Beans...Blah

Well we finally tried beans that I tried to make for Christmas... they were not great :( If I was just wanting a pot of black beans to pour over cornbread, then they would have been fine, but I was wanting Mexican black beans...& that they were not :( So I will try again another day & if I am successful then I will share the recipe with you.
However something that I have tried that was wonderful is this candy bar Hubby put in my stocking.

Yes this is just the candy bar wrapper, it was that good :) & yes those are boxes that previously held Christmas presents...please excuse my Christmas mess.
I was already a huge fan of dark chocolate & spicy together. Hubby has bought me dark chocolate bars before with chilis in it & those are always great! This time he found this, with chipotle, salt, & popping candy! Yes we are talking Pop Rocks! I can tell you this candy bar lives up to it's name!
So if you are looking for an interesting sweet treat, I recommend this candy bar, or any dark chocolate bar with something spicy inside :)

CHUAO gave me nothing for this blog, I just really loved this candy bar that Hubby so sweetly picked out for me :)

Christmas

I intended to tell you about the completely made up on my own recipe for black beans that I made for our Christmas dinner this year. My brother & Sister decided that instead of the traditional Christmas meal, we would have Mexican food. It was a very yummy decision! So I made a huge pot of black beans in my crockpot, which were finished cooking around...11 PM... :(
Apparently when you put 2 bags of dried beans in a crockpot it makes the cooking time an eternity! Once they finally finished cooking they were packed up to send home with family & I brought some home to eat with leftovers, but still haven't tried them. I hope they are at least good after waiting that long for them! So my tip to you is to only cook one bag of beans in a crockpot, please learn from my mistake. If you have any tips on cooking beans please leave them in the comments, I always appreciate cooking tips!
So how was your Christmas celebration? Any mishaps in the cooking department?
We had a wonderful Christmas celebration (lack of black beans aside). Isn't it amazing how many simultaneous birthday parties Jesus gets every year! & he is at everyone of them celebrating with us :)
Very soon I will tell you about what Hubby is getting me for Christmas! I am excited & scared, but want to make sure all decisions are made before I start posting :) So come back soon to find out!

Christmas Letter

This is my Christmas letter this year, & I wanted to share it with you :)

Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas! Where has 2011 gone?! I remember when I was little and years seemed to drag on forever… that is not the case anymore!

          I hope you have had a good year! We are doing well! We are still living in Midlothian with the Burns’. Conner is still as cute as ever & recently started saying “Love You”. The first person he said it to was Patrick. It was cute & really funny. He turned 2 in October & is really starting to talk & show his own individual personality. February 10^th we gained a new member to the household. Elias James Burns was born 1 lb 12 oz, 14 ½ weeks early! He is now 10 months old, healthy, & adorable! He has been crawling for a few weeks & just started sitting up on his own. He is a miracle baby!

          I went to my first couple of craft shows this year. The shows were not financially beneficial, but I did learn from others who have been doing it longer & I plan on attending more shows next year.

          I started canning this summer, I made pickles & pickled okra. Patrick wants me to learn how to pressure can so I can save veggies for us to eat through the year. (Tiffany canned green beans & potatoes in her pressure canner-yum!) While I was canning, I was thinking about Ma, my great grandma. I loved the jelly she used to make! I will definitely be making jelly in the near future.

          We have started the planning process to take a trip to Disney World! We will be going with Jamie, Craig, & Jim & Cathy (some of my adopted parents J). We are going May 20^th & are all really excited!

          I hope you are having a great Christmas! And have a wonderful, 2012!

                                                                                      Love,

                                                                                      Patrick & Krystle

Free Shipping Day

Today, Friday, December 16th, is National Free Shipping Day! Many online businesses (including ScrappinArt) are offering free shipping to arrive by Christmas! So if you haven't gotten all your Christmas shopping finished then today is the day to do it! Also if you have liked some of the items I have written about, then you can pick them up today & take advantage of the Free Shipping! Like The Hidden Tree, Date Night Mini Album, Rock & Roll Baby Girl Mini Album, and the Flower Hair Clip, & Flower Pins.
I can't believe Christmas is so close! But at the same time I am so excited! Celebrating with family, cooking great food, picking out & giving gifts to the people I love, I love all of it! And why? Because I have been freed by my Savior!
Have a great weekend before Christmas!

