An instagram afternoon

I had a few hours to myself this afternoon!  I got off work at lunch time because I had a dentist appointment scheduled for 2:00.  That left a few hours for me go to Hobby Lobby and Barnes and Noble :).  While at B&N I found these cool journals . . .

apparently there are a whole lot of people who like to make lists therefore a market for journals just for this purpose . . .

totally need this one for "my amazing life"

I did take pictures of the molds my dentist made of my teeth before I started wearing aligners and of the one they did yesterday.  Major difference in only about 2 months.  I'll spare you those pics :)

Since my mother in law picked the kiddos up from school this afternoon, there was no need for me to rush home.  So I enjoyed a trip to Wal-mart by myself.  I know, how exciting!  I can tell you are jealous.  No pictures from Wal-mart.  I was too busy trying to remember what I needed.  What?  No list?  It was a spur of the moment thing so no list.

As I got in my car to leave I remembered I needed to get a gift for someone and happily made a very slight detour on the way home to Clay St.  Hey, I was driving past anyway.  Thinking, Oh, I'll just run in here and get what I need, I trusted that my frozen and cold stuff would stay that way until I returned.  I can't show you a pic today of what gift I got - maybe another day - I hope she likes it :).  After purchasing the gift I remembered seeing this in the window of one of the many antique stores downtown . . .

now that's an old typewriter.  love it!  you may remember this post I did about my Grandmother's typewriter.

Since I was already on Clay St. and had no reason to rush besides the cold stuff in my car, I decided to check out some more of the stores.  I don't get to do this often and I love walking around downtown.  Plus, it was pretty chilly today so I didn't worry too much about my  groceries.

I went into one of my favorite stores called The Elegant Relic.  They have the most beautiful things  in there!  Also a great place to buy a gift for someone.  As I was headed upstairs I spied these . . .

magnets made from keyboard keys.  genius!  that's what you can do with those old keyboards - yank the keys off and stick a magnet on them.  seriously, i think i may do this if i ever have a keyboard i can rip apart.  or i guess you could also use old calculator keys . . .

Nothing picture worthy in the next store I went into so I continued to mosey across the street to another favorite local shop.  Solgarden.  Now, this is the place to shop for a unique gift.  Love this store.  I even get my Charlie's soap there.  While I was there I saw this and had to snap a pic to keep the typewriter picture trend I had going on. 

plus it's a journal and i like the quote on the front.  what a good reminder. . . 

Then I saw these and I get a kick out of this stuff wherever I see it!

paper and notebooks made from poo.  as in animal poo.  you can read more about it here on the poopoopaper website.  you can order from here as well.  you can even "shop by poop type"

Enough about that.  I have a confession, I actually went there to get something for myself . . .

i saw this wallet last week when i went to get my laundry soap.  it caught my eye because it reminded me of my pillowcase that i had been working on.  which i finished up this weekend.  see . . . 

i think it was meant to be for me to have that wallet.  plus i'm supporting local businesses!  just doing my part :)

After that I came home and put my groceries up.  They all made it in case you were wondering.  The kids had finished their homework except for reading . . .

i never have to worry about her reading for 30 minutes every night.   most nights i have to make her turn her lamp off by her bed and go to sleep.  i even catch her with her book light sneaking in a few more pages sometimes.  so teachers, if she'd grumpy at school it's because she stays up too late reading.

Then it was bath and dinner time.  We have no real schedule around here.  It's just whatever whenever.  It was too cold to play outside this afternoon so Adrianna went ahead and took a bath.  She wanted to dry her hair afterwards with the hairdrier.  Ok . . .

she is crazy.  her hair is so thin it dries in a minute yet i realized she had been in there around 8 minutes with the hairdrier going.  she was watching her hair blow in different directions and warming her feet with it.  not surprised . . .

Then I decided I better get to crackin on dinner!  It's pizza night.  We usually do pizza on Friday's but we haven't had it in a while and I was really wanting pizza.  Plus I really had no inspiration tonight.  So my little sous chef and I spent some time together in the kitchen. 

  

 she is so good at putting the cheese on :)

 yummy!  

During dinner Aaron and I referenced Seinfeld twice.  There is a Seinfeld episode for everything.  Tonight it was junior mints and loud talker.  If you watch Seinfeld you know what I'm talking about.  

