Fiestaware Stamps

My tangerine Fiesta pitcher has it's very own forever stamp now!

Side note: there are also forever stamps out there staring the loveable Pixar characters. Those sound like they would turn into very expensive stickers in my home!

Salt and Pepper

I haven't been really posting much. Summer, Cabo, Vacations, Laziness.....you get the point.

Anyway.

For my 30th birthday, I went to Cabo San Lucas Mexico. And picked up these lovely salt & pepper shakers. John hates the Fiestaware ones so much that he won't even buy them for me. But we agreed on these cuties. For 100 pesos. (That is about $8.50) They are petty cute, but the holes are really big, so I am going to have to do something about that. I don't really use salt & pepper shakers though, I am a Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper kind of person (snobby, I know) but they do look cute next to my Tangerine Fiestaware Pitcher!

Vanilla Honey

When I buy yogurt, I HAVE to have a coupon. Period. And, it preferably has to be on sale. I have zero brand loyalty. I do like the Greek style best, but that gets expensive, and I have been known to eat up to 4 a day.

Danon Light & Fit are good, come in a 4 pack, and are responsibly priced. I was at Wal-mart, and they only had vanilla left. Not my ideal choice, but I'm cheap, so hooray. Of course, it's bland. And Greek yogurt with that honey flavor has spoiled me. So, I made my own. I just squirted some honey in, gave it a little stir, and it was wonderful. So great, I bought vanilla on purpose, just so I could do it again.

Since the yogurt is cold, the honey "hardens" a bit, and swirls of honey can be seen throughout it. Making it keep a good strong honey flavor.

Trees

I just wanted to take a picture of the trees in the backyard, I am sad that the one only blossoms for a week or so. It rained last night, so a lot of the pink pedals have already fallen off.

Sparkle Chucks

How cute are these? I got them at Target for $8.74. Pretty sweet, they were on the clearance end cap, 75% off. I like them, they have no laces, just slip right on for easy AND stylish runs out to the mailbox. Plus, all the toddlers love them. Target has a pair of black ones I have my eyes on right now, but they are still $34.99.

Fiestware

It's all here! Johnny built me a lovely rack to hang the teacups from.
In rainbow order:

• Scarlett
• Tangerine
• Sunflower
• Lemongrass
• Shamrock
• Peacock
• Colbalt
• Plum

My parents will be bring me a Tangerine platter and pitcher. Super exciting.

iCar

Connor really wants the Apple race car from the Pixar movie Cars. Since it is not available, and all you can buy are custom ones on ebay for $60, I made one for him. I'll let you guess which ones is the ebay version and which one I made.

Fiestaware

I did it.  I bought the Fiestaware.  First meal?  Leftover pizza.

It's been in the back of my mind for awhile now, and we had broke 4 plates, 1 mug, and 1 bowl.  So our old set was on the way out.

We picked out the following sets:
Scarlett
Tangerine
Sunflower
Lemongrass
Turquise
Shamrock
Cobalt
Plum
Sets include a dinner plate, salad plate, bowl, teacup and saucer.  The teacup is too small to be a coffee cup, so something will have to be done there.

I also got a platter and pitcher in Tangerine (of course).

What to do with the old plates now?  They are nice, heavy duty (and I think they were expensive) dishes.  Do you sell them? Donate? Keep?  They are in a shelf on the basement until I make a decision.

Goodview Days Mugs

How great and wonderful are these? A set of a dozen mugs from Goodview Days, dating from 1979 to 1994. They were 50 cents a piece at Salvation Army. I am going to go back and try to find the missing years, as these will become a very important part of our annual Goodview Days party. Everyone knows, Goodview Days is my FAVORITE holiday.

I just can not believe that someone would get rid of these.

Bedroom Make Over

We finally "finished" the bedroom. When we bought the house, the walls were painted white and there were lace curtains. I couldn't find a picture of that....so, just imagine! This is as close as it gets. ;)

The befores:Blue carpet??? That 13" TV/VCR combo has been returned to its original owner - Jessica.
The quilt hanging up as a make-shift curtain, I never meant for it to be a curtain. I bought it at a yard sale for $4, and I thought it was just beautiful. It is a handmade one, and now it has a home in the living room over a railing so that everyone can enjoy it.

Garbage can was sitting on top of the dresser, so the dogs could not get into it.
Cat bed on top of a dresser, on the right. We just threw that away, as Sammy never used it. Ever.
The carpet was in bad bad bad shape. We painted the room in September 2009, and were going to replace the carpet once the paint dried, so we didn't really cover the carpet much. It was full of white paint drops. Finally, the carpet has been replaced.


The Afters:

We completely re-arrange the furniture, trying to open the tiny room up.
New tan with brown flecks carpet. We changed out the brass colored closet door nobs with some darker metal ones. They match the metal hardware on the rest of the bedroom furniture.
We replaced the white sheer curtains with some brown and gold ones. They are Better Homes and Gardens ones from Walmart for $10 a piece. Now that is a steal. We have just white min-blinds behind them. The one is fine, but one still needs replacing. We need to wait till Spring, when the window plastics come down.
The old 13" TV/VCR was replaced by a flat screen from my parents. Fits much better! In the center towards the door, I put a new-to-the-room laundry hamper. This hamper was in Connor's room, and we just had a plastic laundry basket sitting in ours. I figure, might as well have the nice looking on in our nice looking room. Purple plastic moved the Connor's room!
The blue bedding has been replaced with this lovely brown and gold set. Another Walmart Better Homes and Gardens purchase. I bought just a bed-in-a-bag for $75. The sheets from the bed-in-a-bag are actually decent quality.
Now, I didn't clean up the closet very well. This is how is normally looks. You can see on the bottom right side of the closet, I moved the garbage can into there. There was space there, we don't have to look at it, and the dogs can't get into it now.

