I always find it interesting to see how some people get to my blog.  They don't comment and let me know if they found what they were looking for.  Were they amused? Will they come back?  What were they thinking?

The top searches on Google for the month of February that brought people to my blog:

daisy journey count it up
panera bread field trip
pink petal is daisy
scary unsolved mysteries

Hopefully my girl scout idea's helped some people.

And, to the scary unsolved mysteries person?

Hey, we're still trying to figure it out here.

Stay tuned.

Anytime you give chores to Bella, she gets overly dramatic and starts crying. She makes a simple chore into the most awful, humiliating act. I mean, what kind of people are we that ask her to pick up after herself?  Torturing her and making her pick up her dirty dishes and put them into the dishwasher?  And, asking her to sweep the stairs?

Just call her Cinderella. 

Why is the kitchen a big mess on days I have to go to work?  Is it that hard to rinse your plate / bowl / cup off and out it in the dishwasher?  I don't seem to have a problem doing it. 

Pallet (he)art

I found this cute Heart pallet wall art here and fell in love.  Rebekah at Somewhere in the Middle made this adorable heart on a mini pallet.  Oh...and she used glitter!  OOOHHH!  (click on the link and you can check it out)

You know how I love hearts and I love red and I just love, love, love Valentine's Day.

So, I had to make one.

Luckily we have a lifetime supply a lot of shims.  We have a box that RT bought for our washing machine (at our first house) when we first got married.  And, it's still full.  I think he used one or two there.  When we moved here, I think he used one with our old washing machine.  Then, somehow he collected a billion some more.  He told me I could use them for anything I wanted.  I didn't think I would ever need or want to use them..... until now.  Enter the Valentine's Day project.

Supplies needed:
shims
paint
paint brush
stencil
hot glue gun
glitter (optional)

It's a pretty simple project.

Paint your shims.  Put shims together.  Use two shims to glue to the back.  (see here for picture).  Attach stencil to shims.  Paint.  Add glitter.  (every thing's better with glitter)

 Heart on a pallet?

A little side note.  Make sure that your stencil is on card board and not paper.  I had a little accident with my paper.  The red paint went through and it looked like my heart was leaking (melting?  breaking?)  I did a quick fix (see picture above) with my white paint.  Maybe when this dries I can post another picture.  I was desperately trying to get this done before Valentine's Day.

If you decide to make one, let me know.

And, if you need any shims, I might be able to find some for you.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I was informed by Bella today that,

"You can't throw away sparkles!"

Making Valentine Cards

My favorite holiday is coming up.

Valentine's Day!

Only 2 more days!  I can't wait!

My kids have always made their valentines.  Some years were fun and others....well, not so much.  I did break down a couple of times over the years with the boys and purchased some cards.  They stopped giving cards around third or fourth grade.  I'm thinking it's a boy thing.

This year, Bella and I have set out to make some fun cards and thought we would share them with you.  We got our ideas from Spoonful.com.  Take a look around the site, they have some great  ideas for Valentine's Day!

Supplies needed:
Paper (red, purple, pink, white, pretty paper)
pencil
scissors
glue stick
googly eyes
markers
glitter, sequins, yarn,

I picked out three valentines that I thought would be fun to make this year.  I made them and then let Bella choose the Valentine she wanted to make for her classmates.

These two Valentines are made out of hearts.  It's best to make a heart template (fold paper in half and draw half a heart and cut out) that you can use.  Especially if you are making a lot of Valentine cards.

 

"Eye" Valentine and Fish Valentine card

Owl Valentine card

I had to make an owl Valentine to go with our whole owl theme Bella wanted for her birthday.

Bella picked the one she wanted and went to work on making them.  (I helped draw out the hearts and did a little of the cutting) 

(a school of) Fish Valentine Cards

 

All swimmingly ready for Valentine's Day!

Spam emails

If you are going to send spam email make sure you know what you're talking about. I received an email (from a woman) saying that she saw my Facebook picture and thinks I'm really cute. 

Here's my Facebook picture. 

I guess I'm lookin' pretty good, huh?

Felt Heart pin/barrette

This is a pretty easy valentine's project.  I made a couple of these, one for Bella and one for myself.  They can be used as a barrette or, how I like to wear mine, as a pin on my shirt.

This craft does require sewing.  You could probably glue the hearts together instead of sewing them.  You can also use different colors of felt, attach sequins or buttons or glitter.  The creative ideas are endless.

Supplies Needed:
felt (I used red for Valentine's Day)
paper
pencil
scissors
pins and a needle
thread (I used embroidery thread)
barrette or hair clip (or pin)
hot glue

Draw a heart on the paper and cut out.  Pin your heart template on to the felt and cut out two hearts.

Pin the two hearts together and start sewing. (or gluing)

Glue your heart to the barrette.

Cut out an extra piece of felt to cover your glue spot (and make it look pretty).

 

               felt heart clip

And you are done!  Just in time for Valentine's Day!

Homemade Meatballs

I know.  It's not a vegetarian recipe.

 I do have to cook meals (with meat) for the rest of the family.  They will only eat so much (actually, very little) of my vegetarian meals.  It can be difficult to make meals with meat since I don't taste test what I am cooking.  I usually have to hunt down a willing child to be my sampler.  Luckily, that isn't that hard in this house.

I make these meatballs for the rest of the family and they just love them.  I thought I would share them here.

I got this recipe out of a magazine and, of course, have embellished it go with whatever we have on hand.  I will post some of the changes that I have made after I give you the recipe.

Here it is:

Yummy Meatballs

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground turkey
1 lb ground pork
1 (10 oz pkg) frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
3 large eggs, beaten
2 T Italian seasoning
2 t garlic powder
1 t  red pepper flakes
1/2 cup fine bread crumbs or panko bread crumbs

Oven 400.  Coat 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.*

Mix together all ingredients.

Gently roll into 1" balls and arrange on baking sheets.

Bake until lightly browned and cooked through.  About 20-25 minutes.


My notes about the recipe:

*I use parchment paper.  The parchment paper will soak up some of the juices/fat (easier clean up, too).  (Thanks, Steve!)  You can also use non-cooking spray for this instead of the parchment paper.

I don't always make a full batch.  I will use only one pound of meat(turkey or beef) and make a smaller amount. 

I have also used fresh spinach for this recipe.  Great if you can run it through the food processor.  Makes it a lot easier to handle.

Don't have bread crumbs?  Try throwing some oats into your food processor and using this as a substitute.  It's definitely good for you (have you looked at the ingredients on a package/box of bread crumbs lately?  You can't pronounce half of those ingredients!)  So, yes, oats as a substitute for bread crumbs.  Try it.

Oh, yea, sometimes (well, a lot of times) I use fresh garlic instead of garlic powder.  Sometimes I use both.

Let me know if you try them.  Would love to know how they turn out.

Enjoy! 

Favorite Super Bowl Commercials for 2014

Did you watch the Super Bowl?

Were you watching the game or just there for the commercials?  Or were you the one there just for the yummy snacks?

I watched the game, but, was definitely one of those people that are there for the commercials.

I was a little disappointed this year.  Usually the commercials are all pretty good.  This year I found my two favorites:

Oikos Greek Yogurt

 and

Doritos Time machine

What was your favorite commercial this year?

Texting 101

Just thought I would give you a little tip.

Always make sure that when you are texting that you are sending it to the right person.  You don't want the person that you are talking about to find out what you are saying about them (good and bad).

Not that it has ever happened to me.....