Living Room Remodel

The Tile for our Living Room has arrived

 First step tear out the old Carpet and Pad and Scrap up the glue

 Then put mesh over the cracks in the concrete and paint with the "special purple stuff" so the floor won't shift anymore and the tile won't crack

 Time to lay out the tile in the crazy pattern.

 Grout

 Look how pretty the Traverntine tile is after it's been sealed

 Time to move the furniture back in and have some good old family memories

Madison's 2nd Birthday

My Little girl is obsessed with Minnie Mouse. So of course she had to have a Minnie Mouse Birthday Party. I hand made these invites using various circle sizes. The ones i had to mail, I attached the ears with brads so that they would turn in and fit in an envelope. I also slid a picture of my little princess into the pocket with the party information.

 I made this wreath for the front door. I used a styrofaom wreath and then just glued tons of felt on the wreath.

 I bought dollar store head bands and dollar store foam. I glued felt on the foam and glued them on the headband and a bow. I gave these ears to the Birthday girl and all of her guest.

 I put Pink and black and red banners all over outside and inside to add more of a decorated feel. They were just old fabric I had laying around I sewed on as ribbon. I made a minnie mouse out of cardstock with a number two on it to hang out side as well. As you can see the wind got the best of it.

 For food we just served hot dogs as thats what they sing about on Mickey Mouse clubhouse. I made these cupcakes tying a bow out of fruit by the foot. (I got the idea off pinterest, sorry didn't save the website)

 What would be a party without my signature Birthday Banner. This one is Minnie Mouse of Course.

 I wish I would of got a better picture of the pinata I made out of a huggies diaper box. Got the idea on pinterest as well, I just made it my own.

Antique Sewing Table/ Nightstand

I scored this Antique Sewing Table on Craigslist for 8 dollars. When showing up I expected it to be way more beat up and unstable then it was. However it was in great condition. 

A few layers of paint and some distressing and it was now a nightstand for my bedroom. It doesn't have shelves, but I've never had a nightstand so I won't feel bad without them. The door does swing open and have a little cubby inside, as well the top opens and I guess if I decide I need to I can store stuff in the hole in the top where the machine used to go. 

I wanted it really distressed. I first painted it white than blue so I could sand through and you would see lots of white. However the only white i had on hand was latex. Bad idea, when I sanded all it did was gunk up the sand paper, plus it made it chip very easy. So it didn't go as plan, but it hardily ever does. Love it none the less. I did put a thick clear protective coat on it to prevent any further chipping.

Blue Buffet

My sister hasn't owned her house for very long, so she is still decorating and looking for the "perfect" furniture to put in it. I saw this on craigslist and convinced her she needed it. Should I say I love buffets, they are my favorite piece of furniture to redo. This mini buffet is far from perfect I know. But I saw this DIY chalk paint tutorial on pinterest and I was just dying to try it. You can check it out here.

The whole time we were doing this project I was so disappointed in the chalk paint, probably because it was 100 degrees outside and the paint keep getting clumpy. We also used the Vaseline trick where you put Vaseline on the furniture before you paint it so that the paint doesn't stick there, that didn't work for us as well as it usually does because it was so stink'n hot that the Vaseline keep dripping. I think with all the complaining my sister thought I hated how it turned out, but it was just the technique I was frustrated with. In fact I'm totally loving it. I can't wait to go to here house and see how it looks in it. The paint is the same paint she painted her living room wall in.

The more I look through the pictures, the more I am falling in love with this little blue buffet. I may even try chalk painting again, when it's cooler of course.

Mushroom-Spinach Eggs Benedict

Makes : 2 servings

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 10 minutes

3 Tablespoons reduced-fat sour cream

2 teaspoons fat-free milk

 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

 1 teaspoon olive oil

 1 1/2 cups sliced button mushrooms

 2 Tablespoons finely chopped shallots

 4 cups baby spinach

 Pinch of ground nutmeg

 2 eggs 1 whole-wheat English muffin, split

 Pinch of black pepper

 Fresh Thyme Sprigs (optional)

1. In a small bowl, stir together sour cream, milk and mustard.

2. In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms and shallots. Cook 4 minutes or until mushrooms are golden brown, stirring frequently. Stir in spinach and nutmeg and cook until spinach just starts to wilt; set aside.

3. Fill a medium nonstick skillet halfway with water. Bring water to a boil; reduce heat to a simmer. Break 1 egg into a small bowl. Carefully slide egg into simmering water, holding lip of bowl close to water. Repeat with remaining egg . Simmer, uncoverd 3 to 5 minutes or until shites are set and yolks begin to thicken. Remove eggs from skillet with a slotted spoon.

 4. While eggs simmer, toast muffin halves. Top each with half the mushroom mixture, 1 poached egg and sauce. Sprinkle with pepper. Garnish with thyme sprigs if desired.

