Sharing the Wealth

Sesame Street Birthday Party

2012-03-04T10:35:00.001-08:00

My friend has a daughter who turned two ten days before my little girl. We decided to do a combined birthday party. It was so fun and our daughters loved every minute of the party. We did a Sesame Street themed party. Here are some of the things we had at the party:

Sesame Street Sign

Sugar Cookie Bars

1 Cup Butter, room temperature

2 Cups Sugar

4 Eggs

2 tsp. Vanilla

5 Cups Flour

1 tsp. Salt

1/2 tsp. Baking soda

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Mix butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla and mix until well combined. In a separate bowl add the dry ingredients and stir. Then slowly add the dry ingredients to your mixer. Once all of the ingredients are incorporated, spread the dough onto a well greased cookie sheet (I use my hands to spread the dough out since it is so tough). Bake at 375 for 10-15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (it won't really be golden brown). Let me cookies cool and then frost them.

Basic Sugar Cookie Frosting

4 Cups Powdered Sugar

4 tsp. Vanilla

1/2 Cup Butter, softened

3-4 tsp. Milk

Peanut M&M's

They were the perfect little addition for the table since they are Sesame Street colors.

Giant Elmo Balloon
We bought it on Amazon for $12. The kids loved it, until it got body slammed by some boys and popped. I also saw the other day at the Dollar Tree that they have a normal sized Mylar balloon that's Elmo's head. It's only a dollar! That's a steal.

Fishing with Dorothy
The children fished over a sheet and would catch a prize.

Sesame Street Bowling

The kids loved rolling and throwing the ball and the "pins".

Oscar's Trash Basketball

Elmo and Big Bird Party Favors

Sesame Street Character Oreo Pops

Cookie Monster Cake
We got this at Smith's for about $15, which was a great deal considering we didn't have to spend the time decorating it ourselves!

Free Nikon D800

2012-02-22T10:00:00.000-08:00

Pictureline is giving away a FREE Nikon D800 Camera. You simply "like" their facebook page and then click on the giveaway section on the side and fill out the form. So easy! Click here to enter!

Tiered Ruffle Skirt

2012-02-20T14:45:00.000-08:00

My daughter turned two this last week. For one of her birthday presents, I made her this cute tiered ruffle skirt. While it took a little bit to make, it wasn't that difficult. I used this tutorial by a girl and a glue gun you should definitely make one for yourself, your daughter, your niece or anyone else you can think of. I seriously love it!

New Addition

2011-12-31T12:42:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the break in posts. I have been a bit busy lately. A couple weeks ago I found out my baby was IUGR (intrauterine growth restricted). He was measuring nearly 4 weeks too small. I was just over 36 weeks along when we found this out. They decided to induce me early so he could get the nourishment he needed outside of the womb since he wasn't getting enough inside.

So on Monday December 26th I was induced. Baby's heart rate started to drop every contraction, so I had to get a c-section. Baby boy was born at 11:54 a.m. weighing in at 4 pounds 15 ounces and 17 inches long.

He's had a bit of a challenge eating and is currently in the NICU. We're hoping he can come home soon. We sure do love our little guy!

Car Seat Cover Tutorial

2011-12-13T21:03:00.001-08:00

I realize there are a lot of tutorials for car seat covers out there, but I decided to make one of my own. I tried to make it a little more easy to follow than some of the tutorials I've seen. Let me know if you have any questions!

What you will need:
1 yard of main material
1 yard of contrasting material
Sewable Velcro
Thread
Straight pins
Scissors
Fabric marker
Tape measurer
Straight edge
Plate
Embellishments (buttons, ribbons, etc)

Not necessary, but nice to have:
Rotary mat
Rotary cutter
Rotary ruler
Binding tape

First you'll want to fold your fabric in half and cut it 17" wide and 42" long. This will leave you with a rectangle that is 34"x 42". You also need to cut 2 rectangles of each fabric that are 3"x 7 1/2" for your straps.

Once you have cut both fabrics to the correct size, use a plate to help you round the edges of your rectangles. I found it best to cut both fabrics at the same time so the corners would match up. If you have a really sharp rotary cutter, you are able to cut all the corners and both fabrics at the same time. If you don't have a good rotary cutter, you can use a fabric marker to draw the rounded edge and then cut it with scissors.

Here's the cut corners.

Line up fabrics right sides together and sew around the outside using a 1/4" seam. Make sure to leave a few inches open though so you can flip it right side out.

Before flipping it right-side-out, cut little notches in the around the corners (careful not to cut your seam) to help your edges to stay nice and round.

You can finish your edge however you like. I decided to use binding tape. Some other options are to just leave it as is, but make sure to iron the seams so they are nice and sharp, you could go around the outside edge with a 1/8" seam, or your could serge around the outside.

With your 3" x 7 1/2" rectangles, sew right sides together. Once again leaving an opening so you can flip it right-side-out.

Cut the corners a bit before flipping it so you can have a sharper edge.

Once it's been flipped right-side-out, iron the seams and then sew a 1/8" seam around the outside - making sure to close up the open area.

Figure out which fabric you'd like to show on your straps. I wanted to keep them matching the top fabric and attach velcro accordingly.

Fold your cover in half and measure 18" from the top and then 3" over and draw a 2" line. Do this on both sides. These lines are where you will sew on your straps. FYI the 18" side is the back of your cover.

Here is my line.

Next take your straps and draw lines at 2 1/2" from the top and from the bottom.

Here is a little diagram to show you the measurements of those lines.

Line up the line you drew on your strap with the line you previously drew on your cover. You'll want to line them up so that the part of your strap that you want to be on top will be on the drawn line. Make sure that the 18 inches is the back part of your cover. Once you have pinned the straps in place sew a square around those two lines. Attach your straps to the car seat and you're done!

Here is the finished product.

I apologize if that was confusing. Please ask me questions if you have any!

Thumbprint Cookies

2011-12-07T08:43:00.001-08:00

I had a recipe exchange party last night. I tried out a new recipe, and people seemed to like it, so I thought I'd share it with you! The one nice thing about them is that they aren't a super sweet cookie, though that could also be a negative because you can trick yourself into eating too many of them haha.

Ingredients (will make about 12 - 18 cookies)

1/2 cupbutter, softened

1/4 cuppacked brown sugar

1 egg, separated

1/2teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cupall-purpose flour

3/4 cupfinely chopped walnuts

2/3 cup anyflavor fruit jam

1/4teaspoon salt

Preheatoven to 300 degrees F. Grease cookie sheets. Separate egg,reserving egg white. Cream butter or margarine, sugar, and egg yolk. Addvanilla, flour and salt, mix well. Shape dough into balls. Roll in slightly whipped (I whipped them for about 30 seconds with a fork) eggwhite, then walnuts. Place on cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake for 5minutes. Removecookies from oven. With thumb or spoon, dent each cookie. Put jelly or preserves in eachthumbprint. Bake for another 10-12 minutes.

Copycat Jamba Juice Caribbean Passion Recipe

2011-11-30T12:39:00.001-08:00

Sorry I haven't been so great about posting lately. I've been busy with photography, being a mom, traveling and getting wrapped up in the holidays. BUT I hope this recipe will make up for my lack of posts.

I found a recipe for a copycat Caribbean Passion Jamba Juice. I've been on the lookout for this recipe for some time now because it's my absolute favorite flavor.

1 Cup Passion fruit mango juice blend

1 Cup Frozen strawberries

1/2 Cup Frozen peaches

1/2 Cup Orange sherbet

1/2 Cup ice

Put all of the ingredients in a blender and blend on high until it's "smoothie" consistency.

SO easy right? I will admit, I couldn't find the right fruit juice so I ended up using Doles Orange Peach Mango juice and it was simply delicious! I had to add a little more juice to get it to the right consistency. You should definitely try this recipe out!

Better Than Takeout Orange Chicken

2011-11-13T13:59:00.001-08:00

I found a recipe for "Better Than Takeout Orange Chicken" on Pinterest a while back and have made it two times now. It really is delicious and I highly recommend you try it out! The biggest pain is frying up the chicken just cause it takes so long.

The sauce is super easy and really yummy! If I were you, I'd double the sauce. I'm a sauce kinda gal. The first time I made it was was left wanting more.

Just so you know, 3 chicken breasts was enough to feed 6 people and we still had left overs. So the chicken goes a loooong way when you fry it up.

Also, when frying my chicken I used about 5-6 eggs, a whole box of panko and probably 2 - 2 1/2 cups of cornstarch. So make sure you have extra of those ingredients.

Orange Chicken (adapted from Blogchef.net) serves 6

Chicken

2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into 1-1/2” cubes
1 ½ cups corn starch
1 cup panko bread crumbs
2 eggs, beaten
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
Oil (for frying)

Orange Sauce

1 ½ cups water
1/4 cup orange juice
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon orange zest, grated
1 cup packed brown sugar
½ teaspoon ginger root, minced
½ teaspoon garlic, minced
2 tablespoons green onion, chopped
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water

Combine corn starch, salt, and pepper. Prepare a bowl with beaten eggs, another with panko bread crumbs and another with corn starch. Dip chicken in egg mixture, dredge in cornstarch, then again in the eggs and finally in the panko bread crumbs, set aside. Heat pan with vegetable oil to 375 degrees, fry chicken in batches until completely cooked.

In a large saucepan combine 1 ½ cups water, orange juice, rice vinegar, and soy sauce. Blend well over medium heat for a few minutes. Stir in brown sugar, orange zest, ginger, garlic and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil.

Combine 3 tablespoons of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of water and mix thoroughly. Slowly stir cornstarch mixture into sauce until it thickens. Pour sauce over breaded chicken, and if desired garnish with green onions.

Mini Witch Hat Tutorial

2011-10-29T20:58:00.000-07:00

My daughter is going to be a witch for Halloween, but I couldn't find a hat that was small enough to fit her. Well that's not totally true, I could have paid $30 for a witch costume at Target which had a hat included, but that would have been crazy. I finally decided just to make one for her. While a normal sized hat would have been fun, I thought a mini witch hat would be cute. What did it cost me? Well, nothing since I had all of the supplies on hand, but if I hadn't had the materials on hand, it probably would have cost around $1 or so.

Here's what I did:

Using this pattern, I cut out my foam sheet.

I wrapped the foam around into a cone and hot glued the seam. I then added on little strips along the inside of the cone in order to glue the cone to the base a little easier. You could definitely skip this step and just put hot glue all around the bottom on the cone as long as you're planning to cover up the seam somehow. Otherwise, you'll see the hot glue.

I glued the cone to the base.

I then added some tulle to match my daughter's tutu.

Last, I hot glued some elastic thread to help keep it on. The elastic thread was perfect, it didn't bother her so she actually kept the hat on. Yay!

Chicken Pot Puffs

2011-10-10T07:46:00.000-07:00

I have a recipe that we call "Chicken Puffs" in our house. It's one of my grandma's recipes and has been one of my all time favorite foods since I was a kid. I decided to do a spin off that recipe and do a chicken pot pieish filling. I'd love for you to try them out and let me know what you think!