Well, now I'm full and tired.  I'm going to hang out with the girls for a little while before bedtime then catch up on some TV shows and finish up another embroidered pillow case. . . 

Brrrrr . . .

So we have been a little spoiled so far this winter in NC.  We have yet to have really cold weather (just maybe a day here and there when the temp didn't get over 35) or snow.  But I was cold today.  I had to go to work today while my kids and hubby got to sleep in and stay in their warm comfy beds.  For some reason I could not get warm all day long.  I wore a long sleeve shirt under my scrub top and a lab jacket over that for half the day (only after I took my North Face coat off because I looked pretty silly huddled up in that).  Oh yeah, I put my scarf on after lunch for a while. 

me at work in my scarf.  just had to prove how cold i was.

   Then I had to stop and get gas on my way home.  I put it off this morning in hopes that it would warm up some more today.   It didn't feel any warmer.  I'm not complaining!  I am thankful that I have a job that I had to go to today and a car that I needed to put gas in so I could get home to my warm house, warm clothes to wear, a family that loves me and who I love, a husband who will play and dance with the kids and put dinner in the crock pot, funny kids that make me laugh after a long day, and HOT TEA!

 Yep.  Made a cup of hot tea as soon as I walked in the door!  In my favorite mug.  I got it when we went to see the Titanic exhibit in Raleigh about 6 or 7 years ago.  The exhibit was just in Greensboro recently and I really wanted to go  but it was $20 per person, even kids!  So we didn't go.  But I still have my mug.  It's a replica of the mug that 3rd class passengers would have used because if Aaron and I had been on the Titanic, we probably would have been in 3rd class (at least at the time I got this we would have been!).

my warm jammies.

 Aaron was working out when I got home and finished up about 5 minutes after I walked in the door.  He laughed at how quickly I made a cup of tea, put on my warm jammies and snuggled in my bed for a few minutes.  

So now I'm sitting at my computer with a quickly cooling cup of tea, a warm dinner cooking in the crock pot (thanks to hubby!) and watching my kids and husband play Dance Central on the kinect.  Maybe if I get off the computer and dance some I'll warm up, too!

Just maybe I'll be warmer tomorrow.  It is supposed to be 61 degrees tomorrow :)

Finally . . .

 I finally got to bring home a piece of furniture that has been sitting at my Mom's house for a while.  It is a cabinet that belonged to my Grandmother.  I know my Mom is thrilled to have it out of her garage!  I went over to Mom's house yesterday to get it but before it was loaded into the van (yes, it fit in the van!) I got to spend some time with my Mom cleaning the cabinet.  I know that sounds silly but it was nice to be able to have a conversation with her without kids interrupting every few seconds :)  I was expecting the cabinet to be really dusty, dirty and covered with spider webs from sitting such a long time in her garage but it was surprisingly clean.  Not a single cobweb or spider web!

We wiped it down with warm water and vinegar to get the dingy grime off. It cleaned up nicely.  I really thought I was going to have to give it a complete overhaul stripping and repainting but I think it looks great the way it is.  Yes, there are a few places where the paint it chipping and the sicker design on the windows is pealing but this is what gives it character, right?

I couldn't wait to load it up with my turquoise pottery.  I have more packed in boxes that I need to get out of the garage.  Maybe I'll do that next weekend.  I'm still not sure about the red.  It may be growing on me . . . We'll see. . .

I'm In Stitches!

Embroidery stitches that is.  Ever since I was a little girl I have loved a needle and thread.  I remember getting a black sewing basket with pink flowers on it with embroidery thread, needles, hoops and a cross-stitch pattern book when I was in elementary school.  I took that basket with me everywhere.  So here I am, 20 plus 10 years later doing the same thing.  I think seeing some of the things that my Grandmother had made a few years back put the needle and thread itch back in my fingers.  With the resurgence of all things handcrafted, people don't normally think of hand embroidery with all the high tech - yet very expensive - embroidery machines available (that make very beautiful, neat and perfect appliques, designs, and monograms).  It's very easy to have someone embroider something for you.  I find that I love the satisfaction of doing some things myself by hand.  I love the imperfections in handmade items.  Not just imperfections in stuff I make but in any handcrafted item.  Especially if you receive an handcrafted item as a gift, it just shows you that someone really put a lot of love and cared enough to spend the amount of time it took to make something just for you. 

