30 Meals in One Day.

Ever heard of Dinner is Ready?
OK, so this is one of my all time favorite things. 30 Meals in ONE Day! It's not necessarily my favorite thing TO- DO, but it's totally worth it. I get soooo sick of figuring out what to cook weekly or those days where I don't have time (feel like) cooking, I can still provide a good dinner for us all!

You can find this book on Amazon. Basically it tells you how to accomplish this unthinkable
(ha ha) task of cooking so many delicious meals in one day.

Short version: The cookbook is divided into sections

Crock Pot, Oven, Stove Top, Assemble

- You pick 2 meals from the Crock Pot section, 4 Oven, 4 Stove Top, and 7 Assemble. Most of those meals will double. So split it and freeze!

-Oh and the most important thing. Ditch the Kids! Call grandma or cousins and see if they'll take them for the day if your husband can't because there is no way you'll get it done with them around! Or maybe trade with a friend. You watch her kids while she does her meals one day and she watches your's while you do yours!

-Ok so one more really important thing, Snacks and Diet Coke are a must!

Next, Make your grocery store list, you can do this by meal or by quantities. ie: 48oz of sour cream.

Then the night before is the most important time to prep!

Thaw your meat.
Also, Chop you onions and other veggies and organize your supplies.

In the middle of all the craziness, pots of Chicken Tortellini Soup, Taco Soup and Green Chili Soup going on the stove.

Peachy Chicken and Teryaki Chicken in the oven. One of the things I love about this is is it's all made from scratch!

Mmmm... Taco Pie!

Label and Freeze! Getting my freezer full! Between cooking and these meals they usually last about 3 months.


It does help that I'm lucky enough to have such a big freezer!

Mmmmm Chicken Enchiladas! Maybe we'll have this for dinner tonight!

Strolling-- Before & After

 I recently came across the term "stroller envy," while reading a mommy magazine.  I realized I have been suffering from it.  Although I have 3 other nice strollers, sometimes you just need to use the small umbrella stroller.   For my 1st child, I  had  a very cute umbrella stroller that had a giraffe print seat and black frame (Baby Trend).

(Now she's 7, where does the time go?)

 Unfortunately, we took it on a trip and the airline busted one of the wheels off (and of course they aren't liable mind you),  so we had to pick up one quick on the cheap.  Enter this little eyesore:

BEFORE:

I have been pushing this around ever since, and then with my 2nd child, (and I'm not pushing this ugly around with my 3rd, L.J., 15 mo anymore.)   Not that it's terrible, but the frame is a weird green tone that doesn't even coordinate with the blue/green striped fabric. Strollers are for the mom's just as much (if not more so) than babies, and this definitely looks babyish.

(no, I don't have man hands, my hubby touched up around the wheels for me)

So, rather than spend another 15 bucks on another stroller that is equally babyish, and also not fork out mucho$ for one that IS cute, I went the DIY route.

(Top Back of Fabric Seat)

Here is is after fabric from JoAnn's recovering the seat and a little brown leather spray paint on the frame.
I just took the seat off and cut a bigger piece of fabric and then sewed it right onto the old seat.   I wasn't too concerned about new straps since the baby usually covers up those anyway.

AFTER:

 Took a grand total of about 2 1/2 hours and less than $10.  Wish I would have done this sooner.  

More C.S.I. Pillows

Another pillow I made using my Silhouette and freezer paper. I'm totally addicted now.

Made with burlap I painted it and then hand stitched the black lacey ribbon embellishment.

C.S.I. Pillow Parade

Just a simple post on all the pillows I've made and sharing at the pillow parade at theC.S.I.project.com



My hand stitched pillow of numbers.




How I made the phone pillow using my Silhouette: (incase you're living under a rock and don't know how yet :)

This is freezer paper you can buy at the grocery store. My little friend (silhouette) cut it out for me.
I ironed the wax side down to the burlap and painted it with acrylic paint.

Love it!
The house pillows I did the same way with the freezer paper and then hand stitched the white lacey ribbon around the edges and stamped the words "cottage" and "dwell" on there.




PotteryBarn Knock off, go HERE to see.



Pillows I made out of tablecloth, for more go HERE.

Experiment. Using different Mediums on Suitcases.

Hello there! This has been the project I've been up to lately that has made me neglect you. I'm not even finished with it yet, but I wanted to show you what I've done so far.
A fun and different way to store things, other than baskets. Not that baskets are bad, I have my fair share here too!




I did a little thrifting at the D.I and found these beauties. About $2 each (much cheaper than a basket might I add)

I decided to try different Mediums on each one because 1- They are different materials and 2- I thought it would be interesting to try.

For the black one I use Vinyl. Mostly because of the pattern. I knew I wouldn't be able paint this easily. Also, this suitcase's outer shell is some sort of a plastic-y fabric (technical I know) and I knew that painting it would be a mess.

I love how it's turning out. It's just a simple frame from the Silhouette website that I cut with my Silhouette. Yay Silhouette!

For the big teal suitcas I did the cheveron pattern in white paint. I could have done it in vinyl BUT it's plastic and the surface is really bumpy so I knew paint would look better. It does, but I should have use the FROG tape that doesn't bleed. Some of mine bled and being the perfectionist that I am I had to come back with a fine brush and fix some of the lines. Also, taping it! Agh! A total nightmare on one side, but the other side went smoothly once I had the hang of the cheveron pattern.

You can use Latex or Acrylic paint. Also,use a roller!

I like it. I do need to touch up the front a little still.
The next Medium I used is Paper and Mod Podge. This rusty suitcase has hard smooth surface so I knew that paper would work great on it!
I found these 12x12 paper doilies at Roberts (or any scrapbook store)
What I loved about this is that it went on easy and because the doilies were 12x12( but the suitcase is bigger )I had to use multiple papers and there were seams; BUT the seams are nearly invisible with the doilie paper.
Turned out soo cute! I love it!

Here is another one I Deco-podged with paper.










So what is my point of doing this? Well I have them stacked in the living room. One holds toys, one holds quilts, and one holds magazines. You can use them hold anything!
I'm loving it so far! I should also mention that the yellow one was once an ugly thing but I paint it with yellow acrylic paint. I just need to finish the black one and maybe add some tags with labels that tells what is in each one.... and maybe one more blue one.....