Our family trip to the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Our trip started of as it always does with the flight.  So that in itself was a tale of ups and downs figuratively and literally.
Our first flight was to Los Angeles at 8pm and arriving at 10.30pm,  we can do it right?  That is not so late.

All went as planned and we slept a little on the plane before we had to get off and find our connecting flight, and then the strangest thing happened.  We found ourselves in first class, yep all five of us being brought drinks and enjoying a movie.  We kept expecting somewhere to realize the mistake but they never did.

Here is Summer faking sleep in her first class seat.

So, we slept more than we could have hoped for but still when the plane arrived in Cancun at 5.30 am we were in pretty bad shape.  As we walked out the door of the airport we were hit with the heat and humidity of 85 degrees.  It was wonderful.  We had finally arrived in the part of Mexico I always wanted my children to see.  We took a pre arranged shuttle to our hotel and arrived just before 7am.  Of course rooms were not ready until 2 or 3 pm so things were getting rough.  Our clothes were too warm for Mexico and we were wiped out.  Several of us crashed in the hotel lobby.

The hotel rallied for us and got a room all cleaned up by 10am. By that time however we had all rifled through our things and found swimsuits.  Summer was the first to hit the water closely followed by Adam.

And the vacation begins...

Our room was light and airy with a view of the ocean, two queen size bed and a sofa bed for the kids to fight over.  Summer and Adam rebelled against the usual rule that Matt gets the extra bed.  Very very tired kids.  They finally settled on a rotation system.  Gotta love em. Right??

Adam quickly found the strawberry daquiris

Quickly followed by Summer

and then we found the pool.

We all slept hard, probably asleep by 8pm and slept without difficulty until  6.30am when we had to rally for the trip we had come here for.  The visit to Chichen Itza, the famous Mayan pyramid, one of the seven wonders of the world!

We had an air conditioned coach to take us there and a fabulous guide who spoke easily and clearly in English and Spanish about the Mayan people, their calendar and their counting system.  He then handed out displays of Mayan artwork, paper and obsidian and explained its significance. 

The guide explained how the Mayans counted in base 20 as opposed to our system of base 10, he explained the lines and dots that symbolised their counting system and he explained how the Mayan people mashed up corn husks and leaves to make paper.

It was a long drive, about two and half hours, but the guide made it interesting.  We also had a few stops along the way.
Firstly we stopped at a sinkhole also known as a Cenote for a swim.

 I was so proud of Adam for jumping off the ledge 20 feet from the water.  he was spurred on by the fact that Matt said he wouldn't do it.  But of course once Adam had done it, Matt had to do it too.

Tom took this picture with his left arm as we left the Cenote to get dressed and back on to the bus.

It was here that Matt decided on his souvenir from the trip, he bought a small model of Chichen Itza's main pyramid, and then declared that he intended to collect a small model of each of the seven wonders of the world!  Adam decided on a silver necklace that depicts his name in Mayan symbols.  pretty expensive but he had money to burn.  Summer was still empty handed at this time, but dont worry soon it would be her turn.

Back on the coach we depart for our next stop.  More shopping and lunch.  A delicious Mexican buffet accompanied by women dressed in traditional Mayan dresses danced for us while we ate.

A short video of the Mayan dancing we enjoyed during lunch.

It was at this stop that Summer found something she could relate too.  Her Mexican Folkdance class that she has been taking afters school came to life.  She has danced a dance called Viejitos (the old people)  and there in the shop was the doll that looked just like the costume she wears for that dance.

Then she found another doll that she fell in love with, a doll with full skirt that looked just like her costume for the other dances she does.

After eating at the restaurant, hammocks were provided for us to rest.  Actually I think they were on display to be sold but still.  Here is the family posing in them :)

At 1pm we arrived at Chichen Itza,  and what a sight it was to see, the weather was clear and hot, we walked down a long path lined with vendors on both sides with their chants of "very cheap"  "almost free"  "just a dollar"  Soon though, this blurred into insignificance because there was that pyramid, standing majestically in front of us and you could tell the kids were impressed.

