this and that....

my top 5 new recipes of 2011

2012-01-27T04:24:00.000-05:00

When the new year came, I saw a lot of food blogs put their top ten recipes from last year on there. I thought this sounded fun, so I decided to put my top 5 from 2011. I don't have JUST a food blog, so I only have 5. I could come up with 10, because I certainly try enough new recipes, but these 5 are the cream of the crop (in random order)!

Fried Chicken Legs
This turned out to be one of Andy's top 5 favorite things I make ever! It takes a lot of time, but an electric skillet makes life easier. Plus the two sauces I make for them are delicious and could be used for other recipes too!

Baked Doughnuts
Technically I blogged about these in 2012, but I made them 2011 so I'm including them. I got a donut pan for Christmas and these baked doughnuts are so delicious I'd make them every day if they were fat free :) We found the sugar-cinnamon combination the best, but the powdered sugar is pretty and delicious too!

Homemade Granola Bars
Andy takes these to work and eats them in the car for breakfast. They are easy to snack on while on the go, and they are really easy to make. Plus you can adjust the recipe to include or eliminate any of the goodies inside (nuts, chocolate chips, etc.).

Brownie Delight
This was in my wedding cookbook, and I have no idea why I waited so long to try it. This is very easy to make (box of brownie mix, ice cream, and cool whip) and also adjustable for types of ice cream and topping. Since it goes in the freezer, it's a great dessert that will last weeks if you can avoid eating it for that long!!

Chicken Pillows
These were a delicious and appealing surprise for how simple they are. If you crave some comfort food or something like a turkey dinner without the hassle, these are perfect. They come together quick because of the crescent dough and you can fill the inside with things in your fridge like leftover chicken or turkey and then make some stovetop and you're done!

So if you want to try a new recipe, one of these five are a great place to go. I tried more and we liked more, but these were the ones that were the best tasting and the easiest and great anytime!

more renovation at work

2012-01-25T03:59:00.000-05:00

Every Christmas and summer break at work we usually do a little facilities management. Translation: we move stuff around and try to improve the look and feel of the library. I think it helps keep things fresh and it also helps make a library more welcoming, which is not always easy in a 1972 building with orange shelving and dirty ceiling tiles (we're working on that in the future too!). Since the bulk of our audience is 18 year-old students, a visually appealing place that seems comfortable is always important.

We did a major renovation for us (i.e. a TON of paint and rearranging, but no structural changes) in 2008. This past Christmas break we worked on the back area of the library. It's where we house our previous issues of periodicals. Since so many are available online, the shelving in this area has been shrinking. This is a before/in progress picture:

Those two shelves coming straight out at you are the back issues. There used to be four of those and they used to come out twice as far, to give you an idea of how many issues there were 5-10 years ago. I wanted to take advantage of the fact that there is much less shelving required, so we split up the shelving and put them against the walls around the perimeter. It also let in more light and made a more "lounge-friendly" space. Here is the after:

We also still have a lounge of sorts as well as the couches in the middle:

It is not fully done because we are getting a scanning station back there and we would like to get some nice art or decor on the walls now. We didn't want to do that before we finalized the furniture placement, so we're just making do with what we have on the walls and the existing furniture until summer.

Another change we've made since the big changes was in the main area. We used to have more reference shelves and less seating:

We took down a lot of reference shelving by condensing the books onto fewer shelves and also moving more into the collection that patrons can check out. Then we added a couch and some high tables that are wired for laptop plugin with some artwork.

Two summers ago we also got a new front desk. The old front desk had been there a long time, most likely when the library opened in 1972. It didn't have enough storage and the staff desk that was behind it and separate made students feel very awkward to approach since it was "behind" the front desk. So here is the previous desk/configuration:

And here is the new one:

The curved profile makes it seem a lot more modern as well as the black countertop instead of all wood. We also put the staff desk as part of the entire front desk so that it's easy to approach. I will say that I had NO idea how expensive circulation/front desks were. This one is modular and less expensive than some, and it was still over $10,000. However, it has transformed the front space, and everyone loves it!

homemade biscuits that are easy!

2012-01-23T04:43:00.000-05:00

I am always looking for delicious things to bake and cook. I was browsing the recipes of KAF (which is King Arthur Flour) and found a biscuit recipe that was pretty easy. So I made them and cut them into 9 squares instead of cutting out into circles because no wasted dough:

They were tasty. I think I cooked them a little too long, so they were a bit dry, but it was easy. Now I had tried biscuits before, and this one did have a few more steps. So I might stick to the previous recipe I had made. I forgot to take a completed picture, but they looked like biscuits :) I do like the idea of cutting them into squares so I'm definitely stealing that idea even with my previous recipe!

kitties of christmas

2012-01-21T04:39:00.000-05:00

My sister's family has acquired some outdoor kitties. They were very friendly and adorable, so we made sure to pet them every time we went in and out of the house (which was often because we stayed in the guest house, which is separate from the main house - so fancy!).

Andy couldn't help Mike while he was building the treehouse, so he sat on the porch and watched. I got him some blankets out of our car to keep him warm, and the kitties saw a great opportunity:

The one Andy is holding is called Tigey (or Tiggy?) because it's stripey. Then the black one Andy was petting is Yowly because he is a meower! Although I'm still not sure he meows as much as Chuckles.

Well after Andy was done sitting out there, he folded the blankets and left them on the bench because he was still on crutches at that point and didn't want to take them down the stairs to the car. That was getting NO protest from the outdoor kitties!

Mom even brought one inside, which is against the rules! She never set it down but she brought it in next to the wood stove and petted it - we know we spoiled those kitties!

ham and egg cups for breakfast

2012-01-19T04:25:00.000-05:00

My sister served these while we were visiting:

Denise made a ton of delicious food while we were there, and these were not different. They were a big hit, and everyone loved them! I took the recipe home and was going to type it up, but then I found it online even as part of the website for the original cookbook!

http://www.mennonitegirlscancook.ca/2009/03/ham-and-egg-cups.html

I would recommend these for a brunch or even just a breakfast at home. They are super easy and you can make as many or as few as you want. You can also cook them as long as you want to make the egg as "done" as you prefer: from sunny side up to hard boiled!

our family christmas

2012-01-17T04:10:00.000-05:00

The Edwards family Christmas was over New Year's weekend this year. Scheduling it was tricky with two surgeries in the family plus a Miller anniversary celebration, but we got it all settled and had a great time in Virginia! We opened presents that Saturday.

Jonas likes carrying around his walkie-talkie and he clips it to his pants, even his pajamas:

Denise liked her cutting board!

Grandparents and the boys - very cute!

The boys got bean bags for Christmas, and my parents wrapped them in giant gift bags that they reuse. Well they thought they saw a hole in one, so this is them trying to find it:

Yes, they were under there, I promise!

We all gave and received awesome presents and had a wonderful trip!

corndog muffins

2012-01-15T04:10:00.000-05:00

I realized I didn't post this recipe online yet, and it's a shame because it's a fun alternative to regular dinners. Previously I had made a corn dog casserole that was tasty, but its appearance and ease of eating wasn't awesome. Still it was tasty enough to put as a keeper in my recipe box. Well then I found an online recipe for corn dog muffins and made a few changes and cut it in half. I used it to make these beauties:

These are so easy to make and really delicious with the Johnsonville Chicken Sausages we love so much.

I eat them with ketchup, mustard, and relish like a corn dog but Andy eats them plain. Either way, they taste great and also travel and reheat well - so they would be perfect for kids lunches and snacks.

Corn Dog Muffins

1 (8.5 ounce) package cornbread mix
1 Tablespoons brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
4 hot dogs, chopped pretty small (we use the precooked chicken sausage as mentioned above - mmmmmmmmm)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Place liners in cupcake pan and spray liners liberally with Pam.
Stir together the cornbread mix and the brown sugar in a large bowl.
Whisk the eggs and milk in a small bowl until smooth.
Fold the eggs and cheese into the dry mixture until wet.
Mix in diced hot dogs.
Divide mixture evenly into 12 muffin tins (about 2/3-3/4 full).
Bake in a preheated oven 14 to 18 minutes, or until golden brown.

money secrets of the amish

2012-01-13T03:12:00.000-05:00

I read a really interesting book last week: Money secrets of the Amish: Finding true abundance in simplicity, sharing, and saving. I really enjoyed it and there are nice tips and tricks in there like bartering with your neighbors, when you should buy in bulk, how to cut down on spending, get out of debt, and use tin foil as dryer sheets (not kidding...haven't tried this yet but can't wait!).

I told a few people about it, but I know I forgot a few that read this blog. It's an easy read and really easy to pick up and read a few pages when you get a chance, then set it down for a couple days again. In the interest of saving money (and with me being a librarian), please get it from your library! I linked to the Amazon page so you can see information about it, but libraries are the FREE source! :)

making a wood cutting board

2012-01-11T02:30:00.000-05:00

As part of the homemade Christmas we did, Andy and I made cutting boards for my sister and Jeph. I am embarrassed, because they both read this blog, to say they really are easy if you have the right tools. When I first suggested to Andy we make them, he was skeptical, but as I completed the last step of rubbing mineral oil on them (which FYI is available in the laxative area of a store), he admitted they looked GREAT:

That is half oiled and half 'raw'. We used three different types of wood that we had: cherry, oak, and what we think is pine. We aren't experts at identifying wood. We do know they are all safe for food to set on, none are pressure-treated or anything crazy. These woods are not the highest recommended for cutting boards to last through the years, but we prefaced that to our gift recipients, suggesting they may want to use them as cheese and cracker servers or light cutting, not sawing through things.

I found a great tutorial on a woodworking site, and used that to help us determine how best to make this. We used wood Gorilla Glue and followed the instructions up to "cutting the strips" because we didn't cut it again to flip it over for mixed designs. We will probably try that in the future, but for now we went with the striped look.

Merry Homemade Christmas!

easy fleece hats to make for kids

2012-01-08T01:30:00.000-05:00

I had made a fleece hat for myself over the summer, and I love it. It brings out the little kid in me because of the crazy fringe on top, but it is also mad, crazy warm in the Ohio winters. It was so easy I decided to make one each for my nephews for Christmas. Of course I had to ask my sister to measure their heads, but that's okay.

Here were the two hats I made:

And graciously they tried them on for a picture, even if they were being a little silly:

You'll see Jonas has his flipped up to give a "brim" and I used black fleece to line them both. Warren didn't have his flipped, so it was taller on his head. I didn't take step by step pictures for a tutorial, but I did go find one that was already online:
http://pinterest-project.blogspot.com/2011/12/what-came-first-mitten-or-hat.html
The big difference between my hats and the one I linked to is that I made a lining of black fleece. Not sure why I did that - maybe because the book I was using showed to do it like that. It is easier to follow the tutorial that I linked to because there is one seam of sewing instead of two like my hats. But either are easy! I wonder if the single non-lined hat isn't as warm, but oh well. Trust me, these are easy to make, warm for your head, and fun to wear!

my own bit of martha

2012-01-06T02:30:00.000-05:00

I don't always make ornaments to give at Christmas, but this year I did. My sister asked me to find a cute ornament for her to make as small gifts, and I found one so cute that I couldn't resist. Denise made different ones, so I made these:

Isn't that Santa just too cute?? His body (head and legs) are a clothespin and his legs and boots are painted. Then his beard, hat trim, mustache, arms, and coat are felt. The belt is some black ribbon and the buckle is a silver sequin. His eyes are drawn on with a marker. They also had a Mrs. Claus to make but she didn't look as cute.

This is one of the few crafts that came out exactly like the picture!

The worst part for me was the color of his "pants" that I painted didn't match his coat. The paint I bought at the craft store based on the paper square in front of it was just all wrong. The paper square matched the felt, but the paint did not. I didn't want to go back to the store, so I used some ink I had for stamping, and just stamped the legs so to speak. The color still isn't perfect, but it's better than the paint!

So here is the link to the craft: http://www.marthastewart.com/269511/clothespin-doll-ornaments. The templates are there as well as instructions. The instructions are very loose, but the picture is enough to duplicate the Santa. The template is for all the different clothespin dolls, so you only need page 1 for the Santa. I got lots of compliments because they turned out great!

kitty LOVES paper

2012-01-04T03:00:00.000-05:00

When we were playing with our new camera,Chuckles wanted in on the action. His pose? On paper of course:

I was practicing with no flash so it's a little dark, but if there is paper on the floor, his paws are on it. After this picture he curled up and sad on the paper too!

oh heavenly doughnut, how we love you

2012-01-01T02:30:00.000-05:00

So after trying an "okay" recipe earlier with my new doughnut pan, I hit the JACKPOT with a new one. I wanted to make doughnuts on Christmas morning and looked through a lot of recipes to narrow it down. I picked one more to try before I entered the world of yeast doughnuts. Well no need to look further, this one ROCKS.

The batter was much easier to work with. It isn't as runny as a cake batter, it's thicker like a cookie batter so I had to spoon it into the pan and sorta smush it around to get it even. It made six exactly and they looks great in the pan:

When you take them out, the bottoms are even prettier:

I made two for Andy: one with a powdered sugar/milk glaze and one with powdered sugar:

The powdered sugar one looked exactly like one from a store!

I used King Arthur Flour's recipe that I found online. I didn't use pastry flour, just unbleached all-purpose flour. I also did not have buttermilk powder, so I followed the instructions on the recipe to substitute buttermilk for the water. And I didn't actually have buttermilk (as I never do) so I used lemon juice in milk as a substitute (as I always do).

