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3.30.2012

Felt Flowers - What I learned

Can you believe that I have never made a felt flower until recently? You would think with little miss being 18 months old that I would've attempted it by now. It has been on my list for awhile of things to take the time to make and finally, the time came.
A couple of my girlfriends have had babies recently so I wanted to make them a headband that matched the cute outfits I had for them. I found a couple tutorials through pinterest that I wanted to try. I actually did 2 different methods.

Using my handy templates, baby food lid and cardstock flowers, I cut out the pieces I would need to make these flowers. I cut 2 circles and 5 flowers.
The yellow flower I made using this tutorial from Craftiness is not Optional. This one used hot glue. It was really easy. What I learned making these is that when you trace them with a black pen, there is NO backside, your lines are going to show.
For the pink flower I used this tutorial of a pin I found on Pinterest. I actually used a needle and thread. And although it turned out just as cute, I learned the hot glue was a lot easier. I also learned, either process took about the same amount of time.
They were so easy, that I decided to make a white flower too. I glued them onto an elastic headband and then covered my hot glued area with another piece of felt on the back.
While I was at the ribbon store buying the elastic pieces for the headbands, I saw this teeny tiny flowers that were so cute. Super simple to just hot glue a couple onto a headband!
These babies are going to be stylin with their pretty new headbands!

3.27.2012

Tasty Tuesday - Lasagna Anyone?

Welcome back to:

TASTY TUESDAY

We seem to have a lot of friends having babies lately. I wanted to take them a dinner, but most of my girlfriends have a lot of family helping them out the first couple weeks and weren't in need at the time. So I decided to take them something they could stick in the freezer and cook at a later time.

I used to think lasagna was such a daunting meal, but I have a few tricks that helped me make up 4 x the lasagna in no time.
First I made up a big batch of sauce. Yes those are Prego jars in the background. I don't make my sauce from scratch but I do add a little more to it to make it tasty. And I like the flavor of Prego the best.
Then I mixed up the yummy cheese layer. I put cottage cheese in my lasagna!
I bought my favorite NO BOILING REQUIRED lasagna and found some 8x8 disposable pans, perfect for when you are taking meals to people. I don't want them to have to remember to return dishes.
Then begins the assembly. 1/2 cup of sauce on the bottom, pasta, 1 cup cheese mixture, 3/4 cup sauce, pasta, repeat!
For the top layer I just added a little more sauce and topped that with shredded mozzarella cheese.
I covered them with foil, wrote the directions on the top of the foil and snapped on the lid. Here they are. All ready to be delivered! Perfect for one of those days when you're overwhelmed with kids and a new baby!
Here is my recipe for quick lasagna: (this is for one 13x9 size lasagna)
1 pound ground beef (or turkey)
1 jar of Prego
basil
oregano
garlic salt
pepper
sugar
No Boil lasagna noodles
8 oz cottage cheese
8 oz ricotta cheese
3 cups shredded mozzarella

* Brown your meat and drain the fat. Add Prego sauce and spices (I don't usually measure, but I would say 1/2 tsp garlic salt & 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp of each of the others). Let it simmer for flavors to meld together. Let it set and cool as you mix together the cheeses.
* In a big bowl mix cottage cheese, ricotta cheese and 1 1/2 cups of mozzarella cheese in a large bowl.
* Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 13x9 baking dish.
* Start with a little sauce on the bottom, just so it covers the bottom of the pan. Add a layer of pasta, then 1 cup of cheese mixture, and 3/4 cup to 1 cup of sauce. Start again with a layer of pasta, cheese, sauce. When I get to the top, I finish it with some sauce and the remaining mozzarella.
* Bake covered with foil for 55-60 minutes. Uncover and cook for an additional 5 minutes.
Because I froze mine, I bake them for an hour and a half to an hour and 45 minutes covered and then 10 minutes uncovered.

Hopefully this sounds easy enough that you will want to give it a try!

3.23.2012

Monogrammed Easter Baskets

I was at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago and I saw a lady at the check out with THE cutest baskets for Easter! I had already checked out and the kids were getting restless, but I was determined to return and buy those baskets for the kids this year.
The past couple years the easter baskets the kids have had have been made out of felt material and were really small. The Easter Bunny had a hard time fitting the goodies in the basket.

When I went back to Hobby Lobby to buy the baskets (there were only 3 of the smaller size left!!!), I decided I wanted to do a little something extra to the baskets. As I wandered the isles I found some chip board letters, some cute ribbon and fibers and paper to personalize my baskets.
I traced both sides of the letters onto the back of paper, cut them out and mod podged them onto the letters. I attached a ribbon to the letter with hot glue and then attached it/tied it to the basket in the location I liked best. I added some hot glue to the handle so my ribbon would stay in place. Then I cut smaller strips of different ribbons and fibers and tied them all together and using a little more glue, I made sure everything was nice and secure.

Here are some close ups!

It's not much, but it gives it a little something extra to make it special!

3.21.2012

Book of Mormon Bingo

The other day my mother in law asked me to make up some bingo cards for her primary class. It turned out to be a really easy little task. I thought that others teaching a primary class might be interested in using these cards too.

This will be a fun activity for the kids to do to help them learn the names of the books. They can use skittles or m&ms to mark the names. You can have someone open up the Table of Contents and read the books in order or you can do it randomly.

So here you go. There are 8 cards total and will print off on 2 sheets with 4 per sheet. I hope they work out for you too!


3.20.2012

Tasty Tuesday - Easter Bunny Munch

It's time again for something yummy:

TASTY TUESDAY

Today's tasty treat was inspired by one of my most favorite candies!! Do you remember these things??? I absolutely LOVE Sixlets. It's amazing how fast I can finish one of those little sleeves.
Well I found Sixlets in a bunch of different colors! I picked up some Easter colored Sixlets and knew I had to make some kind of fun treat with them!

