New Year's Resolutions

Is everyone enjoying their holiday break?  I went back to work on Wednesday and I am already over the week!  Too busy, I wish I were one of those people off and out to lunch with friends and family.  Instead I serving them.  Oh well, I'm not bitter......:)

So every year I skip the whole making New Year's resolutions, because well I never keep them.  This new year tho, things they need to change!  I am blogging them so that when I don't keep up with them I can be shamed!  ha ha.  Sounds bad, but its like paying for a gym membership, I am going to go because I am paying for it.  Not because I want too, but because I am spending money on it.  That sort of thing.  I have a big list this year.  I really hope I can get them all done!  They aren't incredibly hard things, but things I can see myself giving up on. 

1.  Lose 50 lbs. I know that is a big number, but if I do it right and not just for a few months I think I can get it done.

2.  Learn how to sew.

3.  Save money (from tips) for our trip to New York/New Jersey this summer.

4.  Keep my life and home organized.

5.  Limit my computer time.

6.  Be a vendor at, at least one craft show (be a vendor, see if my creations sell)

7.  Go on more dates with my husband.

8.  Cook more healthy.

9.  Stop stressing so much, if I get a grade other then an A in school, I wont die. 

10. Join the YMCA for my daughter and I.

I'll stop at ten. I think I could go on, and on....

What is everyone else's resolutions?

Happy New Year!

*Allie 



Merry Christmas!

I know I am a day late, a buck short, whatever ha ha.  I hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas this year.  I hope you got to spend time with the ones you love and enjoyed a peaceful day!  We had a fabulous day, my daughter loved the anticipation of it all and it was so much fun watching her face light up when she would open something new.

 

I didn't cook that much this holiday!  I did try some new recipes that are some keepers and some that are some tweakers!  I'll share those with you.  No pictures tho, all the excitement I forgot to photograph anything but my daughter!  I will share the links I found those recipes at tho and the reviews I got on them!

Here are some sweets....

Cake batter bites... Originally found on adelynSTONE.  These are delicious.  I wish I took a picture because these things caused me some stress.  If you choose to make them, don't use white chocolate.  I wasted too much white chocolate.  (it didn't not melt right to dip the balls in!)  I had to go to two Micheal's to get the white candy pieces.  I went to publix, which has everything to get the almond bark (which I had never heard of) and they did not have them.  I am not a sweets person, so I could have one of these and be fine.  It literally tastes like cake batter.  People at work were calling it crack.  I'm keeping these on my list!

Next up....Egg nog cookies.  YUM!  Found at the girl who ate everything.  These cookies were nice and moist!  If you are an egg nog lover, these are a must!  Again no pictures!  I fail at life sometimes :).  Mine spread out big time, so I think I will go out and buy a scoop to make cookies.  That way they are all the same shape!

These Bite Size Apple pies are delish!  And so EASY to make.  They are even good cold!  Of course I found them on pinterest.  My trusted site for awesome recipes.  You can get the original recipe here at cookin up north.  If you aren't a pie person, I would def. make these.  You can get a nice touch of pie and not take a big piece of pie!

This is so freaking easy.  This will be my go too gift and dessert bringer over.  (Does that make sense?)  Five minute Fudge!  This is a Rachel Ray creation, but I found it over at this blog called tidy mom.  So easy it should be illegal.  Four ingredients.  Again I am not a sweets person.  Especially chocolate.  I had a little wedge and ate almost all of it.  It took me awhile but I ate it!  It was just too good to not eat!!  Then I made it into the wreath and it was so cute!  I used red and green M&M's, but they lost color sitting out in the open air.  Fail. 

I made Christmas breakfast on Christmas eve!   Found a crock pot recipe on pinterest.  I love hash browns and if I didn't have to make breakfast on Christmas morning then it had to be made.  If you are a fan on green peppers and onions, then you will like this dish.  Its a good base for a recipe, but I wasn't a big fan.  I think next time I will make it, I will add more to it to make it more flavorful. 

If you make this, you need to salt the potatoes at each layer.  It needs more salt then the recipe calls for.  If you are not a salt person then just don't listen to me!  he he.  Original recipe can be found at a latte with ott a.  Its not bad, but needs some tweaking.  Then again I am not a green pepper fan. 

So I guess all in all, I had more keepers then tweakers!  I thought this year I would be more organized but I was not, there is always next year!  Enjoy the day after Christmas, where you can relax and think about work and cleaning the next day!

*Allie 



Confessions

This week I am linking up with adelynSTONE. 

