I am trying a new method for art projects. Actually, I have been trying all week. Cross your fingers and expect an art project next week that will blow your socks off. No, wait. Don’t get too excited, I don’t want your expectations to be too high. Expect an art project that you will hopefully like quite a bit next week. Okay, now a little something for the meantime.

Deedee is having a Father’s Day giveaway spectacular. Head on over and enter to win a set of Henkels steak knives, a carwash from the Firehouse, a $25 iTunes gift card, and some excellent mustache mugs. Really, don’t you-I mean your Dad-want all of those things?? Deedee knows how to do giveaways!

Lastly, I have a little Amanda goodness for you. Here she is in her sweet little blessing outfit. My darling friend Juli gave her this super adorable, duckie-soft outfit and I fell totally in love. My Mom made a little skirt to go with it and we had the softest, most comfortable blessing dress ever. The only hitch was that we blessed her at 4 months old. This giant chunk of a baby barely fit in the outfit by then. Ha! Oh well, it worked out just fine.

I just spent 2 days, packed with hours of classes on Photoshop and query letters and I LOVED it!

Pamela and I: the curly sisters

Julie and Dianna: the straight sisters

Just getting to spend the day only taking care of one sweet and easy baby was fun in itself; doing it with these guys was even better. We picked out charms for the girls (I am including myself in that. I needed a souvenir, right?) at Oh Sweet Sadie. We drooled over the cool digital scrapbooking stuff at 300 dpi and CherishBound. We picked up tons of helpful tips and info.; but best of all, I met a boat-load of fabulous blogging divas. Here are links to a handful of favorites. Check them out–so funny, inspiring, and smart.

Kristina cracked me up when she told me a have a darling baby–and she hates babies! Last night, hours slipped away as I laughed at her hilarious blog

Tech4Mommies has tons of useful technical info…in language you can understand!

Veronica Reeve: photographer extraordinaire was amazing in the Photoshop class

Gorgeously Green: super site, full of interesting tips

Courtney Kendrick was so touching and hilarious–this gal can write!

Hunduddle Hussy was so funny, I loved chatting with her

Amber was just charming, I can’t wait to check out her letters to her husband in Afghanistan

I am starting to realize that this might be a long list. Maybe I’ll throw a few links at you in the next several posts to spread it out. Needless to say, the Casual Blogger’s Conference was fantastic. I’m grateful to my cute honey for holding down the fort and sending me off for some me time.

Tomorrow I am going to the Casual Blogger’s Conference (I know, I am really stressing the casual part.) It is going to be so much fun. And I am stoked that I am going with 2 of my favorite people and another who I have really wanted to get to know better for quite a while.

I will update when I get back and share pictures of my cute girlies’ dance recitial that was tonight. Hope you have a fun Memorial Day weekend! I know I will!

Megan had the week off last week so we decided to get out of town. Thanks to my cute Mom, we headed to Bear Lake.At first the girls were a little concerned about the bears, Are the in the lake? Will they get you? After all fears were assuaged, all they could talk about was going to THE Bear lake.

It is so beautiful up there, the girls loved playing on the beach. Emily collected a pile of the little shells that are mixed in with the course sand; while Megan worked feverishly on sandcastles.

It was pretty chilly so we were also really grateful for the indoor pool. I love getting away! Not so much on the laundry I am still working on from it.

Today Emily got her haircut, she decided to go short and I love it! She does too. She keeps patting it and dancing around. Thanks Julie!

Amanda is doing new things too. last week she started having cereal with lunch.  I love the baby food phase. It is time-intensive, but full of cute photo opportunities.

Also, head over to Deedee‘s. She is giving away this cool white sauce base. I am excited to try it!

I have to say that this humble dish is definitely one of my top comfort foods. I wish I could eat it right now, right this minute I tell you! It is easy, fairly quick and just so creamy and warm. Use skim milk and low fat cream of chicken soup to shave off some calories.

ingredients:

2 1/2 c. prepared rice (I like to use Jasmine rice–it tastes so good and cooks in 15 minutes.)

