Craftiness

As I've recently gotten more into the world of blogs, I've discovered that many blogs usually seem to have a theme...whether it's recipes or crafts, home decor or important baby information...whatever it is, it's usually got one central focus with one main target audience in mind.

Well, as you might have already noticed...I'm rebelling against that! There is just too much goodness to share! As I wrote in a previous blog, I recently discovered a love (yes...I said it...love!) for cooking and I'm enjoying finding new recipes and want to share some of my faves with you all! But I also have a huge love for home decor...it's really become a hobbie of sorts (my hubby HATES it cause he says it costs us too much $$$!) I'm also on a journey with Weight Watchers and have had so many emails and facebook messages from people asking how it's going and so I'm going to be sharing some of that journey as well in the near future!

But there is still another love of mine...and that's CRAFTS! As I recently got into Pinterest, my love for crafts has been rekindled! I actually used to love doing crafts as a kid...even into my teenage years (I just would never had admitted it back then!). I can remember there was this store called White Rose where I grew up and they had the best craft supplies! My favorite thing to make were WREATHS! (And if you follow me on Pinterest you will see that my love for wreaths is more alive then ever before!). I can remember my first real wreath that I made was a grapevine heart wreath that had silk flowers up the side with ceramic cherubs angels in the middle! I think that's when I first really realized how much I loved creating things and being crafty!

Well this was definitely put on hold during my college years and early marriage (to be honest, I kinda forgot all about crafting!) Until my recent discovery of Pinterest, coupled with a fabulous new friend who entered my life, Mandi Cresswell (who has her own blog, which is awesome and a huge inspiration for me!), I've rekindled this love for crafting! Mandi and I actually get together every Friday night at my place where we just spend the night chatting away while we craft one of many "pins" from Pinterest! It's honestly a time I look forward to every week as I get so much enjoyment from not only crafting, but spending time with such an amazing friend!

All that to say...I will be sharing some of the crafts that we make...hopefully one a week. Some are definitely way cooler then others while some are just cute and fun!...like my craft from last week! 

Dipped Spoons! This craft doesn't change anyone's life...but it does add a little color to your kitchen drawers and a smile to your face when cooking! Sometimes crafting isn't always about creating something new...it's about enhancing something you already have!

So here is the tutorial (as if you can't figure it out from the picture ;)

Dipped Spoons:

Adapted from this pin 

Take any or all of those drab, boring wooden spoons you have in your kitchen (I also used spatulas!)

Then use painters tape to tape off the section you want to paint. 

Use whatever paints you'd like. I used silver, metallic blue and black...to match my kitchen! 

 Paint spoons with a foam brush. I did multiple coats, just to make sure it was really well covered. 

Also, I used Q-tips to get into the holes.

Use a "really fancy" drying rack ;) Once they are completely dry, use a clear coat varnish to seal the paint. I used a clear coat glossy spray paint on my spoons. (Note: If you are concerned about food safety, you may want to get a special non-toxic varnish)

Let them completely dry and voila! Fancy, dipped spoons!

Recipe Of The Week: Baked Egg Cups

With my new journey into Weight Watchers, I find myself trying to get a little more creative with meals...especially trying to find ones that will pack alot of punch...meaning protein...to keep me going longer in between meals. I've actually had alot of fun compiling and trying various recipes and as I'm sure you guessed, many of them come from Pinterest!

Breakfast has always been my most favorite meal of the day...for two reasons: 1) I just love breakfast foods...I could eat them really at ANY meal! And 2) I'm just SO hungry first thing in the morning. I don't know what it is...but I have to eat almost as soon as I wake up otherwise I will start feeling yucky.

With two kids under two years old and a working hubby, I find it hard to sometimes get a quick meal on the table that we can all enjoy before the hubs run out to work or either kid (or both at the same time!) has a meltdown! So when I found this recipe, I was sure it was going to be hit both in taste and in prep time! And it definitely delivered on BOTH! So simple and yet so tasty and let's even begin to talk about how CUTE they look (it's ok that I like to eat cute food!)

