Holiday Season 2013

We have survived and tried to enjoy another busy holiday season! It’s always a bit of a challenge to get everything in order for all of the events - luckily we both had some extra vacation days to use this past week ;)

~ We’ve had lots of snow this year ~ Loving that snowblower ~

We went to the annual Mefford family gingerbread house building activity and celebrated Spencer’s dad’s birthday. Becky and Todd have been in town and were able to enjoy the festivities with us. I decided to play photographer for the seasonal events. I never quite have the photos I want for my scrapbooking, and we have a better lens for these activities so it is easier :)

~ Paul’s family made a cute train ~

 ~ Isn’t my hubby cute?! ~

~ Me surviving the chaos! :) ~

Afterwards we celebrated my dad’s birthday. Everyone was in a goofy mood so we have some silly pictures. These are two of the normal ones! :) 

~ Love my sisters ~

Schoko opened up an early Christmas present so she could use her new shoes in my parents house! She hates wearing her shoes. She acts like her paws are broken; it’s so sad. But what she doesn’t realize is that it’s better than being left outside in the cold! While sitting down putting them on her I noticed the my parent's carpet was wet.  Apparently water had been leaking in from outside and it made quite the mess!

We spent Christmas Eve at the annual Mefford family party. The kids looked so cute all dressed up for the nativity pageant! Too many pics of them to decide what to share! :) Here Spence is showing off his new meat claws for his smoker.

~ My Family ~

We spent the night at my parents house and enjoyed a slow Christmas morning with them. Schoko got toys, treats, and bandanas for Christmas. She’s getting really good at digging into her presents!

~ Love my puppy ~

We then visited with the Meffords that evening before making the trip back home. It has been fun to see family and I have enjoyed being the photographer. I think I like hiding behind the camera. I find it’s a bit less stressful because I have a job to do, and it’s a great excuse to mingle with everyone.

~ Happy Holidays! ~

Cilantro Lime Chicken Salad

We have been trying to eat more fresh foods lately and came up with this yummy salad. I'm going to share our creations here so I can remember what we've had. I always forget and have a difficult time coming up with ideas for lunch and dinner. I need to create a rotating list for myself, ha!

The other night we made a delicious Cilantro Lime Chicken Salad. We marinated the chicken in a taco marinade to add some additional flavor to the salad. We then grilled the chicken and bell peppers, tossed with cilantro lime vinaigrette dressing, quinoa, and black beans. Voila - It was delicious, quick, and easy!

Puppy Potter

I wanted to dress Schoko up for Halloween this year, just for fun. I kinda got a little sewing bug so I started scouring Pinterest for Doggy Costume DIY ideas and found a couple of cute Harry Potter costumes!

Here: http://www.allfreeholidaycrafts.com/Halloween-Costumes/Harry-Potter-Dog-Costume/

and here: http://thyme-is-honey.com/2012/10/31/harry-halloween/

The first link has a great tutorial. I did change it up a bit so this is what I did!

1. I measured Schoko. She wasn't feeling well because she had just gotten back from the vet, and had some shots for her allergies. But she let me measure her... mostly ;)

2. The Shirt - I found one of my old gray t-shirts (similar to the ones she's worn before!) to use as the shirt. I then found one of Spence's old white collared shirts. I wasn't entirely sure how to do this part. The directions weren't too clear in the tutorial, especially because I didn't cut open the back of the shirt, and because my t-shirt wasn't a v-neck. How would you do the tie with a round collared shirt?

I cut out the collar that I wanted to use, and started pinning the t-shirt to it. In the front I made it into a v-neck by tucking more of the t-shirt under before sewing. Make sure you use a lot of pins because it gets tricky. You'll notice I have a little pucker in mine. I didn't mind because I knew the t-shirt would already look a little silly on the dog so no one would notice :) (except that I just told you, ha!)

3.  I didn't make a tie. I saw the other costume and realized I'd rather make a scarf! AND because the way I sewed the shirt, I couldn't really add a tie unless I really wanted to tie it around her neck. I opted out.

