Those Crazy Dog Costumes

Ok, I never thought I would be a crazy dog person, who dressed up her dog, but then we got one and it is just to cute not to, plus she is like 5 pounds and it is 35 degrees outside. So yes I am a sucker for dog sweaters, haven't gotten too crazy with anything else, but these costumes are hilarious. some might be a little cruel to the dog, but I won't pass judgment. This dog looks like he loves his frog costume.

Ok, this one does seem a little cruel.... and the dog is showing it on her face. Don don, don don (Imagine the Jaws theme, since I can't seem to type it out.)

Awesome, for all you Star Wars fans. I happen to think these are funny due to the fake arm nature so the dogs look like they are standing straight up.

Does this seem wrong to anyone besides me?

White Chili with Chicken

We had our first snow fall this morning! I am feeling definitely inspired to cook up some warm hearty soups. This last Sunday I made this recipe from the Family Fun Magazine (Love this magazine!). A little known fact about me is that I can take a perfectly good recipe and make it out of this world wonderful, but also extremely unhealthy. This is like my super power of making fatty dishes, and I really struggle to make healthy things, so find the recipe here -http://familyfun.go.com/recipes/white-chili-with-chicken-784989/ and then to change it like I did (I promise you wont be sorry!) The recipe calls for like 2-3 Tablespoons of half and half, Well I thought what a waste since I bought the whole container of it, so I added the entire 2 cups of half and half, then I doubled the amount of cumin, since I thought it just was not strong enough. The result was a creamy mildly spicy hearty chicken soup. Oh and I also used a rotisserie chicken. yummy served with chips and cheese and bread. delicious.

Cute new pics and outfit!

I am extremely lucky to know a few great photographers, unlucky though because I will not settle for Target pics anymore. I really appreciate beautiful photography. I never wanted to be the type who fills their home with pics of themselves, always seemed a little obnoxious, but I have one of those, and I can't even replace the older ones with the new ones since I love them all.
Highlite Photography http://highlitephotography.com/ is run by some family of mine, and I can't say enough good things about them! They are gorgeous and hip and change with the times and keep their look really current.

These pictures were taken up at Silver Lake, a personal family favorite spot for us, and yes there was a ton of snow on the ground, who would have guessed on the second day of October. And to the other question, I made this whole outfit, (OK not really the leggings are Gymboree and the boots Walmart). But I made this skirt from a collection of adorable fall/back to school prints with apples and leaves and owls, I love it! I made her a little peasant type shirt to go with it and then crocheted the hat and this little brown tank top. Obviously I did not have a pattern for the tank top and this is first run experiment, but I think for the pictures, it totally turned out awesome.

Tonight's Dinner is brought to you by....

Uh huh, that's right Panda Express now bottles their famous orange chicken sauce. I have been feeling a bit frazzled lately, so I of course jumped on this easy dinner idea. Even easier when cooked up with pre cooked chicken strips. Tonight however I did coat the chicken and fry it to crispy goodness first, being nice to the daughter. Have I mentioned that Panda Express Orange chicken is her absolute favorite take out item? So the verdict on the sauce? Pretty good, the kid was in heaven thinking she had gone and died in orange fantasy, the obvious problem, this really does not taste like the original stuff. no. However, it is good, and I think it would taste good on meatballs or with egg rolls. So I would say it is a good buy to have on hand, but not if you think it is going to taste just like it advertises, hey the kid didn't know any different. And yes you are sensing some detachment right now, my husband has been out of town now for 5 days... one more I can hold onto sanity.

Haloween Giveaway Winner

Congrats to Kila Szymanski for winning the trick or treat tote!
I used the random number generator at random.org and assigned each comment a number like first person was number one and so on. Well the random number for today was 4! So Congratulations, hope this tote will be well used this season. Just email me (lauraford21@hotmail.com) with your shipping address and I will have it off to you ASAP!
And thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway, come back next month for something cute, and let me know if there is anything in particular that you would like to see up for the drawing, I love to be accommodating.

Another Hat Giveaway!

Little Willow, a fabulous design blog is featuring my hats, and etsy store, today. With the feature they are giving away one custom made hat to a lucky random winner. Run right over and check out her cute blog, leave a comment to enter, and do it quickly since it will only be up till Thursday. http://littlewillow.com/2009/10/13/tuesday-giveaway-crabby-crochet/

Crazy Corn Maze

For Christmas last year, Pete gave Cadence a purse with 12 coupons in it for Daddy Daughter Dates, one for each month. Cadence gets to pick what she wants to do (with a budget of 25$, and yes Pete did do the math on this being a pretty expensive gift). This month she wanted to go to a Corn Maze, so I tagged along which I have done once or twice before. Sadly I am good for bowling and corn mazes and such, but no good for kids movies. (like Aliens in the Attic - haha Pete)
Cadence was hilarious in the maze, we told her she was in charge of navigating, and every time she would hit a dead end you could see the confidence meter lowering, but then we would have a sign that we were going in the right direction and she was right back there, swaggering a little claiming she could "sniff" the direction. We got quite a kick out of her. And yes in case you can't tell from the pictures it was freezing! 45 degrees when we left, she could not be persuaded to wait til next week when we warm up a bit. Also I lost the bet to Pete that they would have kettle korn for sale. I mean hello corn maze, shouldn't you sell corn on the cob and kettle korn? I will lodge my complaints with the corn business bureau.

