Stairs in progress

Well I am still struggling with getting my stairs finished. If ya don't remember, I started several months ago on this project. I can't remember exactly because it's been so long. The stairs were covered in a horrible carpet that was there when we moved in. I wanted hard wood stairs every since we moved in. Several years ago(1986) we bought our first home in Norfolk, Virginia. It was built in the 1920's. I just loved all the wood floors and the hard wood stairs. (we refinished those too) Well after a couple military moves later and we ended up here. But with three children I wasn't up to home refinishing.

Fast forward 14 years and I'm a single mom. Then three years went by trying to recover from that trauma. That sounds really strange admitting that on my blog.

OK back to the stairs.

Well, between working full time and the holidays, time has slipped up on me.

I have been working on it a little at a time. And remember I have all that caulking to be removed. Remember the before picture below.

I now have most of the risers painted and almost all of the treads are ready for stain. Yea!

You can see in this photo that there is quite a bit of wood filler used.

Friday after school I stained the first tread. I think it looks really good! It looks like it's been there forever. It's not brand new but better. You know, like it's aged. I love it!

Well I got up this morning and stained the second tread and as you can see it is about two shades darker! Don't know what happened. All I can do now is to second coat the first one and try and match the second. Don't know what will happen but I'm marching on.

Keep in touch and maybe you can see the finished work. Just pray it gets finished soon!

My son cooks!

We had a really delicious meal a couple of nights ago. I really have share all about it.

My son offered to cook for us!

Yea, you heard right. Yea! I don't have to cook. But at our house if you cook, then you don't have to clean up. ( that means I will get the pleasure of cleaning up ) Not too unusual there. My son said if I was going to blog about it then I should give him the credit. Ha ha silly boy.

Doesn't this look good!

I don't know the exact recipe though.

Ingredents:

Asian noodles

Chicken

Snap peas

Onions

Cabbage

Yellow Peppers

Soy sauce

I think that was all for the ingredients. I do know you have to soak the noodles in hot water till they are soft. All the rest was cooked in a stir fry pan. Oh my goodness! I was soooo good.

Sorry you all missed a great meal!

Scones

I have found this lovely blog site, stonegable. Actually I have been following it for a while now. Yvonne has the prettiest table scapes! I really enjoy her creative ideas. Everything she does is just beautiful. Her photos are so pretty.

I have always wanted to make my own scones. I have seen many recipes in the past but never tried any. But after seeing her recipe and beautiful photos, I decided to give it a try.

Sour Cream Scones

2 cups flour

3TBS sugar

2TBS baking powder

1tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

5 TBS butter, cubed

1 cup sour cream

1 egg yoke

1/2 heavy cream

1/4 cup sanding sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a food processor, pulse flour, sugar, baking powder, soda, and salt together. Add the cubed butter until a coarse forms. Pulse in the sour cream and egg yolk until just combined.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough comes together into a ball. Don't do this for a long time.

Now pat the dough until it is 3/4 inch thick square shape.

With a large knife cut the dough into 4 smaller, equal squares. Then cut each small square diagonally, with an X, making making 4 smaller triangles.

Transfer the 16 triangles onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Brush the tops of each scone with heavy cream and sprinkle it with the sugar. Not sure what sanding sugar is. I used regular sugar.

This will make the tops shiny and crunchy. Yum!

Bake in preheated oven for 12 to 14 minutes until the bottoms of the scones are light brown.

Remove for oven, cool slightly on the sheet pan.

I put on butter and ate them warm.

Yum Yum!

This recipe turned out super good! Also it was way easier than I thought it would be. All my kids and liked it and so did their friends.

Yea! I guess that makes it a success.

If you would like a treat that is not too sweet, this is it. You can top in with butter and jam.

Enjoy!

Snow Day ( again)

I'm sure many of you are having the same weather. But it is so very unusual for us! Since my school is closed (yea!) for the day I decided to take a walk in my neighborhood. I love to walk in the snow! Ever since I was a little girl it seamed like a

fantasy. I'm always taken back by how quiet it is.

So welcome to the neighborhood.

Sea grass with snow on it . Ha ha ! How funny. You don't see that everyday.

This is my neighbors bird house.

Snow fairies.

Check out this tree with the Spanish moss and snow!

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great snow day!

I think potato soup sounds good right about now!

Blog tips

I send you blessings this New Year 2011.

As I was wandering around blog land, I found this super post that I must share. I have been following Kristin at her blog site. I really all that she does.

Kristin post some pretty amazing interiors! You will love her ideas.

Check her site out myuncommonsliceofsuburbia

There are some very good tips on how to tweak your blog. Also a cute site on blog manners. This is a must! I can see I have lots to learn.

Also have I told you how much I love this site? graphicsfairy

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy New Year!

Greetings friends and family!

In a little bit we will ring in the new year. Yea! I want to share a few fun vintage photos I found.

Have a wonderful New Year!

Peggy

Making Bird Ornaments

Ok now.

Don't laugh.

Now that I've had some time to relax and cruise the blog world. I have found a few things I want to do for next year. I found this wonderful blog.You will just love everything they do! Check it out. craftysisters Beautiful photos.

I did my own little tweaking due to what I had on hand. I had seen some bird ornaments somewhere that I fell in love with. Don't remember where, sorry.

I created my own pattern out of card stock and some left over scrap paper.

I used card stock for the body and then glued paper on top of it. I also glued paper to the back side as well. Didn't want it to look dull. So there are three layers to make it thicker. After I glued the pieces together I put a book on top of it to keep it from curling up.

I normally wouldn't have used gold but it looked best with the paper I had on hand. I found the music paper for the wing on line and down loaded form this site. music-scores.com. Next time I will use a more vintage colored paper instead of white copy paper. Ha ha! Just trying to work out the kinks.

I used red glitter glue for the heart but I'm sure a rhinestone would work too.

Then I added a little rhinestone for the eye.

This was a fun and easy little project. Also this was the first time for me to give a tutorial. What do ya think of my maiden voyage?

I hope you enjoyed it.

Snow in Eastern North Carolina

This doesn't happen very often. It was so exciting for the kids and me. Ha ha I know. I'm a little old to get excited about snow. I even woke the kids up early and had breakfast ready! Applesauce pancakes and bacon. Yum! What a good mom!

This is my little maple by the front door. To cold to go outside.

Here in North Carolina I never take my patio furniture inside. Looks goofy all covered with snow. It snowed probably 3 or 4 inches all together. That's a big deal for around here.