Feeling crafty

I have been feeling crafty lately so I have been doing a few projects.  Thanks to Pinterest I have been inspired!!

Before

And here is the after!!

I have been busy!!

I'm not really sure I have any readers, but thought I would update on here anyway for myself!

I am now officially a Freshman.  How cool is that?  I am almost 40yrs old (the countdown has begun...just a mere few months until the big day)  My sweetie is amazing and works his butt off so I can go to school.  That is all I have to do.  Well that, homeschool the kids and keep my Domestic Diva status.  I mean...that's not much! ha ha ha! 

It's a small college.  Most students are young.  There are a handful of students such as myself...you know, grown, children, menfolk, responsibilities and not riding on mom and dad's coat strings.  I am taking Comp (aka English), Basic Math (because I totally suck at math.  Well Algebra I do...I am great at business math), US History (nothing like a brush up on the basics of our country), Earth Science (LOVE that class) and Photography.  I thought Photography would be my slacker class...can you say....BUTT kicker.. I mean, royally....I had a panic attack in the dark room.  I don't have a clue what he is talking about.  But hey....I am going to be alright.  

I am considering changing my major.  "Hello, I'm Victoria, manager of ......blah"  or "Hello, I'm Victoria, a Geologist"  I am really liking that last one.  I need to have some (a lot) questions answered regarding career choices etc...  But I do live an oil field area.  So who knows!!  I may.....I may not.  Only time will tell.

We met with a photographer on Saturday.  I think we are going with her.  Love her work, her personality.  She is doing our invites as well.  I go to The Knot pretty often and freak out every time because it tells me how many days I have until I get married.  UGH!! NOT helping!!  

Okay...you have been updated my faithful one and half readers!!

Happy New Year (a few days late!!)

Wow I can't believe it is already 2012!!  I still remember when it turned 2000 and we all thought the world would end.  Okay...so maybe not all of us!!  But now we are here zooming into the future and there still are no flying cars.  I am highly disappointed...I mean as a child of the 80s we all thought by now there should be flying cars!!  

So its the New Year and I am quite excited about it.  I determined to embrace this year full of positive thoughts and feelings and beliefs.  One of my goals of the year is to rid myself of negative everything.  And yes this includes people.  I am not allowing drama in either.  I have started removing friends from my Facebook account.  For myself, it is the largest source of being bombarded with negative.  

Robert and I have set the goals for ourselves and are so excited to embrace them and succeed.

Goals include: paying off of a few things.  Loosing weight.  Quitting smoking.  (OH MY!!) and of course getting married.  (big grin!!!)  Oh yeah, and I am going to school!!  

Today I am taking my dear daughter with me to a bridal show.  I wish Robert could be with me, but since his work schedule is so crazy, I have the next best person..and probably the one who cares the most...my daughter!!  Who by the way is now 16yrs old.  

I am sitting here with my hair being dyed.  I have grey, but I refuse to give in and go grey.  I am far to young and cute to be sporting mousey brown and grey hair!  Plus, part of my charm is my funky hair cut and black and raspberry hair!  I am hoping my hair color won't clash too much with my wedding colors!! LOL

As for 2011, I am glad to have closed that chapter.  I had to say good-bye to a dear friend as well as my father.  I had a moment yesterday where I almost picked up the phone to call him.  It was horrible not being able to.  That has been the largest source of grief...the simple, permanent cut off of communication.  So with all of that said.....good bye 2011 and hello 2012

Venues and life

So there is constant search on venues around here.  We live in West Texas so there is not a lot of gardens or outdoors-y type venues.  Robert and I are not church people so that is out and around here that really limits our venue choices.  We had planned on getting married in the Sandhills in Monahans, however with just one set of friends and our immediate family that makes exactly 30 people and the building only holds 30 people.  There has been some interest from others wanting to attend so now we have to find a bit larger venue space.  However, I do not want to go over 50 people.  The more people we have the more food we need, larger venue, more decorations....more money.  We are paying for this ourselves and have a small budget according to sources.  And our budget has to include dress and rings and EVERY thing else!!  We are now looking at the Hathaway Cottage in Odessa.  It holds a few more people and has the potential to offer a nice out door area.  At least that is my hope! LOL  

