At my house this week...

we had a puppy playdate(with Mo's 3 siblings who live down the street)

I'm getting ready to put my heavier comforter back on my bed

I've been packing for Time Out For Women

I brought in all my herbs from the garden

drying lavendar(if I'm doing this wrong- can someone let me know!)

freezing parsley

I'm loving the view from front yard these days

my neighbor's tree

I'm in charge of Genna's Halloween party at school- so I've been getting that organized. This is for a pin the wart(hershey kiss) on the witch game.

I'm scrabooking for a sorority project. Scott Nisely was killed in Iraq in 2006 and we are putting an album together for his mother. We're just doing a uniform basic layout for now and will add titles and possibly embellishments later.

What's going on at your place?

Tuesday's Tasks

Ok, after a week or more of channeling all my energy into perusing fitness blogs and websites, I got back into making a few things today.

First, I finished up a couple of scrapbook pages. Not fabulous, but they are done. And I am sorry, I am too lazy to scan my 2 page layouts.


Next, I decided to try out Jessica Seinfeld's brownie recipe- you know the one with spinach and carrots in it. I made these before Genna got home. They are supposed to cool completely before you eat them, otherwise you can taste the spinach. Wanna know how they rated? 2 not so goods and 3 yes, make them agains. My boys were the ones who didn't like the taste of them. They are not super sweet, although they are extremely moist. I had a small taste and thought they were pretty good. I decided I will try and make them again, after we do some serious sugar weaning around here.




Then, don't fall over with shock, but I made something with one of my vintage pillowcases. It's a reusable grocery bag made from this awesome tutorial! I have been trying really hard at my local store, to request paper instead of the plastic, but I need to make quite a few more, before I could handle a trip to Walmart. Here is another tutorial. I really liked her produce bags too.



And lastly, while perusing more of Deceptively Delicious, I found her meatball soup recipe. It is similar to this one I'd bookmarked to try someday.


It was a big hit with everyone, well, except Genna. She didn't love it, but she ate it all without making a trip into the bathroom to toss what she didn't like into the trash. It cracks me up when she picks up her plate and heads down the hall. Of course, I don't let her get very far and she still has to eat her food, but I think it's kind of funny that she doesn't think I'll notice.

Anyway, the more I've looked at this book, the more I like it. Not because I think I need to hide vegetables from my kids, but because it has so many ideas for encorporating more nutrients than some of the other recipes I would normally make. My kids are actually pretty good vegetable eaters, but it never hurts to figure out a way to get more veggies in them!


Hope you all had a great day!

Random Ramblings on a snowy night

My breakfast everyday this week so far- Arizona green tomatoes courtesy of my Mom. Thanks Mom!



I did 3 miles on the treadmill today! My goal this week is 8 miles. I have 3 more to go between tomorrow and Friday!

Genna and I had fun at lunch watching all the birds. We pulled our chairs right up by the window and ate with our bird books on our laps.



After school, the kids and I stopped by here. The boys had to talk with a local artist for a Webelo badge. We spent about an hour with Amy. She showed us how she creates her art and spent a lot of time talking to the boys about how one might go about pursuing a career in art. It was so fascinating. I could have sat and listened to her for hours, had Genna not been extremely clingy and wanting to be held the whole time. My back was aching by the time we left. But we all left feeling very inspired. Connor spent an hour in his room sketching states. He decided he was going to draw the outline of all 50. He started with Texas, of course.

It's actually been snowing for most of the day. It was kind of nice, we had a "snow night"- Troy and Jameson got to stay home since they cancelled church. We didn't have to rush through dinner. We had time to clean up the kitchen and get showers in before American Idol started.

It's almost midnight and I haven't put my pajamas on yet. I still have on my new shirt that I got for $2.49 yesterday. What do you think? Is it cute and fun or does it just make you wonder if I am expecting?



