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