Craft Quicky: Valentine Heart Paper Chain Garland

I LOVE Valentines Day.  Okay, I love any excuse to decorate.    Keep in mind that I live in the teeny tiniest little loft apartment and don't have a mantel so the top of my bookshelf serves this purpose.  Since the decorations are supposed to be for Valentine's Day I had to add some pictures of my Love Caleb.  I especially love the one of us from Freshman year of college.  Caleb's hair makes me smile.  :)  The other is one of our engagement photos.

I picked up the little angel and the paper doilies from Dollar Tree.  I strung the doilies through ribbon to hang them up and then added my Mason Jars with some carnations.  Carnations just happen to be my favorite flower... I'm a cheap date.  I dug out an old scrap of fabric to put underneath.  It's almost like a game to scrounge around through all my junk to try and see what I can put together!  

I knew that I wanted to add a homemade touch and once again, I saw this idea on Pinterest and knew that it was something that I was going to try.  It was really easy and only took about a half an hour to make a chain that was long enough to drape over the bookshelf.  

All you need is some scrapbook paper, a ruler, a pencil or pen, and a stapler.  I put the ruler down on the paper and made the strips the width of the ruler so that they would all be uniform.  I cut the strips, then folded them in half to make them the right length.  The pictures below do a better job at explaining how to put the chain together than I think I could do trying to put it into words.

And there you go!  Totally Valentine worthy!

Quick and Easy: Superbowl Candied Popcorn.

Isn't the Super Bowl exciting?!  This year is even better for myself and all my fellow Hoosiers.  Downtown Indianapolis has been buzzing all week!  I made my way downtown with a friend last night to check out all the festivities... It was such an amazing atmosphere!

Since I'm not one of the lucky few who gets to enjoy the game in person I have been preparing some tasty snacks to take with us to the Super Bowl party we will be attending tonight.  I had seen a recipe on Pinterest for candied popcorn and followed the link back to the Eagle Brand Condensed Milk website.  You only need a few ingredients and it was super easy to make!

Candied Popcorn

Ingredients

Microwave Popcorn

14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk 

1 box Jello

Butter

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and pop popcorn according to package directions.  Put in bowl and separate out all unpopped kernals.  Thinly coat shallow roasting pan with butter and spread popcorn in single layer.  Set aside.

2. On the stove, mix condensed milk and Jello.  Cook on medium heat until hot and begins to bubble.  Pour mixture over the popcorn.  Gently mix hot mixture into popcorn.

3. Bake popcorn for 20 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.  Remove from oven and spread out on a piece of lightly buttered foil.  Allow to cool and then break into clusters.

Take a look at the finished product!  I was happy with out bright the color turned out!  This would be also be great for a kids birthday party and think of all the color combinations.  I made two batches so I could have blue and red to match the two teams.

Happy Super Bowl everyone!!!

A Little Organization... Or A Lot.

Time for a confession.  I'm disorganized.  Lets face it... my closet is a breeding ground for calamity and chaos.  My silverware drawer looks like an explosion of forks and dish towels.  My junk drawer... well, we won't go there right now.  I've had enough!  When you live in a loft apartment that only has two closets, one of which is taken up by the water heater you. have. got. to. be. ORGANIZED!  

See, this is what I'm working with in the closet arena.  This is the only one aside from our clothes closet.  No coat closet.  No linen closet.  Nothing.  And it isn't pretty...

I forgot to take a before picture, but trust me, you wouldn't want to see the before. 

Anyway, I've decided to turn over a new leaf.  De-clutter.  Simplify.  Put everything in its place.  The first thing I decided to organize was the cleaning supplies (naturally) and the water heater closet.  I saw this idea on Pinterest.  It was a quick and easy solution to a complete mess.

I bought a cheap hanging shoe rack, but it on the inside of the door and ta-da!  Extra storage space.  I put all our cleaning products, rags, dusters, vacuum bags, and anything else associated with keeping the home clean in there.  The picture below is before I added everything into the pockets, but it seriously freed up so much space in the closet.  It also made much needed room under the kitchen and bathroom sinks.  

