Stroganoff - fix early in the day - then go play

I prepare this dish ahead of time and then cook in my crock pot for 5 to 6 hours. If you turn your crock pot on low you can get away with a little longer cook time. You can cook it in a double broiler for 1 to 1/12 hours if the crock pot thing doesn't appeal to you. I serve this on top of noodles, I like thick egg noodles, but my kids like it on rice. Either way start with the rice or noodles about 25 minutes before the Stroganoff is due to be finished cooking.

1 1/2 pounds top round steak
4 medium onions, sliced
1 pound mushrooms, washed and sliced
1 cup sour cream
1 cup water
3 tablespoons flour
1/2 can or a little more, of mushroom soup
pepper, paprika to taste
secret ingredient - mace - 1 teaspoon
Parmesan cheese

Cut meat into small chunky strips - a little bigger then bite size.
Saute meat in lots of butter
Transfer to crock pot or double boiler.
Saute mushrooms and onions in drippings, add more butter if needed.
Add to beef in pot.
Add sour cream to saute pan. Scrape pan well and add to pot.
Mix water and flour well.
Add to beef mixture.
Add mushroom soup and spices. The mace makes the whole meal. I call this my secret ingredient. I do not add salt till the last thirty minutes, as salt can make your meat tough. If you want to make this Southern style, cut the water in half and use a 1/2 cup of red wine. Also throw in a small jar of pimentos for flavor, texture and color. [The jars are great for storing small beads when you are finished with them]


Serve over noodles or rice, grate a little Parmesan cheese over dish. Serve with a vegetable.
A nice steamed head of broccoli with a little lemon goes very well as a side dish with this. Again this is a meal that is good to cook on a day that you know you are going to be busy and need not to worry to much about dinner. After all when you serve this to your family you can remind them they are eating like the czars.

Blog Award - Butterfly Award

I received this award this past week from Barbara St. Jacques. So pretty, I love winged things. Barbara emailed me that she was having trouble with her blog. She was giving it a new year face lift - I wish it was that easy for us - and she had lost some info. She has since emailed me back to say the universe is again right and her blog has been fixed. Hooray. So please go and admire her work and the new face lift.
The rules for this award are;
1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you the award.
3. Nominate 5 other blogs for this award [more if you want].
4. Add links to those blogs that you nominate.
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.

My nominees are:
1. Kristy - She has wonderful stuff on here. I love her background work.
2. Kathryn - What a lovely person. Every word and image is so peaceful and serene, filled with love. Her journal prompts are wonderful and she has opened new doors to journaling for me.
3. Melinda - This lady is a wonderful fiber artists. She is moving into mixed media and will be a force I am sure. Great color sense.
4. Audrey - She is on four different design teams, need I say more?
5. Aimee - This girl has the handwriting thing down, her wild journal pages have helped me to step outside my box. You will love her wild style. Yes, we are in Kansas.
6. Sandee - Her journal pages are great, so are her collages, a very talented artist and friend.
7. Adrienne - A lovely artist from across the pond. I love how she explains how she gets her lovely effects in her art work on her blog. Beautiful things to explore here.

Auction Time

Toy trucks

Every weekend I try to take a little road trip to take photos, enjoy the scenery, try a new restaurant or shop, that type of thing. Sometimes I travel with friends sometimes alone. Just get out and venture. Saturday was one of those days.

The weather here has been ideal - around 65 up to 70 degrees during the daytime. It is so warm I found dandelions at the cemetery I was taking photos at. That is warm. The weather just makes you want to get out and do something. After reading about all the bad weather across the Midwest this weekend I am thanking my lucky stars.

Anyway, I went to some new thrift stores - more about those finds later. Then decided to travel down an untraveled road and ended up in a small tobacco town. North Carolina is a big producer of tobacco - think Duke, Reynolds tobacco company...There are lots of small towns that were built on tobacco here, now we have pig, chicken, turkey farms. Think Smithfields, Perdue. I can's say we are all thrilled but it has taken over when the tobacco people left.

Off topic again, sorry, anyhoo, I saw a bunch of trucks and cars outside this big old building in town after I was finished shooting some pictures. I decided to mosey over and see what was going on and it was an auction. I haven't been to a really honest to good auction house in ages. I decided I was spending Saturday night there at the auction house. Found me a pretty comfy chair and sat down to watch the action.

