Author Archives: ~~Rhonda

Living in a small town, I share my life with my husband Russell (married in 1977), five children (one still at home), and six cats (one indoors, the others outside).

I teach an online class called “The Christmas Notebook” which is about all things holiday prep. The many facets of celebrating Christmas comprises one of my favorite hobbies. Other favorite things include gardening, reading, cooking, and scrapbooking.

menu plan monday ~ february 8, 2016

Today is cold and windy. Overcast and snowing now and then. I’m thankful for our warm home. A good day for Winston to catnap in a comfy spot. I finished the menu for the week. I had it laid out yesterday but didn’t get around to finishing the post. Here it is. The Slow Cooker […]

a few shadow boxes and diorama ornaments from the past week

I have been using Christmas cards that were kindly shared with me to make some new shadow boxes and diorama ornaments. Following are a few of them. Note: the pictures don’t give a good sense of scale. These ornaments range in size from two inches to three and a half inches. Tutorial for shadow boxes […]

roasted ranch potatoes

I tried a new-for-me recipe this week. I based my version on this recipe that I found online. Roasted Ranch Potatoes with Bacon and Cheese I have to use dry onion (and not a lot of it) in dishes I make because my husband is allergic to onion. The dry onion flakes don’t seem to […]

menu plan monday ~ february 1, 2016

The grands were here last weekend. Their parents came to take down the last of the Christmas decorations (yeah!!). Things look a bit bare now, but it is nice to have it all stored away for next year. I worked on more soldered ornaments this past week. These are fun to make. You can find […]

roasted lemon chicken with veggies

This is a new recipe for me. It is very easy to make and turned out delicious. We will be having this again. I started with the chicken recipe at the following link and modified it slightly for my own use. Roasted Lemon Chicken with Potatoes and Rosemary I used boneless, skinless chicken as that […]

the basil is up!

On January 17, Snow White and Rose Red planted basil. Snow White planted hers in a flower pot. It came up yesterday. Rose Red made a planter from an egg carton and planted one seed in each section. Hers came up today. They’ll be here this weekend. It will be fun to see their reactions. […]

menu plan monday ~ january 25, 2016

When it’s very cold (and for me that’s anything under 25°), I feel like time crawls along. Not sure why. But there it is. So the past week or so has been dragging. I’ve looked at the forecast and the weather looks better going forward. Even some 50s on the horizon. I like the sound […]

Christmas diorama ornaments #2

Yesterday, I posted a tutorial for making Christmas diorama ornaments. I’ve made a few more and thought I’d post again with some tips that may be helpful if you want to make some of these ornaments for yourself. For complete instructions on making these ornaments, see the tutorial. Christmas Diorama Ornaments This time I used […]

here, kitty, kitty, kitty

Someone asked me how many cats we have, so I decided to post about them. We love cats. But even with that being the case, we really have too many cats right now. Eight is the current number. And, no, we couldn’t give any one of them up. They love kitty treats. When the bag […]

Christmas ornament diorama tutorial

I saw some cute ornaments on this site – My So Called Crafty Life – and was inspired to make my own version. My thanks to Ashlee for sharing her craft! I think my finished diorama turned out pretty cute. I plan to make more of these. Supply list for the ornament I made. plastic […]