I spend a lot of time in this spot. All of my herbs and spices that I use regularly are stashed in a convenient shelf that I hobbled together, right by the stove. It makes life much easier and it’s faster to find the spices and herbs I need with them on the counter, and organized alphabetically. I also don’t have to sacrifice precious cupboard space and they take up such a small footprint now. I still have my separate baking cupboard that I need to deal with, which will happen eventually. I am really starting to appreciate living in a small house. How I am forced to re-evaluate my “stuff”. I am finding new uses for some items and finding that other things, though they seem nice, just aren’t essential (and perhaps make life a little more difficult!?).

Popcorn, anyone? How about you get out the step-stool and pull the popcorn maker from the highest cupboard, give it a quick wipe (dust, because we don’t use it often), make the popcorn, and then clean the machine. Oh, and the popcorn maker sprays popcorn everywhere, so be sure to sweep up any stray popcorn or kernels that made it onto the floor. That sounds super fun! Or… Use a brown paper bag, add a handful of popcorn (1/3 cup or so), fold the top a few times and stick in the microwave for two to three minutes. When it’s finished popping, open and sprinkle with salt and melted butter. Shake and eat. Much easier and less mess. AND I now have more storage space.

I Listened to…

Somebody That I Used to Know (feat. Kimbra) from Gotye. I totally took advantage of the “One Coke. One Song.” promo that my favourite soft drink maker is hosting this month and snagged the song for free on iTunes. I am also listening to the free audiobook “Golden Age of the Solar Clipper – Trader Tales 6: Owners Share” written and read by Nathan Lowell. It’s a bit of space sci-fi cheesiness and I am super enjoying it. Find out more about the series at the Solar Clipper Diary.

My Facebook Status…

Poe is running around with a Boba Fett helmet on and saying “I’m PoePoe Fett”

I made…

My Mom’s Coffee Cake. My way… Blueberry Oat Coffee Cake. (Recipe on the way)

Mother’s Day “Caveman” Hand-Towels | Mother’s Day present for Nonnie. This was a little difficult to do with the toddlers, but we had fun. And Nonnie gets to have permanently dirty kitchen towels. (^_-) I rubbed paint onto the kids hands and had them (i helped a little) press their hands onto the towels. I printed and cut out their names on the freezer paper, because my writing is somewhat totally illegible.

To get an idea about the process, I googled “freezer paper stencil” and just went from there. For the more complicated designs, I cut a piece of freezer paper to fit into my printer. After a bit of searching, I found the design I wanted to print and very carefully fed the freezer paper through my printer (print on the non-glossy side… this may be dangerous for your printer… proceed with caution). After I printed the design, I cut it out and ironed the stencil onto the fabric (glossy side down).

Hunger Games Tee | I made this one for my oldest. Hmmm… Too bad the shirt is a little big for him. Oops! (=.=)

To prevent paint leakage, I placed a board (I went with a cutting board) under the fabric (for the shirts, I placed board in-between the front and back). I then ran a bead of paint at the top of the stencil and pulled the paint down with a plastic scraper (on the paper…try. to. stay. on. the. paper… see Hunger Games shirt) and added paint as needed. If you are patient (I am not), wait a little while for the paint to dry before you carefully lift the paper off of the fabric and voila… awesomeness.

Star Wars Tee | Because Poe thinks Darth Vader is rockin’, I had to whip up this tee.

The paint instructions on the bottle advised: Air dry 24 hours. Heat set with dry iron, using press cloth. Hand wash cold, after 72 hours. Uh-huh. Right. Like a 2 year-old will want to wait to wear his Darth Vader shirt. So yeah, I skipped the “Hand wash cold, after 72 hours” and the paint didn’t seem any worse for wear when I washed the shirt with the regular laundry. Uhmm… I may have also skipped the “Heat set with dry iron”. (-_-’)

Patterns | Playing around with stars to make jean patches.

Patterns | And a little bit more fun

The templates
Darth Vader (I modified slightly) via Cricut Cardiologist
Hunger Games via papercuts

If I ignore this enormous mountain of dishes, what do you think might happen? Some mornings I just don’t feel like doing much. I’ll give them another hour, then if they’re still dirty, I guess I’ll tackle this task. And only because I need some of those dishes to prepare the best ribs (Slow-Cooker Easy Barbecue Ribs from Mmm…is for Mommy!) you have ever tasted. There’s still time if you want to come over and do a few dishes. And just like in The Little Red Hen, those who help, get to eat awesome food.

[Modified (no preservatives, artificial flavours, or msg added) Clip-art - Hen: Free Vintage Digital Stamps. Crock-pot: Me, haha. Ok, that is lame.]

A family favourite. Quick and easy to make, a winner in my book. I am not sure where I found the original recipe, though…

Stir together
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Combine
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
Add to flour mixture and mix well.
Stir in 1 cup of frozen berries (blueberries & raspberries work awesome).
Turn into parchment paper lined 8 inch square baking pan.

Bake at 375 F for about 30 to 35 minutes. Cool 5 minutes and remove from pan.

If you’d like sift icing sugar over cake. Or maybe serve with ice cream.

Okay... I love you too.

“Children will not remember you for the material things you provided but for the feeling that you cherished them.” – Richard L. Evans

Bad Weather?

Happy

Don’t let it stop you from stepping out and going for an adventure.

Bunny-Ping

<3

Pajamas should be comfortable and what is more cozy than a worn-out favourite t-shirt? When I saw The Mother Huddle’s tutorial for Scrap Buster Pajama Bottoms, I knew I had to make Poe a pair of t-shirt pj bottoms.

Poe was really stoked to model the pajama bottoms and he liked that “Mommy made it.” After modeling the bottoms, he refused to take them off and wore them all day.  Tone, my oldest, said “they look store-bought.” Which was very sweet of him (considering the flaws… my fault, nothing to do w/ the tutorial). I do think Tone may have been buttering me up, the next thing I know he was asking if I could buy him a chocolate bar.

I found the link to the pajama bottoms on Pinterest via Ooty Yaacobi, who has pinned lots of fun projects. Actually I have found many, many, many other interesting things on Pinterest.

Yesterday, I also made Slow Cooker, Chicken, Broccoli and Dressing (Stuffing) from Family Friendly Frugality, which I pinned (of course). I am renaming it The Easiest Chicken Dinner, Ever. I didn’t take a picture of the dinner, but if you read the blog post, they really are telling the truth about how it looks. Not. Pretty. The article suggested not making anything else. hahaha I whipped up some mashed potatoes and gravy to go with the dinner, the only thing missing was the cranberry sauce. Easy and everyone liked (even Ton, until he found out that the mush was stuffing… lol), my kind of dinner. I <3 my slow-cooker.