The Koenigs

Friday's Scissors and Cream Lavender Satchels, P.F. Chang Lettuce Wraps and Healthy Coconut Cookies

2012-02-10T21:27:00.000-08:00

Fresh Lavender Satchels

Since that furry little creature said we are moving on to spring, we need to start thinking about the dreaded spring cleaning! I tried to make my own lavender essential oil this summer when I dried almost our whole bush of lavender from our front yard. I tried doing it in a crock pot on low which was way recommended by many bloggers. It turned out horribly. It actually turned all black and burned making a filmy, stinky oil cloud throughout the house. The end of the story is that the crock pot was left outside for a few days on the porch and I gave up. Luckily, I didn't use all of the dried lavender! So, I did something a bit more fool proof and sewed some satchels to go into our hope chests and drawers while we start our spring cleaning. HERE is a blog that has these satchels along with many other fun DIY projects!

P.F. Chang Lettuce Wraps

Although this is not the exact knock off of the restaurant's recipe we think it is good enough! The magic ingredient is the HOSIN sauce. You can get a glass jar of this in the international food aisle. It is usually by the hot sauce, pad thai sauce or curries. :) MMMM, that makes me hungry just thinking about that tasty aisle. This recipe is fool proof too! One addition we sometimes make is mixing some corn or edamame in with our final mixture. Have to try THIS one guys!

Vegan-Gluten Free Lemon Coconut No-Bake Cookies

These cookies are amazingly good! You have got to try these! Who knows, you may have a wheat allergy and just don't know it. If that is the case then these will be a dream come true! LOL! The only change I made was I decreased the shredded coconut to only 4 TB of FINELY chopped coconut. I am not a huge fan of the texture of coconut in anything so, this was a perfect alternate solution. We actually didn't have time to warm them in the oven so, we ate most of them just in dough balls :) HERE is the fun blog I found them off of.

Scissors & Cream- V-day Style!

2012-02-10T08:21:00.000-08:00

Heart Matching Game

Since one of the girls I nanny is 5 years old we have been working one on one with some letter and phonics on the days her sister is in preschool. SO much fun. I seriously love these girls! Pretty sure they are one of my favorite families I have worked for the last seven years. I made this game super fast and decided the hearts up in 2 bags so that she only had 12 set of hearts to deal with. I got the idea from HERE

Apple Hearts

If you don't have a set of different sized hearts you should splerge and get some! Anything you cut into a heart shapes seems to turn out to be the cutest thing ever and you didn't have to slave over it for hours. Super easy! You can also make these apples slices into sandwishes by putting jam, peanut butter or cream cheese in between two slices. HERE is where the original idea came from.

See the cute heart made by putting your hands together? Too Cute! The girls had a blast finger painting while Danagan was sleeping :)

Craziest 3 days of our Lives!

2012-02-08T21:30:00.000-08:00

It seems completely silly and meaningless to even be blogging anything right now but sometimes venting is the first step to recovery. I will be doing a scissors and cream this week, but wanted to give you a little glimpse of this last week's unbelievable events back to back. This last week has already had life changing effect on both Daniel and I as a couple and separately as individuals. I know with out a doubt that the last 3 months will be marked down as just one of the hardest periods of our marriage/life.

Event #1: On Sunday many of you know of the Powell/Cox tragedy and if you don't you can look it up yourself. It would be way to hard to go into details on here. The Cox's are in my family's ward in Puyallup and I grew up with Marie and Susan. I went to high school and church camp with both of them and talked about boys and everything our silly teenage brains deemed important. It was heart wrenching to hear the news 2 years ago about Susans disappearance and those that knew the Cox family and Susan knew deep underneath that something was up with Josh Powell in SO many different ways. We were all very excited to hear the final verdict of the custody of the children early this fall that gave them a safe haven in the Cox's home. I think it gave a piece of mind that "those boys were at least safe" to many of us that were still trying to heal from the disappearance. I can't really write anymore of this since I am in tears yet again. I don't even have the words or understanding of what the whole Cox family is going through at this time. I have been in and out of tears everyday this week thinking of what kind of human it takes to violently murder your own children. I think it makes it 10 times harder when you have your own child that you would die FOR, not the other way around. I know how much Susan loved her boys and wanted the sincere best for them. About 4 months before her disappearance she had contacted me trying to convince me about "hypnobirthing" which she had done with both of her boys. She was excited for us and so upbeat about talking about motherhood with me. She will truly be missed by many but I am excited to give her a huge hug and finish our motherhood talk in the life hereafter.

Event #2 My parents were one of the firsts to find out about the children from their bishop coming into sunday school and telling everyone to 'go home there has been a tragedy'. We found out the news only 1 hr after the event happened and the home was still ablaze. As we were backing out of our drive way a truck was driving in the opposite direction from us on the parallel street from our house. We were naturally looking in his direction to see if he was turning down our street so we didn't hit him. All of the sudden his car burst into flames. 3-4 foot flames literally were whipping out from under the engine, hood and behind the tires. I instantly thought the man was going to come out running around with flames on his back. He put on his brake and rolled himself and dog out of the truck unharmed. Daniel got our hose and fire extinguisher from our garage and started at the fire. I talked to the dispatcher for 911 and like all of our other experiences she was incompetent and I had to state my address FOUR times. Most of the fire was contained by the time the firefighters finally showed up which made Daniel proud but still pretty frustrated with them. We are SO frustrated beyond words about inefficiency of the so-called public servants in general currently. I know there is a lot of controverisal ranting about the government by Daniel which most of the time I DO NOT agree with, but I unfortunately have seen first hand of the inefficiency of the police in our own crises. If you want an example look up the 911 call between the social worker and the dispatcher in the Powell case. It was a whole 10 min before the call was even deemed important! I know that even if they were able to respond quicker Josh would still be alive and most likely hurt someone eventually before he would be arrested for Susan's murder.

Event #4 On Monday our only car broke down and we luckily found a mechanic that fixed everything. He fixed it in only 1 day, so it wasn't a huge set back with juggling transportation. Just a unexpected set back finacially.

Event #5 A couple of months ago Daniel's boss' 18 year-old son passed away from unknown causes in his sleep. It was super hard for everyone to try to move on from this at his work, especially Daniel. He knew most of the guys and occasionally went on runs or worked in the warehouse with them. Since I was a bit removed from the situation I was able to give Daniel the support he needed to start the healing process. Daniel came home Wednesday and me still being a bit melancholy about the Cox situation he informed me one of his friends he works with got shot the night before. Not quite sure how we will be healing from this one together since we will be individually healing from these separate events. I am extremely grateful for the knowledge of our church and the healing that comes from the atonement. Please keep these two families of these victims in your prayers they can feel their support and help through this horrendous healing process. If you did the math you will see all of these things happened only from Sunday-Wednesday.

So...its seems really meaningless to even post a Scissors and Cream this week but, I will anyways and give Dangan extra bear hugs while we piece things back together! The one thing we have already learned this week is that we need to really evaluate the events of our daily lives and question whether or not they are with purpose of becoming more like Jesus and touching those around us. Our prayers will continue to be with those friends and family of the victims of these terrible murders as we find comfort through our Saviors Atonement.

HERE is a link to my amazing sisters blog she began when she was called into young womens. They took a trip to the mortuary and talked about what dying is all about. She is such a strength in my life. If you are having a hard time with some of these similar things take some time and read this entry. She is be a author of a amzing LDS book in the near future!

Fridays Scissors and Cream (Candy Cane/heart cookies,Grilled burritos)

2012-02-03T07:15:00.000-08:00

Candy Cane Cookies

Unfortunately, I didn't have time to post these cookies I made with the girls I nanny during the holiday season. Luckily, we made heart shapes out of the extra dough from the candy canes. This can be my v-day recipe for you all. I am not too into v-day, the color pink or hearts so, this holiday seems to slip my mind pretty easily. Usually by this time of the year I am just getting back in the groove of things and finally feeling a full recovery from the crazed holidays.

I found these cute candy cane cookies on Pintrest from a blog HERE. I used my sugar cookie recipe from HERE (with added lemon extract instead of almond) I was a 1/2 c short of flour so I used wheat flour. WHAT A MISTAKE. I liked the cookies but it was very controversial about the wheat flour taste.

Grilled Stuff Burritos

Another gem I found on Pintrest.... THIS recipe was SO tasty I am so thankful she shared it! I have never grilled our own burritos before and surprised how much it improves the overall taste of the whole dinner! We plan on making a ton of these to freeze and save for a lazy dinner. mmm (sorry about both of these crappy pictures...couldn't figure out the white balance :/)

Fridays Scissors and Cream (Homemade Nutella, Baked Scallops with Rice and "healthy" Butterscotch Bars" )

2012-01-27T03:18:00.000-08:00

For a few weeks you all are stuck with dessert and dinner recipes from me. I am working on some big time sensitive crafts that will take a little more then a week so, recipes will have to suffice. :)

Whole Wheat Butterscotch Bars

Thanks to my friend Rochelle posting THIS recipe on her facebook I got to try this scrumptious recipe while we were snowed in the other week. I have been experimenting with Bob Mills whole wheat PASTRY flour to see if it could be a healthy alternative to some of those guilty pleasure desserts. I have been impressed so far. It still makes the recipes have that wheaty-healthy taste to them but it is not as strong as the other normal whole wheat flours I have used. This bar reminded me of a healthy version of Carmelitas and just as yummy!

Homemade Nutella

I couldn't believe my eyes when I found THIS recipe on Pintrest. MY finished product didn't really compare to the heavenly store bought Nutella but it was a delicious spread to eat! Why did it not taste or compare to the original Nutella? I think I cooked the hazelnuts a bit too long which really affected the taste. I also did not strain the nut puree particles while the sauce was hot. This made the spread taste like a chunky roasted nut spread. Not a bad taste but certainly different then the store bought stuff. :)

Baked Scallops

Fred Myers had a sale this last week on their JUMBO scallops. Daniel and I have tried recipes with the small scallops so, we thought it would be fun to try these for a change. If any of you know me very well, you know that I LOATHE seafood. It is SO disgusting! Seafood that I will eat only under social pressure are shrimp, crab, and scallops. That is absolutely it though as far as consuming any type of sea life. I know, I know, I don't deserve to be living in the Puget Sound.

HERE is the recipe we tried. I usually don't like bread crumb covered meats but this recipe was too good to not share! We had our scallops over homemade pilaf from a recipe HERE but thought it would be a great alternative to meatballs in our next spaghetti dish!

Friday's Scissors and Cream (Personalized Subway Art & Chicken Pot Pie

2012-01-20T07:38:00.000-08:00

Personalized Subway Canvas

I saw this on one of the blogs I follow HERE before I was even addicted to Pintrest. I quickly bookmarked it and immediately wanted to try it out. After trying to structure the wording, font and size I gave up. I am not much of a tech person. Daniel totally saved me in this silly project, so I can hardly take credit at all for it. He used his made skills in Photoshop and created the whole thing for me. We picked out our fonts, cities and then sized them. Lastly, we put a vintage screen over it. Uploaded it to STAPLES and printed it for $2.61. I purchased a 2 pack of 11"x14" canvas’ from JoAnn for $5. Voila- super cheap personalized art! When researching this I found a lot of adorable ones with street names where the creator first strolled with their now husabnd, places they grew up or the model type of their first car. You can make your subway type story out of ANYTHING! SO, fun- Try it out!

Here is why these places are important to us... Click on each city to find out more about it! In 2009 we took a 3 month Europe trip together so, some of those cities made it on our canvas. :)

San Gimignano, Italy The most breathtaking area of Tuscany, Italy we visited for sure! Definitely a life changing experience for us in this little city. We met our "spoon-in-hand" talkin' mama named Tiziana who would scold us every chance she could because we did not drink vino (wine). She was the owner of the agriturismo (bed and breakfast farm) we stayed at.

Venice, Italy If you visit this city you will have life changing experiences. It is set right out of a fairy tale. Plus it fit with this canvas so, we used it!

Piazza Del Campo Seina, Italy This is the famous courtyard where the yearly Palio horse race is done every year, considered by many to be the most beautiful town sqaure in the world. After 2 weeks in Italy Daniel ordered gelato ENTIRELY in Italian. It was graduation week for the high school seniors and they were busy chanting in big groups with their neighborhood colors all over their outfits.

