Forever DIETING...

So, it is mid summer, I had embarked on a weight loss journey last year.  Did pretty good now have stalled out once again and I am super frustrated.  SoOOoooo back on the saddle I climb and this time not to fall. I have always struggled with weight.  I love food, I love to cook it, eat it, shop for it, cook for others etc...you get the drift here.  I like good food, junk food, I am an equal opportunity offender.  I have been very, very thin to fairly heavy for my frame.  155-160 for my 5'6" frame.  I have been a size 10 down to a 2 or 4.  I am currently between a 8 and a 6 and like to be more like a 6 or a 4.  My ideal realistic weight is about 125.  My current weight is 145.  I was my heaviest (not preggo) this time last year at about 160.  I have followed the Dukan diet which restricts all carbs except veggies.  It is OK, but I like fruit.  I don't follow restrictive diets so well, so I am trying to do a South Beach/Dukan/Paleo/ just clean eating type of thing.  I am certain this will be something I struggle with but I hate feeling out of control with my eating and have a mini war in my head when getting dressed every. single. day!  I fights with my shape wear and always feel self conscious at the end of the day.  I do not want this to continue....do not!  I have a 4 1/2 year old daughter who deserves to see her mom happy in her own skin.  How else will she learn unless I lead by example.

In my most successful times of health I not only ate well, but exercised regularly.  This is where I struggle.  I need a gym plan and also a home plan for times I can't make it.  Piyo is looking like a good option for non-gym days.  I am up for anything so if you have a plan that works I would love to hear what ya got!!

Birthday Pancakes ~ Cake Batter Style!

Cake Batter Pancakes

When you are 4 years old and it is FINALLY your birthday who wants to wait until the afternoon to celebrate or even (gasp) dare I say..... another day? Not us, so here is a quick, easy and tasty way to celebrate first thing in the morning. This is super duper easy, and I am aware that super duper may not be a scholarly way to describe things in a professional world, but we are having fun here so I try to get a super duper in as frequently as possible. 

Starring in this show...
Pancakes
1 C Bisquick
1 C Yellow Cake mix (Betty Crocker is what I had)
2 Eggs
1 cup of milk
1 tsp vanilla
Mix in 4 tbsp. of sprinkles

Mix above together and cook on med/high heat with a non-stick pan or griddle.

Glaze
2 C Powdered sugar
2-3 tbsp. Milk
1 tsp Vanilla

Mix together until smooth and you have a desired consistency. Pour over pancakes, add sprinkles and enjoy.

Happy Birthday to the funniest, happiest, spunkiest little girl I know. A girl who ditches tiara's for capes, babies for animals yet still wants to wear something sparkly. Not too girly and yet just girly enough.  A girl who is the perfect combo of sweet and sassy, I am so lucky that I get to be her mom! (wiping tears over here)

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!!