Entry Way Pick Me Up

As I have stated before I steal most of my ideas. I stole this idea I saw on another blog...I wish I could give credit, but I have NO clue where I saw it! (I'm so sorry about the picture! I'm not pretty sure it's the camera that needs more than I do, but we probably need to photog help!) But it stuck in my head because I already had most of the items, I just needed to add some paint and arrange! I love it when things are simple!

Just about everything in my photo came from DI. The mirror was $6 and white. I had repainted it black and had it hanging in the entrance by itself for a while now, but it looked so lonely! But I had no clue how to spruce it up until I saw a blog with almost an identical mirror in her entrance!
I had the star (also came from DI for $1.50) that I repainted "barn red" and the shelf (DI $3) was also painted "barn red."The picture frame (DI $1) was a lovely pink that I spray painted black. I added a "C" signature using my Cricket cutout knock-off method to patterned paper. The vase was also from DI ($1) and the flower I already had (might try to find a different color of something.) I had the red and orange stringy thing in my fall decoration box. It just really makes the entrance pop a little more. I like. I hope it stays put. Part of me worries that 3 little kids might take matters into their own hands, thus why I'm wondering about leaving a glass vase on a shelf above tile. But we'll see.

REAL MOM'S DINNER: 5 Buck Pizza: $2.99 for a medium one topping pizza...with pineapple and peas (it was 'P' day today...according to Little Miss.) :)

Fabric Flowers Update

I want to show off my finished fabric flowers...because they turned out so cute!I was attracted to this particular tutorial because it didn't look like you had to be perfect in your cutting. And I am definitely not perfect in my cutting!!! Click here for a link to the tutorial I used.I cut 2 1/2 inch-ish squares (I used 7-8 squares per flower,) rounded the edges, folded the squares on the diagonal 3 times (I think the tutorial only had you fold it twice and use 6 squares, but 3 times looked a lot fuller.) Then I sewed the heck out of "petals." Oh, and since you are all wondering since I am a big sewer (ha ha!) how I got thread to match perfectly to my fabric (i.e. my too small shirt) it was pure luck. Actually, it's cross-stitching thread and since I have a ton of that stuff I can usually find matching colors. However, I am NOT a sewer so I will not even begin to explain how I sewed the petals together because it was VERY unconventional and I'm sure if anyone with any sewing experience would have watched me they would have cringed! But it turned out pretty cute! I then hot glued a button to the top, but didn't think it had all the pizazz I wanted. So I used burlap (um...mixed emotions about this pesky crafting material!) to spice it up a bit. I just cut a circle slightly bigger than my flower and hot glued my flower onto the burlap. I also hot glued a clip to the back of the burlap so I could move it around. I could clip in the hair by itself, clip it on a headband (like I did for the photo.) I could clip it onto a shirt edge, a necklace, or a purse! I could use it for an embellishment on a photo frame or other knickknack. I LOVE the idea of these darling flowers! And the best part is each one cost well under $1 to make (including the 50 cent headbands.)

I think I'll save these for Little Miss to use for birthday gifts. We have enough girls in the neighborhood I'm sure she'll be invited to a few this year!
REAL MOM'S DINNER: Hubby had dinner at work, I forgot to thaw the meat for what I had planned, and we hadn't had Mac n' Cheese for awhile so I pulled out some Kraft magic! Mother of the year award for me please! :)

Things That Make Me Happy

I scrapbooked some darling photos of Little Miss today! Love it! Why do I find it so much easier to scrapbook her photos than the boys? Maybe it's because I can use flowers and butterflies. Or maybe that is just what I have on hand. I don't know. It is sure fun though!
I have been sooooo antsy for spring. I wore flip flops today and had salad for dinner. I guess salad just makes things feel more fresh, springy. I'm weird, I know. So I made bread bowl salads and brownies for dinner tonight. YUMMY!

I take Rhoades frozen dough and thaw the dough so it's workable. Then I roll it out and cover a glass bowl (use LOTS of cooking spray), let it rise, and bake. Then fill with salad and your favorite toppings. We had Romaine salad mix w/ spinach, cucumbers, tomatoes, broccoli, cheese, grilled chicken, bacon, rice noodles, and Ranch dressing. Hubby wondered out aloud how nutritious the salad really was with all the bread, bacon, dressing, etc. but I was going for taste, not healthy.
For dessert, we had brownies (we delivered half the pan to neighbors so we wouldn't eat them all!) with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce. Mint ice cream is my favorite on brownies, but we didn't have any. But this is seriously heavenly!

