♥ Pay it Forward ♥

I'm joining many of my fellow bloggers in hosting the Creative Pay it Forward 2013. I think it's a fun way to let our blogging friends know that we are thinking about them.

 It works like this:   The first 5 people to comment on this post saying they would like to join in on the "Pay It Forward 2013" will receive a gift from me sometime during this year. It could be something that I find that I think you will love or it could be something homemade by me.  It's fun because it will be a surprise....hopefully it will come at a time when it's just what you needed! :) I'll contact the first 5 folks that comment on this post wanting to participate and ask for your shipping info so I can send something your way sometime this year!  I can't wait!  :)


Here are the rules.....they're pretty simple:

1. You must also offer the same on your blog. You must do a post and follow through throughout the year.

2. This is only open to USA and Canadian bloggers.

3. Remember to leave a comment on THIS post saying you would like to participate in the "Creative Pay It Forward."

4. After I have contacted you for your shipping info., you must do a post offering it on your blog.

That's all there is to it! I hope you can join in....it will be fun!  :)

Thanks for stopping by today!  :)


♥ Tammy ♥

Pinned it, Made it! Monday ~ Week 23 ~

It’s Pinned it, Made it! Monday time again! I’m fighting temptation to keep from eating MANY of these. This week I made Chocolate Chip Brownies. Oh.my.goodness! They are delicious, but also very rich! Yummy goodness! Don’t even try counting your weight watcher points on these though….it would be depressing!

Here’s the original pin that can be found on my Sweet Treats Pinterest board:

Source:  Bakerella

And the recipe:


Chocolate Chip Brownies (Also known as Congo Bars)

2 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 lb. light brown sugar (Oh my and thank you!)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
11.5 ounce package milk chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

By mixer:

Sift flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
Combine butter and sugar using a mixer until blended.
Add eggs, one at a time to sugar mixture, mixing on low in between each addition.
Add vanilla and mix.
Add flour and mix until combined.
Stir in chips and then pecans.

By hand:

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl. Set aside.
Stir brown sugar into softened (not melted) butter in another large bowl until butter disappears. You can use the back of your spoon to help incorporate the two together.
Add eggs one at a time to butter mixture and stir well after each egg.
Add vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts. Mix well.
Add dry flour mixture and stir until well combined.

Coat a 13 X 9 pan with non-stick spray and spread batter evenly into dish.
Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until top is golden brown. Make sure you don’t over bake.

Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!


**NOTE FROM TAMMY**  I did use pecans and I used the "by hand" method.


The dough is really thick. Here’s what it looks like:

And after it comes out of the oven:

And ready to enjoy…..

So what have you been pinning and creating? I’d love for you to link up here and show us!


To participate in Pinned it, Made it! Monday, here are the guidelines:

1) Just do a post about what you’ve pinned and made from Pinterest, then come back over here to Country Girl at Home and link that particular post (not your blog in general) on this post below.

2) I don’t mind if you link up more than one post….multiple entries are fine.

3) You must add my Pinned it, Made it! Monday button on your post or sidebar of your blog linking back to Country Girl at Home. You may get this button code on the page at the top of my blog labeled “Buttons”. Just copy and paste the code into your post.

4) Be supportive and visit blog entries. I do ask that you visit at least one and leave a comment there. And don't forget to leave me one here! :) We all love comments, don’t we? It’s encouraging and uplifting!

5) By linking up and participating, you give me permission to use your entry photo if I decide to feature an entry.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Pinning!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥ 

Simply Red Dishes

Isn’t it fun to see how our taste changes over time? Here are some of the dishes I’ve had over the years. I actually have the very first set from when we were married, but they are up in the Cedar Loft being put to use there when we stay out there. After 30 years, I guess you’d think there would be more, but dishes aren’t something I change out very often. What about you?

But……this Christmas, I got new dishes! I bet you can’t guess what color they are!

Yep, red, of course. Never mind that warm colors like red are supposed to make you eat more……..I still love my red!

I had my eye on these for awhile from Walmart (no fancy dishes for me) and between my mom and dad and Jason, I now have 3 sets of them. I can’t wait to see my table set with them. Unfortunately, they still need to be unboxed and washed, but before that happens, I’ll be organizing and donating unneeded dishes in an attempt to simplify. I’ve decided that it’s really unnecessary and takes up a lot of space having so many odds and ends dishes that I either don’t use or at least rarely use. So guess what I’m going to be doing this week!

What color are your dishes? Do they reflect your favorite color in general?

