Hoppy Easter

Already Easter and there wasn't much time between this and St. Pattys' Day. Of course though I did change out and put my stuff out for Easter. I made the cute banner HOP using my MDS. I created it in the program and than just cut it out. The subway art was from The Girls at Eighteen25 which I have used many times. I also made the Eater Bunny print last year and just cycle out the frame of stuff I created.  Plus I of course mailed a bunch of cute Easter cards out as well. I guess a fake Chocolate bunny is okay!

Easter Tree

Macaroni Kid Column

Here is my column for 3/24/13

Here it is for 3/17/13

Paper Pumpkin

I have an extra post today. Stampin Up started a new monthly kit program called Paper Pumpkin. I thought why not try it because I am always looking for something new to try. Each month is suppose to be a card project and a home project.

I got the first kit which is the Try it Kit. It made four cards and included a stamp set, acrylic block, ink spot, and idea book. They say it is a bout a 30 minute project though I did it in about 15-20 minutes. I got four cute cards out of it to send to dear friends plus adding on to my stamp collection.

I am excited to see what is in next month's kit because I love surprises!

Kitchen Organization Ideas

I was in the mood to organize the other day so I did some. It makes me happy and I know that is sad. When I was at Ikea the other day, I got the idea to get this rack (about 4 bucks) and hang some hooks on it for my coffee mugs. It really cleaned up the area which had gotten out of hand because i started stacking them up. Now it is neat and tidy. 

I got some bookcases at Wally World and the second one didn't fit in my closet reorganization (See next week), so I moved the pets food and stuck it by my pantry. I loved putting all the stuff on it and it really was a needed space for stuff. I may change out my containers in the future for glass ones because I think they would look way better but this will do for now. 

Lucky Sign

In honor of St. Patty's Day being yesterday, I am sharing my new sign I made. I bought the horseshoe back in June and have been wanting to do something with it but have been stuck on what exactly. Than I saw something on Pinterest and was super inspired by it and went to work creating this.

I took a pine board I bought from the hardware store and coated twice in matte black paint. I than cut out some stencils and painted them on. I than nailed on my horseshoe and it is done. I want to hang it above the front door for good luck so I have to be sweet to my sweet for that!

Homemade Coffee Creamer (Lowfat)

I love me some coffee creamer. When I started on my weight loss kick, I went to the fat free stuff for my coffee. It was no WW points so I figured some in my coffee wasn't going to hurt. It wasn't like I use  buckets of it. I think it takes me almost two weeks to go through a small bottle (less if my hubby has coffee more often than once a week).

So I noticed I was low and than like instantly we were out of it. I have been trying to stretch grocery shopping trips out as far as I can so I didn't really want to go in for just that. than I had a light bulb moment. I wondered if Pinterest would have a recipe for it and sure enough it did. I used the pin but of course I spun it for my needs. I also made the condensed milk as well using sugar substitute so it is just like I buy from the store minus all the add ins to make it last longer.

I also added in some vanilla extract to it for my flavoring. As you can read from the inspiration pin, there are lots of flavors you could make. Maybe I will try another one. The only down fall I see is that I don't think it is going to last as long because of the milk. I figure I have it for the week and than will need to make a new batch. That is perfectly okay because I had EVERYTHING on hand to make it including the condensed milk. Plus it took about 5 minutes to put together including pulling out the ingredients so why not make it when it is that easy!!!

Macaroni Kid Column

Here is my column this week, so what are you doing for spring break. So far we did Strawberry picking and ventured to the Bouncy house place.

Spring Wreath

Yes I made another wreath. I love wreaths and love changing them out on my front door. I made a spring one to fit for the next few months so I don't have to change it out till I feel like which made actually be for the fourth of July. I would have loved a Easter one but with Easter and St. Patty's Day so close, it would have been up like two weeks so I did this one.

This wreath cost me all of 8 bucks because the grapevine wreath was on sale for like 3.50 and than the flowers were half off for about 4 bucks for the bunch. I could have done it cheaper if I would have dollar stored it but I liked the flowers better at the craft store.

I just picked the flowers off the plastic stems, and hot glued them on. I think it took longer for the glue gun to heat up than it did to glue them on the wreath.

The one thing I have to say was that I was surprised that I picked pink for the flowers. I usually go for blue or purple but these struck me as being the right ones.

March Pinterest Party

I was so excited that we were able to do another Pinterest party with a group of friends. This time I was just able to go and bring my dish which we decided to Mexico for inspiration. I am Flan and some sapodillas. Both were great and oh my was their the food. We had about a dozen ladies come out. They were a mix of friends of the hostess and people we all knew. It was nice to meet and craft with some different people because you always get some great ideas.

The hostess did an awesome job creating five projects. All five were great and easy to do in the afternoon.

Here are the pictures of my finished projects. I loved that I came home with some finished Easter decorations for the house.

loved the stuffed carrots. I was so happy to help create this one with our hostess. 

Scent satchel 

For the birds nest yarn cage

Book mark which Miss O has already asked to have. 

Decorated egg!

Macaroni Kid Column 3/4/13

Here is my column for this week: http://leaguecity.macaronikid.com/article/447402/mommy-confessions

Some Cards I made

I have a pile of stuff I have been wanting to use for cards plus I needed to make a Birthday Card for my niece who LOVES monkeys.

The first two are from the same stamp set. The monkey card is the sock money set which I just love!

Spinach Pie or Spanakopita

The kids have been asking for me to make that spinach dish with the filo. Yeah I know it sounds weird my kids eat spinach but they grew up on it so they have learned to like it. I notice any kid who doesn't eat it usually has a parent who doesn't like it.

I had parents that liked it so we ate it quite a bit plus we ate a lot of Greek as we were growing up. I think it reminded my Mom of her Armenian roots because a lot of the foods are similar in what they use. I use to get Spanakopita when we would go the greek restaurants and for some reason in the Milwaukee there were many of them from nice sit down to fast food. Usually the sit down ones were more family restaurant with a wide variety of foods. My brother always liked to get stir fry or stuffed peppers. We were not picky kids at all.

So when they asked of course I am going to make it for them. I have used a recipe before for it but once you know it and of course I tweak it as my own.

I used 1 sleeve of Filo Dough (found in the freezer department by pie crusts usually).
2 boxes of frozen spinach defrosted
1 container of crumbled feta cheese
2 eggs beaten
1 cup of melted butter

yep that is all it is!

I drained the spinach and squeezed out the excess water. I kept doing this till it was pretty compressed.

I took the Spinach, beaten eggs, and feta and mixed them all together in a big bowl.

I sprayed a glass pyrex dish (10x15 size) with some cooking spray and than started layering the filo (2 sheets0, some melted butter to coat, and some of the mix. I did this for about three to four layers. I than topped the last two sheets and coated with melted butter.

I baked it at 350 for about 30 minutes or until the top filo starts to brown up. I sliced it up and served it with some spinach and feta flavored pita that I warmed up.

The kids loved it and we ate it all up!