Moving

Hey all!

So we are in the process of moving to our next Army post, and with that, it means that I won't be posting for a lil bit :( I have tons of organizing, moving, and crafting goodies to share once I'm back up and running in our next abode!! Please stick with me, and I'll see ya back here in a month or so ;)

*huggs*

- Shauna

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Being Irish, this is one of my favorite holidays! I made a little wall decor recently, but unfortunately the frame didn't have a hook to hang it horizontally, so it's my "mantle" decor {but unfortunately we don't actually have a mantle, so it's actually on our server in the dining room, hehe}.

Check out my crafting blog post {HERE} for the DIY instructions!!

And here's the rest of my "mantle," which I plan on adding to hopefully in the next week :) For the record, the playing card is a picture of the Cliffs of Moher on Ireland's coast. The deck it's from features different images from all around Ireland- and I bought it in Ireland! :) Also, the cute puppy in the corner has a shamrock on his rump and a bright green collar :) Oh, and the Snoopy sticker in the frame corner says "I'm one-eighth Irish setter" hehe, gotta love The Peanuts!

.: linking up at :.

dvd storage

So this was our DVD storage... pretty typical. Actually, not even all of it is pictured above. We're movie people, if you didn't already guess ;) Unfortunately, as you can see, we maxed out our storage, so I was faced with a choice- buy another DVD cabinet and figure out where to squeeze it into our living room... or seek out an alternative DVD storage system...

Well it just so happened that recently I had read Kristina's post about her DVD storage {here}. Bingo! That system is what I need!

So enter a few thing things...

{1} Delicious Library 1 software @ $20 {optional}

{2} three clear storage bins @ $7.50 total

{3} a few packs of storage sleeves @ $22 total

{4} a few rolls of tape @ $5ish

And here's what I ended up with! Our VHSs take up half a drawer in our entertainment center.

I scanned the barcode of each DVD with my laptop built-in camera, which enters the DVD into Delicious Library.

Then I cut out the title of each DVD, the rating, and runtime, and also any special features- taped those to the front and back of each sleeve.

Now this ended up costing about $10 more than just buying another storage unit, not to mention it would have saved a LOT of time {it took about 3-4 days of on and off working}, but here are the reasons why this system really works for us, many of which are due to DH being in the Army and thus moving frequently...

{1} SPACE:: we can actually store these DVD bins all in our entertainment center, which gives us two freed up storage units- they now function as a buffet in the dining room!

{2} INSURANCE:: with the frequent moves, we have a higher chance of stuff getting lost. In the event that some DVDs do get lost, with Delicious Library, we now have a full listing of all our DVDs {and books!}

{3} TIME:: with each move, the movers are required to check that each DVD is in its case before they pack them... this takes a while when you have as many movies as we do, not to mention they could easily take a movie or two and claim it's not in the case. Now, all they have to do is peer through the clear sleeve front and make sure there's a disc in each sleeve!

{4} LISTS:: now I am a list person! I must have my DVDs alphabetized, but usually DH and I will be in the mood for an "action" flick or "comedy" but not have a specific movie in mind. So I often wished I could have my DVDs arranged by genre, but then what do you do about say "romantic comedies" which fit into two categories? This is where Delicious Library comes in again- I have "shelves" set up within my library, where I just drag and drop a movie title into a "shelf" {aka. a list} and so now I have a Comedy shelf, Romance shelf, Action shelf, etc. and each movie can be put on multiple shelves. Perfect! Best of both worlds- I have my alphabetizing but also my genre lists available at a click of a button :)

Keep in mind, you can always skip buying the software, which cuts the cost almost in half... and you could skip cutting out all the titles and movie info which would cut out much of the time involved with how I did it!!

I made some simple tags to show which titles are in which bin... A through J, K through R, and S through Z. The numeric ones are in the very front, but I didn't add that to the tags :)

I'll show you what I did with all the no longer needed DVD cases in another post, so stay tuned ;)

.: linking up to :.

I'm an Organizing Junkie

Show Me What Ya Got @ Not Just a Housewife

Organizing Mission Monday @ Organize with Sandy

My Crafty Weekend @ Until Wednesday Calls

Inspire Me Monday @ Singing Three Little Birds

All Things Inspired @ All Things Heart and Home

Catch A Glimpse @ A Glimpse Inside

We're Organized Wednesday @ Organize and Decorate Everything

the power of baking soda

Ewwww! Yup... that's what happens to cups when you drink a LOT of tea and they're only handwashable. But, do not despair, there's baking soda!

