Finger Paint Fun

It has been raining quite a bit lately, so we planned a bunch of indoor activities. One, of which, was making our own finger paints to paint with. Olivia is a bit old for finger paints, but lately she has been asking to do them so I figured... sure! Why not? I was so excited when I just happened to find a recipe online to make your own. We gave it a whirl. He is the recipe:

You’ll Need

* 2 tbsp sugar

* 1/3 cup cornstarch

* 2 cups water

* large sauce pan

* food coloring

Directions:

In a large sauce pan, combine the sugar, cornstarch, and water.

Bring mixture to a boil over medium heat (under adult supervision), stirring constantly until the mixture thickens into a smooth gel.

Pour into individual containers.

Place food coloring in each container and mix while it is still warm.

Let cool, then store in the glass jars (or other container with a lid).

Use like any finger paint.

Luckily, just as we were done making out finger paint the rain parted ways. We packed up our stuff and headed out to the patio to do our painting out there. I always prefer to do messy things outside.... soooo much easier to hose off a patio than scrub a carpet, wouldn't you agree?

Oh... and in case you didn't notice.... wee do crafts in our jammies. That's right! It helps the creative juices. Or maybe... we are just silly! :)

Have a great week!

xoxo

MO, Marriage, and More

Sadly, I am quite behind in blogging. I will be making an attempt to catch up to speed and get back at it.

We moved to Kansas City, MO and we live out in the outskirts in the middle of no where. We just love it here. It is quiet, peacefully, and we are surrounded by trees, plants, and other shrubbery. It just smells greener here. :) Our house is much larger, which we all love. And we have a backyard again... which we also all love.

Also, Jared and I got married on May 20th. Sooo... feel free to send us a present. Just kidding. :p Someone asked me the other day how married life is. How does one answer that? It feel just like shacking up did... but a bit more official. All is well and we are all happy. Olivia is happy to have a dad.

Hope you are all having a great day!

xoxo

KC Bound!

So this will come as a surprise to everyone.. but we moved again! We left the beautiful majestic mountains of Colorado for... Missouri! However, I was so very pleasantly surprised by how wonderful it is here. Our house is beautiful, much larger, and way more affordable and we have a yard again. That isnt even the best part, the best part is the area! I just love that we are surrounded by greenery in all forms: tall wild grass, lots of trees, great lawns, and even some wildflowers! It is just beautiful here and oh-so-quiet. We live in this very unique subdivision of Kansas City that is surrounded by vacantness (is that a word?). I never realized how much I was ready to get out of the city. I just love the peace and quiet here and we are only about 15 min from civilization and highways.

On another note... I also didn't realize how much I missed the heat!! Colorado fluctuated greatly but the mornings and evenings were frigid regardless! Here? It is 75-80 at night and 90 during the day and sunshiney beautiful and I just love it!

We took a great walk around our subdivision yesterday afternoon: just me, Liv, and the dog. We all enjoyed the fresh air and vitamin D as well as achieved a little first summer glow.

This morning I sat on my patio and drank some coffee in shorts and a tank while reading the news. A little in love. :)

Tip: Hard Boiled Eggs

I am 27 years old, and I love to cook all kinds of foods. However, one thing that seemed beyond me is, quite possibly, the simplest thing in the world: hard boiling eggs!

I never trusted that they would come out right so my theory was to boil the hell out of them. This often results in too firm yolks in the middle and even discoloration. I never minded too much, because it was better than raw! However, I recently learned a trick and I was impressed that it has evaded me all of these years. So... I thought I would share with you!

For the perfectly hard boiled egg:

1. Place the eggs in water and turn on the stove (Med High is good)

2. Wait for them to boil

3. When they boil, turn the burner off and cover the pot with the lid

4. Wait 10-12 minutes... then they are done!

Who knew? Probably you did.... but at any rate, I learned something new!

Laundry VS Purex Complete Softener Crystals

For those of you that know me, I am fascinated by new household products. Kind of silly? Maybe so!

I don't know about you guys but I have always struggled with laundry softener. It seems I never have a washer that has a compartment for softener ... so what do I do? I tried the downy ball... it wasn't all bad although I sincerely question whether or not it releases at the right time. I also hate dryer sheets! I don't know why but they seem too waxy and over-chemically. Most recently though, I discovered the Tide dryer bar. The theory is you replace the bar every three months. This seemed to work great... although the smell left something to desire. However, over time the bar seemed to get nasty and it still seemed a bit too chemically.

Most recently I saw an ad for Purex Complete Softener Crystals and it made me want to try it! The theory here is there are crystals you pour in at the beginning of the wash when you do the soap. I'm assuming they slowly dissolve through the cycles. For those that care, Purex boasts that the crystals are 92% natural... whatever that means. They come in three scents: Fresh Spring Waters (blue), Lavender Blossom (purple), Tropical Splash (yellow). I like a clean scent and I have a man in the house so I chose the Fresh Spring Waters scent which is pretty good.

At any rate, after I used this I was hooked! Not only is the clean smell pleasant but I can actually SMELL it. Static is gone as well, which seems to be a large problem here in Colorado.

I recommend anyone that faces the softener dilemma like I do, to check it out! It cost me just under $4 at Walmart. Not bad!

Laundry and other exciting adventures

So today olivia and I ventured out to find a laundromat. Why you ask? Because I have a king sized comforter that needs to be washed that will not fit in mu washer..which I learned the hard way.

So I found a laundromat ... no thanks to my gps which is currently riding shotgun in jareds car.  This laundromat has bars on the windows and is blaring latin music.  I finally found a large machine...it costs 7 dollars. I am thinking at this point that it might not be much more to dry clean ..which would certainly be more convienent.  So I ask the lady at the counter, whom im not entirely sure understood me and she tells me it would coat 45 dollars!   Back to the expensive machine.

Meanwhile...olivia thinks this is big fun and is dancing to the marriachi band.  The next thing I know she spots a gumball machine to which I give her a quarter..upon further inspection the inside of the machine appears to have years of filth.  Yuck!  But she it her gumball an couldn't bite it. After several tries she had red dye all over her shirt because her mouth is too small and it kept popping out. At this point I did what any good mothr would do... I put tha filthy gumball in my mouth and bit it in half and gave her half.

So here we sit... in dirty chairs chewing dirty gum. What fun and its only 11!

Project 31. Day 6.

Day 6. Jaded beauty. Has the world's definition of beauty ever jaded you?

So, I sat here and stared at this question for quite a while. Jaded isn't exactly a foreign word, you hear it all the time. To me, Jaded always meant something similar to scorned, a chip on your shoulder, made bitter. That is typically the way jaded is used in our society. So I am staring at this question and wondering how I could ever be jaded by the world's deffinition of beauty. Like a puzzle piece, I kept trying to make past thoughts and feelings fit in the jaded spot.

Have I ever been disappointed that I am not as skinny as the world prefers? Sure. Jaded? Not so much. So with this, I wanted to be able to actually write on this topic so I visited dictionary.com to see what THEIR definition of jaded was. Perhaps I can take a different spin? I was surprised at what I found:

Looking at their definition, it doesn't carry near the heavy negative connotation as I felt that it did. So lets look at #2 here, as it would be the most fitting of our topic: worn out or wearied, as by overwork or overuse. I still don't think that I can ever say I was 'jaded' by the world's definition of beauty. Beauty is all about perception, confidence, and inner spirit. None of these things I have ever felt jaded about. I certainly do not give physical attributes enough weight in my worries to be considered wearied or worn out.

So... final answer: NO, I do not ever feel jaded by the world's definition of beauty.