I found a box load of pictures and paper ephemera that makes my knees weak. Also, took a ton of photos of all the antiques. Met a couple of dealers who are going to be on the "lookout" for "stuff" for me, and ate some of the best pie I have had since my grandmother passed away. So the pictures included in this post are a small sample of things that caught my eye. How was your Saturday night?

A beautiful dress worn during the civil war. It was in great shape for being so old. They even had documentation for the dress. It had a reserve and did not sell. Lovely to look at though.

A pretty little wicker baby carriage that a doll collector snapped up.

An incredibly in bad taste bear head. If you think this is bad I spared you the shot with the two paws on either side of his head. Yes we have bears in North Carolina. Yes, we have bears in this area. Yes, I have, seen one or two. But they are Black bears. I have no idea where this bear came from. All the dudes seem to be impressed, I heard one lady tell her man "not in my house, you can just put that out in the barn." Hope their cows don't stop making milk.


The last thing I am sharing is a bunch of military stuff. They sold old military coats, jackets, hats, whole dress uniforms, and a couple of powder guns. This was a whole table with this guys military career on it. He had these incredible hats. [I will share them in another post] They probably spent an hour on frantic bidding on all of this. It was a fun evening, very colorful...

I have been tagged....

In December Marva of Purple Paints Muse tagged me. I am to tell 6 obscure things about myself and then tag six more people. A sort of blog game that helps you get to know everyone better. I am not doing too well with all of this, I still have two more awards to give out and blogs to award, I really need to spend some time thinking about this but time is not on my side so here goes.
Six things about me....
1. I was hit by a car on my bicycle when I was a kid. I came flying out of our driveway and did not look like I was suppose to. Scared the guy who hit me to death. I would not let him call anyone or help me because I knew my Dad would take my bike away. My Dad came home early, in a panic, he had gotten a call from a guy he worked with who told him he thought he had hit me with his car. The jig was up. I was just scratched up pretty bad down one side.
2. I am a very good swimmer. I often go to the ocean and swim so far out I can barely see the shore and then swim back in.
3. I still tell most of my secrets to my high school best friend.[ love you Patty]
4. I haven't had a hamburger from a fast food place since I was ten years old.
5. I would rather have a piece of art than a piece of jewelry. You can enjoy art everyday, but you can't wear all your jewelry every day.
6. I like really smart nerdy men.

My list of tags:
1. Chrysti After her massive December give away we want to know more about you southern girl.
2. Ophelia another southern girl whose collages and journal pages are wonderful.
3. Shelley a third southern girl who also is most talented and fresh.
so let me think for awhile and I promise to come up with some northern or western artists, so many to choose from...

Feeling Pink

A new journal page. I got some new sharpie fine pint markers. I love the white one so I kind of went wild with the dots. The black and white sort of lacy stuff is my new tape I got for a holiday gift. I got several different styles. I really like it.

Blog Award - Proximidade

I am embarrassed to admit that I was given this award back in December 2008 by Gayle Page-Robak. Gayle is so talented and always on top of it, which of course makes my lateness in getting this posted even more embarrassing. So, Gayle please forgive me, I blame it on the holidays and my own slackness. please go by Gayle's blog and visit. She is on a couple of design teams and has some really incredible work.
So here goes the award part... which by the way I am truly honored to receive..."These blogs invest and believe in Proximity...nearness in space, time, and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and to be friends. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to 8 bloggers, who must then chose 8 more and include this clevery written text into the body of their award."
There goes that award. As I have received this award and awarded this award to several blogs already I am going to have to think about the blogs I wish to receive this award. I am thinking of a few already....
1. Marva at Purple Paints Muse - her blog is a riot of color and fun. Marva is one of those truly nice people you thank your lucky stars when you meet. Her muse has her sketching - a lot, and boy can you see what practice and talent can lead you to.
2. Viola - her blog is very European, I love how she works with whites and creams, something I have a hard time with. She is very generous with her freebies, also.
3. Diane at Diane's Mixed Art - Diane has her finger's in a little bit of everything. I love the flavor of her blog.
4. Teri at Quinceberry - Teri is a new York girl who isn't afraid of anything. I love her wit and her opinions. A lot of people are afraid of saying what they thin, Teri is very nice when she expresses herself. She has a lot of talent, also.

