Life's Whirlwind Adventures

I am very excited about one of the gifts I got my hubby for Christmas!!!  So very excited about it, I am sure he's going to love it.  If he doesn't then I am going to have to take him to the doctor to have him checked out, because he may be missing his heart !!! I tweaked this idea from pinterest, of course!  I have turned off my creativity and just allowed Pinterest to be my new muse.   I am writing this blog quite early so it will be posted on the 23rd because then he won't know about it until after he opens his gifts on Christmas!!! But the pin idea I am talking about is where you organize 12 dates in a year, one for each month and you give them to your significant other.  These don't have to be expensive, it could just be a walk along the river bank, or picnic in the park at dusk, or you can spend money on it, it's really up to you and it is dependent on what you enjoy to do.  The pin on Pinterest had all the ideas in a little basket in separate envel...

I am into baking cupcakes right now.  I enjoy baking a variety of cupcakes and have been experimenting with icing them.  That being said, here is one of my favourite recipes for cupcakes at the moment. I will not take credit for creating this recipe, I got it form Allrecipes.com .  I had found this recipe before but I had lost it.  So now I have mastered this recipe, except sometimes I take a short cut.  Instead of making it all from scratch I use a chocolate cake mix to do the black bottom part.  So I will make the cake mix and the cheesecake portion at the same time. The next step is to add the cake mix to the muffin cups, then scooping in some of the cheesecake filling. Because I use the cake box  mix I always have more chocolate cake then cheesecake so the chocolate cake actually rises up and covers the cheesecake, giving you a cheesecake center to your cupcakes. Finally, I ice these cupcakes with a cream cheese icing.  It is so good a...

I had a long weekend this past weekend. There was a Poultry show in town and my friend Tamara and I were set up with our Fifth Avenue Collection selling our jewelry there.  It wasn't a bad weekend for Tamara but I didn't do to well, I just about covered the cost of the booth, but I had a few outside orders, that made up for the lack of sales at the Event. Now about the event, I have an irrational fear of birds.  Their flapping wings and sharp claws and pointy beaks freak me out.  Yet I found myself at this show working, and eventually tuning out the loud caws of the birds.  It's amazing the amount of noise you can train yourself to block out after a period of time. Did you know that their are a lot of varieties of Chickens, not just the brown egg chickens, white egg chickens and roosters?  Yup there are white chickens, brown chickens, golden chickens, black and white chickens, chickens with red heads on their heads and black bodies, and many more.  Th...

Welcome to another Pinterest Project Blog.  I cannot even begin to tell you how much I am in love with that site, but I am guessing you are starting to realize, especially if you are a regular reader of  my blog. I am always looking for new ways to use old decorations, or decorate the house differently for Christmas.  I have a secret desire to have three to five separate themes for decorating my house at Christmas, in fact I kind of feel that way for all seasons.  What prevents me from doing it that now?  Well a few things, $$$ is a big one, sentimental reasons for another and third I am not always that creative, but I try.  While perusing Pinterest I noticed a pin of a person hanging the Ball Ornaments from string in front of their windows.  It peaked my interest then my friend Becky did it and I really liked how it looked so I looked into doing at the house. I love Black Friday sales, and I went to Canadian tire and bought a few supplies.  I...

Welcome to Christmas Season 2011!!! We are finally in Christmas mode in the house.  Last weekend we hung the lights outside and this weekend we decorated the tree.  The house is finally getting into that Christmas feeling and I am starting to get into the Christmas Spirit!! This week Lil Man and I are going to buy Christmas Presents and wrap them.  We are going to make crafts for Christmas presents from Lil Man.  We are going to make Christmas picture cards and send them out, also we will be sending out our thank you cards from the wedding.  It's going to be a busy week. Here are some of the pictures of our house as we prepare for this wonderful season of the year!!! My Winter Wonderland Village My new Nativity Scene Chandler helped trim the tree Hubby got very precise about hanging his ornaments Beautiful Christmas Tree!!!

