Homemade Paint

Hello everyone, 

     I don't know about your kids but mine loves to paint!!! She is not one to get her hands messy so traditional finger paint just wont do. Considering how quickly we go through it, the prices for paint at the store are just outrageous. I have searched a long time for a paint that was first safe for my daughter if for some reason she ate it.. Hey, you never know what these crazy kids will do! Secondly, I wanted something that looked good but wasn't clumpy on the paper.

     I have been through many different paint recipes (flour and water, yogurt and food coloring, shaving cream etc...) you name it and we have probably tried it.  After all the trials this is the one I have come to love. 

Homemade paint for kids

*2 Tbsp Cornstarch+1 cup cold water

*1 cup boiling water 

First mix together the cornstarch with the cold water until it all dissolves. Add the cornstarch mix to the 1 cup of boiling water and mix until thickened.

(This is what the mixture will look like)

 That's it! You can then separate the mixture into bowls to add food coloring or let cool and pour into a mason jar for later use. I find that a mini muffin tin is the best to put the paint in for the kids to use.

***It saves well so you can make a large batch, pour it in a mason jar and then just dye different colors when ever your little on wants to get creative. You will need to shake it up really good before using after it has sat for awhile, it will gel a little bit. 

Paint your hearts out! <3 I hope your kids love it as much as Kadence does! 

Easy Chili

     We all have those days before the next trip to the grocery store where you open up your pantry and think, "ughh I have nothing to make for dinner!" Yep, that was this girl last night so I decided to search and found several ingredients for a perfect homemade chili. I had actually gotten the ingredients to make a specific chili recipe this week but realized I had gotten the wrong things so tonight I will be making my own chili recipe! I must admit, as much as I love cooking, I am a very by the book follow the recipe to a tee kinda girl. This impromptu make your own meal idea made me a little nervous I must admit, especially since I didn't have tomato paste or the regular stuff that goes in chili ( I had to get creative).When all was said and done it was a great quick week night meal and I even got the thumbs up from the husband. 

Easy Chili

Ingredients:
     *1Lb of Ground beef
     *1 yellow onion
     *14.5oz Diced tomatoes with green chilies 
     *15.5oz Chili Beans
     *1/3 cup Spaghetti sauce 
     *1/2tsp Minced garlic
     *1tbsp Brown sugar
     *2tbsp Ketchup
     *1/2tsp Ground cumin 
     * Salt and pepper to taste (It really made all the difference) 

     Brown the ground beef and onion together in pan until all the way cooked. 

Drain fat. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer till heated all the way through.

 That's it! Really simple quick and easy dinner. Will defiantly be making again. Garnish with cheeses, sour cream, Frito's, anything you like the possibilities are endless. 

Sunday Fun day!

Happy Sunday,
                        I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend. Today I am feeling a little under the weather; I cant seem to beat this head cold but I wont let it get me down. I love making the weekends feel important. As a stay at home mom with my husband going to school full time and working even on the weekends it is very easy to get in to a rut, sometimes my days just all run together. After being in a rut for quite sometime (like since I moved to Cali) I realized that I needed to have a day to make important. Sundays are that day for me. Growing up it was always the day that my whole family would get together, go to church, go out to eat lunch, and then spend the rest of the day relaxing at the beach or home. I loved this and would love to do the same for my family. 

     One of the things I miss the most about living in NC is that special Sunday every week. I know if I was there I would be going to Church with my mom and Kadence would get to spend the rest of the day spending time with her Grandma(my mom) and playing with her cousins. I must say, I am quite jealous of my sister when it comes to how close her kids are to my mom. They see her at least once a week if not more and I wish Kadence was able to do the same. I truly miss the Southern way of life. I feel like most people out here just keep to themselves. Anyways I kind of got off on a tangent, lol! To make our Sundays important now I like to wake up and cook my husband and daughter a big homemade from scratch breakfast; Chad normally has to be to work by noon, but just because it just me and the baby the rest of the day doesn't mean I don't want to still make it special for her. Today we are going to go to the local lake to feed the ducks, play at the park and have a picnic lunch. I truly believe it is the little things in life, and quality time with the ones you love is one of the things that just makes my heart happy. Does your family have a "Family day?" If so, what are some of the things your family loves doing together?                    

 Enjoy the rest of your weekend :)

Laundry galore! Will it ever end.

