House Dreaming

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-20T10:14:00.001-08:00

Our Top Ten Holiday Card

Turn family photos into holiday cards at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Quinoa

2011-10-10T18:00:00.000-07:00

Quinoa is my new craze! I love it! One of the main reasons that I like it is because it gives me another option in place of rice or potatoes.

Quinoa is a species of goosefoot!? I don't know what that is either. What I do know is that it is grain-like and a good replacement for rice in any dish!

So, I decided to try replacing the rice in one of our favorite dishes with quinoa.

Uncle Ben published this recipe on the back of its parboiled rice. The recipe is called California Beef Rice Skillet. Here is the recipe:

1 lb ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
2-1/2 cups water
1 cup rice
3 beef bouillon cubes, crushed
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 cup shredded Monterrey Jack cheese

Brown beef with onion in 10″ skillet; drain off fat. Stir in water, rice, crushed bouillon cubes, and dry mustard. Bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until liquid is absorbed, about 25 minutes. Stir in green pepper and tomato. Sprinkle cheese over top. Cover and remove from heat. Let stand 2-3 minutes to melt cheese. Serves 4-6.

A lot of times we double everything but the meat, cheese and bouillon. We are more rice/potato/veggie-eaters than meat-eaters.

So, instead of the rice, I used quinoa. We all loved it! Even my husband who is a if-it-is-good-don't-mess-with-it kind of guy!

There is one slight problem! When eating on a budget, there is a reason why they do not say eat quinoa and beans! I am still shopping around, but it seems like quinoa is about double the price of rice.

Baby Quilt Finished!

2011-06-23T23:54:00.000-07:00

Inspired by a post I saw on Pinterest.com, which was pinned from Crazy Mom Quilts, I finished this baby quilt in a flash! It only took me two evenings to do, and that is after the kids were in bed! So fun and so easy!

The finished quilt contains 24 8-inch blocks.

To construct the blocks, you need to do the following:

Cut 24 6.5-inch x 6.5-inch blocks of two or three colors of your choice.(I used scraps of various blue and pink fabrics. Four of the blue fabrics I used the "Soft N Comfy Bubble Velour Fabric"...perfect for babies!!)

Cut 24 6.5-inch x 2.5-inch strips of background fabric

Cut 24 8.5-inch x 2.4-inch strips of background fabric

Construction of the blocks:

First sew the 6.5-inch x 2.5-inch strips to each of the colored squares. Iron seam toward the colored block.

Second, hold the sewn block with the background strip on top. Sew to the right side of the blocks the 8.5-inch x 2.5-inch strips to each of the colored squares. Again, iron seam toward the colored block.

Lastly, lay out the quilt squares and sew them together making the background zigzag.

EASY and FUN!

Now I am debating if I should put on a border or just leave as is.

My Dad!

2011-06-20T17:00:00.000-07:00

In honor of Father's Day, I thought I would post a picture of my dad and a quick couple of stories!

I now live over 2000 miles away from my parents. I miss them dearly! One time before a trip “home” with my husband and kids, I was talking to my dad on the phone. I was excitedly talking about the trip on which we were about to embark, I exclaimed that I hoped I wasn’t forgetting anything. My dad replied saying, “Sarah, don’t worry. If you forget something you can borrow mine. If I don’t have it, I will buy it. If I can’t buy it, I will steal it!” Of course, my dad would never steal, what I understood him saying was, "Don't worry, you will be fine! I love you!"

Dad always made me feel so special and loved. Last time I went "home", as my mom was pulling in the lane with Grace and I as her two passengers, all of the sudden fireworks shot over our car! Dad had prepared a big fireworks show to welcome us home! I felt like a princess.

I love that guy!

I Spy Quilt

2011-05-12T11:33:00.000-07:00

About six years ago I saw an I Spy quilt where they used a magnifying glass to make it look like a big print fabric is hidden in a small print fabric. A couple of up close pictures are below so that you can see what I mean.