Ingredients
Filling
- 1 Large Chicken Breast
- 1/2 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
- 4 Oz Cream Cheese, slightly softened
- 1 Large Carrot, or several baby carrots, chopped/sliced
- 1/4 Cup Frozen Peas
- Salt
- Pepper

Outside
- 1 - 2 Packages Crescent Roll Dough
- 1 Stick Butter, melted
- 1 1/2 Cups Italian Breadcrumbs

Sauce
- 1 Can Cream of Chicken Soup
- 2 - 4 Oz. Cream Cheese
- 1 Can Chicken Broth

Directions

Boil your chicken breast until cooked through. Chop or shred your chicken breast, set aside. Par boil your carrot slices for about 5 minutes, so they start to get soft, but aren't completely cooked through. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the cream of chicken soup and cream cheese. Then add in the chicken, carrots, peas, salt and pepper. Stir together with a spoon until well combined.

Take your crescent roll dough triangles. They them out and gently push them outwards to make them a bit wider. Put a dollop of your filling in the center of each triangle. You will be able to get 8-12 crescent rolls filled depending on how much filling you put inside. Wrap the dough around the filling and make sure all the sides are closed up (this takes a bit of practice, and in reality if you have a couple of holes it's not the end of the world, your filling will just seep a bit when you bake them).

Dip your dough in melted butter and then in seasoned breadcrumbs until it's covered everywhere. Place on a non-greased pan and bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

To make the sauce simply put the cream of chicken soup, cream cheese and chicken broth in a medium sauce pan. Bring it to a simmer. Stir or whisk until all of the chunks are gone. Let it reduce until it's a good sauce consistency, not runny like it starts out.

I hope you enjoy this little twist on a chicken pot pie!

Broccoli Potato Cheese Soup

2011-10-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

Well it's starting to be that time of year where you look outside and just want to stay in and eat some nice warm soup. This is one of my favorite soups. This recipe makes a fair amount of soup, but it makes for good leftovers. It is pretty easy to half. I had a recipe that is similar, but I revamped it to my liking and added potatoes enjoy!

Ingredients

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tsp salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 Pinches nutmeg
2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves – or 1/4 - 1/3 tsp dried thyme leaves
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6 cups chicken broth (or 6 cups of water with 3 bouillon cubes)
1 - 2, 12 oz packages frozen broccoli, thawed
3 medium potatoes quartered then sliced - boiled until tender
1 cup heavy cream
8 oz sharp cheddar cheese – grated

Directions

In a medium pot, melt the 6 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat. Add onions, salt, pepper, and nutmeg and cook, stirring, until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and thyme cook, stirring, until fragrant, for 20 seconds. Add the flour and cook, stirring until the mixture is well blended and smells fragrant, 1-2 minutes. Slowly add the broths, whisking constantly, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 5 minutes, or until it begins to thicken. Add one package of broccoli and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes.

Remove the pot from the heat and puree with a hand-held immersion blender or normal blender.

Add the cream and bring to a simmer add the remaining ½ - 1 package of broccoli depending on how chunky you want your soup and simmer for 7 minutes (if you don't want chunks of broccoli, don't add the extra package, it is still very delicious!). Add cooked potatoes and once the broccoli is tender, add the cheese and cook over low heat, stirring, until melted.

Serve and top with grated cheese.

Candy Corn Wreath

2011-10-03T07:11:00.000-07:00

I know these have been around a lot lately on the internet, but I love them so I had to make one to share with you. To make the wreath, I bought a foam tube at Home Depot that is in the plumbing section for 97 cents. I then cut the tube to the size that I wanted and then used duct tape to keep the two ends together. The one issue I ran into by doing this method was that it didn't stay a perfect circle. I've also heard of doing the same thing using a swim noodle. I just didn't want to spend $5 on a foam wreath when I could get away with only spending $1.

Next, I wrapped the wreath with black duct tape. Then I hot glued candy corns onto the wreath. Just a warning, this will take you a while haha. I changed the direction the candy corns were facing each row. Then I wanted to make my wreath a little different than all of the other candy corn wreaths out there, so I added a little sign that says "Trick or Treat" on it. I purchased a really thin piece of wood at Robert's for $1.80 or so. It was way longer than I wanted, but it was the right thickness and width. I broke the wood so it would have rough edges. I then outlined Trick or Treat on wood and painted around the words. I decided that I liked the plain wood look for the letters rather than painting them in a different color. I sanded down the sign a little bit so it would have a distressed/scary look to it. Then all I had to do was tie a ribbon to the top so I could hang it. I've seen where people have used a really thick ribbon to hang their wreath, which I think looks nice, but I didn't think it would look as good because of my sign.

I have talked to a few people who made these last year and their wreaths actually ended up melting! So you may want to preserve your wreath.

Vintage Earring Holder

2011-09-30T09:34:00.000-07:00

The other day I was trying to sort through all of my earrings. When I finished finding the different pairs and deciding which ones I'd actually like to keep, I had nowhere to put them other than in a ziplock bag. I decided right then and there that I was going to make something to organize my earrings. I've had plenty of jewelry boxes in my day, but my earrings still didn't seem that organized in them. I had seen some framed jewelry holders floating around the internet. This one was my inspiration. I loved the look of the lace.

I kept my eye out for an oval frame....but I couldn't find any that were a very good price. I headed to DI and found a long and skinny frame that I thought would work and it was only $3 (I actually ended up liking better than the oval frame look). I had purchased some lace at Hobby Lobby. The lace was 50% off so the two rolls cost me a total of $2.50. I have lots of lace left over and look forward to using it for some other projects. I just love lace! Next I got some Ivory spray paint at Walmart for $3.50. So that brings my total cost to $9, but I have plenty of lace and spray paint left over that I'll be able to use for other projects.

This is what the frame looked like to begin with.

I spray painted the frame and then antiqued it a bit.

Then I simply attached my lace. I used hot glue because that's what I had, but if you have a staple gun, I'm sure that would be more secure. The hot glue seems to be holding up just fine so far though.

I hung it up on the wall and hung my earrings and it was done. Such an easy, quick craft!

Amazing Walmart Clearance Sale!

2011-09-28T11:51:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the Orem, Utah Walmart and they were having a huge clearance sale on their girls summer clothes.

How much did I pay for all of these clothes you ask....$12!!! That's right! They are selling these adorable outfits for $1 each! And the shirts on the top came in sets of 2 for $1. Sure, I went all out....but now I'm ready for next summer! Check out your local Walmart to see if they are having the same deal. It's seriously amazing!

Eyeball Cake Pops

2011-09-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

Looking for a fun treat to serve at your Halloween Party? Well, these eyeball cake pops are perfect for you. The best part is that you don't necessarily have to cover them with chocolate absolutely perfectly. I left a bit of white chocolate in the back to look like the optic nerve.

To make the pupil and iris part, I simply melted some milk chocolate and then piped out little circles on some wax paper. After the chocolate had cooled, I pipped some colored white chocolate around the outside if the milk chocolate dot. After that cooled I was able to peel them off the wax paper. Right after dipping the cake pop in the white chocolate, I placed the pupil/iris circles on the eyeballs. Then I piped some pink colored white chocolate (you could definitely do red...I just didn't want to go through the pain of dying the chocolate red).

Maternity Band

2011-09-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

With my ever expanding waistline, I've been considering getting a bella band since I've heard such great things. However, I found a great tutorial on Make it and Love it on how to make your own maternity band. I made one for myself and will definitely by making some more. When I make my next one, I'm going to make it longer than her dimensions and also not as wide. Every body is different so you can measure and see what will work for you.

Jack-O-Lantern Veggie Tray

2011-09-21T14:02:00.000-07:00

I made this for a little get together we had last Halloween. However, I didn't really do any Halloween themed posts because my husband had blown out his knee a few days before the 31st and I was busy taking care of him. SO I thought I'd post it for you this year :) It's super easy to do and fun for a Halloween party.

Little Boy Tie Tutorial

2011-09-19T13:19:00.000-07:00

Last week I learned how to make little boy ties and thought I'd share what I learned. They are so easy and so cute! Plus, it's one of the few crafts I can make for my little guy on the way. I hope my step by step tutorial helps you out. These are probably the size you'd want for a 1 1/2 - 2 year old. If you want to make them for an older child, just make the pattern longer. If you have any questions please ask!

Using the pattern found here, cut out your fabric. You will need to cut two layers of fabric - one being the pattern you want to show for your tie and the other being a backing (this one will only show on the little corners in the back).

Put the right sides together and sew the corners together using a 1/4" seam allowance.

Clip the fabric on the corners - making sure not to cut the actual seam.

Flip the fabric right side out and iron the corners so they are nice and sharp.

Fold the tie in half with right tie pattern sides together and sew down the edge. Once again using the 1/4" seam allowance. DON'T sew the corner ends, only the long edge.

Press the seam open and then using a safety pin, flip the tie right side out again. You do this by putting the safety pin on the corner and then feeding it down the hole on that same side.

Press your tie again so it's edges are nice and sharp.

This is what the back of the tie looks like.

Cut a piece of fabric that is approximately 2 3/4" wide and 16" long. Feel free to make this strip longer or shorter if you need to. This is what will be going around the neck. Put the right sides together and sew a straight line using a 1/4" seam allowance.

Flip it right side out (again with the safety pin) and then press your fabric. with the seam being in the middle.

Sew the ends shut - if you are wanting to do elastic for part of your neck piece, simply put it about 1/2" into the end and then sew your fabric shut.

How to Tie the Tie

Place your tie like this around the neck piece.

Bring the back of the tie across the front.

Pull the back piece up high so if looks like a normal tie not and then wrap it around to the back. (Look at the images - it will help a lot ha).

Tuck the back of the tie through the front.

Now move that little piece that is sticking out of the front to the back. You just have to slide it around. Tighten the knot by pulling on the neck piece. Using a needle and thread, stitch the little back piece to the second layer of the front piece, but only through that layer so it won't be seen from the front. This will keep it from getting untied.

And here is your tied tie.

All you do after this step is add Velcro or snaps to the neck piece or whatever else you are wanting for your attachment.

These are some ties I made for my little guy this weekend. Aren't they so cute???

This are super easy to make and use very little fabric. I would recommend getting about 1/4 of a yard - and you will definitely have some extra fabric with that. You could maybe get by with 1/8 yard, but it would be close.

Soap Dispenser Jack-O-Lantern

2011-09-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

I've seen a lot of fun Halloween decorations in stores lately. I can't believe it's that time of year already! While I was at the dollar store I saw a soap dispenser that is supposed to look like an orange and thought it would make a great Halloween decoration. I simply got a black sharpie marker and drew a jack-o-lantern face on the soap dispenser. SO easy and it only cost $1. Yay!

Giveaway Winner!

2011-09-12T06:51:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who entered the Bits of Blossoms giveaway. We have a winner and it is......comment number 19.

"I liked the bit of sunshine headband!" By Lytles

And for all of those people who don't win, she is offering a 25% discount on your order! How amazing is that??? You just have to enter the code: Wealth25 when you check out at her Etsy shop

Old Dress to Children's Dress

2011-09-09T07:56:00.000-07:00

I'm finally starting to get my crafting back on....if you hadn't noticed I've been a bit more interested in food than crafting. Does it surprise you that we found out I'm having a baby BOY?!?!?! I think that explains my lack of craftiness :)

Yesterday I made a dress for my little girl out of an old dress of mine. I should have done a step by step tutorial, but I didn't (I was trying to hurry and make it during her nap time). If you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them though.

