My Favorite Things - Bybee Pottery

In the last few years I have developed a love of pottery.  In the summer of 2005, we helped our middle daughter and her new husband move to Kentucky.  We took advantage of the opportunity to explore regions of the United State that we never thought we'd never visit.  One of our favorite spots in Kentucky was a small town called Berea, which just happens to be the folk arts and crafts capital of Kentucky.  While we were there I discovered Bybee Pottery.  It is the oldest existing pottery west of the Alleghenies (established in 1809).  I love Bybee pottery because it is handmade - which means each piece has slight imperfections which increases the individuality of the piece of pottery.

Here are my canisters...

My Kentucky Hot Brown dishes...

My favorite little casserole...

P-Dub's Cinnamon Rolls

I recently decided to try Pioneer Woman's famous cinnamon rolls.  They are as just as good as they look!!  I divided her recipe in half, since it's just my husband and me now, and baked them in a large pizza pan.

 Here they are just before I popped them in the oven.

Hot, out of the oven.

After I drizzled the frosting all over.

Yum-o!!!

Wordless Wednesday

(Since it rarely snows in Colorado anymore, here is a picture from my daughter's blog.  She lives in Kentucky where they are having yet another snow day.)

My Favorite Things - Pie Birds

Here is my favorite birdie from my "Pie Bird" collection.  I only have about 6 Pie Birds and none of them are vintage, but they bring a smile to my face when ever I see them...

Indescribable

How to Crochet a Heart

I would love to be able to crochet!  I can sew, I can do most crafts, I can "tickle the ivories" with my 10 fingers over 88 keys, but I can't crochet anything except a chain stitch.  

Just in case there is anyone out there who loves the look of crochet and would like to make a little something for Valentine's Day, here is a cute link with a tutorial video, how to crochet a heart.

Great Truths About Life

(Author Unknown) GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT LIFE THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED: No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats. When your Mom is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your hair. If your sister hits you, don't hit her back (They always catch the second person). Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato. You can't trust dogs to watch your food. Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair. Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time. You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk. Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts. The best place to be when you're sad is Grandpa's lap. GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT LIFE THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED: Raising teenagers is like nailing Jell-O to a tree. Wrinkles don't hurt. Families are like fudge . . . mostly sweet, with a few nuts. Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground. Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside. Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fiber, not the toy. GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT LIFE THAT OLD PEOPLE HAVE LEARNED: Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional. Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get. When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there. You're getting old when you get the same thrill from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster. It's frustrating when you know all the answers, but nobody bothers to ask you the questions. Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician. Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone. THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE You believe in Santa Claus. You don't believe in Santa Claus. You are Santa Claus. You look like Santa Claus.

Post It Note Tuesday...

Nordy's BBQ

Today, we went to Nordy's BBQ Restaurant for the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet.  For just $9.95, you can eat unlimited amounts of BBQ brisket, sausage, pork and/or chicken plus lots of sides - tossed salad, green beans, baked beans, potato sald, coleslaw-pasta salad, mashed potatoes and apples...

Here's my plate...brisket...yum!!  (Green beans and potato salad are hidden

under the brisket sandwich.)

Here are their famous BBQ sauces (I like the Texas)...

Here's the bar...

Here's the main dining room.

If you ever have a chance to visit a Nordy's, you will love it.  There is a location in Olde Town Ft. Collins and Loveland (near I-25 & US34).  Thanks, Superfam, we really appreciated the gift card!!!

11 Step Program for Those Thinking of Becoming Parents

Here is something cute to read if you have nothing to do this weekend.  It was taken from a post on Facebook...

Lesson 1

1. Go to the grocery store.

2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.

3. Go home.

4. Pick up the paper.

5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...

1. Methods of discipline.

2. Lack of patience.

3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.

4. Allowing their children to run wild.

5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.

Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3

A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...

1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)

2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.

3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.

4. Set the alarm for 3AM.

5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.

6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.

7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.

8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.

9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4

Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out...

1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.

2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.

3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.

4. Then rub them on the clean walls.

5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.

6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.

1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.

2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.

1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.

Leave it there.

2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.

3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.

4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7

Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8

1. Hollow out a melon.

2. Make a small hole in the side.

3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.

4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.

5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.

6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9

Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say 'it's all worth it!' Share it with your friends, both those who do and don't have kids. I guarantee they'll get a chuckle out of it. Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you'll need when you become a parent!

