New magnet book marks for 2014

It has literally been ages since I have blogged!  So sorry I will try to do better ;-)

Anyway, I decided to sit down and make some new bookmarks today for the 2014 themes of  Primary and YM/YW!
They make awesome and inexpensive gifts. We gave these as birthday gifts in our Primary a couple of years ago.

For best results for this bookmark I would have it printed out as a 5x7 because I think a 4x6 would crop too much off.  Most online photo centers let you preview how it will crop first. Cut it down the middle lengthwise and then fold them in half down the middle.  Then place magnets on the inside bottom so it can snap together on your book page. the pic below shows how it should look once it is cut and folded. 
 
Click on pics below and save it to your desktop or something and then transfer it to your favorite photo center online.

Primary theme 2014

YM/YW theme 2014

Wood Spoons

So I have not posted on here for a long long time!  I started a new blog called "Little Sisters Crafts", but I see that people still come to this blog the most so I decided that I will just post my crafts on Little Sisters Crafts.com and this blog will be more of a mixture of everything like I have been using it :-)
Over the Holidays I started something knew that was a huge hit at my Etsy store!  Wood burned wood spoons :-)

It started out with these 1920's people.  

Then came the owls :-)

Wild Flowers,

And Sea Turtles :-)

The Owls were the hugest hit!  I never realized how many Owl lovers there are out there!

Double Yokes!

My baby chicks I got last spring are are little ladies now and have been laying eggs for a couple of weeks :-)  My son gathered up the eggs the other morning and this is what he brought in a huge egg!

  

The one on the right is a regular sized egg. 

And this is why the egg was so huge!

Double Yoke :-) My son claimed this egg since he gathered it.

interestingly we have had two other double yoke eggs this week.  I think that my new hens are just still getting the hang of this whole laying thing and unfortunately I don't think this fun phase of double yoke eggs will last long :-(

Calgon take me away!

It has been a long time since I have posted on this blog.  Do people still even blog these days?
 Back in 2009 when I first started blogging it was so fun!  I liked to find and follow other blogs with cute and clever ideas to share.  Then I have noticed over time blogging become more like a business for some people!  They would have guest posts with other bloggers and then of course you can't forget the giveaway contests to draw more people to their blogs.  I would say I am pretty computer savvy, but I can't seem to keep up with all the new changes that happen every few months in the blogging world.  Every time I think I have things down pretty good I find new things other people are doing like adding face book, tweet and Pin buttons to their blogs. etc
And now that Pinterest is so big I don't even follow my favorite blogs anymore.  I can find everything I am looking for on Pinterest and it links me to the blog or website that those pins come from.
Today I was catching up on some other blogs that I have followed in the past and I am amazed at the energy these women must have!  Some how they have time to be a mother, Do regular cute crafts, remodel their homes, go on awesome vacations, Have amazing organizational skills, Spotless houses, Make special gifts for their kids teachers, keep up with every Holiday, sew boutique style clothes for their kids, keep their home cute and trendy with  DIY tricks and tips, prepare new exciting and delicious meals and desserts, Get noticed by craft stores and magazines and be invited to share their wonderful crafting knowledge at special craft conferences and be featured in their magazines.  My personal favorite sign that you must have made it big in the crafting world here in Utah is when you get invited to be on Studio 5 or Good Things Utah :-) It made me tired just reading about it all!
My life This summer consisted of being a Frazzled Mom who can't seem to keep up with all my kids are involved in, A house that always seems to be a mess, A garden that does not seem to want to produce anything except Zucchini, A Million craft ideas that are in my head, but seem to remain in my head because I can't seem to find the time to sit down and make them, No awesome vacations because we don't have the money or time to go on any, I did read a couple of good books, "How Green was my Valley" and "EdenBrooke"
Going to Girls camp and keep up with my Young Women's calling, Every room in my house needs reorganized and redecorated, Trying to get my kids ready for the new school year, Swimming lessons and football practices, 3 different kids birthday and parties to go with them mingled with Family visiting from out of town (which was the biggest highlight of my Summer :)  And to top it all off instead of getting healthy and fit this summer I became less healthy and gained a few unsightly pounds :-/  So I guess I feel a little under whelmed with myself and my accomplishments this Summer :-)  One thing I am excited about lately is I have started getting big bulk orders for my unfinished Nativity puzzles and That will force me to clean the garage and get back into the wood cutting mode :-)
Well sorry to go off and ramble on so long.  My next post will be more useful and exciting I promise!

