Balsamic Brussel Sprouts

Not too long ago Brad went to donate blood and they wouldn't let him because his iron was too low.  He's donated lots of times and never had a problem so before we resorted to a pill we decided to add some iron to our diet.  He eats a lot of Shreddies and our green vegetables and red meat have really increased.  I saw this recipe a while ago and now that we needed some iron this was the perfect time to make them.

Now let's be reasonable, if you don't like brussel sprouts then this recipe is not going to change your mind but if you love them like I do then be prepared for a new favourite preparation.


I won't give you the full recipe because you should go to Our Best Bites to find it but it's super easy and involves 5 ingredients: olive oil, garlic, pepper and balsamic vinegar (and brussel sprouts of course).  You should make them this week and add a little iron to your diet in the process.

(photo from Our Best Bites)

Jenn's Car Seat

Did you see yesterday's post about the stroller?  And you came back to see part two?  In case you missed part one I needed a stroller and car seat for my sister.  I knew I'd re-cover it so I bought a used one and ended up getting the set for $15 since her cat had kittens in the stroller.  I cleaned up the stroller, re-covered it and it looks amazing.


Once the stroller was done I moved on to the car seat.  It was definitely more complicated and included some small pieces and then I ran out of fabric.  I bought more fabric, finished the job and came up with something I'm really happy with.

Remember how it started?  Faded, plaid, gender neutral and what's with the dorky animals?

I took the seat apart and used the pieces for a pattern.  It was my first time re-covering a bucket car seat like this and I think my next one will be even better but this one is super cute.  Here's a side shot so you can really see the sunshade.

And here is the set, a before and some after's.

 I love that this little lady has a custom stroller and I can't wait to meet her.
 
Allright, I've had a couple comments concerning the safety of my car seat and so I thought I'd address that a little.  My car seat cover is exactly the same as the original, I used the same batting, the backing fabric and all the same supports.  The fabric thickness is the same so I didn't add any bulk or anything that would shift around the baby.  It will perform just like the original seat.  I understand that some people won't agree but I'm am completely confident in the safety of this seat.




Linking To Monday - C.R.A.F.T., Making The World Cuter, Polly Want a Crafter, Simpsonized Crafts, Sugar Bee Crafts, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, The Girl Creative   Tuesday - All Things Related, Creative Itch, Domestically Speaking, Ladybug Blessings, Sassy Sites, Today's Creative Blog, This & That, Topsy Turvy    Wednesday - Blue Cricket Design, Me and My Bucket   Thursday - A Glimpse Inside,  House of Hepworth, It's Sew Stinkin Cute, Somewhat Simple, The Train to Crazy, What Allie's Making Now   Friday - Creation Corner, Finding Fabulous, Tatertots & Jello

Jenn's Stroller

Remember the stroller/car seat combo I bought for my sister back in July?  The one for $15 that the cat had kittens in (still so gross), the stroller just waiting to be re-covered?  Well the worst happened and my sister miscarried.  We were all so sad about it that the stroller went into my parents basement out of site.  I'm happy to report that not only is my sister expecting again but she's having a girl, her first after 3 boys.  To say we're excited is an understatement and Mom and I went and found some adorable pink fabric, no gender neutral here. 


Today we're going to look at the stroller and tomorrow you can see the car seat.

Here's the finished stroller and a reminder of what I started with.

I can't really tell you how gross this stroller was with a very pink kitty birth stain over most of the cushion.  I threw it in the wash and then Proxi'ed it multiple times and was really surprised just how clean it came.  I didn't think I'd be able to use any of the batting but it all came clean enough to use except a little bit of binding that I could easily replace with bias tape.  

Once the cushion was clean I started in on the sunshade.  I had decided to keep all of the browny-beige fabric but it all felt so dirty I wanted to wash every scrap of fabric, it's a good thing I had decided that because it turns out the fabric was all one big piece so it all had to come off anyway.  Once I took off a very large pile of screws I was left with this.

I washed everything, replaced the ugly, faded plaid with the new flowers and then re-attached it all.  The cushion took a lot more time with a ton of unpicking but as usual the end result was worth the trouble (sorry there's no photo of the cushion on it's own).


This project came together surprisingly easy with very few problems, just the way I like them to go.


Here are a bunch more photos just because it's so beautiful.

So come back tomorrow, see the other half.



