What Do You Do When...

What do you do when life hands you lemons?

You make lemonade.

Now, what do you do when Mother Nature hands you 18 inches of snow?

You make SNOWCREAM!!

Which is what we did last night. We have most definitely been hit full force by an early wintry storm. Yesterday, we were at least able to get out and run errands. Today, we are snowed in....and it's still snowing. Fortunately our forecast for the weekend is good. That's what I like about Colorado. You get snow, then it melts. I give this round until Sunday before we see the green, green grass of home.

At least it's nice fluffy snow, which is perfect for snowcream. Have you ever had it? Mmmm, it's good. And fun for the kids to make.

Maryn enjoyed her yummy treat. Ailee, however, just blew raspberries at us.

Here's the recipe, if you've never had it.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together:

1 cup powdered milk

1 cup sugar

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 cup hot water

until the mixture is smooth. Put it in the fridge until cooled (I mixed mine up while I was making dinner, and it was cooled by the time we finished).

Mix in:
1 Tsp. vanilla

A pinch of salt

A whole lot (more than you think, or else it is too strong) of WHITE fluffy snow. If it's icy, it won't mix as well.

I always liked crushed peppermint or chocolate syrup on top. It melts fast, so eat it fast.

Enjoy your snowcream. We, in the meantime, will be digging ourselves out of the snow.

New and Most Definitely Improved

So, have you ever had a project that looms over your head for forever, just because you are just too lazy to finish it? I have millions....
Thankfully I was able to finish one!! Maryn's room. It has always been an eyesore to me. When we moved, I thought I would take the opportunity to make it cute, and not just something that looked like it was thrown together by a blind man with no money. Well, I had ideas, and few of them I finished right away, but others took a wee bit longer. First, I found her quilt on a clearance rack, and used that as my guide for colors: light blue and pink (which are Maryn's current favorite colors).
A reaaaaaaaaly long time ago, during my late night blog surfing, I happened upon a cute idea for a curtain. I finally took some initiative and made up my own pattern for a valence. While at the store, Maryn fell in love with some pink butterfly fabric (the kid's got a thing for bugs), so I rolled with that, and after several costly/frustrating mistakes and saying a lot of bad words in my head, I made this: The idea for the knobs came from this website. It was actually very easy to make the knobs. I couldn't find the exact supplies they used, so I improvised, and it turned out great.
I remade her pictures (you can see the befores here...bleh) using paper, instead of fabric. They are so much better than before.

And last, but certainly not least, I took her furniture out the garage and repainted it. That was my final hurdle. It's not hard to repaint furniture, I think it's mostly the taking it apart, hauling it down to the garage, and opening that can of paint that really makes me resent it. Oh, and the sanding. But, I usually skip anyway, because I am lazy.

Done!

Well, I thought I was. Later that evening, the bed rail broke (it's made of wood) so I had to rig it up and screw it back together. At least the side with the huge crack is facing the window. Nobody will eeeeeeeever know.
A few final touches with a cute set of hooks (sorry, I didn't have a picture), and some new, painted letters....

....and a happy little girl to fill the room!

A Morning Surprise

Look what we woke up to this morning:

(And, no, Ailee is not walking yet. I think the snow is holding her up.)

Maryn and I had a great time throwing snow balls at each other.....

....Ailee was not so fond of the snow, and cried most of the time.

I don't think this snowmobile is going anywhere, today!

Fortunately for me, I purchased my Stephens Hot Chocolate last week. Mmmmmmm. It made my morning.

Keepin' Our Pants Up

So, there's a condition that seems to run in our family, called glutialhypoplasia. Now, don't worry, don't worry...this isn't a serious condition, it just causes a few problems for those affected. Mostly pain when sitting for too long, and the purpose for today's post: difficulty in keeping our pants up. To counteract this side effect of glutialhypoplasia, we find it necessary to have an assortment of belts. For small children, such as Maryn, this can be kind of a problem. They're hard to find this small, and more importantly, they are hard to undo when you have to go to the bathroom really really really bad because you've been holding it for the last hour or two.

