What book are you reading now?

I have been so busy with Christmas shopping,cleaning and being sick that I hardly had time to read anything much.Finally,I am now able to use my night time sleepless moments to read a few chapters of my latest Kindle book by Shelley Shepard Gray. It is called "A Texan's Promise" and going very interesting so far.I love her books, especially her Amish ones.This one is not an Amish related one but a great read nevertheless. What book are you reading now?

Amazon Year End deals

So after all that Christmas shopping, you still want to get some things on sale for maybe future birthday,anniversary or special occasion gifts.Well,Amazon has a Year end special for you.Check it out!

American Girl crocheted outfit

A very Merry and blessed Christmas to you all! I hope this day was good to you.Christmas is almost over and we are expecting some heavy storms later on tonight and possible isolated tornadoes so I hope that no serious damages are done.
We had a relaxed Christmas today with some of the kids being here for the opening of presents.Some could not make it.My little one was thrilled to get her new American girl doll,Mc Kenna.She loved her first one which was chosen to look like her.She named her Macy.Even though she wanted Mc Kenna,she loves Macy and wanted a special outfit for her to wear to church yesterday. I got the pattern for the top here WRAP TOP. You can also get a skirt pattern on that site but I had already made a skirt a few weeks ago.I created my own skirt pattern by just increasing on each row to make it frilly.
Here is Macy in her latest crocheted outfit:

 

I hope you all enjoy the rest of the Christmas.Blessings to you!

Maple pecan bacon

So I saw this recipe online about making maple pecan bacon here and decided to try it. I was not too sure how it would come out so I only used 5 pieces just to experiment. It was a simple recipe which just called for you to dredge your bacon slices with maple syrup and put it on a wire rack over a foil-lined baking sheet.Then you add your chopped pecans and bake for about 25 minutes at 400 degrees.Since my bacon slices were not too thick,I had to take them out before the 25 minutes because the dripping syrup were really starting to burn then.

Making Naan (bread machine)

I bought this bread machine about 2 weeks ago and so wanted to try making recipes from it before Christmas so that I would know exactly what I can make and not make with it.I tried a simple basic bread and it came out lovely! So,I decided to look up a recipe for Naan (which I have never made before) and found this one for a bread machine method Quick Naan .I did not particularly liked the result even though the reviews went went with the one on the website. You are supposed to bake it for 4 minutes and then broil it.Mine did not come out as soft as I wanted.
 So ,I guess that I would stick to making bread for right now with my new machine!

It's beginning to look like Christmas

I know that I have not been blogging much but with trying to buy Christmas gifts at affordable prices, getting the place clutterfree and running kids back and forth to school,life has been pretty hectic.So here is where I stand.I am almost done with the shopping (or should I say my money is almost done and not much shopping again...haha).School is going to be out from next week and no, my place is not clutterfree..eek! I have to work on some more decluttering but I wanted to share these with you all.

Let us never forget the real reason for the season.

 Finally got some shopping done

I have recycled some bulks and lollipop ornaments to put on this wreath

The stuff characters were all gotten at Walmart about 9 years ago for $1.00 a piece!

Quick easy bread

Yes,I know this is like cheating but when you do not want to get your hands all doughy and wait a whole lot for it to rise,you tend to look for an easy way out.I got me some Fleischmann's No Knead bread mix and I had me a loaf within an hour so putting together a quick dinner with this was a breeze!The box just gives a loaf and is great for a couple or a small family.What would they invent next!

 

 

Amazon Kindle for $69

I tell you that this is the cheapest I have ever seen the Kindle.My husband got me one last year for Christmas and his eldest daughter loves to read so I thought what better gift for her than a Kindle.Amazon is selling it for $69 under Amazon Prime.I could not wait until tomorrow to see if the price would get lower (which I doubt very much),so I went ahead and got her this before the price goes back up.I love my Kindle and I know that she will love hers!

American Girl doll crochet tiara

I made this cute crocheted tiara for my daughter's American Girl doll and it was really super easy to do.It took less than half hour to do.
This pattern came from Carrie Piper. Here is her link:Birthday Tiara

My daughter was thrilled needless to say.

Craft room re-do

It took me all week with all the stuff on my bedroom floor and lots of backpains in order to get my office/craft room done.Yay!

 My crochet area.I put the yarn and thread in blue and black fabric bins.These bins were given to me by my daughter's bf.Thanks DB!

 My scrapping area

 This is my little sewing supplies area

 I used wallpaper pieces and lined the front of the plastic organizers.

And of course, you all know that I repurposed this old filing cabinet.I still have to fix the label area.