I spent the rest of my day working on the pages I had prepped. I have 4 more to do tomorrow. Here's what I got done:
(You can click on the picture to make it bigger. Sorry I am so lazy about scanning and stitching these 2 page layouts!)

When I finish those layouts and get my office cleaned up- I am a messy scrapbooker, I want to make something for this. Heaven knows, I have enough vintage pillowcases!

Scrapbook Pages

Just wanted to share a few pages from the crop I went to last weekend. Sadly, I only got 4 done. But I have about seven 2 page layouts sitting on my desk with the pictures cropped and the paper picked out, so watch for those soon.

About me this week...

I found this fun meme on Bella Dia's blog.

On My Bedside Table:
Five Love Languages (my lesson at sorority this week was about this book)
A pair of green earrings
A picture Genna painted me
The remote for the DVD player that broke last year !?!

Next Up from Netflix:
sigh, we still have The Reading Room
The Astronaut Farmer
I Am David
Unaccompanied Minors
Evelyn
The Derby Stallion

Latest Interests:
scrapbooking with a focus of getting more pictures scrapped on one layout



On My Mind:
South Beach- finding fun new recipes & rediscovering old favorites (hot milk + sugar free vanilla syrup + a tiny squirt of whipped cream + a dash of cinnamon plus)


Learning:
to be more patient and loving

to treat my body better- my name is Kristi, and I am a carb addict!

Making:
a new ironing board cover

Earthquake cake trifle (I originally made Sophia’s recipe, only using storebought frosting, it looked awful and it was for my sorority night, so I quickly turned it into a trifle, layering the cake, homemade cream cheese frosting and a crushed Hershey bar with almonds (I didn’t try it so I don’t know if it tasted ok, but I know it looked much better!)




Looking Forward To:
my sorority scrapbook night

the Jane Austen compilation on PBS- starting this Sunday

Enjoying:
Having my parents home for a short visit


my afternoons with Genna


Amused By:
Grandpa and the kids bowling



Connor trying to win some sort of spelling contest- he has to use a thesaurus to rewrite sentences using his weekly spelling words. He prides himself on trying to find words his teacher has never heard of. Last night he picked brobdingangian to replace huge.

The birds in my backyard.

Catching Up/Creating

Ok, so far on the creative front this year, it has been all scrapbook pages. I know I will never be caught up, but I am trying to make a dent in some of the major events from last year. For January, I am going to try and do at least 1 page a day. I have done a horrible job at getting my pictures printed up. I got some awesome photo paper at Michael's today and I am going to print up a few on my own here at home. Amber & Cheryl- you can play I spy and see if you can find elements on my pages that you gave me.

Here are the ones I've finished so far...

What fun looks like...

At the baby shower...


At Red Robin(yum!)...


At the scrapbook store...


At a new found fabric shop...


Good food, good friends & good finds...it doesn't get much better than that!

Checked off!

I finished sorting fabric and notions yesterday and took some pictures of my newly organized craft room.



Don't be too scared by the first 2 pictures. I literally dumped everything out of it's drawers and organized bins so I could start with a fresh, empty slate when I put things back into the room. I was under the gun to get the room back together, since I was putting the Cub Scout supply of popcorn in my basement, the day after I started this huge undertaking.

I love my new little sewing corner. Now I just need to sit there and actually sew something. I would like to cut into one of my precious vintage sheets and make a prettier cover for my sewing machine.

For scrapbooking, I always had everything at my fingertips with paper and embellishments sitting on the back half of my desk. I decided that actually made me feel closed in and inhibited as I worked, so I cleared the desk space. I now actually have room to use my rotary cutter and mat on the corner. The rest of the desk area didn't change much. Except I have utilized more fully all the little nooks and crannies where I could stuff things, especially underneath of it. It is however, neatly stuffed there.

I folded up all my smaller pieces of fabric and put them into the baskets. Larger pieces were sorted by color and put in the fancy sterlite drawers.

