My Last Post.......

....only for a little while, just until I feel

good enough to get

up and move around and play....

Tomorrow is the big

day for me!

I am anxious, not so much for the

surgery, although

that is a really big factor, but, no

its mainly because

of the medical expenses that has come

because of my health.

It doesn't feel good knowing alot of the

bills are because of

my health, my problems, my issues.

Yesterday at the Pre-op

appointment, we paid for the hospital

stay, and eventhough

we have insurance, it still hurt! Hurt Bad!

I'm thinking of the fact

that we're adding this to the rest of the

medical bills. I got

emotional, but fought it hard not to show it

otherwise it worries my

dh.

He is so supportive, he tells me that I should

not worry, for better or for

worse, right?

Sorry, babe, I tell him, this is the worse

I guess.

But I"ve been very busy, I made lots of

food:

Split Pea and Chorizo Soup

Meatballs

Lasagna

Beef Stew

White Bean and Bacon Soup

White Chicken Chili

I'm hoping it'll last for a while

eventhough I know

we won't go hungry, thanks to

family and friends.

But I wanted to feel useful after

all this.

I'm doing laundry now and some

cleaning.

I have to pack an overnight bag

as well. UGGHHH!!

I can't wait until its all over and I

can come home.

I have lots of crafting I want to do

but I have to wait

a little bit. I will be resting for a few

days.

So I won't be posting until sometime

from now.

I'm going to take a break, for a little

while.

But please, feel free to leave me a comment.

So many have

and its meant so much. I will be checking

from time to time.

 Monday morning after lots of rain and wind

the sun came out and the

clouds looked

beautiful, it put a smile on my face and helped

me forget for that moment

It looks like a really snowy covered

mountain to me.

Isn't it so pretty? I love clouds, all the

shapes they can

take on. I think of how much our Creator

wants us to enjoy

the beauty around us and wants us to smile

and forget at that moment

what we're going

through!

Until later, take care and we'll "talk" soon.

Lots of Prep Work

Hello everyone, sorry its been so long since

I've last blogged.

I've had alot on my mind these past two

weeks, longer actually

but more so

lately.

You see, I've been seeing a Specialist for over

three months now.

Its been frustrating, and overwhelming.

Driving back and forth

each an hour

and a half one way, sometimes

up to two hours.

Its been nice going down to the city

but I'd rather do that under other

circumstances, oh well.

My last visit was

right at the end of December.

That's when I found

out I'll be having surgery.

I know I've posted this before, but in case

you don't know,

I have endometriosis.

Not fun, has

made my life miserable since I was a teenager

but got worse in my 20's.

For over 15 years, I have tried everything and

anything out there to

help me cope with it, but now my body

has rejected

whatever can be done. So, it has come

down to that dreaded

word:

surgery!!

"well, you have exhausted every means

out there",

says the Doctor,

"the only other options are, ablation,(yeah right

    you're burning up insides, I don't 

think so) another

type of BC, (sick and tired of taking

those) or surgery"

"Lets do the surgery". I said. "I've had enough

 of this!!"

So January 28th is the big day for me.

I've never had surgery

so I'm scared,

anxious, nervous, losing a little sleep

over it, but it

needs to be done if I want any quality of

life. I don't know

what quality of life really is to be honest

with you.

I'm young to be having this surgery

but, this is the result.

So for the next several days I will

be cleaning house,

doing laundry, and making meals that

I will freeze so all DH needs

to do is put them

in the oven or heat them up in the microwave.

I will be layed up for 3

weeks, so the other day, I went in and signed

up for Netflix for 6 weeks.

So lots of movies!!

Movies, reading, crafting, but no lifting whatsoever!!

Six weeks of no lifting.

I'm ready, its

time

time to move on

from this misery. Eventhough I'm scared, I'm ready.

But I have to stay one

night at the hospitaland I was not happy

about that. Since the

surgery is taking place

two hours

from our home, they want me to stay just in case.

STINK!!!!