So after finding a few things my Grandmother stitched I went in search of some patterns.  I ended up falling in love with the patterns at Sublime Stitching.  With some of Grandma's hoops and some new thread in hand, I ordered a few patterns.  I've put my stitches on a whole bunch of stuff since then but here are a few things I've been working on lately.

 

 I love stitch samplers!  This was fun to do and I loved picking the colors for it.  That's one of my Grandmother's wooden hoops.  It' my favorite hoop :)

 

Now that it's finished I need to get a frame for it.  This will be hanging in my craft room as soon as that gets finished. . . 

I started on a pillowcase for myself this weekend. . .

This is my favorite embroidery book along with a few more of my Grandmother's embroidery hoops.  I plan on stitching some pretty things that fit inside these hoops as they will also be decorating the walls of my craft room.  Both the sampler pattern and the pattern I'm using for my pillowcase came from this book, Embroidered Effects by Jenny Hart (check out her website here).

On a side note, Ava loves to embroider.  She will sit with me for hours working on something.  Adrianna likes to do it as well but she had the attention span of a gnat so she quickly gets bored with it.  A few years ago I had them each draw a picture then I transferred the pictures onto hand towels and we embroidered a bunch of them for Christmas gifts.  They turned out very cute!  I'll have to see if I can find pictures of those . . . 

Have a great weekend!

Yummy in my Tummy

My goal for this blog was not to turn it into a food blog but it kinda looks as if it's going that way.  I guess with my new found love for cooking and trying new things it's only appropriate that I should document my food adventures here.  So here are a few things that we did this weekend.


One of my many goals has and still is is for my family to eat healthier.  If you know me, you probably know that I refuse to buy my kids sugary breakfast cereal, poptarts, kool aid, certain juices, etc. . . *disclaimer - I have been know to purchase a box of chocolate poptarts and stash them at work for emergency purposes only.*  I realize my last post spoke of doughnuts and how to make them.  Just to be clear here, that is a rare treat for my kids.  If doughnuts are purchased in this household it's because Aaron buys them.   Then he usually eats them all before the kids can get more than 1 a piece.

So what did I decide to make on Saturday morning? My own poptarts of course.  Yet another sugary treat!  They have got to be healthier than the store bought ones right?  I took my inspiration from something I found on pinterest.  You can find it here.

We made strawberry and chocolate :)  I used the roll out pie crust and cut into small rectangles.  For the strawberry ones I used about 1 Tbsp of strawberry jam for the filling and I made a strawberry blaze (refer to previous post as to why it is a blaze and not a glaze).  For the blaze I mixed a little confectioners sugar with a little jam and milk.  For the chocolate poptarts I used chocolate chips and Adrianna made a chocolate blaze the same way we did for the doughnuts (refer to previous post).  They were really good!  I'm sure we will be making these again soon!

As it turns out, Adrianna loves to help me in the kitchen!

 

We had some scraps left over of the pie crust and I didn't want to waste them but was also feeling a little lazy and didn't want to smush it all together then roll it out so we made some cinnamon sugar crisps.  To do this, beat one egg with a little bit of vanilla extract.  Mix together cinnamon and sugar in a separate bowl.  Take a scrap, dip in egg, toss in cinnamon and sugar mixture then bake.  Mmmm, these were great as well.

 

 

 

I think one of my favorite things to cook is soup.   I love soup!  Soups are usually fairly easy to make and I love that you can cook everything in one pot.  Tomato soup is my favorite so I decided I would attempt to make my own today.  Aaron hates tomato soup and he was working today so I thought today seemed like the best day to try it.  As it was cooking he came home for lunch and said "What smells so good?!"  Ha!  For my tomato soup I used this as a reference.

* I would add some garlic next time and I left out the tomato paste and thyme. I think she meant 2 Tbsp of flour so that's what I used. 

 There is nothing like a good bowl of tomato soup . . .

 

with the best grilled cheese sandwich ever!

 

Look at that lunch!  Mmmm . . . 

