Delicious Drink

This last week has been extremely long and busy! Between hosting Thanksgiving Dinner, my car totally dying and my husband having some health issues I haven't had a second to breath. Thankfully things are starting to slow down and I have decided that tonight I was going to relax and have some me time. So now that my two guys are in bed I am going to sit down and catch up on all my favorite shows, thank you DVR, and have a nice big glass of my favorite wine. I was never a wine lover until I discovered the Nehalem Bay Winery http://www.nehalembaywinery.com/. Most of their wines are so fruity and taste like juice....spiked juice. I introduced my husband to their wines a couple years ago and he was automatically hooked so every winter we order a case of all our favorite flavors. My all time favorite is Pacific Plum and my husband's is American Niagra but we also love the Apple Jack, Peach, Pear and Coastal Cranberry.

Tonight I poured myself a yummy glass of the Peach wine. To keep my wine cold I threw in some frozen red grapes, they work great and unlike ice cubes they don't melt and water down my tasty treat. 

I just wanted to share my Nehalem Bay wine obsession and my grape cube trick with you all. Now I'm off to watch Hart Of Dixie (Wade.....mMmMm!) Have a great night.

Happy Thanksgiving

Decorations For Thanksgiving Day

Like I said in my last blog I decorated our house for Thanksgiving Day since we are hosting this year. I didn't do much but I thought I would share what I did do with you. 

I put a fall table cloth on our table, since our table is so big the fall table cloth wouldn't cover the whole table so I put it on diagonally over the dark brown table cloth that is on the table all the time . I hung my Be Thankful banner that I made over the window

To make the "center piece" I used a fall colored round place mat, 4 different fall fake leaf bunches that I bought from The Dollar Tree, 3 glass candle holders and 3 tall red candles that I cut to make different heights (I bought them from The Dollar Tree as well.) A black napkin holder and black salt and pepper shakers.

For the center piece on the long counter top I used another fall colored place mat, a glass plate and rock set with 3 candles I bought from The Dollar Tree. I laid a fall fake leaf wreath that I bought from The Dollar Tree around the bottom of the glass plate. 

I stuck fall colored fake leaf bunches on top of our cabinets.

I also randomly placed fall colored fake leaf bunches around the house

I hung this little guy on our front door to great all our guests.

Be Thankful Banner

I don't really decorate for Thanksgiving and that's pretty much do to the fact that I have never really found Thanksgiving decorations in the stores, I feel like Thanksgiving gets jipped being the holiday stuck between Halloween and Christmas. But this year we are hosting Thanksgiving dinner so I thought decorations were a necessity. I went to The Dollar Tree and bought some of their fall decorations but again nothing to Thanksgivingish. So when I got home I decided to make a Thanksgiving banner to hang on our dinning room wall. Here is what I came up with:

Supplies: yellow and red and brown construction paper, a leaf stencil, letters that spell out BE THANKFUL (I traced them on my computer monitor from online), string, tape, glue and scissors.

I traced the leaf stencil onto each piece of construction paper then cut them all out, there were 10 leaves. I then cut out each letter and glued them onto the leaves making sure the colors were in a pattern. Then I taped the leaves onto a long piece of string. Its a great touch and its my only true Thanksgiving decoration.

Toddler Turkey Lunch

I really cant believe that Thanksgiving is only 3 days away, this year has flown by! Trying to get myself into a festive Thanksgiving Day zone I made my son a turkey lunch today. I thought it was cute and my son thought it was funny...it was also healthy which was a plus.

I made him a sandwich using wheat round sandwich slim bread. I rolled some cream cheese into two small balls then topped them with two tiny piece of black olives. I cut a beak and two little feet out of cheddar cheese and pealed a small piece of red apple skin to use as the gobbler. I then sliced up a red apple, green apple and a banana and alternated them making a turkey tail.

Gobble Gobble!

A Taste Of Twilight

I have a confession....I knew absolutely nothing about Twilight, the books or the movies, until one of my friends brought over Twilight and New Moon for our movie night about two and a half years ago. After watching both movies I was hooked! (I must of seriously been living under a rock because I don't know how I missed the Twilight bandwagon.) I ran out and bought all the books, which I read in just a few months...that is fast for me, watched Eclipse in the theater when they re released it on "Bella's birthday" and watched Breaking Dawn Part 1 a couple weeks after it came out...I was finally with it. And today, two days after it came out, I went and watched Breaking Dawn Part 2 with the friend that introduced me to Twilight two and a half years ago, fitting right?! All I can say is wow and oh my gosh, in my opinion it is the best Twilight movie out of all The Twilight Saga films. Like most Twilight fans I have become attached to all the characters so I am sad that its all over but I am so happy and excited by the way it ended. Leaving the theater was definitely bitter sweet.

Since Breaking Dawn Part 2 is the last Twilight movie I thought it would be appropriate and fun to have a little Twilight inspired pre movie get together.

