Valentine's Day Cupcakes

I feel like every post lately has started with the phrase "So on Pinterest..." Frankly I eat, sleep, breathe this silly website.  I have it on my phone and my kindle and lay in bed scouring new ideas and recipes.  It's terribly addicting and I'm not quite sure what I did with my life before it.  Now of course I will begin this post with:

So on Pinterest I saw this recipe for these super easy quick cupcakes for Valentine's day, so naturally I wanted to try it out.  I don't normally used boxed mix or premade frosting but I seriously procrastinated this year and decided to make cupcakes when I woke up on Valentine's day morning....so quick it is!

 

I wasn't too convinced with this recipe, lemon-lime soda mixed with boxed cake mix....yeah right there's no way that's gonna turn out!  Well it did.  It gave the cupcakes a more sticky feel but super moist and lemme tell ya the batter was delicious (and egg free!) I did use premade frosting as well and piped it with a ziploc bag to somewhat seem fancy.  They were a huge hit and got devoured at home and work. 

 

The only problem I had was these need to be treated very much like angel food cake in the oven.  I like to turn my pans halfway through baking/cooking times to evenly cook (our oven is old) and when I turned em I did bump them slightly and they all the sudden collapsed in the middle like an angel food cake would...they never recovered.  So that was good to know for the future.  I may used this recipe again and experiment with different flavors but probably only if I'm bored or in a bind.  I enjoy cupcakes from scratch wayyyy too much!

Here's some lovely pics!

 

 

 

Toddler approved! 

 

Menu Plan 2/17/13

I haven't been able to make a menu plan for quite a while since we separated and I'm mostly living at my parents house right now but we did one this paycheck because I've been spending more and more time here and it's just always a money saver for us to have meals ready.  And I miss cooking a lot!  So I made our plan for two weeks (I only picked 6 meals and a dessert since I won't be here every night and leftovers usually happen for us) made our shopping list and we went grocery shopping.  Always stressful.  But all in all we got quite a bit for a decent price.

 

How I go about picking recipes is I will look through the grocery ad (we like to shop mostly at one grocery store) and then scour Pinterest and past recipes we've used and try to pick stuff that is on sale or that we can use out of our pantry/freezer.  I then make a huge master list of all the ingredients needed for every recipe organized by category (meat, dairy, frozen, etc) THEN I go through our cupboards and freezer to mark off what we already have.  Finally I make our master grocery list with what we need along with other items we may get (snacks, breakfast foods, etc)

 

It makes me feel so much more organized when we get to the store.  I know what aisles I need to go down and know what I need to get and we rarely if ever get anything not on our list because we know the foods we're buying we can make meals out of.  It cuts down on stress sooooo much!

 

I don't necessarily plan meals for certain days as some days you just don't feel like what's on the menu but I do know I have ingredients in our house for at least 6 homemade meals and a dessert that will last us most of the week.  Which also cuts down on unnecessary grocery trips throughout the week which also can add up money wise.  So with that said here's my menu for the next couple weeks with links!

 

• Meatloaf with Crack Potatoes (halved recipe)
• Orange Jello Salad (already made and it's so yummy!)
• Tacos in Pasta Shells
• Slow Cooker Creamy Ranch Pork Chops and Potatoes
• Mexican Chicken Casserole
• Slow Cooker Lasagna Soup
• Homemade Pizza (no link for this)

 

Follow my Menu Plan Monday list on Pinterest to see past recipes I've used as well!

Til Death Parts Us

Til Death Parts Us

That was the last line of my wedding vows which was 4 years 4 months and 9 days ago.  Since then we have dealt with a lot (as any couple does) which includes cancer (he was diagnosed 4 months after our wedding and beat it!), buying a home, having a baby, changing jobs, money issues, personal endeavors, and sick parents.  These every day things can really weigh on a marriage and if your foundation isn't strong it can crack and even break...this happened to us.  Despite being together for 5 years before we were married we never really had to deal with much stress until after we got married (oddly enough), we then realized we're not as strong of a team as we thought we were.  We got comfortable, complacent, bored, and stressed...in other words we let real life take over and said bye bye honeymoon period.  Now what?!

 

About a year and a half ago I left.  With a 4 month old.  I just couldn't do it anymore and didn't know what else to do.  I'm not going to go into details but it was a wake up call for the both of us.  For the last year we have bounced back and forth from being together and separating leaving us currently in a separated (but working on it) stage.  We are finally talking to a family/marriage counselor and it seriously has worked wonders but we definitely still have the days where we struggle.  You fall back into your bad habits and in our case that creates a volcano that blows!  BUT this time we both have made a conscious decision to stick through it.  We will make this work.  Forever. 

 

Today was one of those days.  Voices were raised, names were called (which is never helpful) and fingers were pointed.  We both were at fault for our actions.  It made me stop and think why do we do this to each other?!  So in an effort to salvage some hope that marriage can work I put out a question to my personal Facebook and my Sally Stitches fan page

"If you could give a newly married couple realistic advice about how to make it work for a long time what would it be?"

The response was overwhelming.  So here are some of the responses I received...I will be listing just first names so you know whether men or women wrote it.  Please share with me your comments and ideas!

