Calling All Crafters: 18th Edition

*Want to be featured for a day?* 

I'm on the hunt for guest bloggers!

Check out the details here!

This is the last week I will be accepting entries!

Welcome to Calling All Crafters! 

A place where you can share your craftiness!

 This week I am loving...

Johnny in A Dress's

Mason Jar Centerpiece

(So jealous! She got 30 jars for free!)

AND



Suzy's Artsy Crafty Sitcom
Quilled Starry Night
(Gorgeous! The art teacher in me is drooling!)



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Here are the "rules":

I want YOU to stop on by, and share what you are up to, cooking, cleaning, crafting, you name it!

If your not a follower, please become one, this let's me easily find and visit your blog too!
Don't like to follow? Prefer Facebook?  Like Us! 

Tell your friends!

Come back next week to see if your great idea has been featured!

Nesting: Meal Planning and Grocery Lists

Yesterday I went through all my recipes and said I hoped to get through some meal planning, and I am so happy I did.

When hubby got home from work, he asked what did you do today? My response, well you might think I am crazy but I know what we will have for dinner for the next two months after the baby. 

His response: Not crazy. Smart. 

See?

Here are a couple tips/tricks I use for meal planning:

I start by plugging in my meats/proteins. This way we wont end up with chicken four nights in a row.

Then I try to make things with like ingredients. For example we may have Chicken Parm early in the week and only use a cup of cheese, but on Friday we will use the rest of the cheese for Pizza. It makes for less waste.

Also, I don't plan meals for the weekend, because we either do take out or leftovers.

Once my plan is made, I actually look at each week and create a main grocery list. It only contains what we need for dinners, and when it comes time to go shopping I add the other items we need, and cross out what we have ( in the pantry, fridge or freezer).  

Now this was a first, but I made a master Meat List. We go to a butcher, or BJ's and buy in bulk. This way if we go on a "meat" run there is no guessing how much we need or how long it will last.

Do you meal plan? What are your favorite tips or tricks?

How about crock pot recipes? I put some new ones into my September plan knowing I probably will be too lazy to cook...

Nesting: Decluttering

I feel like all I want to do lately is declutter. With the thought of another boy joining our family in the next four weeks, all I want to do is throw out. Which might not be a bad thing either!

When it came to magazines I had a ton. 

Did I read them? 

Yes, but just to flip through here and there nothing life altering if they were to go,

 and I was saving them mostly for recipes that I may want to try in the future.

So over the the course of a couple days I sat down and ripped out any and all recipes of interest.  Then, another day I sat down with my meal planning binder and some loose leaf paper and went through the pile again. 

This time really paying attention to what I kept. If it had an ingredient that we don't like, or wouldn't be able to find, it went in the recycle bin. If it were a keeper, I just glue sticked it to a piece of loose leaf paper and it went in the proper section. 

No it's not the prettiest thing ever, but its functional for now. 

Next on my to do list? 

Fill out my meal planning for the next month or two to help with the post baby brain whats for dinner saga!

Brussel Sprout Leaves

Now, I am not talking the leaves of an actual brussel sprout, I'm talking the leaves that grow on the plant prior to the little mini cabbages growing!  

This is my first time growing brussel sprouts, I had to look up how to grow them. 

What I learned is that once you have a nice stalk on your plant, 

you need to remove the leaves so that the sprouts have somewhere to grow. 

But not wanting to be wasteful I thought, can you eat the leaves? 

So I did a quick search online, and found out yes! You can eat them!

Here's how I did!

Bring a pot of water to a boil, with some salt. Trim off stalk part of leaf. 

Add leaves to boiling water 5-7 minutes.

 Remember brussel sprouts are like cabbage, 

so you want to soften the leaves up before you do anything else with them!

Next, throw in a pan with garlic (I used some from my garden, Yay!) with some butter or oil. Salt and Pepper. 

Saute and Enjoy!

If it's not broke...

...why fix it? 

 Last night as Crochet Class, I whipped up two baby hats in under 2 hours! 

 Gotta love a quick gratifying project!

Here's the pattern!

Love baby items? Don't forget to come back in August!