Have I told you how much I love Pinterest???  I am seriously in love with that site, it has opened up the Internet to me in so many new ways that I am finding it hard to fit all my creative ideas into my days.  Seriously, I want to try everything I pin, but I struggle with finding time to do it all.  But I always find time for new recipes.  While on Pinterest, this Chicken Enchilada recipe kept popping up, it was very popular, pinners were saying it was the best creamy chicken enchilada recipe around.  I never pinned it but I meant to, I just kept saying,"Oh, I'll pin that later," or, "I wonder how hard this recipe is?"  Then the other day I decided to answer one of the questions, I decided to click on the photo and check out the recipe. It is an 8 ingredient recipe with 4 steps to it.  SIMPLE!!! And it is so tasty, if I wasn't on a diet I may have gorged myself on it.  So last night for supper I made the Chicken Enchilada recipe for my family...

Most of you who read my blog regularly (*blush* when I post regularly, I know my bad *blush*) will see a common thread in many of my posts lately, it's the inspiration behind them, coming from Pinterest.  If you haven't discovered this site, you need to, or you check out Stumbleupon as well, it's pretty cool. Anyways I digress, I have found a new love for the Pillsbury Crescent rolls.  I was never much of a fan of the Pillsbury baking products but after discovering these ideas I am hooked!!!  It's just taking the crescent rolls and adding different ingredients to them to create great after school snacks or meals on the go. So far I have added hotdogs to the crescent rolls (Lil man's second birthday), pizza sauce pepperoni and cheese, and peanut butter and chocolate chips.  Not all at one time but on three separate occasions.  I enjoyed the pizza ones, but Chan LOVED the peanut butter and chocolate chip ones. These are the peanut butter chocolate chip o...

Some days it seems amazing to me that my Lil Man has been with us for 2 years now.  He is such a delightful little guy (contrary to what that crazy lady thought in Lacombe), his personality is becoming more and more developed each day.  He knows what he wants, he is stubborn, he is funny, he is caring, he is compassionate, he is very intelligent and he is ours.  We love him to bits!!! So this year we just had a birthday party at the house.  His friends Mason, Gracie, Izzy and Parker all came over as well as Cohen and Caleb who are both little babies, I am sure they will be more active next year.  We did crafts with the kids first, for those kids who were big enough to participate, then we opened presents, then we had food and cake. I made mummy hot dogs and pig and puppy cupcakes.  It was a lot of fun and thank you to Pinterest again for the great idea!!!  The cupcakes were super easy to make. I made pumpkin cupcakes the same from Thanksgiving...

We are currently renovating our main bathroom, the only bathroom in the house with a bathtub.  My life is in disarray and has been for the entire month of November. For starters I am excited about the end results of the new bathroom but in the mean time things have gone to pot.  I am a bath person, I would rather have a bath than a shower any day of the week. I love to relax in my tub and read a good book, and that has been denied to me for a month now.  I have gone to my in- laws house twice but that still isn't the same, it's a little awkward sitting in their tub relaxing when they are playing in the living room with lil man.  So at first we thought the project would take three weeks, but it's week 5 now and the end is only beginning to come into sight.  There have been a few hiccups along the way.  We have been found some contradictory information, and have had to work through that, neither of us feel much like working after work so we have only been...

If I have to cook, which since I have kids is something I find I have to do from time to time, I LOVE using my crock pot.  Whomever invented the crockpot is my hero, it seriously makes my job so easy. With the cold weather setting in, I'm craving soups.  I love making soups and eating soups and now freezing soups.  I really wouldn't mind being on a soup diet, except every once in awhile I like somthing crunchy and salty.  I think aside from that being on a liquid diet would be good for me except I might eat more than I should and gain weight since it doesn't take much energry for your body to break down liquids. The easiest soup recipe I know is Hamburger Soup.  This is quite honestly like the story of Stone Soup.  You know the fable of Stone Soup, where the family had nothing to eat so they boiled a pot of water with a stone in it. Whenever their neighbours came by to see what they were doing, they said they were making stone soup, so the neighbours w...

