Butternut Squash Soup - my own recipe!

Hello dear readers! It's time for my annual post! Just kidding....no really. My last post was December 2, 2013 😁

This evening I made butternut squash soup on my own with no recipe and it turned out great. The kids really enjoyed it, too. Here's what I did:

Ingredients
1-2 TBS olive oil
1/2 butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces
2 cloves fresh garlic
1 sweet onion
2 C vegetable broth
2 C almond milk

Directions
Peel and chop your squash, onions and garlic. In a stock pot, saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil for a few minutes on medium - don't let the garlic burn...yuck. Add the squash and continue to saute for another 2-3 minutes. Add the vegetable broth and almond milk and bring the heat up until you achieve a slow boil with the lid on. Cook until squash is tender when pierced, for me this was about 20 minutes. Turn off heat, add salt and pepper to taste. Our hot soup carefully into blender and purée. If you prefer texture, use a potato masher to give your soup more chunks instead of using the blender.
Serve and enjoy!

Parenting: the best book title ever?

A recent discussion topic on an online mom's board that I follow, contained the question "Your book title if you wrote one.." A few responded with some creative and funny titles, such as:

"Little socks everywhere"
"Why I haven't killed you yet" - wow, sounds like this mom needs a break!
"The floor is not a storage area" - I can totally relate!
"Outnumbered"

 I added a few of my own:

"I know why you always need to be in my lap!" (So you always know where I am)
"Cleaning up after yourself can be fun!"
"Please don't touch my hair, and other spacial-related problems"
"Don't ask for food you have no intention in eating"
"I'll see you in the middle of the night!" (My daughter says this to us routinely as she goes to bed. And she is not kidding.)

What would you title your book? Would it be a comedy or a drama? In thinking about titles and reading what others would use, it gave me pause to think about the way I view my children. Sometimes parents think of their kids as nuisances, or that perhaps a child's plight is to annoy their parents. In the heat of the moment when I've just spent my last ounce of energy picking up another pile of clothes, or putting together one more puzzle that was taken apart, these thoughts drift into my mind.

Please post your title ideas in the comment section! I look forward to reading them!

Catching up

This has not been what I wanted it to be. I always hoped that it would be a place where I could keep track of creative things I had done with the kids, and for myself. For a while, I put forth a good effort. But lately, realistically the last year, none of us have been very creative at all. I now find myself turning to Pinterest for creative ideas, and storage of those ideas. I see this blog morphing into something else entirely in the next few months. For those who continue to visit, thank you for your patience. I really am still here, really.

Uh...where have you been?

Wow! It's been almost a year since I've written something! Sad, sad, sad :( My oldest is in school every day now, and I'm involved, so I find very little time to craft. This year I've made one homemade Christmas gift so far. Epic fail. Next year, I swear it will be better! I am planning to make something cute for my daughter, so when it's done, I'll post it here along with a tutorial if it goes well. Love, Rebecca

Look what I did! and....A giveaway!

It's an iPhone cozy! I found this cool pattern on Pinterest and my dear friend Tina (thanks, Tina!) helped me get this started! But I still need more practice, so.....if you'd like me to knit one of these for you, be one of the first two to post a comment here on the blog. I will make you your own cozy, in the color(s) you want, and get it to you by the end of February, or sooner! Good luck!

A new year and some new ideas...

2012 is here and due to my recent Pinterest discovery, I am beginning to feel that crafty feeling again.

First, I started with this: http://thejoyofdecorating.com/2011/09/the-joy-of-scarves/ which is a DIY t-shirt scarf. I changed it just a little from this pattern and added a braid on one side and a felted flower. Fun!

Next, I made this cool beaded necklace: http://www.skiptomylou.org/2011/09/05/bead-knot-fabric-necklace-tutorial/ but instead of wooden beads, I used styrofoam which made it lighter, and probably less expensive.

And today, I dug out the knitting needles and started this: http://artemisadornments.com/2010/10/10/stripey-iphone-cosy/ , an iPhone cosy made from scrap yarn. Probably not entirely necessary, but pretty easy once my lovely knitting teacher helped me :)

Giveaway!

Would you like to win a DVD of the movie Something Borrowed (see the widget for synopsis and other info in the previous post), starring Kate Hudson and Ginnifer Goodwin? To enter, comment on this post and tell me what you borrowed when you got married. If you are not married or didn't borrow anything, tell me how many weddings you have been in. Because I'm curious.

Good luck!

Something Borrowed...

Check out the widget!

Hello internet....

It's been oh so long since I've written a blog post, four months about!

Back to school, birthdays and Halloween are upon us. It's going to be a busy couple of months! Atticus is going to be a "police", Meredith is undecided, and I plan to go as Wednesday from Addams Family. I think it suits me. Will has yet to disclose his Halloween costume, but it's just got to be a dandy!

Look for a giveaway in the next few days and hopefully some creative posting will follow that!

And the winner is....