The scarf was pretty easy and it really helped everyone pick up on the costume! I cut the gold and maroon fabric into 6 1/2" x 4"squares. I then sewed the pieces together. I found it was easiest to sew every gold piece to a maroon piece, and then sew those pairs together. Then, I pin right sides together, and sew up the side. Then turn it out, sew the ends together, and voila! You have a scarf :)

4. The Cape! I cut out the fabric based on the dog's measurements, and then sewed around all edges for a clean look.

The hood was a bit tricky and I really didn't know how to make it. So, I cut a rectangular size out of both black and maroon, sewed the pieces together, and then sewed them together to make a hood. I had extra fabric inside the hood that I ended up cutting out along the seam. I'm sure you can find a better tutorial online, this was very makeshift!

Once the hood was in the right shape, I sewed it to the middle of one of the sides of the cape.

I then made two ties to sew onto the sides of the hood like this:

5. The Gryffindor Crest - You need to have the Gryffindor Crest on the cape and on the shirt to be a true Potter.  I used the pattern found here. I used my Silhouette to cut the different shapes out of the fabric with the amazing fabric blade. I then glued the pieces together with fabric glue, and glued them onto the cape and shirt. Easy!

6. Glasses - I loved the way the glasses looked in the tutorial picture, but they really don't stay on! Luckily I was able to quickly snap a few photos of Schoko wearing the glasses!

Happy Halloween!

Park City Weekend!

I feel like my blog is becoming a food-blog so here is a quick fun update :)

We spent a night at the Stein Erickson Lodge in Park City a few weekends ago. It was very relaxing. We had a suite with our own deck, hot tub, fireplace, kitchen, etc. It was awesome! Here are a few pictures!

We found a yummy gluten free pizza place and enjoyed some delicious pizza for lunch. It had been a while since eating some greasy pizza so it was absolutely delightful. (Didn't feel so good on day 2 but thats okay ha!)

The fall colors were beautiful!! Spence took some great photos while we were up there. It was a very cold weekend so I got to wear my cute boots. Love them.

I forgot to bring a toothbrush so I called the front desk for one. Who would have thought it would come in a very cute little bag? I expect this service everywhere now - you hear that Marriott?! hehe

We went out to dinner at the Purple Sage. Then went back to the hotel for a relaxing night enjoying the hot tub, some champaign, the fireplace, ahh heaven. We had such a relaxing vacation that we booked another weekend!

On our way home on Sunday we stopped by my office. Spencer helped me rearrange the furniture. Here are a few pics. I went to lunch with my brother that week so I included a pic of us too :)

Schoko has allergies really bad. Poor thing has had to wear a cone all month! So, she's not in any pictures. It's just too sad!

So that's a little bit of what our life is like around here :)

Paleo Chocolate Coconut Cake

Spencer has been trying to be completely gluten free for the past few months. So, naturally I have been eating mostly gluten free too! I think it is better for my overall digestion. But, I'm not ready to be completely gluten free - it's a little too complicated. You would be surprised what foods are hiding gluten in them. That gluten is a sneaky little thing!

I came across this wonderful Paleo Blog - River North Paleo Girl from a link found on Pinterest. (Seriously, what did people do before Pinterest!?) After reading through some of the recipes I found this cake recipe here. It looked so yummy I was thinking about it all week! So, I decided to make it for a family gathering we were having last Sunday. Unfortunately Spencer wasn't there because he was traveling to Memphis for work. He did get to try the cake when he came home and he totally approved!

Here is the recipe found off of that wonderful Paleo blog:


Chocolate Coconut Birthday Cake 

Makes one 9-inch double-layer cake. 
Ingredients:

Cake
Wet
10 eggs
1 cup raw organic honey
1 cup coconut oil
2 Tbsp vanilla extract
Dry
3/4 cup coconut flour, sifted
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp baking soda

Creamy Coconut Frosting (makes 3 cups)
1 cup unsweetened full-fat coconut milk
1/2 cup raw organic honey
pinch sea salt
2 Tbsp arrowroot powder
2 Tbsp water
1 1/4 cups coconut oil, melted over low heat

