Craft Wednesday

Yea, Girl not cray cray she knows it's Thursday!
Buuuuutt yesterday was Wednesday and LL and I finally got back to crafting!!   Yipppeeeee    This is a typical Craft Wednesday for LL and me.

9-9:30  Meet at Hobby Lobby with iPads
            (sidetrack #1- Dear Hobby Lobby, If you could please put in WiFi in your stores for those of us trying to make craft decisions via Pinterest.  We have old eyes and seeing on the iPad is much easier than seeing on the phone screen.)

11-11:30  Leave Hobby Lobby with ten times the ideas we came in the store with and ten times less the amount of money.  Head home to begin the crafting.  (Except yesterday we had to make a Dollar Tree run too)

11:30-12:15  Eat, snack and decide which project is first then get busy because we've spent half the day shopping and no matter which house we are crafting at the other one will need to go home to let the dog out to potty soon.

Sometimes we feel like this:

And some days, like yesterday, this is how we feel:

It was a good return to Craft Wednesday indeed.

So we ended up settling on this project:

So let's see how we did:

Here is a look at both of our projects.

That's LL's on the left and mine on the right.

Pretty good, eh?

This is the close up of mine from my Instagram.

I think we did swimmingly.

So after we cleaned up our mess a bit (we are not tidy crafters) we talked about next weeks projects.  It's probably a better idea if we already have our supplies by the time Wed. rolls around, keeps us on track and gives up more crafting time.  

Since I was so tickled with our projects I decided that I was just going to go ahead and put it out even though it isn't remotely fall yet.

Well the dining room is a bit too formal for it.

Even though it looked smashing against that burgundy background.

I moved it to the window sill in the kitchen for the time being.

So next week we were going to make new fall wreaths for the front doors.

Well I needed to pull apart this wreath so I could reuse the form.

(no worries, the ribbon was faded so it was well loved)

And then...I just got so excited I couldn't stop myself.

Yep, I went ahead and finished it. 

And I don't even care that it is still 100+ degrees outside, it's hanging on the front door!

I'll let it stay until the 1st of of October then it will come down for a month while the Halloween wreath is up then this gets to go back and hang out for Thanksgiving.

I figured I better stop and get some more housework done since Hubster got back into town today. This week the downstairs got a good cleaning while he was gone, next week we take care of the upstairs and do some freezer cooking.  Then I'll be MIA for a few weeks because I'm finally gonna have that nasty uterus of mine ripped out.   It serves no purpose anymore but causing me anguish so off it goes.

I hope the rest of you are cooler than we are in Texas because we are having a heat wave again.

Are you putting up your fall decorations yet?  Ready for fall?

Ready for Football??  OH YEAH!!!!

Hubster is home for a couple days so maybe I'll do some cooking.  

Peace, Love & Think Fall 

Vitamix 'in

Happy Monday Ya'll

Sir Winston and I were out on our walk this morning and met a wonderful little guy who was on a "test run" for his first day of school tomorrow in kindergarten.  So around here, this would be the last day of summer vacation.  Abogg actually started back today and the MereBear starts on Wednesday.  I suppose we are officially empty nesters now.

So last weekend we headed to the Costco and much to Hubsters delight the Vitamix demo was happening.  He has wanted to buy one of these for years and I always convince him that it's not worth the money. Wellllllllll, since the Abogg and his juicer left to go back to college the wonderfully kind man offered to show me how much easier it was to juice in the Vitamix.  

yeah, in the buggy it went.

So in celebration of that I give you a Vitamix week.

We got it home and just had to make something and the first thing in the Getting Started section was this amazing little Whole Fruit Margarita.  Totally not my fault that was the first recipe I had the ingredients to make. 

Hubster wanted a strawberry milkshake.

Leave it to this family to take a machine to help you be healthy and turn it into a milkshake maker.

Now every morning I have this amazing juice/smoothie.

The Demo guy at Costco made this one for me minus the strawberries and matcha green tea, those were my additions

1/3 of banana, peeled

slice of pineapple with core, peeled

1 lg. handful kale

1 lg. handful spinach

slice of lemon with skin

slice of lime with skin

handful frozen strawberries

scoop matcha green tea

1/4 cup water

ice (if desired-I don't use but a couple cubes just to chill it a bit so it's more juice than smoothie consistency)

***update***  1/2 cucumber & handful baby carrots

(I forgot some of the veggies in the list)

That's it, turn on the blender to smoothie setting and prepare to be amazed!

Guess how you clean it?  Put some water in it and pulse it a few times and it's clean.

