50's girl

I'm not sure if I am the only one who feels as if they were born in the wrong era???  Anyone else ever feel as if they have been somewhat displaced?  I love the stories from war time.  My grandmother married my grandfather right before he left for war.  Her wedding dress was a simple sheath dress with large purple flowers.  I love the thought of living out in the country hanging my laundry on the clothesline and having my lace curtains gently blowing from the wind coming in the windows, apple pies cooling on the window seal, lemonade on the porch while sitting in your rocking chair, wearing dresses ALL the time, even for cleaning, and aprons.... just love.  Unfortunately my vintage aprons don't look very nice over my black sweat pants and my over sized sweat shirt.  Unfortunately I can't seem to make it the entire summer without turning on the air (funny, I grew up without air).  The music, the simplicity of it, sort of organic in feeling.  And I've already mentioned the clothes, but again......LOVE.  So when I found ModCloth on the web, I was completely, utterly and totally in love.  I have several, ok, more like a list of 25 on my wish list that I have actually sent to my husband in hopes that he will walk in the door someday with a lovely dress box wrapped in a big yellow bow and say "something pretty for my pretty lady."  Then he takes me in his arms, dips me back, looks in my eyes, and then kisses me.  HAH!!!!  Probably not going to happen, but a girl can dream can't she.  So some of my loves.....

I'll wear this one to the beach and watch my perfectly bahaved children build a lovely sand castle, then eat popsicles that never drip or stain. 

The black one I am going to wear as I entertain my many guests and listen to them oooh and aaaah as I bring out the perfectly cooked pot roast that took me no effort at all to make, therefore looking this fabulous is a breeze for me.

This one I'll wear as I volunteer at my children's school.  I'll carry a basket full of homemade sugar cookies shaped like hearts.  They are beautifully frosted and personalized with special valentine greetings for each individual child, then packaged in selephane and tied off with pink and red ric rac ribbon.  All mothers will be asking me how I do it all.

NOT!

Still dreaming, but they sure are good dreams.

Cooking for fun

It's been a LONG week.  From a sick little girl to the snowstorm of the year that shut down pretty much everything and to top it off, I have been trying to eat allot healthier and exercise.  Something I have learned in this process.  Diet and exercise are impossible when you have four kids stuck inside the house all day screaming at each other and another one throwing up.  Actually, that one helped me quite a bit.... Anyway, I seem to do pretty well, but the bitter cold has made me really hungry for some reason.  I'm trying to convince myself that I must be internally shivering, therefore, burning more calories and needing to eat more.... ya....ya...........................probably not. 
Better Homes and Gardens had a dish that I made the other night and it was absolutely fabulous.  It did take a little time to fix and I did dirty quite a few things, but I'm still perfecting my execution.

Frizzled Eggs over Garlic Steak and Mushroom Hash
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 cups frozen diced hash brown potatoes with onions and peppers ( I actually just made my own)
1 8-oz. pkg. sliced fresh mushrooms
4 3- to 4- oz. think breakfast steaks ( I used a small ribeye cut in half)
4 to 6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 eggs
Fresh tarragon (optional)

1.  In a 12- inch skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil.  Cook potatoes and mushrooms, covered over medium-high heat for 10 minutes.  Stir occasionally.  Remove from skillet; cover to keep warm.
2.  Sprinkle steaks with salt and pepper.  Heat remaining oil in skillet.  Cook steaks and garlic for 3-4 minutes, turning once, until desired doneness.  Remove from skillet; cover to keep warm.
3.  Add each egg to the hot skillet; sprinkle salt and pepper.  Cook to desired doneness.  Place potatoes, steaks, and eggs on plates.  Sprinkle fresh tarragon.  Makes 4 servings.
Each serving:  324 Cal, 15 g fat, 258 mg chol, 397 mg sodium, 17 g carb, 2 g fiber, 29 g protein.

I was pretty careful with the salt and I only made enough for my husband and myself.  Dave loves anything with an egg on top, so I thought this would be a great recipe to try, and since I pretty much look at calories, 324 is a no-brainer for so much food. 
Anyone else have any great recipe's they have tried recently?

Spot Bot LOVE!!!