Here are four of my eight to get you started. More to come....

Photo a Day

Yesterday I was on campus and was delighted to see all the bicycles. Good to see that the college kids are tightening their belts and getting some exercise, too. This was my perspective of that.

Some one emailed me and suggested I take only one photo a day. Unfortunately, I am not that good of a photographer. Out of every ten or twenty shots I might get one that is pretty good. I am just a look, snap, and shoot type of girl. I don't plan my shots, I just see something and snap it's picture.

The advice of one a day is something I will apply to what I post. I think I will post one photo every day or two for awhile and see how that goes. I am not good about posting every day. Plus it might get really boring... On another note my forage into photoshop is going well. I have been learning all sorts of really cool things. This should make my photos more interesting. I am beginning to understand the lure of digital art.

Freebies #15 - Celestial Charts

Aren't these wonderful? They were charted by a cartographer named John Emslie in 1846. I love the graphics on these. I thought with a new year and the first full moon right around the corner, these would be appropriate as my freebies this week. Any how I have always been fascinated with the heavens. Living by the ocean you get to see the effect the moon has on the tides and the water. It is amazing how many stars you can see at night. You can almost feel the pull of the moon at night and in the day the heat of the sun. I hope you will enjoy these as much as I do...

Quote

"I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day."
Vincent Van Gogh

Red Quilt Square

The last of the quilt squares for my monthly exchange. The color was red. I love red. Just a bright wonderful color, plus everyone looks good in red. Our group made it through with only a few dropping out or going lost. [It is unfortunate that people do that in swaps, but life happens sometimes.] The good news is I have seven beautiful quilt squares from other people and seven that I made myself. I am still trying to decide what to do with them all.

Mini Scrap Art Quilt

As I was sewing and had all these lovely scraps I decided to sew a little mini art quilt. It just cried out to me. I love the little girl in plaid. She reminds me of getting my school picture done every year. I had a dress like this in fourth grade. It was red and black and white plaid with a full skirt. I always wore a red, soft, cardigan sweater with it and black buckle shoes. I thought I was so cool. It swished when you moved.

I collect images of wee ones with plaid on. It must be the Scottish in me. Ahh, tartan. I got the image from Viola's freebies. She always has some interesting images. p.s when you get to her blog at the top left hand side is the link to her freebies.

Keeping My Resolutions

Every year we always talk about exercising or eating right, doing this or doing that. Most of the time I am pretty good at keeping those promises to myself. After I broke my foot I decided no matter what I would get out everyday and walk, eat better and develop more upper body strength. Something as women we are never told how important to our general health it really is.

Try walking around on crutches and hauling your backside up and down some stairs with out using both feet, but your arms. Not easy. So what does all this have to do with these pictures you are asking? Well, I thought it would be easier for me to keep my goals if I included art with it. I would much rather spend my extra time doing that than almost anything else [except family]. So everywhere I go I am parking far away from my destination and walking, walking on the beach, and walking to the library, post office and even the store. I can't ride a bike yet but hopefully soon.

I have vowed to take at least 40 to 50 pictures a day. Once I have taken them I must spend some time in photoshop learning the nuances of this program. That could take years from what I have heard from others, but it is the journey that matters. So here are a couple photos. Two of them are to say even the most common thing can be turned into art. It is everywhere.

The pier where my beach walks start and end.

A lovely rusted handle. I am sure it was red once.

A copper water faucet just outside the post office painted a lovely canary yellow.

6 by 6 Tip - in Pages

front

back

These are my monthly Tip- in pages for December of last year. I am running late on two projects. Thankfully I have two great partners who definitely understand that anything due in December is iffy. I have a theory that all the food we are consuming during the Holidays slows us down and puts us in a slight vegetative state.

My tip - in pages go out to Peggy G. Her theme is " What do you see when you close your eyes?" Not the easiest of themes. I could think of so many things. It was hard to pin point one thing. I actually made a couple of pages with this theme. These are the ones Peggy will receive. I hope she likes them.