I don't usually blog about things like this, because sometimes I would like to just let things roll off my back and be forgotten, but this just ticked me off. Society is a fickle beast.  They don't want you to hit your children or yell at your children in public because it would be so bad for the child's self esteem etc, etc.   However, they want you to control your child in public and make them behave like little robots with no expression of feeling.  So if they misbehave and you buy them something to shut them up, you are a bad parent, however if they are good and you buy them something you are still a bad parent, it's like you can't win with society. So I take a middle of the road approach, I don't overreact in public because if my child is causing a scene I won't cause a bigger one.  I don't buy him something all the time but if that was the agreement to begin with then I will comply.  So when strangers come up to me to offer me unsolicited 'pa...

I know that not everyone enjoys baking, but when I bake I am in my element. I may have missed my calling as a baker but it is most definitely one of my passions.  I love baking, not cooking, but baking.  Breads, pies, muffins, cakes, cookies, English muffins, lasagna, casseroles, really if I can put it in a Pyrex dish or on a sheet and put it in my oven I will do it!!  I love making homemade bread, it helps me break out some stress relieving exercises and I get to make my house smell extra homey, AND a great treat to eat for the next couple of weeks.  Who wouldn't want their home to smell like home made bread?  Who wouldn't want to eat homemade bread for a week, at least you can pronounce all the ingredients in this bread unlike some of the store bough breads with all their preservatives. I make my homemade bread sans breadmaker.  I HATE, no I LOA(th)Ve the breadmaker.  I had a breadmaker but it always made such a mess that I only used it a fe...

I envy people that know what their passion is, I think they are the luckiest people on the planet.  I envy people more who know what their passions are and are able to make money doing what they love.  I don't know that I am one of those people.  I am not sure why, but I guess that's the way things go from time to time.  I am trying to figure out what my passions are, I am in my 30s, you would think I would know what they are, but I struggle with that.  I grew up in an atmosphere where time is money and money is time, so don't waste either.  I don't know why I keep that cliche in my head because all it does is bring me down, but I keep it in my head because I need to make money, and if I don't make money my family will struggle.  I can't do something I love if it is going to cause my family to struggle financially or so that we can not enjoy a lifestyle to which we have worked hard to earn. I went to school for 4 years because I LOVE helping people...

OMG!!! That's all I can say for that, it was so good and so tasty!!! I made Baked Potato Soup in the crockpot last week, another Pinterest idea and it turned out fabulously!!! Even Adrian liked it and sometimes he is picky about the soups he eats. I got the recipe here.   And cut it in half, with some extra potatoes.  It was easy to do and because it was in the crock pot I didn't have to stand over the stove for hours!!! Loved this one!!!

Yummy, that's all I have to say about this!!! I made some donuts with Adrian's help on Friday night.  It was a great time, we worked together and created a great thanksgiving snack to serve on Sunday when the family came over.  We used to make donuts with my mom all the time when we lived in Wakaw.  I loved it, I have so many great memories of baking with my mom, they are happy memories. I  used to think we were just baking but we were creating great memories and that's what I want to do with my kids.  I LOVE baking and stuff so I am hoping my kids enjoy doing it with me as they grow. I was in a pumpkin mood, and after the pumpkin muffins I wanted to try to make pumpkin donuts. I searched online and found a great recipe so I whipped it up and made up 45 donuts.  I struggled with the donut making as I did not have a donut cutter, nor did I have a round cookie cutter or a smaller cookie cutter to make the holes, I am telling you it was an interesting si...