So after so many years of wanting to try this, I did it! I have a Husqvarna Viking Designer I sewing machine that my dear husband purchased for me! I love it! Anyways, I bought a magnifying glass embroidery design from Nobbie Neez Kids. Then the fun began!!

After completing 20 blocks, I considered how to put the blocks together. I decided to put some white sashing in between the blocks with a square on-point at the corners. I have never made a square on-point, so it was a good learning experience!

For the borders I used a shortcut way to create squares on point explained in The Border Workbook .

I am pleased with the final product. My dear daughter will be sporting this quilt on her bed once I get it quilted!

Heart Shaped Eggs

2011-05-05T12:18:00.000-07:00

I tried it! After seeing this posted on Pinterest and 9GAG, I tried it myself.

I don't know about you, but we have hard boiled eggs coming out of our ears since we decorated them for Easter! Last night I made white sauce and rice and served heart eggs with it. The kids loved it!

To make your own heart eggs, just follow these simple steps:

1. Hard boil your eggs

2. Peel the shells off of your eggs

3. Take a piece of thin cardboard or cardstock and fold it in half to make a boat to hold your egg

4. Place your egg in the boat and place a pencil or a thick kabob stick on top of the egg

5. At each end of the egg, place a rubber band around the cardboard boat and pencil

6. Let it sit in the refrigerator for an hour or until you are ready to eat the eggs

7. Unwrap the egg from the boat and cut the egg in half

I hope you give it a try. This is really fun!!

No Electricity, No Problem...

2011-04-28T10:48:00.000-07:00

...well, maybe for one evening!

We did not have electricity for the evening yesterday. It is AMAZING how much I take the electricity for granted! Even though I knew the electricity was out, I don't know how many times my husband, kids and I flipped on the light switch when entering a dark room.

A few good things did come from having no electricity yesterday. First, we enjoyed staying outdoors having nice conversation with a friend, instead of sitting inside with the distractions of the television.

Another plus is that I was able to get lost in a great book, Gates of Zion , from the Zion Covenant series!

And how fun it was to get the camp lantern, candles and flashlights out?!!

But, most of all, I found out how much I like gas stoves. Because we have a gas stove, there was no delay in supper! I jJust turned on the burner, lit a match and dinner was on its way! I wouldn't mind upgrading to this five burner someday!!

Playhouse FINISHED! Well, almost :)

2011-03-21T08:35:00.000-07:00

Here it is! Finished, except for some furnishings inside and staining the porch! The kids have already spent hours of time playing inside! They have so much fun!

While my mom was here visiting us she created some sweet valances from fabric that my dd had picked out a couple of months before.

As mentioned before, my dh would like to make a few more appliances and fixtures for the play house. As you saw, my dh made an oven with a stove top for my dd for Christmas. He would also like to make a sink and some cupboards so that my dd can have a place to put all of her toys and things!

My dh is also brainstorming ways to make the ladder to the loft better. Right now he has placed ladder rungs right on the wall. The kids have mastered the vertical climb, but they were a little hesitant at first. You can see the top rung in this picture.

As you may recall from previous posts, the loft holds a twin size bed! The girls love it! They take books and dolls up into the loft and have a wonderful time!

Thankfulness

2011-01-26T12:55:00.000-08:00

I was inspired by a post on Willette. It is all about thankfulness and not complaining about the petty things in life. What a great post it is! It is something that I needed to hear and have thought a lot about in the past few months, but haven't really acted on it.

Willette's post has challenged me to be thankful in all things. One of the main areas I need to focus my thankfulness is my current place of residence. For eight years I have, off and on, longed to move back to the great state of Iowa. (No snickers! It is the greatest state!) My husband has reminded me the importance of being content and making the best of any situation. And really, how hard is it to make the best of sunny California, especially in the middle of January?! Along with having some of my husband's loving family living right next door!? Still, I find myself antsy at any opportunity that approaches that may mean we could move to Iowa. Instead, I want to be thankful for where I am now and thankful that God knows me and loves me and I will trust in Him!