Overnight Chicken

The New Year is here and one of my resolutions is to eat better. So in keeping with that premise I am starting off with this recipe for this week. It is called Overnight Chicken. Very easy and quick. This is something to make when you know you are going to have a hectic day the next day. This can be served on top of rice, noodles, or with roasted potatoes. I am eating this on top of a fresh salad. Some yummy greens, avocado, and a maybe some of those dried cranberries I have left over...

1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 tablespoons soy sauce
4 chicken breasts

Mix the honey, mustard, curry powder, and soy sauce.
Place the chicken breasts skin side down in baking dish.
Pour the marinade over chicken breasts.
Cover with foil and marinate in refrigerator overnight.
When ready to cook - turn chicken breasts over, put in UNPREHEATED 350 degree oven, covered with foil.
Bake at 350 degrees for one hour; after one hour, remove the foil, baste the breasts and cook 15 to 20 minutes more uncovered.
Spoon sauce over chicken when serving.

While the chicken is cooking you can change, start rice, and or make the salad. Then relax with a wonderful meal.

Valentine Background Papers

Some painted Valentine papers for all to play around with. These were made with gesso, acrylic paints and oil pastels.

Quote

" The road leading to a goal does not separate you from the destination; it is essentially part of it." Charles Delint

Freebies # 14 - Valentines

I thought I would start early with some Valentine freebies. These are from my favorite greeting card artist - Ellen H. Clapsaddle. Her little folk are so adorable. They make me smile. I don't know about you but I have cleared away most of Christmas. Leaving my red accents available for Valentine's Day. I always thought it was so neat that Christmas and Hanukkah were followed by Valentine's Day. Such a wonderful way to start out the year... thinking of those we love.

New Header

A New Year should bring a new header at least. So I took some of my door pictures and made a new header. I hope you like it. I really do. I realized that I have lots of doors to share and use so expect more changes.

Out an About

The New Year brought the need for an afternoon road trip. Not too far, yet the need to be away needed to be fulfilled. So up the road a piece to the cute little town of Burgaw. Trust me the town is cuter than the name. They have a really good blueberry festival every year and a small, yet delightful town square. Several stores have been turned into antique stores. The town still has that old town flavor. The movie companies have also discovered it, so hopefully that will inspire the town leaders to back preservation.

The gazebo all decorated for the holidays sits in the center of the town square. Off to one side is a big antique store that has several vendors in it, lots of booths. These are just a couple of my purchases of the day.

I think these were for old train sets. I love the buttons on them. I thought they might make good bodies for an assemblage piece or two. They were ridiculously priced - low!

More buttons. Can a girl ever have too many buttons? I don't think so. Anyway who can turn down red buttons or pearls for that matter?

I spent quite a bit of time going through the postcard guys ephemera. Goodness did I hit pay dirt there. The prices were great and his selection was even better. I can't wait to share some of these in my freebie posts.

Last, but not least I wanted to share this water color set I got in the original box. The porcelain paint cups have little magnets on the bottom of them to keep them in the metal tin box. You can pull each one out to clean or replace the paint cake. It will make you cry to hear I got it for $2.00. I almost fell over when I spied it. Simple things make me happy.

Out of the Studio

I have been out of the studio the past few days. Putting the old year away and making room for the new. I have been trying to keep up with my mail, but if I haven't answered someone, I apologize now. The hardest part of the new year for me is making my goals. I want something that challenges me, but at the same time is not out of reach. I need to set these goals in every aspect of my life so I can attain the things that seem out of reach.

I have set my challenges and art goals for this year. I looked back on my goals for last year and I was pretty pleased at how well I stayed on track. Life did send me a few curve balls, but in the end, they led me in new directions that truly inspired me. Even breaking my foot was a blessing in disguise. What lessons that taught me. So as my youngest so informed me when I sat down to have a "mother - son" talk about his goals..."Life is what we make it".

So I am off to the studio...

Happy New Year!

I am sending out Happy New Year's wishes to all. Has everyone made their New Year's resolutions? That is what I will be doing today. Finalizing those new resolutions. I like to think of them as goals. Resolutions sounds sort of hard and final. Goals seem attainable and something that you work on for a period of time. Goals seem to me that they should be something positive that you strive for, a way to make your life more enjoyable, more successful.