This Moment...

A Soulemama inspiration 

A Day in the Life...

• I had to get out yesterday eventhough it was only -11 degrees when I woke up.  We had a couple of inches of snow over the weekend and it isn't melting because it is sooo cold!  I needed some needles for my sewing machine.  Our town of 100,000, only has one fabric store and it is located near the university.  Of course, I forgot to wear my boots, so after I bought my needles, I was carefully walking back to my car, trying to avoid the icy spots. Suddenly, a red card "spun out" all too close to me.  Instead of taking his foot off the accelerator, the idiot  college student began spinning "donuts".  Funny, huh?  Well, not so funny when it happens 30 feet away from you!  All I could imagine was how painful it would be to be hit by a car and/or be pinned between this out-of-control car and my cute little Honda.  And it's way to cold for pain!  So, chicken that I am, I carefully side-stepped the ice and went back into the store.

• Then, in the afternoon, I had a phone call from someone claiming to be from Microsoft.  A voice with a foreign accent stated that my computer was downloading viruses from the internet.  "Were you aware of that?" the voice asked.  I said I was not.  "Oh, my goodness!," said the voice from the phone.  I said, "I'm sorry," and hung up.  Really! Would someone really call me from Microsoft if my computer really was downloading viruses?  I can't even talk to a real person when I do call Microsoft.  And what about the Microsoft Security Essentials virus protection I have on my compute.  Really! Would anyone be a sucker for a phone call like that?

A Healthier Version of My Favorite Salad

This recipe is an old favorite of mine.  I first tasted it about 15 years ago at a Church Potluck Dinner and immediately fell in love with it (thanks, Kay).  With the beginning of the new year, I feel I should be more conscious of eating healthily, so I made a few changes to the old recipe and found that the salad is still delicious!

Broccoli Salad - Old Recipe

2 bunches fresh broccoli, washed and separated in small pieces

1/2 pound bacon, browned and crumbled

1/2 c raisins or black olives

1/2 c chopped pecan pieces

1/2 c chopped red onion

1/2 c shredded cheddar

Dressing:

1/4 c mayonnaise

1/4 c sugar

2 T vinegar

Broccoli Salad - Healthier Version

2 bunches fresh broccoli, washed and separated in small pieces

2 T Bacon Bits

1/2 c Craisins

1/2 c chopped pecan pieces

1/2 c chopped red onion

1/2 c shredded mozzarella

Dressing:

1/8 c mayonnaise

1/8 c sugar

1 T vinegar

Eagles Game

My husband and I don't go out much, so it was a nice surprise when my oldest daughter and her husband gave us a "date night" for Christmas.  The date package consisted of a Gift Card for a great BBQ
restaurant near us called Nordy's, $5 cash for parking, and tickets to a Colorado Eagles hockey game!!  What a thoughtful gift!!

Here are some pictures...

 the Eagles "Fanboni"

Eagle Mascot - "Whose House?" 

"Our House" 

Introductions... 

National Anthem... 

the game... 

 the cheerleaders...

It was very interesting to watch a hockey game in person, although I was a little freaked out by all the fighting!

Unfortunately, the Eagles lost 3-6.

This Moment...

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

A Soulemama inspiration (check it out).

(I imagine the dog is thinking - Whew! The grandkids are in bed!)

A Trip to Casa Bonita

The past two weeks have been wonderful!!  My 2 out-of-state daughters and their families have been visiting (well, the husbands had to go back home on the 29th to return to work, but the girls and kiddos stayed until yesterday).  Unfortunately, almost all of us had the stomach flu during those two weeks, but most of the time we had a marvelous time enjoying each other's company.

Whenever my husband and I travel, we make sure we eat at restaurants that we don't have in Colorado.  For instance, when we visit Kentucky, we always visit White Castle, so my daughter who lives in Kentucky made sure she ate at Chipotle and Panda Express while she was here.  We also spent a day in the Denver area on January 1, and ate at the infamous Casa Bonita.  My oldest grand-daughter will be 10 in March, and she never had been there, so I guess it's been a while since we've visited.  The food isn't anything to write home about, but the atmosphere is fantastic!!!

 Casa Bonita

My daughters, grandchildren and one son-in-law... 

View from behind the waterfall... 

View from the wishing well... 

 Entrance to Black Bart's Hide-Out...

The cave... 

 Diver...

So pretty with all the Christmas lights!!!