Time Out

Priorities, just where having mine been? On a scale of 1 to 10 just where does it land? Love it when I rhyme:)

Seriously, I just need to take a little brake from blogging and give more time to some more important things in my life.

No big deal it isnt like I have this huge following or bogs readers depending upon my every word.

It is a good thing to take a break once in a while and put things into perspective.

I will be back. Until then I hope that you find time for the important things in your life and that you and your loved ones are happy and healthy.

Love,

me

Mmmm Mmmm Good!

Signs that I am feeling better ~ homemade soup and homemade bread!

Both turned out fantastic. IMHO there is nothing better on an extremely cold day than my warm home with the aroma of homemade goodness in every room. It is one of the many things I love about fall/winter. Summer time cold soups have never been something I have been into but fall/winter time warm soups now that is something good.

I remember when I was living on my own, my first place by myself. After a few doozies roommates I needed to try living on my own. Anway, my cooking skills were what anyone of my age and life experience would be but I didnt let that stop me. I tried real hard to get that canned soup taste because I thought that is what it was suppose to taste like.

What did my first homemade soup creation end up tasting like? Half fresh veggies and half canned soups seemed to do the trick. After a few unsupportive comments and laughs from some people I decided ~ whatever it works for me!

I continued diving right in to experiment with recipes and expand my ability to cook. Definitely I am no Julia Childs and that is a-okay. Today I cook for just two ~ my husband and me. He will eat everything I make and all with a smile on his face. He is very complimentary too.

He loved this soup (Beef Barley and Vegetable Soup) and bread! I made enough soup to freeze some for at least 3 more meals!

This is my bread machine recipe. And I want to share it with you. It is sooooo easy, good, and inexpensive. It is just a simple standard recipe and turns out every single darn time! If you give it a try let me know:)

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Bread Machine ~ Standard Bread

Put ingredients in as follows:

1 cup + 5TBL water

2TBL canola oil

3TBL sugar

1.5tsp sea salt

4 cups unbleached bread flour

1.75tsp yeast

Set bread machine to mix dough. Mine is no. 8. The time is for 1.5 hours. At the end of this time I transfer to a bread pan that has been lightly sprayed. Place in oven that has been set at 100degrees for 30 minutes. Then turn up to 360degrees and bake for 27 minutes. Not 30 not 26 or 29. I dont know why but 27 minutes has consistantly turned out every time.

Check for doneness: take out of oven and gently tip out of pan if the bottom is a golden brown consider her done. Also "knock" gently and if sounds hollow some say this is a sign too.

Let stand for atleast 20 minutes so that when you take that first slice it doenst squish down to a fraction of what it was originally.

Reason for Being MIA

I have had a visitor the past few days. His name is Mr. Flu.

He is annoying.

I dont like him.

I wish he would leave.

I dont have a picture for you today because I would scare you.

I will be back.

I must go and continue trying to get rid of my guest.

Gotta Love Sundays

Sunday mornings are cool. Actually I like all mornings as I am a morning person.

They are calm, quiet, and are a beginning. You can make the day anything you want it to be.

For me, today, I will be:

~ going to my meeting and working in my ministry
~ baking bread
~ laundry (I seem to be doing this too much, just how much dirty laundry can 2 people produce)
~ order seeds for my veggie garden

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Have you heard about this website called Post Secrets? Located in my neck of the woods, Maryland, this blog is a place where people are able to tell their secrets well in secret. Some of these are so very touching. After reading these how could one not want to be more compassionate towards his fellow person?

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I am still having a Super Duper Block Buster Sale at my store. Trying to clear out as many items to make way for a few new items never offered before. Stop by, take a look.

Hope you have a great Sunday ~~ Give some one a hug and kiss!

Photoshop and Store Sale

My sweet husband bought for me, uh-em, I mean us Adobe Photoshop Elements 7! I have been wanting htis for a long time mostly for help with my store but also for what it can do for pictures. Not being one for reading those long, boring but definately helpful manuals I have plunged right in to figuring out how to work photoshop.

