Mummers
Are you a Mummer's fan? If so, I guess you're in for a treat today. The Mummers are marching through Philly. Personally, I'm not really a fan. But, it is tradition. Don't they have a gorgeous day for it? I already have my front door open in order to enjoy the fresh air. I can't believe it's supposed to be in the 70s in January!

Today is a fun stamping day. It's my first stamping event of 2007. I FINALLY decided on the card designs. I changed my mind, again, late last night. Julie - you haven't seen this one.
We're also making a book. I'll have to show you that one later. I don't even have the actual sample assembled yet.

Alrighty, it's time for me to get back to cleaning the house. I just added a link to Claire's blog. Take a look!!!

Christmas is Over :-(
I'm sad. I've been putting away decorations for what seems like days now. Well, it has been days...I started yesterday. I have three of the trees down and am wondering what I'm going to do with all of my free space. I don't remember putting all of this stuff up! What is the "official" date that you should take down decorations? My neighbors still have their lights lit at night. I stop lighting mine once New Year's hits. What's acceptable?

Bloggers
If you haven't noticed, I've created a new menu over there on the left. It contains links to all of my friends blogs. So, if you have one that somehow I'm unaware of, let me know and I'll link to it. Be on the lookout for Claire's blog. She gave me a sneak preview last night. Unlike me where my blog is all about ME, Claire's blog is all about stamping. Check it out for ideas!!!

Okay...I'm all typed out....I think I said it all yesterday. Oh, but to answer Michael's question, yes, it is that easy. There is no gravy. Pot Pie is very easy to make, just a bit time-consuming. I started Saturday's batch at 2pm so that it would be ready for 6pm.

Hello friends! Guess what? I'm working from home again! Can you believe it? I'm so lucky! Apparently the client only expects me to be in the office a couple of days a week. So, here I sit, watching the View again. Although, I did have to make a change. A few minutes ago I realized the craft room is NOT conducive to being productive. I love my new stool, but I just can't sit on that thing for 9 hours. So, I've drug my modem and a ton of cords into the living room and am actually using my new desk! This is SO much better! I've gotten more work done in the last 30 minutes than I have in the last 2 months!

Today I'm trying to develop a project plan for an ENTIRE HR/Payroll implementation. Why on earth did I want to be a team lead? The pressure is killing me. I've developed project plans in the past for little projects. But, I've never been responsible for creating a plan for a six-month project for a team of a dozen resources!!! AAAGGGHHH!!!! Thank goodness someone has offered to do a reality check whenever I get this thing done.

So, you want the chicken pot pie recipe?!?!? Hmmm...that's a top secret. It's my signature dish. However, because I love you all, I'll post it. However, I'm a little like Rachael Ray when making the chicken stock. It totally depends on my mood. So, here's what I do....

Fill an 8-quart stock pot with water about 1/2 to 2/3 of the way full. No, I don't measure the water.

Add a medium, yellow onion, chopped. Slice 3 or 4 carrots (unless I'm really in the mood for carrots and about 5 or 6 go in). Slice up a couple of stalks of celery. I don't like celery, so I usually only put in 2 or 3. Then you add salt and pepper to taste - whatever that means. I usually just shake the stuff in until my arm gets sore. Or, throw in whatever looks good. I know, this part's not helping, is it? Next, I throw in the chicken. I only use drumsticks. I have no idea how much. I usually buy a package that has 8-10 legs. I leave them on the bone, but I do remove most of the skin before they go in. Yes, I say most. The first drumstick usually gets really de-skinned. By the time I get to the last one, I get lazy.

Okay, boil all of that goodness, uncovered for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. The water should be pretty yellow and the chicken should be falling off the bone. The water should be about a little more than half the volume you originally threw in. Fish out the chicken and veggies and set them aside to cool.

Next come the dumpling things. Here's where I can give you more specific ingredients. When I made the pot pie for all of you on Saturday, I doubled the recipe - including all of the stock. I think I probably threw in 4 pounds of chicken to Saturday's batch.

