Thursday, March 31, 2011

Pizza Pockets

Is today the day that I'll reach 100 followers? 

If you've been to any type of gathering/ celebration at my house, you have probably eaten my pizza pockets.  Honestly, I can't even remember where I first got the recipe, but I've been making them for years.  They are fast, easy, cheap and a hit w/ the kiddos.

You will need: canned biscuits (the cheap ones that come in a four pack not the fancy "Grands" ones)
pepperoni
pizza sauce
Parmasan  and Mozzarella cheese
Any other pizza toppings of your choice-you could even sneak in some veggies
(bbq chicken is yummy)
Preheat the over to 375
 I've found it works best if I chop up the pepperoni a little.  Then I add a few spoonfuls of sauce and cheese and mix it all together. This isn't a measuring type of recipe.
Next pop open the can of biscuits (the best part). Take one and flatten it a bit with your hand.  Add about a teaspoon of the mixture.
Fold it over to make a little turnover. You can either pinch it closed w/ your fingers or be fancy and use a fork.  You can baste w/ butter (I usually don't b/c they are already high in fat)and sprinkle w/ garlic salt before baking for 8-10 minutes.
Serve w/ leftover sauce.


They are also great to pack in the kid's lunches. 

Of course, you could make them w/ actual bread dough, but I rarely have any handy.
 Thanks for stopping by.

 According to the "stats" I have several visitors a day from other countries.  In case you have never heard of canned biscuits-click .http://www.pillsbury.com/Products/Biscuits/Pillsbury-Biscuits


Linking up here.
Check out other foody fun.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Easter Wreath


So remember my St. Patty's Wreath.  It is my favorite thing that I've made this year.  Sadly, St. Patty's was over almost 2 weeks ago.  I'm just not ready to give it up, so I cut out some eggs and hot glued them on.  Lame or Brillant?


By the way, did you notice that I almost have 100 followers?  Makes me smile.  Thanks for stopping by.

Linking up here.

You might also enjoy these.
Visit thecsiproject.com

BOY'S STINK!

After having 3 gorgeous girls, my good friend just gave birth to a baby boy yesterday (she has a really fun book blog you should check out).  I'm am crazy excited for her to enter the world of boys.  They have way better toys than girls do and are way easier to by bathing suits for (way easier).  One not so fun thing about boys is that they stink and they are immune to their own stink. If you've ever been a leader of a room full of Cub Scouts, you know what I'm talking about.

 I not only have to tell them to take showers, but I have to specify that they should use soap and shampoo.  I can not ask them, "Did you brush your teeth?", but must ask, "Did you brush your teeth TODAY?".  I have also had to explain many, many times that deodorant is not a cure-all for BO, but must be applied daily.  My husband assures me that they will become more interested in their personal hygiene when they become interested in girls.  Until then I thought I would make them some friendly reminders that would double as some cute bathroom art. 

I started w/ some 8x10 canvases (they were about $1.50 a piece) and painted them to match the kid's bathroom.  Then I cut out some shapes using my Everyday Paperdolls cartridge on my Cricut.  I didn't have one for the deodorant and we really, really need a deodorant sign, so I just traced an actual deodorant  thingy and cut it out. 
They needed a little something, so I went back and cut out the words "brush, wash, and deodorize" .
TADAAA!

Now I need to hang them on the wall. (Just noticed I misspelled a word-did you spot it?)
 I was trying to get a picture of them with the shower curtain in the background, so you could see how cute they matched, but it was just too hard and I gave up, and I just had to take pics by themselves.
I'm thinking of putting "flush" above the toilet (another thing they can't remember to do), but I'm wondering if that's tacky.  Thoughts?

Linking up here.
You might also enjoy these ideas here.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

HELP!!! Spa party ideas needed

My baby girl is about to be a teenager and wants to have a spa themed pajama party.  I wanted to call it a "Spajama Party", but the b-day girl vetoed my idea.  So far all I've come up w/ is the invite.  I used my Cricut Everyday Paper Dolls and Cuttin Up cartridges.

This may be the last all-girl party we host at this house, so we've got to make it extra special. I need some really great ideas and was hoping that all of you out in the blogosphere could help me out.  If you have a great idea for snacks, activities etc., please leave a comment and tell me your fabulous idea. Better yet, if you've pulled off a fabulous spa b-day and blogged about, please leave a link. (We're expected around a dozen girls between the ages of 12 and 14.)

Thanks so much!

Cats and Dogs Cupcakes



My kid had another order for her cupcakes.  They wanted strawberry cupcakes with chocolate fudge frosting (the BEST recipe is on the back of the Hershey's cocoa tin)  with a cat and dog theme.  We  replaced a little of the powdered sugar w/ cocoa in our fondant recipe to make this yummy brown.  We used the Doodlecharms cartridge for the regular Cricut to cut out a bunch of dogs with our Cricut Cake.  Pretty cute for about 2 minutes work?
We used a little less cocoa to mix up this light brown fondant and then cut out some cats.  Instead of cutting out whiskers, we just drew them with a toothpick.

