Author Archives: Terri

TGIF Happy Dance #409 & Recipe

Okay, that’s a lame title!  Of course the 409 is for days left, but I’m really happy it’s Friday.  This is the first weekend in a long time that I don’t *have* to do anything.  I’m going shopping though. 

I have a list of *trinkety* type items I want to look for for decorating, gifting, etc.  I’m going to hit up TJ Maxx, Dollar Store, Target, Pier 1, etc.  I’m also thinking of going to Joann’s to look for some FQs for Christmas/Holiday fabric for ornamentifying.

I cannot believe there were no comments about what I want for Christmas 😆  Didn’t anyone like my sweet little Pink Lady?  😉  M and I had great fun discussing the ramifications of some thug being shot by a girl with a pink gun.  His jailmates would have a blast with it I’m sure.  And can you imagine some female judge’s outrage if that girl had to shoot through her Dooney and Burke purse?  Lifetime sentence, I’m sure!

M loved the recipe I mentioned and I’ll post the recipe when I get home.  The ingredients are super easy and you probably have them all in your home right now, except maybe the capers.  You know I may even remember the recipe….let’s see:

1 1/4 pound chicken thighs

1/4 cup flour

1/4 tsp black pepper

 1 cup chicken broth

1 1/2 tablespoon capers

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Mix the flour and black pepper.  Sprinkle it over the chicken.  Spray a non-stick pan with cooking spray.  Cook the chicken for 6 minutes, turn and cook for another 4.  Remove the chicken.  Pour in the broth and scrape any bits off the bottom of the pan.  Return the chicken, add the lemon juice and capers, bring to a simmer, cover and cook until heated through.

Yep, I remembered!  Easy-peasy.  I used chicken breasts cut in half (through the middle).  I used 1 tablespoon of olive oil instead of spray.  I steamed green beans to go with it.   M wants me to serve it with rice or something next time for the extra juice.  The recipe as posted above is 5 Weight Watchers points per serving (2 thighs).

Still trying to tweak my 2011 Stitching Challenge.  I was emailing back and forth with Melissa last night and she and I are also going to do a *no spending* challenge.  Since I just started thinking about this 2 days ago I can only think of a few exceptions:

  1. The fees for the stitching *class* I attend once (sometimes twice) a month.  Because I’m paying that fee I’m going to be diligent about taking ONLY my needlepoint project and get my money’s worth of help from the teacher.
  2. Anything needed to complete a current WIP from my challenge list. 
  3. Only finishing items for an ornament. 
  4. SANQ magazine.
  5. JCS magazine after I look though it at the bookstore.  This year I bought 3 issues.  I know I can have a yearly subscription for just about what 3 issues cost, but I’m trying to *save* trees, too.

Guess I’ll have to post this at the bottom of my challenge page to keep reminding me that I’m trying to buy a new “stitching room” 😉

Recipe failure and Meme

We ended up going out to eat last night.  When I started cooking the chicken for the recipe I mentioned it didn’t smell right to M.  Since everything else we had to cook was frozen, we headed out the door and ended up at The Ole Spaghetti Factory.  Delicious, but not what I was expecting.  I’ll try again tonight, with some different chicken.

Because I can’t think of anything else to blog about I’ll share a ‘meme’ I picked up from one of my favorite authors’ blog:

Favorite recent book:

All-time favorite book:

Book that most changed your life:

All-time favorite author:

Favorite band or musical artist:

Favorite album (by any artist):

Best song ever:

Your favorite song right now:

Favorite recent movie:

All-time favorite movie:

Favorite actor:

Favorite actress:

Favorite recent (last five years) TV show:

All-time favorite TV show:

Favorite game (video-, board-, parlor-, drinking-, anything):

Foxiest person alive:

Coolest person alive:

Funniest comedian, living or dead:

Job you’d love to try for one day:

Dream car (or other mode of transportation):

If you had to get a tattoo today:

410

Want!

Hump day!

I’m wishing my life away Monday through Friday at a time!  😆  I find myself living more and more for the weekends and I am in absolute agony waiting for my Christmas vacation to start.

We are talking a lot around here about retirement, maternity leave, and moving.  Right now, only the attorney I work for has no plans for any of the above! 😉  Boss has told other girl (who has a baby due the end of July) that he’s probably going to retire in June.  If M’s retirement ‘leave’ goes as we think it might I will probably want to quit mid-October at the lastest, depending on our house-hunting endeavors.  M mentioned my seeing about taking off a lot of time this coming summer to house hunt.  If we find a house, I’m moving into it and will wait on M to join me.

I have been playing around with my 2011 personal challenge.  I think I have a pretty good plan that currently includes mostly WIPs and some new ornaments.  I have several already stitched that I want to get ‘ornamentified’ so I want to be sure I leave myself time for that in the challenge.

We ended up seeing Burlesque last night.  I loved, loved, loved the music and costumes.  Cher was a little bit scary with her surgically altered lips but she can still sing!

It’s payday for me today.  I get the great joy of standing in line at the bank for my lunchbreak, and then I have some personal paperwork to take care of.  I might even have time to eat!

I’m attempting a new recipe from WW tonight and will share if I think it’s fit for consumption — in other words M enjoys it, too.

412

Very original subject line. I think I’m going to keep the countdown up but not so much in the headline all the time.

Thank you girls for your congratulations! M and I went out to celebrate last night. He’s actually excited. He even said he wants to have a ‘party.’ So not like him! 😆

It’s a little frightening to think it might actually be here.

Tonight is movie night for us and I have no idea what we’re going to see. We both want to see Burlesque and Narnia but it will depend on what’s showing when we get there, I imagine.

