Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Weight Watchers Dijon Roasted Potatoes

If you are visiting here from Pinterest, WELCOME! I love that my simple potato recipe is making the rounds. They are wonderful. Glad you stopped by and come back- I love sharing cooking, crafts and shopping tips on an almost daily basis ;)

I am always looking for easy to make side dishes. We eat a whole lot of "one pot" meals or steamed veggies from the microwave and I'd love to change that. If you are in the same boat, this is one of my favorites and low fat to boot!
You simply make a good sauce for the potatoes using the ingredients above, following the recipe below.
After washing and cutting up your bag of new potatoes, you toss them in the sauce making sure everyone is well coated.
And you cook them for around 30 minutes in the oven on a cookie sheet. Super simple and really tasty!
recipe courtesy of Weight Watchers


Sunday, September 25, 2011

Handmade Bookmarks

Some friends and I just finished reading The Fitting Room by Kelly Minter. We met twice a month at Barnes and Noble to discuss the book, drink coffee, and share our lives with one another. The book breaks down Col 3:12 so I wanted to make everyone a small gift featuring the verse.
These bookmarks were super easy to make and cost me less than 50 cents each! I used my digital scrapbooking software to create the clothesline and typed in the verse. I then sized it for a bookmark and printed them out.
I used scrapbook paper scraps for the back side and glued them to the printed verses. I then hole punched each and took them to Kinkos to laminate. The inner geek in me would LOVE to own a big laminater! So much fun! They have clear envelopes sized 8.5x11, 8.5x14 and 11x17. You place your items inside and run them through a machine that takes care of it all. I think the biggest sheet is $5.99. I was able to fit all 10 bookmarks in a legal sized sheet.
Kinko's also has a big paper cutter for trimming your laminated sheets and a corner rounder on hand that you can use for no charge.
I added a simple piece of matching ribbon and voila! Easy and inexpensive bookmarks!

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Fall Wreath from Pinterest

Have you seen this cute wreath on Pinterest? I love it and wanted to make a less expensive version of it for my front door. The price of moss is crazy, so I only used one bag and made a little nest on the bottom to bring in the green!
I love the orange, green, white and brown combination when you first walk upon our porch.
The moss is attached with a lot of hot glue in patches. The pumpkins are in the floral section of Hobby Lobby and have long wired "sticks" on them. I just trimmed them down and added glue to the back where the stitch attaches and poked them through the grapevine wreath.
I also painted a think wooden letter J to adorn the wreath and bring in more green.
Final step, a bright orange burlap fabric strip and bow!
Voila! A fall wreath and with all of the Hobby Lobby discounts this week, it was under $18!
Happy Fall Y'all!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

My Free Mommy Cards from Minted

I read on another blog about Minted offering free "Mommy" cards on their site and dropped everything to get myself a set. They arrived and I love them!
I had to blur out some of my information, but hopefully you get the gist of them!
25 cards are free or you can get $25 off if you order a larger quantity provided you agree (after the design step) to have their logo printed on the back. Sign me up, right!
They have lots of beautiful color combinations and options. Since you pick each line of text, these can be more than Mommy cards. They can be personal cards, small business cards, you name it! They even allow you to upload a logo or family photo.

They came in this super cute little box that you could carry in your purse.
I put mine in a green houndstooth case I had just waiting for something cute!
For the record, Minted has no idea who I am. I just took advantage of their great deal and wanted to share. Enjoy your free cards, too!

Friday, September 16, 2011

Friday's Foot Fetish: Big Buddha

Lots of my friends have cute Big Buddha handbags- I love their fun designs and cheap prices!
Now they have shoes- also cute and inexpensive! Most of their shoes are $39.95. The reviews say they run small, so be careful when ordering!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Recent Pins

I could waste so much time on Pinterest- I love that I have more friends joining and can repin some of their fabulous finds. So many of you starting following me when I blogged about my recent pins, so I thought I'd keep sharing.

Look at this- just add a marble to your cupcakes before you fill them and they'll come out heart shaped. Great thing to pin and look at before Valentine's Day!
These are pretzel bites filled with ham and cheese. I have no doubt they must be fabulous and plan to make them for a lazy football Sunday this fall.
The person that pinned this originally- she claims these are a dead ringer for Chick-fil-A nuggets. If that is true, maybe I can stick to my eating out budget! We love their nuggets!
As I am going from a full time working Mom to a stay at home work part time at home Mom, I am finding great comfort in this quote. I love knowing God's path for me is broader, deeper, and bigger than I can see.
Another great idea for Valentine's Day or even Halloween. I wonder how many takes it took to get the picture just right? It might take FOREVER with a toddler to get a smile, look at the camera and hand in place.
Finally, I love fabric, mixing prints and the vintage feel of these hoops. What a great way to bring color into a space and use up scraps or little pieces of pricey fabrics. I think these would be a fun addition to my laundry room.
Happy Pinning! To get links to the original home of these pictures, just click here to go to Pinterest.