 

• Communication is key --Nate S.
• Being happy is more important than being right --Dave S.
• For better or worse - see it through!! --Jean S.
• It's okay to go to bed angry; sleep it off and generally once you're rested things don't seem that bad. Often they seem stupider than you thought the night before, and you can laugh at it. --Megan F.
• When upset with each other tell each other one reason you love them - "even though I am upset with you one thing I love about you is..." --Melissa A.
• Give the other person the benefit of the doubt. In most cases they're not acting out of malice, and you'll avoid a lot of arguments if you don't assume they are. --Eowyn C.
• If you cannot talk about a hot button topic to resolve an upset in the moment, give it some time. Respect for each other will keep you together, the ability to let something rest until cooler heads prevail will keep love lasting. I don't always like something my spouse does/says but I've never lost love or respect for him and I try to remember that in those moments where life tests me. --Nina S.
• Don't be a**holes to each other. Haha. How's that for honest. --Kari B.
• Financial peace does wonders to prevent stress and fights --Lee W.
• Don't take everything so seriously! Allow each other to have their own space, not everything needs to be done together. And get rid of any ideas that come from books or movies...neither are realistic nor practical. Have fun! (Works for us...almost at 28 years!) We must be lucky, I can only remember maybe three arguments over the last 28 years, otherwise smooth sailing...gotta let the small stuff go. --Karl S.
• Don't sweat the small stuff, and it's all small stuff --Nikkie S.
• Communication!!! And remember that not every couple communicates the best the same way. Some do better writing things down, some better in the moment in person, some better after cooling down away from each other for a few minutes then talking in person. Every couple is different but knowing how each other feels about things and figuring out how to work with each other on those things will help a lot!!! --Farren G.
• Treat each other kinder than you treat others. Most folks resort to the opposite. If you wouldn't talk to your boss or a new friend that way, don't talk to your spouse that way. Also, wake up every day and think of one thing you can do to make your spouse happy. It doesn't have to be big, or romantic... Clean off the kitchen counter, pay the bills, wear that shirt he likes. --Jen P.
• Learn each others love language. We all give and receive love differently and most times we show people love in the way we need to receive it ourselves. --Chloe C.
• My mom and dad have been married for 49 yrs and I just asked my mom the secret to their success not long ago and she said Forgiveness, but whole hearted ..when you forgive you let go and move on. My dad says if you can figure out money and sex it's smooth sailing because somehow you'll never have enough of either one. --Tammy R.
• Don't think your spouse can read your mind. Talk, don't assume. --Elina S.
• Laugh together --Katie S.
• Forgiveness, don't wait for him to apologize or make a big show of being sorry. Just remember you love him and forgive and forget. --Leah O.

To be continued....

 

T-shirt Scarf #1

So I've been wanting to try out one of the many Tshirt scarf tutorials I've found on Pinterest.  I found this one was the most simple and quickest. So I quickly grabbed a white shirt that had been sitting in a pile of clothes in my closet that will never get worn.

 

I followed the steps in the tutuorial by:

• First cutting the shirt below the armpits (straight across)
• Then cut the bottom hem off making a big tube
• I cut approx. 1 inch strips across on the fold from one end to the other, stopping about 2 inches from the other folded end
• You then pull the ends of each strip to stretch the fabric out
• Gather it all together at the joined end and take a small piece of the cut off hem to tie around and secure it.

Super easy and quick!!  Here's my photos:

and I figured out I could wear it either long or short (wrap it twice)

I have some (handmade) flower pins that I might put on to accent whatever outfit I'm wearing that day.  I love it!  I want to try some of the other various Tshirt scarves I've found on Pinterest, thrift store here I come!!!

Valentine's Day Cards

So now that I have a 19 month old I've been wanting to introduce a lot more crafts and I'm finding myself more interested in holidays which is very unlike my old, pre-baby self.  This year for Valentine's day I knew I wanted to make a personalized Valentine for immediate family and close friends.  So with the help of Pinterest (follow my boards here: Amy Hendrickson )

 

I had seen this pin:

(Link here to original project)

 

I had some notecards in my printer paper stash and since his hands are so little yet I was able to fit them on there.  Plus we had nontoxic, washable finger paints (Crayola) already. I put him in his highchair without a shirt and we practiced on a few pieces of paper first.  He loved it...it got messy but thankfully it was completely washable.

 

And yes he did try eating it...BUT this was a super fun and surprisingly quick project.  We made 8 cards.  I embellished with some stamps and wrote a quick note on the inside signed with Gabe's name.

 

I kind of found a quick system of painting his hands instead of dipping them (he would try to pick up the paint ending in a huge glob on his hand) and then pressing his hand down and doing it all over again.  I only did one hand at a time so both weren't messy.  We will be using finger paints and hand print pictures a lot I think as he loved it!

 

Here's our finished project!

 

I really love how they turned out!!

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

(all of my photos are taken on Instagram, follow me on there as well!)

 

 

 

I'm Back!

Well I've been absent from my blog for almost a year and a half!  Sorry bout that folks but I've been trying to get a few things together in my every day life BUT I'm back and my goal this year is to blog more frequently.  Since I have also taken a hiatus from selling my items on Etsy I'm planning on centering my blog posts around the following topics:

• Motherhood (since I have a lot of mama friends and fans out there)
• Being a wife (I have been actively working on my marriage over the last year to make it stronger)
• Cooking/organizing/house things (pinterest, need I say more)
• Crafts (because I'm still a crafter at heart)
• Money/budgets/saving/etc (because we all hate this topic but it's a part of  everyone's life!)

So with that being said I hope you continue to follow my posts, if there is a topic you would love me to write about or review or anything please email me at sallystitches31@gmail.com also please share my blog with all your friends and family if you would like to. 

 

xoxo