Once again the guide was amazing, explaining the number of steps on each side and that the four sides represent the seasons.  The number of steps represent the number of days in the year.  That inside this pyramid is another pyramid.  Years ago, when you were still allowed to touch the pyramid, Tom and I had gone inside and seen it.  Alas, that is no longer possible due to the wear and tear that the tourists caused to this amazing structure.

What followed was a tour of the grounds of Chichen Itza, we went to the ball court where we learned about Mayan sports.  The engravings on the side of the ball court depict the the beheading that possibly occurred after the game, when the winner won the privilege of being sacrificed to their god.  We visited a cenote where 27 bodies were found, thought to be the bodies of a whole family that were killed by invading Toltecs. 

The "hoop" that the ball had to get through to win.

Carving of a played wearing full head gear.

Sacrificial table

We then returned to the main structure, to witness the effect of the Spring Equinox.  Inadvertently I had scheduled our vacation to coincide with one of the most important times in the Mayan calendar, on the Spring Equinox, when the shadows fall in such a way as to make a zigzagging pattern from the top of the pyramid to the bottom where it connects with the head of  a serpent.  As the sun moves around it looks as though the serpent is slithering down the building.

It was then that mommy doted over her little beautiful daughter a little too much.  Didn't she HAVE to have this traditional Mayan dress?  In my defense I bartered hard for it.

Here she is holding the Ballet Folkorico doll she chose.  The dress was all me.

After the educational tour of Chichen Itza it was time to get back on the bus for 2 hours, but not before a photo shoot with these guys.

  We had done it!  We had seen what we came her to see and it was magnificent.  The rest of the time was pure relaxation, pool swimming, kayaking, water park, magnificent snorkeling (we took underwater cameras but the pictures really didn't turn out).


Our relaxation day after our full day at Chichen Itza was spent at the water park attached to the hotel.

It was at the water park that Matt spotted first an iguana and then a coati.  A coati seems to be a racoon like creature, it looked very cute even as it crawled out of the trash can.

In the evening there were several shows offered.  We managed to catch Lion King and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Guess who got picked to go up on stage and hold a knife to someones throat.  Yep its our actor in residence "Oregon Tom"

A short video taken by Summer

Here are some of the best pictures of the remainder of our trip.

View from my beach chair.

 This iguana fascinated Matt for some time.

 5 am I walked the beach alone, one of my favorite parts of the trip.

I watched teh sunrise and took about eight pictures, you only get to see one of them (they are very similar)

This si the view from the stairwell of our hotel.

Replica of a picture I took of Summer when she was 3 years old standing by a pool in her favorite swimsuit holding a beach ball.

My favourite picture with me in it from the whole trip

I think it is Tom's plan to get this picture at all historic landmarks.

Spring Mantel

I was inspired by the colors yellow and green this month and apparently the shape of the month was oval.

I picked up three different oval frames from different thrift stores around town.

The white large oval in the mantel picture was so pretty I just left it that way.  The one on the left in the picture above I spray painted yellow and made into a chalkboard of sorts and the small mirrored one I am saving for another day.

I bought a piece of cardboard from the dollar tree and traced the oval shape.

Then I cut it out and painted over the whole thing with chalkboard paint.








The chalkboard didn't work out as well  as I had hoped for two reasons.  The chalk didn't show up very well so I ended up painting the message with white paint. Also, as you can see in this lower picture the cardboard had ridges in it and they show up much more than I wanted in the light.  So I will be searching for some flatter cardboard when I write my next message.  (Hopefully Spring is here!)

Spring Fever

Spring Fever

One bizarrely clear sunny day in January, yes January, I decided I was ready to start planting my flower pots.  My pots are currently a huge mess, thanks to our new dog Piper and her desire to dig.  I decided that all the pots that were on the deck at the back of our house need to be moved to the front, out of Piper's reach and filled with flowers.

When, with great difficulty, I managed to move one, of the five, large pots to the front of the house, I looked at my rather forlorn front path and had a new epiphany.  I should rip out all the plants along my front path and start again.

