I am indeed alive....

Okay, so I know going almost three weeks with no post is NOT cool and I'm uber sorry about that. One of my goals for the new me (a post about that is coming soon:) is to get better at my blogging. And I think I've done better at it the last couple months (with the exception of this month, haha). And I have been keeping up with my pins but between the move and holidays, I have barely been able to sleep. You should see my inbox, haha. We only have about a third of the house unpacked. Seriously, if I ever mention moving the week before Christmas, someone please slap me! Never again! Total PITA! Anyways, I've getting a couple minutes to breathe so I'm updating here and then going to attempt to tackle my inbox, then going to work on designing a calendar. I will be posting more as life settles down, so stay tuned....

Hellllooooo!!!

So I promise I'm here! We are super busy getting ready to move in a week and a half. It's been pretty crazy! And I have been doing pins....I have a plethora of pins buuuuut they are all gifts. So after Christmas you will get hit with several pins, haha! I do have one that I'm almost done with that I will post in the next couple days. Seriously, it has been non stop either crafting or packing. And in between trying to spend as much time as I can with my little loves.  I love crafting, it's definitely one of my passions but it's something I can't do with the kids in the same room. There is my sewing machine, hot glue gun, iron, pins, and all sorts of little things that can't end up in little hands. Luckily Hubby has been able to watch the kids while I craft and I'm excited to get my crafts done, but I feel like I don't see the kids. Yes, I'm just in the next room and no, I'm not holed in my craft room all day but I'm not with them as much as I usually am. It's only like an hour or so in the evening and it's nice to have the me time. I'm such a mommy, haha. This is why I don't have a job:) I feel like I would miss out on sooo many precious moments with my children! Anyways, I guess that is part of life for a mother and wife:) Keep a look out for my quiet book pin in the next couple days:) Till then

Pin 29 of 52 and a move:)

So I know my blog is getting run over with pins! It's kind of ridiculous. As soon as we get settled into the new place it will get better:) Oh by the way we are moving again. I know, I know. We have only been here 6 months! It's gone by super fast and has been amazing! I know I need to get more on this blog and get into the groove. So we will be moving in one month. Just 15 minutes away, no big move again. But I'm excited. We will be living on base and we will get a garage:) Yay! Anyways on to my pin!

So for this Pinsperation I've combined a couple different pins. There is this pin, where they framed fabric and used that as a decoration. Then there is this pin, where Kathryn over at I Can Find the Time put a pin cushion on her sewing machine. I LOVE the idea of putting a cushion on the sewing machine. I usually take them out as I'm sewing and throw them in the tomato but it's hard having something so little and moves so easily. Here comes the but, haha. The way my machine is set up I can't get a cushion situated on there. So that's when I combined the two and this is what I came up with!

It's a pin cushion frame! I love it because it's in an actual frame and I can set it up right next to the sewing machine and it's simple and fantastic! I did do step by step tutorial for you but it's super super simple. 

You will need: 

a frame with glass and back (either 4x6 or 5x7) the one I have is 4x6

handful of stuffing

scrap of fabric, mine is 10x10 and it would definitely fit either size

some pins

I have a frame that has somehow gotten the preview picture stuck to the glass. So this was the perfect frame for this project. Also I only ended up using about half of the stuffing shown!

Okay the first step is to take the back and glass out of the frame and set them aside for the moment. Lay the frame face down and lay the fabric right side down on the fabric like so...

The next step is to stuff the stuffing into the frame so it sticks out past the frame about 2-3 inches.

Next place the glass in as you normally would. You might have to finagle it a little bit because you have the fabric in between the glass and the frame. I know mine has little groves that hold the glass. I taped the fabric to the back of the glass just to make it easier, but you don't have too.

Then put the back on and voila!!! You have an awesome pin cushion frame!!!

