Mapping

by Ang

Ever since I got married, I’ve had a project rolling around in my head that I've wanted to do. I’ve seen it done before and always thought it was a neat idea. Finally about a month ago I finally did something about it. So I looked around online and in ‘real’ stores, got my supplies and got started.


A map:

Spray Adhesive:

A cork board:

And some map pins:

I trimmed the map, my husband taped off of the frame of the cork board, we took it outside, put a thin layer of spray adhesive onto the cork, then stuck on the map.  Easy-peasy!

And here is the final project!

I pinned all of the places that my husband and I have been together. At first I was going to pin the places that he has been, the places that I have been, and then the places we’ve been together. But I knew instantly that it would get way too cluttered (we’ve traveled a lot). I like this way better.

We've been to 7 states together.  We're hoping to add at least one new one each year.

It was a fun project, and I'm glad I can cross it off my list!

Office Details

By Amy

 

Hi!  I thought I would talk a little more about my office.  Just because I love it so much.  Then I promise I won't go on about it anymore.  I think my favorite feature is my picture wall.  I looked on Etsy.com for weeks to find things that I really loved. The center picture says.."You are Loved".  I liked it because not only did it remind me of that (sometimes my mind plays tricks on me) but I also wanted to tell everyone who came into my office that they were loved too. 

I liked the camera and book print because, well, I like cameras and books.  Haha.  And the baby cow print?  Adorable. 

The caged bird singing is another etsy find.

The Eiffel tour print is actually a notecard from a packet I got from Francesca's.  The boot I got at Hobby Lobby and the clock is something that I had but I painted the frame. 

 

 

 

 This picture is my favorite.  It's my dad and my Aunt on their Grandparents farm.  I matted them on some fabric that I had.  I love both of these pictures and i'm so happy that I was able to display them in a way that makes me happy.

Those cute little cowboy boots were my firstborns.  He's 16 now.  Sniff sniff.  But he still likes cowboy boots so YAY!  The blue barn is a Etsy print.  I bought the "A" at Hobby Lobby.  I spread bead glue all over it and dumped all my extra beads on it.  Sparkly!

 Nothing to exciting about the bookshelf.  Just full of office stuff and books. 

 When we moved in our house a friend of mine gave me a old window frame. I loved it but I had no idea what I was going to do with it. I think it makes a great cork board frame! 

 This is kind of hard to see but its a street map of Paris.

The print is a painting by my favorite artist, Edward Hopper.  The picture in the purple frame is of my two favorite little people.  And the other is of my boys all decked out in their dirt bike gear.

 Pictures of my wittle boys.  (:  Ages 5 and 1.  I made the chalkboard with chalkboard spray paint and then painted the frame blue.  The quote I drew on there makes me happy.  It says "Shine on you Crazy Diamond!"

That's it!  The only thing missing is a window.  It would be really nice to have some fresh air and natural light in there.  But I'm not complaining.  It's near perfect just the way it is. 

Meals

by Ang

First off, I apologize for my absence lately!  We had a great visit with my family which I will blog about next time.  But I wanted to share my latest 'project' first.

I’m just going to come out and say it: I don’t enjoy cooking. I never have, and honestly, I probably never will. When I DO cook, I’m not bad at it…I just don’t enjoy it, therefore I don’t do it much. And I’ve always been the type that HAS to follow a recipe exactly. I can’t ‘wing it’ and just start tossing things in ‘according to taste’. That is a recipe for disaster! No pun intended. Ha ha.

Anyways, I have had three consistent problems with cooking over the years:

1) I don’t meal plan regularly, so when I don’t have a plan, we eat out.

2) When I DO meal plan, I will go to the store and get everything I need, but when I get home from work, the LAST thing I want to do is cook for an hour (or more, because most likely I forgot to take the meat out of the freezer).

3) What to make, what to make, what to make. I get in a rut.
So I needed a solution to not only save us time, but also money. Enter this program:
www.5dinners1hour.com

I stumbled upon it through another blog. The idea is just how it sounds. You cook 5 dinners in one hour. And then store them in the fridge for consumption that week. I was intrigued, so I signed up.

At first I was a little skeptical…I didn’t want just casseroles with all processed food. But when I got my menus for the month, I was pleasantly surprised! BBQ roasted salmon, slow cooked beef tacos, almond crusted chicken, slow cooked Mexican vegetable soup, orange teriyaki chicken bites, tangy baked chicken, etc. Those were just a few of my monthly selections. All served with vegetables, salad, rice, etc. I chose a weekly menu and went to the store. Ooooh and this is another really good part. Each weekly menu comes with a weekly grocery list, that is categorized by area of store (frozen, produce, bread, etc.). It was incredibly helpful.
Each weekly menu comes with 5 meals, although I eliminated one of the meals (tilapia….my husband can’t have tilapia), so I only made 4 this week: Deviled Legs, Hot Ham Cornbread Sandwich, Orange Teriyaki Chicken Bites, and Slow Cooked Italian Sausage Soup. Sounds good, right? I could have made the 5th meal too, because they always give a substitute for fish (like use chicken). But I decided to start off with four for now. Also, each meal serves 4-6, but that will work just fine for us, because we will have lunch leftovers the next day! I even bought some nice Pyrex containers to take my leftovers to work to re-heat.
So today after work I came home, and set out all of my stuff (which is recommended….set out EVERYTHING you will need, which is listed on your weekly menu, even down to the utensils!) and filled up my sink with hot soapy water.
And then I got to cooking! That part went really well. I timed myself, and it really did only take an hour! And the food looks really good. My plan is to do this every Friday so that we will have dinners for the weekends (which is our biggest ‘eating out’ time). I am so excited that I don’t have to think about dinner until next Friday! And even then I don’t really have to think about it….i just have to take my list to the store. Next week’s menu: Slow Cooker White Beans and Ham, Almond Crusted Chicken, Hawaiian Beef, Italian Sub Sandwich, and Slow Cooked Mexican Vegetable Soup.

Sorry there's no pictures....I took one of all of my pretty food ready to go, but I'm having some computer issues and can't upload it right now.  So you'll have to use your imagination!