a craft? what's that?

I finally got a project done!! Ok, I finished it last week, but since my brain was mush from studying and drinking monsters, I never got around to posting it. I posted about the colors for DeVon's future room HERE. That's how I was finally able to do a project. And it was such a simple one - a growth chart. It took no time at all. I do need to complain about the blue paint though. It was so watery! Not so good for painting the numbers. Oh well... No need to even explain the project; it's all in the pictures:

Linking to:

Today's Creative Blog

Blue Cricket Design

A Little Knick Knack

Funky Junk Interiors

Change of plan

Was gonna post a project I finished yesterday, but I'm all hopped up on Monster and can't focus! I'm going crazy! So, here are several scrapbook pages I've done recently that I've been meaning to post.

^credits:

floor - Storybook Dreams 2 by Nicole Young Designs

Paper, flowers - Midnight Kiss by Bren Boone Designs

journal tag - Tag Template 5 by Delicious Scraps

disco ball - Celebration by Deanna Jones

^credits:

Shabby Stitchin by Christina Renee

template from ScrapMatters

ble papers, flower, heart - Teddy's Dream by Silke Lemcke

curly string - With Love by Down This Road Designs

ric rac - Sweet Thing by Chelle's Creations

Background paper - Free Spirit from Designs by MonaLisaSmiles

date paper - Color Therapy Brown Cappuchino by EMart Designs

circle string - Soft and Seet by Deanna Jones

swirls - American by Seven's Scraps

glitter and daisy - Shamrock from Design by Ziska

^credits:

papers, headphones, wings - Adolescent Antics from EveryDayMomIdeas

Rockin word art - Back 2 School Blog Train

dot circle - Warm Winter Wishes by Bon Scrapatit Designs

^credits:

dinosaur - Dino-Mite by Charm City Scraps

green alpha - Ad Inspired Alphabet by Katie Pertiet

papers, speech bubble - Spring It On mini kit by Mye De Leon

torn border - The Land of Oz by Sarah Barber Design

^credits:

green string flower - Be Mine by BitsO'Scrap

brown flower from Delicious Scraps

purple glitter - October Magic Glitter by Lindsay Jane

Journal cardboard - Ad Inspiration from Katie Pertiet

Linking to:

Handy Man, Crafty Woman

House of Hepworths

Young and Crafty

A Little Knick Knack

Funky Junk Interiors

Master Bedroom Wish

The past few days, I've been having fun photoshopping a master bedroom for us. I changed it over, and over, and over, till it was perfect. Now, again, all I need is a house to decorate!

Here's one wall of our future master bedroom. (By the time we get a house, my style will have changed, but w/e, I love it)

All the furniture and the lights are from Bricklewood and the pillow and bedspread are from Bed Bath & Beyond.

My husband has requested a fireplace, so maybe that'll give me the inspiration to design the other walls of the room? Not likely, seeing as it's difficult designing with no floorplan, but maybe I can put together an inspiration board for the rest of the room.


Linking to:
Today's Creative Blog
House of Hepworths

Photo Editing Tutorial - with Photoshop

Wanna know how to take this:

and transform it into this?

It is soooo easy. 

I personally use photoshop, but I'm pretty sure any photo editing program will have these options. Click on the pics to view full size.

Step 1 - Curves

Step 2 - Vibrance/Saturation

That's it! Those are the specific settings I used, but play around with the curves and the vibrance and saturation numbers till you end up with something you like. What'd I tell ya? EASY!

Linking to:

Today's Creative Blog

Blue Cricket Design

im baaa-aaack

Ok, back to blogging!!

I've now finished module 10 of my CCNA book - ACLs. uuuuugggghhh. studying... I like this stuff, but my brain is totally overloaded! Hence the extreme lack of blog posts. And, like anyone reading this, I am dying to get a craft project on here. Buuuuuttt, apparently everything closes down on Easter - who woulda thunk!? Needed fabric softener for laundry so we drove to Target. CLOSED! Drove to HEB. CLOSED! Wanted to go to Home Depot for a craft - finally. Didn't even go to check if it was opened. After Target and HEB, didn't want to waste my time. Ended up at Walgreen's for fabric softener. Yes, Sunday is the only day I can do laundry since a friend so kindly lets us use his washer. OMG I'm itching to craft. I have a broad idea for DeVon's future room and it's starting to really inspire me. I want to show you my color scheme. I don't remember where the pictures are from, so if you know, lemme know so I can give credit.