On to life:
We went to Marlin this weekend.  It is always hard going back home since my father passed.  Patti is always is a sweetie and sends back items of dad's.  That is the hard part.  I always feel like I am stealing or something taking back my father's things.  Alex received a pair of my dad's biker boots, Drake several of dad's shirts and each boy received one of Dad's belts.  Lynsie made out with my dad's Eeyore slippers, although I am not really sure why my dad had those.  I have my dad's ...umm not sure what to call it....jewelry box??  It is designed for men.  It still smells the same as when I was child.  I have opened it several times to smell it.  I hate grief.  I really hate grief. 

Okay, I have potentially bored you enough.....off I go...

I go to sleep dreaming of wedding plans!!

How sad is that?  That I go to sleep dreaming of wedding plans.  So last night, while dear sweet Robert was curled up around me and snoring peacefully, I laid there going through our wedding plans.  Mainly the ceremony.  

As of right now we are considering getting married at the Sand Hills in Monahans, Tx.  For those of you who have no clue where that is..well WEST....way west.. more west! LOL  We live in West Tx and Monahans is about an hour from us.  I love the Sand Hills though.  It is a state park with tons of sand dunes.  Because it is a state park, the day use fee for their building is $30 a day.  HELLO??  $30 a day!  The one place we looked here in town was a bit too big for our wedding and was $2800 a day.  Since we are paying for this wedding ourselves and doing most of the work ourselves every penny saved makes us very happy!  So if we go with the Sand Hills, that alone saves me $2770 that I can apply to something else, such as wedding rings!!  

Because of the type of ceremony we are planning to have, there will not exactly be an officiant.  Well there will be, but in a typical sense.  The Quaker wedding ceremonies I have read about, offer a time for those there to share, offer advice etc...  We want to keep that open ceremony feel but incorporate a few other things.  I have considered having my youngest son be the officiant.  He is not afraid to speak in front of others and he would be able to "MC" the event.  The ceremony will need direction but not the typical "do you take? To have and to hold" stuff.

If the space is large enough I plan on having a circular seating plan.  I saw a picture it was an amazing seating arrangement.  There were no sides and all can see and feel about more included in ceremony.  We have joked about having our dog come in first wearing a sign saying "here comes The Bride"  I am not sure Boone would cooperate.   It would be cute though.  The children would come in next and sit at the four closest seats to where we would be standing.  There would be no need for an actual best man or maid of honor.  The other option would be to have J go in first, then Robert and Alex and then Lynsie go in and Drake walk me around the aisle.  

One of the things I want to incorporate is a ring warming.  Because our wedding will be so small it will be easy to do this.  Basically the rings are tied together and then passed around for each person to say a prayer or blessing over the rings.  So by the time the rings are placed on our hands, they will have been blessed by all our close friends and family.  

Jacob would open the service with an thank you for all for coming.  And of course explaining the process each step of the way.  Then there would be the Quaker part of the ceremony.  Where those who want can share etc....    Then we would do the hand-fasting and say our vows to each other.  Our sweet, from the heart, on our own, vows.  Which makes me giggle because if you know Robert and I, sweet and from the heart are not the words you normally use in a sentence with us! LOL  Then we will do the rings and ta-da.  

So that is as far as I got before I drifted off where I began to have strange dreams about storage buildings and people I don't even talk to and I think some dead bodies.  I don't remember exactly.  

Tamales!!!

Well since I am currently a stay-at-home mom, and am totally bored, I have been cooking quite a bit.  Not great for the waist line, but great for bragging rights.  Yesterday, I made tamales.  The only thing I can say, is they needed a bit more salt, but other wise for a white girl I did pretty good.  My youngest son, took some for his lunch today.  Not too bad for a white woman! 

