Peachy Keen

Well in the last post when I said my world was about to change, I just never expected it to be so drastic. I feel like ever since Monday morning, I have worked, ate and slept. I come home from work and all I can do is crash on the couch because I am sooooo exhausted! And you can imagine because of this, my house has suffered.

Well, hubby got home before I did last night and I had asked him to make supper for me. That he did, plus wash the dishes that were sitting on the counter, empty the dishwasher, clean up the living room, wash down the oven... you get the point. Was I ever surprised and ever appreciative when I came home to this! He is ever so amazing!

I just added this frame to our bedroom yesterday. It too is a little piece from our wedding. I had found this idea on Pinterest so we are going to try it  out! I love this little corner in our room because its all about us! Those flowers in the vase are from my wedding bouquet. :)

Now onto Peachier matters! A few weeks ago I got given some fresh BC peaches. Clint's first thing he said was ¨Yum! Peach pie¨. Oh Oh! I have never made pie before! Off I went to Superstore to find a pie plate and did I ever go at the right time of year because I got a ceramic one on for sale for 3'97$.

I was anxious to see how it tasted because it was a pretty basic pie, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. 

Next was a recipe that I had found on Pinterest and was dying to try: Peach Cookie Crumble Bar

You Need: 

Cookie Layer: 

1/2 butter (room temp)

3/4 brown sugar

1 egg

1tsp vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Peach Layer: 

2 peaches 

1Tbsp flour

1Tbsp brown sugar

Crumble Layer

1/2 cup brown sugar

2Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 cup flour

1/3 cup butter (melted)

What You Need To Do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 & Grease an 8X8 baking dish

2. With an electric mixer (or hand held) cream together the butter and sugar for a few minutes.

3. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until mixed

4. Lower the speed and mix in flour, baking soda & salt. Mix on low speed until all the ingredients are combined. 

5. Spead the cookie batter int he baking dish evenly.

6. Pit, peal and chop the peaches into about 1/4 inch chunks. In a mixing bowl carefully mix peaches, flour and sugar until peaches are JUST coated. (We don't want to mash here!)

7. Spread the peaches over the cookie base evenly.

8. In a mixing bowl combine flour, cinnamon, brown and white sugar until evenly incoporated. Then add melted butter and mix it with a fork to form crumbles.

9. Sprinkle crumb mixture over peaches evenly.

10. Bake around 40 minutes.

11. Enjoy it's fresh yumminess!

You know its good when husband keeps going back for more!

On a more serious note. I got news last Tuesday that my Edmonton colleague/friend who had been battling with cancer had passed away. Last year we got together and ran the Run for the Cure to support her. Lisa and her husband and 4 year old daughter joined us on that crisp sunny day in October. This year we were planning on pimping out her wheel chair, as she was not able to walk it. Often people (including myself) aren't as scared by Breast Cancer because it is often cured. Lisa's life is just an example of why it is such an important cause to support. I will miss very much her smile, her gentle nature and her positive attitude. Anyone could learn from her!

http://www.runforthecure.com/site/TR/RunfortheCureFY15/PrairiesNWT?pg=team&fr_id=1852&team_id=80677 

Click the link to see a picture of Lisa and her family. I would love if you clicked my name and made even a little donation in honour of Lisa. 

Until next time,

Summer Days Are Almost Over

Wow this summer has passed by so quicly! I have enjoyed every minute of it with reading, tanning, cleaning, organizing, tutoring etc. Being my first summer without having a job, I never knew how busy life is even without a job! I must say to any of you house wives with kids, I give it to ya!

As I relax on the couch without a worry in the world, I just imagine how life will change tomorrow. Those to-do lists never ending, the snotty noses, the tattle taling...it all will start. Well the kiddlies don't come for another week, but still...you get the point.

PROJECT #1 -

In August Clint and I took a trip to the storage unit to take out all my boxes from my last teaching job. What a job! But that's another story! In the unit though we found this old coffee table. So back it came to the apartment. Well then I had my wheels rolling. What could I do to decorate this? Onto to Pinterest I went looking up different ideas. The next day in Winners I found this wooden utensil holder for 5$! I gathered a few votives and pillar candles from the wedding and I gathered the shells that I have collected over the years and away I went. I tried distressing it a bit, but that was basically a fail so here sits a bright little centerpiece in our living room! I love it!

PROJECT # 2-

A big project that I had on my to-do list this summer was the guest bedroom. Since we have moved in it has been full of all of the extra things, moving containers etc. After a few days of organize I got it nicely cleaned, but then I wanted to make it into a cozy guest bedroom. That was so much fun! I am not posting pictures as for any of you that come visit I want it to be a suprise! This mirror was sitting in that bedroom. As a gift from my sister for grad I LOVED the pattern, but it just doesn't go anymore with things in the house. This was my second try with distressing. With advice from a friend away I went.

