Pinned It and Ate It

We had some friends over for dinner last evening...kind of an impromptu thing. I thought I would try some new recipes for our meal.
This was kind of the last Hurrah! for Valentine's Day before I pack up the decorations.

I decided on the menu and two dishes came from Pinterest.

For the main course I made

Meatball Stroganoff

from Julie May of Menu Musings of a Modern American Mom.

(She writes very detailed recipes...with lots of photos, so helpful!)

Because I was busy finishing up the dinner prep, I failed to take a photo so I'm borrowing Julie's.

This recipe was quick, easy and delicious! When I wrote to Julie to ask if I could use her
photo of the dish, she told me that she is coming out with a cookbook in May or there-abouts.
 I will want to check that out. I need to spend time perusing her blog. I saw a recipe for Puff Pastry Breakfast Pizzas that looked real good....and easy. OK, on with the meal...

I used two bags of Trader Joe's Turkey Meatballs..
You throw them into some hot oil  in the pan, still frozen, and they worked out great!
 She advises using the amount of herbs listed, even if they seem like a lot, and she's right, they give a fabulous flavor. 

The link for the recipe is right HERE.

I served the meatballs and noodles with

Steamed fresh green beans with butter and lemon

Spring mix salad with cranberries and pecans served with

homemade ranch dressing and blue cheese crumbles

Red Lobster Cheddar Bay biscuits...I cheated and used the mix,

they were awesome!

The table was set...

The decorations were up...sad isn't it..I was so late this year!

(current and past Valentines)

Valentines from Betty, Sandy, Elizabeth, Linda, Michele, Barb and Catherine.

My cute black truck filled with Vintage Valentines

The cutest Valentine mailbox from Pottery Barn Kids

The Lennon Sisters created by Elizabeth of Creative Breathing

My button heart from my niece, Wendi, of Enchanted Forest Crafts.

My heart from Mary Lou

My heart from Laurie

When dinner was finished, we were ready for dessert and coffee.

Dessert was

"The Best Apple Crisp"

from Melissa Klinker of

Mama Miss

Another winning pin!

Find the recipe HERE.

The crumble part starts with a yellow cake mix

and she had me at "thick crumb layer"!

I made it yesterday morning and served it last night,

with Ben & Jerry's vanilla ice cream. Yum!

I can tell you that it is even better the second day.

(I only had a little smidge for testing purposes...Ha!)

Two new recipes for my "Pinned It and Ate It" board.

Do you try recipes from Pinterest?

Thank you Julie May and Melissa Klinker 

for making me look pretty good last night :D

XOXO

Joyce

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day

to my lovely friends in Blogland!!

I wish I could give each of you a handmade greeting

 and lots of chocolate. 

What I can do, is share some Valentine cards I made and the images

I used. I have found some wonderful ones on

Pinterest (of course)

and tried to click through to give you the links, and the

posters credit for the image, but it didn't work out that way.
If you know where credit should be directed, please let me know.

This year, I chose an image that I love, and used it for several  bunches of cards I made.

This sweet little girl in red, holding a bouquet of poppies...

An older image of another sweet girl... 

Isn't she versatile?
I think this one is my favorite. It's a great way to use up small scraps.

Every year, I make the Valentine cards I give to David.
He always appreciates the time that goes into them, and,
they never leave the house!
 I use them every year as part of our Valentine decorations.
We both love images of little children used on cards...

Five rows of punched borders in varying shades of cream and white.
the You & Me tag is stamped
Inside....

There also has to be a humorous card.
I love the card images from the 50's, you know,
the hubby and the "Mrs".

I may be back later with something else I'm working on today...
but in the meantime,
I hope you have a loving day with those who are special to you!


ADDED: These cookies are the best peanut butter cookies I've found!

The recipe is at Arctic Garden Studio, here...I added the Dove chocolate hearts.

XOXO
Joyce

Before I get to Easter...backtracking a bit

Before I get into Easter decorating, I need to backtrack just a bit to catch up on this year.

