And I'm Off

Thanks everyone for your well wishes for my trip! We will be leaving in the morning and lord willing we will return Saturday night. I just hope I can control myself and not buy EVERYTHING I see! Hope you all have a lovely weekend :)
Blessings,
Jill

New Offerings

More Sock Kitties!

Olde Wood Carrier filled to the brim with Pumpkins

Kitty bowl fillers!

It's been another HOT day! We got some much needed rain but it seems to have only made the weather more humid and sticky. I have been busy tidying up the house and trying to get all my orders done before I leave. I have neglected my poor flower beds because I just cannot tolerate this heat. I still have lots to do before I leave and to all my customers if you place a order Fri-Sun for a in stock item it will ship first thing Monday morning.

I just know I will forget something for this trip; I made a list but something will get left behind. Lol, I don't realize just how high maintenance I am until I am getting ready to go some where. The must haves are my blow dryer, make up and flat iron. The rest no biggie if I forget them. I am almost dreading going now because the weather man said we were going to have a "mini heat wave" this weekend. With temps in the upper 90's. Oh joy! Blessings to you all!

Gingerbread in a Jar

I know I know, It's like 100 degrees out and no one wants to turn the oven on! But these are so worth it. I saw these in a Paula Deen magazine a couple years ago and have been making them ever since. Who knew you could make cake in a jar? Who knew you could even can cake? But these last up to a year when sealed properly; and they make the sweetest most unique gifts. I am making a bunch of these now so I will have them ready for this fall.

Gingerbread in a Jar

1 T. melted shortening

2 1/4 c. all purpose flour

1 c. sugar

2 t. ginger

1 t. cinnamon

1 t. baking soda

1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. salt

3/4 c. milk

1/2 c. melted butter

1/4 c. dark molasses

1 large egg beaten

1 t. vanilla

Preheat oven to 325. Brush 10 sterilized jelly jars with melted shortening. Place on a cookie sheet and set aside.

In a large bowl combine all dry ingredients with a whisk. In a separate bowl combine all wet ingredients. Combine dry with wet and mix well. Fill each jar a little less than half full. Bake for about 30 min or until knife comes out clean. If gingerbread rises over the top just cut off with a knife. Using a kitchen towel remove one jar at a time from oven, and carefully place lid and ring on each; screw lids on tightly. Cool jars on counter top. Once jars have sealed store in a cool dry place for 1 year.

For Today

Saturday July 26, 2008

Outside my Window.... The dogs are lying lazily in the shade

I am thinking....I need to get my orders completed before I leave for Lexington

I am thankful for......My aunt coming through a major surgery well

I am creating......Fall pumpkins for a wholesale order

From the kitchen.......Fried pork chops, fried taters, corn on the cob and brownies

I am going.... to Walmart to get supplies tonight

I am reading.....The new Taste of Home magazine and The Preacher's Daughter

I am hearing......Daisy snoring under the covers

Around the house.....just finished the dishes and clean laundry is ready to be hung....the kitchen table is scattered with projects I am working on today

One of my favorite things......a cherished family quilt handed down from generations

A few plans for the rest of the week........tomorrow is Sunday Service and a much needed day of rest before a hectic coming week.

A picture thought of the day..........

I saw this fun tag over at http://tiffanysprimitiveplace.blogspot.com/2008/07/i-wasnt-reallybut.html and thought I would give it a try!

Sport: Not big on sports; but I loved tennis when I was in school

Game: My favorite computer game is Cake Mania and Diner Dash I also love Monopoly and card games

Color: To decorate with would be red; To wear would be pink

Movie: Cold Mountain

Broadway play I have seen: I've never seen one.

Broadway Musical I have seen: I've never seen one.

Song: Anything from the 80's Bryan Adams Everything I do

American city I have visited: Cincinnati, Ohio

Foreign city I have visited: Never been out of the country

Book: Anything from Beverly Lewis's Amish Series and Diary of Anne Frank

Children's Book: Hansel and Gretel

Classic television show: Leave it to Beaver and I love Lucy

Actor: Brad Pitt

Actress: Kate Hudson

Perfume: Estee Lauder Pleasures and Ralph Lauren Polo Blue

Food: Pizza

Dessert: Chocolate Cake

Chain Restaurant: Wendy's

Local Restaurant: Ponderosa

Car: Chevy Monte Carlo

Condiment: Ketchup

Kitchen Appliance: Kitchen Aid Mixer

Home Appliance: Air Conditioner

Beauty Product: Bare Essentuals

Piece of clothing: Pjs

HGTV Show: How Clean is Your House?

