Cause you're hot then you're cold

We have been toughing it out here in our house for the last couple of days. The weather being off it's rocker  and me flat refusing to turn on the AC for two days when freezing temps are due the 3rd day/eve .... well, it has made us a little grumpy and a little sluggish. Yesterday we almost hit 90 degrees outside and in our den it had to have been that plus atleast five degrees. We have windows open and fans going, tank tops and shorts on but we still were yucko. Today has been better and this eve has been nice. I am sitting here with the fan blowing in the cool night air ... finally not grumpy. LOL! Heck my shoulder is almost cold from the fan. By Friday morning guess what I will be wearing more then likely.....slippers, warm pants and a hoody. We have 33 for an over night low. *smh* 

My favorite saying I have seen my friends use is ... Oklahoma, where the seasons do not exist and the forecast is made up. Now with that said I am going to stand up for our weather men and women. It is not their fault .. it is the weather. It does not matter how up to date and new fangled their machines are it is the weather and we can not control it. They do their best to pin point where the storm may hit or what will drop from the sky due to it but control it so they are 100% right is not in the cards. I feel bad when people get all angry over the storm changing last second and not being what was anticipated. Not only are you making an ass of yourself but you look ignorant for thinking these people are some sort of powerful elemental wizard. Wait isn't that Avatar. How wonderful it would be to be able to bend the elements. My first display of power would be earth.... all the dirt work for my garden done with no raking, hoeing or achen back. LOL! Ohhh I know a few of you just closed your eyes and day dreamed all your weeds gone and the beds all perfect and ready for plants. * busted! * 

I love Spring! I just want to have one. I do not want to go from the Winter that never ends to the Summer of  the sidewalk graveyard of melted flip flop rubber. I want to be able to sit outside and enjoy a cool country night with a nice glass of wine. Is that too much to ask? Well if you live in Oklahoma it might be. 

But hey a girl can dream. 

Have a wonderful Wednesday my freaky darlings.

No I did not duct tape her to the wall

But I did duct tape her. LOL!

So as most you know I crochet. If you don't then where the hairy heck have you been cause I talk about it all the time?*bratty eye roll* Anywho I have a show coming up in 5 days and I wanted a dress form to display my gorgeous web scarves on. I looked online and had to pick my jaw up off my desk almost instantly.They have some REALLy nice ones out there but even the most basic of forms were $100 or more. EPPPP! Most of you also already know that I am not willing to pay out the nose for something I know I can make for WAY less myself. *Ohhh you better know this cause it is my whole reason for living!! MUHAHA!* Ya the wheels started turning ... OK so the wheels weren't actually turning in my head but they sure where on my mouse. Pinterest here I come!!!

I am so in love with that site. I would bring it home , cook it dinner and even spoon it all night if I could. Ohhh ya baby!! Hi my name is Christi and I am addicted to pinning. LOL! 

Where was I cause I kinda got lost in my visions of pin boards?  .....

Oh ya!!

I found a couple of ideas and talked them over with my , hopeful she will agree to this, model. Who happened to squee and jump at the chance. I love my like minded daughter. *grins*  I got 4 rolls of Purple , of course, duct tape and a HUGE bag of fiber fill from the store and advised my electric tool operators of what they were about to help me with.We had an old fan that died and so we upcycled it's stand to use for this project. Plus we had scrap wood and screws in the shed to give our bust a good solid base to sit atop so it didn't become the next limbo champ. I sent the girls on a hunt for an old t-shirt that we were not going to mind offering as a sacrifice to the dress form diva.

It was super easy to do ... just a word of caution. DO NOT use a model who might suffer from being turned into a mummy. Beth handled it like a champ but wanted to make sure the warning was issued for anyone else who tries this. Oh and DO THE NECK last. 


Ok so needed items....

t-shirt 
3 rolls , 20 yards apiece, duct tape 
plastic wrap 
fiber fill stuffing
scissors 
screws
wood or sturdy base 
a pole on a base ... be creative , you could use an old lamp stand , or a fan stand or maybe even a coat rack.
a willing model

Start with placing a band of tape under the bust line.
Make an X going from shoulder between breast to just under breast line. 
Now fill in and go around and cover the shirt. DO NOT TRY and just wrap around and around cause this will not work... no I did not try this. You will be doing a lot of tearing the tape into strips. 

After you get your shirt covered use scissors and Extreme Care to cut up the middle of shirt in back straight up to neck. ALSO remember to use caution when reaching the bra line... don't want to have to replace that.Kinda would defeat the saving money thing.

Duct tape the seam back together applying a second and third strip to each side of seam. 

NOW fill your new buddy up and add more tape if needed for shaping and closing sleeves, neck and waist. 

I placed the form onto the wood and traced the bottom onto it to be trimmed. My tool man cut a small square of wood to place under the circle base to use as a stud. So it went closed form , stud block sealed to form with duct tape then wood circle base sealed to base with duct tape. Yes she is one sturdy diva now.

Ok so here are some pictures of our little project and I know the directions aren't brilliant but my hope is that they inspire you to think outside the box and be creative and imaginative. I know you can do it!!

 

A quiet house is a ....

