Cubby storage unit project!

This weekend has been really exciting. We got the chickens out of the garage and into their house for one thing. Thank goodness.

The really fun part is this: I have been playing with power tools. GRRR!!

We spent WAY TOO LONG at Home Depot on Saturday but came home with a table saw and a huge stack of wood. The guy at Home Depot cut the majority of my pieces for me which was a huge help.

Then I turned this:
Into this:



It isn't done of course. I have quite a bit left to do but I am super proud of myself for getting all this done. I need DH to cut some more pieces out for me and then I can start working on the next part.

Curtains

Here are some photos of the living room curtains I made. They are the print on one side and brown on the outside. Now I think i need to paint! I am thinking of painting it the light green color that is in the curtains.

New projects for Spring.

We are in full on project mode around here. Here is the run-down.

1) Chickens growing in the garage. Tomorrow my husbands coworker and son are coming to help set up the chicken coop we got. Hopefully those chickens will soon be outside.

2) Seedlings started. Hmmm. Lots of seeds sprouted, lots have died so far. I am not pleased. We got more grow lights and I got out the plant food to mix with the water. Hopefully the weather will turn and I can have them outside during the day.

3) Curtains for the living room. They are made and tonight we purchased the decorative rod. I hope to get hubby to hang it this week.

4) Storage unit for the basement. This is a new project. It is a building project and I am going to do it. I am recruiting DH to help with the cutting. Sutherlands cut half of it tonight and hopefully DH can cut the rest this week. Then I can get started on it. I am building this:
http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/cameron-creativity-storage-system-with-art-cubbies/popup/more-views.html

Well actually you can customize it how you want. I plan to do the top row all 4 hole cubby units. the middle will be the doors like in the picture. I will probably even paint the chalkboard paint on the doors. Then the bottom will be the bases but with drawers in them.

I am getting my plans from Ana over at Knock-Off Wood. www.knockoffwood.blogspot.com
Amazing stuff. I got the wood for the bases tonight. I hope to have them done this week. I will keep you posted.

This wonderful setup is going to go in the basement. Toy storage, book storage, homeschool stuff storage. Whatever! I can't wait. My husband is so excited that I am taking on this building project.

Henna hair

My hair has been many colors and I was wanting something more simple for summer. We plan on doing a lot of swimming this summer and I didn't want to mess with fading color or things like that.
I have been really wanting to try Henna. It is natural and doesn't dry out your hair. In fact, it has cocoa butter in it to condition it. So I got some Henna and a couple friends came over to do it with me. One friend has some grays and I have been telling her she needed to try the Henna because they say its great for grays. So we put the Henna on, put a plastic sack around our heads and waited 3 hours. Then the color takes a few days to end up the final color.

Here is my hair the day after Henna. You can see where my blonde pieces stayed lighter than the rest.



Here is the second day. It has gotten a little darker. Still redish in better lighting.

Food Processor!

Oh Joy! Oh Rapture! I got my new food processor yesterday and so of course, I had to try it out. OH MY GOSH! People, I seriously love it.

So you know how you have something and it works fine, but you don't love it. Then you upgrade at some point and realize there is a huge difference? Yeah that. My old FP sounded like it was chopping bones every time I used it. Very loud. Also it only chopped things good, not excellent like my new one.

So this morning I chopped carrots, celery, onion and I am making some veggie broth stock. I am gonna freeze it to have on hand. I hate onions but realize they do give good flavor. This machine pulverized them. Nice. I can't WAIT to have a garden full of tomatoes so I can chop them and can them, make salsa and all that stuff.

Here is what I got: Cuisinart 11 cup FP.
Edited to Add:

Mom I am SOOO getting you one of these for you birthday, mothers day...something. You need one very badly. Although i think you should save your old one and put on a shelf somewhere. That thing has some memories. HA HA!!

More chicken stuff.

More fun with chickens. They were inside for one night and then I was just sick of fighting the kids to leave them alone. Now they are in the garage and the dog is chained up when he is in there. He expressed interest in eating the tiny peeping things. :)

A friend has offered to pass on her chicken coop to us. We go get it on Tuesday. I can't wait. I am very excited. Massimo is excited that he won't have to build one from scratch! :)

The Chickens are here.

