________________________________________________________________________

Well hello there! This is the place where I share my crafts, recipes, knitting and crochet projects, photos, and moments of family life in the Midwest.
________________________________________________________________________

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Painted Pots


Saturday means time to work on my painted plant pots. I find that I tend to combo-craft which is where I find two crafty projects (usually on Pinterest) that I love and put them together. Sometimes it's like Oreos and milk, and sometimes it's...well not that good. Here is my formula for this project:
Image credit

+

Image Credit

I think they are great - at the very least unique. The triangles were a bit heavy for me and the blue was a bit light. Best of all I have two new plants to hang out with! 

Hip Hop




Ready for Riley's room!

Friday, March 30, 2012

Creative Weekend

I'm so glad I made it to the weekend. Lately I have been feeling the creative bug and have multiple projects in the works. Must be the unseasonably warm weather. These are my next two tasks that I pinned on Pinterest:


Hand painted pots for succulents (Elise Joy) and wooden neon magnets (Swoon).
 

I'm also working on a poster for Easter decorations, at least it reminds me of bunnies. (Yes, it is the lyrics from Rappers Delight.)


Once I get it all framed up I'm hoping to get a good picture, I really need to get a decent camera at some point. Have a great weekend!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

New Lovely Bracelets


I loved friendship bracelets when I was in middle school. I made at least 100 bracelets for myself and my classmates. Recently on Ravelry I found this adorable pattern for a crocheted friendship bracelet from the Green Eyed Monster. Adorable with the beads woven in! Crafting that rekindled my love affair with handmade bracelets. So when my bracelet finally wore out I decided to make myself some new ones.



Since I hadn't made one in a while I search for some patterns online and found this wonderful site - Friendship Bracelets. They have over 54,000 patterns! Thank goodness I knew what I was looking for or these beauties might have never happened.



I used pattern #24 for the top bracelet, pattern #21 for the middle, and the bottom bracelet is just a simple single knot using 4 colors. The possibilities are pretty much endless. I think I'm going to make a huge chevron one next (pattern #7118)!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Cowgirls Rock

So the other day I was wearing my old boots (really cheap Payless boots) with my "new" jean skirt, that I sewed myself :), and my hubby said "Why don't you get real cowboy boots?" So guess what happened today? Yes!!!!


Saturday, March 24, 2012

Spring is here!


I hope I'm not going to cause issues by announcing that Spring is here! It's been so beautiful in Iowa lately that the trees are blooming and the grass is green. I love it! Normally the kids can't play outside until April here. It's been in the 70's consistently and it makes all of us want to go camping. Unfortunately the parks don't open until May 1st, so we will have to wait.

On Saturday we went to play at Auntie Clare's house with Maya and Rowan. The kids had fun playing in the backyard and getting freaked out by ants.


Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Pinewood Derby

So tonight was Max's Pinewood Derby race for Cub scouts. He won 3rd place for design and his car came in 7th. The crazy thing is he started building his car at 4:00pm today and the race was at 6:00pm. Nothing like waiting to the last minute!

This years line up. 

The Track

Luke (Max's car) vs. Darth Vader (Aisha's car)

Max and Aisha won best design prizes

Max's winning car and ribbon.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Going Green!

As today is St. Paddy's Day, I thought I would share with you some of my favorite Green Smoothie recipes. Green smoothies are a awesome way to get your greens and fruits for the day. (and the boys will even drink them!)





The "Classic" Green Smoothie

1-2 large Kale Leaves
1 large banana
2 tbsp Honey
1/2 cup water


Berry Good Green Smoothie

1/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup strawberries
1/2 cup spinach leaves
1/2 cup coconut milk

Mango Tango Smoothie

1-2 large Kale Leaves
1 large mango pealed and pitted
1 medium banana
1/2 coconut milk

You can't go wrong with green smoothies, just blend everything in a blender until smooth.
Do you do smoothies? What's your favorite combo?



Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Hiking Colorado

Today Jered and I drove to Eldorado Canyon State Park for a day hike. The weather is pretty much perfect right now and the tourist season hasn't started so it was great day to get out.


First stop was the visitor's center for a trail map and car registration (it was $8 for a vehicle). We did the Eldorado Canyon Trail which is a moderate-difficult level, but the views were so worth it!