Here is the original dress. For a reference, it came down to my knees. Why did I cut it up and ruin it you ask? Honestly, it never fit well and the top was too wide.

Here is the dress I made for my daughter. It's a bit too long (remember she was down for a nap so I couldn't take measurements along the way), but I still like it. I have a bit more fabric left over that I think I'll make a matching headband with.

Bits of Blossoms Giveaway!!

2011-09-05T14:45:00.000-07:00

This giveaway is now closed

I have been really excited about this giveaway for a while now. One of my good friends makes the most adorable and comfortable headbands. One reason I hate wearing headbands is because they always give me a headache. Bits of Blossoms' headbands DON'T - not to mention they are so dang cute! She makes them in all sizes. I have some for me and some for my 18 month old daughter. She has a variety of color choices and styles - which is great!

Now, on to the details of the giveaway. Larysa is giving away THREE custom made headbands to the winner!

How to Enter

1) Follow my blog

2) "Like" Bits of Blossoms on Face Book

3) Make her Etsy shop a "favorite"

4) Pick out your favorite headband(s) from her Etsy shop or FB page. Then leave a comment below letting me know which headbands you want. If the color combo you're looking for isn't there don't worry- they do custom orders!

*Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry as well as a way for me to contact you if you win!

And for all of those people who don't win, she is offering a 25% discount on your order! How amazing is that??? You just have to enter the code: Wealth25 when you check out at her Etsy shop

Giveaway ends on Sunday September 11th at 10 PM MST and the winner will be announced Monday. Good luck everyone!!!

Deliciously Easy Banana Bread

2011-08-31T09:16:00.000-07:00

I love banana bread and when I found that our bananas had gotten a little to ripe to just eat, I knew exactly what I was going to do with them. I looked up a few banana bread recipes and then came up with my own version. Here's the recipe!

Banana Bread

1/2 Cup Butter, softened
1 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
3/4 Cup Ripened Mashed Bananas (approx. 2 bananas)
1/2 tsp. Vanilla
1 tsp. Baking Soda
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 1/4 Cup Flour
Pinch of Cinnamon

Directions

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar. With the mixer running on medium speed, add the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla and bananas and mix well. In a separate bowl add baking soda, salt, flour, and cinnamon. Using a fork or whisk, stir the dry ingredients together. Add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl. Mix thoroughly, but do not over mix. Pour the dough into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350 for 45 - 60 minutes.

Cherry Almond Cake

2011-08-22T09:39:00.000-07:00

We celebrated my brother's birthday yesterday and I made the cake. We have a dessert that my family loves called cherry bars so I based his cake off of that dessert. I used doctored up white cake recipe which is pretty delicious. It makes a ridiculous amount of batter though and it's a bit dense for my liking. Does anyone here have a nice fluffy cake recipe? I'd love for you to share it with me!

The white cake has a bit of almond extract in it which pairs nicely with the cherry pie filling. I used Wilton's buttercream frosting recipe, but rather than using crisco, I used butter. I think butter just tastes better! I'm looking for other buttercream recipes right now as well. I don't hate that recipe, but I don't want to just stick to that one in case there's a better frosting out there.

Which reminds me - does anyone have a yummy fluffy frosting for cupcakes?? I don't want a super heavy frosting because it just get's to be too much sugar for me. I usually take off most of the frosting when eating my cupcake haha.

Back to the cake. With my cake batter recipe, I was able to make 3 layers - if you only have 2 layers - it will be totally fine! I used the canned cherry pie filling as my center. I first made a dam with medium consistency frosting to keep the filling from oozing out the sides. You do this by using tip 12.

Go around the outside of your cake layer leaving about 1/2 - 1/4'' around the outside of the cake since the frosting will be pushed out a little bit. After you have made your dam, put your filling on the cake. I made a little diagram to show you what it would look like if you were looking straight down on your cake layer.

If you have multiple layers, repeat the steps I explained above, if you only have tow, then place your top layer on your filled layer and you're set to frost the outside. Don't look at my frosting job too closely. I just started a cake decorating class and as you can see - I need some work haha. BUT I do recommend that make a white almond cake and have a cherry filling. It is delicious!!!!

Unbroken

2011-08-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

Remember when I shared a reading list a while back of books I plan to read? Well I have read a couple of them and thought I'd share my thoughts on some. Today I'm wanting to tell you about Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.

I highly recommend this book. It is a nonfiction book about a POW during WWII. I am sad to say, that I actually didn't know a ton about the Japanese side of the war, I mostly just knew about all of the things going on in Germany. This book taught me a ton about the war while sharing an amazing story. I loved it! Unbroken, isn't necessarily a quick read, but it's very informative. If you are considering getting the book on tape, I'm sure it's still good, but I did like looking at the pictures of Louie and others people in the book.

Just a warning, POW life can be difficult and disturbing, so if those types of things bother you, then maybe this book isn't for you, but as for me, it was an inspiring book and I really enjoyed it.

Watermelon Shark

2011-08-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

I saw a watermelon shark on Sun Scholars a while back and thought it was so cool! I just had to make one, but I didn't really have any reason to make one for just me and my husband. Yesterday we had a big family gathering so I finally had my chance! I was a bit disappointed that the store didn't really have any long watermelons, they only had ones that were more round. It still turned out alright, though I think it probably looks more like a whale since the watermelon was so round. It was still a big hit. You should definitely try it out sometime. And in case you didn't know, it's actually shark week on the Discovery Channel this week - SO go make yourself a watermelon shark to celebrate :)

Before and After Nightstand

2011-07-29T07:52:00.000-07:00

My sister-in-law redid her nightstands that she was given for free - that's right - free. Look and how gorgeous they turned out!!!!

I have a few things of my own that I am going to paint. I have a couple small nightstands that I'm going to paint black. I would like to antique them, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that with the black - so if you have tips PLEASE let me know. I also bought some little chairs that I'm going to paint and give to my daughter for Christmas along with a little table.

I would love to see your before and after projects so please link up here:

Design Seeds

2011-07-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

I LOVE Design Seeds. It is a great website with different color swatches. Whether you need to find colors for a room or to help you figure out what to wear for family pictures, this site will help you immensely! There are pages and pages of swatches, so there is one that is bound to be calling out your name.

Freezing Basil

2011-07-26T14:53:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, I had a basil plant in my house. It was fantastic to have fresh basil for spaghetti sauces and whatnot and it only cost me $3. Well on a short trip to Idaho I kind of forgot about the plant. When I got back he was looking rather sad and I didn't think he would make it. Well I watered him and he came back! Yay! We were only gone for 3 days, but on our trip to California we were going to be gone for over a week so I knew the basil wouldn't make it. I did some research about how to store fresh basil. There were several techniques, and I'm not sure if one is better than the other, but I ended up doing a freezing technique.

How to freeze basil cubes

Harvest the basil leaves
Wash, pick the leaves off the stalk and then use the salad spinner to spin out most of the water
Pat dry with kitchen towels
Stuff the herbs in ice cube trays
Fill the tray with water. Use your fingers to push the leaves down into the water as much as possible as they tend to float.
Place the ice cube tray in the freezer
Once the ice cubes are frozen, remove them from the tray and transfer to zip-lock bags
These cubes are now ready for use

You can simply add the ice cube to your spaghetti sauce or whatever else you are cooking. It's wonderful!!!

Shrink Plastic Buttons

2011-07-20T12:16:00.000-07:00

I found this AMAZING tutorial on how to make Shrink Plastic Buttons on Scissors.Paper.Wok I will definitely be making some of these. I just need to get a machine that will cut the pattern and some shrink plastic. I can't wait!

Snicker Doodles

2011-07-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was browsing some of my favorite craft blogs and came across a delicious looking post about snicker doodle cookies on Make It Do. I love snicker doodles and just HAD to try their recipe. I highly recommend it! They are so delicious and soft mmmm! Here is their recipe.

Snicker Doodle Cookies

1 cup butter

1 – 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

3 cups flour

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

For rolling

3 Tbsp. sugar

3 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cream together sugar and butter. Add eggs and blend well. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Slowly mix into the sugar mixture until incorporated.

Shape into 1 inch balls and roll in cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 350 degrees for 8 – 10 minutes.

Lack of Craftiness

2011-07-06T07:23:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you've noticed the general lack of craftiness on my blog lately. To be perfectly honest, I just haven't felt super crafty lately. I've mostly just felt tired and this is why:

I'm pregnant! I think this baby has been draining away my "craftiness". I have been lucky though and have only had one day of morning sickness. I'm hoping that my desire to create things comes back soon. I'm nearly done with the first trimester so I should stop feeling soooo tired - hopefully. I'm due January 15th and am really excited. This will be baby number two for us.

Books I've Read and Plan to Read

2011-06-30T11:23:00.000-07:00

I thought I would share a list of books that I have read recently and what I thought of them. I also wanted to put a list of books that I am thinking of reading to find out YOUR opinions on them or if there are other ones that you think I should read.

Books I've Read Recently

I absolutely loved The Book Thief. As morbid as it sounds, books about the Holocaust are actually my favorite. I have read several books about stories during the that time period. The Book Thief put a unique spin on the normal Holocaust story. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it!

Ella Minnow Pea is a fun book. It's written in the form of letters between friends. As certain letters of the alphabet become banned, they have to figure out ways to communicate their feelings. It's really quite clever. It's a short read, which was nice.

My husband really wanted me to read Ender's Game just because I'm rarely read science fiction books. While this book is probably more geared towards guys, I did enjoy it.

Ender's Shadow is a book written about the Ender's Game story, but from a different person's perspective. Honestly, I enjoyed this book more than Ender's Game primarily because I liked the way this character thought. However, you should probably still read Ender's Game before reading Ender's Shadow.

Kite Runner had been on my list to read for a while. I had heard it was a great book from several of my friends. While the story is somewhat disturbing, it is a major eye opener. I really liked this book. We watched the movie and were really really disappointed. So I would not recommend the movie, but definitely recommend the book.

I hated this book. My brother said this book was amazing, so I gave it a chance. Well I really didn't like it. It''s about a father and son crossing America after pretty much everyone has died. There are a few people left, but they aren't to be trusted. I don't know.....maybe you'd like it, but to me it was just depressing.

I read The Help a while ago and thought it was absolutely fantastic. I highly recommend this book to you. They are also coming out with a movie, which I'm hoping is good. Seriously, read this book!

My husband and I just listened to The Hunger Games on our trip to California. It was different than we thought it was going to be, but overall we enjoyed it. There are two more books in the series that we are planning on reading. I will warn you, it's a bit gruesome, but it is a good book.

I am currently reading

I am currently reading this book. I'm only a few pages in, so I can't really tell you if I like it or not, but I'll let you know when I finish. My mom's book group read it and thought it was good though :)

Books I Plan on Reading

Room

The Catcher in the Rye

The Alchemist

The Lucky One

Unbroken

Life of Pi

These books were rated really well and a lot of people seemed to like them. Other than that, I really don't know anything about them, so I'd love to know your thoughts. If there are other books you think I should add to my list let me know!

