Trees for Christmas...

I've added a new tree in the shop for Christmas this year. This is a little grove of three trees. It can be used for a blended family, or a multi-generation family.

I love how this one turned out, it looks so great in the frame. I used linen for the trunks and I love how it looks with the green!!

You can find it in my shop here.

Also, head on over to Love Luci for a giveaway! You can enter to win one of my family trees just in time for Christmas (giveaway open until December 6th).

Quinoa...

I've been wanting to branch out and try quinoa for a while now. So I bought some and it sat in my cupboard for a week until my husband saw it and got curious. We tried it out one night and are completely obsessed now! It is so good! It has such great texture to it. I'm hoping to get this book for Christmas so that I can try out new quinoa recipes.

One night we whipped up this tasty dinner. It was so yummy! I've been trying to find recipes and meals that I can make without meat and I've been struggling at that. I'm not trying to go vegetarian or anything, but I just don't like being so dependant on meat to make a good dinner. But this is meat free! And it was awesome!


We cooked the quinoa with vegetable broth (2 to 1). Mixed in black beans, kidney beans, tomatoes, cilantro, corn, some cumin and pepper. It really was so good. We put it on warm corn tortillas with sour cream and some Gorgonzola cheese (another awesome recent discovery). It really was amazing.

The popular man of the night was Mr. Tapatio. I've never been a real hot sauce fan (I'd only ever tried Tabasco) but this is really good too. Nice spice, not an overpowering vinegar taste like most other hot sauces... yum!

Are you a quinoa fan? How do you like to eat your quinoa?

Bathroom...

Once upon a time I was taking a bath. My foot was resting on the tile by the faucet and next thing I knew... my foot fell through the wall. Ah crap... this can't be good, and it wasn't. Hubby tore out all the tile in the shower to find that whoever built this place didn't use the special water proof sheet rock behind the shower, they just used regular old sheet rock. So all of the sheet rock in our shower was water damaged and moldy. So gross. So we tore all of it out and this is how our bathroom has looked for the past 8 months...

Well sort of... I didn't get a picture before we put the new tub in. So this is the new tub and the new piping that we had to have welded together... so that's a start! Next up we have to sheet rock in the shower (the sheet rock has been on my living room floor for the past two weeks). I just hope that it's up by Christmas.

Don't worry... we are fortunate enough to have a second bathroom so we have been taking our sweet time at getting this one done. I know that sometimes we all just try to show our homes in their best light. But this is my reality. And we are working on a budget so we will get it done slowly, piece by piece. I think though that since it has to be redone I'm going to have some fun with it. I really love the look of subway tiles like this shower from Door Sixteen...


Anyone seen any great bathrooms lately? I need a little inspiration...

Jack Pot...

My super cute husband wanted to help me start my little Schleich collection. So one day he surprised me with a little Indian to start things out right. He's so cute. I love the feather in his hair...

Then one day we were innocently walking through Target... I was trying to find a new belt for my vacuum. And wouldn't you know it, right across the aisle from the vacuums was a bin full of Schleich toys all on clearance!! I bought one of each... and yes, it felt like Christmas morning. I'm totally okay with it because I got them each for about 1/5 of their normal price. Yay for clearance. Not a bad way to start out the collection...

I love the little detail that are put into each one. I love the blue eyes on this baby wolf.

And the silver horse shoes on the horse feet...

Sorry for the blurry picture, but it's the best I could do. I don't have a separate cabinet for them yet so right now they live on a shelf in my buffet.

It's been so fun. My little guy thinks that it's so to play with them (and so do I...). I'm loving it.

... and no, I never did find the vacuum belts either.

Dragon...

What started as a dinosaur costume turned into a dragon... apparently dragons are cooler than dinosaurs. He loved his wings and it was cute to see him showing his dragon wings off to everyone.

I'm glad that I started it the beginning of October because it took me that long to get it all put together. If I were to do it again I would have just skipped the foot part and just done elastic on the bottom of the legs. The feet would never stay where they were suppose to and he was just stepping on them all night.

Cutest little dragon I've ever seen...

Sick day...

I've been fighting a cold all week... it's no fun. So instead of going and playing with my boys today I decided it would be best to stay home and get some much needed rest and down time.

So I slept in till 9:00 AM which never happens...

I went and got Chipotle with a grapefruit Izze for lunch...

I've been listening to the Ingrid Michaelson station on Pandora all day...

and I was finally able to work on my quilt!!!

It has been sitting in the drawer for the past two months completely untouched. I just haven't had the time to work on it. When I did have time I was sewing a certain little boy's Halloween costume. So now that it's done, it was time to pull it out again.