My iPod pictures so do not do the views any justice. Jered was using the Canon to take much better ones that we will post when we get home. Speaking of which, we are leaving bright and early tomorrow morning. It has been lovely being here with Jered and getting an incredible spring break, but I'm missing the boys and I'm ready to be back in Iowa.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Exploring Denver

On Tuesday we went exploring the food of  Denver starting with Jewel of India for lunch. Indian food is amazing here in Colorado. The lunch buffet was packed with all our favorites and pretty soon we were complete stuffed.


After that Michele took us downtown Denver. We went to 16th street mall area and picked up some gifts for the boys. There are so many great shops and venues.


We stopped to get some coffee at Ink Coffeehouse. They had super cool art work on the walls.


Finally we finished the tour of eating out in Denver with dinner at Mt Fuji. Jered ordered the Dragon roll and the Rocky Mountain roll.

 Tomorrow we are going to the mountains to hopefully hike all this off!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Hello from Colorado!


So we made it to Colorado, it only took about 10 hours! (We only stopped for gas.) The weather here is amazing and the mountains still have snow on the peaks. We drove to Boulder this morning and took a look around. It's changed so much since the last time I was there. So much more shopping and big box stores.


We did go down to Pearl Mall (which for Iowa City folks is just like the Ped Mall) and it looked like I remember it. It did have more stores and restaurants, but the feel was the same. Jered and I had lunch at  Foolish Craig's. Then we did some window shopping. Tomorrow the plan is to head to downtown Denver.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Packing for Colorado

The day is finally here - I'm packing for Spring Break in Colorado! Hopefully I won't forget anything. I'm probably going to take way more than I need like usual.

Here is what I'm feeling right now:




P.S. Get ready for a bunch of posts from CO because we are taking the laptop.

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Banana Blueberry Muffins

Necessity is the mother of invention and I need to empty the fridge before we head out to Colorado. So what do you do with bananas and blueberries that are going bad? Banana blueberry muffins of course! My recipe is yummy, but not really healthy. Usually if I have the chance I substitute healthier choices.


Banana Blueberry Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter melted
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
4 overripe bananas
1 package of washed blueberries

Streusel Topping

1/2 cup butter softened not melted
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 all-purpose flour


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl combine butter, sugar, eggs, mashed bananas, and vanilla. Stir in flour mixture until just mixed. Fold in the blueberries carefully so that they are not crushed.

3. Spoon evenly into muffin pans that are greased or use papers. Combine all streusel topping ingredients in a small bowl, cutting the butter in until with fork or pastry blender until mixture resembles course crumbs. Top muffins with the streusel topping.

4. Bake for 18 minutes until a toothpick comes clean. Let cool for at least 10 min.

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

It must be fate.

I'm a little superstitious. Not in a crazy palm-readers-on-the-side-of-the-highway sort of superstitious, it's just that I tend to notice when things happen to match up or make patterns. Like today when I finally get time to read my new issue of Midwest Living (no judging - I'm from the Midwest) and I see a small article on page 14 about this:




Isn't it beautiful?! I know it's Minnesota and not Iowa, but doesn't it look almost exactly like the image I created for the Dieter Family blog? I think I must have one for myself! Kristy Highness does customer orders of your state or country and other beautiful handmade pieces. It must be fate.

Monday, March 05, 2012

New Blog Look!

So I did some electronic house cleaning this weekend and updated the old blog. I had some time to get caught up reading the blogs that I love and I thought, why don't I make our blog cute like that? So I started to update it with a new title picture and layout. I also added more links and features. Please feel free to browse to the "Blog Envy" links on the left menu and become as addicted to them as I am. The top menu links are all connections to the other social media that I use, so if you use them too, feel free to follow if you want!

 I'm also doing actual house cleaning getting ready for our Colorado VACATION! Yeah! That's right one week without the kiddos, just Jered and I checking out Denver and hanging out with our friend Michele! The last time we went to Colorado was for my brother's beautiful wedding which was in Estes Park.


It was so lovely I can not wait to see the mountains again. I'll be posting a bunch of photos while we are their since we are bringing the laptop so Jered can write his paper for class that is due after spring break. (Boo!)

Saturday, March 03, 2012

09 10 11 12
Blogging tips