Wednesday Wishes

This Wednesday I decided to focus on some art/craft supplies that I would love to have in my craft area. Of course, number one on the list would be to have a bigger craft area, but I don't have a picture for that :)

Lot's O' Martha Stewart glitter. I am on the Martha bandwagon for sure. I have been since I was in high school (source)

This book would be an awesome addition to my art journaling supply collection! I can't remember where I found the picture but I think it's pretty funny.

Random paper goods for my art journals. (source)

Tons and tons and tons of embroidery thread. I can't get enough. (source)

Of course, with all of that thread I would need a load of new hoops. (source)

This card catalogue would be a perfect way to organize a lot of my crap, and it is so pretty. (source)

What craft room could be complete without buttons? (source)

Those are my wishes for this week. Frivolous, I know, but fun none the less :)

Do you all have any wishes this week?

Be sure to check out Courtney, Kellie, Liz and Karlie's wishes. I have links for their blogs on the left side of my blog.

Happy Wednesday!

Craft Swap Blues

Ok folks, I am about to admit something terrible, awful, horrible...I am a moron.

Last month I joined a craft swap with a camping theme. I was/am super excited and I thought long and hard about what my craft would be. I finally settled on a version of BINGO that I would call CAMPO. I drew all of the little items on one bingo card. Quite a stretch for me because drawing is not one of my talents. I was excited to push myself and try something new.

I think that the little drawings turned out well for my mediocre skill.

Once I had the CAMPO card made, I made enough copies to give each of the 16 people 4 cards. Then I started coloring. It felt like it took forever, but I finally got all 64 cards colored.

After coloring them, I mounted them all on different colored card stock.


And laminated each one with contact paper

I cut each one out and I think they look awesome.

What is the problem, you may ask? If you think they look good why did you start laughing at your error when you were supposed to be falling asleep last night?

The problem is that they cannot be used as CAMPO/BINGO cards because every single card LOOKS EXACTLY THE SAME!!!!

Duh, Katie. Bingo needs to have the objects in different places so that only one or two people can get BINGO at the same time. Go ahead, have a laugh at my expense, my whole family has :)

Sooo, I have decided that I will make a little note for each pack that explains how they can be used as scavenger hunt cards. The first person to find four in a row/corners/blackout is the winner. Different people may spot different items around the campsite, or maybe even limit it to other peoples sites that can be seen from your own site. Who knows? What I do know is that it is too late to do all the work, so now it is time to improvise :)

I hope that little story cheered you all up. It gave my mom a good laugh.

Taking on the V-Con Week 3

This week's recipe is Braised Seitan with Brussels, Kale, and Sun Dried Tomatoes.

The ingredients:

2 Tbsp olive oil

6 shallots, sliced thinly

2 c. seitan cut into bite sized pieces

1/2lb brussel sprouts, quartered
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp dried tarragon
1/2 tsp salt
Several pinches of freshly ground pepper
1/2c sun dried tomatoes, chopped into bite sized pieces
2c vegetable broth
1/4c red wine
4c chopped kale



My ingredients, sorry for the awful glare, someday I will get the hang of good pictures :)

First, saute the seitan and shallots for a few minutes until the seitan is slightly browned. My seitan was a little weird and kind of turned into an odd ground beefy texture. After 7-8 minutes add in the brussel sprouts and let them saute for a few minutes.



Next, you are going to add the spices and garlic, then the sun dried tomatoes.
Add the broth and wine and bring to a boil, then add the kale. Once the kale is wilted, turn down the heat and simmer for 5-7 minutes.




I cooked a bit of pasta to eat along with this recipe and it was delicious. John loved the brussel sprouts and sun dried tomatoes. He ate a lot of the stew and left the pasta sitting by itself on the side of the plate. I think this would have been perfect if my seitan had been more chunky than crumbly. All in all, I think this one was a success!

Be sure to check out Courtney and Rikki's takes on this recipe. Let us know what you think about this feature. I am going to keep cooking my way through this book either way, but if you aren't interested let me know and I will change up the feature :)

Happy Tuesday!

We Keep Coming Back to These Two Hearts

I have had lots of people ask me how I met my husband, it's a pretty standard getting to know you questions, so I figured I would do a little post on it

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Joshua and I met during our sophomore year in high school. We had an English class together and we sort of became friends. He was always really goofy and dressed oddly, but he was a really, genuinely nice guy, which can be hard to come by in high school. He originally took my best friend to a dance, but he was to strange for her. She hid in a bathroom almost the whole time :) Then he and I started talking more and ended up going to a dance together. He asked me out on Valentines Day right after the dance. I still actually have the balloon he sent me when he asked me out :) Despite his sweet beginnings, it did not work out and I broke up with him repeatedly. He says it was 8 times, I say it was 3 or 4. We stayed friends though and talked throughout high school. We even went to another dance together, which is what the picture above came from.

Then during the summer after our senior year, the girl he was dating broke it off so he had an extra ticket to see Cher and Cyndi Lauper. I went with him and had a great time, but left for college shortly after. In October someone called me at my dorm and asked what my room number was, without thinking I told the stranger. Then I freaked out because I was sure it was a killer/rapist. The stranger knocked on the door and covered the peephole, so I couldn't see who it was. I opened the door and it was Joshua looking so cute. He was visiting someone and decided to drop in and say hello to me too. I was in a sorority at the time and I asked him to come up and be my date to a function, still just as friends. He was my date and everyone loved him. When I went home the next time we watched Ten Things I Hate About You and he gave me a kiss, but the didn't call me for over a month.