Going to Cali

2011-06-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

Now I realized I haven't been posting too often, but I thought I'd warn you ahead of time that I probably won't be posting anything the next week or so because we are going on a family vacation to California. It should be a blast and I'm looking forward to it. Not I need to get back to the VERY long to do list of things needing to get done before we leave tonight. Eek!

What Not To Buy In Bulk

2011-06-16T08:34:00.001-07:00

I saw this article today on things that aren't a good deal when you buy them in bulk. I think a lot of times we assume that when you buy something in bulk that you are getting a great deal.....well....as it turns out that isn't always the case. Go here to see the list of things to avoid buying in bulk.

Cookie Monster Cupcakes

2011-06-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

I went to a baby shower on Saturday for a couple of my friends. They are both having boys - how fun! I was in charge of the cupcakes for the shower and was trying to come up with a fun idea. I saw some cupcakes that people had made that looked like cookie monster so I went with that. Most of the cookie monster cupcakes I saw used colored coconut to look like the fur/hair, but I wasn't sure how many people actually like coconut, so I decided to use frosting with a tip that looked like this:

I used a canned frosting because I wasn't going to have the time to make my own. I think if I had made a frosting though, it would have been a bit more stiff and probably would have worked better. I might have to try it again sometime. The rest of the cookie monster was really easy. I got some white chocolate melting chocolate circles. I then melted a little bit of chocolate and used it to "glue" some chocolate chips onto the white chocolate. Then I simply placed the eyes on the frosted cupcake in crazy directions and then put half of a chips ahoy cookie where the mouth would be. And they were done!

Chicken Salad Sandwiches

2011-06-02T10:20:00.000-07:00

Last night I did a taste testing session with my husband and sister-in-law to try and figure out the best chicken salad sandwich recipe. This is the recipe we came up with.

- 1/4 Cup Mayo
- 1/2 tsp (or a bit less) Curry Powder
- 1 Tbs or so lemon juice

Whisk together those ingredients. Then add:

- 12.5 ounces of canned chicken - break up into small pieces
- halved red grapes
- handful of craisins
- 1 granny smith apple chopped up
- Cashews
- Salt & Pepper to taste

You should try it out and let me know what you think. Obviously if you used freshly cooked chicken breasts, it'd probably be even better. Oh and don't forget to have it on a delicious croissant :)

I refrigerated the mayo mixture with the chicken, grapes and craisins so it would get cold and then just before serving I added the apples and cashews so they would stay crunchy.

This makes 3-4 sandwiches.

Shell Bead Bracelet

2011-05-28T08:43:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been gone for a bit. My daughter has been sick this past week and I also went and attended a photo workshop on flash. If you would like to see the pictures I took while at the "Flash Camp" visit my photo blog.

I got some shell beads off of ebay for cheep. The only bummer is they take about a month to get to you since they are coming from China or something and it's free shipping, but hey....I'll take em :) I added the beads onto elastic jewelry thread. I learned a trick to keep the elastic thread from coming untied and that is to tie it tight and then put a drop of super glue on the knot. It's worked wonders! The package came with 8 beads, but I only needed 7 to fit my wrist....so now I have an extra bead to use - yay! I'm going to apologize ahead of time for the pictures. My brother has my good lens and the one that I was using really wasn't good for this purpose. Hopefully you can get the general idea of what it looks like.

Dress to Skirt

2011-05-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

My younger sister gave me a bunch of clothes that she doesn't wear anymore. I love "hand-me-ups" especially now that I'm a poor married person without any cute clothes. One of the dresses she gave me wasn't really something I would wear, but I liked the fabric. So I decided to make it a skirt instead. This was honestly SO easy! Here's what I did:

This is the dress before I cut it up.

I cut the top part of the dress off and was left with what looked like a skirt.

I simply folded down the top edge and sewed a few rows with elastic thread to get the finished product. SO easy! The bottom was already finished since it was the bottom of the dress so I only had to worry about the top. Now I have a fun summer skirt!

Dried Orange Art

2011-05-15T08:41:00.000-07:00

A while ago I mentioned that I had seen a tutorial on how to dry oranges on Delia Creates well I finally used mine! I put my dried oranges in a few picture frames and hung them above the window in my kitchen. The two small picture frames could be bigger, but I got them for 10 cents each at Walmart....so I'm not complaining! The larger frame was also from Walmart and was $3. Here's the finished product.

To dry your oranges, cut them into the same you want. Cut them about 1/4" thick. Lay them on a cookie sheet lined with foil and bake at 250 degrees for about 5-6 hours. Depending on the thickness of your oranges, it may take longer. After a couple hours flip over the oranges. You may want to flip them back over after another few hours.

To make these, I simply cut out some cream paper to fit the frames and then hot glue the dried oranges onto the paper. Really easy!

My Giveaway Winners

2011-05-13T11:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks to all of those people that helped me in the JarvieDigital's JAG competition. I won and it's all thanks to you!!! Here are the winner's of my prizes:

The owl goes to:

kristinann who said... So I liked his facebook page and added him to our blog list and am following your blog!

The bracelet goes to:

Emilee said... I added Scott's blog to my awesome blog list at http://emilee-reynolds.blogspot.com/

The necklace goes to:

Tamera who said... I also facebooked about your giveaway. :)

Polymer Clay Shapes for Necklaces

2011-05-09T08:23:00.000-07:00

Remember a few posts ago when I made a faux metal heart necklace? Well I got more clay and made some other shapes. I haven't made them into necklaces yet, but here are the pendants/beads.

You should definitely try this out. It's a ton of fun to sculpt things out of clay. The one difficult thing I have fun into is trying to not get fingerprints on the shapes. I've gotten a bit better with it, but I'm still not totally there.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T11:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, etc. and even to the future mothers. I can honestly say that motherhood is one of the very best things that has ever happened to me. It has brought so much joy to my life. Mother's day is a day that I can reflect on how much I love my little girl and how good she has been for me, not the other way around.

I know several people out there haven't yet had the opportunity to be a Mother - some not by their own choice. But know that Heavenly Father has a divine plan for you to be a Mother and that it is a very important role. Many people in the world try to make motherhood out to be a bad or weak thing, but the Lord thinks otherwise. Let's celebrate our divine nature and be the best mothers we can!

Happy Mother's Day!

Scott's Family Photo Tips

2011-05-05T20:29:00.000-07:00

Are you sick of hearing about JarvieDigital yet??? WELL TOO BAD! Cause there is still much to be said - and that's a good thing - For you, for me and for Scott :) On his blog, Scott has several different topics that he's covered. I truly believe that even if you aren't a photographer, that you can learn soooo much from Scott's blogs. Whether you take pictures professionally, or for fun, there are several tips that will help you out :) The topic that I think that you can probably relate to the most is taking pictures of a family and/or children.

Scott did a few posts titled "How I Shoot Children" - don't worry he's using a camera, not a gun ha. These posts can help ANYONE! Some of the topics he focuses on are:

Being an observant photographer and another great tip: People don't always have to look at the camera!

Both of these tips are important to remember. I can't tell you how many times I've been focusing on trying to get one picture and when I look over my shoulder, I see and even better one taking place. Some of my favorite moments are with the family, children, couples etc. are not posing for the camera, but are being themselves. Those pictures often end up being people's favorites because it shows the real them.

Taking the right picture for the right personality

I love the picture below. You can tell this little guy has so much personality and this picture captures it perfectly. When you get a person comfortable, their real personality shows - and THAT'S that you want to portray in your pictures.

Listening to peoples ideas

Listen and going with others' ideas - like this little kid wanting to show off a stick.While a person's idea may not be perfect, you can run with it and make it a great concept. Never shut down someones idea - some of my favorite shots that I have taken were actually based off of my clients ideas. If you don't like the original idea....take the shot and then change it up a bit. Try different versions of the concept.

Picking your battles

Here he tried to get them to hug....and the girls were sitting a bit too far apart to to a normal hug and thus he ended up with this shot - which I think is soooo cute! This is often hard as a parent when you are paying for a photographer and your kids aren't cooperating, BUT if you remember one of the precious tips was that the subjects don't always have to look at the camera for a picture to be great. I took pictures of an extremely camera shy boy and I ended up getting some great pictures of him just running and jumping around. They showed off his personality and I was able to capture some great smiles.

Since most of you have a little family of your own, I thought you would most enjoy reading his posts about family pictures (which include the How I Shoot Children posts that I just talked about). Enjoy!

Chips & Salsa Cookies

2011-05-04T12:17:00.000-07:00

I saw this tutorial on Sugar Belle's Blog and if I wasn't going to be out of town tomorrow, I absolutely would have made these. I mean, seriously, how cute is this idea? A great way to celebrate Cinco De Mayo in my opinion. I guess I'll have to wait to make them until next year.

Why Should You Add JarvieDigital to Your Bloglist?

2011-05-02T08:30:00.000-07:00

Why should you add Scott's blog to your blog list? Well other than the obvious reason - helping me win the JAG competition, the other reason and perhaps the better one is because he shares some great tips about photography and posts some great pictures. I find many of his posts helpful to my photography. Even if you are not a photographer, which I'm guessing is most of you, do you or will you ever want to take pictures of your family, kids, etc? I'm going to go ahead and you all answered yes.....and if you didn't....Well maybe someday you will be a client to a photographer and he has tips for you too :) Here's the link to the client tip blogs: http://jarviestudios.com/blog/category/info/tips-for-clients/

Some of the great concepts of JarvieDigital pictures is how to get good pictures that are unique and showcase the people's emotions in the pictures.

I honestly think that there is at LEAST one of the 500 blog posts he has done that will help you in the future, whether it's your own photography or others, he has information on his blog for everyone! PLUS you get to look at some of the amazing pictures he takes - win, win!

If you are interested in putting his blog on your bloglist, PLEASE check out my GIVEAWAY. I mean if you're already going to be doing it, you might as well have a chance to win a prize right????

MY Giveaway.

2011-04-29T11:45:00.000-07:00

This Giveaway is Closed

In my previous post, I mentioned the JAG competition by Jarviedigital that I am competing in.....well, I decided that I should reward all of those people that help me out. So I'm going to offer my own giveaway. I am going to offer these items to 3 lucky bloggers:

A handmade stuffed animal/pillow owl. You pick the colors, I'll make one especially for you!

Glass Pearl Bead Bracelet

Faux metal necklace. You tell me the shape you want, and I'lll make one for ya :)

How to enter?

It's simple, just add Scotts blog to your blog list. How easy is that??? Leave me a comment with a link to your blog. (If you don't want to leave the link, still leave a comment telling me you added him to your blog list and then email me a link to your blog so I can verify it).

Want extra entries?

- Follow my blog

- Like Jarvie Digital's Facebook page and then like the wall post by Madelyn Wayment (me) so he knows you were referred by me

- Join in on the competition and tell him I referred you

- Blog, tweet or facebook about my giveaway!

- Add a picture on your blog linking to his website.

Please make sure to leave a comment for each of your entries, in order to be eligible, you must add Scott's Blog to your blog list. GOOD LUCK! And thanks for helping me out!!!

This givaway will end May 13th at 12:00 PM MST - Since that's when the JAG Competition ends.

JAG Competition!!!

