Goodbye 2013!

So here we are in the final hours of 2013, and I'm looking forward to 2014. This year has NOT been an easy one for me. It has probably been the worst actually. It got off to a rough start and then Pants had his accident and post concussion syndrome. That was a scary time and he was out of work for a couple months. When I thought things were looking up, I lost my Toby cat. I've lost close friends, and my grandmother passed away. It has been hard, but there have also been good things. My GirlBaby turned one! My silly Goose turned 6! Pants threw me an amazing surprise party on my birthday. We had an unforgettable trip to Disney. I met my newest niece for the first time, and while tested by the struggles of the year, Pants and I came out on top. Our relationship is going strong and is better than ever. I'm proud of my little family. That being said.....this girl is ready for 2014.

We've had a lot of eye openers this year, so for 2014 I'm not making resolutions. I'm going to say I love you a lot. I want to laugh a lot. I want to play with my girls, see them learn. I'm giving second chances assuming they are deserved. I am going to be happy and take care of my family and do what I do! I'm hoping to get readers for the blog and I'm adding new items to etsy and doing a couple giveaways. Yay...C'mon 2014!!!!

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas...(printable!)

It's hard to believe that it's almost Christmas once again! I've gotten just about all of my shopping done, I have a couple small things to make, and a few gifts to wrap and I'm done! I'm enjoying the Christmas music, the baking and relaxing in the evenings by the tree and the fireplace.....it's good stuff.

That being said, I've been thinking a lot about this year. It's been a hard one. Possibly the hardest...I think it's making me appreciate Christmas and the season even more this year. I've decided to savor it. Do what makes me happy. I'm baking, and singing and decorating and wrapping gifts, I'm reading this amazing Night Before Christmas book to the girls each night, soaking up all the Christmas shows, and enjoying crafts....and one of the things I did in my down time was play around with making some chalkboard printables. I have more to add, but get this one here.

Chocolate Chunk Brownie Cookies

I have been all about cookies lately, and these cookies...oh these cookies... For somebody who occasionally likes a cookie...these were hard to resist! They are made with brownie mix..and chocolate chunks...and oh my! For a soft chocolate chip cookie, try this recipe.

Try them.... Like today... So good!



Here goes:


Ingredients:



1 package (18 To 21 Oz. Box) Fudge Brownie Mix
1-¼ cup All-purpose Flour
¼ cups Packed Brown Sugar
2 whole Eggs
½ cups Butter, Melted And Cooled
2 Tablespoons Water, Or More As Needed
1 cup Dark Chocolate Chunks**


*I used semi sweet because I was sharing these and some people just don't understand my love of dark chocolate!*

1. Whisk together brownie mix, flour, and sugar.
2.Using a heavy spoon, stir in the eggs one at a time, followed by butter and 2 tablespoons water. If the batter appears like there is too much flour, add 1 more tablespoon of water. Batter will be very thick.
3. Fold in chocolate chunks
4. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
6. Grease a cookie sheet.
7. Drop heaping tablespoons of dough on the cookie sheet. You want pretty thick cookies here to get the brownie feel, about 3 inches apart. Press down slightly. Don’t flatten completely. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
8. Remove from oven, allow to cool 2 minutes on cookie sheet. Transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

One word...amazing!

The mouse and the cookie...Pudding Mix Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

So remember the cookies I told you about? I was hoping to share the recipe before we went to Disney, but it was our anniversary, Goose was sick, and GirlBaby was throwing up...lucky me caught a hellish stomach bug, and couldn't move let alone blog, or pack! Ugh! However, we made it, and had a fabulous time at Disney (that is a different post, but soooo fun!) We are back, and here is the recipe I promised!

1 cup softened butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
3.4 oz package vanilla instant pudding mix
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Cream together butter and sugar. Add pudding mix and vanilla. Beat in one egg at a time. In a separate bowl, mix together flour and baking soda. Slowly combine wet and dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips. Spoon onto baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes!