When I came home for Christmas break we started dating and became "official" on December 17th 1999. By January I know that I loved him, but we waited until April to say the words. We got engaged on December 24th 2000, but had to wait for my parents approval to get married. They wanted me to finish college first, but eventually took pity on us. We got married September 19th 2003.

Engagement Pictures

One of the few wedding pictures that is stored on my computer.

Anyway, that's our story. I would LOVE to read about how you all met your loves.

Happy Monday!

We went camping on from Thursday through Saturday afternoon and had a wonderful time. The camping spot we were originally going to go to was wayyyy to hot, so we ended up at one further north. There was a creek running right behind the site and there was no one behind us, so we had the woods and creek all to ourselves. I can't lie though, it wasn't all perfect. John WOULD NOT go to sleep in the tent. It took us about three hours each night to get him to bed which was incredibly frustrating, but we got through it. Here are about a million pictures :)

This was at the first spot

I'm not trying to brag or anything, but I think my husband is one hot dad :)

The campsite and our trashtastic Volvo

AHHHHHAAAHAHAHAAH! This was in a parking lot in Payson.

The ranger station

The creek behind out camp spot

Josh made us an awesome stew for dinner.

My dad came up and met us on Friday night. Can you tell that John thinks his Pap is the greatest person ever.

Happy Saturday!

Wednesday Wishes

Oh Wednesday, you cheer me up this week. I am happy to provide some wishes and think about things that make me happy.

I wish I could get on an airplane and fly to PA to visit my whole family of wonderful people. I went every summer for about ten years when I was a kid and they are some of my very best memories. I miss my aunts, uncles and cousins and I wish John and Josh could have some more time with them all too.





Ahhh, I wish I had this hoodie in my size, but I would take it for John too.




I wish I could recreate this radical photo with my kid. He is horrible to photograph because he almost never stops moving.




I wish that people didn't think that being older than me guarantees them a certain amount of respect. I am sorry, but i am almost 30 years old, that is old enough to decide who deserves respect and who doesn't. If you are rude and inappropriate with me, I am not going to give you respect even if you are 15 years older than me.

All photos are from vi.sualize


Be sure to check out Kellie, Courtney, Liz and Karlie's wishes too :)

*** Josh, John and I are going camping for three days. That means no phone and no Internet. I am so so so excited to have some uninterrupted quality time with my boys***

Taking on the V-Con (Week 2)

Hello Tuesday, I wasn't really ready for you yet, but you came around anyway.

This week's recipe is for Snobby Joe's, the V-Con version of sloppy Joe's. The recipe features lentils instead of meat and a decent homemade sauce.

Rikki and I both had less than stellar results from our takes on this recipe, but Courtney liked hers after a bit of tweaking. I am still new enough to the cooking world that I get kind of nervous changing things up . I am hoping to get better about adding my own creative flair as I get more experience cooking different things in the kitchen. Having said all of that, I will definitely make these again. John was super excited about his sammich and I enjoyed mine too even if it wasn't perfect.

Some of my ingredients... I didn't include my spices and I didn't use bell peppers because I can't stand them. On a side note, we went to Rikki's last week for dinner and had some roasted bell peppers that were delicious. I may have to revisit my pregnancy induced aversion to bell peppers soon...but not today :)

Sauteeing the onions and garlic. I love the way those veggies smell when they are cooking.

Cooking up all of the ingredients...it looks like lentils in spaghetti sauce, but I promise it is Snobby Joe's.

The finished product. I included a picture of my beer because I am proud to be expanding my horizons in the beer tasting arena. I am normally a Coors Light kind of girl, but I want to be a woman with refined tastes haha.

Be sure to check out Rikki and Courtney's blogs to see their takes on this recipe, and to see some much better quality pics :)

Happy Tuesday! See you tomorrow for Wednesday Wishes and then I am off for a few days to do some camping.

What Have I Been Watching?

Uggghhh, not even Daniel Day Lewis could save this one. This movie was awful awful awful. So awful in fact that I could not even finish it.

I am getting pretty excited for the new Christopher Nolan movie, Inception, so I decided to watch Memento. I had forgotten how much I like this movie, even if I do think the reverse storytelling is a little too "look at me! I am original and quirky." Guy Pearce is so great in this role, which made me think of another little gem with Guy Pearce. Nope it's not L.A. Confidential, which could be the obvious choice due to the Kevin Spacey connection.

It's actually Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Guy Pearce, drag queens, Australia...I am in! I think Guy Pearce is so underrated and I just love him.

I watched this movie the other day when I wasn't feeling well and Josh had John. So dark and sad. I don't know what I was expecting, but there is a storyline about a family with 4 kids and the parents are addicted to meth. My heart was literally breaking. Just thinking about it makes me sad. Seriously though, the movie would be an awesome cautionary tale for anyone who is even considering drug, specifically meth, consumption.

Finally, I watch IT last week. I could watch this movie every day of my life and never get tired of Tim Curry's performance. Magic.