Flower Crazy!

My husband refuses to buy me flowers. He has not once bought me flowers ever since we started dating, but he has picked me flowers from the planters in front of restaurants (if you'd like to consider that cute or sweet. :P). Now, I'm not really the girly type who needs flowers all the time, but I do appreciate a beautiful bouquet every once in a while. I would love to come home one day to a vase filled with gorgeous flowers, or even have one delivered to my front door. It's just something about receiving flowers from your special someone that just makes you feel all good and tingly inside.

But anyway, back to the main point of it all. Like I said, my husband does not buy me flowers and I have been dying to have some sort of flower in my home! So, I came across this lovely wallflower tutorial that is literally super easy, super cheap, and super fun to make!

 I seriously couldn't stop at just making one...

 

I bought my paper napkins at the party aisle at Target. They conveniently have large and small napkins so you don't really have to trim down the center part of it.. I did make my flowers a bit fuller than the tutorial shows, but I sort of like it that way... except, the napkins were really fragile (and I might have a few tears here and there... SSSH! Don't tell anyone.) and accidents do happen with fragile stuff...

Now I have finally satisfied my urge to fill my house with beautiful flowers! At least I think they're beautiful... hubby isn't very fond of them (who wouldn't have guess that...). But hey! The bright side about my flowers are that they are vibrant, colorful, beautiful... and the very best part about them is that they wont die! Unless someone decides to be very mean and rip them into pieces. Ugh. That's just mean to do though, so lets hope that never happens!

Hope you enjoyed this and if you feel the need to create some of these.. go crazy and have fun like I did!

Oh, by the way... I made some very delish beef shish kabobs! I'm going to share the recipe with you, but I am so bummed that I didn't take any pictures of them first! Guess I'll just have to borrow one. Lol.. Unless you trust my judgement that these are really yummy! Just trust my judgement! ;)

Beef and Pineapple on a Skewer

• 1lb sirloin steak
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 1 clove garlic clove, minced
•  1 teaspoon fresh ginger root grated
• 1 teaspoon peanut or sesame oil (I didn't have either so I skipped this part. Still came out yummy.)
• 1 cup pinapple, cut in cubes
• 1 green bell pepper
• 1 red bell pepper

Directions:

1. Cut the beef and bell peppers in bite sized cubes (about 3/4" x 3/4"). Mix the remaining ingredients, except pineapple and bell peppers (make sure bell peppers are clean of seeds and the stem). Marinate beef overnight, or for at least an hour (I forgot to prepare ahead of time so I probably only marinated for 15-20 min). Remove from marinade. Reserve marinade.
2. Thread meat on skewers, alternating between beef, pineapples, and bell peppers (my skewer was threaded this way from bottom to top: [green bell pepper, pineapple, beef, red bell pepper, pineapple, beef] x2). If you are using bamboo skewers, be sure to soak them in cold water for at least 20 minutes before using. Broil or barbeque until meat is cooked until desired doneness (I broiled mine for about 16 minutes since I'm cheap and don't own a grill.). Baste with reserved marinade while cooking. 

Hope the skewers taste just as good for you as they did for me!

-S

P.S. Btw, I used rubberbands to tie the center of my wallflowers. I thought they worked pretty well and they only cost about $.50 for a bag at Target. :)

Fabric!

Ok. So I'm superrr excited because I was able to go to Joann's today and buy fabric! After seeing the post on Made about Joann having a sale on their seersucker fabric, I was dying to buy some! Luckily, we needed to go to the city to pick up N's brother from the airport, so we left a little bit early so I can fulfill my wants and needs at Joann's! I wanted to hit up the thrift shops too to see if I could find any cheap goodies, but I took a little too long shopping. :P So here are the three fabrics I got for 50% off $6.99/yd!

I'm so excited to start sewing projects with these! Like a crib sheet for Nani's crib mattress...

 ...a dress for Nani, a shirt for me, or a skirt or shorts...

...or even a table topper. And I know I will definitely be using the scraps to make the no sew flowers!

But I seriously love the Made website! There are too many things she has on there that I want to make, and I am going to make them (at least, I'll attempt to. Lol). But seriously though... I really want to!

And to close this post off, I will leave you with a Nani photobomb. I put her in her new outfit we bought her for her birthday and she just looked so darned cute in it that I couldn't resist but take pictures of her! Enjoy!

I warned you. Photobomb!

-S

Chocolate Chip Cookies... Success or Fail?

I have to admit... I am on a blogging roll!!

Well, I finished baking my homemade chocolate chip cookies from scratch. All I have to say is, please do NOT be like me, misread the recipe, and melt 2 cups of butter when all you need is 3/4 cup of butter. Yeah. I totally did that, which in turn caused me to try and alter everything to make it work.....