Directions

• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• Prepare two 9-inch round cake pans by lightly coating with coconut oil. I also added a bit of cocoa powder so that they had a light, even coating of cocoa.
• Add dry ingredients to a small bowl, stirring to combine.
• Add wet ingredients to a large bowl, using a hand mixer to blend thoroughly.
• Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and continue mixing for 2 minutes. Don't skimp on the 2 minutes or your cake won't be airy.
• Evenly divide batter between the two prepared pans. Don't worry that your batter is too thin, it isn't.
• Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Let cakes cool slightly in the pans, then remove and cool on a wire rack.
• To make the frosting, in a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring coconut milk, honey, and salt to a boil, stirring with a whisk to combine.
• Decrease the heat to low or medium low and simmer for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently.
• In a small bowl, combine arrowroot powder in water, stirring to make a paste.
• Increase the heat to medium high and add the arrowroot paste to the coconut mixture, whisking constantly until the mixture thickens, about 30-60 seconds.
• Transfer the mixture to a large heat-resistant mixing bowl and very slowly blend in the coconut oil using a hand-held mixture until smooth.
• Place in freezer for 30-35 minutes until the frosting solidifies and turns opaque white.
• Remove from freezer and whip with a handheld mixture until it becomes thick and somewhat fluffy. 

Build It

1. Place first layer upside-down on a cake plate so the flat side is up. Frost.
2. Place the second layer on top with the rounded side up. Frost the top and sides.
3. Sprinkle with toasted coconut flakes (optional). Chopped nuts would also be great. 

This recipe calls for quite a bit of honey.I did end up using filtered honey because I couldn't quite justify the raw organic price! We want to get bees next year so maybe this will not be an issue for long :)

I didn't have any 9" round cake pans so I put it in a 9" square. There was only enough batter for one layer. Which was fine because I didn't have too much time to build it!

The frosting was a bit tricky. I couldn't find arrowroot powder, but I found arrowroot flour and used that as a substitute. This may be one reason the frosting didn't turn out.

The other reason it may not have worked is that I didn't have time to let it completely cool. So, it didn't mix well and was a bit lumpy. It was really difficult to get it smooth. I think next time I'm going to try and find another frosting recipe. I didn't like how hard it was to work with. Here's a picture of the frosted cake. (It totally looks funny, but it was delicious!)

The cake recipe was fantastic. You could really use it as a standard chocolate cake with your choice of frosting. Next time I think I'll add some chocolate chips into the batter :)

Enjoy!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Spence has been traveling lately and I wanted to have dinner ready when he came home on Friday. The only problem was that I had been sick all week. I really didn't have the energy to make anything. So, I went to my food board on Pinterest for some inspiration.

I came across a pin of some delectable looking soup, and followed it to the Table for Two Blogpost here. (Doesn't it look amazing!) I also loved that it was super easy to prepare and that I didn't have to thaw the chicken before preparing. You can find the recipe on the blog.

I did make a couple of adjustments to the soup:

• Added in one can of black beans, rinsed
• Instead of canned tomatoes I found a few fresh ripe tomatoes from the garden, chopped, and added to the soup.
• I did not add any spicy peppers because I am allergic. (I'm sure it would be good though)
• I didn't have monterey jack cheese so I used cheddar

I also mixed up the toppings a bit. I made some fresh guacamole, chopped up some cilantro, and gave us each a lime wedge to add into our soup.

I had forgotten how yummy and easy crockpot meals could be!

July 2013

We have been busy enjoying the summer! We went to Seattle over the 4th of July weekend. The weather was perfect! Spencer wants to move there and I think it would be fun too. We've decided we'll have to go back in the winter before making any kind of decision :)

We enjoyed trying out all of the local coffee shops, the city views, and exploring the countryside a little too. We had a great dinner at Salty's and Spencer was able to take a great shot of the city at night from the bay. Here's a picture of him taking the picture - what a cute photographer! You can see the photo here.

We also went to Jackson Hole, WY with my family to see the play South Pass that my brother helped put music together for. We also had a fun evening at the Bar J Wranglers with the family!

We went on a rainy hike in the Tetons. Luckily the rain stopped when we reached the overlook.

Here's a cute photo of Dan & Amber overlooking the beautiful view from our hike! I love this picture of them. It's just too cute not to share!

We've been trying some gluten free recipes lately. These pancakes were amazing so I had to take a photo for you all for proof. The recipe makes them sound interesting, but they taste great! Who would have known that cottage cheese is good in pancakes?!

For our anniversary we went up to Park City and enjoyed the Park Silly market. We found a cute new collar for Schoko...

