Tater Tot Casserole and Stamped Napkin Project

All this redecorating made me hungry so I decided to fix one of my easiest and quickest suppers last night. We love tater tot casserole and it's so easy! It only takes ground beef, creme of mushroom soup, onion, cheese and a bag of tater tots. Hubby likes the mini-tots or "crowns" (so he doesn't think he's eating as many carbs as the "bigger" tots!)

Just brown the ground beef, adding a finely chopped onion. I realized I did not add the onion so I used some pico de gallo I had in the refrigerator which was a mixture of onion and red and green peppers - added a little zing but still tasty!

Top it off with the bag of tater tots and cook at 350 for about 30-45 minutes, until the tater tots are done. You can add grated cheese if you like

Look at all that dripping butter from the corn on the cob -- Paula Deen would be so proud of me!

NELL HILL INSPIRED STAMPED NAPKIN PROJECT

I love anything Mary Carol Garrity of Nell Hill's fame does. Her home and shop are always such an inspiration to me. While she can be a little "over the top" for most day-to-day real life, you can still adapt her ideas to your own use. When I saw her tablescapes and stamped napkins, I saved the pictures because I knew I wanted to try and recreate the napkin ideas.

Love the initials on this napkin

Fall-ish table setting

Gorgeous stamped monogram on linen

Here she uses a square frame as her "charger"

(above photos courtesy of Nell Hills)

So I went and purchased some linen napkins...ironed out the wrinkles.....

Got my fleur de lis stamp......



...and came up with this.

You can see where I played around with the napkin....first putting it on top of the salad plate and then underneath. I think I like it under the plate best


And while it's not as "grand" as Nell Hill's napkins, I think I've came pretty close to duplicating her stamped napkin effect

I want to thank everyone for all the wonderful suggestions left about what to do with the inside of my three corner cupboard. One of my sweet blogging friends e-mailed me that I might want to just paint it instead of using the scrapbook paper (which was the suggestion I got most) because the paper might clash with my vingettes. I tend to agree with her so for now, I will just leave it painted until I come up with a color that I think will look good. Who knows when or what that will be!

EDITED TO ADD: A lot of ya'll have asked about the ink I used for the napkins. I got both ink pads at Hobby Lobby. The brown one is called "Saddle Brown" and the cover of the pad is called Staz On. It also says it's for every surface but when I just now read the back, it says it's not recommended for fabric. Oh, well, I've never been much on following directions! I'm not planning on using the napkins other than for "looks" so hopefully I won't have to wash the napkins to see if the ink stays on. The black ink pad just says "Dye Ink Pad" (acid free). I think this ink is supposed to be used for stamping on paper projects....again, I didn't read the back! This little project was a lot of fun so I'm going to be doing more napkins but first I think I'll buy more "appropriate" paint! Thought I'd give ya'll the heads up since it seems like a lot of you want to try this. It would be a good idea if you buy ink made for stamping on fabric.