2 chicken breasts

1 can green beans

1 can cream of chicken soup

scant 1/4  c. milk

1 clove garlic

salt and pepper to taste

shredded cheese to cover the top (Sprinkle however much you need. I am going to be honest, I use about a cup. We really like cheese)

directions:

1. Prepare rice according to package directions.

2. Grill, bake or broil chicken. I like to do chicken breast for dinner one night and just cook a few extra for later use. For example, we’ll have grilled chicken breast with baked potatoes and peas for dinner one night. I grill 2-6 extra breasts (I think there might be a joke in there.) Then dice them and throw them in the freezer. Then when I make this, I can just pull out a rounded cup of meat and throw it in.

3. Once the rice is finished, put it into a casserole dish with the chicken, beans, soup, milk, garlic and some salt and pepper. I also sometimes add a little lemon thyme if I have it. I LOVE fresh thyme–I use it in practically everything. Mix all together.

4. Top with cheese and cover with foil. Bake at 375 for 35 minutes. Uncover and bake another 10 minutes.

I like to serve this with one more vegetable or a salad and some fruit. It is so simple, but everyone in our family just loves it and it is perfect for a rainy day like today.

…when you put rollers in naturally curly hair.

However, these days “I want the same as Megan.” is a very common sentiment at our house. Naturally, we try to oblige–sometimes it works out better than others.

I have decided that my new mode of parenting, well actually just living, is to keep myself in a continual state of barely treading water. It seems the minute I start to feel like I kind of have things under control, I decide to throw something else into the mix–why? WHY?

This is an alarming (and probably boring to read about) trend for me since Amanda was born. I seem to want to constantly feel like I barely have things under control. Well, my latest adventure was making bread. Michael’s wonderful Mom makes bread. Michael really wishes he had access to her dense, soft, whole wheat slices 24-7. Michael’s wife has purchased and thrown out 3 big pouches of yeast waiting to be inspired to make said bread. It just seems so intimidating with the grinding, and the kneading, and the proofing. (Okay, I’m done.) Anyway, I finally gave in and went for it last week. Afterall, LuAnn assured me that it is the easiest recipe ever. The mixer does all the work–and here’s where we hit the problem. My trusty little Kitchenaid (Artisian) seemed to explode with dough as I added in the 5 cups (out of 10) of flour. Flour went everywhere and dough rose up the mixing arm and gummed up everything it could under the head of the mixer. I wish I would have had the presence of mind to take a picture; but I was too busy trying not to panic. I pulled out the dough and cleaned up. I cut the dough in half and put a section back in the bowl. I can handle kneading two batches. We’re still okay. As I am keeping kids happy, cleaning up the rest of the mess, etc. I start to smell that dread-inducing electrical burn smell. I turn around like the heroine in a horror film. There is smoke pouring out of the head of the mixer! The humanity! I finish kneading by hand. I only get 2 more cups of flour in. The bread still manages to turn out very dry. (Though thankfully edible.) It actually doesn’t even look too bad.

So now, finally to the question:

I need a new mixer. What do you recommend? I have looked at everything and they all have very mixed reviews. You Bosh lovers, do you use your Bosch for everything else or do you use something else to make cakes, cookies, whipped cream, etc.? We are almost ready for round 2 of the bread-baking cahllenge. I need to get something. Sigh, thanks for listening.

I just saw an add for the Cricut Cake. Scrapbookers have heard of this machine that makes custom diecuts. Well, now they have one that cuts food. That’s right. You can cut intricate fondant overlays and greetings for your cakes. I will probably never own one, I mean really, it’s over the top. Just have to say that is jaw-dropping, crazy cool, foodie tech, people. Just had to share.

I wish I had a giveaway for everyone (although, your odds are probably better than anywhere else…so keep trying. With only 8 people to compete against, I can almost guarantee something this year.) The giveaways will continue–I think it is fun. Okay, back to the game, the winner is:

Julie K: “I’m not on facebook or on twitter. But please enter me I would love to win!”

Julie, you should receive your gift certificate via email soon. Let me know if you have any problems.

For everyone else, don’t forget you can still use the 15% off coupon code.  Deedee, I do have a couple of the sport headbands and they are great. Andrea, that floppy satin headband would look so, so cute on you! I almost bought that one (and have seen it in person.) It is darling! But it didn’t work with my out of control curls. : D