Pinterest Post Completed

As I mentioned a couple of blogs ago, I joined in a Pinterest completion challenge with a girlfriend and her sister.  I missed the January deadline for a big reveal of a project and will get my butt in gear for the next one in mid-Feb, but just wanted to show this small post of an item I saw on Pinterest and completed tonight

Yup....Cinnamon buns in the waffle maker!

Let me tell you...

WOW!!

They bake up in 5 minutes and the nooks and crannies hold all that yummy frosting so that when you bite in, it oozes all over your fingers.

Thank goodness I don't buy them very often.  I did figure though you could cut them in half and get 10 smaller ones, because once they spread out, they are pretty big.

Put this on your must try list if you have a waffle maker....they taste better than when you do them in the oven!

House Tour - Part 1

Consider this the start of my official house tour!

We have lived here for just over 2 years and a couple friends were asking for pictures of the house....never did it really.

The tour is going to start with the playroom.

Why that room you ask?  Well, it's clean and organized for the first time in 2 years and I highly anticipate that after tonight...it will never look this good again!

When we moved into the house, we loved that it had a full, finished basement.  Off of the family room, a.k.a, Brian's living room, was another room that was just as large.  We knew right away that it would be perfect to house all the toys.  That is exactly what it did, but with no rhyme or reason to it.

2012 is my year to get things in order...my house, my lifestyle and everything else.  I think, aside from just being tired of the unorganized feeling, part of it is because now that the kids are in daycare, I can often find an hour or so to myself to get some stuff done without them vying for my attention at the same time.

So, anyhoo....here are the photos.  Sorry they are a tad dark, but I can't clean until after bedtime.  I don't really have any before pictures that are any good...but basically, think indoor tornado!

View from the doorway

This is a spot for a fireplace...we had them remove the one that was here
Now the perfect spot to do some colouring

Bookcase, Organizing Bin of toys, TV and Rocking Chair

Right Side Wall as seen from the doorway
More organizing bins, stuffed animals and tool bench

Right Side Wall continued....new storage shelves for MORE toys

Left side wall, see our spring horse and Buzz Lightyear climber

Well, that is it.  I am really very happy with how tidy it looks.  Santa probably didn't really need to come and visit.  This doesn't even include the toys I got rid of before Christmas or the ones upstairs.  My kids are lucky.  If I ever decided to open a home daycare, I would be set with items to amuse the kids for hours.

Anyone wanna come play? Guests are always more than welcome....seriously!  My kids would love it!

The 1850 Mile Pinterest Challenge of 2012

Introduction


Pinterest...have you been reeled in yet?

My girlfriend from up North got me hooked.  Told me it would be the best waste of time I could find in a day.  Boy was she right!

Basically, Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board that allows you to organize and save things you see online.  Think of it as a great alternative to your favorites bar.

Myself, not unlike many other members, have tons of 'pins' of fabulous online finds.  The thing is, you get carried away with pinning, but don't go back and do much with them.

For Christmas, Teri and I based our gift exchange on Pinterest.  The items we exchanged had to be 'pinned' items.  Half by the giver and half by the receiver.  We both thought it was great, but we should have given ourselves more time.

Yesterday, I was getting caught up on my blog reading and clicked over to my friend Diana's blog.  She shared how she and her sister Tamara were participating in a Pinterest challenge.  Basically, the challenge is to bring to life one of your pins each month and share it.  She invited others to join along.  I thought about it for a few minutes and decided I was up to the challenge.  Just another excuse to get crafty.

I even got busy and organized my 'pins' including creating a board where I could transfer pins once I completed them.  I did a few of the items on my boards between the gift exchange and the craft sale.  It's sort of rewarding to see the list of accomplishments grow.  Here is a small sample:

So, now I am going to have a look over my 'pins' and decide what my January project will be.

Stay tuned for the post!

I Like Big.....

Bookcases!

Or rather, I had better like big ones, because my dad just made us the behemoth of bookcases!

The story goes like this....

As any parent knows, once you have kids, your supply of books is never ending.  Between gifts and book orders, they just keep accumulating.  I mean, I have been collecting children's books BEFORE I even had children!

We started out with a cheap-o 2 shelf bookcase and then finally this year, found another cheap-o bookcase but with 4 shelves.  We snagged it up and put it in Hayden's room.

Right away, I loaded up all of our books and it looked great.  We did really well at making sure books got put back after we read them each night.

But eventually, some books got left out in the living room and a small pile built up.  On a rare day, it was just Brian and I at home and we were tidying up.  I went to put these books back on the shelves and BAM, the whole top shelf collapsed and took out each consecutive shelf below it.

Brian came running to see if I was OK and it allowed me to prove my point that cleaning up IS hazardous to your health, considering that putting those books away nearly KILLED me!

At a loss with what to do, we rigged up the bookcase between Hayden's dresser and the wall.

That solution worked perfect for months, until this past weekend.  I was in Hayden's room, putting away some laundry, when BAM, the same shelf scenario happened once more.