Then, my husband, Tom, and and my good friend Jenn pointed out that I was absolutely nuts to plant anything in January in Oregon.  Knowing they were right I decided to SLOW DOWN and went to my good friend Pinterest to drool over gardening ideas instead.  It was then that I developed my new rather more realistic plan.  Here it is.... I will update as I go.......

I did plant, so there!  However I planted seeds indoors.

This is week 1. 
I planted Cosmos in soil in an egg box and placed them in the sunniest window in the house.  I did not picture it here but I have also placed Cling Wrap over the top of the soil to create a sort of greenhouse effect.  The egg box works great for two reasons. 1. It keeps the Cling Wrap from touching the soil and 2. I am told that when the seeds grow and are strong enough to put in the ground I can just cut them apart and plant the whole egg cup in the ground.

In the picture you will see I also have a spray bottle of water I am spraying the soil each day to keep it damp.

These are Cosmos destined for my front path.  Apparently it will take six weeks before they are ready to be transplanted. 
Next time an egg box is available I will plant Snap dragons and lastly wave petunias.  Taking a break now to go and spray my soil ..........

At the beginning of this post I said I had wanted to start planting some pots with flowers?  That was January 20th.  Today is February 7th and here is a picture of said pots.

Not much progress with my seedlings this week as you can see below.  I think I will have to reseed. I think there is simply not enough daylight yet.  I have also found i have to spray them down twice a day to keep the soil moist enough. However, I am not deterred, I am planting snapdragon seeds this morning as I have another egg box at my disposal.

Week 3

No change to my seedlings, Tom decided they needed water, he was probably right, but in my opinion only one person should be in charge of watering a plant.   Also, I have been unable to plant my snapdragons because I was planning to use soil from the garden and its all frozen solid right now.  The great thaw has begun so hopefully in a few days I will be able to eek out some soil from a nearby pot.

Week 4

We have some progress but I'm hardly blown away.  The spray bottle wasn't keeping them damp enough so I started using the spray head on my sink faucet.  I sowed another whole egg box with snap dragons, and have two boxes waiting for Chinese Bell Flowers and Cape Marigold  (couldnt find any petunia seeds not sure why)

I couldn't wait any longer and spent $5 on some primroses.

Just so you know this is the potential "blank canvas"  front path that all my seeds are destined for.

Week 5

Losing my enthusiasm and confidence that this is going to work.  There has been some growth this week but its pretty slow.  I did pick up a mini greenhouse from Goodwill for $6, we will see if that helps.

Week 12 ish

Things did not go as planned.  Many seeds didnt grow.  I sprinkled a few packets directly in the dirt to see what would happen,  I figured I couldn't be LESS successful.
This is my surviving box of Cosmos I have eight that look like they have potential.  So for $1 I suppose that is some level of success.

Here is my front path as it currently looks.  My original plan was to tear everything out adn start again but I dint have the heart to remove all those hyacinths.

 

So knowing that the hyacinths will have died off by the summer  I planted my cosmos around them.  My intention is that the cosmos are the middle height flower.

Here they are on Day 1.

 

We shall see I guess.

Okay so this was, as my son would say an "epic fail"  All transplanted seeds died within two days.  So I bought the real deal and planted them.  Picture coming soon.

 

Posted by The Worthys at 6:13 AM

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I am the queen of unfinished projects!

It has snowed and then iced in for 4 days, we have been stuck in the house. I broke out a project I started about five years ago.  I have a large terracotta pot with a big crack in it.  I decided I could stick tile and plates all over it (mosaic style) with tile adhesive and grout and it would probably hold the pot together and look cool.  

So yesterday I brought my huge pot inside.  I placed it upside down on the kitchen table, scrubbed it clean, slathered it with tile adhesive.  (Yes I apparently have tile adhesive on hand at my house). I then slapped on broken pieces of tile, glass marbles and old broken plates until I had covered the whole thing.   

I'm very happy with how it looks so far....