I love how this turned out so much, I'm going to make one as a present:) I'm working on an apron this next week, so keep an eye out for that:) Till then

Pin 28 of 52

So I'm getting a late start on my Christmas presents! But I'm earlier then last year, haha. I have 5 nieces and nephews. Four of which are old enough to use crayons.  So when I seen these nifty crayon and notebook holders on Pinterest I knew they would be perfect for them. I started making these how the tutorial shows and I ended up not liking it so I did it a different way. I usually end up straying from the actual instructions:) Here is what I ended up with. 

I made different colors for the girls and the boys. 

I love how they turned out. My sewing machine started giving me trouble so I wasn't able to finish the last one but that is the extra one I made for Little Man so that can wait while I try to figure out whats going on with my machine:) When I get to his I may do a tutorial. Another gift I'm making is kind of a mix of two pins so look for that in the next week!! Till then

Pin 27 of 52

So I'm killing two birds with one stone again:) Here is a new recipe for my 101 in 1001 task number 25. Well if you want to be technical this really isn't a recipe per say buuuut it is a food. So that counts right?!?!
I seen the pin for little ham and cheese sliders on Pinterest  and knew Little Man would love them. He love "sammiches" and these are perfect for little hands:) I did stray from the pin (like I always do:) and I used american cheese instead of swiss but they were super yummy:) And of course Little Man loved them!

Make it with some tomato soup and it's faaaabulous:) 

Pin 26 of 52:)

I'm so excited to have made it halfway to our 52 pins:) I'm seriously hoping to be done by June 1st and then I will restart on my birthday which is the 19th! Buuut if I end up ending early, I'll just restart:) I'll have to come up with a better name:) I'm also soo excited for Fall!!! Okay so I do live in very rainy state so not only do I have cold but I also have rain. But hey, I'm totally okay with that. The last 11 years have been heat and sun and virtually no rain in Ga. I seriously think that I've seen more rain in the last month then in the last 11 years. Seriously it RARELY rains in Ga. Buuuut anyways, back to it being fall! I LOVE fall so when I seen a pin for a white chili on Pinterest today, I had to try it! And it was fantastic! I did change it up a little but because this is actually not a crock pot recipe and of course silly me didn't realize that until I had got all the ingredients out at 11 am this morning. Oh well, I threw is all in anyways, haha. It turned out AMAZING!

Excuse the instagram picture! I was sooo excited about this that I forgot to take a picture with my actual camera but my iPhone takes pretty good pictures:) 

Here is the recipe that I used:

1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 medium onion, chopped

1-1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

2 cans of great northern beans, rinsed and drained

1 can chicken broth ( I use a packet of powdered chicken broth)

1 cans chopped green chilies

1 can butter beans 

1 can of kernal corn

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

I seriously throw everything in the crockpot on high for 4 hours. Add some corn bread and it's the perfect fall meal:) Easy peasy. Like I like it:) 

Not only is this a pin it's also a new recipe toward my 101 in 1001 goal number 25, which is to learn 50 new recipes:) Check them out at the links in above:) 

Pin 25 of 52

Laundry soap! Oh how fast I go through laundry soap. Even with my laundry schedule of only doing 1 load a day with everyone having their own laundry day and what not I still go through a ton of laundry soap. Granted I do probably use more than I should, but I've really weird about my clothes being clean. Any-who about two years ago I tried making my own laundry soap. I made this liquid that was more of a gel then a liquid and well I just was very skeptical. I didn't like it. At all! I didn't feel that my clothes were getting clean no matter how much detergent I put in there. I didn't like the idea of powder. I always had used liquid, my mom used liquid growing up, it was just what I was used too. So I didn't look into it anymore I just went back to buying my Gain and moved on with life. Fast forward 2 years and I'm into Pinterest and see a pin (here) for homemade powder laundry soap with only 6 ingredients for only about 20 bucks. I liked the idea, pinned it and moved on. I kept seeing it getting pinned and I finally broke down and made a small batch in August to see if I would like it. I loved it! LOVED it. I made about half a batch and it lasted about 3 months. This time I will do a legit break down to see how many loads I get and this and that. Here are the ingredients that I used:)