They have a good flavor, but the texture....oh how soft and chewy! I shared them with my parents and they really enjoyed them...not to mention our house gobbled them up! Try them! Let me know what you think!

If you give a mouse a cookie?

Wow! We've been busy! We are going to Disney soon and Goose and I are super excited. Pants is excited but not nearly on the same level, and the baby has no idea-ha! Just wait until she is there though... *insert slightly ridiculous little kid grin* So..I've been focusing on planning our trip (or attempting to plan, how do I know what the days will bring and if kids will be tired out for dinner reservations?) I am also making shirts for the littles. :)

I've been working on Etsy and trying to sort out insurance (Pants switched jobs and our pediatrician doesn't take our new health insurance, but I was able to work it all out-yay!)   I have  also been on the hunt for the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe. I have tried a ton, and had one I thought was *the one!* but then, I saw a new recipe that I was compelled to try and man, oh man..it is a toss up. I will have the recipe and reviews posted in a few days, and you can decide for yourself!

Until then...

The kitten.

Recently, on a trip to Florida (July) we decided to adopt a kitten. I was still a mess after losing my Toby Cat, and I didn't really want a cat. Then, I met this cat...he looked a lot like Toby did when I saw him for the first time so I had to ask about him. I found out he was born on my birthday, and his name was Keith...(Toby Keith inspired Toby's name). Well, we adopted him for Goose and GirlBaby. The girls love him, and he loves them!

We had a hard time deciding on a name...I wanted to name him Feeny. (Yes, I love Boy Meets World) but it didn't seem to fit. Then we thought Desi..(Desi Armaz...Ricky Ricardo) but it just didn't click for me..but the baby would point and exclaim Kitty!! She did this one day and it reminded me of the movie Monsters Inc, so we ended up naming him Sullivan after the  James P. Sullivan character.

So here he is, meet our new kitty Sullivan. He has been with us a month and a half and so far so good!

My oPINion: slow cooker teriyaki chicken

Hi all! It's another recipe review for my opinion! A slow cooker recipe so it's even better!

I recently found a pin for slow cooker teriyaki chicken (find it here) I was intrigued and had a bunch of chicken to use so I made some plain chicken in the crock pot to use for other recipes, and in my other crock pot with the other half of the chicken I made the teriyaki chicken. I was actually surprised, it was pretty good! We served it over rice. Plus it took maybe 5 minutes to put together. So easy and I had the ingredients on hand!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredíents

1	lbs chícken, díced
1	cup chícken broth
½	cup teríyakí sauce
⅓	cup brown sugar
3	garlíc cloves, mínced

1. Combíne chícken broth, teríyakí sauce, brown sugar and garlíc cloves ín large bowl.

2. Add chícken to sauce, and toss to combíne.

3. Pour chícken míxture ínto crock-pot.

4. Cook on low 4-6 hours, or untíl chícken ís cooked through.

5. Serve over hot cooked ríce and spoon extra sauce íf desíred

What do you think? Is this a recipe you would try? If you try it, I'd love to know what you think!

My o'PIN'ion: Garlic/Brown Sugar Chicken

I always pin a ton of recipes, and wonder..are they really as good as they sound? Obviously opinions differ, but in my "oPINion" posts, I'm going to take pins from pinterest and review them, and you can decide for yourself, or feel free to comment with your opinions! I'd love to hear them!


So, the brown sugar/garlic chicken...in my head this sounded so good. I had pinned an easy recipe (see it, here) and was looking forward to trying it. I followed the instructions and got it in the oven and it smelled sooo good! I couldn't wait to try it...sadly, when I did try it, it didn't taste anything like it smelled. It was very bland, and the bites that did have flavor were just...odd. I was really let down because it honestly smelled SO good, almost like Chinese food. It wasn't bad tasting, it was okay, just really a let down compared to the smell. Even Pants said it was "different" and he will eat almost anything! We all ate it, but I probably wouldn't ever make it again. I did see a different slow cooker version of the recipe (check it out here) with more ingredients that sounds like it would have a lot more flavor, and taste more like it smelled, and I am considering giving it a shot. I will update this post when I try it.