These doughnuts were AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME! Andy really liked them and made lots of yummy noises. Then the next day I took out two plain doughnuts (I don't "top" them until I serve them) and dipped them in melted butter then in a cinnamon sugar mix - and Andy went nuts for them. He said they were awesome and loved them to no end. So that topping was the biggest hit, but the donuts themselves are just delicious.

I think even if you don't have a donut pan you can put them in muffin tins. I would suggest a mini muffin tin and then you can make donut holes!

speaking of martha stewart....

2011-12-30T02:00:00.000-05:00

So apparently I'm surrounded by people doing Martha crafts. First Jeph made the wreath and then Kris at work made the cutest coasters:

I took a picture without the flash too to show the colors better:

She sewed them, and look how cool the patterns of stitching is and so straight!

She said don't look too closely because they aren't straight, but they totally are. She found them in a Martha Stewart Living Magazine, and I found the same thing online in case any readers are inspired to make them. I'm so impressed with the sewing because the maze-like stitching is one continuous line of stitching! Thanks for the present, Kris!

our wedding program

2011-12-28T02:30:00.000-05:00

I was going through older computer files and cleaning things out, and I came across our wedding program. I started reading it and it was cracking me up!!

Having been in seven weddings before I got married, not to mention attending dozens more, I was very experienced in reading wedding programs. One of my favorites was my high school friend, Jill, who had gotten married. They had multiple pages, and the wedding party members each got a page with a photo and a description of their relationship to the bride and groom. I kept that memory for about 10 years in my head (which is amazing because considering all the stupid commercial jingles I remember, I don't know how there was room!) and used a similar principle for my wedding.

I wanted to include information about who the bridal party was and I also wanted to include some fun facts about Andy and I because there were people at the wedding who knew one of us and not the other. Or there are things you always wonder about the couple if you aren't super close like how did they meet, where are they going on their honeymoon, etc.

Anyway, I had such a good time reading it, I wanted to post it here for people to be entertained. So enjoy! (And you might need to zoom in to read it, so use the little magnifying glass in the toolbar at the top.)

A couple FYIs...the photo on the front is actually us. We took it with a camera timer and a tripod (and lots of running from me) on a stranger's property. Don't worry, I asked permission first! It was also the photo on our wedding invitations.

martha jeph stewart

2011-12-26T02:30:00.000-05:00

We did Christmas with Jeph and Brett the weekend before Christmas weekend, and I got some awesome presents (as per the previous post of donut pan!). Jeph also made this, and I told him he totally achieved Martha status with it:

Those are branches cut from bushes around his house - how cool is that????? And Chuckles thought it was verrrrrry interesting. We had to hide it from him so he wouldn't eat it, and now it's decorating the outside of our house so he can't gnaw on it!

Thanks Jeph!

my new donuts

2011-12-24T03:00:00.000-05:00

I have been coveting a donut pan for baked donuts for awhile. Santa Jeph bought me one and it's so exciting! I made donuts the day after I got the pan, and they were very tasty. However, I am still on the hunt for the perfect recipe. The texture was a little odd and I think it's because the batter was SO thick. The bottoms looked way prettier than the tops:

So I flipped them over to serve:

The one on the right has glaze on it. I used the recipe that came with the pan, but I will be branching out to try other recipes. My dear sweet husband is so agreeable that he's going to "let" me bake donuts every weekend until we find a killer recipe. Oh how he sacrifices!

Thanks for the awesome pan, Jeph!

my new camera!!

2011-12-22T03:00:00.000-05:00

My camera has been having issues for the last year or so, but it has gotten way worse in the last month. The short version is that when it is in camera mode, pressing the button makes it take a video. It does that about 9 out of 10 times....so taking a picture takes a lot of video junk and by then kitty isn't doing anything cute. So we got a Best Buy coupon and Discover gift cards from our bank points and then bought a Sony on sale at Best Buy. Sadly they were out of red, so we just got silver. Actually we got the last camera in the store of this type, so we couldn't be picky on color.

We then used our Amazon gift cards to buy a bigger memory card and a case for free. I needed a bigger memory card because my old camera had done me awesome but it was so old it was only 3.2 megapixels. Doesn't require a lot of space at that size. My new camera is 14.1 megapixels - woooooo. So after the coupon, the sale, the gift cards...we got this new camera, case, and memory card for 43-ish dollars. Are we bargain shoppers or what?

So we've been playing with it at home, and it has a coooooooool panoramic feature. Now those of you who have bought a camera since 2004 might think this is old news, but since I've never had this feature, I think it's cool! I tested it at home (you can click on the picture to make it bigger):

Then Andy tested a picture with kitty as the star. This is how he loves to lay in my lap for tv time:

I have noticed that the pictures without the flash seem to be great - much better than the pictures without the flash from my old camera. Of course the picture quality is better and the screen to view pictures on the camera is bigger, but best of all it takes a PICTURE not a video when I tell it to take a picture!

merry christmas with snowglobe cards!

2011-12-19T21:40:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas! Now that the cards have been sent, here is the big reveal of this year's Christmas card:

I had previously posted in July that they had penguins, and you see they do! Sorry I forgot to take a picture of the inside, but it's in the video below. The video also gives a better idea of how cool and "real" and "active" the snowglobe part is:

I found a picture of a card like this online and decided I wanted to make it. However, there was no tutorial just a picture. I had to trial and error most of it and search online for tutorials for various aspects like the snow part (which is actually sugar). The best tutorial I found for making a "shaker card" that was doable for what I was making and easy to follow is the one by Splitcoaststampers. The part of the video that addresses the snowglobe part I made with the foam tape is at 2:40 in.

I am not writing a full step-by-step tutorial for these because that would take me almost as long as making the cards! Okay, that's not exactly true considering I made 50 cards and started in July. I will say a few things about making them that might help those who want to copy:

START EARLY (okay, had to get that out of the way)
I did use the Cricut software to do these, but it is not necessary. I did this for two main reasons: to smush the designs closer to save paper, and to make the penguin with his layering and different colored parts easier to manage (as a note I paid around $20 for my software...last I checked Amazon there were only third party sellers charging over $90....it was well worth $20, not worth $90)
the penguin is using the Christmas Cheer Cricut cartridge

I did the penguin shadow in white, and that's what makes his belly white and his eyes white
I did the body in black and took out the black belly so you can see the white through
I opted not to print his hat because I couldn't decide what paper to use and thought it was still super cute without a hat

the snowglobe is also from the Christmas Cheer cartridge

I did the shadow in green and the snowglobe in the patterned paper
I cut a small ribbon and just taped it on around the "stem/base" of the globe. I used ribbon I already had and decided it matched close enough. The double-stick tape was good enough considering that I then attached the whole snowglobe to the card - that helped it stay on.
1/2 teaspoon of sugar went into the "well" of the snowglobe. I did a picture of a snowglobe "in progress" to show you a little of how I did the snowglobe:

The sugar is on a circle of what is basically transparencies. That worked great for my purpose. I attached the first circle to the green snowglobe from the back with tape and clear glue (glue alone did not stick after a day). Then I took foam tape and cut it into fourths to make it skinny (so in half lengthwise then each of those in half again). Then I stuck those along the circle as you see above, being sure to overlap with the piece before so no 'snow' leaks out. Put the sugar in, pull off the tape cover (which is already off in the picture) and put another transparency circle on top. Cutting the foam tape into fourths and laying it around the circle trim sounds more painful than it is - it was pretty easy to work with!

When I attached the snowglobe to the card, I used double-sided tape for the globe part, then I used the foam tape for the base so that the entire snowglobe would stick out equally from the card.

A couple other notes:

the papers you use for the front can look like anything you want - just be sure to tape them all on, THEN cut the circle out of the front of the card (so you can see the penguin through it)
for the background of the penguin (which is the inside of the card) I used a color like water (keep with the snowglobe theme!) and then imprinted snowflakes onto it with my embossing purse.
I did them assembly-line style (did all the penguins, then all the snowglobes, then all the card fronts, etc. That worked really well.
Measure twice, cut once. It takes some careful measurement to make sure the circles of the snow globe and the card will match up. Once you get it, making multiples is easy!

I used two different snowflake papers and two different ribbon colors as you can see below. This is a great card to use up scraps if you are only making one or two. Since I was making 50, trying to use scraps was impossible because then you see how many different shades of red there are...that don't match!

I will say I have gotten rave reviews from those who have commented on the cards. They are fun to play with since the snow moves, and I do have to say they are my fanciest card yet! No way I'm topping this next year! If ANYONE has questions about how to make this card, please leave me a comment and I will definitely answer. I wished there was a tutorial when I started, so I'm happy to help anyone who wants to make one too!

showering your husband with love

2011-12-17T04:55:00.000-05:00

So of course I love my husband, and I don't mind taking care of him when he's down and out. But you know you really love your husband when you help him do various personal things, clean out ick between his toes after surgery, and use power tools.

Did I just say use power tools? YES I DID!

The surgeon gave Andy the all clear to take a shower, but we knew he couldn't stand for the duration of a shower. Baths are out because he can't soak his incision. So we decided he needed a bench of some sort. His parents have a bench just made of a slab of wood in their shower, so we sort of copy-catted. The only difference is they have shower doors, so there is a metal track along the outside edge of the tub that prevents the board from slipping off. I had to figure out how to solve that.

Well I got to use power tools and scraps of pressure-treated wood from building our front porch railing, and I made this all by myself:

Okay, I know it's not super fancy and just about anyone could make it, but I'm still very proud of it. I used a scrap piece screwed to the bottom to solve the issue of the board sliding off (since we didn't have the shower door metal track to prevent that).

I got to use the miter saw and the drill press (to predrill the screw holes for the scrap piece). I even countersank the screws. I didn't do that for looks but more because the screws I had were a little short...so I did that to make them longer, so to speak.

Again, I was using scraps and what Andy had laying around, so that worked just great. And of course, most importantly, I got the stamp of approval:

from Chuckles! Andy used it and it was a great success. The only slight complication is closing the shower curtain....but we managed to keep the water inside for the most part, and that's not as important as keeping Andy off his feet!

andy's healing

2011-12-15T04:55:00.000-05:00

Andy is getting along just fine with healing from his Achilles surgery. The doctor says everything is looking great. He is in a boot now, and when we went to the surgeon to get the boot, she cut off all the covering so we could see his incision. She also said he could take a shower once a day, which he was very excited about. So here is what his leg looked like 2 weeks after the surgery:

There was lots of bruising, and the incision is big like we knew it would be:

It is lower than we thought...starts further down his heel. Plus it is off-center on purpose because that helps it heal. He's doing well so far!

pillows of chicken?

2011-12-12T03:30:00.000-05:00

I follow quite a few blogs, which are either craft-related or food-related. That is where I get a lot of good recipes to try (and crafts and crazy DIY ideas and all sorts of things). I follow a blog (Life as a Lofthouse) and there are lots of yummy recipes there. One of the reasons I like her blog so much is the food ranges from fancy to weeknight-dinner-easy, and everything in between. It's a great variety. Even now looking at her recipe index there are a lot of things I already make, and I'm know many of them came from this blog!

Anyhoo, I love trying new recipes and Andy is a GREAT sport about it. I tell him the ingredients and show him the pictures and he's game. Now I do pick recipes that has ingredients he will like, or I make a modification (like onion flakes for real onion pieces because he is fine with the taste but doesn't like the texture of onions), etc. As long as it's on the Andy approved list and nothing weird (or what he considers weird) he eats away. This is how we found his tried and true favorites like potato soup and sloppy joe casserole.

So this time it was chicken pillows. I'd NEVER heard of anything like this, but everything in it sounded great! I found the recipe at Life as a Lofthouse and modified it just a little based on what I had. I used cream cheese and canned chicken for the filling, but then I added some Stove Top Stuffing I made as well as some spices like garlic powder, onion powder, and parsley. Then I got beautiful pillows out of the oven:

I did not have the gravy ingredients from the recipes or a jar of gravy, so I just made my own with chicken broth following an online recipe I keep in the back of my mind to help me with quantities and ratios. The gravy turned out great and Andy even complimented it separately so you know that's tasty! So the pillows were ready for gravy:

Then of course I had to serve it with mashed potatoes and corn! Felt like a holiday supper:

It is very pretty, and VERY DELICIOUS. Andy said multiple times that it was a keeper and it is going into our semi-regular rotation (i.e. at least once every 3-4 weeks). Using canned chicken made it very easy. I did have way too much filling, so I actually made it again 3 days later with a new set of crescent rolls.

Some of the adjustments I made the second time that I will keep making included making individual pillows instead of pinching two rolls together. The pinching to avoid filling spillage is more complicated than just tucking it inside a single crescent roll. I also skipped the butter/breadcrumbs step and we didn't miss it at all. I did it for laziness (which is how I do a lot of my cooking!) and to save some calories.

You could put about anything you want inside of these and this would be a great way to use leftover turkey!!

kitty in a bag!