This is what's going on

1) The Holiday Bazaar I was part of Nov 30 & Dec 1 was not as great as expected :( I was not able to make back my booth fee, but I did meet a few people who have been doing this craft show thing way longer than me. These said people now have my info & are going to let me know about upcoming shows in the future! So I'm very glad I attended this Bazaar!
2) I have been blogging for a year! I can't believe it! I truly appreciate you following along with me as I am getting my feet wet in the blogosphere. It has been a fun adventure :) And here we start year 2...
3) Saturday was my Birthday! :) It was a great day! I went to a do it yourself mosaic store with my sister & mom, then I had a birthday party thrown for me by the same amazing sister & mom & my brother cooked! It was a hat party because recently I have fallen in love with wearing hats! So everyone was instructed to wear a hat & everyone bought me new hats! So of course I alternated which new hat to wear through the rest of the party :)
4) It begins tonight... The first Christmas party Hubby & I are invited to is tonight. Let the month long celebrating begin! Jesus, You deserve a month long birthday party & so much more! Thank You for saving my life!

ATK Magazine

So tomorrow is Thanksgiving! Hubby & I will be going to his aunt's house along with about 20 other people :) I am making a squash casserole & a much requested Chocolate & peanut butter cheese ball. I will try to remember to take pics to share with you as I'm cooking.
While preparing my Thanksgiving menu I received the exciting news that I had won Wanna Be A Country Cleaver's giveaway for an ATK Cooking Magazine! If you aren't aware I have a 4 shelf bookshelf just for my cookbooks :) So I am very excited about this magazine! It came in the mail after I had chosen my recipes for Thanksgiving, but you can be sure that I will be using it for my Christmas menu!
Thank you Country Cleaver for this wonderful magazine! I am going to thoroughly enjoy it! :)
So what are you doing for Thanksgiving? Are you cooking or being cooked for? Are you going to visit family or are you thankful to not be with family? I would love to hear your plans!

Youth Convention

Hubby & I left Friday afternoon with a van load of teenagers to drive to Houston for Converge - Youth Convention. It was great to see teens from all over TX coming together to worship God. One thought kept running thru my head over the weekend...Teens are loud, rambunctious, & spirited, & when they get loud, rambunctious, & spirited for God amazing things will happen! This weekend renewed my love & desire to be a youth sponsor. I love our youth & know God can do great things with them! I was made to think about my years as a teen, & remember my youth sponsors, & how they so deeply impacted my life. I truly hope I can be here for our teens as my youth sponsors were there for me!

Wedding Weekend

Tim & Cassie are married and are spending their honeymoon in Boston :) We had a fun weekend! Friday afternoon we had the rehearsal, & then dinner at Black Eyed Pea. After The Bride & Groom to be said their goodbyes until the time their eyes meet walking down the aisle, we went to our house for some girly fun. We made chocolate fondue, watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding, & talked about marriage :)
The day of the wedding we went to get pedicures.

 Cassie - Bride, relaxing

 Tiffany - Bridesmaid - crazy lady who lives downstairs ;)

 Addison - Junior Bridesmaid

 Me - Bridesmaid

 Don't we look relaxed :)

 Please excuse my ugly feet, here's my pedicure.

 After our pedicure Cassie went to a hair appointment, & Addison went to a hair appointment. So Tiffany & I decided to try something different for our hair. As you will see in the pics to come this worked well for Tiffany, but my hair resembled the top of a poodles head. Thanks to Addison's mom & her hair straigtener, my hair was saved before wedding time.

 The beautiful bride putting on lotion

 Mr. & Mrs. Tim Sabolchick!!!! (since I was in the wedding I have no pics of the wedding)

 Aren't they adorable! If you are wondering how I know these people & why I was in their wedding... well, Tim & I have been going to the same church since we were 7. He brought Cassie to our church about 5 years ago & they started dating shortly thereafter. We are all friends & we are very happy that they have now joined us old boring married people ;)

 See don't we look old, boring, & married? (Isn't Hubby hot!)