Because of illness and injury, Valentine's Day was postponed this year until David came home from the hospital. I decorated the mantel but took no pictures. The only crafting I did were the 2 cards I made for him. (yes, he is "handmade card worthy" because he really does appreciate the effort and besides, they will always be here)

There are many people who sell vintage photos on Etsy and I've used several but I found a new person this year whose work I just love!! Miss Ali's Emporium Digital Images found here. Her images, some of them softly colored, are among the sweetest I've seen. I purchased 4 of her images and when I printed them out, I fell in love again. David loves cards made with images of little children and I knew this would be the perfect image to use on an art board for him...

The little red metal mailbox held some sugar-free chocolate treats and a gift card.

(For my friend Sims-I used some of the handmade lace you gave me...it was a lovely addition)
I also made a card for David using some images from friends...
Julie at Old Design Shop has a wonderful Etsy store selling great vintage images here,
I used her seed packet images for an banner last year.

Julie is also a very generous woman, often sharing free images. As soon as I saw the floor plan images, I knew I had to use them for something. You can find the images on this post.
Now I know the cute couple either came from Elizabeth of Creative Breathing or Renee of My Vintage Mending but I don't remember which one. They seemed to fit with the time-frame of the floor plans.

inside the card...

These cards will be added to the collection of Valentines I have made for my sweetie over the years..

One more thing to show you that just happened yesterday. I showed photos of the beautiful table runner I won in a giveaway from Donna of Brynwood Needleworks. I knew I wanted to hang it and I knew where I wanted to hang it, it was a matter of figuring out how to hang it. I went to Joann's and bought a $ .99 length of 1/2" dowel and a package of ball end caps. (The kind used for clothespin doll heads) I also bought 1/2' drapery rings which were on sale for 50% off. I came home and David cut the dowel and painted it and the ball caps in the same blue as our dining room. We (WE meaning David) just hung it up using nails to support the dowel rod. It hangs on a narrow strip of wall as you enter the kitchen. The project came out just I had imagined it.  Thanks sweetie!

OK, that's all for right now. See what happens when you don't blog often? You end up with a post that takes 2 cups of coffee to read. Yikes!

xoxo
Joyce

Happy Valentine's Day with lots of Love!

I love Valentine's Day....always have, always will.

It started with my mother and "the red food".

We would always have a Valentine Dinner involving "red food"...

spaghetti, tomato soup, noodles & toast...

it had to be red.

For dessert...sometimes my mother's dark chocolate cake..

or something from the bakery.

We exchanged Valentines and there

were decorations of some kind.

When I had children of my own,

we always celebrated Valentine's Day

in much the same way that I grew up with.

I think my kids even still eat red food on February 14th

and exchange Valentines with those they love.

This year, I didn't get my Valentine's Day cards

finished in time to be mailed and I'm disappointed about that.

I've had a few issues that I'm dealing with right now but it will

soon be good again.

I did get my annual Valentine treats finished for my workmates.

When this came in the mail...

everything else stopped until I had a chance to peruse all of the Valentine pages...

so many lovely things...

I knew Elyse was going to have an article in this issue and as soon as

I saw it, I knew what my project for my friends would be...

I started hoarding collecting toilet tissue tubes...

for weeks and weeks, everywhere you looked in our home

there were empty toilet tissue tubes until I amassed quite a collection

which you have seen in several posts

Here, then, is what I made...

They are filled with a variety of chocolates, wrapped in

tissue paper because I couldn't find crepe paper anywhere...

decorated with doilies and vintage Valentine images and tied off

with red twine. I decided to fringe the ends of the tissue paper to make

them look more festive.

The basket is all packed up, ready to take to work tomorrow..

It looks like my little muse would like to go, too!

Tomorrow evening, David and I will have a "red dinner", although

this year it might be tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches as

we both have lunch engagements tomorrow.

Whatever our meal, we'll enjoy it together in our home...

with a fire in the fireplace and a new episode of

 Downton Abbey to watch.
He is my forever Valentine!

I will give David this card...using the above image I found on Pinterest

I wish all of my friends who are kind enough to visit here, a very

Happy Valentine's Day...with love

Eat red food...

and chocolate, of course



XOXO

Joyce