Bumming

Not much has really been going on around here, we have mostly just been a couple of bums. I did learn to arm knit and I made a couple scarves, the joke was made that it looked like I was into bondage LOL, for the record I am not. They did turn out pretty cool, I loved how soft and chunky they turned out! The light pink one is the first one I did and with the thickest yarn. I used red heart grande yarn and love that one the most. The purple one I made for someone special for Christmas. The awesome multi color one I made for a friend and the green and purple one I kept because it was kinda pieced together.

We also for no reason have gotten a romantic burst, we have had two picnic lunches this week and it was so much fun. The first one we got such from our favorite Kim's Lil Store in Pocahontas and got lunch and took it to the lake and ate our lunch and the the second time we got split a footlong from subway and took it up on East River and ate. East River was beautiful, it had snowed a little that day and since East River it a lot higher it had more snow!!

It was so pretty but a little bit colder then down in town. Other then this we have been pretty lazy.

Residents!

So for the last few weeks we have been working on getting all the things we need to transfer our licenses from Illinois to West Virginia. Last Monday we went to Welch to get paperwork that has our physical address. Here in McDowell Count physical addresses are a relativity new thing. Within the past 5 years they have made it mandatory for everyone to have a physical address. Mountain Mans dad never had the urge to find out what his address in so we had to go to the 911 Addressing Center and get the official paper with our address. Then it was down to city hall to register to vote so that we could get another proof of address on our voter registration card. Sadly there is a waiting period to get your voter card if you don't have a WV license, so we waited for till it came on the mail. The normal wait time is 10 days, luckily I got it on Friday which was half the time they said!! On Tuesday we headed down to Welch to the DMV with all the paper work needed; birth certificate, social security card, Illinois license, and 2 proofs of residence (911 paper and voter registration). We got there and started the process. First we filled out transfer applications, then took a vision test, next all information was put in the computer and finally we got our pictures taken and license was printed.

Yay it was so exciting getting this taken care of and out of the way! I do have to admit it was a little sad letting go of my Illinois license. I do like my picture better on the West Virginia one, Mountain Man thinks I look younger in the new one and they are 3 years apart.

Getting Ready for Christmas!

So as soon as Thanksgiving dinner was over and cleaned up I was so excited to start one of my favorite things of the year, decorating for Christmas! I have so many decorations that mean so much to me. I have collected nutcrackers for about 15 years now so I have quite the collection. Last year I  enjoyed making my owl tree skirt with matching stockings, it was so much fun getting it out this year  in our new home. I loved setting up our tree and looking at all the ornaments that I love.

 Putting out my village pieces with my grandmothers Christmas tree is a favorite of mine, anything that I can put in my home that was hers makes it that much more special.

Love my nutcrackers!!

We made sure to get the outdoor lights up too. We actually got those up a couple weeks ago when the weather was nice and hooked them up oner the weekend. Its not much but I love my big lights that dance and do a show!

It has been so much fun decorating for our 1st Christmas in our new home in a new state!

Thanksgiving Week

So Monday was just a normal day had breakfast, made pie crust and did some grocery shopping then about 3pm the power went out!  We are pretty sure that the 50 to 70 mph winds had something to do with the power outage. This is the first time this has happened since we have been here so it was kinda fun I guess. We had fun relaxing by the fire, made sure we didn't open the fridge and freezer too much and had a blast playing rummy by headlamp. Down here in the county you never now how log the power will be off, luckily it was only off for about 10 hours so we didn't have to worry about emptying the freezer or how I was going to start prepping for Thanksgiving with no electricity.

Tuesday we woke up and we had power but the best part was waking up to beautiful white fluffy stuff known as SNOW falling from the sky! I love snow and you will probably read that at least 100 more time this winter but I really do love snow! So of course we went out and admired the beauty of the new fresh snow.  Mountain Man does't catch snowflakes on his tongue, he does it with the beard!

As I was starting to prep for Thanksgiving Mountain Man walked in and said "whats your favorite Frozen song" and I said "Let it Go" he said "no the other one" and I got all excited and said "Do you wanna build a snowman" then turned off the oven and went to get my snow stuff and we went out to build a snowman!!

So after our fun of building a snowman I came in to warm up and to get started cooking. I made a pecan pie, 2 pumpkin pies, put the green bean casserole together in the pan for cooking and made cranberry sauce. 

