Halloween Door Deco Mesh

Halloween is quite possibly the best holiday...EVER.  Well, this is only my opinion, but I am very strongly standing behind it.  It is low stress and all about being a carefree kid. What's not to love about that?!?  Moving on to the business at hand. Everyone loves a fun, festive house on this particular holiday.  I, a forever Pinterest stalker found a ton of ideas and the deco mesh looks so luxurious and festive that I thought I would give it a shot.  So here goes....

Start with two Christmas garlands.  I got mine 40% off at Hobby Lobby, don't buy the best it is the skeleton of the project.  Pun fully intended.  Next I bought some coordinating plastic glitter Christmas balls and 3 rolls of large deco mesh. 

Next twist the ends of the garland to make a long rope of garland.  I took it to the door and made bends for a rough outline of the door and back to the floor I went.  I suppose you could hang it on the door and work that way, but I am not the most graceful gal around and would likely fall off the ladder and end up with a crooked decoration so I felt the floor was best.

 Next unroll the mesh and start attaching to the garland.  I just used the branches and secured my poufs with it, you can use twist ties or floral wire but this works just fine.  It doesn't look like much with one color but as you repeat this process with the other colors it comes together quickly.  I got so excited that I failed to take pictures of the other two colors but it goes exactly the same way.  I simply varied where I gathered the poufs so they weren't all gathered in the same place.  The second color gathered in the middle of the green pouf so the poufs were everywhere. Make sense? It does in my head so hopefully you get it.

 Finally we wrapped purple lights around it added the Christmas balls and as small ribbon for contrast and this is what we got.  LOVELY.  I will likely add some small wooden letters that I will spray paint with glitter that says "BOO" and "EEK" and "SPOOKY" with maybe some more balls.  The one note I would add is that we glued the metal piece of the ball down then used the loop that would normally have a hook to hang on the tree and attached the ball to the garland with a zip tie.  This was hubs idea so it would stay put during windy weather and it was a pretty good suggestion, he has a few good ones occasionally :)  Hope you enjoy.

To blog again....it shall be glorious therapy!

 

The decision found me, after a long time off from blogging and a whole bunch of changes in my life I feel that blogging is a must, it probably should have been happening all along.  I have a creative side that needs an outlet, plus I am ready to show my inner nerdy, domestic, OCD, wish I was were a 1960's housewife side (with my sauciness intact) side to the world.  Without further delay I will hunt for a fun new recipe to try out this weekend and blog away.  Thanks to all who have re-sparked this blog obsession. Stay tuned....

Chicken Tacos

OK, It's been a while but I am making an effort to blog again. So we are all going to start back simple.This is a family favorite. CHICKEN TACOS. Now don't freak out....BUT I used a pressure cooker. I know, the one appliance that immediately makes everyone gasp. Alas, mine is new and it was easy peasy. I promise once you use it you will not only love it, but realize the old stories of blowing up pressure cookers are days gone by. I love mine and use it all the time. If you are still too scared this can be done in a crock pot the same way. The beauty of the pressure cooker is it cooks like a crock pot, but if you forget to plan ahead, you can fix it in a fraction of the time. However, I still yell "Stand back kids, I am starting the pressure cooker up, clear out"! It is more out of habit, my grandma Pat always yelled for us to stay away from it, so it is part of my DNA to say this.

Ingredients: Chicken breast 4 large or 6 small,

Onion, garlic, taco seasoning 2 pkgs

1 cup chicken stock or broth

Slice the onion and garlic, saute' until translucent 2 or 3 minutes

Add chicken and taco seasoning to the pan 

Stir this up good

           Add the chicken stock. Clearly I do not measure, but I am told to give measurements because it drives some of you nuts. Sorry, it's not intentional.

 This is where you clamp the lid down and cook, once the pressure cooker starts to whistle this takes 20 minutes. That's it. During that 20 minutes I chop the rest of the dinner, avocado, tomato, warm the shells etc. For the faint of heart, those who still won't commit....turn the crockpot on. And wait 6-8 hours!

 Once your pressure is down and the safely valve says it is safe to open, this is the untouched result. I use a potato masher and "shred" the chicken. Then your tasty dinner is served!

ENJOY! Feel free to email any questions or suggestions.

Lydia gets a NEW BED!!!

So while logging important hours on Pinterest I found a project and showed my husband, I say "Can you do this?" He said "Probably" and from that point on he has been hard at work making Lydia a new playhouse bed. This is what we came up with... Oh and Ana White is where we found our free plans!

Ground Zero, had to move Kaleb to Lydia's room and clear the room.Next comes the lavender paint. I love how this turned out. Then the walls move in, the hubs worked on this in the garage, I only blogged the assemby part, but I can tell you he logged a whole lot of hours on this thing. Putting it together, looking like a bed now.