This my new favorite tomato soup.  No more cans of tomato soup (which is loaded in sodium anyway).  Had tomatoes been in season and I had some fresh ones, I would have used fresh instead of canned.  I'm going to try really hard to keep up my garden this year and grow lots of tomatoes to can since my family practically lives on tomatoes anyway (for pasta, pizza and I love to add tomatoes in random things I cook).  I think it would be more cost effective not to mention healthier.

I'm sure you know how to make a grilled cheese but here is what I do:  I use provolone and sharp cheddar cheese with a very small pat of butter, melt some butter in a small frying pan and cook it in that.  Very cheesy and delish!

Up next on the menu for this week . . . french onion soup!

You Say Donut, I say Doughnut . . .

This evening I told my girls IF they ate all their dinner then we could make a special treat for dessert.  Doughnuts!  That's right, make doughnuts!  They were in total agreement.  Adrianna doesn't always stick to her agreements.  That's just how she is.  Call me an enabler but I just could not tell her she couldn't have a doughnut after all the hard work she put into making the chocolate glaze, or "blaze" as she called it.  I guess you see where I'm going with this . . . Adrianna didn't eat all of her dinner yet she still got a doughnut.  She didn't eat all of that either so I don't feel like a total loser mom.

When we (my sister and I) were growing up my Mom used to make doughnuts for us every once-in-a-while.  I remember, just as if it were yesterday, my Mom standing in the kitchen making these doughnuts in her electric frying pan!  We would toss them in a cinnamon and sugar mixture or powdered sugar as a finishing touch and they were sooo good!  What I find really funny is that I really don't like doughnuts.  I mean I'll eat a custard filled or a chocolate cake doughnut once in a blue moon but they are not something I crave.  My husband LOVES Krispy Kreme and will stop, wherever we are, if he sees one.  One of his favorite things to do is to find a Krispy Kreme after he runs a race as an after race treat.  Barf, I say.  I don't even like going in the place because I don't like the smell.  So, imagine my surprise when I saw on Pinterest where someone had pinned something about making homemade doughnuts.  Ahhhh, nostalgia!  As soon as I saw it I was transported back in time to my childhood and remembered that I like those doughnuts.

Want to make some for yourself?  Here ya go!

Here is what you need:
1 can of biscuits, the buttermilk homestyle, don't use the flaky ones.
vegetable oil

Huh?  That's it.  For the doughnuts.  If you want to do a "blaze" you will need . . .
*I will refer to glaze as "blaze" from here on out*

Chocolate Blaze:
1 cup Confectioners sugar
1/4 cup Cocoa Powder
3 Tbsp Milk

White Blaze:
1 cup Confectioners sugar
1 tsp Vanilla flavoring
2 Tbsp Milk

And whatever other topping you want to use.  We added sprinkles on top of the chocolate icing. 

Here's what we did . . .

 

I got Adrianna started on making the blaze.  She did a good job and it kept her away from the hot oil on the stove.  Ava was "photographer" . . . 

I poured about an inch of oil in my pan and turned the stove on to about medium high.  As was waiting for the oil to heat I started on the dough because it takes a long time to pop open a biscuit can!  To make the hole in the center I used a bottle cap like a cookie cutter and it was the perfect size :)

Carefully place the dough in the hot oil.  CAREFULLY!!  When they start to turn golden brown on the bottom, flip them over . . .

 

 

  (photo credit Ava)

When the other side is golden brown, remove from pan and place on a plate lined with a paper towel . . .

 Aren't they pretty . . .

I did melt some butter and dipped them in the butter before we "blazed" them.

Yum!  The Chocolate blaze was delicious!

Delivering a chocolate blazed doughnut, sans sprinkles, to dad . . .

(See, how could I say no to that face?)

Adrianna's decorated doughnut . . .

Mmmm . . . They loved them . . .

 

I dipped the doughnut holes in the melted butter then rolled them in granulated sugar.  I guess they were good because Aaron ate them all . . .

  Now my house smells like a grease pit but who cares?!?!  My husband and kids are happy so I'm happy.  Now, where did I put that febreeze??

Oh, you are so welcome for this post.  I know you are going to go make some doughnuts right now and love me all the more for it :)