2011-12-09T03:00:00.000-05:00

Our kitty loves bags...Chuckles can find them anywhere. I had this bag full, and then I emptied it. When I took the things to the bedroom, this is what I found:

I think he just thinks we'll take him with him if he's in the bag!

toasty mummy

2011-12-07T04:26:00.000-05:00

We have been slowly acquiring things that we'd need in an emergency. We don't expect one, but we've been keeping our eye out for various things. I had a sleeping bag from when I used to date a big time backpacker, but Andy didn't have a sleeping bag. We finally found one on craigslist that will keep him warm in 0 degree temperature and it was long enough for him being 6'1". I made him test it out to make sure he fit:

We don't plan on doing a lot of camping or anything, but it's great for an emergency. I keep my sleeping bag in my car in the winter just in case I got stranded....I'd be warm while waiting for help!

library christmas tree

2011-12-05T04:13:00.000-05:00

Now that it's officially December, I decided I wanted to try a Christmas tree craft that would be perfect for the library:

We recently went through and weeded some old books, so I pulled out all the green ones and picked out a good group of various sizes to create this cute little tree! I saw a picture online and wanted to replicate it. Now we're festive!

A few notes: we adhered the snow with spray adhesive and that worked well. The brown trunk you see is a 2x4 painted brown. Then the "star" is just a bow. Getting a good range of books was the most difficult because the height of the book as well as the width matters. It's hard to explain but I just encourage you to try it out and begin stacking them open like the tree and figure out what looks best!

the Christmas cards are done...

2011-12-02T01:39:00.000-05:00

And they will be mailed next week! I will then post to the blog what they look like and how fancy cute they are. I feel like I outdid myself, but it was SO MUCH FUN!

As a reminder of previous Christmas cards, check out my previous posts:
2008 cards: envelope cards with our wedding picture
2009 cards: ho-ho-ho ornament cards
2010 cards: fancy folded (tri-fold) card

What will it be this year?? Penguins were the only clue!

my poor husband....

2011-11-29T03:38:00.000-05:00

I've been MIA on the blog a bit because my poor husband had surgery. He tore his Achilles tendon playing volleyball two weeks ago and had to have surgery to repair it. He has to stay off that foot/leg for 4-6 weeks with NO weight. Boredom set in on the first day :)

Right after the surgery, this was a comfortable position for his leg because it kept the blood out of the surgery site, which kept it from throbbing.

Although a lot of the time, this is more what you would see:

That is nurse Chuckles, taking good care of Andy. All in all he is doing very well, but boredom will set in soon enough (well, it did the first day I went back to work after the surgery). He'll be out of work until after the first of the year. He is a great patient though, and very appreciative of my help so that's really nice! Heal fast, sweetie!

pennant advent calendar

2011-11-20T15:34:00.030-05:00

I saw this picture online, maybe through one of the blogs I read...I can't remember:

Someone had sold it on Etsy, and I thought it was SO CUTE. I decided to make my own for my sister Denise's birthday because she said the boys love advent calendars, plus she has a new house so this could be a great Christmas decoration.

(update): here is the picture my sister sent me after she hung the ones I sent her:

Well, there was only a picture online, not a tutorial. Hmmm...what do I do? My friend Sarah to the rescue! I work with her and she is a sewing goddess!!! She might deny that, but to me she is!! So she helped me figure out how to make it, gave me a pattern, even went to Joann's with me and helped me pick out supplies. See - goddess!

For those of you who don't care how I made them, just scroll near the end to see the pictures of mine if you want!

So I started making this early, to give me plenty of time for my sister's birthday. I'm putting information here in detail for all those other people who want to make them but don't have Sarah. And please don't be intimidated. I AM A TOTAL BEGINNER when it comes to sewing. I do lots of crafts, but all the sewing I had done before this included sewing blackout curtain behind curtains, and that was it. So trust me, if you can make a straight stitch on a sewing machine, you can make these. Just leave yourself plenty of time.

I chose four different materials in reds for the pennants. I also bought a cheap white cotton fabric to use as lining. So I cut 12 squares (9"x9") of the white lining, then 3 squares (also 9"x9") in each of the red materials so I have 12 red squares total.

Then cut each square down the middle corner to corner to make 24 white triangles and 24 red triangles (6 in each of the four red materials). When I say corner to corner, it's like cutting a sandwich on the diagonal when you were a little kid! I did all the fabric cutting with Sarah's rotary cutter and mat...soooo nice. But you can do it with scissors and measuring.

Now it's time to sew. For all seams I used 1/2 an inch. Just make them all the same if you want to make it 5/8 or some other slight chnge. Put a white triangle and a red triangle together, right sides together (line them up total, I just folded the left corner back to show the right sides together):

As an FYI, my white fabric didn't have a right side so I just picked a side. Sew along the longest side of the triangles. I used white thread for everything (for top and bottom thread) because all stitches are hidden. feel free to use red/white or any other combo you want, but it's not super important. Do all 24 pennants this way, matching each white triangle with a red triangle, right sides together.

Then open them up and refold them as below, still right sides together: (fold them aligned properly, I just misaligned them for the sake of the picture to see right sides of fabrics)

Now sew along the remaining open ends with these two notes: start on the red fabric corner, then sew along the red edge, turn the corner, then sew along the white edge leaving an opening so you can flip them inside-right (yes that's a word!). Leaving the opening on the white is important because when you sew up the opening, it's hidden inside the pennant! After you sew that, it will look like this:

Do all 24 pennants, then turn them all inside-right. Then they'll look like this (and if you look close you can see the opening in the white corner on the left):

Sew the fabric openings closed in the white corners on all 24 pennants. I did them by hand because I was sitting on the couch watching football, but you can use your machine. Just be sure to fold the rough ends inside before you stitch them closed. They do NOT have to be perfect by any means because they will be tucked inside at the bottom and no one will look closely at them.

After they are all sewn closed, tuck the lining into the red fabric, and this gives you the pennant shape. This is hard to describe, so I took a picture of one half tucked in:

So now you should see the right sides of both the lining (if it even has a 'right' side) and the outside:

So if you fold over the pointed top, you'll see the pennant shape take form! Notice you can see the white lining peeking out around the edges:

This may be due to my beginner status, but I didn't care and think it's kinda cute. But those of you with more advanced skills may be able to avoid this. (And the ducks in the picture above are my slippers, fyi) :)

So here they all are sewn close and flipped, arranged pretty!

Then I had to iron them. I hadn't ironed anything in about 7 years, but I was able to find my iron and board. Here is a picture with the wrinkly one on the left, and ironed on the right. It totally helps and is definitely worth the time and digging out my iron.

Now it was time for the numbers. The numbers were going to be rather small and I didn't want to sew them, and I didn't want them to fray. Sarah to the rescue again! When we were at Joann's she showed me this Heat-n-Bond stuff and saved me so much time and effort. It's no-sew, iron only. I also decided to use fleece as the white fabric since that doesn't fray! Here's the awesome iron-on stuff if you have to find it at the store:

I cut a portion off of the white fleece I had and a portion off the Heat-n-Bond. I followed the directions on the bag and you iron on the paper side of the Heat-n-Bond to attach it to the fleece. I found the ironing "times" were a lot longer, but that's because I was working with fleece, not cotton. I was a little nervous about the paper burning, but nothing came close to burning.

Then I had to draw on the numbers for cutting out. I had printed out numbers of an appropriate size and in a font I liked. I did it on normal paper, but I would recommend cardstock or something thicker since you use it for tracing. You really only need one of each number since you can reuse the number to trace.

Here is the key: TRACE THEM BACKWARDS. In other words, put the number face down to trace it. they will look backwards, but that's important! In the picture below are the numbers printed out that I was using for tracing at the top, then below those are the backwards traced numbers. I just used pencil to trace the outline.

Then I cut them out. I used fabric scissors and it was hard because they were small. Plus cutting out the circles in the 8s and whatnot were even harder. I did it over a couple days so my hand wouldn't get too tired! Due to double digits, you cut out way more than 24 numbers. Be sure to keep track of how many 1s and 2s you need because of the repeating numbers. After they are cut out, and then you flip them fleece-side up, they are no longer backwards! (Again, thanks a million to Sarah for this advice because I can't promise I would have figured out the "backwards" thing before I started tracing!)

I took the picture with my hand in it so you could see how small the numbers are. If you made bigger pennants, by all means make bigger numbers! Then as per the directions on the Heat-n-Bond I peeled off the paper (it wasn't too difficult to separate it off enough to peel off) and then set the numbers on the pennants. Then I ironed on! Here is where you have to decide the order you want your fabrics to appear. Do you want them more random? Repeating? Which ones should be next to each other? Then make sure you keep careful track of what goes in what order as you iron on the numbers!

The times took longer again to iron on the adhesive, plus I also ironed the back of the pennant where the numbers were on the front to be sure the adhesive was going to stick. I also just eyeballed the location to where each one looks good - didn't make a template or anything. So then the numbers on the pennants look like this on each of my four fabrics:

I decided they looked a wee bit plain. I went through a jar of buttons I had gotten in a box of knives I purchased at an auction (when you buy a boxed lot, you can get anything in there) and there were enough white buttons. So I sewed a button on the front of the flap - all white but different shapes and types. I did not make them functional. I have never done button holes, and being a novice I decided not to tackle them 24 times as my first try. So I used snaps instead. As a bonus, the snaps I bought came 12 to a pack. Two packs and I was done!

I sewed the button on the front at the same time I sewed half of the snap right behind the button on the inside of the flap. That means I could sew through the entire flap and not have to worry about seeing the thread from the snap, because it's the thread in the button. Then I just folded it down and marked where the other half of the snap should go, and sewed it there. I went through both fabrics for that too because that means the thread was visible on the inside through the lining, but I just didn't care. Plus the pennants will be closed 98% of the time. So here they are with buttons and numbers:

Then to hang them. In the original picture that inspired it all, they were sewn to ribbon. I didn't want to do that because while making them for my sister, she also has a new house I've never seen. I don't know if she wants one row of pennants, two, or three?? Plus to store it every year it would be easy if they were unattached. So I bought some green rope at Joann's and decided to just have them snap over the rope/cord. Then they could be spaced however far apart she wanted, in however many tiers she wanted, etc. They would ship easier to her, and they would be easier to store! So here is a mockup of how the rope goes in there and you can see the snaps too:

Since I had to ship them and don't get to see the final project until I go there for Christmas, I did a little sample hanging on the rope with four of them:

It's hanging on my buffet because I was home alone and needed the knobs on the cabinet from which to string them! Hey, you make do when you need to take a picture for the blog :)

So that's it, there they are! They took a long time to make, but I'm sure for the non-beginners it would go a lot faster. It was great to work on while watching football on Sundays, and would be easy to take some place too (like sewing the buttons/snaps on at work lunches). When I go to my sister's for Christmas, I will take a picture of it in place. I mailed it to her with a bag of fun things to put in the pennants for the boys to open for fun. So I did tell her she had to open her present without the boys in the room. She was so confused until she opened it :)

Happy Birthday Denise!

And thanks a million Sarah...I could have NEVER done it without you!

we lost our table

2011-11-16T04:53:00.002-05:00

Have you ever found such a great storage place for something that you hid it from yourself? It took Andy and I a couple days and brainstorming to find this table in our house:

It was folded up in a closet, which was a different location that before since we freed up space in various places after our yard sale. I kept saying that I hoped we weren't using it set up somewhere and missing it right in front of our face!

I'm too good at organizing and storage if I can't find things. Yes, that's my story and I'm sticking to it...that I'm too GOOD :)

difficulties blogging my projects

2011-11-04T05:50:00.002-04:00

I can't blog many of my projects these days. Why? Because I am in full-force working on Christmas gifts, Christmas cards, plus my sister's birthday gift. I will blog about them after they are done, some including tutorials, but I can't spoil the surprises for now!!!

So you probably won't see crafts for a wee bit, at least mostly until after our Edwards Christmas on the second weekend of December. But you'll see recipes and home improvement still, plus anything absolutely adorable that my husband does :)

the "bean dish"

2011-11-01T05:33:00.006-04:00

I'm sure this may have had a more creative name, but in the Edwards' household it's always just "the bean dish". My mom always made this and I never made it myself....it was one of those dishes I feared would never taste as good.

I was wrong!

I make this now, and it's WONDERFULLY easy. It makes a ton and it freezes great. I freeze it in soup containers and it can actually go straight from freezer to microwave, which makes it easy for a work lunch when no leftovers are available. You can serve it over rice or as a "soup" with good bread. I put sour cream on it and eat it with tortilla chips. So versatile!

The Bean Dish
1 lb ground sausage
1 onion
brown these two together in a big dutch oven or stockpot, then drain

add the following to the sausage/onion mix:
1 can green beans with juice
1 can yellow wax beans, drained
1 can butter beans, drained
1 can kidney beans
1 can baked beans
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp chili powder
1 can tomato soup
1 small can tomato paste

Heat over medium heat until heated through. Then bake, covered, at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

If your dutch oven or stock pot goes into the oven, perfect. My stock pot does not - plastic handles. So I pour the mixture into a 9x13 pan and a 2qt dish and bake them at the same time covered with foil. This dish is one of the reasons I would love a dutch oven!

actual bathroom window trim!

2011-10-29T05:33:00.001-04:00

I did a forgetful thing and did not take pictures before we installed the new window trim in the bathroom. We had installed the window two years ago but hadn't put the inside trim on because we weren't sure if we were redoing the bathroom inside. So for two years we had no trim, just a view of insulation. We finally decided to just put in the trim and be done with it.