Have you tried a version of this recipe? What were your thoughts?

Valances

I've been wanting some valances for our kitchen, but haven't found any that I love. So after finding some fun fabric, Pants and I made some valances! They took about 20 mins and only cost as much as the yard of fabric since we already had foam board. I used foam board left over from a home improvement project, less than a yard of fabric and straight pins!

First I measured the window, and we added 2 inches. We cut a piece of foam to go across the front of the window, and one inch pieces to box it in. Like in this picture:

Once the pieces were put together we ended up with this:

I then laid these on the fabric and cut it to fit and pinned it to cover the foam. I forgot to take pictures of this step, sorry! Once the fabric was pinned I ended up with this:

It was super easy, took no time at all, and we like how they turned out!

Week of 7/22/20113

What a  busy week so far! Goose started school (first grade!) and Pants started a new job, yay! I've been finishing up some projects (shirts for the girls, a bench for the entryway and a wall hanging) which I will post soon, and yesterday I opened an etsy shop! I really need to work on it some more but to check out what I have so far, click here.

I'm working my way through my to do list, keep your eyes peeled for some of my projects!

Stuffing mix meatloaf

I will start out by saying, I am not usually a fan of meatloaf. I just don't care for the tomato/ketchup/bbq sauce topping. I like the meatloaf but not the topping..and my mom and Gram always have that on top. Pants mentioned how much he likes meatloaf though, and so I thought I should find a recipe to make for him and the girls. I don't want to not serve them a meal because I can be picky.


Here goes:





One lb ground beef (or turkey!)
One egg
One cup of water
One box of stuffing mix (I use Stovetop Turkey Stuffing)


Mix together, put in loaf pan and bake at 350 for around 45 minutes. It was a hit! Plus it was super easy, yay!


*I was making this using ground beef but I've started using ground turkey and it's so good, better for you, and plus the ground turkey is cheaper than the beef! Now that I'm challenging myself with our grocery budget, that's an even bigger plus!


I hope that you'll try this and let me know what you think!

shop kick?

I've been hearing a lot about something called shop kick lately, which is a reward app for your smartphone. Apparently you can earn rewards just for walking into stores...after hearing about it daily for a couple weeks I've decided to give it a try and do a review!

So far I see plenty of stores near me, and once in a store you can scan products to earn more 'kicks' or rewards. I got the app last night and will update more as I go along!

If you want to join me (and help me earn points which helps me review!) click here!

Letter Printables

In my last post I shared a "You are My Sunshine" printable. I'm working on some letters for the girls' room. Here are some other letters I've finished, feel free to use them if you want, I will be adding more soon!

You can get them here: Letter A, Letter E, Letter L

You are my sunshine..printable

So I have been thinking of redoing Goose's room. Well, actually a few rooms, and hers is one of them! I want some new things to hang on the wall, the artwork that she used to have stayed in the room that is now the "nursery". She currently has letters for her name, but not much else, soooo I've been playing around with some ideas. I started with one that says "You are my sunshine" because I've sang that to her since she was born! I decided to offer some printables of what I've been playing around with! You can get it here I am working on more and will share them as soon as I finish them! ♥

 

 

Toby Cat..a celebration and shout out..

As you read in my goodbye post, I lost my dear sweet Toby Cat. He was my best friend. A furry companion. Even being the mess I am, I knew I needed to do something to remember him. To have (for me) and to respect the life he lived. I looked ALL OVER for some kind of memorial stone and they were expensive or just not what I had in mind. I found petmemorial.net, went to their site and they are amazing! I got just what I wanted and they were so great to deal with. They were fairly priced, and as heartbreaking as it was to have to find (or even need) a stone in the first place, it is beautiful. It's perfect for Toby and I love it. It really truly is beautiful. If you need one, or know somebody who does, I couldn't recommend these people enough.