          1 (4 lb 12 oz) Box of Borax- Found in the detergent aisle 

          1 (3 lb 7 oz) Box of Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda- Found in the detergent aisle

          2 (14.1 oz) Bars of Laundry Soap- Found in the detergent aisle (excuse the fact that I have Ivory     soap. My smart self didn't think about it not being laundry bar soap until after I grated it. I used Fels Naptha)

          1 (2 lb) Box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda- Found in the cooking aisle

          1 (55 oz) Bottle of Purex Crystals Fabric Softener- Found in the detergent aisle ( This is optional but I love love LOVE this softener and figured if I'm going to throw it in anyways I might as well just mix it in. Also even though I have two pictured here I only used one because I divided the whole thing in half because I don't use softener on our cloth dipes)

          2/3 (2 lb) Container of OxyClean- Found in the detergent aisle. (This is totally optional as well but I definitely recommend using it:)

And here is a breakdown of the price I paid:

Borax - 3.38 

Washing Soda - 2.58

Fels Naptha - .97 each- 1.94

Baking Soda - 1.38

 Purex Softener - 6.59

OxyClean - 7.97 - (since I only used 2/3) 5.32

Total 21.09

Of course the prices of things will vary depending on where you are. But I figure for 22 bucks (rounding up) for at least 6 months, you can't go wrong. Okay, so I probably should have sat and figured this out before hand but what the hay! Okay so if I do 5 loads a week for 6 months that is 120 loads that is still only 17 cents a load. I think I will get more then 6 months and 120 loads out of it and I will be keeping track of it this time so I will get back to you on the actual break down:)

One reason I love this is because it's soooo easy. Like, seriously, all you do is grate the soap (the hardest part) and mix it together . Bada-bing bada-boom & done! I take a couple extra steps to divide it because I don't wash our cloth diapers with softened so half of it doesn't have softener. Then I take 1 more extra step to put it in containers so I'm not having to scoop out of a big container:) Here is the final product:)

I love Purex softener containers because they are easy to handle, they hold quite a bit and they have a measuring lid. The original blog says about 2 tablespoons which equals the middle line of the cap will do it. I usually fill it to the top line and sometimes I'll add in another one that's filled to the first line. (Again, I'm weird about my laundry getting clean). Simple as that. 

Pin 24 out of 52

The kids love playing under the table. I don't know why, but they do. Whatever, it makes them happy. So when I seen this pin of a play house table cloth, I decided it was perfect! I found the most adorable fabric with little owls. I was trying to find something gender neutral but still cute. I was so excited about getting it done and all that I forgot to take pictures with my actual camera but I did get some on my iPod for Instagram:) So they aren't the best quality but hey at least I have pictures. Again, I didn't do a
picture tutorial because this was only my second big sewing project so I'm still growing:) Here is a work in progress

And here it is done:)

It will get windows but that will be another project for another time:) The kids LOVE it. It needs washed and  then I will get pictures of them with it:) Till then

Pin 23 of 52

So the last several months I've been trying to figure out what the kids will be for Halloween. Well Little Man is old enough to decide himself. Buzz Lightyear. Awesome! Little lady on the other hand, isn't old enough to decide or frankly even care, haha. After cruising Pinterest like 20 different times I found THE most adorable Little Red Riding Hood costume EVER!!! The pin is here:) I seen it and knew I HAD to do it. I guess that's how it is with every single one of my pins, haha. Anyways then I found a pin for a hood!  Again I knew I had to do it. Sooo this is kind of two pins, but whatever:) I give huge props to Angel over at Fleece Fun. The way she does her patterns so you can print them out at home is fabulous! And to make them free! She is pretty amazing!

