Scouts!

This past week, my husband "K" was invited to be a guest speaker at a local boy scouts troop meeting to help them earn their Geology patch and belt loop. The local troop is run by the "Mayor." In order to earn your patch or belt loop, the scouts have to meet certain requirements. K, being an Eagle Scout himself and an aspiring teacher (hopefully will have his teaching license soon) could not resist the opportunity.



He packed up a selective bunch of rocks (and I do mean selective, I came home to find my dining room table littered with the unworthy's) and gave the presentation.

Muscovite - Used in paint, cements and as a dry lubricent



Things that you will find around your house that are derived from rocks.
Gypsum - dry wall
Shale - bricks
Dolomite - gravel
Marble - decorative
Granite - countertops


Don't forget my favorite...fossils!!!

love is in the crafty air

The sisters know I'm not one to get very Valentin-y, but if I were, the projects would of course start extra early so I could be all organized ahead of time (hence why I am posting this a month before Valentines Day hehe).

While my Funny Valentine (the hubby) and I don't get all mushy gushy ourselves, there is one project I do every year for our church kiddos. And it's so easy a cavegirl could do it;

Everything you need is in the below photo. I won't go into too much detail, as these tutorials are all over the internet, and I'm sure it's pretty easy to replicate from photos alone.


You can find candy bar wrapper templates from one of my favorite resources, Microsoft Templates. I downloaded one of their pre-made versions, and then edited it a bit to add a Bible verse- however as you can see from the hearts cut off the top (below picture) that I should have checked my sizing first. I say, oh well! The kids won't care as long as there's chocolate involved!


So gather your supplies, cut out your pretty wrapper to match the size of your candy bar, and use the tape to wrap it up.


Perfect! Every kid loves a free candy bar, and I even worked a Bible verse in. :)

Psalm 34:8 - O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

p.s. see this verse in action again @ Keeping Up With the Joneses'! Looks so cute!

Granola ♥

Just wanting to share a yummy recipe we made & gave as Christmas gifts... My older daughter made granola for my dad & brother/sister-in-law...we were excited about how it turned out...put it in a cute jar, coupled with cute spoon, some cute ribbon and a super duper cutie pie tag....and voila! a really cute (did i mention this was so cute?) gift for someone you love ♥ ...a someone you love who likes raisins...which by the way...i don't...so make my granola sans raisins per favor...enjoy!

Sunny Honey Granola
(how cute♥)

Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup coconut
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup raisins
non-stick vegetable spray

Mix ♥
oats, almonds, sunflower seeds and coconut in a mixing bowl
Stir ♥
honey and oil together in a separate bowl and then combine with oat mixture
Spread ♥
out on a sprayed baking sheet and bake at 300 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes, or until golden
Pour ♥
into a clean bowl and stir in raisins

Linking To...

My Favorite Tomato Soup

(source)

I have always had a special place in my heart (or I suppose in my stomach!) for tomato soup. My mom would cut up little chunks of cheese and put those in our bowls and then ladle the hot tomato soup over the cheese...it would get all melty and delicious...yum. Nothing better than grilled cheese and tomato soup. So, with all this lovely SNOW and freezing cold weather this week I have been craving soup. Have I mentioned even once or twice how much I dislike winter?? Seriously, the amount of snow at the end of our driveway from the town plow is ridiculous! We live on a corner so Mr. Plow Dude gathers up all this snow coming around the bend and deposits it in the first driveway, which is, of course, OURS! These are the things no one tells you when you are buying your house! And the problem here is that I get up at 5:30 am to get Lulu on the bus but the Mayor doesn't have to get up until 8-ish for work. I feel bad waking him up so early to snow blow the driveway so Lulu and I just shovel a path. Well, then the crazy, perfectionist part of me can't leave the driveway with just one path, so I end up shoveling the whole thing! It's not too bad until you get to the icy, chunky part left at the end by Mr. Plow Dude. And all while I shovel I think about all the people who are at Disney wearing their flip-flops and capri pants. JEALOUS!

Anywhoo, back to the soup. This is my favorite, favorite soup in the whole entire universe. It is a Wegmans recipe and they sell it already made...sometimes...not much anymore because it is an older recipe and has been replaced by newer (and less delicious) soups! When this was on the soup bar, I would get it for lunch and it may have been the only time I was excited to go to work! They printed the recipe in the Wegmans Menu magazine and it is definitely worth trying. It is a textured tomato soup because of the veggies and pasta and it does have a little cream in it. I will "un-Wegman-ize" the recipe in case you don't shop there...wait, do people actually shop other places? Inconceivable.

Tomato Basil with Orzo Soup

1 pkg (8 oz) cleaned and cut Mirepoix which is a fancy French word for onions, carrots and celery so, if you want to do this yourself use 1 cup onion, 1/2 c celery and 1/2 c carrot all finely diced

2 Tbsp oil

1 Tbsp chopped garlic
1 can (28 oz) Kitchen Cut Roma Tomatoes with Basil

1 can (28 oz) Crushed Tomatoes with Italian Herbs (use 2 of these if you can't find Roma Tomatoes with Basil)

1 carton (32 oz) vegetable stock

salt and pepper
2 roasted red peppers, diced (available in a jar or from the olive/Mediterranean bar)
1 cup orzo soup pasta
1 cup light cream
2 Tbsp chopped fresh basil

Add mirepoix and oil to large pot on med-high. Cook, stirring, 6-7 minutes. Add garlic. Cook 2 minutes, until vegetables are tender.

