Fabric Rosettes

While waiting for my pita bread to rise today, I decided to take on a craft project of making fabric rosettes!  

I have had this lovely picture of my niece Addison hanging on my fridge for about a year now! I think she was 2 months in this picture and she is now 14 months! Oh, how time flies!  Anyways, I have been wanting to put it in a frame but with the hustle and bustle of being pregnant and tending to Natty, I just never got around to it!  The downtime I encountered today made the perfect excuse to create something cute and fun to surround this pretty girl:

 Gather your supplies:

glue gun and glue sticks

boring frame

fabric (in as many colors as you'd like flowers)

some good fabric scissors

Cut strips of your fabric.  The longer your strips are, the larger your flower will be.  Don't worry about cutting a straight edge.  It won't matter.  I cut one smaller strip of brown tulle (hard to see in the pic), and a larger strip of hot pink sheer.

Take the end of your first strip of fabric and make a little ball and secure it with glue.  Continue to twist and glue every so often until you only have about an inch of fabric left.

On the backside of your rose, pile on a bunch of hot glue and fold over the extra fabric and press down to secure everything together.  (disclaimer: you may get burned a little, but you'll be alright if you have a low-heat gun like I do) 

Flip over to front side and trim off excess fabric

Rearrange and fix little spots that need fixing with some glue.  (I call this nip and tucking) :)

 There you have it! Cute and easy fabric rosettes ready to adorn your frame (or wreath, or hair, or whatever you come up with!)

Now Addy looks so cute in her new frame and has a special spot in her cousin's room!

Whole Wheat Pita Bread

As many of you already know from this post, I have been on a hummus kick.  My sister and I have tried many different accompaniments to have with the hummus and we have decided that no matter how creative and adventurous we get, pita bread just taste the best with it.  During one of my middle of the night feedings with N last night, I decided to look up how to make pita bread on my own.  Since I already had some whole wheat flour, this morning I gave it a go! I did some research on the main ingredients of pita and adapted it to accommodate the things I already had in my pantry.  Most of my recipe is adapted from here, but this is my version:

Ingredients:
1 Packet of active dry yeast
3 Cups whole wheat flour (only 67cents/lb right now at Sprouts!)
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
not pictured:
olive oil, warm water

 Dissolve the yeast packet in 1/2 cup of warm water and mix. 

 Add sugar and mix.  Let sit for 15 minutes until the mixture is foamy.

 In a separate bowl, combine flour and salt.

This is the foamed up yeast mixture after sitting for 15 minutes:

Take the foamed yeast mixture and add it to the center of the flour/salt mixture.

Slowly add a cup of warm water and stir with a wooden spoon until everything is all mixed together.

Place your dough on a floured surface and knead it for 15 minutes.  This seems like a long time to stand there and knead but I brought the dough over to the baby and made faces at here while I kneaded.  Be creative, but make sure you knead for 15 minutes.  You know the dough is good to go when it is no longer sticky.

Coat a large bowl with olive oil and place your dough inside, turning it a couple times to make sure all the dough has some oil on it.  Let the dough sit in a warm place (I put mine by the kitchen window) for 3 hours.  It will double in size.  Being the impatient person that I am had a hard time waiting 3 whole hours for this! I was so excited to get to the fun part.  Here are some things I did to pass the time: a load of laundry, feed the baby, decorate a picture frame, get dinner ready, talk to the sister.

All those things I found to do while waiting 3 hours actually made the rising time go by really fast!  Take your now doubled dough and roll it into a long rope.

Pinch off small pieces of your rope and make some balls.  Place the balls on a floured surface, cover for 10 minutes.  While you're waiting for the 10 minutes to pass, place your oven rack on the very bottom and preheat the oven to 500 degrees.  Preheat your baking sheet too.

Roll out each ball into flat circles (mine are not perfect, they have character) :) Bake for 4 minutes.  The bread should be puffy.  Take it out of the oven and flip the pitas with a spatula and bake again for another 2 minutes.

I sprinkled mine with rosemary and ran to the door with one to shove in Josh's face when he got home from work.  

Most recipes say the bread can be stored in a pantry for up to a week!  Make these and some hummus this weekend to share with friends! DO IT!

2 Years Down!

Two years ago today, I walked down the aisle into the arms of my best friend, Joshua.  I know it's so common to use the phrase "I'm married to my best friend" or similar ones like it, but I can honesty say that I am.  Josh knows me like no one else on this earth does.  He has seen me all dolled up and he has seen me looking awful.  He knows the best of me and he know all my faults...and calls me out on them.  We are so silly that I kind of feel bad for Natalie in her future because of how much we will probably embarrass her!  I am having such a blast being married to Josh! 

Today, we watched our wedding highlight video and while I was listening to us say our vows to one another, I realized how little I knew about marriage and the seriousness of those vows when I said them two years ago.  After living real life, making huge decisions, and having a child together, those vows take on a whole new meaning.  Two years ago, I meant those words the best I could while being clouded with the fluffiness and giddiness of love.  I was so excited to be a wife and have a little house and cook and clean.  I didn't understand (or want to understand) that with real life comes financial hardships and relational issues.  The things Josh and I have been through in our very short marriage thus far have brought us closer to one another, but listening to those vows today made me understand a little better how serious those words are and how easy they are to break.  I am so blessed that God has given me a man to spend my life with and to commit those vows to.

September 13, 2009

September 13, 2011: I made Ribs (Josh's favorite) for dinner tonight and we ate on our fine china and used our toasting goblets from the wedding.  I had my first glass of wine since before I was pregnant, too!

Even Natalie joined us in her swing as we ate! Because of our love, she is here!!

Okay, I know this post was nice and sappy but hey, it's our anniversary for goodness sake!  Go love on your lover if you have one!

Home Management

My life since baby N was born has been a little chaotic, to say the least.  That first month I felt as if I just existed.  Before I knew it, that month flew by and I realized I had completely threw out all of my other responsibilities.  Thankfully, I have an awesome husband and family who helped take care of some things, but I knew I needed to get organized.  So after about a week of research and another week of creating, I came up with this incredible, life-changing home management notebook! I absolutely love the way it turned out and it has already helped our little family save time and money!  Below I will share a few of my favorites:

Cover

My Daily Schedule: includes errands, emails, phone calls, things to accomplish, my personal meal plan, work out goals, and a section to write ideas and inspiration.

Monthly Calendar

Meal Planning and Grocery List

(love this one!)

Our Monthly Budget

(This is where the money saving has come in! It's so much better when things are written down!)

Car Maintenance Log: This has a section to fill out when the registration is due as well as a place to fill in regular car maintenance.  This has been helpful to us because prior to this, I was guessing when the oil was last changed or how old the tires were.  This will hopefully save us money in the long run by making sure our cars are kept up!

Utilities Tracker:  I couldn't tell you how many times I am trying to call in or pay a bill online that I needed our account number for and I can't find the bill to look it up.  I end up having to wait forever on hold to get a representative to look it up for me.  This page is a reference sheet that will hold our account numbers, contact numbers, and ways to pay online or by phone for all of our utilities.

Birthdays and Celebrations: All in one place in our notebook so we will (hopefully) never forget another birthday or anniversary again!  This also helps us as a reference when we are filling out our monthly budget to plan for gifts for that specific month!

Also in our notebook are to do checklists, a babysitter info sheet, medical record info, a gift log, and so much more! I am using to it store my receipts and coupons too!  

I am thinking about making these pages available on here as printouts if anyone is interested.  More on that to come.  

For now, be inspired to be organized! 

Love!

Baked Salmon

Bri and I were at it again cooking up some healthy eats. I could get used to meals like these! Here is our process in cooking baked salmon with sundried tomato aparagus:

Ingredients for salmon:

Fresh Salmon Filet

Half of a Red Onion

2-3 Fresh Basil Leafs

2-3 Fresh Garlic Cloves

6 Tbs. Olive Oil

1 Tbs. Lemon Juice

Salt

Fresh Ground Pepper

Ingredients for Asparagus (not pictured):

Asparagus Spears

Olive Oil

Sundried Tomatos

Preheat the oven to 375. Since the salmon has to marinate, start with those ingredients first. In a large bowl, cover the salmon filet with the chopped onion, basil, and garlic. I threw all three of those ingredients into my food processor to eliminate chopping time. (I'm all about the easy way!) Add the olive oil and lemon juice to the bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

After you are satisfied with your marinating time, take your salmon smothered goodness out of the bowl and lay it in the middle of a sheet of tin foil.

