My Painted Sofa!

Well, it took me longer than I wanted to, but I finished my painted sofa project.  I am very happy with the results.  I took an old faded upholstered sofa and painted it and now it looks like a brand new sofa.  It's pet smell proof and will wipe clean easily.  I can't stop staring at it, I just am amazed how different it looks.

 I am really excited and proud of how the sofa turned out!  The photo doesn't give the color its true depth, it is a very soothing sage green!

You can see close up the texture of the fabric is still there under the paint!

New Project

I came across a great vintage sofa this weekend that is going to be my new project.  Its got great "bones" but the fabric is faded from the sun, so I'm going to paint it sage green.  I plan on starting it today and will take some photos as I go.  I just did a chair not so long ago and it turned out wonderful!

This is the chair that I painted, it still needed another coat, you can see some of the old blue peeking out from the new brown.  I love how it turned out and can't wait to start my new sofa.

As you can see the cat and dog fell in love with it straight away!  They have good taste!  The next time I show a photo it will be a lovely shade of sage green.

Ole' it's a Mexican Theme!

Something smells good in my kitchen today!  I've got a chicken on, so I can de-bone it and make sour cream chicken enchiladas.  I am making apple enchiladas and a flan for dessert.  We are having a Mexican food themed lunch-in at church tomorrow to help make some money for our wonderful people going to Buenos Aries next month.  It should be fun and tasty!

Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients: 
1 lb chicken breast, diced 
1 medium onion, chopped 
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
8 flour tortillas, softened (8 inches each)
1 1/2 cups grated monterey jack cheese or 1 1/2 cups Mexican blend cheese, divided 
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
 1 (15 ounce) can chicken broth
 1 cup sour cream
 1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies 

Directions:

1. In frypan, cook chicken and onion together in oil over medium-high heat until chicken is just done.

2 Divide cooked chicken evenly between 8 tortillas; add 1 1/2 tablespoons cheese to each tortilla. 

3 Roll enchiladas and place seam-side down in 9x13" baking dish that has been lightly sprayed with no-stick cooking spray.

 4 Melt butter in a medium saucepan; stir in flour to make a roux; stir and cook until bubbly; gradually whisk in chicken broth then bring to boiling, stirring frequently.

 5 Remove from heat; stir in sour cream and green chiles; pour sauce evenly over enchiladas.

 6 Top with remaining 3/4 cup cheese (baking dish may be double-wrapped and frozen at this point) and bake at 400F for 20 minutes until cheese is melted and sauce near edges of baking dish is bubbly.


Apple Enchiladas

Ingredients

• 1 (21 ounce) can apple pie filling
• 6 (8 inch) flour tortillas
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup margarine
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup water

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Spoon fruit evenly onto all tortillas, sprinkle with cinnamon. Roll up tortillas and place seam side down on lightly greased 8x8 baking pan.
3. Bring margarine, sugars and water to a boil in a medium sauce pan. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring constantly for 3 minutes.
4. Pour sauce evenly over tortillas; sprinkle with extra cinnamon on top if desired. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes.
5. Makes 6 large tortillas; may be cut in half to serve 12.

Easy Flan:

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup and 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 13 oz cans evaporated milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

I use a round spring form pan, sprayed with cooking spray. Or, you can use 6 small ramekins.
 

Pour 1 cup sugar in warm pan over medium heat. Constantly stir sugar until is browns and becomes caramel. Quickly pour approximately 2-3 tablespoons of caramel in each ramekin, tilting it to swirl the caramel around the sides.  Or into the spring form pan and tilt to spread all around.  Reheat caramel if it starts to harden.

In a mixer or with a whisk, blend the eggs together. Mix in the milks then slowly mix in the 1/2 cup of sugar, then the vanilla. Blend smooth after each ingredient is added.

Pour custard into caramel greased ramekins or spring form pan.  Place ramekins or spring form pan in a large glass or ceramic baking dish and fill with about 1-2 inches of hot water. Bake for 45 minutes in the water bath and check with a knife just to the side of the center. If knife comes out clean, it's ready.

Remove and let cool. Let cool in refrigerator for 1 hour. Invert each ramekin onto a small plate,  or the spring form pan onto a large plate, the caramel sauce will flow over the custard.

Senior Pictures

Today we went to have my son's tuxedo photos taken at school for his Senior year and we went out to do his senior pictures, the casual ones.  We had such a great time taking photos of him doing what he loves most, playing guitar.  School starts Friday here and I have to say I have that same feeling inside as I did when they all started kindergarten.  My middle son will be a senior and my baby, my daughter will be a freshman.  It's exciting and scary and sad all at the same time.  I hope they both have a great year!  My oldest is out of school and working, so I survived all of that I know I will survive two more growing up as well.

After school starts Friday, I will have a new routine and will be very happy to get things organized.  This last school year and summer has left me running around in chaos.  I have so many projects I want to dive into and I'm looking forward to having a lot of time to myself to get them completed.  I think the next few months will be fun and productive.