And now to celebrate my handsome Toby Cat..

Isn't he handsome? 

I miss him more and more each day it seems...

Teacher Appreciation!

My girls are getting so big! We had an event at Goose's school today, and I am one proud mama. She is so big, she will be 6 next month! This is almost as insane as Little Bear being one! They are both a constant amazement to me, doing and saying so many funny things!

Today was the last day of teacher appreciation week at school and we gave these to her teacher and assistant.

It's a full size hand sanitizer and we traced Goose's hands and wrote Thank You and You deserve a Hand! Very easy and so cute. I got the idea from a pin I saw on Pinterest and the teachers loved them!

Her teachers truly are amazing, she loves them. I'm working on end of the year gifts for them as well, which I will be sharing soon!

I hope you remember to say thank you to any amazing teachers you know, they are a huge influence in our children and a great teacher is priceless!

Goodbyes are never easy...

I've debated heavily on posting this post. It's much much more personal, but it's a glimpse into who I am.

My heart is heavy as I write this post...maybe heavy is not the right word, because, that implies that my heart is whole, and it is most definitely not.

It's been one week since I had to say goodbye to my beloved Toby. He was a cat that I had for 11 years. He was so much more than a cat though...he really was a furry little human and didn't really behave like a typical cat. He was my best friend and has seen me through my entire adult life..good and bad..I got him when Pants and I started dating. He saw me through graduating, our relationship, moving away from home and in with Pants...the start of my adult life. My marriage, anniversaries, pregnancies, the birth of my babies....he was always a constant. He was and is a big piece of my heart. To say I am having trouble with his unexpected passing is not even close to describing what a mess I am. I knew he couldn't live forever but I really thought we had more time, but isn't that usually the way it goes? It was so sudden and with no warning, at the vet in November they told me he was healthy and they wouldn't have guessed his age! I miss him terribly, he was a huge part of my daily routine and it's the little things that set me off. The pet aisle at the store. Not having him on my bed at night. Going to feed him out of habit and not having a dish to fill. Little (big) things.                                                                  

I am aware that most people simply don't understand. They think he was just a cat, or that I can get another cat. Reality is that is simply not true.  Perhaps you think I'm a crazy cat lady, or that I'm overreacting, or maybe you have been in my shoes (if that is the case, I am SO sorry) either way, it isn't easy. It's been a hard couple months. We've overcome a lot and were back in a good place when he passed away. Why when it rains does it pour? It's a question I can't answer but... we are gonna keep on keepin on and remember the good, and soon, perhaps you will find us at the end of our rainbow...

Makeover.

Obviously the blog has been neglected. Sometimes life gets in the way and things don't go as planned. Accidents, illness, the death of a beloved pet, you name it and my little family has probably been through it in the last couple months. With things settling down, it's time to get down to business!



Some of the experiences I may eventually write about, but right now, they are fresh and I want to focus on other things!  The blog needs a different direction and to be freshened up. I want a new look and to possibly link it to a Facebook and Etsy when they are made over and opened. There are lots of good things to come, you have to weather the storm to see the rainbow, and I have done my best...sooooooo here is to a new adventure!

Back again!

Hi all,

I'm sorry I disappeared for awhile, we had some personal issues come up and Pants was in a car accident and it's been a mess. We are doing okay, and I am planning on getting back to the blog!

Here we go.......again!

New Year and Blog Goals

Hi all,

I hope everybody had a lovely and safe holiday!I've been missing for a week (a vacation to Florida, Yay!) But I'm back and getting into the swing of things! It's a New Year, with lots of new things for the blog!

Some projects I'd like to try this year:

Household Notebook
Furniture Makeovers
New Recipes
Sewing Projects (I made Goose and Bear matching Christmas pjs, and I have some patterns I can't wait to to try!

for the blog I'd like to do the tutorials, try new products, and maybe offer a giveaway or two! I'm excited for the new year and hope that you will follow me on my adventures!

♥K