Since each book cover is red, white and black I wanted to use those colors as my theme. I also wanted to take the cover art, the red apple, the white rose and the torn red ribbon, and use them as my decorations ( I didn't have a white or red chess piece so I figured the cover of the book would do.) I didn't want to put out to much figuring we would be getting things to munch on at the theater so all I served was red and white and black jelly beans, black and red licorice, red apple slices and of course red wine. 

Grimm Dinner

One of my favorite TV shows is Grimm, I love the dark take on the classic Grimm Brothers' Fairy Tales. Plus the show is based and filmed in Oregon and I love everything Oregon since its my home away from home. If you have never seen the show click here to see what its all about. Tonight is the Fall finale of the show so of course me being me I wanted to make a Grimm themed dinner for myself and my family to eat while we watch the Fall finale episode tonight. Here is what I came up with:

Since Oregon is cold and wet 99% of the time I thought grilled cheese and tomato soup would be appropriate. I bought Tillamook cheese for the grilled cheese sandwiches since its made in Tillamook Oregon. I found a recipe for Homemade Tomato Soup in my Eating The Oregon Way cook book that I bought from Goodwill.          

 Recipe: 2 teaspoons finely chopped onion, 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, 2 1/2 tablespoons unbleached white flour, ground pepper, 3 cups tomato juice, 3 cups cold milk. Saute onion in butter then add flour and pepper. Cook until smooth and bubbly stirring constantly. Remove from heat and gradually stir in tomato juice. Bring to a boil stirring constantly, let it boil for about a minute. Stir the hot tomato mixture gradually into the cold milk then heat to serving temperature.

For dessert I thought a nice hot cup of Oregon Chai tea and sugar cookies would hit the spot. But keeping with the Grimm theme I cut the sugar cookie dough into little sword shapes then sprinkled a bit of cinnamon onto each of the sword handles. I baked the dough using the directions on the bag.

I bought Dead Guy Ale to drink with dinner which is Oregon Brewed at the Rogue Brewery in Newport Oregon. And to give the meal a little something extra I topped off the tomato soup with a piece of cheese cut into the shape of Oregon.

Of course I had to break out my brass knuckle mug to drink my Oregon Chai tea out of, it goes so well with my sword sugar cookies!

If you love Grimm like I do I hope that you find this idea fun, and if you haven't seen the show then check it out. It is entertaining to see a different take on some of my old favorite fairy tales....plus Monroe is awesomely funny!

Quick Quote Scarf

I love to personalize things, I love making them my own....making them one of a kind! So I took a plain boring scarf and made it my own by writing one of my all time favorite quotes on it. It was so quick and easy and now it is my favorite scarf to wear.

All I needed was a plain white scarf and a black Sharpie marker.

I laid out the scarf on my kitchen floor then tightly taped it down. With a piece of paper between the scarf and the floor I wrote my favorite quote on the scarf with the Sharpie marker. I let it dry over night then washed and dried the scarf the next day.

“Every dreamer knows that it is entirely possible to be homesick for a place you've never been to, perhaps more homesick than for familiar ground.” -Judith Thurman

Nature Fall Nails

I found inspiration for this design when I looked out my kitchen window and saw all the beautiful yellow, red and brown leaves blowing around in the crisp fall breeze.

I used Sally Hansen's White On, Sinful Colors Morning Breath, Sinful Colors Ruby Ruby, Revlon's Foxy and two small leaves. I painted two coats of Foxy on all my nails but my ring finger nails which I painted with two coats of White On.

I painted the tip of one of the leaves with Morning Breath and placed the painted part on my ring finger nail over the White On polish making a leaf imprint. I repeated this step with Ruby Ruby and Foxy.

Don't leave the leaf on your nail for to long or it will dry and wont come off.

After the leaf prints dried a bit I painted all my nails with a top coat.

"Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree."-Emily Bronte

Beaded Safety Bracelet

I was out shopping the other day and was shocked at how busy the stores are already! The aisles were packed and all the checkout lines were never ending, it took me forever to run a couple errands (I think I should of started Christmas shopping in June!) With my son starting to be as independent as possible and him thinking its fun to run away from mommy to do his own thing I decided to make him an I.D. bracelet. It was easy and cheap to make and he thinks its fun to wear. I keep it in my purse and put it on him when we go anywhere where there are crowds e.g. the mall, the park, the store, the airport. Luckily my son has never gone missing, knock on wood, but its nice to know that if he does whoever finds him will know his name and know how to get a hold of me.

I used some small beads, a big bead in the shape of something my son loves (the elephant) and some elastic cord that I bought from Michaels. I engraved a dog tag with my sons name and my cell phone number on it at PetSmart. I just looped the cord through the holes in the dog tag then beaded each side of the cord. I put the elephant bead on one side of the cord, knotted the cord together, cut off the excess and slipped the elephant bead over the knot. 