So here it is! Baked Egg Cups! I will post a recipe below, however, you can customize this really however you'd like! The original recipe is for 12 cups, however, I only make 6 for my little family and it's perfect!

Baked Egg Cups
Adapted from thesimpledelights

6 Eggs

6 slices of deli ham (I use the black forest ham from Costco)

Sprinkle of your favorite cheese (I use Parmesan)

Sprinkle of diced green onions (scallions)

Fresh cracked pepper & sea salt

(Remember, my version is scaled down to 6 servings, so if you want to make a full muffin tin of 12, just double everything! Easy Peasy!)

Prep:
Preheat your oven to 400. Spray muffin tin with cooking spray. Place one slice of ham into each muffin hole, creating a cup. Next, crack one egg into each hole and finish off with salt and pepper.

Bake the egg cups for 12 minutes, or until the egg white has set but the yoke is still runny.

Carefully remove from muffin tin and then top with cheese and green onions (or whatever topping you'd like!). Enjoy!

Nutritional Goodness:
These are 100 calories per cup. If you are following Weight Watchers, the original recipe is 3 points+ per cup. However, I don't ever use as much cheese as the recipe calls for, hence why I changed it to just a sprinkling of cheese. I use less then a 1/4 tsp per cup which counts for 0 points! Same with the ham...if you only use 1 slice, it's 0 points. This morning I did use 2 slices and I found it to be too much. So really, it's just 2 points+ for the egg!
Enjoy two of these cups with a bowl of fresh fruit and you've got one great start to your morning!

Musings From The Kitchen

Until recently, it's been my hubby who was the main cook our home. I honestly loathed it...even the thought of what to prepare for dinner gave me heartburn. I never learned as a kid and really, didn't have any desire to as an adult! My dad used to joke that I better marry a chef...and thank the Lord that I pretty much did! Chris LOVES cooking...and he is just so good at it! So why would I even try to take that joy away from him? ;)

In all honesty, I was really intimidated by cooking. Baking, I enjoy...but cooking was too scary. Baking is kinda like math...2+2=4. You follow the recipe...and it will always yield the same results. But with cooking, it's so open to interpretation. Or if you're like Chris, you don't ever use a recipe cause you're just so good at coming up with food/spice pairings in your head!!! Pa moi (Not me...for the french illiterate!)

Well this all changed once I became a momma! I had my first kidlet, Leah, almost two years ago. And there was something about that maternal instinct that really kicked in and I found myself wanting to learn how to cook. I tried some new dishes here and there but the main chef was still the hubs.
Then, about 6 months ago, I went on a second maternity leave when my son Gabriel was born. I found myself with an even greater desire to explore things in the kitchen with my daughter now eating pretty much all adult food too.

But the REAL inspiration came in October of last year, when I discovered Pinterest. I don't even know what it was or still is about it...maybe it's the picture...maybe it's the personal blog/reviews...who knows...but whatever it is...it's changed my/our lives...for real! Coupled with Pinterest came the discovery from one of my dearest friends, Melanie Driedger, of an app called Paprika! This took my pinterest recipe obsession and new found love of cooking to a whole new level! It's an app where you can digitally store all your recipes...but it's so much more then that! You can meal plan, make grocery lists, rate/categorize recipes and the best feature, share recipes with other Paprika users (you can also email recipes to any friends in a recipe format). This has made organizing my Pinterest recipes so easy! AND...it synchs between desktop to iPad to iPhone! GENIUS!

Desktop View of Paprika

Armed with these tools, I can proudly say that I have now become the main cook in our home! I LOVE finding new recipes and making meal plans...and when the food is actually amazing (truthfully only had a few bad ones so far), it just sends me over the moon!