So we used some of the oak that Andy had in the garage and made it square cut, then painted it white. It doesn't match our other window trim in profile, because the other windows don't have the square trim. But this is the only window in the bathroom and I really like it!

Isn't it pretty? I really like the trim and it was pretty easy to paint. I can't speak for Andy's part because he cut it all and installed it! Now we can put the blinds back up so we no longer have to hang up a towel to protect us from prying eyes!

homemade granola bars

2011-10-26T05:32:00.003-04:00

Andy has been going through a "portable breakfast crisis" so to speak. He used to eat Quaker Oat bars in cinnamon apple, but they stopped making them. Now they only come in raisin, and that does not fly in our house.

He tried a couple other options, but they were all too small. Granola bars from the store are very tiny for my husband when he wants something that is to stand for breakfast. So I decided to try making some at home to see what he thought.

Here they are out of the oven:

They were pretty! We cut them into 6 so they are a hearty breakfast! I used a recipe I found online and then tweaked a bit adding walnuts and just a few leftover chocolate chips I had from something. We really like the texture and they are a great size for Andy. We are going to tweak the "additions" a bit because we think peanuts would be better than walnuts, and perhaps a few more chocolate chips. We left out the raisins that are in the original recipe, but other than that it works out great and it's REALLY easy!

fixing water stains on window trim

2011-10-21T05:27:00.005-04:00

I'm sure there are probably many online resources that will tell you the proper or professional way to fix this. But of course we're not professionals, and we don't want to replace the trim, which is most likely original to the house. Our problem is that condensation (we assume) has dripped down our windows for years and made drippy stains (the technical term) on our window trim. This is in our giant picture window in the living room, and so each of the three sections looks like this on the bottom:

So our solution is to stain the wood a similar color, then polyurethane the trim (to prevent the same issue in the future) and then re-caulk the inside of the window between the glass and inner most wood trim with clear caulk. I'm not sure it's ever been polyurethane. The good news is that we don't get condensation on the windows anymore. It could be any reason why: new siding, new outside window trim, new furnace, new humidifier on furnace, new programmable thermostat - who knows. But we'll take it!

So last weekend I did the staining. We picked a baby can of walnut stain - because it's fairly similar to the existing trim and we have walnut floors. I'm going to do two coats to do some extra coverage on the stains. Here is what it looks like after the first coat:

You can kinda still see the drips because actually they are now darker than the rest of the trim. If you back up through they do get less noticeable.

I'm also hoping that after the second coat, they blend in even better. Staining already stained wood is actually nice and easy because it just fills in some discolorations and makes it more even. It really doesn't change the color, FYI.

I just used a shop towel and my hand - that was much easier to control. You can also use a brush and "paint" it on, but I figured that would actually be harder to control for dripping on the wall/floor or getting it on the glass. I rubbed it on with a cloth, then waited 15-20 minutes, then wipe it off with a clean shop towel. Easy peasy!

the easiest lasagna ever

2011-10-18T05:27:00.006-04:00

So I've been making lasagna for 5 years now - the first time I made it was the first time I ever had my now husband over for dinner when we were dating. Leave it to me to try something new as my first meal I made for him, but it has turned out to be one of his top favorite things I make for him.

I made it Sunday for dinner and it turned out really pretty. So I took pictures and then realized I had never blogged about it! Oopsie!

It cooked up nice and golden on top.

The noodles were done just right and the piece actually came out cleanly!

Here is my piece. I make our lasagna half-and-halfs....which means I make one half full of mushrooms for me and the other half with only beef for Andy. Then we just cut pieces from both ends!

I originally started with my mom's recipe, and I have taken various shortcuts since then so that now my lasagna recipe is SERIOUSLY EASY. It does not use the oven-ready lasagna noodles (which are the ones that you can put "raw" into the lasagna without boiling them first). However, it also doesn't require cooking the noodles first - I've learned that putting enough sauce in it next to the noodles, they cook up just fine! It does take awhile to bake (1.5 hours total) but you can spend that time doing something else. Prep time is minimal for a dish that tastes like you slaved for hours!

FYI it does not have any ricotta cheese in it. So this is also a great recipe for those who do not prefer ricotta/cottage cheese in their lasagna.

Andy's Favorite Lasagna (that's right, I named it after my husband!)
2 pounds ground beef, cooked and crumbled (can use a sausage/beef mix)
uncooked lasagna noodles (regular noodles, not oven ready)
mozzarella cheese
2-3 jars of spaghetti sauce
mushrooms/veggies if desired

In a 9x13 pan, pour a layer of sauce on the bottom.
Layer in lasagna noodles as best to fit in the pan. I know they are uncooked and I know they are not oven ready. It's fine, I promise!
Cover again with sauce. (All this sauce is liquid that helps"cook" the noodles)
Sprinkle half the cooked beef (i.e. 1 pound) on top.
Insert veggies here if you want - I just use mushrooms out of a can.
Lay down a layer of cheese.
Put down layer of noodles.
Cover noodles with sauce.
Sprinkle on the rest of the cooked beef.
Cover with cheese.
Put on last layer of noodles.
Cover noodles with sauce.
Cover with foil and bake at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Pull out of oven and uncover.
Sprinkle a last layer of cheese on top and a little Italian seasoning if you want.
Put back in oven, uncovered, and cook 15 more minutes.

Voila - lasagna is done. If you choose to use oven-ready noodles (the raw ones that on the box say they do not require cooking) then you may need to adjust your times according to the box. I have a hard time finding those noodles so I just started making it without and cooking it longer.

My mom's original recipe required simmering the sauce and beef for a long time and cooking the noodles first. That just takes more time than I sometimes want/have to spend, and you honestly cannot tell the difference!

I know the ingredients are not always specific (how much sauce, how much cheese) - Jeph would be so proud. But it's not so exact it requires measuring. Your biggest limitation is the depth of your pan! You could make a smaller pan of lasagna, you just might want less beef? This lasagna also freezes really well. Go forth and enjoy!

bathroom floor, in progress

2011-10-15T04:47:00.002-04:00

This is a multi-step process: getting the bathroom floor less scary! So to feel more accomplished I have changed out the light switch and plate to be white. I also finally figured out what was bugging me about the toilet. The toilet is white, but the seat was beige. We got a 7.00 white seat from Ace Hardware to solve that color mismatch.

Then the floor...it looked like this:

So I pried up all the loose linoleum tiles and hoovered it like a champ to get rid of all that debris.

Some of the adhesive is still there but it shouldn't be too problematic for me. The first step is to work at leveling the floor. It is very uneven, with the worst of it being right where you stand to pee (if you're a guy) or to get into the shower. So we went from this:

To this:

That helped even it out. It isn't perfect, and it's hard to check with a level on wet thinset! So we did our best and the stuff did a little self-leveling, which helped. We can do the fine tuning when it comes time to lay the tile. I'm letting this stuff dry for at least a full two weeks to be sure it's as dry as can be. Next step? TILING!

bathroom ceiling - check!

2011-10-12T04:37:00.002-04:00

The scary bathroom is still getting its makeover. We worked on the ceiling a couple weekends ago. It already had a drop ceiling but the tiles were ugly and nothing was centered or neatly laid out. So we used the perimeter of the metal frame and replaced everything else.

Here is our new frame and the first new square:

You can see why it needs a drop ceiling. I hate how much it lowers the ceiling but all the pipes and unfinished basement junk up there really makes it look messy. Of course when you have to take out the ceiling light to put in a new ceiling, it's very dark in there! So here is our solution with an extension cord:

What, everyone uses a floor lamp in the bathroom! Here is the finished product, with everything more evenly spaced and the light in the center of a tile!

The other major change was that now all the tiles were 2x2 - and then cut as needed. Previously they were 2x4 and cut as needed and that made for a lot of different shapes!

Next up: The flooring!

my birthday gift from jeph

2011-10-06T04:49:00.007-04:00

Jeph and Brett came over a few weekends ago for burrito bar! We were hanging out in the kitchen and of course Chuckles couldn't be left out:

Jeph had me open my present right away as I was preparing dinner, which was weird. Well, it made sense once I opened it because it was onion goggles! They are goggles you wear while cutting onions so you don't cry a river. And then, because he knows I'm so cool, he blinged them up!

Aren't they awesome? Here's me in action, cutting onions for the guacamole.

Excuse the double chin....Jeph did not give me viewing rights after he took the picture so I could veto double-chin pics! ;) Thanks for my cool gift! And incidentally I'm also wearing the pretty new shirt my mom bought me for my birthday...when she bought me lots of clothes. It was a birthday moment all around!

why kitties crack me up

2011-10-03T05:00:00.003-04:00

So I had blogged before about how Chuckles refuses to use the kitty bed, so I'm going to sell it on Craigslist. Well, he does love the pillow from his bed and sleeps on it every night on the foot of our bed. Therefore, I had to make another pillow to put it in the bed to sell it.

I finished the pillow, put it in the bed, which was in the office. Andy was at the computer so I went over to see what he was surfing. Not 90 seconds later I turned around and this is what I saw:

SERIOUSLY?????? He refuses to use the bed, except when I'm making it to sell. Lovely. He's so ornery!

slow progress in the scary bathroom

2011-09-30T05:00:00.011-04:00

So a couple months ago I posted the before pictures of our scary bathroom. It is very slow going for me making it better but that's because it's an "indoor" project. I know I have all winter to do it!

So far I have painted the bottom of the shower the same gray as the bottom of our house. I used that paint because we already had it and it is made for exterior cement...so it should hold up as cement in a shower! I don't have pictures of that yet because it needs some touching up.

My most recent activity in there was painting the walls. I had been putting it off until I had a weekend day with not much else to do because I figured it would take awhile. Well I was right about that part - it took close to three hours! It was beige, and I painted it white using the white paint we had for the exterior house trim. Not only did we already have it, but it's made for exterior weather also - so that should be cement shower friendly.

The beige was a fine color, but a fresh coat of paint goes a long way toward making something look clean. There were some marks and chips on the wall that made it look dirty, plus I figured a bright white could only brighten the tiny tiny space that only has one small ceiling light.

Here is the in-progress painting so you can see the old and new color:

We took down the ancient medicine cabinet, which was only held up with two screws. However, at some point someone painted and couldn't be troubled to remove it. So that helped make the wall super ugly:

But here's the after - the paint is totally awesome because it's VERY thick and covers a lot if you lay it on thick too! (Don't worry...I already have a white light switch and plate that will be traded out...just waiting until near the end.)

So here is the after of the shower area:

If you look at the bottom of the above picture, you can see the repainted shower bottom. I painted up one block - because I wanted to. I thought of it while I was painting because I thought that might be easier to make a clean line between the two colors than to do it in the corner of the floor and wall.

There are lots of exposed pipes, which took me a long time painting. However, I was super pleased that they painted up so well. They were already painted, which made life much easier.

So it's looking good so far - that was really nice. We're going to do the ceiling tiles next...my husband will be a great help for that. We bought the ceiling tiles already when Menards was having a sale. So we'll do the ceiling, then the floor tiles, then we'll just do some odds and ends like light switch, maybe a mirror, shower rod and curtain, etc.

So believe it or not, all the work we've done so far has cost ZERO because I used paint and paint brushes we already had!

it's a new dance party

2011-09-27T04:56:00.003-04:00

We bought a new XBOX with the Kinnect, which means you can play games without any remote and it just reads your body motion. We bought a dance game to do this - and I use it as a workout because it's so hard AND fun!

Jeph and Brett came over and we showed them the dance game and let them try it out! Here is Andy dancing to a hard song he's never done, just FYI. Once you've done a song you know the moves. You can see the television and the dancer he's following. He has to mirror the dancer, which isn't as hard as it sounds.

Then Jeph gave it a try on a harder song that he'd never done:

We had a good time and yes, we all look that uncoordinated doing the dancing...but it's way fun!

something else scratched off my list

2011-09-24T04:56:00.005-04:00

So remember I had painted the front porch railing, but then I wasn't done because painting is never done!!! Not really, but there were those little spaces between the small spindles that weren't painted with my normal-sized paint brush:

So I finally did it: I painted those little areas with a tiny paintbrush. It took forever, because I had to paint each little area from each side of the railing. I'd say maybe there were 30 of these little cubbyholes to paint. Luckily I only had to do the bottom! But now it definitely looks done:

Much better and worth the two hours it took me!!

why chuckles loves sundays

2011-09-21T04:55:00.001-04:00

Andy and I both do fantasy football. We're in a couple leagues and a couple different types, so Sundays from 1-10 are pretty much spent watching football. I multitask while watching (blog, catch up on emails, work on crafts, etc.) but I do it all from a prime television-watching seat!

Chuckles LOVES football Sundays, and here's why:

It's blanket weather and there is always an available lap...so he alternates between me and Andy to snuggle us up!

finally, an accomplishment

2011-09-18T16:51:00.005-04:00

You ever feel like you are in the middle of 12 projects and don't really see anything DONE? That's how I've been feeling lately. Probably because that's happening at work and at home. School starts Wednesday at work, so it's been high gear and tons to do. Then my "at home" projects include Christmas gifts (which is why they aren't posted here!) and my Christmas cards, plus lots of painting and just in the middle of everything.

So I had bought a breadbox at a thrift store back in March/April. Here was the before picture:
I used the black stain I already had and painted it twice, plus two coats of poly to make it match my kitchen:

This is so handy for us because previously we had to keep all bread in the microwave because of kitties. Chuckles doesn't eat the bread, but he gnaws on the plastic!