Fighting Germs While Flying

It seems like every time we fly my son catches some kind of illness and ends up sick as a dog at the end of our vacation, this isn't that big of a surprise since airplanes are teeming with bacteria and viruses. I was desperate for him to stay healthy this trip so I did my research and used what I learned on both our flights and the steps I took actually seemed to work. This was the first time that my son did not end up sick after flying so I thought I would share the steps I took to keep my family and myself healthy while flying.

Precautions Before We Left:

1. We all got our flu shots from our doctors.

2. I made sure that we all took our multivitamins daily.

3. I bought my son Mott's For Tots Immune Support Fruit Punch and had him drink a glass or two a day.

Precautions On The Plane:

1. With the Clorox travel cleaning wipes I brought in my carry on bag I wiped down all our arm rests and tray tables. Since my son was sitting in the window seat and felt the need to put his face against the glass to look outside and found it very amusing to open and close the shade I wiped them off as well.

2. They say that the airplanes ventilation system recirculates the air in the plane so when the person in the seat across the aisle from you coughs their germs fly right onto you....gross! So I just turned off mine and my sons vents. Since my husband was hot and needed the air to cool down I had him point his vent so the air was blowing onto the middle of his chest. 

3. I made sure that we kept our hands clean throughout the whole flight. My husband and I used an alcohol based hand sanitizer and I wiped my sons hands using Wet Ones antibacterial hand wipes.

4. I bought a couple bottles of water after we got through security and made sure to keep my sons cup full. The cabin pressure inside the plane dries out your mucous membranes making them more susceptible to germs so staying hydrated will help the membranes stay moisturized. 

5. I tried my hardest to keep my son from touching his mouth, nose and eyes since the oral and nasal route are the main ways a virus gets into your system.

6. I absolutely did not use the seat back pocket and made sure none of us touched the magazines they keep in there, this is one of the germiest places on a plane.
"We've seen passengers shove used tissues, dirty diapers, banana peels, sunflower-seed shells, and general trash into the seat pockets on a plane. And that black hole of grossness definitely isn't deep-cleaned between flights. We recommend that you don't put anything in that pocket—it's like storing your stuff inside a public trashcan for the duration of your flight." www.smartertravel.com

7. Another one of the germiest places on a plane is the bathroom so after using it I washed my hands really really well and used a paper towel to open the door. Then when I got back to my seat I slapped on a glob of hand sanitizer.

My germ fighting weapons!

"The greatest wealth is health."  
-Virgil

Traveling With A Toddler

My family and I just got back from vacation where we flew to my home town and back. Flying with a toddler isn't always the easiest and if you are anything like me you are stressed to the max right before you board the plane because you don't want to be those people with the crying, screaming kid. But my son and I have flown so many times in the past 2 years that I have learned how to keep him calm, quiet and happy on a two plus hour flight. Since the holidays are fast approaching and travel seems inevitable I thought I would share what I pack in my sons carry on backpack:

1. Head phones that go over my sons ears so he could listen to his shows without disturbing the other passengers.

2. My iPad which I downloaded a bunch of his favorite Disney Junior shows on. I made sure that they were new episodes that he hadn't seen yet so they would keep his attention. I bought them from iTunes where I also rented Madagascar 3 for him to watch. If you don't have an iPad I would recommended a portable DVD player, I bought a brand new one from a Pawn Shop a year and a half ago for $30 and it went everywhere with us. I have also seen them for sale at 2nd hand stores.

3. A new toy that I kept hidden until we were on the plane. I bought him a Hot Wheels Race And Play Car for the iPad. 

4. As you can probably tell my son is obsessed with cars right now so I packed some of his favorites for him to play with.

5. I packed one of his cups for him to drink out of during take off and landing to help prevent ear pain from the change in altitude. I also packed a Mio so I could give the water I bought after we went through security a little flavor so he would actually drink it.

6. I brought his favorite blanket to make him feel more secure and of course keep him warm.

7. I also brought his favorite stuffed animal which could double as a pillow if he fell asleep.

8. I made sure to pack some of his favorite snacks

9. I packed a small coloring book with some of his favorite characters in it and some crayons in a zip lock bag, I only brought a few colors that way I wouldn't be searching the floor for a whole box of crayons after we landed.

10. I packed a few new books that I bought from The Dollar Tree, again I hid them until we were on the plane. 

11. This is the outfit that I dressed my son in for the plane ride, I tried to make him as comfortable as possible. I also packed an extra pair of comfortable clothes in his backpack just in case.

12. My son wears Pull Up Training Pants but I put him in a night time diaper for the plane ride since they are extra absorbent and he isn't fully potty trained. And of course I packed extra night diapers in his backpack.

I hope this helps if you are planning on traveling with a toddler, whether it be on an airplane or on a road trip.  

Good Luck!