LOVE YOU!

I had originally planned to have this done by Valentine's Day. I even ordered the tiles on eBay more than a week ahead of time...but I didn't get them in the mail until today.

This little number is made from Scrabble tiles, a Dollar Tree picture frame (it's actually pretty nice!), and a strip of fabric.

I slapped this together using Mod Podge within a few minutes today and set it on my husband's little shelf in our bedroom for him to find when he came home this evening. I wish I could take credit for the idea, but I actually saw it on U Create...though I've made some small changes: I spaced the tiles a little bit, and my tiles are inside of the frame glued to the fabric rather than on top of the glass. I went to the dollar store looking for this specific type of frame - one that has the glass an inch or two from the backing. I can't even tell you how excited I was that they did, in fact, carry the frame I had my heart set on. God bless the Dollar Tree.

It was a very appropriate project for me since I'm a Scrabble fanatic. The game is one of the only things that I am freakishly talented at, I have a gift for anagramming. My husband boycotted playing against me years ago because he can't stand being on an infinite losing streak (and recently my brother has joined my husband's union).

When my husband came home from training, he saw it right away and said "Oh this is nice, I like it!" Then after a few minutes he added "This is your way of trying to be sweet when you're really saying 'I love you honey, but remember that you will never beat me at Scrabble'."

Contest Winner!

I know I'm a day late in announcing the winner of my contest, but you have to understand that we just got our tax return and I have been very busy shopping.

Without further ado, the winner is:

My contest post had 153 comments, so I left the job to Randomizer.org to pick the comment number of the winner:


kdkdkd, you failed to leave an email address and it appears as though you don't have a blog! Please contact me to claim your prize within the next two days. If I do not hear from you, I will hold a second chance drawing and give the prize to somebody else!

One of the last things I want to hear my 7 year old say...

..."Johnny, do you want to play 'Spin the Bottle'?"

WHAT IS DISNEY TEACHING OUR CHILDREN!?!?!

Rachel's Succulent Allergy-Free Chocolate Brownie Cookies

As I've mentioned before, my daughter Teagan is allergic to many, many things. So not only do I make everything for her from scratch at home, but I get to come up with some custom recipes that are safe for her to eat. By far, my favorite recipes to create are for desserts. The girl has got a crazy sweet tooth...it's a good thing that junk food is an occasional treat for her or I am certain that she would be suffering from childhood obesity.

There are no boogers on these cookies. There aren't even any green sprinkles, so I'm not so sure why there's a green splotch in this photo. Just ignore it and realize that when you eat these cookies, it's just like eating a unicorn's droppings...because everything that has to do with unicorns is magical and delicious. In fact, now that I think about it, I'm sure the green splotch is a fairy nibbling on the side of that cookie.


Rachel's (Egg-Free, Dairy-Free, Nut-Free, Soy-Free) Chocolate Brownie Cookies

3/4 cup + 3 tbsp corn oil (really, you can use any oil of your choice...except olive oil...don't do that.)
2 cups white granulated sugar
3 tsp Ener-G egg replacer (+ 4 tbsp warm water to mix it with)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups multi purpose flour*
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup dairy-free cocoa powder (I use Hershey's Unsweetened)
1/2 tsp salt

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cream oil and sugar in a large bowl or mixer. Mix together the egg replacer and water for it WELL, then add into the sugar/oil mix. Add in vanilla extract.

2) Mix together flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt. Slowly incorporate into sugar mixture.

3) Roll into balls (about 2 tbsp worth for each ball) and space out on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes. Let sit for at least 5 minutes, then remove from baking sheet to cool.

This recipe yields about 2 dozen cookies. Which means they last about an hour in my house between the five of us. You can't even tell that they're "allergy cookies" as Teagan calls them, so they're great for any occasion, special dietary needs or not. And the name? The first time my husband bit into one he said "Mmm, it tastes like a brownie!"

Let me know what you think if you use my recipe!

*Bonus factiod: You can use gluten-free flour for those with gluten allergies/celiac's disease.

Food on the Ground Food on the Ground

I live in Tornado Alley. Not the one my brother Kyle from Oklahoma lives in, but a whole separate tornado alley that exists in my house. If there is one thing my boys love the most in this world, it's making a mess any chance they can get. They love to empty out their 3 large toyboxes and fling the toys around their bedrooms (and down the stairway, and into the livingroom where I have a strict no toy policy). They love to fill up cups and pots in the sink and then dump them out on the floor. They love to smash cartons of eggs when they get an unsupervised minute...and they LOVE tossing their food onto the floor.


Here is a picture of today's "food on the ground" (food on the ground, food on the ground, lookin' like a fool with your food on the ground...) The can of Spaghettios was found on the floor unopened thankfully, but I've placed it there to add perspective to the size of my pile. The day is only half over, so I can expect more later on. But just what we have here is enough to feed a couple children in Africa for a day. It's difficult to explain the concept of waste to 2 and 3 year olds.

Some stuff I've made recently

Just a quick post to share with everybody some crappy pictures I've taken of projects that I've been working on! I know, I really need to get my act together and start taking some real pictures with a digital camera vs my cell phone cam...but it's just so much more convenient.

Here is a bag I made in a couple hours today.

I love the fabric inside.

I made this piranha plant awhile ago, but yesterday I made a fireball for it and slapped it on a blue background then put it in a frame. This guy will go on Etsy soon as a set with a bunch of other cool stuff when I get around to taking proper pictures.

This is a mini quilt I started today. Props if you can already guess what it is! I wanted to keep working on it but I ran out of thread and dark purple, so it's going to have to wait until tomorrow. The bottom 3 rows are unattached, and also it needs some serious thread trimming but you can shut your yap because I was only taking a quick picture of it. :)

Gotta start 'em young

My 7 year old daughter, Teagan, saw me blogging one day and asked if she could have her own "website" too! She already has an email address on Gmail (and a Facebook, that I moderate of course. She's quite the tech savvy kid), so I helped her set up her very own Blogger blog. She's named it "I love Super Mario Bros". Yea, remember how I told you about the Mario mania that's spread like the swine flu in our home?

The spelling and grammatical errors make the "grammar nazi" part of me twitch, but I guess you can't hold kids to some ridiculous standard. Or maybe you can...hmmm. I'm just thrilled that she's taken such an interest in writing! If you'd like to check out Teagan's blog, go here!