Add tomatoes, simmer 10 minutes. Add stock, return to simmer. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add red pepper and pasta. Simmer 8-10 minutes, stirring often, until pasta is firm but tender. Remove from heat.

Temper cream...pour cream into a medium bowl, add a few ladles of hot soup to slowly raise temperature of cream. Add cream mixture to soup, fold in basil. Serve.
Makes 13 cups. About 170 calories per cup.

If you decide to make some, just let me know what time to come over! The recipe also says it freezes very well if 13 cups of soup seems daunting.

Nel's smile for the week: We made Mar's knee-high baby Jesus in 4 year old Cubbies this week! Some of the faces on baby Jesus were very original!!
Nel's frown for the week: How many weeks until Spring??

Lulu's smile for the week: No school on Monday! Honors to you MLK!
Lulu's frown for the week: The Christmas tree must finally come down this weekend...yes we are the weirdos who still have our tree up, we're busy, okay? Back off people!

Jesus Loves Me....

I've been decorating my daughter's room since the summer. I don't know why it's taking me forever... Probably because, of course, I have to make every little thing that goes in there myself, even if they sell it on the shelves at Target for half the price... (Like I said, I have a (serious) problem.) Anyhoo, I want it to be PERFECT for her. I picked out the paint color (Sleeping Beauty Pink, from Disney Paint)... It's the perfect pink-- slightly bublegum-ish, but not to abrasive to the eye. (Props to "the Patriot" for a paint job well done!) Other than the paint on the wall, and her beautious white chair rail, it's been a big fat blank slate.

My new year resolution: TO FINISH HER ROOM BY SPRING.

I was inspired by J's dollhouse table and my daughter's extreme love for the song "Jesus Loves Me" for my first craft. (She sings it all day long, but it NEVER get's old!)

I painted the wood board in "Robbins Egg" blue... at first it was too dark, so i had to add some white paint to dull it down just a tad...

Then I just Mod Podge'd some Heidi Grace precut Letters on... and then Sealed with another coat of the Modge. Viola... some easy peasy personalized art for my Lucci. (that's been her nickname since birth.. In it's full form, BabbaLucci.)

I also covered the three precut wood flowers for her to hang her towels, purses, necklaces, etc, on. I just traced the flower on to scrapbook paper and modge'd it on to the flowers and sealed with another coat.

While I was at it...

I am waiting for The Patriot to hang these all up... so I will post the pictures next week. J and I have something up our sleeves that we'll be working on this weekend. I cannot wait to see how it comes out! The Patriot has forbidden me to Bedazzle her wall, so I'm going to have to work on him over the next few days.

This room will get done.. it will get done.... it WILL get done-- Lord willing.

"Jesus loves me! He who died,
Heaven's gate to open wide;
He will wash away my sin,
Let His little child come in."

The Cutest Bows Ever

A few months ago J found the cutest patterns for little crocheted bows that I have ever seen. And now I've been going bow crazy over here. They are so fast and easy to make, and make the perfect little gift for special little girls. J found the pattern at happy together. Little E is almost a year old and I made her a whole little box filled with these little bows. Its the perfect little gift.

I wanted to make sure I didn't make the little bows too big or too small for her head, so I followed the pattern this way:

Chain 8

single crochet in second chain from hook and then all the way across.

I followed that with 2 more rows (for a total of 3 rows of single crochet).

Then single crocheted around the edges of the bow. Set aside.

For the piece that wraps around I chained 12

single crocheted in the second chain from hook and single crocheted the rest of the row.

Then I followed the rest of her directions for gluing the bow together.

P.S. I also found that using cotton yarn made the bows turn out the best!!!

I just LOVE how they turned out. It was a great, easy tutorial to follow as well. Tune in next week for a tutorial on the little box I placed all these adorable little bows into.

♥ to Aunt Crochet...

...so in an earlier post (like way earlier) i mentioned i had an aunt who not only taught me how to crochet, but who has tension and stitch continuity that most of us yarners only dream of... she can whip somethin' (or a couple somethin's) up in one episode of grey's anatomy, as Mar would say....so this post is a tribute to her and her mad skills!
...last year i found this really super cutie pie book full of crochet play food patterns (i'm a sucker for play food) called Tasty Crochet by Rose Langlitz, and i knew i just had to make everything in it...or as in most cases in my disorganized life, have aunt crochet make them in my stead....
so it usually goes somethin' like this....

her.... i need a project...got anything you want me to crochet?

me..... i'm sure i could think of somethin'...lets get the patterns out...

her.... oh this looks cute...do you have this color yarn?

me... do i have this color yarn?...do i have this color yarn???? of course i have this color yarn, and every other shade in the same family...uh helloooo... (many of the sisters, if not all will testify of my fairly large stash of yarn)

me(again).... so will you make 2 of these in two colors so it'll go with everything?

her...(sigh).... what do you need 2 for?! oh alright! just give it to me, i'll do it, it'll take me 2 seconds... (very close to not being an exaggeration)

me... i have some really cute buttons that would go with it!...and what about ribbon, could we do some ribbon here on the top?

her... (looking at me with a not so good face)

me... what? you asked me for a project...


and here is the result of such a conversation!...enjoy and get a snack from the kitchen now, 'cause you're gonna get hungry...trust me...

and bonus!! during the next episode of grey's anatomy she made this! (actually 2 of this) (yes...as in one whole nativity for each of my two separate kids) we found this nativity pattern in Crochet World magazine...

so where would a disorganized sister like me be without an aunt crochet??...way behind the grey's anatomy girls, that's where!!

♥Linking to...