Make me be accountable to Paul's direction to the Thessalonian's: "Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

(1 Thessalonians 5:16-18)

Here are some of the things that I am thankful for:

My Savior, Jesus Christ
Being able to worship my God freely and openly
My husband and his adventuresome spirit and love for me and the kids
My two kids and the baby on the way
Our health
Living close to extended family as well as feeling loved by extended family that do not live close by.
Having a job that has blessed me and my family

The Winner!

2011-01-11T12:29:00.000-08:00

Congratulations Hilary Mercer! You are the winner of the $25 CSN gift code. I will be emailing you shortly to let you know!

Thank you to all who have participated!

Christmas Gift for our Little Girl and a Possible New Year's Gift for YOU!!

2011-01-04T13:16:00.000-08:00

My husband has outdone himself again! For Christmas he made this stove for our sweet girl!

What do you think? Very nice, eh? (Don't mind the mess...it was Christmas!)

He made it out of wood and there is a piece of plastic for the oven door window! It even includes a bottom drawer for the broiler! Since Ellen doesn't have any cupboards in her playhouse yet, she has been using the broiler to store her food.

My husband and I had a little competition with the stove burners. We each drew a template for how they should look. He picked mine! Don't tell anyone, but I think it was because mine were a little bit simpler than his -- He made cool circle burners! Once he had the template, he cut the burners out of wood, which makes a nice finish because they are raised a bit.

Ellen also received a hot pink sheet set from Grandma & Grandpa to put on the mattress that is in the loft. I was taking a look at some modern duvet covers at www.allmodern.com, a CSN Store, and found the perfect duvet cover that would go with the sheet set.

This brings me to the "Possible New Year's Gift for YOU!"

***GIVEAWAY ALERT!!***

One lucky reader will receive a $25 gift code to CSN Stores. CSN is comprised of over 200 online stores!

To have a chance in receiving this $25 gift code, please follow my blog and leave a comment below! All current followers are eligible! This giveaway will end on Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 12:00 pm PST.

One housekeeping issue in regards to CSN Stores. They will only ship to the US and Canada. There may be extra shipping charges to Canada.

OK! Good luck!

Flooring is in!

2010-11-16T20:31:00.000-08:00

Johnny has been working on the playhouse during his spare time. Recently his spare time has been pretty sparse, with getting sick, spending a day in the ER, recovering, and teaching.

Since my last post, Johnny has painted the inside a very light green, roofed the playhouse and installed the flooring.

He was able to get the laminate for a great deal at Home Depot! Doesn't it look fantastic?!

The inside is pretty much done except for the front door! Ellen is going to be moving in before we know it!

Kim Schaefer's Calendar Quilts

2010-11-12T17:00:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I missed out on a quilt retreat that my sister-in-law's family puts on each year. My sister went to it again this year. She had an absolute blast! Even though I couldn't make it, I decided to have a night of the quilt retreat in the living room! Instead of doing housework or sleeping, I spent a late Friday night starting and completing the month of January in Kim Schaefer's calendar quilts. Kim's patterns include a small quilt for each month. The quilt is the perfect size for a wall hanging, 20 inches x 24 inches.

I am ADDICTED! These are so fun! I am now working on March and April.

Kim's wall hangings are super cute and super easy! The background is made up of thirty 4.5 inch blocks. Then to the background you appliqué cute designs that you make from your scrap fabric! To appliqué you just use some fusible webbing and then stitch around the designs with a small appliqué stitch on your sewing machine!

You should try it out!!

Progress on the Playhouse!

2010-10-22T17:14:00.000-07:00

Johnny has been working hard today to get the porch and the fence for the loft built. I had the day off from work, so I made a Home Depot run with him to get some of the supplies AND we picked out paint! I was going for the body to be a tan-ish beige color with a soft white trim with plum purple accents! But Johnny thought purple would be too much. So we went with a sage green accent. The inside will be white with a hint of green.

