Trying to get back into things.

I hate to be that person but I am so thankful Christmas is over! I took down the tree and decorations today and it finally feels like life can get back to normal. Don't get me wrong, we had a great Christmas and Santa was very, very good to us all, but it is nice to be rid of the extra clutter that comes with the season. Also this year I learned a very important lesson, don't buy your kid more toys than you have room for! I am still looking for homes for all the stuff Tiny got!

Now on to the meat and potatoes of my post... or at least the potatoes!

I was at Homegoods about two weeks ago checking out the gourmet food aisle where I came upon some good finds. You can find some great sauces or glazes if you look hard. I picked up some Spicy Ketchup, at the time I had no idea what I was going to do with it but knew something would come up.

I opened the fridge looking for a quick snack and found nothing, I closed the fridge and noticed a bag of russet potatoes and somehow instantly thought of my ketchup and decided to make some homemade french fries.

They were amazing! The perfect fry. I like mine with a little crunch and these had it! This isn't anything more than a brag post. I have no real tutorial, or skill. I cut two potatoes, tossed in olive oil, spread it out on a pan and lighted dusted salt and garlic salt. Cooked at 450 for 30 minutes and that was it! I had a quick delicious treat. I fed most of them to my dogs which I know sounds awful but it was better them eat fries than me!

My plan is to try some different dipping sauces because I think this would make a great appetizer or snack food. I am thinking of putting them out for Tiny's bday party (which is only about 6 weeks away!!!!)

The Season of Giving...

As I was going through some of my Christmas decorations I came upon a box full of treasures I had to share :)

I am in no way opposed to hand-me-downs. I welcome them, especially when it comes to things for around the house. So last year when Mikey's grandma said she had a box of Christmas items for me I said sure bring it on over!

I was almost offended by its contents because it suggests that these items are actually my style or something I would put out in my home to share with my guests, but I know it was only with the best intentions they were given to me.

Here we have a white ceramic deer with broken antlers and some sort of stain on the ceramic. The ribbon around the neck adds a really nice touch...

I am not entirely sure what this next object is. I think it is a bear. In person it sort of looks like hamster. The body is completely limp and I have no idea why she is holding a plant. Its not even a flower, just a plant. I wish you could see the price tag, I'm sure someone thought $17.99 was a bargain!

This guy is meant for sitting on a shelf, ceramic body and loose hanging legs. Too bad he is missing an arm...

Truth be told this next guy is so funny to me I think I may have grown to like him. His face is made from a pair of nylon stockings and his body crafted from a bandana. He has no eyes or mouth but it appears his pipe is coming from just out of the corner of his giant nose.

Prepare yourself for this last guy. I have been holding on to him in hopes of a true White Elephant gift exchange... however I don't know that I would have the heart to actually give him away. I think my favorite part of him is that while I, and everyone else, call them trolls, Mikey calls them wishkins. I love that. He is a stocking that will unfortunately never see our fireplace.

Everything Update!

For the last 10 months or so, I swear every month I have some reason why that particular month is going by so fast. Literally every single month since Tiny has entered my life feels like it has flashed before my eyes! December is certainly no exception. I don't even know where November went. One minute it was November 1st, the next day it was Thanksgiving, and all of a sudden we are a week into December!

I haven't posted in a few days and it feels like a month has gone by. Friday I had a great craft day making this wreath.... (its not finished i ran out of felt and still have spots to fill in, I will have my tutorial for it later this week including my current project which is a fabulous alteration of this one!)

Saturday was Sterling Heights' big Sterling Christmas event. We got to stand on stage and we get introduced and the Mayor gives the key to the city to Santa himself. The big bonus of this event was that we were the first to see Santa. I was very excited for this big moment and was envisioning my beautiful little girl smiling looking up at jolly ol' Saint Nick... not so much. Of course my child who smiles at EVERYONE was totally not feeling the Santa thing. She was desperately trying to get away, maybe we will try again next year...