We will be hosting some wonderful guests bloggers and their wonderful baby items!

Calling All Crafters: 17th Edition

*Want to be featured for a day?* 

I'm on the hunt for guest bloggers!

Check out the details here!

Welcome to Calling All Crafters! 

A place where you can share your craftiness!

 This week I am loving...

Make It Homey's
1st Curbside Find
(Was also the most clicked link last week!)

AND

Smart Bottom Enterprise's
Cold Brew Coffee




Want a button?

<center><a href="http://allthingsfee.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5018/5588365611_b3055bb44c_m.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="Mondays @ All Things Fee!" /></a></center>

Here are the "rules":

I want YOU to stop on by, and share what you are up to, cooking, cleaning, crafting, you name it!

If your not a follower, please become one, this let's me easily find and visit your blog too!
Don't like to follow? Prefer Facebook?  Like Us! 

Tell your friends!

Come back next week to see if your great idea has been featured!

Guest Blogger: Update

Hello Everyone!

Just wanted to update you about Guest Blogging here on All Things Fee!

I've been contacted by some great bloggers who will be posting here in mid August! 

But I still need some more help!

If you have anything baby related, and would like to share it here, let me know!

allthingsfee@gmail.com

Have a great weekend!

Try, Try, Try Again...

Last week I shared how I wasn't sure if I liked working from a chart, but I don't think it was just the chart I disliked, I disliked that it made my blanket look slanted somehow. Strange I know. But it did.

 So what did I do? I ripped it all out of course! I had 3/4 of a cone of yarn used and wasn't even close to half way done with my baby blanket, and I know one cone can make a baby blanket. So out it went. 

Well then I decided to rework, altering my favorite baby blanket pattern and added in my own heart pattern. ( I worked in a stockinette stitch rather than a garter stitch like the pattern says) Well, after working the heart. You could barely see it. its there but bleh. 

So what did I do? Ripped it out.

Now, third times a charm right? I think so! I went back to my favorite pattern left it as is so that you work in garter stitch the entire blanket and I added in a stockinette stitch heart. Much better.

Sometimes you just have to stick with it and it will work it out.

Recycled Single Stem Vases

I love zinnias. 

They are super easy to grow, and look gorgeous in a vase. 

Plus, the more you cut them the more blooms you get.

My only problem: I'm terrible at arranging and can never find just the right vase.

Until now.

My husband picked up a box of these for our son. I was skeptical. But after dumping them in a sippy and watering them down, I felt better about him having them. But then I went to through out the cute little "milk" jug looking bottle. 

And I had an A-ha moment!  

Perfect size for a single zinnia! 

So I got collecting!

All I did was give them a wash and put them on a shelf, until now. Now, my vision was to spray them a nice metallic silver but that's for another day, or another batch because I am liking the white too! 

But then the ribbon hit! Oh the possibilities!

What are your favorite unusual vases?

(Don't forget I am looking for Guest Bloggers! Details here!)

Fried Zucchini Coins

Wow, I do know how to take a perfectly good and healthy vegetable and make it unhealthy.

Anyways...

Have you ever tried a piece of Fried Zucchini?

Yum.

Want to see how?

It's super simple!

Wash and slice your zucchini.

Dip in some scrambled eggs.

Dip in breadcrumbs.

Fry.

Yum.

Calling All Crafters: 16th Edition

*Want to be featured for a day?* 

I'm on the hunt for guest bloggers!

Check out the details here!

Welcome to Calling All Crafters! 

A place where you can share your craftiness!

 This week I am loving...

The Farm Girl
Rolls in a Jar
(How clever! How cute!)

AND




Ellen's Creative Passage's
Print on Canvas Art
(I just bought a new printer and am nervous to do this! But so want to!)



Want a button?

<center><a href="http://allthingsfee.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5018/5588365611_b3055bb44c_m.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="Mondays @ All Things Fee!" /></a></center>

Here are the "rules":

I want YOU to stop on by, and share what you are up to, cooking, cleaning, crafting, you name it!

If your not a follower, please become one, this let's me easily find and visit your blog too!
Don't like to follow? Prefer Facebook?  Like Us! 

Tell your friends!