4 cups of flour
1 1/2 - 2 tbsp salt (depends on how salty the broth is)
2/3 cups shortening
1 1/3 cups water

Healthy, huh?

Okay, so I stir it with a wooden spoon, but usually just mix it with my hands. It's close to impossible to mix with a spoon. I then split the dough into two balls. I roll them on a floured surface until it's about 1/4 inch thick. The thickness really doesn't matter. However, the thicker you make them, the longer you'll need to cook them. I then take the dull side of a butter knife and cut 2x2 inch squares. I get sloppy. Perfection really doesn't matter. Then I repeat the steps with the second ball of dough. I then drop the dough piece-by-piece into the boiling broth. I don't know if it helps, but I think it keeps the dough from clumping together if you don't throw it all in at once.

Hopefully by this point the chicken is cool enough to handle. I then de-bone the chicken and throw it back in the pot with the dumplings then add the veggies and bring to a boil. The longer you cook it, the better. Sometimes I cover it, sometimes I don't. If you cover it, the dumplings get a bit fluffier. If you don't, it doesn't. I did not cover the batch I made on Saturday. You'll want to cook it a minimum of 30 minutes more. However, I love it if it can cook 2 hours more. Even better, cook it completely the night before and serve the next day. Pot pie is ALWAYS better the next day.

Good luck!!!!!

Happy New Year!
....and Happy Birthday Sharon. Hello friends! Did you all have a wonderful holiday? I know I did. As usual, I got far less accomplished than I had hoped. But, I did get some relaxing done. I enjoyed visiting with all of you over the last week. We had some good food, fun shopping, and fabulous crafting days. I'm ready to do it all over again.

National Day of Mourning
Well, as you all know today is a National Day of Mourning. I'm sad that there will be no mail delivery today...that's three days in a row! You all know how much I love getting mail. Which reminds me that I forgot to mail a bill today...oh well...

Anyway, in addition to mourning the loss of President Ford, I'm sad to report that there was another loss last night. I received a call from Anthony this morning on my drive to work (yes, I made it to the office) and he told me that Bell, his former cart horse, had passed away last night. I'm so sad for him. Bell was my favorite. She was sick one night last week, but Anthony says she appeared fine when he fed them last night. We'll miss you Bell.

New Year's Day
Yesterday was a lot of fun. I was able to drag myself out of bed around 9:30 (miraculous since I went to bed at 3am). Anthony and I did some shopping - one of our favorite activities. We hit Target and Ikea. I love Ikea. In the afternoon we visited with Brooke and Ed at their Open House. It was nice to visit and see what changes they've made to the house. It's definitely no longer a bachelor pad.

Brooke and I also had a fun shopping trip last Friday down to the outlets in AC. We had fun together, but the outlets weren't anything to write home about. There were a couple of dozen outlets - mostly clothes and shoes. I love the Lenox and Pfaltzgraff stores so I was out of luck. But, no worries, I still found plenty to spend my money on. It was nice hanging out with my new sister one-on-one. We had a nice visit and I'm definitely looking forward to doing it again soon!!! Maybe next time we'll hit the Pottery Barn Outlet in Lancaster!!!

New Year's Eve

What did you all do for New Year's Eve? I rang in the holiday stamping my brains out! Chrissy came over in the afternoon and I taught her all about stamping. She made several beautiful cards and a couple of projects to frame. I continued stamping through the evening. Julie came over around 9:30 and hung out right through midnight and the new year! We had lots of fun. Julie's husband, Al, gave her A LOT of stamp sets for Christmas so she had to assemble them all. I think I have also finalized the cards for this Saturday's event.

Christmas Get-Together
This past Saturday was our annual Christmas Get-Together with all of the "high school" friends. We had a fabulous time together and exchanged gifts. I made my signature Chicken Pot Pie for everyone. I meant to bring in the recipe today, but I forgot. Someday I'll post it on here and you can all try it for yourselves. Here are some photos from the night for you all to enjoy.....