So, all of that said, I've decided that I am going to post a recipe a week...something I've tried and I LOVED! I love when people share a great recipe with me...so I figure, why not share mine with you! And if you happen to have Paprika, let me know and I'll send the recipe to you directly!
Happy Cooking/Baking!

Recipe #1: Best Ever Chocolate Chip Cookies

This was one of my first pins ever! They claimed to be the BEST, most fluffiest chocolate chip cookies you'd ever had from this blog: http://kelseysappleaday.blogspot.com/ I have such a sweet tooth and absolutely LOVE choc chip cookies! So I thought I'd give them a try! Let me tell you...this is NO word of a lie! These are AMAZING! I would go as far as saying, throw out whatever choc chip cookie recipe you are currently using and make this your new go-to recipe! You will thank me later!

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened 

3/4 cup brown sugar 

1/4 cup  granulated sugar 

1 egg 

2 tsp vanilla extract 

2 cup all purpose flour 

2 tsp cornstarch 

1 tsp baking soda 

1/2 tsp salt 

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugars until fluffy and light in color. Add egg and vanilla and blend in.

3.  Mix in flour, cornstarch, baking soda and salt. Stir in chocolate chunks.

4.  Using a standard-sized cookie scoop or tablespoon, drop dough onto a prepared baking sheet.  Bake for 8-10 minutes, until barely golden brown around the edges.  (The tops will not brown, but do NOT cook longer than ten minutes.)

5.  Let cool, on the sheet, on a wire rack for five minutes.  Remove from baking sheet and let cool completely.  Makes approximately 3 dozen.  

Weight watcher points = 3 points+ per cookie...but SO worth it :)

The Morning After...

The Morning After…

It’s the morning after and I don’t regret it. The only thing I regret is not having done it sooner. Because now, it hurts. I hurt. A lot.

Of course I am talking about my first time back in the pool! You see, I’ve always loved to swim. I’ve been a little fish in the water ever since I can remember. I grew up with a pool in my backyard and also took swimming lessons from a very early age.

Growing up, I tried my hand (and feet) at many sports and nothing ever worked. Until one day, I decided to try synchronized swimming. I used to love watching it on tv…how they would basically dance like mermaids in the water! I wanted to be them! So I tried it…and for the first time in my life…I had found a sport that I LOVED! Most of the girls on my team had been doing it for quite awhile, so I was definitely behind the pack. I started at a recreational level and quickly moved up to competitive, the better I became. It was hard but I loved it! At one point, I was swimming up to 15 hours a week. I was in the shape of my life and would eat like a horse at every meal!

After 4 years of swimming, it came to a point where I had to decide how serious I was about conitnuning on with the sport or deciding to get a part-time job. Money won and soon, my synchro days were nothing but a mere memory. I stopped all physical activity cold turkey. The problem is, my eating habits didn’t change and I didn’t replace my physical activity with any else.

Well, 12 years, a B.A., husband and two beautiful children later, I find myself in really rough shape. Over the years, I've tried various diets, including cleanses as well as purchased wasted gym memberships and the latest trendy DVD workouts…but all for nothing. I used to consider myself a very disciplined person when it came to eating and being active. But somewhere along the line, it changed. My husband is a lover of food and has turned me into quite the foodie as well. One of our favorite things to do together is try new restaurants and foods! We also recently discovered that we enjoy cooking together (up until this year, he’s been the main cook in our house, until Pinterest found me and our lives have completely changed…no joke!). I have had two babies in 16 months and with each pregnancy, I let myself gain almost 60 lbs! That’s a lot of weight to put on and then loose…just to put it all back on a few months later. My 2^nd baby is now 6 months old and I’m down 40 lbs. But I’ve been stuck here…and I don’t like it. I’m roughly still 40-50 lbs overweight and that’s a problem.

However, the even bigger conern for me now is my health. I wake up almost every morning and I’m in pain. My body aches like I’m 70 years old (or at least what I imagine that to feel like). I’ve had so many problems with my back and ankles. Even picking up my kids is laborsome for me (and I have small babies!).  I have zero energy all the time…until the next pot of coffee is made.