It now needs to be grouted.  I have to wait 72 hours for the tile adhesive to dry.  Waiting is not my strong suit.








 Slapped on the grout and waited 15 minutes.

 Then wiped it off again.

 Final Product.....

School Auction - Class Art Project

This is a work in Progress at the moment. 

My daughter and I are working on the background for what will be an auction piece from her class for the LCMCS annual fundraising auction.  I bought an old frame and canvas from Salvation army on a Wednesday (everything is half price on Wednesdays)  It cost me $7.50.
I took the canvas apart from the frame and painted over the original canvas picture with dark blue and purple paint to make a night sky.  I painted a white circle at the top of the canvas for a moon.

It was then that a stroke of genius hit me as to how to make branches and tree trunks.  I took parcel paper, drew on the branches roughly the way I wanted them to look, cut them out and then screwed them up in to a ball.  When I flattened them back out I had trees with awesome textures to them.  Slathered in mod podge I stuck the tree trunks to the canvas.  Then my daughter set about making the first owl.  I had made a template and instructions for her to follow.  She did a fantastic job and hence we have our first owl.  All we need now is for the rest of the class to make an owl each and and a leaf with their name on it.  We should have a total of 32 owls and leaves when we are done.  The frame was spray painted satin black and looks really great.

Update 3/18/2014

The children started making and adding their owls yesterday.  Here it is so far.

Nine down.... 23 to go......

30 kids all together and I think it turned out great. Here's hoping it raises some money.

 Interesting collection of
 "I want mine to look like my friends"
"Can mine wear a hat"
"I want mine to be flying"
"what about a moustache"
"can I draw glasses on mine?"

I think they had a great time.

The Pantry Challenge

After a rather expensive trip to Costco and a rather expensive Vacation expense our family has decided to attempt The Pantry Challenge.....

Game objective:  To eat all food in the pantry before shopping again.

Game Rules:  Don't shop!

Exceptions:  Fresh Produce is allowed.

 Pantry Picture - Week 1

Interesting discoveries and actions taken in week 1:
1. I was already able to clear out my cupboards and reorganize.  Before I took the picture of course :)
2. I have moved all my baking supplies to more accessible shelf to encourage me to bake more.
3. The kids are out of their staples, fruit snacks, orange juice and lemonade.  They are drinking water and the occasional Crystal Light Raspberry Flavored Drink I found in the back of the cupboard.  This is a good thing.  I WILL break my kids from their dependency on sugared beverages.
 4.  If you have chocolate cake mix in your cupboard you can apparently bake it for no particular reason, but because it's there.
5.  We have run out of all potato products, we ate the last of the Dried Potato Flakes last night.  I think one of my goals will be to never buy them again.  Real potatoes or nothing.
6.  Tom and I have given up our luxury of liquid coffee creamer.  We have some old powdered stuff left we are using right now.  Coffee will run out soon and it won't be pretty.
7. We have A LOT of Worcestershire sauce and ketchup.
8.  Our Garage freezer is already empty, defrosted and awaiting a thorough cleaning.
9.  Friends are offering us food.
10.  The kids think we are broke and that they are going to starve.
11.  We are actually trying powdered milk today.  Wish us luck!

Today is the Superbowl:  Tom's wish list for Super bowl food is:
Barbequed wings, chip and salsa and beer.

What we will actually have for Superbowl: 
Frozen Pizza, Jello, Blueberry Pie, Chex Mix and Home Brew

Things purchased in Week 1: 
One quart of 1%Milk
18 eggs
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  Week 2 

 

Interesting discoveries and actions taken in Week 2:

1. I don't make a good frozen blueberry pie. ( I think I didn't cook it for long enough)
2. My kids would rather starve than try anything new.
3. A lot more baking is required than in my usual week.
4. Powdered milk doesn't fool anyone.  My son is calling it "filk" (fake milk)
5. The upright freezer is empty, cleaned out and turned off.
6. This week I have baked banana bread and cookies.
7. No coffee creamer left, I cant drink coffee without creamer.
8. My husband gets big points for bringing me a Raspberry Mocha home on the way back from work.
9. We have A LOT of pasta. 
10. We have a lot of yeast?? What was I thinking?
11. I found a botte of Torani Irish Creme flavoring syrup, mixed with a little milk (not filk) and my coffee is drinkable again.  
12. I still miss coffee creamer.
13. Tried to make ham and lentil soup with a ham hock I found in the freezer, some lentils and some barley.  It was very average and I have a lot left.