I was at a little boutique a while back when I saw some really cute belts. Actually, I think they were supposed to be dog collars, but it gave me an idea to make my own belts for Maryn. The supplies were pretty easy to find, and it only took about 15 minutes to make. I thought I'd give you instructions on how to make them, should your child also be burdened with glutialhupoplasia.
Here's the first belt:

Cute, huh? Here are the instructions:

1" polyester webbing

Coordinating 7/8" grosgrain ribbon

1" D ring set

about 3" of velcro

thread

I'm going to apologize now for my crappy sewing and lousy pictures.

First, measure your child's waist, with pants on, around the belt loops. Then, add 5 inches to that measurement. At your fabric store, you should be able to find 1" polyester webbing. I found mine at Hobby Lobby, and I just saw it today at Walmart. Don't get confused by the cotton webbing--it's a little bit more difficult to work with when finishing the ends. Just stick with polyester, m'kay?
Alright, so you have your polyester webbing cut to the waist length plus 5 inches. What you want to do first is to finish off the ends. This is why I prefer polyester, because it melts easily when you run it over a small flame, whereas cotton just catches on fire. (I know this because I tried it)

So using a lighter, run the end of your webbing over a flame a few times. This should keep it from fraying. Do this to both ends.

Next, take the fuzzy part of the velcro and attach it to one end with your sewing machine. (I was too lazy to switch my thread out for white...I won't judge you if you do this, too.) We will call this end, the "short end," just for clarification.Now, cut a piece of ribbon about 7" long. Finish off the ends with a flame. (this is also why I recommend grosgrain...it melts nicely) Flip your webbing over, and on the short end (see...clarificating, isn't it?) stitch your 7" piece of ribbon. At this point, you should have a piece of webbing with velcro on one side and a short piece of ribbon on the opposite side of that. Next, cut a piece of ribbon about 5 inches shorter than your belt and finish off the ends. On the same side as your fuzzy velcro, meet the long end of the belt up with the end of the ribbon, and stitch the ribbon on. It won't go all the way to the short end, but that's ok, because that end will be folded over anyway, like such: After the ribbon is sewn on, you need to put the D rings on the long end. Stitch away.
To figure out where to attach the stiff piece of velcro, it's best to try the belt on your child. Make sure you leave a little room to grow. You don't want an ugly piece of white velcro sticking out. Sew it on, and you are done!
I also made one out of cotton webbing. I had found some cute iron on butterflies, and you can't iron on polyester webbing....the whole melting action, remember? I just had to finish off the ends with some ribbon. It doesn't look as nice, and it sure wasn't easy, but Maryn likes it, and that's all that matters.

Here's that happy girl who doesn't cry because she can't get her belt off when she's gotta pee really bad.

After my adventures in children's belts, I found some 2" webbing and some cute 1 and 1/2 inch grosgrain ribbon for myself . I wish I could find it in more colors than just black.

The end.

BRRRRRCICLES!!!

It.

Is.

So.

COLD!!

It snowed a little here last week. I'm not ready to have winter. Oh, how I long for days like these:

(Labor Day, 2009)

Will She EVER Learn to Walk????

Makin' and Bakin'

So, I would not consider myself a covetous person. I mean, don't get me wrong...I like things, especially pretty things, but I don't usually really really really really want them, I just kinda want them if they don't cost very much and I'm in a purchasing mood. Well, a few weeks ago, I was browsing the internet, when I came upon a pattern.

And I felt what it was like to be covetous.

It cost way more than I would normally pay for a pattern (uhhmmm, $.99 when they have them on sale at Hobby Lobby), but I SO did not care, I just wanted it.

I bought it as a present to myself for my birthday. (See...I told I bought myself presents)

It came in the mail. I made it. I love it. (Please don't think I'm a dork)

Ok, Ok, that is not a very flattering picture (I had just finished gorging myself on delicious pizza), but it's not about my not so hot body, it's about the cute apron. Here it is from the website I purchased it from (you can click on the picture if you want to go to that website).