Fun, Fun! Today we got the little buggers. They are super cute and I love hearing all the little cheep, cheeps.

Chickens!

We are getting chickens this weekend. I can't wait. We are all so excited! These will be the eatin' chickens. We are going to get some laying hens but have to get their house built first. Pretty sure we are doing a chicken tractor. Probably something very similar to this. CHICKEN TRACTOR The benefit to this is that you can move their coop all over your land but the chickens are not loose. This is ideal for us since we and our neighbor both have dogs that roam around. It also protects the chickens from other predators. Thirdly, it keeps them out of my garden! HA HA! My husband has a friend at work that has too many chickens and said he will gladly sell us some. We also found a business that sells those wood pallets for $1 each. We are hoping to get a bunch of those and use for some of these products.

Greenhouse update: The greenhouse was sold out, but we got a raincheck for the sale price that is good for a whole year. So with that in mind, we are going to wait a bit on the Greenhouse. First we are going to concentrate on getting the chickens set up and then work on the Greenhouse later in the summer.

Goodbye old friend.

We lost our dog this weekend. First he was just lost, then we found him. Pretty sure he was hit by a car. This part isn't a surprise, just unpleasant.

We got him the DAY we moved into our first house. He was this little white fluffball. We brought him home and named him Wickett (like the Ewok). I remember my parents watching him when we were on vacation and when we got back my little white dog was almost black. He had quite a time on the farm. :)
We nicknamed him Wicky Wild Man cause he was always so full of energy. I have a picture somewhere of him and Massimo snuggling on the couch sleeping. He was our first dog and SOO good with the kids. Gioia would put a leash around him and lead him around the yard, running and playing.

He will be sadly missed. :(

Grown up haircut.

After much insisting on my husbands part, I finally got both boys a haircut yesterday. This is the shortest Luca's hair has ever been. I hardly recognize him. He looks like such a big boy. *sniff, sniff*

What I am making this week.

Have you ever went to a restaurant and had an amazing meal and thought to yourself, "I should learn to make this, it doesn't seem that hard" . Well here it is folks. Seafood Pasta. This is a family staple around here and SOO easy and good. What you see in the pictures is what you need.

1 lb. Spaghetti pasta
2 cans clams
2 cans smoked oysters
1 lb crabmeat (imatation is fine)
5-6 large cloves garlic
large handful of fresh chopped parsley
Olive oil
Lots of grated parmesan cheese for topping

Put a pot of water on to boil. While you are waiting for the water, chop the garlic and parsely. In a skillet cover with layer of olive oil and saute the crabmeat over med heat. When water starts boiling put the pasta in. It should take about 12 minutes to cook, check your package for times. Next add the oysters to the seafood mix. Cook another 2-3 minutes. Continue adding olive oil as needed. You want about a 1/2 inch or so of olive oil in the pan all the time as it is the "sauce". You can add the garlic and parsley now cook another 2-3 minutes. Then add the clams. Cook them for another 2-3 minutes then take the mixture off the heat. The pasta should be about done. When it is drain and add a touch of olive oil to the pasta so it doesn't stick.
Serve the pasta with a heaping scoop of the seafood and topped with shredded Parmesan.


The other thing we made this weekend, was to start our plants. We started inside 5 kinds of tomato, 5 kinds of peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, kale and eggplant. YUM!!

Jedi mind tricks.

We rented an old Stars Wars move. You know the one, with Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Good stuff. The kids LOVED it. Dominic asked if he could have a real lightsaber when he is big. Massimo explained that they aren't real weapons, just in the movie. Later Dominic put on a black glove and was about to choke his sister. He was trying to lift her off the ground like Darth Vader.

Sorry buddy. Your jedi mind tricks don't work here. ha ha!

Luca has a string of new words. He says Do-da (Gioia), Poopy (for well when hes poopy!), DO (which he says when he wants to Do something), Nurse (self explanatory), Ca-ck (Cat), Hello (which he sounds like Elmer Fudd...Hel-whoa).

Winter pictures.

Well winter, she drags on and on. Blah. I am sure you all are as sick of it as I am. This weekend I am going to get my garden seeds all started. A large part I am direct planting ( lettuce, squash, melons etc). The tomatoes, peppers and other things I will be starting inside. Getting the plants going will help me think of spring.

