My Pinterest Resolutions

OK, I admit it. I have a habit of pinning things on Pinterest and never going back to them. So this year I have decided to pick ten things on my Pinterest boards and do them by July. I will share them with you and let you know the results of each one. I try to have a mix of different themes and options so that I can get a good overview of things I want to accomplish. Here is the list, with a brief explanation about the pin and why I want to try it out.

Make a stash of baby food.

 

 

The conveniece of cans is a plus when I have a toddler hanging off my leg and a crying baby. But really, if I make up a good stash like this lady has, it will make mealtimes a lot easier.

Paint the back of Adam's bookcase.

 

 

 

We have some leftover paint from the earthquake repairs, and Adam's bookcase is plain white. I think that the look of the painted back is really modern, and so I would love to do this to finish off his room.

Work on my marriage.

 

 

I will do this list during February, as it is the month of our anniversary and Valentines Day. I sometimes forget to show my husband how much I appreciate him, so I hope this list will make me be a better wife.

Organise my house.

 

This is the biggie! I plan to do this in March when Lucas is settled into preschool and we have our TV cabinet and storage delivered. This Pinterest link is amazing- 14 weeks of organising your home, with a focus on a different area each week. I am actually very excited about this one!

Create a play space for Adam.

 

Lucas has his own play area, so it is only fair that Adam gets one too! I love the look of this area- it seems so inviting and just says "play" to me.

Make this wedding card.

 

One of my good friends is getting married at the end of March and so I would like to make this style card for her. I like the CAS (clean and simple) look of the card, and I am itching to use the Love and Laughter stamp set!

Stock up on freezer smoothies.

 

My son loves his "mooovies" as he calls them- and I really enjoy having them too. If I make up a stash of these for the freezer, then we can both enjoy a smoothie at short notice.

Make some laundry art.

I have a three photo frame that is begging for some photos- I thought I could put these cute laundry printables in the frame and hang it in my laundry.

Limit screen time.

 

I must admit, there are times when I need to get things done and it is easiest just to put a DVD on. I really want to fix this habit, and this lady has great ideas on managing screen time. I want to play more with Lucas, which leads me to my last Pinterest item.

Do the Toddler Bucket List with Lucas.

 

I love this idea! I want Lucas to be as well rounded as possible. He will be starting preschool soon, and so I want our time together to be exciting and memorable so that he has some great recollections of our time together.

I hope this list has inspired you to cross off some things on your Pinterest boards- I will be checking in as I cross off each item. I am excited to start!

My fitness goals

It's time again for Get Me Fit Friday link up!



My goals for last week were:

Do the 30 Day Shred workout each evening.
Have one meat free day this week.
Drink 8 glasses of water every day.
Log my food intake on MyFitnessPal every day. (If you want to add me, I am chile_chicken)

I managed to acheive all of these goals, even working out at 9:30pm on the evening we had family around for dinner. No weight loss this week even though MyFitnessPal tracking looks OK. I guess I have to be patient, but it is frustrating not seeing the scale move.

I have my father's 60th birthday celebration this weekend, which calls for lots of food, so my goals for this coming week are:

Work out at the gym on Sunday morning
Do two Zumba classes
Try a new salad
Limit coffee to two a day- this one is going to be tough!

Thanks for stopping by to keep me accountable- I hope everyone else has had a great week.

Anniversary Sparkle

I can't believe that in less than a month I will be celebrating five years of marriage with my wonderful husband. He has been with me through thick and thin and we now have two beautiful boys. I know he isn't a mushy type, but I always make him a card on our anniversary to let him know how much I appreciate him.

This card was inspired by the challenge at Use It Tuesday, where we were asked to use something in our stash to Make It Sparkle!

Here are the items from my hoarded stash.

I have had this red glitter paper for over a year- I originally used it for my 2011 December Daily but had quite a bit left over. It was just begging to be made into hearts! The paper is from a Creative Memories line at least four years old, and the Loads of Love stamp set had been bought but never opened.

I stamped the hearts on the glitter paper with black ink and fussy cut them, then stamped the pickup truck onto Vanilla cardstock and fussy cut it too. I coloured it using SU markers.