Food Network show: Paulas Home Cooking and Down Home with the Neely's

Author: Nora Roberts and Beverly Lewis

Male Songwriter: not sure

Female Songwriter: not sure

Holiday: Christmas

Ballet I have seen: none

Disney Character: Snow White

Flower: Hydrangea

Alcoholic drink: don't drink alcohol

Non-Alcoholic drink: Mountain Dew

Magazine: Country Sampler

Animated movie: Ice Age

Television network miniseries: Army Wives

Season: Fall

Male vocalist: Bryan Adams more recent would be Daughtry

Female vocalist: Heart more recent would be Leona Lewis

Day of the week: Sunday

Household Chore: Laundry

Ice Cream: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough or Moose Tracks

Candy: Hershey or Reese Stick or Reese Cup

Artist: Van Go (forgive my spelling!)

Quotation: "When God closes a door He opens a window"

Going to Shaker Village

I am sooooooooo excited! My sister, her husband and I are going to Shaker Village. We just made our reservations for next Friday. They have a craft fair on the grounds on Saturday. I can't wait to go! It is about a 2 and a half hour drive from my home and I have always wanted to go. We rented a whole house for the night and will be touring the grounds as well as riding the riverboat. I will take LOTS of pics to share with you guys. Here is the link if any of you guys are interested in going http://www.shakervillageky.org/
I guess I better finish up on my orders so I can actually enjoy my vacation!
Blessings,
Jill

The Easiest Pumpkin EVER Tutorial

I have made these pumpkins for years; in various different colors and different sizes. I think this will be the most simple pumpkin pattern you will ever find! Here are the supplies you will need:

The Easiest Pumpkins Ever

*old plain white or cream tshirt

*rags for stuffing

*button thread

*cinnamon

*twig for stem

*Folk Art Terra Cotta paint

*Apple Barrel Burnt Umber paint

*Round item to trace around

Let's begin by tracing our circle onto our tshirt. I used a 10 inch wooden bowl to trace around. If you want smaller pumpkins us a smaller bowl or if you want a larger pumpkin use a larger bowl. You get the idea. Trace around your bowl with a pencil and cut out your circle on the pencil line. Using your needle and thread run a gathering stitch around the entire circle. Pull thread but DO NOT TIE OFF. Leave enough room so you can get your stuffing in. Pack the rags in nice and tight. This will give the pumpkin a lumpy bumpy look. Make sure you save all your scraps when crafting; they serve as FREE stuffing. Now you can pull your thread as tight as you can leaving a small hole for your stem; tie thread off. Now comes the fun messy part; take a plastic container and mix 1/3 cup of water with about a teaspoon of terra cotta paint with about two little drops of burnt umber paint. Mix well. Mixture should be very loose. Paint your pumpkin and move the folds around a little to make sure you get it all. Sprinkle around the opening with cinnamon and either let it air dry or set it out in the 90 degree weather like I did. When your pumpkin is completely dry add a twig stem or a real dried pumpkin stem. Now you have made the easiest pumpkin ever! As with all my tutorials please share this freely with your friends as it was freely given to you. I ask that you do not sell these directions but feel free to make and sell these as you please.