It's been so nice to have a day to take it easy and do something that I love to do. I love the way that my table looks right now...

Do you see those beautiful shiny scissors? Husband got those for me for my birthday. Brilliant man I tell you, I love them so much! It's like cutting through warm butter. This is the first project I've been able to use them on. And I fall in love with this fabric all over again each time I pull it out.

I still love the quilt pattern I picked, but it's a little time consuming because each piece needs to be hand cut. I'm sure there is a much easier way to do this so that I don't have to hand cut everything, but I tend to do things the hard way so it's taking me a while. But I figured out a good system and hopefully I'll be able to start sewing it together soon.

Chicken and broccoli over rice...

This is my favorite meal ever!!!!!

I would just like to let you know that right off the bat. This really is my favorite meal. It's a family recipe, my mom used to make it for me for my birthday dinners and now that I'm "the mom" I get to make it whenever I want, which is usually about twice a month. This is also a go to recipe for me when I have company coming over for dinner, because I know that they will love it (unless they totally hate broccoli). I'm not saying it's super healthy, it's not bad. I'm just saying it's amazing and you really should try it out because it's that good.

Chicken and Broccoli over rice...

Main Ingredients

2 chicken breasts (or more if you like lots of chicken)

2 bunches fresh broccoli

1/4 c. Parmesan cheese

paprika for sprinkling

Sauce

2 c. milk

2 pkg. cream cheese

1 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. garlic salt

3/4 c. Parmesan cheese

- First boil the chicken breasts until fully cooked, and set aside to cool.

Then steam the broccoli until it's tender and set aside to cool.

- Mix all ingredients of the sauce together in a double broiler. I don't have a double broiler, so I just use a saucepan of water and use a Pyrex glass measuring cup to hold all the ingredients. Heat until the cream cheese is melted and mixed well with everything else. I like to use a wire whisk to mix this all together so that it's nice and creamy.

- In a 9x13 baking dish, lay the broccoli down on the bottom as the first layer. Then spoon 1/2 of the sauce over the broccoli. Then shred your chicken into manageable pieces and layer it on top of the sauce. Spoon the rest of the sauce on top of the chicken. Then sprinkle the 1/4 c. Parmesan cheese and paprika over the top until it looks pretty.

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook the dish for about 25 minutes or until the Parmesan cheese is melty and it's bubbling. Let cool for about 15 minutes before serving.

- Serve over rice.

If you have a small family like me this may seem like a lot of food for 2-3 people, but it makes great leftovers too! Make some extra rice and store them both together in serving size tupperware dishes. I'm handing you gold here... pure gold. Smothered in Parmesan and cream cheese... you can thank me later.

Indian in the cupboard...

photo from Nie Nie Dialogues...

Over the weekend we stopped by the CAL Ranch Store and my little guy and I were both mesmerized by all the little Schleich toys that were there. I love them. I love the little fawn, and the cows, and the porcupine!!! They are so well made and so miniature. Most things are adorable in miniature form aren't they?



It got me thinking about Nie Nie's Indian in the Cupboard collection that she talked about here. I like collections, but I like them to be functional. I love her idea of using toys as decorations, and I'm now on the lookout to find the perfect little {old} cupboard to start my own collection. I'm excited, I can see this as being a fun activity for our whole family. Both in collecting them and playing with them.

Starting with... my husband has no clue what The Indian in the Cupboard is. He may or may not have missed the fourth grade it sounds like. So the movie is on the way via Netflix, and maybe just for fun we will read the book together too. Then let the collecting begin!

Twenty {7}...

Twenty {7} is...

... being thankful for each day that I have to spend with those I love.

... growing out this super short hair.
... feeling better in my skin than I ever have before.

... simplifying my life so that I can be more productive and focus on the things that really deserve my attention.

... filling my body with healthy things and taking better care of it.

... lacing up my running shoes each morning.

... sewing more clothes for myself.

... listening to music more often when I do the dishes (my least favorite chore).

... working hard for my family, but not so hard that I don't have any energy for them when I get home.

... cooking with garlic and cumin (my favorites).

... wearing more heels... for the hubs.

... my budding wooden spoon collection.

... being less frumpy and more put together.

Twenty {7} feels good...

May I Suggest...

My cute friend Hannah from Sherbet Blossom has a May I Suggest series on her blog each month where she invites different bloggers to give their favorite suggestions on different topics and items. Hannah invited me to join in the fun for the month of October.

I had to laugh a little when she did because I am a super simple, low maintenance type of a girl and I'm not really into lots of products or gadgets.... so hopefully I can have some good suggestions this month!

