Muffin Tin Meals

I have been doing muffin tin meals, but haven't been blogging lately.  Today's theme is trees, leaves, & harvest.  I love to decorate for fall, but can you believe I do not have even one leaf cookie cutter?  I did have a tiny apple cookie cutter & some tree top food picks I got in my winning package from Muffin Tin Mom. 
The kids chose the bear muffin tin silicone liners.  I served them a strawberry kiwi mini muffin, applesauce, apple shaped peanut butter & raspberry jam sandwiches, and vanilla yogurt.   My daughter ate up every bite, but my son left his muffin stump behind.  LOL

 Here is a picture of all of the items we received from Muffin Tin Mom.   The kids were very excited to receive all of these goodies.   Until now, we only had standard & mini muffin tins and one pumpkin tin they would fight over take turns using.  

 Here is a picture of the lunch they had on the day we received the package.  They both had to have a flower, bear, & silly feet silicone holder filled.  They had steamed carrots, sauteed smoked sausage & ketchup.

Until last week, I had never heard of grilled pb&j sandwiches before.  My friend Jac was talking about how her daughter requested them, so we had to try it.  This was our Halloween muffin tin meal from last week's theme.  They had cottage cheese, grilled pb&j (raspberry jam), animal crackers, shark crackers (Aldi's version of goldfish - much tastier!!), and Laurana had an apple, too.  Liam did not want one for some reason.  He normally begs to eat fruit 2-3 times per day.   This meal was not very festive, except that we had the cute pumpkin tin.

Muffin Tin Mom Wilton Giveaway!!!

Go here for a "Super Cute" giveaway from Muffin Tin Mom.   She is sending out a really nice prize to one lucky person - all Wilton products - Noah's Ark cookie cutters, muffin tin liners, silicone muffin tin liners, soft grip flower cookie cutter, dog-themed set of cookie cutters.  I may be forgetting an item or two.  

If you win, you will be able to have some fun muffin tin meals for your little ones or just some more fun things for baking cupcakes & cookies.

You're a Hoot

I made my first card for stampTV today.  This was a color challenge to use brown, kraft, yellow, & red.  I used a Close to My Heart stamp called You're a Hoot for this cute little card.  I raised up my owl to give a little dimension, tied a bow in kraft colored hemp, & distressed the yellow & brown papers.  I hope you like it.

Home Chipboard Album

Sorry, I was feeling lazy after making my cute album & took the pic on my lap.  This was so much fun to make!  Each page has a different shape of chipboard - rectangle, rectangle w/ heart cut out, star, heart, house.  My mom was oohing & ahhing at this one for awhile.  The colors are right up my alley - browns & greens appeal to me.  Love the accent of yellow with it all, too.

Fall is in the air...

I have been more ready for fall this year than usual.  I am looking forward to getting my decorations out, going to the pumpkin patch, grabbing a jacket on my way out the door, making cookies, making up some fun crafts with the kids for fall, going taking the kids trick-or-treating, fall festivals, hay rides, roasting marshmallows, making caramel apples.  I am looking forward to those leaves changing & snuggling up w/ a cup of cocoa or cider. Oh, it all sounds like so much fun to me!   Here is a card I wanted to share that I made real quick after putting the kids to bed.  I used a peach color card base, a green patterned paper w/ an orange stripe over that & a little ribbon.  The pumpkin was made w/ three ovals & inked on the edges.  I raised up the center layer, then cut the stem free-hand & stamped the words in the bottom corner.   I hope you like it!

Big Giveaway at Dollar Store Crafts

Go to Dollar Store Crafts for a chance to win a Silhouette SD machine!!  While you are there, you can check out many great craft ideas that you can do on a Dollar Tree budget!!  I just love her website! 

Sharing Bed

My kids share a room just for sleeping so we have room for homeschooling.  It frees up a lot of space to just remove a little toddler bed.  LOL  For some reason, the other night, Liam was so scared that he wanted to climb into bed with Laurana.  They were giggling at first, so I figured they'd never fall asleep.  Once they did, I had to sneak in & take a picture.  I love that I can do this in the dark w/ my camera!   They really do love each other, don't they?