Baby steps people, baby steps.  But, see?  Quick AND Easy!

Quick and Easy : Spinach, Sun Dried Tomato, and Swiss Quiche

I love to cook.  I also love quick and easy.  Caleb and I always make a point to have a good breakfast together on the weekends.  Sometimes I even luck out and get breakfast in bed!  :)

This past Saturday we both woke up really late so breakfast turned into brunch.  I was on call at the hospital so I didn't want to make something that would be a big time commitment so I went with a quiche.  I didn't have a recipe in mind so I decided to make up my own and it turned out to be really great!

Easy Spinach, Sun Dried Tomato, and Swiss Quiche

1 Store Bought Pie Crust

5 eggs

1/4 cup melted butter

1 cup thawed, frozen chopped spinach

1/2 to 1 cup sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup sun dried tomatos

5 slices baby swiss cheese

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Beat the eggs in a medium bowl.  Add in the butter (be sure that the butter is not too hot or it will begin to cook the eggs), spinach, mushrooms, and tomatos.  Stir together well.

3. Pour the mixture into the pie crust and top with cheese slices.  Bake for 30 to 45 minutes.  

I decided to put the cheese on top instead of mixing it into the filling.  This was it was golden brown and I swear I could taste it better than if I would have mixed it in.  This also would have been good with fresh roma tomatos.

We warmed this up on Sunday and it was great in the microwave!

Yum!!

All You Busy Ladies.

I'm reading a book for new bloggers.  According to this blogger I need to post more often.  Way more often.  

Source: Amazon

But its hard, you know?  Blogging is one of my passions.  I love writing and this is a way that I am able to share something that I love.  I idolize all of the women out there who have these amazing and creative blogs...  Hello?? Haven't you ever read Thrifty Decor Chick, Enjoying the Small Things, or The Pleated Poppy? LOVE them.  I read them religiously.  Every day.

But I find myself constantly running into two roadblocks.  

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1. I never seem to have enough time to devote to posting.  I work full time, I'm married, I attend tons of sporting events where my husband works, yada yada yada.

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2. I feel like my blog lacks focus or a "brand" as they like to call it.

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The more I thought about it, the more obvious the answer became!  I don't know how many times I have read my favorite blogs thinking "I would love to do that if there were only two more hours in the day."  I'm challenging myself to post more often and on ideas, crafts, and recipes for those of us who work full time, find ourselves too tired to spend 5 hours on the sewing machine, or just can't work up the motivation to cook a five course meal.  Those of us who wish we could be stay at home crafty ladies, Paula Deen, or one of those people who have their own HGTV show on organizing and home improvement.  Are you with me?  I said are you with me?!  Good.  :)  

Wooohooo!  I'm excited!

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Love.

I love....

My cat.

Mod Podge.

A Made Bed.

A Big Pile of Fabric.

My Sewing Machine.

Fabric Flowers.

Traveling.

Long Flowing Skirts.

 Chandeliers. 

 My Family.

My Love.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake.

This New Year's I resolved to post more often.  With that being said, I have writer's block.  Or blogger's block.  Or just nothing interesting has been happening.

Nothing except for this: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cake.  A cake filled with cookie dough and then surrounded by chocolate chippity goodness.    

I saw this recipe on Pinterest which I immediately repinned and shortly after tracked back to the blog that originally posted on this Masterpiece.  Thats right.  I capitalized "masterpiece" so you would understand how the true amazingness of this cake.

You can find the recipe at this blog: Something Shiny.

I couldn't wait to cut into it so you'll notice that there were already pieces missing when I took the pictures.  Nonetheless, you have got to try this cake!

P.S. I cut down on the amount of work by using a roll of store-bought cookie dough and didn't feel guilty at all.  

And also, the recipe that this blogger uses for buttercream frosting is wonderful!

Frosting.  Cake.  Cookie Dough.  Cookies.  Chocolate Chips.  What else could you ask for?

Sometimes the simple things are the best things.