The Ashleys

Friday, December 14, 2012

Christmas decorations

First of all I am having a HUGE sale on my Facebook page for monogrammed jewelry and gifts.. Christmas delivery guaranteed on the items for sale!! 

Lady Bug Boutique


I'm linking up with Kelly's Korner today to show some Christmas decorations. When we moved down from Kentucky we left almost all of our decorations there so it's just been a matter of building a collection up over the past two years.. 

I like to decorate every room in the house but I just have pictures of the tree and few things that I've made, even though I even decorated the outside this year. :)

The tree.

I made this and it's on a plate stand on the kitchen bar.


Santa's cookie plate and milk cup I made for Ethan and Kaylee. I LOVE this!!

It's a miracle I've gotten anything done this year.. I think I've made 150 monogram watches my Etsy store has been crazy.. If y'all are still interested make sure you get your orders in ASAP! Come visit me on Etsy!
 www.etsy.com/shop/ladybugboutique2313


Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Playing Catch Up

We've had so much going on lately! 

First, I opened my Etsy store! I'm very excited about that! Come shop with me here. 

Just a few of my items. 






My sweet Kaylee got sick and we had to spend almost a week in the hospital.

She's doing much better now though.

We got our Christmas tree up.

Ethan finished up his first season of flag football last week. They ended 8-2. I'm sure he's going to miss it until next year but thank goodness it's over. Those games were getting cold there at the end!

 

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Saturday, October 20, 2012

New shop

Hey y'all! For everyone interested I have my new Etsy shop opened! In case you don't know I do boutique hairbows and monogrammed gifts.. 

Here's a small sample:






For more go check out my Etsy shop!

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Christianity- a moral compass for America?

Warning! This blog is a lot of rambling. It's just random thoughts I've been having over the past few weeks, and I feel like some people need a better explanation of why I'm a liberal and it's not because a once good Christian girl has turned her back on Jesus and Christianity.

I grew up in a small town in western Kentucky and I'm still in touch with a lot of the people that I went to high school with. A lot of people in my later life do not realize like they do that I was raised in one of the strictest of christian house holds. I was raised that a woman shouldn't wear pants, or cut her hair, or wear jewelry, or paint her nails. Like most religions we were taught that sex before marriage is a sin among other things. I think it shocks a lot of people that I'm a liberal but what most don't realize is I'm a liberal BECAUSE of the way I was raised, not in spite of it. 

I believe in separation of church and state because it protects not only people who aren't christian but it protects a church that I was raised to love and support without government interference to tell our pastor what to preach and teach.. 

I was taught not to take part of the bible if you're not going to take all of the bible. If we're going to tell two men they can't get married because being gay is a sin, then we must tell people who have "fornicated" they can't be married because they're sinners as well. If we're going to tell a gay couple they can't raise children because being gay is a sin we must remove all children from divorced homes because according to the bible that's a sin too. 

If we're going to use your religion as a way to tell a woman what she can and can not do with her body, then you need to use the scripture.
 But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering. 1  Cor 11:15
and
“The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.” Deut 22:5

Do you realize how up in arms this country would be if we used Christianity to tell people who they could and could not marry based on scripture?

Do you realize how up in arms this country would be if we used Christianity to tell people what they could and could not do with their bodies based on scripture??

Oh that's what the GOP wants to do, but only their version. If we're going to use religion as law in this country, we're no better than the Middle East. 

As a Christian I was taught love, tolerance, understanding, and rather than forcing my beliefs on others I was taught to live the life and let others see Christ in me. I was taught to help the less fortunate. Jesus was a man who healed the sick, fed the poor, and condemned the greedy rich. He sure sounds like a liberal to me.





Friday, October 12, 2012

Crockpotalooza Part 2

I did a recipe earlier today to link with Kelly's Korner crockpotalooza here and then I remembered a cute little blonde headed boy had asked for potato soup for dinner tonight so I thought I'd put that recipe up here since I was making it anyway. 

Usually I use raw potatoes and just chop them up and put them in the slow cooker raw but I didn't start my soup this morning because I had to go get ingredients at walmart and this was just easier.

*4 cans diced potatoes
*2 boxes fat free cream cheese
*one can condensed cheddar cheese
*skim milk
*ground black pepper (not pictured)

Slightly drain your potatoes. You don't have to get them completely dry, a little bit of that starchy water will help thicken your soup.

If you're going to cook this all day you can just throw all the ingredients in the slow cooker since I was kind of in a hurry, I just put the potatoes and cheese soup in the slow cooker.

I cut my cream cheese into cubes and put them in a sauce pan with a cup of milk to melt my cream cheese. 

Top with a ton of ground black pepper.


Then pour it in the slow cooker.

I have mine set on high for about an hour and a half, then I'll turn it down to low to keep it warm until my husband gets home from work.. This makes a cream cheese potato soup very similar to Panera's cheese soup with far far far less calories.. I top it with a little shredded cheese, bacon bits (or turkey bacon :)), and chopped shallots. 

My entire family L-O-V-E-S this soup especially the kids!




Crockpotalooza

I am doing a link up with Kelly's Korner today for Crockpotalooza, where we share our favorite slow cooker recipes.. I have recently learned to LOVE my crock pot! This is one of my favorite football season recipes. 

There is definitely no better southern dish than pulled pork BBQ, so since we're kinda new to the area we got online and started huntin' for a place to get some BBQ here in Auburn. When I told my husband the price of a pound of  BBQ he quickly informed me that a pound was enough for him, but I needed to get myself and my kids our own, ha! So because I'm admittedly CHEAP I decided to make my own.. I used a boneless pork shoulder. I bought a 4.5 lb one for about 11 bucks which was roughly the same amount as ONE lb at the restaurants here in Auburn. 

I seasoned the meat with cavenders, ground black pepper, and N'Awlins cajun seasoning. Those just happen to be our favorite seasonings, you can use whatever you prefer.

Then I seared the seasoning in on each side for about 5 minutes. 

In the meantime I added a cup of Dale's sauce, and a cup of water to the crock pot and added my meat and cooked it on high for about 6 hours.

I don't like thick "basting" sauce for my BBQ sandwiches and this was PERFECT! I picked it up at Walmart for under 3 bucks.

PERFECTION!!