{using ideas from favorite blogs}

If you've been here a while, you may know that I'm a big fan of Google Reader.  If you'd like to know more about why I love it, see the bottom of this post.  I save a lot of great ideas from blogs that I read, but only get around to doing a small portion of the things I'd like to. 

My brilliant, yet unoriginal suggestion to you is to utilize this wonderful information to the betterment of your family and home.

Here are some things that I've done recently that I learned about from favorite blogs:

I made these cute ghost pancakes for our family to eat for dinner one night.  Around here we love eating breakfast for dinner...maybe even once a week!  Along with the pancakes, I tried cooking our bacon in the oven.  Way less mess and it didn't shrink!  We loved it.

(didn't my ghosts turn out cute?)

Yesterday, we made CrockPot Pizza Soup.  It was the perfect chilly fall day and it was so yummy!  My 9 year old daughter made the whole thing.  The only thing I did was cut the pepperoni.  She loved it so much that she wanted me to pack it in her thermos for lunch today.  It is definitely a keeper recipe!  By the way...if you haven't been to that wonderful CrockPot recipe blog, you need to go.  Now.  It is amazing.

(this picture is from A Year of Crockpotting)

For more kitchen tips, go see Tammy.

More about Google Reader: I love that it virtually delivers new posts directly to me from all of my favorite blogs.  P.S. - I have a lot of favorite blogs.  Sometimes I get overwhelmed by the vast amount of wonderful ideas flooding into my reader.  I liberally use the star function in reader to flag posts that I'll want to refer to later.  I also love the fact that I can search by keywords from all of the blogs that I subscribe to.  That way, if I've forgotten where that brilliant idea is to be found, I simply search for it.  Another great thing is that I can view the posts (either in regular delivery or search mode) by the expanded view or the list view.  The list view makes it easy to scan through posts to find the specific one I'm looking for.

{simple woman's daybook - journal entry}

 

FOR TODAY October 20, 2008

Outside my window...it is getting sunny, but still cold.  I had to send the kids to school in their thick winter coats this morning.  It is definitely fall here!

I am thankful for...my mobility.  I am finally able to move around like a fairly normal person.  I'm still moving slow and awkward, but I can get things done that I want to get done and that makes me happy!

From the kitchen...I hope to do some baking today.  My kids are loving muffins in their lunches and I found a neat corndog muffin recipe I'd like to try.

I am wearing...comfy cleaning clothes.  I hope to get some cleaning done this morning before I get cleaned up and dressed for the day.

I am creating...cute Halloween decorations.  I think we'll make some cute decorations as part of Family Home Evening tonight, along with a short lesson.

I am going...nowhere today.  Last week included a bunch of outings, fun and necessary and boring.  This week I will try to be purposeful in planning my days and errands.

I am reading...Emma.  I'm still working on the Jane Austen compilation book that I started back in August.  I've read Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, and now am reading Emma.  I really do love her style of writing and think that she is so ahead of her time in her wit and ideas for women.  Very refreshing!

I am hoping...to bless my family by cleaning the house today.

I am hearing...the heater kick on.  We finally turned the heater on this past weekend.  Almost the end of October...not too bad. 

A picture thought I'd like to share...these is my cute boys!  Spring 2007 we took this fun train ride through the mountains.  So fun! 

For more of A Simple Woman's Daybook, click here.

{stuff on the walls - tackle it tuesday}

So my friends and family know me as a bit of a procrastinator.  But I tell you what...not being able to do stuff sure makes you want to do stuff.  What I'm trying to say, is...when I couldn't  do anything but sit, I couldn't wait until I was better so I could do all the things I couldn't do before.  Clear as mud?

I'll quit mumbling and get to the pictures, k?

This is what the wall on my staircase landing looked like before I broke my ankle.

I bought that brand new, never before been used stretched canvas picture from the Salvation Army Thrift Store for $5.  For what it is worth, I also bought the other 4 of her buddies that looked exactly like her (apparently there was a boutique of some sort that went out of business and donated it's goods).  It sat in my garage for months a while and then leaned here in it's future home for weeks some time.

 

 

Now doesn't that look better?

I also need to tell you about that lovely black shelf.  When I found her at a flea market, she wasn't nearly as charming as she is now.  Believe it or not, she is plastic.  And hollow.  Yep.  I only paid $3 for her, y'all.  She was also a not-so-cute semi metallic gold color.  She is sporting a new hammered black finish thanks to spray paint.She feels much better now that she's had a bit of a makeover.