These are the things that made me happy today!

Laundry Room Sign

I copy everything I do! Very little of what I do I actually come up with on my own. I would have NEVER thought to put art work in a laundry room, until I saw my inspiration for a laundry room. And I would have NEVER thought to do it like this until I saw another blog explaining how she goes about getting a Cricut look on the cheap.I would LOVE a Cricut and actually thought I might be the proud owner of one a few weeks ago. But it didn't happen and now with some mounting medical bills don't think it will happen for a while. But that's okay. Because with this new technique I learned I can get a very similar look for WAY cheaper than a Cricut.
I bought these three frames at Dollar Tree...for a grand total of $3.
I spray painted the red ones black (almost thought I would just leave them red, but then decided the color just didn't match the scrapbook paper I chose.) And took took out the paper mat in the black frame.
Then I decoupaged the cut paper to the card board backing.
Then I printed the letters for 'Laundry' in the thickest font I had on my computer in font 300 on white card stock. Then I carefully cut out the letters. Don't worry, Mom, I've learned to cut a lot better now a days!
However, we all know no matter how well I cut it won't be perfect. That's where the fabulous Sharpie marker comes in!I just filled in any white edges with the marker to make it solid black. Then glued the letters onto my paper. Don't look too close at the how perfectly straight my letters are. I didn't fix it because it's just in my laundry room. But I might if it starts bugging me enough.
I learned how to make these paper flowers from my Scrapbooks, Etc. magazine. I cut a large circle with scalloped scissors, crumpled the paper, laid in out, topped with a fake flower, and button. I just used glue dots and seemed to hold fine. I made 5 flowers, 3 for the large center frame and 1 for each small side frame. Hanging the dumb frames was the hardest part. But looking at it again in the picture I'm wondering how it would look with the sides frames horizontal. Hummm...

Anyway, it's not perfect and professional by any means. But it's me. It makes me happy to see a prettied up laundry room.

REAL MOM'S DINNER: Tonight I'm planning on making ribs...on the rack. I've only done it this way a couple of times, so I'm not sure how they'll turn out. I usually buy the boneless ribs and throw them in the crock pot with BBQ sauce and call it good. But I found these for a great price and know my husband LOVES ribs so we'll try it!


Linking to Creations by Kara

Laundry Room Redo

My laundry room redo is 95% done!!! Here's a brief recap from my last post. Wire shelves = everything falls off. Messy laundry room before:
Inspiration -notice how both laundry rooms are small walkways from the garage...which is the one thing I did NOT want in my house, but ended up with. When I have a few thousand extra dollars I want to take out the wall to the mud room and make the half bath into a bigger laundry room. Or as Hubby just suggested...when we finish our basement we can make a laundry/craft room down there...with a clothing chute of course! Now that would be cool!I started out by emptying my laundry room and pulling out the wire shelves...okay, Hubby finished for me. Then we took boards that we already had (old garage shelving) and painted them black and Hubby screwed them up on the wall. I really liked her fancy brackets holding her shelve up, but decided this way was much cheaper and more durable. I liked some ideas I've seen recently using baskets to organize. Since I was trying to do this as cheaply as possible I just used a few I already had on hand.So the inspirational picture is super cute, but it is almost too cute. When I showed Hubby the picture he laughed and asked where all the stuff was. So although I could have cutsied up my picture I took it as is...with all my "stuff." Total cost of project was less than $20
We already had the shelves in garage. I did buy black paint to paint the shelves, but only used a small fraction of what I bought. The wall art was $3 for frames (Dollar Tree) and scrapbook paper I already had on hand.

Tomorrow I will do a post on my wall hangings.

REAL MOM'S DINNER: Chicken and Broccoli Rice...for those of you who have anti-veggie eaters it is a GREAT way to sneak broccoli into your kiddies' food! Even my two picky ones will eat it! I'll have to post the recipe another day.

I really have been alive...I promise!!! I seriously thought I would have more time last week, but I just didn't! My son had eye surgery and life was CRAZY for a couple of days! Then my sister came to visit and I had to do some serious cleaning!

Good News!!! Hubby finished putting up the shelves in my laundry room, so my project for tomorrow is organizing my cleaning and craft stuff on my shelves!

