What's on My Kitchen Counter

Hello friends, Isn't this new House Mouse Image the cutest?  I am so glad that Spellbinders has partnered with House Mouse and brought in new images.  I was inspired to add birch trees and snow after seeing THIS  pretty card.  The snow is done with Snowtex which is one of my favorite winter mediums, and I painted the birch trees with black acrylic paint mixed with water and painted with an old credit card.  Everything else was painted with Daniel Smith watercolors. This is being entered in the HMFMC#402 which is Anything Goes with an option of rainbow.  While you might not think of a rainbow when you see this card, I actually used a lot of colors in the painting: yellows, browns, pinks, reds, and blues.  Some are not obvious because they are mixed with other colors or a very light.   Thanks for dropping by.  I have been a little under the weather lately, but I am feeling much better.   Hugz, Nancy

Happy T-day! Our favorite local restaurant is Fox's Pizza Den where they have great pizza, sandwiches, pasta and salads. They also have a Bourbon Bar.  Prices range from $7 to almost $1,000 on the bourbon and bourbon drinks.   Each holiday, the bourbon bar comes up with fun holiday themed drinks and they decorate the bar too.  A few weeks ago, we headed there for lunch and to try one of the new drinks.  Here is the holiday drink menu and my tickets to T-day over at Elizabeth's Blog where we share our fun drink related items from the week.  Of course, my daughter loves vampire books and movies so she picked the blood bag. I go more for taste so I got the Meet Your Maker - it was wonderful.   We shared a pizza and a salad.  I forgot to take a picture of the pizza, but I did get one of the salad. It had grilled chicken and potato wedges - super fun.  They make their ranch dressing on site and it is wonderful.  My husband has been know...

 Over at the House Mouse and Friends Monday Challenge (HMFMC#400) , we have anything goes with a twist of ribbon, cord or twine.  I decided to so with some ribbon as it was the first thing I found in the craft drawer.   My aunt is not feeling well so I got out one of my favorite House Mouse images.  It is a small one but much loved.  I added in a sentiment from SU! and some paper and stickers from Close to My Heart.  The image was stamped on watercolor paper with CTMH black and water-colored with Daniel Smith watercolors using colors to match the pretty dsp.  Thanks for visiting - I really appreciate it! Hugz, Nancy

 Happy T-day if you celebrate it. I am celebrating the day with my T-day friends over at Elizabeth's Blog where we post something related to drinks every Monday/Tuesday.  Today, I have my everyday coffee cup which I have posted several times, and a Christmas card I made featuring some yummy hot cocoa topped with whipped cream and sprinkles.   The card was made with the You Warm My Heart stamp set from Close to My Heart. I love this set and it was perfect for this month's Fan Club Christmas Challenge over at Splitcoaststampers.com.  Notice I did the edging with red ink instead of my favorite vintage photo distress ink.  My next card was done for the Weekly Watercolor Challenge at Splitcoaststampers.com.  This week, we water-colored using stencils.  I used a sunflower stencil, Daniel Smith Watercolors, TH Distress Oxide in Vintage Photo (my favorite), and some Black Stickles for the flower centers. I like how it came out.    This last card...

 Hello friends and Happy T-day. It has been hit or miss with me lately on T-day posts. The remodel of our house next door has taken our mental and physical energy.  I think a few more weeks and things will be on the contractor instead of us.  Hopefully I will be back to normal by then. My Oldest Darling Daughter asked if we wanted to come for dinner Saturday.  Translation:  go to the store with me and we will bring part of dinner to your house and you cook the rest.  While at the store, I saw one 6 pack of this fun milkshake porter so, of course, I bought it.  It smells wonderful (a hint of chocolate and a hit of malt) and has a light creamy taste.  I would definitely buy it again if I see it.  My son-in-law did not like it, but he is more a  Miller Lite fan.  Now if this had been a whiskey, he would have been all over it.  LOL.  Linking this to Elizabeth's blog for the T-party gang. Darling Daughter had tried her hand at...

Hello friends, I missed being on time for my Tuesday post because this has been a crazy week (linking up late to Elizabeth's blog anyway).  I didn't want to miss posting a drink for the week even with all the craziness.  My cousin and I use to have a ritual where a few nights a week we would sit on my deck, drink Line-A-Ritas, and solve the world's problems.  She moved away and we didn't have a chance to do it any longer.  She moved back a month ago so we met up for a few Ritas. It was too hot to sit outside so we sat inside. We also snacked on some Doritos and Strawberry Cake (if we do it again we will have to leave off the snacks as I gained a pound that day - lol).  The drinks were also way sweeter than I remembered but the man at  our local country store told me how to fix that and even gave me one of the ingredients for the fix free.  I love that little store. Why was this week so crazy?  Football practice, birthday party planning, two LARGE...

