Last of the FR08 Pages

Cleaning Mirrors

My wonderful husband cleaned our bathroom yesterday (oh how I hate that chore!) and I finished it up by cleaning the mirrors today. As I was cleaning, I wondered how many of you don't know about this wonderful cleaning solution. I use my regular window/mirror cleaner (a cheap off brand of windex), but instead of using paper towels (which leave lint all over) or a rag or towel (which also leave lint all over), I use a crumpled up piece of newspaper. I learned this trick from my mom & always cleaned windows & mirrors with newspaper growing up.  All you do is take a sheet of newspaper, crumple it up, & wipe up the window cleaner. For some reason it doesn't leave lint, plus it is absorbent enough to clean the mirrors. I love it! Plus, I don't have to pay for it (I just use the free paper that comes every once in awhile). If your piece gets too soggy, just throw it away & grab another one. It's great! How many of you already knew about this, or have I totally enlightened you?

More FR08 Pages

My Jean Quilt

I really wanted to have a jean quilt to take to our upcoming family reunion, so I made one this last week. I love it! It's so huge & heavy, but it will be great for picnics, watching fireworks, & hanging out on the beach!

A Quick Tutorial on Etching Glass

I ordered some Armour Etching cream last week & it arrived the other day. I finally had a chance to try it out & thought I would share the process of etching my pyrex glassware with our last name. I think this is a great idea so that you don't lose your glassware when lending it or taking it to potlucks. I also think this would be a wonderful gift for newlyweds, their last name etched into their dishes. So, I used my Silhouette SD to cut a vinyl template of our last name. Make sure your glassware is clean by using some spray glass cleaner. You also want to make sure you don't have any fingerprints in the area to be etched.

Then, get your Etching cream & a paint brush ready. I did start out trying just a regular paint brush but wasn't getting the kind of coverage I wanted, so I switched to a foam sponge brush.

Apply a coat of cream over the empty letter spaces. Don't skimp, you want to have enough cream to etch the glass completely, not just in patches. The bottle said to leave the cream on for 5 minutes, so that's what I did.

After the 5 minutes are up, wash the cream off. Be sure not to wipe it with your hands, this is an acid based cream we are dealing with. It will cause chemical burns. Be safe. So, wash it all off, then clean your dish again with the glass cleaner & wipe dry. Here is what one of mine looks like. I've actually done about 4 with the same template. Don't look too closely, or you'll see all the lovely fingerprints. It took me a few tries to get a good picture, so I had to keep readjusting my hands. I love this stuff! I'm also excited because I have another use for my Silhouette & my vinyl! (By the way, theSilhouette SD is an amazing machine! You just hook it up to your computer & it will cut any of the fonts that you have. You can also create your own custom images for it to cut onto paper, vinyl, heat transfer, etc.)

 Happy etching!

Rock Climbing pages

A Family Reunion Page

A cute photo

I just love this picture of Ammon & Sharon! For some reason it didn't make it onto the scrapbook page, but I thought you all might want to see it! I know I love it! Even though Sharon isn't smiling, I did get Ammon!

Family Reunion Pages

We have our family reunion coming up in July, so I am working on finishing the scrapbook page from the last family reunion so that I can have them to show people while we are there. Here are the first 4 pages that I've completed.

To-do board

I love this idea for a to-do list from eighteen-25. I love all the papers that she used from her digital kit! I think this would be fun to have on the wall all year round, not just in the summer! She has a tutorial on her site, just click on the link!

Bouncing

I did this page a few days ago but forgot to post it. So here you go!

Sharon's 9-month Pages

9-Month pictures sneak peek

I don't have time right now to post all of the pictures I'd like, but we did take some fun pictures of Sharon yesterday for her 9-month shots. She wasn't very happy. We introduced her to grass for the first time & she definitely is not a fan! Here's a fun picture & sneak peek! I'll try to post the rest later today, but we have to leave for Sharon's doctor's appt in a few minutes. Our littlest dork. =)

Sharon learning to crawl

New Scrapbook pages

I posted some new scrapbook pages on my Scrapbook page. You can find the link in the right sidebar along with "home" and "digital scrapbooking info." Or you can just click on this link & then scroll down a bit.