Although I won't have a nose like that,

thank goodness,

I'll be layed up for awhile. So stop by and

say hi

especially after January 28th.

I most likely won't be

blogging after

that for sometime, but I will be reading

yours.

Feel free to leave me a comment,

they will put a smile

on my face when I feel like I'm losing

my mind since

I won't be able to leave my house for

that long...oh boy,

that'll be interesting, poor hubby,

he'll have to tolerate me.

I'll post one more

time before my surgery.

Now I've got to get cooking, and freezing, and

cleaning.

Bye for now.

Sewing Room Redo Part I

So I started sewing my window treatments
 this past Saturday,
FINALLY!! I've only had that

room for 4 years now!

So in my last post

I actually showed you my workspace,

but I knew if I did that

then I would

have to

work on it, so I did, on Saturday, YEA!!

I sewed the window

treatments on all three windows that I have,

Front window:

Just a simple roll up shade, nothing

fancy,

Don't you love my little sign:

Casa Bella,

I found it at Marshalls sometime

back and only

paid 5 dollars for it, so I was very

happy.

Now, my side window which I get to

look out of when

I'm at my sewing machine:

I love this spot, because I have a window

box there, and in the

spring and summer with flowers blooming

it looks pretty.

I can also look right at my house so if DH needs

me he can get my attention.

Now the back window:

You can see part of my fabrics there,

I need to find room

for more of my fabrics, I need to

get another storage

unit in there.

I have an old antique dresser in my room

but I need to paint it

and put it in our guestroom, so I'll need

something to store

all my papers, and extra fabrics and ribbons.

I have a cabinet in the

garage that needs alot of TLC so I may end

up putting that in here.

We'll see.

I will be adding a list on the right side of my

blog showing what

still needs to be done in my sewing room.

Today, I was able to

clean it well, steamed mopped the floors as well

so now its clean, no shoes in

there either, especially

on snowy or rainy days, its just makes my pretty

floors all dirty!

So there you have it ladies, I did my window

treatments. And it

didn't even take me that long to make either.

Except for when I had to

run back to

Hobby Lobby and purchase more ribbon, I

ran out!

Nothing more frustrating than that. I was on

a roll, and darnit, I ran

out of the black and white ribbon to tie up the

treatments with.

When I got there, they had only one left, and

thank goodness, that's

all I needed to finish this project. Hope you like

it, I do.

My Sewing/Craft Room- Don't Look!!

I've been house bound now since Sunday,

no fun!

Haven't gotten too much done either which

 is frustrating as well.

Today I was going stir crazy and I decided

to go into my sewing room

and see what I could get into, I walked in

there, and well

there's alot I could get into.

I can't believe I will be

showing you

these pictures I am about to show you

but this is it,

my sewing room

my oasis

where I can be creative, where

I can make a mess

and walk away

from it:

Are you ready?

Now you know I will have to kill

you, right?

LOL

I have something to admit as well,

I've had this craft room

now for 3 years,

maybe 4!!

Can you believe it? I'm embarrassed!

Its not like I've been sitting

around doing

nothing.

I've been sewing things for other

people,

making things for many craft shows.

So I've been busy,

which means no time for me.

My DH asks me

"when are you going to finish your room?"

Things to do:

• 
  
  Sew window treatments
  
  
  
• 
  
  Touch up the paint
  
  
  
• 
  
  Paint door
  
  
  
• 
  
  Make a corkboard for my inspirations
  
  
  
• 
  
  Get a shelving unit to replace the antique dresser
  
  
  

I even purchased fabric a long time ago

to make curtains:

Isn't it cute?

And how appropiate too.

Handbags, my specialty.

It has all the colors in

my shop.

So this week, yes this week, I will

go out and buy the curtain rods

that I need.

I was going to make roman shades

but decided instead

to make roll up

shades.

So now that I've shown you my sewing

room disaster

and now that I've told you I'm going out

to buy the rest of the

things I need,

Now I know I

have

to do it, this is a good excuse to get my

butt into gear.

