Pretzels & Crafts

Welcome to March!  Today it briefly snowed and hailed and it has been cold and windy all day.  So much for spring!

But we have been making the best of it all.  Zak has been doing well in school; midterms are next week and spring break is the following week.  I have been doing my best to keep busy and have been pretty successful this week.  I created a new weights routine and have done it the past few days.  It takes about an hour to do it all, but I put on a few episodes on Netflix and it flies by.  I find myself even enjoying it!  I don't even mind waking up sore!

On Monday night, we both had the hankerin' for soft pretzels.  But it was about 8 at night and we weren't feeling up to going outside, so I looked for a good recipe online to make our own.  It actually was a pretty fun experiment, and we will probably make them again.  I got the dough ready, and Zak formed them into their pretzel shape.  It was pretty cute to watch him, he had some good moves!  Together it went really smoothly and we devoured the pretzels once they came out of the oven.  They were so yummy and we have been brainstorming ways to make different varieties of pretzels.  Here is the recipe entry on it: http://rachelrecipelover.blogspot.com/2012/02/homemade-soft-pretzels.html

look at the beautiful pretzels Zak formed!

you knew this picture was coming, right?

delicious, perfect pretzels

My latest accomplishment has been planning our entire month's meals.  With our new car payments factored into our budget, I decided I needed to take some time to really budget our finances.  I don't mind, it's actually kind of fun for me, which is weird.  Once I picked about a dozen recipes I wanted to try or make again, I wrote down all the ingredients needed for the recipes and figured out what I'd need to buy and what we already have.  Today I went and bought all the ingredients we need for the month and came in under budget!  The second half of my accomplishment was to make a 'meal calendar'.  I've been doing some art stuff with paint chip samples I've scored from Wal-mart (once they're all done, pictures and a blog entry will go up), and had some leftover.  I've seen some cute ideas online and just went for it today.  I am actually really pleased with the result, but I need to invest in a good, fine-tipped dry erase marker.

my calendar!

with flash

yes, two calendars but: 1 is for work & school

That's all of the news for this week!

Recipe Book

I've been looking for a project to do lately, and settled on working on updating my big family recipe book.  I think about a decade ago, all the ladies in my family got together and compiled recipes.  I typed up my grandma's submissions and we all assembled the binders (big 2 or 3" binders!), and personalized them with scrapbook paper, stickers, etc.  We've since added a few new recipes to the binder, but I haven't really done anything to my binder since I was living at home.  I had a bunch of recipes saved on my computer from my mom, as well as new ones Zak & I have come to love.  So I decided to add those to the binder.

I don't know how I got the idea to do it, but I decided to make an index for all of the recipes.  That proved to be a much bigger task that I originally thought.  But I got it done, along with a table of contents!  Then I decided that I needed a new binder - mine had gotten a bit beat up, from moving a lot in college.  One of the rings wouldn't completely close, the spine of the binder was messed up, and I just wanted something new and nice-looking for my newly updated recipes.  I also decided to make a new cover for my binder, since I was like, 11 or something when we made the covers originally.  So after I spent nearly an hour at Michael's picking out a few sheets of paper and stickers (the top reason why I'm not the best scrap-booker: I take forever to pick things out, it all has to match!), I came home last night and assembled it while Zak was at his lab.  I couldn't bring myself to throw away the old cover, so I scanned it into my computer, along with my new one to show you how cute it looks!  I'm so proud and I just love it!

before

after!

Update.

Sorry for the lack of updates, we have been pretty busy, and will only get busier these next two weeks before Christmas. Things of notable interest include:

-I was sick from last Sunday through Thursday. I went home early from work on Tuesday and called out on Thursday. I had a really bad head cold, sore throat, congestion, dizziness, etc. It was not fantastic, especially regarding work relations. I went through an entire box of Kleenex, several tea bags, and almost two bags of cough drops. Needless to say, I am thoroughly happy to be relieved of it, and am doing everything to not get sick again.

-We have wrapped presents under the tree, which is exciting. We have almost everything ready to send out to our families, and hope to do that within the week.

-Our work schedules are getting crazier. For instance, I work six days in a row this week, with shifts ranging from 8 to 10 hours. I'm not excited, but will be pleased to receive a much heftier check on Christmas Eve. Zak is hoping to work a bit more than usual, so we will have some extra cash, which is always great.

-Christmas decorations are just about done. Zak might do some more drawings, but I got creative and ambitious today while walking around Michael's. I would like to be more creative or artistic, but it takes me a bit longer sometimes. But I ended up with some really cute decorations that I am proud of! I got some glass cranberries on a stick, 'Christmas moss' (green moss with an obscene amount of glitter), gold ribbon, and three square glass vases. Here is the result:

without flash
with
arranged on our book shelf, cute, huh?

