First Ever Chicken & Dumpling Soup...

I admit, I am one of those who uses 'the box' on many things. Which is rather bold of me since it seems to be  'the thing' where we are for woman to do things 'from scratch'. But this time I did do something 'from scratch' and it turned out pretty stinkin' good along with a bit of learning...

I didn't use any recipe. Instead I realized I had the ingredients in my home for this already and after eating so much chicken soup from a can when I was sick I realized that I could probably make my own.

So I got to work. I thought about that soup folks get at chinese joints with the egg stuff in the broth and decided to throw in a raw egg and let it cook poached style. The other random thing I did that maybe isn't the 'norm' is I made my dumplings huge...but that was purely a happy accident. I had a can of pilsbury biscuits and I threw those in as my dumplings. What I didn't realize was that I shouldn't split them in half but maybe more like fourths! They're bigger than golf balls! But I'm a dumpling lover anyways so I'm cool with it.

Here's What I Did for Chicken and Dumpling Soup:

Needed ingredients-
1 large chicken breast
1 can of biscuits
1-1.5 cups of mixed veggies
a handful or two of 'Pennsylvania Dutch noodles' (uncooked)
salt
garlic
1 tb chicken bouillon (only a tb because you already will have chicken stock made from the boiling chicken)

Directions-
Boil the chicken 75% (about 15-20 minutes of boiling).
Add water and bouillon and egg -in that order.
Lower heat setting to just above medium.
Split up each biscuit and toss them in.
Pour in veggies and noodles.
Stir occasionally.
Sprinkle in salt, pepper, and garlic.
Let it reach a boil then lower heat setting 1 or 2 notches.
A little while later  (check noodles to know when done) after the smell becomes intoxicating turn it off and eat/store in fridge.

Oh ya and be sure to shred whatever chunks of chicken are left...it should fall apart very easily with a fork.

This was split up into 3 medium sized jars and 1 medium sized container...Should easily feed a family of 4/5.

P.S. So the Hubs said, when I told him I made soup without a recipe and that he can have some when he gets home, that he will wait to try it until I've had it first...because when I make things out of my head it turns out either 'absolutely amazing' or 'wretchedly awful'...

Scrapbooking 'Photo Album Style'

I absolutely love to scrapbook. However, after seeing so many other women's scrapbook pages and so many on pinterest I have come to notice that my way isn't exactly scrapbooking. I don't know if there is a correct term to how I scrapbook or not but I call it 'photo album style'. I don't put just one or two pics on my pages and then put tons of big stuff all over that page...goodness sakes when I look at those I think "this page itself has to cost at least 20 or 25 or 30 bucks!"...NO THANK YOU.

Even though the typical way of scrapbooking is soooo pretty to look at I find it, for me anyways, to be a waste of all my pictures and well...of money. Women will spend hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars a year on scrapbook stuff and that we do not have the budget for. 

It all started when Hubby and I were dating. He loves taking pictures and I had so many I didn't know what to do with them. So I started scrapbooking. My first one didn't turn out so good but the two after that I feel a little more proud of. 

This post today is a gathering of some of my pages and things I've done in my scrapbooking. I'll explain why I did things and how and give/show you pointers for recycling and saving money and making memories.

By the way you will notice that I have many pictures of people/names covered...even though that does take away from the page the pictures are not needed anyways for what I am talking about. Plus...I prefer privacy.

These are pictures of introduction pages. The introduction page I like to have as something that gives my viewer an idea of what the book is about.

Left: 23 is the number of the day we got engaged and married on. This picture (thus this is our engagement period album) is of a number given to us at a coffee shop we always went to (especially during our engaged months) and we were given this order number completely by coincidence. 

Below: The tree is a symbol of our next 'journey' after getting married...thus this book is of our few years here in the current state.

                                                                     Recycling:

Here I have a song cut out of a card sent to me. I thought that not only the color went well with my brown background but the song itself was great for the meaning behind it...(a good relationship must start with a good foundation built on the solid rock.)