So today as I am up to my eye balls in laundry I figured what better way to get me more motivated to do it then to post about it and give some of my laundry tips! I am not the best at keeping up with my laundry. I don't like doing it, never have, and probably never will, sigh! Maybe implementing naked Saturdays would help haha jk. Enough of my poor me I hate laundry, on with the tips! :)

*** To start I make my own laundry detergent, Wow what a money saver! I spend around $20 on the ingredients and it last me about 8-9 months give or take. I find that it cleans our clothes just as well as anything else it just doesn't have that laundry sent. Our clothes are clean and smell fresh but don't smell like lilac or mountain fresh or whatever other concoctions they have out there, but hey they are clean and that's good enough for me (I do add softener for sent).  Here is the recipe if you are interest in trying it. Its been great but I think when I run out I will experiment with my own recipe ( I no longer want to use the Oxy clean, im finding its not so great for whites).

http://beingcreativetokeepmysanity.blogspot.com/2010/11/homemade-laundry-soap.html

When I come up with my own recipe I will do an updated laundry post :)

**My husband is currently working at a job where he has to wear white shirts everyday. After about a month of him working there and washing his shirts with just bleach I found they were getting dingy looking. This is the recipe I use for our whites! It still doesn't work as well as I would like but it has improved the whiteness greatly :)

http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2012/04/miracle-laundry-whitening-solution.html

Ooey Gooey Cinnamon rolls!

Good morning and a good day to you all! 

     In June I took a wonderful trip back home to NC to visit my friends and family that I hadn't seen since moving to Cali. It was a great trip and did wonders for my soul :) On the drive to the airport I was bragging to my husband about how when I got to Charlotte airport for a connecting flight that I was so excited to get a Cinnabon cinnamon roll. As I arrived in Charlotte with a screaming 2 year old in tote, and a flight to catch in less then 30min I knew my hopes of that cinnamon roll melted away. On the way home was no different no cinnamon roll for me :( BOO! Now that I have been back in Cali for a little over a month both the husband and I went on a search for the perfect cinnamon roll recipe. It had become a craving!!! I am please and happy to share with you a recipe I found that taste exact and is so yummy melt in your mouth delicious. Really this is a must make! 


Here is the link to the page I got the recipe!    http://trap.it/rQnZTc  

Ingredients:

Dough
• 1 (1/4 ounce) package dry yeast
• 1 cup warm milk
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup margarine (I used butter)
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 4 cups flour
Filling
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/3 cup margarine, softened
• 1 tbsp of flour
Cream cheese icing
• 6 tbsp margarine (I used butter)
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup cream cheese
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1/8 tsp salt

Instructions:

1. For the rolls, dissolve the yeast in the warm milk in a large bowl.
2. Add sugar, butter, salt, eggs, and flour to the bowl of a mixer and mix well.
3. Pour the milk/yeast mixture in the bowl and using the dough hook, mix well until well incorporated.
4. Place dough into an oiled bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place about 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
5. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface, until it is approx 16 inches long by 12 inches wide.
6. It should be approx 1/4 thick.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
8. To make filling, combine the butter, brown sugar, margarine and cinnamon in a bowl.
9. Spread the mixture evenly over the surface of the dough.
10. Working carefully, from the long edge, roll the dough down to the bottom edge.
11. Cut the dough into 1 3/4 inch slices, and place in a lightly greased baking pan.
12. Bake for 20 minutes or until light golden brown. Cooking time can vary greatly!
13. While the rolls are baking make the icing but mixing all ingredients and beat well with an electric mixer until fluffy.
14. When the rolls are done, spread generously with icing.

And this is how my first attempt at homemade cinnamon rolls came out! Absolutely perfect and so easy to do. I hope your family enjoys as much as mine. Until next time, have a wonderful time making memories with the ones you love, because in the end they are all that really matter. <3

Weclome!

Hello and welcome!!

A little about me, I am Kelly

*I am the wife to a wonderful man named Chad, whom is my best friend and I would give anything to make that man happy.

*I am the proud mother to a very cute, rambunctious, wildly crazy, sweet and loving 2 year old little girl name Kadence Paige <3

*I am originally from NC where I had lived for 21 years but now call Southern California home. I moved here after my husband got out of the USMC. I will always be a Carolina girl though ;)

* I am not so good with grammar so please excuse any mistakes I make. I want to this to be something fun and not something everyone is going to judge and comment about how I didn't write something right. If that is you, please go ahead and skip my page now! No negativity please and thank you.

*I have created this blog as a place to create, share,and write about all things related to the life of a stay at home mom. Join me if you will on the crazy journey I call my life. I hope you enjoy reading this blog as much as I will enjoy creating it for you and making the memories with my friends and family.