Next best part, NOTHING IS LEFTOVER.  I mean the garden is sad because it isn't getting it's compost like with the juicer.  This thing literally uses every bit of what you put in there.

Why is that exciting or newsworthy?  You get all the fiber.

ALL THE FIBER and let me repeat ALL THE FIBER.

Why am I stressing this point? Well if you are all excited to get a new Vitamix and you decide the first day that all three of your meals are going to be from the Vitamix then let's just say you need to allot yourself plenty of quality reading time in the ole' restroom.    Yeah, TMI I know but a necessary warning I didn't quite get.

Back to more healthy options, this is Merebears Strawberry Banana Peach smoothie. All fruit and a tiny bit of milk, that's it.

This is another day of my green juice concoction.

By the way, I have this glass and then there is a full quart jar of juice left over.  I just pop it in the refrigerator and drink it throughout the day. 

My VitaMix day involved a yummy Tomato Basil Soup for lunch.

It was just tomatoes, basil and some garlic.  Set on the soup setting and let it go and in about 8 minutes you have crazy good and super fresh soup hot out of the machine!

Get that people, it comes out of the machine hot and steaming, no pots and pans to clean.

Yes, this was my lunch!!

It was super dee duper too!!!

Those little round items are tiny little grilled cheese poppers.

Wheat bread cutouts with some shredded cheese in the middle popped in the Baby Cakes machine.

I had this new smoothie this morning and it had too much banana for me.  I'll go back to my regular green juice tomorrow.

It's not exactly "green" either. 

So one day I finished my juice and rewarded myself with a made it myself SB Frappuccino.

My Wonder Woman glass is now the only glass I will drink my juice from.  It reminds me that I'm putting good things in my body so I can be Wonder Woman.  (stop laughing please)

How much do I love my new Vitamix?  If you look over to the right you will see a Vitamix ad there.  I applied and was accepted to be a Vitamix affiliate.  That means if you use my code under the ad you can get one at your house and pay no shipping.  That's a $25 savings for you and you and your family get to add a little healthy to your life. That's a win win situation right there.  

I have not even scratched the surface of what the Vitamix can do.  I mean the cookbook that comes with it is a mere 340 pages of recipes!!!  So yes, you will be seeing more Vitamix recipes from me in the future.   

Are you into juicing? Vitamixing? Eating Ice Cream?

Tell me how you are sneaking some healthiness into your family.

Peace, Love & Vitamix'in

VisionWorks Back To School Mom's Night Out

Friday Happy Dance!!!

So last night I was invited to a wonderful event at the VisionWorks location in Dallas North Park.

This is the invitation message I received:

Come join Visionworks for a fun night out, just in time for back-to-school. Enjoy appetizers and drinks and browse the latest eyewear trends while learning about the importance of taking care of your children's eyes to set them up for success this school year. Attendees will receive a goody bag full of Visionworks swag (including free sunglasses!) and will be entered to win a "family of eyewear"...

You don't turn down invitations like that plus I would get the chance to hang out with some of the DFW area bloggers and that's really cool with me.

So I hopped in my car about 2 hours before the event started to make my way to Dallas.  I live outside of Ft. Worth and between traffic and construction at 4:30 in the afternoon I would need at least that much time.  Well apparently I needed longer because I got lost not once but twice but third times a charm and I made it around 7 p.m.  Much to my happiness I was not the last person to arrive 30 minutes late and the presentation was just beginning.  They kindly pulled up a chair for me and presented me with a glass of tea and promptly won me over. For the next 30 minutes or so we heard how Visionworks takes the eye care of our children and of us seriously. We saw examples of new lens types, learned about lenses for children, how often to replace lenses and frames and about some crazy cool technology on the horizon that has the ability to correct a child's eyesight so they literally "grow out of it". 

We also found out that if your child has any special needs or requests that you can call ahead and the friendly staff will be prepared for your arrival.  They are also quite perceptive when assisting with frame selections because sometimes the child idea doesn't exactly match up with what mama had in mind.  The staff is well trained in parental head nods and facial expressions so then kids and parents alike leave happy.  Kids right now are loving the Lucky, Vera Bradley and Guess frames which leads me to believe that children today have excellent taste in eyewear!

I'm way overdue for an eye exam and while I mostly wear my contacts I'm looking forward to picking out some new frames myself.  Being such a big Vera Bradley fan maybe something like these since she is kind enough to make big girl glasses too.

Since I have such an abnormally small head it's often hard to find frames that look right but I feel comfortable knowing that when I leave my glasses and I will be perfect for each other!

