♥ A Field Trip to Mama's House ♥

You wanna go on a field trip with me to my mama’s house? She’s always got some kind of sweets over there. We’ll have to see what she has when we arrive.

A couple of weeks ago, I took you on a little tour around my house showing you some things my hubby has made for me over the years. That day, I mentioned that he has made nearly as much, if not just as much, for her as he has for me. So today, I thought I’d take you a field trip next door to my mom’s house and show you just what all Jason has made for his dear mother-in-law.

Her style is definitely country and cozy.  :) 

We’ll start with my favorite piece that he made her. I LOVE this blue cabinet and I’m pretty sure it’s her favorite too! It’s in the dining room area.

He also made her these two corner cabinets.

He made the shelf above the windows.

And he made the table bench. I also love this. Love all the blue in her home.

In the kitchen, he made her the built-in pantry.

On the other side of the bar, he made the bar stools. (Hey, Jason, I need some of these up in the Cedar Loft…..hint, hint……. ).

In the living room, he built her shelves above the windows too.

And he made the shelving unit to hold all her angels. A visiting Spanish missionary once called her home, “the house of angels”. Very fitting, I think, with all the angels she collects.

He built the bed and chest in their bedroom.   Mama loves hearts!

And when they remodeled their master bath, Jason made the built-in linen cabinet at the end of the shower in the corner.

See? She really does have a house full of "Jason creations", doesn’t she?  I told Jason I think he's trying to win the Best Son-in-Law Award.  He laughed and reminded me it would be the Only Son-in-Law Award.  ha ha! 

Thanks for joining me today. I hope you enjoyed your visit.

Have a great day! :)

♥ Tammy ♥

♥ My Carpenter ♥

I have a carpenter that brings reality to my dreams! I never take it for granted either. If I think it up, he eventually makes it for me. I did say eventually……after all, he does work a full time job. But he does love to build things and I love for him to build things. He’s my hubby! :)

Today, I thought I’d take you through our home and show you what he’s made, at least some of the bigger pieces anyway.  Some of the photos were taken with my husband's point and shoot camera, therefore couldn't be enlarged and others were taken with my camera and those are biggie sized.  :)  

We’ll begin out in The Cedar Loft (which serves as our home-away-from-home/apartment/pool house):

TV Cabinet

 

Now coming back into the house on the sunporch:



coffee table made from old window

 

Potting bench made from a door

Through the back door from the sunporch, into the kitchen:

My favorite!  My Red Cupboard

Dough Bowl Rack

Table bench

In the dining room:

Buffet/Sideboard

 

And in the living room:



Shutters flanking the fireplace

Entertainment Center

Now I’ll take you down the hallway and we’ll stop in the hall bathroom:



Bathroom cabinet

And next is Luke’s little bedroom (our 4 year old):

Luke's bed

Luke's nightstand

And in the master bedroom:



Wall TV Cabinet

Now let’s turn around and go back into the living room and go upstairs. First at the top of the stairs, here’s the wonderful bookshelves for our many books. We love books! We homeschool.  We collect books! We love the motto: Wear the old coat, buy the new book. :)



bookshelves across entire wall of loft

And last of all into Joy’s room (our 13 year old):



Joy's desk and bulletin board

Maybe next time I’ll take you to my mom’s house so you can see what all Jason has made for her! After all, he does have to make his mother-in-law happy! Did I tell you he is her favorite son-in-law?  :)  Well, he's also her only son-in-law.  He’s made just about as many things for her as he has me!

Thanks for joining me today for a tour of my carpenter’s creations! I know I really am blessed and I know probably a little spoiled too. But I like being blessed (and spoiled). :)

Have a great weekend!  :)

Linking with Sunny Simple Sundays. 

♥ Tammy ♥

Spring Days

Spring is officially here, although we’ve actually had spring like days for quite awhile now! So much for our persimmon seed weather prediction of lots of snow for the winter, huh?

With weather so beautiful, Jason was able to (finally) finish Amber’s cabinet! He put the finishing touches on it Monday evening and the cabinet is now in its new home at the salon. I really like the way it turned out!  (I snapped a picture of it before it was loaded up and ready to go).

Notice the addition on the side? It is removable if Amber so desires. It holds her hair styling equipment……..hair dryer, curling irons, and flat irons….etc….