Monday, September 12, 2011

Toasted Pepperoni Sandwiches

We used to make toasted pepperoni sandwiches all the time and then just forgot about the recipe! We had pepperoni left over from making the pepperoni muffins recently and made our favorite sandwiches. Yummy! Why did I stop making these?

This is much like a grilled cheese....



Butter one side of two pieces of bread.

Lay bread flat on your plate, butter side down.

Place a slice of mozzarella on bread.

Sprinkle cheese with Italian Seasoning.

Cover seasoned cheese slice with pepperonis.

Add another slice of cheese and then the second piece of bread, butter facing up or out.

Grill and eat warm with chips, fries, salad, you name it! Enjoy!


Friday, September 9, 2011

Friday's Foot Fetish: Wide Calf Riding Boot

I have never been able to wear tall boots- my calves are just too big and I am too short. This fall my goal is to wear a pair of real leather tall riding boots. I have lost 20 pounds over the summer and my calves have gotten smaller. I still need wide calf boots, but I feel more confident than ever that they will fit!
I ordered this pair from Lands End (when they were 30% off) and they are on their way. Praying they fit and look fabulous. And then, that the weather cools down so that I can actually wear them without sweating!


P.S. They are currently $20 off with free shipping

P.S.S. The wide is 17 1/8" wide.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

New Steam A Seam Projects

I had a really long list of shirts to be tackled by my Mom a few weeks ago when I was out of town. I love buying a new bag of t-shirts and going through my scrap fabric to make Abby and our new friend, Baby Ella Dane, cute clothes. I will be devastated when Abby no longer wants applique shirts. Fingers crossed I have a few more years!
These sweet little onesies went inside the cupcakes for her shower!
As you would expect, the Minnie Mouse dress is her favorite!

Steam-a-Seam is super easy to use! You literally cut out your fabric in the shape you want. Stick it to the steam-a-seam and then cut if out. Iron it onto your shirt and you are done! To help it last longer and give it a little more detail, my Mom runs around the edge in a zig-zag seam for me!

These make a great gift and go perfectly inside the onesie cupcakes!

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Handmade Cupcake Toppers

There are so many cute cupcake toppers on Etsy and while I love them all, I can't imagine paying more than $1 to add a small decoration to a cupcake that people will throw away.
For the Sugar and Spice shower, I made cupcake toppers over breakfast. It was fast, easy and cost me next to nothing. I printed "Ella Dane" (her name) on white basic copy paper sized at about 1" wide and 1" tall. I also printed "sweet thing" on a sheet of paper. You can get about 18 to a sheet. I then punched them out with a 1 3/8" punch from Stampin Up. I then attached those circles to scalloped punched printed paper.

Using a very small piece of shipping tape, I taped a toothpick to the back of a topper. This kept the toothpick securely in place. Scotch transparent tape might be strong enough as well.
Then, add dimensional tape (found in the scrapbook aisle) to the same back side of the topper.
Attach a second scalloped punched topper to give you a 2-sided topper with a toothpick in the middle.
Make as many as you need- different prints, different sayings, be creative!
I transported mine in a baggie and poked them into the Cookies and Cream cupcakes onsite.
Don't spend money on cupcake toppers anymore- these are easy and very inexpensive!

Saturday, September 3, 2011

Sugar and Spice- Party Food and Beverages

There are so many recipes online, especially with my Pinterest obsession, that I had a hard time narrowing down the food for this baby shower. You can go so many directions with a shower of sweets!

It was 110 degrees in Austin on the day of the shower, so we made sure to have plenty of cool refreshing drinks. Everyone loved the white wine sangria! We served the drinks in mason jars with cute striped straws.
In total we had 8 different desserts and yummy candies for the guests. Here are photos of the food and links to the recipes for the items I brought:
Chocolate Cake Pops and Cake Batter Rice Krispy Treats

Strawberry Cupcakes and Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes

Brownie Bites (after a kitchen disaster the morning of!) and Chocolate Hazelnut Dipped Strawberries

Sugar Cookies with Homemade Icing and Strawberry Lemonade Bars

I highly recommend a sweets shower for a very easy to create theme and a great way to showcase family favorite desserts that everyone has!

Thursday, September 1, 2011

September Desktop

I must admit- I love this desktop! I am trying to be better at using more elements on a page and having less symmetry. I often remove half of what I did and go for simple, but this time I was happy with the results.
I hope you enjoy your desktop this month as well. Remember, just click on the picture and save it then make it your desktop background. You may have to stretch or center the picture to best fit your screen. Enjoy!

Desktop was made with this digital kit.