Mexican shredded beef

I meant to post this yesterday. So here we go, a day late of course :) I made this last night for dinner and it was so good!

 Ingredients:

 3 to 4 pound roast
4 oz can of green chilis
 2 teaspoons of chili powder
  1 tablespoon of garlic powder
1 tsp of cayenne pepper
2 tsp of cumin
 2 tsp of black pepper

 Cut the excess fat off of the roast and cut into smaller chunks. I had mine cut in like six pieces. Rub black pepper on meat.Put in crock pot. Now add the remaining ingredients on top of roast. Just sprinkle everything evenly on top. Fill the crock pot with water until the meat is 1/3 of the way covered. Put lid on and cook on high for 6 to 8 hrs. Remove meat from crock pot and shred. Put back in crock pot for another 30 minutes on low.

 Serve with black beans, avocado, salsa, and sour cream. Or however you like it :)

 Enjoy!

 

Michelle

  

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A great skirt tutorial

My daughter has been wanting a frilly, girly, pink, fluffy skirt from me for some time now. So I decided that making one for her Birthday party on Saturday would be a marvelous idea. I bookmarked a tutorial from Simple Simon and Company called the Cotton Candy Skirt.  If you haven't been on their site it is a must!! They have the cutest tutorials and they are super easy to follow. So here is my finished product of the skirt:

 Ethan wanted to get in on the pics. I couldn't refuse him, he is just too darn cute with his fake smile and his hands on his hips :)


 Is this not the cutest skirt! I can't wait for my daughter to get home to try it on. She is going to LOVE it!! Check out the tutorial! It was really easy to make!

Michelle

  

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Fabric goodie bags

It is my daughter's 11th birthday on Tuesday!! Can you believe it? I can't! Where does the time go? Well, this year she decided she just wanted to have a few friends over for a movie and sleepover. Sounds fun to me! So I decided to sew them each little bags with their initial on it to put some goodies in. Here is the finished product:

 These are super easy to make (yeah after I did a test one and threw it away. Oh and figured out it's much easier to sew on an applique BEFORE you make the bag.)

 Supplies: (for six bags)
 Two yards of main fabric
 one yard of decorating fabric
 heat n bond (the kind that you can still sew through)

 Alright so I dont have the exact measurements of this, I am a more of a eye it out kind of girl. Hey it works for me (most of the time). So I folded the two yards of fabric in half and counted ten little designs and cut. Repeat and cut for six bags. Now unfold each one and cut in half. Was the confusing? Well here are some pics:

 Now take the decorative fabric and cut six four inch wide strips that are a yard long. This will soon be the ruffle trim. Take the remaining decorative fabric and cut out letters of girls names. This is what you should have:

 Now apply heat n bond to back of each letter per directions on package. Then iron on to one of the pieces of the main fabric:

 Ok so here is where I messed up the first time. I got so excited to finish the bag, I forgot to do a crossstitch along the edge before I sewed the bag together. SO for the A, I had to do it when it was in bag form. Ummm not so easy.  By the time I got to M, I smartened up and did a cross stitch BEFORE a made the bag. Well at least I learned right?!

 So now ruffle your strips of fabric. Fold strip in half and do a straight stitch down the side at a 5 length. Pull the top stitch and bunch fabric. Voila! Ruffle! I am so smart (not really, it's so easy to do. I just like to pump myself up).  Now attach ruffle evenly on front of other piece of fabric:

 Then put the initialed fabric on top (make sure the letter isn't upside down. M would be pretty upset if I called her W). Do a cross stitch around the edges:

 Now flip outside in and trim the excess fabric on top. Keep about an inch that you will hem:

 Fold the inch seem allowance in and hem. Now use the excess fabric you cut off the top and fold a couple times. Sew down side. Ok so blogger totally rejected my picture of the handle. Whatever Blogger whatever! So here is a pic of the handle attached. I did a cross stitch on this too and back stitched a bunch. Don't want their bags falling apart on them!

 So here is A, M, and B:


 Ummmm or not because apparently blogger didn't like that one Either?!? How about another pic of A:

Off to make K and E........ C couldn't make it :(

Michelle

  

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My Mother's Day gift....a little late

So for Mother's day this year I wanted either bead board and trim for my guest bathroom OR rocking chairs for my front porch. Which one do you think my husband chose? Yep rocking chairs! He didn't want to do another wood project quite yet. Seeing as for V-day I got board and batten in my study, I can understand the battle wounds are still to fresh ;) Thank goodness our anniversary is in July. So, maybe I will get bead board then?!? We shall see.

Anyways, I had been looking for rocking chairs for awhile. I looked on craigslist, online, and at a million stores. These babies are pretty pricey! My husband was willing to do it, I just felt like it was too much.  Hence, the reason for the lateness of the gift. So any who, we were at Lowes and we decided that we were going to just buy two chairs and then a bench from Walmart to match. So before buying the chairs at Lowes, we went to Walmart. Guess what we found??!! White rocking chairs!! I was so excited (still am)! There was like five of them already put together and my husband asked the manager if we could take four of them......At a discount. What?? The manager went for it! My husband rocks! So we got the chairs (already assembled, which lowes charges ten dollars a chair to assemble). Are you excited!? I am! Here is how they look (my inlaws saw our yard yesterday and asked if we were going for yard of the year. Haha! What a great compliment to my husband :)

Doesn't it look so relaxing and inviting?! I am looking for two tables to put in the middle of the chairs. Maybe some nightstands that need to be refinished on Craigslist?

Thank you to my husband for such a wonderful Mother's Day gift. I am such a blessed woman.


 Michelle

Stencil mania

How do you do it? Seriously!? Some of you out there make stenciling look like it is a nice walk in the park on a sunny breezy day. Yeah um SIKE! Stenciling is a pain in the you know what! It is about impossible to keep it straight and thanks to my wonderful textured walls, it bleeds through. So as you can see I am a little annoyed :). Don't worry I am a determined person. Any tips or tricks anyone out there could give me would be well appreciated. Hey! I have a great idea! If you are feeling really helpful, how about coming over and finishing this wall for me! Please?! Alright crickets on that one......... Here is a sneak peak at what I have been working on for the past two days (and which will probably take me another month or so to finish, so I hope you aren't eager to see the end result).

 I have spent about 3 hours and only have about a four by eight foot area covered. I have a TON of touch ups to do and probably about 10 more hours of stenciling. Ughhh! Wish me luck!


 Michelle

Banana nut protein pancakes

Who loves pancakes??!! ME! I do! I hardly eat them though because there is like no nutritional value in buttermilk pancakes, sorry. I came across this recipe and changed it a bit to my liking and this is what I have:

 ingredients:
 2 egg whites
2 tablespoons of plain lowfat yogurt
 1 whole banana
 1/4 cup oats
 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
 2 teaspoons of walnuts

Mix all ingredients in blender, except walnuts. When blended, make two to three pancakes on a non stick skillet and cook for three minutes in each side. Sprinkle with walnuts and LIGHTLY drizzle with REAL maple syrup (like 2 teaspoons at the most, bananas are sweet enough).

 ENJOY!!

 There is about 260 calories with the syrup and 15 grams of protein. Yum!

Michelle

  

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The console table's saga continues

Remember this lovely table that I refinished about a week ago:

 This table went from this:

 See it up there in the lower left hand corner.

 To this (yuck):

 To this (this was an in between moment):

 Now, drum roll please..........The final saga of the console table:

 My husband cut out a shelf for the bottom and I finally stained it this weekend. For complete details on this lovely table visit my post HERE.

 Hope everyone had a beautiful Mother's Day. Mine was absolute perfection!

 

Michelle

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