Fort Stevens- Warrenton, Oregon This is a family tradition I have done now for 26 years. We camp at this amazing camp ground with its personal ocean front, lake, military fort and paved biking trials through the preserved wildlife. We are continuing this tradition with our children and haven't missed a year yet.

Marwencol (The Movie) This movie is about a man that was made severely mentally handicapped from getting beaten after leaving a bar. It is a touching story and his make believe city of figurines he has made for himself for therapy is named "Marwencol." It was a movie that was equally moving for both Daniel and me.

Cheddar Gorge, UK We met up with one of Daniels mission companions here and had a picnic. We had ice cream and of course Cave Cheese (click on these words to view).

Clevedon, UK Another loved city Daniel spent a good time on his mission at. They don't have much touristy stuff there but, we had a wonderful time visiting people Daniel taught on his mission.

Portabello Road, UK We thoroughly enjoyed the famous Portabello Road Antique Market when we visited England. We have a few mementos that we snagged from there and loved see all of the crazy merchants.

Somerset, UK This location was one of our favorites for its beauty alone on our trip. The rolling hills, pasture, farm animal crossings, old one room churches with cemeteries and "to die for" cheese really set this place apart from the other cities we visited.

Elephant & Castle South London, UK As part of our Europe trip Daniel was the most looking forward to showing me places that he loved on his mission and the people he met. Elephant & Castle is a neighborhood that has a couple of restaurants that saved him on his particularly challenging days. It was fun to see his face beaming as he toured me around the street he once proselyted.

San Juan, Puerto Rico On our Caribbean honeymoon cruise San Juan was our last stop. It was a crazy beautiful place and even though we were only there for a few hours we can't stop thinking about it to this day.

Montmare, France This was a cozy little city where we stayed for 5 days on our Europe trip. We would walk out every morning and see the gorgeous Basillica of the sacred heart at the end of our street. We would then pop into the nearest bakery and try a new pastry for breakfast. Montmare will always have a special little place in our hearts :)

Chicken Pot Pie

We have added this delicious EASY recipe HERE to our monthly rotation. It is the best creamy pot pie recipe I have found out there! I usually put about 1/2-1 cup of milk in with all of the veggie ingredients in the crock pot for 3-5 hours then on the last hour I pour in the roux sauce and mixed it all up. FYI- The flour/butter roux sauce will get clumpy if left in the crockpot too long, that is why I pour it in last.

Seattle gets SNOW?

2012-01-18T06:48:00.000-08:00

We FINALLY got some snow this last week and Bothell was one of the cities that got the most I think. We got over 8 inches in our backyard! Danagan could not stop talking about the "no" (snow) and unexpectedly neither could Daniel. HA. I think there are a few special moments that fathers look forward to with their children. Taking them sledding for the first time, making a go-cart from scratch, rough housing with them after work when they are finally old enough and making a super fast wooden derby car. etc... It was SO cute to see giddy Daniel playing with Dano and his cousin Aidan in the snow. Here is a few fun videos and pictures of our weeks events... We loved having a whole week off as a family relaxing and organizing. Downfall is that we will have to work hard over the next couple weeks to make up for it financially :)

This one is the funniest of them all! You can see a glimpse of how much influence they have on each other. We sure are going to be in trouble when these 2 are teenagers!

I'm coming to get you!!!

Ker-plunk

Run Away "HAHAHA"

Not sure he really knows what happened. Poor guy

Danagan and Aidan have totally different personalities and this picture is a great example. Aidan was all about the sledding on the first try but Danagan had to watch first :)

Both the boys

"Come on Dano"

New Happenings with Danagan!!!

2012-01-15T08:54:00.000-08:00

We always knew Dangan liked to totally surprise us with new milestones without any warning at all, but this month he has topped them all. In only one weekend he decided he was done with a binkie "cold turkey", ready to be a big boy in a big bed AND wanted to be potty trained. ALL of these things we personally as parents were not ready for at all. Especially since we still feel like we just had him yesterday! Now that it has been a few weeks of pure chaos and a lot of crying on both of our parts we are getting settled into a new routine with our BIG BOY! YAY. I am thankful he still takes naps in his big boy bed and that he is at a age that nannying is easier with him too. We are so excited to see what this new year will bring!

Fridays Scissors and Cream (Felt Food, Carmel Popcorn and Best Sloppy Joes Ever!)

2012-01-13T20:07:00.000-08:00

Sorry I have missed the last few Fridays...I really have no excuse at all other then me being pretty burned out with FB and blogging. :/ I found some really cool Christmas crafts late in the season and I have been finishing up those for next year. Since most of you are SO done with the holidays I will save those holiday project pictures for some posts next year.

It seems like the theme that a lot of my friends Christmas' were based around play kitchens for their kids. Great minds think alike I guess! Although most of these friends made super cute homemade kitchens we took a short cut and bought one instead. I did get crafty though and made some felt food for Danagan to open on Christmas as well!

Here is the fun red vintage kitchen for Christmas this year. I could hardly contain myself...tee-he He pretty much never leaves the little kitchen they have at nursery in church every Sunday. So...we were pretty stoked. His face was priceless! We have a lot of Melissa and Doug wood food sets but I wanted to make some food of my own. HERE is a great site of random foods you can make for yourself. I didn't make any of them using a pattern. I just looked at the picture online and free-handed them. Alot of them look pretty rough but who cares; Danagan can't even talk yet and most of the real food he eats looks much worse then this. :) HERE and HERE are 2 really amazing website with tutorials on pretty much ANY felt food you have a desire to make! Next on the list is felt fortune cookies, waffles, sliced bananas/kiwis and another dessert of some kind.

DIY Felt Food

Non-Sticky- Caramel Popcorn

I went to a recipe swap this November/December and my friend Lori made this delicious popcorn and it didn't stick to my teeth! She said that the secret was to bake it! Unconvinced I had to try it myself. Voila, the secret WAS to bake it and stir it! I kind of combined a lot of recipes together to make as little of a mess as possible. So HERE is the original recipe and our adjusted recipe:

We made the regular bag popcorn 2-3 bags. Follow the directions in the recipe with the rest of the ingredients. Then cover the popcorn with the hot sauce in 2 9x13 casserole dishes. Then give the whole dish of popcorn a really good stiring every 20 minutes for 60 min @ 250 degrees. When removed from oven and slightly cooled but not hardened go at it like a cat on steroids. Claw at that puppy until all of the pieces no longer stick together! I think this will be a great gift for the holidays next year!

Best Sloppy Joes EVER

We have been trying to make our own sauces and powder spice mixes ourselves lately. For example; making our own sloppy joes from scratch or our own taco seasoning when grilling taco meat. We came across THIS recipe from good ol' Racheal Ray and we have added it to our monthly dinner rotation. It is seriously SO good and so easy. Perfect fast meal to help bounce back from the crazy holidays! Only modification we usually make is instead of tomato sauce and paste the recipe calls for we use 1 can tomato soup + 1 cup ketchup + 1/2 cup water.

Christmas 2011 & Danagan Funny Present Videos

2011-12-28T22:46:00.000-08:00

We know we are SO blessed to have both of our families live so close to us for the holidays. We did our Koenig family holiday tradition of riding the downtown Seattle monorail to the holiday carousal and Sheraton hotel gingerbread houses earlier last week. Then we spent Christmas morning and lunch with Daniels family and the rest of the afternoon through Tuesday with my family. Danagan got spoiled rotten to say the least at each of his grandparents houses. Such a memorable Christmas. My sister Becca got engaged a couple of weeks ago and we were able to do her engagement portraits for her during our break in Puyallup. Guessing by how much “snort-laughing “was going on we can safely say we all had a blast. J Can’t wait for her wedding this March!

Teaser from Becca & Ian's engagement session

*If you haven't "liked" us yet. PLEASE "like" us here: http://www.facebook.com/KoenigPhotography?ref=tn_tnmn

Church Christmas Party

Here is the whole Koenig Family. I was totally floored that the boys stayed perfectly still the whole time!

Santa scared the bee-jeez out of poor Dangan Christams eve-eve when he belted through the door without knocking. His uncle Jeremy and aunt Rachel came to our house all dressed up and we got to snap a couple of FREE santa pictues! Daniel spent his vacation organizing and personally replacing a roof of a Snohomish family that were very much in need. He presented the families hardships to his company and they decided to do a present tree for them. We got a lot of gift cards from the employees instead of presents. We decided it would be fun for the family to actually have presents to unwrap since we DID have a specific wish list for each one of them. We made it a date and shopped on Christmas Eve together as a family. It was fun spending money that wasn’t really ours. lol (on a separate note I am flabbergasted by how expensive American Dolls are! ). On Christmas day we got to surprise the family with all of the gifts and of course there were lots of crying. :) We plan on doing some kind of fun service oriented thing like this as a family every year. We also want to start a Christmas in July tradition of service, egg nog (frozen from christmas) and big dinner. We figure that all of the service organizations probably are in more need the other months of the year as well.

My mom got Cousin Nathan and Danagan a rocket ship that you can draw on and here is the video that shows how they feel about it!

Danagan’s Great Grandparents got cousin Aidan and Dangan a Hobby Horse for Christmas and they had so much fun sharing it! Here is a video of the excitement.

Scissors and Cream (Matching Xmas Pjs, 3 Appetizer puffs with DIY roasted garlic and frosted x-mas tress)

2011-12-23T08:06:00.000-08:00

We are now entering all the fun holidays in just a couple days that involve parties in which you feel obligated to gorge yourself of various yummy food. I LOVE this time of year! A bunch of my friends did a contest amongst ourselves this summer to lose wight biggest loser style. I lost enough weight to make myself proud and content with my renounced glutenous eating goals for this holiday season. That same group decided to do round 2 this before Thanksgiving. When asked if I would join again I said "Heck NO, its eating season!" So- Bring on the eating!!!

As most of you know Daniel is the oldest of 7 in his family, which naturally means BIG family events. Since all of them are local even simple weekly family dinners easily turn into a huge party. Therefore, you better have some appetizers on hand! Here are 4 easy scrumptious savory appetizer puffs that we have tried out and seen their magic first hand. I like each one of these delicious puffs because they are able to be eaten at any temperature on the tray. Of coarse they are more yummy hot but they are also fine when they cool off.

Cheesy Roasted Garlic Potato Balls

Please take the time and go to the blog with THIS recipe. Her finished product looks a trillion times better then mine and mimics how it tastes in your mouth. Ours turned out to be delicious despite how they look! We used a cast iron pan and I think we had the oil turned up too high as well. :/

Roasted Garlic

The recipe above called for a roasted garlic. I was excited to try this! We cut the top off the whole bulb, wrapped it up with tin foil so it had a twisted stem at the top and then cooked it for 40 min at 400 degrees. If you don't believe me you can follow the specific directions HERE

Brazilian Cheese Rolls

These rolls were fun to make. The tapioca flour really makes or breaks them so keep that in mind! I used a muffin tin to make them a little more uniform. HERE is the recipe

Christmas Pajamas

Yes, I DID make us cheezy matching pajamas. Daniel wanted no part of these shananagans so I dragged Danagan with me! lol

I scored a full King Size "never used or opened" flannel sheets at a garage sale for 4 bucks this fall. I thought immediately that they would be awesome pajamas. I have been trying to look at already made items as just fabric now that I know how expensive fabric can be! Another bargain I found this summer was 1 curtain panel made out of silk for 50 CENTS! I have been making adorable baby hair flowers out of these. SCORE! HERE is the tutorial i followed for my pj bottoms. I ended up making his WAAY too tight on the waist and mine looked like you should add a hula hoop around my waist and throw me in the circus. AND they looked like crazy wanna-be bell bottoms because I thought it would be smart to use the sheet "already made" marron edge. But atleast I tried! lol

Frosted Christmas Trees

This activity was way more fun then the finished product looks. We turned over a sugar cone. frosted them with a powder sugar, flour, milk and food coloring mixture. Then added what ever we wanted! I found this idea on Pintrest from a blog HERE.

