Paper Crafting (Cards & Decoupage) - Pict Heavy

Another craft I love is (broad category) paper crafting! Aside from scrapbooking, I also like to decoupage composition books so they are pretty journals and also make cards. I have so much stuff! Paper, sciccors, stickers, stamps.... I need to make use of it. These pictures are old but I hope to craft some this week. These are from swaps (journals, cards, box that I decoupaged etc.... all paper crafts!) - I had made a purple journal and a Disney journal for myself but I cannot find the purple journal or a picture of it. Bummer. The Mickey one is mine :-)

Bento Swap - Pict Heavy (old swap)

This was one of my very favorite swaps to craft for (through crafster.org). My first few swaps I got awesome packages but then I wasn't really getting paired up with people who did what they were supposed to so I haven't swapped in a while. Kara had the idea to pick a swap she liked but craft for herself instead - I like that idea. So anyways, these are pictures of what I sent for the Bento Swap over a year ago. I loved it. I sewed a placemat that rolled up and had slots for utensils, a bag to carry a bento box etc, and reusable snack bags. I included other bento-esque items.

Food - Cooking semi-homemade

I know the Food Network has a show semi-homemade but I don't know a better term for it. I like to cook semi-homemade. It's like gourmet and/or homemade dishes with a little help. Last night at the ladies night extravaganza I made a lot of dips, pound bread, beer bread etc - all so good and so easy. It was all Tastefully Simple Products - delish! You can always take a jar sauce and make it your own etc.

So anyways, mom is coming over to join me and lil man for lunch today. Earlier in the week I made 2 spaghetti pies (from the Hungry Girl 300 under 300 book - love that book): 1 for lunch with the girls at work and 1 for home. I am going to heat up the second pie for our lunch today and make Kale to go with it. yummo I should try kale chips instead though maybe.... decisions...

Anyways, for dinner I am making cajun beans. They are made with dry kidney beans. I have a love affair with kidney beans. My absolute favorite bean. I love to add them to pasta. Or eat them plain. I have a package of the dried beans and seasoning mix. You just add water and a can of diced tomatoes. And sausage - I will add Morningstar Farms Veggie Italian Sausage. It's in the crock pot right now. I'll probably serve it with Quinoa (if you don't know what quinoa (pronounced keen wah) is - totally look it up. amazing. http://www.savvyvegetarian.com/vegetarian-recipes/basic-quinoa.php). Oh, and I'll add onion. I love onion. Poor Jay.

Here's the spaghetti pie (in my beautiful Princess House casserole dish - I really do love the princess house stuff I got a few years ago. so pretty) and the bag the beans and seasoning came in.



I also signed up to be a House Party hostess (www.houseparty.com) for their Thai Kitchen party. I really, really want to be a hostess of this party. You get like 9 products to try, many of them are vegan, and it's right up my ally. Customize them with whatever veggies, meat, or meat substitutes you like, put em over rice, noodles, etc and show of how awesome your dinners can be with very little effort. Man I hope I get that party.

Baking and Bible Study

So I took a page from a(wonderful new) friend Megan (who also happens to be the Pastor's wife... she is just too cool and has 2 young girls - so cool for Keegan to be able to grow up with all these kids in church!).... And have been baking treats for bible study. This way I can bake, taste, and give the rest away so (as much as I may want to) I don't eat the whole batch myself!

Megan is a far superior baker than I am. I tend to do most things semi-homemade. This recipe seems easy enough and not from a box mix!

I have made cake pops (really cake balls since I don't use the sticks) in strawberry and lemon, pumpkin muffins, and devil's food cake balls. I love making things that are 1 or 2 bites and can easily be eaten without utensils. Tomorrow we have our monthly bible study and I am going to make Butter Balls to bring. The recipe is an old recipe my mom had from a neighbor years ago. My mom swears they were delicious. And I happen to have all the ingredients already.

Butter Balls:

1 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
2 cups flour
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups chopped nuts (walnuts)
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375.
Blend sugar and butter. Add vanilla and chopped walnuts. Mix well.
Gradually add flour and salt. Shape doough into small balls. Put on cookie sheet and bake for 15 mins.
While still warm, roll cookies in powdered sugar.

Teething Bisquits

I will need to add pictures eventually but I figured I should put the recipe on here in honor of Keegan's first tooth breaking through on Monday - super easy. Made the cookies Saturday, maybe they helped the tooth break through?

I made teething biscuits the other day. Keegan loves them. He feels like such a big boy since he can pick them up himself AND get them into his mouth haha.

Ingriedients:

Variation #1

1 cup of baby cereal

1 cup of flour

1 cup of juice

Variation #2

1 cup of baby cereal (can use flavored)

1 cup of flour

3 tbsp of oil

ice water (start with 1/4 cup and add until dough formed)

Pretty much you mix all of the ingredients together. Roll out on a floured surface to about the thickness of a cracker. Cut in to desired shapes. Put on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 425 for about 15 minutes.

Sounds simple, right? Overall it really was but I struggled with the rolling out and cutting part. The dough is very sticky (VERY VERY - and it should be that way per everything I read). Someone suggested putting it in a pastry bag and piping it on to the cookie sheet in the shapes you want. Totally trying that next time. Except with Ziploc bag, cutting the corner.

Keegan has rectangles, dinosaurs, hearts, and elephants. Fun times!

More pictures to come.

Oh blog, how I've missed thee...

Okay so maybe I never really post that much anyways BUT it sure will be nice to put longer posts and more info than I can on twitter.

My life has, yet again, changed so much since my last post. Not too long after that I had found out I was pregnant with my first child. Yup, I'm a mom. And he's 6 months old already! My sweet Keegan. Also our dear papa passed away in January. Life is so weird without him. I miss him.

Today I made teething biscuits. I will post later on the whole process and some pictures. I hope Keegan likes them! If not, I am sure the dogs will eat them.

Loving the whole domestic life thing but still struggling so bad with time management (and dealing with the exhaustion - I try not to blame my EB for it but one must wonder....). I haven't crafted too much lately but need to do that some more. I made these owl baskets for Kelley for Christmas with our secret santa and I make a lot of homemade baby food but that's mainly been the extent of it. I have made cake pops too. Still no real scrapbooking.

Don't you just want to eat Keegan - he's too darn cute!