Holy moly!

I'm a terrible blogger! Sorry, you must have thought I fell off the face of the earth! I've been a busy little bee! My mom-in-law owns a quilting store and from Wednesday to Saturday last week I was helping out with a show she did. And I have news! I'm starting my first ever attempt at quilting! For Mother's Day, my in-laws got me many tools I need to get started! And at the quilt show, I bought square kits! So, yeah, I'm pretty excited about that. 

In the meantime, I did complete a project. Remember the odd picture I posted as a sneak peek?

It's finished!

It's a baby toy. Greg's friend just had a baby boy, so I made him a little something! 

I tested it out on Elizabeth; I'm pleased with the results.

 That's all I've got for today... So sorry about the disappearance again. 
Here's a picture of me and my angel!

Love, Beav

A Loaded Day

I have new treats to share. I'm even going to give you pictures this time. Prepare to be amazed.

First let's talk about these muffins:

They're called Loaded Breakfast Muffins, and you can find the recipe here.

Now the website the recipe is from says they only have 100.4 calories. That is a calculation for a recipe that makes 30 muffins while for me, the recipe made 21. So, I used the calculator on MyFitnessPal, which gave me a total of 156 calories per muffin, 30 carbs, 3g fat, 13g sugar.

Ok, so once you're gathered all the necessary ingredients to make these your counter top will look like this:

That's a bad picture, but I'm not a photographer.

Then, you'll whisk your dry ingredients in a large bowl like so:

And yes, that is my retro blender in the background. A true 1970's gem. 

Anywho, once you've done that, mix your wet ingredients together in a small bowl. Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and add wet all at once to dry. Kinda like this:

Stir until just blended, then dump in all your fresh goodness. See?

(Word to the wise - the recipe calls for more carrots than it really needs. Unless you like super duper carroty muffins, then by all means - shower yourself in orange.)

Gently mix it all together, plop it in a muffin tray, and bake your muffins for 25 minutes. They're delicious straight out of the oven. I wrapped mine individually and froze half of them since it made so many.

And all the while I was drinking this:

If you want to drink it too, I'd suggest plopping a half cup of chopped strawberries, one banana, a half cup of orange juice and 4 or 5 ice cubes in your blender & hitting "liquify". It's quite delightful, and only 172 calories, 0g fat. I'm a fan of throwing random fruit in a blender, it really never turns out bad and it's a great guilt free snack.

Before I end this I also want to say that if you take care of yourself, if you do your best to be healthy, you will be absolutely amazed at the difference it makes in every aspect of your life. I have been doing this for about two and a half months now and I feel better about myself than ever. You only get one body for the rest of your life, and the things that you do to it now can and will affect you later in life. Making better choices about the food you eat can significantly decrease your risk of serious health problems. Most of the time illnesses like diabetes and high blood pressure can be avoided simply by eating right and exercising. It's such an easy choice! I won't lie, I don't exercise. Therefore, I feel more compelled to eat 'cleaner'. The sooner you start making better decisions, the better quality of life you'll have in the long run. Health is something that I am becoming increasingly passionate about. Thank you for caring.

So, after you do all of these things and eat/drink all of your delicious food, you should probably take a nap.

Good day!

Short & Sweet

We saw The Avengers!!!!! IT IS SO AWESOME!!! I definitely think you should all go see it, right now!! It's full of awesome one-liners and plenty of action to go around. It's a good old-fashioned time!

Here's how happy it made me:

 

  Okay, so that's Elizabeth, not me. Isn't she adorable! 

And here's an odd sneak peek at my current project.

That's all!

May the Fourth be with you, always.

-Beav

Wonderful Wednesday!

Okay, so I'm sort of on cloud nine at the moment. Monday was Greg and my anniversary. We've been married for a year, already! I can't believe it. He's so amazing, it's like a dream come true. Anyway, enough oozing over my husband (on a public forum, at least). We exchanged gifts on Sunday because he just couldn't wait to give me mine. Well, he got me an iPad!! I love it! It's amazing. Then, he opened his gift; a card and two $25 gift cards to Best Buy and Amazon Kindle; and his year of dates (number one on my to do list from last week's 10 for Tuesday).  He hasn't opened the first one yet, but as he does, I'll share what we do! And that is all that I have to report at the moment, so I will leave you with some new photos from my brand new iPad!

 

See how happy daddy makes Elizabeth? 

Happy hump day! 