I've never been in a Visionworks store and I will have to tell you, I was impressed with the dedication of the staff and the HUGE selection of frames.  That coupled along with the fact that most all glasses can be completed and on your face within an hour,  I'm sold!!   Beginning Sept. 1 any glasses that have to be sent off to be processed will be ready in 7 days, how's that for service? You know those glasses for people with "special eyes". 

Now when one goes to any kind of function such as this you know there's going to be SWAG so here is our bag of goodies from the night.

(creepy eyeball thing is a stress ball)

Check it out and yes, that's a $100 gift card in that pile.  You can bet that baby will be used to get some new frames for this mama!! Some nice cleaning cloths and pre-moistened towelettes to drop in your bag and an awesome new pair of shades.  A fun yet tad creepy stress ball, mini frisbee, a fan and the obligatory pen which every mom and blogger can always use round out the gift bag.

On a side note some of you may be wondering, why on earth would a food blogger go to an event for vision care?  First of all I have 3 not so little kiddos and 2 of those do wear contacts/glasses or both.  Hubster wears glasses and I wear contacts/glasses.  My thing here is cooking and when I tell you it is very important to be able to read a recipe correctly I mean it!!  You know 1/4 and 1/8 teaspoon of baking soda can mean a big difference, I mean seriously big!  I was very excited to be asked to join in on this night of fun and information plus it got me out of the house while the Abogg was leaving to head back to school. Mama tries to cry only when he can't see her.  I swear it never gets easier watching them pack up the car and head out of the driveway. 

I am also blaming Visionworks for this little mishap  good fortune.

Visionworks in NorthPark is right next to Macy's and Macy's is having a shoe sale and I just so happened to be looking for the ladies room (big shock I know!) and stumbled upon racks and glorious racks of shoes on sale.  Both of the above are summer wedges and I plan to get as much wear in this summer as I can.  I couldn't decide between the two and they were such amazing great prices that I ended up getting both pair for less than the one little polka dot pair would have cost me.  I'm also a tad excited, my first Michael Kors which are now hanging out with Tory Burch in my closet.  It's a happy world indeed!   I just wished they had more "cool" friends!!!

Oh and one more thing, Visionworks is having a great sale right now so get those eyes ready for back to school.  Is your house ready for school?

Select from an offer below to print

KIDS 2 COMPLETE PAIR

OF GLASSES

Includes kid's frames and

lenses. Frames priced up to

69.95.

$99

SELECT TO PRINT

BUY ONE

GET ONE

Any Frames

Any Lenses

FREE

SELECT TO PRINT

Disclaimer:  I did receive a nice goody bag and some yummy snacks as part of participating in this Visionworks event however all opinions on this blog are 100% mine, therefore any inaccuracies are also mine.  I also received no monetary compensation for attending the event or talking about it on my blog or other social media. 

Tuesday Tumblings

It's my favorite day (next to Friday of course) TU TU TUesday!!!

Hey who doesn't love The Rock in a TuTu.....or anything else for that matter!

Meet LL and my new crafting partner.  His name is Kenny and he will now join us on Wednesday craft day.   We might even put him in the car with us.   You'd be amazed at the cool things you can find for sale on the internet!!

I picked this ginormous cucumber this week from the garden.

If you need some cucumbers just yell, I got ya' covered!

It's 100+ degrees and he drags his big heavy wool blanket to the middle of the floor and then keeps his toy in his mouth so he can take a nap.    This dog is too much!!

Abogg brought me some Cherry Pies from Waco and I was very happy and then I found the coveted item:  HoHo's.   Whole box in the refrigerator all for me!!!!   I'm in snack heaven but I'm also a hoarder,  it's probably a secret fear that they will stop making them again so I should stockpile them instead of eating them.   I know, I'm a touch weird.

So Saturday morning the 4 of us (plus one boyfriend) hit the road to Austin.

We made a pit stop at this nice cool place.

We had been here once before but it was still awesome and we had a great tour guide.

We had to go to the hotel before meeting Court & Aus at the restaurant because we were a smidgen dirty from slomping around in the cave. 

Cave touring makes you hungry so we all met up at the Hula Hut for a nice dinner.

We had a great time visiting and catching up thanks to a 1+hour wait.  It was hot but we made do with some liquid refreshments and chips and salsa.     I didn't get pictures because 1) I was starving 2) I was busy talking and 3) I was starving!!!     Food was excellent and Timothy, a friend of Court, Aus and Aboggs joined us for dinner so the company was equally fantabulous!  It was nice catching up with not only our kids but their friends too.  