2011-04-29T10:38:00.000-07:00

Last fall I had some amazing pictures taken by Scott Jarvie He's doing a really cool competition that I would recommend to ANYONE seriously. Whether you are a photographer, a person looking for a photographer someone looking to decorate your home, this competition is for YOU - even if you aren't in Utah (he travels and one of his prizes is a ridiculously large amount of prints to decorate a whole room in your house!)

The prizes are absolutely ridiculous and I would really like to win. I'm competing for a free photo shoot with a $400 print credit, We don't have a single family picture hanging on our wall. Why you ask? Well because I'm always behind the camera. I would really like to win and could really use your help. There are some great ways that you could help me out.

For each of these things, I earn points. Whoever has the most points, wins.....pretty easy right? So what can YOU do?

The thing that would help me out the most would be if you could add Scott's blog to your blog list on your blog - that gets me mucho points :) PLUS you get to keep up with his blogs. He doesn't just post pictures, but he writes about techniques and such too. Here is the link to his blog: http://jarviestudios.com/blog/

The next thing you could do would be to join in on the competition. You know you want to win one of this fantastic prizes! To find out more details about the JAG competition go here: http://jarviestudios.com/blog/2011/04/jag-2011-the-event-of-the-decade/ If you end up joining in, please let me know I referred you. We both get 5 extra points that way. Cool eh?

And lastly, If you would please visit his facebook page and "like" it and then "like" the wall post on his wall so he knows that you were referred by me, that would be great.

If you were only wanting to do one thing, if you could please add his blog to your blog list, it would be much appreciated....that one's worth the most points and it's a win win for the both of us because you get to read his awesome blog!

Please leave me a comment letting me know if you add Scott's blog to your blog roll so I can let him know. THANKS!!!

No Bake Cookie Nests

2011-04-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

I've seem many different versions of cookie/dessert nests out there. Last night I had a craving for no bake cookies and decided to make some nests of my own. All I did was use a spoon to form the nest shape and once they were cooled, I added some jelly beans. Pretty darn simple - and yummy!

I hope you all have a Happy Easter!

Faux Metal Heart Necklace

2011-04-21T08:10:00.000-07:00

My little sisters have some modeling clay. I have seen people make many fun things out of clay, and I thought it would be fun to make a faux metal necklace. I went with a heart because it's a simple shape :)

Here's what I did:

This is what the clay looked like to begin with. I rolled it out to about 1/4 inch thick.

I then used little scissors and my fingers to create a heart shape that I was happy with.

I used a tooth pick to poke a hole in the heart. I then baked the clay according the the instructions. For this particular clay, it was baked at 275 degrees for 15-20 minutes. I placed it on a pieced of paper while it was baking so it wouldn't be directly on the pan. I read that this helps if from getting shiny on the bottom side.

I then painted my heart using acrylic paint. I did a layer of black first and then used silver.

I threaded my hemp twine through the heart and I had a necklace.

Pretty darn simple!

If you end up making some, I'd love to see the different shapes you come up with!

Paisley and Pink Giveaway Winner!

2011-04-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

According to random.org's number generator the winner of the Paisley & Pink $25 gift certificate is:

Congratulations Kristina!

For those of you who didn't win, Heidi is offering 10% off your orders at Paisley and Pink. Just mention you were sent from Sharing the Wealth. Have a great one everybody!

Easter Dress From A Shirt

2011-04-15T18:46:00.000-07:00

My mom was cleaning out her closet when she saw a shirt that she thought I would like to revamp into something for my daughter. I'm so glad she saved it! I've been holding onto it for a couple of months since I thought it would make the cutest little spring dress. My family has a tradition of getting an Easter dress each year. Rather than buying one for for my daughter, I decided to use my mom's old shirt. Here's what I did:
This is what the shirt used to look like (I started to cut it up and then realized I hadn't taken a picture of it yet, so I put it back together for this shot ha)

Here are the different pieces I cut the shirt into. I had to unpick the little pleats that were on the front of the shirt. I sewed the two large pieces together on one side.

I and wound my bobbin with elastic thread.

I sewed several rows with the elastic thread (only the bobbin is the elastic thread, you use normal thread on the top). I then sewed the other side together, to get this. I could have made a pretty cute skirt too hu?

I then added sleeves - since my daughter was down for a nap when I was making this, I wasn't able to measure....and when I tried it on her, the sleeves were too small; her arms only fit in until her elbows haha.

So I changed the sleeves - which I actually like better and added some little ruffles on the outside.

The finished product on my darling model.

Sorry I didn't take more step by step pictures. I was trying to hurry and get it done while she was sleeping. Please let me know if you have any questions!

Paisley and Pink Giveaway!

2011-04-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

***** This giveaway is now closed *****

Heidi from Paisley and Pink, makes some of the cutest little girl skirts I have ever seen! She currently offers size 6 months thru 10 Years. Here are a few of my favorite skirts that she has made:

A cat in the hat outfit! How cute is this?!?! And It would make the perfect 4th of July outfit too!

Seriously, aren't her skirts adorable???

So there's the good news! Heidi is offering a $25 gift card to the winner of my giveaway plus free shipping within the US. If you live outside the US you can still participate, but you'll have to pay for your shipping.

Here's how you enter:

Visit Paisley and Pink's Etsy Shop and write me a comment on what your favorite skirt(s) is/are.

For Extra Entries You Can:

Follow my blog

Like Paisley and Pink's Facebook Page

Make Paisley and Pink's Etsy Shop a Favorite

Blog, Tweet, or Facebook about this giveaway.

For each of the extra entries, please leave a separate comment.

This giveaway will be ending on Tuesday April 19th at 10:00 PM MST

For those of you who don't win, Heidi is offering 10% off your entire order for those of you referred by my blog. So place an order and let her know that you came from Sharing the Wealth!!!

Globe Oreo Truffles and Missionary Cupcakes

2011-04-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a fun day for our family. My little brother, Mitch received his mission call. 19 Year old boys who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints go out and share the gospel for 2 years. Mitch has been extremely anxious/excited to get his call. He sat up by the mail box 3 days in a row waiting for the mail lady to come and yesterday if finally arrived!

He had a bunch of friends and family at my parents' house for a party. My sister and I made some missionary themed treats for the occasion. More specifically, Globe Oreo Truffles and Missionary Cupcakes.

For the Oreo truffles, we put whole Oreos into my food processor to make a nice little Oreo powder. The we combined the powder with cream cheese frosting. We used 2/3s of the package of Oreos and about 1/2 the container of frosting. My sister is showing off her messy hand

Roll the Oreo mixture into balls. I found that by squeezing the mixture together really well before rolling them helped them to not fall apart. I then dipped my little skewers into some melted white chocolate. The white chocolate helps the skewer stay in the truffle when you are dipping it chocolate later.

Put the truffles in the freezer for about 30 minutes or so.

I colored some white chocolate with blue food coloring. I have noticed that if I don't wait for a minute or so before dying the chocolate it seems to seize up and becomes hard. So wait a little bit!

After the blue chocolate hardened, I put on some white chocolate that I colored green to finish of the globes.

I put stuck the globes into a box that said, "Where in the world is Mitch going?"

For the Missionary Cupcakes, I started off making the ties. I used white chocolate that had been dyed blue. I used a plastic bag with a little hole in the corner to draw them onto wax paper.

After the ties had hardened, I flipped them over and added stripes. I'll be honest....I considered buying fruit rollups and I would cut them out into ties, but then didn't end up doing it. I actually think I should have done that instead of the white chocolate ties. I think it would have been easier and would have been tasty too!

To make the missionary tags, I added black food coloring to normal chocolate. I then spread it out onto wax paper. After it had hardened, I used a ruler to cut lines in the chocolate.

I used white frosting and then placed the ties and name tags on them. Here's the finished product:

Here's another picture of them. Notice my mom made the cake we did for her birthday again - she loved it!

I thought I'd post a couple pictures of my brother opening his call. This was his reaction when he read where he is going to be living and sharing the gospel for 2 years.

So excited!

My Mom's reaction to his call.

Where is he going you ask???? The Scotland/Ireland mission! How cool is that?!?!?!

Twisty Tie Bird's Nest Necklace

2011-04-11T15:00:00.000-07:00

Bird's Nest Necklaces are definitely popular right now, but they can be fairly expensive. I saw this tutorial the other day on A Law Student's Journey where she made a birds nest using twisty ties and thought it was an absolute genius idea! I had to try it out for myself. Here's what you do:

Using pliers or tweezers, Pull the wire out of some twisty ties. I found it pretty easy once I cut the top a little so I could grab the wire part.

Once you have all of your wire's (I used 7 twisty ties), add 3 pearl beads to one wire. Bring them to the center of the wire and then twist the wire so they stay in the position you want them.

Wrap wires around the beads, until you have the desired size of next.

Add a necklace hoop and chain for to the nest to make it a necklace. It seriously took me maybe 10 minutes to make. So fast and easy!

Mom's Birthday Cake

2011-04-08T19:03:00.000-07:00

My sister and I made my mom's birthday cake this year. We brain stormed several different ideas until we came up with the PERFECT cake for her. We made a yellow cake mix and used a white chocolate frosting - it was basically a cream cheese frosting with melted white chocolate added to it. The best part of the cake is the raspberry filling. After putting frosting on top of the first layer, simply spread seedless raspberry jam over the top (don't get too close to the edge - you don't want the frosting on the outside to get messed up by the red). Put the next layer of the cake on top of the jam and then frost the entire outside of the cake. Put fresh raspberries on the top of the cake to make it pretty :)

Jello Eggs

2011-04-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

I remember my 5th grade teacher giving us Jell-o in the shape of eggs and I thought it was sooooo cool. I decided to try and make some of my own. Now, let me say - they are not perfect and they are not very good to take pictures of, BUT they are fun and I'm sure kids would love them!

Here's what I did:

I made the Jello according to the "mold" instructions.

Since the plastic eggs have two holes in them, I covered those with hot glue. You will also want to pull apart the eggs completely (don't have then connected at the side - that's how mine came) I then dipped the eggs under the jello and fill them all the way. While they are still submerged, snap them shut.

Rinse them under water to clean them off then store in an egg carton upside down. You do it upside down so that if there are air bubbles, they will be at the bottom of the egg rather than the top.

Warning: Your hands will get stained!

Leave the Jello in the fridge for a few hours. When it is done setting, take the eggs out and put them in warm/hot water for 30 seconds. This helps you get them out of the mold

I rinsed them under cold water and they were done. Like I said - not super pretty to take pictures of (maybe it's just the colors I did) but they are fun!

April Fool's Recipes

2011-03-31T18:58:00.000-07:00

Family Fun has some really fun ideas for April Fools recipes. Like this dessert that is actually made of meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Go check them out!

Easter Topiary

2011-03-30T13:13:00.000-07:00

I bought some plastic Easter eggs at the dollar store the other day and wanted to figure out something fun to do with them. I came up with this Easter topiary. My husband said it looks like something from Dr. Seuss ha. I think it's fun and considering it only cost me a dollar to make - I think it turned out pretty well.

Supplies:
- Plastic Eggs
- Wire hanger
- Basket
- Tissue paper
- Plain paper
- Plastic cup
- Hot glue
- Tacky glue - Elmer's glue would work fine too
- Wire cutters

Here's how you make it:

Just like with my Valentine's Kissing Ball, I made a ball out of plain paper.