God Bless,

Jill

Banana Puddin

Lawrd have Mercy! I could jump in this face first! I have always loved banana pudding. My mother always made it using the instant box pudding. Which don't get me wrong is equally yummy. But I ran upon this recipe while browsing food blogs (my secret obsession) and it occurred to me that I had never had banana pudding with "real" pudding. I have made vanilla pudding from scratch many times for the vanilla pies with meringue that my family loves so well. So this was a simple easy recipe. Lol, I asked the hubby if he wanted some banana pudding and he replied "You left the bananas out right?". He is the ONLY person that I know that wants banana pudding minus the bananas. Which is essentially vanilla pudding with wafer cookies. So alas I had to pick the bananas out of his pudding, oh the things we wives do! Here is the recipe link http://www.southernplate.com/2008/07/homemade-banana-pudding-tutorial.html

Ginger Snaps

The hubby is gone ATV riding and I will have the whole night to myself. He snatched a bag of my cookies and left for several hours. I have a candle lit and lovely music playing. The scent of ginger is wafting through the air. Oh how I wish it were fall! These cookies were yummy; however they were not as snappy as most ginger snaps you buy in the store. They were crispy yet moist. Very good indeed. The first batch got a little too brown for my taste..........as the recipe said to bake for 15 min. Dummy me should have checked at 10.

Ginger Snaps

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon clove (I omitted)
1 teaspoon ginger
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter or margarine
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
extra sugar, for rolling
Directions
1Sift first six ingredients together.
2Cream sugar and shortening; add egg and molasses.
3Add dry ingredients and mix well.
4Form walnut-sized balls and roll in a little sugar.
5(can refrigerate if a little sticky, or use a bit of flour).
6Place on greased cookie sheet.
7Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.

On another note: I will be offering these awesome cds on my website. Or you can email me directly to purchase one. They are $15.00 ea. plus $4.80 shipping. This is the perfect music to craft or bake to, it really gets you in the mood an inspires you! Here are the descriptions of the cds for sale.

**Church in the Wildwood: The "original" Church In The Wildwood, this instrumental collection features 23 of the most beloved old-time gospel hymns and is over one hour of music! Songs include: Just Over In The Glory Land; The Lily Of The Valley; Morning Has Broken; Amazing Grace;

**Home Sweet Home: More of America's favorite mountain and folk music featuring Alisa Jones on hammered dulcimer. Includes: Home Sweet Home; Uncle Joe; Grandfather's Clock; Arkansas Traveler; Over The Waterfall and 8 more down-home favorites!
**Old Time Gathering: This 24 song collection is over one hour of favorite old-time folk and mountain music! Including: Soldier's Joy; Wayfaring Stranger; Aura Lee; Westphalia Waltz; Shenandoah; Fisher's Hornpipe; Woodchopper's Reel plus 17 more instrumental classics!

**Wildwood Flower: A unique collection of beautiful folk melodies featuring the hammered dulcimer artistry of Alisa Jones coupled with the soothing sounds of a string quartet. Songs include: Wildwood Flower; The Water Is Wide; Danny Boy; The Ash Grove; My Old Kentucky Home; Swanee River and 8 more classic instrumentals!

Gail Wilson Kit

Wowwwwwwweeeeeee was it hot today! Me and the hubby did some shopping and it was miserable hot out! In every store we stepped into it was hot! I am pretty much caught up on my orders so I took some time to finish this Gail Wilson doll. If you are not familiar with Gail, she has the most awesome doll patterns and kits. I purchased this kit a year ago and just now have had time to work on it. This doll is complete with socks and shoes and look at her little fingers...........they were a bit challenging! I am not sure how I want to finish her face, the pattern has an embroidered face but I was thinking a pencil drawn face would better suit her. What do you think???

Sewing and So on........

Today's temperature was perfect! It barely reached 80, sadly though we are expecting upper 90's the rest of the week. I did a little sewing today but mostly did housework and finally decided to get it over with and clean the oven. Which is hard to do because I think my oven is the only one in America that doesn't have a light on the inside of it! It's kinda hard to clean a dark oven. This doll is made from a Primitive Heart pattern. I love her sweet little bonnet. Simply Primitives released today and I have a new tutorial coming up this week. Come take a peek at all the wonderful artist on Simply Primitives.

www.simplyprimitives.com

Awards

Thank you Theresa for this award :) http://auntpollysattic.blogspot.com/
Thank you to Farmhouse Primitives http://farmhouseprimitives.blogspot.com/
Thank you to Raggedy Angel http://ragggedyangel.blogspot.com/

Also a big Thanks to Mary for bestowing upon me the Arte y Pico Award; for some reason I couldn't get my computer to save the image. Here is Mary's Blog Link http://gettysburghomestead.blogspot.com/2008/07/monday-already.html

As for who to nominate for these great awards I am not sure! I love you all, you all have such wonderful creative blogs!

