Happy Homemaker Monday

Hello my Friends! 

I hope your Monday has already been off to a great start. I'm sipping hot tea and watching it snow like crazy out my windows! It started just recently and is supposed to snow all day!! So I'm feeling like snuggling in and baking something - and trying to catch up on house things, as we were gone out-of-town for my daughter's hockey for part of the weekend. It was a fun weekend overall as Friday night I went out for dinner and a movie with my Mom and my SIL and some of her family. We went to La La Land and it was really good. Definitely not a movie my Hubby would be in to - but I thought it was very original and really well done. 

It looks like a busy week ahead over here - so I'm ready to jump in! 

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

Very snowy today and we're supposed to get several inches. Then it will be pretty cold again mid week and warm up a little by next weekend again (and by warm up I mean back into the 20's). Lol

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

Small bowl of cereal and some coffee.

RIGHT NOW I AM:

Listening to music and stopping to gaze out at the snow once and a while. I'm thinking how at least it will clean up how brown it was looking outside. Looking through my kiddos' sports calendars and on my smart phone calendars to see what this week holds. Looks pretty busy so I think it's going to fly by! 

AS I LOOK OUTSIDE MY WINDOW:

The snow is "pouring" down, so I think we may be getting several inches. A little further away from us in an area the weather folks call "the snow belt" , they may get about a foot of snow. It's still winter in the northwoods folks!

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE:

Pretty tidy. Some picking up and the usual chores to be done. My scrapbooking is still taking over the dining room table, but I"m going to put everything back in my own work space so we can have some dinners on there this week. ;) 

ON TODAY'S (& this week's) TO DO LIST:

Today I'm going to catch up on laundry from the weekend and do some tidying up. This weahter makes me feel like baking, so I'm going to bake a blueberry lemon tea cake. I have some blueberries in the freezer and I have a lemon to use up. It's a recipe my blogging friend Karen has shared before on her blog Beatrice Euphemie - Vintage Cottage Style. You can find her blog and this very recipe if you click here.  It looks and sounds so yummy! 

This busy week ahead is going to include: some appointments, errands to run, visiting my MIL, my son's hockey game, Annie's volleyball and hockey practices, grocery shopping, cooking for my FIL, and a church dinner. Plus, just the projects and things I'm still trying to accomplish at home and catching up with you my Friends!  I think I may take some extra vitamins! 

 

CURRENTLY READING:

Focusing on crafts so I haven't been reading anything specific at the moment.

ON THE TV TODAY:

I know I have a hallmark movie taped, cooking shows and still some Timeless & Blindspot to catch up on. We have some family shows taped to catch up on too (Shark Tank, Mysteries of Oak Island etc).

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

MONDAY: easy night with what's around the fridge & cabinets (either breakfast for dinner or easy sandwiches or soup etc)

TUESDAY: hockey game - easy dinner out

WEDNESDAY: baked BBQ chip coated chicken, roasted potatoes, salad

THURSDAY: soup and chili church dinner

FRIDAY: salisbury steak & gravy, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables, dinner rolls (for my FIL too) 

** We're having friends over for Super Bowl Sunday and making plans with my Girlfriend and her family yet about what our menu will be. Main course will either be pizza takeout from our fave local place or else I'll throw something in the slow cooker and make a pan of homemade mac and cheese. I'm going to provide a veggie tray, creamy cold crab dip and crackers, and apple pie dip with fruit and honey cinnamon pretzels for dipping to munch throughout the game. My Girlfriend may be bringing taco dip & chips or other munchies too. I'm going to make Boston cream poke cake for dessert & she often brings a dessert too.

(I think I may need to do an extra workout on Sat before the big day!)

WHAT I AM CREATING AT THE MOMENT:

More jewelry, cards, scrapbooking things. 

NEW RECIPE I WANT TO TRY THIS WEEK:

The blueberry lemon cake is new to me.  Not sure about other recipes yet this week?

TIP OF THE WEEK:

 

 

I think this drawing is rather genius! I never remember how much goes into what (& now I have "Alexa" to bug for that too). But I think I could remember this drawing.  So I get it now: 4 Q's in a gallon, 2 P's in a quart, and 2 C's in a Pint. 

FROM THE CAMERA:

Ruby after her recent haircut - my little Valentine.

Gorgeous sunrise as the kiddos left this AM.

A few hours later - this is going on. Getting lots of snow!

Getting ready to go do some of this today!

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

I'm linking with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.

Five on Friday:Projects & more Projects

Hello dear Friends!! Happy Friday to you ~ 

We have a busy, but fun weekend planned ahead. Girls night out to the movies. Kiddos' sports. Church time, of course. And even more time to spend on my current projects! 

