My "Other" Mother

My mother-in-law is turning 60 this month (June 21st to be exact).  We are doing something special for her birthday and as one of her gifts, friends and family are writing letters to her to be placed in a scrapbook.  I'm not very good at writing letters, I have a hard time putting my thoughts and feelings into words.  I was looking around online, trying to find a poem or saying that would be nice as my contribution to the scrapbook.  Let me tell you....there are some very cheesy mother-in-law poems.  And then I found the poem "My 'Other' Mother".  There were different variations, so I put together bits and pieces from them and came up with something I liked.

I didn't want to just type up the poem with a nice font and then print it.  Using Picnik (LOVE this site...I have a membership but you can use some of the program for free), I came up with this:

I thought this poem was perfect and I love how this came out.  Simple and personal.  Hope she likes it!

Tater Tot Casserole

I haven't made tater tot casserole in a long time.  And when I do make, I always think something is missing.  Before making it last night, following the usual recipe, I did a quick search online and found a recipe that sounded really good.  So here is my Day 13 for 30 Days of Creativity - Tater Tot Casserole.  I also linked up to the Craft-o-Maniac Monday Link Party.

Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef or turkey
chopped onion (as little or as much as you like)
8 oz. sour cream
1 c. shredded cheese
1/2 bag of tater tots
cream of chicken soup
seasonings (I used salt, pepper, and garlic)

Pour a little oil into a large skillet and start cooking the onion.  Add in the ground beef (or turkey) and cook until there is no pick, season the meat.  While the beef (or turkey) is cooking, in a separate bowl, add the soup, sour cream, and cheese.  Once the meat is cooked, remove from heat and stir in the soup/sour cream/cheese.  Place into a baking dish.  Top with tater tots and place in oven.  Cook for about 30 mins. at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.  Serve and enjoy!

Note - our oven never seems to get the tater tots crispy, so we used the broiler for a few minutes to get them crispy.

And here I am with the final dish!

Leggs likes to 'help' me in the kitchen...he watches closely, hoping I drop something for him to eat.

Ice Cream, Sugar Hand Scrub and Hot Dogs

Here we go...I'm going to use this to catch up through Day 12 (minus Day 8's project, I can't post that until the weekend).  Day 9 through Day 12 involved ice cream, hand scrub and hot dogs.

Day 9 - Sugar Hand Scrub

Spring means allergies and allergies means sneezing and itchy skin for Heather.  When it's allergy season, I get really dry and itchy hands.  I haven't found anything that helps heal my hands.  I was looking around online to find a hand scrub just to try get rid of the dry skin.  I found a few recipes for some hand scrubs and thought I would try one.  For the one I made, I used 3/4 c. brown sugar, 3/4 c. white sugar and 1/4 c. olive oil.  I mixed everything in a canning jar.  I added a little more olive oil after everything was combined in the jar.  I tried the scrub on my hands and it was okay.  It made my hands nice and smooth, but didn't help with the really dry patches.  This scrub can also be used as a body scrub, which I haven't tried yet.  But I'm sure it will work great.  And if any of you have suggestions on how to help my hands, please share.  I would love to hear them!

 Day 10 and 11 - Key Lime Ice Cream

Jeremy and I were given an ice cream maker right after we were engaged, about four years ago.  We never used it.  Sad, I know.  I was going through google reader the other day and saw a recipe for key lime ice cream.  I love anything key lime, so I knew I had to try this.  It was super easy, just add the ingredients to the bowl of the ice cream maker and run for about 25 minutes.  It didn't fully freeze the ice cream, so I put it in a freezer safe bowl and froze over night.  This ice cream is delicious!  And now I want to try some more ice cream recipes.

And now I think I need some ice cream. :-)

Day 12 - Hot Dog Johnny's

I really don't like hot dogs.  I'm not sure what it is, I just don't like them.  But on Sunday, we went to Hot Dog Johnny's on Route 46 in Buttzville, NJ (yes, there is a Buttzville in New Jersey).  Hot Dog Johnny's was founded in 1944.  The menu is simple - hot dogs, french fries, pickles, soda and milkshakes.  Their birch beer is awesome!  Since they only sell hot dogs, I ate one, with lots of ketchup, mustard, relish and onion.  I didn't get any pictures of the food, but I took some of the building and signs.  If you're in the area, definitely stop by.  It's a pretty cool place and right on the river.  Great place to stop!