Fridays Scissors and Cream (Pecan Tarlets, Card Holders )

2011-12-16T05:06:00.000-08:00

Letter Christmas Card Holder

By this time the Christmas cards are coming in the mail. I am one to send out cards by Dec. 1st but not this year. I may not have OUR cards sent out but I am sure ready to receive cards! Here are two fun ways to display your x-mas cards if you don't have a lot of room. I Mod Podged this "K" a few years ago and got the idea last year to make it into a card holder for the holidays. HERE is a blog that has a tutorial on how to mod Podge letters. Its pretty self explanatory just looking at my picture. I am going to paint some cloths pins black for the final touch.

Cloths Pin Card Holder
HERE is the tutorial I followed to make this cloth pin wreath. Daniel had to help me mold the hanger into the shape we needed but everything else was super easy. I chose green and maroon for my spray paint from JoAnns and went to work!

Peanut Brittle

My mother and father in law LOVE peanut brittle, so I decided to make a little add on to their Christmas gifts this year. I am mad I never knew how easy it was to make! HERE is the recipe I followed.

Pecan Tarlets

I made pecan pie/pecan tartlets for the first time ever for my book club last week. HERE is the recipe I used. My plan was to use the left overs for my "front door drop Christmas goodie friends" but they sadly never left our house. We gobbled them up in only a couple days. :)

* FYI- 1 1/2 regular pie crusts and HALF this recipe make 24 perfect mini tartlets. I had to make more dough for another batch because we had so much filling left over!

Stained Glass Christmas Tree

I got this kids craft idea from a pintrest image I found HERE. The girls and I had SO much fun doing them. We taped cyran wrap on the inside instead of contact paper. It worked ok but contact paper would have been less messy with the gluing . :)

Scissors and Cream ( DIY gift bows, layered jello, and marshmallow snowman craft)

2011-12-09T06:38:00.000-08:00

Apologies for skipping last weeks post!

So...December hit me like a hot waffle iron to the face. I was totally unprepared for all of the advent crafts and recipes I wanted to try. Didn't really think through that I needed to be done with Christmas decorations or crafts before the holiday started in order to enjoy them! So, don't be surprised when I am still posting Christmas stuff well into January.

I started a full time nanny job with Danagan and surprisingly I am totally underwater. I don't know how you amazing moms balance it all! For those who are in a similar boat of overwhelmyness I have found Three books to be incredibly useful. "I don't know how she does it" by Allison Pearson (Not to spoil it for you but she finds out she can't do it all...how satisfying!) My good friend Katherine has raised her children and has cheered me up along this crazy road of motherhood. She gave me a book titled "The Mother Dance" By Harriet Learner . This has been awesome for a comforting read about balancing being a great mom, co worker, and wife. Lastly, Daniel and I have a all time favorite children raising philosophy book called "children the challenge" by Rudolf Dreikurs . We read it all the way through when we went on our Europe trip and we are starting it up again! Seriously a must read for anyone with toddler or a new family! It has mind blowing parenting ideas on oppositional children, setting rules, dealing with sibling rivalry and other great things that are in store for us as parents.

DIY Gift Bows

HERE is the tutorial I followed to make these super easy bows for all types of gift wrapping occasions. Hopefully this comes in handy over the holidays for you all! Crank up the Christmas music and start wrapping!

Blackberry Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

For Thanksgiving I tried to make a few pies for the first time. I know, I am almost 30 and I haven't even made 5 pies by myself yet...Hence this whole craft/recipe hiatus. I was initially making a strawberry/rhubarb lone and a mixed berry (raspberry/blackberry) one. Out of rushing and being stressed out I accidentally dumped in the blackberries into my strawberries. Daniel suggested I just go with it. So I did and it was pretty much the greatest mistake in my life! I thought strawberry rhubarb was my ultimate favorite dessert. Oh No, this new creation blows it out of the water. I used the recipe for both HERE. You can substitute any type of fruit to make the 5 cups the recipe calls for.

Layered Jello

I thought I would finally try this recipe out for myself from HERE. I know most of you have made this but I had never had before. My friend Ellen posted this a while back on her facebook and has stuck with me ever since. mmmmm. It would be a great Christmas treat if you alternated green and red jellos!

Marshmallow Snowmen

This week the girls and I made these adorable marshmallow snowmen I found on Pintrest. I am having so much fun being with them. We got to paint nails today while Dano napped. Things I can't wait to do when I have girls of my own. HERE is the blog.

Fridays Scissors and Cream (Turkey Shirt, DIY Chalkboard and Strada-Breakfast Casserole)

2011-11-25T06:01:00.000-08:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

After seeing this adorable shirt on pintrest HERE I wanted to make it ASAP. I ended up whipping it out late Tuesday night even though I only had 2 days before Thanksgiving. I got a 2T shirt so that next year he might be able to wear it more then 1 time in November. I cut all out the felt pieces by hand without a template and sewed them all on the shirt. Not much to it... Danagan would get SO excited when we would talk about the "turkey shirt." He would run around doing his chicken sound that is similar to saying "squash squash squash" over and over again. Adorable. :)

Frame Chalkboard

I made a DIY chalkboard out of a thrifted picture frame. I got the idea from HERE. I did end up painting on the glass knowing it may or may not break in the future. I love this because it can be used for all the holidays or special occasions depending on what you write on it.

Strada

I attended a baby shower at my friends home and she made this delectable breakfast casserole. Everyone raved about it so much she added it to her recipe blog HERE.

I couldn't decide if I really wanted to take a picture of this one knowing it would most likely affect your decision to make it or not. This casserole is totally worth trying! It is fool proof and easy. It blows the normal boring Mormon breakfast casserole out of the water. This actually tastes classy and filling. I used white wine vinegar for the wine and it was perfect. Sorry about the terrible pictures. Hope you can try it and love it like I have.

Fridays Scissors and Cream (Fancy Ruffled Apron and Pie in a Jar Gifts, and Turkey Art)

2011-11-18T06:28:00.000-08:00

Ruffled Apron

Since I am gearing up for some massive holiday cookin' I thought I needed a fun and sassy apron. I followed a simple tutorial HERE and used my amazing sister-in-law's sewing knowledge to whip it up. We decided to take advantage of our weekly "Grandma Day" and sew together while shamelessly eating the left-over Halloween candy that our little babies worked so hard on Halloween to collect. After finishing the project I realized I really wanted a LARGE fabric/ribbon flower on the side of the belt but quickly became overwhelmed. There are A LOT of awesome tutorials out there for DIY flowers! I made my ribbon flower following THIS tutorial but really would like to try THIS one. I made it removable so that I can play around with other ones I make. It will be much easier washing it as well, with a removable flower. I (my SIL) also made a handy loop on the back to easily hang it up. Overall I am pretty stinkin' proud of my first sewing project!

Pie in a Jar

THESE adorable single serving pies in a jar make awesome presents for any occasion. I had a bit of an explosion with my strawberry rhubarb because I filled it up about 3/4 from the top of the jar. It bubbled over and made a huge mess. Luckily, i was able to wipe most of it off and use them. I will definitely remember to fill up the jars only half way next time.

FYI- One recipe of pie filling and dough make about 4 wide mouth pie jars.

Fun Leaf Turkey

I did THIS project with my new girls I watch full time now. They are 3 and 5 years old. We had a TON of fun collecting the leaves and then making our funny turkey. I love how massive goodle eyes make any artistic animal look hilarious! Cora (the 5 yr old) put spots on hers and said it was now a turkey cow. I can't get enough of these fun lovin' girls! I feel so blessed to be a part of their family for this short time.

FAIL! Sweet Potato Rolls

I tried to make THESE sweet potato rolls in preparation of excess left overs for Thanksgiving. It was totally disgusting to say the least. The worst part is that I have NO idea what went wrong. I think it had to do with my buttermilk. It was well within the expiration date but looked and smelled a bit funny. :/ Please let me know if you have any good recipes for rolls. I am trying hard to make some kind of bread well by the end of the year!

Fridays Scissors and Cream (Paper Rose Wreath Cheez-Its and Cider Camels/Toffee)

2011-11-11T05:25:00.000-08:00

Vintage Rose Paper Wreath

I realized this year that we don't have many fall decorations for November. I love this project because it is neutral decor that can be used for any holiday or when you feel like redecorating. Since there are so many super cute DIY wreaths floating around blogs and pintrest I tried making one from the tutorial HERE. In retrospect I would have chosen a much less time-consuming wreath like the "coffee filter" ones. All the rolling of the paper really adds up on the clock! I got a straw wreath because it was cheap but accidentally cut the fishing line holding it all together. :/ I had to improvise and wrap some yarn around it to keep it from falling apart. Hence the super tacky orange yarn wraped around the wreath you all were curious about. I know...not the classiest project. lol

Apple Cider Caramels/Toffee

My last recipe swap was themed "apples vs. pumpkins". I decided to try THESE cider caramels since I hadn't ever used a candy thermometer or cooked many sensitive candies before.

These caramels are scrumptious to say the least. I even messed up the recipe and cooked it a tad too long. Conclusion: The "toffee" turned out great. :) My only advice if you try this recipe is to seriously follow the temperature directions. When they say take off the sauce as soon as it reaches a certain temperature THEY MEAN IT!

Homemade Cheez-Its!

Who can seriously say they have not been addicted to cheez-its sometime in their life? Especially the white cheddar ones! I was really skeptical about THIS recipe because it looked so easy. It WAS so easy and delicious. Not to mention it filled our house up with a toasty cheez-it smell- YUM. I will use a little less cayenne pepper in future batches but overall I am impressed! Try it out your kids will love them. AND- you can be satisfied that you know what all the ingredients are in your crackers. :)

Scissors and Cream (Chicken taquitos and Wet Cinch Bag)

2011-11-04T06:52:00.000-07:00

I have been obsessed with finding ways to freeze homemade meals and vegetable purees. Jerry Sienfields wife has a book you may have heard of called "Deceptively Delicious". I have taken her philosophies of using purees in most of your meals very seriously since we now have a picky toddler in the house. Some ways I have already used these purees for are the following:

Yellow squash puree in Mac and Cheese

Zuccini puree in my cockpot Lagsane (You can use UNBOILED noodles too in the crockpot!)

Carrot puree in breakfast bars/homemade popsicles

Brocolli and spinach puree in quesadillas and grilled cheese sandwiches
AND my favorite is crockpot chili! I usually add at least 3-4 different puree/chunks of veggies.

Turkey Day is coming up and I am already planning out the following days of left overs. What do you do with your left overs? This year we have decided to make MASS amounts of taquitos!

I found this homemade taquito recipe here and had to try it out! We had issues keeping the corn tortillas from breaking but I think we will be pros next time. How do you guys keep your totillas warm/moist while you are wrapping them?

These little puppies freeze amazingly well and we now will have less preservatives and sodium in our diet. YAY! Its coming up on the SUPER busy holidays so these will come in handy for last minute dinners for overwhelming weeks.

Chicken Broth

I used a rotisserie chicken for the taquitos this time and found a way to get my moneys worth! After you have striped your chicken of the meat for the taquitos throw the carcass in a crockpot. Add about 3-4 cups of water, a onion and a few veggies you want to get rid of. Ta-da! Chicken broth. Put the broth in measured jam jars or ice cubes so you can easily pop them in your dishes that call for some yummy fresh broth! Brilliant...

DIY Wet Cinch Tote

Since the we live so close to the Mountlake Terrece Pool and the Lynnwood Rec Center Pool we have taken advantage of both locations for family nights. Danagan LOVES to show us how he can blow bubbles, swim on his belly and shove his face into the small fountains. I decided that it was time we got a wet bag instead of using the 'ol "wrap all your sopping wet clothes in your small towel that is already wet from you drying off" trick. HERE is a tutorial to make a 5 min cinch sack. I instantly made it a wet bag by getting a poly vinyl type fabric from JoAnns. Can't wait to get our swim ON!

Fridays Scissors and Cream (Halloween Fabric Transfers, Healthy Hot Dogs? and Cupcake Bath Bombs)

2011-10-28T10:40:00.000-07:00

Cupcake Bath Bombs

I had a TON of fun making some last minute "new mother/special friend" comfort gifts. It was super easy to do and I found most of the ingredients from our local Central Market.

HERE is the tutorial.

I found the following ingredients there: Bromine powdered clay, indian food based food coloring, cream of tarter in bulk and witch hazel. I had a terrible time trying to pipe the frosting pretty like the uber talented wonder-mom that makes amazing cakes for all of her kids events. Alas...I had a rude awakening finding out how much practice I really need to get in order to do it well. To be fair my RA in my hands make me shake terribly when I squeeze or hold things for longer then 15 sec. So, I will blame the disease rather then my lack of skills. :) I solved the frosting dilemma by plopping the frosting on, smoothing it out and then adding a pile of orange pumpkin soap confetti to the middle. TA-DA!

Easy Citrosolv Image Transfers

My mom gave me a ton of embroidery hoops recently and I wanted to make some vintage art that I could interchange with different images depending on the season. You can find the tutorial HERE. It was crazy hard finding the Citrosolv and a copier that has toner. For those who live close to me you are in luck! I will save you a ton of time and tell you that our local Central Market has Citrosolv and Fred Myers on Bothell Everett Hwy has the old school "yellow plastic toner added" copier. I can't wait to make a batch of Christmas transfers next!

Mummy Dogs

To keep up the Halloween spirit Danagan and I made some adorable mummy dogs. You can find the recipe HERE. My child unfortunately LOVES hot dogs. We try to have healthier options for meals around here but it has been a bit of a battle to get him to "like" anything. We found these all beef or all chicken dogs with NO added NITRATES at Trader Joes. At least I can pretend to be a decent mother and get ones that have less added cancer in them. Right?

*This is not my picture. We accidentally scarfed them up so fast that I forgot to snap one before they were all gone!

October Pumpkins (compared to last year)

2011-10-25T05:26:00.000-07:00

We took advantage of one of those AMAZING sunny days last week and visited Craven Farms in Snohomish. We pretty much had the whole farm to ourselves-which was awesome! We could scream/dance around like fools trying to get Danagan to look in the general direction of the camera and not worry about too much judging from other parents. We were excited to finally take a toddler to go pick out a pumpkin, but unfortunately it turned out to be much more similar to last year when he was only 6 months. They really DO keep the same personality they have when they are babies!

Still sucking dirt off of the pumpkins

Still posing blankly for the camera. I love this kid!

He thought it was hilarious to try to sit in between the pumpkins and fall down

"Why aren't we moving?"

Fridays Scissors and Cream (Halloween Decor, Sugar Cookies and Homemade Spaghetti Noddles)

2011-10-21T05:36:00.000-07:00

Its not too late for Halloween! I have totally fallen in love with the popular party blog " hostess with the mostess". The parties they feature are totally amazing and over the top! They occasionally will have some of their decor FREE to print! They have really pulled though for me this Halloween season. Here are the cute vintage printables I have used this week from HWTM and other awesome blogs.

Halloween printable spellbound sweets

Halloween DIY sweet spirits

Spells and potions Halloween: creepy jars and candy labels

Spells and potions Halloween: creepy drinks

Halloween themed freebies from lil mop top- Here are some free toddler educational halloween games I used for nannying this week

Many potion bottle from cheeky magpie CHECK THESE VINTAGE LABELS OUT!!! So fun!

Spider Web Sugar Cookies

I have finally found a recipe for frosting that is spreadable without being too runny and actually tastes good! I couldn’t be more excited! I tried my hand at some sugar cookies and frosting with a Halloween twist. I used this tutorial for the sugar cookie recipe and added 1 tsp extra of Lemon extract instead of the normal almond. For the frosting I used a recipe my friend Kristen Moya gave to me. Hopefully she doesn’t mind me sharing. I have included the recipe below. I got the decoration design from (of course) “Our Best Bites” HERE.

Butter Cream Frosting (yeilds about 2 cups)

1/2 c butter, softened

16oz confectioners sugar

4-6 TB of milk or cream (I had to use 7 actually)

1 tsp vanilla

Beat butter, sugar, 3T milk and vanilla until smooth and blended thoroughly. Add additional milk for desired spreading consistency. Increase speed to medium high and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 min.

This adorable Ghost Graveyard was found HERE and the super easy mummy sucks were created thanks to "Zakka Life" HERE.

Homemade Speghetti Noodles

My craft/recipe hiatis has rubbed off a little onto my husband. His Grandparents were in town this week and he surprised me and them with a scrumpious dinner featuring HOMEMADE speghetti. HERE is a similar tutorial he followed. Let me know if you all are intesterested in me doing a tutorial for them and I will! I just want to make sure there are some avid blog lookers before I do all that work :)

Scissors and Cream (Chicken Cordon Bleu, Chocolate Soufle and 3D art)

2011-10-14T05:51:00.000-07:00

This week I am busy learning all sorts of new decorating tricks to spruce up our place for the holidays. I know half of you have already tried some kind of rendition of tissue paper art but I wanted to try it out myself. I think I will have to practice a bit more before I can do it for a party for someone else but I am very please at how my wheels turned out.

I totally scored some flat back embellishment buttons at a garage sale a couple weeks ago and I was VERY eager to use them. I can't wait to make some vintage cards. That will have to be a project for another day. :)

Here are both the tutorial links:

Paper Decor Wheels

Pom Pom Ball in the middle

In the Kitchen...

Chicken Cordon Bleu from Spark Recipes. It was fun to try something new but there was a lot of changes I would make in the future "cordon blue making." I would like to try adding a layer of Dijon mustard or some kind of sauce in the middle to add some more flavor. Another different ingredient I would recommend is using a quality chicken breast. I unfortunately used the Fred Myers brand breasts and by the time I was done pounding it there was not much there to work with.

Chocolate Soufle

I tried my first soufle this week and learned my lesson that some recipes will be a complete failure if you only make a half batch. I have been making half batches of all my new recipes because I don't want to waste so many ingredients if I mess up and there are only 2 of us eating all of this fattening food! Soufles are like creme brule in the sense that they are VERY sensitive with how you make it. My soufle never rose like it was supposed to but it tasted like super yummy cake! Try it out yourself HERE. Make sure you make a WHOLE batch!

Scissors and Cream (Pumpkin Recipes and Fabric Pumpkins)

2011-10-07T06:39:00.000-07:00

Its pumpkin time! I decided this year I would experiment with various pumpkin recipes. After all it is a vegetable, and therefore healthy, right? Since this is the first time I have made any of these pumpkin recipes I decided to get super domestic and make my own pumpkin pie spice while I was at it. As a spice it is really only used once a year so why not make it yourself! HERE is the blog tutorial I used for D.I.Y pie spice.

Fabric Pumpkins

The Tater Tots and Jello blog has a great step by step tutorial of how to do these adorable pumpkins and much much more! Check it out HERE

* Here are a few lessons to learn through me...

1. Buy pumpkins that are smooth. Leave the unique fun ones to spray paint. The medium sized one had thicker crevases and it made the fabric pucker a lot. :(

2. Measure your fabric exatly to fit the pumpkin. I don't follow directions very well, so I find myself "winging" everything. I tried to hurry this project and cut all the fabric at various length. Most of my pieces were way too long which made a big bulky mess at the bottom of my pumpkins.

Here are my recipes I tried this week: Click on the titles of each one to get the full recipe/tutorial.

Pumpkin Butterscotch Muffins

Out of all the pumpkin recipes I have tried, so far this has tasted the best! My only regret is that I only made a half batch!

*make sure you use liners for these little guys. The butterscotch morsels melt and become a caramelized sticky mess. This made a huge cleaning problem AND a problem popping them out of the pans.

Pumpkin Brownies

I didn't care too much for this recipe because it cooked for almost 70 minutes! The pumpkin layers wouldn't set up for me. They turned out to taste really moist and yummy but a little too gooey for my liking. Please let me know your advice for helping recipes like this to set up. :)

Pumpkin Pancakes

Me and the little guy had a blast making these pancakes together. He is finally at the fun age where he wants to learn and "help". I love pancakes as a snack for him because he can take them anywhere and they don't rot. We use them when we go shopping, when he iswaiting in the car seat, or around the house as a healthy snack.

(Okay, okay...we could have done without this seriously terrible picture : )

Homemade Popsicles

I had about 1/4 c pumpkin puree left so, we made a new popsicle concotion for Danagan for the week.

I mixed the following: applesauce, wheat germ, greek yogurt, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, carrot puree and molasses-for iron, and he LOVES them!

Danagan is 18 Months (September 5th)

2011-10-03T06:58:00.000-07:00

I can't believe our baby is 11/2 years old! Where does the time go? Here are just a few portraits from our session we did for Danagan. He is only saying a few words so far such as; bubble machine, binkie, eggs, please, cheese, kisses, eyes, ears etc. He loves singing, giggling and playing chase. His favorite foods are edaname and eggs and homemade popsicle.

* Popsicles have seriously been a life saver for nutrition around here. Its totally disgusting but he loves the concoctions I make. A normal mixture would be; 1/4 c applesauce. 1/4 c greek yogurt, 1/4 c green pea puree, cooked oatmeal and 1 TB wheat germ. lol. He eats about 3-4 of these a day!

Here is his doctor appointment stats. He is still our tall and skinny little man

Height: 33 inches

Weight: 25lbs

Nap: Only one from 11-1pm

24oz of milk a day (yay no bottle anymore...now to get his binkies out of his death grip)

"I'm SO big!"

Fridays Scissors and Cream (Potatoes and Halloween Decor!)

2011-10-01T04:42:00.000-07:00

We got a great crop of potatoes in our garden this year. Last year we put ten potato halves in and got 11 whole potatoes. Sad. This year we can say we got pounds of potatoes from our ten we put in! We have a friend we call mother earth in our ward and she has helped us out ALOT with our garden. I won her generous offer of one free box garden made,planted and tended at a relief society service auction. She was the one who showed me how to grow potatoes in garbage cans. Instead of just posting our pics I thought that some of you may be interested in knowing how it works! I am not one for doing tutorials but know explaining this process can get a bit confusing fast. This is a great way to have a garden and you don't have to have a back yard. All that is needed is a porch with only a little bit of sun. First things first- soil! Our friend convinced us to do a homemade rich soil mixture for our boxes and our cans. We used a equal mix of peet moss, fertilizer and 3 to 1 vermiculite. The vermiculite is a life saver so don't think you can live with out it! It has little light weight flecks that maintain moisture but not too moisture that things will rot. This combination is so light and airy you will NEVER HAVE TO WEED. since you will be constantly adding dirt to your pails and condensing the dirt it is a miracle soil. First you need to pick out buckets. We use a tote that was missing a lid and 2 garbage cans that we bought new at home depot. I have seen planters and 5gl buckets used as well. If you only have a dinky little car still like we do here is a tip. Order from home depot on their free shopping plan and get them delivered to your door. No truck needed! This saved us a lot of hassle. Next you need to drill a ton of holes in the bottom. Then take 5 potatoes with eyes and cut them in pieces. Try to cut them so that each piece has st least 1-2 eyes. Let them sit out on your counter for 2 days so they get a hard crust on the freshly cut sides. Then bury them at the bottom of your container with your soil mix. Once the plants are about 4in high cover them up to just under the leaves with more dirt. Make sure you water consistly daily just like your regular garden. I have been told that potatoes grow the most when the plants are flowering so make sure not to give up at this stage. Harvest time is when the plants have stopped flowing and are beginning to die and turn yellow. When we plant in may we generally harvest the beginning of september or august.

Here is what may happen if you waste time deciding how you are going to fit huge garbage cans in your small Corolla. :/ (Do your kids a favor and order online!)

Here is the bottom of one of our can so you can see how far apart we drilled our holes.

You can see that our ones in the tote are already starting to turn yellow after flowering

Here is all of our white ones

Have you ever seen purple ones! We tried these out just for fun. We made all of these ones into our own magical purple mashed potatoes. yum.

HERE is a recipe close to Daniels famous broiled potatoes he always makes with our BBQ dinners. He originally learned it from a much loved investigator from his mission in England. The key direction for this meal is to boil the cut potatoes before covering them with the oil sauce and broiling them. We usually use a combination of salt, pepper, thyme and rosemary for the seasonings. It is fabulous every time!