We filled the propane tank AGAIN. Third time this winter. Hopefully it will be the last and by next winter we can hopefully heat with mostly wood. We have the wood insert and plans. The insert needs new fans/blowers. Then we have to drop a flue liner in and get the chimney cleaned. We are working on it, but probably will only be able to use it a couple times this year. I mean *fingers crossed* that it warms up soon and that will be the case. RIght? Right!

So here are a couple winter pictures. I love the snow picture because you can see how big the flakes are in it. Then we actually had one day where it edged near 50 so we went out to get some sunshine!

Gift sets ready!

My friend and I have been working on a order of gift sets for the last couple of weeks. Today we finally got together and packaged them. They are ready for the store. Included is a Bambino Sling and from My Sweet Potatoes: a onesie and giraffe toy. I think these are so stinkin cute! I am excited to see how well they sell. My guess is good. :) The order was for 12 sets. Here are just a couple for you to see how they look.

Also in other news, I think I am going to switch over to Etsy for my website. I am going to try it for a little while and see how it works. www.bambinoslings.etsy.com

Garden planning time!!!

I am super excited for my garden this year. We have grand plans and finally the space and ability to do it. Last year we tilled up a 30x 40 section of our back yard for a fall garden. I got a handful of items from it but not tons. So I ordered my seeds. I went with Seed Savers this year. They are organic, heirloom veggies. Yesterday the seeds came in!


The other thing on the agenda is a greenhouse. We found a good deal on one from Harbor Freight. They are kind of a discount/overstock type place. We figured out the cost to build one ourselves and this will save a lot of money. We will still have to add things and do a little stuff to it to make it as good as we want it, but it is the main structure. Thank you tax refund.

Then of course we have lots of other landscape and garden type things planned. We ordered 40 pecan seedlings from the Missouri Dept of Conservation. From the Arbor Day we ordered, 7 hazelnut bushes which come as the 2-3 foot size. I think the pecan trees will go out in the field with a fence around to keep the deer and such away. After all they are seedlings and will take a few years before we need to plant them in the permanent place. The hazelnuts may go along the side between us and the neighbor because they will be large bushes.

Then as I am planning all this, of course this summer/fall I will be canning and freezing all this loot! So of course my food processor breaks. Not the unit itself, but the main chopping blade. You know the one, that sits on the shaft and turns. Well apparently you can't order a replacement blade. I have looked everywhere. So I am getting a new food processor. Oh darn. :) Costco has a Cuisinart 11 cup FP for $150 so I was looking at that. Then a couple days ago, my husband called from work. He got a bonus from his company for billing a lot of hours. $250 and he said I think we should split it between ourselves. I said AWESOME! Cause i want a new Food Processor! HA HA! Funny how those things work out!

Hello out there.

We are still alive. Shortly after returning from St. Louis we were all sick. So I feel like since then I have done laundry, laundry and more laundry. Thankfully our bug was very short lived (around 24 hours). We are keeping pretty busy with the kids school stuff. I am getting excited for spring and planning our new giant garden. It should be exciting. Not much else to report.

Here is a donkey named Eeyore!

Ravioli and Panna Cotta

So I like to cook. I am not organized enough to run a food blog although, sometimes I pretend this is. Ha ha! I love trying new recipes and lots of different kinds of ethnic foods. If it has sauce on it, chances are i will probably love it. Ditto with spicy foods (Thai, Indian, Mexican). I also consider myself above average in the Italian cooking department. That is what happens when you are married to a true Italian. Ravioli however has always been a thorn in my side. I LOVE them. Order them out at restaurants anytime I get a chance. They are always so dang time consuming and hard to make. Then someone told me about a Ravioli frame. OH MAN! Why have I never heard of this before??!! Seriously, my inlaws and I need to have a talk about that. So as you can see in the picture above, it looks almost like an ice cube tray. But under the dough is the zigzag lines for the edges of the ravioli. You lay the dough out, put in the filling (like the picture), lay another piece of dough on top. Then you roll over it with a rolling pin and it seals and cuts it for you. Then you turn it over and pop the Ravioli's out. DONE! My recipe below made about 50-60 raviolis. I froze 25 of them and cooked the rest for dinner. So all in all, it made two full meals.