Jessica!!!!!!

Tangled....Have you seen it??

Another giveaway folks! Post a comment to my blog between now and Monday April 4th at 7AM and tell me why you love Tangled, and if you haven't seen it, tell me why you'd like to! I'll use a randomizer to pick the winner of a fabulous Tangled Blu-Ray DVD Combo Pack!!

Happy commenting!

Have you seen Tangled??

Hi Friends! Look for more creativity soon, but for now, please check out the cool new Tangled widget I have posted below. Also, I'm getting ready to post another giveaway, your very own TANGLED DVD!! Look for details in the next couple of days!

Are you a winner??

Well, of course you are :) Using a randomizer (fun!), all six of you who posted have won! See below...

DVD winners:

Vy
Robyn
Tina

CD sountrack winners:

Jess
Sarah
Anonymous*

*If your name is anoymous, please send an email to me @ rebeccam@charter.net with your full name and address so you will receive your CD.

Thanks for enetering, everyone! I hope to be able to do another giveaway soon!

My first contest/giveaway!!!

Dear Friends,

I have the pleasure of inviting you to participate in my first blog contest/giveaway! I am giving away 3 copies of the movie "Life As We Know It" with Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel, as well as 3 soundtracks! Please comment to this post below by Monday 2/5 @ 5PM PST, and tell me if you'd like the movie, or soundtrack. I will draw six names on Monday February 7th and notify you if you are a winner!

More info. about the movie:

"This quirky romantic comedy follows Holly (Katherine Heigl) & Messer (Josh Duhamel), two seemingly unsure adults, who become unexpected parents to their best friends’ daughter after a tragic accident. As opposites attract, the two struggle to put aside their differences, learn how to care for their charming adopted daughter Sophie and become a family through these unforeseen circumstances."

http://lifeasweknowitmovie.warnerbros.com/dvd/

ClickCast Movie Widget...Check it out folks!

This quirky romantic comedy follows Holly (Katherine Heigl) & Messer (Josh Duhamel), two seemingly unsure adults, who become unexpected parents to their best friends’ daughter after a tragic accident. As opposites attract, the two struggle to put aside their differences, learn how to care for their charming adopted daughter Sophie and become a family through these unforeseen circumstances.

Remodeling

It's hard to live in your house while it's being remodeled. It feels like ages since we began, but wait, we began on December 1st, so really, it's only been 47 days, 12 hours and 28 minutes. Oh wait, was I counting again?

Tomorrow we make our third trek to IKEA. Hopefully we can get everything correct this time, instead of purchasing a single cabinet which does not match the other 40 cabinets purchased (not Will's fault).

I am anticipating this to be completed in the next three weeks, give or take two weeks....

Creativity on the horizon? Yes, when we get our dining room table back. Until then, you can rest assured that over the holiday season I not only felted my first soap, but I also painted my first two peg dolls and they turned out wonderfully!

Dining room looking into kitchen...day 36

Egg carton flowers

In an effort to squelch the screaming and hitting-fest on this Monday morning, I searched for a quick craft for the kiddos that I had the materials for, was quick to set up, and would work for both an almost two and almost 4 year old. Here's what I came up with:

It might be hard to see in the photo, but we cut up egg cartons and used the little cups for flowers. A hole was punched in the middle for the "stem" - pipe cleaners - and I traced leaves onto green construction paper and cut them out - these went onto the pipe cleaner. The kiddos used crayons and markers to color the cups. Once we get enough made, we will put them in a vase for display. 

This idea came from Craftbits.com - http://www.craftbits.com/project/egg-carton-flowers

This held their attention for approximately 10 minutes....It was fun for me though!

Camping with children

After a one year hiatus, we will be attempting to camp again with our children this weekend. Just one night, mind you. We wouldn't want to do anything crazy, any crazier that is, then camping with an almost four and almost 2 year old. We will be staying close to home - 20 miles away approximately. It's hardly worth the packing up of all the camping paraphanalia and lugging to the campsite. Or is it?

There will be a total of 12 adults and 11 children, who will play with eachoter and get dirty until they fall over from exhaustion.

I'll report back....

Mapbooking

As seen in the July 2010 edition of Marth Stewart Living - I cannot find a link to the article, so I'll do my best to explain.

Weed out all the maps that are no longer valid (old maps, things change) and use them in scrapbooks to display photos. This method works nicely to commemorate a trip. You can use them as borders with photo corners (think matte), as the page background or as an envelope (trace another envelope for size) to hold mementos that you want to keep loose but secure.

A fun spin on this would be to make envelopes for mailing - just use mailing labels for addresses, or if the map is light-colored, try using a dark permanent marker so the mailing address is visible.

I'm going to try both of these ideas before the summer is over! I better get on that...

Update

We were creative this weekend. Made a cute lacing card in the shape of a pear and a rocket ship bookmark that Atti shall use for playing with instead. I will post pics soon, and will be blogging again soon as well, as I have plans!