Friday, August 29, 2014

Pinterest Fave Five

On the last Friday of the month, I post five of my favorite pins. I then attempt them during the following weeks and share with you my "Nailed It" moments.

I didn't get around to some of my favorite pins from my fave five post...especially the ab & squat challenge. It should have been easy enough to continue while we traveled here and there but alas it didn't happen. I should mention however that I did get through 2 weeks of it and it was great. The sketch (sigh) there was no inclination whatsoever to scrap this summer. Maybe next week while the boys are at school, maybe! The breakfast casserole was yummy but I have no pictures of it. I'll just say that everyone ate their share and more.

On to this month's fave five...with plenty of Thai basil in my veggie garden, I am going to attempt making this Thai Basil Pesto. Recipe calls for tossing it with soba noodles and steamed veggies...sounds yummy!
This sketch looks interesting and unique with the triangle pieces of paper. How about making it a little more challenging and using only scraps? I'm definitely going to give it a go.
My boys are going to be sitting down with this FREE summer journaling printable from Simple as That blog. What a great idea and can be added a summer layout.
These last two aren't projects but are my favorite pins for the month. This quote is perfect...I have been out fishing with my boys quite a bit this summer and I do have to say, I don't think they've missed their video games, as long as they are catching fish ;)
 And this should come in handy, especially since both of my guys went back to school on Wednesday!!!

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Nailed It!

I saw this pin, went to the website and decided it was easy enough for my beginner knitting level. I had the yarn, the needles and even the buttons.

It took forever for me to finish...turns out I am not a fan of bulky/chunky yarn as it's too bulky for my small hands. I finally finished it last week, sewing on the buttons I had on hand and love how it looks. Will I make more? Yes but not with chunky yarn...I'll have to tweak the pattern but I'm looking forward to making more for X'mas gifts.


Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Garden Tales 08.26.14

Status quo - nothing much has changed in the garden. Wishing I had planted more basil so I can make homemade pesto and planning to get some churrasco so I can use up the parsley in chimichurri. Tomatoes are ripening, plenty  of Thai basil, peppers and cucumbers. Kale are getting big too...maybe some kale chips this week or am I supposed to wait for it to get cooler before harvesting my kale? Anyone?
And yesterday, I gladly paid my helper (only one since the other was at football practice) to re-do my compost area. Some pesky plants have sent their roots into my compost pile...heavy mat roots...to the point the bottom half of the compost is trapped. We moved the pile, dug up the roots, laid down two layers of cardboard (from the shelves we bought for the garage) and dumped the compost pile back on it. He did a lot of the heavy work and it was totally worth the $$$. 

Monday, August 25, 2014

Weekend Wrap-up

Hello Monday! How was your weekend? We spent Saturday cleaning out and organizing the garage. It was so nice to get everything out, the generator and snow blower turned on, and everything (almost) organized. 
We bought 2 new sets of shelves to organize with. One for outdoor gear (not shown) ie camping gear, canoeing gear, fishing gear, beach umbrellas and coolers. We are keeping tents and sleeping bags inside the house but everything else is going in the garage in one easy to find location. The other shelf is for sports gear (pic below). On the top shelf we have our folding chairs, followed by snowboards (helmets and boots in inside the house), misc stuff that needs to go bye-bye, balls, baseball gear. Love the fact that we can see what we have and grab what we need without wading through other items. Sidenote: How did we accumulate so much stuff?
Sunday, we attended 9am mass, always a challenge with a tween and a teen in the house. Right after we headed to a friend's for a pig roast but not before stopping into Jordan's sleep lab to try out and bought a mattress. And yes my kids were sprawled out on a mattress playing on their iPhones while waiting for us...good thing we were the only ones shopping for a mattress and actually bought a set. The pig roast was yummy. On the way home, we decided to stop in on some friends and were so glad they were home. We haven't seen each other in over a year (even though we only live 30 minutes away from each other).