Here are the recipes if you are interested in trying this at home.

Pasta Dough
3 1/4 cups flour (white or semolina)
2 eggs
3/4 cup water (add water only as needed)
Mix dough and egg, then add water a little as a time as needed. Dough should be firm, not gooey. Refrigerate for 1 hour to 1 day. You can also water tightly and freeze until ready to use.

Ravioli filling
1 lb. hamburger browned
1 lb. Italian sausage cooked
large handful fresh parsley chopped
1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs (or crushed croutons)
1 egg
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 to 1/2 cup tomato sauce

Cook meats and let cool. Run them and the parsley through a food processor to get it tiny. Mix in a bowl with remaining ingredients. Add only enough tomato sauce to get the mixture to stick together. You don't want it soupy. You will probably have extra meat leftover. You can make a sauce with it or freeze it for later. It would also be good stuffed in a pepper and baked in the oven.

Sauce for Pasta
8ozs mushrooms chopped in big bite size chunks
1 28 oz can tomato sauce
1 tablespoon oregano
salt and pepper

Sautee mushrooms in a little olive oil and salt and pepper. when all the liquid is out add the tomato sauce and oregano. Serve over Ravioli.


For dessert Panna Cotta (cooked cream). This is divine! Like pudding only better.
1/3 cup milk
1 envelope of Gelatin (.25oz)
2 1/2 cups heavy cream
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla

Bring the cream and sugar to a boil on the stove. Stir so it doesn't burn. In a side dish, mix the milk and gelatin. Add to the cream on the stove. Cook stirring constantly for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Cool and refrigerate for about 4 hours. It will set up in the fridge. Or if you are impatient like me. Put it in the freezer in a glass bowl with tight lid and it will be done in about 1 hour. :) Serve in dishes with fresh berries as topping.

St. Louis trip.

This week we got to take a quick trip to St. Louis. Massimo had to go there for work, so we joined him. We stayed near the Galleria area which was really nice. It was close to all the St. Louis stuff, but in a fancier area. The hotel had a pool and hot tub which we used every day. The first day we went to the Magic House. It is a 3 story house that is a Children Musuem. We spent the morning doing things like water table, sand box play, the Curious George and Magic rooms. After lunch we did the static generator, the 3 story Bean Stalk that they climb up, the musical chairs bench, construction center where they wear hard hats and play with construction things. There is even a level with a town that has library, grocery store, ice cream vendor, fishing, house, pizzaeria all of that WHEW! www.magichouse.org





The next day we went to the City Museum. Massimo had to work at night, so during the day he went to the Museum with us. It is amazing. There is a whole section that is tree fort/maze, where you climb through tunnels, over bridges and all over. Here is Dominic climbing through a hollowed out tree that stretched across the room. Other big hits were a mini train that drove around inside with a little person as the conductor. Toddler town with a ball pit, a skate park with rope swings and such, and a 3 story slide. http://www.citymuseum.org

Purple Bangs.

I finally bought my own funky hair colors. I was tired of paying for it and having it wash out in a few weeks. The girl said this stayed in a couple months for her. Then I can redo it myself. Yippee! I love this color because it is bright but also the dark parts look black. I think it looks pretty good for my first at home attempt.

Vintage Quilt

My Aunt Roberta is 93. When over at her house one day with my Grandma we found a bag full of quilt pieces. Beautiful pieces. So I asked my Grandma if I could take them and make the quilt. She said yes. Well the pieces are made of a satin/polyester type material. I had NO idea how to finish this quilt. I have been looking online and asking quilting type people for advice. Still I wasn't sure, but I was ready to give it a try. So I made a trip to Joanns with a few things in mind. Turns out I found a Organic 100% Cotton Sateen fabric. They had several colors, but the quilt pieces are every color and lots of gold pieces. I didn't think cream or white would look good with it because of the gold. So I choose a light blue. I am ironing the edges under and appliqueing the pieces onto the blue squares. I already have a good idea for how to quilt it as well. I hope to have it done in a month or two. I am really excited for my Aunt to see the finished product. I am not sure if she even remembers starting this quilt. I found the newspaper clipping for the pattern and it is dated 1941.