Jenn Tries...

For the first post of 2017, I thought I would pick it up where I left off, by sharing the next page to my activity book. I actually liked the idea of making 'I is for Ice Cream' for a while now, but I just felt like it was a too simple for the book. So I decided to search Pinterest to see what others had made. And I stumbled upon this page: Photo from All The Quiet Things It instantly assured me that an ice cream page could work in the activity book. And it also gave me an idea on how to make my own as well. Here's What You Need: Assorted Felt Fabric Glue Needle and Embroidery Thread Scissors Here's How You Do It: Step 1: Setting Up The Page I kept the set up for this page very simple. I cut out a capital letter I out of felt and sewed it on the bottom left hand corner of my page. Next I cut out a felt ice cream cone; sewed it into the middle of my page. And to complete the ice cream theme, I added an ice cream container to the right h...

Happy Monday All! Apparently I missed the memo and instead of telling you my resolutions for 2017, I instead was supposed to pick a word to inspire me for the next year! So here we go... Photo from Kenspeckle Letterpress All right, I just learned that word and thought it would be fun throw it in there... (But it actually is a really useful word for my life... if it wasn't so strange and funny sounding that is) Actually my one word is: photo from Penned By Bren 2017 is the year that I turn 30, Mike turns 40, Blue starts preschool in the fall, and Lyon will finally get to experience what life is like as an only child. I will also be switching to a new restaurant by the end of the month. So overall as a family we'll be having a lot of adventures And the blog itself is in for an adventure over the next 12 months. Things are already starting to change and I'm hoping to get things up and fully running by March. (I want to say February, but...

And here we are in 2017! To kick off 2017 I thought I would share my new year's resolution: I actually started this resolution somewhere in the middle of 2016. (That was when I decided to stop being afraid of breaking all my expensive machinery and to start actually learning how to use it properly!) And if I could add to this list, it would be to actually learn how to take care of my finances! (I'm a spender and not a saver! Its terrible! So with my 30th birthday looming, I really need to learn to be better with my finances and start saving for retirement and start paying down all my debt!) So this year along with setting up my new planner (I found this really nice one at Target that took care of all my bullet points I wanted from my bullet journal. So yes I'm back to a planner for 2017), I decided to get a blank notebook so I can track my spending in it. I spent a little bit of last night setting both of them up! So they should be ready for the new yea...

Well its certainly been a whirlwind of a week! And yes I know last week I said I would keep up with the blog, but now I realize that's not going to happen. I very much want to keep up with it, but its just not going to happen. And that's okay. It gives me a little time to step back from the blog and figure out how to get it ready for the launch. So with that being said expect some changes to be happening around the blog! Anyway, since this is the last Monday Free Write of 2016 (and probably my last post of the year too!) I decided use it as a year in review. Let's see... 2016 was... interesting to say the least... especially around here on the blog! This was the year that I (finally!) decided to reclaim my life and start learning to do stuff I should have learned a long time ago. So this year I (finally!) learned to use my sewing machine and my stand mixer! Both of which were a lot easier to use than I thought they would be. (And I definitely put my crock pot to good...

There's officially less than a week until Christmas! And less than two weeks left in 2016! Its crazy how fast the year goes isn't it? It feels like it was just June and I was worrying about running the blog and getting it ready for the big launch. Well its almost time for that. I'm hoping that will be sometime in January. I know I was hoping for the new year, but there's still so much work to do on the blog. All right that might be an overstatement. I just want to update the banner and the color scheme. And do a little touch up work along the way.  The problem is that I just (finally!) started training for a new restaurant. So for the next couple of weeks I'm going to be super busy with that and still maintaining my normal work schedule. So I'll do my best to keep up with the blog. Its just more than likely that some of posts are going to be a day or two delayed. I'm not going to lie, it's very disheartening. But I know in the end it'll be for t...

I've been playing with the idea of eggnog all December long. Its not really Christmas time if you don't enjoy some eggnog right? Or at least that's how I roll. My first thought was to make my own eggnog, but its probably best if I try that next year. When the boys (Lion) are a little older and I have time to focus on not over cooking the eggnog. (And yes I looked in a slow cooker recipe, but I set my milk out to warm to room temperature and Lion somehow got his dirty paws in it. So lesson learned on that one!) So I turned back to Pinterest to find fun ways to use eggnog. The first was eggnog lattes (which hopefully I'll be talking about next week!) and the second was different ways to bake with eggnog. And while I'm sure eggnog cupcakes are delicious, I decided to try out eggnog pancakes instead! The Recipe Eggnog Pancakes from  Recipe Girl Results Since this is my fourth or fifth pancake recipe I've tried, I've become a pro at making a goo...

I've spent the past couple of weeks at a loss of what to make for my monthly crochet project. I was going to make an infinity scarf, but I couldn't decide on a color or what kind of yarn I wanted. And I've looked at making glove, but I'm not sure that I'm ready to make a pair yet.  I thought I finally had something when I discovered a crochet cat nest, but even after getting all of my grandmas extra yarn, I don't have the right size needed.  So I just began searching Pinterest for any crochet project that I was interested in. That's when I discovered this: The Project: Crochet Can Cozy Photo and instructions from  With a Grateful Prayer and a Thankful Heart I instantly knew, I could rework the project to fit over my mason jar cup. Results (All links are affiliated. So if you like it or need it please use the links provided. The blog gets little kickback if you do at no charge to you) (For this project I used an Orange, Cream a...