ode to sewing

Oh to dream.  I used to sew.  My mom put my sister and I in sewing lessons for a few years and we made bunches of things... and actually wore them!  I have dreams of sewing again one day and who knows... maybe it will be out of a closet.  Check this baby out here. 

What a smart little cookie she is!

mommy wisdom

Talk about some GREAT, realistic, organized, awesome ideas to stay on top of life with kids and such!


mommy wisdom...

I absolutely love reading and she has some great ideas that she uses with her kids! Go check it out!

Black bean soup with shredded pork (and bacon!)

SO...I found this recipe on an email from AllYou.com. 

It seems like a mix between happy taco soup and sweet pork salad/burritos! I it looks like a great winter soup!

 "Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 6 hours
Yield: 8 Servings
Cost per Serving: $1.38

Ingredients

• 1  pound  dried black beans, rinsed and picked over
• 2  bone-in center-cut pork chops (about 1 1/4 lb.)
• 2  slices bacon, chopped
• 1  onion, finely chopped
• 2  cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1  tablespoon  chopped canned chipotle chilies in adobo plus 1 Tbsp. adobo sauce
• 1  teaspoon  ground cumin
• 1 1/2  teaspoons  salt

Preparation

Combine 6 cups water, beans, pork chops, bacon, onion, garlic, chilies, adobo, cumin and salt in slow cooker. Cook on low until beans are tender and pork chops are falling apart, 4 to 6 hours.
Remove and discard bacon. Cut pork away from bones. Discard bones and shred meat. Add meat back to slow cooker with beans. Season with additional salt and serve."



Personally, I think I'd add a can of either stewed tomatoes or rotel tomatoes along with a can of corn. Definitely topping it with sour cream and cheese :)

XOX

When we were in AZ, my mom saw a cute little craft and wanted to do it, which she in turn helped me and my SIL do as well!

 here's what we came up with!

 We bought the letters (about 8 inch tall paper mached ones) from Joann's with %40 off coupons (did you know you can use an internet coupon and newspaper coupon in the same transaction there? AND the newspaper one can be from a different craft store?! Yeah, talk about awesome. So with Captain Sammy as my shopping buddy, we only had to make one trip to Joanns instead of multiple. Yay :)

We then modge podged the front with some cute Valentinesy scrapbook paper, added some random embellishments that we found in my moms craft supply, added felt to the back and painted the sides a color we wanted! Bam! DONE! Actually it took a lot longer than it sounds with making the paper and felt the exact size and trying to make it perfectly cute with the embellishments, but it was still super fun to do :)

(the back with felt)

 (the sides with paint, they're about an inch thick and you can see some of my embellishments were thick so don't be scared:)

 the final product!

shiver me kimber's on the left.

shiver me kimber's mum's in middle.

shiver me kimbers SIL on right (she did a different version).

 some of the process with my niece helping

breadsticks!!!!!

i saw this recipe on mommaskindacrafty.blogspot.com . haven't tried it yet, but if it's a yummy breadstick recipe it sure is easy! hope one of us can try it out soon bc we sure love our breadsticks BREADSTICKS!!!!!

 

2 cups hot water

2 Tbsp yeast

2 Tbsp sugar

pinch of salt

~5 cups flour

Mix all together except flour.  Then add flour till dough is soft but not too sticky.

Shape into bread sticks and bake at 425 for 12-15 min on greased cookie sheet.

Spread with melted butter and a little garlic salt after baking.

My recipe states that 1/2 the recipe makes 8-10 good size bread sticks.  So that's what I did.  I made 10.  No leftovers!  Next time I am making the whole batch!

new shoes

how freaking adorable are THESE!

 i found them on this post at a beautiful mess from elsie.

she loved these shoes of hers but they were getting old and kinda yucky...

SOO she painted them first with like 2 coats of indoor/outdoor paint and then 3+ coats of glitter paint.

And I absolutely LOVE them! I think I'm going to go out and try to find a pair of shoes to try this on I love it so much!