crafting day...

been crafting most of today.
had so much fun. went to pick out a christmas tree it was lightly snowing and we went for a peppermint hot chocolate after we were done. life is good!

off to a nice dinner tonight with some awesome friends we don't see often enough. great way to end this wonderful weekend.

here is some fun stuff from today.....

Happy Birthday Mom.....

As you celebrate another year I want you to know how very much we love you and how much we wish we were there today. We are sending BIG wishes and BIG hugs to you. I know you will be celebrating for the next month this is just day one.
For those of you who know my Mom I don't have to explain, for those who don't it's hard to sum up what she is really all about. In this picture she has just been teaching her grandaughter the fine art of making pasta sauce.

There are no real measurements - it is 3 shakes of this, a pinch of that, a handful of something else. No one will ever be able to make sauce, lasagna, meatballs or most anything as good as she does. She can rival the best chefs out there. She is kind, loving, caring, thoughtful, pretty, smart, brave,compassionate, forgiving, sensitive, sweet, special, fiesty, stylish and so much more. When you go to her home you are made to feel like a celebrity. She would give you her last nickle and forgive you for anything except if her Mother's Day card is late. Mom as you head into another year may all your dreams come true... you certainly have made sure so many of mine have. Happy Happy Birthday i love you !!! xox

So grateful...

I have an amazing family, one that is filled with lots of love and caring for eachother.

I am so grateful for it all, so much to be thankful for. We are deep in tradition and food is always the main focus so you can imagine the food on Thanksgiving ... yes there was a lot !

We had lots to share, happy to see you's, we found out it's a boy, congrats on a marriage, a new job coming in a new state, old roomates, blockus games, searching for oprah's new christmas gifts on the internet, football games, safe flights (even if you did spend the day at the airport eating a cheeseburger instead of turkey). We even threw in a little oven fire for excitement .. yup that's right (this will be talked about for many, many, years to come) you will be happy to know the turkey was saved.... next year there will be no triple basting for extra juiciness even if you did see it on t.v.

my darling husband loves food and is not about to stop eating because of a little smoke.. he just happened to have this in his car. This man is an eagle scout and his motto is "be prepared"
















my sister on the right is the one with the triple basting turkey skills.
Thanks Elaine for such a wonderful fun filled day.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve

My niece just married (see previous post) a southern boy. So in the spirit of a new family member even tho they will be spending the holiday in Alabama I have decided to make this yummy sounding southern recipe for our thanksgiving table. This year is a year of new traditions, as we move on to some new beginnings I know the old ones will remain forever in our hearts.

Recipe thanks to…

http://stacysbigpicture.typepad.com/



Happy Thanksgiving everyone… enjoy!

Anticipation.....

I am anxious to finish up this day. I am looking forward to a nice long weekend coming up. Hoping it is filled with lots of eating and fun time with family. Maybe some hanging out in front of the fireplace with my favorite someone – cozy up. I am planning on hopefully making a dent in my shopping. I will be out there with all the other crazy people, only thankfully I don’t have any one item that is an absolute must find. We are going with the flow. Every year I have great plans of everything getting done early
which never happens and I can assure you it will never happen this year either but hey, I can dream right? I know I will be painting something, or crafting something, or baking something right up until the last minute it’s just my nature.
I have lots of parties coming up so there will be lots of fun things to share. Cookie swaps, ornament parties, country decoration swap, we got all kinds of parties coming up. Starting with tomorrow nights annual night before thanksgiving party which I wouldn’t miss ever. Lots of friends, lots of fun, lots of food.

As promised ...

Here are a couple of pictures as promised of things I made over the weekend.

First is an oversized clothespin that has been covered with fancy paper and I sanded the edges. Cut out 2 circles with my marvy punches, cut 2 small scraps of ribbon glued

the ribbon behind the circle then attached the circle with pop up glue dots.

