My new obsession

My New Obsession is Silk Pure coconut milk. 
If you have not tried this amazing Dairy free beverage yet, you should drive to the store right now and pick yourself up a jug or two.

It is amazing in Cereals and smoothies. And makes quite a tasty cup of coffee. Blend it with Bananas and freeze for a healthy ice cream.

• 80 calories per serving
• Excellent source of calcium and vitamin D
• Free of lactose and dairy

My sister and i have been going through 2 cartons every week. Okay, well it is mostly myself that drinks it all. lol. I have tried other brands but Silk coconut milk is by far my favorite. Creamy and no weird aftertaste that some of them have.

Here is one of my favorite smoothie recipe using Silk PureCoconut milk

1 Frozen banana (cut in to chunks)
1 cup of Silk PureCoconut milk
1 Tablespoon of Natural peanut butter
1 - 2 tablespoons of Cocoa powder
Sometimes i add a teaspoon of instant coffee as well

Blend everything together and enjoy....
You can add a little water while blending if you don't want it as thick.
However i enjoy eating my smoothies with a spoon. :-)


What are some of your favorite dairy free milk choices? And what flavor smoothie would you choose?

Jamie.

Wedding Shower Ideas

Do you ever have one of those days when you really really want to do something creative and productive. But just have no ideas of what to do or where to begin.
Well today is one of those days for me. I have one whole day off from work...woohoo!! And i want to make the most of it.
 My car is in the shop getting expensive things done to it, new brake pads, and rotary things, etc. But the point being i have no forms of transportation today, so i must occupy myself at home. Hopefully i don't get sucked into Pinterest today, because if i do i will never leave. lol. I may be slightly addicted. I spend more time planning all the cute things i want to make and cook and not enough time actually making them.

My sisters (amber) wedding is coming up all too soon. 3 months and counting. We are planning on hosting a couples wedding shower at the end of April. These are the ideas i have come up with so far:

Guest Book: I made this adorable photo guest book using MyPublisher, i also had a Groupon for it so that helped. I used all of ambers engagement photos and on every other page i added a question for the guests to answer.

The questions in the book are:

• Where do you see us in 25 years
• What is the best marriage advice you have ever received
• How do you keep Richard Happy
• How do you keep Amber happy
• When did you know we were meant for each other
• What are some fun and affordable date night ideas
• Share a funny memory of the two of us
• Complete this sentence...Love is never having to.....
• How many kids should we have and what should we name them
• What are your tips to falling in love, over and over again
• And the last couple pages are blank with the title: Comments, Sayings, memories, Quotes, Stories

Food: My mum and I have decided that the best and easiest option is going to be a selection of dips and dippers. And a few tasty one bite dessert options. It is a 3'oclock wedding shower so we are just providing light snacks for people

Drink: We are going to make a large amount of white wine sangria. Yummy. These recipes from Pinterest look like they are going to be tasty, i just have to pick one.

 This is a Strawberry and blueberry sangria from www.createliveblog.com

This will probably be the winning recipe. I like how it has lemonade in it. From http://www.thedailymeal.com

Embroidered Pillow

Hey,

So i turned 29 in January, scary i know. I can not believe the BIG 3-0 is next year!!! Yikes. I always feel that turning 30 is like entering 'real' adulthood.  So i have to enjoy my last year in my 20s. Although my mum says that her 30s were her BEST years. And now every birthday she has she turns 39. lol.

So on my birthday this year my lovely mum and sister bought me all the supplies i needed to start a new hobby. Embroidery.
All the embroidery threads i could possibility need, some hoops (a big and small one), new set of needles, and this super cute embroidery book called Doodle Stitching.
My mum gave me some lessons on all the basic stitches. I learnt the Straight stich, the Split stich, The chain stich, the back stich, and the lazy daisy.

So i saw this saying on pinterest and i fell in love with it. So i figured why not use that as my first big embroidery project. I decided to do a pillow case. As that is the easiest thing i could think of to put together.
I used my letter stencils from my scrapbooking, and a pencil and stenciled the words onto my fabric.
I then spent many an evening stitching my many, many letters. I think it took me about a month to complete it.
Here is the finished pillow case. It was hard to get a good picture with the right lighting. But you get the idea.

I just need to find a pillow insert that fits it now. I may of made the finished pillowcase just a wee bit too small for the pillow i had in mind for it. Oh well. lol

Now i am off to IKEA with my little sis amber. Yay for days off.

Have a great weekend everyone,

Jamie

It feels a little bit like Christmas....

Post by Jamie.S

Only 7 more working days left until Christmas day,Yay, I am so excited. Unfortunelty i am in retail so i work Christmas eve and boxing day. One day is just not enough to properly celebrate, but i will take what i can get. At least i get that one day. 

My husband works Christmas eve and Christmas day this year, only 7am to 7pm. So he still gets to spend the evening with us, And open his prezzies. He is also Gluten Intolerant (he swells up when ever he eats even a little bit of it. And it seems to be getting worse) so as he will not be joining us for the Christmas dinner my family does not have to worry about cooking a whole bunch of different meals for him. 

We just put our Christmas tree up early this year, like the first week of November. I love a decorated house, and always find the house to feel so naked after the holidays are over and the decorations are taken down.

Here is my tree feeling much more like Christmas now it has presents overflowing from underneath. 

I have now officially finished my shopping. And i can now sit back and relax. aaaahhhh

Let the countdown begin!!!!!

Busy Bees

Post By Jamie

Hey, so it has been quite some time since myself (jamie) or my sister amber have actually posted anything on this blog. We have been rather busy, and i have always forgotten to take pictures of the few craft projects i actually get round to making. 

