Photo Friday! Loves Music and Loves to Dance!

Here she is again... 

I may be biased but I think shes adorable and I may be guilty of posting far to many pictures of this gorgeous child but how can this mot make you smile.....

This child lives for music.... 

Here she is listening to Aunties MP3 player.... She does this all the time she holds the earphones to her head and listens and sings along!

Oh how she puts a smile on my face....

Hope she puts a smile on your face too! 

Happy Friday!

Tell The Truth Thursday! I like moving furniture!

I like moving furniture!

HEHEHE I couldn't resist!

And now that it 's stuck in your head.....

I like to move my furniture around all the time! 

I do it when I am happy, when I am sad or angry, I do it just because.

To me it makes the house feel clean, and almost new again (even if it's just for a little while).

And since I am a renter it gives me the new fresh feeling without having to move again...

I feel like it makes the house feel fresh, it makes me feel like the house is clean (mainly because I have to clean under the furniture as it gets moved around) it makes me feel like I have accomplished something and that the house is better for it, or that it suits us better, makes the room flow better or allows us to use the room more efficiently, or whatever new reason I can come up with to make Robyn help me...

The worst part about moving furniture is that I have to have it all planed out before we move one thing... Robyn is not one for moving the furniture... ever. If we set it down when we moved in and it works there why move it.... He will help me when I ask (mainly because he gets mad at me if I move it when he isn't home to help, pregnant or not) but he has to know where it is all going and why. 

MEN! 

Yikes.... live in the moment wont ya! 

Do you like to move your furniture too... does it drive your hubby nuts? I'd love to hear your reasons for moving furniture... Maybe I can steal them and use them the next time I want to move the furniture around our house!

Novice Knitter turned Crochet Convert?!?!

I have mentioned a few times before (like here) that I have wanted to add a little crocheted "Something" to a few of my knitted projects... that little "something" is apparently "simple" and "easy even for a beginner" its a flower... 

which I couldn't, no way, no how make myself... 

I searched YouTube, I watched tutorials on other blogs, I asked my mom to teach me and I followed them all step by step to try and make my own little flowers but they always came out looking more like misshapen circles with little bumps here and there... 

Frustrating? You betcha!

Until.... I found this! 

Yup Its an easy crochet flower tutorial.... at first I thought "Yeah sure easy...." then I read it and get this it's done in English... yup no abbreviations to Google or "tips" that made no sense to me at all... and then last night I tried it! 

And......

It's a flower! 

I know the pictures are a bit on the dark side but it was 11pm and I was too excited to wait till today to take pictures!

Here are the instructions that Amber posted over on "Life... Unscripted"

"Step by step:
1. chain 4 then slip stitch it together

2. double crochet into the center of the loop 15 times, then join with a slip stitch

3. double crochet into the first loopy thing (so technical around here) then in the same loop do a triple crochet

4. then in the net loopy do a triple first then a double

5. then in the next loopy do a slip stitch

-then start at #3 and go through to # 5 til completed

6.(4 in the picture) do the final slip stitch

Sorry if this is confusing, just leave me a comment if you have any questions and I will get back to you just so long you are not a no reply blogger."

See easy peasy... as you can probably tell I made my original chain bigger than 4 but that was just to make it a bit easier for me to see what I was doing...

I'm in love with it!

I was so excited that I called my mom screaming.. well not screaming but really excited that I finally made a flower!

Have you made anything this week that you thought you'd never learn how to do? Do you get insanely excited like I do when you finally learn how??

If you have a minute stop over and check out Life... Unscripted Amber has some very cool things going on and you can even check out her Etsy store too!

First "nursery" Project!

So I am trying to get a few new things together for the "Nursery/Shared Room" for the kiddos! 

And when I saw this a few weeks ago I thought holy that's cute!

These are from dollarstorecrafts.com! 

I love Dollar Store Crafts.... cause well I love the dollar store!

So after I thought holy that's cute I thought I wonder what I could do with this.... and then this came out...

I am in love with them!

Here is how I did them... 

(unfortunately I was so excited while making them that I forgot to take pictures...)

First I cut down a cardboard box... shocking for me I know... 

I cut it to the size that I wanted (I cut four of them) and then I glued two of the sheets together with just white glue and I weighted them down with plates and vases... 

Next I painted them both white. 

Then I lightly sketched out each name and glued my crayons down over the sketched letters.

Personally I preferred to have them with the outside paper taken off and I cut them much smaller of course since I had more letters to make. 

Here is a close up of the letters....

For Max's I did all the letters in green, yellow, orange and blue... the colors I am using for his side of the room.

,

and for Delaney I used reds, purples and pinks. (the colors of one Strawberry Shortcake)

Then I used excess cardboard to make the frames, I did my best to make them a perfect mitered edge but clearly I didn't succeed, and at 9:30 after a long day with a very active girl I really didn't mind that it wasn't perfect. Then I just covered the cardboard with scrapbooking paper in coordinating colors... reddish for Delaney and orangeish for Max.

Here they are again... in full and a bit closer up!

I think they will look great against the green walls... Yup I am painting the walls green and I can't wait!

Make anything cute for your kids lately? 

I'd love to hear about it!

Make it Monday! Pasta Bake!

Ok this is the best, easiest and yummiest go-to dinner ever!

(if I do say so myself)

and better yet it can be made with anything.... 

It's so simple that we don't even have a name for it... 

We call it "pasta bake" "chicken, peppers, and sausage thing" 

or "YUMMY"

So here it is! 

Not exactly a beauty but it's beyond tasty!

Heres how to make it!

(I don't measure for this recipe so judge by the size of your family... my recommendations usually fill a large rectangle Pyrex dish and feeds our family of three one meal with left overs for the next day... PS the left overs are even better)

Penne Pasta 

Chicken (at least 2 breasts cut into bite size pieces)

Sausages (at least 2-3)

Peppers (red, green, yellow what ever you like diced)

Onion (at least one med size diced)

Mushrooms (optional again diced)

Spaghetti Sauce (at least 2 big cans)

Seasoning (I add basil and oregano to the sauce... for the extra yumminess I also add salt and pepper or The Keg Steak Spice!)

Cheese (and good melting cheese is good mozzarella or cheddar is what I use shredded)

Boil your sausages in a large pot of water (unless you buy pre cooked) when the sausages are cooked cut them in slices (if your feeding a toddler cut them in half first) about bite size. Then sweat your onions, peppers and mushrooms in a saute pan. Add you chicken to this pan and cook through! Boil your pasta while cooking your chicken. Once your pasta is cooked drain and set aside until your chicken is cooked. Once your chicken is finished cooking add your sausages to the mix. Add your Sauce and toss with your chicken, veggies and sausages. place in a baking dish and cover completely with cheese, bake at 350 until cheese is melted and bubbly!

See easy and yummy! 

The best part of this meal is you can sub in or out what ever you want... if your in a rush by a rotisserie chicken at the supermarket and skip the sausage... you can make it with or without the peppers if your not a fan or you can switch the pasta if you don't have penne on hand... I've even boiled up a few carrots and diced them up and added in for an extra veggie... 

shhhh don't tell my family... 

Give it a try I bet your family will thank you! 

And if you do I'd love to hear what your family thought! Id also love to hear about your substitutions... make it your own with a change of one or two ingredients!