Crazy Month!!

 I can't believe a month has passed since my last entry!! Things have been CRAZY over here! Let's see, in the past month I turned 33! (whoa) Priscilla turned 2, Easter, getting things together to start my business,we made a trip back to Philadelphia, we are preparing for a SERIOUS yard sale to get rid of all of the things we don't need and are also preparing for a move to another state (and a vacation right before we move! sheesh)…so I will apologize in advance if it's a ghost town around here for the next month or so!! But once we move and are settled, I will be back to my crazy craftin' self! (I will try my best to blog a few entries before the move too)

How adorable were their Easter dresses?? I can't stand it!!

Priscila got the 3 in 1 trike for her birthday and LOVES it!!!

And I just love this one :)

Ikea Chalkboard Table Hack!

 I can't believe I actually have time to blog this!! I completed this hack about a month ago, and am just getting around to this now!! Things are a little crazy over here!
 I have seen this hack around before, so I am definitely a little late in the game on this one, BUT it was my first time doing this hack, so I thought I would share!!

The best thing about this is that the table costs $19.99. Between that and the paints you need, you are looking at about $35.00 total for a really cute customized kids table!

First, start by ordering the table here. Or just go to the store if you are lucky enough to have one close by.
Once the package arrives take out all of the pieces and paint them!!

I found that I needed 2 coats of spray paint and about 3 coats of the chalkboard paint!

Assemble!
I bought 2 white hooks from Lowe's and attached them to the side.
The pails are from the dollar bin at Target!
That's it!!

Funny thing is that the first set they sent me was missing a piece so not only did they send me the piece but a whole new one?! What?! So now I am going to make a second one!! I think I am going to do it gold and pink (big shocker I know!)

The Best Zucchini Bread Ever

 No, it really is. I love love love me some zucchini bread, and so does everyone else in this house! I have tried so many recipes for zucchini bread, and this one BY FAR is the best. Perfect texture, and it makes two loaves! The only downside I can find with this is that it does have vegetable oil in it. I tried substitutes but it just isn't as good. I specifically only keep veg oil in the house for this recipe, and that's IT. (if this is the only time I am consuming it, I am not mad about that, ha).

You need:
-3 cups flour
-1 tsp salt
-1 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp baking soda
-3 tsp cinnamon
-1 cup vegetable oil
-3 eggs
-2 1/4 cup sugar
-2 cups grated zucchini (do not drain)
-2 tsp vanilla extract
-(1 cup of nuts is optional)

-Start by preheating the oven to 325 degrees.
-Grease two loaf pans.
-Sift dry ingredients. (flout,salt,bkg powder,bkg soda,cinnamon)
-With your mixer, blend oil,eggs and sugar
-Add dry to the wet ingredients
-Add zucchini (and nuts)
-Mix well and pour into the pans
-Cook for about 50 to 60 minutes

Enjoy!

Leek Dip

 Pat,Annabella and I have a severe addiction to Wegman's Leek dip. Let's be honest, we have a Wegman's addiction. If you are unlucky enough to not have one, it is hands down the best food store on the planet. It even has it's own buzz feed.
 So we are moving back to the Philadelphia area in a few months…the cheese lady at my local Wegman's informed me that very few Wegman's still make this dip. She informed me it isn't as popular other ones. (which my brain cannot fathom, because it is hands down THE BEST one they make). Now I haven't asked around to see if the stores in Philly make it, but I decided that I am not taking any chances. I simply looked at the ingredients and went from there.

I used:
1/2 cup of mayonnaise
1/2 cup of sour cream
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
a quarter packet of french onion dip mix
about 2/3 cup of chopped/sauteed leeks (butter to saute)

I for one have never prepared leeks before, so here are some links for those of you that also have not.
cleaning
more cleaning
cooking leeks

-I started out by cutting and cleaning the leeks.
-I then sautéed them in a little bitter of earth balance butter for about 5 to 6 minutes.
-While I was cooking them, I added all of the other ingredients together.
-I used a quarter of the dip packet. The spread we buy at the store does not have a strong taste of this dip. If you prefer a stronger taste, you can add more.
-add cooked leeks to the mix and refrigerate for at least 5 hours.