My confessions:  My guilty pleasure every holiday season is hallmark and lifetime Christmas movies.  I cant help it, they are corny, but I LOVE them!  The endings are always happy endings and predictable, the acting is not the best, but that's OK.  Sometimes you need a good corny, feel good movie!

There are good people out in the world: a friend (coworker) of mine, has been struggling to have a child for awhile now.  So they decided to adopt.  Well they still needed about $5,000.  (her family threw her a fundraiser to get money) and one her regular guests came in and asked her out the process was going and she explained to them what she still needed and by spring they should be able to apply for government grants.  Well this guests says, is that all that is stopping you?  $5,000?  Consider it done!  He is giving her the $5,000 so they can start the adoption process.  Melts my heart that there are people out there.  She really deserves it and I am so happy for them!

I am kinda bummed that none of my cake plates or scarves sold today while at the flea market.  I even bought a rotary cutter and split my finger open making scarves and no sales! haha.  That's OK, I am really considering getting a booth at a craft fair. I really enjoy making these things and I scout all over for the perfect plate, or perfect color.  So I will see how I fair with the craft fair and if it is a success I may open a etsy store sometime next year!

Well that's all for this week, I hope you all have a wonderful week leading up to Christmas!

*Allie 



Wreath Obsession

Awhile ago I had a post about wreaths and what I wanted to make.  You can find that not your traditional wreath.  I had good intentions.  Really I did.  I bought googly eyes for the Halloween wreath and that never got anywhere.  (I blame it on school!)  I found an awesome blog that made wreaths out of Styrofoam piping at home depot for $.97.  Well there are different sizes and let me tell you.  The thick ones are not conducive for wreath making.  I couldn't make a circle out of it!  And not all are $.97.  The small ones are.  So I went out again and bought 5 more tube things, and got to work.

  This is the tube thing I was talking about.  So after I made my first two, I noticed that it doesn't hold its shape.  I thought maybe because the tape I used was packing tape and not as sturdy as duct tape, so I tried again.  Well see how they hold up.  I also hot glued the ends together.  Keep your fingers crossed they stay shapely!

This is one of my faves, but one that lost shape :(  It is made out of vintage gold tinsel garland.  I found at my grandmas house.  I love vintage and anything shinny! 

Attempt number 2.  I think the green thing is a tad big, but its sparkly, so it stays.  OK onwards....

I have been scouring thrift stores for Styrofoam wreaths and have scored.  I found 3.  Well one was one of those branch looking wreaths. I can work with that tho.

This wreath is a small one, but oh, so cute!  I love the colors.  I got the yarn at the $ store.  The beads I used were from a broken necklace of mine and felt can be picked up any craft store.  I have to say tho, I love those felt flowers. 

Zoe helped me with this as well, she made me add another flower to it! 

This yarn was much bigger and it has some white parts showing, but I think it came out OK. 

All these wreaths took me a little over an hour.  Hopefully I can make some more soon!

*Allie 

Soup!

So here in good ol' Florida we have had a few nights of 60 degree weather.  Crazy!  I know!  It's Christmas time and we are still in shorts and t-shirts.  I miss jeans, sweaters and closed toe shoes!  So one night Zoe and I were pinning and I found a Wisconsin Cauliflower soup.  I love cauliflower.  Have I ever used them in a soup?  Nope, but I got a head for $.99 (cheap, I know!).  So I went out and bought some cheddar cheese and we made some. 

Zoe is my helper in the kitchen, she is an expert stirrer!  The soup was super easy and didn't take long at all.  The original recipe can be found at Utah deal diva.

It was a nice thick soup.  Good to keep you warm on a cool night.  I used all cheddar cheese (and I didn't measure, so I am sure I used more then its called for). 

Finished product!

 

Does anyone have some good soup recipes they want to share?

 

*Allie

Facebook

Hello All!  Its been super busy around here, finals, christmas parties, christmas shopping.....I'm exhausted!  But I have some fun crafts planned and will show you all in a post soon!  But for now I made a facebook page!  Yay!  Finally got around to doing it.  So look to the right of this post and click the Like button! 

Hope you all are enjoying this holiday season!