Now, this is a good start for the wall at the staircase landing, but she's not finished.  I have some plastic plates that I bought at the Goodwill for $.85 each and plan to spray paint red.  There are 3 of them and they'll hang above the picture.

I need some advice from y'all.  The beige color on my wall makes the canvas picture blend in since there's no frame.  I need some way to outline the picture in black to make it pop.  What do you think?  Please share your advice in the comments.  I'll keep you "post"ed (ha ha) on this project, k?

For other projects being tackled, hop over to 5 minutes for mom.

{carnival birthday party}

How embarassing that it has almost been a month since I've posted.  I promise I'm back from my unplanned, unannounced blogging break.  Well - this post should fix your cravings for creativity and fun. 

My daughter's birthday party was this past Saturday, and she chose a carnival party.  I did a ton of Internet research and came up with some really fun ideas.

When the guests first arrived, they were greeted by me at the ticket table.  They received their goody bags with tickets in them.  They were directed to the "decorate your goody bag" tables.  There were stickers, foam shapes, glitter, glue, buttons, and markers there.  This is my Zach decorating his bag.

After everyone decorated their bag, they enjoyed a magic show by my magician hubby dressed for the occasion.  I found his lovely necktie and facial embellishments at the lovely Dollar Tree.  We used the clothesline, sheets, and balloons to create a festive backdrop for the show.

There were 7 activity booths.  The kids rotated so they had a chance to do each one.  We were kind of short on grown ups, so there was a grown up for every 2-3 booths.  It was ok, though, as there were only 9 kids.

First we have "Lucky Pitch."  The kids pitched ping-pong type balls (found packaged  with a ball shooter-type gun thingie at the Dollar Tree (DT)).  I purchased a piece of foam core from and a package of Styrofoam cups from the DT.  We glued the cups down to the foam core with school glue and lightly spray painted the insides of some of the cups.  This game was played on the flat driveway.  We drew a line with sidewalk chalk where the kids had to stand and they tossed the balls into the cups.  The color of cup it landed in determined the prize they received.

Next up there's "Bowl-a-Rama."  We had a squishy foam bowling set that Zach got for Christmas last year.  We drew lines on the driveway and little stars so the kids knew where to reset the pins after knocking them down.  Very simple.

Then we've got the good 'ol "Ring Toss" game.  We recruited our family to save plastic bottles for a couple of weeks and refilled them to use for the game.  For rings, I cut out the middle from a sturdy paper plate and used the outside for the rings.  Talk about easy.

"Gumball Guess" was cute.  I used an old glass salsa jar and filled it with 2 ($1) bags of gum balls.  Of course I had to count the gum balls and make the table cute.  My mom helped with the making it cute thing.

We had a "Tattoo Booth" as well.  I had a hard time finding tatoos to purchase locally, but I did find some really small Sponge Bob ones at Party City.

I liked the "Sucker Pull" too.  I used a 99 cent Styrofoam cone-type thing from Wal-mart to stick the suckers in.  I colored the ends of the sticks with markers.  The color they pulled determined their prize.

The final game was the "Football Toss."  We used a shepherd's hook plant hanger and a hula hoop for the goal.  A DT nerf football completed the setup.  I don't know why I didn't get a picture of that one.

Lunchtime was fun with a trip down the "Food Fairway."  We enjoyed corn dogs, pickles, kettle corn, & nachos.

Instead of a cake, Taylor & I made cupcakes and made them to look like a bunch of balloons tied together.  I used half a piece of DT foam core with scrapbook paper to put the cupcakes on.

Here are some general overall pictures.

Overall the party was really fun and things went pretty smoothly.  I am glad it is over, though.  For anyone who is interested, I used the Cricut cutting machine to make all the signs.  I think they looked pretty good.  We used streamers and garden stakes to section off the booths that were located in the grass.  For the booths on the driveway, we just drew lines with sidewalk chalk to separate them.  I find that for themed parties, music really sets the mood, so I researched carnival and circus music and made a cd.  I was surprised to find that most polkas are circus-friendly music.

Let me know if you have any questions about the party that I didn't already answer.  I got a lot of my ideas from this site.