To start off, DeVon was wearing this one day and that's when I had a huge epiphany:

GRAY, YELLOW, AND BLUE!!

I was trying to decide what shade of blue and ended on navy. Easy to match and will grow with him through his teenage years.

I was digging through my inspiration files and put this together.

sources:

ohdeedoh

LOOOOVE IT! (In the voice of that one dragon from Dragon Tales) Can't wait to do SOMETHING. I have a couple really quick, easy, cheap projects planned. Was gonna do them this week, but thank you stores for being closed on Easter. (No offense to anyone who thinks I shouldn't have been shopping on Easter)

Scrapbook Pages

Today was a great day! I woke up and immediately exercised (after not having done so in just over a week), then chilled a little while before taking DeVon to the park. The park ended up being really nice, and peaceful too. It was fun! Then we went grocery shopping on the way home. DeVon's such a trooper at the grocery store. It was then nap time so I put him down. He wasn't falling asleep so I ended up getting him out of bed so we could go do laundry at our friend's place. That didn't happen. The guys were tuckered out from golfing so we just chilled some more. I got bored so I took DeVon to the pool for the first time this year! It was freezing but easy to get used to. We swam for about an hour and then I had to bribe him to get out because his lips were turning blue. Oh, did I mention he turned 3 on friday? I can't believe it. I've been waiting for him to turn 3 because it's felt like he's been 2 for 2 years but when the day came, I just wanted him to stay 2! Never realized how sad kids' birthday's can be for a parent. Well, without further ado, here are my latest scrapbook pages. Maybe one day I'll actually be done scrapping 2008!

^credits:

Alpha - Hello Sunshine by Kelly Mickus

Papers - Family Tree by ?

Back Brown Paper - Texture Files by HSG

Black Stitching - Jen Yurko Designs

corner stitching - Miya J.

White stitching - Follow Me Mini Kit from Digital Scrap Cafe

^credits:

Artemia by After 5 Designs

Linking to:

House of Hepworths

Truth and Tell Tuesday - I Lie To My Son...And He Likes It!

DeVon loves Happy Meals more than any other food. (BAAAD!! I know, I know, it's my fault). So, since I'm not gonna go out and get him a Happy Meal every day, I just make him one. One day we went to McDonald's and the Happy Meal came in the original Happy Meal box and not a bag. I love nostalgic things so I kept it as a souvenir before they never existed again. Well, I'll have to get a new one to use as a souvenir because every day for lunch DeVon asks for a Happy Meal and one day we decided to just trick him. We have a huge bag of Mickey Mouse chicken nuggets so we made a few, grabbed one of his toy cars, and made him a Happy Meal! Tony even went so far as to go out the door and knock so DeVon would open the door and find the Happy Meal there! Now he knows that I make it, but he likes it. He even helps me cook the food to put in the Happy Meal box. But of course his favorite part is finding what toy he got. So cute :)

So now tell me, is there anything you lie to your kids about? Or "trick" them?

And now I'm going to leave you with a picture of the cute little man making me "pizza"

Staying True to Texas Stereotypes

Yes, that's an armadillo. These pictures are actually from 2008. I was visiting my parents in Houston. They're always having armadillo trouble. They dig up the landscaping, creating these huge holes and ruining plants. I took these pictures because Tony is from California and didn't believe we actually caught an armadillo. To most people, they seem like fictional animals because it's something they never see. Well, I'm telling you, they're real! And this little bugger got CAUGHT! After they catch it, my dad takes it and releases it. I've read that they'll return if they're not let out more than a mile away. I wonder if it's always the same one that returns. They're...kinda cute... in a gross creature, leprosy carrying kinda way... I remember as kid, we were at the baseball fields and some lady had a pet armadillo! Some people are just crazy like that I guess. So to all you non-Texans, here's your proof that they exist :)

