It's Official

I just got my picture id for school.

And my first textbook!  

I must be crazy! :) 

Blessings,

Knock off Twix Bars

I found this recipe over at thesweetdeal and thought I would give it a try except make it gluten free. 

Ingredients for Base:

• 1 Cup of Gluten free flour (mine was just brown and white rice flour mixed together)
• 1/2 Teaspoon of Xanthan gum  (I always throw some in.  I am not sure it really needs it. 
• 1 stick of Butter, softened
• 1/4 Cup of Sugar

Preheat oven to 325.
Mix base ingredients together with a fork.  

Spray the bottom of a 8 by 8 or 7 by 9 dish with Pam or Mazola.
Spread mix on bottom and bake for 20 minutes.

Filling Ingredients:

• 1 stick of Butter
• 1/2 Cup of Condensed Milk. * One small can makes 2 recipes.  You can freeze the leftovers and thaw in the refrigerator to use for your next batch.  And yes, there will be more than one batch! :)
• 1/2 Cup of Brown Sugar.  I used light but I think the dark would make the caramel look better.
• 2 Tablespoons of Corn Syrup

Combine all filling ingredients in a saucepan and stirring constantly bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes.  I think it's a soft ball stage on a candy thermometer.  You just have to be careful not to let it burn.   It will be the longest 5 minutes of your life.  This is my third batch and I still have trouble not letting the bottom burn even though I never stop stirring.   When done, pour on top of base.   

Topping:

• Chocolate!  I used those candy making wafers but you can use what ever you have on hand.  Today I am using both light and dark chocolate.

   

  Gently place chocolate on top of filling while it is still hot.  It will melt from the heat of the filling.  Spread gently.  Cool in refrigerator before cutting.  I couldn't get a good picture of the finished product because my camera wouldn't focus so close... three tries and then I had to eat it!

Enjoy!  Just don't eat them all in one sitting! :)

From the 1930's to 2011

A wonderful young women from church asked me if I could alter her grandmothers gown for her May wedding.  Above is a picture of the gown, circa 1930's.  Below is a picture of her on her wedding day.

                              

This was very nerve wracking for me.  I mean this is an antique!  I kept asking her "are you sure you want me to cut it?"  Before I did anything I took specific pictures of the areas I needed to alter so I could remember how it was put together once I took things apart.  Since the new bride was a bit more busty and taller than her grandmother I needed to do quite a bit of altering.  The dress did not have a lot of extra fabric in the seam allowances so I actually had to make the train shorter to have extra fabric.  I used that fabric to remake the piece that ran around the top of the bodice.  I used the old piece that I removed to add material to both sides of the back.   I purchased new button tape and replaced the old and put the 34 buttons back on.  I also had to add inches to the bottom so I bought an off white satin and cut a 5 inch strip on the bias, folded it in half and sewed that on the bottom of the gown.  

The biggest problem I had was that the 'bride to be' moved to California where her fiance, now husband lives.   I only had a few fittings and had to do quite a bit of the altering without an actual body!  I seriously did a lot of praying when I was working on that dress.  Especially while I was sewing all those buttons on and hoping it would fit!

The dress turned out great and she was a beautiful bride.  All the while I was working on this gown my daughter away at college was also making a wedding gown for a friend although she made hers from scratch.  She did an amazing job.  I am so proud of her!  You can take a look here. 

Blessings!

22 Years Ago Today....

We were blessed with a beautiful little girl....

Who's become a beautiful woman.

We love you Jocelyn Grace.  Happy birthday!

Blessings,

Staycation 2011

We have a big 'to-do' list.  We live in a nice, older rancher home that needs alot of updating.  We still have the original 1978 kitchen!  It seems that one projects balloons into another.  For years (no kidding) we couldn't decide on what to do in the hallway.  Carpet or wood?  Carpet or wood?  So we did nothing.  Then we began to talk about remodeling the bathroom.  I had a crazy idea to move the bathroom from one part of the hallway to another, creating an extra huge closet.  That was two years ago.  Doing the bathroom made us decide on flooring for the hallway! Yeah!  We put hardwood down and married it into the hardwood floor in the family room which has been hidden under carpet probably since the house was built.  So for at least a year we had unfinished wood in the hallway that needed to be finished. 

Enter Staycation 2011... 

 New wood meets old wood.  You can see how dirty the 'new' wood was compared to what was under the rug.  

 This was after the rug, padding, staples, and tack strips were removed and before the plastic went up.  Once we started we couldn't get to our bedroom or bathroom except by climbing through a window on the deck!  

Don't be fooled.  My husband did ALL the sanding.  I tried it and lasted about 5 minutes before I thought my arms were going to shake right off.  He sanded from 2:00 in the afternoon to 11:00 and then had to keep sanding the next morning.  He literally had to use the hand sander for most of the old wood to get rid of dots from the padding.  

All sanded, vacuumed, and given a mineral spirits bath. 

 This was the scary part, actually starting to stain.  We used Minwax Provincial.  It looks darker in the picture than it really is.  The wood is Red Oak and the old finish had a yellow/gold color to it.  I love the darker brown!  The fireplace didn't look so bad with beige carpet but now I am thinking about painting the fireplace a light tan/beige color using glazes.  Any input?? :)  

We were supposed to put the polyurethane down yesterday but the humidity was working against us so that will happen today.  We still have a dining room and a living room to do. I think that will be staycation 2012 and 13!  I'll need some time to recover.  

Here's hoping your vacations or staycations are more relaxing than ours!


Blessings!

Love in Unexpected Places...

In 1988 we moved from Long Island and most of our family to Maryland.  I guess on one of the visits from my parents my mom hid little notes around my house.  I would find them in unexpected places and the funny thing is I would just leave them where I found them.  You can see one she wrote in 1995 that is still in my kitchen cabinet.  Another one is in my Bible.      

I just love those notes from my mom.  I love that she took the time and thought to do that for me when I was far away from family.  

Last weekend I went out to Indiana, PA to visit my daughter.  I had an idea to do the same thing my mom did for me and leave some 'love' for her.  She shares a house with three other students so I could only hide them in her bedroom.   I got a text from her yesterday saying "So how many lovely little notecards did you hide?  I have been rearranging and cleaning."   I've been found out...   :)  At least I can blog about it now!  

For her notes I found Bible verses that I thought would encourage her and found silly graphics for the backs.  I am hoping that as my daughter finds more notes she will feel the love that went into them.  Maybe if you are visiting loved ones this summer you might leave behind some 'love' too.

Blessings friends,

Fishing Anyone?

I work part time at a Montessori school.  One of the teachers retired this year and I was asked to help in her retirement party by decorating a tool box to look like a girlie 'tackle' box!  Of course I didn't take a before picture but the box was all primary colors.  The handle was yellow, the  bottom half was blue, the top part was red and the closing tab was green! I bought Krylon clear for the plastic. They didn't have too many fun colors in the plastic paint so I then spray painted over the clear with the Watermelon.  I used a white boa and bought rhinestones letters to spell out her name. I used stick on rhinestones to decorate the top and clasp and then made a flower out of fabric and made a leaf out of green felt. 

Here is a picture of Linda when she first opened it!  She got a big kick out of it!  Another co-worker decorated a fishing pole for her.

We had a nice lunch and celebrated the 21 years she worked at the school.  I wonder what her husband thought of her gifts! :)

Blessings,