Its Halloween time so I have a few super cheap projects brewing in my head. Here is my first one. I made Halloween vintage plaques. I love how easy they are. Most of the mess ups just make it look more vintage. Daniel cut me 4 squares of cedar and I followed a tutorial like I do with all my copy cat crafts. Unfortunately, I can not find the same tutorial I used anywhere! I am not one to do tutorials so, here are my basic steps:

Cut wood to desired shape

Print/cut clip art

Paint wood with basic acrylic paint

Let dry

Paint a thin coat of Mod Podge on the surface of your wood

Place paper clip art (ink side down) onto the wet Mod Podge

Let dry

After all is dry run the whole board under water

Gently rub white paper off with finger or sandpaper

Finally, Go over the whole surface and sides of your board with Mod Podge

*I learned quickly that my finger or finger nail would rub off the paper with caution better then any sand paper. (After doing this I found pre-cut plaques at walmart for only 99cents! bummer).

Her

Pickles!!!

2011-09-22T20:23:00.000-07:00

My amazing mother in law is a talented gardener and also a VERY knowledgeable canner of her vegetables. This is my second year of canning pickles with her and finally feel like I have the system down. We usually get our pickling cukes and dill bushels from country farms off of 99 in edmonds, wa. We got 26 lbs for $20 and it made 23 total full sized-wide mouthed canning jars. That is less then a dollar a jar and minus the unnessary ingredients-like food coloring. I have found that it is the most efficient if you have 2 people in this process. One to work the dry "filling" system and one to work the "hot stove" system. You must be fast in this process or else your jars will break and be a mess (I broke 3 this year but it does happen on occasion to everyone)

Wash them in the sink well. Pick out any debris or tails they sometimes have.

Drain them in a clean place to sit

Here is the filling system:

Bowl of garlic- about 3 garlics per jar (We had a ton of garlic left over so we pickled 3 small jars of just those- Daniel I guess loves them - bleh)

Bowl of extra peppercorns- 1/4 tsp per jar

Bowl of pre trimmed dill- 1 good sized steam bush per jar

Bowl of pickling spices- 1 TB per jar

Here is the canning stove system:

1-Wash your wide mouth jars and rings

2-place about 12 jars upside down on a cookie sheet and damp kitchen towel in the oven at 170 degrees (this makes the transition of hot liquids more successful with out any breakage).

3-Places 8 rings in HOT water (bring to boil then turn it off) on the stove

(8 rings because you should always have a extra and 7 jars fit in the canner)

4-Fill canner with water up the top indented line of your pot. Make sure the strainer is lifted in the up right position so your jars are not cooking as you put them in one at a time.

5-Create a gently boiling brine out of equal parts of these ingredients:

6c water

6 c regular vinegar

6 tb salt

(after done with 1 batch of 7 jars refill your brine with equal measurements to fill it back up to the top)

When everything is ready its PICKLING time!

One person fills up the pre heated wide mouth jar with all of the spices from the bowls. Then adds pickles like a jig saw puzzle. 2-3 big pickles first and then fit the other sized ones around them. Quickly hand it to the second person who fills up the jar with brine, tops/screws on the lid then places it in the raised strainer of the canner. Once you have a full rack drop it down for a timed 20 minutes.

Tip- when removing your finished pickles make sure they are placed on the counter AT LEAST 2 inches apart for 2 reasons. One reason is so they cool faster and the other reason is so they don't have a chance of hitting each other and breaking.

Scissors and Cream (Nutella and Orange cookies & 3D art )

2011-09-19T17:08:00.000-07:00

For those who are new to our blog I have taken on the challenge to broaden my domestic goddess talents. I will be posting "first attempts" to crafts and recipes each week for your entertainment success or total failure! I call these my Friday's scissor and cream posts. Enjoy...

Since I would like to devout a good 3 whole days to sewing projects this week and there was a serious out cry for these recipes you all get Scissors and Cream early!

So, I stumbled upon two A-MAZING cookie recipes this last week and decided to try them out in the middle of the night. My scissors and cream bucket list has been shrinking down drastically these past two weeks due to my increasing insomnia and stress from losing my current job. I have been able to try out so many new things and have found myself extremely grateful for that extra time!

Nutella Cookies!!! (This is not a joke)

I would suggest making a ½ batch like I did to save yourself from getting a 3^rd butt cheek! These little devils have to be the most fattening cookie I have seen. With that being said, they are also the MOST amazingly delicious cookie. (Hello- nutella, butter, sugar & cocoa what more could a emotional girl possibly want?)

FYI- I decreased about ¼ cup sugar and 1/3 c nutella from my half batch and they still tasted scrumptious. I would have also liked to have used whole wheat flour to make it a little less of a guilty snack. There will certainly be a "next time" though. :)

Sun Kissed Orange Cookies

These orange cookies are super fast (onlt 15 mon including cooking time!). They also have just the right amount of citrusy zest and fluffiness making them a cookie with the perfect combination. Try it out yourself HERE!

3D Art Project (So easy I would say its cheating)

Here is a fun 3D art idea I found HERE. I just love using thrifted frames for pennies and putting my own art in them. I got the frame with out the hanging attachments at a garage sale for 50 cents and the wood branches from my friends decorative vase that was overflowing. Super easy and you don't have to be too crafty for this one. (That is my type of craft!)

Summer of Gardening

2011-09-19T04:51:00.000-07:00

Last year we pretty much had a total failure of our massive garden. It was to be expected though since it was our first time. :) All we did this year was combined composted chicken manure with our old mixed dirt (mix of peet moss, vermiculite and fertilizer) and it did magical things. We grew 4 types of lettuce, potatoes, kale, broccoli, sage, rosemary, 2 types of thyme, and spinach. Four REALLY important things we realized we were doing wrong last year was:

1-Watering daily- fixed with a amazing digital water timer hooked to our hose to go off in the early morning.

2- Some plants just have more success starting out as starts from the store: All herbs, tomatoes,

3- Plant on overcast days that are going to be followed by more overcast days. When starts are transplanted the roots need time to settle and find water. If its too hot or sunny the plants will bolt (bloom/flower prematurely) and/or wilt.

4- You always need some little hands to help with the harvesting and labor :)

Bouncy-crazy wheel burrow rides are always a must when working in the yard. Here is Danagan and Hayden (the 4 yr old I nanny).

For some reason he always finds a new way to eat dirt/rocks/trash when we are outside!

Ta-Da I'm a helper!

Hanging up the vertical planter wall hanging with Daddy

Here are half of our 2 boxes and our potato plants

We are going to have to get him his own lawn mower for Christmas because he is obsessed with mowing with daddy

Scissors and Cream (Fruit Roll Ups and Tile Pendents)

2011-09-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

First of all here are some more examples of last weeks tin can presents. :)

Here is an example of my devotion to my Scissors and Cream posts. We are having MAJOR internet problems in our house which have left us unable to tap into ANY type virtual resources. :( So, I am sitting in my car at Micky D's with my child as I blog for a quick second on their WIFI. (Its ok judge all you want...) I hope you enjoy this post even more then the rest. lol. This weeks learning curve adventures where scrabble tile pendents and yummy homemade fruit roll ups.

Scrabble Tile Pendents

The pendents were so easy yet make you look really crafty! YES! I made all of mine down below from out of date calendar thumbnails. After making them I thought that they would be pretty cool magnents as well. So, I made a special London set for us (really for Daniel). I also made some long vertical ones from gluing two tiles together. Those were my favorites and I wear them all the time. Try it yourself HERE.

Home Made Fruit Roll Ups

I found this idea out from my ultimate favorite blog "Our Best Bites". It is a little late for first day of school snacks but, I will be prepared when Danagan final reaches that age. It was super easy! I used a mix of 3 necterines, 3 peaches, 3 tb of lemon juice and 2 tb honey. Lemon Juice really didn't help it from turing brown but I tried! I blended it up and then let it dry in the oven for 7 1/2 hrs at 170 degrees.

I find joy in making things for from raw and KNOWN ingredients for my little guy. I will definitely be making a massive batch and freezing them as a staple snack in this house.

UNSURE...

REALLY MOMMY YOU CAN HAVE IT

MMM, WHAT SHOULD I DO INSTEAD OF WHAT MOMMY WANTS?

ACT GOOFY INSTEAD?

FINE, IF YOU INSIST THEN I WILL SHOVE THE WHOLE THING IN MY MOUTH AT ONCE!

Labor Day Hike

2011-09-12T10:03:00.000-07:00

*DISCLAIMER: While processing these photos (which I do not normally do by myself). I accidentally messed with the white balance and also didn't turn off our watermarking action for our business. I am way too lazy to do it all over again therefore you are stuck with it! So, my point is that I wanted to make sure you didn't think I thought these silly photos were professional looking by any means. THEY ARE FAR FROM IT!

For Labor Day weekend we decided to take a spontaneous hike to the beautiful Pinnacle Lake off the Mt Loop Highway. We miscommunicated on the schedule of the day when planning it and it turned into a huge day experience of adventures. This hike was the hardest/steepest hike this little wimpy girl has taken. It was 2.9 miles of steep switchback and mud pits. Daniel was so determined to show me this gorgeous lake formed by glaciers that he willingly carried Danagan, our day pack and dragged me by the hand for most of the hike. We left a little later than we had anticipated which was impinging on some little guys nap time. This just made the toddler scream-fest fun on the ride up there that more enjoyable though. We will really be thankful when the dying pterodactyl screeches are stopped and we can finally enjoy a family car ride. (please tell me they do stop eventually) If any of you have any car ride advice I would love to hear suggestions. Currently, we have 2 sets of magnet fold out cases, musical instruments, sippy cups, snacks, plethera of pacifiers, AND a filled toy box within his small arms reach. We even blast him with the wind from the window down when we simply can not take it anymore. Yet, we still go on these trips for some reason. :)

Anyways, I am glad that Daniel carried Danagan and I up the mountain because the lake was AMAZING! It was so clear and private. Our own little heaven shared with the insects. We stopped for Lunch on the big flat rocks that lay in the lake. While we ate, Danagan enjoyed throwing binkies in the freezing lake and watching Daniel go in after them (We made this a serious matter since we knew that is our only sanity for the car ride back!) The best parts of steep hikes is getting to go down! I flew down that hill in double the time it took to get up there. Danagan on the way down took his latest nap of his small life at 2:15pm. He normally takes a consistent nap at 10 :30 so, he was exhausted. Here are some pictures of our crazy hike. For the most part he loved the whole adventure. He found himself a cute little walking stick and devoured many oranges with us. He also showed us his mad skills with the camelback. Its crazy how fast they learn at this age!

Sharing Lunch half way up....

Perfect sized walking still that he picked out himself!

Unfortunately, when I was airing out my feet at the top I got attacked by killer mosquitoes and took a gory picture for all of you to enjoy :)

Up at the top finally...love this goofy guy

At first I think he was a little confused about what our expectations were about the camelback.

With a little teaching we were totally floored that a 18 mo old could bite down and suck at the same time. We love this awesome learning stage he is in.

sleepy head

Scissors and Cream (meringue and tin can presents)

2011-09-09T09:26:00.000-07:00

Since pie season is coming up I thought I would move up to the challenge of MERIGUE! Sadly, I failed miserably. It was some delightfully delicious goop though! My good friend Jamie has already volunteered to show me how to successfully make merigue sometime so I can perfect this receipe.

This last week my employer had this beauty sitting quietly on her counter when I arrived. I thought "ooh, I could make that for one of my blog posts. I haven't ever made meriegue before. This should be entertaining!"

Problem #1- double the meringue recipe in too small of a bowl. This caused my hopeful meringue not have room to peek and grow.

Problem #2- I used powdered egg whites. This is a mess to use. You have to mix it like crazy for it to become a suitable liquid to add to the recipe. (I have now heard its better to use the real thing)

Problem #3- I also think I poured the boiling hot liquid syrup a little to fast because I had a little screaming helper at my feet :)

Here is my two perfect pies before the white disaster was placed on top (I used it as a topping anyways because I thought it would actually taste ok and be like a marshmellow whip cream) They were a Key Lime Pie and a Chocolate Silk Pie.

In case you were wondering what these were. It is a sample of both types of pies. LOVELY, huh. The pie filling crust turned out wonderfully but the meringue definitely ruined the whole sha-bang. The sad thing is that I made my family take the key lime pie home against their will because I was NOT going to be stuck with 2 whole pies of goop in my fridge all week.

*TIN CAN PRESENTS FOR ALL OCCASITIONS*

I found this cute cheap gift idea from here. I have been handing these babies out left and right. They are easy to make and ooh so cute! They can be used for teacher appreciation, visiting teaching, friends birthdays, mommy gifts for those who just had babies etc.

BLOGGER!!!

2011-09-09T07:40:00.001-07:00

Google has finally got their act together and got blogger a app. We only tether from our phones right now for internet and it was been a challenge to say the least! Unfortunately this means more spelling type-os and camera phone pictures for you guys. Sorry in advance! Hopefully I can update a little more frequently though!

since I am not much of a reader I am naturally strongly against posts with out pics. So, here is cool dude chilling in the car.

Scissors and Cream (Earrings and creamy lemon tortellini))

2011-09-02T18:59:00.000-07:00

For those who are new to our blog I have taken on the challenge to broaden my domestic goddess talents. I will be posting "first attempts" to crafts and recipes each week for your entertainment success or total failure! I call these my Friday's scissor and cream posts. Enjoy...

So, I have been doing this for a few years now but thought I would share it on here finally. I go to a local hole in the wall bead store and buy single beads for .50 or $1 and make super super cheap earrings. I have found myself having to switch out the dangle hook in most of my earrings I buy anyways because of my severe allergy to metal.

.
All you need to make a pair of your own is the following:

2 beads
2 findings
2 hooks
wire cutters
pliers

Directions:
Thread the finding through the bead. Thread it through the hook 'eye'. Then twist the finding around itself

Here are some of my latest easy peesy earrings!

This felt rose earring tutorial I found "You Seriously Made That?". It was also super easy.

I saw this on the blog some of you all also love called"our best bites". Hello- pasta with creamy sauce! Was there really a question whether or not to make it? One single cooking skill I am proud of is that this last year I have mastered making a basic "roux". A roux (pronounced "rue") is a base for most homemade cream sauces such as mac and cheese or alfredo. It consists of flour, butter, milk and seasonings. When I saw this recipe I was excited to use my ONE cooking skill yet again. I deemed this the BEST recipe I have ever made. SO, with that being said YOU GOTTA TRY IT! Substitutions: I used the whole amt of juices that came from my lemon because I didn't want to waste it. It didn't ruin the recipe in fact I think it made it even better! I also used fresh basil from our garden instead of dried and cheese tortellini instead of spinach.

Here are two other monthly favorites using a roux base:

Mac and Cheese

Cauliflower Soup- This one I add corn and/or carrots to get more veggies in and throw it in the crockpot for 3-4 hrs on low! :)

Scissors and Cream (cards and cheesecake)

2011-08-26T06:28:00.000-07:00

We recently had our annual sisters/brothers weekend. Its the one weekend a year where all of the boys in Daniels family goes camping and does all the manly things they want to do and not tell us about. This weekend naturally leaves all us girls alone in our boring houses. SOO, we get to have a sisters weekend that usually involves alot of crafting, shopping and eating. :)

Daniel's 14 year old sister Rachel made her first peanut butter cheesecake for us while we made some adorable cards. Here is the closest recipe to the one she used. (I apologize for the bad picture)

I am trying to learn to do more cute thing using the cricut machine. I never have manly cards! Sadly, the men in my life get questionably girly cards or no cards at all for celebrations. So, here are my cards that I came up with thanks to sisters weekend!

New Hair Cut for Dano

2011-08-22T12:03:00.001-07:00

Recently, we (I) decided it was time to start thinking about a professional haircut for Danagan. He will be 18 months old in a couple of weeks and we wanted it to grow out enough for his pictures. He was born with a little over 2 ½ in of hair and it didn't fall out like everyone had told us it would. I had already done hack jobs on it 4 times before this summer just to maintain any type of non-mullet shape. After 4 haircuts from me, his hair was safe-to-say a bit uneven :). It took a lot of emotional prepping on my part to be ok with losing his surfer do, but I think it is great to have it look even. By next summer hopefully we will have our lovely emo bangs again. I thought I would write a disclaimer before you look at our pictures of this adventure. Danagan is such a character. He only has two extreme emotions/expressions. Super/crazy/hyper and “you must be dumber than a rock for looking at me” expression. Unfortunately (for the sake of pictures), we got the super passive Danagan. It was helpful of him to decided to be the passive type of Danagan since he would have scissors pointed at his head. Despite what he looks like in the pictures he had a blast. The lady was SO fast and great with him and we would highly recommend Kids Kuts in Everett to anyone. For older kids they have crazy smelling shampoo that I was tempted to buy! (rootbeer, chocolate, pie, coconut etc.) Enjoy the picture tour!

Ready?

Snip Snip

All done! Time to check out this car more thoroughly!

All ready for his accounting career

I had to include one happy picture at least!

Scissors and Cream (raspberry rolls and magnets)

2011-08-19T05:40:00.000-07:00

My sister and I are constantly trying to shove good and healthy food down our 18 month-old boys' throats'. Most of the time, it does not go so well. I end up chasing Danagan around all day with a spoon of something in my hand just to get him to eat! He seriously has not touched his high chair in months! Luckily, he is a HUGE milk drinker which has made us really reluctant to wean him away from his bottle. With all that being said here is a truly AMAZING blog for moms striving to make healthy kiddos. (Definitely want to try her carrot cake french toast sticks!)

SIDENOTE: Since we have 1 o'clock church and that is pretty much the only time my child seems to have an appetite we have established a routine for that meal. We use a cast iron pan for extra iron and make a grilled cheese sandwich with spinach or whole wheat quesadilla with grated zucchini and cheese. This has been a great non-messy lunch for church and keeps him off his cheddar bunny/pirate booty diet. I am not sure how much better these rolls really are for Danagan, but at least it's something different!

I am totally ecstatic that I successfully proofed my own bread yeast. For those who are not bread savvy, proofing is a way to ensure your yeast is good and will make your bread rise. FYI-If it doesn't rise you can always make pitas, tortillas, or pizza dough. To proof your yeast you simply add 1 TBSP of sugar, required amount of yeast and hot water that is close to 110 degrees (make sure you are using the total water measurement for your recipe so you don't add or take away from your bread) Some recipes do not let you mix your yeast with your water/sugar. In this case just modify it so you can proof your yeast. This recipe is a great example of this. I just mixed everything together by slowly adding the flour and it turned out great!

Raspberry Cinnamon Rolls MINUS the Cinnamon

I added 2 TBSP of lemon juice and 2 tsp of lemon zest to the raspberry filling to spice it up a little, then topped it off with some scrumptious lemon glaze.

The lemon glaze consisted of the following:

1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 lemon, zest finely grated
1 tablespoon unsalted butter

(Yes, I am one of those uber annoying people that eat the soft ones in the middle)

The only problem I had was the blood bath the raspberries make when I rolled my dough.

DIY Mini Magnets

Did any of you ever play with FIMO clay when you were younger? I know I certainly did. I am pretty sure I have some of my amazing 6th grade art work necklaces laying around here somewhere. I was inspired by my friend Cami's blog here to make some of my own magnets. My original copy cat rose DID NOT turn out as cute as hers, unfortunately. I was happy with my button ones and flowers formed with a mold though. I bought this chocolate mold for a "cute as a button" baby shower theme for a later party. I thought I would try it out early with these magnets. After baking them I painted them with super cheap Walmart acrylic paint. Then as the last step, I slathered them with Mod Podge. SUPER EASY

For this one I added poppy seeds to the middle for a different effect.

Friday's Scissors and Cream! Pizza, Cupcakes, and Vertical Gardens

2011-08-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

This week I tried out pizza dough for the first time, hilarious corn on the cob cupcakes, and a vertical garden with succulents made with a vintage letter organizer.

I have a love hate relationship with breads. Majority of our diet consists of bread and cheese yet every time I attempt to make ANYTHING with yeast it is a total failure. I decided to give it a try one more time. I still could not proof my yeast and it didn't rise that much but it made some tasty pizzza dough. I used this bread recipe. I found this recipe thanks to Kristen Moya. I have been imitated by my kitchen aid and what is the right way to make bread in it. I would like to try some different recipes to before I am really critical about my "lack of bread skills". Overall it was a great first time recipe for bread.

A couple weeks ago we had a bbq theme for my recipe swap/group I go to. I thought I would change it up a bit and do a aprils fools dessert. i found this idea from this blog I have been following. It was really time consuming putting all of the jelly beans on one at a time but it was worth all the reactions.!

Vertical Garden

My mom found this awesome letter organizer at a garage sale and decided it would be good to add it to her hoarding collection in the basement. I saw it and thought it would be a cute vertical garden of some sort! I absoutely love succulant plants. They always have fun textures, shapes and colors that are just screaming to be touched. In fact Daniel informed me that I was touching all of the plants one by one while they sat in my lap on the ride from the nursery (not in the creepy kind of way though)

This is what I used:

-2 long window planter coco liners. These are amazing liners made out of coconut husks. They retain water better and dont ever become moldy. Plus they are really pliable for creating your own basket art.

- basket or fun art piece that you want to become a planter

- potting soil

-scissors

-zip ties or fishing line

- your favorite plants

- AND of course a cute little helper with a hammer to do the manly work :)

First, I cut the coco liners to fix my slanted boxes. Then I tried tying them with zip ties and fishing line. Instead of doing it uniformly I used the zip ties I had first and then used fishing line for the rest. The fibers are really porous so, you dont need a needle. Just weave a whip stitch up the side of the liner or cinch the zip tie to close the loose ends. If you are using zip ties, do a zip tie every 1/2-1 inch.

Next you have to soak the liners. Not really sure why but, it said in the directions on the package.

Voila! now to get a late start planting my cold crop plants for the fall harvest.

Friday's Scissors and Cream! (raspberry bread, dressing and headbands)

2011-08-05T06:52:00.000-07:00

This last week we picked my hubby and I had a awesome date picking 11 lbs of raspberries at Biringer Farms. It was so peaceful to listen to the breeze zip through the bushes while the sun was beating down on us. There really aren't many things better in this life then devouring freshly ripened raspberries perfectly warm from the days sun with the man you love. Most of these raspberries are going to be air sealed and put in the freezer for blackberry/raspberry pies during the holidays. The ones we don't use for pies will be used for other experiments such as this scrumptious raspberry poppy seed dressing, raspberry cinnamon rolls, and raspberry banana bread! Seriously can not wait! The white box in the picture off to the side we bought to keep in our fridge and devour at our convenience. Sadly it is already half gone!

Raspberry Poppy seed Vinaigrette

The link for this delicious recipe can be found here. My hubby made me make two batches after he scarfed down his first salad with it! The recipe recommends a food processor but for those who are still living like happy poor paupers a simple hand mixer and a bowl works great!

Ta Da! Now time for eating...

Raspberry Banana Bread

Next I tried making raspberry banana bread. It turned out yummy. I found the recipe here. I substituted whole wheat flour for white flour and added only 1/2 the sugar it called for so, I felt better sharing it with Danagan. The only hang up I had was that I made it in too big of a pan so, it was a little mushier then I wanted. Next time- 2 medium sized pans or filling the pan up less will work out better! I love the way it looks when it is cut. My phone camera does not do it justice at all.

DIY Knotted Headband

For my craft I have been wanting to try out this head band my friend Cami has on her blog here. I am not sure what type of yarn she used but the type I had was seriously a pain in the butt. I burned myself a zillion times and in the first picture you can see that my crocheting skills are sub par because the linked strands would NOT lay flat. After all it finally worked out and now I have a cute headband to show off my new hair cut. YAY

SIDENOTE: I went in for a hair cut this week. I told the lady I love my long hair but would like to get rid of the split ends (showing her with my fingers 2 inches) and add a few more layers. She started from the back and worked her way to the front. As she came to the front I immediately started bawling. She had cut off 7 1/2 INCHES! So much for a "trim". I got all my crying out and actually enjoy this low maintenance do for the summer time.

