Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

... a freezing cold cloudy 28F feels like 18F day. Brrr. I hate the cold. Where's my snow? It thought I lived in the South.

So what could bring me sunshine on a cloudy day? Well for starters Ellie Mae's super static un-brushed hair and her get up for today; a bright red cape and Zorro type mask which only accentuates her unkempt hair. Oh yeah and it looked super lovely when she threw a crying fit when we left this morning and she realized she left her Zoe doll in the house. {I really should have gotten a picture.} Well I "couldn't" go back inside to retrieve it for her. All 45 seconds would have caused EJ to be late for school this morning. Guess what? We were there bright and early. Actually we were the ONLY ones there at all! HA! Joke's on mom, school doesn't start until tomorrow. So what could I do but laugh!

It was alright by me. The new house is less than 5 minutes from the school so we headed over there where I battled the 3 bathrooms, fridge and the stove. The oven won. Kicked my butt big time, but I've already got re-enforcements. Easy-off! That oven doesn't stand a chance!

Once we went home for lunch I had 3 very nice surprises waiting for me in the mail box. Nothing brightens my day like some fresh new scrumptious fabric {You know you have a problem when you refer to fabric as scrumptious, delicious, or yummy :) }


I got an order from Pink Chalk Fabrics. I ordered a Sheri Berry quilt kit ($22) and an extra panel ($3) from their clearance section. Finally! I got me some Sheri Berry Holiday fabrics. They are so cute and retro. They are a little more pastel-y than I would have liked {I wish the colors were a tad more vibrant} but they are still very cute and they will go so well with next years Christmas tree theme. {I went a little nuts at Target's 75% off Christmas clearance and bought a bunch of red and aqua decorations for next year.}

I also got an order from Sew Mama Sew!
Lot's of beautiful orange and aquas, plus some pinks for my girly girl. Again they are all from the clearance section. From left to right they are:
Snails in Orange from Far, Far, Away (Heather Ross)
Swim Class Sunset from Mendocino (Heather Ross)
Aspirin Dot Orange from Windham Basics
Mobile Stripe Aqua from Mingle (Monaluna)
Damask Pink from Ava Rose (Tanya Whelan)
Ambrosia Rose from Santorini (Lila Tueller)

And lastly a catalog full of eye candy from Connecting Threads. I have not ordered from them yet but believe me they will be getting some business from me once I move. They have a ton of quilt kits at very reasonable prices. {I'm in love with the Flying Chirpers Quilt Kit} Not to mention that you can get a free yard of fabric from them!

Give them a try! I know I will. I really want to give their line of threads a try too.
Simply Type CT596 at check out and receive $5.96 off any order that contains fabric. (Expires 2/22/2010. $5.96 minimum order. Limit one per person. Does not apply to shipping costs.)

Oh and all of their books are 40% off until February 22 too!

Crock Pot Woes

One of my goals for this year has to do with food. I want to save money {and calories} by cooking at home. My "baby steps" in accomplishing this task will be:

• to have a weekly menu planned out (which I started doing in November and has worked wonderfully.)
• learning to use my crock pot
• learning to use my food storage (which will put to use the awesome wheat grinder my in-laws gave us for Christmas.)
• realizing that life gets in the way and even the best laid plans will go awry and it's perfectly ok to have pizza on speed dial!
  

On a recent trip to BAM (Books a Million) I found a real gem of a cook book.

This cook book has almost 200 crock pot recipes and so far I haven't seen a single one that calls for "cream of anything." That in itself sold me on the book! It does have some other awesome qualities too; pictures of every recipe, it comes in a 3 ring binder so you can add or take out recipes while you cook {not so great if you happen to buy the only copy that some "nice" person stole 50+ pages from!} recipes for everything including breads, desserts, soups, dips, main courses etc. Oh yeah and it was only $10.

Well the first recipe we tried out was "Smokey Chipotle Cassoulet" and it was awesome! Mine turned out a little more soupy than what was pictured in the book. It was pretty much like a southwestern/Mexican chili. If you decide to try this out WATCH OUT! One large chipotle will do you in. I recommend half, or less if you want your kids to eat it! We toned down the spiciness with sour cream, cheese and some Doritos (on the second day.) My kids were troopers and had 2 bites before I gave them some cereal for dinner instead!

Well tonight we tried out "Pesto Rice and Beans"


While the taste was there it sure wasn't going to win any prizes in the looks department! {Yeah... it looks nothing like the picture in the book.} My problems started after it had been cooking 2 hours and the rice didn't even look remotely cooked. I guess my crock pot takes a really long time to heat up on "low" so I cranked it up to high for 30 minutes, checked it and decided it was finally hot enough to cook the rice, added a bit more water and let it cook for another hour on low. Well the rice on the bottom cooked well, the rice towards the top was still a little bit crunchy, and once you mixed in the pesto it just turned to mush! This recipe was in the section labeled "creative cooking" {what's that supposed to mean?} so I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be a main dish or what {I'm thinking it's more of a side dish.} I think this recipe would have given me less trouble had I cooked it in a regular pot! Oh well, live and learn!

Here is a similar recipe if you want to try it out. {And hey! hers looks like mush too!}

Project 365

Happy New Year everyone! Did you make it to midnight? I surely did not! {I did not even make it to midnight Eastern time and I'm in Central time.} I could not stay up even if my life depended on it. {I know I'm so lame! LOL} My days of staying up late ended with my first kid. That's alright with me. Staying up to ring in the New Year is not on my priority list. The New Year will be ushered in with or without me so I figure I don't need to stay up. The important thing is that I have reflected on the year that has passed and have set new goals to make 2010 even better for my family and myself.

My SIL wrote me yesterday and suggested I join her in doing Project 365. I have been meaning to try this out and figured there is no better time to start than on January 1st! Basically project 365 consists of taking a picture a day for a whole year in order to better chronicle your life. By snapping a picture a day you should, in theory, be able to capture the day to day and "little things" in life.

What a great way to share your life with your posterity! Consider it keeping a journal in photography form {I'm pretty sure it counts as keeping a journal! ... because I said so.} Think about your great great grandchildren poring over your album {I want to have mine printed into a book at the end} and laughing and pointing at your ridiculous fashions, your sad attempts at gardening, following your grand adventures, and seeing the love shared by your family.

Rather than bog down my blog with a daily image I have created a collection on Flickr for my Project 365. I will post a mosaic on this blog at the end of every week to share my images with you.


So will you be keeping a traditional journal this year or a photo journal??? I'd love to see yours if you keep one.