Oh My Golden Gate Bridge did I say a quiet house?!? Yes I did!!! I love Spring!! Half the family went and played disc golf today which meant peace and quiet. Oh it was SO nice. I was able to try out a new knitting technique ... arm knitting. It was fun and easy and I was able to get two scarves made for the bizarre while they were gone AND before I needed to start dinner. GO ME!!  Oh and I still have some yarn left to make one more. LOVE! 

SO onto tonight's new meal. * drum roll *

Creamy White Chicken and Artichoke Lasagna

 Try saying that five times fast. LOL! 

Cast of players in tonight's  journey into the unknown are.....

Creamy White Chicken & Artichoke Lasagna

Ingredients
 meat from 1 whole rotisserie chicken 
2 cans (14 oz.) artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
2 cans diced fire roasted tomatoes
2 pkgs (8 oz.each) Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
1 cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
4 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
2 cups milk
 1 tsp. garlic powder
 2 tsp dry Basil Leaves crushed
12 lasagna noodles, cooked OR one package egg roll wrappers
Directions
Heat oven to 350°F.
Combine chicken, artichokes, tomatoes, 1 cup mozzarella and Parmesan.
Beat cream cheese, milk, and garlic powder with mixer until well blended; stir in the basil.
Mix half of the cream cheese mixture with the chicken mixture.
Spread half of the remaining cream cheese sauce onto bottom of
13×9-inch baking dish; cover with 3 noodles or EG wrappers and 1/3 of the chicken
mixture. Repeat layers of noodles or EG wrappers and chicken mixture
Top with remaining cheese sauce and mozzarella to cover.
Bake 25 min. or until heated through.

This will make TWO 13 x 9 pans. You will have left overs unless you have teenagers like I do. O.o 



Pictures are sideways today as to help you do some neck exercises NOT because I am having a laid back weekend and just forgot to edit them. * grins *   I hope you enjoy!!!

Happy Friday!!

It really is run your rump off Friday so everything is done and you can be somewhat lazy all weekend. *grins* Got ALL the errands ran yesterday and yes that meant a quick dinner cause we were tired and were ready to relax. It was a new meal but I was not too worried for it was a simple meal and those usually are not fails. We made a quick Slider with Dragon Harli salad on the side. Hmmmm I need to post the two pasta salads that were morphed into one. I shall do that but for now we will see the list of players in.......

White Trash Sliders!!!

 The original I got from Pinterest the link is here. SYM

 Of course I made some changes to make it a little more feed a family of 6 cheaper. I cut out the sausage. *smile*

 White Trash Sliders

 
2 pound ground beef
1 pound Velveeta
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
24 slider buns or soft dinner rolls, toasted or steamed

Brown ground beef until cooked through.  Thoroughly drain pan drippings from meat
Combine browned meat, Velveeta, onion powder and black pepper in a saucepan and heat on low until cheese is melted and bubbly. 

Serve with fries or picnic sides.

Was super easy and super yummo. 

  

No frogs where harmed in the making of this dish

This Easter I made a dish that normally my grandmother makes. I was skeered to say the least. The one thing that will sink you quicker then three plump men in a boat with no plug is to mess up a dish that EVERYONE knows how it is to taste. Yes this dish has some prep time due it needing to chill out in the cold box but it is VERY worth it. Wonderful for pot luck meals and a perfectly sneaky way to get kids to eat fruit. ONE word of advice use normal white mini marshmallows ... the fruity ones just don't jive as you would think they would being they match the fruit in the dish...... BUT NO they make it wonky. 

I have provided a list of players as well as some pictures of the pasta when it was cooked and mixed witht he sauce. Easter morning was crazy and I didn't get the end result picture taken. SO I guess that means I make it again to snap it. LOL!

Pasta -

3 qt. water
1 16 oz. pkg. Acine de Pepe

 1 tbsp. cooking oil 

Sauce -

1 c. sugar
2 1/2 tsp. salt
2 eggs, beaten

2 tbsp. flour

1 3/4 c. pineapple juice
1 tbsp. lemon juice

  

The Yum - 

 1 20 oz. can pineapple chunks, drained
1 8 oz. carton Cool Whip
4 cans fruit cocktail , drained
1 c. miniature marshmallows

 Directions -

Bring 3 quarts of water and 2 teaspoons salt to boil and add oil.Add Acine de Pepe.Cook at rolling boil until pepe is soft to crush. Drain. Rinse with water, drain and cool to room temperature.

While the pasta is boiling  start the sauce by Combining the sugar, flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and gradually stir in pineapple juice and beaten eggs. Cook over moderate heat, stirring until thickened. Add lemon juice. Cool to room temperature.

 Combine egg mixture and Acine de Pepe. Mix lightly. Refrigerate overnight in airtight container. Then add pineapple, fruit cocktail, marshmallow, and Cool Whip. Mix lightly. Chill.

 Keeps for a week in airtight container. 

Can also be frozen. 

Serves 25

Memory Monday

Today in class Harli and I were going over what books we were reading this month. It made me think back to when the girls were ALL about Twilight. The last, and actually it overlapped due to the movies, BIG book craze we had in the house was Harry Potter. Now don't get me wrong it still sparked conversation but not like Twilight and the teams did. Personally I am Team Edward because it rains all the time in Forks and who likes the smell of wet dog. *scrunches nose* 


So without further ado I give you Memory Mondays Picture.... ignore the carpet padding and cabinet... we were in the middle of building on a new room and garage to den remodel. :P