Linking To Monday - C.R.A.F.T., Making The World Cuter, Polly Want a Crafter, Simpsonized Crafts, Sugar Bee Crafts, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, The Girl Creative   Tuesday - All Things Related, Creative Itch, Domestically Speaking, Ladybug Blessings, Sassy Sites, Today's Creative Blog, This & That, Topsy Turvy    Wednesday - Blue Cricket Design, Me and My Bucket   Thursday - A Glimpse Inside,  House of Hepworth, It's Sew Stinkin Cute, Somewhat Simple, The Train to Crazy, What Allie's Making Now   Friday - Creation Corner, Finding Fabulous, Tatertots & Jello

I-Phone Car Holder

I can't believe it's taken this long to share this project with you.  It's not a big one, it only took one evening to pull together but it's so vital to us that perhaps some of you might need one as well.
Let me show you what I'm talking about

See the fancy contraption on the headrest?  Take a closer look.

I have a daughter who hates to ride in the car.  She cries and whines and I used to always be trying to come up with something new to make her happy, toys and mostly food meaning she snacked constantly in the car.  Add to that the fact that we  temporarily moved away from home and travel back A LOT.  Something needed to be done.At home we would often watch YouTube videos on my phone and I wanted a way to translate that to the car.  I put some Sesame Street episodes on my phone so I wouldn't be using an internet connection but she's too little to understand that she needs to hold the phone, she would drop it or push the one button so I came up with a holder for the phone.  I'll admit that it's not the most beautiful, I made it really quickly the night before a 2 hour drive.  I had always thought I'd alter it later but it's worked so well that it's stayed where I put it for months.I won't give you a full tutorial but here are some photos to give you an idea of how I created this.First I made the part that would attach to the headrest. 

I made a rectangle that was bigger than my phone and added three strips of velcro.  My goal was to cover this piece with velcro so the phone didn't have to be carefully placed, it could just be slapped on.  I used a piced of a cereal box in the rectangle to give it some stiffness and I attached an elastic loop on the back.  I made the loop big enough to fit snugly around the headrest of the car. 

To make the part that actually held my phone I made another rectangle, this one was the size of my phone.  I attached the other side of the velcro to one side and two elastic strips around each end.  I made sure the elastic strips would hold my phone snug and that they'd also sit far enough on each side to not block the screen (you can see in the photo below that I should have sewn my elastic strips on before I sewed the velcro so the velcro could cover the unsighly strip ends).

  

So now I get in the car and slip my phone in the holder and velcro it in place. Most of the time I don't detach the two pieces but occasionally it's nice to be able to.  I can't tell you how often I use this, if we go to the grocery store she's watching something, we use it constantly no matter how short the drive.  I love the peace it gives us.

Now some of you probably will mention that I'm making her dependent on TV in the car and to that I say, so what.  At least I don't have to listen to crying in that tiny enclosed space (crying in the car drives me mad).  I think parenting is all about choices and this is one I'm okay to make.  Also, like I mentioned above we've been using this for months on end and recently she's become less dependent.  More often I'm choosing to not start a video and she's normally just fine, it seems our need for this is ending.

One last note... my phone fits super well and has never come out on it's own but my husband's doesn't have a case on it and his phone doesn't work in the holder.  The strips would need to be tighter because it just slips right out.Here's the above picture again so you can take one more look at a cute girl enjoying some Sesame Street.

Microphone Stand Case 2.0

Byron's microphone stand was a big success so it was time to move on to Brad's.  The second try at a project is always better so as usual I made a few improvements.  I made the entire bag (except the length) a little bit smaller.  There is still room for his two stands with growing space but it's not so baggy.  I also found a better fabric, it's a lot more stiff and holds it's shape a lot better, plus I love the look of the grey.

Now I just need one for Jared, I might have just barely enough fabric left to make a third so it's been added to my list.

About New Food Friday

You probably didn't notice that last week there was no New Food Friday.  

I've decided I don't want to blog about it anymore, I still make a new recipe every week but I didn't like that I was sharing these mediocre recipes and adding them to my recipe tab.  I want to give you awesome recipes, not the so-so ones. I want you to be able to click on my recipe page and feel confidant that anything on that page would be delicious and successful.  I'll still post recipes occasionally when I find great ones but I'm going to leave it at that.

I still encourage you to make a new recipe a week though, you may be surprised at the deliciousness you can discover.

Men's Shirts into Baby Blanket

I saw this tutorial on This Momma Makes Stuff and thought it was really cute.  The top is made out of men's shirts sewn into strips and the back and border are yummy minky swirl.

I picked up my shirts as Value Village and sewed them all together.

I love how soft and cozy it is but I do feel like it's a really awkward size.  It's 30 inches square and now that's it's finished that seems really small.  I have lots of minky left and I cut off a lot of the men's shirt top, I easily could have made it bigger.  I suppose there's always next time and it's cuteness makes up for the size.  It's perfect for a new little boy, I just need to find the right one.
 