Check in each Friday to see what I and the other fab bloggers suggest! Today's topic is beauty... check it out!

Dinosaur...

My little boy is going to be three this Halloween. So this is the first Halloween that he has really had any clue as to what is going on. I asked him what he wanted to dress up as without hesitation he said, "DINOSAUR!"

He's always been interested in messing with my sewing stuff much to my dismay... so I decided to make this a fun project for us to work on together. I took him to the fabric store and let him pick out what fabric he wanted (I did sway him a little... I didn't want him to be a light pink dinosaur). I've also been letting him help me when I pin the fabric together. He sits quietly on my lap when I sew the pieces together and pulls out the pins when it's time and puts them back in the pin cushion.

It has been so cute to have him help me do this. It's a bit frustrating at times when I would like to just get something done and he slows down the process... but I'm learning to be patient just as he is learning about working on a project from start to finish.

I love working on projects with my boy... I highly recommend it.

Baby steps - constant concerted effort...

A friend of mine posted this video on Facebook today and it made me cry! What a touching story. Simple... yet so powerful.

Something that my husband keeps telling me and that I keep telling myself is that losing weight is more just a constant, concerted effort to exercise and eat healthy. There aren't really any magic tricks or pills. Just to keep trekking along and making good choices.

I'm still just trying to keep good habits. I know that I do better every day with my eating if I start the day out right with some exercise and a healthy breakfast. Every single time you eat a meal you make a choice... to do something healthy and good for or body, or to not. I'm happy to say that I am making the healthy choice a lot more often than I make the non healthy choice and it's starting to show.

My progress...

I've now lost 10 lbs. I have about 3 lbs to go to be at my "pre chemo" weight. I'm starting to see it too. I have more energy now than I did before. My clothes are starting to fit a little better. Yesterday I ran 3 miles straight without stopping. It was a slow run, but it was a good one.

I'm planning on running a half marathon in March. I haven't signed up for it yet, I'd like to be able to run 6 miles before actually signing up for the race (that's about half the distance of the race). I do think though that by signing up for this race it will keep me motivated to get out and do my runs every week. Constant concerted effort...

September...

I went back to work full time this month for the first time since my little guy was born almost three years ago. My husband is doing a very intense accelerated nursing program for the next year so it was pretty necessary and I'm grateful to have found a good job. I needed to get some "comfortable" black shoes to wear for work. I've always wanted to own a pair of Toms, and I figured these would be great for my job.

Well... they would be if they had more of a sole. They are super comfortable, but when you are standing on a tile floor for 10 hours straight... they just don't make the cut. So they will have to be my comfortable shoes to wear when I'm not at work.

I still love them though! I would love to get another pair sometime, maybe the yellow cord ones. Those are adorable.

desk...

We needed to get a simple desk for our computer in the living room. So we found this old one on Craigslist that looked promising.

I wish I had gotten a better look at it before we bought it because I initially wanted to stain the top wood a dark brown, but the very top of the desk was laminate... bummer. I just ended up painting the top surface a dark brown and the rest white. It was a super easy refinishing job. I just sanded it down very roughly to give the paint something to stick to and we just threw a couple coats of paint on it. I thought about filling in the little nick's and such with wood filler but in the end I really didn't care to... gives it character.

Here is the after...

Please excuse my mess of chords behind the desk. Does anyone have a great chord solution because these are driving me crazy! I really love the little knobs that I got. I totally splurged on the knobs and got the cute yellow ones from Anthropologie (it's considered a splurge when the knobs cost almost as much as the desk itself). It was completely worth it though because I think that the knobs totally make the desk! They look so good! They make me smile whenever I look at them.

She looks good in the living room. I think that I am almost done with putting my living room together. A few pillows to make and it will be there. Pictures to come!

Bald for Becky Auction...

This week I am participating in an online auction for a sweet lady named Becky, who was diagnosed with cancer in May of this year. She is a thirty year old mother of four, with her kids ranging in age from 8 months to 9 years. After having an emergency mastectomy, doctors found that the cancer had spread to one of Becky's lungs and diagnosed her with a very invasive form of Sarcoma. After a tumor in one of her lungs was removed, Becky found that the cancer had spread to both lungs. She started chemo, but after two rounds of chemo, they found it to be ineffective. They are now searching for an alternative treatment, but she was given 6 months to live from her doctor.

Becky's story has really touched me, having battled cancer myself this year. I am auctioning off one of my family trees to help raise funds for her family. There are lots of great participants in this auction! I encourage you to check it out, and maybe get some early Christmas shopping done that will help this family.

To find the auction you can go to baldforbecky.blogspot.com. Also, the family has a facebook page for Becky which you can find here.