Another one

And while I’m at it, here’s another Walmart spot we did this season. The song was written by the same guy (Dave Muhlenfeld, one of our copywriters) who does the freecreditreport.com jingles.

Watch this

You may be aware that I work for an ad agency, one that produces national work, I know you’ve seen our stuff.

Here is just one example of why I am so proud of who we are, what we do (well, not me directly) and why I brag on us so much.

You can see more about this spot here.

Forward this to your friends. I would love for it to go viral.

Wordless Wednesday

We have a winner!

Arlijohn has won these Karen DuMont/Karie Patch Designs patterns by random drawing.

I will be contacting her privately for her snail mail address.

Thanks to all who participated in my 1st blogoversary celebration!

Mountain getaway

John and I are on staycation this week and we started it out with a weekend trip to the mountains with our friends Larry and Laurel:

We drove to a small town on the Virginia side of the West Virginia state line. This is the main drag:

We stayed at a house owned by a family at our church:

We figure the house must be of turn-of-the-century vintage as it has very uneven floors, the bedrooms don’t have closets, although the one we slept in had a bathroom that was obviously a retrofit, the plumbing was installed on the outside of the walls.

The house has a lot of charming details and high ceilings:

and is decorated with antiques such as these:

The house is full of portraits like this:

We ate breakfasts in an old-fashioned (to us) diner with that wonderful “coffee shop smell:”

We went for a hike on the West Virginia side of the state line:

Laurel found a working water pump:

Other hike shots:

The weather was perfect for hiking (we got back just as it started to rain) but the sky wasn’t great for picture-taking. This is Lake Buffalo:

We had dinner that night (Halloween) at a “haunted” hotel, the Highland Inn. I call it haunted because it was decorated for the holiday and when we passed it on our way into town late Friday night, it sure had that classic movie look. Amazingly, I didn’t get a picture of it myself, so here’s a pic from the website:

The lady at the front desk:

Last but not least, John and I:

We had a very enjoyable weekend. We had no cell phone service up there or internet and we were truly disconnected, not normal for us. So we played games which is something we should all do more often. I really enjoy exploring this state, and we hope to come back to this area sometime.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Halloween!

Can you believe this is the first pumpkin I’ve ever carved? John always “helped” the kids (ie they got to watch him do it) and my dad probably did ours when we were young. I’m willing to bet my mother has never carved a pumpkin, unless she did it before I knew her.

Someone else is having a giveaway

Pumpkin Patch Primitives Quilt Shoppe is giving away a fat quarter bundle of Red Rooster’s Pumpkins and Spice fabrics.

Check it out! And please, post a link on your blog to be entered.

Mmmm, Tortellini Soup

Just a reminder about my giveaway. I’ll draw the winner next week. Details here.

I’ve had an annoying chest cold this past week and the incessant coughing is driving me crazy. I haven’t been sleeping all through the night because the cough doesn’t want me to be horizontal. This morning I woke up at 2:45 am, coughed for 45 minutes and finally got up and went downstairs. I know I was bothering John, but I kept hoping I’d fall back asleep. No such luck.

So last weekend, I made a pot of that wonderful white chicken chili. I did it in the crock pot this time, it’s easily adaptable. We ate on it for a couple of nights and the rest has gone in the freezer.

Here’s the recipe I’m going to make next. This was published in our newspaper last fall and I had to run all over town to find a store that still had some frozen tortellinis left. Obviously, it looked as good to everyone else as it did to me. The recipe states that you can freeze this, and I did, but I’ll warn you that the tortellinis don’t hold up. It’ll still taste good but they turn to mush.

Tortellini Soup

1 lb…………sweet Italian bulk sausage
1 cup………chopped onion
2 cloves…..garlic, chopped
5 cups……..beef broth
1/2 cup……water
1/2 cup……dry red wine
2 cups…….whole tomatoes, chopped, with liquid
1 cup………sliced carrots
1/2 tsp…….basil
1/2 tsp…….oregano
1……………8-ounce can tomato sauce
1-1/2 cups..sliced zucchini
3 tbsp……..chopped fresh parsley
1……………medium green pepper, chopped
1……………19-ounce bag frozen tortellini

Cook the sausage; drain off fat. Cook the onion until soft. Use the same pan.

In a slow cooker or large heavy pot, combine sausage, onion, garlic, broth, water, wine, tomatoes, carrots, basil, oregano, tomato sauce, zucchini, parsley and green pepper, and slow cook 6-8 hours on low, until carrots are soft.

Add the bag of frozen tortellini. When they are cooked–about 50 minutes, or when they’re plump but still hold their curl–the soup is ready. Sprinkle pecorino Romano cheese on top, and serve with a hard-crusted bread.

This can be made ahead and frozen with the tortellini or separately and the tortellini added later.

Serves 8. Credit Marilyn Stroh for this recipe.

Enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday