Classes

All day today I kept writing “October” on everything by mistake, cause really – how can it possibly be NOVEMBER already? Feels like I blinked and it went from August to November.

But November is indeed here and that means it is less than 2 months until Christmas! Yikes. I might as well just throw all my fabulous ideas for Christmas crafts and projects right out the window. How will I possibly have time to get everything done in time? I must try though, I have been feeling the “craft” bug again so I need to give in. I did have a lot of fun with my recent Halloween crafty things, even though that wreath took WAY longer than I intended. (I was able to catch up on episodes of Switched at Birth though as that was one of the only shows I could find to watch on my laptop. Don’t laugh. Ok fine, laugh).

I’m hoping November will be a better month for us health wise. We have all been sick since the end of September. We just can’t kick this thing. Last night Ava woke up around 11 and the only way we could console her was bringing her to lie in our bed with us. She promptly fell asleep in my arms and I left her there for about 45 minutes telling Steve “I just want to make sure she is really asleep before we take her back to her crib. Less chance of her waking up”). In truth though, I just loved snuggling with her! 🙂

Something that is keeping me busy but I’m having a ton of fun with: my new Snapshot 30 class! Today’s post is here and I just have to say that there are some really talented people in the class. You can look at some of the photos that people are posting on Instagram by searching for #snapshot30. Every time I check into Instagram there are new photos posted by the class participants! So much fun! If you want to sign up you still can, and the class is free too – woo!

Oh I did want to share this quick recipe that I made tonight for dinner – it turned out really good – we ate every last morsel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 medium gold potatoes

4 cloves garlic (or more if you love garlic like I do!)

1 – 2 slices of cheese (I used cheddar with a bit of asiago/parmesan blend)

1 cup fresh spinach leaves

spices

1. peel and cut potatoes into cubes, place in saucepan of boiling water and boil until soft

2. Peel and slice garlic into thin slices

3. Saute garlic in a bit of olive oil in frying pan (I love using our cast iron pan for this)

4. Once potatoes have cooked, mix them into the garlic in the frying pan and stir fry. Add cheese (break into small pieces) and continue stirring. Add any spices that you wish.

5. Chop spinach leaves and mix those into the frying pan. Continue to stir everything together until cheese has melted and spinach has started to wilt.

Next time I am going to add broccoli and chicken to this mixture. But with what I had on hand tonight this was it, and it was really really good!

One last thing: here is a pic of my little monkey. We let her have a small piece of homemade chocolate cake (it was one of our friends birthdays and he sent home some cake with Steve today after they finished work). It was really yummy! As you can see, Ava quite enjoyed it.

I still can’t get over how fast she is growing, and the amount of new things she is learning each day. Today she was saying all kinds of things: puppy, kitty, bear, baby… and at one point she picked up a toy cell phone that she has, she put it to her ear and it totally sounded like she said “Hi Daddy” into the phone. I almost fell over.

She is so much fun and so sweet but then there is the lovely other side to toddler-hood. Like tantrums, at the worst times. Such as later this afternoon when I took her to JC Penney to quickly run in to get something. She did not want to be in the stroller so she hollered until I took her out. She did not want me to carry her so she hollered until I put her down. Bingo. That’s exactly what she wanted, and maybe I should not have been giving in, but when you’re in the middle of a department store, the last thing you want to have with you is a screaming toddler. Am I right? So I let her walk/run all around as I chased behind her with the stroller. I almost lost her in the winter coat section as she’s so short, I couldn’t see her amongst all the racks of coats. I had a brief wave of panic and then she appeared with a huge smile on her face, and as I stooped down to pick her up, she dodged me and ran away laughing. *sigh*

Time to leave. Once I caught up to her and grabbed her, she did the classic toddler “noodling” to make it very hard for me to get a hold of her. I then carried her to the checkout and at this point she was fine. Once we were in line however, she turned into a different child. There were about 6 people in front of me, and a few behind me, and it was this moment that my dear sweet toddler started screaming and screaming….and screaming. Nothing I could do was making it any better. I tried everything I had. Snack? nope. Toy? nope. ok, iphone? nope. What?? No iphone?? I picked her up, still screaming. I put her down, still screaming. By now everyone is looking at me probably thinking I am as horrible a mother as I felt at that moment. Then finally, the little boy standing behind us with his mother came to our rescue. He was holding a stuffed Snoopy dog and he held it up and waved it around in front of Ava (who I was holding again, and she was looking over my shoulder at this little boy). She stopped crying and said “puppy!” and for the next few minutes until we got up to the register, this wonderful little boy continued to entertain Ava with Snoopy. Funny enough, this is not the first time this has happened. A similar situation occurred in Target a couple months ago and another little boy came to our rescue and managed to get Ava to stop crying in the line up. Amazing. So to all you nice kids out there who help a frazzled mother get her crying toddler under control in a line up – thank you. It is very much appreciated. 🙂

I’m so excited to be a part of an awesome new site called Homeketeers. It combines everything I love in one place: scrapbooking, paper crafts, home decor, fabric crafts, cooking, baking, and other crafts/sewing/quilting!

To celebrate National Craft Month, Homeketeers is featuring a different tutorial every day for the entire month! PLUS, there is a huge contest going on with FABULOUS prizes: FOUR Cricuts machines!!!!  Yes I said FOUR.  Three Cricut Mini’s and one Cricut Expression.  Each week there will be a winner. How cool is that? I have a cricut and it’s amazing, so if you don’t have one, jump on over to Homeketeers for your chance to win one 🙂

 

I’m also excited to announce that I’m teaching again at a local store: Craft Fancy

This store is awesome, I love it! Everyone I’ve met there is so nice and the store is so organized and welcoming. This month I’m teaching 2 different technique classes as well as a fun paper bag mini album

 

 

Stuff I’ve been loving this week:

 

Shamrock Shakes at McDonalds are back! It’s been YEARS since I’ve had one, so I just had to get one. It was so yummy!

Barnes and Noble sells the vintage Fisher Price toys!! So cool! They are exactly like the ones I had as a little kid 🙂

Angus chillin’ in the dogs bean bag chair. I love how his leg is up on the arm rest 🙂

Norman eating the veggies I spilled all over the floor. He’s even better than a vacuum cleaner.

My newest favorite meal! Chicken avocado chow mein. Recipe below.

I could seriously eat this every night, it is so delicious! I made it by fluke almost as I was trying to use up some left overs and this is what I created.

Chicken Avocado Chow Mein

– Cooked chicken breast cut into small cubes (approx 1 cup)

– sun dried tomatoes (I love the ones from trader joes) (approx 1/4 cup)

– 6 fresh garlic cloves

– 1 avocado (I get the organic ones from Trader Joes – love their organic produce)

– 1 cup cooked chow mein noodles

– coconut oil cooking spray (I found a great one at Whole Foods)

Peel all garlic cloves and slice them into thin slices. Pan fry garlic until lightly browned in a frying pan sprayed with oil. Mix the chicken and sun dried tomatoes and stir, reduce heat. Add noodles and sea salt, stir. Turn heat off and add avocado cut into pieces. Mix well, but leave some avocado in chunks.