

Hope you're all having a great week so far. I'll be back soon with more posts before the weekend!