So not bad for $3, supplies I already had, and my time! Yay, something is DONE!

vacation

2011-09-09T21:30:00.002-04:00

We got to visit my parents in Tennessee for a long holiday weekend. We had a great visit - played lots of games and got to golf twice. I took a picture of Andy when he was playing one of the most beautiful hole that was way up high and then the green was down at the water.

Thanks Mom and Dad for a GREAT visit! We miss you already!

bread box in progress

2011-08-31T20:43:00.000-04:00

Yes, this is one of the longer projects of my life for being so simple. I bought a breadbox back in March/April and then sanded it in April and was excited to refinish it. I haven't forgotten about it, but it is August and it's still in progress. It's stained, but not poly'd yet or put back together.

I'm getting closer! All this time I've been doing other projects my bread resides in the microwave so kitties don't eat the plastic bag of the bread. That's the whole point of this $3 purchase!

the coolest cat bed ever!

2011-08-27T15:24:00.010-04:00

I saw a four-poster kitty bed someone had made online and thought it was so cool I wanted to make my own. So since Linus died I pushed this project to the forefront so that Chuckles woudl maybe feel a little love at night without his brother.

So you start by turning an end table upside down and make it look like a four poster bed. The best way to do that is add some finials at the head! We had some already because we had bought them on clearance at Lowe's...$1 for a pair!

Then the headboard needed a little more, so Andy helped me put a piece of trim at the headboard part.

Then it needs painted - black stain of course because then it would match our four poster bed.

Andy then wasn't crazy about the other two non-finial legs so we actually took a spare set of finials we had (also $1 for the pair we had from Lowe's clearance) and cut off the very tops (since they didn't match) and made little extra nubbins.

So then it was all painted black and then got some poly on top so that kitty will not scratch it too much.

I made a pillow like the other pillows I made. It was a 24" square pillow to fit in there. And here is the finished product:

But of course kitty doesn't want to ever lay in it - we had to put him in the bed in that picture. So this is more what it's like:

So it was super fun to make and it was way fun - but now I'll be selling it since Chuckles doesn't really want it. But it's it suuuuuuuper cute?

pommes (potatoes) anna

2011-08-23T04:50:00.006-04:00

One of the recipes I tried while my parents were visiting that was liked by most was a potato skillet dish I found in a Cooking Light magazin e. I used my food processor to make thin, even potato slices. Using a cast iron skillet, you fry the potatoes a bit on the stove top first, then bake them. The stove top portion gives them a nice crispy layer once you invert them on a plate:

There were a few issues with this. I didn't like how thin it was - the picture in the magazine made it look at least three inches high, and mine was like maybe an inch. That wasn't as pretty for serving as 'pie' wedges.

Andy's issue was the top crispy layer was GOOD but the rest was just kinda - eh. Not crunchy and not as good as some of his other potato dishes...so we didn't keep it. My mom liked it a lot so I gave her the recipe I had from the magazine and maybe hers will be prettier! Another note: it was hard to slice with the crispy layer on top. But I think it is a good recipe and worth something trying to make better than I did :)

the porch, start to finish in pictures

2011-08-20T04:50:00.011-04:00

So I know it took months (well actually a year if you count when we tore the porch railings down to make way for the siding), so I thought it would be fun to look at the porch progress in pictures over time.

This is our "old" house before new windows, new siding, new porch painting, new porch railing, etc. Whew we've done a lot to our house!

This is after we tore off the top level railings, but before we started painting anything:

This is after the bottom/sides were painted gray:

This is after the top/walking surfaces were painted with Deck Restore:

This is after we painted the stair risers (i.e. the part that is vertical between the stairs):

This is after we got up the first upper railing constructed:

Another in progress of building the railing:

It's all done, but not the right color!

Now it's all done!!!

Paint makes such a difference. The only "new" part of the deck is the railing, everything else is just painting!

brownie delight (ful)

2011-08-17T04:50:00.005-04:00

My parents were up to visit a few weeks ago, which means cleaning the house, yes. But, it also means trying out new recipes on them like guinea pigs! I tried five new recipes I think, and all turned out just fine. Two were loved by everyone, two were liked by most, and one was just 'eh' and not worth the trouble. One that was loved by everyone is this brownie ice cream treat that was in my wedding cookbook by Barb, a loooooong time friend of the family. I don't know WHY I waited until now to try it, and I bet my husband is wondering too. He raved over it and could barely contain himself to one piece a day.

Isn't it purty?

The closeup is a little fuzzy, but you can't take this with a flash because all the white becomes blinding!

This recipe is soooo easy, I promise.

Bake a brownie in a 9x13 pan. I used a boxed mix, because we like them and it's very easy!
Let it cool completely.
Spread ice cream on top, flavor of your choice. I used homemade cookies and cream, but anything would do here. You'll need to let the ice cream soften a bit to get a good consistency for spreading. You can make the ice cream layer as thick as you want!
Spread Cool Whip on top. The recipe said a small tub would work, but we love Cool Whip so I bought a big tub.
Sprinkle cookies, heath bars, nuts, etc. on top if you want. (I sprinkled with Oreos to match the cookies and cream ice cream.)
Freeze for at least 4 hours before serving.
When serving, let stand 10 minutes to soften a bit so you don't break your wrist trying to cut it.

And that's it - promise! See how easy? Keep it in the freezer and it keeps for a long time. It said to cover it in the freezer, which is a good idea if you keep it for awhile. We didn't cover ours because it wasn't in there that long!

This is definitely a keeper in our house and is delicious!!! Thanks, Barb!

happy birthday andy

2011-08-14T04:49:00.004-04:00

Well his birthday was a week ago, but we did do something fun! We went to a bed and breakfast on a golf course....stayed overnight then went golfing the next day. It was fun! We got the golf view room:

We couldn't use the fireplace because they had it turned off for the summer. The bathroom was even decorated like golf:

And did you see the trash can? HILARIOUS:

There were also pretty gazebos outside:

There was a wedding there when we arrived. In fact, coming in to check in we passed the bride going out to walk down the aisle!

Happy (belated) birthday, honey. Enjoy your last year in your 30s ;)

the front porch railing: 95% done

2011-08-11T21:15:00.001-04:00

No, not fully done, and you'll see why at the end of this post. But I took some vacation time off work this summer and used it to finish up some projects at home. I painted the front porch railing one morning before it got too hot. It actually wasn't humid that day, so it was BEAUTIFUL!

Here is the in progress shot:

White looks really different, no? So here is a bigger shot of the front of our house with the porch done:

Isn't it so white and pretty??

I feel so proud that we built it from scratch because it looks SO NICE on our front porch!

And here is why it's only 95% done. Painting it took four and a half hours, and I couldn't use a roller. I had even purchased a baby roller, and couldn't use it because it was just so tight in terms of spacing. So I used a brush. Not bad, but I used a big brush, and now I have this problem:

I couldn't get in between the tiny spindles. So yes, now I have to take a paintbrush like you used for paint-by-number and get in the tiny cracks. See, painting is never done!

we love you, linus

2011-08-05T18:21:00.024-04:00

Linus died yesterday and we are so very sad. Andy came home and Linus greeted him as always...then followed Andy up the stairs into the office. Andy sat at the computer and heard a thump. Linus had collapsed and basically had a seizure of some sort, then died all within a minute or so. He wasn't sick at all, no evidence that he got into anything, so it was just his time to go and something happened internally. He was a great kitty, and only barely three years old. We already miss him terrible. I went through the blog and found a bunch of pictures.

First and foremost, Linus was the supervisor. He made sure that we were careful and followed the rules and that we didn't slack. He helped Andy juggle:

Made sure the new cabinets were up to snuff when we remodeled our kitchen:

He was master electrician:

Linus also did some plumbing, investigating the sink replacement:

He LOVED the ice tea maker...the sounds were just so cool:

He dabbled in crafts as well, and the Cricut was his favorite part:

He wasn't allowed to help Andy in the garage with woodworking, but he did supervise the progress when Andy brought in the projects:

And he always supervised me painting, the most recent project was the front porch:

He wasn't the most snuggly kitty in the world, but he liked to be BY you. He was more snuggly when he was little:

But even as he grew older he would snuggle, but of course in the orneriest of ways!

We're worried about Chuckles - that he'll be super lonely. They were brothers from the same litter and have never been apart at all. They were like peas in a pod doing things together - they even ate their meals at the same time. When Linus was hungry, he'd meow and get Chuckles to go eat together.

He was so tiny when we got him, and loved the cupboards:

Well he loved investigating anything, including mailing tubes:

So sleepy....
His nickname was "porno kitty" because this was his relaxing pose, which was not very appropriate!

He was a great kitty.

His signature move was when Andy came in from the firepit, Linus LOVED the smell of fire:

And this was his most favorite spot in the house. He would be on the top of the bookcase for hours to look outside, watch tv, etc.

We buried him in the backyard under the tree I won at work. It's now Linus' tree.

the hosta bed is done - it's only been 2+ years!

2011-08-02T04:47:00.001-04:00

Now in our defense of the 2+ year time frame, we did more than plant hostas. So the best before picture I have is when I was going nuts by the brick (complete with weeds) that was next to the driveway:

So we took out the brick:

Then the fence was all crooked and crowding the driveway area, so we took that out:

Well we had planted the hosta last year, but finally put mulch on it in the last couple weeks. The hostas were a wedding gift and have now been replanted at our house!

I like this area so much better now that it's not brick and without the fence. You can see our neighbors aren't that close, so we really don't need two rickety fence panels for privacy. I love the black mulch - pretty!

twice baked potatoes

2011-07-31T04:56:00.002-04:00

We love potatoes in our house but sometimes I look for a way to dress them up. But I also want an easy way because I might need it for a weeknight. I had tried a twice-baked potato recipe before but it was heavy on the sour cream and Andy noticed, and voiced it. Not loving sour cream, he didn't want me to make it again. He ate it, but it wasn't a keeper.

So I found one more recipe online to try for twice-baked potatoes that used cream cheese instead. This was a huge gamble because Andy doesn't eat cream cheese. They were a HUGE hit!!!

Isn't it so pretty with the paprika on top?

I didn't think the potato "filling" was going to fit back in, but you just pile that bad boy up! We didn't put anything else on it (no additional butter, salt, or sour cream) because it was so good on its own. It is also good eating with a spoon out of the bowl before you fill the potato :)

So I got the recipe online and followed it mostly. The changes I made include:

I microwaved the potatoes instead of baking them in the oven. They are less firm, so scooping out the centers require a little more care, but it was really easy still.
I used a little less sour cream and cream cheese than it called for only because I felt my potatoes were sort of small.
I used fat free sour cream because that's all we had.
I sprayed the baking sheet with Pam just to be sure they didn't stick.
I just mashed everything with a fork instead of dirtying my mixer.

Andy raved and said it was a keeper before I even asked him if I should keep it. I told him afterwards that there was cream cheese in it, but he didn't mind. It lends a lot to the creaminess and doesn't overpower the taste. I highly recommend to anyone who wants a twist on their potato or something a little dressy to serve to company!

more landscaping around the garage

2011-07-28T04:42:00.005-04:00

We had been planning on landscaping the side of the garage too, but were waiting. For what? Maybe it to landscape itself? In any case we finally got to Lowe's and just bought some plants and some mulch.

So this is the before between the driveway and the side garage door:

And this is the after. We bought a small leaf rhododendron, which will not get anywhere near as big as the regular kind. it will get about 2 foot by 2 foot. It was a dollar at Lowe's because the back of it was kind of scorched. Since it had new growth on it already, we figured it would be fine and worth a $1 investment!

Then along the side of the garage, here is the series of improvements in pictures. The original side that was brick, not even a bed for plants:

Then I dug out the brick and made it the home to my rhubarb:

So then the rest of the bed remained empty until a couple weeks ago:

We put in two bushes that were 50% off at Lowe's because they had already bloomed for the year. That's okay, I can wait! They will bloom white, and they are called something Scarlett O'Hara. How fun is that? I love Gone with the Wind.

So quite a transformation from the brick. And of course now our garage was newly sided so it is a prettier backdrop! Sure we should have done this awhile ago, but considering everything we do to our house, not everything can be in the first year!

christmas in july

2011-07-25T04:46:00.003-04:00

Yes, I started Christmas things in July. For those of you who have seen my previous Christmas cards, you know why! I am now working on Christmas cards at lunch, and this is your only preview:

Yeppers, penguins! I have also started making some gifts for Christmas too. Andy and I are working on having a homemade Christmas for gifts, so that requires some serious planning ahead!

our new stone circle

2011-07-22T04:42:00.006-04:00

For awhile now we knew that we'd have to fix the circle around our lamppost. This was supposedly landscape year but we keep putting it off because neither of us love to landscape and it's a lot of time and money - and effort in the 90 degree weather!

But we finally decided to tear out the brick that was falling apart:

Andy had hit it enough with the mower that it was disintegrating. Instead of using something that required mortar, we got retaining wall blocks. We were going to save the ivy, but it was so entrenched and impossible to dig out we had to cut it out. It was only there 2 years but man was it happy there!

Andy did the ring all by himself - I didn't help at all past picking out the block with him. So he made this purty little circle:

Doesn't it look so neat and....not dilapidated?

Well then we got some plants and mulch to make it all nice:

We didn't get ivy again because Andy didn't want his hard work and pretty circle to be covered, so we got some other plants that are perennials and will spread out some to fill in the space.