In Loving Memory

People have more of an impact on people's lives than they know. This is in remembrance of someone who I crossed paths with way back in junior high and probably had no idea that I would always remember her. I was a very quiet kid (emphasis on the very). I had my friends, but I didn't make new friends - ever. Most people just ignored me and let me be, and I was more than fine with that. This story starts in 1997 in Ms. Boyd's sixth grade Reading class. I got transferred into the class a few days into the school year and got seated at a table with 3 other people. I don't remember who 2 of the people were, but the third was Melissa Mercer. I went about my way of quietness and ignoring everyone around me, but she made a point to talk to me. She talked to me every day in that class. She didn't fall into my quiet trap and start ignoring me. No matter how untalkative I remained, she still continued talking to me. I started missing her on the days she wasn't there. Then the school year ended. We never had another class together again. She never knew what her kindness and friendship meant to me. Throughout the rest of junior high, I made a point to say hi to her in the halls. It was the only way I knew to how to thank her for her kindness. Then we went on to high school. I went to a fairly large school, but it's surprising that I never had a class with her or that I very rarely saw her in the halls. The few times I did see her, I gave her my shy little wave and half smile. I doubt she remembered who I was but she always waved and beamed a smile back. There are not enough people like her in the world, and sadly (and the reason I'm crying as I write this) she was taken from this world our junior year of high school. I think about her quite often. I cry for her. I cry for her family. I cry for her friends.  I just wish she knew what impact she had on me. I hope I have had or will have that kind of impact on someone else's life. In loving memory of Missy <3

I've run out of motivation to workout. A couple weeks ago, I was working out at least 3 times a week. In the past 2 weeks, I've worked out once. ONCE! And I'm finding it hard to get motivated again. I have to workout at home, and I hate working out in front of the tv. I have the P90X videos, but honestly, standing in front of the tv for an hour is not my idea of a fun workout, so I gave up on those. I have an elliptical and that's pretty much what I stick with. I do this video every once in a while:



And there's one workout I do almost every time I workout, but I couldn't find it. Anyway, the above workout is killer. You WILL be sore. The girl Zuzanna has a billion workouts on youtube. I haven't checked any of the other ones out though.

Most people listen to music while they workout. I like to watch TV/movies. Because my elliptical is so loud, I need something with closed captioning - which rules out instant Netflix :( My dad has this thing with scouring the $5 dvd bins and giving us completely random dvds for Christmas. This last Christmas I got the first season of Boy Meets World and the First Season of Punky Brewster. Gotta love my dad :) So right now, I'm watching Boy Meets World while I workout.

So TELL me. What is your favorite home workout? And do you like to do anything while working out to make the time go by faster?

Sugar Cookies - Disaster!

I've never decorated cookies before so i decided to give it a try. I wanted to practice before DeVon's birthday party so I made some for his friend's birthday. Here's what I did wrong

1. I have 2 piping tips. I assumed the smaller one would be better for piping and the bigger one would be better for filling. WRONG! Next time I'll definitely switch that.

2. I thinned the icing for filling WAY TOO MUCH.

3. The thinned icing didn't taste quite right. I needed to add just a little more vanilla after thinning it.

Here's how they turned out:


After the piping. I most definitely do NOT have a steady hand. I'll have to work on that. I actually like the hearts.

After filling in. Yeah, I opted not to fill in the heart cookies once i saw how messy it was. That was a good choice.

Do you see what I mean by DISASTER!?

Oh boy. I almost don't want to make cookies for DeVon's birthday, but I guess I can try again. At least I know where I went wrong.


Linking to:
House of Hepworths
Young and Crafty

Inspiration, Garage sale, Party

The weekend before last, DeVon got invited to his first birthday party! He's really shy, so for the first 2/3 of the party, he just sat on our laps. He freaked when we tried putting him in the moon bounce with the other little kids right when we got there, but eventually (when he was the only kid in there) he wouldn't get out of it! He also enjoyed hitting the pinjata. While the birthday boy was hitting the pinjata, DeVon kept trying to go up to it (buzz lightyear) and punch it to death. All in all, it turned out to be a good experience for him. DeVon turns 3 in a couple weeks and I'm excited to see how the party turns out. It's going to be golf themed.

This past weekend, I made cookies for another one of his friends' birthday so stay tuned for that post. (It was a disaster!)

While at Target last weekend, my husband picked up a new loofa for the shower and when I walked in the bathroom last monday, I stopped in my tracks. The color was so pretty! It was so springy and inspiring I had to take a picture of it. One day I will paint something this color.