In my pantry I found some chex cereal, melting candy and some sprinkles. The recipe is as follows:
6 cups of Chex cereal
1 lb of melting candy
Then you can add really anything after that point

Just follow the directions of your melting candy and pour that over your Chex cereal. Add your sprinkles and lay out onto a cookie sheet that has been covered with parchment paper. Let it cool and then break into pieces.
As it was cooling I added the Easter Sixlets and some bunny marshmallows (left over from this Tasty Tuesday).
I found some cute mini bags from hobby lobby and made up some cute tags. I embellished the bags with some trims and the tag. Then I filled them up!
Mr. C was ready to try out our treat! It was a hit! He was my helper in putting this together. He helped empty out the whole bottle of sprinkles into the bowl of Chex. Luckily I was able to fish most of them out before we added the candy coating!

3.17.2012

Hand Print Flower Card

I decided it was time for Mr. C and I to do a craft together. He is always wanting to help me when I have my craft stuff out and sometimes I give him a paper and "his" scissors, but the other day I actually brought out the PAINTS!
He was so excited to start painting he could hardly contain himself! I decided we should make some cards. I LOVE anything that has to do with hand prints so we made these hand print flower bouquet cards.
Using his handprint and his fingerprints, we were able to make a really cute card! You can see he really liked using his fingers on this project!
I thought these would be perfect for Mother's Day or for a fun Welcome Spring card, so I added some writing to the front of the card. I'm needing to write a thank you note to my neighbor and I think she will love the Welcome Spring card!


3.13.2012

Tasty Tuesday - Chicken Noodle Casserole

Hey All! It's time again for our 2nd installment of:

TASTY TUESDAY

I came up with this recipe one night when looking up recipes on line. I found myself looking at tuna noodle casserole recipes at kraft foods. I like tuna noodle casserole, but knew my kids and hubby wouldn't dig it.
As I was looking at different recipes, I realized I didn't have everything needed for any 1 recipe. I went to my pantry and pulled out things I had and that is how this dish came to be.
I pulled out a bottle of chicken that I canned last year, perfect for quick meals, and just shredded it right in the bottle. You could use tuna instead if your family likes that. It turned out great and everybody really liked it.

See how lazy I am? I used a disposable baking pan.

Here is the recipe for you to give it a try and see if it pleases your family too!

You should be able to click on the image and then right click to save.


One thing I forgot to mention in the directions is to drain your veggies, or if you use frozen, make sure to thaw them out first.

Here is where I'm linking up this week:

3.10.2012

Lucky Accordion Banner

So I had already decided to for go the whole decorating for St. Patrick's Day, and then my sister in law finds in her stash of "projects to make", a couple of these cardstock accordions that are green and perfect for a St. Patrick's Day craft.
She also finds a whole bunch of green and St. Patty's themed ribbon. Now that we have the basics, it's time to create!She asked me to cut out some letters using my cricut. What else would be appropriate? Of course it would have to be LUCKY! I also decided to print off a Shamrock just in case she wanted to use it.Here is her finished project. She decided to hang hers in her entry way. Don't you love the polka dots!I absolutely LOVE the U made out of pennies! Perfect for a LUCKY St. Patrick's day!
She has this hanging above her entry table next to her apothecary jar that she filled with all kinds of green ribbon. How easy is that? She also has a shamrock accent hanging from the lid.
She had enough of everything that I was able to make one too! It sadly stands alone, with no other green decorations. It sits among the flowers and veggies that adorn my hutch area in my kitchen. Hanging or sitting, it turned out to be a cute and easy project.
It's nice to know people that have extra "stuff" and like to share!


3.06.2012

Tasty Tuesday - Easter Brownies

I have been taking pictures of some of the things I've been cooking up around here that I decided I should post something I've made or something that could be made every Tuesday. I'm going to call it
TASTY TUESDAY!

Original, I know. But at least the name lets you know what the theme of that post will be!

Today I am putting together some
ROCKY ROAD EASTER BROWNIES
My inspiration for these brownies came from this pin I saw on pinterest.

After Christmas, my sister-in-law was at Target browsing the 90% off sale and found these boxed gift sets of brownie mix and silicone baking cups. I had her buy me a bunch (like 15) so I could use the silicone cups for neighbor gifts next Christmas (they were $1 each, not a bad deal). I knew that the brownie mix wasn't going to be good after a year, so I took all the cups out and put them in my Christmas stuff, and took all the brownie mixes and put them in my cupboard.
When I was walking through Walmart I saw these bunny shaped marshmallows and decided I could put the two together and make some cute gifts for our neighbors and friends for Easter.
I just had to throw in a picture of how the kids were being entertained as I put these together. They love their marshmallows and the Disney Channel!
I made a printable with the instructions for the brownies, used a 4" circle punch and attached them to the top with tape.

This jar contains things needed to make Rocky Road Easter Brownies
1/2 cup of pecans on the bottom
3/4 cup of bunny marshmallows
1 package of brownie mix

This particular mix calls for 1/4 cup oil, 2 TBL water, 1 whole egg & 1 yolk
Mix the brownie mix, water, oil and eggs together til no lumps
Add the nuts and marshmallows
Put into a greased 8x8 baking dish
Bake at 325 degrees F for 30 minutes
I made up this printable to attach to the front of my jars. If you click on the image and then right click you should be able to save/download the image, print it out and then I used a 2.5" punch to punch them out. Or you could cut them out.

I made up a batch of these for my family on Sunday and they are all gone, so I have no picture of the finished product. But they were easy to put together, look cute in the jar, taste good once baked and I think the recipients will love them!