Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Lisa Leonard

You know who Lisa Leonard is, right? I ADORE her stuff but currently have none. BUT a fellow blogger is having a $50 gift certificate giveaway to the Lisa Leonard store so I am blogging about the giveaway so I can earn another chance to win! Lisa is an amazing artist who makes beautiful jewelry. I would love to have one of her pieces. This could be my chance!

Thanks flower patch farm girl for having the giveaway. Now get over to her blog and try to win along with me on THIS POST.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

New Mercies

It's 6:34 p.m. and I am drinking a cup of coffee because it has been one of those days...actually a few of those days. We have been dealing with sick kids and now a sick hubby. I am not sure which is worse but I think it might be the sick hubby. I have forbidden the girls to go near him as I don't want the little one sick again or the big one sick at all so that means I am flying solo while he lies miserably on the couch.

I am PLUM WORE OUT! I've tried to catch up on all our regular laundry plus sickie laundry like blankets and such. There are also more dishes it seems when we are sick so I've been trying to keep up with that. There is also the extra runs to the grocery store for Sprite, yogurt, chicken noodle soup, toilet paper, and such.

I also feel like a deer staring at headlights as 1/2 of my family has had the flu and my oldest has been running a fever today but no other signs of being sick. I don't want to get sick. It's not good when Mama is sick.

And oh my, the little one...well she has been a SPITFIRE since being sick last Wednesday. Last night was bad, bad, bad and today hasn't been much better. It didn't help that she had to get some shots yesterday either...they made her even more grouchy. I'm about ready to pull my hair out right now...but I won't since I don't think it's a good look for me.

So it has been a movie, tomato soup (from a can) and grilled cheese kind of night. My attitude has been sour and I am ready to put these littles to bed and collapse into a pile.

I am so grateful that His mercies are new every morning because tonight I am clinging to that.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Holiday Recipes

I tried out some new recipes this past Christmas and New Year season that I wanted to share with you here and so I can remember where I found them. They were all winners but things that I probably would only make for a holiday or party. We ate well as you can see from this picture taken on New Year's Eve at my in-law's cabin.
Happy New Year
I am a big believer in having a yummy special breakfast on Christmas morning after the opening of presents. I had found a recipe on The Pioneer Woman's cooking blog a few weeks back and knew I had found what would be made for my family. The recipe is called Make Ahead Muffin Melts and you can find it HERE. These were so, so, so, so good and so easy. You make the egg mixture the night before so all you have to do the morning of is scoop the mixture on english muffins and broil. They were superb and got rave reviews!

On Christmas Eve we had snacks to eat while watching Despicable Me. I made homemade French Onion Dip from an Alton Brown recipe on the Food Network site. You can find the recipe HERE. This again was an easy recipe to make and the results were 1,000x's better than the plastic container stuff from the grocery.

On New Year's Eve my mother-in-law and I made an incredible ham from a Neely's recipe. We had watched them make it on their show and knew that this was to be our New Year's Eve masterpiece and that it was! It was a show stopper as you can see from the below picture. The recipe is found HERE.
Happy New Year
And now it's a new year and we're all looking for light, low calorie recipes!!!

Monday, January 10, 2011

A Handmade Christmas

This year I tried to make things to give as presents. I love getting handmade things myself. There is something about knowing the work that someone went to make a beautiful thing out of a creative heart. I think handmade gifts are special and full of love. I wanted to share this with others this year. I wanted to share here what I made and where I found the ideas.

I have two knitters in my life and stumbled across a tutorial on making a knitting needle case...PERFECT! This was really not difficult to make and I was so happy with how it turned out. I found the idea on the blog Multicrafty. The actual tutorial can be found HERE.
Knitting Needle Case

Knitting Needle Case

When I was a preschool teacher I received a Hot Rice Pack that was handmade. It is one of my favorite things to use when I am not feeling well. I found a tutorial on line for making these. They were insanely easy!!!! I foresee many more of these in my future. The tutorial I used is HERE on the Pie Birds, Buttons and Muddy Puddles blog.
Hot Rice Pack

I also made a few of the Felt Rose Wreaths to give as gifts. This is such an easy project and can literally be done in one evening. If you don't sew, this is a good crafty project for you as long as you are armed with good scissors and a hot glue gun. I got the idea from The Pretty Poppy on THIS blog post.
\Rose Wreath

Rose Wreath

Each year I want to make something my for my girls with my own hands. This year I decided on handmade dolls. I found an incredible book called Wee Wonderfuls: 24 Dolls to Sew and Love (which my mother-in-law ended up buying for me for my birthday after I raved about it). It is awesome and has such fun ideas in it. I made a boy doll and a girl doll for my girls. They love them which makes my heart happy!
Christmas Day
I made one more thing but forgot to take a picture to share here. I made an iPod cozy for one of my nieces using THIS tutorial on Sew, Mama, Sew!