The peacock feather you see here is a prop from a costume hat of mine that fell out. We were in a musical together and that hat was worn at that musical. Also I am sure you see the movie tickets...those are from our first movies we went and saw together.

At the top left the two hearts were cut out of one of our wedding cards. To the right I  cut the calendar month out and replaced it with a picture. Below it is a verse that went well with the theme.

Here are two doves I cut out of a card. Yes tedious but worth it.

This is the front of a card we received. I placed a blue paper behind it, sizing it correctly, it looks like a normal picture with all the others. Folks ask me every time if that was our breakfast the next day and I just giggle and say no that is from a card we got.
*Using cards/things from cards for your scrapbooking not only provides great props for your pages but also lets you use them instead of just storing them in a box or throwing them away.

To the bottom right you'll see the small blue square with writing on it...that was cut out of a card as well. I just placed it on top of a larger green paper I cut out. I love the color contrasts.

The lined background for the verse was from a cute gift bag. The heart and fishes were from a card.  *What I did wrong...it's a little cluttered looking and I don't like it on that paper. But I still love the props anyways.

I love using dove wrappers that I've smoothed out. Some of them have cute quotes that go well with the page themes.

In this tiny gift bag was a gift given to me from Hubby for Christmas.

I love finding cards from the dollar stores. For this one I just  cut the front off...it already had a rectangular hole in it to use.

At the top right of this one is a quote cut out of a card. Under it is a note one of us gave to the other and the golden butterfly is also from a card. The yellow ribbon was from something else...all though I can't remember what from.

Last year my father passed away from cancer. The background of this picture is the front of one of the sympathy cards I received. The quote underneath is from the inside of that card.

I have a friend with the amazing gift of crafting. She crafts so many amazing things. It's as if anything the girl puts her hands on she makes gorgeous...well the high heal and flowers were taken off a card she had made me; I also included her note from the card which you see there in the middle.

Here I cut out a wedding dress and groom tux out of a gift bag.

........

This page is of me getting ready for my wedding day. I have numbered each one showing from where I started to how I looked when I finished. In the middle I captioned 'The Transformation'.

I prefer to make my side by side pages to not clash with each other. However even more so, in this book (my wedding book), I have one side plane pink with the other side's paper lined with my wedding colors...I themed the entire book with those colors. Green, Pink, and Yellow.
*By the way...those long skinny flowers there to the bottom right were from the topper of my cake.

Since this paper is already busy I tried to keep away from using too many 'props' on it. Instead I used black lettering and plane green backgrounds for the pictures to bring them out.

At the top right I have a left over insert from our cards for where we registered. I also used white lettering which I felt went the best with the colors I chose. I absolutely love this page. I used the yellow ribbon in opposite corners overlapping the corners of the picture.
*You've probably already noticed this in some of the other pictures but I cut Hubby and I out and put us in the bottom left corner. But be sure when doing that that it won't blend with the page but instead it will stand out in a non-contrasting manner.

Here I used white letters on a picture of guests watching the ceremony. White stands out better than black most times....depending on the colors you use. *Make sure when doing that to not let it take away from the picture itself.

When I place 'stickers' on pictures I don't place them in 'middles'....unless it's the bottom middle....but even then I use about 60% on picture and 40% on paper or visa-versa.

This is probably my most beloved page by friends. I used a neon green paper and then black and white pictures and black and white printed tissue paper from wedding gifts. I love the contrast. 

I wish I didn't need to cover these...but this world is full of crazies, so I sacrifice showing pics. Here I have a picture of each 'new family' (aka each of my sister's family's and Hubby and I) and then all of us together. I used punch out letters for naming each family. I also used paper that didn't clash with the background but also matched that family's personality. In the future I'll get to make a whole new page of families for whenever my little brother gets married.

On the left page hopefully you can see the bottom right picture, I traced around another shape I had from an old punch out and 'framed' around the focal point of that pic...in this instance it was my nephew.
*Instead of tossing out the pages with no more punch outs check first to see if it would be useful as a tracing device. Those work great.
*Notice how the colors flow together?