-Beav

10 for Tuesday: App for iProducts

Hey ya'll! Welcome to this week's Tuesday Top Ten. Today, I am providing you with a review of my top ten favorite apps for my iPhone/iPad. Surprisingly, most of them are games with which I love to kill time!

#10: Zynga's Games "With Friends"

From left to right, you have Words with Friends, Scramble with Friends, Chess with Friends, and Hanging with Friends.  

Words is a simple scrabble-like game. Scramble reminds me a bit a boggle. Chess is just chess (Greg beats me every time). Then there's hanging, it's similar to hangman, but you lose balloons instead of gaining body parts.

#9: Zen Brush

 I love this app. Although, I do say that it is better suited for the iPad than the iPhone. 

#8: Cut the Rope & Cut the Rope: Experiments

 

 I love these games! They are fun, and let's face it, Om Nom (the green creature in the picture) is just adorable! You just want him to get the candy, and collect a few stars in the process. 

#7: Plants vs. Zombies

 

This game is awesome! I mean, I first got it for the PC like 3 or 4 years ago, and have been addicted to it ever since! I have it for my Xbox and obviously my iPhone and iPad. I love that they made it slightly different for each of the aforementioned ways to play as well. 

#6: Angry Birds

 Well, hello there little birdy! Please don't throw yourself angrily at me! I guess some naughty little piggies decided to steal some eggs. They like eggs with their bacon? Wait, they don't eat bacon. So why do they want these eggs? I'm not sure, but it has certainly made these birds angry.  You can help these little guys get revenge in (from left to right above, listed newest to oldest) Angry Birds Space, Rio, Seasons, and of course the original; Angry Birds. 

#5: Google Maps

Best for navigation, by far.

#4: Draw Something

 Great game! I'm pretty sure it's available to droids as well. But I love it. 

Also, Greg and I love to make fun of our friends "not so good" drawings. I mean, how was I supposed to get that word out of that picture?! 

#3: Where's my Water?

By far my favorite game at the moment. It's made by Disney. I'm currently waiting on them to update it, because I've beaten everything they've offered up so far. 

#2: Amazon Kindle & iBooks

The Kindle app is my favorite for books, because my husband and I use the same amazon account and easily share books. However, the iBooks app is Apple's book app. I use it to buy books I know Greg would never read (like last year I bought Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin), and it is where I store all of my pattern PDFs! It is quite handy when I'm working on a project, and I don't waste any paper! 

#1: Camera+ & iPhoto

Camera+ is awesome! It has so many option for editing photos! I just downloaded iPhoto when I got my iPad on Sunday, so I haven't really got to play with it, but I definitely love the journal aspect of it. It will make sharing photos with family and friends so much easier!

There you have it, my favorite apps.

I will update shortly with number one from last week!

Love to all, Beav

I did something off of my list!

 I had the day off today, and finished this:

 

Elizabeth was cuddling with it, until I got my camera out. This was the result:

Greg said she looks evil, but I just love how blue her eyes are, and this picture just shows it off!

 And just for an extra dose of cute today, have a collage of Elizabeth!

Happy Thursday!

Love, Beav

Ten for Tuesday: To Do Edition

This week's top ten is my Pinterest "To Do" List. I am addicted to Pinterest, it makes me feel productive without actually getting anything done. It gives me so many new and creative ideas of things to do that my list is getting out of control! So for this week I decided to look through my ever-growing list, and get it down to ten things that I simply must do before the year is out! 

#10: Knitted Cushion Puff

I love these! They are so cute! And I can just picture them in Elizabeth's room on the floor for us to read on! I'd like to get them done sooner rather than later so that we can enjoy them! My only concern is our pets and their hair. I imagine they would collect it like crazy. Although, they could go in pet-free rooms! 

#9: Helena Baby Sweater

 I love this sweater. It's beautiful! I am planning on making it for Christmas. 

#8: African Flower Crochet Purse

 

Isn't this simply gorgeous!? I'm hoping to have it done sooner, rather than later. I'm working on the pieces in between other projects. I'm excited to use it as a project bag. I'm excited to show of what I can do when I'm working on something. This looks pretty simple to construct, it will just take time to get all of the pieces completed!

#7: Pillowcase Dress or Bandana Dress

 

I'm torn between the two. I'm thinking this will make an adorable Fourth of July outfit for Elizabeth. I'm picturing red, white, and blue, obviously! Which pattern I follow will ultimately come down to how much time I allow to actually get it done. I'm considering the bandana dress for this year. Next year, when she will be standing, running around, and can show it off more then we'll do the Pillowcase dress.