I tried to do a red and green combo without looking too Christmassy, and I added the brown and white to make it a bit more masculine.

Here is the finished product!

 

I love the look of the sparkly hearts in the truck, so I may have to experiment with that a bit more.

Spinach-Bacon Mac and Cheese

I have a hard time sneaking vegetables into things, but my three year old son loves mac and cheese so it is easy for me to veg it up a little bit. Plus, he is a total carnivore when it comes to bacon, and spinach and bacon are a yummy combination. It also gave me a good excuse to use my new whisk, I am in love!

 Mac and cheese is such a staple, and everyone has a favourite recipe, but I hope you enjoy mine.

For 4 serves you will need:

1/2 packet spiral pasta
3 tblsp butter
3 tblsp all-purpose flour
2 cups low fat milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup grated Edam cheese (which I left out of the photo!)
6 slices bacon
1 package fresh spinach

1. Prepare the pasta according to packet directions.

2. Cook the bacon in a large skillet. Add the spinach and cook until wilted, 1-2 minutes.

3. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Gradually whisk in the flour until smooth and cook, whisking constanly, for one minute. Gradually whisk in the milk, salt and cayenne pepper and stir until thickened, approximately eight minutes. Remove from heat.

4. Pour in the cheese and stir until melted, then add the spinach, bacon and cooked pasta.

5. Serve and eat. My son declared "oh my goodness, I love this dinner!" so I think we have a winner!

I am linking up to Melt In Your Mouth Monday. Check it out for some great recipe inspiration!

Getting Fit Fridays

My wonderful fellow Blogger over at The Domestic Geek is starting up a Getting Fit Fridays link up, and I thought it would be a great idea for me to blog my health and fitness goals.



I am currently on day 10 of the 30 Day Shred and actually enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. Here is my before picture- not too bad but I definitely need some work in certain areas!

My husband has already noticed more definition in my arms, and I feel more comfortable wearing short sleeves.

My weight loss has stalled since Christmas, with my current weight sitting at 53.6kg (118lbs). I want to get down to 52kg (114lbs), which was my pre-pregnancy weight, and tone up a bit.

My goals for this week are:
Do the 30 Day Shred workout each evening.
Have one meat free day this week.
Drink 8 glasses of water every day.
Log my food intake on MyFitnessPal every day. (If you want to add me, I am chile_chicken)

I hope to reach my goal weight by the end of the month! Then I will be focusing on toning up and eating more fresh foods, since my go to snacks at the moment are dried apricots and homemade biscuits.

Berry Bath Sundae with printable tag

I love creating fun gifts for the females in my life, and so when I came across this picture I knew I wanted to replicate it as a Berry Bath Sundae. ( I tried to find the original source but it had been removed.)

 

 

You will need:

 

 

Wide bowl parfait glass

Parfait spoon

Bath puff

Bath bomb

Bath salts

Printable tag

White cardstock

Red cardstock

Two lengths of red ribbon

Invisible scotch tape

Hole punch

To put together the sundae, layer the bath salts at the bottom, followed by the bath puff, then place the bath bomb on top.

 

Mount the tag onto the red cardstock.

 

 

 Secure the ribbon at the bottom of the glass with the scotch tape then attach the tag using the hole punch and tie at the top.

 

Easy and so cute!

 

 

Here is the printable tag to go with the sundae. To download the tag, simply click the picture, then right click and choose 'Print Picture As" and that should work!

 

 

Our advent calendar

I love the ideas I see on Pinterest about having Advent Calendars, and I have already started to do a December Daily. This year I used the same Advent Calendar Page Print I had done up last year, with a punched Embossed Star from CM to move to each day's number. I hung this up on my Everyday Display.

This time I also made corresponding tags to hang at the bottom of my Everyday Display. The tags were punched using my Tag Maker, and the number artwork was a digital freebie I found from the scrapbook.com website and printed on my computer.

I placed the numbers on the front of the tag, and on the back I wrote a daily activity.

I think my Advent Calendar looks cute, and it was quick and easy to put together!