Nearly two weeks ago, on another beautiful weekend, we were blessed to attend my Grandma’s 94th birthday party. She is an amazing woman! She has done remarkably well for her age. However, we did receive word last night that she is in the hospital. She apparently had a light heart attack and has pneumonia on one side. I’d appreciate it if you remember Grandma in your prayers!

That same weekend of Grandma’s birthday party, we were blessed to meet a very sweet blogging friend, Betty of Through My Back Door! Betty made time to meet with us even though she had been cooking brunch for her granddaughter, Amanda, and her family (whom we have all been praying for). She is such a bubbly precious person! I felt like I have known her forever! Blogging friends are just awesome! Betty also works part time at The Speckled Hen, which is a wonderful primitive store! But as I told her, I’m not sure how she keeps from wanting everything in the store when she goes to work! I’m pretty sure I’d be in trouble if I worked there on a regular basis! Oh to have a store such as that near me! We have nothing of that sort near us. Sharon is the owner of The Speckled Hen and she is one talented lady! Her decorating skills are obvious by looking around her store!  It is such a charming place!

Sharon is a really sweet person too! She gave the kids a candle that they had been admiring (and smelling) the whole time we were there!  :) 

Thank you, Sharon, for opening your store to us, for the candle, and to you and Betty both for making us feel so welcome!

Here we are. That’s Betty next to Joy and Sharon next to Betty.  (Jason was there.....but he was the photographer).

This past weekend, while I was inside the house (all.weekend.long) nursing a migraine headache, and Jason was finishing up Amber’s cabinet, Joy worked with Luke on his baseball skills. The baseball set was a birthday gift from Uncle Richie and Aunt Missy. He loved it!

He had the stance down pretty well.

I don’t think he ever hit a ball though. But he never gave up trying!

I think he actually did more of this…….retrieving the ball.

Pitching was his favorite thing about baseball.  Can you tell by the grin on his face?

Along with spring comes the desire to give the house a good spring cleaning. That is definitely on my to-do list. (Bet you thought I was going to show you a nice clean house now didn’t you?) Not yet......remember I had a migraine all weekend!  We have a certain 4 year old around here that has somehow acquired quite a few toys that need to be organized and…….ahem….donated to kids that don’t have any toys.  :)  We haven’t taken a spring break (as such) from homeschooling, although we’ve had a little bit lighter load this week. I’m hoping to get a little of that spring cleaning done before this week is gone.

I hope you’re all enjoying this spring weather! Thank you so much for stopping by! Have a great day!  :)

Project in the Workshop

Between all the birthday celebrations and life in general, Jason has been working any spare moment he can grab on a cabinet for Amber (Colt's girlfriend) for her station at the salon. Every creative hairdresser needs a nice cabinet to keep her organized, right?

She sent him a picture of the basic idea of a cabinet she wanted. After getting measurements for a perfect fit for the spot she needed, he went to work.

He brought the cabinet out of the workshop so I could get some photos. Here’s a little sneak preview:

That's the stack of drawers to the side of it.

Amber picked out the knobs at Hobby Lobby. I love the little rustic distressed flare to them! I think they will look great on the black cabinet (which will be distressed with a little robin's egg blue).

I can’t wait to see it completed and displayed at the salon. And I know Amber will be glad when it's done! :) I’ll be sure and share the completed project before it goes to its new home!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day! :)

Tasty (Pinterest) Recipes

Don't you just love Pinterest? I sure do. Who would have thought pinning could be so much fun? And I can actually say that Jason likes it as well since he's been benefiting from the tasty recipes I've pinned. :)

Just this week, we've already enjoyed three recipes that I pinned on Pinterest. I wanted to share them because you really should try them! It's very obvious from the three recipes I chose this week that we love Mexican and Italian dishes!

Ok. I asked Jason which one was his very favorite and he really couldn’t decide. He really liked every one of them. As for me, it was hard, but my very favorite (because I love Mexican food so much) was the Chicken and Black Bean Enchilada Casserole. Oh my.....it was so delicious! I felt like I was eating a dish from a restaurant! We had already dived into it before I thought to get a pic, but I made everyone wait a sec so I could take a picture before anymore left the dish!

