Family Nachos & Ramblings

After a big holiday like Halloween I usually chill out for a day or two, soaking in all the fun that we had, and taking my time clearing away the decorations. I am happy to report that my office project is finally complete, and our goal to get everything put away and organized, and decluttered has been done. I love working in a nice clean office!

I am happy with the bookcase in our office, the top had accumulated many various items, every time our lab Zoey would get into something we would take it away and stick on the top of the bookcase out of her reach, after awhile the bookcases had quite a few items that needed to be put in the proper place. Now I can see my little weather houses. I like to use baskets on some of my shelves to hold thinner books, and paperbacks, they are easier to get to that way, and a little less cluttery looking.

This colorful set of books are my Agatha Christie Books, I love reading her mystery stories, I also love watching David Suchet as Poirot on OPB & Joan Hickson as Miss Marple (I enjoy the newer Miss Marples also, but the older Joan Hickson Miss Marples are my favorite). Love a good British mystery!!

Here is a close up of one of my little weather houses, I love these happy little houses.

I also added a new decoration to our office. I love the little wooden figures made by Ostheimer , a German Wooden toy company, you can visit their website here. I first started buying these figures for the kids when they were little, I love the simple carved wood designs, and the soft natural paints. They are pretty spendy toys, but they are so beautiful, they are worth the expense. I think these toys are so nice to look at, I have continued adding to the family's collection over the years. One of the figures, called The Night Watchman, I have had my eye on on for years. Throughout the last couple of weeks I had seen him on display in many different blogger's Autumn displays, and was reminded how much I enjoyed him. So I decided to add him to our nice clean office. I bought the figure at The Wooden Wagon, they sell wonderful wooden toys and folk art, such a fun store to browse, they have such pretty Nativities and Noah's Arks that I would love to add to my collection one day.

Here the Night Watchman sits on a shelf in my office, I like to include items in my home that spark creative thought, that is why I like this fellow, when I look over at my shelves to rest my eyes from the computer, I imagine him wandering a medieval town or and early American village keeping watch.

On a completely separate note, I found these great decorative cabbage plants on clearance for a dollar, I have never planted any of these in the garden, so I thought for a dollar, why not? I love their pretty purple center, and I love how the rain drops bead up on the leaves.

Tonight we went to a school showcase event, for the students to display some of their projects. My daughter was hard at work all week on a project for her Psychology class, and my son helped out at the school green team club display. I enjoyed seeing all of the projects on display.

Being so busy this evening, I thought a fun and easy to prepare late supper would be in order. I have wanted to make a giant platter of Nachos since I saw Martha make some on her show a year ago. So tonight I had fun, putting together a nice big pan of Nachos, that we all sat around and enjoyed eating together.

To make these, first brown up a pound of hamburger with your favorite taco seasonings, then put a layer of nachos on a pizza pan, followed by a layer of seasoned beef, cheese, rinsed canned black beans, salsa, and black olives, then another layer of chips followed by more toppings. Bake in the oven at 350 F. until cheese is melted, about 10-12 minutes. Top with Sour cream. Serve in the center of the table, make sure to put down trivets, and warn little ones of the hot pan, and everyone can dig in. Very fun dinner to sit together and enjoy.