7-day Spring Break Challenge

My boyfriend's motto...Go big or go home. So next week I am pledging to cook atleast one home cooked meal a day, whether it be lunch or dinner or both! I am not going to eat fast food and follow the trend of splurging around the holidays or break from school or whatever you consider Spring Break. So beginning Sunday night, I will cook atleast one meal a day (and of course dessert!) and blog about how you turn this "cheap" meal into what tastes expensive. For example, one of my favorites- simple Rice-a-Roni- a plain box of Chicken flavor, mixed with grilled chicken, some butter and other seasonings and voila! You have what I call Suped up Supper. This is great for those mom's that are limited on time, running back and forth between baseball practice, and dance lessons, and Awana, or the college students who are on a budget (believe me I know). BECAUSE! Left-overs are key! DO NOT THROW THEM AWAY! Yes there are starving children in 3rd world countries and we should appreciate what we have and not waste things, but keep those left overs for the next night and turn that chicken and rice into chicken fajita wraps by adding some corn, rotel, and wrapped in a tortilla with some lettuce and shredded cheese. I did this last week for lunch and they taste wonderful.
Sunday night I will be making a sausage marinara pasta. It's not made from a box but it's my absolute favorite! I make my own sauce and it looks like the dish takes forever to make but it's so easy! Can't wait to share, and all the "recipes" will be posted! Hope you'll join me in cooking this next week!

Disney Fanatic

Tonight I watched the most inspirational movie I've seen in a while. It was the classic retelling of the little engine that could, with a twist, and an encouraging view of a woman pushing through a "man's world".
Tonight my boyfriend and I watched Disney's Secretariat and it was wonderful! It has an amazing, true story about the "little colt that could". We watched the bonus features and the behind the scenes material and the backgroud story and actual clips of Secretariat winning the Triple Crown are amazing! Needless to say I now have added a horse to my list of must-have animals :) Just because it is by Disney doesn't mean it is a kiddy movie, it truely makes you look at your decisions and ask if you're giving it all you have or just giving in. Also, I was very impressed the movie starts off with the Biblical story of Job, and the main character is quoting scripture, and ends in that same scripture. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who's looking for something for the whole family or just a date night :)

Cute as a Button Bloomers

So one of the many many adorably cute pregnant women in my town gave me the inspiration for these. She kept talking about these cutsy bloomers she had seen and wanted so badly for her baby girl that is son to arrive. So building off of her idea I came up with these.

I bought a large package of buttons and the "Cute as a Button" buttons at Walmart and just sewed them all over the back of the bloomers. It didn't take very long and turned out better than I thought! It's a fun and easy project for all, and especially the soon to be Mommas that need to stay off their feet!

Bulletin Board

So here is my CCS bulletin board for one of my favorite people. I paper mache'd sheet music to "How Great is Our God" to the left side and then just painted the right side, separating the 2 sides by a squiggle of individually glued sequins. Time consuming-yes, tons of fun-OH YES!

It's Been A While...

Yes it's been a week, here is my bead figure I made. It's made of beading wire and plastic beads all from Walmart. It was much easier than I thought! I started off simiple and made an "a" for my youth pastor's wife who is having a little girl next month. She has the cutest name picked out-Aria :)

These were my materials. The beading wire is thin enough that I could cut it with scissors. I started by making the curvy side of the "a" and made the frame.

Then I simply strung the beads on it and then looped more wire in circles aroung the frame and as I went, I strung the beads on.

This is my finished "cury side". I then made the straighter side and curled the top together to make the end and again, strung the beads in circles aroung the frame.

and VOILA! My beaded "a" figurine!

Lucky Me

I just thought I would share with everyone how lucky/blessed I feel. I am capable of walking with my own 2 feet, breathing with my own 2 lungs, seeing with my own 2 eyes, and making things with my own 2 hands. A lot of the time I take these things for granted although they may seem minuscule. Among all the whining I do I often forget to think about the fortunes I have that people around the world do without. Of all the 4 classes I have today, my health class put it in perspective. We talked about Mavlo's pyramid. Things ranging from basic needs to protection to luxuries. My teacher named several objects and had us classify them as necessity or luxury; items such as cell phones, clothes, money, internet, and houses. Sometimes it's hard to imagine those that do without the things we depend on everyday. Then he asked if it was necessary to be loved or have love in life. We all answered yes. Being that it's Valentine's Day and it IS necessary to feel loved or have love, tell someone you love them, even if you don't know that person very well. It's worth it if you make them smile. Pay it forward :) put a smile on your face and live life, laugh often, and LOVE A LOT!

a post my my droid

so i am posting from my lovely droid and i cant capitalize or use symbols so bear with me especially since I have auto correct lol well today is valentines day and it is a very happy day in my opinion especially if one has a special someone or someones. but it is also loris birthday over on lorisstorys blog and its time for a scavenger hunt. check it out cause there are some great giveaways.        
happy valentines day everyone.