The box is a small box I purchased at Michaels for .99 and again, I covered it with fancy paper, added some rub on snowflakes. I then used my cropadile to punch two holes and thread the ribbon through to tie a bow. You can use the clip to hold notes or a picture or maybe

a business card. The small box is perfect size for post it notes or any small treasures that you might have. A cute little desk set for your favorite teacher or colleague. Happy Crafting!

Happy Birthday Andrew !

my dear sweet boy this is one of my most favorite pictures ever.



















how is it possible that so many years have danced by. thank you for adding such joy to our lives and so much excitement, we love you so very, very, much Happy Happy Birthday - may you have a wonderful year to come. xoxo

wonderful weekend

It was wonderful, what a great weekend. Lots of getting in the holiday spirit, play time, fun time, friends. Went to a craft show where there were lots of vendors. Bought a few handmade gifts in the spirit of "give handmade". Lots of fun ideas, lots of inspiration. Once I was home I pulled together a couple of fun gifts you could give to teachers or perhaps someone in your office that you would like to give a little rememberance to. I will be back with pictures as soon as I can get them downloaded. I have so many ideas now to try out I dont want to go to work tomorrow. I would rather stay home and craft.

handmade holiday

I realized this past weekend that if I am going to be getting into this handmade holiday idea the time is NOW. As of today there are only
33 days left before Christmas. I have to admit I just scared myself when I counted that – wait, that can’t be right ….I have to check that again. um….
nope it’s right. I better get moving…….

Here to share with you is my number 1, not my number 1 as the in the “best” just as in the first idea… dutch kisses a.k.a. caramels. these are delicious - (don't tell your dentist - watch those fillings) you can wrap them up in brown paper bags with string or put them in fancy boxes, or in little chinese food containers… oh so cute….

and the recipe for your weekend entertainment is:

Dutch Kisses
1 pkg lg marshmallows
1 cup sugar
1 pt whipping cream
¾ white karo syrup
Cut marshmallows in ½, place sticky side up on wax paper and let dry out (I usually cut them in the morning before I leave for work and they’re ready to dip when I get home). You want to make sure that they dry out well.
Mix whipping cream, sugar and karo in large bowl (microwave safe). Cook on high 21-25 minutes depending on how powerful your microwave is. I start checking the caramel at about 21 minutes – what you’re looking for is the caramel to slowly drip forming a tear drop like figure – if it’s too runny – it’s not ready!
Butter a cookie sheet – dip marshmallow in caramel and place on cookie sheet (the caramel should slowly drip down the side of the marshmallow and making only a small puddle on cookie sheet. When you’ve finished dipping the marshmallows, go back and flip them all (this will allow the caramel to stick to the marshmallow as it’s drying). Once they’re dry wrap them, individually in wax paper (twisting the paper closed at each end). enjoy!

the family

Well here is the family! My TEAM, hence the reason for my blog name - Dee’s TEAM. 1st photo left to right is myself and my wonderful husband, Tony. He is a great guy and we have been hanging out together for a long time. He is pretty much my favorite person to hang out with, ok, well most days. 2nd picture is my hubby with our oldest son Eric, 3rd photo on top is our second son Andrew with 2 “friends”. The second row is my son Andrew with my daughter Michaela, dancing up a storm. The middle bottom picture is of the three of them. All my wonderful children, of whom I am very proud. I can honestly say the greatest accomplishment of my life! All of the pictures were taken a few weeks ago at my niece Beth’s wedding. We had a wonderful time. It is not often that we can get a picture of everyone together at the same time in the same place. So this was a big score! A Christmas card for sure!
The wedding was amazing; a fantastic time was had by all. The food, the band, the company, it was a wonderful day. Wishing Beth and her new husband Billy a lifetime of
love… Here is the beautiful couple.

a little bit of luck...

My dad sent me an email he doesn't often send emails we usually talk on the phone - most of his emails consist of jokes or some small message of warning for the latest scam out there. So this day when he said did you see your email? not yet I responded, but it aroused my curiosity so I immediately went to see why he asked...