 

{weekly weigh in}

Remember that I'm wanting to be hot for the holidays?  Well - I'm planning on posting my loss each week when I weigh myself on Fridays.  I forgot to post last week.  

Last week, I had a huge loss of 6.5 pounds.  I hadn't weighed myself since before I broke my ankle, so it had probably been all in the month since then that the weight was lost.

And this week, I had a 1.5 pound loss.  Yay!

So 8 pounds down so far!!!!!

Be sure to scroll down to see my wonderful, phenomenal 101st post extolling my love of all things Across the Universe.

{101st post - across the universe}

101 Things About My New Obsession: Across the Universe

FYI - this is my 101st post on this here blog and was bullied encouraged to write a better post to commemorate this monumentous event!  I've already done the meme listing 100 things about me.  So here's this unique 101st post for ya.  I had to be a bit different.

1. When the movie was released in October of 2007 I had no desire to see this movie.
2. I thought it looked way too weird/strange/generally acid-tripping from the previews.
   
3. Actually, I had to look up the release date on imdb.com because I didn't even remember exactly when it was new.
   
4. You want some background on me for a minute?...
5. OK - I had a Beatles phase in college.
6. It was after a trip to Vegas and spending some time in a cool memorobelia shop in Caesar's Palace.
7. A guy friend that I worked with was really into The Beatles so it kind of just happened.
   
8. It is such timeless music that it is sort of inevitable, really.
   
9. Another reason it was inevitable is that my mom loves them.
   
10.  I mean, really loves them!
    
11.  Like, she's loved them ever since she was a kid and would cry at night because she loved Paul so much and didn't think she'd ever get to see him in person.
12. Back then, she promised herself that if her kids ever had a music love, crush, obsession that she would try to indulge them in that love.
13. That is why I saw NKOTB in concert 5 times. 
    
14. Yes.  I said FIVE times.
    
15. I know.  I'm lucky, right?
16. Fast forward to several years ago when my mom got to see a PAUL concert.  Seriously.  All of her dreams came true.  
17. To this day, when she hears Paul singing on the radio or in a public place she stops...and reflects on the fact that she was actually in the same room as he was...breathing the same air as Paul McCartney!
    
18. My sister, Emily, who is a few years younger than I am has an unhealthy tremendous love for The Beatles as well.
    
19. That is another reason why, when the movie came out, we just didn't see it.
    
20. I mean, it was like sacrilidge...all these young people singing Beatles songs...who did they think they were?
    
21. Even though we are lovers of all things musical, especially show choir, plays and movies that include music.
    
22. Seriously...we are there on opening day when wonderful musical plays are made into movies.  We love them.
    
23. But we just weren't going to go there with ATU.  (That's what real lovers of this movie call it - Across the Universe).
    
24. Then I broke my ankle this past August and had a ton of time on my hands.
    
25. ATU was available to watch on our On Demand cable movie channel.
26. I thought...what the heck? I'll just watch it for a minute and see what all the buzz was about.
    
27. After all...I have a ton of time on my hands. 
    
28. Jim Sturgess immediately caught my attention with the opening song set on the beach.  
    
29. He sang "Girl"...on the beach...with a Brittish accent...looking straight at the camera...and spoke right directly to my heart.
    
30. I couldn't turn it off.
31. I didn't want to, either.
    
32. Ok - I admit there are some strange acid-tripping parts in this movie depicting the late 60's, but seriously...doesn't that seem to fit in with that time period?
33. Then...there was this scene in the bowling alley where he sang "I've Just Seen A Face" and I fell even deeper in love with every nuance of his movement. 
34. Yes...you're right...I am happily married (today is actually our 11th anniversary...yay!)
    
35. I was born in 1976, so did not live to experience any part of the 60's.  But I appreciate the insight this movie gives me into that time.
36. I know...it is just a musical...but I can't help it...strong emotions are evoked by certain parts of the movie.
    
37. Lots of historical events are touched on and covered in the movie.
    
38. Like the Vietnam war.
    
39. And the protests that went along with it.
40. Also the feelings of the families and friends who had loved ones fighting there.
    
41. And the fact that some of them didn't make it home.
    
42. Racial contention was also touched on in the movie.
    
43. In a touching scene set to "Let It Be."
44. On a much happier note, this movie introduced me to the scrumpteousness that is Jim Sturgess.  His character's name is Jude.
    
