Happy Anniversary to us!

Two years ago I married the man of my dreams. Today I think I'm more in love with my amazing husband than ever. He's a good man I thank God for his providence in bringing us together. Ok, now that I'm done with the mush what did we do for our anniversary? Wellllll not much. May has been extremely busy and going to Morro Bay (what we really wanted to do) was pretty much not an option. Don't get me wrong, everything we have been up to has been fun and I've enjoyed every second, but you can only be gone so much. I had originally settled for going out for dinner. Hopefully getting a nice break from cooking and treating ourselves to a movie too. Well that couldn't quite happen today either. So what to do? I ended up cooking one of our favorite comfort food dishes and bought some apple cider. Watch out! We crazy!

Now on a tangent about what I made. Fancy Macaroni. Try it. It will change your life. Warning: you will never look at good old craft mac n' cheese the same. I for one will never go back. I just can't. It's that good. Who do I have to thank for this recipe? Pioneer Woman! Have I said how much I love this woman? It's just the epitomy of comfort food. I'm a firm believer in sitting around the table with home cooked food. Made from scratch, semi-homemade, doesn't matter. What matters is getting around the table, eating food made with love. Some of my favorite memories of my childhood come from sitting around the dinner table. It's worth the extra effort.


Green salad with feta, macaroni with 3 kinds of cheeses! Oh yes I love cheese.

Everytime I make this, I make it a little differently. This time I used heavy cream instead of half and half. I will forever use heavy cream, sooooo good. I added garlic with the onions. The cheese I used were guyere, jack, and parmesan. Guyere is quickly becoming a new favorite.

Eco Market Tote

I have always wanted to make a purse. My wonderful husband went all by himself to Strawberry Patches (a local fabric store) and the ladies in there directed him towards a couple of purse patterns. One was the Eco Market Tote by "Favorite Things." My problem with new projects is I get intimidated. Once I dive in I am totally fine and usually end up making something I really like. I finally decided to give this pattern a try and make two for my sisters (they were both graduating this year). I headed down to Strawberry Patches and the wonderful ladies there gave me some direction on the supplies I would need and encouraged me to call if I got stuck. I just love that place! Anyway I spent an afternoon sewing and am quite happy with the results. My only regret is not buying fabric to make one for myself!

The fabric for this tote was basicgrey/origins by moda and Dots and Daises bybPiece o' Cake.

Fabrics for this tote were both Damask by Joel Dewberry.

Tiller...

...Is the newest addition to our family. Sadly, her addition comes because of the passing of Peachy. Peachy was our Border Collie/Austrailian Shepherd mix. She had been with us since the very first day we were home from our honeymoon. She was Ben's work buddy and just a really great dog. This last Wednesday her and Dezi got into some poison (still unknown to us how, when, or where this occured). They both dropped into fits with seizures but Peachy was much worse and unable to breathe. I have do admit it was one of the hardest things to watch your pet suffer and I wish that on nobody. Needless to say that day was pretty awful. Dezi came out alright and I'm very thankful we didn't lose both of them that day. At first Ben was adamant that he would not want another truck dog for a while. Peachy would be a hard act to follow. I told him I thought he would change his tune and besdies, who can be too sad when there's a puppy around? The next day he admitted I was right and we looked in the classifieds. Austrailian pups in the Fresno Bee caught our eye and it just so happens we would be passing through Saturday. We got there on Saturday and immediately fell in love with a brown pure bred Aussie pup. It was love at first sight I tell you! So Tiller has arrived and made our sad story a little bit sweeter and though we will miss our Peachy, miss Till has us wrapped around her paw already.





Giving Dezi some love, she's not all too sure about this new addition that's just her size. She's just so accustomed to every dog being bigger than her.
Dezi isn't the pup any more.




Up at Shaver. She liked the snow!

She should be a model for puppy chow. Just look at our fuzzy little Tiller bear!

Puppy Love <3

Books, Blogs, & Libraries

These three items have to be some of the things I am enjoying most in my life right now. With my new found time because of the changes in my job I have been taking more time to do the things I enjoy. Go figure that you are happier when you take a little time for the things you love!