Michelle

Yummy Italian Pasta with Tilapia!

 So I was sitting there wondering what I should make for dinner?  Of course as usual I had forgotten to take meat out to thaw on time for dinner, but I remembered I had frozen Tilapia which can cook quickly frozen.  I was pondering this when my daughter told me she felt like having some type of Italian pasta.  I thought... can you make pasta with fish?

So I looked it up and sure enough their were tons of recipes, but none was exactly what I was wanting so I took a couple of ideas from a couple of different recipes and then I added my own ideas also :-)  

It turned out so Yummy!  So yummy in fact that my husband who does not normally like fish had 3 helpings!  And it was a nice light summer meal, but yet very filling.

I hate posting pictures of food because it does not like as good in the picture as it does in person, but I thought I better give you an idea of how it looks.

So here is what I did :-)

Ingredients

about 5 Tilapia fillets

one small onion chopped up fine

a couple of cloves of garlic minced

1 tablespoon Parsely

 1 tablespoon Oregano 

1 tablespoon  Basil

2 cans of Italian tomatoes

1/4 cup cream cheese

cup of frozen spinach

oil as needed in the cooking process

A 16 oz package of pasta (whatever you kind you like)

First bring  a pot of water on the stove to boil (for the pasta) and turn the oven on to broil (for the fish).  In a deep skillet saute onions and minced garlic in a couple of tablespoons olive oil at  medium heat on the stove.

After the onions are cooked down add the two cans of diced Italian tomatoes (or you can used Italian stewed tomatoes instead.) Next add all the herbs and let it simmer.  while that is simmering place Tilapia fillets on a shallow cooking sheet drizzle with oil and sprinkle with lemon pepper and season salt then place it in the oven to broil. (Add your pasta to the boiling water if it is ready at this point.)  I don't know an exact time the fish are done under the broiler I just keep checking them until they look moist but flakey.  Once they are done I add all the fish to the skillet mixture and mix it together (the fish naturally flakes off into chunks).  Next I stir in  the spinach and cream cheese and I let it simmer together until everything is mixed in and heated through.  By this point your pasta should be done so you drain it. Spoon the Tilapia mixture over the pasta, sprinkle  Parmesian or Feta cheese on top and enjoy!

I would love to hear back if you tried this meal and what you thought of it :-)

Life is Fragile :-)

I heard this quote at church today :-)  I really liked it, and thought I would share it with you all !

DIY Rose Wire Rings

I saw this tutorial at Handmadeology.  And I thought to myself  hmmm..... I can do that!   Or something similar to it anyway :-)   I did not have the right wire on hand, but it was about 9:00 at night (too late to go to the craft store) So  I decided to mess around with some galvanized steel wire that we had on hand in our garage, and this is what I came up with :-)

If you are interested to know how to make one yourself  here is a little tutorial of how I made them.  I feel like I am terrible at explaining  tutorials so hopefully it makes sense :-) 

These are the supplies that I used. Galvanized steel wire we had in our garage,  wire cutter and pliers, and a tube of chap stick.

First I got a piece of wire.  I am not sure how long it is.  I just unraveled two rotations from the this wire spool. maybe it is about a foot long.

I realized right away that the wire was pretty thin so I doubled it up. 

Then I twisted it to give it more stability. And happily I think it gives it a nice look with the twist.  I found that it helps to get a more uniform twist if you use your pliers. it is hard to see in the picture that I am twisting the wire, but if you look really close you can tell :-)

Once I had it all twisted I wrapped it around a chap stick tube. this is the part where it gets confusing to explain.  I placed the chap stick tube directly in the center of my wire piece

 then I wrapped the wire around the tube crossing the two ends across each other. 

Then I wrapped it around again a second time until the two ends met up again.

This time cross the ends and twist them around each other once.

Then start wrapping/spiraling them around the middle twist part.  

Keep wrapping/spiraling them around until you can't wrap them anymore. At this point you need your pliers to help tuck the ends under and I also use the pliers to shape it a little more to my liking.

And this is what you end up with :-)

I have made one for each of my girls even the 3 year old.  They love their rings :-)

I love it when I can make pretty things with ordinary stuff laying around my house!