Nuggets

Last night we went with friends to a Nuggets game.

Birdman

Paid a kid $1 to borrow his Birdman wig.

Soda Tab Bracelet

I made a soda tab bracelet last night.  I picked a shiny bronze ribbon to get a two-toned metal look.  But, I am looking forward to doing another one in a bright color.  I got this idea here where you can also see more pictures.

What you need:  1.5 yards 5/8" ribbon, 20 soda tabs, 2 bobby pins (optional)

1. Fold the ribbon in half, stringing the first soda tab toward the fold and leaving a loop on the end.  

2. Overlap the next soda tab and weave the ribbon through.  The top ribbon strand goes through the top of the tab and the bottom strand through the bottom.  

Tips:

- Make sure the soda tabs are facing the same direction, i.e. the bottom of the tab that was connected to the can is always on the bottom or the top.

- Use the bobby pins or tape the ends of the ribbon to help it through the tabs.

- Take care to straighten the ribbon out after every pass through the tab.  Otherwise, the ribbon tends to get lumpy and sloppy looking.

 You could spray paint the tabs or use the green tabs from Heineken cans (this recommendation came from Chris).  I think this would also be a cool belt - that would be a lot of tabs to collect.

Cost:

Soda Tabs: $0 (by product of our excessive soda consumption lately)

Ribbon: $.50  (3 yd spool was $1 at Michaels, but I should have enough for 1 more bracelet)

Total: $.50

Your Input Needed

**UPDATE - Cori stopped by to take a look at the chair in person.  I think we all decided to take the chair back.  The thing is, we are just not over the moon about the color.  It's too bad, it is a really fun chair.  Thanks for all your feedback!  :)

We bought this chair, but we are not sure if we like it.  We have 14 days to make a return.  We had to order it in and the color swatch they showed us was a cream/white.  This color is not what we were expecting.  We are also not sure if it fits the space.  I mean, where would we put our Christmas tree!?!?  

Any comments, positive or negative are appreciated.

Downstairs Guest Room #1

This is the bedroom set that used to belong to Chris's grandpa Reed and grandma Mary.  A tag on the back of one of the pieces has the year 1955 on it.  It was purchased at Foley's Department Store.  

Pam and Jim delivered the set to us two weeks ago all the way from Las Vegas and we have been slowly working on getting our downstairs guest bedroom painted so we could give it a proper home.  I really wanted to put it in our upstairs guest bedroom, but it won't fit.  

The walls are Spanish Moss by Restoration Hardware color matched into Behr paint.  It looks so nice with the color of the wood.  The photos over the night stands were taken by mom.  The retro lamps were also Reed and Mary's.  

It is our new favorite room.  I even asked Chris if we could sleep in here tonight!  

There are still a few things left to do.  Painting the doors and door trim and making a box/cover to go over the water pipe and copper grounding wire near the ceiling (you can see it in the top picture).

Spanish Moss

We are painting one of the downstairs guest rooms.  A second coat is needed.

We chose the Restoration Hardware color, Spanish Moss.  

Whole Wheat Rolls

I am making this recipe now.  Well, the bread machine is.  I hope it turns out.  

1 1/4 Cups water
2 Tbl oil
2 Tbl honey
2 Tbl molasses
1 1/2 tsp salt
4 C whole wheat flour
1 Tbl yeast

Put ingredients into bread machine and use the Dough setting.

Remove dough from machine, and place onto lightly floured surface.  Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and  shape into balls.  Place the dough into greased muffin tins brushed lightly with melted butter.  Cover with waxed paper or clean cloth and let rise 15-20 minutes

Bake rolls at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes

Refrigerate left overs.

http://www.food.com/recipe/bread-machine-whole-wheat-rolls-133842

Saturday Evening Sky

We were out running errands on Saturday and Erica snapped this picture at a stop light.

Ground Beef Stroganoff

Beef.  It's whats for dinner.  This is our second beef meal this week.  Eesh.  We also had brussel sprouts to help balance things out.

This was really easy to make and the hubby liked it.  Win. Win.

1.5 pounds lean ground beef
2 Tbl. flour
1.25 tsp salt
.25 tsp pepper
.25 tsp paprika
.5 C chopped onion
.25 C butter
1 Can Cream of Mushroom Soup
1 Jar Sliced Mushrooms
1 Cup Sour Cream

1.  Cook onion is skillet with butter until brown.
2. Add beef, flour, salt, pepper, paprka, and brown
3. Add mushroom soup and mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes
4.  Add Sour Cream and heat through

Serve with noodles.

http://www.food.com/recipe/ground-beef-stroganoff-123503

Perfect Anniversary Evening

Three years of wedded bliss!  Can you believe it?  We can't.  Time flies when you're having fun!  We had left over meatloaf, cracked open a bottle of very nice Zinfandel and are looking forward to the chocolate anniversary cake that Erica brought home tonight.

IRS e-mail

Good to know: The IRS does not contact individuals via e-mail to obtain information.  

If you receive an e-mail from the "IRS" it is a scam.  I received a phishing message tonight and I reported it to the IRS by sending it to: phishing@irs.gov.

This message, including the e-mail address of the sender, looked more legit than other blatant scams.  Be careful out there!

Craft Time! aka "Some Sort of Productivity for a Lazy Day"

We have been in Las Vegas this past week, spending time with Chris's family there.  We got home last night and had pretty ambitious plans agreed upon for today.  The plans included painting one of the downstairs bedrooms and moving furniture.  Those dreams were dashed by oversleeping and generally feeling under the weather.  Chris had a touch of the flu earlier in the week, Erica has had a sore throat for days, and we both have been sniffling maniacs.

It has been a pretty darn lazy day instead.  In order for the day to not turn into a complete waste, Erica decided to try her hand at making these handmade ornaments.  You have seen them here on the blog last month as a crafty to-do.

Download instructions and print the templates here.

Cut 'em out.

Put 'em together.  

Putting the pieces together is a bit hard to get your head wrapped around at first.  Once you get the hang of it, it goes quickly (The cutting is the most time consuming part).

Not sure what my intentions are for this project yet.  I think multiple balls would be cool sitting in a bowl.  Not sure how many more I will be making, I told myself the tree would be coming down tonight.