I prefer using doilies as backgrounds. Here I cut out me hugging my dad and placed it not quite in the middle but towards the side a bit on top of the doily. It made it a great focal point for the page.


...........


You see? You do not have to spend a ton of money to have a hobby and to do it well. Use your imagination. You don't have to be like everyone else. Just find what you can do and use and then make it happen. Usually we all have things in our homes lying around that can be used as 'props' for our hobbies/crafts. Decide what is worthy to spend money on and what isn't. I even use milk carton rings and glue them around a picture I cut out to the size and shape of the ring! It works great!

By the way...usually the clear sleeves I put the pages in come with a white 12X12 paper already in it! I use that as background paper for pictures, pages themselves, and for cards as well! They don't need to be tossed either!

Have fun and have a great day! 

How to Keep Up With The DISHES...

God definitely knew what he was doing when he placed my husband and I together. We are complete and total opposites yet we compliment each other so very well. He's an introvert, I'm an extrovert. He's organized, practical, sufficient. I'm a slob. He's antisocial (in my terms) and not very talkative while if I go a day without people I become emotional and sad and don't get anything done. Hubby is one to do something because that's what he knows works and if it works then don't look for other ways to do it...but I will try multiple ways of things even after finding what works. I'm spontaneous while he's a planner...which is one of biggest things to effect us. His 'planner' in him has helped me to be more responsible and plan things while my spontaneity has helped him let loose. I am subjective, he's objective...do you see what I mean?

We are not a couple to fight about finances or where to live or the future...the only thing we really fight about is cleanliness and the dishes. OH THE DISHES!!! I hate doing dishes and his way of doing dishes isn't even doing dishes to me. He has been extremely patient with me over the past two and a half years but finally he had decided a few weeks ago to have me try his way. I was soooo angry at first but the next day the Lord worked on my heart and I realized what the real issue was...the sins of materialism and covetousness. Hubby wanted to pack up most of our basic dishes and only have two of everything thus always having to wash something after using it...practical thinking. But I wanted to be like everyone else and have a kitchen full of dishes. I wanted so many dishes that my cabinets couldn't hold them all. But I realized that I was the one in the wrong. I was the one full of sin and full of wanting to hold onto material things. It's just the two of us! We don't need that many dishes. We don't need that much silverware, plates stacked higher than the cabinet goes, or enough bowls to feed a classroom. So as Hubs was at work I grabbed a box and got busy...

I decided to leave four of everything...in case if we invite another couple over. Four spoons, fours forks, four big plates and four little plates...etc. When hubby had come home and saw what I was doing he was so happy. He decided that leaving four of everything was a great idea, so he jumped in and helped me pick things out and pack them up.

Not only have we not had a fight since then about the dishes, but not even about cleanliness. Doing this downsizing has really effected our kitchen. The dishes are done way more often and it doesn't take nearly as long to clean the kitchen. I would definitely recommend this as a fix if you too have issues with keeping up with the dishes. Sometimes the differences between our significant other and ourselves helps us discover issues of the heart and/or new ways to apply to our day to day lives for the better. Change can be good!

P.S. Pray for the families and community effected by yesterdays school shooting. Pray that they will look to God for comfort and that he is still praised in this storm.

Making Cards My Way

One craft I have taken up within the past couple of years is card making. Before the passing of my father I always thought that cards were a waste of money because we could always just tell the person what we want to say... that's how I thought it. Well me, being quite a self centered creature many of times, I tend to not change my mind or learn my lesson until it was on my own doing (usually through experience). So after my father's death I was getting cards even a couple months later. I was flabbergasted. It was so difficult to go through each of my days watching everyone else not be affected by this. They were all still so happy, laughing, and carrying on and of course they did...they didn't know my dad! How dare I expect everyone else in my path to morn with me. But something happened each time I received a card in the mail. My heart would flutter and I would feel so loved and special all because that person was obviously thinking of me. After that I decided I wanted to make others feel the same way. So, not wanting to spend too much money on this and since I already had the materials from my scrapbooking box, I decided to make some thank you cards. And from there I started a newly loved craft.

