2014 pinterest challenge – week 4 January 26, 2014

This week and the Pinterest Challenge got away from me a little bit.  Little guy was not sleeping that great so we all didn’t sleep that great, so motivation was a little hard to locate and I was also working on another project.  But I did manage to fit a project in this morning.

I am sure a lot of us had a drawer or cabinet with Tupperware (or similar) bowls that are thrown together with the lids in a big ol’ mess.  Here is mine:

Ok, so it isn’t that bad.  But I know I must have some extra lids and some things I have never used.  Also the lids even though they look sort of straight, are all over the place.  You can’t tell but I have lids in the back that are underneath some of the containers.

Anyway, I have wanted to come up with some sort of storage system for the lids so that when I pull one out, 3 more don’t fall on the floor.  I saw this on Pinterest.  Refer to number 29 for the idea of taking a CD holder to use for the lids.  Now I did not have the type of CD holder that they show in the picture.  But I had a similar CD holder that I wasn’t using for CDs.  I actually had some miscellaneous items in it that really wasn’t working.  So I emptied the drawer and matched up the lids I had with the bowels/containers I used and here is a picture of what was leftover.  The small containers I have NEVER used for any food items, so I may try to re-purpose them for the project I have been working on this week (will discuss later).  And I had all these extra lids.  Who knew?

So I added my CD holder and lined up the containers so that they fit together and added the lids and voila!

Two of the lids did not fit well, so I put the large one under the large container and the other one is right outside the lid container.  Not a huge difference visually, but organizationally a big change.

Thanks for reading!

2014 pinterest challenge – week 3 January 19, 2014

Before I talk about this week’s challenge, I need to follow-up on last weeks measuring cup challenge.  It did not turn out as good as I had hoped.  The Command strips holding the 2 largest cups actually fell off.  The cabinet is a laminate material so I am not sure if that is the reason or the strips don’t hold the weight that they claim they do (1/2 pound) or those 2 strips happen to be duds.  I will try again and see if they hold.  If not I will have to figure something else out.  In the meantime, I also need to figure out how to stop the clanking.  hmmmm . . . more to come.

As far as this week’s challenge, I thought I would try another recipe.  Here is the original pin of the Slow Cooker Melt in Your Mouth Cube Steak and Gravy.   I don’t like mushrooms, but hubby does and I can pick them off, so I thought this would be a good one to try and easy too!

I made this yesterday.  Got everything in the crock pot by 8:30am and set the timer for 8 hours.  I really do love crock pot cooking and will probably do a lot of it during this year of challenges. 🙂  After adding the gravy mixes I let it cook for another half hour and while doing this I steamed some green beans (The original picture looked good so why not.)  I also made a pasta side dish.  Got them plated and totally forgot to take my photo before we started eating; it looked so good.  Anyway, hubby stopped eating his and I was able to snap this.  He had already finished off one of the pieces of meat.

I would say it was a success.  Hubby kept making the “mmmmm” sound while he was eating it, which is always a good sign! 🙂  He also said he really liked it.  I really liked it too!  The meat was so tender and even though I do not eat mushroom, I think the flavor was wonderful.  I used 2 packets of mushroom gravy mix and one packet of brown gravy mix.  The gravy did not get as thick as I would have liked.  So next time I will probably take most of the liquid out and thicken it on the stove with a little cornstarch before serving.  But all in all a very good, VERY easy dish!

Thanks for reading!

question for my readers . . . January 17, 2014

I am doing a little research and need your help.

For those of you who shop on Etsy.com, what products or items do you typically buy or what would you be interested in buying?

Are there any type of products you haven’t seen but would love to see on Etsy?

I appreciate your help!

Thanks for reading!

2014 pinterest challenge – week 2 January 12, 2014

So I decided to tackle one of the kitchen cabinets.  Here is the original pin that inspired me.  I really liked the idea of hanging the measuring cups on the door.  Whenever I needed one I usually had to pull all of them out and then search for the one I needed.  Now this would make things easier and also give me more room on the shelf.

