Mother's Day gifts

 For mother's day I made my mom, grandma and mother-in-law book tote bags.

Most of the fabric used is vintage/used or found. The appliques are made with fun spring fabrics. And each one has random buttons on it. So cute. So simple.



Flowers.

Songbird

Owl

Mother's Day

I made bags for the moms in my life, just like Sara. Surprised? We found this fun fabric in the clearance section. The outside of these bags are thrift store fabric. A giant piece, maybe 2 meters, for 50 cents. Yup! What a deal. I've got tons left. The handles are that cotton stuff that some belts are made of. 50 cents a meter, I think. So dang easy and looks great. The bags are almost the same. Different pictures and different lining. Very cute. The mom's loved them. Inside I put bright yellow tulips from our garden. Awesome bag tutorial here.

Look! Breakfast in bed! Matthew spread the jam by himself. So cute. After church, all my boys took me for sushi (my fav) for mother's day lunch. Hubby's parents and my mom were there too. After lunch, I spend a lovey 3 hrs downtown with Sara. Just walking around and popping into fun stores that we'd never get to visit with our kids in tow. We visited a quilting shop that I'd never been to and I bought a big bag of novelty fabric scraps for $10. Can't wait to see what I'll create with those.

Happy Mother's Day!

We're trying a "Container Garden" this year

Isn't it miraculous how one tiny little seed can produce enough vegetables to feed your family for several meals!? (~That is if you know what the heck you're doing~)

Our garden last year was sad. Really really sad. I think we ate 2 cucumbers, a bit of broccoli, one night's worth of cauliflower and a whole lot of lettuce. This year, I'm changing things up. I'm going to try a Container Garden on my deck and I'm super excited about it!

I want to grow our food for a few reasons.

I want to:

1. feed my family healthy organic produce
2. start a new hobby
3. teach my children how God makes things grow
4. burn 150-250 calories per hour while gardening - lol
5. have the satisfying feeling of, "I made this!"
and
6. $ave money!!

Because one of my reasons for growing food is to save money, I'd like to put as little out in the first place to get started. Of course I'll need to buy seeds and good soil, but I also need pots...and lots of them! I rummaged through my house to see what I could find.

Here they are - just waiting to be filled with nutrient rich soil and FOOD!
That'd be a kids water table in the corner, a few old Rubbermaid's from the garage and yup! a baby bathtub!
I drilled holes in the bottom of everything for drainage. I have a few more pots in the front of the house that I'm going to move to the back and a couple more big Rubbermaid's to add.
I'll post a new pic when everything is filled with dirt and looking pretty.
Hopefully, in a couple months, I'll have an awesome pic to post of everything overflowing with big bushy leaves and brightly coloured veggies! Mmmm!

I'm attempting to grow:
-cucumbers
-tomatoes
-broccoli
-cauliflower
-green peppers
-zucchini
-carrots
-spinach
-lettuce

A bit ambitious? Maybe....Wish me luck!

Spanish Rice

So...while on the phone with Sara this afternoon, I said, "What should I make for dinner?" As per usual, whatever she says next, provides me with the inspiration I need. She told me about the chicken enchiladas she was making and I decided to do the same! (shocker...)

I don't know about you, but often, I start cooking one thing and it ends up different than planned. Tonight's dinner wasn't too much different, but I did change my mind part way through cooking. I went with Spanish Rice. I do this a lot. It's easy, fast, yummy, filling, healthy, cheap and BIG!

Spanish Rice
(Huge - for the many eaters in my home and/or leftovers)

-2 cups uncooked brown rice (I have a rice cooker and couldn't live without it)
-2-3 large chicken breasts
-1 large onion, chopped small
-1 green pepper, chopped small
-2 stalks celery, chopped small
-1.5 cups mushrooms, halved then sliced
-1 large tomato, chopped small (or canned diced tomatoes)
-1 cup canned crushed tomatoes (or tomato sauce)
-1 cup corn
-1.5 cups grated cheddar cheese
-olive oil for frying
-taco seasoning (Epicure's my fav - have you looked at the sodium content in grocery store seasoning? ew)

1. Put your rice on - in rice cooker or stove

2. Cook chicken in a bit of hot olive oil in fry pan - I put breasts in pan still partially frozen, fry for a bit, remove, chop into bite size pieces, return to pan, fry till done. - I like to kinda mush up (that sounds gross) break up the bite sized pieces into more of a "ground" chicken, for my Spanish rice.

3. fry onion, mush, green pep and celery (separate from chicken) in hot olive oil till soft

4. add corn, all tomato and taco seasoning

5. when rice and chicken are cooked, add them to the veggies

6. add cheese, mix it all up - Serve!

Enchiladas - Cinqo de mayo

So in celebration of cinqo de mayo in a couple of days and because my family loves Mexican food, we had enchiladas tonight. I was making dinner for another family as well so it was a great dinner to make a double batch of to deliver to our friends.

Mexican is often our favourite meal around here because you can pretty much throw anything in and tonight was no exception.

 I put a ton of veggies in so there is corn, red and orange peppers, onions, black beans. I also sometimes add mushrooms, tomatoes, really anything that I've got.

I cooked up some diced chicken first. Then added all the veggies and sauteed them until just soft. I added taco seasoning (Epicure is my favourite).

 I also cooked up some brown rice using salsa and water to cook it in for some extra flavour. (I usually use about half a cup of salsa, 1 1/2 cups of water to 1 cup of brown rice).

 I added the rice to the meat and veggies in the pan and cooked for another minute till all the flavours were all yummy together.

I used whole wheat tortilla shells and put some of the chicken, veggie, rice mixture in a tortilla with some fresh chopped cilantro and cheese and then rolled them and laid them in a baking pan.

After all the enchiladas were rolled I put some diced tomatoes with a little taco seasoning added on top with some more cheese and then baked, uncovered, at 350 for about 25 minutes or till just browning up.

 I served them with sour cream, peach salsa and homemade guacamole.

For some extra veggies I served the enchiladas with a simple salad.

Such a delicious dinner. My kids even ate it with minimal complaining. They like it best when the tortillas are crispy on the edges, then it feels like they're eating chips. I made it earlier in the day and then reheated it in the oven for 10 minutes before serving.

Spring Planting

The sun has finally arrived in Victoria after what feels like the longest winter ever. So we've been outside in the yard getting the plants started and getting the yard ready for what will hopefully be a very productive veggie garden. We also got our compost started this week and we've started composting again. The boys are really into it and are spending lots of time watering seeds and depositing our kitchen waste in the compost.

 Tulips coming up

 daffodils

our seeds planted and ready to go in our greenhouse

Easter Gifts

I made my boys personalized bags for them to collect their Easter treats (fair trade chocolate, handmade bean bag toss game and fair trade toys). They were super simple and a big hit.

I found these wonderful vintage cloth buttons at a local store and I was so excited to use them for a project. I used a used cotton belt for the handles and outdoor fabric for the bags. The fabric was a little stiff and helped the bags to keep their shape. They are lined with the same fabric.