I have seen books, even own one, on card making. I see many of them on pinterest and ones my own friends have made but my style is not the same. And that is just fine. There is no right style or wrong style to card making. I personally like to try and use as many of my own resources for my crafts as possible. Since Hubby and I live happily on an extremely tight budget I didn't have the extra money every month to run to the local craft store and buy all the 'needed necessities'...that stuff can get extraordinarily expensive.

Here are some examples of some cards I've made...

*notice the 'odd numbers', 'overlapping' and 'clustering'? -Read about those things in MY RULES OF CARD MAKING below...

*this kind of card is what I call an 'encouragement' card. Usually for those I like to use words like 'bloom' that would make the lady know I was telling her everything is okay, to go ahead and let your life or yourself 'bloom'.
*the little pink bow in the top left hand corner was taken off of another card I had (resourcefulness or aka recycling)
*notice the green paper is larger than the lined paper? It's better to have one side bigger than the other if you are going to have separate papers.
*I love to crinkle the white background paper sometimes like this one.

*a 'manly' card. This would be a thank you card for a guy. It's extremely simple with guyish colors and kept in the same color tones.

My rules of card making:
*If any of you know much about landscaping one of the well known rules to landscapers is 'keep it odd numbered'. For some reason human's eyes/minds don't feel 'complete' when seeing something evenly numbered. (I believe I first heard this on a landscaping show a long time ago). For example, put 3 things clustered together towards one corner and in the other corner cluster together 2...thus making 5 total. If you make 3 in one corner and 3 in the other then make something in the middle pulling it all together thus making 7 things to look at. I realize landscaping is not card making but I always felt that that 'rule' can be used in many different places due to it's reasoning behind it.
*Overlap or cluster. I like to think of it as people. People tend to flock together, just like animals and plants, so it makes sense when we see things clustered together. Just look around your house, I bet ya the pictures on the walls are in 'groupings' and not just randomly spread out. It makes sense to us to 'group' or 'cluster' things together and with the others that are like them.
*Use multiple colors but make them flow well together... aka use the same kinds of color schemes. Example: cream, a soft mauve, and sage...those colors look very pretty together.
*Have a theme! Whether the theme is nature, girly, baby, vintage, or a color theme stick to the theme.
*Keep it simple. I don't know about any of you, but many of times I find myself feeling overwhelmed when I look at something and there is too much to look at and my eyes are falling all over the place. So don't give your receiver a headache...
*Keep the 'receiver' in mind. aka don't make a card that they wouldn't like, make something that when you look at the card it reminds you of them. Use colors they like, keep the the theme to something they like, etc.
*Be resourceful.

*an example of resourcefulness: this is left over from a thin piece of card board I had flowers in. I will just cut the white part off and use that to put a caption on or as a background for something...the thing I would toss is the top part.

Male cards can be extremely difficult to figure out how to make. Try using 'manly' colors like rich greens, blues, grays, and blacks. Be careful on the bright colors, red is okay but avoid bright yellow, pinks, bright orange, etc. And definitely avoid pastels. Keep their card extremely simple. Men don't usually notice the fancy little details we put on the card. In fact, keep the props you use on it slim. The 'gaudier' it is the more ridiculous and impractical it seems to them.

However...
Females do like the dramatic and gaudy things...usually. We tend to love those little doilies and flowers and bright flamboyant colors. But be sure not to go over board...if you have to buy an extra stamp because of the weight then you probably put too much on.

Male:
*Use buttons, nature, or color schemes for your themes.
*Don't use flowers, jewels, glitter, or lace.

Sympathy Cards:
*Don't use bright and happy colors. Use softer tones that look calm and soothing.
*Steer more towards using cross, bible verse, or nature themes.
*Make it centered around that person they lost or the relationship they had to the person.