Repurposing a filing cabinet

So my darling hubby got two filing cabinets from a storage unit and he wanted to throw them away.I begged for them and finally, he relented. He just cannot see what I would want to do with filing cabinets! Well, this week I got help in taking them inside the house.I gave my little daughter one(who plays teacher every single day!) I have as yet to work on hers.
Well, here is what I did to mine in my office/craft room:

I cleaned it out and put some good ole elbow grease. Finally,I took some wallpaper we had remaining from years ago (no,I hardly throw away stuff-some of you know what I mean). I then stuck the wallpaper on both sides with Mod Podge. Good old Mod Podge-always there for me..haha!

Then,I used scrap circles punchouts which I had laying around.I'd punched these out with a scalloped circle punch. The paper is wallpaper-hehe. Then I Mod Podged those to the front.All because I am too lazy to take an X-acto knife to cut the handles out from a rectangle piece of paper.I love shortcuts, don't you?

I still have to give a final coat of Mod Podge to really seal all those circles in and put some labels on the drawers but here are some of the pics:

 

American Girl crochet outfit

So this past week,I have been crocheting after so many months.I tried a pattern for an 18" doll clothing and used it to make this cute outfit for my daughter's American Girl doll. The hat was pretty simple to make.The vest turned out into a coat.The purse needs a bit tweaking.I just played around for a slip on shoe for her. My proudest moment is when my little one said, "You are the BEST mommy ever!" Awwwwwwwwww...

Easy Peasy Shredded Chicken

If you want to make chicken soup, chicken and dumplings or chicken salad and like your chicken shredded finely, then this is a neat idea for you. I found this tip on Pinterest a few months ago- shredding cooked chicken in a blender!

First of all, I washed and seasoned the boneless chicken breasts accordingly. The breasts were cut into chunks. I let this marinade for about half hour.Then,I added some water to the seasoned chicken to steam it down. That liquid which is now a chicken broth was used for my chicken and dumplings which I made today.

After the chicken had cooled down, I added a couple chunks and shredded them in the blender. All it took was 5 seconds in the blender for it to be finely shredded. After shredding, I used some in my chicken and dumplings supper. The rest I divided into two parts. One part,I added mayonaise for a chicken salad which the kids can use as a sandwich to take for lunch to school. Then, the other part, I put in a Ziploc baggie to go into the freezer for future use.

As you can see, the chicken is already seasoned prior to cooking.

Just 2 chunks and 5 seconds in the blender.

All shredded and ready to go

Upcycled can-yarn wrapped

 I have so many inspirations from Pinterest and took some time off my routine to get into some crafting. One of the inspirations was a rope covered can. Well,I did not have rope but I did have yarn.I took some plastic canvas yarn, a tin can and hot glue gun and made my upcycled craft.

I just hot glued the beginning of the wrapping and then wound tightly around the can.I would put a dab of hot glue every now and then.Note that you have to keep pushing your yarn up so that there would not be too many spaces between each round of wrapping.

After finishing,I thought it was a bit too messy looking so I got some white grosgrain ribbon scrap and hot glued it to the rim. And since I was practising crochet hearts, I made a couple and hot glued it also onto the can and put a pearl bead on each heart.No rocket science.Now, that is the kind of craft I like!

I threw some colored Sharpie markers in the can.It can also make for a neat vase.

Crocheted hearts

I spend a lot of my relaxing time just surfing Pinterest and found a neat crochet pattern for mini hearts Click here for the pattern
It went pretty fast to create a heart (considering how long I have crocheted anything!). I then used that same pattern and when I ended, I just made 4 more chains and put an earring hook halfway in between and then slip knotted to form a loop at the end.

My little daughter loved them as soon as she saw them and wanted to try them on.They are too big for her but I could not resist taking out the pic to show her.She loved them!

 

How do you get pilling out from a sweater

I have been cleaning out my closet and putting away Summer clothes and hanging Fall weather ones up. I came across my favorite sweater.I only wore it twice and it is so comfortable but unfortunately,it got pilling from washing with other clothes. I tried to use a strong lint remover but to no use.Then,I finally took my disposable shaver and here is what I got. It still had some remaining.I had to be careful with the shaver though becase it could pull the fibers and snag some threads. I also had to go a particular direction with the shaver to get it and press lightly.If you have any ideas on how to get rid of pilled clothing,I would love to know.I am too attached to this to throw it out,especially when it is still particularly like new.

Dollar Tree finds

I always get those plastic containers at the local Dollar Tree where everything is only $1.00. I was amazed to see that there were some pretty big ones this past week.I grabbed me only three and put them in my closet.I got a lot of tops in them.I think I am going to buy me a bunch more because I really do not know how long they are going to be in stock for.A lot of times we do not get the same items again.

Another great find I discovered was those vacuum bags.I have always wanted to try them out but they are a pretty expensive pack, so at the Dollar Tree, I found them being sold individually.I got me a large one and today, I used it for my Queen sized comforter and it did work! That is another thing I must get the next time I am back there.