 

Linking To
Monday - C.R.A.F.T., Making The World Cuter, Polly Want a Crafter, Simpsonized Crafts, Sugar Bee Crafts, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, The Girl Creative   Tuesday - All Things Related, Creative Itch, Domestically Speaking, Ladybug Blessings, Sassy Sites, Today's Creative Blog, This & That, Topsy Turvy    Wednesday - Blue Cricket Design, Me and My Bucket   Thursday - A Glimpse Inside,  House of Hepworth, It's Sew Stinkin Cute, Somewhat Simple, The Train to Crazy, What Allie's Making Now   Friday - Creation Corner, Finding Fabulous, Tatertots & Jello

My Make-up Routine

I thought to go along with my Make-Up Magnet Board from yesterday I'd show you some of my favourite products and my beauty routine.  Now keep in mind that I have no idea what I'm doing and I'm by no means an expert, this is just what I do, right or wrong.

Here's a before, fresh from the shower and what I'll finish with.

I always start with my eyes and I first curl my lashes.  I do them first because I have leaky eyes and curling often makes them water.  If I wait until everything is finished than my leaky eyes smudge the finished product.  Once I've curled I apply an eye shadow primer.  

Now a word on primers... I've only been using them for a couple weeks now.  I borrowed one from my friend Michelle but I was extremely skeptical that I'd see any difference, I thought that they would do nothing and were just a cosmetic cash grab but I could not have been more wrong.  In my opinion a primer does a few things, it makes your shadow last a lot longer without creasing; it also makes it go on a lot smoother, you can't see any brush strokes and it's much easier to blend multiple colours.  I think it makes it possible to use some cheaper shadows and make them more useable.  I also love the shimmer primer to amp up any sparkle in your shadow.  If I couldn't put on a primer I probably wouldn't use shadow because I don't see the point anymore.  I have two eyeshadow primers, both by MAC.  One in Painterly and one in Bare Study.  If you don't own one you should get one.

Today I used the shimmery Bare Study and once I've primed I shadow.  I used these ones today but not all of them, really.

I started with the L'Oreal H.I.P. in Flare and used the orangey colour over my lid from the centre to the outer corner.  These H.I.P. shadows are super pigmented and awesome, I have two different combos and I love them both.  I then applied MAC Motif from the inside corner of my eye to the centre.  I used a little MAC Whistle in the centre to blend them together. I then used my Wet n Wild Vanity pallett to highlight my brow bown using the matte cream colour on the bottom left.


To apply those colours I used my Mini Mop paint brush from Michaels.  It's made for painting but the bristles are all natural and the same quality of MAC brushes for much cheaper.


Once my shadow is on I apply my liner.  I recently started using Maybelline Lasting Drama Gel Eyeliner in Blackest Black.  I apply with a brush to the top and the bottom.  I love this liner though once it's on it's really on and you need a good remover to take it off at the end of the day.  It looks like a liquid liner but you have much more control.

With my liner on I applied a little orange HIP to the corner of my bottom lid and a little of the MAC Whisper beside that.


Time for mascara and I'm pretty sure people think I'm crazy when they know I use two mascaras.  I couldn't get the look I wanted with just one though.  I want my top lashes to be super long, thick and as black as I can get, the Colossal Volume Express by Maybelline in Glam Black does a great job of that but I thought it looked spidery and awful on my bottom lashes.  They're already really long so instead I want something to thicken and be not as dramatic on the bottom so I use Great Lash in Brownish Black.  It does exactly what I want it too and is applying two mascaras really any more time consuming than one? (it's not)

My eyes are now done so I put on a little concealer under my eyes and on any blemishes (I ususally do this step before I put on my bottom mascara).  Then I apply foundation with a sponge.

I put the Hard Candy Hula Hula bronzer on my cheek bones and anywhere the sun would hit (like my nose, chin and forehead).  Then I add blush to the apples of my cheek.  I use the really big brush to wipe under my cheekbones and get rid of any fallout, this helps create definition too.

So that's it.  While it sounds like a lot it really only takes 15 ish minutes depending on how much I focus on my eyes.  And my Make-up board makes finding all the different shades a snap.  I also slapped on some Bath & Body Works Liplisious gloss in Raspberry Jam, I'll re-apply that throughout the day. Here's a photo re-cap of everything I used, though tomorrow I'll do something completely different on my eyes.

Here's a photo of my lids (boy these photos are tough to take)

And here's one more after, ready for the day.