And that’s why I hit the pool tonight. Enough is enough. I’ve talked about this for far too long now without doing anything about it. And I’m sick of it! I’m sick of feeling this way…I’m sick of looking this way. It’s time to reclaim my health…not just for my sake, but for my famililes sake.

It was embarrassing to me tonight as I could barely get through ONE lap without stopping. In my hayday, I used to do 50-100+ in no time flat. But it’s a step. It’s where I am now and although I’m not happy that I let it get to this, it’s not going to stay like this forever. I will be fit again. I will be healthy again. I will reclaim my body!

So here’s to achy bones and hunger pains with crazy mood swings mixed in between! So grab a bag of carrots or a bowl of fruit and join me as I journey back to health!

The First One

Hello world!

My name is Christine and yes, I've finally made a blog!

People have been telling me for awhile now that I should blog. I'm not totally sure why...but I've finally decided to try it. If you know me personally, you know that I do love to talk and that I'm just a little bit expressive ;) So I figure this might be the perfect way to talk about everything I love and what is going on my life...and people can choose to listen or not! A heads up, I don't have the best grammar because I definitely write just like I talk, so bare with me! And as you can already see...I really enjoy the dot, dot, dots!

A little bit about myself: I'm still UNDER 30...but not for that much longer! (Ok, I still have a year and a half, but I feel I need to really mentally prepare myself for this traumatizing event!) I am married to such an incredible man named Chris. Everyday is an adventure with him and I'm just so blessed that I get to journey this life with him! Together, we've created two of the most amazing little children: Leah & Gabriel! They are only 16 months apart and so life is very full, loud and tiring most days...but I wouldn't have it any other way! I am Canadian and very proud of it! We currently live in the great white north where a normal winter day is anywhere from -10 to -40! Brr! The hubs works at a church running the student ministries program (and is doing an amazing job!). I also work at the same church as the worship arts pastor but currently I am on maternity leave and therefore my job status right now is stay-at-home mommy and I'm not complaining :)

I, along with the other hundreds of thousands of people, am addicted to Pinterest. I've always wanted to read blogs and various how-to's online, but I honestly never knew where to start. When one of my close friend invited me to join Pinterest, I honestly had no idea what I was about to get myself into! Since October of last year, I've been HOOKED! OBSESSED! ADDICTED! I honestly don't think there is a day that goes by where I don't talk, think or recreate something I've seen on Pinterest. I just loving finding amazing pins and then clicking through to the various blogs and ultimately, learning new things everyday. I'm known to be a bit of an exaggerator when I talk about most things in life, however, when I say that Pinterest has changed my life...that is no word of a lie! It's not only changed my life, but my families life. For instance, my hubby used to be the main cook in our home. I honestly NEVER cooked nor had any desire to even learn. But something happened when I started pinning recipes...I became inspired! I saw other friends...other moms pinning these great recipes and all of a sudden I felt like I had support! I felt like...if she can make this, so can I! I was so challenged (in a positive way) to try all of these great new finds! And I'm proud to say that I've now become the main chef at home! I'll even go a step further and confidently say my cooking isn't that bad...and it's thanks to the many other amazing bloggers out there that gave me the confidence to cook (sorry for the cheesefest, but it's the truth!)

So, with that said...I decided that I would start sharing with the world things I've tried or done, both successfully and not so much. If someone gains any kind of inspiration from it...that's awesome! And if it's just an outlet for me to rant and "think" I'm sharing with others, well, that's ok too! I used to run my own wedding planning company called Pure Potential Weddings (I'll throw a few wedding blogs up from time to time!). I loved everything about weddings and event planning and so this blog title is a play on my beloved & successful business that I was so blessed to have for a period of time!

So I invite you to join me as I share my journey through this life, trying to get the most out of every opportunity while creating pretty and tasty things that just make life a little more lovely...and all the other musings in between :)