Friday, August 22, 2014

I am...

gearing up for the start of the new school year next Wednesday.

knitting a cowl after finishing a prayer shawl and toddler hat.

working in my garden - harvesting, re-planting and turning the compost.

completing the Instagram album that I put together for my whirlwind trip to Penang, Malaysia back in May.

getting used to the idea of having a FRESHMAN in the house.

driving back and forth from the high school and stadium twice daily because said freshman is playing freshman football.


fishing...totally hooked!!! I used to take the boys and brought a book to read or something else to do while they fished. Now, I'm the one planning fishing trips and getting the gear ready.

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Nailed It!!!

One of the projects I wanted to have done was a mini portable first aid kit for the tackle box. It became more important when D stabbed himself with a hook while we were out fishing. Good thing the car was right next to us and I had a first aid kit in there. Yesterday, I fished out a prescription pill bottle, took the label off and got it prepped for duty as a mini first aid kit. The bottle I have must be a lot smaller than the one in this pinterest post...only the smallest of band-aids fit in it. My tube of Neosporin didn't so I decided to try THIS. I have to say it was a little tricky but I managed to make 2 tubes and will make more as needed.
This is my end product and it is now sitting in our tackle box for when we need it.

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Garden Tales 08.18.14


These guys are doing great...finally. I've never really had great success growing them in my veggie garden, maybe I don't plant enough or maybe it's the cooler weather we've been having. Whatever it is, I love seeing them and all the ruffles!

Tomatoes are ripening but they aren't growing as well as I would like. I remember a couple of years back when we had so many grape tomatoes, we were eating handfuls daily. Anyone a little more successful with their tomatoes this year?
I planted my cucumbers pretty late in the season...bought them and pretty much just plopped them in the ground with a tomato cage around it to climb and left it alone. I was so glad to see baby cukes on them this morning. Fingers crossed we;ll have a decent harvest of cucumbers.
How is your garden growing? Do share your garden pics with me.


Monday, August 18, 2014

Weekend Wrap-up

We've talked about it on and off for a few years now, ever since the boys started playing little league level baseball and never took the plunge. This summer with both boys aging out of LL, we decided we had to go. Puerto Rico making it to represent the Caribbean league helped a little. We drove down to Williamsport early Saturday morning straight to the fields, spent the day and stayed over in a hotel. We watched the Puerto Rico vs. South Korea game Sunday morning before heading home. It was such a great time and I highly recommend it. I will write a more in-depth post on my personal blog with tips and what we did, etc. later in the week. I'll update here with the link when I do.
The mascot...Dugout...is absolutely adorable making sure the boys come out to dance with him before the start of a game. Hope you had a great weekend!

Friday, August 15, 2014

Flashback Friday

Flashback friday...when I post about past events or old layouts or anything I feel like reminiscing about. Are you enjoying these flashback posts? Let me know if I should keep them or toss them.

Flashback to October 20th, 2006...8 years ago...when I had my very first crop in my scrap cave. I don't have any photos of attendees but am pretty sure I had at least 4 scrappers.
We put together a 2 page Halloween layout - KI Memories papers, Making Memories foam stamps with acrylic paint and my staple, Bazzill cardstock!
The products have evolved...in fact, some of these companies have closed their doors - Cosmo Cricket and Chatterbox.

