Birthday Fun!

Birthdays are such a great time to focus on those special people we love! This year for Anni's birthday she requested a "My Little Pony" party. I wanted to keep it simple as I am realizing that a lot of times doing all the extra "fluff" just isn't worth the energy at this point in my life with two little kids to take care of. I did want to keep the party focused on Anni and the things we love about her.
When you have all adults come for the party it's easy to talk about things that aren't fun for the kids, so I made up a little "Anni Trivia" game, which also doubled as the centerpiece. This kept us talking about Anni and kept her engaged and at the center of the party.
I had made up questions and discussed them with Anni earlier in the day to make sure she knew what she wanted her answers to be. It turned out well and Anni loved having people talk about things she is interested in!
A few examples of questions are:
-What is Anni's favourite book?
-What does Anni love for a bedtime snack?
-Where was Anni born?


The party cups.....Anni helped me pick out stickers to apply to clear plastic cups.


For food we went with a homemade McDonalds night. Anni loves hamburgers from McD's so I made our favourite slowcooker hamburgers (which make things nice and easy!)
Here's the recipe:

1 lb. Hamburger shaped into patties (or use premade patties)
1 cup ketchup
1 tbsp brown sugar
6 tbsp onion (diced)
3/4 c. water
3 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp mustard
1 tsp worchestershire sauce
1/2 cup bbq sauce
1/2 cup salsa (the secret ingredient for a really nice flavour!) You can even use less ketchup or bbq sauce when adding the salsa if you would like.

Brown the hamburger patties on frying pan. Place in slow cooker. Mix up the ingredients for the sauce and pour over the hamburgers. Cook on low for 6ish hours.
Serve on buns with all the fixins!

We served the burgers with homemade fries with the seasoning found here, as well as a veggie platter. Simple but yummy!


Here is a couple of the gifts Anni received. Tess whipped up both of these and I thought they were so cute!

A personalized pie with beans inside:


The apron:

Halloween Wreath

If you are looking for a cheap and easy Halloween wreath to throw together in a matter of minutes, here ya' go......I used a wreath I already had, garbage bags cut into 1.5 inch wide strips and tied into bows. The spooky wood word is from the dollar store and was 3 bucks!
Enjoy!




- Tess

Something Spooky!

Here is a little craft my daughter Anni and I have been working on. She is pretty into Halloween as her birthday is only a few days off from it. She has been having fun making our house "spooky" the last few days.

For this project I used some framed pictures/paintings from........you guessed it, Value Village. Anni helped me paint over the old picture with craft paint. We gave it a few coats and then once dry we cut out some scrapbook paper we had and using Mod Podge we attached it to the frame. We covered the entire frame in the Mod Podge to protect it and seal it.




We then headed over to my crafty sister-in-law's house and used her Cricut to cut out some silhouettes that I found online. I used vinyl as I thought it would hold up well. ps---I learned that "dingbats" are what you call these images online that you can use on cutters like Cricuts or Silhouettes.


I picked up some black ribbon from Michaels and doubled up with a thick grosgrain and a sparkly ribbon, tied them in bows and attached to the back of the frames with a glue gun.




And there you have it! They were fun and Anni thinks they are sure "spooky"!

September Stew

Are you like me and have a freezer with lots of stew meat that is calling to be used? Well, I found this recipe on Pintrest and really enjoyed it! I made a few adjustments to work with what I had time for (the crockpot, not the oven). It comes from the great little blog Life As A Lofthouse.

Oven Baked Stew (which I turned into a crockpot recipe)
6 servings


1 (1 oz) package of Dry Onion Soup mix
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Paprika
1 pound lean Beef Stew Meat (cut up into bite sized pieces)
2-3 medium Potatoes, peeled and diced into 1 inch pieces
3 large Carrots, peeled and diced
1/2 an Onion, chopped
1 can Cream of Celery Soup
1/2 cup Ketchup

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a large plastic bag, combine the dry onion soup mix, salt and paprika. Add in meat and shake the bag to coat meat with the seasonings. Place into a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish.

Top meat evenly with diced potatoes, carrots and onion.

Mix the cream of celery soup and ketchup in a small bowl. Pour all over the meat and vegetables. Cover tightly with foil and bake for 2 hours.

(My directions differ here. I was using frozen stew meat so I defrosted it, then browned it in the frying pan and while doing so I sprinkled the paprika, onion soup mix and salt on it. After the meat was browned, I put it in the crock pot on low with the carrots, chopped onion, cream of celery, ketchup and potatoes. I cooked it on low for about 7 hours. It was yummy!)

Hutch Redo

I picked up a wood hutch off Kijiji a few months ago (actually my husband carried it down an apartment building staircase by himself.....what a good man). It was a steal for $40. I loved the shutters and was excited to try out my new paint gun and air compressor.
With the help of my knowledgeable sister-in-law, we sanded, painted and transformed this piece. I decided to leave the top wood and just restained it to a darker stain.
Unfortunately the top half of the hutch doesn't fit in the spot I have for it in my house, but I am really happy with how it turned out!

BEFORE:


AFTER:




I lucked out and was able to sell the hutch I had for enough to cover the price of the new one, as well as all the paint and supplies for refinishing.
I think I may be addicted to painting and refinishing furniture! I have already purchased a wood desk to redo, but that may have to wait until the spring.

The Kids Room

I have been busy trying to redo the little room for our kids to share. Our little Preston and Anni have become roomies and it has actually gone really well!
It was fun to try to arrange things to all fit in this little room, and to try to make things look new and fun using things we had, and by picking up a few things at the second hand store.
Here is how it turned out:

Anni's side of the room:



I love how the oversized picture (printed from Costco---only $2.99) turned out in the Ikea frame. It was a great pic and makes me smile every time I go in there.
-I made the clustered pom pom hanging by making some paper fans, and using this tutorial for paper doily pompoms. I bought the doilies at Dollorama.
The "A" was one I had and just painted, then hung inside the frame that I already had.


The Side Table:

-I found this little wicker footrest at Homesense on clearance for $15. I just couldn't pay the $75 for a nightstand that every store seemed to be asking, so this will work for now.
-Anni loves to read at night, so I put up a little Ikea shelf beside her bed where she can reach and place a few books that she wants to have by her bed. It is working well so far!

Preston's Side:

--I have been collecting embroidery hoops at Value Villages around the city for a couple months with this project in mind. The hoops ranged form $0.50 to $1.99 for the biggest one. I was able to use fabric that I had to place inside. I found the "P" at Goodwill! That was lucky! I think it turned out great and was cheap and easy!


Mirror:

-I found this mirror at Value Village for $6 and painted it. I also glued on a magnet that I had in the center top to add a little character.

There are still some little things to do, but the room is functional and nice and cozy for the kids. They are loving being roomies and it has been so nice to get our living room back!

Baby Boy Sports Shower

Well, it was baby shower time again.....this time for a sweet little boy.
It was a lot of fun to put together this shower for a long time friend. Some fun decorations, with some yummy and easy food and a few simple games combined for a fun night.

My friend and her husband are both big sports fans, so I tried to incorporate a sporty look to the party, combined with a country feel for this small town family.












Here is the link for the "Peanut Butter Popcorn". The recipe directs to make balls with it, but I just served it in a big bowl and broke the popcorn into small chunks.