- You don't want it to be too "wet" it is supposed to be thicker, so if it's too wet looking you might want to add more cheese, leeks and powdered dip mix ;) 

Now here is the eating it part. When we first tried this dip we spread it on baguettes. I would recommend doing this first!! Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, spread the it on generously and cook for about 10 to 15 minutes. It's heavenly.

At this point our addiction has taken us to being really lazy and just slathering it on nut thins cold and eating it right out of the fridge. Still amazing, but do yourself a favor and try the cooked way first ;)

The Perfect Pastel Purple

 I found it! Every since I went purple a few months ago I have been searching for the perfect combination. Although it may have looked good so far, I had to go really dark purple a few times and have it fade to the color I wanted or use colors that were supposed to be pastel purple and just weren't "right". I also found that mixing with regular conditioner made it really splotchy. Someone anonymously posted the formula for the pastel Pravana (since it has been unavailable for some time) and I have to thank whoever you are because it is PERFECT!!! PERFECT!

I used:
~1 tube of Pravana Clear
~1/2 tube of Pravana Pink
~1 drop of Pravana Violet

Andddd, it's perfect!! Thanks again to whoever posted that on here, you're seriously the best!!

(this is after one wash!!!)

Right Meow

How adorable are these "Right Meow" shirts?? All three of us girls have them! (Although we haven't all been able to wear them on the same day yet!!) we have actually had some mild(er) weather and some sun this week, so we took a stroll at the lake.

You can find these tees and more at IndieNook

Spray Painted Crib/Priscilla's Room

We had not planned on getting Priscilla a toddler bed at all. Actually, we are moving in a few months and the plan was to keep her in her crib until we move and then as per Annabella's request, get bunk beds for the girls…..well, we have a crib hopper. I watched her do it once and that was enough to get her into a toddler bed! It looked VERY dangerous!

 So here I am searching the internet for toddler beds when I remembered that the front of her crib comes off to turn it into a toddler bed! (duh!) Wanting to make it a little more special, I decided to spray paint it.

 I used Rust Oleum Painter's Touch in "Candy Pink"…I mean…there is even a crib on it, ha.

Now, I don't know how safe this paint is for a crib if you have a crib biter. Annabella was definitely a crib biter, but Priscilla isn't so I feel safer using this. You could always use a crib guard to prevent them from chewing.

I also searched everywhere for decent toddler bedding. I ended up going with The Dream Girl set from The Land of Nod. I LOVE this bedding!

Here are some more pictures of her pretty pretty room while we are on the topic:

This was the way her dresser and frame wall were in the beginning. Then we had to rearrange 

FYI….

 I'm still here!!!! I have had a few people comment on my IG and ask when I will have a new post!! I wasn't feeling right for about two weeks! I have been extremely extremely tired with stomach pain and I pretty much used all of the little energy I had taking care of the girls and making sure my house didn't fall apart!!
 So after weeks of going to the doctor, having blood labs done, ultrasounds,sonograms and everything else, it turns out I have a large ovarian cyst. (which is better than what I thought, I was fearing it was my gallbladder!) Now…..most things I read say ovarian cysts are "painless" and "symptom free", well NOT in my case!! This thing has been messing with my life for weeks now! Fatigue, nausea and intense pain, frequent and URGENT trips to the ladies room to pee…I'm talking like every ten minutes.  I am basically never listening to google again. Ovarian cysts CAN be painful guys!!
 I go back to the doctor in a few weeks to see if the size of it is changing or anything, but I have started to feel a little better the past few days! So do not fear! I will be posting again this week! I have a lot to catch up on!!!!!

Jhirmack Silver Shampoo

While I am always on the hunt for good beauty products, they often tend to be more on the expensive side so I thought I would review a very very cheap product!
 So there I was browsing the isles of CVS sans children one morning. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE browsing pharmacy isles alone?? I don't know exactly what it is, but I LOVE aimlessly wandering around CVS. I get lost in there, I pick random as seen on TV products up and read the descriptions convincing myself that #1: what ever it is is the BEST idea ever and #2. That I probably NEED it. I spend about fifteen minutes at each cosmetic brands section looking to see if there is anything new. The irony is that I never even buy pharmacy makeup, but I always look.
 So while I was on this journey through CVS I decided to spend about thirty minutes in the shampoo isle, and there was this beaut!