Quick Make-over

This lovely old microwave cart. Sigh. You know you have one, or two. We had two, but the one got severely broken. This one did have a 25" TV (don't walk by too quickly or it could collapse). We sold the TV on Craigslist for $25. Then the cart just turned into a dumping ground.

The ice cream pail was always there, it housed my "outdoor" things.

So, I cleaned it off with Murphy's Wood Soap (even though I am sure this is not real wood). I took two baskets that were downstairs, full of crap. But that is another story.

The top basket is full of "pool table" junk. Like chalk, racks, dice, brushes. The lower basket replaced my "outdoor" ice cream pail. This basket has things like sunglasses, bug spray, ear plugs for lawn mowing, animal brushes and sunscreen.

I got rid of that awful fantasy football trophy. And the bird house is headed outside.

I'm not a big fan of the picture frames just chilling on top, but that is a project for another day. Suggestions? I was thinking maybe an over sized serving tray or something. This was a ZERO cost makeover, as I already had the baskets. Gotta love that.

Corning Ware French White with Lasagna

It came, I used it. It was nice. Very beautiful looking stoneware. No lid, so I have to use Saran wrap, cause you know the Bberg's aren't eating a full 9x13 of lasagna in a sitting.

Have a done a regular lasagna?

1 can of crushed tomatoes
1 sliced up green bell pepper (just cause I had one)
2 to 4 cloves of garlic minced or finely chopped
olive oil
salt, pepper, basil
1 pound of whole wheat lasagna noodles
2 cups of shredded mozzarella
1 thing of fat free cottage cheese (like the bigger container)
1 egg
more salt, pepper, basil and now some nutmeg
1 cup of shredded parm

Cook up the garlic and peppers in the olive oil. Add the crushed tomatoes with some salt, pepper and basil. Cook for awhile, about 15 to 20 minutes.

While that is going, in a larger bowl, stir together the mozzarella, cottage cheese, egg, salt, pepper, basil and nutmeg.

Now, to assemble.

In your new 9x13 Corning Ware, cover the bottom with some olive oil. I use my fingers to spread it all around. Then put some of the red sauce on top of it. Wet the noodles, start to layer. I don't use "no-boil" or anything, I just get them wet before I begin the layer, and I have never had a problem with it. So, noodles, half the cottage cheese mix, red sauce, noodles, last half of the cottage cheese mix, red sauce, noodles, what is left of the red sauce, then the parm cheese.

At this point, I usually put it in the fridge and wait till dinner. You can even do this the night before. Then, bake at 350 for 45 minute with foil on top. Take the foil off after 45 minutes, and cook for another 15 minutes to get the parm all bubbly.

Pyrex

After the exploding Pyrex situation, I filed a complaint online.  They called me back today, I retold my story to the customer service woman.  She offered to send me out a replacement, but since I am nervous about using the glassware.  She agreed to send me a Corning ware Stoneware one instead.  I've never used them before, so I am excited about that.  She even offered to pay for the meal that was in the Pyrex at the time of the explosion, but I had removed the tenderloin before it broke.  I am very pleased with the level of service, and I am exceptionally glad I contacted them instead of just sitting and stewing.

My new dish comes in about a week via Fedex.

Jar of Memories

I came up with this fabulous idea all on my own. I had a photo box I was keeping of "memory" pieces of Connor. I don't like to keep stuff, so I try to keep only the important stuff. I wanted a nice way to keep things. So, here it is.

1 quart mason jars. One for each year of Connor's life. The first one has his onesie he wore home from the hospital, his nuk + chain, and a hand print. The second one has some favorite cars, and it goes on. I intend to put some nice sticker labels on them. All in good time. So, now as we approach year 4, I can save little momentos throughout the year.

Leaf Bowl

This beautiful leaf shaped bowl:
Better Homes and Gardens Brand for Wal-mart, $10, dishwasher, microwave safe. Apple Beautiful.
Seriously, $10.

Garage Light

How is that for a quick makeover? Got rid of the old one brassy light (there was only one) and replaced with two more modern looking ones. Fabulous.

SweeTango Apples

Here it is, the SweeTango apple. Have you heard about these? They were developed by University Minnesota, and are a cross between the Honey Crisp and Zestar! apples. So, it's very sweet, and very crisp. It may be the best apple I have ever tasted. I despise Red Delicious apples, always have. I don't like my fruit "mealy". Anyway, all the praises being said about how fantastic this apple is, still does not make it worth $2.70 a piece. FYI.

This is the first year you can get them, and quantities are EXTREMELY limited, so good luck. I got mine at Hy-vee last week. Hurry if you want them!

On a side note, I find apple trees disturbing. The ultimate in Frankenstein design.

Flowers

Finally, Waterford gets an upgrade from it's normal dandelion flowers.

Sea Glass Necklace

While photographing my jewelry, why not show this lovely necklace? My dear friend Stephanie gave it to me for my birthday. It appears to be sea glass on a leather cord.

Pizza Cutter

Just a fancy pizza cutter that stands up nicely?

NOPE, look closely! It's a dog, and the blade is a frisbee! Neat right? We received this as a wedding present from my darling Meghan over 7 years ago. It took us about 3 years to discover it was a dog. Funny, right?

The Koziol Cutter.