4th of July Bunting

Banners and buntings seem to be all over the crafty blogging world.  The one's I usually see are for baby and kids rooms, and I don't have any children.  But when I saw this tutorial, I was in love and wanted to get sewing right away!  The only thing I changed on mine was that I used a pinking shears to cut the fabric so the edges won't fray.  I also used some jute string that I had instead of the yarn.  Oh! And I used a compass to trace a half circle on the fabric to cut out.  I have to say, it worked well except that my fabric marker did not fit in the pencil holder side of the compass.  But the pencil worked just as well.  I will definitely be using the compass in the future!

I really like how this bunting/banner came out.  It was a quick project and not much fabric is needed (1/3 yard of each).  Now time to start working on these for all holidays!  And this is my Day 7 of the 30 Days of Creativity.  I'm getting caught up!  I also linked up to Craft-o-Maniac Monday Link Party!

Crawfish and Cookies

The next few posts are going to be catch up for the 30 Days of Creativity.  I knew this would be difficult for me!  Each day I have tried to do something creative, either cooking, sewing or taking pictures.  So here we go!

Day 4 and 5 - Crawfish Festival

June 4th and 5th, my family and I volunteered with the local volunteer fire department to help them sell and serve drinks at the Michael Arnone's Crawfish Fest.  We've been helping for a few years now and have a lot of fun.  This is one of the main fundraisers of the year for the fire department, and the more drinks we serve, the more money they get.  It's a long two days, but we get to meet some awesome (and interesting) and people, listen to some great music, and know we are helping a good cause!  Oh...and we get to eat the awesome Louisiana food!!


Bayou Bar - Our location



One of the many bands that plays over the weekend.

Day 6 - Trader Joe's

For the past few weeks I've been working for a new client and travel at least once a week for meetings.  On my way back from some meetings, I pass Trader Joe's.  Normally, I don't shop there because it's so far out of the way to do my normal grocery shopping.  But I figured since I was driving right by on my home from work, why not stop.  And I did.  And I found the most amazing cookies ever!  I usually don't like pre-packaged chocolate chip cookies, but the other pre-packaged things I have gotten at Trader Joe's, I've loved.  So I bought these.  And then couldn't stop eating them.  Best cookies ever!

And there are three days of 30 Days in one post.  I know...kinda boring and lame...but that's what those three days consisted of.  I do have some cooking and sewing projects coming up shortly.  Two of the projects I can't post until later on this week.

Day 4 of 30 Days of Creativity - Tennessee

Back in September 2009, my hubby and I took a road trip down to Tennessee.  We visited the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, Gatlinburg, Dollywood and some small towns I can't remember the names of.  I don't think I ever posted any pictures from that trip on here.  I know the trip was two years ago, but I wanted to do a photography post for the 30 Days of Creativity. 
I am definitely not the most talented photographer.  I have a Nikon Coolpix S550 point-and-shoot camera, but I admit I don't really know how to use the camera (so if any of you have pointers on how to really use it, I would love to hear them!).  But this is the camera I use for everything.  It's small, portable and easy to use.

Anyway, I took a lot of pictures when we went to Tennessee.  It's so beautiful down there and I wanted to capture everything!  So for Day 4 of 30 Days of Creativity (I know...way behind), I wanted to share some the pictures I took while on this vacation.

This is a barn in Cataloochee Valley, which is actually in the North Carolina section of the park.

These two pictures are from our drive up to Clingmans Dome, which is the highest point in the Park (6,643 feet).  It was foggy the day we went, I don't have any clear pictures from the observation desk at the top. 

I actually used one of the many functions on my camera for this one!



And of course I had to add one picture from Dollywood.  Jeremy took this one for me.  I have to say, this amusement park was one of the best I have ever been to.  Dolly Parton designed the park around the history of the Smoky Mountains.  Walking around the park was like stepping back in time.  I loved it!

And that's my Day 4 entry.  I have another five days to catch up on.  We'll see how that goes...

Baby Shower Gift For My Sister

For my Day 3 of 30 Days of Creativity, I'm going to show the gift I made/refinished for my sister Amy.  We had her baby shower a few weeks ago and I refinished a changing table/dresser for her (with help from my husband, Jeremy). 

My younger sister is having her first baby, a girl, in little over a month.  While planning her baby shower, I was trying to think of a gift to make for her.  I knew I wouldn't have time to make a quilt, but still wanted to make something.  She had plans on refinishing an old dresser to use as a changing table.  It was getting closer to the shower and I still had nothing, but my sister still had not started the changing table.  I was talking to my mother-in-law about it and while she was out at some garage sales, she found a wooden changing table.  It was in great shape, but the color wouldn't match the rest of the baby's room, which is all white furniture.  So my husband helped me sand and paint (well...he did most of the sanding and painting, I guess he doesn't trust me with power tools or paint). 