LIGHTBULB!

So I had to babysit tonight. Two of the cutest little girls ever! Well in the baby's room there was this pig made of beads and wire. It was SOOOOO CUTE! It had a small light in it and had a flower on its head. So hence my project for tomorrow; I will attempt to make a piggy out of beads and wire. AND I am going to finish my canvases for the WHOO WHOO Give-Away! People you have to get in on this! Monday, February 14, aka Lori's Birthday- there will be 14 give-aways for the scavenger hunt, but make sure when you comment on her blog, wish her a happy birthday!I will be posting pictures of my projects and also my idea for a cute Teen/Kid room decor- it conisists of glass, acrylic paint, christmas lights or small lightbulb and maybe a few stones (gotta love'em!) but that project won't come together till late in the week. Well it's bedtime so goodnight and just 2 days til the scavenger hunt give-away! I just have a feeling it's gonna be the best Valentine's EVER! So smile at a stranger and tell those that are not so strange how much you love them.

When the Saints go marching in...the SNOW

So I painted a small 8x10 stretched canvas during my previous snow day. Well we had another snow day today! I have yet to paint my other small canvas like this but I will get it done. So here's the argument about my new canvas...is it a Saint's symbol or a Fleur de Lis? that is the question!

Snow Day!

So today I woke up and was about to begin getting ready for my 8 am class when I realized it was snowing outside. Not only was is currently snowing but it had been snowing for hours and the road was covered, it looked like God had taken a white glittery blanket and tucked it around my house.. I watched the local news and every school and college in the state was listed as closed except for mine. After 2 phone calls and searching on facebook it was finally confirmed that classes were canceled for the day. So today I am going to catch up on some painting and get my scavenger hunt give-away all finished up! Picuteres will be posted later! Happy Friday everyone!

Scavenger Hunt-WHOO WHOO Loves you?

So I am participating in the WHOO loves you scavenger hunt and I am super excited about it! I've never done anything like this before and I know it's going to be fun. If you don't know what I'm talking about, scroll down to the bottom of my page and click on the owl and read all about it. It's not hard to play, it won't take long either. There will be a winner everyday and it just takes a few clicks of your mouse. Hope lots of people get involved and get in the game! Can't wait to see WHOO wins my prizes! It all starts tomorrow and goes through Valentine's Day (Lori's birthday- be sure to wish her a happy one!). Let the fun begin!

Happy colors make happy people!

So today at work I painted a cabinet because the paint was chipped and I needed something to do. After I finished that, I grabbed a canvas and went to work on my split second of ingeniousness (no it's not a word). During all my fun, my co-gift wrapper's husband came in and almost had a panic attack because I was painting a fleur de lis.....WHY ARE YOU A SAINTS FAN?! Well for your info, I'm not. I am a baseball person and couldn't tell you much about the NFL except for who's in the Super Bowl. Back to my painting of the day though, I decided since Mardi Gras is coming up it needed to have some green and purple and of course some orange and smeared with white. I ended up using some neon pink and had the urge to add sparkle and polka dots and VOILA! A fleur de lis lined with rhinestones is the finished product and looks fabulous if I do say so myself. It's bright and colorful (my theory is that happy colors make happy people), has sparkles, and has just enough boldness to it that it makes a person turn their head (in my opinion). So here is my finished non-Saint fan fleur de lis-

 Medium Canvas- $75                                                                

                                                       Medium Acrylic Flat Canvas- $45

                                                      Medium Cross Acrylic Painting-$65

Hello my name is Hannah and I love paint and rhinestones :) and here is some of my work.

Just a regular ole' canvas

Yes, it's a giant octopus on a shower curtain holding a rubber ducky