Okay... I'll at least show a before picture of my messy, messy, unorganized laundry room. The biggest problem I had was that the shelves were wire and things would tip and knock over other things. I am hoping wood shelves and a "nicer" looking room might help me keep it organized and cleaner looking!
This is my inspiration (you can view her entire post here):
REAL MOM'S DINNER: Chicken Cordon Bleu (so kids had chicken nuggets), french fries, garlic toast, and mixed veggies.

Painting Mistakes

I'm in the process of trying to finish some shelves for my laundry room. I was hoping to get them all done on Saturday, but we (Hubby and I) just weren't as on top of the project as I thought/hoped for. I made some mistakes though and am trying to figure out how to fix them. I painted the boards first (they were the right width, but not the right length) and then Hubby cut them to size for me. He cut them on them the horses (is that what they are called?) and I thought he had cleaned up the saw dust. I was putting a sealer on them when I realized that there was still lots of saw dust under the boards. But it was too late. Saw dust flew up and landed in the wet clear coat.
So now I have to decide if I should
a) do a 100% job -sand it all down, repaint, and reseal;
b) do a 90% job -just repaint black over the saw dust (which would leave bumps, but not visibly brown specs) and reseal;
or c) do a 80% job -distress the edges and reseal, hoping you can't really see the top and bottom very well since they will be high anyway.

Hum...decisions, decisions! Well, I need to decide quickly since I need to get the shelves hung up soon. I wanted Hubby to get them up by Wednesday. I would post pictures of us working on this project on Saturday, but my camera is sad and all the pictures taken turned out blurry.

Oh, my other painting mistake? My sealer has one of those dumb plastic lids so I was trying to hammer it back on and a little bit of sealer flew into my eye. How DUMB is that/I??? Anyway, I think I'm fine, but still...*big sigh*!!!

REAL MOM'S DINNER: We went to visit Grandma Great, which is a little drive so we picked up McDonald's. Whoopee! At least I had coupons!

Italian Breaded Pork Chops

Italian Breaded Pork Chops: This is my dinner for tonight. I made this for the first time last fall and Hubby LOVES them and gets so excited when I make them. They do take some a little time to prepare, but they really are delish!

Ingredients

• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 tablespoons milk
• 1 1/2 cups Italian seasoned bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons dried parsley
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
• 4 pork chops

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
2. In a small bowl, beat together the eggs and milk. In a separate small bowl, mix the bread crumbs, Parmesan cheese, and parsley.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large, oven-proof skillet over medium heat. Stir in the garlic, and cook until lightly browned. Remove garlic, reserving for other uses.
4. Dip each pork chop into the egg mixture, then into the bread crumb mixture, coating evenly. Place coated pork chops in the skillet, and brown abut 5 minutes on each side.
5. Place the skillet and pork chops in the preheated oven, and cook 25 minutes, or to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).

Here are a few things I have done differently than the original recipe.
*I only use 2 eggs...you really don't need 3. You could probably just use the egg whites if you were really concerned about cholesterol.
*I also pound out my pork chops to tenderize them a little and so they cook a little faster.
*Also, I don't keep fresh garlic cloves, I usually use minced garlic or garlic powder. The minced garlic burned a little when I used it last, so tonight I'm going to try to mix garlic powder to the olive oil before adding it to the pan.
*I use my biggest skillet to sear (fry?) the breaded pork chops, but I then transfer them to a cookie cooling rack on top of a cookie sheet to bake them. Yes, it adds extra dishes, but it also keeps the chops from getting soggy. But some people might like them soggy, I just don't. I figure if I'm going to spend the time to make a really good dish like this than what is a few more dishes!
*I often buy my pork chops in the big family pack since it is much cheaper that way and since 4 chops feeds my family just fine, I try to find a pack with 8 chops in it. Then I make all 8 at once and can freeze them for another meal or Hubby's lunches. You really don't need any extra breading as there is plenty of leftover crumb's if you only make 4 chops.

I would highly suggest this recipe if you have a rather slow Sunday to spend in the kitchen. If I were real ambitious I would have Little Miss help. But...

We usually serve it with some sort of potato, but I think tonight we are just going to have Pasta Roni and maybe some breadsticks and veggie...maybe I should be brave and finally make my kids try spinach. :)

REAL MOM'S SATURDAY DINNER: Chicken patty sandwiches, mixed veggies, and frozen french fries. I like to top the chicken patty with a little cheddar cheese and turkey bacon and a crisp piece of lettuce. Mmmmm....