Country Viddles

I love simple country home cooked meals. When I cook I rarely use unusual ingredients or lots of spices. When it comes to food I like it simple and comforting. For supper we had green beans cooked in cured ham until tender, cream style fried corn, cornbread, and new potatoes. For dessert we had a Blueberry Boy Bait Cake. The cake has a strange name but it sure was delicious. I wanted to share the cake recipe and the creamed corn recipe with you guys. However I am sure all you southerners already know how to make fried corn!

Blueberry Boy Bait Cake

Serves 12

If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw them.

Cake

2 cups plus 1 t. all purpose flour

1 T baking powder

1 t salt

2 sticks butter, softened

3/4 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cups sugar

3 large eggs

1 cup milk

1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries

Topping

1/2 cups blueberries fresh or frozen

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 t cinnamon

For cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13 x 9 baking pan.

Whisk 2 cups flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl. With electric mixer beat butter and sugars on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2 min. Add eggs, one at the time, beating until just incorporated. Reduce speed and beat in one third of the flour mixture until incorporated; beat in half of the milk. Beat in half of the remaining flour mixture, then remaining milk, and finally the remaining flour. Toss blueberries in 1 t. flour and fold into batter with a spatula. Spread batter into prepared pan. For the topping: Scatter blueberries over top of batter. Stir sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl and then sprinkle over the batter. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, 45 to 50 min.

Southern Fried Corn

6 ears of sweet corn, shucked and silks removed

1/2 stick butter

sugar

lard

milk

The proper way to cut your corn off the cob for this dish is to cut the very ends of the kernels off into a deep bowl. Using the back of your knife scrape the rest of the corn from the cob. Be careful as you can easily get cut. I usually have more success with a serrated knife. After you have all your corn cut off add about 1 cup of water to it and stir it. Heat a nonstick skillet and add a heaping tablespoon of lard or bacon drippings to it. Add your corn and salt and pepper it. Add your butter and begin with 1 T of sugar. You can always add more if it's not sweet enough. Cook on medium for about 15 min stirring often. At the very end add a splash of milk or cream. Enjoy!

My Future Neighbors

I visited my future neighbors the other day and just had to take some photos of them. My sister just got her ducks this spring and they are going to be very noisy neighbors. Lol, not to mention they nibble at toes in flip flops. Hope you guys enjoy these pics.......we had a hot humid and rainy day here!

4th of July Weekend

We had lots of rain so the hubby and I went to the movies Friday night and watched Hancock. We got to see a few fireworks before the movie started. Saturday I got in the kitchen and tied on my apron to cook for our Sunday church service. My contribution to the meal was bread, rotisserie chicken, corn casserole and stuffing. I just had to take a pic of the yummy chicken. I just got a new gadget from QVC that cooks rotisserie chicken. It only took 40 min and was very moist. As for the bread; I admit I am a cheater............I used my bread machine. I LOVE fresh baked bread and the bread machine makes it sooooooooooo easy. I occasionally make it from scratch :) Look at Odee waiting patiently for a bite!

Today we had a lovely church service with dinner afterwards. I am truly blessed to have such a loving family! My mom, dad and three sisters all go to the same church. I am so thankful to have such a close knit family. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend.

Dog Dayz

Today is the beginning of Dog Days. Or so it's called in these parts. And it sure is hot out today. I am ready for summer to be over and fall to begin. I spent the day running errands and working on orders. I also took some time to snap some photos of my babies.

I'm Moving!

Well I have finally decided to take the plunge and move. After many years of debating my current situation and location I have decided to move. I will be moving back home; building a small cabin beside my mom, dad and sister. This is a very scary step but I feel it is something I must do. I am sooooooooooo very excited to build a house though. There are so many things I want to add but I will have to see what my budget allows me to do. Please keep me in your prayers. I can't wait to share with you guys the progress; which may be slow as my business is very time consuming. Here are my neighbors..............lol they will be right out near my front yard!