Side dish- Cornbread

Remember I told you about my favorite dish to share? (it's here if you didn't get a chance to see it) What could be better go to with that dish then the perfect cornbread. Cornbread is tricky as it can be dry as chalk or sweeter than a candy bar. This full proof recipe will always turn out with the perfect sweetness and moisture. So go call your friend right now and tell them you are bringing dinner over tonight with these two awesome recipes!

Source: Mel's Kitchen Cafe
½ cup cornmeal
1 ½ cup flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup oil
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1 ¼ cup milk

Add dry ingredients, make a well and add oil, butter, eggs, and milk into the center. Stir until just mixed. Bake in an 8” square pan at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. This doubles perfectly for a 9X13-inch pan.

Dr. Seuss Storage Boxes

My son has a Dr. Seuss themed nursery.



I loved every thing about his room except for one tiny little storage issue. Look how you can see everything on the shelves of his armoire. Actually it doesn’t look too bad in this before picture. Usually, blankets and junk were just thrown in every which way, it drove me nuts, and I needed a solution. I hunted for the perfect storage bin. I couldn’t find anything that was the perfect price, color, and size. So my solution, as it usually is, was to make my own.

 

I found that the small size moving boxes from Home Depot (you know the ones that only cost $0.69) were the exact size of the shelves. All I needed to do was make them pretty. Fortunately for me I had some left over book pages from this failed experiment… YIKES!



I had tried to wallpaper an entire wall with Dr. Seuss book pages. Cool in theory, but giant headache in real life. Literally a throbbing pain came into my head every time I entered his room. It was too much.
I took the unused, already torn out of book pages, and repurposed them for a few storage boxes.

Horton Hears a Who
 

The Sneetches  


If I Ran the Zoo         


I even lined the boxes with fabric and glued a different color ribbon along the top edge of each box.

      
Here is my tip for this project. If you line the boxes I recommend cutting open the box first, laying it flat, and then gluing down the fabric. It will be a lot easier than trying to glue in the fabric once the box is already assembled. Then once the fabric has been glued down, just use some hot glue to reassemble the box.



This was one of those projects that I just couldn’t get out of my head and I knew that I just had to complete so I could move on with my life ;) So finally at midnight one night I got to it. I wanted this done as quickly as possible. These weren’t perfectly executed. I recommend taking your time and making sure that you smooth out any bumps that you have in the paper or fabric. That is what I would have done differently.

     

But, they have held up great and they hide all of the stuff that I don’t want to look at it! I love them for it!

 

And since this is an organizational post, here is where I store his diapers, wipes, and other changing table necessities.



And here is where I store a few of his books and toys. These are old baskets I had from back in college. I just updated them with a few pieces of colorful ribbon.

New Year Goal Journal

I think this blog is going to be more beneficial to me than to any of my sisters. This is the first year (ever!) that I have made New Year’s Resolutions. One, Involves training for a triathlon. The second, Involves being a little more frugal this year to save up some money for a dream vacation.

That is where my sisters come in. I will need the help of Whitney, the coupon queen, to help me with the money saving part. I will need Lauren, my work out guru, to help me get ready for the triathlon because I am clueless on where to even begin. And did you see that post she just did about strength training? And did you pick up on the muscle loss after age 25? I am in trouble.

And not that those goals aren’t big enough, but I even have a few more goals on top of the ones that I already mentioned. I knew a casual approach to my resolutions/goals wasn’t going to cut it. So when my husband came home the other day with the most incredible gift, a giant stack of note cards (oh the things in life that I find joy in) I knew what I had to do.

Also, can you believe that his work was going to just throw these beauties away? All they had on them were two tiny little numbers on the back side.

 

I busted out my circuit- and I know that the silhouette is all the rage these days, but my circuit can do just the same with the help of this little program- Sure Cuts A Lot. See… I told you. All I did was set up the Font’s below and then I let the circuit do the work.



Here is the final outcome.




I can’t decide which month is my favorite. October, no January, maybe July, but April is cool too!

 

Tie it all together and viola… A goal journal. This journal sits on my night stand and we look at it every night to assess our progress that day.



Our goals stay pretty consistent every month, but some will require a little bit of tweaking each month so I write the goals for the month on the back of the note card. Every night we discuss our progress and check off whether or not we accomplished what we needed too. I kind of feel like a kid again, getting a check mark on my chore calendar for brushing my teeth or something. It works for us.

Here’s to a kick butt, goal keeping 2011!



 

A Valentines Gift

Are you looking for an inexpensive Valentines gift to give to a family member? Or maybe just a way to get your house ready for the upcoming Holiday?

I recently made a cheap and easy picture frame. I thought that I would share a tutorial.

Materials needed:

• $1 wooden frame from Michaels
• Old book
• Scissors
• Mod Podge
• Black and red paper

       Step 1. Tear pages from an old book. (That is always the saddest part.)

 Step 2. Cut pages into squares. My squares were about 2 in. x 2 in.

    Step 3. Apply Mod Podge to your wooden frame.

Step 4. Lay squares on top of the frame. Notice how my squares are bigger than the width of the frame? I did that so I could just fold the paper over, covering the inside and outside edge of the frame as well. Once everything was glued down, I put a coat of Mod Podge on top as well.

 

 

 

 

   

    Step 5. Add some hearts!

 

Step 6. Add some LOVE! I used my circuit to cut these letters out. My circuit will cut out any font in Microsoft Word. The font I used was French Script MT. If you don’t have a circuit, you could just print off the letters using Microsoft Word.

Easy. Easy. Seriously after I got the idea in my head- five minutes later it was done. Maybe I could stretch that to ten minutes if you count the time it took to have my circuit to cut out the letters.

 

This one is on my Mantel.

I also made one as a gift, and put this picture inside. Can you guess who it is for?

 

I heart Valentines Day!

Strength Training: It Isn't Just For Arnold

I believe everyone should learn about the great benefits of exercise. Learning about the benefits maybe will give you more motivation to get out and exercise more! The next couple weeks I just plan on talking about what great things exercise can do for you if you integrate it into your life!

Strength Training:

One great way to help maintain your weight is to strength train. Research indicates that after

the age of twenty-five, your muscles may lose more than one-half pound of muscle tissue

every year if they are not properly trained. Strength training is important because it allows

your body to keep functioning properly as you get older.

Key reasons why strength training is important:

— One pound of muscle requires three times more energy at rest than the energy required to maintain a pound of fat.

— If you increase three pounds of muscle you will have an increase of 40 calories per day

— You will have an increase in lean body mass

— You will increase your resting metabolic rate (the amount of energy the body uses while at rest)

— You will increase the use of stored fat at rest

Tune in next week to learn about the importance of cardio exercise!