Homemade Granola: Yum

So I always have a "be healthier" New Years Resolution. Who doesn't right? But this year while I was still thinking about "being healthy" (isn't that so specific :) I ran across this blog called Word of Wisdom Living. Immediatley I was impressed. It's mainly about eating healthier, but he also touches on exercise a bit. He has a weekly "goal" to help you be a little bit healthier and has so much great information. I have continued to love it and it has kept my New Year's resolution alive and helped to not only hone in on what exactly I want to do to be healthier, but I've also learned alot and am excited about it. (We even tried tofu for the first time this week--but don't let that scare you away. . . he doesn't really talk about tofu).  He reads lots of research studies and really knows a lot. But the thing I love most about his blog is that he doesn't make you feel dumb or bad about what you are doing. He just makes you want to be better. So, go read his blog. NOW! You'll love it.

Anyway, so on that note I've stopped buying "sugar cereal" for our breakfasts. Lately we've been eating a lot of bagels and fruit and granola. Homemade Granola. I called my mom and got her great recipe-which I have no idea where she got it from. But it's super flexible. Here it is.

Granola

7 1/2 cups rolled grains (oats, wheat, rye, barley, whatever you've got on hand--in the pictures I just did 6 cups of oatmeal and 1 1/2 cups of puffed millet-which isn't rolled at all-but you get my drift).
1 c. wheat germ (this makes it good and healthy :)
3/8 c. sesame seeds (didn't add because I didn't buy any-but I added 1/2 c. ground flax seeds instead)
Any other nuts or seeds you want to add  (peanuts, walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds, etc . . . )

For the "sauce"

1/2 c. honey
3/4 c. brown sugar (or just do it all honey and cut down to 1 c.)
1/2 c. oil (sunflower or other seed oils are healthiest, but I didn't have on hand so I just used canola)
1/2 c. water
1 1/2 t. salt
1 t. vanilla

Heat oven to 225 degrees. Mix grains and seeds together. Mix the sauce together and pour over granola. Stir until evenly coated. Spread a thin layer across a baker's half sheet (I filled 2) and put in oven for 2 hours, stirring half way through.


If you want to add dried fruit once you are done and it's cooled that's yummy too. Really the best part about this recipe is the flexibility of what you can put in it.

enjoy!

mother's day hot pads

So I waited to post these until after Mother's Day because my mom occasionally visits my blog, but then it got crazy and now it's

Tuesday night? Alas, I'm still posting because I thought they were fun, and the Grandma's (and great-grandma's) loved them.

I was going to post a tutorial, but there seem to be lots already out there, and well, my seam binding capabilities are clearly lacking . . . so I'll leave it to the pros.

I will mention though, that I was going to have the buddy paint on the fabric for the back, and was so glad I decided to use permanent markers instead. It worked so much better! I cut the squares out first and had him decorate them and then after the hand prints dried I sewed them all up. Tada! I had him do a couple extra ones too that I will eventually sew into some hot pads for me too! (yeah right!)

birthday party planning

Just so you know,  May is a busy month for me. A couple birthday's, our anniversary, mother's day, and Memorial Day and I feel like all I do is plan and run around frantically. . . . so I'll do my best to post here and there. This is what I've been up to tonight: I used the box pattern from "Home Paper Scissors" by Patricia Zapata and added a few elements of my own. I think they'll be fun favor boxes. . . best part of all, I had all the stuff laying around so they were free!

Freebie Friday: Desk Labels

So I really wanted to do a fun Mother's Day printable but truth be told my brain is shot. The little sweetie is still waking up 2-5 times a night and my thinker just isn't thinking. I had no fun ideas. I did finally come up with a fun idea for the buddy to make--but it's not a printable. I'm going to have him paint on fabric and make it into a potholder. I'm sure it's been done before, but he'll like it. Hopefully the grandma's will like it, and if you like it you should do it too! I'll try to post a little tutorial if we get it done sooner than later. (With my zombie-like brain I make no promises).

Back to today's freebie: desk labels. 
I scored this awesome white desk off the side of the road a couple weeks ago and decided to move all my desk supplies out of the kitchen. hooray! But there wasn't really room for the plastic drawers I had them in so I pulled out some pickle jars--the honey hates that I save all our pickle jars and stash them in spare cupboard corners, but they do come in handy (and he does love that I didn't buy new jars). So they fit on the little edge at the top perfectly. But they kinda looked hodge podgey. They needed labels! I printed these on PAPER not cardstock and ran them through my Xyron machine with permanent adhesive in it (sticker making stuff). If you don't have one you could spray adhesive the back, use double stick tape, or print on adhesive backed label type paper. Either way the worst part is cutting them out by hand, and that's really not too bad. If you don't want to deal with the curves just cut them out square :)

Yep, the markers have a lid on them . . . the buddy is good about being safe with scissors but the lure of sharpie markers knows no bounds!

enjoy!

Eggs & Sewing

I kinda dropped the ball this weekend. So many ideas so little time! So, I apologize for not so much as a "hi" on Friday. This is what I've been up to:


Coloring Eggs: Family tradition dictates we have to do it on Good Friday. It's one of my favorite Easter Traditions.

This year the buddy really got into it: these are his beautiful creations:

I love this one:  He put it in every color. I think it looks like a chalkboard.

And then I finished the sweeties Easter dress. I ended up following a Kwik Sew for Toddlers book rather than the original pattern I posted after finding out it only contained the 6 month size. oops. But this one works too. It's a tad big-but she'll grow into the 12 month size eh?

and made her a little rose bud head band to go with it

(and then Sunday morning sewed some of the extra lace onto her socks too).

I also let the buddy pick out the fabric for a tie I made using this tutorial on icandyhandmade. I wanted to do a pink one to match the sweetie, but he insisted on green. (I still snuck a little pink on the back. . . and then he proceeded to chew on his tie all through church . . . boys will be boys I guess).

Last but not least I decided last minute to sew myself a circle skirt as well following this tutorial on from MADE. I even dyed the elastic. See? The week was crazy, but Easter ended up being really really good. And that's what matters right? I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend as well!

Springified pillow covers

When I think spring I think green. I need green. It helps that my living color scheme revolves around green too . . . so I picked up an olive green sheet at goodwill for maybe $1.50, and used an old white oxford of the honeys to come up with new, basically free pillow covers using this tutorial -without the quilting step. They were quick and easy and I think they pack a punch. Oh, and did I mention the buddy has turned into quite the ham? Yeah, pictures are hard to come by these days without him in them.

Freebie Friday: He Is Risen Poster

I had a great picture of Mary and the Resurrected Lord on my armoire/ designated-decor-spot, but from a distance you could hardly see it. It all just kind of melded together. I LOVE the picture by Harry Anderson, but it just didn't quite fit. Rather I envisioned a silhouette. You know how I love a good silhouette:) Anywhoo. I couldn't decide on a color, the hunny picked purple, my least favorite color. But it surprised me and worked well. I guess purple does have a small space in the universe after all.

 This week I thought I'd try something a little bit new and just let you download a jpeg from my blog rather than going over to scribd for a pdf. That way you can upload the jpeg to your favorite print shop and print it easily, or of course,  print it at home if you prefer. It's scaled to the 8x10 ratio, but it could work for other sizes I'm sure.

*one note about colors: your screen and the printer you choose will change the color a bit. So just be prepared . . . 


Just click on the image for a larger version to download (right click to download image). Enjoy!

Blue:

Coral: 

 Purple: