Mom's Gingerbread House

My mom passed away suddenly in a "freak" accident in 2002. It was the single, most devastating thing that has ever happened in my life. She was more than a mother, she was my best friend. She was the most talented and creative person I've ever known. Luckily, I got a little bit of that from her but I could never even come close to her creativity. She was also the most giving person in the world. Many years ago, I'd guess about 25 she made me this gingerbread house. She would sometimes make entire gingie villages, you can see a prior post I made earlier below: Don't know why I can't get it to insert the actual link.

http://cyndimacsnickknacks.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-01-27T09:37:00-05:00&max-results=16

I have had this gingerbread house boxed up for many years as I just knew that from our move that it could in no way be intact. I cringed to even look inside the box as I knew it would probably be dust. You cannot imagine my surprise when I got it out this past weekend (finally got up the nerve)and it was in very good shape, other than the icing looks more like caramel now, a snowman's and deer's heads were broken off and a window was missing. I got out the old super glue and went to town (the window was beyond fixing as it was so fragile) and I am very happy with the result. I hope to be able to decorate with this gingie house for many years to come. Who knew that candy and gingerbread would hold together so well? Check out the sidewalk made out of Teaberry chewing gum. Remember that gum? Was my fave! I feel blessed!

New Kitchen, New Appliances

Merry Christmas, Happy Anniversary, Happy Birthday to me...for the next 5 years or more! We are in the process of remodeling our kitchen and we bit the big bullet last weekend and bought new stainless steel appliances. I am just overjoyed at knowing that I'm finally getting rid of my old almond appliances and bringing in these shiny gems! I researched and researched and the more I researched the more confused I got. You can find negatives and positives about every single brand of appliance out there. We always want our entire kitchen to match as that is just the way we are, everything has gotta match so we finally decided to go with the GE Profile series. I hope we won't be disappointed. I fell in love with the sleek, modern, contemporary look plus the double oven was the dealbreaker. Hubby wanted a counter depth fridge so we both got what we wanted. I have a friend that has these in her kitchen and she has been happy with hers for many years...so we shall see! Hope we have the same luck. Buying appliances is like buying a car...not quite as expensive but pretty close. We were lucky to get in on the early "Black Friday" sales and got 20% off the sale price so we got them more reasonable than usual. I don't usually wish time away as that is what I complain of most...so little time but can't November 29th hurry up and get here? We won't get the fridge until the middle of December so it will be quite awhile before my kitchen will be complete. I am also getting granite countertops and backsplash January 3rd...cannot wait to have a completely "clean" kitchen. Will post pics of the finished kitchen hopefully in January. In the meantime here are a few pics of my beauties that will grace my kitchen. I'm overjoyed!

The Beauty of Living in Kentucky

I am a Kentucky girl through and through. It is very true that we that live in Kentucky bleed blue. We love our beloved Kentucky Wildcats alot! I have never lived anywhere else in my life and I doubt even my husband can take me out of Kentucky when we retire. I'm working on trying to stay in Kentucky at least 9 months out of the year when we retire, if ever we get a chance to do that. Some days I doubt it will ever happen with the economy in the mess it is in. I can still dream of the days I can paint my little heart out every single day. I will always paint as long as I'm able and hope to keep selling my ornaments for a long time to come. Here are a few pictures of our treasured horses since we are after all "The Horse Capital of the World." So they say. Hope you enjoy!

Bacon Chicken Crescent Ring

What is one of the most versatile foods ever? Why crescent rolls of course! Oh, the recipes are endless! Here is a favorite one of mine. I love sandwich recipes...so EZ and quite tasty! Not to mention it looks very impressive. Like you've spent all day in the kitchen! Enjoy!

Bacon Chicken Crescent Ring (8 servings)
2 tubes crescent rolls
10 oz. can chunk chicken, drain & flake (I cooked a few breasts)
1-1/2 c. (6 oz.) Swiss cheese, shredded
3/4 c. mayonnaise
1/2 c. red pepper, chopped
1/4 c. onion, chopped
6 bacon strips, cooked & crumbled
2 T. Dijon mustard
1 T. Italian salad dressing mix

Grease 14” pizza pan. Unroll crescent roll dough; Separate into 16 triangles. Place wide end of one triangle 3” from edge of prepared pan with point overhanging edge of pan. Repeat with remaining triangles along outer edge of pan, overlapping the wide ends (dough will look like a sun). Lightly press wide ends together. In small bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Spoon over side ends of dough. Fold points of triangles over filling and tuck under wide ends (filling will be visible). Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.

Merry Christmas to Me!

I do believe I'm gonna bite the bullet and start collecting these most wonderful resin gingerbread houses. I mostly like to buy handmade but I should be able to enjoy these for many years to come. I have the perfect ledge in my kitchen to display them. Aren't these just fabulous? I love to buy myself something really "special" every Christmas because when my mom was alive she would always buy me something for Christmas that I fell in love with. I tell myself that these special Christmas gifts to myself are from my mom because if she were here she would be surprising me with them, she would want me to have them. That is how SPECIAL she was! I so miss her!

Baby's First Christmas

Lots of new babies in 2011. I've gotten several orders for Baby's First Christmas lightbulb ornies and here they are! I think they turned out so cute! Lovin' the green one!

PINTEREST

Well, what rock have I been under? How long has Pinterest been around without me being a part of it? So many questions about such a wonderful website. I think Pinterest will be in the same category with the likes of Yahoo, Facebook, etc. If you haven't checked it out for yourself, then you are missing lots of things. It didn't take me long to have over 2,000 things pinned. I have so many Christmas decorating ideas, Christmas food to make, clothes to buy, home decorating, etc. that I don't know how I will ever find time to do such. I'm thinking of even making myself make at least one or two recipes off of it every month. Heck, even my sisters are hooked and this year for Christmas we are doing a craft swap but the idea has got to come from Pinterest. Here is a link to my board if you wanna get started! Enjoy! You will be happy you did!

http://pinterest.com/cyndimac/