Wine Cork Letter

Made this for a friend for her birthday. was super easy, I just hot glued the corks together and glued some wood scraps to the back to make it sturdy.  Also used the trick I saw on pinterest and used coke tabs as the hangers.

Summer Wildlife

Here are just a few pics of the wildlife we have been enjoying this summer

my husband and his first king of the season

there were so many ducks and babies to watch the kids and I spent a lot of time on the dock at mom and dad's watching them

Dad's Retirement Party

My father retired in June and we had a little pig roast for him.  I used a lot of ideas I found on pinterest.

made this cakepop try and made carrot cake pops

I set up a photo booth

had a table to write memories down at with old pics hung up above it

made the signs for the pig roast

used the new glitter vinyl from expressions vinyl

made airplane cake pops (dad is a pilot and retired from faa)

used dad's helmet for some fun pics

Recovering Old Chairs

Ever since I can remember my grandma has been sewing.  She has made us outfits that we have designed, fur hats, recovered furniture, prom dresses, and wedding dresses.  So when she came to visit in June I had a project ready for her.  I had bought 3 old chairs at garage sales and picked out a fun piece of material.  She finished all three of them in 3 days.  It was cool that she could do this for me, but it meant a lot more than getting a few new chairs.  I will always have the memory of her sitting at the table sewing the covers and helping me add color to the living room.  She is an amazing woman and I am so proud and lucky to have her as my grandma!

my grandma finishing the last section of the chair pad

I will always remember these hands sewing everything from chair cushions, to fur hats, to wedding dresses

I wanted to capture this because it brings back so many memories

I bought two of these for $45 at a garage sale

I bought this one for $10 at a garage sale

I think it turned out pretty cute

This one is my favorite, I can't wait to put them in my living room

Advocare Challenge and recipes

I have completed the 24 day challenge that I began the beginning of June and am proud to say have stuck with the healthy eating and working out since then.  I lost a total of 6 pounds, and am thrilled.  I went from a tight size six to a loose size 4!  I am positive that if I hadn't had two babies in the last 3.5 years and gained 50lbs with both of them, I would have a flat stomach right now.  So now my goal is to maintain this weight and tone up!

So here are my tips and what I did.  Once again, I AM NOT an advocare rep, I am just sharing what I did and some of the recipes I have found that we (my family) use to stick close to the advocare program.

Continue to drink a lot of water, do not drink coffee or alcohol.  I did 'cheat' two days of the 14 days because one was my dad's birthday and a week later was my mom's.  I had one cake pop for my dad's bday and I had a skewer with strawberries and 3 small pieces of angel food cake for my mom's bday.  I had a hard time with the burn days and honestly didn't do three in a row, I ate fruit when I wanted to because we had some fresh pineapple and raspberries.  I know you aren't supposed to but I did and I am still happy with my results.  I worked out a lot more the last half of the challenge and have kept that up also.

** Update as of August 8: I have lost 9 lbs and feel wonderful!

Below are some of the recipes that we like!

Quinoa Black Bean Burgers ( these are a favorite) click on link for original recipe

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 C dry quinoa
1/4 C ww bread crumbs *  This is half the amount original calls for
1 egg * I added to help hold them together
1 tsp chili powder * I don't measure just sprinkle it in and more than a tsp
1/2 tsp cumin * use lots more I love cumin
1 Tblsp tomato paste
2 cloves garlic minced
some onion powder * I hate onions so I didn't add real ones just put in some powder

2 Tblsp honey mustard
2 Tblsp Canola Mayo

cook quinoa in a cup of water, mix all ingredients together well, form patties and cook in a little olive oil for 5 min each side.  These rock served with a little of the dip and some avocado on top!  I serve them to the kids with a side of sweet potato fries.

The best recipe so far for curing the sweet tooth has to be the raw cookie dough bites!  I don't like walnuts so I added more oats and no walnuts to these.

Another fav cookie is the peanut butter cookie:

1 C Peanut Butter

1 egg

3/4 C stevia

** water or coconut oil next time to combat dryness

These are awesome, I used my pampered chef scoop that is 2 tsp big and it made 26, they came out to 71 cal a cookie.  I also put one choc chip on top of them for the kids.  so mix together, drop on cookie sheet, press down lightly with damp fork, and bake at 350 for roughly 10 min.  Next time gonna add some water or coconut oil as they were a little dry...

Ok, and I love the Vanilla Meal Replacement Shake Pancakes!

Just mix in a blender one packet of vanilla replacement shake, 2 eggs and 1 banana.  Pour onto hot griddle and eat.  I sometimes sprinkle a little stevia on top, but don't need to!  you can sub applesauce for the banana!

Vinyl Project gifts

Here are a few of the projects I did the week before I left home.  I love the heat transfer vinyl!  It is so easy to use.