Now that I'd gotten my office/crafting space all organized - I found MANY projects I had in the works. As well as all of my scrapbooking stuff I had been doing in the past. So this week I jumped in with abandon!! ;) I've been having fun tackling projects right and left. So for my 5 today I thought I'd give you just a peek at some of it. 

ONE

Of course I had to begin work on some Valentine's projects - it is the season, right? So here's a peek at a necklace I was making. Soft and romantic & vintage looking. Love that. I'm so happy with how it turned out and I'll share soon!

TWO

I also may have been dabbling in some Valentine's Day card making. Just letting my beautiful soul shine (as the card says), right? 

THREE

A big part of my week has been working on my scrapbooks. First, of course I had to go down memory lane and look at a few older albums and layouts. They spark ideas for new pages and help me remember my timelines and what I've done already. I love looking back at my kiddos - so young and so sweet. ;) Each year I do a page with our Christmas card from that year - it's fun to look back and see them all and how the kiddos change!!

FOUR

I'm still about 4 years behind in most of my books - but it's amazing how I can knock out a whole year in one album if I work at it a bit each week! I have family albums (I'm up to volume 7!), a vacation/trip album, and my kiddos' school years albums. So, yep, quite a few books in the works. 

I'm typically pretty good at finding materials I like for layouts I know I will have coming up & holding on to them for when I'm ready.  But for this one (my daughter's birthday several years ago) I hadn't picked up any bowling stickers or papers. So what is one to do, but use some clip art off of the internet - print it up and embellish it a bit! Works for me so I didn't have to break stride with what I was working on at the moment. Lol

I'm currently working on a July 4th layout and I love how this one is shaping up! I often like to look at the group of photos I plan to scrapbook - and then pick out some papers & embellishments from there. Then I like to lay a "base" down - crop my photos, then fit them on the pages the way I like them. Then I journal dates and memories on the pages and lastly add further embellishments (like in this case I'll add some of these flowers as I used pretty flower ribbon on the pages). I also have a few cute fireworks stickers I'll probably throw in too. 

FIVE

When I finish an album I like the last page to have a pretty poem of some kind and a few fun random photos on it. This was the poem on the back of the last family album I had finished.  Goes right to my heart!

Thank you for joining me! I'll be sharing more about Valentine's projects next week. I'm sharing this with my Amy at Love Made My Home for Five on Friday.

  

Easy Homemade Dutch Oven Artisan Bread

Happy Thursday Friends! 

Recently I shared a bread recipe on my instagram account and I thought I would share it with you today. I can't remember where I initially found the recipe...but it's a yummy one!  It's for a rustic artisan style loaf that you make in a dutch oven pot. It's one that I know I'll be making over and over again.  I love bread like this: with it's crustier and chewier exterior and nice moist and soft interior.  It's so good and it's the perfect bread to go with recipes of this winter season, like soups or stews. I grabbed these photos and the recipe I wrote right off of my insta feed. 

I'm sharing this with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Cooking Thursday.

Wednesday Wonder

SCRAPPIN' & THINKING SPRING THOUGHTS:

Working on family scrapbooks  to play catch up - and I was doing winter and hockey pages of the past...

Then moved on to Spring - isn't this a cute layout?

And it's so fun going through old photos down memory lane. It 's fun to look through a bunch and then pick some of the best ones to be in the book. Look at Ruby as a younger shaggy pup! And both of my "Mom's" on Mother's Day of the past - when my MIL was better. ((insert hearts and pretty flowers here))

And lots of Spring thoughts were going to go on this page -  with planting flowers and mini golf!

I love this photo from an old Easter layout in my scrapbook. Look at Ruby as just a baby puppy and my kiddos look so young!!

And this is pretty much how Ruby looked today while I was scrapping away. I think she's got the life....what do you think?  :P

Happy Wednesday Friends!! xo

Happy Homemaker Monday

Good morning dear sweet Friends!

I hope all is well in your world and you're starting your Monday out right! It's a gray day and makes me sleepy and dragging a bit, but I'm finally jumping into the day. 

Over the weekend we did some running around for kiddos' sports. My Mom ended up having the belly flu so we adopted her dog for some of the weekend. I don't know if Ruby loved the situation, but Angel was a really good girl and it was kind of fun to have some puppy energy around here. My Mom felt better by Sunday (thank goodness) and she said her dog acted like she was in mourning and missing us. Lol!  I think it's fun for Angel here as there's a lot more action going on and we have a more fun yard for her to run around. I told my Mom we'll have her come for a "play date" soon. 

