Nanny's Candy Jar

I made this little candy jar for my husband's grandmother. Everyone calls her "Nanny."  =) I hope she likes it!

My Homemade Kindle Case

This is the awesome Kindle cover my good friend Shannon's mom helped me make! She's a seamstress. ::moves eyebrows up and down:: I love it with all my heart. I'm so excited because she's going to give me SEWING LESSONS! The poor thing doesn't know what she's gotten herself into.

Now, we sorta just made this up as we went along, but you can find a tutorial for a similar one here: http://www.squidoo.com/kindlepouch

Easy Peasy (Lemon Squeezy).

Bill Binders

I hate bills. I really do. With every fiber of my being.

This is how I keep mine organized, which is key for me, if I ever expect to get them paid.

I have two binders. One for unpaid bills and one for paid bills. Notice there's a cat with a sad face on my binder for unpaid bills and a cat with a happy face on my binder for paid bills.

 ("His wee litt-uhl boots.")

Each binder has a set of subject dividers, one for each company we owe money to. *sigh* The same set are in each binder, in the order in which they need to be paid (earliest due date to latest due date).

When I receive a bill in the mail, I triple-hole-punch it and file it in the "Unpaid Bills" binder.

When it's time to pay a bill, I remove it from the "Unpaid Bills" and staple one of the following forms to it, which I made myself (=P), cuz sometimes I don't get a receipt (I pay all of my bills either by phone or online). OR, if I pay online, there might BE a receipt that I can print out, but it might be lacking what I consider to be (air quotes) PERTINENT information. If there is a receipt, I attach it to the bill as well. Then I file it in the "Paid Bills" binder.

Easy peasy (lemon squeezy).

How I Keep My Savings and Gift Cards Together

If you're like me, you have a savings card from every store on the planet. And if you're like me, you have enough STUFF crammed into your wallet as it is (too bad none of that stuff is money). So I decided to take all the savings cards out of all the nooks and crannies of my wallet, punch a hole in each of them, and put them on what I call a binder ring, IN alphabetical order, of course (you can get a set of binder rings at Walmart or any office/school supply store).

I tried a single-hole-puncher but it just wasn't strong enough. Or maybe I wasn't strong enough, cuz I have the upper body strength of a newborn baby. Or maybe it was a combination of both. So I used one of the hole-punchers from a triple-hole-puncher and it worked much better. Be sure, when you do this, that the hole you create doesn't interfere with the scanning bar on the back of the card or any numbers you might need (the gift card number, pin number, etc.).

The same concept works for gift cards. I put a tiny label on each of mine so I could write their balances on them. Be sure to do it in pencil so you can erase and re-write the balances as you use them or add money to them.

Mmmmmm. Red Lobster.....

Easy Peasy (Lemon Squeezy).

Animal Silhouette Greeting Cards, Take 1

I made these cards the other day. The idea just kinda popped into my head. The kitty one is the only one that's finished. I'll probably put the word "HI" in the corners of the other two as well, as "HI" is pretty easy to cut out.

All I did was do an image search for animal silhouettes (i.e. "cat silhouette," "parrot silhouette," and "dog silhouette") and picked out some that I liked and that looked like they would be easy to cut out. I copied and pasted them onto Microsoft Word so I could resize them if needed. Then, I printed them onto brightly colored cardstock/scrapbooking paper (I trimmed the paper so that it would fit in my printer). I cut the silhouettes out, flipped them over to the side that wasn't printed on, and glued them to some cards I made out of, you guessed it, brightly colored cardstock/scrapbooking paper.

I did the same thing with the word "HI," which is not only pretty simple to cut out, but when you flip it over, it STILL reads "HI," because the letters are symmetrical. I typed "HI" onto Microsft Word in big, bold letters, printed them on cardstock, cut them out, flipped them over to the non-printed side, and pasted them onto the cards. Now I'm just going to have to figure out how to make envelopes for them.

Easy Peasy (Lemon Squeezy).

Chicken Floretine Pasta

My Greek grandma made that doily, God rest her beautiful soul!

Anyway...

I found the recipe for this chicken florentine pasta in a little recipe book of casseroles that I bought at Wal-Mart. It turned out to be pretty good, despite my lack of cooking skills. I'm sure it would have been a lot better if I used homemade sauce. Here's the recipe, which I've tweaked a bit and added comments to, which is why it's so long.

CHICKEN FLORENTINE PASTA DISH

TIME: 15 minutes to prepare, 40 minutes to cook, 55 minutes total
# OF SERVINGS: A lot. Makes enough to fill a 13 x 9 inch dish.

INGREDIENTS

* One jar store-bought alfredo sauce
You can make your own if you want to. I haven't tried to make it homemade YET, but I hear it's pretty easy. If you ARE gonna use store-bought alfredo sauce, I would NOT recommend Ragu. It's not very appetizing. That's what I used and I really had to doctor it up. I searched store-bought alfredo sauces online and learned that a lot of people like the brand "Classico," so that's what I'm gonna try next.
*1/2 cup to 1 cup parmesan cheese
This is what I added to the alfredo sauce to make it taste better. It wasn't in the original recipe, but extra cheese never hurts!
*1 cup water
*3 cups frozen cut leaf spinach, thawed and well-drained
*1 can (about 14 oz) diced tomatoes
*1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cubed
*shredded mozzerella cheese (to put on top!)
*salt and pepper to taste, and any other spices you find tasty

DIRECTIONS

1.) Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
2.) Stir alfredo sauce, parmesan cheese, water, spinach, tomatoes, and chicken in a large baking dish (I used a glass 13 x 9 inch pan, then transferred it to a smaller casserole dish for easier storage). Don't be alarmed if this mixture looks... really gross, for a lack of better terms. When I saw it, I thought "oh wow, this isn't gonna be good..." But just hang in there.
3.) Cover  mixture with tin foil and bake for 20 minutes.
4.) Cook the pasta according to it's packages instructions and drain well.
5.) After your mixture has cooked for it's 20 minutes, uncover it and add the pasta to it. Stir, stir, stir.
6.) Now bake everything UNCOVERED for another 20 minutes.
7.) Take out of the oven and sprinkle with shredded mozzerella cheese.


Easy Peasy (Lemon Squeezy).

Oh em gee, I have a blog.

So everyone says that "life isn't easy."

But what if life WAS easy?

What if every.

Single.

Thing we did.

Was easy?

You have to admit, it'd be pretty awesome.

I decided to start this blog so I could share all the easy things I do with my friends and family - and complain about the things that aren't so easy. And YOU GUYS have to share the easy things that YOU do with ME. It's only fair.