Bejeweled Barbie

Chevy Chase birthday? Or "Who let the dogs out ?" A very appropriate musical Card from my son to son-in-law that played "Who let the dogs out?" It isn't a party until the neighbors complain! Well, it is always hard to do a birthday party for my son-in-law. He is a football coach, and the season has started. So, we couldn't have it this afternoon because of the coach's meeting, so we were going to have it tonight after church. The church scheduled a guest singing group, and we knew we would never get out at 7 pm as usual. So, we didn't go back to the evening service, and we planned the party for 6:30 pm. And, the plan was for my daughter to bring her two male Labrador Retrievers to play with Belle, our Blue Tick Hound, in our large fenced yard. It was a special kind of mayhem...a lot of sniffing, chasing, stealing tennis balls, and activity not mentionable in polite company. After watching them for a while, we served our p...

Well, it was a holiday weekend, I suppose.  Happy July 4th from our house to yours. Saturday, Ken was catching up on outside work, clearing wood from some trees we had cut, burning brush, etc...I had purposed to spend the day doing heat and ice on my back, which has been bothering me a lot for a long while...and, spend time with our new dog, Cow-belle.  She is a Blue Tick Hound.( Ok, the name on her AKC papers is Belle....but she answers to both! And, she needs to earn her keep by being the new mascot for our Tuesday night jewelry show on YouTube, "Coffee and Jewelry with Barbie and Ken.") Ken closes the bidding on each item by ringing an orange cowbell. It got really hot out on the deck, even with the ice packs.  I mentioned to Ken at one point that I would love to have my new pool put up.   My daughter and her husband bought it for me for my birthday. Melissa knows I love to read in the water. Until she started college, we belonged to a pool which was ...

A bit of Monday morning humor... In Sunday School yesterday, our teacher played a video by Andy Stanley, son of legendary Pastor Dr. Charles Stanley in Atlanta, Georgia. I have, of course, heard Dr. Stanley preach before, but I am not a regular viewer. Many in my family have expressed a particular connection to his teaching. My late parents, my sister-cousin, my daughter-in-law, and my Aunt Zella all were greatly blessed at one time or another by Dr. Stanley. My Aunt Zella would talk about flying down to Atlanta to talk things over with him; he would meet her at the airport. She would rave about how much better she felt about whatever it was that was bothering her. She never exactly explained whether he led her to the Lord or not. She was a very successful business owner and well-known philanthropist who gave a lot of support to Methodist causes, among other causes, such as Boys Club. But, after these encounters with Dr. Stanley, something sure changed about her, and there was...

This recipe was my daughter's, but I added brown sugar, rice and vinegar.  Ingredients: 1 head of cabbage, chopped 1 onion, chopped 1 pound ground chuck 2 15 oz cans tomato sauce 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes 1 1/2 Tablespoon Brown sugar 1 1/3 cup Instant Rice 1/3 cup water Dried Minced garlic approx 2 teaspoons 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar Salt and Pepper Shredded Sharp Cheddar to sprinkle on top A Tablespoon of oil Directions: Note:  This dish requires constant attention and stirring. Crumble and brown ground beef...do not drain Add a little oil if you are using lean ground beef. Add seasoning, garlic, chopped onion and cabbage, stirring often.  After veggies wilt a bit, Add diced tomatoes,  half of one can of tomato sauce and water. Bring to a boil and cover. After skillet reduces a bit, add the remaining tomato sauce, vinegar, brown sugar and rice.  Bring to a boil and cover, stirring oft...

We ate at a Japanese restaurant in anothertown last weekend, and we had an appetizer of Crab Rangoon.  I never expected my husband to love them!  I made some tonight, combining a couple of recipes to get ones like we had. (The ones we had did not have green onions like most recipes.) Crab Rangoon Ingredients: One 6 oz. Can of crab meat not imitation Two bricks of cream cheese Splash of soy and a bit more than a splash of Worchester Sprinkle of dried minced garlic flakes A bit more of a shake of minced onion flakes Two tablespoons of powdered sugar Two pinches of salt Package of 20 wonton wraps Oil for frying Kraft Sweet and Sour sauce for dipping Instructions Drain crab meat and add to bowl Add powdered sugar, salt, onion and garlic. Cut up softened cream cheese into crab Add soy and Worchester. Stir well.  (Pop bowl into microwave for a few seconds to make stirring easier.) Place a Tablespoon of mixture in center of Wonton wrap.  Fo...

"It was the best of times and it was the worst of times," ....really.  Now that it is over, we have laughed harder and longer than we have ever laughed in our lives. Yet, we could easily have been shot or, at best, arrested. It all started Saturday when we went on a spur of the moment little trip to Small Town, Virginia, to source some unique jewelry items for our Thursday night costume jewelry AUCTIONS on YouTube. We had hit a few antique malls and thrift stores, and we were headed back home. We had just pulled back into Tennessee when I spotted an "Estate Sale" sign in an older, unfamiliar neighborhood. Ken, who was in the wrong lane, hit his signal light and whipped into the right lane and turned.  But, he drove past the road where the sign was and we had to circle a hilly block to come back to the house with several cars parked around it. So,  Ken parked in front and we walked a steep incline. With each step I felt my sciatica knee pain worsen....the past fe...

Yes, this was the guest bedroom at my house. One too many jewelry jars from Goodwill!!! I have been weeding through jewelry bought in jewelry jars from Goodwill and getting rid of what I didn't want.  It has been exhausting to the point that I actually told my husband I didn't think I EVER wanted to see jewelry again.  We had cleaned it out, gone thru it, and sold it on Youtube in auctions and pop up showcases. The auctions would sometimes go 6 or 7 hours, and they were loads of fun.  However, then came all the paperwork, sorting, weighing, billing, packing, etc...  Trips to the post office were the final step in cleaning out this mess. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I did keep several baskets of jewelry for myself that I intend to clean and wear.  As we sorted through the jewelry, when Ken would look with the jeweler's loupe and say there was an "M," (MONET) I informed him it stood for MINE!  I love Monet jewelry.   I have a "fe...