First you have to know that he is a very quiet, humble man never, ever, speaks of any of his great accomplishments in life and there are many. How many people graduate from college at the ripe age of 43 ish with 6 small children at home? An engineer by trade but a fix it, build anything type of guy. A guy who took his young children food shopping all hanging off the cart, all hankering to be up front almost tiping the cart over every week. I am not talking about the hip fathers of today that do this I am talking about a father in the 50's when this was pretty much unheard of. He didn't have a lot of time for himself but on ocassion when he did it would be a little canoeing which he also brought us on many times - (it's a wonder no one drowned) and golf. The great game of golf. In his retirement years he got to play more golf than ever - always trying to perfect his game. He is a quiet but competitive man.

A little bit of luck is what the email subject read ... lucky that is how I feel when I speak of him. His latest accomplishment it's said to happen for the average golfer is 150,000 to 1, that is what golf digest says. I know nothing about golf but what I do know is I don't think they keep statistics on how often kids are lucky enough to get a father like him but I know it's less than than 150,000 to one. So Dad today I am telling everyone I know of your latest accomplishment - a hole in one at 85 !!!!! You are still amazing me... everyday... i love you.

Sunday Night Blues

Sunday Night Blues
I have really never been fond of sunday nights. Sunday nights mean weekends over playtime is over back to another crazy week, of work, work, work. But we did have a fun, productive weekend so I guess it's all good.
I did want to share a wonderful soup recipe that you might enjoy this cold long winter. It might warm you up inside. Yesterday while Tony and I were trying to decide what we might do that evening Michaela was working, a night to ourselves - a fancy restaurant? But it was pouring rain and we were not getting motivated to venture out so we decided to make a nice gourmet meal at home. We both like to cook and sometimes we can pull of stuff that is better than a gourmet restaurant. Well I must say that last night was one of those nights. It was awesome!!!

Butternut Squash Bisque

1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup diced onion

salt and freshly ground pepper

3 cups vegetable broth

1/2 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup diced carrots

pinch nutmeg
4 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash

1. Heat oil and butter in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in onion and cook
until tender about 4 minutes.
2. Stir in carrots, squash and vegetable broth season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil
Reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender about 5 minutes.
3. Puree soup mixture in a blender until smooth. Return to the pot and stir in heavy cream
HEAT through but do not boil. Serve warm, sprinkle with nutmeg. yum
This is very rich but very good.

So here is the whole meal from start to finish it was GREAT- a fun night for sure, romantic and we saved a bunch of money staying home it was a win all around.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

This is a little video scrapbook of a recent visit from my very best friend Lynne and her baby daughter Rielyn. Lynne moved with her family to North Carolina 2 years ago and I still miss her everyday. She is one of the best friends anyone could ever have. We had a fantastic visit and little Rielyn was amazing. Lynne is back in NC now but we shared so many laughs. She is amazing ..... please come back soon ok? Just having her here for a few days was such a great fix. love you Lynnie!

Finally

Well I have been reading blogs for a while and have been very intrigued by so many. Mostly I feel like I learn something everyday. So for a while I thought what would I possibly write in a blog that anyone would really want to read? Then I thought life - just everyday life, big events, little events, happy ones, sad ones, funny ones, etc... and maybe there might be a day that someone learns something from me. So I finally decided to venture out and have a blog of my own.

I am a mom of 3 almost grown kids and I feel so lucky - they have brought me so much joy.
Now that is not to say we have not had bumps and detours on the journey, oh yes, in order to enjoy the wonder you have to deal with the bumps... I have a great hubby that has joined me along the way and been there for me.. lucky, lucky me. I love my family and feel that with them beside me anything is possible.
I enjoy all kinds of crafts, sewing, scrapbooking, photography etc, etc i love it all and have found so much inspiration in so many places on the internet. I wonder how I ever lived without it...