Back to the hotel and Hubster is soooo proud that he finds an open spot in the Platinum member parking area that he whips right in all big britches and such.

The next morning we came out to this all over the car.

(bird poo)   No wonder no one parked here!!  Thanks Marriott, nice way to treat your elite members!

Anywho a quick stop to get gas and a car wash and we were off to:

SCHLITTERBAHN

We had a great time. Abogg picked up his friend T-Dub in Austin before hitting the road.  His new girlfriend or "woman" as Hubster calls her came up from Houston to join us too.   She's a sweet girl and we liked her a lot, hopefully we didn't scare her away.  

We had a wet and crazy good time at the ole 'bahn.  Hence why I have no pictures, we took the waterproof camera but no one thought to grab it and take it with us on the rides.  

We all especially enjoyed this new ride.  It's great!!!  The only line to get on is waiting for an empty tube to float past you and then you can just stay on as long as you want.  It's an adventuresome lazy river.   We rode this many many times and come to find out so did all the kids.  New family favorite ride at the Bahn.  

Around 6 the thunder clouds rolled in for a brief shower. 

side note:   Why oh why when it starts raining at the waterpark do people start running for cover?  I mean helloooooo it's a waterpark, you are already wet??!!!   

Back to story, we sat around and chatted for a bit before packing up and heading out.

Last stop of the trip and seriously was it a treat!!!  OH MY GAWD!!  I've never been to a Buc-ee's but man if see one I will stop.   I felt like a hillbilly in the big city in there with my mouth all hanging open.

Wow, just wow and seriously no wonder this place gets voted best restrooms every year!! Good job Buc-ee's.  I might drive down to New Braunfels/SanAntonio just to stop there!

That's it, we're home this week finishing up some back to school shopping, doctor appointments and the like before the Abogg heads out Friday and the Mere heads out next weekend for college.  It'll sure be quiet around here again! Are your kiddos back to school yet?

Now I better go find something for dinner you know?  We had breakfast for dinner last week and it was yummo but man, I made the biggest mess!   I'm still having dinner dilemmas, how about you?

Is it still insanely hot at your place?  Certainly is here but rumor has it we had a little cool down coming for a few days.  Low 90's!!!  Better break out the hoodies!!! 

Peace, Love & Hostess Snacks!!!

Hawaiian Roll Sandwiches

Guess What......

Yeah, it's been so stinking hot sometimes all I wonder is if it's too early to have a nice cold glass of pinot grigio or a brewski or make a milkshake with some booze in it??  That's sad people just sad.

The heat has also apparently worn away all food making decisions in this house.   The Abogg and Merebear and I went to the Tarjay yesterday afternoon and then our usual Sprouts trip.  Hubster worked late, we had no clue what anyone wanted for dinner except the Merebear suggested a Pinterest dinner.  You know everything from Pinterest and I kinda accommodated that request plus I made S'more ice cream again to help things along.   We've done these sandwiches before and I changed it up a little and this is what happened.  Before I forget here's the linky to the printable and don't worry I'll give it to you again at the end.

You need these things:

1 lb. of good ham   (don't be chintzy buy something good)

1/2 - 1 lb. of swiss cheese

1/2 cup of butter, melted

2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

2 Tbsp. spicy brown mustard

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

1 tsp. onion powder

Cut the pack of rolls separating the tops from bottoms.

Place the bottoms in a baking dish, layer on the ham then the cheese the plop the tops back on.

Combine the melted butter, worcestershire sauce, mustard, brown sugar and onion powder and pour over the top of the rolls.

No worries, it'll make big puddles at the bottom of the dish.

Just let them marinate for awhile.  Up to 4 hours but I think mine only did like 30 minutes.

We were hungry after all.

In the middle of trying to get dinner together have Hubster yell and go back to your bathroom to find this lovely mess.

Any guesses to who the guilty party would be?

(seriously dude...that's Charmin Ultra and it's not cheap!!!)

Once you are ready to eat pop that dish into a 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.

Let them get nice and golden brown and the cheese all melted and good like it should be.

Just slap the whole pan on the table and a nice knife and spatula.  

Abogg grilled us up some corn that the Sprouts had on sale.  

There you have it! Quick easy and tasty even if we did have to turn the oven on for a little bit.

Can't go wrong sometimes with a good sandwich.

Matter of fact I just heated a couple up for my lunch.

As promised here's the printable link again.

So, is it hot where you are?  What are you doing for dinner?

Oddly enough we are chicken, burger, grilled anything, big salads burned out big time here.

Gimme some ideas..please?!

Peace, Love & Stay Cool!