Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Flower Cards

I made these little beauties for a card party a couple weeks ago. I got the template from my friend who had made them awhile back.  They were a lot of fun to make. 


I love how you can hide your message inside the flower.

move the center of the flower off to the side







Check out here for a pattern and other ideas!! And here is the outline of mine if you wanted to try copying it!
(sorry no scanner to upload my template!)

Have fun!!

Monday, May 10, 2010

Sausage Rice Casserole


This is one of my FAVORITE recipes (i say that a lot huh!) But really, this one is!! It is one that my mom got from my grandma- and trust me, anything she cooks is delicious! It reminds me of home every time I eat it. Enjoy!! Let me know what ya think!

Sausage Rice Casserole
Prep Time 20 min Cooking Time 1:15 Preheat 350
1 lb Sausage
1 onion chopped
1 cup celery chopped
1 pkg Lipton chicken noodle soup
4 cups of water or chicken broth
3/4 cups minute rice

Brown sausage and onion together, add celery
In 9X13 casserole dish add water soup and rice
Stir together
Add sausage mixture to dish and stir all together
Put in oven for around 1:15 (sometimes we only cook it for 45 min and it still tastes good) 
ENJOY!!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Birthday Wreath

Anyone have any birthdays coming up?? 
Well if you are like my family- EVERYONE's birthdays are in April and May.
I am a big fan of wreaths and just fell in LOVE with a new one found over at How Does She.
They have a great tutorial for making a beautiful colorful Birthday Wreath
This project is definitely going to be added to my "crafty" To Make List.
Such a great idea
Go check it out

Happy Cinco De Mayo

Here are a couple of my Favorite Mexican Recipes since I didn't post any on Monday! 

(one of our favorite recipes!!)
photo/recipe- Phemomenom

1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup lime juice(about 2 large limes 
2 teaspoons to 1 Tablespoon chili powder
2 large cloves of garlic, finely minced or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 2 large breasts), cooked and shredded
12 corn tortillas
2 cups of Mexican cheese blend, shredded (1 small bag usually is 2 cups)
1 14-oz can of green enchilada sauce (mild or medium, to your taste)
1/2 to 3/4 cup of heavy cream
nonstick cooking spray
1 Tablespoon of chopped cilantro, to garnish

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place the cooked and shredded chicken in a medium sized bowl. Set aside. In a small bowl, place the honey, lime juice, chili powder and minced garlic or garlic powder. Whisk together thoroughly to combine. Pour this mixture over the chicken and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to marinate while you prepare the tortillas, 30 minutes or up to 1 hour, in the refrigerator.

Heat a large griddle till a drop of water skitters across (about 350 degrees F). Spray the surface with non-stick cooking spray or a oil it with a little bit of canola oil in between each round of tortillas. Heat tortillas about 20 seconds on each side till warm and flexible and some golden brown spots have appeared. Remove the tortillas from the griddle and keep them between a couple of paper towels until ready to use.

Spray the sides and bottom of a 9x13-inch baking dish lightly with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl combine the enchilada sauce and the heavy cream. Spread about 1/2 cup of the mixture in the bottom of the oiled baking dish.
Add a large spoonful (about 2 tablespoons) of the chicken mixture to the center of each tortilla in a line. Cover the chicken with a large tablespoon (or big pinch) of cheese, then roll the tortilla up from one side to make a rolled enchilada - it will be more of an over lap on the seam side that rolled tightly. Place the enchilada seam side down in the baking dish starting at one end with the long edge parallel to the longest side of the pan so that you end up with two columns of six enchiladas each.
Repeat with the remaining chicken, cheese and tortillas. You will use about 1 1/2 cups of the cheese for the filling and set the remainder aside for topping the enchiladas in the pan. Add the remaining marinade mixture to the enchilada sauce and cream mixture, if desired. Pour this mixture over the top of all the enchiladas. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Bake the enchiladas for 30 to 35 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbly and starting to brown on top. Serve with sour cream, black beans, and rice or a green salad for a great meal.

Serves 4 to 6

(MY husband served an LDS mission to Brazil and has made this a couple times- just like Tucanos, delicious!)
photo/recipe- our best bites

4 juicy limes (try and find ones with thin, smooth skins; they're the juiciest and the thin skin cuts down on the chance of your drink being bitter)
1 c. sugar
6 c. cold water
6 Tbsp. sweetened condensed milk


Mix cold water and sugar very well and chill until ready to use. This step can be done ahead of time.
Wash limes thoroughly with soap (I just use hand-dishwashing soap or regular hand soap); you need the soap to get the wax and pesticides off of the limes because you're using the WHOLE lime, baby. Cut the ends off the limes and then cut each lime into 8ths.