Well Thanksgiving has come and gone and it was a crazy weekend at our place. We had 15 people over for Thanksgiving supper and a couple guys who stopped by afterwards.  It was  a great time. On Saturday we went to Home Depot and picked out our bathroom reno supplies.  We are completely redoing our main bathroom. It's going to be a big job, but when it's done things are going to look AMAZING!!! So lot's of money later we headed to the Rebel's game.  It was a good game, but the Rebels lost.  It was fun going to the game with everyone again, It's been a long time since I have gone to a hockey game with the family. Then on Sunday we had Thanksgiving supper.  It was a big production. Adrian had bought a large turkey.  Ok when I say large, I mean this was the largest Turkey I had ever heard of.  It was 31  LBS.  Yup 31 LBS for 15 people.  That means we got 2 lbs of turkey each.  Needless to say I have a lot of Turkey still...

Sometimes crafts are simple, so simple that you can't believe you didn't think of them before.  The craft I did today was one that seriously took an hour of my time from start to finish.  The only reason it took an hour was because I let Lil Man walk instead of pushing him in a stroller. Since this is the season to be thankful  for all we have, I thought it would be a great idea to make a Tree of Thanks.  I saw it on Pinterest  and I added it to my Thanksgiving traditions board.  It may even be something we keep around until Christmas, it seems like a fun idea. So Lil Man and I went out walking today to collect some twigs.  I collected the twigs he just walked with the dog.  It was a great walk and it tuckered him out which gave me two glorious hours of peace and quiet in the house.  When I got home I also picked up a few pine cones from under our pine trees and brought them inside.  I put some glass stones in the bottom of a vase ...

I love Thanksgiving and Fall for one reason only, and no it's not the weather, PUMPKINS!! And all the different pumpkin dishes you can create with Pumpkins.  The drinks at Starbucks, the Pumpkin pies in the store, the muffins, the cookies, and so many other things as well.  I read a tweet from @jeffschroeder that said "On our way 2 Seattle & I stopped 2 get a tasty pumpkin smoothie.  Why is Pumpkin only a delicious seasonal treat?  I vote 4 pumpkin yr round"  and I totally agree. So I am a happy baker at this time, because I can make all kinds of pumpkin treats!!! For my next Pinterest project I am made Pumpkin muffins for Thanksgiving.  I found the pin originally on my friend Becky's board and followed the link to the recipe.  Yesterday afternoon, Lil man and I made these muffins and they turned out fantastic.  FANTASTIC so tasty, my eldest son loves pumpkin stuff too and tried to eat all of them, but I froze them to save them until Fri...

I love to be Organized, unfortunately, sometimes getting to this stage is a lot more difficult than one would suspect.  I try very hard to stay organized but it's so easy to be lazy or lax in your intentions and then things get lost all over the place.  This makes things a disaster and then it is hard for you to get to that place you need to be in order to have success.  I truly believe that successful people are very organized.  I am on my way to being that. There are a lot of things I want to do with my life, so many in fact that sometimes I think they are competing for attention and then disorganization happens because I only half way complete any one project.  Trust me I know my faults, and starting things but never finishing them is definitely one of them.  So I am going to start at the basics and work my way to successful organization that I can transfer to all areas of my life, family, work, home based business, writing, I know I can do it I just h...

Thirteen years ago my exes father made us a microwave stand for our kitchen.  It was either made for us or given to us by his sister.  When we split up I inherited that piece of furniture and it has moved with me to every house I have lived in.  Three years ago it ceased to be a microwave stand and became a counter top and junk drawer where all the junk got tossed.  It was becoming an eye sore and hard to keep clean.  I am sure many of you know that most stuff that ends up in junk drawers is stuff that you think,"Oh, I'll get to that later." or "Oh this will be a good place to keep this for now."  If not well now you know my train of thought. We have so much paint in our house from having to repaint every room in this place, we aren't done yet, but we are getting there.  So I decided to refurbish my ugly microwave stand.  It wasn't ugly when we got it but after years of wear and tear it was showing it's age.  I hauled the stand downstairs a...