Sunday was a HUGE day for us! Tiny walked! She maxed out at about 6 or 7 steps but it is still walking! It was like she went from 0-60 in about an hour. We have never really encouraged her to walk before. We were just kind of letting her figure it out organically. Well Mike decided to cheer her on and encourage her letting go and wouldn't you know she did it! It was lots of fun and even my mom and dad in Chicago, and my sister in Arizona were all watching when she really took her first 4 or 5 steps. Gotta love iChat! Its funny because now SHE knows she can do it. All day today she was trying it out on her own. Only making it a few steps at a time but you have to start somewhere! I just have visions of her walking and finally being able to wear cute dresses and not dragging her knees all over the floor :)

With the cold snowy weather we have had lately, Sunday left me craving some warm comfort food so I made some stew. I LOVE my mom's stew. It is one of those meals that cooks for a hundred hours so it leaves my house smelling delicious and reminding me of my parents house! I'll save the picture and recipe for later this week. Mostly because I'm lazy and my camera is all the way upstairs and really what is a recipe without a picture of the delicious meal it represents!

This week is full of city holiday parties and I have some serious crafting to do (I have about 100 glitter ornaments to make this week for the exchange the council members do.) Here is to hoping I get everything done! Only 18 days and 2 hours till Christmas!

Glitter Ornaments

The moment you have all been waiting for! Ok probably no one has been waiting for this but at least a few of you would be interested in knowing it if I am going to bother and put it up :)

Since finishing the basement a month or so ago we spend almost all our time downstairs as a family. I have my craft room, Mikey has his movie screen... I mean tv, and Tiny has space in general. Mike suggested we put our Christmas tree downstairs where we can enjoy it.

My husband LOVES the christmas tree. He regularly comes home and asks, "Why isn't the tree plugged in?" Well I couldn't deny him his downstairs Christmas tree so I was determined to find one for the living room as well. I figured I would wait until after Christmas when they all go on sale and snag a deal then. Thankfully I didn't have to wait! On black friday I was able to get one the 6ft tall pre-lit trees at target for $30! It is a little smaller than I am used to but I love it.

I have always loved the idea of two trees, one with all the random ornaments one accumulates over time, and another one with a very strict theme. I had made these glitter ornaments a few weeks ago and new a tree full of them would look beautiful so I got to work.

Supplies (just the word supplies makes me think of the joke where the guy yells supplies instead of surprise... anyway)

You need your glass ornaments, ultra fine glitter, and Pledge Floor Care with Future shine. (not pictured but also helpful would be a piece of paper and some plastic wrap which I assume you already have in your home :)

The items I used were purchased at Hobby Lobby. All christmas items were 50% off so the ornaments cost me $3 and I used a coupon on the glitter so for all 6 colors it was only $2! I should also add that the glitter lasted me through over 3 full boxes of ornaments, I only made it half way through the 4th box.

Now the Pledge is a very important item. When I originally did this project I was following Martha's directions... (there is only one Martha when it comes to crafts) and she had me using ink. It worked but was messy and little difficult to work with because I was trying desperately not to get it on anything. Well after doing a little more research I learned that that Pledge stuff worked like magic. I was willing to give it a try. I had heard some girls were only able to find it at Walmart but I don't go there so I checked Meijer and Target and off course neither had it... and guess what Walmart did. So save yourself the trouble and just go to Walmart for it. It is clear liquid with a blue cap.

Alright moving on!

First things first carefully remove the cap from the ornament. I stress carefully, I whipped one off and broke the ornament so needless to say I learned my lesson :)

Next you are going to squirt your Pledge into the ornament. Use enough to swish around and fully coat the inside of the ornament. This is also where your plastic wrap is going to come in handy. Use it to cover the opening by holding it in place with your finger and just give the ornament a good shaking.

After shaking pour the excess liquid out, I used an old pop can. Place the ornament open end down back into your ornament tray while you prepare the glitter. This lets any lingering liquid find its way out.

