oscar loves remote controls

he's in remote control heaven.

no, not this remote control... do you even remember this show?

yes now he can control the lights, fan, cable and tv.

no, oscar, you can't control humans.

...or can you??

granola.

I love granola.  LOVE.

I've been looking for a great granola recipe online and this one I really do love (although I made some modifications)

cranberries, slivered almonds, rolled oats, sunflower seeds, ground flax

isn't it a beaut?

I doubled the liquid part of the recipe because I read that this recipe was really dry, and it was.

even with doubled binding agent.

but still delicious.

crumbs.

did you know you don't have to count the calories when you're eating crumbs?  

it's like a sweet little bonus ;)

taco night!

we love Mexican food.  we love it.

the mister has been wanting to have taco night for a few weeks and we did it.

I found a pin to this recipe for homemade taco seasoning... tastes just like the seasoning you get in the store and you can make a ton of it if you want to keep having taco nights OR just enough for your meal.

tomatoes, cheese, shredded lettuce

yay for toppings!

that's fake meat trying to masquerade as real ground beef.

don't let it fool you, fool.

all together now.

delish.  we inhaled it and decided we should have more taco nights.

Oscar loves pallets

when you get a new neighbor who is completely renovating the house across the street from you, you get to take pallets from their trash pile.

Oscar thinks it's his new relaxing spot.

come on, buddy.  relax down.

there ya go.

he doesn't know we're not leaving a pallet in the middle of the floor for him.

pineapple jalapeño pops!

the mister and I have become quite obsessed with Steel City Pops, our local popsicle shop.

they have many awesome flavors, but one of my faves is Pineapple Jalapeño.

so I attempted to recreate it.

freshly cut pineapple (it's cheaper to buy a pineapple than it is to buy it cut up)

about half of a jalapeño pepper

you also need about 1/2 c sugar and 1/2 c water (I heated the water and dissolved the sugar in it)

blend.

pour.

freeze.

bite.

sweet and spicy.  yeah.

oscar loves Fifty Shades of Grey

what can I say?  he's just a regular old lonely housewife.

he just can't put it down.

next thing you know he's going to ask to see Magic Mike.

*note* Fifty Shades has recently become required reading for work so my boss has someone to girl talk about it.  This is not the kind of book I prefer to read.  thank you and have a wonderful weekend!

artisan bread in my new dutch oven!

isn't it a beaut?!

the mister gave me this sweet enamel covered dutch oven for my birthday.  he knows what I love.

now I can make this recipe as much as I want with many variations!

flour, yeast, salt and water.

yep.

that's it.

look at that pretty pot.

pretty bread.

so very pretty.

cake batter crispy treats

I love cake batter.  I could take a bath in it.  It's so good.

I wanted to make something fun.  Something delicious.  Something I may or may not want to share with friends.  Then I saw this pin and jumped for joy.

cake batter + sprinkles + rice krispies treats.

oh mama.

I doubled the amount of cake batter it called for... next time I add more cake batter.

I just can't get enough of that stuff.

oscar loves saving money

my little coupon clipper.

now he's going to ask me to drive him to the store so he can buy toothpaste!

DIY: fabric bunting

my sweet sweet niece's birthday party was the other weekend and she asked me to help with decorations.  I'm really loving bunting right now (well, really for the last few years) so I figured I'd do a tutorial on how to make a fabric bunting (so it will last and she can hang it in her room after the party)

I gathered up some fabric scraps, cut a triangle template out of card stock, grabbed a spool of ribbon (not shown) and pulled out the old sewing machine (also not shown)

ignore the glue gun... he's such a ham trying to get in all my crafting pictures.

using the card stock template, I cut out 18 triangles.  If you want it to look really super awesome and nice, iron your fabric.  I hate ironing so I just let it be wrinkled and called it rustic.

See it's easy to call things rustic or organic just by being lazy!!

pulled out a couple of feet of ribbon and then started folding it in half over the top of the triangles and sewing it.  If you're not a sewing kind of person, I suppose you could give the glue gun a little action.  Just be careful!!  Depending on your fabric and your tolerance for pain, the heat may burn you!!!

beauty!

popsicles + purple cake = my birthday!

Today is my birthday.  Mondays are not the best days to have a birthday so I'll share with you my birthday weekend...

my cute mister and me!  he's the best. can't wait to hang with him tonight.

it's always hot around my birthday, but holy crap.  110?  Really?  Thank goodness it's raining today.

Friday evening, my sweet friend Amanda made me some rosemary lavender salt scrub... the best part about this?  the yoga poses shrinky dinks!  Makes me want to time travel to 1986 for a few hours and play shrinky dinks with my 8 year old self.

after we had dinner with our favorite couple, we drove over to this new popsicle joint in town called Steel City Pops.  They have some pretty great flavors.  I got banana, which had cinnamon in it, which was amazing.

We went back on Sunday and I got pineapple jalapeño.  Equally amazing.

let's just skip over to Sunday.

I made my own cake (I always do... I like baking my own birthday cake)

My sister-in-law, her boyfriend and his roommate (formerly my husband's roommate) made dinner for us.  I bet you think we had Mexican... nope.  Pizza.

John and me.  Ready to do the birthday cake thing.

Ellen and me.  Let's blow out these candles.

Purple hombre cake?  yes!

and yes.

it's just boxed cake and food coloring.

no fancy instructions.

yay for happy birthdays!!

and feeling pudgy on Mondays!!