A Sharpie Tip

I really have been doing a lot the last couple of days. But I've been very tired.

Here is a really cool trick I heard a couple of months ago that I just put into use. If you need to touch something that is black up or cover a silver screw use a Sharpie and color in what's showing.

So here's what I did yesterday.

I spray painted this bowl, but didn't let it dry all the way when I flipped it over to spray the underside. So the paint had come off the four corners.

I simply took a magic marker and colored in the corners. The flash makes the Sharpie shine, but you really can't tell in person. I also did this on a plate I had sprayed black. I'm lazy. And coloring in with a Sharpie is much easier than respray painting.

I have been working on a laundry room make over, which hopefully Hubby will help me finish tomorrow! I can't wait to see how it turns out!

REAL MOM'S DINNER: Chicken Fajitas -LOVE these! I use to buy the seasoning packets (which I still think are really good), but found I could make the seasoning from what I had in my cupboard and it is still really tasty and probably cheaper.

Easter Egg Wreath

So I saw this Easter egg wreath idea here. It looked easy and cheap ($4). So I told myself that if I got my desired rooms cleaned that I could reward myself with a trip to the dollar store to purchase the items for the wreath.

Well, I mostly got done what I set out to do. As in, good enough to reward myself.
Toy room *check*
My bedroom *mostly checked*
Laundry room *not checked, but saw some great inspirational blogs on laundry rooms and hubby is helping me redo shelves this weekend so I should have some awesome photos next week!*

Here is my wreath. Not sure I love it in person. Wish they had the plain glittery eggs instead of the funky striped ones. But it brings in some bright cheery colors for spring. Which I'm so excited for!

My other big accomplishment today? I finished the crossword puzzle in it's entirety (it was actually yesterday's puzzle.) This is only the 2nd time I've completed an entire newspaper crossword puzzle...after several years of doing them! Am I getting smarter or old? Hummmm...

REAL MOM'S DINNER: Frozen Pizza...yes, again...but this time it was the more expensive stuff. It was that or Little Ceaser's.

Say What?

Did I say I hoped my toy room would stay clean for at least a couple days? Obviously, my kids didn't listen.

Ya, it's Easter grass and Easter eggs strewn all about the toy room...*big sigh*!!!

Did I say that I wasn't going to do much crafting this week? Today I had NO energy. I think I've been staying up too late. I cracked the Diet Coke by 10:30 a.m.! So during nap time I thought of all the hundreds of things I should be doing and what do I do?

I end up crafting. I figured it was that or take a nap and crafting is more fun and productive than napping.

I finished these mod podge books. I had it mostly done a couple weeks ago, just needed to "put the finishing touches" on. Here's a link on how to do it. (I've seen several tutorials, but this is the first one I could find. I might try it different if I were to do it again.)

REAL MOM'S DINNER: Ham slices (leftovers that I had froze), Au Gratin Potatoes, and peas & carrots.

This Week's Priorities

It is probably pretty evident that I have been spending a lot of time crafting the last couple of weeks. But this week my priorities are not going to be on crafting, although I hope I can still sneak in a project or two. I really need to get some major cleaning done!
I have been keeping up on the basic every day stuff, but some of the less seen rooms in my house are getting out of control!!!

So this week I'm going to focus on cleaning:
-the toy room
-the laundry room/mud room
-and my bedroom

Sounds easy right? Ha ha ha!!!

I'll give you three reasons why these rooms are a disaster and don't get picked up.

1. Little Miss
2. Mr. L
3. Mr. S

The kids destroy the toy room within a day or two of cleaning it. The laundry room is too tiny for more than just me in there...thus I have to do it during nap time. And my bedroom is the most kid UN-friendly room in the house! The twins get into WAY too much trouble when I let them come in...so I have to clean that during nap time also. There is just always SO much to do during nap time to get it all done!

This is what the toy room looked like before we cleaned...you seriously couldn't walk across the room!
After Little Miss and I working hard for an hour, this is now what is looks like and will hopefully stay like for at least a couple of days!

REAL MOM'S DINNER: Tonight we had fish sticks and baked french fries with/ mixed veggies. I hate fish sticks. But apparently my family LOVES them. I couldn't believe how many Little Miss ate! I haven't made them in about 2 years and this was the first time the twins ate them. They actually both ate several! Who'da thunk?!