*Allie 

Confessions

This week I am confessing to be completely out of it!  I NEED a vacation!  I thought I did stupid things before having coffee in the morning, no.  I have been doing stupid things repeatedly with copious amounts of coffee and caffeine in me!  I am so happy that school is almost over.  I have some assignments to do for computer and an extra credit exam and then a math exam tonight, then a English exam tomorrow night.  I am really freaking out about the math class.  I have complained all semester about the teacher and really I just feel stupid, like why cant I retain this stuff.  O wait I know, because I wasn't taught it!  Doing some example problems on the board is not teaching!  Then when I look in the book to teach myself its like in another language.  I know I am not stupid and my last two math classes I aced but this time I am just having a hard time!  I have been stressed to the max with that class and writing 4 papers this semester.  I give young college students cred b/c when you get my age and have a full time job as a mom and working full time going to school is NOT easy.  It will take me years (more then 2) to get an associates!  But its OK, slow and steady wins the race right?? 

Last night we got our Christmas tree.  we cant afford a lot this year so we went to walmart.  a small 5-6 footer was $19.88, but what do you know...its only Dec. 5 and they are out of them!  What did people do buy trees Nov. 26th??  Hello, its a real tree, lights and dead trees don't mix people!  I usually wait until 2 weeks until Christmas to get one, but I am having a work party at my place and I have to be decorated (add that to the list of stresses!).  That and my daughter is all about Christmas this year!

So while getting the tree, they had a bunch of bikes out in the garden center and what does Zoe do?  Climb right on a big girl bike and start riding down the aisle....did I get teary eyed?  Damn right I did.  My little girl is growing up WAY too fast.  So I guess Santa is getting a nice new blue huffy bike this year!  It was comical watching her and my hubby riding up and down the aisle b/c Zoe wasn't watching where she was going and knocked the bikes down.  I'm talking domino effect.  That was fun :)

So those are my confessions this week, what are yours?  Linking up with adelynSTONE.

*Allie 

Feature Blogger : Melissa

Hello All!  This is my first ever feature!  This lovely lady Melissa, aka Molly Dobbins is a good friend of mine.  We met online thru our love of anything twilight!  Both of us being twilight moms in our twenty's.  After realizing that we both love twilight, along with a few other lovely ladies that I consider good friends, we all realized we like to craft! 

Melissa is a very talented knitter/crocheter.

"I guess I have been the crafty type pretty much my whole life. As a child I loved art class more than anything. When my mom went to local craft shows I BEGGED to tag along. I guess I just love making things and creating. The crochet thing started years ago when my Nana taught me. At the suggestion of a friend I tried knitting and soon became addicted to that. I also sew which is something I got into years and years ago when my mom first taught me to hand sew."

You can find Melissa's Blog right here When I grow up I wanna be......  You can find some awesome recipes, great crafts and cute pictures of her lovely children!

Other things Melissa has been up too lately.

"Unfortunately I haven't been blogging a whole lot lately :(. In the absence of blogging I have been busy volunteering at my daughters school. It's been a wonderful experience and I love seeing my DD in her school environment.
On the crafting side I've been spending most of my time planning my handmade Christmas gifts and knitting. I just finished a knit head wrap/ ear warmer for myself and I couldn't be more happy with it.
As the colder weather has set in I find myself cooking and baking more and more. I have found tons of new recipes on Pintrest and I recently gave two a try; Chicken Parmesan Crescent Rolls and Pizza Casserole. The crescent rolls were okay. With a few tweaks I bet I could make them more to my family's taste :) The pizza casserole on the other hand was FANTASTIC!! My family couldn't get enough of it :)."

Very Cute Melissa!

Picture of it w/o being worn below

(links to those recipes will be at the bottom of this post!)

I have had the privilege of receiving a knitted hat by Melissa.  I had been looking in store, after store trying to find a hat like this one.  Bigger then a beany, but hangs in the back to hold your hair.  The ones in the store just didn't do it for me.  So when I saw Melissa pin this hat, I was like oooo can you make that??  Shes like yes I can, what color would you like.  I was beyond excited to receive it in the mail!  I love it!  I wear it all the time, its great for when you really don't feel like doing your hair, you just throw it on and for it to be homemade just makes it even more awesome!

So first I tried to take the picture myself......didn't really work out (yes that is a forks shirt, I got it while vacationing there a couple years ago!)  Then I enlisted the hubby and well this is the best I got!

I love it, its comfy, it hides my bad hair days and its comfy! 

Here are the links for the awesome recipes Melissa has made recently:

chicken parmesan crescents

pizza casserole (I have to say I have this pinned, and it looks absolutely delish!)

headband ear warmer (free pattern!)

So go over to Melissa blog and send some love, she is a wonderful mother, awesome crafter, talented writer and a great friend!

*Allie