$1 Outdoor Kids Activity

$1 you say?? Do tell!!!

Well we ended up doing some yard work this weekend, and the kids were wanting to get into everything! So I needed to keep them busy...

What you need:

Paint (got at the dollar store)

Rocks (look around your house)

Now get to painting!!

I always put them on a picnic table cloth, it's more comfortable then the plain cement.

They loved it and I ended up putting their rocks in my front yard area :)

Let them get dirty!

I used to hate it when my kids got dirty!! STAY OUT OF THE MUD!  But then I came to the realization...soap cleans mud!! Ok...so here are just some cute pics of my little man, Drew, getting dirty!



Easy Crock Pot Chicken Soup

I enjoy thick chicken soup -- not some salty noodley stuff.  Here's how I make mine.

Ingredients:

Chicken Breast 

26 0z Can of Cream of Chicken

10 oz Can of Cream of Broccoli (you can do whatever though, even mushroom)

Egg Noodles

It's the easiest thing. I put in my chicken in the crock pot, top with both soups and I cook on high for about 3-4 hours. But you could do low for 7-9 hours.

Final Step:

Put in egg noodles for the last 10 min and you are done!

I topped with pepper and green onions! Delicious!!

Diet Day 3

So, this diet isn't going so bad.  I have my snacks that I prepackaged here ... and I have also been making salads.

Now I've seen this all over the web and Pinterest, so I don't know who to give credit to.  I'm sure you can just google "mason jar salad" and find someone that is also doing this.

Here's what I did.

You will need a few mason jars:

I got 12 of these for $8. Not a bad price.

Ingredients:

Lettuce

Cheese

Chicken

Dressing

Veggies

Now follow this order when you are putting the salad together.

Step 1:

Put as much dressing as you prefer in the mason jar.

Step 2:

Put in chicken

Step 3:

Top with veggies

Step 4:

Top with Cheese

Step 5:

Top with lettuce

I guess I didn't need 5 steps, I could have broken it down in one step...but OH WELL. Just do as I say!  K!

Here you go. These last for 3-4 days, and I love them! It's so easy to just grab and go. Plus you can shake it up while in the jar, and pour onto a plate and it's all ready.



Pink Panty Droppers

I've heard these be called a few different things...but let me tell you...they are delicious!! At least for those of you who like to drink adult beverages.

Here's what you need:

6 cans of beer

1 can of frozen pink lemonade

Vodka - lots of it

Step 1:

Pour all 6 cans of beer into a large bowl or something to hold your beverage

Step 2:

Empty the can of frozen pink lemonade.  This works best if you have let this unthaw.

Step 3:

Fill the empty lemonade carton with vodka and pour into the mix.

There you have it.

Enjoy responsibly!!



snack organization

My kids snack cupboard is ridonkulus!!! It's always a mess, and things are just topped on top of eachother! Is that right to say? lol

here's the proof!

So I busted out the ziploc baggies and seperated some snacks for my kids. I bought some goldfish snacks and I seperate those into about a half cup each, and got 10 bags for them to grab and go.

I got some storage containers from the dollar store and I put those in my cupboard, and just emptied the boxes and put everything in there. Easy to see and grab.

Easy Peasy -- no more standing there for 5 minutes and waiting for them to pick something out.

How to Diet... Day 1

Ok ... I'm going to be brutally honest here! And since I have like 5 people that read my blog...it's all good! LOL

I think I'm fat... not horribly fat, but I'm just not happy with my body.  After having 2 kids, it does some brutal things to your body.  I enjoy my curves, but I would like to be healthier and more toned.

So the journey is going to begin! I turn 30 on July 20th. WOW!!! That was hard to say!!! aagghh!!!

My goal: TO LOSE 30 LBS BY MY 30TH BIRTHDAY!

I know this goal is going to be hard to reach, I possibly may lose like 10-15, but it's good to have a goal!!

Day 1:

Honesty! I weigh......205lbs! I know, people don't believe me when I tell them that...clothes hide things very well!!! haha!

This is how I started my diet. I went grocery shopping!

I bought HEALTHY food!  Fruits and veggies, and a lot of chicken for some easy crock pot recipes, I will add those later this week!