Here is a picture of the porch! The girls are already breaking it in with their first tea party.

Johnny used 4x4s for the posts, 2x2s for the in-between posts and a 2x3 for the railing.

And check out the decking! The pressure treated wood he got was on clearance because the green is "going out of style" as Johnny said. We will be staining the deck and railing.

Here is a picture of the fence for the loft. It makes me feel a lot better with it up!

Johnny used 2x1s for the fence. They are about 3 inches apart. I think it really looks nice.

Roof is On!

2010-10-21T07:33:00.000-07:00

Johnny has finished the roof! This playhouse is coming together quickly, even with all the rain we are getting!

Each night he covers the playhouse with a tarp in hopes the wood doesn't get too wet. Whow would have thought one would need to do that in Southern California for more than one night?!

Bunk Beds

2010-10-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

With sweet bundle #3 on the way, we are in the market for bunk beds. I accidentally happened onto a site called Sweet Retreat Kids. Wow! Do they have some AWESOME bunk beds and kids beds! If space and money were not an issue, our sweet girl would become a princess nightly in this castle bed. And our good ol' boy would be dreaming of monster trucks!

Since we probably will not be able to go those routes, Sweet Retreat Kids did introduce me to a company called Maxtrix. It looks like their bunk beds are pretty nice! This is the one I have picked out! I don't think we would need to worry about anyone fighting over the top bunk because the bottom bunk is like a little fort or house!

I am putting in a request for one of these!

Playhouse Dreaming Continues!

2010-10-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

We were able to spend a few hours on the playhouse today! We decided to go with the SmartSide for the siding and we are happy with it!

Johnny also framed the porch. We are still discussing the porch floor. If we would like to go with a deck look, we need to find pressure treated wood that is a 1x. It doesn't seem like the lumberyards around here carry the size.

Here are a couple of pictures of the siding and the framed porch. We are still waiting on the windows.

The Ultimate Playhouse: Becoming a Reality!

2010-10-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

Well, it is happening. The ultimate playhouse my husband wants to build for our girl is about to become a reality!

Johnny was first inspired by the playhouse pictures in a Sunset book called "Backyards for Kids" shown here:
It is actually the one that is featured on the front!

The book doesn't have the exact plans; however, it gives a person a lot of pictures to reference. Johnny is making this playhouse with the following deminsions:

Footprint size: 8' x 12'
Porch size: 4'x 8'
Indoor size: 8' x 8'
Wall height: 6'

I am not sure how tall the roof will be. I think Johnny said something about 4' above the wall at the peak.

There is a loft over the porch. The loft will be big enough for a single bed!

There are a lot of little decisions that needed to be made in regards to the structure before Johnny could even get started.

For the siding he decided to purchase SmartSide Panel. SmartSide Paneling is affordable and good for small buildings and sheds. It is quite thin, but should do the job well. The reviews on the product were overall good. Affordability definitely drives the reviews. However, Johnny has not taken it out of the truck. He just might reconsider and go with Ply-Bead siding, which is an all-wood siding. The Ply-Bead would be a little bit stronger than the SmartSide Panel, which is made of engineered wood.

Next was the porch. Although he has not purchased any materials for the porch, he is leaning to purchase pre-treated wood and make it like a deck. I agree with him and think this would be the best material for a kid-space porch.

Another consideration was the height of the playhouse. He did some research online and called someone who sells the playhouse kits and found that these playhouses have walls that stand about 5'. Johnny wasn't sure if 5' was really going to cut it. Ultimately he decided to go with 6' walls. I am happy with this decision as well! Johnny believes that the main reason one might have 5' walls is so that you can easily cut a 10' 2'x4' in half; therefore, you would be wasting less of the wood.