 Sorry for the blurry pic, but here is Brother & Sister in law, another adorable couple!

 Tim loves the Texas Rangers!

 This cake is beautiful!

 Father Daughter dance

 This is Sergio - a friend from church, James & Tiffany - The crazy people who live downstairs, Monica - Sergio's beautiful wife, & me

 The groom & groomsmen singing kareoke - James - Best Man - Tim's Brother, Hubby - Groomsman, James - Groomsman, & Tim - Groom

Bride & Bridesmaids singing "Girl's Just Want To Have Fun" The one I haven't introduced you to yet is Niki - Maid of Honor

 Me & my sister :)

Bouquet Toss!
So that was my weekend! Did you have any exciting plans over the weekend?

Exciting Weekend

To start I just sent in my order form to get my new blog design started! I have no idea what to expect, but I am very excited! If you haven't heard you can read about why I'm getting a new blog design. Thank you again I Heart Naptime & Funky Faith Designs!
Next for my exciting weekend, tomorrow I have a wedding rehearsal & dinner to attend. Then the bride & bridesmaids are spending the night at our house & we are going to make chocolate fondue & watch girly movies! Then Saturday is the wedding of two great people who are most definitely made for each other. Congrats Tim & Cassie! Which means Saturday will be filled with getting nails done, doing hair & make up, & decorating the reception hall. I will try to take pictures, but being in the wedding may make that difficult. I will share how beautiful everything was with you next week.

I won!

At the end of October Jamielyn over at I Heart Naptime had a series of giveaways to celebrate blogging for 2 years! I entered several of the giveaways, & actually won one!!! Whoohoo! Happy dance! What I won is a Blog Makeover from Funky Faith Designs! So pretty soon this blog will be very different, for the better! :) Thank you Jamielyn & Funky Faith Designs for this wonderful giveaway!

Halloween

I love Halloween! The scary spooky, the candy, the fun, what's not to love! & yes we dressed up :)

Do you know who we are?

Do you have a guess?

If you are like most people you will say a sunflower & a Zombie, which is technically true. But do you know what these two things have in common?

The video game Plants vs Zombies!

If you got it, then you are super cool in my book! :) Which may or may not be a good thing...

 I had a pretty busy Halloween weekend! On Saturday we had a scavenger hunt with our youth group in which we did things like hum the theme to Mission Impossible while acting like spies in a Walgreens, we wore fake mustaches, we climbed a tree...ok the teenagers climbed a tree I had to stay on the ground to take a picture for proof. They had a great time, and so did I :) Then Sunday was our church's Fall Festival which is always a huge success! I helped prepare nachos & hot dogs in the kitchen, then I went & played games with Conner. Then Halloween night Conner helped me pass out candy to the neighborhood kids. He had a great time & the kids thought he was really cute (how often does a 2 year old hand you candy?)
So Halloween was a lot of fun for our house! What about you? Any excitement for Halloween?

The Hidden Tree

Before my first craft show I started making a piece of wall art from upcycled materials. I took pictures of the entire process so I could show you. Then I got busy getting ready for the craft show, so the wall art was put on the back burner. I am now 100% finished with it & want to show you how I created it :)
I started with old magazines & cut each page into strips of varying widths.

then I folded each strip in half & sometimes in half again depending on how wide it was. After a very long time of folding & sorting colors I began rolling the strips. I used a broken piece of antenna to roll the strips on, but any skinny long object would work.

After rolling I glued the flap to the edge of the rolled strip & glued the rolled strip to this wooden plaque that I rescued from the trash.

After gluing the first piece & realized that I needed an outline of the tree I was planning on creating. I drew the tree & continued gluing strips.

The tree trunk is taking shape.

Now the tree trunk is finished & I will start the leaves

Look, it's a tree!

After finishing the tree I surrounded it with blue for the sky.

 Then I sprayed the whole piece with a clear coat to protect it, & here is the finished piece:

To see more pics of the finished piece, please visit my Etsy site.

