Wordless Wednesday

Top Ten Tuesday - Things You Don't Know About Me

Here's the top ten things you {probably} don't know about me. You also probably don't care, but I thought I'd share anyway. You're welcome. =P

10. I've never taken a single photoshop or computer editing software program class. Shhh! Don't tell my clients that I'm self-taught, they'll get crazy ideas like thinking they can design their own holiday cards and business logos too. Well, I suppose that's not an entirely bad thing. I'm a firm believer in knowledge is power.

9. I do a wicked Kermit the Frog impression.

8. I'm only 63 inches tall, which sounds much more impressive than 5' 3". Okay, okay...I'm 5' 2.75" but you round up, right?

7. The Dark Crystal traumatized me as a small child growing up. {No worries, I absolutely love it now and plan to terrorize subject my children to it later in life.}

6. I once drank ate and drank an entire large (64 ounce) jar of dill pickles. Because it sounded like a good idea. It wasn't.

5. I've wanted to be an architect since I was in third grade. My childhood hero was Frank Lloyd Wright. I think Legos had a huge impact on me wanting to become an architect.

4. I no longer have any desire to be an architect. Crazy how life changes you.

3. I have an addiction. I'm afraid it's pretty serious. I. Can't. Stop. Pinning. Things. On. Pinterest. I think I need a 12 step program, or just more hours in the day. Yes, that'll solve it.

2. I watch really dumb comedies and giggle all the while. I'm pretty sure atleast 40% of my brain is used up by useless movie quotes. Some of my favorites: Super Troopers, Dodgeball, and Tommy Boy.

1. I've never had much of a backbone. I have a hard time with conflict and standing up for myself. I've gotten better over the years, but it's still something I struggle with.

Linking up to Oh Amanda for her fun Top 10 Tuesday. Check out more Top 10 lists at her website!

Daddy's Pretty Crafty Too

We had a wonderful weekend here. Hubby had a birthday and we kept things lowkey (his favorite kind of day) and just spent some good family together time. After eight years of marriage and over a decade of knowing my husband, I can still be surprised it seems. He's got a clever crafty side!

Check out what he did to a Gatorade bottle cap for our youngest son:

The poor little guy wanted to drink out of the big Gatorade bottle too, just like the bigger people. But he kept spilling it (he's easily distracted or loses focus as he's two) so Daddy drilled a hole in the cap, inserted a straw, and gave it to Link. Little guy's so excited and proud of his new "cup" that he's dragging it about everywhere with him. Too cute! I have big plans for the hubby to drill a hole into water bottle caps too and then I can throw those in the day bag.

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 5

This week's photography challenged hosted by Laura Beth at A Step in the Journey is from a high angle. I may have had an advantage this week because we went to a fair (see yesterday's post for more photos) and we rode the ferris wheel. That's not cheating, right? Here's my photos this week:

To check out more great photos and fantastic people, check it out here:

The Fair

So maybe I should have posted on Monday what we did this past weekend, but I was too excited to show you all my new typography art. You can check out the free printable HERE.

This past weekend we met up with some friends and hit a local festival. It was more like a fair that you'd expect from a county, but it was a lot of fun. We had bratwursts, currywursts (Germany..always with the wursts), and ice cream of course. They even had several places selling slushies. Yummy! D had to get his favorite (orange) and I enjoyed a cola one.

Here's some of my favorite photos. Hope you had an excellent weekend too!

Explore, Dream, Discover Free Printable Subway Art

So I have a confession to make: I like to change my home decor atleast twice a year. I have an addiction right now to fun graphics and typography in general. It's a good thing I can design things myself or I would end up spending so much money on cute graphics. I thought it might be nice to share my most recent design with you all, so you can switch out those printables in your home too. This one is a lovely quote from Mark Twain (aka Samuel Clemens). I love the quote itself and really should practice it more.

It reads, "Twenty years from now, You will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." I think it's a beautiful sentiment.

Here's a detailed view of it:

And here's an overall view of the design (please don't right click and save this image. The download link is below, and it's free and without the watermark, no strings attached):

You can download this design (it's an 8x10 print centered on a sheet of standard sized US paper) for free here:

MEDIAFIRE DOWNLOAD LINK

If you do download the design, drop me a line and let me know if you've got the time. I'd love to hear from you and if you have any suggestions on future quotes or free printables, let me know!

Linking up to: Making the World Cuter, The DIY Showoff, New Nostalgia, Todays Creative Blog, Tatertots and Jello. Under the Table and Dreaming, I Heart Naptime

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 4

This week's challenge is Dinner. Ugh. I wish I was more of a Martha Stewart in the kitchen. I tend to have a few tried and true recipes and I rotate between them. I've recently tried expanding my horizons. Here's last night's dinner. It was supposed to be Chicken Fried Rice, but since I didn't have soy sauce it wasn't exactly chicken fried rice, but it was still tasty.

It didn't photograph terribly well, but that's probably my fault. I'm simply awful at photographing food. I definitely need loads more practice. Consider it on my to-do list.

 Here's my adapted recipe if you're interested in making this incredibly easy and quick dinner.

