day 3, fields of arkansas

For today’s project I edited a photo I took recently. It was taken near Lewisville, Arkansas which is where my parents live. I was pretty happy with the way the photo looked on the camera sans editing, but I wanted to brighten up the colors some. I just messed around a bit with the contrast and coloring in order to make the corn stalks look more vivid. I really love how green it all is even though the ground is obviously very dry. The corn isn’t suffering in the heat like some of us, that’s for sure!

Happy creating!

p.s. what should I create tomorrow?

day 2

Last night, for my day two creation, I made oven-fried pork chops. It was simple but still fun because I had never made it before. My husband really loved it so I guess it went well! I served the pork chops with glazed carrots, peas, and crescent rolls. A fun twist I like to add to the pre-packaged crescent rolls is to butter then and sprinkle some garlic powder on them before I roll them up and bake them. You should try it! It’s tasty. What other spices could be added to crescent rolls before they’re baked?

Stay tuned for my day 3 creation. I’ll be posting later today!

30 days of creativity

This year I have decided to participate in 30 days of creativity. I don’t know who started it, but I think it’s genius. The idea is that you create something everyday for 30 days in a row. It could be one project that you do a little bit of daily or 30 separate projects or something in between. You simply need to get off the couch and create SOMETHING. I’ve made a list of ideas for the month and I’m excited to see what I can come up with! A goal of mine through the process is to use as many materials as possible from items I already own. Money saving and smart for me, seeing as how I have a husband now and I have far too much stuff for the both of us.

My first creation is an “I Spy” bag. I made it for my mom’s little friend, Dawson. This is the third one I’ve made and I must say, I do a little better each time. I’m very new to sewing but I’m very proud of this little thing!

Basically you make a little pillow (5-8in square) and fill it with poly-fill beads and little trinkets for a kid to find. Though it is meant for kids, it is very entertaining for just about anyone! Dawson loves the outdoors so we filled his with fishing lures, hunting targets, frogs, snakes, etc. And as you can see, the fabric is camouflage. It’s a very fun project that you can customize to any personality.

Thanks to my mother-in-law Joan for the inspiration and to Jonathan for encouraging me to finish even when I get frustrated. I really enjoyed making it!

See you tomorrow for DAY TWO of 30 days of creativity!

Multi-Purpose Serving Tray

I love being in the kitchen and I seem to love to collect pretty dishes. One dish I’m particularly fond of is my three-tiered serving tray from Target. It’s just so pretty and simple and lovely. Sadly, it doesn’t get much use because it’s somewhat of a specialty item. I had to find another use for it than displaying cookies or cupcakes so that I could leave it out all the time. So I decided to display my produce on it. It’s a great way to store those items while leaving out my favorite serving piece in my kitchen. Maybe you could do something similar!

What are some of the ways you double up on dishes at home? I’d love some new ideas!

currently reading:

I’ll post my thoughts on it as soon as I’m finished. I’m loving it so far. Have you read it?

Snow Ice Cream

Oklahoma City is buried under 9 inches of snow today. It’s stopped snowing as of right now, but the wind is viciously blowing everywhere so I’m staying inside with my sweetie. I ventured out long enough to gather some snow for snow ice cream and let me tell you, it was DELICIOUS! Here’s how I did it, step by step, with photos! They are iphone pics, so not the best quality but it works.

You’ll need about 8-12 cups of powdery, clean snow, a can of sweetened condensed milk, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. At the end of the recipe, I’ll list some variations if you don’t have some of those ingredients.

First, pour your can (14 oz) of sweetened condensed milk on the snow. If you’re like me, you are NEVER out of sweetened condensed milk. It’s the good stuff!

Next, add the teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Then, stir to combine!

I tasted it as I went to see how sweet it was and adjusted it to my liking. It’s easy for it to be too sweet, and in that case… just go outside and get a bit more snow to adjust it. Luckily, the snow drifts are about a foot deep outside of my door so I didn’t even need to put shoes on. I just leaned over and scooped some up in a bowl!

When you’re finished, it should look something like this:

Add a topping of your choice (or, leave it be like Jonathan does. He likes it as is) and eat up! It’s really delicious and a fun way to enjoy the snow without being out in it.

