Baked French Fries & Hamburgers from Pinterest

3-4 medium to large potatoes, sliced into 1/8ths

2 TBS Virgin Olive Oil

1/4 teas salt

1/4 ground pepper

1/4 to 1/2 teas of Johnny's seasoning salt (Greatest Seasoning EVER)

2 TBS of grated Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 425.  Wash and cut potatoes into 1/8ths.

In a large zip lock bag add olive oil, spices, and Parmesan cheese.  Then add potatoes.  Shake the bag well until potatoes are evenly coated with mixture.  Then dump potatoes onto well greased cookie sheet. and bake for 30-45 minutes or until tender and golden brown.

I also made some hamburgers to go with the yummy fries.  I got the recipe for Pinterest my new favorite place!  They were the best hamburgers I've had in a long time. You've got to try them out!

New Pillows

So I've been searching for new material to recover my pillows with. I was never happy with the material I had on them in the first place.  I came across some fabric at the DI for $2 and fell in love with it (the yellow/gold pillow).  Knowing my Mom was coming for a visit and her being my sewing lady and all, I had her bring her sewing machine along so we could fix my pillows.  While she was here we just happen to come across some pillows (the back pillow with all the colors) at Sam's Club for $4.91 a piece.  I snagged the last two knowing they would look great with my yellow/gold fabric.  We then came home and started sewing. Once the sewing was all done and the pillows were on the couch it seemed to be missing something...the blue color.  So out we went looking for some more fabric.  We ended up at our local craft store, using my 50% coupon I found the color and ended up paying $2 for a yard of it.  I'm so happy with the combination of all three pillows.  It is the best $14 I spent in a long time!

I decided to add a couple of rosettes to the yellow/gold pillow.  Aren't they cute?

Since I changed the color scheme in the room I had to change a bit of my decor.  I picked up a bottle of paint to bring in the blue and painted some of my picture frames.

And I painted this "C" gold to match my yellow/gold pillows.

I'm so happy with how it all turned out!  A big thanks to my Mom for all her help sewing my pillows!

Homemade Chili

Here is a yummy recipe for a blustery winter day...

Homemade Chili

1 lb ground beef or turkey

1 small onion, chopped

1 can pinto or white beans

1 can kidney beans

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato sauce

3/4 cup water

1 cup ketchup

3 TBS brown sugar

1 TBS chili powder

2 teas ground cumin

1/4 teas salt

1/4 teas garlic salt

1/8 teas ground pepper

1 to 2 bay leaves

Brown meat, add onion and cook until onion is soft.  Add spices, then liquids.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes.  Another option would be to add 1 green pepper, diced.  Serve with bread sticks (from a past post), rolls, or cinnamon rolls.  YUMMY!!!

Re-finished Tool Box

We are renting a home and out in the back yard is a pile of wood scraps and junk.  So I decided to rumage through it and see what I could find and low and behold I found this--an awesome wooden tool box.  It was covered in mud and leaves.  I brought it inside and cleaned it up, put a new coat of stain on it and looky there, it became a new place to store books!  I love it!

It has taught me to never pass up something that is old and worn out.  You never know, if you just put a little thinking and elbow grease into it you've got yourself something useful and great!

Crayon Valentine-Heart Sun Catchers

Aren't they adorable? This is such a fun activity to do with the kids and most likely you already have all the supplies you'll need laying around your house! Perfect! Love that!
These cute sun catchers would work with any holiday really. We usually do it for St. Patrick's Day too and cut clovers instead of hearts. :)

Step 1: Shave up all those old and broken, red, pink, white, purple crayons you have laying around the house. Everybody has some right? :) I just used a sharp knife to make my shavings.

Step 2: Place a piece of wax paper over a brown paper bag. Let your kids spread crayon shavings over the wax paper, using whatever color combo they'd like.

Step 3: Place another piece of wax paper on top of your shavings, then place another brown paper bag on top of the wax paper. Iron on top of the brown paper bag with a warm iron until your crayon shavings begin to melt and spread.
Wa-la! You've got yourself a fancy, colorful, Valentine sun catcher.

Step 4: Let them cool for just a minute or two, then let your kids get busy drawing and cutting heart shapes out of them. My kids especially LOVE this part!

Step 5: Tape all your cutesy Valentine colored hearts to the windows and watch them gleam in the sunshine!

Beautiful, just beautiful!

Now, go gather up all those old, un-wanted crayons and get shaving!  :)

You've Got {Valentine} Mail

I had this fun idea that I did for my kids last year and they LOVED IT!
I thought I'd share...

While browsing the craft store I found this cute little mailbox and some felt heart stickers to decorate it.

Who wouldn't LOOOVE getting Valentine mail???

Each day leading up to Valentine's Day, I'd fill it with sweet treats, little love notes or a fun Valentine activity to do together with my kids.

For one of the days I colored heart paper doilies, wrote a special "love" message for each of my kids on the back, stuck a treat to it, shoved them in the mailbox and put the
"Attention: You've Got Mail" flag up.

My three sweeties squealed with delight every time they noticed the "You've Got Mail" flag was up!
They LOVED it!

It turned out to be a fun and simply way to let my little cuties know how much I love them.  Plus, it's always fun to celebrate the upcoming Valentine's holiday.  Can't wait to pull out our mailbox and get started with our Valentine countdown this year!

Pinterest recipe put to the test. . .

Orange Kissed Cookies

Like many of you, I too am addicted to Pinterest! :) I pinned these little cuties last week and knew I wanted to make them ASAP.

Okay, so can I just say, they did not disappoint! Oh my goodness! If you're a fan of orange flavored things then you've got to try this recipe. It's the perfect combo of sweetness mixed with just the right amount of orange flavor. To die for! Really!

Go give them a whirl, you won't be sorry you did! My family gives them two thumbs up!

*Note: I didn't put orange food coloring in my frosting because I didn't have any, that's why mine are a little lighter in color than the original.  No worries though, super delish either way!