235 calories, 15 g protein, 23 g carbohydrate, 10 fat ( 3 saturated), 6 g fiber

California Chipotle Chopped Salad

California Chipotle Chopped Salad

4 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

 2 Tablespoons agave nectar

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

1 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 garlic clove, minced

 1/4 teaspoon chipotle chile powder

 1/2 teaspoon salt

 1 head romaine lettuce, cut or torn into bite-size pieces

 1 large tomato, finely chopped

1/4 red onion, finely chopped

 1 avocado, pitted, peeled and diced

 1/2 cup quinoa

 2 Tablespoons finely chopped cilantro

1. To make vinaigrette: Puree 3 Tablespoons oil, vinegar, agave nectar and lime juice in a blender.

 2. In a small saucepan, heat remaining oil over medium heat. Saute black beans, garlic, chile powder and salt for 5 minutes. Let cool.

3. In a large bowl, combine lettuce, tomato, onion, avocado, quinoa, black bean mixture and cilantro. Toss gently with vinaigrette to coat.

334 Calories, 10g protein, 37 g carbohydrate, 20g fat (2.6 g saturated), 11 g fiber



Valentines Day!

What's Valentine's Day without Valentine's cards for friends?

Well I got this idea off of pinterest; it is candy bar robots. After digging through my scrap pile I decided to make mine pink and red because I had a lot of that paper. These are going to be for my son's preschool class.

The Robots were a little more time consuming than I had hoped, especially when you have a 4 yr old and a 1 yr old helping you every step of the way. So since for Daycare I needed 20 valentines a piece I went a different route.

For my son I cut these airplanes out on the cricut and came up with a quick saying. Once again I just dug through my scrap paper, that's why all the different colors.

For my daughter I just stamped a heart on paper and cut it out, then with some pop dots I wrote her name. Super easy, plus she's only 1 so all she cares about is the candy.

What's Valentines without Decor?

I usually search and search for ideas for decorations, but now with pinterest it seems like you can find everything in one place. It's easier, but now that it's easier, I'm not the only one making things. This is an idea off there; I've seen it in different designs for many holidays.

This little pom-pom I seen a tutorial somewhere and then just got creative with what I already had on hand. I used a bucket I've had for a few years stuffed it with Styrofoam, glued some greenery on top so you wouldn't see the Styrofoam. Cut down a stick to the length I liked and poked it into the Styrofoam in the bucket and the pom-pom.

Here is another pom-pom type thing I was going to make into a topiary, but decided it looked just as good on a candle holder I found at the local thrift store and painted it red. For the pom-poms I found Styrofoam balls at the local $1 store and glued either 1 inch red circles cut out of felt, or roses made out of crate paper.

Not sure how well you can see this, but I cut hearts out on my cricut, than I put two together and sewed them on my sewing machine. I pulled the string a few inches between each set of hearts and keep on sewing. This is the end result. Just fan out the hearts to give them some dimension.

When I was at my mother-in-laws I was looking for a craft to do. After Christmas there is not much money left over for decorations, so I've never had a Valentines Wreath. I saw a picture on the Internet of a wreath made out of sticks. Being in the country I went to the backyard and started gluing sticks together, thinking when I was done I would head over to the saw and cut it in the shape of a heart. Not so much. The sticks weren't glued together enough and the saw had a hard time cutting through the greener twigs. So I cut a template out of cardboard instead, then cut each stick down and glued them one by one to fit on the cardboard. Not quite what I had in mind, but with a valentines bow it looked alright.

Pickles

Look at these beautiful homemade pickles. My husbands grandmother taught me to make her famous pickles a few years ago and every year since I have to make them because our family loves them.

This is the fresh dill a friend gave us growing wild in his backyard.
Aren't these cucumbers wonderful. I always try and grow my own pickling cucumbers, but in a pot in our backyard they just never seem to turn out. A friend grew these in their garden for me.

Halloween Costumes

I love to make my own costumes for my kids, besides cute costumes sale for like 50 bucks now a days. This year I just couldn't come up with the time from training and recovering from the marathon. These are there 2011 costumes. Wyatt was "super Why" for those of you that don't know who that is its a show on PBS that helps kids learn to read.

Madison was a cute little Pirate. I threw this together from scrap fabric of Wyatt's 2010 costume.
Wyatt was definitely the cutest pirate I ever saw in 2010.

Wyatt's 4th Birthday

Wyatt wanted a train Party. Well he wanted a Toy Story Party, but he had one last year so Train was his second option. We made the kids a choo choo train to pull behind the 4-wheeler, like they have at the carnivals. We made it out of a dolly we already had in our garage and a water barrel. We were going to make another until we realized how much dolly's are. The barrels are quite pricey to, however you can find them at recycle yards or buy them from people once they get holes. The train rides were definitely the highlight of the party, the kids couldn't have enough turns.

I made this train out cardboard boxes for the kids to play bean bag toss.
We also had the kids make choo choo trains out of candy.

For prizes I bought train hats, suckers, and choo choo whistles from oriental trading. They were quite cheaply priced. They shipping was the worse part.

Wyatt already being a fan of trains had a small train set that we set out for them to play with.

For lunch I made Pb and j a kids favorite and shaped them like trains. We also had other kid friendly foods like gold fish. jello, etc. Wyatt's grandpa made him a wooden train set for Christmas that we strung along the food for decor.

Cake Pops! not the best looking. I shaped them by hand, no fancy machine or pan.

I'm a huge cupcake fan for birthdays.