So I tried a new recipe out on Sunday.  It seemed like a pretty neat idea when I read about it on Pinterest so I thought what the heck let's try it. I really enjoyed it.  I took eggs and milk and mixed them together like scrambled eggs. Then I sprayed my muffin tins with cooking spray and lined them with Maple Turkey Breast.  I did it so the meat formed a cup like a muffin cup. Next I poured the egg into the turkey meat and then I added tomatoes and onions and cheese to top. Finally I baked them in the oven for 30 minutes pulled them out and served.  It was a great 40 min recipe with cooking time.  Perfect for busy mornings because they were great reheated as well!!! I suggest this for a change from regular egg breakfasts, you could use any meat, ham, chicken, which ever and any omelet additions as well.

So another GREAT pinterest find was the idea of using Chalk board paint on your pantry doors so you can keep track of grocery list and meal plans.   I loved that idea.  I also hate my white kitchen cupboards so GUESS what I did today!!! 2nd coat inside door second coat outside door I painted my pantry doors with chalk paint.  I am lucky I guess because my kitchen cupboards have some design on them that makes it easy to choose where to chalk paint.  After two coats I have some new chalk boards in my house.  I think these will be great for us and for Lil Man as he has taken to colouring on walls as of late.  Trust me I am very frustrated with this behaviour but hopefully this will help him learn where he can colour and where he can't.     I am loving this idea and when we redo our kitchen in the next couple of years I will be incorporating this idea for sure!!

So this is another of my Pinterest projects.  I made for supper Spanish Rice and what turned into a recreated Chicken Parmesean.  I didn't have parmasean cheese so I had to improvise, it actually turned out really well and I will make it again. So I learned how to make Spanish Rice from my best friend Alex.  I still think her's tastes better but I am a work in progress.  This is definitely an easy recipe to make once you know what to do. So to begin with you chop up 2-3 tomatoes (this is dependent on size).  Cut them into blend-able cubes and blend them up.  I used my Magic Bullet and it was super easy. Next take a large pan and add some oil to the pan, heat the oil up, then add rice to brown.  Stir constantly to brown the rice.  I used 1 1/2 cups of rice and 2 tbsp of vegetable oil. Now add the Tomatoes to the rice and stir letting the rice absorb the tomato juice.  You can also add onions I do this now so the onions can take on some ...

So the other day Lil Man and I went for a walk to the park.  Lil Man loves walking to the park, but it is a little heart attack inducing for me because he doesn't like to hold hands.  He's a big boy you know, almost two and he can do it himself.  However, we have gotten to a point in our walks where he will hold my hands when we cross the street or when there are large groups of people around.  Other than that, it's 'no I do it," or "no! No Hands mommy!"  So away we went down the street to Normandeau school. We live in a area where we are close to two school and there are quite a few little parks all around, but I chose Normandeau because we have to cross the least amount of streets that way.  So away we went with our plastic bag hunting for fun colourful leaves.  Lil Man loved running along the path and picking up leaves.  He didn't collect too many but he had fun!!  After we had foraged enough leaves we went home. I had seen a craft wher...

So today is the start of my 30 days of projects challenge. I haven't worked out all the details yet, but I have decided to make use of my Pinning on Pinterest and actually make some of the interesting Pins they have on that site. I have a tendency to like things on the Internet and create bookmarks with the intention of going back to them in good time, but then things happen and life gets in the way so we don't do them and they get forgotten, but not this time, this time I am doing this for 30 days. Everyday I will do a new pin project and see how it turns out. They can be anything from recipes to crafts, to things for the kids, to even taking a tutorial and trying it out for myself. I need something to get me active and this seems like a great place to start. So today I made play dough for my son using Jello. Strawberry Jello to be exact. It smelt wonderfully and it turned out pretty great as well!! It makes a fair amount so I am thinking I will try to Kool-Aid Play dough ...