Wrap the salmon in the tin foil to look like a pocket and place on a cookie sheet. Bake for about 30 minutes. You will know the salmon is done when it flakes off easily with a fork.

In the meantime, boil the tomatoes.

And lay your asparagus on some tin foil just like you did with the salmon. Add the boiled tomatoes and olive oil and wrap up. Put the asparagus in the oven with the salmon.

Here is the cooked asparagus just out of the oven:

Yummy! We paired our delicious salmon filet and asparagus with a green salad. Bri had to have her hummus too!

This was honestly one of the best and most satisfying meals I have had in a long time! I also haven't had any fish (due to those mercury levels and being pregs) in about a year. Usually when I have cooked fish in the past, the house instantly gets infused with a nasty "fishy" stench but this wasn't the case this time! Good food, good company. What more could a girl want?

Homemade Hummus

My sister Bri has recently been inspiring me to eat healthy. Between her influence and my own desire to shed this baby weight, we have become obsessed with the Sprouts down the street. Anyone who says that eating healthy is too expensive, I say BULL to that. I have never spent more than 20 bucks for a few bags of fresh and healthy meats and produce. Here's the key though: only buy on sale and try to use coupons. (I'm not obsessing over coupons anymore though...been there, done that.) Anyway, Sprouts is wonderful for buying things to make from scratch. LIKE HUMMUS! Store bought hummus can tend to have a lot of extras and preservatives, so I decided to make it from nothing! I even grew my own beans! No, just kidding.

Here is my version of fresh, delicious husband approved hummus. Adapted from here.

Ingredients:

Garbanzo Beans (I used about 1 pound)

2 Tsp. Cumin

1.5 Tsp. Garlic Salt

2-3 Fresh Sauteed Garlic Cloves

1 Tsp. Sea Salt

1.5 Tbs. Lemon Juice

3 Tbs. Olive Oil

The night before, wash and soak your beans in cold water and place in the fridge overnight. In the morning, drain the water from the beans and fill a large stock pot up with fresh water. I did about 12 cups of water for my 1 pound of beans. Bring pot to a boil, then simmer beans for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Drain Beans.

In your food processor, process beans to your desired consistency. Once all the beans have been run through, add the cumin, sea salt, garlic salt, and fresh garlic. Run the processor again. Finally, add your lemon juice and olive oil and process real good one more time.

Wala! Homemade Hummus!

I also bought whole wheat pita bread at Sprouts, sliced it up, baked it, and served it along side the hummus to the hubs. He loved!

Hope you do too!

New Adventure

To my own shame, I am known in my humble little circle of starting things and not finishing them. I have tried to start little businesses and cooking blogs but nothing really stuck longer than a few weeks. So, here I go again. A new adventure. Will I follow through? Who knows! I am going to strive to be consistent here, but I won't beat myself up if I never write another post after this one again.

Breathe. Okay, now that the disclaimer is over...here is a little bit about me:

My name is Crysten and I am married to my best friend, soul mate, and partner in crime, Josh. He is a man of God and an incredible leader of our little family. Seven weeks ago, my life changed forever when I gave birth to our first baby girl, Natalie. She is lovely and exhausting. While I was pregnant with Natalie, I was laid off from my job. Although at the time, the news was devastating to me. I lacked trust in God that He knew what was best for our family. With a few "cut-backs" and changes in our lifestyle, we have found a way to keep me at home to raise our daughter--for now.

That brings us to this blog. I am ASPIRING to become the best housewife I can be. I will pray, cook, clean, create, and everything else along the way. I will do my best to share my journey if anyone is willing to peek.

Enjoy, my friends.