You guessed it. Although the cookies are pretty tasty, I'm sure they would have turned out perfectly if I actually made them the way you're supposed to. But, to no further ado... here is the recipe!!

Chocolate Chip Cookies!!!

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). No need to grease cookie sheet, the cookies should be able to come up on their own (but if you feel the need to, feel free to lightly grease or line cookie sheet with parchment paper).
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips with a wooden spoon. Set cookie dough in the refrigerator for about 30 min (you don't need to do this, but the cookies will come out better if you let them sit and chill for a bit). Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake for about 14-15 minutes, or until edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes and then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely.

The last batch of cookie dough waiting to be cooked!

The yummy cookies baking in 325 degree F oven!

The cookies cooling on a cooling rack!

The finished product!

Hope you enjoy, and I sure hope your cookies come our better than mine (I am NOT going to tell you my alterations, so don't ask! :P)

-S

Nani's First Birthday Photoshoot

Today is your lucky day... because I have two posts in a day! Lol. I'm on a roll...

But, I've been lagging and I finally finished editing Nani's 1st birthday picture photoshoot that I did a while back (before her birthday mind you. lol). So, although this is going to be a short post, here are her pictures! Enjoy!


-S

P.S. I'm baking homemade cookies from scratch and I totally messed up the recipe that I was using.. so i had to tweek it.. hopefully it works out.. and if it does.. I will post up pictures and the recipe for you!

Diaper Cover

Sooo... I finally finished making Nani's diaper cover from the left over fabric I had when I made her dress for New Year's. It was superr simple and I plan on making more for her (once I can find an easy way to obtain fabric since there are no fabric shops within a 20mi distance from me). Anyhoo, I tried it on her today and I think I need to make a few adjustments for it to fit her perfectly! The size I made was for 6-12 month old babies. It seems to fit her ok. I adjusted the elastic for the leg holes to 11 inches instead of 12 inches and I should have probably adjusted the elastic for the waist as well since she has a tiny waist! Or maybe I should just try to make the size for 3-6 month babies. Lol. Trial and error I guess. I still have extra fabric, but I was hoping to make a crochet needle case out of it.. Don't think I have enough fabric for that though...

Anyway, here are the pictures of my very first diaper cover! You can find the tutorial and pattern here! Enjoy!

A Birthday and Employment

Ok ok ok. It's been a week... AGAIN! I am horrible! Butt.. My daughter is finally a year old! On her actual birthday, hubby was lucky enough to have it off because he had watch the night before and got off in the morning. We pretty much went out to eat lunch, then we went shopping at the mall to get her gifts which consisted of two pairs of jordans, two outfits, and two brand new toys! We decided on letting her open her presents on the day of her party instead. Then we went to go pick up hubby's brother since he had just came back from deployment.. then we got ready again and went out to eat dinner at Chili's. We got baby girl a chocolate molten lava cake and she loved it! Then finished the night off with a little bit of shopping at Wal-mart to get some more things for the party on Saturday.

Then Thursday came and I started to prepare all the cakes for the party. That night I made Chocolate Cupcakes from scratch and put the in the fridge to get frosted on Saturday. Then Friday night I made Red Velvet Cake from scratch and mixed it with Cream Cheese frosting to make them into Cake pops. I also baked baby's smash cake which was regular yellow cake from the box. I didn't get to sleep until about 3am and I woke up at about 8am Saturday morning to finish the cakes and start baking the ribs in the oven. Once I woke up and got the ribs going, I started making the Butter Cream Frosting for the cupcakes and I started melting the milk chocolate for the cake pops. After about 3 hours, I finally got everything ready! I also had a bit of chocolate left over, so I decided to dip some fresh strawberries! All in all, things went pretty well! It was a bit too hot outside for anything, which made the swimming pool really useful... but I don't think we'll be celebrating her birthday outside again for a while! Now here are the pics of all my hard work and.... of course... a recipe for you! Enjoy!


Chocolate Cream Cake

• 2 2/3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 3 eggs
• 3 oz unsweetened chocolate melted and cooled
• 1 1/2 cups ice water

1. Grease and lightly flour three 9x1 1/2 or 8x1 1/2 inch round baking pans. Combine flour, soda, salt.
2. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add eggs, one at a time, beating eell after each. Beat in chocolate. Alternately add flour mixture and water, beating on low to medium speed after each addition just till combined. Pour into prepared pans.
3. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-30 min or till a wooden toothpick inserted near the centers comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 mins. Remove from pans. Cool completely on wire racks.

Butter Cream Filling: Beat 1/2 cup butter till softened. Beat in 2 1/4 cups sifted powdered sugar, 2 tablespoons milk, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in additional milk, if necessary, to make a filling of spreading consistency.

Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting: Beat 1/2 of an 8oz package cream cheese till softened. Beat in 3 tablespoons milk. Beat in 3 3/4 cups sifted powdered sugar. Beat in 3 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled, and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in additional milk if necessary to make of spreading consistency.

P.S. After job hunting for about a month and surviving 5 interviews.. I finally got a callback and I was offered a position! So I will be starting work in a few weeks! Woohoo! So starting next month, my life as I know it is going to change completely. I hope I'm ready for it!

And by the way, she enjoyed her smash cake. :)

Wedding Bells

I completely apologize for not updating my blog in over a week! Things have been kinda busy at home with trying to plan for Ne'ani's first birthday and my best friend in high school's wedding...

Anyhoo... we started our road trip Friday afternoon and it was such a bad idea for us to leave at that time. I warned hubby that we would be stuck in traffic and he insisted on leaving early because he wanted to be well rested for the wedding on Saturday. Little did he know that those efforts were wasted because we still didn't get enough rest for Saturday! And on top of that we barely made the last few minutes of the wedding! But, at least I got to hear the most important part of the wedding.. their vows to each other and when they got pronounced as man and wife!

I definitely had a great time catching up with everyone and it was so wild to see her get married. I was just super bummed that everything went by so quickly and I wasn't ready to leave yet.. but I know we'll have another chance to see everyone again. Maybe at the next wedding. Hehe.

So I do have a quite a few pictures to start posting up.. Including the pics I took for babygirl for her turning one. I've been so lazy with y camera.. I really need to get cracking on that...

-S

P.S. I had 3 interviews last week for different positions at the same store and today is the day I find out if I got a job there.. so we'll see because time is running out and I really need a job soon!

My Projects are FINALLY completed!

Ok ok ok. You can go ahead and be mad at me for not updating my blog in OVER a week! I've just been super busy and spending tons of quality time with my family. Hubby basically had a 5 day weekend from work. We went to his command's picnic on Thursday (which they served amazing food!) and I got super sunburnt from it. Otherwise, it was pretty fun. Then on Friday I had a job interview at Olan Mills for the Studio Photographer position. I thought it went really well, but they were doing call backs today and I guess the must have lost my number because they never called me back. Super sad about that because I really really wanted that job. The hours rocked and I love to take pictures.. and it would just be such an awesome job to have. blahhh. Anyhoooo... then on Saturday we tried to take advantage of the sun and went swimming at the pool, but the sun didn't stay out too long.. so we only got about an hour of swimming and sun bathing. After we went to eat dinner with our friends and then watched Pirates of the Carribean!! I must be a nerd because I'm the only one who really liked it... and I was the only one who got excited when they showed the Queen Anne's Revenge. How lame am I? Lol. Sunday was catch up on homework day for me and then Monday we had dinner at our friends house. That pretty much sums up my 5 day weekend with my hubby!

But today, BOY was today a busy day for me. I was up and out of bed by 10 and I rushed to get me and baby ready. I went down to the college and got enrolled.. So starting July 5th I will be dedicating 14 months of my life to becoming a Medical Assistant. I was there for a few hours. Then I went to this Job Searcher thing at Fleet and Family services on base and that was an hour long. It was pretty informational. Then I ran around like a chicken with no head trying to get other things done like picking up paperwork at Pass and Decal for my guest list for Ne'ani's bday, dropping off my application at the NEX and buying all white shoes for school, and then going to the Naval Hospital to change my Tricare info so I can start being seen at the Drs on base instead of driving an hour out of town. THENNN.. I finally got to go home and somewhat relax. I broke out my sewing machine, and sewed my school patched onto my scrubs! I’m pretty proud of myself! (Btw, this pic my patch is unsewed.)

Then hubby decided he wanted me to finish the projects I've been trying to finish for over a month already! This tiny project was super easy. Just made a little key holder to hold our keys! It was scrap wood left over from the Ana White project that I originally started. I just bought the little holders at Home Depot. I can't remember exactly how much they were, but they weren't too pricey.


Here is my Ana White Clip Art Rails project! I kind of tweeked it a little bit. I cut my wood piece to 5ft instead and used 12 clothes pins. I put 6 on top and on the bottom! I used gorilla glue, but I would probably try a different kind of glue because the clothes pins kept wanting to come off the wood. She also talks about painting hers and the quickest way is to spray paint. I second the spray painting. I originally wanted to sand it down after I painted it because I wanted to give it a more vintage look, but hubby decided he liked it looking sleek. And to give it more color I chose not to paint the clothes pins. All in all, I'm happy with how it turned out! Now I just have to figure out if I want to add anything else to it besides pictures! Any suggestions?


Till next time! And hopefully it won't take me a week to update this again. Lol!

-S