I cut up some tissue paper into squares - don't worry if they aren't all perfect or the same size

Take one square and put it on a pencil like the picture below. Dip the bottom of the paper in glue (I used Tacky glue, but Elmer's would work too).

Before you glue on the tissue paper, make a hole in the ball where your wire will be glued inside. Use the pencil to press the paper onto your ball. Put the pieces of tissue paper close together so there aren't any gaps.

The plastic eggs came with two holes - one at the top and one at the bottom, which are the perfect size for a wire hanger to be "threaded" through. I used wire cutters to cut up a hanger. I then hot glued the wire hanger inside of my topiary.

Lastly, I used a small plastic cup - since that's what I had lying around for the base of my topiary. I hot glued the last egg to the bottom of the cup. I put the topiary inside an Easter basket and used white tissue paper to fill the basket - I think some of that fake grass would be cute in the basket, I just didn't have any at the time. Here is the finished product:

BYU Cougar Game

2011-03-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

We had some people over to watch the BYU vs. Florida game yesterday. I don't want to talk about the game - what a sad loss! But, I wanted to post a couple of the things I made for our party for you. We had the normal chips and salsa and whatnot, but I also made a "Cougar Blue Punch" and some Basketball/BYU themed cupcakes. Here they are:

The punch is 1/2 blue Powerade and 1/2 Sprite

Basketballs, Cougar paws and BYU cupcakes yummm!

Cardboard Easter Sign

2011-03-22T13:24:00.000-07:00

I made a quick Easter sign the other day using cardboard that I had lying around the house. I wish I had a Cricut or a Silhouette machine so I could have cut out some cute letters to put on it, but instead I just painted on the letters quickly. They aren't cute, but they get the point across :) Here's what I did:

I made an Easter egg "stencil" that I traced onto the cardboard. Then I cut out the sign.

I then used my acrylic paints to paint the egg shapes.

Lastly, I painted the word Easter along the eggs. I didn't have to make a base because the cardboard actually curled a bit after painting so it stands on its own.

Stopping By

2011-03-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to pop in and apologize for not posting anything for a while. We went on a trip to Ohio to check out OSU and I am on day 5 of being sick and fevering. Once I start feeling better, I'll do some more projects and post about them. I hope everyone is having a great day!

First Birthday Photo Shoot

2011-03-04T07:53:00.000-08:00

My daughter turned 1 a couple weeks ago. I did a photo shoot of her in my little studio with her own cake. I found the hat for 50 cents at Babies R Us and am so glad I did! Surprisingly she didn't really eat too much of the cake, she was distracted by all the stickiness on her hands. She did enjoy destroying the cake though.

Dr. Seuss Cookies

2011-03-02T16:39:00.000-08:00

I have been craving sugar cookies lately....so I decided since today is Dr. Seuss day, that I should make some Dr. Seuss themed sugar cookies :) I didn't have a ton of time to make them, so they aren't the prettiest, but here they are - a green egg, Gat in the hat's hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2.

The green yolk on the cookies is colored white chocolate. Here's the recipe for the cookies and frosting.

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup sour cream
3 eggs

1 tsp. Vanilla
1 TBSP soda
4 tsp. Baking powder
6 -7 cups flour

Cream together sugar, butter, and sour cream. Beat in eggs. Add vanilla. Mix in soda, baking
powder, and flour until dough is just able to be rolled out. Roll dough out to 1/4 inch thickness.
Use desired cookie cutter shapes. Bake at 350 for 7 minutes.

Frosting
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup margarine, softened
2 or so tsp milk

Mix well. Add less milk for thicker frosting. Add more milk for a thinner glaze.

Easy Potato Cheese Soup

2011-03-02T10:38:00.000-08:00

This is a fast, easy and delicious soup. I hope you enjoy it :)

Ingredients:
4-5 medium potatoes, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
2 cans of chicken broth
8 0z Velveeta cheese, chopped
salt
pepper

Directions:
Bring potatoes, onion, chicken broth and a pinch of salt and pepper to a boil. Cover and cook until potatoes are tender (about 10 minutes). Put most of the potato mixture in the blender - leaving about 1/3 of the potatoes in the pot if you want some chunks in your soup. Blend the potato mixture until smooth (I add all of the liquid to the blender). Return mixture to the pot. Add the Velveeta cheese to the soup. Stir until completely melted. You may need to add a little bit of water or milk to the soup to make it the consistency you would like it. I prefer it on the thicker side. Top soup with a bit of grated cheddar cheese and bacon bits.

Adult Sweater Turned Into A Kids Sweater

2011-02-25T16:44:00.000-08:00

I've been holding on to an American Eagle sweater of mine for a long time even though it shrunk and was way too small for me. I've nearly thrown it out many times, but just didn't. Well today was the day that I finally found something to do with my sweater. I fixed it up so it would fit my daughter. I must say, she looks much better than me in it :)

Here is the sweater before I cut it up.

I cut off the sleeves and cut the f front and back apart. I didn't want to have the AE symbol on the sweater or the big tag in the back. I cut me made up pattern, shortened and thinned out the sleeves and sewed away.

Here is the finished product.

And from the back. She LOVES watching the washing machine.

Sweater Dress

2011-02-25T10:28:00.000-08:00

My husband recently cleaned out his closet and was about to toss this sweater when I stopped him. I was so excited to make a sweater dress for my daughter! I will admit, this sweater was a little challenging to sew just because even if you sew in a straight line, sometimes it looks misshapen, but I love how the dress turned out!

Here is the sweater before I cut it up.

I cut off the sleeves.

Using another dress as a reference, I cut the remaining pieces - not shown in this picture is the bottom part of the dress - sorry!

I sewed a brown ribbon around the dress. I sewed a couple little pleats on the front and added a zipper to the back so the neck could be like a turtle neck. Here is the finished product. Now she just needs a headband to match :)

Publish Post

Virginia Trip

2011-02-24T10:30:00.000-08:00

Well my trip to Virginia was great - other than the flying part. We had some mechanical issues and ended up struck in Phoenix for night and my daughter was horrible on most of the flights. I've got to say.....flying with a screaming baby has got to be one of the most stressful things for a parent ever!

Here are some pictures from our trip to Virginia:

We went to Colonial Williamsburg while we were out there. I would definitely recommend going, however, it does involve a lot of walking and it's about $20/person. This is a cool bridge we walking under on our way to Colonial Williamsburg.

Colonial Williamsburg: The Governor's House

The Governor's Garden/Yard

Colonial Williamsburg: The Capital Building

University of Virginia's Business School. Isn't the campus beautiful???

We also went to Monticello - Thomas Jefferson's House. This is the view he had from his garden area.

The house

My daughter walking around Monticello.

Heading to Virginia

2011-02-16T10:17:00.000-08:00

I'm heading out to Virginia for a couple of days. My husband is interviewing at University of Virginia for their MBA program. My one year old daughter will be joining us and is sick with a cold, so I really hope the flight goes well. I'll do some more posting when I get back. Have a great week!

Multi Canvas Painting

2011-02-12T08:17:00.000-08:00

A while back I decided to do a painting for my wall. I really liked the multi-canvas look. After searching the web and seeing many different styles of paintings, I decided to do this one of my own. It was going to be cheaper and it would be fun to have something I painted on the wall. This is how it turned out:

It was based off of this painting....I changed the colors so they wouldn't be so vibrant and obviously mine isn't nearly as good, but considering it was my first acrylic painting, I was pretty pleased.

14 Ways to Save Money of Groceries

2011-02-10T14:19:00.000-08:00

I found this article on Yahoo by Rebecca DiLiberto the other day and thought it had some good tips.

1. Line the bottom of your refrigerator’s crisper drawer with paper towels. They’ll absorb the excess moisture that causes vegetables to rot.

2. To keep herbs tasting fresh for up to a month, store whole bunches, washed and sealed in plastic bags, in the freezer. When you need them, they’ll be easier to chop, and they’ll defrost the minute they hit a hot pan.

3. A bay leaf slipped into a container of flour, pasta, or rice will help repel bugs.

4. Stop cheese from drying out by spreading butter or margarine on the cut sides to seal in moisture. This is most effective with hard cheeses sealed in wax.

5. When radishes, celery, or carrots have lost their crunch, simply pop them in a bowl of iced water along with a slice of raw potato and watch the limp vegetables freshen up right before your eyes.

6. Avoid separating bananas until you plan to eat them – they spoil less quickly in a bunch.

7. Put rice in your saltshaker to stop the salt from hardening. The rice absorbs condensation that can cause clumps.

8. Stock up on butter when it’s on sale – you can store it in the freezer for up to six months. Pack the butter in an airtight container, so it doesn’t take on the flavor of whatever else you’re freezing.

9. In order to make cottage cheese or sour cream last longer, place the container upside down in the fridge. Inverting the tub creates a vacuum that inhibits the growth of bacteria that causes food to spoil.

10. Believe it or not, honey is the only nonperishable food substance, so don’t get rid of the stuff if it crystallizes or becomes cloudy. Microwave on medium heat, in 30-second increments, to make honey clear again.

11. Prevent extra cooked pasta from hardening by stashing it in a sealed plastic bag and refrigerating. When you’re ready to serve, throw the pasta in boiling water for a few seconds to heat and restore moisture.

12. Keeping brown sugar in the freezer will stop it from hardening. But if you already have hardened sugar on your shelf, soften it by sealing in a bag with a slice of bread – or by microwaving on high for 30 seconds.

13. If you only need a few drops of lemon juice, avoid cutting the lemon in half – it will dry out quickly. Instead, puncture the fruit with a metal skewer and squeeze out exactly what you require.

14. If you’re unsure of an egg’s freshness, see how it behaves in a cup of water: Fresh eggs sink; bad ones float.

Glass Jars Filled With Love

2011-02-09T20:22:00.000-08:00

I had some empty glass jars sitting around that were just wanting to become a Valentine's Day decoration. So I decided to fill them with white, pink and red things :)

I had a package of different sized styrofoam balls.

I painted the balls pink and red and also left some white (I also included some deals of the day in this picture for you haha)

I placed the colored balls in two small glass containers and for the large contained, I layered different colors of tissue paper. Super simple, but still a fun Valentine's Day decoration for our apartment.

Snuggly Owl

2011-02-07T09:12:00.000-08:00

A while ago I saw the cutest little stuffed owl on Make It and Love It She had created a tutorial with the pattern and everything which can be found HERE This is her owl:

I put in on my list of things to do and I finally got around to making some. My cousin was having a baby shower for her twins and I thought it these cute owls would be a fun gift rather than getting her clothes - not to mention, they were quite a bit cheaper than buying two outfits.

I decided to make her two owls (one for the boy and one for the girl) and to make one for my daughter at the same time. I bought a huge bag of stuffing for $9 at Walmart and used extra fabric my mom had lying around. I did do one thing differently from her pattern. I didn't sew the 3 inch strip of fabric between the front and back pieces. I did this because I wanted them to be more pillow like. Here are the owls I made.

These are the two owls I made for Jessica's twins:

When I finished the owls, I decided that I wanted to have some little baby owls for my daughter's room too, so I made up a smaller pattern and sewed 4 baby owls. Here are all of the owls I made for her room:

I just couldn't resist and HAD to make a little "branch" pillow for the owls too :)

I love them! The pattern is really easy to follow. I have received several emails from people wanting the small owl pattern so HERE it is!