#6: Our Family Tree

This is such a beautiful idea! We have just the wall for it in the dining room. After I have all of the pictures collected, we will actually hang them. Ours will be a tad different, but this is what gave me the basic idea.

#5: Monster Butt

 

These are a necessity for my little monster's butt. Again, I will wait to do them until she begins standing and walking in order to show them off more. 

#4: Shopping Cart Cover 

 I'm so excited about this, too! I'm hoping this one works for restaurant high chairs, like the store bought ones do!

#3: Sewn & Crochet Pin Cushion

The website I found this idea at is not in English, sorry. The pictures explain it well enough. I'm going to do the African flowers first, then sew the fabric pin cushion to fit them.  I can't wait to have the beautiful, colorful addition to my sewing area!

#2: Parent/Child Hand Print

This is adorable! I'll have to this for both Greg and I before Elizabeth gets too big! Maybe this mother's and father's day! 

And finally, #1: Greg's Anniversary Gift

Sorry, no photos yet, or details even. If I put it on here, he'll see! And it will ruin the surprise! Our anniversary is next Monday, so I'll reveal it then! That is, unless we exchange gifts early.

Do you have a growing to do list because of Pinterest?

I bid you adieu! 

<3 Beav

Tales of a Blueberry Sunday

Every Sunday I make a batch of muffins and wrap them individually for grab-and-go breakfasts throughout the week. I have yet to repeat a muffin recipe, I love trying new ones! I'm very open to new foods, but the beau is not so he gives me an honest opinion of how someone else might feel about my creations. He tends to like about every other recipe. I made the mistake of using a recipe that had absolutely no sugar in it one week...needless to say, from that point on he always makes sure I put sugar in my muffins. While the sugarless muffins didn't taste bad to me, they apparently tasted like cardboard to him. Therefore, 9 times out of 10 there will be sugar in the muffin recipes you find here. :)  

This Sunday I found my recipe on one of my new favorite blogs, The Yummy Life.  They are Blueberry Oat Streusel-Topped Muffins, and they are delicious. I found the nutrition facts using the recipe calculator at My Fitness Pal (the website I use to track my calories - I highly recommend it, their database is HUGE), the totals for these muffins are as follows; 256 Calories, 38 carbs, 10g fat, 4g protein, 275mg sodium, and 20g sugar. They are the least healthy muffins I've made so far - but I'm satisfied as long as the total calories do not exceed 300 and the total fat does not exceed 10g. It's really no wonder they taste so good...they almost count as a splurge! Click here for the recipe. I followed this recipe exactly as it's written, so I'm not going to re-write it here. She also provides step by step instructions including photos which makes it very easy to follow along. For other recipes I post I may include the link & then my variation, as I tend to tweak the recipes as I go.  This recipe worked wonderfully and I actually had all the ingredients that it called for, so I foresee no issues for anyone else attempting it. One thing you should be aware of: I baked mine for about 30 minutes before I felt they were done enough. At the suggested 23 minutes they were still pretty doughy.

These blueberry babies got good reviews from both myself and my beau. Success. 

In the future I will be sure to post pictures of what I make! You'll have to forgive me, I'm new to blogging and I forgot that you could do such cool things!! 

Now let's all take a moment and celebrate surviving MONDAY! Happy days to you!

The Spice of Life

Ok, so call me crazy, but I've made some changes. This is the site formerly know as The Unslipping Knot. Yes, I know. It was hardly even two weeks old! But I'm really excited about the changes I've made because I now have a contributor! My dear friend, Leesa, hereby known as Weazel (yes, we're aware that it is misspelled) has offered to help me out! She is brilliant, strong, and beautiful! I'm so excited to have her!

In addition to the new addition, I will also be signing my (b)log posts as Beaver (where Leesa will sign as Weazel), so that if you cannot tell by the post itself, you will know who wrote it!

I will let her tell you a little bit about herself...

Thank you Beav, for that marvelous introduction.  My name is Leesa but I've been known as Weazel since I was 8 or 9 years old. It's a long, boring story involving a fish - all you need to know is that it's my name! :)

From Monday through Friday 8am-5pm I am a receptionist at a primary care doctor's office, but in my real life I'm an eccentric ball of goofiness. I have a little doggy named Abbey, I refer to myself as her mommy and she is my little girl; yes, I am one of THOSE pet owners. In my opinion, it's the only kind of pet owner to be. I also have a wonderful boyfriend who finally made me understand what all those cliche sayings about love & happiness mean, and I could not ask for more. He & Abbey are my heart. 