Dickey Farms - Peach Farm in GA

Seems my husband was hiding from the camera.  Pictures include my kids, my sister-in-law Martha, & myself.  The peach farm was great!  You could sit on the porch in the rocker while eating your yummy fresh peach ice cream & watch them in the peach packing process.  They sell peaches, peach salsa, peach BBQ, peach bread, and more. We brought home a large box (bushel?) & small box (a peck).  We ate a few peaches & froze about 60 of them.  Took hubby & I awhile to slice them all!   It was wonderful to visit our sister-in-law for the weekend!

Fun Lunch

I have a girl that loves pink & a boy that loves yellow, so these trays are perfect for an almost muffin tin style meal for them.  They begged to use them when they saw them come out of our picnic basket!  In this meal, they had a bunny or tulip ham & cheese sandwich, cottage cheese, green beans, leftover potato & banana slices.

Muffin Tin Monday

I'm getting better!  I actually made Muffin Tin Monday on Monday & blogged about it the same day!  It's late in the day, but I did it!  Today, I made Mickey Mouse PB on rye sandwiches w/ goldfish crackers, applesauce, pretzels, & diced apricots for the kids.  They were really excited, but Laurana informed me she didn't like rye bread, so she licked the PB out of it!  Go here for more great ideas from Muffin Tin Mom.  You can also "Like" her on Facebook! 

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh MY!

Muffin Tin Monday for lunch today.  I decided to build a theme around animal crackers.  Having lunch a little later than usual & have to have dinner a little earlier than usual since kids are going to VBS tonight.  
Head on over to Muffin Tin Mom for more great ideas from others that post their meals on there every week.
The kids ate an animal open faced sandwich (no way to make the top line up), peach applesauce, diced ham, & animal crackers.  You can see my little guy doesn't want to wait for a picture. 

Tutus by Shay.....Place Your Order Today

Shay's Tutus are for sale!   I can do one color or two.  If you want rainbow, I will need to charge a little extra.  They are made with an elastic waist & tulle.  Perfect for girls for ballet (of course), playing dress-up, pictures, or to wear just for fun.  Mom's can wear them to match their little girls, too.  $15 for a child's & $20 for adult.  Just let me know if you are interested.  If you are local, I can meet you, if you aren't local, I will need to charge you shipping, as well. 

Muffin Tin Meal & I'm back!!

Stop by here for great Muffin Tin Monday meal ideas.  She usually has themes, but is taking the summer off from themes.  Today, the kids had blueberries, apple sauce, chicken mozzarella pizza mini submarine sandwiches, and a couple fried potatoes leftover from yesterday.    In other news, notice I took a pic & uploaded the same day?  I found the cord to my camera - wrapped around the cord to the laptop.  Good thing I took the laptop w/ me so I could discover this!!  I'm back baby!!

I'm a mess

I lost my camera cord & battery to my camera.  I found the battery, but still can't find the cord.  When I find the cord, I will be able to share more pics.  I may just have to get a CD made of the photos on the memory card, so I can share more now.  I know it is around here somewhere!  I have 2 even!  I don't care for being in a tiny house w/ only 3 closets.  Sometimes, everything doesn't have a place, so it is hard to keep every little thing organized.  I don't have a camera bag, since the camera is almost as small as my cell phone.    I have to get an over-the-door shoe organizer for cords.  I will label each pocket w/ what the cord or charger goes to. 

What are your favorite inexpensive organizing ideas to use in small places?

Felted Wool Purse

I made this purse from a wool sweater I bought from the thrift store.  I just felted it in the washer & dryer.  Figured out a size & cut away.  It is hand sewn, since my machine is acting up.  The flower was made w/ scraps & the handles are braided strips from the sleeves.  I lined it with an old t-shirt & made pockets from more scraps from the sweater.  I have since made a few more & plan to keep on making them.  I haven't liked any as well as my first.  I made one for a gift for my friend Jaci from a cardigan sweater.  Photos of more purses to come.

Celtic Woman Giveaway

Celtic Woman CD Giveaway at The Mommy Files.  I have seen them on PBS & they are beautiful singers, violinists, & dancers.

