Felt Flower Spring Wreath

Late last night I hopped on Pinterest for "just a minute" to find a friend's board and saw this wreath. I had already been trying to come up with an Easter/spring wreath and was thinking something along the lines of this or this but once I saw this I knew what I wanted to do.

I already had the vine part because we have Wisteria all over our yard and I have started using the vine to make wreaths. I know that a well-kept wisteria can be very pretty but our wisteria is Crazy and runs all the way across the yard and there is no getting rid of it. My friend Stephanie showed me how to make the vine into wreaths a long time ago and last year I made a few wreaths while I was cleaning up the yard. If the vine is going to annoy me it may as well serve some purpose. I might be making wreaths to sell in the near future. Right now I only have a couple made.

So last night at oh, eleven or so, I was making felt flowers for my new spring wreath.

What do you think? Do I need more flowers? Because I have more felt. I started out with some pastels but I LOVE the bright colors much better!

Happy (Cheap) Valentine's Day

Boy, did I go cheap this Valentine's Day.

And candy-free, I just realized that there was not a bite of candy in our house for Valentine's Day. (This does not mean that I won't pick up some high-quality candy on clearance tomorrow, though. Or not. Who knows?)

This is one of those times that I am thankful that my kids are not in school and bringing home sugar-filled treats from each person in class.

The only thing I bought was plates and cards from the Dollar Tree (Hello, 50 cents each cards!)

I had huge plans to make pink heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast, but I have been sick with some sort of plague cold the past few days and could barely get myself out of bed this morning. I'm feeling better now. Thanks for asking.

But I did manage to scrape together heart-shaped chicken quesadillas for lunch with beans and rice and some strawberries cut in heart shapes. (Easy!) Plus heart-shaped pb&j for snack this afternoon. No picture, sorry!

While I was cooking chicken, I decided I would make enough to have some Chicken & Rice Soup. I loosely followed this recipe from CrockPot 365 and that is cooking in the Crockpot as we speak.

I am planning heart-shaped pizza for dinner. We will see how that goes. If it goes great you might see a picture on here tomorrow. If not, well.

It's amazing how far behind the house can get when Mom is sick for one day. I have so much to do. Happy Valentine's Day to my one reader (you know who you are!)

The One With All The Pink

The past few weeks I have managed to work on some projects that I had pinned on Pinterest.

I started by making a pin cushion out of a picture frame that I saved from a yard sale and painted pink. This was so easy. I might be looking for other pretty frames to rescue at yard sales.

I also made a cover for my composition notebook.



I love the fabric. It was some my mom has had for "who knows how long". It's for-real vintage. I have quite a bit of it, still. It's perfect for book covers because it's got stretch.

I followed the tutorial here. I actually followed a tip in the comments and layered the side panels in between the front and back when I sewed them. I forgot to add in the dimensions for the spine of the book (very small since it's a comp book) but the cover wouldn't fit because of it if it weren't for the stretchiness of the fabric. About a half inch probably would have done it. I plan to make a cover from the same fabric for my bible.

My daughter saw that they make tutus for Zhu Zhu pets and of course hers had to have one, so I made her one with some tulle that I had left over from her tutu. I attached the tulle to a stretchy pony tail holder and slipped it on. Yes, sometimes the tulle gets caught in the wheels. Oh, well.

Have I mentioned how much I love Pinterest? I bet I have. I love finding fun stuff to make on Pinterest and lately it's the first place I look for recipes, too. There are some good ones on there.

What's For Dinner 1/15-1/21

This week I wore myself out chasing bargains at all the local grocery stores only to find myself with cabinets full of things that didn't seem to go together. So Saturday I made a list of everything we had and sat down to find some recipes to make a menu from. I am totally going to do try this every week, because I feel so much better knowing that I have a plan. Even if we don't stick to it, exactly.

I have already made some changes from the original because I realized that I needed something uber easy and fast on Fridays when I attend a bible study in the morning and we don't get home until melt-down time right at noon. That day ends up being PB&J for the kids.

Sunday 1/15
B-Grits & Black Beans
L- Leftover Pizza & Salad
D-Zucchini, Black Bean & Rice Skillet with Salad and Tortillas
*Make Ranch Dressing for the week's salads

Monday 1/16
B-Omelets, Grits, Fruit
L- Tuna Sandwiches, Homemade Potato Chips, Apples
D-Family's House for Dinner

Tuesday 1/17
*Start Sloppy Lentils in slow cooker
B-Oatmeal, Fruit
L- Beans, Rice, Fruit
D-Sloppy Lentils w/Homemade Buns and baked french fries

Wednesday 1/18
B-Scrambled Eggs, Fruit
L- PB&J, apple sauce
D- Chili & Cornbread w/Okra
*freeze a few sliced bananas for breakfast

Thursday 1/19
B-Frozen banana ʺice creamʺ w/ peanut butter mixed in
L-Veggie Chik'n Sandwiches, Baked Fries, Fruit
D-Squash and Onions, Broccoli

Friday 1/20
B-Eggs (omelet style), fruit
L-PB&J and Canned Peaches
D- Southwest Skillet Dinner w/garlic roasted zucchini
*prepare green bean casserole