I really need to do an "About Me" article sometime to give you a little insight to my life.  Let me tell ya.... it is CRAZY!!!  Most of the words in the article would probably be " I have four kids".  Sometimes those will be said as positive loving words and other times.... well, not so much.  It has been one of those mornings in my house where two kids tell me they don't feel well.  One of them happens to tell me that quite often but feels fine after breakfast and being told that if he stays home he will not be watching movies all day, but taking long naps to get better, he quickly decided that he was well enough to go to school.  My other child proceeded this statement by going to the bathroom and throwing up :(  To top off my morning, the first child who said he was sick but then decided to go to school anyway, missed the bus.  I pushed him out the door as the bus was pulling away, ran out in the driveway with my purple cuddle dud pajamas with cute little pink and yellow kittens on them, yelling at the bus and waving my hands ( as all the parents are watching me).  The bus starts to slow and put back on the blinking lights, when my son then drops his mittens and stops to pick them up, the bus decides to drive away, again.  Ugh.  Fortunately I have a wonderful neighbor who had to drop her daughter off at the high school, which is where the buses load and unload some of the kids, and she also works as my sons school, so I know he got there somehow.  Note to self:  make big pan of brownies and then cut them out with a heart shaped cookie cutter with notes that say " I owe you BIG, You are the BEST, BFF FOREVER"!!!  So, that was my morning and I just looked at the clock and it's only 10:30.  Another Ugh...

I was just reading a really cute blog: http://asoftplace.net/.  I loved the reminder about what blessings our children should be and are, even on the worst of days.  Her note about the play dough struck a familiar note in my house.  Remember, I have four kids.  To top that, my dining room, which is the only room that has room for us to eat in, is carpeted.  OH.... with light gray carpet.  Gasp!!!!!  It was probably a year ago when my "now" two year old pulled on the tablecloth and ended up dropping my coffee mug, full of coffee, onto the carpet.  Bigger GASP!!!  I have dealt with messes before.  Hot pink nail polish on brand new cream carpet, permanent marker on hardwood floors, spaghetti sauce on everything, and actually managed to defeat all of those disasters, but this coffee was really playing hard ball.  I ran to the local walmart and looked at carpet cleaners, not to rent, but to buy.  Remember I have four kids.  I should have done that a long time ago. 

When I saw the spot bot it seemed to offer more than the big dogs.  It had settings for set in stains, light spills and even a hose that can be used for areas that the spot bot cannot reach or be sat on.  It had me at set in stains. 

I don't know what I would do without my little handy helper.  It defeated the coffee stain, the hose is great at cleaning up diaper training leakages off of our chair and I take it around the house once a month and spend a day cleaning up any little, or big spot that I may see.  We are saving up to get hardwood floors but this machine has definitely helped me be more patient as I wait.  I'm not being paid to say any of this, but the spot bot is definitely one machine that I don't know what I would do without.  It does have some solutions that you are suppose to use with it, but I'm cheap, so I add a little bit of Any surface Windex to every couple tanks of water.  It works amazingly well.  Today it is going to conquer yet another meal of spaghetti spilled on the floor. 

BTW, if you have questions on how to remove nail polish or permanent marker from pretty much any surface, give me a quick shout and I will let you know what worked for me ;) 

Curtains

As promised, I have pics of the finished curtains and I will try to explain how I made them.  I was so intent on finishing them that I didn't take the time to take pictures of each step.  They are pretty straight forward. 

So I took my measurements of my window, 95x52, added a 1" seam allowance for each side and then cut my fabric out.  I used a white cotton and backed it with a white sheet.  I should also note that my hem was actually the already finished sides of the fabric and sheet.  Saved me allot of time to not have to hem. 
Once I had my fabric cut out I took each piece and sewed 1" down on just the sides.  I did this because I knew I had a rod to put through and I wanted the seams to be completely finished.  From that point I just sewed the pieces together.  Starting with wrong sides together and sewing the sides then flipping the right sides together and sewing the top, then I flipped it inside out again and sewed the already finished hem pieces together.  Hopefully you are still with me......?

I then put the curtain over the rod and stapled it into place to make sure it was securely fixed in place.  I took some silver links that are used for making jewelry and sewed 7 on each end and then two rows down the center.  If you look at my window you can see where the windows are separated.  I wanted the curtains to match that.

My lines point to the places where I placed each row of links.  Then I took some string that I bought at the fabric store and strung it through each link and left enough as a pull.  The two right rows pull to the right and the two left pull to the left.  I also fidgeted a little with skipping some links when putting the string through.  The less links you have your string go through, the fewer layers you will have. 
This project took me approximately 6 hours.  It was honestly much easier than I anticipated and my husband is thrilled that we have curtains that cover the entire window.  The little things in life! 
I have a couple of other projects that I am anxious to get started on, nothing major, but some touching up, reaccessorizing and such.  I'm pretty excited.  Here is a "now" picture of our family room book shelves....

My plan is to lighten it up a bit.  I can't wait to show you my inspiration pictures and then hopefully what I consider to be "my" equivalent.  Have a GREAT Thursday!!!