Faux Metal Hearts

2011-02-05T16:29:00.000-08:00

When I went to DI I found these wooden hearts for 50 cents each. They were painted different colors, and while the colors weren't horrible, they definitely needed some touching up. I decided to try out some metal looking paint. I really like how they turned out, though I don't think they look super metalic since the wood grain is still visible. Here's what I did:

These are what they looked like to begin with.

I painted them with black acrylic paint first so they had a good base.

Then I painted them with metallic acrylic paint. I originally had them set up like this, but it felt too cluttered or something.

So I changed them to this set up.

Candle Holder Turned "Hot"

2011-02-03T07:50:00.000-08:00

I was at DI the other day and found some little candle holders for $1 each. There were 3 matching ones so I got them all. I filled them with Hot Tamales and now they are a little decoration for Valentine's Day. And I will be putting some green treat in them for St. Patrick's Day. What are some yummy green candies?

Photo Editing

2011-02-02T08:14:00.000-08:00

I saw a blog post on The Creative Crate where she showed a picture before and after her editing. She wanted to see our versions. So here is my version of her image.

Before:

After

I used Lightroom for my editing. I love Lightroom! I use it for pretty much all of my editing and sometimes use Photoshop for a few touch ups. Lightroom is a lifesaver when I'm editing hundreds of pictures taken at weddings. For this image I cropped, adjusted the exposure, contrast, hue/saturation, added a bit of a vignette and lightened her eyes a bit. If you want to see my photography website you can go here: http://madelynwayment.smugmug.com/

Cardboard Letters

2011-01-28T09:51:00.000-08:00

Okay, sorry it took me a while to post something. I was in Hawaii basking in the sun :) I'll post pictures soon. Here is a little something I started before Hawaii and decided to finish up today. I love those cute block letters everyone uses to decorate with, but rather than buying some I decided to make my own for free. Sure they don't look perfect, but they get the point across and I'm sure when people come over they aren't noticing the little details. Here's what I did:

I drew the letters on some cardboard I had left over from a box of diapers.

Cut out my letters

And painted them.

I also painted a piece of cardboard for the base. I used white pipecleaners around the base so you couldn't see into the cardboard. I used hot glue to assemble them and wa-la! In this picture you can really see the lines from the cardboard, which I don't love, but at my place they aren't as noticeable.

Tissue Gift Wrap Kissing Ball

2011-01-12T13:44:00.000-08:00

I have zero decorations for Valentine's Day so today I decided to make my first one. The best part is that it was free! I made a kissing ball out of computer paper and tissue wrapping paper. Here's how I did it:

First I took some paper and crumpled it into a ball. I continued adding layers and crumpling it until I got to the size I wanted. I then glued the paper down to keep it in place.

Then I made flowers using some red tissue gift wrap that I had on hand.

I glued the flowers to the paper ball as I went along.

I added a ribbon before I put the last flower on it so I could hang it up. And that was it!

Dried Oranges

2011-01-11T17:47:00.000-08:00

I saw this post a while back on Delia Creates and today I decided to start one of my own. So far I have only dried the oranges and haven't done anything with them yet. I'm super excited to do something of my own with them. I'll show you what I come up with once it's done.

On Friday I'm leaving to Hawaii for a week :) So it probably won't get done until I get back since I have a ton to do to get ready!

Molten Chocolate Cake

2011-01-06T10:53:00.000-08:00

This would be a great Valentine's Day dessert. I got the recipe off of kraft.com. It looks cool and is yummy too. I have also put strawberries on top. Delicious!

Ingredients

4 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
2 egg yolks
6 Tbsp. flour
1/2 cup thawed Whipped Topping

PREHEAT oven to 425°F. Butter four 3/4-cup custard cups or soufflé dishes. Place on baking sheet.

MICROWAVE chocolate and butter in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1 min. or until butter is melted. Stir with wire whisk until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar until well blended. Blend in eggs and egg yolks with wire whisk. Stir in flour. Divide batter among prepared custard cups.

BAKE 13 to 14 min. or until sides are firm but centers are soft. Let stand 1 min. Carefully run small knife around cakes to loosen. Invert cakes onto dessert dishes. Serve immediately, topped with whipped topping and a side of ice cream - depending on your oven you may need to cook it less. DO NOT overcook. I cooked mine for 12 minutes.

If desired you can store the batter in the fridge - just make sure to let it sit at room temperature for an hour if you do so.

Garden Bounty Tortilla Soup

2010-12-30T12:40:00.000-08:00

This soup is very good for you and is a great way to get your kids, spouse or anyone for that matter to eat their veggies. I am a picky eater and really don't like a lot of veggies, but this soup is delicious! The only downside to this soup is that it requires a lot of chopping, but it makes a lot. I even freeze it which makes up for all that time spent chopping. You MUST try this soup.

Ingredients
8 cups chicken broth (you can use chicken bouillon cubes - 1 cube to 2 cups of water)
1 red onion, diced
2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 carrots, pealed and diced
2-4 potatoes, peeled and diced
1/4 cup tomato paste (more if desired, to taste)
1 bay leaf
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 whole pepper of the canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce (I use the La Costena brand)
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 tsp oregano
1/8 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
1 small to medium zucchini, diced
1 yellow summer squash, diced
1 Red bell pepper, chopped
1 Green bell pepper, chopped
1 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro
2 Tbs freshly squeezed lime juice
2 Tbs freshly squeezed orange juice
Fresh, frozen or canned corn - optional

In large stockpot over high heat, combine chicken broth, chicken, onion, carrots, potatoes, tomato paste, bay leaf, garlic, chipotle pepper, jalapeno, oregano and cumin. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. When the chicken is cooked, remove from pot and shred it. Add salt and white pepper. Add zucchini, summer squash, bell peppers and corn if desired. Bring to a boil again. Reduce heat to low and simmer 15 minutes. Add cilantro, lime and orange juice. Stir well and remove from heat.

Garnish: Tortilla chips, shredded cheese, chopped fresh cilantro, sliced avocados, jalepeno rings, lime wedges. (I usually just do chips, cheese, cilantro and a bit of lime juice).

Makes approx. 3 quarts

Cheese ball

2010-12-27T08:30:00.000-08:00

We always have a cheese ball during the holidays. I have yet to find one that I like better than this one. It is delicious!

2 - 8 oz packages of cream cheese (room temperature)
1 can - crushed pineapple, drained
1 Tbs - seasoning salt (I actually put less so it's not so salty)
2 Tbs -green onions - finely chopped
1/4 cup - green pepper - minced

Mix together in a large bowl until well blended. Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours to set back up. Take mixture out of the bowl and using your hands - mold it into a ball or log. Once it is the desired shaped roll it in chopped pecans. Serve with a variety of crackers.

White Chocolate Snowflakes

2010-12-24T11:21:00.000-08:00

To make You first need a pattern of a snowflake. My printer is out of ink, so I had to draw one.

Next place the snowflake design under wax paper.

Melt some white chocolate bark - 30 seconds at a time in the microwave. I used one square to make a bunch of snowflakes.

Put the melted chocolate in a ziplock bag and cut a small hole on the corner.

Trace the snowflake design with the white chocolate.

Carefully pull the snowflakes off the wax paper after they have hardened.

If you flip the snowflake over, it will be smooth and flat.

If you don't flip it over, you'll have a little more rustic looking snowflake.

I went with the rustic look :) I had baked some cookies so I decided to add the snowflakes to the tops of the cookies. You could add them to cupcakes or any other treat you want to add a little something special to.

Cute Hair Clip Holder

2010-12-23T10:19:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to think of a cute way to store all of my daughter's hair clips. I eventually came up with this:

I started with a piece of wood I found at Walmart for 97 cents.

I drew a little face of the wood.

Then using my acrylic paints, I painted the face - don't worry she looks better with hair.

For the hair, I used brown yarn: $2.50 at Walmart. I used a hot glue gun and attached each strand of yarn individually so I would get a nice part. Before I started to braid the hair, I used some green ribbon I had on hand to tie the yarn together.

I braided the yarn and tied the ends with the green ribbon.

Then she was ready for the clips!

All the supplies I purchased only cost me about $3.50 since I had most of the other supplies on hand. I'm pretty pleased with her and am happy that I won't have all these clips just sitting in a bag getting mushed.

Christmas Tree Ornament Mobile

2010-12-22T14:37:00.000-08:00

How cool is this??? There is a tutorial on Not Martha. Check it out! It's a bit late for me to make it this year, but maybe I'll make one next year :)

Amazon Mom

2010-12-21T09:25:00.000-08:00

I know I already did a post on diapers a while back, but I have found another awesome deal! It's called Amazon Mom. It's free as long as your are a mom, or a dad or a guardian pretty much. You get 30% OFF diapers and wipes. I was able to get a pack of 204 Pampers diapers fro $28 delivered right to my door! How awesome is that??? You get to decide on how many packages you want and how often they get shipped to you. It's gotta be the best deal around - at least that I've heard. You can become an Amazon Mom HERE.

Flowered Beanies

2010-12-20T10:04:00.000-08:00

With the weather outside getting cold, I decided I needed to get some beanies for my daughter. There are plenty of cute beanies out there, but all of the really cute ones are about $10 sometimes more - SO I took matters into my own hands and decided to make simple $1 beanies from the dollar store cute. I followed a tutorial from Delia Creates where she added a brim to a beanie for her son. It was really super easy! So the beanie didn't look too boyish, I added a flower.

Before

After

My cute little model

Another beanie I got from the dollar store. I didn't do a brim on this one, but I did add the flower.

Love her!

Fabric Flowers

2010-12-20T09:51:00.000-08:00

I've seen all sorts of tutorial about how to make darling flowers. I just HAD to make some of my own. I had some fabric lying around the house that was perfect. You want to use a fabric that will curl easily when heated like: nylon organza, polyester, satin, lining fabric, etc.

What you need:

- Fabric

- Lighter or Candle

- Tweezers or something similar to hold the fabric so you don't get burned

- Needle and Thread or hot glue gun

Here's what you do:

- Cut out different sized circles - I didn't do perfect circles - it's easier and looks better in my opinion

- Carefully melt the outside of the fabric with a candle or lighter - use tweezers or something to hold the fabric so you don't burn yourself!

- Assembly your pieces of fabric from biggest to smallest. Attach all the layers with hot glue or with a needle and thread.

Here are some other flowers I have made:

You can add beads to the center for a little something extra :)

Mixed Berry Cheesecake

2010-12-20T09:32:00.000-08:00

I made this last year during the Holidays. I love love love cheese cake. This recipe was awesome! It's from the Barefoot Contessa. It's a recipe you have to start the day before - just a warning.

Ingredients

For the crust:

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (10 crackers)
1 tablespoon sugar
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

For the filling:

2 1/2 pounds cream cheese, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 whole extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 extra-large egg yolks, at room temperature
1/4 cup sour cream
1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

For the topping:

1 cup red jelly (not jam) such as currant, raspberry, or strawberry
1/2 pint sliced strawberries
1/2 pint fresh raspberries
1/2 pint fresh blueberries

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

To make the crust, combine the graham crackers, sugar, and melted butter until moistened. Pour into a 9-inch springform pan. With your hands, press the crumbs into the bottom of the pan and about 1-inch up the sides. Bake for 8 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

Keep the oven temperature at 350 degrees F.