Books: Books and libraries kind of go together but I'll talk about libraries in a second. Becuase of the library I have been reading more. What have I been reading? Fiction, Non-fiction, Cook Books, Gardening, Chicken books, and Craft books. Anything and everything and I'm loving it. Two of my latest favorites are "Black Heels to Tractor Wheels" by Ree Drummond and "Mad Hungry" by Lucinda Quinn. Black Heels is the love story of "The Pioneer Woman" who also happens to be one of my favorite bloggers. It's hilarious, sweet, just all around good fun to read. Mad Hungry is a great book about feeding men and boys. Her perspective on cooking (why and how she does what she does) is just amazing. Not to mention the food is down right delish! This one is going on the Christmas list.

Blogs: I have always loved books but blogs are relatively new in my life. I started this blog as a sort of journal to keep track of the events in my life but also to share with friends and family. Now I have a nice little list I keep up with on my reader. They consist of about half friends and family and half blogs of people I do not know personally. "The Pioneer Woman" has to be one of my favorites right now. Even more so now that I have read her book. Her confessions page is hilarious, the cooking is phenomenal, and the pictures are inspiring. She's a jack of all trades and I have been shamelessly stealing her recipes! (and getting rave reviews from the husband might I add) Besdies her blog "Raindrops on Roses" has to be one of the best, primarily because my nephew is awesome just like his mom!

Libraries: Can I just be a nerd and say I love the library. I'll shout it from the roof that's how strongly I feel about it! It's like Christmas every time I go in. I find the books I want online and put them on hold. I get an email once they are in and then viola! I go pick them up. ALL FOR FREE. What more could you want?

All these things have been inspiring me to be more creative and to try new things in every aspect of my life. Sewing, cooking, gardening, keeping chickens. What fun things! I can't say I ever thought I would enjoy these things and I think God for putting people in my life that offer constant inspiration to try new things and go for the gusto!

Gardens and weddings

It's that time of year again. More weddings and a big garden! I've been making what has become my standard wedding presents for friends...aprons. I'm in a rut I know, but no one is complaining so I think I'll hang out in it for a while longer. As for the garden, it has been planted and set up on drip tape for a while, I just haven't posted about it. Even though I managed to almost demolish it single-handedly. I, being the wonderfully bright woman I am, decided to put a "burn" pile a little too close to my beloved monstrosity of a garden. And then to top it off, I decide that Hey, I'll be a good little wife and light er' up. All of the sudden it's a very big fire, like within one minute and it's in the middle of dry weeds. I start running for the hose in the backyard and Ben's like whhaaattt are you doing?! I yell back "It's a little out of control!" He proceeds back to the fire only to yell back "ummm hurry." Well it didn't burn down our house but it did manage to singe my tomato plants and well, kind of melt the last 5 feet of drip tape. Yup did I mention how wonderfully bright I am? Thankfully I have a great husband who repaired the drip tape and with a little love my tomato plants have made a comeback.





Very early stages, it's much more green now!

Dezi....

... our sweet little daschund. Yes she sure looks that way doesn't she? But what you don't know is that she has a dark side. She is always friendly with people and loves to make new friends. Our little sweetie is a cold blooded killer! When out with Ben running hay water she goes up and down the rows killing every gopher scared up out of their hole, while Peachy is content to just play with them. Friday night Dezi committed the ultimate crime.....she broke into our chicken coup and ate two chickens! She's crazy I tell you. She managed to pull back a lose fence slat and murder two medium sized chickens, not full grown, but not babies. I received the bad news while sleeping. Ben walks in and says in a very grave voice "Kell, Dezi ate two chickens last night." Then I hear him walk out and start securing the fence slats. Is it bad that I laughed? I mean, a little dezi, prying back a fence slat and nabbing two chickens. Maybe part of the humor was how mad Ben was, and maybe because Dezi's my favorite dog so I'm more prone to forgive her. Anyway, the fence is secured, we got some re chicks. (Yes 4 not 2 but 4, don't ask how it happened, ok we might be suckers). Hopefully these babies will get to grow up big and finally lay us some eggs!


So innocent....

NOT look at her!

Drooling for another crack at the chickens
New babies

They're just a little traumatized