a pretty cool life.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

From Valentine's past

Pinterest certainly is able to breathe new life into old projects. Over the past few weeks, these Valentiney pages have seen a boatload of traffic.

Birdseed Valentines

Boy Valentine Shirts

Heart peanut butter blossom cookies

Homemade marshmallows

If you've been around awhile, thanks for reading! And if you're new here, enjoy!

Want to see what I'm pinning? (Besides more things to do with Nutella?) You can follow me here.

xoxo

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Ok, here's another flashback.

Both of my boys have birthdays in December, and this year they decided to have a superhero party. Of course, Baby Sister needed to join the fun, so I made a teeny tiny superhero dress.

I used the LBB Sienna pattern.

And a pile full of my old shirts. (The navy Superman shirt was a lucky clearance find from Target...otherwise I would have stenciled my own and the blue sleeve is from a pair of her brother's pants.)

xoxo

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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Weekly Pinterest

I guess it was kind of a slow pin project week this week. I'm not sure if there was a full moon, the day off of school on Monday, the snow, or what threw everyone for a loop, but the behavior out of the little humans in this house was less than desirable. Mama doesn't make much when that happens. Eh.

We did make our own microwave popcorn several times though. I gave up on microwave popcorn years ago, but making it on the stove can be a pain. (But worth it for this.) This is a great alternative and it's quick.

I also spent the last few nights working on cutting and piecing quilt tops. This one caught my eye weeks ago, and now my version of it is ready to be assembled and quilted.

Like I said, slow project week. Whatev. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

xoxo

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Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Teacher gifts

I'm not sure why I didn't share these pics earlier. (Maybe because I was too busy eating cookies?) These are the (mostly) handmade gifts we gave to Big Brother's teachers.

A box full of things I hoped they would love because I do.

Anthro homegrown mugs.

Handmade candles in mini latte bowls.

Notecards similar to these.

The brown packet in the middle is filled with amaryllis bulbs.

And if you follow me on facebook, you remember that I madly finished the poms poms in the school parking lot right before pickup. Yay procrastination. ;)

xoxo

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Saturday, January 14, 2012

Weekly Pinterest

What I made this week, thanks to Pinterest.

I don't know why I never thought to use frozen Cool Whip instead of marshmallows in hot chocolate. Hearts make everything better. (My husband likes it in his coffee, too!)

I baked a ham earlier in the week, and wanted to find a way to use the bone. This soup was a great alternative to split pea.

By the middle of the week it was too snowy and cold for me to venture out to the grocery store. Making do with what I had I hand, I make slow cooker spaghetti sauce. Definitely a great alternative to a jar of store bought, but not too exciting. Next time I'll add some Italian sausage to kick it up a little. (But the meat free version will be perfect for Fridays during Lent!)

I also made a version of garlic bread to go with it. It was good, and I really liked the cheese on it. But...the original recipe called for an entire stick of butter. Uh, either that's a typo or the recipe's author is really crazy about butter, because I used less than half a stick, and I thought I was going overboard slathering it on. Try it. Maybe I'm way off.

And you all read Ashley's blog, right? Her video today was so incredibly beautiful. Grab your Kleenex. Watch it. Choose joy.

And if you'd like to follow my pins, you can find me here.

Enjoy the long weekend, friends!

xoxo

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

The weather outside is {going to be} frightful

After a week of amazing January weather in the 50s, Chicago is due to get our first significant snowfall of the season.

Forget shovels and salt, we needed to test drive our hot chocolate recipe.

I'm not really a hot chocolate drinker, but this is awesome: drop a heaping spoonful of Nutella into 10ish oz of milk. Warm on the stove and mix. Heaven!

xoxo