Baby Cards:
*Use soft tones or pastels.
*Center it around the baby (aka use blues for boys and pinks for girls) but keep in mind that the baby isn't the one seeing it, it's the mom....
*It's okay to make the baby boy card a little girly because the mom (whom is a girl) is the one looking at it.

Ways to Save:
*When going to the craft store stick to what you went in there for and do not go 'looking' in the other departments.
*Consider the card you are making and decide the exact things you need for it.
*Find as many things you can use that you already have in your home as much as possible...an example would be the paper I use, I just cut it to the size and shape I want and use double stick tape to stick them together.
*Don't buy the extremely expensive little things. When strolling in the sticker isle ignore the ones that are 4 or 5 dollars and only give you enough for a one time usage, buy the ones that are usually 3 dollars or less with many supplied to you...you will find ones you like.
*Before heading to the register look at the things in your cart and put 1 or 2 items back unless you absolutely need every single thing. Look at each item and decide if you will really use it.

Waste of Money:
*Buying already cut card stock...you can save so much just by cutting your own paper.
*Fancy craft machines. If you have the money for one or want one as a gift then great, but if not then don't go spending the money for one.

Resource Ideas:
Scrapbook paper
Construction paper
Ribbons
Doilies
Stencils
Punch-outs
'3D stickers' butterflies, flowers, letters, etc.
Cutting pieces out of cards and gift bags already sent to me (doves from wedding cards, crosses, grooms and brides, hearts, etc)
Flattened out Dove wrappers (you know the ones with super cute quotes)
Fake flowers (daisies I've found are the best because they're flat and girly)
Use other cards to trace the card size you want to make.

Needed Items Worth Buying:
Double Stick Tape
Sissors
Glue
Envelopes (obviously)

*here I am tracing another card sent to me for the size I want on a card I am making...

Please keep in mind that I am not a professional nor am I telling you that the way you make cards is wrong, this is just my style of card making. If you have never made a card before but have always wanted to then these things I have listed on this post may be of great help to you. If you have any questions feel free to ask in the comment section below...I would be super happy to help.
Have a great day!

Chicago Inspired Deep Dish Pizza

My husband and I absolutely love pizza. Of all kinds. But our favorite is deep dish. Our dream is to visit Chicago and try all the pizza joints possible. For my last birthday we decided to make deep dish pizza and from there we found our pizza destiny...

For the bread you can use either frozen bread doe (follow instructions carefully...this has a better taste and is easier to work with when forming it into the dish but takes more labor) or those Pillsbury Pizza Doe in a can things....you know one of those you pop open and jump every time it pops...

*This could have been brought an inch higher...but I forgot my green peppers in this one and more layers of pepperoni...It was also slightly over cooked as you can see in the picture. HINT: Do not over cook it or it won't stay together. If you start seeing dark brown pull it out because it's starting to over cook.
(it was still amazing though.)


Needed Items:
Doe (if I am spelling 'doe' wrong please don't correct me...just chuckle to yourselves in humor over my lack of spelling education.)
1 can of tomato sauce
Seasonings (we use garlic, salt, pepper, oregano, cilantro, and dried onion powder...but it's all to your preference)
Ground sausage with sage (or other preferred meat)
Lots of cheese
Pepperoni
Lots of canned mushrooms (if you use fresh then sate them first)
And any other topin's you like...just have fun with it and load it up...
Large-ish rectangle dish
You will need a fork to eat it with!

Instructions:
Set oven on 425.
After laying doe out carefully in dish, make sure it lays against the sides as well and bake it for about 10 minutes. Then pull out the warm doe and spread it out more if needed...it's even more modifiable at this point of time.
During that time brown the meat...don't fret over making sure it's fully cooked. (it will cook more in the oven)
Pour in can of tomato sauce and strongly season.
Layer on the topin's like what you do with lasagna...make at least 3 full layers...bring it as high as the dish.
Pour tons of cheese on top and then season some more.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Let cool then stuff yourselves full of the deliciousness!!!!