So what have you been creating lately? Let me know in the comments!

Website

I have the most amazing hubby ever! He has created a website for ScrappinArt :) I am so excited! You can go to www.ScrappinArt.com & you will see my shop! You can also see any upcoming events, such as craft shows that I will be at. So please go check out my new website & let me know what you think.
Something else that is really exciting is that I have doubled blog followers overnight! So thank you loyal followers, I am grateful that you find my ramblings important enough to put in your reading list :)
Well I'm off to create, have a great evening!

Learning Experience

So Saturday was my very first ever Craft Show! It was fun, & I talked to a few vendors who told me about other craft shows to check out. I also saw how other people reacted to my booth & thought of a few changes to make from that. So overall I am glad for the learning experience, however as far as profit is concerned, I made back my booth fee & what I spent on lunch :) So I broke even. The other vendors I talked to weren't doing very well either, so at least I know it wasn't just my product. It just wasn't a very highly attended show.
I wanted to show you my booth & my apron I made for the show:
I cut freezer paper on my Cricut & ironed the letters on my apron to paint over them & make this :) I bought a full apron at Walmart & cut off the top & bottom & my wonderful sister in law hemmed it for me :)

And here is my booth :)

 I am about to mail off an application for a 2 day show in Allen, TX. So wish me luck!

Craft Show!

I made the leap! I have signed up for my first craft fair! Whoohoo! Lots of excitement combined with nervousness :) It is this Saturday, & I signed up for it 2 Saturdays ago! So I only gave myself 2 weeks to get prepared! The last week and a half I have been creating like crazy!I also signed up for & received Square so I can take credit cards ( I feel like a real business now)! I have turned our front room into a craft show booth so I can see exactly how I want to set everything up.
Tiffany (my friend I live with) & I are sharing the cost & space of a 10x10 boothbecause it is both our first times & we were nervous to try & fill a booth solo. We are still nervous, but I think more excited :)
If you live in the area I would love to see you at the show! It is at Woods United Methodist Church: 1350 Bardin Rd, Grand Prairie, TX 75052
If you can make it stop by the ScrappinArt booth & tell me hi! I look forward to meting you! Well I gotta get back to my creating! I'll post pics next week of how the booth turned out.

Date Night Mini Album

Today I posted a new mini album on my Etsy site. I created this album to record the memories & pictures from your date night with your honey ;)

I made it with what looked to me like teen themed "Love" paper, because sometimes it's nice to act like high school sweethearts again!

Hubby & I don't have many date nights anymore, but maybe after making this album we will have to plan something extra special!
 What about you? What did you do on your last date with your sugar muffin? Are you a dinner & movie person, or something more elaborate? Let us know in the comments & maybe everyone can get new date ideas from everyone else!

Pickles

This last weekend I decided to try my hand at pickling. Tiffany & I went to our local Farmer's Market bulk sale & I got cucumbers & okra at a great price :) Then it was time for the pickling to begin! For my first batch I used Mrs. Wages pickle mix, for the other batches & for the okra I used the recipe in the Ball Canning Recipe Book. I highly recommend that book to anyone interested in canning. Here's some pictures of my process, this was not as intimidating as it first seemed.

First I washed my cucumbers,

and sliced them because they were to big to fit in the jars whole.

Then I made the brine & put the cucumbers in the jars & poured brine over the top.

Then I processed them in the water canner & this is the finished product :) I was very proud! My first pickles!

Here's my second batch, I decided to use quarts for the second batch.

And the third batch :) It's so satisfying to hear the popping of sealing lids congratulating you on a job well done!

Labeled & ready to store!

Then I started pickling the okra. This is batch one :)

and batch two in the water canner

 And here are all my lovely pickles & okra stored in the previously unused space above our cabinets.

The pickles got Conner's seal of approval!

 If you have ever been interested in canning I would highly recommend it! You can do pickles or jam or fresh veggies! Have fun with it, but get a good recipe book to help you along the way.

And no I was not paid by Ball for this post, I just had a great weekend using their product & wanted to share it with you :)