Place 1/2 of the limes in your blender.
Add 1/2 of the sugar water, place the lid on your blender, and pulse 5 times. Place a fine-mesh strainer over a pitcher (the one you'll serve the lemonade in) and pour the blended mixture through the strainer and into the pitcher. Use a spoon to press the rest of the liquid into the pitcher. Dump the pulp and stuff in the strainer into the trash. Repeat with remaining limes and sugar water. Add sweetened condensed milk; DO NOT leave this step out unless you will die of a horrible sweetened condensed milk allergy because this is the secret ingredient! You may want to taste test it at this point; I used giant, thick-skinned limes tonight and didn't test it and it came out a little bitter. If it's bitter, just add some more sugar and maybe a little more milk. 

Serve immediately over lots of ice. This does not keep well, so don't make this in advance (although you can cut the limes, mix the sugar water, and measure the sweetened condensed milk in advance). Serves 4, although I can pretty much guarantee you that people will want more; I usually plan on 1 1/2 servings at LEAST per person.


I am bringing this to a party tonight- posted awhile ago- but incase you forgot-it's our FAVORITE!


ENJOY!!
oh and Feliz Cumpleanos Alice!!

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Free Fonts

For those of you looking for a great place to download free fonts for your scrap booking, blogs, cards etc.... I have a great site for you!! 
They are ridiculously cute... and again FREE!! Here are just a sample of the ones I downloaded

She also has a section where she turns submitted handwriting into a font, called Fonts for Peas. 

my husband has always told me I have ZaNeY handwriting so maybe I should submit mine!
If you don't know what to do after you have downloaded your fonts... they can help you with that as well (don't worry, I needed some)
It's just a really cute site, you should check it out

and not only does she have cute fonts, her site has a section of delicious recipes and a blog with really amazing pictures.. you know, one of those women who is amazing at everything :)

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Felt Squares for Babies

I saw this idea over at Crafting Chicks and LOVED it!! Felt Squares for babies- Did you know that babies love black, white and bright colors? I have learned that until your child is about six months, he/she will respond best to bold, contrasting colors and graphics. SO how perfect are these?? 



Supplies:

-Felt: black, white, and some colors

-Hot glue gun
-Sharp fabric scissors
-Paper to make square pattern

check out directions here


I love this idea and am going to try it out! I am thinking of making mine into a book though- I will post pics when I finish. Wouldn't this be a fun/ quick/ simple gift to give. I know I would love having one!!
Anyone made anything similar to this before? If so I would love to see!

Monday, April 26, 2010

Costco Essentials


I am a Costco shopper. I love Costco and love going there. Have I mentioned that about three sample people know my son's name (should I be way embarrassed??) Anyway, my mom came out to visit recently, and while she was here, we took a trip to Costco to get some essentials. While there she showed me a couple or her and my dad's favorite things to get- two being Organic Chocolate Milk (in little cartons with a funny little straw) and Brothers All Natural Fruit Crisps- and I had never seen either of them before.  We bought them and loved them- they were a hit with my son. Now they have been added to our Costco list!

So now  I wanna know what else I am missing out on! What are some of your favorite things to get at Costco?? Anything that I need to buy next time I am there?? :)  I would love to hear!

Some of our favorties include:  Uncooked Flour Tortillas (so so so good), Chicken Nuggets (can't remember the name but they have lost of good nutrients in them...) Rotisserie Chicken, Salmon Patties, Cinnamon Rolls and just discovered their Kirkland's Organic Tortilla Chips. 

Thursday, April 22, 2010

ABC Quiet Book

My secret project is finally done!! I know you have been just on the edge of your seats- and not able to eat/ sleep kind of  excited to see it so sorry about the wait :)
I have been trying to teach my son his letters for awhile now and thought it would be fun to make a little ABC book for him to help.
It's a lot like my other quiet book but boy did this take less than half the time to make. All the letters are attached with Velcro to allow for matching and quizzing! 
You obviously could go all out with the objects but I tried to keep it simple. 
Of course felt played a big role with this project- along with muslin, embroidery floss, some yarn and buttons. I bound it with 2 metal rings as I did before.
It was a lot of fun to make and a great size- making it easy to bring it along wherever you go!!
Matching!
This was an original idea- I am going to try and get a pattern available if  anyone is interested. Feel free to ask any questions!!