One of my fav features is that it is reversible. These are the two prints I used, with brown ties.

Flowers for when I'm feelin' girly, polka dots for when I'm feelin' funky. So, now that the rush of covetousness is over, I feel like I need to get my money's worth from this pattern. Therefore, if it's your birthday, Christmas, Easter, New Years, Thanksgiving, St. Patrick's Day, Civil Rights Day, Flag Day, Father's Day, the Fourth of July, Daylight Savings, Halloween, Yom Kippur, Memorial Day, Pioneer Day, Valentines Day, the first day of Spring, Summer, Winter or Fall, Labor Day, Mother's Day, Columbus Day, or the first day of school, and you receive a present from me....there's a pretty good chance it's an apron.

Since, you will all be wanting new aprons, I thought I should include a delicious recipe for pizza that requires the use of an apron. My sister, Jill, introduced me to the the Alfredo Pizza, but the dough is the product of two past life pizza slingers. Here goes:

Alfredo Pizza (yum!)

The dough (makes 2 pizzas):

1 and 1/2 cups 110 degree (or just hot) water

2 heaping tsp. of yeast

3 tsp. of sugar

Put these into your mixing bowl, and let set until the yeast is activated (a few minutes).

Add 1 and 1/2 tsp butter

1/8 cup of milk

1 Tblsp. olive oil

2 and 1/2 tsp. salt

3 cups all purpose flour

1 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour (see?? pizza IS healthy!!)

Mix all this together with a bread dough attachment on your mixer. It should make a nice dough ball. Take your bowl off your mixer, cover it with a towel, and let raise for 2-3 hours (or however long you need it to).

Once it's raised, punch it down and divide in half. You can either use both now, or put one in a ziploc bag, and freeze it until you need it (you'll just have to take it out of the freezer, the morning of, and let it thaw to at least room temp). If you have a pizza stone, put it into your oven and let it warm at the lowest temp. possible. Using pletny of flour,roll your dough out like such (I even like to sprinkle some corn meal under it once it's rolled out, which makes it extra crunchy on the bottom)--

Now, while you dough is rising a little on your pizza stone, you need to get your toppings together. This is for one pizza. First, cut and cook 1 large, or 2 small chicken breasts. I usually saute them with a little bit of oil. Season with lemon pepper seasoning. I like my onions not to be so crunchy, so I throw my cut red onion into the pan and saute for a few minutes. Then I throw into my pan fresh, cut mushrooms and just let them warm (no need to cook) and add more lemon pepper seasoning. You can also add fresh spinach, too. It's really good, I just forgot this time. Boil a big pot of water, and add one bunch (for one pizza) to the water. Cook for just a few minutes. Drain completely and squeeze all the water out of it. Next, spread 1/3 to 1/2 jar of alfredo sauce on you pizza dough (sorry, I forgot to take a picture. I was in a hurry). I like Ragu creamy alfredo, 'cause it's cheap and good, but you can use whatever you want. Spread plenty of mozzarella cheese on top, then add your toppings. Sprinkle with garlic salt. Bake at 450 degrees for about 25ish minutes, or until your cheese is turning golden brown in the middle. Enjoy!

Fall is Here...Time for Pumpkins!

The pretty falls colors and cool weather put me in the mood for pumpkins. It has definitely cooled down here (it even snowed for a few minutes a few weeks ago), so I put up my fall decor. I found a cute tutorial for pumpkins on my friend's blog. You can find it here. This is what I made.Mine are done very cheaply. I found fat quarters for $.99 at Joanns, and used an old pillow for stuffing. The tutorial suggested home decor fabric, but I wasn't in the mood to browse the aisles with an unhappy child. This works for me!
This pumpkin was my favorite. For some reason, the shape turned out much cuter. The others were kind of square and may or may not look like pumpkins.