Stamps, paints and other miscellaneous supplies fill up the chest of drawers. This was a garage sale find($10)from a few weeks ago. I was going to paint it and put it up in my bedroom, but I decided I could really use the storage more down here. Plans are still to paint it- especially the top, sanding it didn't tone it down very much.

Next is my leaning tower of stuff. I have A LOT of stuff crammed into this room. I needed to go upward with my storage. It isn't pretty and probably isn't earthquake safe, but it is working for me right now. The Longaberger basket on top is filled with all the magazines I have cut up over the years to organize into an Idea binder. The stack of cut out pages is almost 3 inches thick. That is a project I have almost round filed several times, but I go to toss the papers and see something cute on top and decide to hold onto them a bit longer.

I finished up another project today. Remember this?





After painting it black, I debated for a good while over which fabric I should use to recover the bench pad with. I ended up going with a totally neutral free piece of upholstery fabric that came from my Mom's stash. Since this will be in the entry way, we will put mittens, hats, etc. in one of the pull out drawers and the other side will be my return/to go place. Then hopefully I will get in the habit of putting other people's stuff there and checking it before I leave the house.

I'll leave you tonight, with a bit of randomness. Last week, I thought I was being so clever. I bought this great glass jar from Walmart and thought how cool it would be to put gourds in and put it on my newly redone entertainment center.



Although it was quite festive, it was also the perfect conditions for fungi to grow.
I ended up with furry stemmed pumpkins after only 3 days of them being in the jar.



So the moral of the story is, never display your pumpkins under glass.

13 Things

13 Things I did today:

1. Put together a puzzle with my cute little girl who stayed home sick from school. Best .25 I spent at a garage sale. She loves her Pochahontas puzzle.



2. Laundry. See, I told you, it is never ending!

3. Dishes. While I was doing these Genna pulled a stool up so she could help. It was so cute, she was singing the whole time we were working. I asked if she learned that song at school. She said no, it was a Dragon Tales song about how singing makes the work go faster and more fun. I love PBS!

4. Talked with my good friend, Cheryl on the phone. Her son is not feeling good. Hope you feel better soon, Aaron!

5. Made this recipe. I know I read it on someone's blog and I can't remember who, I am sorry.

Lentil-Rice Casserole

3 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup uncooked lentils
1/2 cup uncooked brown rice
1/4 cup minced onion
1/2 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. garlic powder

Blend all together in a casserole dish. Bake, covered for 2 hours at 300 degrees. Sprinkle with cheese and baked for another 20 minutes.

I was actually a little scared when I pulled it out of the oven, but it was surprisingly tasty and everyone enjoyed it, except my little sweetie who didn't feel like eating dinner.



6.Cleaned out my tool basket in my office. It was a MESS! And I couldn't find my adhesive. It wasn't there, but now it looks so much better.

7. Made this scrapbook page:


8.Filed bills and other important papers.


9.Cleaned out my spice cupboard. It was LONG overdue.


10. I also labeled the lids after I was inspired to do so by Laura, the Organizing Junkie. Check out her post about this.


11. While I was doing the spice cupboard, I tackled the medicine cabinet as well. It always tends to gravitate towards chaos. I think one problem is that the little baskets have to be turned sideways to be taken out. Didn't fix that problem. But it is back to being organized again.


12.Got all nostalgic listening to this song: Come on Home by Everything But the Girl. Totally makes me think of my friend Rebecca and working grounds crew at BYU.

13. Made this little package for Mrs. Schrader. Jameson told us she was turning 50 tomorrow. They are all wearing black so she knows she is older than dirt. He also is going to write out 50 math problems for her(she is his math teacher).

Sunday Scrapbook Challenge

Here are a couple of the pages I did at the crop on Friday night. I really decided I have to kick it up a notch. My memory is not what it used to be and I am afraid of forgetting important details I want to remember. I actually have a bit of journaling on the backs of both of these layouts.