P.S. - I'm still without MY camera and this is a small point and shoot camera and I have no idea how to take off that silly date thingie.  Have I said how much I miss my camera?  :)

Come back and join me for Pinned it, Made it! Monday.  I hope to have that post up tomorrow evening.  Thanks for stopping by!  :)

**Linking with Elaine for Sunny Simple Sunday**

♥ Tammy ♥ 

Faithful Friday - "Mary Jones and Her Bible"

A little book that Joy and I read together this week, Mary Jones and Her Bible, really got me to thinking just how much I take the Bible for granted. Most of us probably have several Bibles in our possession. Speaking for our family, I know we even have several different versions as well.

But do we really appreciate them for the treasure they are?

In the book we read, Mary Jones and Her Bible, which is a true story by the way, Bibles were in shortage. Mary saves for 6 years (as a child) just to own a Bible of her own, meanwhile traveling to a neighbor’s farm to study the Bible (and commit its verses to memory) every weekend. When she was nearing her 16th birthday, she finally has the money saved to purchase a Bible. But the next obstacle is that the closest place that has an order of Bibles is 25 miles away. She walks the 25 miles one way alone over the mountains to purchase her Bible. And that’s not the end of the story, Mary is one of many who played an important role in the reprinting of more Bibles across the world through the creation of Bible Societies. She sacrificed much during her life time to help make sure that those that wanted a Bible could have one, and her life was a testimony that she lived out what she learned and commited to memory from the Bible as a Christian. She was loved and admired by many.

This really convicted me. I know that I take the Bible for granted. What if Bibles weren’t so readily available? Would I want one so badly that I would be willing to make the sacrifice she made and go to such lengths just to own one? Do I read it often enough so that I have it stored away in my heart? Do I treasure God’s Word as much as I should? After all, it IS our light in this world of darkness that guides us and leads us down God’s path for us.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Psalm 119:105 (KJV)

I hope you’ll stop by Joy’s  blog for more Faithful Friday posts. If you would like to participate, you can link up on her blog here.

Have a great weekend! :) 

♥ Tammy ♥

♥ Upstairs Prim Bathroom ♥

Today I’d thought I’d share a room with you that I’ve never shared before. The upstairs bathroom.

We have three bathrooms. The hallway bathroom is the one you may remember me sharing before. It’s the one used by guests normally and it's really our “main bathroom”. It’s the one that we gave a rustic prim makeover a few years back.  

Anyway, I’ve been waiting on sharing pictures of the upstairs bathroom because I've really wanted to replace the faucet so the bathroom would feel “complete” (to me anyway). I want an antiqued black one like the one in the hallway bath. But seeing that I’ve been waiting for probably two years, it most likely isn’t going to happen just anytime soon, so I decided to share it as is.

Oh, and again these pics were taken with Jason's phone.  I sure do miss my camera! 

 

Jason made the shelf.  He also added trim to the door you can see in the mirror to make it look like a paneled door.  See?  That black faucet would be perfect and make it complete, don't you think? 

 

 

The paint color on the wall is called Molasses.

 

 

The outside of the door we left as is.

 

 

Jason added all the trim around the ceiling as well as the mirror.  It was pretty boring before.

 

 

 

 

The gameboard was made by Kath of The Olde Weeping Cedar.  I just love it!

 

 

My mama gave me this stool for my birthday a couple of years ago.  The basket and star came from the Antique Gallery.

 

 

Everytime I look at that faucet, I see a black antiqued one.......can you tell it bothers me?  And I just noticed that our cat, Bambi, made her way into the picture....I have no idea what she is looking at!  :) 

That's it. :)   I forgot to tell you that before we went to work on this bathroom, it used to be peach....what was I thinking?  :)

We still have one more bathroom - the master bath - but you probably won’t be seeing it until it gets a face lift, as it is very dated.  I've always wanted a claw foot tub.  Hint, hint, Jason.  :)   

Thank you for stopping by!  I hope you'll stop back by on Friday for Faithful Friday!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥

♥ Blessed ♥

At our house, picture taking is just a part of Christmas. Everyone has just gotten used to me having the camera out and making asking everyone to cooperate. Unfortunately, this year my (main) lens on my camera broke a few weeks before Christmas, and most of our pictures were taken with a phone and a small point and shoot camera, thus they are not that great quality and some are little blurry.   I have been completely lost without my camera! :(

Also, anytime our oldest (Colt) is involved in the picture taking, we’ve learned to expect the unexpected. Then add to that a 4 year old (Luke) that laughs at everything big brother does, and it makes for a very interesting photo shoot. The photos pretty much show which ones cooperate (and which ones don't). :)

From Christmas Eve:

 

I finally just gave up and was saying just take it anyway....it is what it is.  :)

 

 

 

Three generations of ladies.  :)  Me, Joy & Mama

 

Koda, Amber & Colt.  See Koda's eyes?  That cracks me up.  Her eyes were glowing green (instead of red) and when I tried to photo correct it, it wouldn't correct anything but the middle part of her eyes.  Koda looks like she's wearing green eye shadow.  :) 

 

 

Mama and Daddy

 

Pop playing with Luke.  Luke was making the Hulk "smash" the tower.  Jason made the blocks for him for Christmas.