It has 2 ears I promise.
Check out our other culinary adventures here.
Linking up here.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Gardening with teenagers

Last week at our church activity night, we made these.  Adorable?  I thought the idea was genius.  Teenage girls love shoes and so it was a fun way to get them interested in gardening.  To make one, just get an old shoe (smaller ones are the cutest) and drill some holes in the bottom for drainage. 

Also that night, they had a master gardener come and talk about gardening in our area.  If you live in San Antonio, a great website is http://bexar-tx.tamu.edu/.  I'm sure there are similar sites for whatever area you live in too.

Someday my family's opportunities to eat, may depend on my abilities to grow food.  If my lawn is any indication of my green thumb, we will be very hungry and so I thought I 'd better learn. My daughter and I decided that we are going to plant a garden.

The last owners built these huge garden boxes, so that gave us a head start.  We spent several hours weeding and breaking up the soil.  Then we spent at least another hour at the nursery buying some supplies.  We are going to grow tomatoes, beans, zucchini, cucumbers, squash, oregano and basil.  Wish us luck!

Linking up here.
Here's some other ideas you might like.

$12 for 10 bracelets

My daughter has decided that bracelets are going to be her signature accessory.  She was a little dismayed that most of the cute stuff we could find in stores cost at least $10 hard earned babysitting dollars. I suggested we go to Hobby Lobby
since they had all their beads 50% off! She spent a about $12 and made all these and even has some beads left over!  She just strung them on the clear stretch cord and tied it off.  Easy-Peasy.

This one's my favorite.  She took 2 black and white bracelets and tied them together and attached an organza flower (click here to see how to make them) that I had made for her last spring.
So Pretty!
Linking up here
Here are some other ideas you might enjoy.

Friday, March 25, 2011

The End

I have a lot of BYU Basketball posts here this week.  It stinks that after such a great season they have to end in a loss.  I guess though there's only 1 team that gets to end in a win.

All the kids wore their BYU t-shirts to school, which confuses the natives.  (BYU basketball isn't real big in Texas.  When we wear stuff with a "Y" on it people think we went to Yale). 

After school yesterday, I made everyone clean the house, b/c we were having friends over (my favorite thing about having people over).  Then we made some snacks and got ready to cheer our team on.  The game was intense and I was worried my middle kid was going to explode.  At one point he actually did-well he got a nose bleed.  Unless, I'm watching one of my kid's play, I'm not interested in sports.  Watching last night's game made me think about all the players' mothers.  If any of my kids ever played at that level though, I think they may have to sedate me each time they played.

The boy's were planning on driving to New Orleans to watch them play in the final 4 if they won and talked about it all week.  Sadly, they lost -in overtime.  Heartbreaking.  Big tears and loud sobs.  My boys have pretty much only seen the Cougars win and it was hard for them to see them lose. 

I think I'll wait til tommorow to tell them that instead of a road trip, we're doing yard work.

I'm now hoping for 2 things:
Jimmer gets drafted by the Spurs
Jimmer doesn't cave into the temptations of being a professional athlete

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Equipment Locker Toy Boxes

Before Jimmer Fredette, my boys were all about football and picked it as the theme for their room. If you haven't seen their room, check it out here. It's still a work in progress.

I wanted to make some "equipment locker" toy boxes. My Dad is a principal and was on spring break last week and said he would help. I've never worked w/ saws etc. and was excited to get to try them out. I think I might watch to much HGTV. Those carpenters are really fast and make it look really easy. These 2 boxes took us all day.

My Dad had all the tools and supplies (and technical knowledge). I only had to buy hinges and wood putty, so they only cost me about $13.

It was fun hanging out w/ my Dad. He did most of the work and I just handed him stuff (reminded me of my childhood). He even agreed to help me w/ a few more projects this summer so stay tuned.
TADAAA! (after a hard day's work)

BEFORE

AFTER


I painted them the same way as the rest of the furniture in the room. Then I cut out a stencil w/ my Cricut and wrote "Saints' Property" and "Ravens' Property". You might not be able to see it with my awesome photography skills, but trust me that's what it says. I think I'm going to make cushions for them so they'll be like a window seat. I need to come up w/ some sort of window treatment too.
I guess I haven't said it yet, but my Dad rocks!

Check out what else I've done to my house here.
Linking up here.

Jimmer Fever!