 Produce purchased in Week 2:
One gallon of milk, 18 eggs, cheese and a loaf of bread.
We let each child choose a fruit or vegetable to buy so now we have kiwi fruit, apples, sugar snap peas (woah $10 a bag!!) bananas and carrots.

Total cost of Groceries this week:  $50

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Week 3

 Okay, so I think we're making a dent in it.  Haven't had to make anything too crazy yet, but Im in desperate need of interesting things to do with rice.

 Interesting discoveries and actions taken in Week 3:

1.  I tried to make a soup with a ham hock, lentils and barley, it was edible but not good.
2. I did make some bread, which wasn't too bad (pictured below), I'm guessing not enough yeast and the oven was too hot.  Second attempt this week
3. Once again, my kids will try nothing.grrrr However Tom and I polished off a can of British custard purchased in approximately 2010 and also discovered we have a can of powdered custard mix circa 2001. A delicious topping for Orange sugar free Jello (who buys this stuff?)
4. Dinner conversation often turns to our latest favorite question "if you could buy any food you wanted what would it be?"  Answers of the week; Matt - Orange Juice, Summer - Deli Turkey, Adam - Frozen Pizza, Sally - Coffee Creamer, Tom - Beer
5. Never buy the five pack of lettuce from Costco, I guess I thought I'd be eating a lot more salads!  I can not get rid off all this lettuce.
6. I'm surprised how much I miss onions.
7. Mentally, we extended the pantry challenge to some other areas.  Liquor cabinet, wine rack and bathroom cabinets.
8. No wine left.
9. Tom finished off a bottle of Cinnamon Schnapps Goldshlager which he bought "to ply the girls", I believe those were his exact words. (before we were even engaged over 18 years ago). "I don't always drink Goldschlager, with real gold flakes, but when I do I sound very sleazy."

My first attempt at bread in about 15 years.  It's okay but I notice I'm the only one eating it.

Produce purchased in Week 3:
18 eggs, 2 loaves of bread, butter
We let each child choose a fruit or vegetable to buy so this week we have kiwi fruit (Matt), apples (Adam), cantaloupe (Summer), onions, bananas, asparagus ( I'm the Mom so I get more choices).
The "dream foods" of the week were deemed not technically pantry items and not horribly unreasonable.  Matt is begging for OJ for goodness sake.  So we got them too.  OJ, deli turkey and one frozen pizza.

Total cost of Groceries this week:  $59

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Week 4

 I emptied a shelf!!

Interesting discoveries and actions taken in Week 4:

1. Wow we are eating a lot more fruit when there are no cookies and chips in the house.  Yippee!  nearly had to shop for fruit and veggies twice in the same week.
2. I have started "spiking" my kids food.  
3. I sneaked wheat flour into my bread. 
4. I sneaked pink Herbalife Nutritional Shake Mix into my daughter's pancakes and told her they were Valentine's Pancakes.
5. Intend to start sneaking oatmeal next.
6. We have a lot of macaroni, I intend to make Homemade Macaroni and Cheese this week.  My kids have never seen it, tried it, or even know it's possible without a a cardboard box and a packet of cheese mix.
7. I love the convenience of Spaghetti Sauce to make my kids favorite meal but think I should really stop buying Hunts (for less than a dollar a can) and start buying something with no High Fructose Corn Syrup.
8. Not sure this is a pantry related item or not but my daughter is now electing to take cold pancakes to school for lunch instead of sandwiches.
9. Dreaming of buying a bag of potatoes this week but I know it will slow down our pasta and rice consumption.

