I'm hoping to make most of Charlotte's Christmas gifts this year, a good money saver. I love making people gifts and I appreciate receiving handmade gifts as well.

 I'm hoping to have time to make her a Farmers Market basket full of felt fruit and Vegetables and other fun food.

Sometime in January after the holidays my plan is to make a kitchen set for Charlotte out of an old entertainment center, so I thought it would be a good idea to get a head start making some food for it for Christmas gifts so she'll have stuff to play with along with her play kitchen.

As a small girl all I did was play with my kitchen set. I secretly am making it for me to play with along with Charlotte. ;)

Here are a couple cuties I have made so far.

Will you be making any handmade gifts this year?

For the past couple months I've been busy refurbishing old furniture.
I got the desk many years ago from a nun and the coffee table came from salvation army for less than $10.
The color I used for both pieces are Mermaid's Net by Behr. I made a chalk paint, which is usually used for the distressed look, but I love the matte look and the paint goes on so smooth. It also dries pretty quick and no chips or peeling so far!! I used a wax paste to protect and seal the paint.  I am very happy how both pieces came out.
I'm looking forward to show you pictures of my completed living room makeover.

This is my next big project.

Have you been working on any projects lately?

Trash to Treasure

I'm excited about this post about others peoples trash turning into my treasure!


I have always wanted a hot chocolate pot. I got that baby for .99 !


The "Davey and Goliath" bobble heads that are on the boys' chest of drawers.


"Robeez" boots for Charlotte at a consignment shop for $6!!!


I think the gravy boat would be great for this years turkey dinner table.


I really liked the vintage look to the doll. Not sure if it's vintage or not but I will pretend that it is. I picked that cutie up at our local Amvets thrift shop for .25. I got home threw her in the wash and found the perfect spot in Charlottes crib.

Lego land

Last week I took the kids to the mall to blow off some steam. We went into a couple toy stores and Lego land. The boys were in lego heaven. They spent about 45 minutes putting together lego dudes. They each got to pick something small as a special treat. Jude got a little lego guy and Henry picked a lego ice tray. I was shocked that he picked an ice tray when he could have picked a toy.

Well, we have been having so much fun with that tray. I had the idea to make chocolates, so we did. They came out so cute. Next time I think we'll do different color chocolate. We also made a bunch of ice for the boys to use in their drinks. I am planning on making crayons out of broken crayons. I believe you can put the tray in the oven. I'll just have to check first.

Other peoples trash is someone else's treasure

I absolutely love thrift stores. It's a good way to save money. I am going to start a biweekly post about thrifting and such. I will call it "Trash to Treasure" I will post about things that I get at yard sales, thrift stores, or even the side of the road. I love the idea of repurposing or restyling items that I find. I am currently making some clothes for Charlotte out of my old clothes or clothes that don't fit Charlotte anymore. I also have a couple pieces of furniture that I got that I will be working on as well.

Here are just a couple things that I got recently at the thrift store. I got ALL those items for less than $10!!

Purplish messenger type purse

6 classic Dick and Jane for the kids
Milk glass vase to start my collection of anything milk glass.

2 sweaters and 2 work shirts for Jason

Princess Tea Party

Back in September me and several of my Church friends hosted a princess tea party at my Church. It was a blast planning baking and decorating. We had about 80 little princesses attend.

Thanks for the pictures Beth

My Dream Business

If I could own my own business, this would be it! Crown and Crumpet is everything I would want for my own "tea shop" inspiration. I would love to take Charlotte there someday.

A Giveaway

Check out my friend Beth from Dot In The City and her amazing blog for her birthday giveaway featuring several cool handemade shops!

Chicken Enchilada Pasta

I've been trying to eat healthier these days. It's actually been fun searching for healthy recipes via the web and planning my meals throughout the week. I have allowed myself a cheat meal every saturday night so I can still enjoy those not so healthy comfort meals.

I got this recipe from my friend Beth via pinterest. It was so stinking delicious. It was definitely worth the yummy calories that went with it. Jason loved it too!

Friday Night Dinner

Barbeque chicken caramelized red onions with scallion skillet flatbread.

I made this flatbread recipe from Whole Living. It was a great healthy bread alternative.

Almond Coconut Curry Chicken

Last night for dinner I made a chicken dish inspired by this recipe from Whole Living. I didn't have some of the ingredients so I used what I had and it came out awesome. I'm thinking that my recipe might have even been better than the inspiration recipe.

Instead of the Almond milk I used a can of lite coconut milk. I added a 1/4 cup of almonds to a food processor and 2 tablespoons of shredded coconut along with the coconut milk and blitzed away. I used boneless skinless chicken breast instead of thighs cut into chunks and sauted the chicken along with the onions added the milk mixture and the rest of the ingredients that is in the inspiration recipe. I didn't have slivered almonds but I had whole ones that I broke up and sprinkled on top. I served it over rice. It looks like a big pile of poop but it was yummy!

I'm Back!!!

Yup, It's been way too long. I could sit here and write down lots of excuses why I have not blogged in a very long time, but why bother! I'm back baby! I really hope to get my creative juices flowing again.

I'm trying to be healthy and lose weight once again, yup, been too long since I've done that as well.... So, I am going to cook healthy recipes taken from some of my favorite websites, blogs and health magazines and share them with you.

Last night I made Pork Chops with Apples and Thyme. It was absolutely delicious! I forgot to take a picture so I took this one from the recipe.

My last project that was this blanket for my friends baby girl Clara.

Hope to be back soon with other recipes and things I've created!

Flash back to the 80's

I made this cake for my friend Sue's surprise 40th birthday party. The theme was everything eighties. Sue was madly in love with Jack Wagner. She had a weird love for Ziggy, yes, the character Ziggy. she worked at Little Ceasar's Pizza and loved listening the the group "The Bangels. I added a rubix cube, a bottle of aqua net hairspray, Mtv logo, I heart 80's, pacman, and a big 40! The really need to get better working with fondant. It was really humid so it really wasn't fun. I would rather just bake.

For baby Joy

I'm no Bob Ross, but not bad for the first try of the artsy thing.

I made this for my friends Janis and Louis who just had a baby girl named Joy.

I made them a meal, and wanted to bring a little gift for Joy, but didn't have extra

money for a gift, so I thought about drawing a picture and painting it with water colors.

I was pretty impressed that I could draw considering I have no drawing skills.

I wanted to keep this for Charlotte. I think I might try to make some cute drawing for the kids bedroom.

Almond Butter

A couple weeks ago I was making a chicken dish and the recipe called for almond butter. I didn't want to go to the store and spend a fortune on almond butter, so I decided to make some since I had almonds in the pantry.

It was really easy, just takes a little patience.

Toast your almonds until lightly fragrant.

Put toasted almonds in food processor, blend until smooth

It takes a good 5 minutes. You'll think it will never

be smooth, but it does happen, I promise.

I uses slivered almonds because that's what I had, but you can

use whole almonds, it will probably take around 10 minutes.

Add a little sea salt to taste, then your done!

YUM!

I am excited about making all kinds of nut butters.....

the possibilities are endless. I'm thinking of a walnut/hazelnut with cinnamon and cardamom.

Pecan with cinnamon and brown sugar, pistachio and sea salt, pumpkin maple and chocolate!

I could go on and on. Anyone have any great combinations that they would want to try?