I didn't do a step by step picture tutorial because this was my first big sewing project so I was still trying to learn the ropes. There is a great tutorial for hood on the link above. As for the rest of the costume, wellll it kinda just got thrown together:) I definitely have to give credit to my mother-in-law who helped me put it together:) In the picture on the pin the costume had a corset. I didn't do that. It felt really weird just the thought of putting a corset on my one year old, haha. So she just had a plain long sleeved  black shirt on and some leggings underneath the tutu! Here are my materials though:)

2 yards of red flannel

1 yard of white flannel (not pictured)

2 yards of white tulle

1 yard of red tulle

10 inches of red elastic (not pictured)

red thread 

1 yard of red ribbon 

And here is the final product:)

Is this not freaking adorable. Okay I may be bias and all but still! I will get legit pictures on Halloween but this will do for now. Next week I'll be making a house table cloth:) Till then

Pin 22 of 52

Since moving here to Washington, I've taken up using chapstick ALL THE TIME! Not sure why I use it here but I didn't in Ga. It's warmer and drier there, but whatev's! So when I seen this pin on Pinterest I knew I had to try it. Here is my picture. I found this little thing of Vaseline at Target and figured it was perfect. I got so excited to try it that I forgot to take a before picture but here is my version of vaseline and crystal Light lip balm:) 

I like the look and the smell buuuut I don't like the feel. I'll keep it around as back up but I probably won't use it on a daily basis. It's a great lip scrub but I don't like the greasy feel of the Vaseline to stay on my lips. Soooo I guess I'll just stick with my chapstick:)

Till next time

Pin 21 of 52

So on a "I bet you won't do it" from my sister and hubs. I died my hair red. It was supposed to be a bright red but came out more pink. Well anyways, the next day, Little man decided that he wanted red hair too. I was like, "Well I'm pretty sure we can do it with Koolaid, let me check Pinterest." Pinterest is my new google:) I search everything on there before I go to google. Soooo, I knew I had pinned a pin a while ago with something of the sort. I couldn't find it but I did find this pin. Easy peasy! Or so I thought. I thought ver very VERY wrong. Haha. Here is how it actually came out.

Lets just say it's NOT so fabulous! He looks like he murdered someone. But I have to say. This is my first pin attempt that actually full on failed! Go me, bahaha. 

Sorry I'm late on my Preschool blogging. I will get that up soon. We've been super busy with school and trying to be outside as much as possible before the Washington weather takes on the rain. It is supposed to start it's rainy season next week and of course that is when the in-laws are coming in. So I will have a blogging bash after that. Promise:) Till then

Pin 20 of 52

After making a yummy dinner from Pinterest for my last pin, I decided it was time to make a dessert. So we made homemade rice crispy treats:)

When I first seen this pin, I didn't think making rice crispy treats with cake mix sounded like it would work, but WOW! They taste amazing, totally fabulous. Although I didn't use actual sprinkles like it calls for, I did use a fun fetti cake mix. Basically just a cake mix with sprinkles already in it. My biggest problem was how hard they got. They got rock hard after about an hour. So much I could barely cut it with a knife. It still tasted fabulous though:)  

I'll be back this weekend with an update on our Preschool:) Till then 

First week of Preschool!

Our first week of Preschool went fantastic! I'm so excited. I will be doing things a little bit differently but it is mainly concerning the lesson plans. Little man had sooo much fun. Here are a couple things we did:)

We are working on using scissors correctly and cutting along the lines:)

Writing the letter A

 Animal Matching

We sorted out beads by color, then we counted them and then we put them on a pipe cleaner:)

Little Man decided he needed to have glasses like Mama and Papa. So we made him some with pipe cleaner:) 

We had sooo much fun this week. We can't wait till next week for the letter B! Here is our lesson plan for next week.

I started out last week with having the whole week around one subject. That was hard to do so I decided to change it up and have a subject about each day. This is a lot of fun for me putting the lesson plans together and getting everything set for the week. This is a work in progress and I have a feeling I'll always be learning something new. 