Here's what I did to ensure that I would always have easy access to healthier foods. I started with just some easy things. Here is what you need:

Veggies

ziploc sandwich bags

I cut up the celery and divided them into baggies, along with the peas. This way it was an easy snack to grab.  I like to dip my celery in peanut butter, and my peas in hummis. YUM!

I put them in the fridge to keep them nice and cool, and seperated them by using a dollar store container.

Don't mind my unorganized fridge...you are only supposed to look at the yellow container for my celery and peas! The beer is the hubby's...bad boy!!!



Hair!!

I like to be creative with my hair at times, I can easily get sick of it...so I tried a little fancy braid. 

What I did.

I took a chunk of hair, about an inch above my ear, and braided it.

I then pulled it over the front of my bangs and bobby pinned it to the other side, but under the hair so you couldn't see the pin.

Yes, another horrible picture of myself! Enjoy :)



Chalk Paint + Mirror

This was my first try with chalk board paint...and on a mirror no less. I thought I did pretty good...I'll let you be the judge!!

I got this mirror for $2 at my awesome auction!

Yes, it's pretty hideous! But I knew I could do something with it...so it sat around for about 2 months! My  husband loved it! hehe!!

I finally decided to paint it. I taped off the mirror, just leaving the wood exposed.

I decided to paint it Heirloom White since that is what I had on hand.

As you can see...I didn't do a good job of taping it off!! Oops! Good thing I wasn't going to be using the mirror part for looking at my beautiful face!

I bought some Chalk Board Paint for about $4 at Walmart.  I got these paint sponges at the Dollar store.

Now this is my first time with chalk board paint.  I read the directions, it said to apply a few coats, letting it dry inbetween each coat.

After 3 coats, I primed it by rubbing chalk all over the board and then wiping away.

And the end result -- my pictures are bad today, but just go with it!

It was my son's birthday - Andrew turned 2!!

Crock Pot Chicken

I don't know about you...but I hate cooking chicken. I don't like touching the meat, and I'm not a huge fan of how it tastes after being in the pan. I have never cooked chicken all by itself in the crock pot...so I decided to take a stab at it!!

What you will need:

Chicken breast (as many as you want) - I used 2

packet of seasoning

1 cup of water

Put the chicken in the crock pot...then the packet of seasoning....

Add the cup of water, and put it on high for 3 hours. The reason I say 3 hours is because this way the chicken is so moist that it easily shreds as you stir it.

We used ours for salads and tacos throughout the week. Yummy!!!



A little spray paint....

Spray paint can go a long way...that little container holds a lot of paint! Plus it adds to much to something.  I had this cast iron bowl...heavy and nice. But I needed something lighter...not so dark black...

Don't mind the wooden table it's on...it's a piece I got at the auction... anyways...look at the detail of this bowl...it's unique -

So I just took some heirloom white paint and sprayed it down - just one coat because I wanted some of the black to shine through!!

I just love that I can change something up with just a little bit of paint!! Go get some spray paint!!!

An Old Door....

My husbands jaw just about dropped when I hauled this into the house the other day....

I sent a pic of it to my sister and she was like....WHAT are you going to do with that???!!!

I had an idea...I took these -

And a hammer...and started to nail them into the door. I figured I would be able to hang things on the door in my bedroom until I found out how to hold this heavy door on the wall as a headboard.  I just couldn't pass it up...it was $20 and so beautiful!!!



Look at that vintage detail!!! It looks like it's been painted 3 times...and I love whoever did that!

It's doing a good job of holding up my belts and scarves...I just know that it is beautiful and it was meant for me!! Yes -- I'm crazy :)

Necklace Organization

I have seen these all over blog land...so I decided to make one! I have my nekclaces all over the place, I have so many to count! I needed some good organization...so that's when I decided to make this -

I was my awesome auction on Friday night, and this beauty was going for $2...duh...purchased!!

I took a can of Heirloom White and went to town on this puppy. I only needed one coat and no need to prime it.

And the finished product...I just love how I can organize my necklaces and I can have them all there to see!

Pinterest Inspiration

I saw this on the all mighty Pinterest...the best website in the world!! I knew I just had to recreate it...here is my version.

I printed it out and put it in a frame.... the dates of our childrens births...the day we met...our wedding date.  I love it, and my husband actually noticed it and said he liked it!!  All I used was MS Word and found the fonts that I liked. I printed it on regular paper and cut it to fit in my 8x10 frame!