Some things have changed and yet others haven't. I no longer host crops in my home and have in fact moved my space to the other side of the basement (I actually have windows now). We've also put in new floors and yet those orange poles remain :(

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Garden Tales 08.12.14

The garden hasn't changed much since last week's post other than the snap peas have sprouted. I haven't been home much to mess around in the garden other than to harvest (beans, herbs, tomatoes, greens) and enjoy. Instead, I'll show you what else we did...we have 2 pet turtles...the boys and I made a make shift pond in their old sand box for them. Basically we dug a hole, lined it with an old shower curtain and placed rounded rocks around the edges to hold the liner down. Filled it with water and dropped them in. They were happy to be out of their tank and happily explored.
This guy stayed out there for over an hour reading and "babysitting" the turtles...they were trying to get out. They made it out a few times and each time, we just picked them up and placed them back in the pond, moving the rocks they were using to climb out on.
The next day, we did the same but this time covered the top of the sandbox with the boys' baseball throwback net and weighed it down with pieces of lumber. Well, sad to say we didn't "babysit" them and when we came back an hour later, one of them was gone. It's been over a week and we still  haven't found him. We are sad but are hoping it found it's way to a nice pond. As for the other turtle, we are undecided on what to do with it. For now, he is back in his tank with a few shiners for company (edited: 1 shiner for company, the others... .)


Monday, August 11, 2014

Weekend Wrap-Up

Still sticking to the OUTDOORS theme, we spent the entire weekend outdoors AFTER spending the entire week camping. The weather has been beautiful and the family willing :) Loving all the time we're spending together and away from electronics. And this pic...LOL, DH doesn't like to smile for the camera and the boys decided they needed to mirror his signature look...don't they look like they're having a blast? Ahh summertime, time for making memories!
Sunday, we met up with friends to celebrate a 10th birthday...even the cake matched the theme of the day.
Please don't think it's all a bed of roses, the boys have their moments...the most memorable ones are
- when D decided he was done hiking 2/3 of the way into our 6 mile hike
- when I'm untangling fishing lines for the umpteenth time
- when we do have a day home for chores and they are the most un-co-operative heathe, one even had the nerve to tell me he was on vacation and therefore was exempt from chores
- when a quick grocery store trip becomes an ordeal 'cos they're arguing and pushing n shoving in the aisles...ugh!
All in all, the sum of it is we are enjoying ourselves and I am choosing to mostly remember the good times.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Around Here

We've been spending a lot of our time outdoors...camping, hiking, canoeing and most of all fishing! Sorry if I've been a little absent here and posts are coming in late, enjoying the last few days left of summer vacay.







Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Nailed it!

Worm farming - We have been fishing a ton and it was just ridiculous shelling out $ every single time we headed out for crawlers (worms). I kept seeing worm farm pins and decided to give it a try. D is my fisherman and was totally into it so we dug in. We just did a basic 1 bin system since it's sitting outside - we (as in I) drilled holes in the bin, shredded newspaper and ordered the worms.

When they arrived D dumped them in and they are living in there happily (we ordered 250 worms but I don't see 250 in there...let's just assume they're happily in there).

We feed them once a week from kitchen scraps and have been going through the bin when we go fishing.

In case you're interested, here is my Worm Farm pinterest board.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Garden Tales 08.05.14

Just a quick post...everything is growing and blooming. I pulled out the sugar snap peas as they were done and planted a new batch.






Monday, August 4, 2014

Vacation wrap-up

Instead of a weekend wrap-up, I'm going to do a vacation wrap-up post. After baseball season ended for the boys, we decided on a last minute trip to Florida...to spend some time at the beach and some cousin/family time. It was much needed and we all had a great time. And it's pretty safe to say that I'll probably have classes and kits with the following themes...

Beach/Surfing - we spent 75% of our time at one beach or another while we were at the coast. We even signed the boys up for a 1/2 day surf camp to learn to surf.
 Fishing...we went deep sea fishing one of the days and had a great time, except for the seasick part.
 Food...there were lots of delicious meals and lots of photo-taking ;)
 Family...the kids even posed for some pics...amazing!
Baby girl...yup, there is finally a girl in the family. Can't wait to scrap some pink pages :)
And in 3 days, I believe my boys are on their to becoming pool sharks. Anyone know of any pool themed papers out there?
How is your summer coming along? Ours is shaping up nicely and I am still enjoying the time at home with the boys. It has it's moments but the slower pace is awesome!