Curry Casserole

This is a great Recipe for those pasta haters out there! This is my sister’s favorite meal, and maybe it will be yours too!

Preheat: 350    Cooking Time: 30 minutes

2 pkg (10 oz each) frozen broccoli
2 cups cubed chicken, cooked
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 cup mayo
1 tsp lemon juice

Cook broccoli according to package directions, then layer in bottom of casserole dish, next layer chicken, mix the rest of ingredients to make sauce and spread over top. cook. May half recipe and use only one of the canned soups.

Look at those wonderful layers! YUM!

The Chemists Clock

I have been wanting to share this idea with all of you ever since my husband and I thought up the idea. Yes, This is an original idea!!  Woot Woot!

First the back story:

Andrew’s sister was married in April. The man she married has his doctorate in chemistry. Andrew’s sister will be getting her doctorate in chemistry in December. So we wanted to do something geeky for them. I told Andrew that I just wanted to make a clock for them but use a picture of them as the face (Not a new idea) but Andrew thought up something to make it unique.

 

 

Here is what we came up with:

  

The numbers are the first 12 in the Periodic Table of the Elements. Genius I say! Genius!

Here is how we made it:

First the BIG job, making the clocks’ face. We used Gimp2 that is available free online (the poor man’s Photoshop- We are WAY to cheap to get the real thing). We first found a template for the clock numbers so we would place the numbers in the correct spots. (just Google for one) Then we decided on the picture and decided on an added geeky feature, we put atoms behind the picture in purple; one of the wedding colors.

Andrew worked his magic to get all the shading the way we wanted it and then we had to put white lining around all the letters so the ones in the dark portion could be seen. NOTE: You will be drilling a hole through this picture, right smack dab in the middle, so make sure that it won’t be through an eye or something! Ours went through his ear. He didn’t need that anyway...

After getting that perfect we had Sam’s Club print it off. This cost only 3-4 dollars. (I can’t remember which.) Our clock is 12x12 in size, and Sam’s doesn’t print that size so we added a portion of white off to one side to make it 12x16 for them.

 

 

Next we cut some 1/8” Masonite/hardwood board we had left over to 12x12 and painted the sides white, and Mod Podged the picture on.

 

Now for the scary part. The drilling. Please wait to do this after everything has dried, and double check it is in the center! We bought the clock parts at multiple places (since I bought one WAY too small first). You can do Hobby Lobby with their 40% coupon making that way cheap. The one we ended up using was from Michaels. They had a surprisingly good selection to choose from. Hobby Lobby only had black, mostly. Keep in mind that some of the clock parts come with a way of hanging it up like ours did. If yours doesn’t you’ll have to figure out a way to hang it up or put it on an easel .

One last look at the Original creation by SewCutPaste

Want to make your own but don’t want to do the work? Well Andrew has provided us with the files to make your own! Just need to add your picture and do your own shading.  You can download Gimp from this website

FYI: You’ll need to add that portion off to the side if you want to print it off at Sam’s.

Photoshop File

Gimp 2 File

Just click the download button and then you can create your own awesome clock. If any questions or problems let me know I’ll help as much as a I can and then I’ll refer you to Andrew. :)

I’ve been bad…

Sorry I have been slacking lately with my responsibilities to this blog! I have so many excuses I could use and make me feel like they are justified, but no one wants to hear excuses. I will share one BIG excuse and that is my son getting burned in a gasoline fire. You can read about it here on the family blog. Its the biggest thing that has ever happened in our family besides the same son trying to drown on the kiddy boat ride at Lagoon. I want you to know I will be back soon! I am working on making a list of crafts I must make and will be back to the schedule in a week. Til then!

Easter!

Happy Easter everyone! I hope everyone was able to get to all the Easter festivities in today at all the local stores and everywhere! Sorry I have been MIA but we have been putting in a sprinkler system and I had NO idea how much of my time it would take. I didn't schedule myself well so sorry for not having projects these last few weeks!  I hope I'll be able to do better after this next week.. I'll work on it!