Conveniently, about 10 minutes later, while I was loading my shopping bins with books, Dad came in and I told him I now needed a strong and sturdy bookcase.

I came home from work on Monday to this monstrous bookcase in my garage. It is about 4 feet long and about the same height.  With 4 super sturdy looking shelves, it was perfect.  Other than  I was expecting it to  be about half the width, I could picture it being jam packed with stories.

We hefted it down to the playroom, which is in a deep case of overhaul and organizing. Tonight, I finally got around to loading the books on the shelves and there was so much space left over that it held a number of our toys as well.

 The bookcase - Pre-Books

 The bookcase - Post Books and Toys

Now, see those 4 dolls on the top shelf between Micky and Minnie?  Those have such special meaning to me.

My gramma made this dolls and I can clearly remember her knitting them.  They sat in a chair in her living room.  She passed away almost 9 years ago now and they never moved in the house.  When my grampa got sick, his house needed a  BIG clean up before he could come home.  These 4 dolls made it to the garbage pile in the garage.  I was looking after the cats at this point and for about a week, I walked past these discarded dolls and felt sick at the thought of them just going to the landfill.  Finally, with much debate, I scooped them up and put them in a plastic bag I had in the trunk.

These dolls STUNK like cat and were so dirty.  I didnt' know if they were salvageable, but I had to try.

I put them in the washer and dryer and then did it about 6 more times, but they still didn't smell too fresh.  I put them out in the sun porch for the summer and the mix of sunshine and fresh air FINALLY did the trick.

Abby loves these dolls and totes them around a fair bit.  I am sure my gramma would be so pleased to see them being loved!

Lucky Me!

Aside from a nasty case of the flu this Christmas, I did get some awesome gifts that tickled my toes and excited me to the core!

First off, my hubby gave me a very nice family ring.  It was a surprise and something I have wanted for awhile.  Guess my hinting paid off....also guess this means he really is done having kids :-)  I would post a picture, but I can't get one worthy of such a nice item.

He also gave me a waffle maker.  I have also wanted one of those for awhile, but my desire for one was only increased once I saw online that you can make more than waffles, like brownies or cakes in them!  I love myself a multi-purpose item!

My parents treated me pretty well too!  I suppose I will always be their little girl and they will spoil me at Christmas.

They got me THIS baby!

I have wanted a stand mixer FOREVER!  But the price tag turned me away...there is always something else to spend the money on...like food!

Friday, I decided to put both my mixer AND waffle maker to use for dinner.  I knew I had some whipping cream in the fridge that needed to be used up.  I also remembered that I had strawberries in the freezer.

What I love about this mixer....I just poured in the cream and sugar, turned on the mixer and when I came back:

It works great...it's just harder to lick the beater now! (yes, I did try!)

I boiled up some berries on the stove and thickened them and got set to making waffles.

First off, let me say....they are WAY better than pancakes.  Pancakes are not my favorite by any means, but the waffles have a bit more "stuff" mixed into the pancake batter and just taste different.  And it's faster than pancakes too.

This is what they looked like hot off the press:

And this is what it looked like once I topped it all off with the whip cream and strawberries. And might I mention...the fat girl here was the only one to top them with the yummy stuff...well worth it let me say!

Busy Hands

I need to keep my hands busy, otherwise, I get bored and when I get bored...I eat.

Now, you would think that with two kids, I don't have much time to get bored.  And that's true during the hours they are awake.  However, my kids go to bed about 7 and I don't go until about 11, so there is a good 4 hours to kill in there.  I don't watch tons of tv, I mean, it's always on, but there are not too many shows that I MUST watch.

For those nights when I am just killing time, I need some simple crafts.  I did A LOT of crafting this fall, getting ready for the craft sale mom and I participated in.  We plan to do a few more next year, but I am just not ready to get back on the Christmas craft bandwagon yet.

While pa-rousing Pinterest one day, I found this link for page corner bookmarks.

I made a few up for small Christmas gifts and then thought...hey, perhaps the library would be interested in some to sell.  So, I touched base with our librarian and she said yes.  Now, of course I don't expect them to make millions.....I mean, if they made enough to buy one book, that would be great.  But for me, it's just using paper scraps I already have, so it's not like it cost me anything but my time to make them.  I figured they could try and sell them for about fifty cents a piece or 3 for $ 1.00.

I think they turned out pretty good...what do you think?  What would you pay for one?

Happy New Year!

Well, I thought I should put up a blog post on January 1, 2012!

Today was our Christmas visit with Brian's side of the family.  His brother and wife, plus their two kids were down to share in Christmas merriment and gift giving.

They don't live that far away, but we don't see them enough.  They came for a few hours and everyone had a great time.  The kids had fun with some more gifts and got to hang out with their cousins.

We got to catch up with the adults and eat yummy food.

It was the perfect excuse for me to try out my new stand mixer that I got for Christmas.

Hopefully the next visit won't be so far away.

As for New Year's resolution....

I need to get back on the healthy living bandwagon and will work on that tomorrow.  Also, I have LOTS of organizing to do. Now that the kids are in daycare, I get a lot more "me time" to get stuff done!