Teacher Appreciation Gift

Next week at Miss O's school is Teacher Appreciation week. Miss O's teacher is great and we have had a great year in kindergarten and we are excited to be moving to first grade next year. The school sent home a sheet listing out ideas for each day of the week to bring something for the teacher. Day 1 is bringing your teacher's favorite drink so I know the teacher likes water so I made a water bottle tag and added in a single serve drink mix pack for her.  I really liked how it turned out and it was super simple to make.

Macaroni Article 4/29/12

Here is this week's article. I think we have all suffered from this:http://leaguecity.macaronikid.com/article/282412/mommy-confessions

Easy French Onion Soup

I have to say French Onion soup is one my favorites. I make it all through the year and yes I do it all sorts of ways. This one is super easy and takes no time at all.

I used one really large onion and one smaller one. I chopped them up into smaller pieces and threw them in the pan with some oil. I let them sweat some and when they started turning brown which means they are caramelizing, I put in about two tablespoons of butter and about 1/2 cup of flour.

I mixed it all together, coating the onions and let them cook some more until the flour and butter got that nutty color. I think it was about 5 minutes.

I than put them in a crock pot and added one larger container of beef stock. Set it low and let it for 4-6 hours. The soup slowly thickens up and I like my french opinion thicker instead of broth. You could do the same thing and negate the flour to have a thinner version.

When it was all done, I stuck a piece of toasted asiago bread in the bottom of the bowl, poured over the soup and out a piece of provolone on top. You could bake it to make Baked French Onion but I was to lazy to put the broiler on in this warmer weather. When you push the cheese into the soup, it begins to met nicely.

This took me all together like 15 minutes to make and than it just sat. You could also make it and just let it simmer on the stove for an hour as well.

Enjoy

Becky

Dresden Pillow Tease

Ever since I got that Dresden die I have been wanting to make a pillow with the pattern. I FINALLY started it but still have work to go. Cutting out and pinning on the pattern was easy but sewing around it all- well that is a whole another story. I am working on it which is better than just thinking about it.

I miss sewing a lot since I really haven't' done it in what feels forever. I also did my block as well as sewing a patch on my kid's Daisy vest (they don't want to iron on!).

As soon as the pillow is done, I will post lots of pictures of it. I found it to be a rather easy to put together, just time consuming. So stay tuned for a cute project next week!

Miss O's 6th Birthday Party

Yes I totally admit to getting out of control with doing my daughters 6th birthday party. We had family coming in and of course with this being her first year in school, we decided to have fun with it.

Miss O in her tutu I made!

Set up for the party- now imagine 20 kids running around

Her birthday cake

We had a blast with lots of food, a piñata and of course lots of cakes and presents!

Tray Frame

A few weeks ago I showed you how I took the cool subway art and deco lodged it onto the tray I got a Target. This week I am took the same tray because I bought two and deco lodged on some of the awesome Stampin Up Everyday  Enchantment paper that was a bonus during Sale-A-Bration (let's hope it is in the new catalog).  I took my favorite of the paper prints and deco lodged that onto the frame. I let it dry and than I added layers of paper and pictures as well as pinching out a flower using the build a blossom punch. I attached everything on with dimensionals which should just easily pop off if I want to put another picture in the frame. You could easily add a hanger on the back and put it on the wall as well.

Macaroni Kid Article 4/22/12

Here is my article this week on Stranger Danger .

Macaroni Kid Article- 4/15/12

Here is my article this week: http://leaguecity.macaronikid.com/article/275356/mommy-confessions

Faux Gallery Wraps

I saw these awesome faux Gallery wraps on Pinterest and thought of course I could do that so of course I did. I took a 5x7 photo I ordered and a 5x7 canvas. I wanted to try it small to see how they worked out before I did bigger or more.