...and some new glass charms. I like them because they are good on any glass, not just wine glasses :)

Spencer, Schoko, and I went to Mirror Lake in the Uintas for a day. Schoko had fun playing in the lake and going on a little hike. Here's cute picture of Spencer and Schoko on the hike :)

That pretty much sums it up for our July adventures!

Chalkboard Herb Pots

I wanted to grow some herbs this year but didn't have any room in our garden. So we decided to plant them in pots. We bought a few inexpensive Terracotta pots and some chalkboard spray paint and got to work!

We masked the top section of the pots and used some tinfoil to cover the top to make sure we didn't accidentally paint the inside lip. Then we put the pots upside down on a tarp and started spaying. We did two full coats and then a light third coat for good measure.

Schoko was a great helper by giving us some moral support :) hehe

We let them dry overnight before taking off the masking and planting.

Here are a few photos of the finished project. I think they look great!

There they are - all lined up :)

May 2013

Here is a little peek into what we've been up to!

We finally bit the bullet and bought a fence. It has been so nice and I keep wondering why we didn't do it sooner. I love letting the dog out without needing to watch her every second and I love sitting outside without feeling like I'm in a fishbowl. 

We splurged a little and bought these wonderful chairs so we could better enjoy our yard. I love sitting out there in the morning enjoying some coffee, or perhaps on a hot afternoon enjoying a little snack. Those Talenti ice cream bars are to die for. They seriously taste like a raspberry truffle. They are a dangerous little treat :)

I also planted flower pots for the first time. These are supposedly mosquito repelling plants, so we'll see if they help out this summer or not. The plants are already much larger so we can only hope.

My little sister graduated high school! I am so proud of her! :) Isn't she cute?!

We participated in the Zions Bank Paint-A-Thon. Every year each department works with a family in need of some touch up around the house. I loved this photo they snapped of us while painting :)

Trees

We finally got around to planting trees in our mow strip! It was a lot of work, but I do love the result. I decided to scrapbook this monumental occasion. I think it turned out pretty cute. You'll have to trust me that they go together well because I couldn't figure out how to get the photos side by side without being too small on this here blog...

I'm loving my Silhouette! I know you all keep hearing about it but it has truly changed the crafting going on around here lol!

  

Here's a close up of the title - Plant A Tree (or six!)

Happy Scrapping!

Laundry Day

A few weeks ago I attended a bridal shower for my cute cousin Ellen! I am so excited for her!

Everyone was given a "First" on their invitations. This was then you're assigned gift for the couple's "First"as a married couple. We then come up with our own ideas as to what to actually give. Examples are: First Dinner, First Game Night, First Kitchen Mess, etc.

My "First" was Laundry Day! Because laundry is so exciting I knew it could be a very exciting gift… or not so much. So, I wanted to at least have a great presentation, and think a little outside the box.

I have been wanting to try my hand at making a cute vinyl sign for quite a while now. So, I started looking on Pinterest for ideas! I wrote down a bunch of quotes that I liked and then I started searching on the Silhouette Online Store for even more ideas! I only had a few days from when I received the invitation to the date of the shower but I was so excited to make a sign, I didn't let it stop me.

It stopped by the craft store on my way home from work the next day, picked out an unfinished piece of wood, and some paint. I painted the first coat that night to get it going.

By this time I knew I wanted it to read: Laundry Room - Loads of Fun! and if possible I wanted a picture of a clothesline. I really wasn't sure what I would be able to fit on the sign. I came across this perfect download in the Silhouette Online Store. It had almost all of the elements I was looking for! The sign I bought was very square-ish so I did have to make some modifications to make it work. Using the Silhouette tools I was able to design my sign, cut it out of vinyl, and voila!

I then decided that I should have all of the gifts, in an actual laundry basket for a cute presentation. This sounded good in my mind until I realized how deep the basket really was, and how you couldn't see the gift items in it! So, I found a box in the garage, and wrapped some red cellophane paper around it to hep prop up the gift items.

While I was out shopping for the rest of the laundry supplies/gifts I found some great mini-clothespins at WalMart! I just had to get them. They were that cute finishing touch I was looking for :)

Gifts included:
Laundry Basket
My Homemade Sign
Laundry Detergent
Dryer Sheets
Stain Stick (I love this stuff!)
Lingerie Bag

Happy Crafting :)