I know orange and pink do not match under any circumstance. BUT, I was running from a crazed 18 mo old and was in a bit of a hurry to get this post done so that the authorities were not called on me for neglecting my child. (And no, I will not be updating my my space profile with this amazing "in the bathroom mirror" portrait of myself)

OREGON!

2011-08-04T15:44:00.000-07:00

We recently took a week vacation in Oregon to visit my sister Sarah and her family. Danagan loved playing with his cousin Nathan that is the same age. We went camping for the 20th year at Camp Ft Stevens (which will have to be its own blog post because we took a zillion pictures), played on the beaches, toured the Tillamook Cheese Factory, won tons of prizes atWunderland Nickel Arcade, swam at Blue Lake Park, ate at one of the many McMenamins restaurants, rode the Portland Aerial Tram, saw a F4-U Corsair and a F-14 (the "Top Gun" jet) at the Tilamook blimp hanger-Air museum, hiked up to the Multnomah Falls, smelled the roses from the 1800's at Portlands Rose Garden and started out our camping trip at the Astoria Column. Here is our picture blog post...

I would ABSOLUTELY hate having a job where people just stared at me all day long as I worked. They get literally thousands of visitors daily-crazy.

SO... I am not much for gambling, but I only put in 2 nickels and won the jackpot at Wunderland Nickel Arcade! It was either that or the machine broke. It is still unclear but lucky either way. Six Hundred and Eighty tickets! That is a lot of fruity tootsie rolls, let me tell you!!!!

The boys had a blast driving around with the games.

McMenamins pubs are all over Oregon. They are known for their quirky decor and great entertainment. They frequently have local artists playing or a movie showing on the big screen. This particular one made its own wine and cider. We shared a pricey cider and it was totally worth it! YUM! Its amazing how many kid-friendly pubs there are in Oregon. We went to another pub the day before and they had a whole section for the kiddos. It had toys, books and even a train table! So much for thinking Red Robin was an amazing place with those who have crazy families. :)

Blue Lake spray park was also a ton of fun. Luckily, we took Dano to a local spray park down the street from us before we went on this vacation to get him use to the ideal of water spraying into your nose and swim trunks. After much coercing he finally warmed up to the crazy water and kids in his face.

This is a very special picture for our family. It is Danagan's first public tantrum. He didn't want to hold our hands across the street so he CAREFULLY threw his body down and laid there sobbing. Daniel and I were caught off guard at first, but then we realized it was a tantrum. We looked at each other and hurried and got the camera out (might as well be productive and record it for black mail later if he wants to lay there).

Portland has this aerial tram that is a commuter for most of the hospital employees. It goes up this huge hill and you can see all the mountains and miles of Portland around you. At the top you can go into the hospital and look off the glass balcony.

Tilamook Air Museum

Daniel's dream come true - Danagan flying in a spaceship with him.

I am serious now- "I WANT OUT"

Rose Garden

"PLEASE NO MORE PICTURES, PEOPLE"

The Astoria Column started our adventure camping at Ft. Stevens. It is always great to carry our fish and chips from The Bowpicker up and watch all of the paper airplanes fly around from the top. Stay tuned for our camping post that will be up shortly!

Bucket list for Scissors and Cream Fridays

2011-07-29T06:54:00.000-07:00

For my own selfish reasons this will be a organization post of all of the crafts or recipes I will be sharing on here in the next few months. I had the tutorials saved in so many places I didn't know how to find them when I wanted to make a new project and that can make anyone's head start spinning! Obviously this is a on going list but I thought I should start getting organized before it gets too out of hand :)

Crafts

Christmas calendar blocks and casing

(g starred)

knoted headband, simple elastic/scarf headband, (thanks to cami)

Tin can treat presents

pie in a jar presents

huge monkey knot door stop -knock off one of pottery barns

heart map frame

framed nativity silhouette (Thanks to Cami)

Halloween picture blocks

wood puzzle blocks

ruffled apron- knock off of World Market ones

ruffled jersey pillow cover

felt flower earrings

pie in a jar single serving gifts

metallic star fish/shells

owl stuffed animal

animal tag softie

braided knotted headband

flower magnets

paper bag stars

monogrammed cups with hot cocoa

DIY occasion cards (including scratch off cards)

Homemade finger paint

raglan tee

wood/metal fake letter “D”

pic nic blanket

Internet Bookmarks

clothes pin wreath for cards

Yoyo flowers

felt dahlia broach

ric rack flower broach

croquet simple flower

ric rack flower with a twist

pinwheels of all sizes

chalkboard globe

recycled love picture

felt flowers- crafts

stringy jersey flower- stringy flower

baby blocks

pointy gift bows- gift bows

smooth gift bows

bath bomb cupcakes- cupcake

scrabble tile pendents

~~chalkboard pots~~

~~cake pops~~

~~orzo salad~~

~~organza flower~~

Recipes

internet bookmarks

ice cream watermelon pie- ice cream

Neapolitan cake

other

chicken/basil sun dried tomato pizza with homemade dough

rosemary rustic bread

cheese bread for dipping

liz's ginger snaps and curry

(g starred)

flowers made of jello

cupcake with injected yummy filling

mini Oreo pops

strawberry limeade

homemade chicken broth cubes

Brazilian cheese rolls

berry cobbler

bacon wrapped meatloaf

tortellini spinach bake in lm cream sauce

Mississippi mud brownies

bacon jam

Read

Life of Pi

Jane Eyre by charlotte Bronte

The Hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet by Jamie Ford

Atlas Shrugged

Bossy Pants by Tina Fey

Friday's Scissors and Cream! (carrot biscuits and chalkboard pots))

2011-07-22T08:10:00.000-07:00

This week I made Danagan some toddler biscuits. He LOVED them and we sneaked some veggies into his diet. shhh, don't tell him! Next time I will try to put oatmeal and zuccini in it for some added nutrition. (we are having major problems with eating ANY type of veggie)

Carrot Toddler Biscuits

2 1/2 cups thinly sliced carrots
4 oz sour cream

4 oz whole-wheat flour
4 t vegetable oil
2 whole eggs
4 oz unsweetened cinnamon applesauce
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 t low sodium baking powder
1 t salt

1 t baking soda

6 oz brown sugar (not packed)

Mix all wet ingredients including carrots and brown sugar all together in a mixing bowl and let it soak on the counter for 15 min.

Mix all dry ingredients in a smaller bowl

Bake @ 350 degrees for around 25 min. Fork will slide out clean when done

I baked them in cupcake pans so they atleast are perfectly rounded. Since its only one kid-o we are feeding we froze half of the batch and take it out for breakfasts.

Chalkboard Paint Labeled Pots

Attempt #1: Total failure! So, after making my rectangle template and doing 2 coats of paint I thought my pots looked a little plain. I didn't know if I wanted to glue on cute buttons or gem stones. Either idea I think would look so cute, but I really wanted both pots to match. I put on some double sided tape and tried to see if the gem stones were really what I was going for. I was so excited to see it all together. To my disappointment I couldn't get the tape off of either pot without totally ruining my "latex like" chalkboard paint :/ Just to make fun of me more the left over paint on the pot looks like it has a little face laughing and mocking me on the left hand side! lol

Attempt #2 Finally finished, now time for planting!

A Year Of High Chair Mayhem

2011-07-19T05:02:00.000-07:00

Maybe its child abuse but we don't often let Dano get very messy. So, when he does we definitely go all out and get pictures!

6 months- first foods and the fun begins!

9 Months

Yes that is a bread chunk stuck to his boogery nose

10 Months

11 months

1 year old! Loving the Birthday cake!

15 months

What cottage cheese is not body paint?

Friday's Scissors and Cream! (orzo salad, pineapple cake and photography prop )

2011-07-15T08:00:00.000-07:00

This week I tried two different recipes and a photography prop.

In the kitchen:

Orzo Salad with spicy buttermilk dressing

Thanks to the fabulous blog called little birdie secrets we were able to have this tasty side dish with our lemon sole and salad from our garden. I used powdered buttermilk and it worked well as a substitute and I didn't have a whole carton of buttermilk laying around waiting for another recipe. This is a great recipe for the kids too! Danagan LOVES spices and he was convinced to eat more veggies. yay!

Yellow Butter Cake with Pineapple Glaze and Coconut

We had a last minute Family Luau at our house and I experimented with my brand new bundt cake pan! You can find the 2 ingredient glaze recipe and alternative yummy cake on this blog.

We shot a beautiful vintage wedding a couple weeks ago and just got done with the final touches. I found this idea from another photographer following this blog

Happy 4th of July

2011-07-04T16:56:00.000-07:00

Happy Fourth!

Love, Danagan, Daniel and Laura

Summer Adventures Begin!!

2011-06-26T09:07:00.000-07:00

We started our summer off with a quick little weekend trip to Lopez Island in the San Juans. It couldn't have been a more beautiful weekend. We stayed in a hotel above a bakery and every morning we indulged in pastries that put grandma's to shame. Danagan got to ride his first ferry and as a family we watched blown glass shells be created right before our eyes. At the market we stumbled upon a lady that makes homemade jam and we bought some blueberry lime jam; it was so good I will be asking her to send me a box to last us throughout the year! Lopez was gorgeous with its farms everywhere and little private deserted beaches that we played for hours on end. On our last day we found a farm that sold their own fruits, vegetables, and meats by the honor system. All of their crops are plowed by horses too! No machinery is used. We loaded up on their grass fed beef and lamb, paid the cash box and floated back on the ferry home.

We woke him up so he wouldn't miss out on his first ferry ride!

Obviously recovered and is a happy clam again

We tested out our new backpack and was excited to use it since last summer he was too small

We had our first concerning injury of Danagans life. He got a little carried away in our hotel room the day we were leaving. He tripped on his own foot which made him fall face first with all of his weight into the door frame. You can see the door frame imprinted across his face here. Luckily it didn't amount to much more then bruising.

New! Friday Scissors and Cream (quiches, cake pops, and pillows)

2011-06-24T12:09:00.000-07:00

SO...I have found myself completely overwhelmed in my new ward of super crafty and amazing women that seem to "have it all together". I would like to try to become a little more well rounded in the crafts and cooking department. Although, I can make pretty much anything in a crock pot and make my own special occasion cards, I would like to do something more consistently inspiring. Since we got our new smart phones at the beginning of this year I have been following some pretty awesome inspiring blogs on DIY crafts/decor and meals. Hopefully I can inspire some of you with these weekly posts of what I have tried out for the first time. Keep in mind these projects are the VERY first time I have done then but, for your entertainment I will promise to post pictures despite my success or total failure! I will be referring to these posts as my "Friday Scissors & Cream" :)

DISCLAIMER: I can't promise how ''weekly" these posts will be because of our internet situation but, I will try my best!

In the kitchen: Mini quiches! (Currently I am doing "the biggest loser" with some friends and I am proud to say this week I am on the top so, until June 30th you will be getting reciepes I have tried in the past month)

Spring Chick Cake Pops: Here are the two tutorials I combined for the recipes

Here and Here

I will not be using chocolate bark next time I make these! Go all out and get the wilton chips :)

Pillow Slip Covers and Bean Bags

I bought these adorable flower pillows at Ikea and have begun to realize that they are a bit TOO summery for the fall/winter months. I got this striped fabric at a church garage sale swap for free and decided to finally put it to good use! I made slip cover pillow cases and a few bean bags to thank Danagan for the lack of attention I gave him during this project :) I didn't use a blog or pattern for the pillows but here is the closest thing to how I made them.

Happy Crafting and Cooking!

Father's day Olympic Air show

2011-06-20T08:13:00.000-07:00

This Fathers' day we went with an aviation theme for the special occasion. We went down with my family to Olympia, Wa to the museum of flight for an airshow. We saw really old and awesome planes. The boys had a blast playing in puddles and pretending to be pilots in the cockpits of planes and helicopters. It was also a blast to see family and watch the acrobatic plane show! They even flattened a car by dropping it from hundreds of feet in the air with the assistance of a helicopter. (I think this is very ironic that we did not get a single picture of Daniel. He was loving being behind the camera!) Danagan and I got Daniel his first flying lesson to start his journey of getting his personal pilots license.

