New year, new projects! Liam and I have been sick for the last few weeks but in the interim I've been tackling some odds and ends around the house. Finally starting to feel better though and Liam is no longer coughing up all that junk (thanks to the Vicks warm-mist humidifier and a little dab of vaporized guaifenesin). Here's my recent thrift shop find!
You can't beat $10. I've been searching for a cool German birdhouse since we moved here but everything I seem to find is pretty expensive for what it is and tends to lean towards the ugly side. I found this at the thrift shop on post and it looks pretty new. Will thinks I'm ridiculous for putting a birdhouse up in wintertime but it's practically spring here anyways and I'm sure there's a wee little bird out there in need of some low-cost lodging regardless.
With temperatures starting to dip closer to freezing I got in the mood to make some homemade chicken noodle soup so I dug out my Mom's homemade noodle recipe, thanks to Megan's trusty family recipe book.
Yum! Will gave me a stand mixer for Christmas so I've been putting it to good use.
I've also been trying out different bread recipes...
Can anyone tell I'm really into carbs? But it's seriously delicioso. And since we're on the subject of baking I might as well add that I made a ring cake for one of my friends' third wedding anniversary.
It was originally supposed to be three layers of white, chocolate and strawberry, her favorite flavors, but after butchering the white layer I just cut it to two. The day before I found the commissary out of baking cocoa. Of course. They only seem to run out of obscure things when you need to make something. So I ended up going with a boxed cake mix of Devil's Food which turned out a lot better than my homemade chocolate cake probably would have. Go figure. :) So aside from the sprinkles for the diamond and the chocolate layer, the rest of it was homemade. I think she really liked it. Her husband is still deployed which is always a bummer on the anniversary but I hope the cake, as simple as it looks, helped her feel the day was still special.
For the record all this cooking was done over a several week period so I'm not really the super cook that it seems I am with this post! I wish. But with feeling sick and all I was doing good just to get the cake done. Lol.
Another ongoing project is trying to fill the empty wall space we have in the house. The large splotches of white here and there, asserts Will, "freak him out." I rather agree. It does give it all a just-moved-in vibe. But store-bought wall decor can be expensive and I just haven't done much with it yet. I recently picked this up at the PXtra knowing I need to print out some pictures to go in it.
I meant to actually hang it in the living room where we have the most open space but the geniuses that built this building did weird things to the walls so there are a lot of random spots where nails won't go in. And, of course, I can't know that until I try to hammer in 4 or 5 different places and leave nice big holes in the wall that will need to be puttied up later. /sigh
Thankfully Megan had the genius idea back when we lived in El Paso to send us some posters with sticky backing so they can be moved around. So a little switcheroo and presto!
Ta-da! We really should probably paint a few walls around the place but I haven't been sure about what colors to do or whether I really want to go back over it with 4 or 5 layers of white paint before we move out again.
This amazing yumminess was brought to you by Will! He's started cooking in the last several weeks and this was his first Chicken Parmesan. Yum! I'm rather jealous that it took me several years to get to where he is already. His favorite thing to do so far is grill and he makes the most amazing steak I think I've EVER had. The marinade is sooooo good. Yeah, so we're THOSE people. Out grilling when it's 40 degrees or colder, rain, sun or clouds. We've found if you wait for the weather to cooperate you're never gonna get your steak.
Next project? Liam's 2nd birthday is coming up on February 18th. Since the advent of his train obsession I decided to do a train theme for this year's "party." And after finding out his closest bud Liam and his mom will be back in the States before then we decided to just do a family-only thing. I'm still gonna decorate and make everything look cool but it will be small again this year. I know there will be plenty in the future that will probably get crazy so I should count my blessings this will be a quiet one.
In order to continue using the train decorations and stuff I want to use for the party we've decided to go back with the planes theme in his bedroom. But this time adding trains. So planes, trains and... tractors? Automobiles? Really anything with wheel he'll like. I saw this idea on Pinterest for a train birthday party so I'm planning on making it for that and then putting it in his room.
How awesome is that? We've already gotten the boards from OBI, a kind of version of Home Depot. So I'm excited to start that. Gotta figure out how to make the lights. I think he'll love it.