Step 1: Sand down.
Step 2: Paint base coat. I painted a dark brown. (I just used acrylic paint bc it is 1.97$ from Walmart!)
Step 3: Use Vaseline and rub where you are wanting it distress. From what I have read you need to think of where it would be handled. Ex edges, where fingers would grab it to move etc. .
Step 4: Paint top coat. I used the turquoise that was used in our wedding. I did 3 coats before I was happy.
Step 5: Once the coats are dry then I used a steel wool pad to rub off where the vaseline was.
Step 6: To give it the weathered look I took a cloth an dipped in "Ebony" (the shade) and rubbed it all over the mirror and then quickly wiped it off with a clean white cloth.

The funny but sad part about all of this is I had it hanging by a push pin and the pin broke so now the mirror is broke! Off to the glass shop I go!

PROJECT #3- 

Next project I found on Pinterest was for mason jars. Well I am too cheap to buy them so I decided to use my pasta sauce container. Little did I know that it to is a Mason jar! Ha This is such an easy way to chalk paint. My goal is to get a few others painted to have an ombre look for the piano!

How to:

Step 1: I had some chalkboard spray paint from the wedding that I sprayed one coat on. (It acts as the primer)

Step 2: Paint whatever colour you choose! (Again I chose acrylic paint 1.97$ from Walmart!)

Step 3: With steel wool brush any ridges (top, letters etc)

I love this piece as those twigs were from our wedding. So a little piece of a very special day into the decor of our home!

Tomorrow I will be posting a little of my creative cooker side! Cheers :)

Organization Junkie

If you dont't know me well, you may not know that I love organizing things! To survive as a teacher, one has to know how to keep things organized....well...maybe it has to do with the Type A personality of a teacher; ;) but needless to say when it is not a hot sunny suntanning day, it is quite enjoying to organizing.

There were a few things on my to-do list that I wanted to accomplish this summer. I couldn't have done this without the help of Pinterest, so will leave the links if any of these things interest you.

#1- The Household Planner

What is a household planner? Well it could look very different depending if you are single, newly married or a family of 9! After scoping things out on Pinterest here is what I decided to go with.

FIRST...you need a pretty binder that will make me smile every day! (Walmart special and dollar store dividers!) Trying to be frugal. :)

a) Receipts- I like keeping receipts to help track the budget, but usually they end up as a pile beside the fridge or a mess in my purse. Here I have a little page protector that I through the receipts right into.

b) Budget- You may be thinking, '' Why not just use one of the million apps that are out there for us? Get with the times!'' . Let me say this, I have tried that and can usually keep track for the first few days, but then I get lazy. Also now that I am married and trying to keep track of both our expenses, this just seems to work better. Plus when it comes down to crunching numbers, I am much better hands on.

The monthly budget is where I put our paychecks, plus our budget for each of the categories I have decided upon. For each category I have one expense detail page. At the end of the month I will record on the Monthly Budget page, actual amount spent and then we can see how close we stayed to our budget.

   

3) Bills- Most of the bills are automatic withdrawals, but not all. I really like this as I can see what comes out when using this!

http://projectorganizeit.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/bill-checklist.pdf

4) Vehicles- When you're dealing with mutliple vehicles it is hard to keep everything straight. ''Was it the front brakes or the back brakes we replaced last year?'' ...you get the idea. This page I have one for each of our vehicles. That way it will  be easier to keep our vehicles well maintained!

http://believingboldly.blogspot.ca/2012/09/auto-maintenance-logfree-printable.html

5) Birthdays- I am constantly feeling like a bad friend when I find out 9 p.m. that night that it was my friend's birthday! I have a calendar that we keep in our kitchen and it is lovely to remind me what is happening that month. I am really excited about just going into my binder and seeing who's birthdays or anniversaries are that month and getting them on the calendar so I no longer feel like that forgetful friend!

At the back I also have a checkbook register, to keep track of what cheques we use. We don't use them ofter, so we will see if this will be useful or not. Thought I would try it!

Here are some blogs that I found useful with tons of freebies!

http://diyhshp.blogspot.ca/2013/02/home-management-binder-completed.html

http://www.stacyssavings.com/getting-organized-budget-binder/ (I got quite a few things from hers!)

# 2- File organizer

My hubby had his own organizer and I had mine. Mine was busting at the seems. This little box has been the life saver. I divided it into 3 sections: Medical, Vehicles, Financial, randoms at the back and right at the front the medical things. I ran out of red organizers and had extra blue ones. My OCD was kicking in and making me cringe, but I had to suck it up and remember the point was for organization!

#3- Mostly for fun!

I saw on Pinterest an idea to organize your IPhone cords with washi tape, so I just had to try it. Now I have a pretty looking charger that I know is mine!

NEXT POST: Today I spent a whole day cleaning and organizing our space that is going to be our guest room! It is now clean ..and the fun part of  creating a beautiful space comes! 

Until next time,

The Creative Cooker Husband Hugger Fitness Fanatic Grade 1 Teacher (On Holidays!)