Marie's Delicious Pot Roast

I found this recipe on Pinterest... ya! Me and about a million other people!

It is from Marie's Cooking Adventures

Marie is new to cooking and apparently pretty good at it. I found a couple of additional recipes that I want to try as well. You should go check her blog out.

Anyway, I thought I would share how mine turned out with you. Here is her recipe.

What you need:

• 1 (4 -5 lb) beef roast , any kind (I used prime cut sirloin because it was the least fat)
• 1 package brown gravy mix, dry
• 1 package dried Italian salad dressing mix
• 1 package ranch dressing mix, dry
• 1 to 1 and 1/2 cup water
• OPTIONAL (red potatoes and carrots and onions)

What you do:

1. Add the vegetables to the bottom of the crockpot, if desired.
2. Place beef roast in crock pot.
3. Mix the dried mixes together in a bowl with 1 cup of water and sprinkle over the roast.
4. Pour the extra water around the roast, if desired (I did)
5. Cook on low for 7-9 hours.

I made it exactly like she recommended... I did use a little more water and I made cornstarch gravy out out the juices.

It really was very dee-lish!

We're having the leftovers tonight.

Oh! I almost forgot!

Friday is Fresh-Cut Friday...
I hope you join in!

Little Change Makes a Big Difference...

To me that is.

This is how our living room looks all the time. See the love seat under the window?
It is a warm, cozy room. I love it. But!
When we do the Christmas decorations, every year, that love seat must be moved into the
garage. The tree always goes in the window.
This is not my husband's favorite part of Christmas!
So when the tree goes down the love seat comes back in...

Until this year.

We tried something new... I moved the club chairs under the window and left the
love seat out altogether.
I liked the view. Lighter, more open and cleaner.

But then there was this big open, empty divide in the room.

From this angle the room still didn't look balanced.

These are a few pictures of the entry way, just to give you an idea or feel of the room.
So I left it this way for a few days. Just looking at it and thinking....
and then DING!

It occurred to me... split the chairs up!
TAAA DA!
I loved it! Hubs loved it!

We are currently living with it and making a final decision on how and if we for
sure want to get rid of the love seat. I'm pretty sure we do.

SO?

Wanna buy a cute little love seat?

I'm joining this parties:

Honey at 2805 for Potpourri Friday

Sherry at The Charm of Home for Home Sweet Home

Courtney at French Country Cottage for Feathered Nest Friday

Debra at Common Ground for Vintage Inspiration Fridays

Cindy at My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday

Little Extravagances

Right before the holidays I was in Anthropology with my daughter shopping for gifts. I didn't pick anything up for anyone else... but I did pick this little candle up. It smelled so wonderful! I couldn't pass it up. I put it away and saved it just "in case" I needed to have an unexpected gift for someone. Well, I didn't need it for anyone else... but I decided that I needed it today.

Wonderful aromatherapy courtesy of retail therapy!

Good Morning Sunshine

Saturday we had my mom over for breakfast.

It is always fun to take a simple meal and make it special.

So I thought it would be fun to try a new recipe.

Holiday Brunch Bake

• 1 lb. bulk pork sausage
• 1 (8oz) can crescent rolls
• 1 cup grated mozzarella or Monterey Jack Cheese
• 4 eggs beaten
• 3/4 cupmilk
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
  

Crumble sausage in a medium-size skillet: cook over medium heat until brown, stirring occasionally. Drain well. Grease 13 x9 x 2-inch baking dish and line bottom with crescent rolls, firmly pressing perforations to seal. Sprinkle with sausage and cheese.

Combine eggs, milk salt and pepper, beat well and pour over sausage and cheese.

Bake at 425 for 20 minutes.

Salt and pepper to taste. We all gave it 2 thumbs up.

We also had:

fruit salad

pink grapefruit juice

and coffee.

A delicious start to a weekend!

I'm linking to:

The House in the roses for Show off your cottage Monday

The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays

It Was A Productive Weekend

I'm not sure if I ever shared this or not... but I have two character traits that are in constant conflict. I'm a perfectionist and a procrastinator. This is a really bad combination. I have a really bad habit of putting off the big project that needs to be done for many small ones. I'm not lazy... I just want to make sure that I can finish some thing perfectly, or I will put it off and put it off.
On the flip side of that... I want everything to be perfect. sigh.... I can never have both.

So, to me, I think a wonderful weekend is when I feel like I got a lot accomplished.
This weekend was one of those weekends!