Second attempt at bread was way more successful!  Now the kids are eating it while its still warm.  As it should be.

  Bread Recipe.

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:
3/4 cup of warm water
1 1/2 Tbsp of yeast
2 tsp of salt
1 1/2 Tbsp of sugar
1 Tbsp of Shortening
1/2 cup of milk
3 cups of flour ( I used 2 and a half cups of all purpose flour and 1/2 cup of whole grain)

Mix the yeast in the warm water, then add the sugar, salt and milk.  Add shortening and then add flour slowly until you get the right consistency.  Doesn't stick to your hands and makes a nice ball of dough in a bowl.
Cover it with a cloth and put some where warm warm to rise.  Leave it for a couple of hours.
Knead it and slap it in a bread tin.  Cover it and let it rise again.
Bake it in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

Take it out of the oven and brush the top with melted butter.  This seems really important or else the top gets very hard.

Question of the week;  Which will be the Last Can Standing??  Four cans are in the running.

Nominees:  Sliced Beets, Frijoles, Mushroom Soup,Chicken Broth

Produce purchased in Week 4:
Eggs, Bread, Milk, Grapes, oranges, apples, bananas, kiwis, asparagus, frozen corn and coffee mate. Feeling a little bit bad about the out of season fruit we are buying.
Total cost of groceries: $32 (had to go shopping twice) $50
(I sent my husband and kids to the store this time.  They spent way less money than I did but they went to Winco.)  I prefer to buy my produce at Fred Meyer.  You should NEVER buy grapes at Winco unless you plan to eat them the same day.  Even then they just don't taste that good.
I had to go back for more eggs, milk and cheese.

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 Week 5

And the winner of "Last Can Standing" is.....

This week we were donated a 20 pound turkey.  My guess is we will be having turkey and mushroom soup sometime this week.

Not much progress this week due to cheating.  We bought coffee and pancake syrup.  Oops
There has been some dents made in some of these boxes but not enough to throw much away.  We have now got to a place where we need to buy other ingredients in order to use up whats in the pantry.  In the quest to use up taco shells and frijoles, I had to buy tortillas, cheese and tomatoes.

Interesting discoveries and actions taken in Week 5.

1.  We cheated. 
2. The strange phenomenon that people are now donating us food, in a quest to clear out their pantries came to a head this week when we were donated a 20 pound turkey by our neighbor
3. We had Thanksgiving dinner last night.
4. The only difference our Thanksgiving meal made to the pantry was one box of stuffing.
5. I'm making bread once a week now. I kind of like it.
6. I still haven't tried to make Mac n Cheese.
7. I made Chex mix for the sole purpose of getting the boxes out of the pantry.  It didn't work.
8. Still haven't made anything with oatmeal but I'm encouraging my husband to eat it for breakfast.
9. We are eating a lot more eggs.  Up to 24 a week now!
10. Without cereal we are drinking a lot less milk.

Quote that seems to be throwm around rather a lot lately:
"well, that's not technically a pantry item"

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Week 6

 Another shelf cleared!  Okay so I stacked it up a little high on the top shelf but it keeps me motivated.

Interesting discoveries and actions taken this week:

1. I made Macaroni and Cheese from scratch, the general verdict was "bland".  Not cheesy enough :( It has been suggested that next time I try adding bacon too.
2. Our fruit consumption has increased dramatically.
3. My teenage son has started eating breakfast again, (I think he is so hungry from not trying the food that is offered the night before) but whatever works.  This morning he had scrambled eggs, toast and fruit for breakfast.
4. I am cooking breakfast for everyone now as there is no cereal left that they will eat.  It feels good to make food my kids will eat ( a new experience) Breakfast it is......but Im ready to offer them cheerios once in a while.
5. A 20 pound turkey creates a lot of left overs in our house.
6. Trying bread rolls this week instead of a loaf.
7. Forgot to use that darn can of Mushroom soup in my last batch of turkey noodle soup.  Will try again today.

So I got a little carried away on fruit and veggies this week by going to Costco.