Italian Chicken Bundles

I thought I would share one of our family's tried and true recipes. This is one of those go-to meals that is easy, delicious and looks way more impressive then it really is. You can imagine this with a yummy spinach salad and some garlic bread right? Well here is the recipe and then I will tell you what I change, then you can choose how you want to make it
Italian Chicken Bundles
1 1/2 C. skinless chicken breast cubed small
1 bunch green onion sliced
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1 garlic clove minced
1/4 C. Parmesan cheese grated
2 bunch. spinach steamed
8 oz. fat free ricotta cheese
1/4 tsp. oregano
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
tomato sauce
10 egg roll wrappers

So since the recipe only calls for 10 wrappers and the package comes with like 20 - I immediately double the recipe. This recipe is also supposed to be low fat, I throw that out the window and use low fat ricotta cheese and I throw in 1-2 Cups of mozzarella cheese. Also I double the garlic amount (again I know) and then I use loads of fresh basil - if it is handy unlike how I have let it freeze again. If not I still throw in dried basil. Also I just use frozen spinach -

So instructions - Cook chicken and onion in oil on med. heat, brown the chicken and then add garlic for 1 min longer. Let the chicken cool and then combine with Parmesan (Save some to sprinkle - and use real cheese, not the dried flaky stuff) and the rest of the ingredients together. Then spray a 12 cup muffin tin with cooking spray stuff and then assemble your bundles like so...

You just fill each cup with the mix, close the flaps over the mix and then spray again to help keep closed and to add the crispiness to the top. Pretty huh? Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 min. until browned and pretty and then serve with the spaghetti sauce of your choice. Delicious!

Halloween Party

Pete and I got invited to a Halloween Party, costumes required. That last bit alone, almost made us say no, partly because we didn't have a ton of time, I mean honestly who has a costume by Oct. 2? Well I guess we could have pulled something out of the box and done something, but for some reason I really wanted to have matching costumes. (Part of my Craziness?) Whatever, so my husband does not like to do anything halfway; the party by the way was a black lit poker night, so I suggested we go as skeletons then the bones would really glow. Too boring for my husband apparently - his idea was to be a garden gnome, funny yes, but I didn't want to be a gnome. So his second choice was to be Hades. So the following pictures are against my better judgement - I would really like to add that the no shirt part was 100% his idea. I designed the costume to be worn with a black shirt underneath, and he thought it looked weird or cheesy or something, so he says to me "It would be nice if I could just take my shirt off" I reply with "well yea it would be nice if you were all toned and tanned, but..." next thing I know he has no shirt on. I think he looked awesome though. He is wearing fake leather pants (I made them) and arm gauntlets - and you can not see but he has a little Greek headband thing with flames over the ears, very hard core. - I was a little upset over the lack of Greek mythology in America, but here is a quick summary, Hades; God of the underworld (he has a helmet of fire). His wife is....tada...

Persephone; Goddess of Spring. This is the myth of the seasons, Hades tricked Persephone and she went down to the underworld and ate 4 pomegranate seeds, thus the four seasons, Hades lets her out once in awhile, thus the oncoming of spring. World melts, yada yada yada.... Any who, This dress was not what I had designed on paper. Mind you there are no patterns for Hades and Persephone I made them up and guess what? I would get kicked off Project Runway. So whatever, I was not happy with the results, but oh well.

Stay tuned for pictures of Sushi becoming Cerberus, the three headed dog that guards the gates of the underworld.

Halloween Decorations

I thought I might share a few pics of what my house is looking like lately. This is what I do instead of the dishes. (or laundry, or sew or garden)
Disclaimer; this is not an original idea of mine, I wish it was since I love it so. The decorating behind this look is pretty self explanatory. Empty and wash jar, fill with Halloween inspired candies, melt candle over jar. Easy huh? And Cheap! and awesome! Added benefit is that The lids are covered by wax, so you can not open them and eat it. I love the look of big hurricane jars filled with Halloween candy, but I would just eat it, so this is a great solution for me.

Makes for a very cute mantle piece. It looks great when all the candles are lit, but you have to put something under them, since the whole idea is for them to drip everywhere.

Here are a few other shots of Halloweeny things. Here are some pillow covers I made, no I do not put them all on the same couch, just did it for the sake of the picture. The witches hat was the easiest and I think stands out the most due to the large graphics.

This is a patchwork quilt Cadence actually made with her Grandma 2 years ago. She picked out the fabric and placed them where they wanted to be and then they sewed them together. I really like how it looks framed up by the entryway, makes me think something big needs to go there permanently.

And last but not least, an addition to my front door is this black feather boa wreath I made, from a foam wreath ring and a feather boa. Very easy yet again, are you catching on to the theme of my decor? I do have plans for bigger more complex things, like a series of witches hats that I make each one different and elaborate, but that is why it is still a plan. Anyway, enjoy the season, you know we are at my house!