Praying for inanimate objects

We take a lot of pictures, have a lot of music, & I have tons of digital scrapbook supplies...which I keep on an external harddrive, rather than on the computer, so that they don't slow the computer down. I've learned my lesson. When we came home from vacation & I tried to save my newest pictures onto the external harddrive it wouldn't show up on the computer, & would make an ominous clicking noise when trying to boot up. After a few more unsuccessful tries I decided to call someone. So, our harddrive is at Bits & Bytes & they are trying to save it. I called yesterday & the guy said they are still working on it. Either that could mean we are in some serious trouble, or they hadn't been working on it but will start just because I called. I'm hoping it's the latter! You have no idea how much the stuff on that small electronic device means to me. I could never put a price on it! All the pictures are worth more to me than my home, I think. I'm pretty sure if they tell me it's beyond all hope I will just break down in tears. Thankfully I do have a number of those pictures on the internet, & I just printed most of those scrapbook pages. The others are on my blog, even though they are saved at a much smaller resolution. So, in the future I will definitely have a second (possibly third) copy of all my pictures, music & supplies. Needless to say, we are definitely praying for this inanimate object & the techs working on it.

Homemade Yogurt

I'm sure that some of you are a little concerned after reading this post's title, but let me just tell you, this stuff is so good & so easy to make! I couldn't believe it was so easy after reading this tutorial at JCasaHandmade, so I decided to give it a try. I did use the greek plain yogurt, mainly because it was one of the only plain yogurts in a smaller size that I could find yesterday. I just used the regular old 2% milk, not organic like she suggests, because that stuff is expensive, & regular was only $1.68 a gallon.
When I heated the milk it didn't really get a skin on it because I didn't want to leave it without stirring for too long so that it wouldn't get burned. I just heated it until it was getting close to boiling. I was so excited this morning when I remembered that I had fresh yogurt in the fridge.

I don't know about you, but eating plain yogurt plain isn't very appealing to me, so I added a little bit of sugar and cut up fresh strawberries with just some instant oats to go in it. It was so good! For my second bowl (I told you it was good) I just added a few spoonfuls of homemade blackberry jam. I'm sure you could add any fresh fruit or jam that you want, I just happened to have those on hand. I am really excited about being able to make my own yogurt because it is so much cheaper to do it this way, and it is so thick and creamy! I can't wait for Ammon to try it!

Enjoying Vacation

 Well, we are enjoying our sort-of-vacation. Ammon has to spend his days in boring meetings for work, but it sure is nice getting paid to visit family. Today my mom & I went to the Restaurant Depot to get some bulk chicken. No that doesn't mean the chickens were fat, hardy-har-har. We bought 120 pounds of chicken breasts & thighs & are planning on canning them tomorrow once they've thawed. I'm so excited to have canned chicken again, as I used my last jar last week. It is so tasty & tender!
I ran 2 miles on Monday & should have run today, but woke up a little too late & didn't have time. So, I am going to go running tomorrow even if it means that I have to push Sharon in the jogging stroller.
Jack is enjoying playing with my parents' dog, the weather has been pretty nice, my family is crazy, we watched the season finale of Survivor the other day, & we're just having a great time hanging out together.
I'll be adding some more items to my Etsy shop when we get back home, & I bought some new flowers to make into clips. I am really excited about these because the flowers are so bright and summery! See you when I get back home!

Last Day

Hi all! I just want to let you know that I am going to try to choose a winner of the photo shoot giveaway tomorrow. So, head on over to enter!

Homemade Pizza

I had a craving for some good homemade pizza the other day, especially since my new Pampered Chef flat stone had just been delivered & I really wanted to try it out. So, I used a quick & easy pizza dough recipe & made my own pizza sauce & covered it with wonderful toppings. Here are the recipes I used:

Pizza Dough

1 package active dry yeast

1 tsp white sugar

1 cup warm water

2 1/2 cups flour

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees (I might have lowered it to 425). In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes.

2. Stir in flour, salt & oil. Beat until smooth. Let rest 5 minutes.

3. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface & pat or roll into a round (I just brought it over to my baking stone that I'd sprinkled corn meal on & rolled it & stretched it until it fit to the edges). Spread with desired toppings & bake in preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Pizza Sauce (if your pizza is larger like mine, go ahead & double the recipe)

1 can tomato paste

water

1/3 cup olive oil

2 cloves garlic (or 1 Tbsp garlic powder)

salt & pepper

1/2 Tbsp oregano

1/2 Tbsp basil

(the recipe calls for 1/2 Tbsp rosemary but I didn't like the flavor of it when we ate the pizza, so I would leave it out)

Mix all the ingredients except the water. Then, add a bit of water at a time, stirring until mixed in, until the sauce is smooth & spreadable but not too runny (basically however you like it).

Spread on your pizza dough, add cheese, & whatever toppings you want. I did sausage, olives, mushrooms, & chopped tomato. I would have put pepperoni on also but it was pretty full with everything else. I'll just have to make another pizza this week.

P.S. You can still enter my photo shoot giveaway over at Becky's Blog, so if you live in or near Kingman, feel free to enter!