So what exactly am I rambling about? Well, I have a lot of coffee/tea mugs that are not dishwasher safe. No biggie- I just wash them by hand... but the stains don't always come off by a simple sponge and soap. Now when I found out about baking soda as a stain remover, the above mug {and a few others} had about 2-3 years of stains on them! So take the above staining at the bottom of the mug, and imagine the entire mug stained like that. Ewww! I know....

Enter the baking soda!! Just sprinkle a little in the bottom of stained coffee mugs {or most any normal dish... double check about special surfaces though}, put in enough baking soda to make a bit of a paste, scrub it around the cup, and voila!
Presto, chango, clean cup-o! Yup, baking soda instantly washed away years of stain build up! {OK, so maybe not "instantly" as it did require a few minutes of scrubbing!} Again, if you have special surfaces, double check that baking soda won't do them any harm before you sprinkle away. As far as I know, most surfaces should be fine, and I use it on all of my dishes that need a little extra scrubbing power :)

Crustless Spinach Quiche

Sorry it's been a while, ladies! Things are a bit crazy around here, but I'll be posting some more stuff soon!! Thanks for stickin with me ;)

So I usually don't like quiches since I don't eat eggs. I used egg beaters for this recipe and absolutely loved this!! I was pleasantly surprised :) I wanted something simple to make for breakfast whilst my in-laws were visiting. My MIL often makes a quiche when we visit them, so I knew they'd like it. This was fabulous! It's called a "tart" in my cookbook, but I use the term quiche- if anyone knows the technical difference between the two, please do let me know! :) So here is my vegetarian tweaked recipe! Original recipe is from:: Incredibly Easy Gluten-Free recipes

.: quiche ingredients :.

1 tsp olive oil

1 c. finely chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

10 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed & drained

1 c. milk

3 eggs

1/4 c. grated parmesan

1 TB minced fresh basil OR 2 tsp. dried basil

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg

.: topping ingredients :.

2 TB grated parmesan

.: directions :.

(1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease a 9-inch glass pie plate.

(2) Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Saute onions and garlic. Stir in spinach. Spread mixture evenly into pie plate.

(3) Combine the remaining quiche ingredients in a medium bowl and gently stir until combined. Pour mixture evenly into pie plate. Bake 50 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Sprinkle with the 2 TB parmesan topping.

.: notes :.

- I used Goya's extra virgin olive oil {that's essentially what we use in everything unless otherwise indicated!}

- I used 2% milk, as that's what we have in the house. I imagine any would type would work just fine though!

- As you can see in the photo, the spices all float to the top. Don't worry! That is how mine looked, and it tasted fabulous- not over spiced or anything :)

- I placed a cookie sheet on the rack below the rack that the quiche was on, just in case there's any overflow. The mixture pretty much fills a 9-inch pie plate to the brim, but I didn't end up having any overflow in the oven.

.: linking up to :.
Show and Tell Saturdays @ Be Different, Act Normal

Strut Your Stuff @ Saturday Mornings

tomato salad

This is one of my newest favorite meals/appetizers/salads... it's super simple, super quick, and easy to scale for any size dinner or party!! This recipe came about as a combination of a caprese salad and cucumber salad. You'll see those two listed as "variations" below!

MAKES:: side dish for 2

.: ingredients :.

3 roma tomatoes

1/3 c. sweet onion

2-3 TB balsamic vinegar

1-2 TB extra virgin olive oil

Adobo {optional}

.: directions :.

1) Slice tomatoes into bite-sized pieces.

2) Dice onions.

3) Toss together onions and tomatoes in a large bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add additional olive oil and balsamic to fit your taste buds :)

4) I like to sprinkle on a thin layer of Adobo {a garlic powder-based Latin spice}.

5) Chill or serve as is!

.: variations :.

- sprinkle with Italian seasoning, oregano, or other spices

- add about 3/4 cup of mozzarella, cut into bite-sized pieces. Garnish with fresh basil or sprinkle dried basil.

- substitute the tomatoes with 1 cucumber, and switch out the balsamic vinegar with white vinegar. Let marinate for 2-3 hours in the fridge to enhance the flavors.

Tissue Paper Topiary Tutorial

Whew! Say that five times fast! Tissue Paper Topiary Tutorial... So I was the decorating gal for a recent Silent Auction event on-post, tight budget, so I made a few of the items... including the above topiaries! They're kinda an "in thing" right now, so I decided to try my hand at them :)

Our colors/theme was black & white damask & chandeliers with a pop of red. Although our family doesn't celebrate the holiday {everyday is "love day" in our home!} these would be great decor for a Valentine's Day theme too. So here's a {hopefully} pretty easy tutorial if you want to give them a go too!