I really, really, want to stitch. I pulled my ornament magazines out Sunday and found a couple of ornaments already stitched, between some of the pages, from an ornament “RR” I was in many years ago. I had forgotten all about them so now I’ve got finishing ideas running through my head.

Oh, and the Brickle Brownies were a hit!

413

How many days M has left until retirement.

M has been informed that his retirement request has been approved for January 31, 2012.

Chocolate Peace Offering

Since I’ve been super busy this weekend playing Marine wife and house decorator, I haven’t had time to take pictures…or stitch.  M had his unit Christmas Party yesterday so I was tied up doing that after a mani/pedi appointment.  Then last night was movie night for us so we settled down to watch something from our extensive library we haven’t seen in awhile.

Today has been spent at the grocery store and then cleaning.  I have an old buffet that belonged to my grandmother that her brother built for her out of wood he found on Galveston beach after Hurricane Carla.  I am setting out my small Santa collection on it for the holidays.  I also baked today and as a peace offering for not having photos to share, here’s the recipe.  It’s my own ‘creation’ and I’m calling them Brickle Brownies:

Brickle Brownies

1 package of fudgie brownie mix (I used Duncan Hines because it was on sale)

1 cup of Heath brickle (found by the Nestle Tollhouse chips in my baking aisle)

1 jar Caramel topping

1 tub of dark chocolate icing (I used Pillsbury because it was on sale)

Make the brownies by the directions on the box for fudgy brownies (not the cake type).  Add 1 cup of the Heath brickle.  Bake at 350 for 25 minutes in a 9×13 pan that has had the bottom only sprayed with non-stick spray.  Test for doneness with a toothpick.  Let cool for 15 minutes, then poke holes about 1 inch apart using a bamboo skewer.  Pour the cararmel topping over the top and then let the brownies cool completely.  Pull the lid and foil off the icing and microwave for 30 seconds.  Stir it then pour it over the top and let it set (about 30 minutes).  Enjoy! 

I’m sending them to work with M tomorrow for his Marines.

We've heard from HQMC!

M forwarded the email he received yesterday acknowledging that HQMC has received his request for retirement.  The long and short of it is they told him it would take a month to process and he could follow the process online.

Stitchy day tomorrow!  Woohoo!  I have a nail appointment after work and then I’m headed home to bake muffins.

I’m tired.  Been a busy day at work today and I’m sooooo glad it’s Friday.

An awesome giveaway

Not mine!

http://feathersinthenest.blogspot.com/

2011 Challenges

For 2011 I’ve decided to set New Year Challenges for myself.

Several of them will come from the thoughts posted here, as well as stitching challenges.

I have so many WIPs that are neglected that I’ve decided to pull at least 12 of them to see how far I can get on them in 2011. Two of them will be designs I want finished for the fair this summer – Mirabilia’s “Summer Queen” and Lani’s “High Fashion Collage.” The other 10, I’ll have to work on this month. I’d like to include a finish or two in there as well.

What I’m planning at this point is to rotate 2 designs until I get my fair pieces out of the way – Summer Queen and HFC. My main focus is going to be Summer Queen though since I really should have had her in the fair last year. I want HFC in there as well; however, I’m not putting the pressure on myself like I did last year to make it happen. I think pressuring myself like that is what got me into burnout and flat out no stitching. Anyway, I have to have HFC in my stand and since it takes time to set it up and tear it down, I’m going to only be working on it on non-working days – normally Saturday and Sunday, unless I have a holiday from work for whatever reason.

When I finish a design I’ll rethink when I’m working on what, and pick a new project from the other 10. The other 10 might include one other needlepoint piece, but I can work it in-hand and won’t need my stand. I start a 10 day vacation on December 24th so I will have to decide by then what I want my 12 pieces to be.

While it would be great to finish 12 pieces this next year, my plan is to challenge myself to STITCH on at least 12 of my WIPs in 2011. I wish I could say that there will be no new starts, but I know myself better than that and I’ll just have to figure out a way to include it/them.

These are my thoughts for the moment; however, I’m keeping an open mind since so many other stitchers out there often post great ideas that I don’t think of.

I’ll start a new tab at the top of my blog to chart my progress.

Work

It’s a little weird at work. I’ve been seeing signs that come this next summer I may no longer be employed. Just a little comment here and there, plus Boss is ready to retire and we’ve started taking fewer cases and being more particular about the ones we are taking. I am not sad about it.

Puppies

They are getting along so great! I can’t believe we’ve had Jasper for almost a year. I can remember how concerned I was in the beginning with him not getting along with Harley and him being so very different from Bandit. He is still such a sweetheart! He is probably always going to be a shy one and we’ve learned to accept that. He sure loves to snuggle in bed though, and he loves his chicken jerky! Harley has been on a diet and is looking better. Trying to get Jasper to eat was a challenge and once we found what he liked Harley started getting less – since she wasn’t eating his food too!

Retirement

Still no work from HQMC about M’s retirement request. He did find out that retirement is calculated at the end of the month so instead of his retirement date being January 12, 2012, if accepted it would be January 31, 2012. He will be authorized 20 days to find a place to live and if he continues to accumulate leave at same rate he is now (meaning he’s not taking much time off and will lose it if he doesn’t use it) he will be retired on active duty probably the end of October 2011. Which means no matter what we are under a year. March 2011 or October 2011. My stomach gets butterflies thinking about it.

We went to see “RED” last night and enjoyed it.  Our local theater has started a discounted day — all day — any movie — on Tuesday so we’re trying to take advantage of it as often as possible.

This coming Saturday is my monthly Stitch-In and I’m really looking forward to seeing my stitchy friends. I will truly miss seeing them as often after we move. I’m planning on taking Pecan Pie Muffins.

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