This weekend I went garage sale-ing for the the first time since I was a kid! I found a couple garage sales close to each other on craigslist and went and checked them out. I ended up with a tray, a decorative ball, 4 picture frames, lego blocks, a golf putting game, a tin can, a lap eating tray (wiggles themed), dog figurines (I couldn't tell DeVon no) and 4 Mr. Potato Heads! I think the Mr. Potato Heads were my best find and the only thing i took a picture of :)

4 bucks for all of that! That would cost around $40 new! I don't even know how to use some of the stuff. He's evolved a little since I last had one but I was glad to see the classic items still there.

Truth and Tell Thursday

OMG, I've gotten so much studying done today! It's getting fun and interesting so I choose to study over cleaning and exercising :) Has it really been a week since the last truth and tell? Geez time flies. Well, today's truth really belongs in OCD's "How Often Do You Clean It" Series. And it's really embarrassing.

My Truth: This is what it looks like beneath my couch cushions. EEEK! Yes, I let my 2 year old eat on couch. I can hear mom's lecturing all over the world. I know my mom lectures me about stuff like this... But you only live life once. I don't want my son to grow up scared I'm gonna get mad at him any time he drops a crumb. I don't think it's a big deal although most people will disagree with me. Oh well. I just need to vacuum it more often, apparently.

Yes, that's my husband's sock in the top left. They never seem to make it to the hamper.

And now for the tell part. Pleeeeaaaase tell me I'm not the only who's couch looks like this!

Linking to:

LambAround

Salsa Chicken and a Scrapbook page

First off, I want to say thank you to may newest followers! But on another note, I'm sorry my blog isn't my biggest priority. I've been studying for the CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate). I want to be a network engineer and am trying to get through this as quickly as possible! I'm only in module 6 out of 14, but hopefully I'll be done and be able to take the test come August or September. Then maybe, maybe, I'll be able to focus on my blog. Once I get a job though, we're gonna start thinking about moving again to a bigger/nicer apartment or rental house. We'll see. Maybe if i get a home office, I'll be able to concentrate on writing blog posts! Right now, all I can hear in my head while trying to hold a train of thought is Dora or Spongebob! On that note, here's a video of my son DeVon singing and dancing with the Fresh Beat Band! Start it halfway through. Isn't he the cutest? He loves his microphone (even though grandma got mad we took it from her house) :) Oh, have you seen Sweet Sugarbelle's blog? I'm sure you have, but isn't she amazing!? She's inspired me to make cookies so this weekend I'll be making some for DeVon's friend's birthday as practice for his birthday coming up. I'm pretty excited about it.

Okay, as promised, a scrapbook page:

^credits:

Papers - A Retro Christmas from Little Dreamer Designs

Alpha by Libby Pritchett Designs

Journal Paper - Web Inspiration 1-23-11 by Katie Pertiet

And finally, a recipe. It's Queso Chicken and it was quite a while ago that I made it so I can't remember what star rating I would give it, but it's definitely a solid meal. Tastes like chicken (yum) with velveeta queso (yum). Simple as that. I paired it with broccoli.

Queso Chicken

6 boneless chicken breasts
3 teaspoons Seasoning for Tacos
8 ounces cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup mayonnaise
10 ounce can Ro-tel tomatoes, drained (tomatoes with green chilies)




Season the chicken breasts with the taco seasoning. Grill and keep warm while preparing the queso sauce.
In a medium microwaveable bowl, mix the cheese and cream. Microwave 2 minutes on HIGH to melt the cheese; stir until well blended and creamy. Whisk in the mayonnaise until smooth then stir in the Ro-tel tomatoes. Microwave about 2 minutes on 50% power until heated through. Serve the sauce over the chicken. Garnish with sliced green onions, if desired.




Thank you for reading and stop on by this weekend to see how my cookies turn out! I don't even own a rolling pin. Guess I'll need to remedy that!


Linking to:
Somewhat Simple
LambAround
Young and Crafty

A Piece of Decoration

Decorate? What's that? When you move every few months, there's no such thing as decorating. We'll be in this apartment longer than we've been in any other one so yes, I would like to decorate. So far, I've only done one thing - hang up my chore board! I love it. I wanted to hang up all of our pictures, but I don't have any nails! Gotta go to Home Depot. I hung up the chore board by stealing some nail type things from my picture hanging kit. Need to change them when I buy nails. But anyway, my chore board sat unused on top of a bookshelf since we moved in in October and I'm so happy to finally have it put to use.