Saturday 1/21
B-Overnight Oats w/ Raisins and fruit
L- Green Bean Casserole , Fruit
D-Black Bean Burgers w/homemade buns, Baked Fries

Snacks
Microwave Potato Chips
Roasted Chick Peas
Popcorn
Fruit
Cookies or some other sweet treat we make

Recipe: Easiest Slow Cooker Black Beans



My Slow Cooker

Easiest Slow Cooker Black Beans

2 lb Dried Black Beans (follow instructions on bag for rinsing and quick soak or overnight soak)
2 Tablespoons Garlic Powder
2 Tablespoons Cumin
2 Tablespoons Onion Powder
2 ½ Tablespoons Salt

Mix all ingredients in large slow cooker and fill almost to the top with water. Cook over night on high or for at least 8 hours or until they aren't crunchy done.

We use the exact same recipe for Pinto Beans, too!

I would take a picture of the black beans but there is not much to see with black beans cooking in a black slow cooker. Ya, know?  

Tip: I buy my spices at a local grocery store where they have almost every spice you could imagine for $1 each. (If you are local, that would be Oaktree.) The bottle of cumin that I get for $1 is twice the size of the bottle at Wally World for $2+!

Homemade Flour Tortillas

I made flour tortillas today! (Well, actually I had help.)

 

I used this recipe.

Tortillas

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon shortening

1/2 cup water

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine together flour, salt and baking powder. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
2. Add the water and mix until the dough can be gathered together. If necessary, add more water (1 teaspoon at a time) until the dough comes together. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let rest for 15 minutes.
3. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and roll into rounds. On a lightly floured surface, use a rolling pin to flatten and stretch each round into a circle 7 inches across.
4. Cook on an ungreased skillet over medium high heat until brown spots begin to appear on the tortillas. Keep covered with a clean, dry towel until ready to serve.

 

It was much easier than I thought it would be. I had tried making tortillas before (corn, ones)  using the cast iron skillet (before I we got the griddle) to make them and they ended up terrible.

 

I followed the recipe and separated the dough into 12 dough balls in a bowl that I kept covered while I rolled each one out. The first few came out thicker and I realized that I needed to roll them much thinner than I wanted them because they puffed up just a little.

If I were making these for a dinner I would definately want to double the recipe because 12 small tortillas don't last long around these parts.

 

Daniel watched the tortillas that were cooking and flipped them for me while I rolled and that made the difference. That was way better than trying to keep up with the ones that were cooking AND rolling them out at the same time.

 

He said these were the best tortillas ever and wanted to eat them all up. I think they are way better than store-bought and I love knowing exactly what is in them. I just need to work on the rolling out part. Although I think having them not be perfectly round gives them "character".

Next time I will try whole wheat tortillas.

 

Tip: After the tortillas are cooked, put them in a Ziploc bag or airtight container to keep them soft, unless you want them to be crunchy. Ours got crunchy so I stuck them in a container and they softened right back up.

Books I Plan To Read In 2012

I have been inspired by one of my favorite bloggers, Crystal at Money Saving Mom, to write out a list of books I want to read in 2012. She picks 24 books to read (2 a month.) I think I'll go with one a month for me. I have plenty of books on my bookshelves that I either haven't read yet or want to read again.

Here is my list of books that I want to read in 2012:


January:

Don't Make Me Come Up There

February:

Margin

March:

The Quest For Character

April:

A Woman God Can Use

May:

Five Love Languages

June:

Shepherding A Child's Heart

July:

Landmines In The Path Of A Believer

August:

Greatest Salesman In The World

September:

How To Listen To God

October:

One Thousand Gifts

November:

Jesus: The One And Only

December:

Good To Great In God's Eyes


I am also working on a list of books I plan to read to the kids for this year and some other goals for the year.

25 Books Of Christmas

There are many ideas of fun things to do for Advent that range from candy calendars to different activities every day. Today a friend of mine shared one that is nearly free. She goes to the library and checks out 25 books about Christmas and wraps each one in wrapping paper. Then, every night leading up to Christmas her family unwraps one book to read at bedtime. Unlike some Advent activities, this takes almost no preparation.

You could do this for almost no money, if you have leftover wrapping paper from last year (bought 90% off at Target after Christmas, of course.)

As soon as I found out about this, I went to our bookshelves to find out how many Christmas books we already had and I was halfway there before our trip to the library.

I thought I would include a list of some of our favorite Christmas books to get you started.

The Animals Christmas Eve
The Night Before Christmas
Polar Express
The Gift Of The Magi
Can't Wait Till Christmas
Bear Stays Up For Christmas
Mortimer's Christmas Manger
How The Grinch Stole Christmas
Franklin's Christmas Gift
Gigi: The Perfect Christmas Gift
Fancy Nancy: A Splendiferous Christmas
The Berenstain Bears And The Joy Of Giving
The Berenstain Bears Meet Santa Bear

There are so many Christmas books that this list could go on and on, but you get the idea.

Because our lives have been very crazy lately, I was running late on getting these wrapped and ended up just wrapping them today. We don't have our tree up yet, so this little bit of festiveness really livens up our house.