I am very excited that my chickens are laying eggs now.  We have over a dozen so far, well mostly chicken eggs a couple of duck eggs too!  I am so proud of my little chickens, growing up so fast and laying so quickly.  Now I will have to find some new recipes for eggs.  I know there must be a million of them I don't know of yet.  I'm open to any recipes anyone has that isn't an omelet or a fritatta, I know those already! :)

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

Time Flies

Time flies, seasons change and life goes on no matter how much we want to stop and smell the roses.  I haven't updated my blog in several months.  Mostly because I have been keeping busy with so many irons in the fire that I just didn't make the time.  After the loss of my chickens, we got rid of some dogs.  I got new baby chicks and just started getting eggs this week again, it's been really exciting watching my baby chicks grow up to beautiful hens.  We also started getting goats.  We got two goats in May, a 3 month old dwarf Nigerian billy and a pygmy that is whethered.  They are the sweetest things.  We then got a female dwarf in June and then two pygmy females as well.  We have 5 goats and all are happy and enjoying their new home. The two pygmy females were thought to have been bred, he wasn't sure when we bought them.  But, I'm sure now!  I am expecting them both to kid in the next few weeks.  Without a true breeding date, it's hard to know the true due date, but I'm seeing signs like the udders filling.  I'm excited to have babies soon.  We also have 2 gorgeous turkeys and 13 new ducks.  Our two mallards are giving us eggs and the ten Indian Runner ducks are just starting to grow up and run around.  We have one lone Muscovy male that seems to hang out with one or the other but no one really takes him in fully.  He doesn't give up, so I'm convinced he is going to make friends with all the ducks.

Our garden was a mess this year and the lack of rain and the extreme heat just fought us all season so we didn't get much out of it.  I was frustrated to a point then I just gave up hope and decided to worry about it next year.  We did get quite a few tomatoes though, they do seem to like that dry heat more than any other vegetable.

The best addition since my last update was my new camera.  My son got me a wonderful new Nikon camera for mothers day and I have taken so many beautiful photos with it.  I just love being able to take pictures again.  I will fill my blog up with photos now!  I have also done quite a few DIY projects in recent months.  One being a painted swivel chair that turned out amazing and we added beadboard wallpaper on the bottom portion of the walls in the living room and painted it barn red.  I will be finishing up the upper walls soon, making them look like weathered wood.  I've still kept up my addiction with Pinterest and found some great recipes and DIY projects I have tried out.  I love that site!

We just had a nice trip to Florida to visit my parents and enjoyed ourselves even though we had some minor gaffes like car trouble and a trip and fall for myself.  Not to mention it was all done in 3 days haha.  But, still nice to get away and do something fun.

School starts this Friday and life will be back to normal again soon for me, having them all out of the house will allow me to get a schedule and my life organized again.  Today we are getting senior pictures done for my son.  I'm very excited, I will be taking most of them just having the cap and gown and tuxedo shots done at the school.  My son's senior year, and my daughters freshman year.  Time certainly flies!

Sad...

I cannot find the words to describe how I feel today.  Sad is all I can muster.  Two of our dogs got into our chicken pen and killed several of our adult, egg laying hens. I feel so many emotions over this and not one of them good.  I want to get rid of these dogs, they are the sweetest pets a person can have, but they are killers and I cannot look at them the same way ever again. All of our other dogs were traumatized from the situation and the entire household is just quiet and depressed.  I have 3 hens left and one rooster and the hens have some minor injuries that I am treating.  I pray that they make it through this, right now they are inside and in my bathtub where I can watch them and keep them warm.  I feel so guilty, as a chicken mom, that this happened.  We really tried to create their pen as safe as possible, but obviously we did not do a good job.  I look at my new baby 2 1/2 week old chicks and I do not want anything to ever happen to them.  I don't want them to live in such a scary, dangerous world with other animals finding them to hurt them or kill them.  I want to keep them in the house and never let them outdoors.  I know that isn't feasible, but right now I just feel like locking them away somewhere safe.  We didn't have many hens, and just started getting our eggs from them, and now we will not have anymore eggs until the new babies grow up.  There just aren't words to describe how my heart aches today, thinking of my chickens and missing them so much already.  I am at a loss, all I can do is put my feelings into one word, Sad.  My prayers and faith in God will help me to understand and learn from this experience in time, but right now I just feel horrible!

The List Grows, yet there doesn't seem to be enough time...

Each day around here, the list grows longer yet, there is not enough time in a day to get it all completed.  Is it because I'm getting older or the tasks require more work?  The garden needs to be weeded, the day I have the time to work in the garden, it rains!  The roses need to be planted, the day I set aside for that something else comes up.  It is one thing after another and what I am praying for is more time.

The weekend was really unused because everyone had something going on, and when I had free time it was pouring down rain.  Yesterday, it was absolutely gorgeous, but most of the day was spent at church, so that time was quality time.  We got home and I was sitting outside deciding how to create a new pen for the chicks and the ducks when it is time, and I had wanted to do this and that but I was exhausted from all the running around I have been doing lately.  I threw my hands in the air I told my husband to finish up what he was doing and I directed the kids to get dressed we were going out to dinner and to a meat sale in another town.  We left quickly and got on the road.  The little restaurant was all country cooking and was fabulous.  We all enjoyed it and that is a rarity, when everyone likes the place.  We went to the meat sale at this little grocery store I didn't know existed in Blue Ridge.  They had can foods 2 for $1.00 and I was able to stock up on my "prepping" shelves with can foods as well as the amazing meat sale they were having.  It is unheard of lately to get steak at $3.98 a pound, so I was doing a little dance.  I got ground beef for $2.28 a pound and I haven't bought any ground beef lately for under $2.98 a pound.  I left the store with my great finds, my belly full of wonderful food and a relaxed, content smile on my face for the ride home.  We haven't had a nice family outing like that in a long time.  We all came home and the family seemed at peace.  There was no bickering or arguing and the night was very pleasant.

Now today, I am back to the daily outlook of look at this list and where has the time gone.  I have so much to do and I need to find a way to get it all done soon!  I hope that I will find enough time in the day every day this week.  Then, maybe, I might feel like I have gotten something accomplished!

Have a Miraculous Monday everyone!