Tissue Paper Topiary Tutorial

{Materials}

foam ball

wooden dowel

tissue paper {a lot}

hot glue gun {and lots of glue sticks!}

strands of beads

straight pins

ribbon

marbles/pebbles

sand

vase

{Step 1} Cut out roughly a bajillion tissue paper circles... I cut them out as I went along, so I wouldn't have too many left over, so I honestly don't know how many there ended up being. I took three sheets of tissue paper, folded them into quarters {so folded in half, and then in half again} and then cut out the circles. I played around with sizes when I first started, and settled on circles that were about 2.5-3" in diameter.

{Step 2} Take three circles, hold them at the center, then crinkle them {see above, bottom left corner of the photo}. This will be the center layer of your flower. Then take another three circles, hold them in the center, and kind of fold them around the "flower center layer" {see below}. The outer layer kind of naturally folds itself. It's not an exact science either, some of my flower outside layers were more "crinkled" than "folded," I just let them do their thing.

{Step 3} Add a nice big dollop of hot glue to the back center of your flower {where you were holding the flower}, push onto your foam ball, and hold for 10-20 seconds. You want to give the glue enough time to seep through all the layers of hot glue so that the flower center stays too. A few of my flower centers fell out- I just added a small dollop of glue to them and stuck them back onto their flower!

{Step 4} Repeat steps 1-3 until foam ball is covered :) I didn't like the look of the plain white {you can see I added in a few red flowers too!} so I took an ink pad and just ran it over my topiary ball. It inked up the edges of the flowers and gave it a nice two-tone look!

{Step 5} Paint a wood dowel and insert it into the vase. Then fill vase with marbles first then add in sand. This gave a very sturdy support base. I added some nice damask ribbon to top it off! You could also use foam for a support base, but since I used clear vases, I wanted something that looked nice and also would support.

{Step 6} These beads came pre-strung on fishing line. I tied the end of each line to a stick pin and then stuck the pin into the base of the topiary. My stick pins had little balls on the end, so it kept the line from falling off. If you use a regular stick pin {sans balls} then just add a tiny dollop of hot glue to secure the line to the pin after you're done tying.

{Step 7} Stand back and admire you're work :) You're done! I hope that wasn't too confusing... I'm a visual person, so I think the photos are more helpful than my word descriptions! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment or email me and hopefully I can describe it better for you :)

.: linking up at :.

Newbie Party @ Debbiedoos

Strut Your Stuff @ Saturday Mornings

Favorite Things Friday @ A Few of my Favorite Things

Thursday Treasures @ The Treasurista

Making It With Allie @ What Allie's Making Now

Motivate Me Monday @ keeping it simple

Amaze Me Monday @ Dittle Dattle

Making Monday Marvelous @ c.r.a.f.t.

Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Girl Creative

Craftomaniac Monday @ CraftOManiac

DIY Project Parade @ The DIY Showoff

My Crafty Weekend @ Until Wednesday Calls

Tute Yourself Tuesday @ Little Eme

Show Me What Ya Got @ Not Just a Housewife

Handmade Tuesdays @ Ladybug Blessings

Tip Me Tuesday @ Tip Junkie

All Things Inspired @ All Things Heart & Home

Catch A Glimpse Thursday @ A Glimpse Inside

hint o' cocoa bundt cake

So my first go at making a bundt cake went pretty well! This recipe is super moist and was a big hit with the family!

{dry ingredients}

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

{wet ingredients}

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

{creaming ingredients}

8 oz unsalted butter

2.5 cups + 2 TB superfine granulated sugar

6 eggs

{glaze ingredients}

1/2 cup milk or water

2 cups confectioners' sugar

{instructions}

1. Preheat oven to 335 degrees Fahrenheit, placing rack in the center of the oven. Spray a 12-cup bundt pan with non-stick oil-and-startch spray {aka. grease and flour pan}.

2. Combine dry ingredients in one bowl and wet ingredients in another. Set aside.

3. Combine butter and sugar in a stand mixer with paddle attachment {or a large bowl and hand mixer} and mix on low for about 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.

4. Add eggs one at a time. Scrape bowl and mix until thoroughly combined.

5. Alternately add the dry then wet mixtures about a quarter at a time, without pausing between additions. Scrap the sides of the bowl and mix for another 20 seconds.

6. Scoop bater into prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes, or until the cake bounces back when lightly pressed and a wooden skewer inserted in the deepest part of the pan comes out clean.

7. Cool the cake in the pan for 5 minutes, and then flip out onto a rack and let cool completely.

8. Combine glazing ingredients and whisk. Drizzle mixture over cake. If it will not pour well, add more liquid as needed.