I painted the endues black as well as some of the canvas on the side so that no white would show through. Once it was dry I  than took mod podge and applies it to the canvas and laid the picture down. Once it was dry I did trim the photo some on the sides it was hanging off the side a tad. Than I applies more mod podge over the top. I only did one coat but you could do more depending on how shiny you want it.

I am going to make more of these because they were so easy. I also think they would make great gifts. I also saw another version where they did black and white photos and painted around the edge of the photo to give it a distressed look.  I think that would be awesome to do as well.

Roasted Corn Salsa

I have been doing this Veggie/Fruit Co-op for about 2 months now and it was my turn to go. I have a great partner and we ventured to the north side of Houston to a area that is where the wholesalers are located. We picked a variety of things like corn on the cob and avocados so it got me thinking what could I make and bingo some roaster corn salsa.

I took three ears of corn and sliced them off the cob and used two small green peppers from my garden but one would be fine. I toasted it all with some olive oil and roasted it for about 30 minutes or until you start to get char marks on the corn and peppers.  I than let it cool for about an hour.

I than took and chopped up 2 roma tomatoes, half of onion, one large avocado, salt, olive oil and dried cilantro and tossed it all in a bowl. I let it set in the fridge for at least an hour to get all the flavors mixed together. What a great spring treat to have with some chips.

Floral Arrangements

I needed some spring in the house and when I think spring I think flowers. I would love to have fresh flower deliver every week but alas I am not Martha so I have to settle for fake plus because I am so frugal, I also got everything from either the dollar store or the dollar rack at Target. The most expensive thing was the little green basket which was $2.50- wow I know big spender you are thinking!

I picked flowers that are not the easiest to get in real form so that they don't scream overly fake. Like tuples and carnations are so common, truthfully I would just buy real ones.  I need to also go explore farmer's markets for reasonably priced flowers because I do love real flowers.

Birthday Sneak Peek

Miss O is turning 6 on April 18th. I am blown away at how fast it has gone by. Her birthday theme is Olivia the Pig which she picked. You know me, I don't do anything small even when I try to. I found adorable Olivia the pig party ware and I decided she needed a fun arrangement for her bday table so I went to work taking the colors from the party supplies and creating this floral/pinwheel arrangement. It is to cute to stick away, so I have it sitting in the corner so I can admire it.

I plan on taking lots of pictures and giving tips on the birthday party.

Macaroni Kid Article 4/8/12

My mom always asks to see my article and for some reason it is easier to go through here!

Here it is about the out of control bday party! Stay tuned for pics and all of the fun things I did.

Lime Chili Chicken and Dumplings

I know it might sound weird but it was really good. A few weeks ago at the grocery store they had a coupon for these infused chicken broths. I got the Lime and chili version and have been trying to figure out what to with it.

I had some left over chicken from the night before so I took that and chopped it all up.  I added some frozen veggies and pre made dumplings I bought.

The basics are as follows:
32 ozs ofLime Chili Chicken Broth
2 cups water
2 cups of chopped up cooked chicken
2 cups of frozen veggies

Through it all in a pot and let it simmer for about an hour. I actually went outside with the kids, weeded, and would periodically check on it to make sure that it wouldn't burn. I did it on low the whole time.

I really like it and it thicken up nice and both kids ate it. It had a minor bite to it which was nice rather than bland that many times chicken and dumplings can have.

Enjoy!1

"Eh" artwork

I love the saying "The Earth without art is just eh".  I have been seeing it all over in craft projects as of late and went to my trusty Stampin Up! My Digital Studio (which you can try for free) and created this fun frame insert.

I just opened the program, created what I wanted using the 5x7 postcard feature, and printed. Tossed itin a frame and have it sitting on my workstation now to remind how important art is to me. I have found that putting more art in our lives helps to get all of the creative juices flowing. My husband feels refreshed and able to concentrate morton his engineering after he "creates".

Here is the finished framed project.

Macaroni Kid Article 4-1-12

Here is my article for this week on Water Wise Safety. As Spring and Summer approach please make sure that you remind your kids about being wise around the water.