It all started over Thanksgiving when my hubby and son went to South Padre Island to watch BYU play in a tournament. My kid came home all pumped up about some kid named Jimmer Fredette. When his basketball season started, he wanted white and blue NIKES just like Jimmer. We found some and they were even cheap (most boys want black ones).
I made this shirt just like the first two. (tutorial here). I had to go to 3 stores to find a navy shirt. The super J logo took me forever (2 hours!). I am not a graphic designer and couldn't find an image anywhere to steal. I took the original superman logo and edited in in microsoft paint. I would have done better to have my husband free hand it. I do like how it turned out, but it took way longer than I wanted. The font on the back is from the Cricut Cake Basic cartridge. (1 inch)
It reads, "Even Superman sleeps in a Jimmer Jersey".

Another good t-shirt slogan would be, "Forget Mike, I want to be like Jimmer". Although I don't want to jinx him. Jimmer's good, but not quit as good as Jordan (at least so far).


Linking up here.
Click here to see more clothing I've made.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Tween Spring Skirt

What do you wear with a brand new re-fashioned sweater? I made a skirt with leftover fabric. I used McCalls pattern 5920.
Check out other fun clothing posts here.
I'm linking up here.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

More Jimmer T-shirts

I loved how my decade old paint look on the first t-shirt I made-at least until I washed it. The light parts are now too light. Oh well, he can wear it to bed.
Son #2 wanted a shirt too. Hobby Lobby was out of Navy, so we're going Old School Cougar blue. I asked him what he wanted and he said ,"Jimmer shooting a 3-pointer and #32 on his jersey." I think he overestimated my skills, but I talked him down to this. I did it the same way as shirt #1, but w/ new paint this time. Because I used white paint, I also did a few coats and used a blow dryer in between coats (b/c who has time to wait for paint to dry).

Tadaaa!!!

Check out my other stylish ideas here.
I'm linking up here.
I need to make another shirt for #1 son. Any suggestions? So far my top 2 favorites are "Fredette about it" and "Even Superman sleeps in a Jimmer jersey." Leave a comment w/ your best Jimmer slogan.
***UPDATE** The kid is upset b/c he wanted it to say "Jimmer Fredette, nothing Burnet". We can't convince him otherwise." I can't decide if I should make him another b/c it would be funny, or people would just think I was an idiot.

CLEARANCE

I have a etsy shop were I sell baby blessing outfits. Before I found my niche, I sold a bunch of random stuff. If you have a 12 month old boy or a 5 year old girl, then it might be your lucky day. I put some items up on clearance. Check it out here.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Sweater re-fashion

Kohl's had some cute spring sweaters for $9.99 and I had a 20% off coupon. I've loved all the cute sweater re-fashions in the blog world these days and thought I'd give it a try.

Step 1: Cute 8, 4 inch strips of 5/8 inch gross-grain ribbon



Step 2: Fold them over to make "petals".




Step 3: Arrange them around a small felt circle into a flower and hot glue into place. (When I was done, it was a little floppy and so I actually went back and glued a bigger circle on the back)







Step 4: Cut 13 strips of 1/8 inch ribbon 3 inches long.


Step 5: Pin into petal shapes.


Step 6: Arrange thin ribbon into a flower shape and hot glue onto felt circle.

Step 7: Glue thin ribbon flower on top of the other one and hot glue a button on top (the sweater came w an extra one!). I Attached the flower with a safety pin, so I could remove before washing.



TADAAA!
I think that's a whole lotta cute for 8 bucks!



Check out my other fashion ideas here.

Linking w/ these parties here.


Visit thecsiproject.com
Visit thecsiproject.com

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Jimmer T-shirt

You wouldn't know it from reading this bog, but I actually am the mother to a couple of boys. One of which is obsessed with BYU Cougar basketball. Today, while we were driving home from the beach, my son asked me if I could make him a "Jimmer" t-shirt (they aren't real big sellers here in Central Texas). He even promised to unpack and un-sand the car if I would make it right away. Since I will trade crafting over cleaning any day, I took him up on the offer.
I wanted to make one that said, "You got Jimmered", but he loves this video. (Actually there are a bunch a great lines in that song. "Superman sleeps in a Jimmer Jersey". How fun would that t-shirt be. You could do a big superman emblem w/ a "J" on it. If they keep winning I'm totally making one.)
He found me a plain white t-shirt. I cut out the letters using my Cricut out of freezer paper. I used the Cuttin Up cartridge. I set "teach me how to" to 1 inch and "Jimmer set on 2 inch. I think the proportions looked pretty good for a Youth Large size t-shirt. (If you don't have a Cricut, you could also type up what you want on the computer and print it out on freezer paper and cut the letters out by hand.) Then iron on the freezer paper (shiny side down)-don't use steam or it won't stick as well. Then dab on your paint. I had a happy little accident. The only blue paint I had is probably older than the kid I was making it for, so it wouldn't go on very smooth. It was really blotchy, but I love how it turned out. You can either wait for it to dry or pull out a blow dryer. Then remove the freezer paper and you have a new shirt.
All smiles. Now I just hope they continue to win, so he can wear it again. Go Cougars!!!!
Sumo Sweet Stuff