A new site to visit and you could possibly win a sewing machine

DIY Dish and Janome are giving away two new sewing machines. Not only is this a great deal but they have a ton of fun stuff to do on their website. Check out how you can win too.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

Not the best of pictures but you get the idea. I served the soup in the snack cups. It was cute. Here's the recipe for this delicious soup. I got the recipe from LeAnn who no longer has a blog. :-( Enjoy. I usually double this recipe for the 5 of us.

Broccoli Cheese Soup

1 package chopped broccoli

1 stick of butter (1/2 cup)

1/2 cup butter

2 1/2 cups chicken broth

2 1/2 cups milk

1/4 lb Velveeta cheese, cubed

• Cook the package of broccoli in the microwave or on the stove top.
• In large pan melt the butter and whisk in the flour. Allow to cook for 1 minute. 
• Add the chicken broth and milk. Stir with whisk until soup becomes thick. Takes awhile. 
• Add the cheese and allow to melt.
• Add cooked broccoli, salt and pepper.
• Serve with muffins or biscuits. 

Well I'm off to get some laundry done and maybe some sewing. Well at least I hope to unbury the sewing machine and blow off the dust. Dust is a huge problem here and trust me I didn't know what dust was until I moved here. Cleaned off my dresser in my bedroom the other day and it took a whole swiffer. If you have allergens to dust don't move here. :o)

Create your own blog button

I figured out how to make my own blog button from this tutorial. It did take this non-computer savvy person a little while and some tweaking to finally figure it out. But I did. So you can too. Enjoy. I hope to post a recipe tomorrow.

Reminiscence

I was looking over the really old posts we had and thought we should probably be coming up on our blogging anniversary. Yep and we passed it right by. As I read over those older posts and looked at the photos I realized how far we've come and all the changes that have taken place in our life and home since we started this blog 3 years ago. We've moved around a lot of rooms, painted and remodeled. We lost Grandma and gained Pop. Those first blog entries I didn't really know what I was doing and I was just winging it. Still don't know everything but I keep learning. There weren't many photos in the first entries until I got my digital camera in May, 2007. A very much used piece of equipment now. What did I do before digital and why did I hesitate so long to get one?  I also realized that although we've done a lot of projects, we've also got a few we still need to finish. Is that how it is for you? Projects just hanging around? What inspires you to get them finished finally? or do you just give up on them and start over?
I remembered why we started this blog in the first place. A school project, yep a school project. I'm still blogging and the kids occasionally check in just to see what I've posted. I keep it up as an online journal I suppose and also to let friends and family far and near know what we are up to. I keep it up to see what all those peoples who's lives I've gotten interested in are doing. There are blogs who are no longer here and I miss them sorely. There are blogs that I still read but not as faithfully as I've found other blogs that I share closer similarities with. So like life this blog has ebbed and flowed, changed and grown. So here's to 3 more years.
Thanks for reading. {{HUGS}} Amanda

Mini Cheesecake Recipe

Thought I would share the delicious recipe for these mini cheesecakes. Enjoy!

Mini Cheesecake

2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

vanilla wafers

mini cupcake liners

• Mix sugar, cream cheese and eggs until well combined. Line a mini muffin pan with cupcake liners and place a vanilla wafer in each one. Spoon batter over wafer about 2/3 full. Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. Should not be brown. Allow to cool in pan at least 10 minutes or until set. Refrigerate. Makes about 48.

I served some with cherry pie filling and some without. Both are delicious. I just used a teaspoon and dipped out one cherry and some filling into each cheesecake. 

{{HUGS}} Amanda

Tea Party 2010

These past two weeks I've been super busy getting ready for the birthday tea party that I threw for my dear friend Kelly. We had 17 lovely ladies here at the house for a tea luncheon. It was so much fun. Also got me in gear to complete a few projects that really needed it. Like the sitting room curtains. I've included a lot of pictures so enjoy.
My friend Kelly and I.

I served broccoli cheese soup, turkey and cranberry croissant sandwiches and a spinach salad for lunch. On the stackables were mini cheesecakes, baby cakes, jam thumb prints (that just kept spreading in the oven and got incredibly huge so really I think they were stained glass windows. :-) and chocolate dipped strawberries. The only thing I didn't make was the baby cakes. I'm not a cake decorator. Maybe some day.

 

We had so many that I couldn't fit them all in at the two large tables, so we had an overflow table.

 

Of course I had to take pictures of the arrangements around the house. I have been busy getting all my winter decorations put away and putting out my pretty pink and green stuff. So much fun.

          

The sitting room curtains. I don't think I'm quite done with them. I think I want to add a small valance type thing in a coordinating fabric with some fabulous trim. What do you think?

This cute pillow was my Christmas gift from Kelly. I just love it. So appropriate for our little cottage.

At each place setting I made these cute little bags and put everyone's name on them to mark their spot. I got that idea here. I used my 4 snack sets. 2 of my sets belonged to my husband's grandmother and 2 sets were gifted to me by my dear friend Janie. The one in this picture belonged to grandma.

I also made the invitations and sent them out over two weeks ago. It was a combination of ideas. I got the envelope pattern here ( there are tons of templates on this site. I used the library card book pocket template) and the cupcake pattern was a coloring picture found on the internet as well as the tags they were a pattern found on the internet. Just search cupcakes and tags and you will get a bunch of hits.

So hope you enjoyed the pictures. Come again. ;-) Be sure to check back soon, I'll be posting the recipes for some of these goodies. Also thought I would join in with the Make Your Monday linky party over at Twice Remembered. Check out all the inspiration out there in blogland.