Amber has been better than me, she has started her own blog that covers everything she loves, she shares her inspirations, recipes, tutorials, fashion, beauty and thoughts. And if you haven't  checked it out yet, you probably should skip on over there right now and have a read.

Click this link to take you there, have fun: http://amberameliawpg.blogspot.ca/

You may be wondering why we have been so busy, Well many things have happened. Amber and her fiance Rich have moved into my basement. They are getting married next summer...Yay!! and they need to save up as much money as possible  For the wedding, and for there dream house. So pumped for there wedding!! I am the maid of honor. 

        And about 8 weeks ago our mum (sally) had a black out and fell down the stairs in her house. Luckily my dad was home and was able to call an ambulance right away. She was in alot of pain. Turns out she shattered her hip and had to have a full hip and joint replacement OUCH and she broke her right elbow, Double OUCH! She was in hospital for a full 2 weeks and just had her cast removed 3 days ago. She is still in alot of pain. 

If anybody has broken their elbow before and has any tips, advice or stories please share with us, as my mum would love to be able to hear from other people who have gone through the same experience. 

        I have also signed up for distance education. I have decided to take the institute of booking course at red river. I have 9 courses to complete in total until i can get my certificate. I am only on #1 & 2 out of 9. Word 2007 (super easy), and financial accounting 1 (which i am strangely enough really enjoying).

But we are going to really make an effort from now on, to keep the blogging up. Well at least Amber will for sure. lol

Wine Bottle Gift Bag Tutorial

Recycled Sweater

Wine Bottle Gift Bag Tutorial 

by J.S

When i had finished making my cozy Sweater throw pillow, and had managed to tear myself aware from staring at its cuteness. I went to clean up the mighty mess i had made in my craft room ( i am not a tidy crafter) But in my defense cutting up an old sweater does lead to a lot of fluff.
I looked at the arms of the old sweater and just couldn't throw them away, I am definitively a material hoarder, ok just a general craft supply hoarder. You just never know when you are going to need that little piece of material or paper scrap.

Anyhoo, this sweater gift bag is perfect to give as a hostess gift with a nice bottle of wine tucked away inside its cozy home.

Step 1: Take your Sweater sleeve and place it over the bottle you will be gifting. Cut where you think would be a good place.

Step 1

Step 2: You are going to want to turn the sleeve inside out. Now go find yourself a piece of scrap fabric and cut it into a circle the size of the bottom of your sleeve. I just used an old tin and traced around it.

Step 3:  Now go ahead and pin this circle to the bottom of your sleeve. (Wrong side of the fabric facing you) Stitch all the way around it.

step 3

Step 4: You are basically done. Turn the bag right side out. For the tie, i just took another scrap of sweater, rolled it up, gave it a quick stitch down the middle to kind of hold it together, and then tied it round my bottle. Yay. You could also use some ribbon, or the same fabric you used for the base. Its up to you.

The hardest part is giving it away.

Recycled Sweater Throw Pillow Tutorial

Sweater Throw Pillow Tutorial

By. J.S

I just finished making my new throw pillow. I love it!! So warm and cozy. All i need now is a hot chocolate to go with it...mmmm chocolate. 

My mum and i were spending a wonderful Saturday together going round thrift stores to see what treasures we could find. This jumped out at me, a large cozy sweater and only $1.00!! What a steal of a deal, how could i possible say no to that. So i bought it, its new purpose was to become another cozy couch pillow.

As you can tell from the picture, my dog Chewie also agrees that it is indeed cozy. lol.

So all you need to make this is a Size Large or Extra large sweater, depending on your desired finished pillowcase size. 

Cut the sweater into two equal size squares just a bit bigger than your pillow form. Iron some interfacing on the wrong side of your sweater. This really helps hold it all together.

Sew around the edges to seal in the ripped seams.

Now just place the right sides together and sew around all 3 sides. Turn right sides out. 

Now put the pillow form in and slip stitch the edge shut. Easy Peasy!!

Purse Organiser Tutorial

My New Purse Organiser

by J.S

My bag is a mess! The bigger my bag the more stuff i collect inside it. Sometimes i have everything but the kitchen sink in my handbag. Well not anymore, this year is my year to become organised, well at least try. lol.
So i made myself a purse organiser now everything has a home, and i will be able to find my phone before it stops ringing.

Step 1:

You will need to cut out your fabric and interfacing. I like to have coordinating fabrics but you could use the same.

2 pieces of fabric : 8 inches x 26 inches
2 pieces of Interfacing: 8 inches x 26 inches


Step 2: Iron the interfacing to the WRONG side of each piece of fabric

Step 3: After you have the interfacing ironed on good. Place each piece RIGHT sides together, pin in place and stitch 1/2inch seam around all edges, leaving about 2-3 inch gap so you can turn it right side out.

Now very carefully (you don't want to rip your nicely stitched edges, turn you piece right sides out

Step 4: Give your organiser a nice iron. Now you will want to edge stitch all the way round the 4 edges.

Step 5: Turn the bottom edge up about 3 inches. And pin in place. Stitch along each short edge.

Step 6: Now this is where you have to look through your handbag and pick all the items you want to be able to find quick and easy. measure the width of each item and add 1 inch. So my cell phone is 2 1/2 inches wide, i would want to measure out 3 1/2 inches, and i just placed a pin in the place to mark it. Do this to every item.
Stitch up every pocket you made.

You now have a COMPLETED purse organiser. And it took about 30 minutes.YAY YOU!!