45. And Joe Anderson. Joe plays Jim's friend, Max.
    
46. And since I've recently devoured the imdb's archives on this movie, I think I'll share with you some of the things that I found interesting.
    
47. If you're not as crazy about this movie as I am, you might think these morsels of information are ridiculously boring.  Not me...
    
48. Joe Anderson originally tried out for the part of Jude, but once he read the script, he decided that he was more of a "Max."
49. Max is American & Joe does a knock-out job on his American accent.
    
50. So much of the details in this movie correspond or were inspired by actual events in the life of The Beatles, even though the movie's storyline isn't about them.
    
51. All the names of the main characters come from Beatles songs.
    
52. Jude is from "Hey Jude."
    
53. Max is from "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."
54. Lucy is from "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."
    
55. Prudence is from "Dear Prudence."
    
56. Jo Jo is mentioned in the song "Get Back."
    
57. Sadie is the main event in "Sexy Sadie."
    
58. Back to the other intersting tidbits...
59. A club where Jude is seen near the beginning of the movie is called The Cavern, in Liverpool, where the Beatles played in the 60's.
    
60. There's a scene where Sadie's band plays on the rooftop of their recording label's building.  This is a clear reference to The Beatles' last public performance that took place on the rooftop of the building of their record label.
    
61. Sadie's record company is named "Strawberry Jamz."  This is a reference to the Beatles record company - "Apple Corps."
    
62. There are several parts in the movie that I almost always rewind and play a few times in a row. 
    
63. One is the bowling alley scene...YUM!
64. Depending on my mood, I might watch the opening scene on the beach again, or the part on the streets of Liverpool with Jude and his Brit girlfriend where he sings "All My Lovin'."
    
65. One of my favorite things I learned while I casually fervently watched Jim Sturgess interviews on YouTube is that...
    
66. THEY SANG ALL THE SONGS LIVE ON THE SET...AT THE TIME OF THE SCENE.  
    
67. Sorry that I yelled for a minute, but seriously...the movie versions of the song are the way they sang them right then and there acting the scene.
    
68. Can you believe that?
    
69. I am in awe.
    
70. There is a crazy Beatles song called "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite" that is inserted into the psychodelic part of the film.  
    
71. My kid's saw that part and thought that I must be crazy for watching such a weird movie.
    
72. Maybe I am.
73. If I am, then I don't want to be not crazy.
    
74. By the way, Lucy reminds me a lot of pictures I've seen of my mom during her high school years.
    
75. She graduated in 1971.
    
76. Lucy starts out as kind of a goody-two-shoes preppy girl...
    
77. And ends up in Grenwich Villiage...kind of not so goody-two-shoes.
    
78. My mom was more like the first Lucy.
    
79. There are lots of cameos throughout the movie.
    
80. You've got Selma Hayek.
    
81. Joe Cocker.
    
82. Bono.
    
83. A movie commenter on imdb thought the movie was the love child of Moulin Rogue and Hairspray.
    
84. I guess I can see that.
    
85. Sadie's character is supposed to "parallel" Janis Joplin.
    
86. Jo Jo is "like unto" Jimi Hendrix.
    
87. Jude is thought of as a compilation of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
    
88. I see it.
    
89. Did I mention I adore him?
    
90. Also, that I have some new Jim wallpaper on my laptop?
    
91. Evan Rachel Woods plays Lucy in the film. 
    
92. She also dates Marilyn Manson in real life.
    
93. Yuck!
    
94. Please don't hold that against this film.
    
95. Have I convinced you to see it yet?
    
96. I'll be seein' ya later.
    
97. I have to go watch ATU again.
    
98. Wanna join me?
    
99. We'll pop some popcorn and make a night of it!
    
100. Will you come back for my 102nd post?
     
101. I promise it won't be as long as this! :)
     

{my 100th post!}

OK - so here's the deal. I've been stewing over what kind of phenomenal 100th post I could write for almost a week. You know...creative, witty, entertaining, and all-around wonderful. Therefore...I've been avoiding posting on this blog until I came up with the perfect post. The problem is this: I got nothin'.

So I would like to commemorate my 100th post with a big 'ol WOO-HOO! Would you like to join me? Come on now...everyone together..."WOO-HOO!"

I'll be back real soon with somethin' good. I promise. :)

P.S. My pantry got cleaned out yesterday. Yay! I'll get some pictures up here soon. My cute daughter and her friend helped me.