Decorative Blocks

For Young Women's, I wanted to do a craft with the girls. I ran across THIS one from Lil Luna, so this is what we ended up making.

I love it! I can't wait to make the 2013 theme to go right next to it!

 

While I had "crafting" on the brain. I decided to make blocks for my daughter's rooms. I have seen a couple pins on Pinterest about having a map up & a heart where everyone was born. Super cute, but we're boring. YAY. Haha.

So I kind of came up with something on my own.

These cutesy little things!

It's a 5x7 block.

Painted.

Used Photoshop to make a 4x6 with whatever info that I wanted on it.

Mod Podged it on.

Tied some tulle.

Hooked a picture on.

Bam.

Done.

Brielle helped me paint hers, she was so excited when we finished & it dried. She grabbed it and totally ran to her room to put it on her dresser. *melt my heart* I am raising a crafter! *Squeal!*

Red Velvet Pancakes

I love me some Red Velvet Cake... Cupcakes... PANCAKES.
Include some chocolate chips & I'm sold.
This morning I wanted to make something fun for my daughters to eat for breakfast. Daddy was at drill, bummer dude, you missed out. (thank heavens for ziploc's & fridges, right?? heehee)
These were a hit, for the most part. They are very rich. YUMMMM. My 13mo almost at a whole one, but then she kept signing for "milk". I think she had her cup filled twice...

My 3 year old, she LOVED the first couple bites, but then did the same thing with asking for milk. They both ended up having cereal to finish up. BUT, an hour or so later, I spotted my 3 year old eating some from the fridge. So she really liked them, but I don't think she was use to this type of pancake.

I really liked them. I ate about 1.5 pancakes and I was done. Which is great, because I can usually pound down like 4 regular ones. I mean.... What?? Who does that... I also ended my meal with a big, tall, glass of milk. Totally worth it.

The original recipe is HERE

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
2 large eggs
1-1/2 cups buttermilk (I didn't have buttermilk, so I searched how I could do it- Put 1 tablespoon White Vinegar in a measuring cup. Add milk until it gets to the 1 cup mark. Let sit 5 minutes. Since I needed 1.5 cups, I did 1.5tablespoons vinegar, and filled the milk up to 1.5)
1/2 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons red food coloring
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips (doesn’t matter what kind you use)

Directions
Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg, buttermilk, sour cream, food coloring and vanilla.
Add wet ingredients to dry, and mix just until combined.
Add chocolate chips and fold in batter.
Pour about 1/3 cup onto medium/high griddle and lightly brown on both sides.
Sprinkle powdered sugar on top and serve with maple syrup.

BAM. There you go.
You're welcome.

Ziploc Lunch Containers

I love packing lunches for my husband. Seriously.
About a year ago, I found these containers at Walmart. I originally bought them for picnic lunches for my daughters, but have recently come to love them for my husband. The separate compartments are awesome. It's nice to be able to pack multiple things into one container.
Tonight, I packed:
A Sandwich
String Cheese
2 Cuties
Gummy Candy & Hershey Kisses.

(and a thermos of hot chocolate... Got to keep him warm with all this snow coming down!)

I have used the smallest compartment for ranch, then packed some veggies into the other one.
Anyways. These are awesome.

Our Budget Helper

Ready to cringe... One word can usually do it....
BUDGET.
I love budgets, but I know a lot of people that don't. Usually the ones that don't, don't know what they're missing out on. For us, it's freedom. Freedom from debt. Freedom from wondering if we really have enough money for something. Freedom from the fear of losing things (cars, house, etc).
I've had a couple people ask me about budgets and how I actually do it.
I usually start out by sitting down and figuring out what we make/spend, and make a spread sheet. With my husband starting a new job about a year ago, & us losing our income for him going to school, we needed to get on a very strict budget. My mom told us about Mint.com. That site is AWESOME. It's super quick, and super easy. We have our budget set up in there, we have apps on our phones to check up on our spending, and it has kept us right on track to our goals.
If you need help with your budget, use this site. It really puts it in perspective on what your actually spending your hard earned moola on.

Entertainment Center Kitchen

For Christmas this year, my husband & I decided to transform an entertainment center into a kitchen for our girls. I saw one a lonnnnnnnnng time ago online, then we went up to my grandparents house and my grandpa had made one for all his great-granddaughters (they're up to 5 so far, with 2 more on the way) to play with at their house. Our girls LOVED playing with it. That gave us the "umph" to press forward and actually get one done for Christmas.

I went home, searched Pinterest, and couldn't find one that fit our taste. At all. We decided to just go with what we like, kind of make it up as we went.

I don't have a "before" picture of it... We were too eager to get it going that I spaced it.

First, my husband had to move the "fridge" wall over so it would match up with the "freezer".

Then he built a door, and matched the bottom one with the same wood.

He used that same wood for a base for the stove top.

**For the stove knobs, we used little wooden circles from Hobby Lobby (don't forget your coupon!).
For the burners we used rubber Coasters from Target**

Then he cut a hole into the main area to fit a bowl & faucet.

**The bowl is a doggy dish that we got at Ross. The faucet was the cheapest one we could find at Home Depot**

Next up was sanding, priming, painting.

**For the "stainless" appliances, we used Martha Stewart's Polished Silver Metallic Paint from The Home Depot**

The silver paint is AWESOME! I didn't even use half the bottle for everything, and we did at least 2 coats over it all. Good stuff. Affordable too!

**I don't know the name off the pink paint, it was an "Oops" paint that we got for $1**

 I thought I was doing awesome at painting... Until I got home and looked in the mirror. Ha.

More painting.

We decided to go with bead board to go behind the sink/stove. I LOVE it!

We also decided to take our the drawer in the middle, I didn't want smushed fingers, is shut reallllly fast!

We had leftover fabric from the curtains in our laundry room, so I sewed some curtains for the "window" we were putting in, and to cover up the drawer hole.

Ta da!

**I used one of my photographs for the "window". The frame & mini curtain rob are from Hobby Lobby. The handles for the Stove, Fridge, & Freezer are from Lowes.**

We did this, dare I say, little project at my parents house... In their basement.

We decided to move it to our house the morning of Christmas Eve. That thing is a BEAST! I swear it weighs 400lbs... Ok. Maybe not that much, but it was heavy.

Thank heavens for help from the family!

They loaded it up, and it started snowing. MAJOR!!

Poor husband sat in the back with it to make sure it was ok....

Christmas morning!!!

They love it.

We love it.

Totally worth every minute making it perfect.

 

 

Picture "Name" Tags

I got this idea from my wonderful Grandma, in Idaho.

This year, I decided to do all our Christmas Gifts with picture "name" tags. Our daughters are 3 & 1. Not really able to read names yet. So I printed pictures onto card stock, cut them out, and had instant tags for presents. Super easy. Super adorable.

 

 

We even did these tags for our extended family. I loved it. My 3 year old totally loved it. She was able to pick out the presents and hand them out without any help.

Make your own Cooking Spray FAIL

Tried THIS
FAIL.
I will continue to buy real cooking spray.
Plus, after I tried it out, I read in the comments about keeping it in the fridge and stuff. Good post. HERE