Oh rats!

I remember when I would get my hair brushed as a child the hair dresser (apparently I got my hair professionally done a lot!) would call my knots, rats! I always thought it was such a funny thing and even now as I brush my daughters hair I call their knots, rats.

Well, that's what I feel I have when I look at this crazy knot of yarn!!

I've been working on and messing with this rat for over a month and its proved to be quite challenging  BUT, I won't give up!!!

Has that ever happened to you? Any tips as to how to make it go faster....besides throwing it out, like my husband suggests?

Thanks for stopping by, hope you have a blessed day!

~Kat~

Trading 2000 sq feet for 200 sq feet!

We are MOVING!! We have decided that we want to leave our 2000 sq foot home and move into a 200 sq foot RV! Thats right, I DID say that (and no, I haven't lost my marbles!)

We made the decision a long time ago that we wanted out of Florida, to stretch our wings and see where the wind would take us. A perfect way to get around would be an RV. So we are trading our 2000 sq foot home for a 200 ft rv, and I could be happier!! I've been going through my house purging, donating, and placing in a storage unit!! To say its been liberating is an understatement...for its been SO much more than that!

As you can see, I've been stocking and packing it up!! Its been challenging, but a ton of fun!!

Everything about how we used to live will need to change. I buy in bulk when I grocery shop, I wont be able to do that anymore. The kids have a TON of toys so I gave them a 15" x 8" x 6" tupperware and told them to pack what they wanted into it, but it had to close. ALL the rest went into storage and they didn't complain one bit! (I'm very proud of them)

Since we are homeschoolers that wont be a big problem, but bringing books along proved to be challenging  I have a tablet that I filled with TONS of books for the kids, and I brought a couple crates full as well. They are really into bugs, animals, reptiles, things like that so I brought all these awesome science books about all the above. It will pass the time nicely, I can picture it now!

I look forward to all the new and exciting adventures we will get to do now that we are on the road. There are SO many museums, hiking trails, waterfalls, parks, and everything in between, that I can see the next few years being one big adventure! 

So now we are playing the waiting game. We have to wait for a position to become available at my husbands job, but once it does we should be off and ready to run. I am so ready to go that I just want to go boondock at the Walmart parking lot!! But we still need curtains and a dog bed so that wont fly yet. I imagine Ill post pics of the curtains, the fabric we picked out is very "us" 

Thanks for stopping by. I want to blog about our adventures but I haven't decided where to blog yet, here or on a new blog I just made with WordPress  I figure its a great way to keep up with all the cool stuff we are doing, and where we are at the moment.

Have you ever thought about living in an RV? About 50% of the people I talk to think its SUPER cool and the other 50% think we are nuts.....which are you? ehehehe


Thanks again,

~ Kat ~

Pineapple Upside Down Cake AND Cupcakes!

My husband is a big fan of Pineapple Upside down cake and since the girls and I really like baking we thought we'd cook him up some. I only had a 8x8 pan available so I decided to use the leftovers to make mini upside down cupcakes, it worked out perfectly!!

I used a yellow cake mix (box), a can of pineapple slices, a cup of brown sugar and a stick of butter. Something I like to do is fill a measuring cup 1/3 of the way full with pineapple juice and then fill it the rest of the way (do whatever the directions say) with water. This adds a bit of pineapple flavor to the cake itself.

Melt the butter and then when its melted add the sugar. Once its incorporated add the sugar and stir until mixed. Get your pan ready (I sprayed the silicone pan with Pam  I don't know if this was necessary but I did it anyways) by adding the pineapple slices to the bottom. I had some left over which I set aside and used for the cupcakes (there was about 3 or 4 rings left over).

Once the butter and sugar are mixed pour the bulk of it into your pan over the pineapple slices. Don't add all of it, leave some for the cupcakes. Okay now this is your typical Pineapple Upside Down cake, right?!

This is the fun part!!

Do the same as above but on a smaller scale. I cut up my extra pineapple slices and once I had a nice teaspoon full of the sugar/butter mix in the bottom of my mini muffin tin I added them on top. 

Then you pour over the extra cake batter and if you have some extra pineapple put it in the cake batter. I had a few left over so I just shoved them in a few different tins.

Bake them for about 10-20 minutes on the same degree as the cake states. I know this time is not exact, but my oven cooks reallllly hot. It is only a few years younger than me so its getting up there in appliance years. I am not sure what normal ovens cook at but our cooked them in about 10-13 minutes which is normal for our mini muffins. 