I probably won't post again until after Christmas, so from both of us, we hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Jenna's Visit

My little sister came to visit us last week.  It was so much fun having her around!  She just turned 16 and is the only one at the house, so I know she enjoyed being around me & Zak.  She got into Spokane a little behind schedule, but that didn't deter us one bit. We stayed up playing games and watching Arrested Development. For the most part, we spent the day together (I switched shifts w/people at work in order to spend time with her, Zak worked a few days), watching AD or doing some project or eating.  Or a combination of all three.  My favorite project was something I had gotten months before from work and was dying to share them with her: piggy banks to decorate (we are 'piggy sissas', which started with our shared love of the Beatles' song 'Piggies' and then evolved from there)!  The piggies turned out very cute, as you can see.

 one side of mine

Jenna showing off her pig's glittery bum

oink oink

piggy sissas

One day we decided to have an impromptu picnic in the park.  I made delicious sub sandwiches and had grapes, chips and cookies in the park.  My favorite part culminated with Zak rolling up Jenna in our picnic blanket.

about to enjoy the food

a pretty good story through pictures

Jenna and I also made some necklaces with some fun charms I had found on etsy.  We also spent some time at Michael's picking out a few extras.  It was a fun activity, and they turned out pretty well.

                            one of the necklaces I did                                           Jenna's

we also did children's clearanced mosaics

and Jenna colored these wooden animals that represent her in our family

We also went shopping at the mall when Zak was there working one night.  We hit up Old Navy and of course, Macy's and ended up with some great buys.

We also ate a lot of delicious food.  We had chicken skewers one night, yummy homemade burgers the other night, pasta with spaghetti and cream sauce, coconut curry chicken, blueberry coffee cake, among others.  I love cooking and enjoyed having another person around to feed (less leftovers, haha).

burger night, yum!

color foods  (char sui, blue rice, zucchini & green beans)

Zak and Jenna enjoyed fighting/antagonizing/playing together.  It was definitely nice to have a break from all of that.  They are so funny together and just make me laugh.  Zak also gave Jenna a sweet (his word) tattoo on her arm the night before we took her to the airport.  All three of us used some temporary tattoos Jenna had (dinosaurs and butterflies), which were awesome.  It was nice to just be goofy and carefree, which is how I feel when I'm with Jenna.

 left-handed wrasslin'

comparing our hamster to a chicken nugget

Jenna's

mine - I like to pretend they're yelling at each other

Zak's are fighting vertically

giving her a tattoo

yes, he spelled it wrong (he didn't think to ask me)

It was a very fun week and it was sad to see her go, but we loved having the time we did have with her.  She is a very smart, adorable and fun young lady and it's crazy to me that she is already 16 and a junior in high school.  I'm not fond of that, but if anyone can handle the drama of high school, it's my sister.  Mom and Dad, thank you for giving up your baby for a week (& trusting her with us, ahaha) and Jenna, thanks for coming to visit.  It was so nice to have you here, you are such a person and I love being your older sister and perhaps smothering you sometimes. :)

 she is putting ketchup from a packet on her fries. this is why we are sisters.

(It's times like these that I really miss my family and being home in CA.  Boo.) 

More crafts

A few weeks ago I cleaned up and organized some of the cabinets in the kitchen.  For the last several months, we have had our huge quantity of tea bags in ziplock bags that were getting on my nerves.  I decided to take them out, organize them and move them from the pantry to the kitchen in the hopes that we would use them more often, since we have only a gazillion of them.  I found some inexpensive boxes at Michael's that I figured would work for them.  As I wandered the aisles, hoping to get some creative revelation, I came upon some mod podge decoupage.  After I made my purchases, I came home and starting going through a bunch of old magazines that I had saved for some reason.

Two weeks later and I finally got around to completing my artistic vision.  And they, more or less, turned out the way I had hoped.  I did cut out a bunch of letters in case I decided to write the different types of tea on the boxes, but that idea didn't pan out.  I might write on them with sharpie or make some kind of removable sign, but for now they will work.  I'm pretty happy with them and hope you enjoy!

box #1

inside view

one side

other side

fruit, mint, green & oolong (I'm not sure why we have it, but eh) teas live here!

box #2

 inside

one side

other side

chai & breakfast teas

box #3

 inside

one side

other side

packets we use for iced tea & bergmot as well (they came in a sampler I got for Zak, we're not sure if we'll keep them or not)

all three in their cabinet

Which one's your favorite? I love the top of the second one & the inside of the first one, especially :)