This is just the fruit, I also got asparagus, tomatoes, red, orange and yellow peeper,frozen corn and 24 eggs.

As well as that I bought some "not technically pantry items"  deli turkey, orange juice, margarine and chocolate chips.

Grocery cost this week: $115 oops!!

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Week 7

 We are getting low.

1. I got tired of messing around with the little boxes of eggs.  Went for a five dozen pack and although it takes up a lot of space in my fridge I don't regret it.  We have already used half of them.
2. Either I am a total failure at bread making or my yeast is no good.  I have a had a "failed to rise" experience 4 weeks out of 5.
3. I have decided to look for some grass fed local meat to restock.  I'm thinking maybe half a cow and half a pig.
4. For Summer's birthday dinner she requested spaghetti.  I bought Classico spaghetti sauce from Costco instead of my usual Hunts (which I believe contains high fructose syrup).  I could taste that it was less sweet and you can actually see the tomatoes in it the kids were not HUGE fans but they will come around.
5. Classico Spaghetti Sauce comes in the coolest mason jars.  I don't quite know how yet but they will be used for storage around here somewhere.
6. Some of the fruit I bought last week is still around although its getting a little old.  I didn't need to buy any fruit this week.
7. I'm at a place now where I need to buy some ingredients in order to use pantry ingredients.
8. The new plan is to work out what we are going to eat for each meal for a week and buy just what we need for that.  Husband's idea which I agree with in principle but KNOW we are not organized enough to pull off.
9.  

Grocery cost this week: $47

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 I think it's about week 10.  We promised the kids we would stop after our trip, so we have allowed them some shop bought cookies and lemonade.  However in my head, I'm still there.  It's so much easier to keep inventory of what you have when there is less of it.  It is so much more likely that you will grab a fruit or vegetable to snack on if there are no chips or cookies.  The strangest things I have left are barley and lentils and too much protein powder drink mix.  I have ordered a 1/4 of grass fed beef but it wont be available until May, which is when I guess I will turn on my extra freezer again and no doubt slip into bad habits.  I have converted to organic spaghetti sauce for my kids favorite meal and I am sure I have saved hundreds of dollars.

Valentine project.

Here goes my first attempt at describing a craft I just finished.  As always it was inspired by something I saw on pinterest, but I tweaked it to fit my needs.

I started with an old canvas I had lying around my house.  It has been used for several projects but I just covered over it with torn up newspaper and mod podge.

That took a while so while I was waiting for it to dry I worked on, what would eventually be, my hearts.  This involved getting some blank white paper and having my daughter paint all over them with pink, red and white paint.

The messier you make it the better.  Once the "art work" has dried I used a heart shaped punch to make 35 heart shapes.  Obviously, for a different look, or if you don't want to spend money on a punch, you could cut the hearts out free hand or use a heart shaped stencil and cut them out that way.  I liked the uniform shape of the hearts in the final product, so I spent the money.  It was also easy to keep my daughters attention on the project when it took so little time to cut out 35 hearts.

This is the final product.  Lining up the hearts exactly right was the trickiest part of the project.  I measured  the exact same distance in from the side and from the top and bottom, then used mod podge to place the corner hearts first.  Next I measured to find where exactly the middle was between those two hearts.  I then fit the the remaining hearts in as close to accurate as I could because I have no patience for measuring and I just want to stick stuff down.

After I was done with the canvas I really felt it needed a red border to give it some POP!  At Goodwill, I found a picture for $4.99.  Took it all apart, spray painted the frame red and stuck it on.

Voila!

Valentine mantel

My latest Mantel collection, basically involves me going around the house looking for things that are red and creating a new piece. I got the large heart shaped box from Goodwill for $4. The rest of the stuff I already had.

Pinterest Christmas

I've worked hard on Pinterest inspired Christmas decorations this fall and I feel that for the most part it worked out really well.  My new friends.....Extreme Glitter Mod Podge and Mega Glue E6000.

Photo Shoot 2013

So its been 4 years since my last post.  I will try to do better