{notes}

- I used about 2/3 spelt flour and 1/3 gluten-free flour and it tasted fabulous!

- I will use less liquid in my glaze next time, or let it sit for a bit before pouring because it was really runny.

- I also added 1oz of cocoa to the dry ingredients to give it a hint of chocolate taste. Recipe also suggests adding 1oz melted unsweetened and 3oz melted bittersweet chocolate to the wet ingredients for more chocolate taste <-- will be trying that next time!

- As you can see, I also sifted some extra powdered sugar on top to make it look pretty ;)

{please excuse the stand mixer in the photos!}

original recipe is from: United Cakes of America

.: linking up at :.

I'm loving it @ tidy mom

show and tell saturday @ be different, act normal

newbie party @ debbiedoos

sweets for a saturday @ sweet as sugar cookies

craft o maniac monday @ craft o maniac

my crafty weekend @ until wednesday calls

motivate me monday @ keeping it simple

just something I whipped up @ the girl creative

making monday marvelous @ c.r.a.f.t.

market yourself monday @ sumo's sweet stuff

amaze me monday @ dittle dattle

strut your stuff @ saturday mornings

weekly chore tracker

So my craft room is still under construction, so I haven't been able to share more photos with you, but they'll be coming soon!!

Meanwhile, I figure I'd share some of my lists with you :) Above is my weekly chore tracker... well, one of them... I have a tiered system, which I'll explain, and then share examples of over the next few days!

So I split up each of my days- the top are things that I do everyday, the bottom are chores that vary daily. Where it says "cleaning," I have a separate list that I refer to that has my cleaning chores for each day, since there are a few of them. I'll share that list with you tomorrow! The rest of the items are- working on my thesis, business related things {making cards, working on orders, etc} and OSC, a volunteer organization for which I'm the treasurer.

Most of the varying chores are self-explanatory... Monday I switch out washcloths and pillowcases, Thursday I switch out bed linens, kitchen hand towels, washcloths, and bath towels. This is my first round of setting up a cleaning schedule, so it could very well change in the future if I find that some chores need to be done more frequently or work better on a different day.

Below I've included a blank printable version of my chore chart and also one of my previous chore charts, which might work better for some people. It worked well for me when we had a smaller apartment which didn't require as much cleaning, and also while DH was deployed and I didn't have as much going on at the time. Please let me know if you'd like a personalized version- I'd love to create one for you!!

.: download tracker here :.

.: download tracker here :.

.: linking up at :.

Amaze Me Monday @ Dittle Dattle

Just Something I Whipped Up @ The Creative Girl

Strut Your Stuff @ Saturday Mornings

Marketplace Monday @ Finding Fabulous

My Crafty Weekend @ Until Wednesday Calls

Motivate Me Monday @ Keeping It Simple

CraftOManiac Monday

bathroom cleaning & crafting

So here's a recent project I wanted to share with you! It started with the above "ingredients"... baking soda, vinegar, label maker, and old containers. It ended with what you see below!

Here's the backstory... in recent months I switched over to using just straight vinegar and baking soda to clean our toilets {well, our whole house really!} You can see my post {here} about all the awesome uses for baking soda around the house, and {this article} for awesome uses for vinegar! Anyhoo, so using little dixie cups to sprinkle the two around the toilet bowl just hasn't been working the best. So I took two old containers, added some scrapbooking paper and mod podge, and there ya go! I was originally going to use the label maker, but the old containers were hanging onto their stickers pretty well, so I decided to cover them up instead of spend the extra time removing them.

Feel free to take a peek at my blog post {here} on my crafting blog to see a bit more of the process for crafting the fun labels and why I stamped "merry & bright" on them... :)

So above are the "ingredients" that I use for cleaning our bathrooms.... my new baking soda and vinegar containers which I use for cleaning out the toilet bowl, the bigger bottle of vinegar and the white rag for wiping down surfaces, the blue microfiber for dusting, and the tan rag is for wiping down the toilet lids and seats with vinegar. Even though vinegar kills 99% of germs, I'd rather keep my toilet rag separate from my sink rag ;) I have toilet bowl brushes in every bathroom, so those coupled with my above arsenal get the job done!

So that's my bathroom cleaning collection! Do you have any neat tricks for cleaning??

.: linking up at :.

Works for Me Wednesday @ We are THAT family

All Things Inspired @ All Things Heart & Home

Whatever Goes Wednesday @ Someday Crafts

Show and Tell @ Blue Cricket Designs

Show Me What Ya Got @ Not Just A Housewife

Strut Your Stuff @ Saturday Mornings

Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tatertots and Jello