Hello Friends. Today, I have an ecletic mix of drinks, dessert, and art. First, it's T-day somewhere in the world so time for a drink post which I am linking to Elizabeth's Blog - Altered Book Lover.  Last week we had a work related dinner.  When the waitress asked what I wanted to drink, I had a sudden craving for a martini.  I use to love them, but I guess my tastes have changed because I wasn't a fan.  I was a fan of the chips and dips though! And the day before, I brought my Sister's fabulous peanut butter cupcakes.  Mainly because I was craving them and couldn't ask her to make just one..... Over at **Art*Journal*Journey* Elle picked a theme of Books, Cats, and Tea (you can pick one, two or three of the items).  I did a Bible Journal Page in my Journaling Bible - Luke 13:24-25.  After a layer of Gesso, I took a Sharpie pen and drew the kitty, then the narrow door, and then colored the door with Arteza Brush pens. The verse was written with a Mic...

Some of my crafty friends/family thought we would celebrate the August birthdays with some High Tea this past weekend.  Of course, we live in Alabama so it is probably a lot more Alabama High Tea than English High Tea, but it was lovely, delicious, and super fun.  Even my Uncle  sat with us and asked when we could do it again.  High compliment for sure.  We had scones and marmalade, passion fruit lemonde tea, chicken salad mini-croisants, pimento cheese mini-sandwiches, cucumber circles, fruit, mini lemon cheesecakes, and  candied figs on crackers with cream cheese.  Key lime cake was our nod to the birthdays nnd was made with fresh limes (it was yummy).  This is my ticket to the T-day Party over at Elizabeth's blog where she is sharing an invitation she received to a more traditional High Tea.  I wasn't super productive this last week as I was still mending from the strep throat and ear infections, but I did get a bit of art done. The art w...

It is T-day over at Elizabeth's Blog so here I am sharing a recent drink.  This is my hot tea at the local Japanese Habachi Restaurant where we celebrated my oldest Grandson turning 8.  This was actually his 3rd or 4th get-together for his birthday.  If he wasn't such an wonderful kid, he would be horribly obnoxious with all the spoiling he gets. It was his third or fourth cake too.  I ordered Oolong as I was kind of feeling a little under the weather and thought it might help.  It did.  We had a wonderful time.  I ended up coming down with strep throat and a double ear infection so last week was a lot of laying on the couch for me.  I did bnge watched some Harry Potter and all the episodes of 1883.  Elsa may be one of my favorite characters of all time. I hope there really were young women with that open of a heart and that strong a spirit. I could listen to that actress read her thoughful words all day long.   I did feel a tiny b...

It is Anything Goes over at the House Mouse & Friends Monday Challenge with the option of Funny.  Don't you love this Vintage Eat Your Cake and Nap Too? I colored up the yummy cake and cute mouse with Daniel Smith Watercolors and a bit of Gold Stickles.  Then I fussy cut the image and popped it up on this printed background lightly sponged with Rusty Hinge Disress Ink.   Then...I was craving cake so much I made some. LOL.

Happy T-day!  Especially to the T-day gang over at Elizabeth's Blog where we all share a drink related picture/post.  I am starting this post off with one of my last drinks on our Georgia trip.  This picture was taken in the Airbnb we stayed near Savannah.  It was on hte Isle of Hope and it was right across the street from Wormsloe Plantation (seriously - we could just walk over to it and could see it out our windows.  The tree lined streets were amazing!  My drink is a vanilla porter from Breckenridge Brewery out of Colorado.  I was hoping for a good local one, but they didn't have any that I knew I would love AND I knew I would love this one.  It was wonderful.  Have you ever had it Erika? I looked up the brewery and I would love to go there.  I especially wanted to go there after seeing their website which is VERY fun.  I espeically liked this ad for a  fun event they sponsor.  What a cool name - I think is a band but ...

 Happy Monday/Tuesday!  It is Tuesday somewhere so were posting our drink related posts and linking up over at Elizabeth's blog.  Elizabeth is still celebrating her 10 years of  T-day which is quite a feat!   I am posting my drink first in case you want to skip the rest of this post which is heavily ladden with Harry Potter (I know some of you are not fans).  During our Geogia trip I wanted to try a few lobster rolls.  When were were in Duluth, we found Steami's Lobster which was rated on the list of lobster rolls to try around Atlanta.  I know this looks nothing like Erika's rolls from Pop's, but I wanted to try it anyway. The beer was perfect with the lobster roll.  I liked the lobster roll - I would give it a 7 out of 10. The roll part was very strange...I couldn't decide if it was supposed to be a rectangular hot dog bun or french bread.  The lobster was wonderful, but the bread part didn't score high with me.  Hubby had ...