My husband is so handy! It looks really nice pulling up and matches our nice new siding and whatnot too. Now if his lazy wife would just paint the front porch railing ;)

taco braid

2011-07-19T04:42:00.003-04:00

I got ambitious last week and tried a new recipe on a weeknight. I don't always do that because it can make me feel rushed for time. Well, the recipe I found online didn't look too hard so I gave it a whirl. It uses pizza dough in a tube (i.e. Pillsbury) and Mexican ingredients. Then you cut strips in the dough so you can fold (or braid) it over!

It's it purty?

You'll notice things got less braid-y at the bottom because I had shoved it full of ingredients. See that was my end, which means it had refried beans in there too. Andy's didn't near the top so his braided better.

In any case, it was very tasty and really easy to make. Especially if you have precooked beef or chicken - then it would be even easier!! You can tailor this to your preferences (olives, onions, etc). It was deemed a keeper by my husband! I ate mine with sour cream, and then we had chips and salsa. Delish!

There are more pictures of the creative process on the blog where I got the recipe. So feel free to view it and have Mexican night!

how i edit

2011-07-16T04:41:00.000-04:00

So you know everyone has their "knack" for things, and get all sorts of requests from friends. The nurse gets health questions, the mechanic gets car questions, etc. Well, for a librarian with too many degrees, what do I get? Apparently my areas of expertise include resumes, craigslist (as evidenced by recently writing an ad for my sister in Virginia that sold their popup camper in one day), and editing.

It must be my English degree, but I edit when I read. It can be an annoying habit at times, but it serves me and my friends well. I use it a lot at work. I edited a document, and I cracked myself up with how much red I put on it, so I took a picture:

The most hilarious thing about this to me is the fact that I wrote it. When I edit something someone else wrote they always speak in a different tone and have different habits. You'd think then I would have less to edit when I write something myself, but NOPE. I red-lined the heck out of this document, but it's all to make it better!

before and after the tree trimming

2011-07-05T19:51:00.008-04:00

No, this is not a Christmas post! This is just more work we're doing around the house. So I love watching DIY Network and HGTV, and it gives me ideas for my own house. That could be part of the problem - why I feel I should always be working on projects!

Anyhoo, about a year ago I saw an episode where they remade the outside of a house for better curb appeal. The one easy thing they did that had a huge impact was to trim the trees in the front of the house so that you could actually SEE the front of the house! Sounds simple, but it took me an additional year for it to occur to me. Now that our house is super cute with siding and a new (but yet unpainted) front porch railing, I wanted to be sure you could see it from the street.

So we cut this off:

And all these:

They look big and it looks like a lot, but we have three HUGE trees in the front yard. As in 2-3 stories high. So taking those branches off allows people to see our house, but the trees still look as big and full as ever! We probably cut branches in 8 or 10 various places, and they weren't tiny branches but big honking ones!

So here is a before picture from a slight angle. You can see how the low hanging branches prevent you from seeing the left bushes up by the front of the house and pretty much any of the roof.

And here is the after! Now you can see the office window (mostly covered by a bush on the left side) and all the roof pretty much!

Here is the before from straight on. There's some blockage around the front door area and again, pretty much all of the roof:

And here is the after! You can see all of the front door and pretty much all of the roof. Plus look how much more sun our front yard gets! Luckily the house is still very shaded, which helps with cooling costs in the summer.

I can't believe it took me a year to realize that we should do that too. It looks really nice. Andy said that I kept telling him to cut a lot more than he expected, but we both agree it looks awesome. He did a great job up on the ladder cutting with either a saw or our clippers for branches up to 2" diameter.

The funny story with this project is that there was one branch off the tree all the way on the right (barely in the picture above) that was kinda blocking the roof. We didn't have a step ladder tall enough to reach it, but it wasn't near a solid enough branch for a straight ladder to go against. Our solution? (I SWEAR we were careful).

We both got up on the roof and reached the edge of the branch to pull it over the roof. I hung onto it, pulling it over the roof while Andy snipped off the two low hanging branches with the clippers. Not the technical solution, but you make do with what you got!

baked onion rings

2011-06-30T04:12:00.006-04:00

I have a folder of recipes to try. They are from various blogs, magazines, etc....anything that catches my fancy! Well I apparently really want onion rings because I had about 8 recipes for onion rings. I decided to make one of the baked versions because we're trying to eat a bit healthier.

I got to use my Panko breadcrumbs that I had bought - hearing rave things about them but never using them I was excited. I also liked the recipe I was using because instead of milk as a pre-breading liquid, it used a bbq sauce mix. Flavor under the coating sounded good!

So I set up my breading station:

They baked for a short period of time at a really high temp:

But look how delicious they look:

They were SO good! I used Vidalia onions and an original recipe bbq sauce. I really liked using a sauce instead of milk for dipping prior to breading, but next time I'm going to try just ketchup. It had a sweet tangy flavor that was definitely from the bbq, but since I usually eat my onion rings with ketchup it was a little odd to me. So we'll see how the ketchup works.

But the cooking times, breading method, etc. etc. was PERFECT for baked onion rings. I loved them and feel like I might have to make them once a week!

So go check out RecipeGirl's recipe to make them yourself!

the porch railings are built!

2011-06-27T21:00:00.005-04:00

We spent pretty much all Sunday working to finish the front porch railings. We took a couple breaks, but it took quite a bit of time. It used a lot of brain power because the plans we were using to build the railing only had instructions for the straight portions at the top and no instructions for the railing. With angles and whatnot, it took more thinking and math!

So here are the beginnings of the angles:

We built them the same way with the same methods. We did have to shorten the pattern of the spindles for the stairs since it was a shorter space.

So this is what it looked like before we began putting on the top railing:

This is a closer view of the top - you can see it's wider than the rest of the structure. It's actually intended to put planters on, but I don't think we'll do that.

I messed up one cut so we had to go get one more board from Lowe's on Sunday. Although I have to say with all the estimating, only going to the store once was pretty good! We had one extra board of a different size so we returned it, then got the right one. So voila!

It looks really "beefy" as Andy said. Which I think is great because once it's painted white it'll really be a strong design element for the front of the house.

And I really like the pattern of the "spindles" of wide and skinny.

So now I need to wait about 2-4 weeks until I can paint it. It's pressure-treated wood, so I need to let it weather and breathe a bit to leech out some of the chemicals before trying to paint it. Otherwise the paint won't adhere very well. I'm using an opaque stain, so that should really help. There are a lot of theories on how long I have to wait....but the Lowe's paint guy said 2 weeks when I bought the stain. So I think I'm going to wait until I take some vacation days at the end of July and paint away!

my new homemade hat

2011-06-21T04:04:00.007-04:00

I usually work on some craft at lunchtime while I watch movies on Netflix. I get an hour lunch and have an office with a door, so that's some nice down time during the day. Months ago I started making a fleece hat. That's right, I said months ago. Somehow this project got waylaid with other plans. But I finally finished!

I got a book of fleece sewing crafts at the Orrville garage sales last October. It was in a free box - so that's quite a deal! I decided to make myself a hat I liked that was comfortable. My problem with winter hats is that they are too short for my (apparently) huge head and don't cover my ears. Well, here's my final product, graciously modeled by my hot husband!

Here's a little closeup under the fringies to show that they are cut to make fringe and then tied with a matching piece of fleece to gather them up. Easy!

And then he asked me not to post this picture, but I'm sure he's pretty resigned to the fact it'll end up here. I just love how fun he is and want to show it to the world!

Can you believe that I didn't even have to beg for him to model? He is such a sweetie. And he thought my hat was nice and comfy.

The instructions call for a sewing machine, but since I was making it at work, I hand-sewed everything. That definitely added to the time and made it so that I can't wear my hat for two seasons!

the first railing section of the front porch

2011-06-19T04:46:00.005-04:00

I get SO EXCITED when my Lowe's Creative Ideas magazine comes in the mail. I look through it a number of times and see if there's anything I want to make. For all the excitement I have, I've never made anything out of it.

UNTIL NOW!

Months ago one of the issues had a porch railing that both Andy and I really liked. So we decided we'd keep it to use when we have to redo our front porch railing. (Reminder: had to do the railing because when the new siding went on, we had to detach the old railing from the house....we also realized how it could use replacing, so voila, need for new railing!)

So Lowe's Creative Ideas is going to help me turn this pile of lumber:

into a railing! The detailed design plans are available online. So if you love the finished product so much you can't stand to not have the exact railing, download, print, and build! So this is the current before: porch is done except for railing. Upper sections are missing because that is where we detached it from the house.

So here's the beginning. I'm not going to describe the step by step because Lowe's did that online. I just took some photos along the way. We put up another 4x4 post and two parts of the bottom of the railing.

The 4x4 railing we put up is only attached to the surface of the porch, which means it is less sturdy than the existing poles. The existing poles go all the way into the ground. Once the porch railings are all done, we'll need to test its sturdiness. It's possible we'll have to screw it back into the house, which would make me SAAAAAD because I am trying to avoid drilling into the pretty seamless siding!

We put a board along the top to help hold the spindles so to speak:

Now you can see how the railing part takes shape:

The design calls for a pattern that is one wider board, then three spindles. The top and bottom boards you can see are very important because that is how we attach the vertical boards!

So here is the finished pattern to fill up the entire space.

And a distance view from an angle:

And the other side!

There will be a wide flat board that ultimately goes on top (and what we may have to screw into the house) but we're waiting on that piece until the end. We'll have to wait about 2-3 weeks to paint it to give the pressure-treated wood some time to weather (i.e. leech some of the chemicals that may prevent adhesion of the paint). But then it'll be white, matching the trim of our house. And it'll be gorgeous!

cooooooooookie monster cupcakes

2011-06-17T04:46:00.003-04:00

I needed to bring a dessert for a meeting/party at work on Tuesday. I went through my folder of recipes I want to try and picked out about eight to narrow it down. Then I let Andy pick which one I would make because he'd be eating the leftovers!

He picked cookie monster cupcakes, which I have seen lots of places online. So I started with just white cupcakes, which I decided to tint blue with my food coloring. Why not??

Yes I use boxed cake mix and a can of frosting. I think they are both just fine and tasty, so that's what I use. Then I needed to make some eyes:

I used white chocolate melting discs that I had leftover from some other desserts. Then I used chocolate chips to put as the middle of the eyes. I attached them with just a dab of white frosting. That was easier than trying to melt chocolate to attach them.

Then I had to cut out the "mouth":

Yes I had leftover triangles of cupcakes, but Andy was more than happy to eat them! Time to frost them blue:

I was going to use my frosting bags and a star tip, but I thought I would try one with just spreading it on, because let's face it, that is SO MUCH easier. Turns out my prototype looked just fine without the star tip.

So here is the finished product after you shove half a Soft Batch cookie in the mouth andp ut on the eyes:

Some of the eyes were stuck into the cupcake and some were laid on top, but I think they are ALL cute!

They just make me giggle. All in all they were actually pretty easy to make because I take the shortcuts of canned frosting and pre-made cookies. Many places online said they used blue coconut or blue sanding sugar as the topping, so that it looks more like fur. That would look great I'm sure, but these still achieve the adorable look without the extra work.

Yep - I'm that lazy!

why painting can drive you crazy

2011-06-14T04:44:00.002-04:00

There are two main reasons painting can drive you crazy. I love to paint because it's instant gratification and relatively inexpensive for transforming something. We painted the bottom of our house, a whole lotta concrete, and the front porch for less than $150 - and it's like a remodel that makes it look brand new! And the only reason it was that much is we bought mack-daddy paint because it's exterior. But as much as I love it, there are two things that drive me nuts!

1. It never seems done. All the work painting the porch and using the new, cool, textured paint turned out great and I'd love to enjoy it. But I can't because I'm staring at this:

That's the railing of the porch - all gross and crackly with ugly old paint that desperately needs addressed. Every painting project I do seems to take a lot longer because of multiple coats, drying time, and then the fact that once you paint one thing, the nearby things look old and those need painted! We knew we'd have to do something with the railing, but still!

2. The second reason is unforseen circumstances. You have a paint plan and things are going great, but then something happens that delays the project or makes you have to rethink and change your plan. Prime example related to our porch:

What are those you ask? Those are stray cat foot prints from a cat that decided walking on our WET porch after the first coat would be great. I don't think he was happy....

as he walked off leaving further footprints. I could care less about the brick - I hate the brick anyway. What was annoying is that where he jumped up onto the porch and walked across, he put cat prints in there all the way down to the previous paint color - made big 'ol ugly mess-ups in my porch!!!

So instead of painting the 2nd coat as planned the next night after work, we waited. The cat came at night, and the paint didn't dry very fast b/c of the non-sunny and cool temperature night after the first coat. So we delayed our painting two days until the weekend so we could paint in the morning and let it dry more during the day to help avoid cat prints in the finished product.

It worked - because no more cat prints. Or the cat got textured paint on its paws and hated it so bad it'll never be back on our porch!

porch done except for railing!

2011-06-12T04:49:00.006-04:00

Since the last post showed how ugly the stair risers were (the vertical boards between steps), that was the last thing to paint on the porch bottom. The risers were a cream color, to match the old railings that will be replaced. We decided to paint them the dark grey of the bottom of the house. The biggest reason was because the old risers had rusty streaks on them from the deck screws. Since our other option was to paint it white to match the future railing, we didn't do that because we figured those rusty streaks would come back on the white.