So hopefully by the end of next week,

I will have made my curtains.

After that I will touch

up the paint.

But in the meantime I'm also making

some altered journals

I already cut the paper down to size,

one of the journals

I will make with cute baking paper

for a recipe book.

And I made some Gluten Free Brownies

I purchased these at Trader Joe's and

they are so delicious.

Make these for your family or friends

and don't tell them

they're GF,

They will never know. They are gooey,

fudgey

and  most importantly, chocolately!!

I added cherry flavored chocolate chips,

hoping to get the

chocolate covered cherries taste to the brownies.

MMMMM!!

So until next time, I will be busy sewing,

I hope!!

Dinner Party!!

It's the start of a New Year, still

can't believe its come

and gone that quickly. And such a

cold start here.

In the 20's but it feels like its only

6 degrees today.

Tonight, -7, BRRRRRRRR!!!

But last night, my dinner

party turned out

wonderful!

Everyone seemed to have thoroughly

enjoyed their dinner.

I made Coq Au Vin, for the first time!

Started out with cooking

the bacon first:

Getting the fat off the bacon before

searing the chicken.

Don't worry, I had a lid ready this time

for all the splattering....LOL

After cooking the chicken, I then seared

the onions:

It smelled so good.

The Chicken in the meantime rested

before entering it back

into the pot:

Now time to remove all the yummy

stuff off the bottom of

the pan, with some red wine, MMMM:

Cooking off the alcohol, scraping up the

bottom of the pan,

You need all that flavoring throughout.

Got out a seperate pot

to start cooking everything together:

Poured the red wine broth then into

the pot to begin simmering:

Now its starting to really smell

good around here.

Tasted the broth, added a little

more salt and pepper.

I'm so used to cooking with alot

of spices. Not hot spicy,

just alot of different

herbs, spices.

The French though, cook with

Salt, pepper, an herb or two

fresh garlic, and onion.

That's pretty much it.

They'll add wine to most of their

dishes and broth.

They want you to taste the meat

and vegetables and

not hide that with too many

spices.

So I had to make myself stick to

the recipe. I may have

added a little more salt or pepper,

a garlic clove extra,

but mainly stuck with the recipe.

When I took the chicken out

it took on this pretty

color:

Now the recipe has you leave the meat

on the bone, but my DH

does not enjoy eating meat off the bone,

it isn't pleasant to him..HEHE,

and I was expecting

12-14 people for dinner and for some

reason, I didn't get more

meat. So I panicked, and thought I had

to do something,

I guess I should take the meat off the

bone!

Some of them had more meat than others

so, by doing this, I actually

doubled the meat

amount.

I made all this the night before, as well

as a homemade chocolate

cake, which I forgot

to take pictures of after icing it, sorry.

I heated the red wine sauce

and thickened it

with a butter and flour paste.

Added the meat back into

sauce along with

the seared onions.

We sauteed some mushrooms.

Let the meat cook

in the sauce.

This is different than the recipe.

She has you serve the

meat on the plate

and the sauce seperately.

But instead,

I made a well in the middle of the

mashed potatoes,

added the meat with sauce in

the middle,

topped it with parsley and

added the mushrooms

around it.

I was so proud of this dish...

my friend, Becky and

my cousin,

Jessica were my helpers, last

night.

They did some chopping, set the

table.

I plated and garnished and had

them set it out before

everyone sat down.

This dinner was made for 8 full-

time ministers in our

congregation.

They came over for some encouragement

from a couple of our elders

and to be pampered

with a nice dinner.

Just to show

we appreciate their hard work and

sacrifices.

I had a lot of fun doing this for them.

So when they walked into

the dining room

we had it set up for them

and we had another table

it was alot of fun.

We then had coffee and my chocolate

cake.

Played games, laughed and just enjoyed

each others company.

It turned out

really nice, and there are leftovers,

YEA!

So take the time out to cook a special

meal for someone

to make them feel special for a day.

They'll love it

and you'll love doing it for them, too.