Advocare cleanse tips

Ok so i haven't updated this in a while because I am finding that doing a blog with two small children and a list of projects is a little hard! At the moment I am visiting my parents and they convinced me to do the advocare 24 day challenge. My parents both started with the 24 day challenge in January and have each lost a considerable amount of weight. My father has never been super heavy, but had started to put a few pounds on and decided that he wanted to get into shape for hunting, etc. he has lost 33 lbs in the last 5 months and looks fantastic. I will post a before and after of him when i get to a computer ( I am on my ipad). My mother has also lost over 20 lbs and gone from a size 8 to a size 0. So they are my inspiration for doing this. I don't have a ton of weight i would like to lose, but i am tired of the leftover 5 lb baby belly, and to be honest i am in my thirties and need to learn how to eat properly. I am the first one to admit that i have an eating disorder....not anything that would be clinically diagnosed, but i have no will power if there are cookies in the house. I will sit down with 5-8 cookies and a glass of milk and eat them all, i used to be able to do this with little consequence, but find that as i get older and after having kids i can no longer do this and not see them on my ass later that day. So now that i have rambled let me get to the cleanse portion of the 24 days.

I was very concerned about being able to do the cleanse because I LOVE milk, cheese, yogurt, and I detest vegetables! The good news is that even though I couldn't have dairy, refined sugars, or wheat products, I did it and never once felt hungry! The no alcohol and caffeine didn't bother me because I don't normally drink them.

They say that you aren't supposed to expect to lose weight on the cleanse, but i went from 130-128 lbs. I also didn't exercise on the cleanse because the kids gave me a cold. Here are my tips and what I did:

I drank my spark every morning when I got up and on the days i needed to take the fiber drink, i only mixed it with 6oz of water and chugged it then chased it with another glass of water.

I didn't use the meal replacement shakes or bars on the cleanse. I did eat a lot of 1/2 c portions of steel cut oats, or oatmeal with chia seeds in it and used vanilla, cinnamon and a little stevia as my flavors. Also had the eggs a few mornings.

I made salads ahead of time! I prepped and am still doing this....5-7 days worth of salads in mason jars. It is the best tip i can give you! That way you never have an excuse not to eat your salad.

I also made sure that there were always boiled eggs in the fridge to add to my salad, eat alone as my protein snack or make a quick egg salad out of!

I personally never took the spark in the afternoon, but prob cause i don't need or crave caffeine.

I technically cheated and ate dry roasted peanuts as my nut snack instead of almonds or cashews because i don't like the options i was given.

I also used any salad dressing i felt like, i just made sure i only used a little on my salad at a time.

Keep a water bottle with you at all times, and i kept frozen oranges, and lemons in the freezer to add to my water.

When you gt your meat, cut it into 4-6 oz serving sizes and then freeze. That way you can pull out a portion and cook without having to worry about it being too much.

Here are some links to recipes i have used: make substituions if needed, with almond milk, chia gel, stevia, etc.

salads in mason jars:  I don't put the dressing in them becuase I am eating these at home, and I would suggest putting any veggie you like in them.  Seriously the BEST TIP EVER!!!!

Grilled Avacado:  Cut an avocado in half, sprinkle with olive oil and lime juice, and place face down on the grill for five minutes. Then fill with salsaand add a little more lime juice, and salt.

eggs fried in avocado (leave out toast)

lemon herb egg salad: use canola mayo

Breakfast cookies: use stevia and almond milk as subs

mint/herb water: 2L water, 1 medium cucumber, 1 lemon, 10-12 mint leaves. steep overnight in fridge and drink every day.

baked cauliflower: make sure they are all brown and crispy if you don't care for it to begin with or it will be mushy!

Avocado Egg salad: use canola mayo and no yogurt!

Link to my pinterest board on advocare

Organizing Stuff

Love looking on pinterest and seeing all these ideas for organizing.  So here are a few that I did.

hung up my measuring cups and spoons behind my mixer

hung the extra cups on the door

added a bar to raise some of the spices

took old spice rack and hung in bathroom

Shell Flower wall hanging

I made this paper last june and it has been sitting in my closet since that time.  A few weeks ago my mom was here and I sent her and lilly to the end of the road to get shells, and moss.  These are the wall hangings we made.  All we did was use stuff from the yard and the hot glue gun.  I have added two of these to my bathroom that I am doing in an ocean/beach theme.  We did the bottom one on a piece of driftwood and used sand dollars for the flower.  Sometimes living on the ocean in alaska is helpful :)

Vinyl signs and plate

I made this plate to donate for a whalefest they had here a few weeks ago.

I made this one for my mom and dad

this one for a friend

hung this outside

lilly picked the colors and helped line up the words, let's just say it has charm :)

Vinyl Decorated Cups

I ordered these cups off of amazon and love them because the lids screw on and the straws don't come out!  They are perfect for the kids to drink their fruit smoothies out of.  So we decided to decorate them with some outdoor vinyl.  Lilly picked the colors and shapes and helped stick on the stickers!