So if you are wondering...how to make tamales is being posted for your viewing pleasure now.  Let me start off by saying I don't have measurements.  I know if you google them, I am sure you can find some recipes with actual measurements, you just won't get it from me.  

Tamales---
I bought two packages of pork for carnitas.  You can use pork roast or whatever else you want to.  I am not brave enough to use a pig's head.  
I boiled the  meat until very tender.  You can add whatever seasonings you would like.  After the meat is cooked you will either shred it or blend it up.  I just blended mine.  Use very little liquid if any....you are not making nursing home food.  

I also bought a large package of dried chilies.  With those you need to take off the ends and remove the seeds if you want.  I just left the seeds in ours.  In a pot of water I added the dried chilies, a cut up onion and some garlic cloves.  The dried chilies will expand.  After these have cooked then you will blend up the chilie, onion and garlic.  Again, use a little or none on the liquid, but keep the water from the chilies.  

While everything cooking soak your corn husks.  I bought two bags of these.  

In the refrigerator section I bought two bags of masa at Wal-Mart.  I also bought a can of shortening.  I added my chilies mixture to the masa as well as a few cups of melted shortening.  Your masa should be about the consistency of your dressing/stuffing before you cook it at Thanksgiving.  I call it "slap happy"  Don't ask...LOL  If needed you can add some liquid from chilies.

To your meat, add chili powder, cumin, cayenne etc... I would also say you can add these seasonings to your masa. 

Once you have everything prepared and ready, grab yourself a drink.  I put newspaper down on the table and set out my bowls of masa and meat and gather up my corn husks.  

Use your spoon and spread masa on the corn husk and then put on a spoon some meat.  Then roll up the husks.  Keep going, you will be there a while.  Once you have rolled up all your tamales then you are ready to steam them.

I use my roaster oven for mine.  I put a coffee cup in the center, upside down.  Then I stack all the tamales around the cup, open side up.  I add a bit off water to the bottom, then place them in the oven at 350 degrees.  They are done when the masa pulls away from the husk.  Of course you need to do a taste test! 

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So there you go, Homemade, white girl tamales.

 

The Wedding

Well it has been some time since I have blogged, so it will take me some time to get back into the swing of things. I am working on planning our wedding.  And let me say WOW!!  We have talked about getting married for years....two of them now.  We have had a date set two years ago, but changed our minds.  Not that we changed our minds about getting married, but changed our minds about having a wedding then.  So here we are, well here I am, planning a wedding.  I say I am because Robert is really too busy to plan with me.  Robert works crazy hours and doesn't have the luxury to chase after wedding venues or plan the food.  Thankfully, Robert trust my decisions and is willing to let me plan.  I have my maid of honor helping along.  Well the maid of honor also happens to be my 15yr old daughter, who enjoys oohing and ahhing over flowers, great looking food and checking out wedding venues. 

The first thing I have tackled is the ceremony.  Both of us are not mainstream religious so that is a bit difficult   We do not agree to any certain religion but have our own personal beliefs.  We had an idea of what we wanted, but wasn't sure how to implement them.  Thankfully, I found a "ceremony" that is close enough to what we want and to be able to add implement a few extra ideas.  We will be having a Quaker wedding ceremony.  Crazy I know. The interesting thing is my family, on my father's side, are Quaker.  I never grew up worshiping as a  Quaker.  Actually, I grew up Southern Baptist and did a change over to Pentecostal.  Of course now I have my own beliefs.  Robert grew up Catholic but doesn't practice this either.  Actually now we are more pagan in our beliefs so we will be including hand-fasting in the celebration. The Quaker ceremony gives us a better opportunity to include friends and family and a few other few tricks up my sleeve. 

We are these really outgoing people, but when it comes to things personal to us, simple is the way we go.  My plan is for our wedding to be simple, but classy, personal but with a hint of flash. 

If you want to know more about the ceremony, hop over to beliefnet and check it out.
http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/2001/03/Whats-An-Unprogrammed-Quaker-Wedding.aspx