Now that you know I have a cute little white stomach, I shall dance for you

Happy Mothers Day!

2011-05-01T05:45:00.000-07:00

So, this last weekend we celebrated mothers day early for my mom in Puyallup. I went out on a limb and got a little crafty. I made my first fruit pie and cute flower pop up card. The pie was amazingly delicious and too good not to share. So try it yourself HERE! If you follow the reciepe it is a but watery so, I add these tweaks. Add 1/2 cup more flour then what it calls for and then drain a little of the settled juices from the fruit filling before you put the top on. Yummy!

The card is a work in progress. I think I will try thinner paper and different craft glue next time.

Attention: For those who love craftiness! Here are some awesome present options this week to make your amazing mothers. I love these inspiring blogs!

Make a personalized pin cushion!

SOY CANDLE HERE

Terrarium Magnet

Trendy Sunburst Mirror

Stylish ECO-friendly purse

E asy Pendent

ECO-Friendly Necklace

Spring is here! Danagan plays with outdoor toys for the first time!

2011-04-22T12:17:00.001-07:00

So, Spring is here with the great weather! We are already having SO much fun with an active toddler and our backyard. Danagan is REALLY into his cozy coupe, balls of all sizes, and our two slides. He hasn't mastered any of them quite yet, but is always smiling and laughing to himself when he plays. Here are the funny details of how he interprets how to use his coupe and slides.

The coupe only has a door on one side. This is a problem because Danagan forgets which side it is every time he walks away from the coupe. So, when he comes back to play with it, he lifts his cute little leg and repeatedly kicks the side of the car. After a sincere effort he turns to me with a frustrated and bewildered expression as if saying, "Mommy, make it work for me! It worked last time!" I then show him the the forgotten other side WITH the opening door. He smiles big and walks over confidently. He then procedes to shove one leg in. Unfortunately, he is forced to sit with his back up against the seat because his leg is too short to reach the ground. He sits there for a second straddling the door stop and then grabs the door and slams it repeatedly on his poor leg which is dangling in the way. There is usually another look he gives me at this point, but now he has learned that he can have fun scooting with one leg in and one leg out or going to the back and pushing it around empty.

"What the heck powers this thing?"

"I funny"

Danagan has two "step 2" slides in the back yard. One is shorter and more accessible for him to play with. He hasn't mastered the turning around and going down stairs, big beds, slides etc. This can be a problem. Here is what happens when he does not have encouraging direction from us. He goes up the slide and then looks down it (puzzled) for a few minutes not knowing what to do next but, oh so proud that he got up there. Then he tries to put both hands out in front of him to go down head first, but realizes quickly that is kind of scary. He tries to go down this way a couple of times, but never really finds the courage. Then he flips around and gets one leg down, which is great if the slide was really wide allowing the other leg to follow. It is NOT really wide; in fact it is quite narrow. As you can see below he goes down doing the splits.

We are working hard on trying to have him go down sitting up, but he gets so nervous that he shakes sometimes. Instead of coming close to child abuse, we let him do whatever he wants with his toys (within reason). What are we going to do with this kid? We are both so puzzled because we were both little dare devils as toddlers. I guess for now he will be great entertainment for us all :)

Well, at least we know he is flexible, right?

Tulip Festival- Mt. Vernon Washington!!!

2011-04-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

Went to the tulip festival a few weeks ago and had a blast. Danagan successfully learned that adults stick their noses in flowers instead of pulling apart the petals. Afterwards we went to the McDonalds play place and had lunch. He loves watching the big kids play!

Yay for Tulips!

A BIG surprise and Wedding Festivities

2011-03-21T05:18:00.001-07:00

Daniels sister Bekky got married March 17th and here is photo journal of the festivities:

Daniel and I were in on a little secret before the wedding. Jon got clearance mid-deployment to come home for 2 weeks from Djibouti Africa for the wedding. Here is a video of the big surprise at our house. Bekky told everyone that she made a special wedding "thank you" present and that they needed to hold out their hands.

Bekky & Juston's Wedding

Happy Birthday Danagan!

2011-03-14T09:07:00.001-07:00

March 5th Danagan turned 1. We had a small Sesame Street

themed birthday with both of our families

Danagan got a personal cookie monster cake made of carrot cake and

cream cheese frosting. Check out the reciepes if you have little ones of your own!!

He loved it!

Find other great healthy choices for your baby and toddlers at this website!

Baby's First Birthday Cake (Carrot Cake)

Read about Eggs and Your Baby

(Makes 1 double-layer 9-inch square cake; adapted from "What to Expect")
2 1/2 cups thinly sliced carrots
2 1/2 cups apple juice concentrate (you may use slightly less)
1 1/2 cups raisins

Vegetable Spray/Shortening
2 cups whole-wheat flour
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 whole eggs
4 egg whites
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup wheat germ
2 Tbsp low sodium baking powder
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
Prep: Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two 9 inch square cake pans with waxed paper and spray the paper with vegetable spray/shortening.
1. Combine the carrots with 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of the juice concentrate in a medium size saucepan.
2. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, covered, until carrots are tender, 15 to 20 mins. Puree in a blender of food processor until smooth.
3. Add the raisins and process until finely chopped. Let mixture cool.
4. Combine the flour, wheat germ, baking powder, and cinnamon in a large mixing bowl. Add 1 1/4 cups juice concentrate, the oil, eggs, egg whites, and vanilla; beat just until well mixed. Fold in the carrot puree and applesauce. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans.
5. Bake until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, 35 to 40 mins. Cool briefly in the pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely. When cool, frost with Cream Cheese Frosting below or sprinkle a wee bit of powdered sugar if desired.

Sugar-Free Cream Cheese Frosting
½ cup apple juice concentrate
1 pound light cream cheese
2 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup finely chopped raisins
1 ½ tsp unflavored gelatin
1. Set aside 2 tablespoons of the juice concentrate.
2. Process the remaining juice concentrate, the cream cheese, vanilla, and raisins in a blender or food processor until smooth. Transfer to a mixing bowl.
3. Stir the gelatin into the 2 tablespoons juice concentrate in a small saucepan; let stand 1 minute to soften. Heat to boiling and stir to dissolve gelatin.
4. Beat the gelatin mixture into the cream cheese mixture until well blended. Refrigerate just until the frosting begins to set, about 30-60 minutes. Frost the cake

Everyone else got oscer the grouch made of vanilla frosting, chocholate and vanilla cake with raspberry filling made by his Aunt Rachel.
Loving Grandmas birthday present. A homemade Teepee!

He plays chase with us and uses it as his 'safe'.

opening presents with the family

Danagan is ONE! (Session Portraits)

2011-02-25T16:28:00.001-08:00

Studio and urban portraits of 12 month old Danagan by Daniel Koenig

Our baby is turning into a VERY busy toddler!

2011-02-25T15:50:00.000-08:00

We came to the harsh realization that our quite, passive baby is turning into a crazy rambunctious toddler. At 11 1/2 months he started taking his first steps, not liking anything on his plate and is now into EVERYTHING! His latest trick is that when you grab him away from something he is not suppose to do he hurries and grabs/touches all he can in the area just in case he will never see the area again. He also has developed his "huffing rhino expression" into a lazy nostrils flared and lips into a Elvis curl when we tell him "no!" Hilarious! The reality is that we are loving this very energetic toddler and are having a ton of fun each day!

Haha I dropped the milk!
Concentrating on first steps!
Helping mommy bake dinner

Hee, I am not supposed to be in this one!

We call this "sleepy". He plays this game with the floor and pillows at night. He lays down and we say "sleepy!" He gets a real kick out of it!

Pushing around cousin Nathan at Christmas

Rough housing with Daddy

"We weren't doing anything"

When Aidan turned 1 in January we did some interactive studio shots with both of them

9-10 Months...First Hair cut and cousins 1st Birthdays!

2011-02-09T07:40:00.000-08:00

Here are the finished 9 month studio portraits He LOVES to head bang while he sings and plays instruments so we thought it was an appropriate theme. We had so much fun doing them.

Aidan had his first birthday with a few of his friends. They were SOOO adorable to watch play together.
"This is how I rock a mullet, arent I pretty?"

Since Danagan was born with almost 3 in of hair we knew 'Hair Cut Day' would be coming probably sooner then we wanted. Here are before and after shots of his first hair cut!
Before
After
Obviously has mixed feelings about us taking away his mullet.

Putting Invisible App Icons on Your Android Homescreen

2011-02-08T21:19:00.000-08:00

So. Here's a little tutorial on how to put invisible shortcuts on your Android home screen. There are many uses for this little trick, but the one I like it for is the ability to keep your home screen looking nice and clean but still retaining the function of having a screen full of apps.

My home screen looks like this:

Even though the screen looks nice and clean, I have dedicated invisible icons for my email, calendar, video camera, and voice recorder, all on this screen, and all invisible. My 4 invisible app shortcuts are hidden, two on the left and two on the right, at the center and toward the bottom of the screen.

So, without further ado, here is the tutorial:

1 - Download "Desktop VisualizeR," by Bii, Inc. from the Market. It is free and should show up at the top of your results page if you search for it by name.

2 - You will need a transparent image file. Use your Android web browser to navigate to www.koenigphotography.net/transparent_icon.html Long-press the "Transparent_Icon.png" link (the only link on the page) and select "save link." Your browser will download the linked image file into your "download" folder. Now you have your transparent icon which you will use later.

2b - Alternatively, you can use your desktop web browser to navigate to the page, right click, the link and select "save link as" and then manually move the linked image file to your Android device via USB.

3 - Navigate to the home screen where you intend to put your invisible shortcut. Long-press an empty space on the home screen and select "Widgets" from the "Add to Home screen" menu. Scroll until you reach the list of Desktop VisualizeR widgets. I chose 1x1 sized widgets, but you may find it easier to use larger widgets (remember, you won't be able to see it once it's created).

4 - Your widget will show up on the home screen. Long-press and drag it to the spot where you want your invisible shortcut to be.

5 - Once it is in place, select the widget with a single tap

6 - In the Desktop VisualizeR menu select "Select Icon." Then, choose "Image File." Navigate to the image file you saved in step 2 and select it. Remember, it will be called "Transparent_Icon.png" and will be in the "download" folder if you used your Android browser to save it, or it will be wherever you put it if you used the method in step 2b.

7 - Select "Select Action." Then, you can choose "Launch Application" to have the invisible shortcut launch an app, or "Other" to have it do something else, such as direct dial or direct message a specific contact. Choose whatever you want the icon to do.

8 - Delete the text in the "Label" box, or else your invisible icon will have a very visible label. Alternatively, you can keep the text, and have your invisible icon be accompanied by text.

9 - You can change the color under "Touch Effect" or not, but once you are finished, click "OK."

Your icon is now ready to use. Consider using 4 invisible icons, one at each corner of the screen, so that finding them is easy.

Good luck.

Christmas Time!!!!!

2010-11-29T19:49:00.000-08:00

Here is some early holiday fun pictures. Luckily Danagan seems to have no interest in demolishing the tree so we were able to put up the full size one!

Danagan and cousin Nathan

Cheese!

Halloween Festivities

2010-10-28T13:02:00.000-07:00

We LOVE dressing up so, we couldn't wait for there to finally be an excuse!

Desperately trying to take a picture with cousin Aidan. Not working out so well...sad

It wasn't surprising when neither one of them were pumpkins for Halloween.

Take 2 with bear jackets

Eating and Crawling adventures at 6 months

2010-09-22T06:36:00.000-07:00

Whirlwind Picture Post Of Summer

2010-09-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry there are so many pictures but, obviously that is our favorite part of vacation. Here is what the beginning of our summer looked like!

We went to Snoqualmie in June to see the waterfall and get some good fruit from local markets

Danagan is having a hard time breathing because of all the mist :)
Rough housing with Daddy has started at 4 months

Four month old portraits

First time Flying on a plane. We went to Palo Alto and Long Beach,CA for Daniels grandparents 80th anniversary.

Dano and Daniel at the Le Brea Tar Pit museum
Santa Monica Peir
L.A.!!!!
Met great grandparents for the first time!
Swimming in 100 degree heat wave
We're Matchin'