This song instantly played in my head the second I picked the bottle up. (and who am I kidding, it played in there for the rest of the day!)


 (this is totally showing my age, ha!)

Anyway, I used it and I actually really liked it! The smell wasn't to die for or anything but it did what it's supposed to!! When my hair is at this very light purple/silver stage the silver starts to look a little yellow. It definitely took the yellow out! So for all of you purple or silver ladies, even pastel blonds, it's worth a shot for $3.99!!!

I am soooo glad my hair is back to being a silver purple!! Even if it will only last another week or so before I have to redo it!! (sad face)

BBQ Seitan Pizza

 A few weeks ago, a friend of mine (who btw, NEEDS her own blog…ehem, Jessica!) made BBQ chicken pizza and it was incredible! Cooking only meatless food for all of us, I often feel like I am running out of things to make!! I had some extra seitan left over from making homemade coconut curry (which was a disaster, I do not even want to talk about that) so I thought I would replace the chicken for seitan and it was still amazing!

You need:
Pizza crust (I just used pre made grocery store brand crust)
BBQ sauce
Mozzarella cheese
Gouda cheese
Parmesan cheese
Red onion
Cilantro
Seitan (or chicken)

I started by heating my seitan in a pan with BBQ sauce. I don't know how much I used, if I had to guess I would say 1/2 of a cup.
While that was cooking I spread the BBQ sauce onto the pre rolled pizza crust. (1 to 2/3 of a cup)
I then added the three cheeses, onion and seitan.
I left a small amount of cheese to add to the top of the seitan.
Cook for the amount of time the pizza crust instructs. In my case, I baked for 13 minutes.
Take it out of the oven, spindle with cilantro and serve!

Enjoy!

Coconut Oatmeal Cookies

 These are AMAZING! Can you tell I like pretty much anything that includes coconut, oats and chocolate chips?? Apparently that's "my thing" (a really really delicious "thing"!)
  Not only are they awesome, but they are super fast to make and I had everything I needed except for chocolate chips already in my pantry. You can add raisins.. I eat so healthy 99% of the time so I always opt for the chocolate chips when I am making treats, I deserve it! Haa! 

You need:
-1 cup of butter

-1 cup of brown sugar

-1 cup of sugar

-1/2 tsp vanilla extract

-2 eggs 

-1 1/4 cup of flour

-1/2 tsp of baking soda

-2 cups oats

-2 cups flakes coconut 

-1 1/2 cups chocolate chips (or raisins) 

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Cream the sugars and butter together, add vanilla.
-Add first egg, mix, add second.
-While you are mixing your egg in, in a separate bowl mix the flour and baking soda.
-Add the flour mix to the wet in 2 to 3 rounds.
-Add coconut and oats,mix.
-Last, stir in the chocolate chips or raisins 

-Put them in the oven for ten minutes!!

Soooo good! 

Yeah, I took a bite. I HAD TO. 

Fabric Tassels

 I have wanted to do fabric tassels for some time now. I have done paper tassels but I like the longevity aspect of the fabric ones. While staring at the gold faux wood grain wall in the playroom, I decided that fabric tassels would be the finishing touch. They are super easy and I finished them in two days during Priscilla's nap.

You will need:
Scissors
Fabric
Twine (rope or string)

That's all! If you wanted to get super fancy you could use a cutting mat and a rotary cutter, I didn't. Although, that does remind me that I DO need a rotary cutter asap!

I bought a yard of four different fabrics. You definitely want to get fabric that is the same on both sides, or at least not too different. The one fabric I bought was not, and those do not look as good as the rest of them. Lightweight to medium weight work the best for this one.

-Start off by cutting the fabric 18x24 (I got about three tassels per yard, but I am super wasteful and sloppy. You could probably get 4, haa!)

-Once the fabric pieces are cut, fold the fabric in half.

-Start cutting the fringe. Cut almost to the top, leave 1 to 2 inches uncut.

-Once you are finished cutting the fringe, open the fabric up and untangle any tangled fringe.

-Start rolling the fabric.

-Once it is rolled, fold in half.
-Once it is folded in half tie fabric around the loop. I used scrapes of fabric, and I'm not going to lie, for about two I just cut a fringe off of the tassel and used it.

-Do this about 10 times! I found it to be quite tedious. so I split it up over two days during Priscilla's nap.