this is my department (craft blog): July 2010

Friday, July 30, 2010

My Favorite Pork Chops

Here is another meal from my Meal Schedule it is one of our favorites, I think I might schedule it more often.

Ok so I kinda burnt them because I was grilling and not my wonderful grillmaster husband! But they still tasted SO good!

Close up on the color of these babies!

So here is how you make these delicious pork chops.

I love Sam the Cooking Guy and this is a modified version of his pork chops.

If you want to follow the recipe per Sam you can but I would feel a little funny walking around the grocery store with a 6 pack of beer, but that is just me though!

So here is my recipe:

6 boneless pork chops, about 3/4-inch thick, trimmed
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar

2 crushed cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons fresh ginger root, chopped very fine

8 oz of Apple Juice

Put all the ingredients in a gallon bag. Let the chops marinade for a night and day and then grill 'em.

(I usually buy a huge thing of pork chops and then as soon as I get them home from the store I split them up in groups of 4 or 6 add the marinade let them sit in the frige for a day and stick them in the freezer, it's a quick, easy, YUMMY meal.)

Doesn't it make you hungry, MMM so good.

PS those are my new glasses I just got from IKEA for my birthday and I LOVE them!

Linked to:

Sister Stuff

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Your Sweet Card

Let me first say that this card was just in my head, (I didn't even copy it from anyone!) and it wanted to come out and it turned out SO cute! It did take a couple of tries to get it there but now look how CUTE! (Let's see how many times I can say CUTE!)

So here is how to do it! Take a cream 8.5" x 11" sheet of paper print "Your Sweet" in pink where you want it (trial and error really.) I put my page to landscape and entered down till it looked just under the halfway point. Printed a test sheet, it wasn't quiet down far enough but a whole return would have been way off so I changed the font size of the spaces above it and got it where I wanted it. (That was very long winded just for a simple step sorry!) Now cut the 11" side down to 6" and fold in half.

Then on some dark pink I printed "{with a cherry on top}" in chocolate brown, this too was trial and error of where I wanted it on the paper. If it's too far in just trim to fit the card.

Now take your cute chocolate and pink cream paper, I found mine at Joann's fabric, and trim down to 3.5" x 6". Glue on the front.

Then embellish with staples! On this part make sure your card it open.

On to the matte of the cupcake, cut a 3.5" circle out of brown. Then cut an inch cream strip and a slightly larger light pink strip and stapled them across the circle, trim the off the edges to match the circle.

Next is the cupcake. I got a piece of cardstock spay adhesive-d tin foil on to the front and back cut out a trapezoid looking shape and then crimped it with my crimping iron! Yes my crimping iron from the 80's because I don't have one for paper, although that would probably work well too!

Hot glue it on to the circle.

For the top of the cupcake I cut freehand, just make it a squiggly half circle-ish cupcake top. Then crumple it.

Hot glue a dark pink button on top.

Pop the top with a pop dot.

I was going to end with this but I found some beads for sprinkles that I couldn't pass up.

So I used regular glue to glue my "sprinkles" on.

It's so cute, I could almost eat it!

Then use two pop dots to pop the matted cupcake onto the card and TA-DA, CUTEST card in town!

Linked up with:

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Your Kids BORED Yet?

Summer is almost over, which means kids are getting BORED!

Here are a few ideas, they take a little prep from you moms but your kids will have LOTS of FUN!

Plant different things and watch them grow! The older kids were really interested in seeing what the seeds looked like. We compared and contrasted trees, flowers, and herbs!

Here is a SUPER fun one... buy some foam sheets and make dress up things. Note: Don't let them color with markers it gets all over the place. If you want to decorate them I would buy the foam shapes, that would have been way easier, and less messy!

All you need is a stapler, foam sheets, stickers and scissors!

Just make sure you staple from the inside so that the smooth side is on their head and not the bumpy side.

The girls made crowns.

And the boys were Ninjas!

They could even be super heroes! The possibilities are endless and they last for a lot longer then paper would.

Sprinklers! I know this one is obvious but my kids had fun.

Paint nails! Put polka-dots or flowers the girls will love it!

Make some cornstarch goo!

Mix Cornstarch and colored water to get some messy fun! Make sure if you want it colored you color the water first.

And if you have never done or seen this you have to watch THIS! And THIS!

Make a treasure hunt! I filled a shoe box with dollar store ~~junk~~ toys and buried it at the park down the street. Just don't forget your camera could be on top of the treasure and accidentally bury it too!

I made a map to take us from the house to the park. And used "maties" and "ye" in the writing!

We had to cross the street, which was of course the "Black Sea!"

I made individual maps for a scavenger hunt inside the house so they could find their bandannas and eye patches. I made the eye patches out of felt and elastic.

I came in talking like a pirate using words like scurvy pirates, maties, and of course "RRR!"

Then once they found all of their stuff I had them grab their shovels to dig for the treasure I had buried the night before.

Have fun with bubble makers.

You need a empty water bottle, fabric, and a rubber band. Oh and dish soap and water.

Found this idea from Fun with Mama

If you want to see any of these as tutorials let me know and I will gladly do it up.

Hopefully you can last till school starts again.

Linked to:

Life in the Pitts: Creative Therapy

Creations by Kara

Kojo Designs

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Cookie Cookie Cookie Starts with C

We have a "Cookie Day" every so often. On Cookie Day we pull the chairs up to the island and mix up cookies in the mixer.

A very good mommy tip is to pre-measure all of your ingredients. The kids feel like they are making the cookies because I don't have to measure-and-pass, they just scoop/pour till it's gone. I put all the sugar in one bag and the dry ingredients in another. Then the sugar bag goes inside the bigger dry ingredient bag so it's easy to grab. Then on the outside of the bag write the kind of cookie, and list the missing wet ingredients (your writing will be WAY cuter if you do the writing before the bags are filled). Then when it's cookie day pick what kind and mix it up!

I usually make a batch, then freeze half of the dough. That way your not making cookies all day! Plus one pan of cookies is enough for a treat! Bad news is I usually eat the frozen dough before they get made into cookies!

Oh and on Cookie Day sing the Cookie Song!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

An Award... For Me (sniff)

Wow, shocked and pleasantly surprised! Thank you Brandi, at Tales of a Domestic Goddess for choosing me for your award!! I think everyone should check her blog out too!!!

Here are the rules -

1. Thank the blogger who gave it to you

2. List 7 things that people may not know about you

3. Pass the love to 15 deserving bloggers that you have discovered recently

4. Let them know that you gave them an award

Now here are my 7 things people MAY or MAY NOT know about me:

1. I stand like a flamingo ALL the time, chopping veggies, doing my make up, etc.

2. I own a 36 year old tortoise, that means my pet is 11 years older than me! And I completely LOVE him, best pet ever!

3. I worked at a law firm as a legal assistant. (Not a job for me!)

4. I've never lived in an apartment, weird I know!

5. I was on a Lifegaurd competition team, yes, you read it right a competing lifegaurd team that save dummies!

6. I don't eat healthy, I try to hide it from my kids when I eat a cookie instead of lunch. And I wait until my kids are sleeping to bust out the GOOD treats.

7. I love LOVE LOVE going to the dollar store!

Now time for the presentation....