Monday, April 19, 2010

Go Diego Go Party!!


This past week was my little boy's birthday!! He is totally in a Diego Stage and since our family is far far away, I thought it was appropriate to invite some of his little friends and throw him a Diego party. It was a lot of fun. I found many cute "jungle/diego" themed birthday party ideas at various sites online but one site was my favorite!!!
If your child is wanting a Nickelodeon themed party, this is the place to go
They have recipes, party games and activities, invitations, iron on printables, decor and much more!!! It was a great resource and helped alleviate much of the stress that accompaines planning a party.
I really loved the recipes I found and used these two for our fiesta!
Here is how my cake turned out!!
My cupcakes were not as awesome but they served their purpose!! Forgot to take a pic, but trust me the example is MUCH cuter!!
I also tried to tie in our food with the whole jungle theme!! So for our little lunch we served
dried ants- dried cranberries
bettle wings- chips
crocodile teeth- apple slices
jungle juice- juice boxes
snake skin- fruit roll-ups
Quesadillas
I also made some fun headbands for our guests to wear. These were SO easy to make and a lot of fun. At Hobby Lobby (and I am sure many other places) I found some jungle print felt and knew I had to use it for the party. All I did was cut 1.5 x 12 inch strips of the printed felt and sew it onto a 2 X 31 ish inch piece of solid print felt. The kids loved them. My favorite was the giraffe- how cute to put this onto some pink fabric... (too bad no pink was allowed at my boys party!!)
Here are the three types I made
We also hit a pinata, decorated paper bag diego vests and colored!! Such a fun morning!!

A Birthday Fit for a King

I have been dying to make one of these felt party crowns for along time now. There are seriously so many tutorials and examples of these all over the internet- I found a great video tutorial here that helped get me started. She has templates you can print off for two different crowns too!!
I printed off the template that looked more "boyish" and altered it a bit to make it bigger.
I also attatched some velcro so I could change the crown up over the years (or until it doesn't fit my son's head anymore!
So here are the steps that I did.....
to make this
Using your pattern- cut out two crowns out of any color of felt. These pieces are the front and the back of the crown
Then take your top piece and add your embellishments to it. (ribbon, buttons, jewels, etc...) I sewed on a strip of ribbon and then a piece of velcro in the center.
Once you are done adding your embellishments, you can then place a single sheet of interfacing in between the two- This stiffens your crown so it wont be so floppy.
Make sure your cut it down a bit smaller than the felt so it doesn't show.
Now take some elastic and tuck one end between the back piece of felt and the interfacing. With that tacked in place, measure your kiddos head with the elastic. Once you have your measurement bring it in a little and pin the other side in place. (making the elastic smaller than your child's head will keep the crown on their head)
Now pin and sew together!!
That's it!! Super easy and quick. My son loved his- Such a fun way to make your child's birthday EXTRA special!!
f.y.i. - If for some reason a half a bottle of bubbles spills onto your newly made crown- don't fret- it does dry and you can't even tell in the pictures :) just saying!

(p.s.- I would love to post some patterns/templates on here but just don't know the best way to do it.. any tips?? I guess a scanner would be necessary but really I'm clueless!!! Thanks)

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

It's Birthday Time

This week my son turns TWO!!! Can't believe it. Some fun birthday/party projects coming your way!!


Monday, April 12, 2010

Apple Dumplings


(these may change your life)


Prep Time: 10 Minutes Cook Time: 40 Minutes Difficulty: Easy Servings: 6
Ingredients

2 whole Granny Smith Apples

2 cans (8 Oz. Cans) Crescent Rolls

2 sticks Butter

1-½ cup Sugar

1 teaspoon Vanilla

Cinnamon, To Taste

1 can (12 Oz.) Mountain Dew Soda

Preparation Instructions

Peel and core apples. Cut each apple into 8 slices each. Roll each apple slice in a crescent roll. Place in a 9 x 13 buttered pan.

Melt butter, then add sugar and barely stir. Add vanilla, stir, and pour entire mixture over apples. Pour Mountain Dew around the edges of the pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Serve with ice cream, and spoon some of the sweet sauces from the pan over the top.

WARNING: Prepare this dish at your own risk. It is beyond imaginable.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Sneak Peak....

at my project for my son's birthday present.

 I told myself I would never make anything like this again... mostly because it took so much time, but I guess I forgot. This project has gone a lot smoother and faster though and I'm really excited for it!!!
Stay tuned!!