P.S. Remember in the last posting how I talked about our microwave jumping from the liquid exploding inside....well now our microwave won't shut right nor will it heat correctly. So we really do need to be careful as to what we trust on the internet...

Pinterest Experiment, does it work? - 'The Lazy Girl's Microwave Cleaning.'

Last week I found a pin about an 'easy-peezy' way of cleaning out your microwave, so I wanted to test it out. In the blog post the pin led me to the girl explaining how there will be no scrubbing necessary, just wipe and BAM it's clean. She showed a picture of a 'before' and 'after' of her microwave saying this is something that everyone knows about but just in case she let her microwave get really disgusting just to share that post. Could it be true? That there is no need to grab out my most scrubby of scrubbers and burn 200 calories just trying to clean my microwave?...

Here is how my microwave started. Dry yuckiness all over.

Directions:
Pour a cup of vinegar into a measuring cup.
Then pour a cup of water into that making two cups worth of this liquid.
Pop it in the microwave for ten minutes...
And then wipe...

Errrr....at the 9 minute mark my husband and I jumped after a loud exploding sound which literally made our microwave jump. He carefully opened the microwave and all the liquid that was in the measuring cup came pouring out of the microwave...NOT something explained in that post. The cup was empty as you see in the picture below...

So I went to work and started wiping after getting the plate and everything out of it...
But hardly anything was just 'wiping off'. In fact I started having to scrub and still nothing happened.

So here are the results. NOT ONLY does our entire apartment reek of vinegar but my microwave doesn't look much different and now I have two dirty rags to clean and a new dish to wash.
Do you see the stuff still stuck on top and the sides? So gross.

Do I recommend this? NO. Save yourself the trouble and just try very hard to have a cover over your things being microwaved or just be sure to wiped it down every time you do the dishes.

Upcoming post: 'Our home-made Chicago Inspired Deep Dish Pizza'

At-Home Ring Cleaning -does it work?

I saw this post on Pinterest about how to clean your ring at home. I, living many states away from my jewelry store that Hubby discovered the ring meant for me, needed a good ring cleaning. I didn't want to go to the store and buy that jar of pink liquid that we're supposed to soak our rings in and brush and all that...I personally don't trust such hard chemicals. However...after following this pin I discovered it had three ways a person can clean their ring. One was with baking soda and warm water, another using dishwasher detergent, and the other ammonia. Since our apartment doesn't have a dishwasher I don't own dish-washing detergent. And I definitely do not own ammonia. Thus the logical choice was the baking soda one, hey it wouldn't hurt to try it right?
So I dug out my baking soda and went to work.

I used a jar because quite frankly I collect jars and am obsessed with them and plus I don't trust plastic too much. The directions called for a soft bristle brush which I didn't have (I don't have random soft and hard toothbrushes just laying around for usage) so I tried a q-tip.
You will need:
baking soda
warm water
a cup/glass of some sort
your ring *duh
toothbrush or q-tip
maybe a spoon

There weren't any strict instructions on measurements so I just did 30% baking soda and 60% warm water. I let it soak in there for a good 30 minutes stirring occasionally. Then I dug it out and brushed the q-tip along the ring. The issue with the q-tip is that it couldn't get the corners and crevices very well, but I doubt a brush could have gotten inside the ring like what was needed and bothering me the most anyways.
I do take pretty good care of my ring though. I take it off for dishes and anything else that may call for it getting yucky including when I put lotion on. But it had been a good year and a half since it had been cleaned and I could see the build up in various places.
'Inside' my ring is underneath my diamond. A lot of grodiness happens to stay in there and while the baking soda soak did get some of it out it didn't get it all. I am sure though that if I left it in there maybe overnight it would have made a larger difference.

All in all I find it to have been worth it. I would definitely recommend this for in-between cleanings. It did make it shinier and bigolly what girl doesn't like having her ring capture someone's eye and put a smile on their face...

Have a great day!

Upcoming post: Pin found on Pinterest - 'The Lazy Gal's Shortcut to Microwave Cleaning...does it work?'