And on a big bummer note - my beloved Packers lost and - alas - will not be headed to the Super Bowl. They had a great winning streak at the end and I'm so proud of how they rallied for having so many injuries this season! And of course there's always next year! ;)  

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS:

Wet and gray weather. In the upper 30's and it's still been thawing and melty around here. They're saying we may get some snow by Wednesday (which would kind of clean it up around here and look better). Then colder and in the 20's by the weekend - or in other words - back to normal! Lol

ON THE BREAKFAST PLATE THIS MORNING:

Some toast with avocado mash on top and an egg over easy. Coffee with hazelnut creamer.

RIGHT NOW I AM:

Listening to music through our new Amazon Echo. My kiddos love it! Annie can't get enough of saying "Alexa, play..." and asking her to play all kinds of music off of amazon prime free music. Annie has had her telling her jokes, telling her info etc. I loved that as I was prepping my morning coffee today I could just say - "Alexa, what's the forecast?" and then "Alexa, what's the news today?" and I felt well informed all before I even took my first sip! And now I have a really good bluetooth speaker for playing music and I can tell her a volume level or say (louder or turn it down) and don't even need to get up. Amazing times we live in folks. (& lazier -Lol!) 

AS I LOOK OUTSIDE MY WINDOW:

I can see Ruby running around in the yard as I'm sitting in my dining room. The bay looks kind of gross and all melty and brown on the edges. Some snow would clean things up nicely. 

AS I LOOK AROUND THE HOUSE:

Pretty tidy overall. Just the usual...some laundry and need to throw a load in the dishwasher.

ON TODAY'S TO DO LIST:

I've got my scrapbooking sprawled out on my dining room table. I finally got my office/craft room all cleaned up and organized so I feel fully "back in business" on catching up on some projects. I'm having fun working on several different things currently. I need to make a list for the store and grab a couple of things when I pick up Annie after school (my son has hockey practice so he won't be driving her home today). I'm going through my planner and looking at appointments for the week etc too. My son has a haircut later tonight and I don't even need to take him! I've really been loving this drivers license stuff!!

 

CURRENTLY READING:

I have several books lined up but haven't dove in to anything yet. I've been too focused on office organization and projects. 

ON THE TV TODAY:

I think Greys Anatomy is back this week -yay! I've been watching that since the beginning (so many years now) and I've always been hooked. I know I have cooking shows on my DVR and some Hallmark movies. I tape a lot on the upstairs tv and my hubby tapes sports (we have hockey channel) down in the media room. Works for me. :) 

ON THE MENU THIS WEEK:

MONDAY: leftovers from the weekend (I made chili and cornbread for the big game)

TUESDAY: homemade sweet & sour chicken over rice (never made garlic sesame chicken last week). I'll top it with cashews and we'll have veggie eggrolls on the side

WEDNESDAY: BBQ meatballs, broccoli pasta side dish, salad

THURSDAY: waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon, fruit (my son often likes to make a "breakfast sandwich" with the eggs & meat in the middle of his waffle with a little cheese and dunk in syrup)

FRIDAY: might be out for dinner

WHAT I AM CREATING AT THE MOMENT:

I just keep working on all kinds of projects now that I'm more organized and making plans for things! Loving it! 

NEW RECIPE I WANT TO TRY THIS WEEK:

Not sure yet - might bake something new.

TIP OF THE WEEK:

 

I do this kind of thing all the time! Or I put it in my iphone calendar and set a reminder with it - it beeps and shows it to me at the designated time. I couldn't function without my calendars and my phone! 

FROM THE CAMERA:

Brown sugar (sweet heat) chili, maple cornbread, & frosted rice krispies treats for the big game yesterday!

Before and after office/craft space. 

Love that everything is more tidy and now I know where everything "lives" again! It had really become the big dumping ground during the holidays. 

I see actual work space open - yay!!

I use a lot of pretty boxes and baskets to hide my scrapbooking extras, die cuts, papers,  ribbons, buttons, brads, lace, extra tools etc. Basically, hiding things in plain sight that I don't mind visually.

PRAYER, INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE OR DEVOTIONAL:

I watched the inauguration. I don't like getting into my political views here. I don't feel it's the platform where I'd want to put it (I'll admit to crying watching the Obamas leave on the helicopter though). However, I will say that I love that we are a country where we can express our views and have a peaceful exchange of power. And it is my prayer and wish that we can unite as a country and I always hope for peace. That will forever be my main "stance" in this world - more peace and love. Amen. xo 

I'm linking with Sandra of Diary of a SAHM for Happy Homemaker Monday.