I slid a butter knife around them so I could get them out easier and then I flipped it over onto the paper towel  They all popped out very nicely, I think only one got all gooey and stuck. 

They were amazing, we had to restrain ourselves which was really hard! I left out a few for us and then packaged the rest up for the hubbs so he could have a treat each day for work!! 

Eat and enjoy!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kat ~

Sriracha and Blueberry Chicken Sandwich

I dont know about you, but I love sandwiches! All kinds really, big ones, fat ones, healthy ones, unhealthy ones, ones that have weird flavors but that taste amazing and Im a huge fan of pressed cubans. Well lately I have been messing around with some of the various ingredients I have in my house and I thought Id explore a new avenue.....Siriacha Sauce (or as I call it, Rooster Sauce) and blueberry jam! I know weird right?!

I should really stop right here and tell you that the meat I used in this sandwich is from a Pinterest meal I made the night before called Man Pleasing Chicken. Have you ever tried that before?!! Its AMAZING! I used skinless boneless chicken breasts because that is what I had on hand and I really needed to eat that meal! It was still delish and gave me some yummy meat to add to a sandwich the next day.

So my meat is already covered in this dijon mustard sauce (did I say delish?) so that added to my funky flavor, but you could use sliced turkey, ham, whatever. The fun thing about sandwiches is you can mix and match.

Okay back to the sandwich. So you take your ingredients, below and add some onions, lettuce and sliced colbyjack cheese.

 Spread the sauces on like you would any other. I did mayo and Rooster Sauce on one side and the blueberries on the other. Layer the rest of your ingredients on and pop it in your sandwich press. I got mine at Walmart for my hubbs for Christmas and its been my best friend ever since! HA! If you dont have one just oil a pan and make a regular ol hot/heated up sandwich.

And there you have it. 

 I made this a few times and it was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!!

My mom gave me these Blueberry Preserves, she lives in North Carolina and always brings me back yummy homemade stuff from the mountains!!

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So.....what do you think? Will you be trying this later?? Its cool if you dont....the flavors are truly fun-kay, but if you do please let me know! I have others that I have tried that I will post later (hopefully), they all mostly include the Rooster sauce and/or the Blueberries.....Im going to miss this jar when its gone.

Thanks for stopping by

~ Kat~

Adding a "Like Button" widget for Facebook

Do you know how to add a "Like" button to your side bar so people can find you on Facebook? Maybe I'm a dummy, but it took me the better part of the day to figure it all out. I Googled and searched but came up with confusing tutorials about HTML (which I used to use during my MySpace days) and XFBML and all kinds of other ridiculous abbreviations.

Well...no worries, I'm going to show you how to do it...trust me, its easy! The hardest part was trying to find the  tag in the HTML part, but we will get to that.

Okay so start out by going to this link.

As you can see from my picture, "Kaydeebunz" is my Facebook name, insert yours after the "/" Also, you can play with the settings (height, show stream, color, etc.) and it will automatically show you the widget (on the right) and what it will look like. I left mine simple. 

So then you hit the "get code" box and it will open a box with two codes, like the picture below. Copy the first code and then open your blogger to the design page (see the next picture). You are going to want to keep this open because you will need the second code later on.

Okay, go to your "Template" page and click the "Edit HTML" box. It will ask you if you really want to do this, click "proceed."

This is the only tricky part. You are going to scroll down, a lot, until you see "< / body >;". Once you see that you are going to "paste" the first code right after it!!

Once you are done copying that into the HTML click "save template" close that out and go to the "Layout" tab. From there you are going to "Add a Gadget" and when that opens a new box, click the one that says "HTML/JavaScript." This is where the second code comes into play. 

Copy that code and paste it into the "content" section. Hit save and BAM! You should have a nice 'ol Facebook widget!! 

As you can see, I have my widget!! 

Please let me know if this is helpful....or NOT!

Thanks for stopping by!!

~Kat~

Custom My Little Pony

Its been a while....sorry about that. I just wanted to share with you what I have been working on lately!!

My daughters are really into My Little Pony, like they are obsessed with it. I think its cool because I was into it when I was a girl and they actually play with some of my old ponies!! Yes!!

Well since I've told everyone that they like MLP we always get it, and if you have looked in the stores, you know its in limited supply...so we have multiples of the various ponies.