Come back next week to see if your great idea has been featured!

Want to be featured?

Hey Crafters!

As I approach my due date, I have begun to go baby crazy!

 I'm nesting, preparing, creating and more.  

I'm also attempting to plan ahead.

And that's where I want your help!

Do you have a great nursery redo? 

Sewn baby item? 

Knit baby booties? 

Crochet baby blanket?
Anything baby related?

Want to share it here?

Here's what I am looking for:


*Tutorials or other baby ideas for posts!  I would love to have you here for the day! If chosen, you would send me the html for your post via email, and I will post it here, making sure to link back to your blog home page too! ( If you have already blogged about it, that's ok send me the link. If not, send me what your working on!)

*Giveways! If you have a shop and would like to donate an item to be given away, I would love to host a giveway with all your info included in the post!

What you need to do:

*Send me an email (allthingsfee@gmail.com) with a link to a current post you think would work.  Have an idea, or question about submitting ideas, posts, or giveaways? Email me your train of thought and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

*Submit your idea prior to Friday August 5, 2011!

Extras:

*Please know that not all ideas will be chosen for a full feature/guess post. If there is enough interest, I am willing to create a roundup of all the ideas that have been submitted.

Asian Chicken Wraps

Wow! It's going to be a scorcher today! So what do I want to do most? Not heat up the house. 

My pregnant body had been doing pretty well dealing with the heat but as 

I approach my due date ( in about 6 weeks, Yikes!) I am losing steam and my patience in the heat.

After checking my email this morning, I came across this Parents recipe for Asian Chicken Wraps! Theirs are no cook, but I had chicken breasts waiting to be cooked so that's what I used. I boiled my chicken and shredded it, making it ready to do the recipe.

They came out great! A nice change to our menu! Will definitely be making these again! I even think the chicken on a salad would be great!

And yes, those are pickled green beans. Yum. I was introduced to them forever ago ( before being pregnant) and they are a favorite around here! I'll share how to make them another day!

Charts vs. Patterns

Alright knitters, I need some insight!

I just worked from my first knitting chart and I am not sure if I like it or not.  I felt like it took me twice as long as a pattern would have. Each row I had to recount the chart prior to working.  And, in the end, I am not sure if I like how it came out in my knitting!

What's your take on charts?

Garden Planner

Sometimes, I feel like a super geek when I am super duper organized. Here is a case in point.

After seeing a garden planner ( which I now cannot find) over on Clean Mama, I decided to make a table in Word to map out when I should be harvesting my garden, especially since I doubled or even tripled the size of my garden this year.. I've never done this before, and it was super excited to see what should be ready any day now. ( I just sat down last night and calculated when to harvest or enjoy my blooms).

Well, once I plugged everything in I started changing the colors, and the font.  And had way to much fun with it. There's a second page to but I didn't want to bore you all.  And see the -- next to the Hollyhock's bloom date? Well, thats where the black thumb came in. Not bad one out of two pages worth of plants!

Now, I am already thinking how I can jazz this up some more. I'm thinking about going outside and figuring out what plants come back (perennials) and making a chart so I know when they bloom, because I am terrible about that! Yup, there goes my inner geek again, overthinking something so simple. Sigh.

How are your garden's growing?

PS. I picked my first batch of green beans last night, and we've been enjoying our blueberries and strawberries for weeks now!

Calling All Crafters: 15th Edition

Welcome to Calling All Crafters! 

A place where you can share your craftiness!

 This week I am loving...

(seriously harder than I thought picking features! Each week has been filled with great links!)




Our Seven Dwarfs'
Strawberry Slippers ( Crochet)

AND



Love Sweet Love's
Drive In Cars

Want a button?

<center><a href="http://allthingsfee.blogspot.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5018/5588365611_b3055bb44c_m.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="Mondays @ All Things Fee!" /></a></center>

Here are the "rules":

I want YOU to stop on by, and share what you are up to, cooking, cleaning, crafting, you name it!

If your not a follower, please become one, this let's me easily find and visit your blog too!
Don't like to follow? Prefer Facebook?  Like Us! 

Tell your friends!

Come back next week to see if your great idea has been featured!