I wanted to share something with you in honor Easter for all those that haven't had time to make something. This is small, quick and includes a printable to make it that much easier! So cute!

Paper Lollipop Bunnies- Give to you neighbors, give to your kids, Give to friends, and have them in those baskets!

I found this at ediblecrafts go there and print it off for your enjoyment!

Organize My Life: Game Closet

In my family its all about the games. Growing up we would go to Grandma's house and play games almost every Sunday. Back then it was simple games of Scum (Corporation in my family they didn't like the name Scum) or Hand and Foot. But now it has evolved into bigger and more complicated games that we just can't get enough of. I love games! When Andrew and I married he would complain sometime about how he just wanted to sit and talk on Sundays sometimes and not play games. He was getting burned out. Now I have brought his to the gray side.(gray since it's not really bad except for the pocket book sometimes...) Our game closet has grown and it won't be getting any smaller soon. In fact we just bought 4 new games. All we have played before except Shadows over Camelot. In case your curious we also bought Stone Age, Fresco, and expansions for Dominion and Cities and Knights of Catan (FINALLY!). With getting the new games I needed to make room for them since, well, our game closet looks like this:

 So dis-organized and a little scary though it has been worse in the past. I love the bottom shelf with pledge, scissors, chalk and pillows! Almost a junk drawer down there. This is my first offical spring cleaned area. I got a bucket of suds out and washed the area top to bottom and got all the missing pieces back into their boxes. It makes me wish I had "Spring cleaned" the previous organization..... Here is how it looks now:

 So much nicer.  If you can see in the picture we have a lid of a show box in our game closet. This is for pens, paper and for any missing pieces that we find around and are too lazy to put them back away. This helps to keep them from being lost forever as well as not having to go and search for paper and pens.

I counted our games I was curious how many. We have 50 adult games and 15 children games in addition we have about 8 decks of cards that aren't assigned to a specific game. Wow, though I'm not surprised.

At the bottom there I have a blankets, pillows, and step stools. (I am kind of short)

I'm so happy that I got this looking good again it was overdue. Next week will be the Toy closet

Crochet School

Sorry for my lack of posting lately. I have had a few things thrown at me and I wasn't able to keep up with everything! so so sorry. I wanted to share something with you all.

Do you know how to crochet? No? Then you MUST go to Craftyminx she has 23 lessons to teach you how. I have only finished the first 9 lesson and check out my progress.

Not too shabby for only doing one project before this I think...

She teaches all the ins and outs of crocheting, and has video tutorials for both left and right hand-ers!. I have absolutely enjoyed learning it. I have done crocheting before but only an Afghan with granny squares. My mom showed me how to do it and I copied. Not much learning involved there! So I want to thank Dana for providing and doing the work with this! Also there is word that she is working on a knitting school. I hope she can get that going soon, wouldn't mind adding that to my talents.  :)

Next week I'll be getting back to my Organize my Life segment. I just haven't been feeling it. With the sun out I wanted to be outside not indoors cleaning! I'll be working on the game closet next. We just got 150 dollars worth of new games or expansions. If you live close come play!

Flower Lace Headhand

The sweetest family let me go through their Mother's home after she passed and was able to grab whatever I wanted. Their mother was into crafts and decorating so I went home twice with a full car. So grateful for that opportunity, especially since I am a wife of a grad student and therefore poor.

She had a basket of lace that I took and have been trying to find projects to use it for. This lace was the first one I fell in love with and wanted it to be something I would use a lot.

Pretty flowers right? so I made it into this

I used fabric stiffener to make the flowers form to my liking. I used one of our large balls to have it dry on. Then sewed on the elastic at the back. I love how it turned out!

 I wore it for the first time on Saturday for St. Patrick's. When my son Austin saw it he was envious, and asked if he could have flowers in his hair too. I search and found a little strand of it for him. He was so happy to get them and very concerned about losing them. It was quite windy. I really wonder how many people thought I had a little girl and not a boy wearing pink flowers....