On Thursday we woke up around 7am Mountain Man and his dad got the fire going for the turkey to go on and his mom and I cooked a breakfast of bacon, biscuits and gravy. I seasoned the turkey with salt, pepper, garlic, and onion and it wen on the stick at 9:30 over a nice hot fire. I made my phone calls to friends and family back in Illinois wishing them a Happy Thanksgiving.

They were so awesome for braving the 20 to 30 degree temp to tend to the turkey. They also had to cut some trees and chop wood to keep it going for the 8 hours it took to cook and smoke over the fire.

While the turkey was roasting I had fun finishing the rest of Thanksgiving Dinner. I made dinner rolls, a wonderful mashed sweet potato and banana casserole with pecan topping, mashed potatoes. Mountain Man's mom made the stuffing and gravy. The turkey came off around 4:45pm and we let it sit for an hour while we finished up cooking all the side dishes.

We carved the turkey and sat down to have an awesome Thanksgiving Meal! 

Hopefully you and yours had a

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Being Crafty

 For about the last year I have been brainstorming on how I wanted to decorate the house and the room that I am set on and have all kinds of ideas is the kitchen. I have always loved yellow for a kitchen, growing up my grandma always had a yellow kitchen and just makes me remember her so much, so I decided I had to have a yellow kitchen with grey cabinets. Then started the search for the perfect fabrics because I am making curtains and other accessories. So I found these fun stripes and was so excited to make the curtains. Then my birthday came around and I got this awesome clock and just had to figure out away to mix it in the kitchen!! So off to the fabric store to see if I could find something that would tie it all together.

Unfortunately I haven't made the curtains yet but I have been working on some wall art. I made a stencil of the flower and bought a 12x24 canvas and let my creativity take it from there! 

I started with arranging the flowers on the canvas and then painted them the blueish green colors.

I love the flowers and decided to start on the rest of it, I did the stripes form the original fabric and added our initials!! I love it but thought it needed a little more because the wall they are going on is very large.

So I got 2 more 12x12 canvases to add to the bigger one, I did the same background but added some new silhouettes of a teapot and a kitchen-aid mixer.

I am so excited of how they turned out and I can't wait to see them up with everything else, hopefully I can get the walls painted in the spring. Hopefully I can get to the curtains in the next few days and I can hang them up for Thanksgiving!! Probably wishful thinking! lol

Something Old & Something New

So the last few days Mountain Man and I have been a little bit under the weather, we woke up Tuesday and did not feel well at all, we were all stuffed up, coughing and feeling yucky. Thankfully I had made some chicken noodle soup on Monday with the leftover chicken on a stick and homemade chicken broth. We relaxed most of the morning and then made a trip to town to get some groceries and more meds! On Wednesday we still felt yucky so just hung out at home, I started feeling a little better in the afternoon. I got enough energy to make some pizza rolls and an awesome Peanut Butter-Fudge Cheesecake from my favorite blog Brown Eyed Baker. I absolutely love this blog, it is my go to for any recipe, I always check there for a recipe before looking elsewhere. Having never made a cheesecake so this was a new experience for me, overall it wasn't too bad to make. The best part of the day was that Mountain Man jumped in and helped me with the pizza rolls and the cheesecake. I taught him how to form the pizza rolls, he did all the heavy lifting of the food processor and the Kitchen Aid, he also helped me decide when the cheesecake was done. 

We love these pizza rolls or pepperoni roll, they are so so good, you can eat them hot or cold. They are good no matter what. I just made a batch of these this last weekend for us to much on down at Panther and they were gone by Sunday morning! I like them with pepperoni, black olives and cheese, Mountain Man likes them with everything, pepperoni, black olives, onions, cheese, and mushrooms. 

Then it was onto the cheesecake, this is something that I have wanted to make for awhile but I was very intimidated by them. So I decided it was time put on my big girl panties and just do it. I headed over to my favorite blog to see what she has to offer and of course something amazing Peanut Butter-Fudge Cheesecake!! So I started with the Oreo curst which was really easy, I froze that for 10 mins and then made the fudge and froze that for 10 mins, then sprinkled on chopped peanut butter cups, that to start with sounds awesome! I froze the base while I made the peanut butter cheesecake, poured that in and then baked the cheesecake. Sadly I had to put it in the fridge over night before I could try it. This Morning I made the ganache on the top and let that set before I cut it and took half to a friend. 

It truly was very yummy but the verdict is that it is very rich and possible could have cooked a little longer. Overall I will so try it again.