ABC Muffin Tin Monday

It is ABC 123 them this week for Muffin Tin Monday over at  Muffin Tin Mom

I was inspired by this blog.  She did a food for almost every letter.  I had limited food, since I shop for groceries in 2 days, but decided to give it a go.  I was impressed w/ how well I could do on the fly.  Lunch took longer to prepare than normal, even w/o cooking anything for it.  The kids got to eat at the kiddie table & enjoy it.  I had my daughter bring a chair & the table & my son got the other chair - took them to the kitchen.  They can be good helpers like that!  I fixed all the foods & had them share out of the tin.  The only foods I had to get more of for them was a few sliced pears, some more yogurt & Jello.  I was pleased w/ how well they did sharing food out of the same dishes.   Meanwhile, this mama had yogurt w/ fruit, cottage cheese w/ tomato & carrots for my lunch.
A- apple
B- banana
C- carrots
D- dill dip
E - egg
F - fish (goldfish crackers)
G - more Goldfish crackers
H - I had nothing.  Wished we had some hot dogs
I - Italian bread - homemade by me
J - Jello
K - ketchup
L - Lemonade (not pictured)
M- marshmallows
N - Nilla wafers (not pictured - couldn't think of anything I had until they were already eating)
O - oranges
P- pears
Q -Not sure any food starts w/ a q other than quail
R- Ranch
S- sandwich - peanut butter
T- tomato
U - nothing
V - should have put vanilla yogurt in that spot, too! 
W- walnuts
X - nothing
Y- yogurt
Z- nothing

Etsy store is open for business!!

I decided to open a Felt Food store on etsy after much encouragement from my friends.  I am hoping to get some more sales soon.  I am already working on an order for Tessa that I started before the store was born.  I will be adding new items to my store on a regular basis.  If you want to order something & don't see what you're looking for, let me know.   Future projects for the  store include Goldfish Crackers, cupcakes, strawberries, sandwiches (reworking the bread I already made to be even better), bananas, corn on the cob, cookies (sugar), Pop Tarts, pie, cake, pizza, tacos, & much more. 

Carrots & Doughnuts & grilled foods. Oh my!

So, here are some pictures of my newest felt food creations.  Sorry for the shadow.  We live in the woods & it was a cloudy day. 

Doughnut

 

Carrot

 

T-Bone  w/ grill marks

 Burger w/ grill marks on bun

 

Popsicle

 

Hot Dog on bun

Hot dog w/ back of bun

Fettuccine w/ sauce

I Felt Like Making Food...

I have a passion to make felt food for my family.  I hate the plastic foods you can buy in the store.  They are usually too small & the kids try to mouth them.  With felt food, they will only attempt that once or twice & realize they don't want felt in their mouth.  Actually, my 4 yr. old didn't mouth the foods at all.  No more finding teeth marks in a chicken leg that my son was playing with.  I'm considering opening an etsy store.  I feel I need to practice my sewing a bit more, first.  I am definitely not perfect at it!   Here are some of the items I have made.  Please let me know what you think. 

Quesadilla

 PB&JHam & cheese sandwichPizzaPancakes w/ butter, syrup & baconFarfalle w/ sauceEgg & Bacon

Happy New Year

I hope you are having a happy new year.  I am planning to accomplish many things this year.

I ended 2009 having lost 30 lbs. since Oct. 5.  I even lost during the week of Christmas!!   

So, for 2010, I am going to lose another 50 lbs., which will almost be at my goal.  I want to lose 1-2 lbs. per week to go at a healthy pace.  Don't get me wrong, I'd love it to come off faster, but I know it didn't come on over night, so I shouldn't expect it to come off that fast, either.

I am going to exercise regularly - Walk Away the Pounds.

Eating healthy - which goes w/ my diet.

I also am going to get more organized w/ my household & my life.

I am going to get more customers for my businesses - Homemade Gourmet, Amway, & Close to My Heart. 

I am going to procrastinate less.

I am going to begin teaching my daughter kindergarten in the fall, so we need to get some curriculum soon.  It will be here before we know it!

I am going to scrapbook, stamp, & sew more this year than last.

I will blog more, too! 

I know most of these are what everyone else does & I know saying, "I will do it more" is vague, but at least I'm more likely to stick with my resolutions.