So here is the in-progress shot where I only had the bottom riser left to paint!

There is a nice contrast between them but it's not distracting since they are the same color/tone, just different shades.

Sorry for the picture with the flash - I finished painting at like 8:45pm one evening after work, so the lighting was not the best. So here is the original before picture - before any painting on the porch (but after we took the railing off for the siding to go on):

Here is the after so far - everything done but the railing:

We are building a new railing from pressure treated wood, then we are going to paint it white to match the house trim. So we're getting there...slowly but surely!!

the walking surfaces on the front porch are done!

2011-06-10T04:36:00.008-04:00

We did the second coat of Deck Restore on the porch, and it's so purty! You'll see Linus is supervising again...he loves looking out the storm door, plus he is a slave driver! This is a closeup so you can see some of the texture:

You can see how well it fills in the ugly cracks and stuff from the wood. You can't even see the indentions from the screw holes! It's pretty comfortable to walk on in bare feet even - because it's more of a subtle texture. You can see in the picture below that I got the roller in as tight as possible on the stairs, so I got it on the "riser" which is the vertical surface between two steps. I wasn't worried because I knew we were painting that.

So it looks nice and smooth:

It's a lot lighter than I thought we had picked out, but I'm okay with that. Eventually we will have a white railing and it will all match the colors of the house.

See, I think it matches well with the darker gray of the house:

And it matches well with Linus I believe, since he is going to be sitting next to it a lot, that's important!

the front porch progress

2011-06-08T04:13:00.000-04:00

So the last time I posted related to the front porch, we had painted the bottom of the front of the house. This was the before bottom painting pic:

This was the after bottom painting pic:

So now it's time to do something about that weird beige cream brown color that doesn't match anything! Here's a closeup of that weird color and will show you how the wood is getting old. It's not rotting by any means, but it's got cracks and nicks and screw holes and all sortsa things.

So what do you need to fix that? A kit of Deck Restore including two cans of the grey paint that you think will match your house (and I'll explain the hole in the deck later):

The fancy waffle roller it comes with in the kit:

A supervisor to make sure you're doing your job (he already supervised some of the trim paint we did already):

And then we paint! Andy did the trim between the cracks and places the roller couldn't reach. Then I went back over it with the roller to get that texture in it. Here is a close up of some done with texture:

Really a difference between the old and new color!

Kitty says a job well done!

Now I this is just a sneak peak preview of the finished product because this is only after one coat, and you have to do two. You'll see the cream "rise" of the steps. Our plan was to use this textured paint but there wasn't enough (because I learned a lot about stirring in the textured part EVEN THOUGH we had just gotten it shaken at the store before using). So we're going to paint that the dark gray of the house (which is why it didn't matter if we slopped paint all over it!)

I'll post the new "final" picture after the second coat is on. And I'll explain the hole! Don't worry, it's on purpose. We cut it in there!

the ugliest bathroom you ever did see - BEFORE

2011-06-06T04:55:00.006-04:00

So our bathroom downstairs is a joke for many reasons. First of all it has a scary cement shower and a toilet, but no sink. So it's not half a bath - it's a random bizarre bathroom. And, the bathroom itself is so tiny and scary scary. We don't even use it to pee when we're downstairs watching movies. It's a shame because our guest bedroom is downstairs and if this bathroom was less scary, they wouldn't have to go all the way upstairs to pee in the middle of the night.

So it's on my list of projects to make it better! Here are the before pictures so you can fully understand the horror:

The ceiling is a drop ceiling but it doesn't even have all the ceiling tiles.

Yes, all the walls are cement block so there's not much to be done there (although easy for showering). The shower floor is full of chipped cement and rust - nice. The bathroom floor is old vinyl tile that had a big random piece of concrete on it to try to level it. It used to be under carpet before our washer flooded some water down that way. Here is a picture with the carpet:

Then this is after we ripped the carpet out and the weird piece of cement:

Another shot of the scary shower:

The faucet handles of the shower, all corroded and gross!

This is the other "corner" of the bathroom (which is why you'll see there's no room for a sink). It has exposed pipes next to the toilet (which already has some tile materials sitting on it).

And what would a scary bathroom be without a medicine cabinet from the 1970s??

So this is what we have to work with. We're going to try to make do with what we have and just make it the best we can without major demo like moving walls. There will be lots of painting, and some tiling, and some replumbing for non-corroded grossness! Pictures will come as I work!

finishing the siding project

2011-06-02T20:30:00.005-04:00

I know, we got our house sided like a year ago. But as part of finishing the outside, we had to paint the cement bottom. We did three sides last year, but didn't do the front because we had a huge swarm of bees living under the front porch. We weren't messing with that. Well the bees are gone and it finally didn't rain for more than one day in a row, so it was time to do that! I took some befores and afters. We still had over half a gallon of paint left, so we just had to stir and whatnot. We also had to scrape the front of the house - hadn't done that yet. The end that is closest to the driveway, which you see the corner of a lot, was the most obvious place that hadn't been painted. Not only because of the color change (although it was slight) but mostly because of the peeling splitting paint! Here's the before of that corner:

And here is the after!

Before of the front porch/stoop:

Here's the after. We painted the sides of the porch the same gray...more on that in a moment:

The other end of the front, before:

And the after:
The biggest thing is now it looks all matchy and seamless, which is nice! For those of you curious what paint we used, we used Valspar Duramax in semi-gloss I believe (typing that from memory). I know it was Valspar Duramax for exterior, and that stuff ROCKS. It's not cheap, but it's worth every penny because it covered everything in a thick coat with just ONE coat! We used less than two gallons to paint the entire bottom of our house, which would not be surprising for a typical ranch but the back of our house is a walkout so the concrete that we painted in the back was an entire story high.

So here is the before of our front porch:

And here is the after so far, after the gray painting of the sides:

We still have work to do on this. For some reason the walking surfaces are a pinky-tan color, which didn't match anything. Then the sides and trim was off-white/cream that used to be the color of our house trim. You'll notice there are no railings on the top. That's because they were attached to the house so we pulled them off when we got new siding - we didn't want anything putting holes through our new siding!

So our plan is to paint the walking surfaces with Deck Restore, which will be a textured paint in gray as well. Then we'll build a new railing that we saw in the Lowe's Creative Ideas magazine a few months ago. The railing will be white to match the trim on the house. Lots of steps - but it'll be so freaking pretty at the end!!!

what andy's been doing

2011-05-23T06:04:00.003-04:00

Andy has been playing with his tools to work on a mirror for our guest room. He brought it upstairs so we could look at it:

and OF COURSE guess who had to get in it - literally? Linus is so cute. It's looking beautiful and I can't wait to see the finished product!!

tomorrow's the big day

2011-05-20T06:05:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow at 8am is our garage sale!!! I can't wait to make some money, to clear out some space, and to get back to my regularly scheduled life!!!!

I KNOW I KNOW, but we got a new grill!

2011-05-10T19:54:00.002-04:00

I've been blogging slacking....but spring has come and projects have overtaken me. I'm having a garage sale in less than two weeks and it's consuming my life. Not to mention fixing up the guest room, trying to make the bathroom downstairs less scary, planting some garden stuff, harvesting rhubarb and asparagus, trip to my sister's, needing to work on the front porch, etc. YES I'm using it all as an excuse because that's convenient for me ;) Too bad!

On some exciting news (even more exciting if it was free because we need to stop spending money!), we got a new grill. Something was wrong with our old grill - something bizarre where it put a grey cast on our chicken. Andy scrubbed the grate well and it didn't matter - it was something in the air of the grill b/c it was all over. Made the chicken look GROSS! So we got a new grill:

It's super cute because it's only a two burner and that's perfect for the two of us. The propane tank hides in the bottom and that's about it. We wanted simple for us - we don't need 4 burners plus two side gas burners and whatnot. Just waste of propane. So it's still in a box in our basement, but we can't wait to put it together. Chicken that's not gross and grey, here we come!

family pictures

2011-05-02T19:38:00.003-04:00

It has been a long time since we had a big group family picture, so this past weekend when we were celebrating the boys' (nephews') birthdays, we took some. Here are two of the better ones:

I like the one more close up - they turned out cute I think for just getting together in the back yard to take them. (And they are a little better than the blog uploading shows.)

the first asparagus of the season!!!

2011-04-27T05:49:00.000-04:00

Nope, not that has sprouted but that I HAVE EATEN!!! I picked five spears Saturday and roasted them for me. Andy doesn't eat asparagus, but that's okay. I had five to myself. Aren't they pretty?

Four green and one purple. I roasted them in the oven with a little olive oil and sea salt. Delish! Can't wait for more to come!

weeding the garden

2011-04-24T19:39:00.002-04:00

So I got in the garden last weekend to weed it and pull out the old grass and some dead plants. And what did I find?? Four carrots!!!

I had planted carrots last year, but something ate the tops and we thought they were all dead. Turns out, not so much! They had been nibbled on a bit by critters over winter, but funny!

the coolest library furniture ever

2011-04-20T04:39:00.003-04:00

Okay, those of us over the age of 30 should know what a card catalog is. Those ancient drawers with thousands of cards in them. Well, one of the blogs I follow, she bought one from a public library that they were getting rid of, and repurposed it. Look at it now!

Is that not sooooooo awesome? I want one now! To check out the whole post and the progress, which is way cool, go to her blog posting:
http://www.dreambookdesign.com/2010/06/turning-old-junk-to-beauty.html

cinnamon roll pancakes

2011-04-17T04:00:00.003-04:00

I like breakfast for dinner, but I do like to try new recipes, of course. So I saw a recipe online for cinnamon roll pancakes. Well hell, that combines two delicious things, why wouldn't I try them?? Aren't the swirlies so cute on the griddle?

Now I will say these aren't the prettiest pancakes in terms of looks when they are done. But they taste like cinnamon rolls, so WHO CARES?

The pictures on recipegirl's blog are much prettier because she made a fancy icing to go on them just like cinnamon rolls. We just ate them with butter as normal. Andy put syrup on them too. Then after he ate 5, he said they were awfully sweet. Oh did I mention he added powdered sugar too? Of course they are too sweet! HA. Although I will say that the recipe I used was for the cinnamon part. I used a pancake recipe that I already had and liked. The cinnamon recipe/method would work for any pancakes. Next time I would cut the cinnamon part in half and then make half cinnamon and half not, to cut down on the sweetness factor for my husband who insists of pouring syrup on top!

But we both thought it was a keeper and delicious!

end tables with amazing purpose

2011-04-14T02:24:00.000-04:00

I got two end tables off craigslist for a total of $10. They needed refinished, so I'm on the job! They look basic:

I am using one as the new bedside table in the guest room. We have an end table in there with drawers and it's too wide to fit the proper way, so it's a waste of the drawers. So that's coming out - selling that at the garage sale/craigslist. We'll put this instead because guests don't NEED drawers, just a table for alarm clock and lamp, plus a place to set a book or tissues or something else.

The other end table? Well here's a hint:

Courtesy of http://junkcamp.blogspot.com. Soooooooooo cute!

my first foray into fried chicken

2011-04-11T05:06:00.024-04:00

I had never made fried chicken. I know, but I have made oven-fried chicken and whatnot, but never bone-in, breaded fried chicken. I asked around to the people I always ask for recipe advice (sister, mom, Jeph, Kris) and no one had made it either. So then I didn't feel so bad! I combined three recipes to make fried chicken/wings as follows:
I used Sunny Anderson's fried chicken recipe for the dipping/breading. She flavors the egg part instead of the breading to be sure it gets next to the chicken. I thought that was interesting!
Then I let it rest on a wire rack after breading for 10-15 minutes. Apparently this step is crucial to getting the coating to stick to the chicken! We had all legs - that was Andy's preference when I wanted to try making chicken wings. He thought wings were too tiny for the amount of meat you get, so he picked full-sized legs.

I used my electric skillet to cook them, using the cooking method and times of a recipe I found online specifically for cooking chicken legs!

This is after they are all cooked - all fried and crispy golden brown. I was impressed with how they looked!

Then, since I wanted to make "wings" to speak, we needed sauce! Anyone who eats with me knows I loooooooove sauces. So I made two, again from Sunny Anderson, this time from her wings recipe. I made her hot sauce and her honey bbq. Andy loved the hot sauce best, and I loved the honey bbq best!

Here is the honey bbq pieces (with two no-sauced legs):

Here are the two hot sauced pieces (also with two non-sauced legs):

The verdict? HOLY COW THEY ROCKED! Andy and I both loved them - it was as good as any restaurant. Now, I will preface this with the fact that the oil made a MESS of splatters in the kitchen, so we're investing in a splatter screen before I make these again. But I was impressed with myself, and Andy loved loved loved them. They are a lot of work, but fairly low-maintenance work. In other words, they take a long time to cook and do require turning at certain times, but between those times you're free to make the sauce or get other parts of dinner ready. So it's not constant stirring or too many steps, just takes awhile. In the end? Totally worth it!!