For pouring the glitter into the ornament I got really technical and used a folded piece of paper :) Its really hard to explain how much glitter to use. I would go smaller in the portion and add more as not to waste to much glitter but you really can't mess it up. If it is too much just pour the extra out.

All thats left is to use your finger and cover the opening and give the bulb a good shake. That's all there is to it. Like I said before if it looks a little thin or you see bare spots just add a little more glitter and shake away.

I finally decided to use my cricut to cut some vinyl letters (even though this isn't vinyl, because the vinyl is way too expensive I just used some cheap contact paper I found :)

I absolutely love these ornaments! They also make a great homemade gift.

Spaghetti Sauce Confessions

(I am calling dibbs on Spaghetti Sauce Confessions if I ever do a food blog :)

It has only been a week since I posted last about my lovely anniversary but with the Thanksgiving Holiday and the Black Friday all-nighter I pulled I feel like it was a month ago! Due to how busy we were my cooking and cleaning totally took a back seat. Yesterday I had an "aggressive laundry campaign" (I always say that because thats what Mikey said one day) and today for the first time in a while I went to the grocery store and got food to make some of my favorite meals!

I figured I would jump back into our normal routine with a nice big spaghetti dinner.

Now some people are not going to like what I am about to say, so brace yourself. Your grandma's spaghetti sauce recipe is not special. (unless of course you are one of my siblings or cousins, because in that case your grandma's sauce IS the best sauce in the world :) In fact I bet it is almost identical to my grandma's sauce. It seems everyone with even a touch of Italian in them claims their grandma's sauce is the best in the world. Well I believe you... YOU think it IS the best in the world. Taste and smell as most know is excellent for recollecting memories. It reminds you of your grandma's cooking, or your mom's cooking.

The truth is that almost every sauce recipe I have ever found online has very basic ingredients.

• Tomato paste
• Water
• Sugar
• Basil
• Oregano
• Garlic Salt
• Onion Salt

Now I will add my own personal note that if you do not cook raw meat in your sauce it is not nearly as good as it could be. I make a point to always make my meatballs and literally throw in the raw balls of meat into the sauce. The meat flavor gives the sauce an extra kick. I have, on very seldom occasion been to lazy to make the meatballs and I can 100% tell a difference.

Now another small note on spaghetti is the noodles. I am going to take a moment to complain about the fact that growing up, almost always my mother made spaghetti with penne noodles. I think I hate penne noodles now. I never use them. Spaghetti IS a noodle. You need to be able to twirl your fork and pick up a delicious pile of noodles and sauce.

I will share the specifics of this recipe but its all taste. I add as I go along and taste the sauce regularly, if it needs something more I add it in.

• 4 12oz cans of tomato paste (I use Contadina with Italian Herbs)
• 2.5 cans of water per can of sauce. (I use slightly less for thicker sauce, again you will have to find what works for you)
• 1 Tbs Sugar
• 1 Tbs Garlic Salt
• 1 tsp Onion Salt
• 1 Tbs Basil
• 1 Tbs Oregano

Let this simmer on low for 4 hours. Remember to give it a good stir every 30 min. or so.

Meatballs

• 1 lb. ground chuck
• 3/4 c. bread crumbs (if you have plain thats fine but if you are shopping for them I would just get Italian seasoned)
• 1/2 c. romano/parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbs Oregano
• 1 Tbs Basil
• 1 tsp Garlic salt
• 1 tsp Onion salt
• 2 eggs

You are going to combined all ingredients in a bowl and really mix together. Your best option is to take your rings off and really get your hands dirty and mix the meat by hand. Make golfball sized meatballs and add the raw meat directly into your sauce.

Now whats great about this sauce is it makes a ton! I will usually make a big batch on sunday and then sometime during the week make chicken parm. and still have some left over for a quick last min. meal.

Bonus - Your house will smell AMAZING... like really really really amazing. Reminds me of my mom's house :)

(sauce is still simmering at time of publishing - will post pic later!)