Chicken Fried Rice

What You'll Need:

2 - 3 chicken breasts, seasoned and diced
3 scrambled eggs, seasoned with salt and pepper
2 grated carrots

1/2 white onion, finely chopped

3/4 cup peas

2-3 strips bacon, fried

1/2 cup butter

2 tsp. minced garlic

2 cups whole grain rice (non-instant)

soy sauce

What You'll Do:
1.  If you have time, marinate the chicken in soy sauce or your seasoning of choice. I didn't have any soy sauce on hand so I used a splendid mixture of spices that ended up tasting like smoked applewood seasonings. Use whatever suits your tastebuds.

2. Cook the chicken in a small amount of olive oil. Drain any excess olive oil and add the shredded carrots and diced onions. Saute until the onions go clear.

3. Add the peas, garlic, and cooked bacon to your chicken mixture, stirring well and lowering the heat so as not to burn it.

4. Meanwhile, make your rice in a large pan. If you use 2 cups rice, you'll want to boil it in 4 cups water and a dash of salt. If you're using a boxed rice (like the boil in bag) be sure to follow those directions. Once your rice is fully cooked, but not mushy, drain it and add the butter. Mix well. You can also add more of your seasoning that you used on your chicken directly onto the rice as well to make it more flavorfully. Just taste after every seasoning attempt to make sure you don't overdo it.

5. Scramble three eggs and chop it into little pieces. Add the egg and the cooked rice mixture to the chicken pan. Stir. Serve, topped with soy sauce or not, your choice.

Recipe adapted from: One She Two She
Linking up to A Step in the Journey as part of the 20 week photography challenge.

You Capture - Ordinary Moments

This week's You Capture theme at I should be folding laundry is Ordinary Moments. We happen to have a lot of those around here. Around here, an ordinary moment might be:

Riding on our Retro Rocket,

or playing in an empty toys bin,

or learning our colors,

playing educational games on the computer,

making lovely artwork at the table,

or maybe even "helping" Mommy clean the house.

A full day of Ordinary Moments often ends like this.

Check out more Ordinary Moments and some amazing ladies and men over at:

DIY pretty patterned binder clips

Drake's starting preschool soon. It makes me incredibly happy and sad all at the same time. I don't know how he got so old so quickly. As part of a teacher gift, I created some pretty patterned binder clips for his teacher. They're really easy to make, but they're such a cute little accessory. Here's the final version:

I used an old map that I printed out from an image online. To make it "antique" I aged it a bit, which I'll explain later. You can use any scrapbook paper that you happen to have on hand of course.

Here's what you'll need:

Binder clips (as many as you'd like)

Scrapbook paper or printed images

Glue, I used quick set crazy glue

Sealer, I used Martha Stewart's decoupage glue and sealer

Tea bag or two

Here's what you'll do:

Step 1: Print out the images you'd like to use. Keep in mind that these binder clips are very small. The largest one that I had was 1.25" by .625" on each face. You'll need a strip about 1.25" wide by 1.75" tall to fit one of the largest binder clips. If you already have pre-printed scrapbook paper printed, you might just want to trim it down to size. You can hold the paper up next to the clip to get a good idea about the size that you'll need.

Step 2: Trim down the paper to fit your binder clip, making sure that the paper wraps all the way around the clip. Make sure that if you have any text that it's right side up (not upside down) when measuring it. Once you have the correct size, glue the piece of paper to the clip. Press firmly on the paper for a bit after adhering it to ensure a good seal. I suggest starting at the main face and working your way across the top and back down the backside when adhering the paper to the clip.

Step 3: Skip this step if you're just using standard old scrapbook paper and you don't want that aged look. But if you want to age your clips to give them an antique look, follow this step.

To age your clips, brew a cup of tea. Don't throw away the bag of tea, though. You'll want to squeeze out the excess water (leaving very little inside the bag) and rub the bag over your designs. Pass over the designs as many times as necessary (allowing them to dry between passes) to age the paper as much or as little as you'd like.

Step 4: Once you're happy with the "antiqueness" of your design, seal the entire clip with a couple coats of your sealer (again, I used Martha Stewart's Decoupage Glue and Sealer).

Let dry, put them in a cute drawstring pouch along with some other cute teacher essentials and you've got yourself one cute teacher gift.

Linking to: Todays Creative Blog

20 Week Photography Challenge Week 3

This week's challenge hosted by A Step in the Journey is bold colors. With two bold little personalities around here, you'd think bold colors wouldn't be hard to find. In fact, they weren't. We took the kids to a little fair in our city here and of course, bold colors were everywhere. Here's some of my favorites:

Linking up over at the 20 week photography challenge. Feel free to join in on the fun!

You Capture - Happiness

There's so much happiness to be had, if only one looks or tries hard enough to achieve it. Atleast, that's how it is around here. I know that there are certain circumstances and times when happiness is hard to find. Around here, we're optimists because we choose to be.

Both him and his tricycle look happy to be enjoying a SUNNY day in Germany

Someone graffitied a smiley face onto the park bench. Can't blame about happy graffiit can you?

Link loves when Daddy's home to play with him.

Even their tricycle is happy.

My new smexy purse definitely makes me happy.

And I'll end with some of my favorite lyrics in the whole wide world, a song called "happiness" by the Fray.

"Happiness was just outside my window

I thought it'd crash blowing eighty miles an hour

But happiness is a little more like knocking

On your door, you just let it in."

There's also a line about "happiness throws a shower of sparks" which I absolutely love.

Linking up to Beth's blog for You Capture!