Pin 19 of 52

Today we made Cheesy Chicken and Rice! It's sooo yummy. I've made is several times but this is the first time documenting it:)

Excuse the spoon haha. When I found this pin on Pinterest, I knew it had to be my new recipe for my 101 in 1001 challenge number 25 (learn 50 new recipes)! So I killed two birds with one stone:) This has become a huge favorite it my house hold and I really like that it has corn in it as well. Not that I have a problem with my kids eating veggies. They love them! 

I love my crockpot! It's sooo easy just to throw dinner in and forget about it! About half of our dinners a week are crockpot meals! What are your favorites?

Next week is Pre-K!!!

We are starting our homeschool Pre-K next week! We are very excited!!!! I keep telling Little Man that we will start soon and he always tells me about his backpack and riding a school bus. I haven't had the heart to tell him that the latter will not be happening. It's taken a lot of planning and organizing. I went shopping for all of his stuff today! I got a laminator and am loving it! I love being able to watch Little Man discover things and learn. I'm finding so many blogs about moms that do this exact thing and although it's important to me that I'm making my own curriculum, I'm learning a lot from reading those blogs. I will definitely get links up for my favorites another time:) Here is a sneak peek at our first week!

I will definitely have an update with pictures at the end of next week! Till next time

Pin 18 of 52

Pin 18 was very yummy. And we have 10 jars of it, hehe. We made blackberry jam. Here are a few photo's:)
                     Crushing the berries:)                                                     Adding some Pectin

            

 We had to use a TON of sugar.  7 Cups!!!!                  

     It's soooo yummy on toast and makes great peanut butter & jelly sandwiches:) When we were driving home one day, along the main road of our house we seen blackberries! A LOT of blackberries! So I knew I needed to find a pin on Pinterest. We went blackberry picking 5 or 6 times. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of picking, but we had sooo much fun! Little Man had such a blast. He ate every one he picked (okay, I ate a lot too, but at least I had a bucket full:). Little Man loves having toast and jelly made from the berries he picked. That's exactly how he asks for it too. Haha. I'm planning on trying a new recipe in a couple days. It contains chicken, rice and cheese in the crockpot:) Till then

Preschool for Little Man.

I know it's really late in the year but I'm working on getting a preschool curriculum together for Little Man. It's taking a lot of research and planning so we are going to be starting October 1st:) It's going to be a 26 week curriculum and I'm very excited. I'm still debating whether to do it for four days a week or 5 for an hour a day. We are going to have weekly themes going through the alphabet. Here are our themes:)

Now that I have an outline planed, I'm going to get started planning the actual plans out! I'm pretty excited! This will be our first year and if it goes well we will be doing it again next year. Because his birthday is in the middle of the school year (March), he has to wait till the next school year to start Kindergarden. So he has to wait till August of 2014. I figure since I stay at home anyways I might as well get some education in him! This is going to be an amazing adventure and I'm pretty excited (have I mentioned that yet). I plan on keeping updated on here:) 

Pin 17 of 52

Pin 17 is cloth wipe solution:)

A couple days ago I posted about the cloth wipes I made. Since we cloth diaper we needed cloth wipes. And for wipes you need a solution. When I found the pin on Pinterest  and I looked through the twenty-something recipes I couldn't find one that I really liked so I combined a couple. Here is what I used.

2 Cups of water

1/4 cup of baby soap ( I honestly just put a couple squirts in) 

2 tbs of honey

couple drops of tea tree oil. 

I boiled the water and  then added the honey and let it boil for another minute. Then I added the soap and oil. It didn't all fit into my spray bottle so I luckily I had two bottles on hand. 

I started off putting the wipes in the container and pouring the solution over it which worked wonderfully for about a day but then the wipes started getting a musky smell and I didn't like that. So then I started just spraying the wipe before I used it and I usually spray it right on her bottom to because she likes it. I still keep them in the wipe container and accordion folded for accessibility. We have been using them for a handful of days and so far we love them. Till later