Here is an example of what I have done for my store. A new banner, the first since I opened 2 years ago. What do you think?


Here is a picture I did for my husband as a thank you. It is of him and his first son.

Now not to change the subject but I am and I get to do that because this is my blog.

My store of which I have been referring to during this whole post is having a Block Buster Sale ~ A Sale to End all Sales ~ Clearly Clearance Sale. But anyway you say it it comes out with savings for you! Below is a brief showing of what is currently on sale. Just click on the picture get a close up look and see the marvelous mark down.





Have a great day with your loved ones.

New Thing

I just had to find out what all the twitter was all about and went on over to twitter.com.

It looks like lots of fun, a little different than blogging, and a great way to just drop a line for shop followers, family, and friends to follow.

It is going to take a bit of time to figure out the ins and outs but meanwhile I did sign up.

Here is my twitter link: hugsandkisses1

Hope to see you over there.

Knitting and Menu Planning

Happy Monday Morning! Running a bit late on getting my menu posted, but I have a good reason. Seriously:)

Like any good crafter I have a bu-zillion projects happening all at once. But for this weekend I had decided it is a good time to stream line and simplify and not have so many going on at once.

Yeah, right.

But this weekend I worked on one project. I found this free knitting pattern. I love free knitting patterns. You can usually find them hanging around where you buy yarn or all over the internet.

But just because they are free doesnt mean you can claim the pattern as your own, sell it, or in most cases sell the made item. The rules for this can always be found for the designer of the pattern. This isnt cool - at all - unfortunately I see this on many an online selling sights such as etsy.

But this one is for me me me me:)

It is made using this super cozy and soft Alpaca Yarn from Bernet.


The pattern is super duper easy too. Even when I end up having to reverse knit. And it seams this happens at least a couple of times when I am knitting. This is me reverse knitting.

I am almost done with the back and soon, I hope, before winter is over will have completed the whole sweater. When it is done I'll share it with you.

As for my menu I decided to post a weekly menu in-lieu of a two week menu. This is so that I can take more advantage of the sales at my favorite grocery stores. Do you plan a menu?

Week: December 29th through January 4th
Monday: Baked Rigatoni, Salad
Tuesday: Pinto Beans, Corn Bread, Salad
Wednesday: Just Me
Thursday: Sausage Barley Soup, Multi-Grain Rolls (Doubling Recipe to freeze for future lunches) Friday: Just Me
Saturday: Talapia, Grean Beans with Toasted Almonds, ColeSlaw
Sunday: Just Me

Well, there you go. I hope you are finding these menus inspirational and helpful.

Have a great day!

Deals To Be Had

Yet More Frugal Tips and a Recipe Too

I love cooking and finding new recipes. And when I find a new recipe that I have tried I like to share it with you. That way it can save you time and money.

Nice of me, huh?

Here is a new recipe I found on Food Gawker. This website is so addicting. There are so many different recipes for so many different kinds of foods. The recipe I found, cooked, and ate it all is the recipe is Pepper Steak from the blog of Elizabeth's Edible Experience.

So easy to cook and tasty. Mr. hugsandkisses liked it because well, it had meat. When I made this recipe there were a few variations made: I made 1.5 of the recipe because I had that much more meat and needed to have a left over for Mr.'s lunch the next day and I also used a spicy rice vinegar instead of saka or rice wine as I had neither. One of the other things I really liked about this recipe is I used the red and green bell peppers I froze this summer! Go into the grocery store today and red bells are around $4.98/lb! I froze about 15 bags of sliced red bells for a total of $4.00. Froze the green bells this summer too for additional savings too.

Saving, being frugal, good stewards of your money or whatever you want to call it is so appetizing to many now-a-days. It is the new black:) So in pursuit of finds all different ways of being frugal here is another list of 10 More Frugal Tips:

1) Shop opposite seasons. For next fall/winter buy now during the end of the season sales. You can get some excellent deals. Sometimes 60% to 70% off. So the saying goes too for spring/summer buy at the end of the season. You will be amazed at what you can find.