This is a cabinet I store my baking supplies in, as well as a few other items.  Here is the before:

In the pin, it shows a cork board attached to the inside of the cabinet.  I really didn’t want to do this (seemed a bit too fancy for what the cabinet was) so I came up with another idea.  I used Command hooks.  The hooks were just a tad bit wide for one of the measuring cup sets ( 1/8, 2/3, 3/4 & 1 1/2).  They had a different handle.  So thanks to hubby for suggesting I trim the hook.  What I actually did was use one of my heavy duty nail files and “sand” off the edges a bit.  Then the hole in the handle fit perfectly.    Here they are ready for the cups:

I chose to stagger them so the cups fit better since the door isn’t that wide.

After that, I went through everything in the cabinet and got rid of outdated things, rearranged and voila!  A much more organized space!

Thanks for reading!

P.S.  Project is not quite finished.  I failed to realize that if you open the door quickly the cups make quite the racket.  So I am going to have to fix this somehow.  Mind still thinking about it.  Will let you know what I end up doing.

1 year checkup . . . January 11, 2014

Little guy had his year checkup on Monday (January 6).  They weighed him (23lbs 13.5 ozs) and measured him 32.25 inches long.  His height is in the 98th percentile!  I was just reading the other day that most babies triple in weight and grow by 50% in their first year, that would put him at 21lbs 3oz and 30 inches.  So he has exceeded that!  🙂

He got his finger pricked to test his hemoglobin to see if he was anemic and the test was perfect, not anemic.  The nurse was so afraid that was going to hurt him and the little guy did not even flinch.  But when it came to the shots, that was a different story.  Thankfully he didn’t cry too long.  That is truly the worst part!

He has 5 teeth.  Bottom 2, top front 2 and the next one is on the left next to the front teeth.   Doctor also told us we could now start him on whole milk.  So we finally got some milk Wednesday (after the polar vortex moved on) and he drank it right up!  On Thursday he didn’t seem as interested so I mixed 4 ounces  of formula and then added 4 ounces of milk to that and that worked.  Same for that evening.  But then Friday I gave him straight milk warmed a bit more than I had before and he took it just fine.  I am glad he likes the milk and we will give him that until he is 2 then we can switch to skim, which is what we drink.

I am still breastfeeding.  Not sure how much he gets from me.  I know he gets a good amount when he wakes early in the morning (around 4-5am) and then again around 8am.  But the rest of the day I am not sure.   I am not sure how much longer I am going to breastfeed.  I know initially I told myself at least 6 months, then I said a year.  But it has been a year and here we still go.  I have thought about reading up on how to wean him, but to be honest the thought of us not having that relationship anymore, does make me a little sad.  I will probably start reading up on it and work on weaning him off in the afternoon and evening. I also pump at night before I go to bed, but I haven’t been getting much at all, maybe an ounce (I typically save that up and give him a bottle at lunch when I have enough).  But sometimes it feels like a chore at night, when all I want to do is relax.  So that will probably end soon.   And then eventually I am hoping to stop the early morning feed, just in the hopes that he sleeps longer (even though he does go back to sleep after that).  Maybe ending breastfeeding by 18 months.  If he wants to stop before that then that is ok too.  There have been a few times before that when the bottle of formula was in his sight he wanted that over me.  So maybe we are headed down that path.

Those truly are special moments that I will always treasure and giving that up will be bittersweet.

Thanks for reading.

Thanks for reading!

2014 pinterest challenge – week 1 January 5, 2014

I wasn’t sure if I would be able to start my challenge just yet.  We have been getting inundated with snow!  Hubby and I ventured out yesterday before the storm hit and I was able to get what I needed to complete my 1st pinterest challenge.

BBQ’d pulled pork sliders.

Here is the original pin.  I started cooking this yesterday morning.  I used a combo of two different BBQ sauces.  I used Sweet Baby Ray’s Honey Barbecue Sauce and KC Masterpiece Original.  I used  a little over a cup of each, A&W Rootbeer and cooked it on slow for 6 hours.  When I put the meat on the Hawaiian buns I left the sauce a little thicker than what the original post showed.  It was a hit.  Hubby liked them and we even had the leftovers for lunch today.  YUMMY!  I still have some left so we may even have more tomorrow. 🙂

I decided to do one more recipe today and made this.  I have never made snow ice cream before, but my Mom did when we were little.  It was quite yummy!  I put it in the freezer and will have some for a treat tonight!

Well, I am off to a good stat!

Thanks for reading!