Linking to:

Young and Crafty

Just A Girl

Truth and Tell - Celebrity Crush Shhhh

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Did you ever see the episode of Friends where Ross and Rachel make lists of 5 celebrities they're allowed to have sex with? Well, if I had a list, there'd only be one name on it.

My not so secret celebrity crush is..........

Bradley Cooper!

I first saw him in Failure To Launch and fell in "love". He has a movie coming out this month - Limitless. I never go to the movie theater but will definitely see it when it comes out on dvd :) 

Who's YOUR celebrity crush? leave a comment!


Linking to:
House of Hepworths
A Little Knick Knack
Tidy Mom
Lamb Around

sorry...studying :/

I'm sorry to all my followers and friends, but I have to put my blog on hold for a while again while I study. I really need to get a job so studying trumps blog. Plus studying has fried my brain and I can't hold a decent train of thought. That's not good for writing blog posts :) I'll still post on occasion if I come across a day when my brain doesn't feel fried. I seriously can't wait to finish studying and get a job!!! It'll be so nice to finally have a 2 income household. Then I can actually do all the crafting and building and decorating I want! :D

Scrapbook Pages

Been cutting back on time spent on blogger in lieu of studying. But I barely studied! I always just go soooo bored and boredly browsed the internet. Shame on me :/ Maybe this next week I'll be better. I do have some food to share, but thought I'd shake it up with some scrapbook pages I finally got around to doing.

^credits:

Color Theory Gold by Christina Renee

Holiday Sugar Cookie Blog Train

^credits:

Background Paper and Cardboard - Adolescent Antics from Every Day Mom Ideas

Tape - Plentiful from Shabby Princess

black border - Happy Scrap Girl

Notebook Paper - Feelin Funk-ay from ?

Linking to:

Todays Creative Blog
A Diamond In The Stuff
A Little Knick Knack

Truth and Tell Thursday

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Here's my truth:

My single most favorite item from my last grocery trip is this almond milk. I had to buy two - one for me, one for Tony - so that he could actually have some this time around. I tend to drink it all while he's at work. As I'm writing this, I'm drinking the last of mine :( I'll probably end up sneaking some from his carton :)

What's your favorite item from your last grocery trip? Just Leave a comment!




Linking to:
Young and Crafty
A Little Knick Knack

Taco Skillet

As I was taking the pics of the food, I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get a good picture. As I was taking pictures this morning, I saw that the lens was beyond dirty. Lesson learned.

This is an easy 4 stars. It's not a 5 because I probably wouldn't want this more than once a week (totally unlike the artichoke chicken or cilantro cream chicken), although I am looking forward to eating the leftovers for lunch. Beats eating a salad. I've had a hard time eating just a plain normal salad after having the Cobb Salad at BJ'S last week. I still can't get over how good it was. So on to the recipe:



2 pounds ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped, 4 ounces
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons Seasoning for Tacos
14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained
16 ounces coleslaw mix or shredded cabbage(*I used a 16 oz bag of shredded iceberg lettuce*)
Salt, to taste
4 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
6 tablespoons sour cream, optional
Cilantro, optional




Brown the meat with the onion and garlic in a large skillet; drain the grease. Add the seasoning and tomatoes. Simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. Add the cabbage and cook, uncovered, 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt to taste, if needed. Sprinkle the cheese over the top, cover and cook 2 minutes until the cheese melts. Stir in the cheese (*my husband requested I not stir it in, as you can see in the pic*). Top each serving with 1 tablespoon sour cream and a pinch of cilantro, if you like, but they are not included in the counts.




The recipe says it feeds 6, and it can, but I say it feeds 4 good sized adults. We don't skimp on our food around here, hence the need to be on a diet. I just realized I totally forgot to put sour cream on it! I love sour cream; I can't believe I forgot! Now I'm looking even more forward to lunch :)


So does anyone else have a problem with cleaning their kitchen every day just to have it end up looking like this?

Soooooo frustrating! Even now I'm putting off cleaning it. And once I clean it, It'll look like this again after dinner. I don't do any cleaning after dinner; that's when my husband and I RELAX. I used to do the dishes after dinner, but our dishwasher is so loud (like someone screaming) that I don't turn it on while we're trying to talk or watch shows. We have to yell over it just to hear each other. But, it's made us justify getting a really nice dishwasher when we eventually get a house.


Thanks for stopping by!




Linking To:
Somewhat Simple
Ekat's Kitchen
Katie's Cucina