There is one pony in particular that they wanted, Nightmare Moon. Shes all "blah blah blah...evil" or something or another, but upon my searching Ebay the internet I've found that shes pretty pricey and I don't digg paying $40 for a 4 inch pony, goodness! So I decided to make my own using the multiples of the ponies that we do have!!! Genius!!! (well I thought so anyways)

So I took my ponies and started on this fun journey into "Custom Pony Making," and I must say, I've had a great time!!

I don't really have a step by step. I just tried to make her look the same as a picture that I surfed the net for,  there were lots of them, esp custom pics (apparently its a big deal to paint ponies, check it out...wow, there are some really talented people out there!)

I hope you enjoy the pics, I had a wonderful time doing it....and I have a line of about 10 more ponies to be "custom painted"

Oh, and I even got glow in the dark paint so certain parts (eyes, moons, veins in wings, etc.) glow up...so awesome right!? (again, I thought so!)


Happy Thanksgiving and thanks for stopping by!

~Kat~

Riding my bike

Lately I have done zero sewing or crafting, I'm blaming it on my crazy and totally messed up craft area. So today I started organizing and wow, I think I just started a three day project. On the up side, I'm getting my inspiration back and finding some really awesomely cute fabric in the process.

I have been doing a bit of bike riding though. My goal is to do at least 5 miles a day but I'm getting more like 6 to 10. Since having number three I haven't lost ANY of this baby weight so hopefully the daily bike rides will help?

Me on my bike!

Hopefully in the next few days I can finally start sewing again, its like a friend of mine has been misssing.
Thanks for stopping by
Kat

Sewing for the girls

I am moving right along in this pregnancy and all in all, I feel great! Sewing has been all that's on my brain lately so I do it ALL the time which inst terrible, right??
Anywho, I just wanted to share all the fun things I've been making. I have a ton of cloth diapers that I've sewn, but I will save that for another post!

My old ironing board cover...ewww..I so needed a new one!!

My new ironing board cover!! Yes!

A bandanna skirt for my big girl.

A matching bandanna shirred dress for our little one.

A funky skirt for the big girl. (she doesn't like it...figures)

A matching funky skirt for the little one (she loves it...they are
so different sometimes)

A maternity dress for me!

A little baby kimono for our newest little one who is not yet here!

And that's it for now!! Have you done a lot of sewing lately??

Thanks for stopping by

~Kat~

Swaddle Blanket

I am not sure about you, but things have been super crazy in our house lately!!! My brother and his family moved back town, we changed our homeschool curriculum, I've been actively involved with our local homeless coalition doing fundraisers each weekend...oh, and I'm 33ish weeks pregnant. So yea, super busy! 

I have however, been doing a ton of sewing. Sewing at night, sewing during nap-time, sewing whenever I can!! Its like I've caught a bog 'ol sewing bug, its awesome!! 

One of the things I wanted to make was The Swaddle Blanket by Prudent Baby, but I couldn't really figure out what was going on. There were others who commented that they didn't have a clue, while others said they did it just fine. A couple others commented how they did theirs, which actually helped me out alot (I'm a "group work" kind of gal and love input from multiple sources!!). I whipped mine up and took some pictures of it with the hope that these shots would help someone else, like the other blogs helped me! (If you go here, you will see her first post where she has some measurements, that also helped me).

The most confusing part was the two triangles that were left after your initial cut. I folded it along the point of the triangle, as you can hopefully see below. I also free handed the design, basically winging it!! Just take the jump and start off somewhere. Maybe even use some scraps to test it out first? If I hadn't just jumped in, Id still be looking at my fabric scratching my head, and that's no fun!

 Here is what it looks like after its cut, can you see how I folded the triangle? 

And here it is once its unfolded. If you look at my cutting board you can get an idea of

what my measurements were. 

I used the above piece to cut out two identical pieces of the cute baby 

fabric below so one side is the cotton and the other is the flannel 

(I felt the pink was too blah so I added the cutesy fabric).

I followed the rest of her directions and finished it up in no time!! Once I actually

jumped in and started doing the project it took no time at all! I will be 

making at least 2 if not three more of these for our newest little one!

Thank you Prudent Baby!!

Have you made one of these or did my pictures help at all?! Please let me know, it makes me smile when I can help others, even if its just a teeny tiny bit!!!

Thanks for stopping by, I promise to get my blog on more!!

~Kat~