(yes, the grey streak is natural)

Make-up Magnet Board

We all know with craft blogs that original ideas are often hard to come by, we find ideas we love and make them our own but we didn't come up with the idea ourselves.  I feel like I've finally done something original here and I'm excited about it.

I'll show you the finished product and then explain.  

Behold my Make-up Magnet Board.

I have a friend who is beautiful and stylish and has always loved make-up but recently took a course that intensified her love.  Her renewed interest has worn off on me and it made me remember eye shadows I'd hidden away that were gathering dust.  I pulled them all out and was shocked at just how many I had.  My old make-up organization/storage consists of a basket that sits on my bathroom counter, I put all my hair stuff and make-up stuff in the basket and used maybe 3 shadows in my daily rotation.  With the addition of my pile of eye shadows it now looked like this.

The basket was a mess and I was overwhelmed with all my choices never knowing what to use, digging through to see what I had and find what I wanted was a pain.  I needed a way to display them all and my brilliant mother and I came up with this idea.


I started by making a magnet board, (nothing original here), I used this super ugly frame I found at Salvation Army.

I painted it (The hard way, with a brush instead of spray paint.  I look forward to spring when the weather lets me spray paint again.) and then glazed it.

I went to the hardware store and picked up some metal and had them cut it to fit inside my frame.  Then I used spray adhesive to stick some fabric to the metal.  I put it all back together and it looked like this.

Here comes the brilliant part though.

Here's the stash of eye shadows we're talking about (I've even added a couple since this picture).

I went to the dollar store and picked up a bunch of magnets and hot glued one to the back of each shadow (I actually needed 3 magnets for my bronzer).  I considered using a stronger glue but when the makeup is empty I want to be able to peel the magnet off, hot glue lets me do that and it's held up really well.

Next I wanted a place to store my brushes and liners though.  An orange pill container with some oil rubbed bronze spray paint made it beautiful and 3 extra strong magnets glued on the back holds nice and secure.

Now it hangs in my bathroom wall and every morning I'm excited to play with my different make-up.  It feels sort of like art and an expression of me.  

I thought tomorrow I'd do a little feature of how I use some of this make-up and talk about my favorite products so come back and check it out.

 

 

Linking To
Monday -  The DIY Showoff, C.R.A.F.T., Making The World Cuter, Polly Want a Crafter, Simpsonized Crafts, Sugar Bee Crafts, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, The Girl Creative   Tuesday - All Things Related, Creative Itch, Domestically Speaking, Ladybug Blessings, Sassy Sites, Today's Creative Blog, This & That, Topsy Turvy    Wednesday - Blue Cricket Design, Me and My Bucket   Thursday - A Glimpse Inside,  House of Hepworth, It's Sew Stinkin Cute, Somewhat Simple, The Train to Crazy, What Allie's Making Now   Friday - A Craft a Day, Creation Corner, Finding Fabulous, Tatertots & Jello

What's in my Bag 2.0

Somehow I forgot the post a picture of the only thing in my purse that's actually cute and worth sharing, my wallet. I got this not too long ago and while it's very small and a definite sacrifice of space it's worth it and I love it.

What's in my Bag?

Michelle tagged me to see what's in my bag, I'll admit... I'm a little afraid to show you my really ugly bag.

First let me show you what I wish I was carrying around.

 I bought this beauty and loved it until the strap nearly fell off.  Now before I can use it I need to take it somewhere to have it fixed, perhaps this will be the incentive I need.

Until it's fixed this is the diaper bag I carry around 90% of the time.

Pretty much the only thing it has going for it is the cute polka dots on the inside.

Inside we'll start with the diaper, wipes change mat case.  Cute hey?

It was just Sunday and we were away from town so the bag is full of things to entertain Catie.  A Car, some beanbags, an Eye-Spy bag and some books.

Some Goldfish crackers, and empty plastic bag and her favorite toys right now, a couple gold coins, some crayons and a glad container.

A dirty bib and some dirty tights.

Some keys, a pen some finger puppets and a fork... really?  A fork?  Some other snacks.

And lastly a little lip gloss and lotion.

Okay, now onto the purse I use when I don't have Catie with me.

I like this purse a lot but it's really small.

A bunch of receipts, a change purse and spare change.  $10 I didn't know I had, hurray!  Band aids, an expired coupon, my passport, a hair elastic and an after bite stick.  In the middle of winter?  Seriously?  Cause I'm sure I'll need that.  A chocolate, a mint, a tape measure (you never know when you'll need it) and a pen.  And lastly two of my favorite lip glosses from Bath and Body Works.


So there you go, a very long and detailed pictures of every single thing that's in my purse.