Loved it! Here’s that recipe:

Chicken and Black Bean Enchilada Casserole
Source: The Girl Who Ate Everything; recipe from Allrecipes

2 cups diced or shredded chicken breast meat (or for extra lazy days use a rotisserie chicken)
½ teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon garlic powder
2 Tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
1 (15 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (4.5 oz) can diced green chili peppers, drained
1 (10 oz) can red enchilada sauce
8 (6 inch) corn tortillas (I used flour ones instead)
2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
1 (8 oz) container sour cream

Preheat the oven to 375°. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and spray with vegetable cooking spray. Sauté chicken with cumin and coriander until chicken is cooked through. Transfer to a medium bowl. Stir in the cilantro, black beans, and green chili peppers.

Spread half of the enchilada sauce over the bottom of an 11x7 inch baking dish that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Place 4 tortillas over the sauce, overlapping if necessary. Spoon half of the chicken mixture over the tortillas, and sprinkle with half of the cheese and half of the sour cream.

Spoon the remaining enchilada sauce over the cheese, and make another layer of tortillas. Layer the remaining chicken mixture over the tortillas.

Cover dish with a lid or aluminum foil. Bake for 30 minutes in the preheated oven.

Remove the cover, and sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and dot with sour cream. Continue cooking, uncovered, for an additional 5 to 10 minutes, or until cheese melts.

Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Pic from Pinterest  

And talk about easy. Here’s one that was so easy, it almost made me feel like I was cheating when Jason kept going on and on about how much he liked it. It’s the Crockpot Ravioli, and it is oh so good too. I put it on Sunday morning before leaving for church and we had it for lunch after church with a salad. And I didn’t get a picture of it, but here’s the pin from Pinterest.

And here’s that (oh-so-hard) recipe!

Crockpot Ravioli
Source: Crystal and Co.

25 oz. bag frozen ravioli (I used cheese)
1 jar of your favorite spaghetti sauce
1 cup mozzarella cheese

Dump ravioli in crockpot.
Pour jar of sauce over.

Stir ravioli to evenly coat with the sauce.

Cover and cook about 3 hours on high (possibly 2 ½ hours) or on low for longer.

About 20 minutes before serving, sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Put lid back on to met (for about 20 minutes).

Enjoy!

pic from Pinterest

And also just as good was this Taco Bake. I’m not a big fan of hamburger meat but I chopped my meat really fine and this was really tasty! My mom and dad came over for dinner for this one and they loved it too. Jason took it for lunch a couple of days as well. I did remember to get a picture of this one before we tore into it.

Here’s that recipe:

Taco Bake
Source: Two Maids a Milking

1 lb. hamburger meat
1 pkg taco seasoning
8 oz. sour cream
1 pkg. (8) crescent rolls
1 can tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes (optional)
1 cup shredded cheese
Dorito chips

Brown hamburger meat. Drain. Add taco seasoning, tomato sauce, tiny bit of water, and diced tomatoes. Simmer.

In a 9 x 13 dish, press out crescent rolls and roll to form a crust.

Layer the hamburger mixture, sour cream, and cheese.

Crush about ¾ bag of Doritos and put on top. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Pic from Pinterest

And all of this and we’re trying to shed a few pounds around here. :) Jason says if a man can lose weight eating like this, he’s really doing something. But…..we were good. We measured out our food, which gave us leftovers for the next night or lunch.

And let me just say here that I’m so thankful for this little creation Jason made me awhile back. It’s the spice/bread rack creation that he came up with....his own design.

Hubby designed and built the spice/bread rack.

Before this little creation, my spices were all inside the pantry on a shelf and it was so hard to find things. Now, I feel like a chef when I use my spices. They’re so easy to access. And see that little shelf on the very top? That holds my bread! He really thought through a functional and practical design!  :) Oh,and I had to use a new spice on the first recipe listed above that I had never used……..coriander!

If you’re on Pinterest, I’d love for you to follow me (the link is on my sidebar).  If you’re not on Pinterest and want to be, drop me an email and I’ll send you an invite, so you can start pinning too!

**NOTE** Rumor has it that one day in the future we could very possibly lose our google friend connect follower gadget. Non-bloggers are already losing their’s by this month’s end. So in an effort to not lose access to my followers (which I prefer to call faithful readers), I’ve added the Linky Follower button on my sidebar, just beneath the google one. I’d be honored if you come follow me there too! (I'm going to follow people on both from now on as a safeguard)!

Thanks for stopping by today! :)