Friday night I finished Sarah's Key
by Tatiana de Rosnay.

This was a great book.
I had never heard of or read about the Velodrome d'Hiver roundup that happened in Paris in July of 1942. It was horrifying. It was fasinating. I would definitely recommend it.

Saturday morning we got up and pulled weeds in the front yard and I got all

of the rose bushes pruned back for the spring.

Saturday afternoon I painted my nails (toes and fingers) Now this is no big deal for most... but my nails are such a mess right now. It took a lot of work to get them looking this good. You can still see the ridges from the gel nails. Probably another 2 months and they'll be back to normal.
I do love this color though. OPI "The Color To Watch"

Sunday we went to Low's and got some flowers and got them all potted and planted in the raised bed. Isn't that a gorgeous color?!

Sunday night I got to finish this awesome read.
Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back
by Todd Burpo

This was wonderful! I loved it. Again, I would definitely recommend it.

Finally... I found a lavender rose! Pretty darn excited about this.
It's a Hybrid Tea Rose and it is called Moonlight Magic.

It is soaking and will be planted tomorrow after work.

So! What is the big project that I need to start and finish?

I need to go through the craft room!

UGH!

What are you putting off?

I'm joining Cielo for Show off your Cottage Monday

Just A Charming Little Old Hutch

I know you probably think it is just about time!
But we finally got the Christmas decorations down and put away. Sweet Daughter was here until last Wednesday so this past weekend was the first weekend that we had to dedicate to getting the house back in order. I'm okay with that though. I love Christmas and I love our time with the Sweet Daughter.
And truthfully... I hate packing it all away.

At any rate, it is done now and that includes the dishes. I don't know about you, but my hutch never goes back the same way. I'm not sure why but this is how it turned out this time.

Did I ever show you the details on this little hutch?

If you look closely you'll see that this little gem is completely hand made and hand fitted.
That means that each piece was made to specifically fit each other.

Even the nails are hand made little wooden pegs.
There probably is not another one like it any where.

This is the very top of the hutch. As you can see it has some very unusual fittings. Both corners have these odd pieces of wood fitted into them.
You can see some of the old burn marks as well in the top.

Odd grooves above and below the permanent shelves. By the way, I did not paint the inside of this blue. I bought it that way. It may not be original but it is VERY old.

More odd fittings. See the strips of wood?
At one time I thought that this may have been some sort of kitchen cabinet that had been re-designed. But after many years of looking at it.... I now think that it must have been some sort of display piece for a store of some kind. Although there are no labels on it at all. Just some illegible notes on the back.

Here's a closer look at the hand work.

Just look at the patina that wood has! I would never paint this little darling. It only stands a slight 5ft tall but it is VERY heavy! I bought it at a little place in Glendale AZ about 10 years ago. The lady didn't know much about the piece except that it probably came from the Midwest.

Truthfully, that's all I know.
What do you all think? Any ideas?

I'm linking to TableTop Tuesday at Marty's Stroll Thru Life!

Fresh-Cut Friday #17 Carnation January Flower of the Month

(google free image search)
Carnations or Snowdrops are considered the standard flowers for the month of January.
Both are lovely...but Snowdrops are a little hard to find around here. So I went with an
old tried and true favorite!
The Carnation

Fascination, Distinction and Love!
That is the primary message you would be sending with the gift of Carnations.

Believed, by the first Christians, to have first bloomed after
Mary wept as her son carried the cross.
It is one of the first cultivated flowers on earth.

This classic beauty comes in lots of shades of pink, yellow, red and peach. But, here's a trick. Take a bunch of white Carnations, and place them in a glass of water, drop a few drops of food color in ( your choice, blue would have been fun with this arrangement)
and let it stand over night. The next morning you will have a lovely variegated blossom.

It has a strong spicy fragrance, kind of like cloves, with blooms that are long lasting.

I first fell in love with Carnations when I was in high school. Every year at Valentine's Day the Booster Club would sell Carnations to raise money for athletics. It was the costume to gift and receive as many flowers as possible. Kind of my generations version of "friend-ing".
I rarely got very many...but it was a fun day none the less as single flowers were hand delivered to recipients in their classes all day long. My best friend Pam and I would always make sure that we each got at least one.

Next month's flower is the Primrose or the Violet!

I'm linking with:
The Charm of Home for Home Sweet Home
2805 for Potpourri Friday

So now it's your turn! Let's see you pretty arrangements.