I am done making waffles!

I'm done making Waffles

It’s been a year since I last blogged. So much has happened!
I have had great joys and some pretty low times to.
In a year I have…
v Worked as a preschool aid
v Started College
v Switched Colleges
v Decided to get my teaching degree
v Started my Etsy shop
v Became a budgeter
v Became obsessed with Bread
v And most importantly I had another beautiful son!



I decided to start blogging again because I want to share the great Ideas I am coming up with but mostly because I BROKE MY SEWING MACHINE…

I blew the motherboard on my Brother Sewing Machine and the service center is over 3 hours from my house. So my beautiful baby will be out of commission for god knows how long. Thank god I have another little baby sewing machine and a new embroidery machine to keep me busy.


Coming up on Crafting Deployed
v How I stay on top of life (most days)
v How I Grocery shop for a month
v What….Frozen Milk
v Artisan Bread in 5 Minuets review and love rant
v My Cable Funeral
v My lifetime Learning Journey
v How I deal with two children with January birthdays

I'm Making Waffles...

My son loves waffles. I mean loves waffles. Some days he asks for waffles for every meal. So I bought waffle maker. Nothing fancy just a 10 dollar waffle maker. I've found it's really easy to make a quick batch of waffles on the weekend that lasts my family through 2 weeks. I  am in the process of trying out a new waffle recipe every time I make a batch to see which ones freeze the best. 

One downside of making waffles is the mess I always seem to make. With my waffle maker I have found a little less than a 1/2 cup one side of the waffle iron without any spillage. 

 My cheap waffle maker. It's working well for my small family.

My yummy waffles! I'll post when I figure out the best waffle recipe.

After I make the waffles I lay them out on a baking 

Sheet and freeze them. Once they are frozen I put them into a freezer bag. This step is important because it is crazy hard to put a curvy waffle into the toaster slot.

Glitter Calm Down Bottle

My son turned two at the beginning of January, so he's started spending more and more time sitting by him self taking a "calm down"momment. Thanks to our love of hockey we don't do time outs, we do penalty minuets. Depending on the offense you go to the box and serve your penalty minuets. To get my son to focus on calming down and not pouting we have started using a glitter bottle. When he sits down in the "box" we shake the bottle and put it on the table in front of him. He is not allowed to get out of the "box" till the glitter has stop swirling around. It really helps to get his focus and calm down before I go over to speak to him about what he's done, Head butting the dog, using the kitchen sink as a basket ball hoop ext, ext. 

Heres how I made our glitter bottle

SUPPLIES

Glitter (I used Martha Stewart glitter Next time I am going to use a heavier glitter)

Goo Gone ( to get he label off the water bottle)

8oz Water bottle

water

Glue

 I soaked the label off the bottle and used the Goo Gone to take the extra glue off.

I added about 2 tablespoons of glitter into the bottle and filled the rest of the bottle up with water. To stop any little accidents I put some glue around the threads of the bottle and then screwed the cap on.

It takes about 2 minuets for the glitter to settle. It's the perfect amount of time for my two year old.

Valentines Day Wreath

Love is in the air....Not really but there is a heart wreath up on the door, close enough. Martha Stewart Living had a wreath similar to this on the cover of their February magazine. This is a cheaper version. 

This wreath was so cheap to make! All you need is...

Red, White and Pink Tissue paper

Cardboard box

Hot glue gun

Floral wire

I drew a heart free hand onto the smooth size of a card board box. It doesn't have to be perfect because it will be covered with flowers. Measure (or guess) 2 inches in and draw another heart. Cut out the heart and the center of the heart.

I accordion folded 6 sheets of tissue paper for the large flowers, and 3 sheets of paper for the medium and smaller flowers. After i folded the sheets I cut them into sections 8 inch sections for large flowers, 6 inch sections for medium flowers and 4 inch sections for the small flowers.

After the sections are cut in half fold them in half and secure with floral wire 

 I trimmed the ends of the sections.

Once the sections are secured, trimmed and folded you can fluff them!

 Separate the layers of tissue paper and fluff to make a flower.

Once all the flowers fluffed glue them onto the cardboard form with hot glue. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Coming Soon
I've sucked my Husband into my blogging world! 
I have him working on great raised beds for my garden! 
DIY raised bed tutorial coming soon!

Resolution: Clear up my face

I hate to admit it but I touch my face a lot, like a lot a lot. I can stand my clogged pores. It sound creepy but I find it rewarding squeezing that crap out of my pores, and don’t get me started how much I love pore strips. I spent 15 dollars on 5 Boscia strips from Sephora. They work great but when my husband comes home from deployment I will not be able to get away with that kind of spending . So I have resolved to stop picking at my face. For a week It seemed to make a big difference in how clear my face was but then my hormones made my face look like a war zone like it always does once a month. This year I am going to find a product/regime that clears my face up. I am 24 for gods sake, this should not be an issue.  I just got Murads Anti aging ance kit so we will see how it works. Fingers crossed. I’m already liking that the products don’t have a strong smell. So far I haven't see much of a difference but I am still hopeful it will work. 

Stay Tuned!

Resolution: NO MORE PLASTIC BAGS!

I am not a fan of big new years resolutions. This year I have made 5 small resolutions. I have already taken small steps in 2011 towards my goals but I taking it a step farther in 2012. 

Resolution Number One

No more plastic  grocery bags!

I have over the last year gathered about 5 great reusable bags. The problem is I always forget about them until I am at the check out. No More I Say! Its such a simple change to make that I smack my self in the forehead every time I forget them. So 2012 shall be the year of the reusable bag. In order to prepare my house for 2012 I have started a ritually cleansing  plastic grocery bags from my abode.

To help get rid of my grocery bags I decided to make a wreath (and recycle the scraps)

First  I flattened the bag out 

I cut the bottom seam off the bag

I cut all the print off the bags. I used Walmart bags because there bags have printing on only one side.

You end up with plain white plastic

I used a Styrofoam wreath and tied the cut plastic bags on one at a time. After I got a section tied on I trimmed the plastic bags to about 2 inches long. cutting the plastic bags to that length makes the wreath fill out more and look fuller.

Trimming the bags

A close up of my finished wreath

 My finished plastic bag wreath. I love it because you can dress it up for a lot of different holidays.

Simple and Cheap! 

Next Resolution: STOP touching your face; a 24 year olds journey to clear skin

Grape Fruit Jelly...Will it be good...Why yes, yes it will

Until today I thought the only people that ate grape fruit were old women on diets. Then I made grape fruit jelly. Now I too eat grape fruit (as long as its in jelly form). My son on the other hand piled down a half a grape fruit. Weird 

Bon Appetite magazine has inspired me to get my butt in the kitchen again.  In the December issue there was a recipe for doughnuts with grape fruit – vanilla jelly.

I love doughnuts…

I hate grape fruit….

What the hell… a doughnut can filled with grape fruit cant be that bad.

 This is my son juicing a grape fruit. He loves to help in the kitchen especially if he get to use something mechanical.

The recipe was for enough jelly to fill 30 doughnut hole, I cut the recipe in half.

1c Sugar

¾ c grapefruit juice

1/8c liquid pectin

½ a vanilla bean

Cook sugar grape fruit juice and pectin in a sauce pan. Scrape in seeds from vanilla bean. Cook till sugar dissolves. Increase heat and whisk until the mixture reaches a rapid boil. Cool in a shallow pan. 

This recipe was so easy to make. I have never used liquid pectin but it was so easy to use!

I can say that I have finally found a grape fruit recipe that I enjoy. The jelly will keep in the fridge for a week. So less than a week from now I will attempt doughnuts.

YUM!