2) Take good care of your clothes you have now. Washing, ironing, mending, and hanging up or folding are all simple easy ways to take care of your clothes now. By doing so you will have them a bit longer.

3) Shop in your friends closet. Seriously, but you have to let her shop in your closet too:) Whether it is for yourself, your husbands, or children. Swap clothes. This is one of the best ways I can think of to replenish your families wardrobe without spending money. If you and your girlfriend dont wear the same size swap accessories. Husbands swap ties. You get the picture.

4) Keep your heat down as low as possible and then some. Bundle up, wear a turtle neck, sweater, slippers. Spend $8 now for a thermal pair of socks now will save you money in the next winter months by allowing you to keep the heat down.

5) Coupons, I cant stress this enough. However, there are a couple of stipulations to this: dont buy something that you wouldnt use just because it would save you money. For example I could buy 3 jars of a brand name olives with the coupon but it wouldnt do me a lick of good if I a) dont eat olives and/or b) buying 3 store brand of olives would still be cheaper. The other is plan ahead so that you are going through your coupon envelope at the register while the line gets bigger and bigger behind you.

6) Make your own cards. There are so many tutorials to make cards whether they are fabric cards or other styles you can find it. For example: Google - fabric card tutorials

7) Clean out your stuff at home then sell it on Craigslist. Just be careful, dont give out personal information on the ad.

8) Make sure you house is a home, a place where you want to be. There are many reasons for this statement. But for this posting it is important so that you are not going out all the time to find entertainment. The way going to the movies cost watching movies at home are much smarter. This way too you get to watch in your favorite sweats and sit in your favorite chair.

9) Having troubles paying your electric bill? Call ahead of time your local electric company. Many of them have plans to help you pay during times of high and needed usage. But here the key is to call ahead of time.

10) Bring lunch. Just like I did with the Pepper Steak recipe above make extra pack for lunch the next day. Another thing I'll do is to make a recipe then freeze the whole recipe in individual containers. Then pull out when needed.

Hope this helps your endeavors to become frugal.

Have a great weekend!!!!

What's Involved In A Monday

What did I do yesterday ?

Mondays are very important to my life. It is a day that I use to organize myself and my homes activities. There have been when I havent taken the time to organize myself and I have paid the price. The price comes in spending more money than needed by ordering out instead of cooking whats on the menu and just a general kaos looming over our lives. Dont like it when that happens. Phone calls need to be made, appointments to be confirmed and/or made, menus, etc, etc, etc. I also look over the coupons and mailers that have come in the Sunday newspaper inserts.

Also. I did some never ending laundry. It amazes me how much laundry we go through. I sometimes think we are a bit abnormal in this regards.

Then I played a bit. You know the saying ~ all work and no play.... I finished up with a couple of scarfs for a couple of special people. I cant mention their names as they read this blog and I dont want to rat out my gift to them:)

I love this one. It is made with flannel and minkee. The space boys are so cute and I accented the ends with a flannel green and cream polka dot. The back is the softest minkeee on records, seriously! The measurements are approximately 4" x 40".

I think this scarf with go great with the hat I crocheted a bit ago. What do you think?

This one was made up in my imagination. Then I just started to pull fabrics out of my hu-mongo stash. At first I thought I liked it then I didnt but now that it is almost all done I absolutely love it ~ I almost want to keep it for myself. The measurement on this scarf are 6" x 60". The backing is a super soft flannel.

I also made a super easy and super yummy oatmeal bars. Sorry I dont have a picture of this but let me tell you it turned out awesome. It was the first time I made this recipe. What makes this special to me at least is that I used my homemade canned apple pie filling. There is nothing more special than serving something yummy in the cold winter months with something you canned during the hot summer months.

I hope you all have a great day! Stay safe, dry, and warm:)