Alright. So here is a picture of day one. Johnny went to the store and purchased most of the building materials needed to build the house. In the early afternoon he was stuck because the windows he ordered on Ebay had yet to arrive.

Good start! He got both walls up, now it is a waiting game until windows arrive. We are going to have some happy girls (and probably boys too) once this is complete!

DIY Pens!

2010-08-06T08:31:00.000-07:00

A few months ago my husband taught me how to use the lathe and I made the burgundy pen. My husband gave me the blue pen, which he also made on the lathe.

It was so fun and easy! You can get the blanks from Rockler and the fun begins! The two that I have are actually made from plastic, which is a little easier to start with because there is really no prep involved. Just put the blanks on the lathe and begin!

These are definitely my favorite pens!

Straw Bale Gardens!

2010-07-16T16:10:00.000-07:00

I came across a really neat idea for a kids garden on mckmama's blog. I am pretty excited about it!

You use straw bales as your "soil." The kids are absolutely going to love this.

I found some more detail instructions on the internet just by googling "straw bale gardens" Here is one from "No Dig Vegetable Garden"

Photo credit: knitsteel on flickr

Recessed bathroom shelves

2010-07-01T17:00:00.000-07:00

Soon after we bought our house my husband did a lot of remodel work, including making a hallway so that if you enter the house from the back you would no longer need to go through the bathroom to get to the rest of the house. It really was quite a maze.

However, by creating this hallway, he had to cut into the already-small-bathroom. He didn't take much out, but every square inch counted in this small bathroom.

I ran across this wonderful space saver at www.diyideas.com. It is a recessed shelving unit with a door! What a great idea!

What you do is actually create shelving units inside the wall between two studs.

This will really save us some space!

Mosaic Mirrors

2010-06-25T20:44:00.000-07:00

I ran across a really neat mosaic mirror at www.diyideas.com. I love it! This is definitely something I want to add to my "To Do" list!

It looks pretty simple! All that you need is a flat service (such as a table, mirror frame, shower floor, etc.), tiles or china or jewelry, wheeled tile nipper, tile glue and grout.

I will keep you posted when I finish my mosaic mirror. I guess I need to start it first, eh?!

Photo credit

New Barn Roof!

2010-06-22T19:11:00.000-07:00

We have a new barn roof! Our barn had been leaking and if wanted to save it, we really needed to install a new roof. The barn is tall with a steep roof; therefore, we wanted to HIRE it done so that my dad would not be climbing up there! The problem, we hired my dad's buddies (who are carpenters/roofers), but that means Dad helped! Praise God no one was hurt! For the record, it was not that I wanted someone else to get hurt! I just wanted to hire people that do this everyday, thinking they were probably used to the heights!

They completed the roof in less than three days! We bought Hutchinson Cocoa Brown Steel roofing. I think we are really going to be happy with it. We chose to use steel roofing for its benefits. It stands so well in the elements, the roof should last longer than asphalt shingles. Additionally, the reason why the roof did go on so quickly, there was no need to rip off the old asphalt shingles.

Unfortunately we have not yet seen it in person, but we have enjoyed seeing the pictures! One day...one day!!

Playhouse Dreaming

2010-06-14T17:00:00.000-07:00

So, do you remember the post about the awesome and realistic playhouses?

Well, my husband and daughter are still planning! They are saving everything that they think might be great in the new playhouse - phones, empty jars and yogurt containers, small refrigerator!

A couple of days ago my husband made the first PURCHASE! He bought some laminent flooring! It was on sale big time! I think $0.26 a square foot! Isn't that great?!

I will keep you updated on how the construction is going...or not going!

Another Giveaway!

2010-06-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

Do you remember my wall decal post? Well, check this out...HSUper Parents are giving away a $25 gift certificate for the Vinyl Wall Decals! Go check it out!

HSUper Parents: BHSE GIVEAWAY #2 - $25 GC A Lucky Horseshoe Vinyl Wall Art Decals (ENDS 6/18)