I'm known for being a quasi-health nut. I count every calorie I eat, therefore I try to make them count. I try to stay away from fatty foods, or foods that just don't offer much value nutritionally. I'm still learning the ways of the 'whole food' world, so many of my (b)logs will be about my experiences with new recipes, new foods, or how hard it can be to find some of these foods in a not-so-health-centered supermarket! It feels like quite an adventure to me, but since I've started this journey I can honestly say I've gained more confidence, I feel better in my own skin, and I feel healthy. Don't get me wrong - I am still overcoming hurdles in my healthy lifestyle. I am constantly tempted by yummy goodies! Also, exercise is not my strong point. Working on that one, too!!

Beav thought it would be fun to add my adventures to her adventures and have a well rounded blog full of everything from sewing, crocheting, comic books, movies, and TV to cooking with a variety of whole foods like flax meal, chia seeds, whole wheat flour, and perhaps some funny anecdotes about our insane animals and everyday lives (or really, just whatever we feel inspired to share).

I hope you enjoy our posts as much as we enjoy sharing them with you! Until next time, we bid you adieu!

<3 Weaz & Beav

Cute little diaper cover!

I wanted to make Elizabeth some diaper covers for those utterly adorable diaper only photo shoots that have yet to come. I found this simple pattern through Pinterest at Dana Made It's blog. 

I'm pretty happy with the results!

It's a little loose in the waist on her at the moment, but otherwise fits perfectly! 

 It also matches her new cowboy hat! I'm excited for her to sit up for photos now!

And here are some cute pictures of Elizabeth that I've been playing with in Apps on my iPhone. 

 Have a great Thursday, and hey, it's almost Friday!!

10 for Tuesday: My favorite self made projects!

I was raking my brain to think of something I could do every now and then that would be fun or educational or even just a great way to post things. I got to thinking about how much I like when some of the blogs I follow do top ten lists, because everyone loves a top ten list! So here it is: 10 for Tuesday!

In an effort to help you guys get to know me, this week I am posting my favorite knit/crochet projects that I have made! I feel it is appropriate to help you see my ability, and what type of projects I like to do! Here goes nothing! (The links in their title lead you to my ravelry page for each project where you can learn more about them)

#10: Santa's Little Helper Earflap Hat

This project is crocheted. I made this for Elizabeth's first Christmas. It is very cute!

#9: My Wedding Garter

This is a knit item, I wore for mine and Greg's wedding! I love it for so many reasons!

#8: E's Galoshes

These are crocheted, the pattern is one of The Lovely Crows (same as E's Cowgirl Hat!)

#7: Kinsey Family Stockings

This is knit, and also is the only one done. I hope to have mine and Elizabeth's to add to it by this Christmas!

#6: ShashieBell

This is a horrible picture, but the hat is knit. I made it to keep my friend Chelsea's head warm after she cut her hair REALLY short.

#5: Dark Mark Illusion Scarf

This is a knit scarf that I made for my brother Jon for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows premier.  It's perfect for him because straight on, it looks like a regular striped scarf, you can only see the image from an angle. 

#4: E's Cowgirl Hat

This is crocheted. This is also the second attempt. See my previous post for the first attempt. I'm going to add a ribbon/braid option to it at some point.

#3: Unkie Jon's Zhevra

My brother Jon loves Zebras. I crocheted him this as practice for the animals I hope to make for Elizabeth as well! He likes it, and Elizabeth does too!

#2: E's Flowertot

I knit this for Elizabeth. Isn't it precious? Can you believe she's grown out of it already!?

#1: Elizabeth's Tree of Life Afgan

This is my absolute favorite project that I have ever knit. I absolutely love cables, and the lace work on the leaf border are just beautiful! My only complaint about the whole thing is that it is too tiny for me to use, and I'm afraid that Elizabeth will hurt it and not have it forever like I want her to! Eventually, I am going to make an adult size for Greg.

 There it is. My top ten favorite projects I've made; at least that I can think of. I took them off of my Ravelry account which does not have everything I've ever made on it. I know that if I am nuts about something though, it goes on there. So really, it's be a good a judge of my favorite projects I've ever made too.

I hope you're all having a great Tuesday!