Stromboli Recipe

One of our family's favorite meals is Stromboli.  It is easy and quick and you can add any pizza toppings to make it your own.  I hope you enjoy this simple recipe as much as we do!

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Cowboy Hat & Cowboy Boots

Back in the spring my friend Lauren was pregnant with her first child.  I asked her to look through my patterns and pick out some things for me to make for her soon to be little man, Walker.  She knew she was going to have professional pictures taken so she picked out a Cowboy hat.  Well, I couldn't let any cowboy have just a hat.  He needed some cute boots to match.

Lauren had her little boy in late June and has already had the professional pictures taken.  I was so happy when she shared the link and download with me.  Now I get to share them with you!

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My Roadside Find #2

Two weeks ago, I found two wingback chairs on the curb in my neighborhood.  In case you missed those, you can see them here.

Well, last Sunday, I got blessed with another great roadside find.  My husband laughingly said, "We aren't picking that up too, are we?"

After closer inspection, I said, "Why not?"

My husband immediately turned around and headed back the church where we had left his SUV.  It was nice to have my husband's help this time.

Are you ready to see my big score?

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My Roadside Find

I'm sorry I haven't posted lately.  The summer has been overwhelming to me with still settling into the house, organizing, t-ball, church activities, meetings and on and on.  I am still trying to figure out that delicate balance and unfortunately, crafting and blogging have hit the back burner.  That might all change when you see what I found the other day. . .

I am not a garbage picker.  I just find that yucky.  I wish I was a garage sale person, but inevitably I always have all three kids with me when I see a good garage sale.  I find that it just isn't worth getting three young kids out of the car to potentially find a good bargain.

The other day while on our way to church for a splash day with the kids, I saw what I knew would be my first garage pick.  On the road out of our neighborhood, someone had put two wingback chairs on the curbside.  Oh, my heart started to beat faster.  I love wingback chairs and our budget doesn't have new furniture in it at all.  I knew I could work my crafting magic on this duo.

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Easy Pillow Covers Tutorial

I'm very busy this summer making our rental house a home.  In addition to that I have been sick with sinus infections and such for over a month.  That has left me with little energy to blog.  I apologize!

The other day I had enough energy to do some sewing while the kids played.  Can I say how nice it is to have the sewing machine back out!  I love how quickly you can accomplish a project when working at the sewing machine.  A friend of my commented on Facebook about all that I was able to sew.  She said, "Most people can live on bread and water, but not Jill, she needs her sewing machine as well!"  I'm sure I am not the only one like that!

Today, I want to share with you my favorite way to make pillows.  If any of you have kids or pets and your pillows get dirty, it is nice to be able to take off the fabric and wash it without having to wash the entire pillow.  Another nice feature is you can change out your decor easily and not have to stuff another pillow and hand-sew the seam.

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Photo Board Tutorial

As we tried to settle into our new house, I noticed that I had many walls that needed to be filled.  I always like to display pictures.  Not every picture can go in a frame though.  That is why I like to make photo boards that match my decor.

Prior to our move, my husband's Uncle gave us a large black entertainment center to go in our family room.  Since our family room and kitchen share space, I had to be selective with my decor items.  I had a photo board that was in cobalt blue to match my kitchen and dining room.  This doesn't match black, so I had to find a pretty fabric that would be a nice fit for our family room.  I went to my go to store, Hobby Lobby, and found the perfect print.  I also picked up some burgundy/red ribbon for holding the pictures.

Enough talking about the photo board, let me show you how to make one for yourself.  Don't be scared by this project.  It is very easy to make and you get to use a power tool (sort of).

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Our Big Move & Getting Settled In

It has been 20 days since we made our  major 9-hour move from Atlanta, Georgia to Dayton, Ohio.  It was interesting following three 26-foot trucks (you read that right, we have way too much junk) and me in the minivan with the 3 kids.  I was amazed at how well the kids did.  They didn't fuss at all.  Thank you Lord for the invention of in car DVD players.  It did help that they kids were exhausted from all the packing from the previous day.  They spent a long time looking like this:

We were very blessed that when we arrived our Senior Minister and his family (our good friends) arrived with dinner and drinks.  That was especially nice for the kids so they could get out of the car and run around.

We spent the night on air mattresses and waited for some moving help until the next day.  I am sure the neighbors were wondering how large of a family was moving in with the 3 Penske trucks parked in front of our new rental house.

The next day started earlier with some cleaning and the arrival of some professional moving help.  They were able to unload all our furniture and put all our boxes in the garage.  That left us with one truck to unload by ourselves.   We had that unloaded when the mass reinforcements showed up.  Two small groups from our church (about 15 people) showed up with dinner and willingness to move boxes to where they belonged.  This was a huge help that would have taken us weeks to tackle.  By the end of our second night in our house we had all the boxes where they were supposed to go and our beds setup to sleep in that night.  Not until the next morning did I realize some of the boxes were even unpacked for us and put away.  What a huge blessing!

My mom stayed with us the first week to help tackle the madness.  She took on the windows that were beyond dirty in addition to anything else that was asked of her.  She is one hard worker!  I don't know what I would have done without all her help.  My dad returned over the weekend and made a huge discovery that we were unaware of.  Four houses down there is a back entrance to a wonderful park with a lake, walking path, playground and skate park.  He took the kids down there to get out of our hair and they are love with our new park!  Those two little specks are my kids standing in front of the lake.  It is a huge park, if you can't tell!

I have realized in the last month that I have a future working at IKEA.  I would never have a paycheck because I would spend it there, but man can I take apart and put furniture together.  In the last 18 days, I have put together 2 side tables, 1 large entertainment center, a futon, 2 bedside tables, a bunkbed, a daybed, and 2 chairs and a side table for my husband's office.  If you can't tell, I'm the builder in my family.  I'm very visual and can figure things out like that very easily.  My husband is willing to buy furniture that needs to be put together, but refuses to bring himself to the snapping point of putting it together.  I don't mind building, it makes the hubs appreciate me even more.  I recently saw this cartoon and I knew it was meant for me.

We are slowly getting settled.  I had hoped to be better settled by now, but with three young kids and my husband working long hours at his new job, there just isn't enough time. Thank you so much for your patience with me as my family has made this huge transition.  I appreciate you sticking with me.  I have many emails and comments to return and I promise to get to them asap!

 I haven't gotten back to full fledge crafting yet, but I have quite a long list of things to make for this house.  I can't wait to share them with as I make this house our home.

Homemade Dishwasher Detergent

Since I was successful with making my own laundry detergent, I decided to try making dishwasher detergent. I almost always buy the little packets of Cascade. I admit, I am not a couponer. It takes an enormous amount of time and quite frankly, most of what I buy doesn't have coupons. I've also found that when I use coupons I buy things I wouldn't normally and most of that isn't healthy or necessary so it certainly doesn't save me money.  The Cascade I buy isn't cheap. So, I searched through many recipes and this is what I came up with.

1 cup of Borax

1 cup of Washing Soda

1/2 cup Kosher salt

1/2 cup Lemi-Shine (I found this at Wal Mart in the dishwasher soap section)

Mix the ingredients together, put them in a container, with the lid off for 24 hours. Leaving the lid off supposedly helps keep the detergent from clumping. Mine clumps a little but nothing you can't handle.  Store in the container with the lid closed.

Use a heaping tablespoon of detergent with each load.


Fill your rinsing agent section with white vinegar for a cheap alternative to Jet Dry.

We've been using this as our dishwasher detergent for over a month. It's worked very well and it's great to know I'm saving money, (I figure this method costs about 25% of what I was spending on Jet Dri and Cascade)!