 

Mama, Daddy, Luke & Joy

From Christmas morning:

I have no idea why that date says 12/24/2012, because it was 12/25....Christmas morning!

 

Brothers.....Luke sharing a "cupcake" with Colt.

 



Luke loved helping hand out the gifts. 

 





We finally got all the Christmas decorations  down this past weekend. The house always looks so bare after they come down, at least for awhile until I get used to it. Do you think so? But it IS kind of nice to get back into our normal routine. I'm looking forward to a wonderful 2013. One thing I know for sure.......we are blessed. :)

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

 

 

Today is also my Mama's birthday! She and Elvis share a birthday. Pretty awesome, huh? We're going out to eat to celebrate tonight.  Happy birthday, Mama! I love you! :)

 

Thanks for stopping by! :

♥ Tammy ♥

Pinned it, Made it! Monday ~ Week 22 ~

I’m back! I can’t believe it’s been a little over two weeks since my last post. It’s been a busy, but wonderful past couple of weeks. We spent almost a week out of town right after Christmas, and then coming home and taking down all the Christmas décor. Now it’s time to get back into our “life routine” with homeschooling starting back today for us.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your family and I wish you a Blessed New Year too!

I’m ready to get back to Pinned it, Made it! Monday after taking a couple weeks off from that too. I hope you can join me today! :)


I have a Pinterest board just for breakfast recipes and that’s where I pulled the recipe that I will be sharing today, breakfast pizza. We actually had it for supper though. It was really good! I will be making this again!

Here’s the original pin:

Source:  myrecipes.com

And the recipe:

Breakfast Pizza

1 (8-ounce) can reduced-fat refrigerated crescent dinner roll dough

Cooking spray

12 ounces turkey breakfast sausage 

1 cup frozen shredded hash brown potatoes, thawed

1 cup (4 ounces) shredded fat-free cheddar cheese

1/4 cup fat-free milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper 1

(8-ounce) carton egg substitute

2 tablespoons grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375°. Separate dough into triangles. Press triangles together to form a single round crust on a 12-inch pizza pan coated with cooking spray. Crimp edges of dough with fingers to form a rim.

Cook sausage in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat until browned, stirring to crumble. Drain.

Top prepared dough with sausage, potatoes, and cheese. Combine milk, salt, pepper, and egg substitute, stirring with a whisk. Carefully pour milk mixture over sausage mixture. Sprinkle with Parmesan. Bake at 375° for 25 minutes or until crust is browned.

Enjoy!

**Note from Tammy **   I used regular pork sausage and eggs (not egg substitute) because that's what I had here.  The way I decided how many to use was to see how many ounces my package of eggs were (I had a dozen pack....can't remember how many ounces that was) and divided that by 12 and then used the amount closest to 8 ounces.  However, I would do one egg less than that because it ran over just a little in my stove. 

Here’s ours:

My pizza stone is well loved and used.....can you tell?  :)

Now it’s your turn! I'd love to see what you’ve been up to…….won’t you join me today in sharing something you’ve pinned and made/tried/created from Pinterest?


To participate in Pinned it, Made it! Monday, here are the guidelines:

1) Just do a post about what you’ve pinned and made from Pinterest, then come back over here to Country Girl at Home and link that particular post (not your blog in general) on this post below.

2) I don’t mind if you link up more than one post….multiple entries are fine.

3) You must add my Pinned it, Made it! Monday button on your post or sidebar of your blog linking back to Country Girl at Home. You may get this button code on the page at the top of my blog labeled “Buttons”. Just copy and paste the code into your post.

4) Be supportive and visit blog entries. I do ask that you visit at least one and leave a comment there. And don't forget to leave me one here! :) We all love comments, don’t we? It’s encouraging and uplifting!

5) By linking up and participating, you give me permission to use your entry photo if I decide to feature an entry.


Thank you so much for stopping by today and not giving up on me after a 2 week absence! I’ll be back soon with some pics from Christmas.

Have a great week! Happy Pinning and Creating!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