My Casa Bella

COME IN THE EVENING, OR COME IN THE MORNING;

COME WHEN YOU'RE LOOK'D FOR,

OR COME WITHOUT WARNING.

KISSES AND WELCOME YOU'LL FIND BEFORE YOU,

AND THE OFTENER YOU COME HERE

THE MORE I'LL ADORE YOU!

-Thomas Osbourne Davis



Welcome To My Casa Bella

My Casa Bella- means-my beautiful home- but it can mean so many other things. How you make your home a home. The sounds of children or pets playing. The aroma of scones in the oven or a lilac candle burning. The flowers blooming in your garden. The home grown vegetables ready to be picked. Grandma's quilt at the foot of the bed. A fire to curl up to with a good book. Or just a family spending time together with love, laughter and a good time.





















Wednesday, January 27, 2010

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.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

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.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

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.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

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!!

Saturday, January 2, 2010

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.