After it was all painted, I added these awesome shabby chic drawer pulls to each of the drawers.  I looked all over for ones that would match my sister's style and the baby's room decor, but was having a hard time finding what I wanted.  Then I saw some beautiful pink shabby chic ones at Home Goods.  They looked great! 

Here is the changing table before (well, after it was sanded)

And here is the changing table/dresser after it's all painted and I added the knobs!

I gave the changing table to Amy at her baby shower.  I really hope she likes it!  It does look really good in the baby's room.  She bought a really pretty mattress cover for it and has already filled the changing table with diapers, wipes, and clothes.

Slacker...

So I was doing good with the whole 30 Days of Creativity for about two days.  And then the weekend hit and I haven't posted or crafted since then.  I do have a good excuse thought...I was volunteering my time with the local fire department as they were selling and serving drinks at Michael Arnone's 22nd Annual Crawfish Fest.  My dad was a member and fire chief of the fire department and that's how we got involved.  It's a lot of fun and we meet very interesting people and get to listen to some great music!  My next post will be, hopefully, a catch-up post and have at least four creative things by me. 

Our Little Garden

I love to garden.  I love all the colors from the flowers.  I love growing my own vegetables.  But there is only one problem...Jeremy and I live in a condo and we don't have a yard.  We do have an outdoor space, but it's a little patio that is just big enough for a small table, two folding chairs and a little electric grill.  This doesn't leave a lot of space to have pots of flowers, herbs and vegetables. 

For the past two summers that we've been living here, we usually have a hanging basket with flowers and three window boxes (oh...and Jeremy's rock 'garden').  So I stuck with that, planting the window boxes and buying a hanging plant.  I also found this fragrant flower that I can't remember the name of, which I put in an extra flower pot.  With all the rain we've had in northern New Jersey, everything is really growing! 

This year, a friend of mine is working part time job at a garden center and she said we should try growing some vegetables in buckets.  I asked her to pick up whatever she thinks would grow and she got us a patio tomato plant and two bell pepper plants.  She even planted them for us in two five-gallon buckets.  And I'm really impressed with how well they are doing.  There is even a small pepper growing on one of the plants!

I think a lot of creativity goes into having a garden, no matter the size.  It starts with picking all the plants and colors (I like all the flower colors to match), then figuring out where to place everything and how to make everything fit with the space you have, and taking care of the plants and keep them growing.  And then there's taking pictures of the plants and flowers as well.  With that, I'm posting my little garden for day two of the 30 Days of Creativity challenge.  And I think I broke record with number of days in a row where I posted something!  Maybe this whole challenge thing will help me become a little better at blogging.  We'll see!

My little garden gnome that I painted myself!

Chicken Kabobs

Here is my day 1 blog entry for the 30 Days of Creativity.  Last night, I made chicken kabobs for dinner.  I thought cooking would be a great way to kick of my 30 days of creativity.  It's a learning experience for me, since I'm not the most creative person when it comes to making meals.  So I have a feeling this 30 day initiative is going to be filled with lots of cooking and baking and hopefully I will share some of the recipes with you.   

Okay, so on to last night's supper.  I decided to make kabobs and oven potatoes.  For the potatoes, I used some packaged seasoning mix that I had the pantry.  So I followed the recipe on the back of the packet.  I cut up four red potatoes into bite size pieces, added some olive oil and the seasoning packet.  I then spread the potatoes onto a baking sheet and baked for about 25 minutes.

While the potatoes were cooking, I cut up the chicken, tomatoes, peppers and onions.  There is no recipe for this, I just use whatever veggies and meat I have in the house.  I placed the meat and veggies onto bamboo skewers.  Once they were all assembled, I drizzled olive oil and crushed peppercorn and garlic seasoning from Pampered Chef.  I usually will marinate the chicken and veggies in Italian salad dressing, but since my husband was picking up the veggies on his way from work, I didn't have time to let the veggies sit in the dressing.  Then it was time for the grill.  My husband and I live in a condo and we can only have an electric outdoor grill...so it doesn't hold much but it does the trick when cooking for the two of us.

I left the kabobs on the grill for a good 15 minutes (I'm paranoid about undercooked food...so I probably could have taken everything off the grill in about 10 minutes). Once taken off the grill, it was time to eat!  I think kabobs are probably one of my favorite summer time meals.  They are simple to make, but such a great tasting meal.

Day 1 down...29 more to go.  Will I make it??  I sure hope so!