To make the filling, cream the cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Reduce the speed of the mixer to medium and add the eggs and egg yolks, 2 at a time, mixing well. Scrape down the bowl and beater, as necessary. With the mixer on low, add the sour cream, lemon zest, and vanilla. Mix thoroughly and pour into the cooled crust.

Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 (I did 23 minutes). Turn the oven temperature down to 225 degrees and bake for another 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn the oven off and open the door wide. The cake will not be completely set in the center. Allow the cake to sit in the oven with the door open for 30 minutes. Take the cake out of the oven and allow it to sit at room temperature for another 2 to 3 hours, until completely cooled. Wrap and refrigerate overnight.

Remove the cake from the springform pan by carefully running a hot knife around the outside of the cake. Leave the cake on the bottom of the springform pan for serving.

To make the topping, melt the jelly in a small pan over low heat. In a bowl, toss berries and the warm jelly gently until well mixed. Arrange the berries on top of the cake. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Peppermints on a stick

2010-12-20T09:20:00.000-08:00

I saw some little styrofoam peppermints at Robert's Craft the other day and thought I could definitely make some of my own. They were cheap and super easy and make a fun little Christmas decoration.

Here's what you need:

Styrofoam Circles - 2/$1.00 at the Dollar Tree

Wooden Dowels - Pack of 10 is $1.50 at Robert's Craft

Colored foam or paper - on hand

Hot glue fun - on hand

Gold fabric - on hand

Here's what I did:

I took the wooden dowels and pushed them through the center of my styrofoam circles. Be careful, it's easy to make a hole with the dowel - if it's a small enough one you might be able to cover it with your foam. You only need the dowel in an inch or two.

Then make a stencil with the shape you are wanting to use. Cut out your foam and hot glue them in place.

I then used my fourth styrofoam circle as my base. I covered it with some gold fabric and wallah!

I put a little basket with candy next to it.

Sweater Trees

2010-12-19T11:16:00.000-08:00

I found a cute idea for a homemade Christmas decoration on Crafts and Sutch where you use an old sweater to cover a cone to make little trees.

These are her trees

These are the ones I made:

Ice Cream Cake

2010-12-17T09:51:00.000-08:00

My husband has been requesting that I make him an ice cream cake for his b-day ever since we got married. I finally decided I should give it a shot. He really likes the ice cream cakes from Dairy Queen, but they are around $20 and I figured I could make one for much less than that. I used THIS tutorial.

I did make a few changes, the biggest one was adding a layer of brownie to the middle. While the brownie tasted good, it was a beast to cut. Next time I might just have to serve brownies of the side. The bottom layer of the cake was double fudge brownie ice cream (my husband's favorite) then came the brownie layer. Next was the chocolate fudge and oreos and then vanilla ice cream was the last layer. I used whipped cream for the frosting and grated some chocolate for the top.

It was fantastically delicious and MUCH cheaper than $20.

No Longer MIA

2010-12-17T09:33:00.000-08:00

Sorry everyone for not posting for so long. Life got a bit crazy for us the past couple of months. My husband and I were playing on a co-ed intramural basketball team. My husband ended up blowing out his knee. He tore his ACL, MCL and meniscus - not good! Two days before Thanksgiving, he got surgery. Recovery is going well, but that's a big reason as to why I have been MIA for the past couple of months.

As some of you know, I have another blog that is dedicated to recipes, well I've decided to combine my two blogs and share recipes on here too :) Who doesn't like to learn crafty stuff and get some delicious recipes at the same time right?

Hopefully this time around I will have a better run with my posts so you can get lots of ideas without a huge break in between ha.

Dry Erase Menu

2010-10-02T16:23:00.000-07:00

Today I made a "Dry Erase Menu". I bought a glass frame at Roberts for $2.60 (it was 60% off) and some scrapbook paper. I also bought a stand, but you could also buy magnets and hang it on the side of your fridge if you wanted. Now I can be organized with my meals throughout the week and have a little decoration on my counter :)

Polka-dot Dress

2010-08-29T17:50:00.000-07:00

I made my daughter another little dress out of an old shirt of mine. Here is the shirt before:

I cut the shirt up:

Added a silky black fabric for the lining and to the bottom of the dress. I also cut off the extra tie and made arm straps and a black headband.

The cute model showing off her new outfit:

Beach Towel Cover-up

2010-07-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

I saw a super cute homemade beach towel cover-up on this MADE blog. Now, just so you know, I didn't plan using the exact same towel as she did, but it was the only towel that matched my swimming suit at Target.

It was super simple - the only pain was having to hand wind the elastic thread on the bobbin for the shirring. I would definitely suggest making one though. It's great because your towel stays on you without you having to wrap it or hold it in place - which is great when you have kids to take care of :) Check out her instructions and if you have any questions let me know!

How to Keep Your Lettuce Fresh and Crisp

2010-06-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

I went to a cooking class a while ago and learned an awesome little trick on how to keep your lettuce fresh longer. What's the trick? Paper towels! That's right! You just need to put a folded up paper towel in your bag of lettuce. Now, in the previous post, one of the foods to never buy again was bagged lettuce since it's much cheaper to buy a head of lettuce. So if you buy a head of lettuce, you want to wrap the lettuce with a paper towel to remove all of the water they spray on it at the store. Once you have removed the excess water, get a new paper towel, wrap it around the lettuce and put it back in the produce bag. This will seriously lengthen the lifespan of your lettuce. Other things you can do are: keep it cool and give it room to breathe (store it in the produce drawer with lots of room so the leaves don't get bruised).

15 Foods You Should Never Buy Again

2010-06-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

A while ago I found and article on yahoo.com on 15 foods you should never buy again. Now, I'll be honest, I will probably still buy some of these items again at some point because of convenience, but I the article helped me realize ways that I can still buy have these foods, but there are cheaper/better ways to get them. You can find the article here: http://www.rd.com/home-garden/15-foods-you-should-never-buy-again/article179928.html#slide but I will be summing it up for you too :)

1 - Gourmet frozen vegetables - You can add butter and herbs to the normal frozen veggies.
2 - Microwave sandwiches - Pre-made sandwiches of any kind are extremely over priced.
3 - Premium frozen fruit bars - The article said you pay nearly $2/fruit bar. They suggested buying the ice-pop molds or small paper cups and making your own. This is the recipe they gave for fruit bars:
Throw 2 cups cut-up fruit, 1 tablespoon sugar, and 1 teaspoon lemon or lime juice into a blender. Cover and blend until smooth. You might wish to add 1 to 2 tablespoons of water so the final mix is a thick slush. Pour into 4-ounce pop molds or paper cups, insert sticks, and freeze until solid.
4 - Boxed rice entree or side-dish mixes - These consist of basically rice, salt and spices. You can buy a bag of rice add your own herbs/seasoning and then cook the rice according to the package directions for much cheaper.
5 - Energy or protein bars - people think they are more wholesome than a candy bar, but they are also very high in fat and sugar contents and usually just as caloric as a candy bar; plus they are $2-$3 a bar! The suggest eating a piece of fruit, a yogurt or a small handful of nuts.
6 - Spice mixes - Grill mixes and other spice mixes seem like a good buy, but when you look at the list of ingredients you will see the first ingredient is salt, followed by the vague "herbs and spices". They suggest making your own rubs.
7 - Powdered ice tea mixes or prepared flavored ice tea - they suggest making your own. Apparently most tea-bag boxes have recipes. I don't drink tea, so this one didn't apply to me so much.
8 - Bottled water - It's a bad investment for many reasons - tap water is much cheaper, it's not even better for your health than the stuff coming out of the tap. Buy a filter if you want and save money, but hate tap water. All of the bottles are a waste also.
9 - Salad kits - While they can be a time saver, they can cost 3 times as much as buying the same amount of a head of lettuce. Even more expensive are the kits that come with a small bag of dressing and a small bag of croutons. If you are wanting to save even more money, you can make your own croutons by toasting cut-up stale bread that you would otherwise toss. I myself have switched to using heads of lettuce and it really does save money, not to mention my salads look/taste better.
10 - Individual servings of anything - Buy a big box and then parcel out the single servings. We all know buying in bulk is cheaper!
11 - Trail mix - The article said they were shocked when they found that the trail mixes sold in the candy isle were costing about $10/pound! They suggest making your own, it's cheaper and you get to add what you want.
12 - "Snack" or "lunch" packs - I loved lunchables as a kid, but now I realize just how over priced they really are. You can make your own for soo sooo much cheaper!
13 - Gourmet ice cream - There is usually at least one brand of ice cream on sale. Don't pay $6 for a gallon of designer brand ice cream.
14 - Pre-formed meat patties - The timed it, and it takes less than 10 seconds to form a flat circle and throw it on the grill. I think 10 seconds is probably a little too short to patty the burger AND put it on the grill, but it definitely doesn't take long to do it and fresh is always better!
15 - Tomato-based pasta sauces - They suggest making your own sauces from canned, crushed or fresh tomatoes. Here is a little recipe of theirs: The easiest method is to put crushed tomatoes (canned or fresh) into a skillet, stir in some wine or wine vinegar, a little sugar, your favorite herbs, and whatever chopped vegetables you like in your sauce — peppers, onions, mushrooms, even carrots — and let simmer for an hour. Adjust the flavorings and serve. Even better: Coat fresh tomatoes and the top of a cooking sheet with olive oil and roast the tomatoes for 20 to 30 minutes at 425˚F before making your stovetop sauce.

Baby Headbands

2010-06-23T12:53:00.000-07:00

Baby headbands and flowers can really add up when you want to have one that matches every outfit. My cousin Mindy, gave me a little headband for my baby shower that was made out of tights. It has a ribbon on the top so you can easily clip on new flowers. I was at Robert's Craft and found some flower kits in their scrap booking section. I was able to make 24 different flowers to use for Claire's headbands. I also saved ribbon from gifts and made bows that could be clipped onto the headband. I purchased some little alligator clips at Roberts as well, though Mindy told me you can get clips at Sally's for really cheap. I'm gonna try that next time. Here are some of the little flowers/bows that I made:

Rather than paying $4 for each separate bow I was able to make 24 of them for close to $12 and will be cheaper next time since I already have the ribbon :) If you need help in making them please let me know. I can help you out!

Grillin' Cupcakes

2010-06-18T09:31:00.000-07:00

I had some leftover cupcakes from when I made the hamburgers, so I decided to try these also. I saw them on Fun Family's website. Since I had leftover yellow cake cupcakes, I used chocolate frosting for the dark part of the cupcake. I believe Fun Family used chocolate cupcakes and didn't frost them. Then I put a few orange sprinkles for the "fire/coals" - which in hind site, I think needed to be brighter. I mixed the red, green and yellow frosting I had left over from the hamburgers and added a little blue food coloring to get the purple/gray color of frosting for the "grill" part.

Then I grabbed some hot tamales and used chocolate frosting to make the grill marks on them. That completed to hot dog cupcakes:

For the shish kabobs, I cut up hot tamales and starbursts and put them on a toothpick: