Grand Opening, Setting the Stage, Fall Cooking

WOW....what a couple of weeks it has been! First the Grand Opening of Sisters 'N Things went really well!!!! We sold a lot of items, which makes me very happy and excited!! The shop was only open 3 days that week and I was ready for a little rest, but I couldn't because I needed to sand, paint and get more items ready for the shop. Trust me I'm not complaining, I was happy that we sold a lot and needed to bring more to the shop! And we wanted to have Christmas items displayed also, so we have been setting the stage this last week. I'm so happy how the shop is looking, and have been having so much fun decorating for the holidays!! I'm even starting to bring out my Christmas decor for my home. I couldn't have ever imagined how much I would love having a shop and having an outlet for my creativity. It takes a lot of time and work, but I am loving it so much. So many of you made me feel like this was a good choice for me with all of your encouragement and well wishes. I want to say a big THANK YOU to all of you and say I so appreciate your support. Bloggy Buddies are the BEST!



Since I have been so busy lately with shop and even before our Grand Opening I decided to take today off and visit with my friends in blogland, work on redoing my bedroom and a little fall cooking. It has been tradition in my family, since my boys were little, to bake pumpkin pies on the day we turn the clocks back. Well, my youngest reminded me that I hadn't done that this year yet, so today I baked 2 pumpkin pies to celebrate Fall. Since we had snow this morning (which didn't stick) I thought today was perfect!





Don't they look yummy???

I hope my boys can wait until they are done cooling!






Cool days just seem to be perfect for baking and cooking. The house fills up with delicious aromas and feels so cozy. One of my favorite Sunday dinners is to bake a whole chicken in a baking bag (no mess) rubbed with butter and seasoned with lemon pepper. I usually serve a tossed green salad and broccoli bake with it. My boys really love this comforting meal. I'll share my broccoli bake recipe with you:

Broccoli Bake
2 boxes frozen chopped broccoli
1 cup lite mayonnaise
1 can of cream of celery soup
8 oz grated mild cheddar cheese (about 2 cups)
2 eggs
2 tbsp. chopped onion

Topping
1 stack of Ritz crackers
1 cube of margarine or butter

Cook broccoli according to package directions, drain and place in large mixing bowl. Stir in mayonnaise, soup, cheese, eggs and onions. Place mixture in ungreased 9x9 glass baking dish. For topping, crumbled Ritz crackers in a mixing bowl, melt butter and pour evenly over crushed Ritz crackers, stir to moisten crackers. Evenly top broccoli mixture with cracker mixture. Bake in preheated oven @ 350 for 30 - 40 minutes. Dish is done when you see the corners starting to brown.

Enjoy!

Until Later,
~Toni~

I can let the cat out of the bag now!!

Oh my gosh!! It has been so hard not to yell it from the rooftops. I have never been really good at keeping good news a secret. Don't get me wrong, I am very good at keeping secrets that friends tell me, I'm like Fort Knox when it comes to that. But when I have good news of my own, I want to share it. And boy, do I have some great news that I haven't been able to tell all of my friends in Blogland for fear of jinxing it. I wanted to make sure the ink was dry before I said anything.

Some of you might remember that I mentioned when I first moved to Idaho I found a cute shop, "Sister 'N Things" which was owned by a really fun gal, Lupe. Over the past year I have shopped a lot, and I mean a lot at her store and we have become friends. The first vintage sale I did was with Lupe and then we participated in a local Barn sale together. We both sold our wares and made a good profit. It was after the last sale that Lupe asked me if I wanted to be a consignor in her shop and then recently asked me if I wanted to be business partners!! WOOHOO!!

Well, we found a shop! It's in a house, that once was a gift shop but has been closed for the past two years! We had looked at two other properties but for one reason or another they just didn't work. We have been working like crazy for the last couple of weeks and are almost ready for our Grand Opening on Thursday! I am so excited!! Exhausted but EXCITED!

I have seen many of you in blogland go for your dream and I have dreamed of having a shop for a long time!

I wanted to take a moment from sanding, painting and creating to share my news with you all. I will have pictures that I will share in another post.

Until Later,
~Toni~

Oooo La La Chairs

I'm participating in Cheri's @ It's So Very Cheri Knock Out Party. You might remember these sad, worn out chairs I picked up at an extremely good price, well ok, GREAT price. They were very sad in their current condition. All 6 chairs were very sturdy but just needed some new threads :)




I removed the seats and sanded and sanded 50+ years of YUCK.

After a coat of primer, they are starting to look better with the first coat of paint.

While I was at JoAnne's I found some fabulous "french" fabric that I knew would be perfect for these chairs :)

I think they look Oooo La La Lovely.

Stop by It's So Very Cheri's to see more Knock Outs.

Until Later,

~Toni~