Here are some other variations of homemade snow ice cream:

Vanilla Ice Cream
8-12 Cups Snow
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup cream or milk

Chocolate Ice Cream
Follow either recipe for vanilla snow ice cream but add chocolate syrup to your liking!

Strawberry Ice Cream
Add the following ingredients to either vanilla recipe!
1 pkg frozen sliced strawberries
1 small package strawberry-flavored gelatin

Let me know if you tried any of these and how they worked for you! I’d love to hear your variations of snow cream.

Happy snow days, y’all!

Tags: chocolate, ice cream, snow, strawberry, sweetened condensed milk, vanilla

The Art of Pumpkin Carving

I do think I mastered it tonight! Jonathan’s sister and her family came over to my apartment tonight for dinner and an evening of pumpkin carving. It was only my third or so time to do something like that.. but I was determined to carve the best pumpkin ever! Jonathan sketched it for me and I cut it out. I LOVE it! I want to keep it forever. It’s just in time too… the Harry Potter 7.1 movie premieres in 3 weeks!

(my Harry Potter, Jonathan’s brain, Jaedyn/Jason’s classic pumpkin face, Cori’s owl in a tree in front of the moon)

I love my HP pumpkin! Thanks to my sweetie for drawing it out for me!

Did you carve a pumpkin this year? What are some of your Halloween traditions?

you gotta spend some time, love

I like Mondays. It seems that a lot of people don’t, but I sure do. Maybe that’s because I don’t work on Mondays and I use it as my “sabbath?” Perhaps. It’s my day of rest, so I really love it. I woke up this morning and ate some toaster strudels (the cream cheese ones are really yum) while watching Rachael Ray & catching up on blogs. It was lovely.

Then I had lunch with my fiance(!) and went grocery shopping. Now I’m listening to Death Cab for Cutie and am about to clean my apartment, do laundry, and make the Pioneer Woman’s recipe for lasagna. I love all things Ree (The Pioneer Woman) does. She’s wonderful. She has step by step photos for all of her recipes so it’s really easy to make sure you’re doing it right. Try a recipe and let me know how it goes!

Tonight is date night with Jonathan, so the evening is of course going to be great! I think we’ll watch a movie and maybe do some wedding things? Who knows. Either way it’ll be fun because we’ll be together. It always is.

What did you do today? Do you like Mondays? Even if you hate them… try to think of ONE positive thing about Monday and let me know what it is!

OH! I also read Romans 5 today, inspired by church last night, and am so overwhelmed by God’s love today. As verse 5 says, his hope does not disappoint! How’s that for a good Monday!?

love.

(p.s. Sorry for the hiatus. I’m back.)

Mom’s new blog

I started a blog for my mom to keep everyone updated on her progress through her breast cancer diagnosis. She’s been sending a lot of text messages and I thought this may be an easier way to do it. If you’re interested, you can subscribe, which simply means you’ll receive an email every time an update is published. Thanks for your prayers. They really mean so much!

http://dallisparker.wordpress.com

a day in the life of Ava & Brayden

One of my jobs is to be a nanny for two little sweethearts named Ava (5 years old) and Brayden (2 years old). I started working for their family at the beginning of the summer and I must say it’s on of the most fun jobs ever! I feel so blessed to know the family & to have the opportunity to hang out with them every week. Ava started Kindergarten a few weeks ago so I don’t get to spend as much time with her lately, but Brayden and I keep each other company while she’s gone. Here’s some photos of what we do together!

We eat cake batter.

We play outside & I call Brayden my little Fred Flinstone.

We take naps in Brayden’s bed.

We play so hard we fall asleep on the couch and nap there, too.

We take bubble baths.

We ask questions.

We have outdoor picnics in between taking turns on the water slide.

We turn cars on their sides because according to Brayden… “they’re sleeping.”

We go to gymnastics & Ava is a great big sister to Brayden (even when she pretends not to like him. Sisters, can I get an amen?)

We go to Kindergarten and come home on the bus. (It’s her favorite part!)

We laugh & make silly faces.

And last but not least (for now, anyway), we go on bug and rock safaris in our dinosaur costumes.

I sure do love them. Hopefully I’ll remember to take some pictures of the crafts we do & I’ll post them here for all my mommy friends!

What is your job? Do you love it or hate it? Why?

Happy Wednesday, friends!

Tags: nanny