So here is the way I made them after combining the three recipes and altering for size/amounts to make 10 chicken legs:

Chicken Breading (from Sunny Anderson)

3 eggs
2 tablespoons cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
10 chicken legs

Mix together the eggs, cayenne pepper, and black pepper in one bowl
Mix flour and cornstarch together in another bowl
Dip chicken legs in egg mix, then in flour mix, then set on wire rack (with cookie sheet or foil or something under rack to aid in easy cleanup)
Let chicken legs rest 10-15 minutes to help coating stick to chicken

How to Cook the Chicken Legs (from Food.com recipe)

1 cup oil
2 Tablespoons butter

Heat a large electric skillet to 375.
Place oil and butter in skillet til hot.
Place legs in hot oil and fry, turning every 10 minutes until browned evenly.
Turn heat down to 325-340, cover skillet, and cook for 10 minutes.
Turn legs and re-cover to cook another 10 minutes.
Remove lid and turn back up to 375.
Fry until crispy and browned, turning every 5 minutes for 15 minutes total.
Should check temperature of meat to be sure it's done.
Drain on wire rack (new one, not the one you used for the raw chicken!) and not paper towels - paper towels can make your fried food soggy!

Hot Sauce (from Sunny Anderson)

1/2 cup hot sauce (used Frank's Red Hot)
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp basil
pinch of salt

Bring ingredients to a simmer in a small saucepan.
Turn off heat and let basil infuse in butter for at least 15 minutes.
Reheat again if needed before tossing wings/serving for dipping.

Honey BBQ Sauce (from Sunny Anderson)

1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 Tablespoons honey
1 Tablespoon yellow mustard
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
pinch of salt

In a small saucepan, bring ingredients to a simmer over medium-high heat.
Reduce heat and cook 10-12 minutes, stirring frequently.
Either toss wings in sauce or serve as dipping sauce.

is it bigger than a....

2011-04-08T02:21:00.002-04:00

breadbox? Well no, because it is a breadbox!!! I bought one for $3 at a thrift store (or junk store, depending on how you look at it). But of COURSE I have to repaint it and refinish it so that it matches my kitchen. Here is the post-sanded box:

I had already taken the hinges off for sanding, so I just propped them up there for the picture. There is a piece of plexiglass that goes into the hole, also removed for sanding. When I saw it, I said "oh we should get that for kitties!" because we currently keep all bread in the microwave as storage since they chew on the bag. Once they even dragged a bag of buns down into the basement and gnawed through the bag. Well Andy thought I meant get it for kitties so they could crawl into it and play. HA. I meant for bread!

I can't wait to see it stained black and holding my bread!

heads poking up

2011-04-04T19:18:00.003-04:00

Even though it snowed at the end of March, and we're supposed to get more flurries tonight, my rhubarb is starting to grow!!!

See how cute it is all red? Some of the wrinkly leaves are starting to come out too!

This year I can finally pick it - I had to wait two years. So I'm making rhubarb pies galore this year!!!!! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

augmented reality

2011-03-31T03:58:00.003-04:00

I took a workshop on Web 2.0 for professional development at work. We talked briefly about augmented reality, and it's fascinating. This video is a nice intro to what the augmented reality world will be like!

turkey corn chowder

2011-03-29T20:00:00.000-04:00

This is not a pretty picture post. I'm just notifying you up front. I forgot to take more pictures than just the soup on the stove, and it's not pretty. But it sure is tasty!

I found this recipe in a magazine and made it using turkey instead of chicken. It is really good and I saved it as a great way to use up leftover turkey from Thanksgiving!! Jeph will be proud, I tweaked it a lot on my own (adding more broth because I wanted it a little soupier and eyeballing the potatoes). Soups are more forgiving that way though, which I love!!

sugar cookie bars

2011-03-26T20:00:00.000-04:00

Andy's favorite cookie is a sugar cookie. Sometimes cutouts just aren't in the cards because of the time and effort. So I knew when I saw a recipe online for sugar cookie bars, I was TOTALLY trying it! So the hardest part was patting the sugar cookies into a jelly roll pan (because that's a lotta patting!)

I figured out using my palm was better than my fingers so it didn't have finger dents in there a lot. So I baked it and it came out quite pretty (yes, my oven ate a piece of it - sorry!) ;)

Then I frosted it (yes, I used canned frosting, so sue me). I also wanted to try it with sprinkles of different types to see what we liked best:

It didn't have to be super pretty because no one but us was eating it. That's right, it's giant but for us. when I say that's my husband's favorite, I mean it! I would say it freezes well, and it does. But these were all eaten before any needed frozen.

There's a closeup for you to get hungry. These were super tasty and we really liked them. The only thing worth mentioning is compared to regular cut out sugar cookies, the ratio of cookie to frosting is different. There is obviously more cookie than frosting than regular cookies, as you can see by the closeup picture. Don't worry, it's still totally delish. It doesn't matter to me because I prefer my sugar cookies without frosting. And of course you could load on the frosting or just frost each bite as you take it (like my mom does with her buttering rolls!).

So check out the online recipe and go forth and bake. I made it exactly is and it was a big hit, or as Andy says, a keeper! (note, I did use canned frosting so I can't speak to her frosting recipe...one tub of frosting works in terms of amount)

the nightly tv watching positions

2011-03-21T04:16:00.000-04:00

Every evening when we're watching tv, the kitties assume their positions. Linus lays across my legs, and Chuckles goes here:

Aren't my boys so cute?

our new (used) china cabinet/buffet

2011-03-18T04:39:00.005-04:00

I had bought a china buffet cabinet (or whatever you want to call it) at an auction for $2. It's Ethan Allen, so it's very nice. I then got to thinking about all that storage space, so we decided we should try putting it in our dining room and seeing what we think:

We think we likes it!

So we took out our kitchen cart and sold it on craigs and moved our dining and kitchen stuff into this cabinet. So much more room! We did have to take the mirror down off the wall, but I plan on reusing it when we redo the bathroom - so nothing goes to waste!!

Ahhhhhh, storage.

easy flaky homemade biscuits

2011-03-16T04:39:00.006-04:00

I'd never made homemade biscuits before, just rolls. For some reason they intimidated me. But looooookie at what I made:

They are flaky layered biscuits like Pillsbury Grands. But did I mention they are miniature:

They are so tiny! I followed the recipe, which said to use a biscuit cutter that is 1 3/4". I used one that was 2, because that was as close as I had. Well, they didn't expand much, just rose up while cooking. So they remained that tiny. Next time I will use at least 3" cutters!

I am definitely make these again. The best thing is that they really are EASY to make. They don't require kneading, they don't require rising time, so you can make them after work and they'll be ready for supper. I'd say 30 minutes from start to finish!

So see the recipe online and bake away! As a note, I started making them with the food processor, but you end up doing the end by hand anyway so I'm going to make them by hand the whole way in the future. Plus you might want to use a bigger cutter :)

Also, after I cut out the biscuits, I had the little pieces from between the circles. Instead of rerolling or piecing them together, I just baked those little bits too - delish!

william tell chuckles

2011-03-14T04:27:00.000-04:00

Chuckles is a great dancer!

Cute!

why our fridge is so fun now

2011-03-11T04:16:00.006-05:00

I saw a cute craft online of making Scrabble letters magnetic and using them on the fridge. So I did! I got a roll of adhesive magnet and cut them to size on the letters:

Then we put them up!

I gave Andy reminder instructions for when he was on his own for supper:

Andy left me a super sweet message:

We now use it mostly for the menu of the week. We put the day and the dinner plans, and it's fun! The ONLY thing I would do differently if I did them again was make the magnet the entire length of the letter instead of a smaller square. That's because when you want to move them, if you push on the top or bottom, they tilt (because the magnet does not go to the edges) and since the magnet no longer touches the fridge, they fall off. We have gotten crafty about sliding them around and not doing this, but it's annoying. So if you take on this craft, try to make as much of the letter backs magnetic as possible!!

savory rolls, cinnamon roll style

2011-03-09T05:27:00.000-05:00

I found this roll recipe and wanted to try it for a long time: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/rolls/cheese-rolls/

I finally did and it's a lot like making cinnamon rolls!

That handy cutter/scraper is awesome. I think Jeph got it for me but can't remember? So then you put them in a pan just like cinnamon rolls too!

They came out looking yummy!

Now I totally altered this recipe because I wanted to use the bread machine. So I put the ingredients in (except for cheese mixture) and set it on dough. Then after checking on it, it wasn't nearly wet enough. So I ended up putting water in to make it more doughy. Probably about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water? I did it slowly to see how it was working out.

All in all it still turned out! And I love all things bread, so it was tasty. However, I didn't keep the recipe because I have other bread recipes that are less work and just as tasty if not a tad more. But these look nice and would be a great addition to a dinner party!!

the wii dance

2011-03-05T04:26:00.004-05:00

Andy will kill me for posting this, but totally worth it to see how cute he is! We went to the Jagers after going out to eat and we were playing a dance game on the Wii. Here's his star performance!

Look at him go!

pumpkin pie creme pies

2011-03-02T05:18:00.001-05:00

I've been trying a lot of new recipes lately because my folder of ones to try is getting a bit overstuffed. So for a dessert I decided to try these pumpkin creme pies I found on Pioneer Woman's site. Andy loves oatmeal creme pies so I figure it has to be similar, plus he loves pumpkin pie.

So here is the batter spread out on the cookie sheet. Turns out they don't spread much at all, so I could have put them closer together.

I made a different filling from another recipe, so the quantities were off. In other words, I didn't have enough creme filling compared to the amount of cookies. So I spread them a little thin and had about 6-8 plain cookies left. I would suggest perhaps making 1.5 times the recipe of the creme so you could fill all the cookies plus add more filling. Aren't they pretty though?

Andy likes them a lot...they are disappearing quickly from the household:

Aren't they so cute? They aren't always perfectly even, but they are so delicious I would serve them to anyone, especially at the holidays. These are a great alternative to pumpkin pie and nice for something different!

So, I used the cookie recipe from Pioneer Woman's site, and the creme filling recipe from the Joy of Baking website. I did that because Andy prefers non-cream cheese frosting.

The only differences in how I did the cookies is that instead of using a pastry bag and piping them out, I used a cookie scoop and dumped it directly onto the cookie sheet, then used the scoop to spread it around into a two inch circle. I also baked them for 14 minutes because I use airbake sheets.

today's the big day!

2011-02-28T05:15:00.000-05:00

I am speaking at Kent State University's 2011 Careers night tonight! My presentation is about applying for jobs in the digital age, given to the Library Science graduate students. I'm excited and as of Friday there were 125 people registered to go!

Think happy speaking thoughts! (That means I don't say "um" too much and all my technology, computer, projector, etc. works perfectly!)

a typical snuggle session

2011-02-26T04:08:00.001-05:00

Our kitties snuggle all the time, especially in winter. Of course they wrestle and play fight too, but they're cutest when they snuggle!

I like how Linus has to hold Chuckles head down with his paw...he might escape otherwise!

Awwwwwwwwww.

jello poke cake

2011-02-23T05:04:00.004-05:00

We finally had Christmas with the Millers in mid-February. I didn't make much fancy food, but I did make a dessert that I had been craving for months. It's the Jello Poke Cake! That's what we always called it growing up. My mom made it - it's a great summer dessert because it's light and uses Cool Whip as frosting!

I strayed from my mom's recipe to make it with the 9" cake pans my sister gave me plus I wanted to make at least something Christmas-y. So I made it like this:

It caved a little on the top due to the curvature of the layers, but frosting cures all that ails a cake:

I used the official recipe from the Kraft website:
http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/jell-o-poke-cake-69006.aspx
That is the two-layer version.

However, they also have a version that is a 9x13 cake with only one box of Jello that I would recommend. It's more like what my mom made. Plus the layer cake with two boxes of Jello was a little overwhelming compared to the 9x13 with one box!
http://www.kraftrecipes.com/recipes/gelatin-poke-cake-53184.aspx

Growing up my mom always used yellow cake with orange Jello. Not sure why it was always that way, but that was what I remember as so delicious!

old spice commercial, library style

2011-02-20T04:44:00.004-05:00

There have been some entertaining Old Spice commercials with the guy that talks to the camera. Turns out that a student at Brigham Young Library made an ad for the library of sorts, in the flavor of Old Spice commercials. Hilarious!!

the effects of our renovations

2011-02-17T04:45:00.003-05:00

So I'm a total geek. Not because I'm a librarian but because I love statistics. I have fun crunching numbers in Excel, making graphs, etc. It's okay, I know I'm a geek. We moved into our house in December of 2007. So we've lived there 3 full years now. There have been lots of home improvement projects. The ones that would directly affect our energy use include:

new furnace (2008)
programmable thermostat (2008)
new windows (some in 2008, 2009, and 2010)
new storm door (2010)
blew insulation into all exterior walls (2010)
new siding with insulation underneath (2010)

All that to say - we should have more efficient heating these days, no? Well, I geeked out big time and went back the last three years to track our gas usage and then made a fancy chart:

I know it's tiny, but it shows good things! The green is 2010 and it's lower pretty much across the board. I did it in two month increments at the bottom because our gas is estimated every other month. It doesn't list fluctuations in weather/temperature for certain years compared to previous years, but it still shows improvement overall! To further geek out and calculate percentages, I discovered we have reduced our gas usage in 2010 by 28% when compared to 2008. Over a quarter!

The chart is for MCF's because I wanted to measure gas usage. Measuring the amount of our gas bills is good to know but the gas prices, taxes, supplier costs, etc. change over the years. As a note, we have reduced our annual gas costs by almost $500 in 2010 when compared to 2008. so we are definitely saving money!