Complete with lighting!!

A blank dresser needs to be jazzed up, so I added stripes and polka dots (my dad is a big fan of my need to mix patterns, I even threw in a flowered knob too)!

More finishing touches, a lovely anywhere chair with her name.....daddy loves that I put her name on everything!
Some pinterest artwork for the dressser.

Now the bedding, such a cute little steal from Kohl's...I am currently very obsessed with owl print!

Look at how CUTE this turned out. She is one lucky girl. I even got to sew some curtains for it, so I was happy too. I hope she has many hours of fun in here.

3D flower

Pinterest...you strike again. I saw this on pinterest some time ago, and I did not pin it. DUH. Try as I might I could never find it again. I confess, it was generally because my interest was to find it than about a million other things popped up and there was no way I could stay focused on the task at hand. Anyway fast forward a few months and... I saw this on fb friends page and realized it could be done with card stock...which I happened to find at the fabric store on clearance for $7! I bought it with the intention of doing the alphabet with it, but I haven't gotten around to it, good thing because I used it tonight and I am loving the results!! We are re-doing our daughters room and this is just the little accent I am looking for. This one is large, I will scale it down for her and do it in muted pastels with polka dot and stripes....SO to get to it, start with card stock, it comes in a book and pattern choice is endless.

Next pick out the paper of choice. I used eight for the large petals and 5 for the small. I used scraps to curl for accents.

Draw out the petal and repeat, I scaled down inside petal, I did this free hand, and I am NOT an artist, I mean, AT ALL. This is about as good as I get, so you can do this too.

Next lay out the pattern until you have a color combo you like.

A step I didn't photograph was that I glued 2 small paper plates for structure and started gluing the petals, I used extreme glue stick as recommended by my fb friend.

Continue gluing, it is your flower do as you wish.

Next comes the small petals, glue them and let dry then push up to make the 3d part. I used clothes pins to hold up the petal while the glue dried. Continue on. Oh and cut a circle out to cover the center. I traced a sippy cup, UMMmmm yeah, I am a mom and it is what I got!

Now let this dry, almost there.

Now hand on the wall....Not thrilled, needs more work.

Viola, now I think for Lydia's room I will add ribbon and maybe a little fine spray glitter. Possibilities are endless. If you had a storm door this could be a decoration for the front door, a teacher gift or any occasion. Have fun!!

Roasted Butternut Squash

Butternut squash....NOPE not just a decoration in the fall. It is absolutely deliscious, it is cheap, simple and oh so good for you! I didn't realize the vegetables were so intimidating to some...so here is a great veggie that even the kids will like. Mine love it. Wash the squash and peel with a vegetable peeler, cut in half and scoop the seeds out. Next you will chop in 1-2 inch cubes and place on a baking sheet sprayed with non-stick spray.

I add a drizzle of olive oil (I used spray today) sprinkle with salt and pepper and I love it with cumin. I also prepare sweet potatoes the same way. I took a portion and added a little brown sugar for Lydia, this is her favorite way to eat it.

Bake at 450 degrees for 20-30 min depending on how big you cut them.

Notice the brown color, the squash carmelizes and gets sweet. It can be eaten alone, or I add this to risotto with safron and it is delicous I omit the cumin when adding to risotto.

This was my lunch today along with some vegetable beef soup! ENJOY!

Vegetable Beef Soup

This soup is very low cal, high in flavor and very filling...bonus is that it is low cal. I put this in individual freezer containers so that I can have it at all times. This is in my freezer at all times, it is a great lunch that makes you feel like you have had a warm, hearty meal without the calories.

Ingredients are simple. Beef stew meat, mixed veggies ( I either buy the mixed pack or individual for a large batch. 2-3 bags of mixed or a small bag of each green beans, corn, carrots and peas) OK to use fresh too, but its the midwest and Feb...frozen it is! Next I use beef stock 4 cups, (I use better than bullion if I don't have stock), V-8 spicy hot juice, onion, salt and pepper.

Saute' onions until soft then add beef stew meat that you have seasoned with salt and pepper.

Cook until meat is done. Mix 2tbsp of the bullion in 4 cups of hot water.

Slowly add the 4 cups of stock to the cooked beef. Cook until half of the liquid is reduced down and the meat is tender. My grandmother would use the pressure cooker, but, I don't even remotely know how to do that, so this is a good way to get the meat tender and develop flavor in the base of the soup.

Next simply add the frozen vegetables and the entire bottle of V-8, salt and pepper to taste. I actually only use Lawry's, I prefer the taste but regular salt is fine.

Nothing like a simmering pot of soup to warm the soul...ENJOY! This indeed is a favorite of mine.