{New Doll Face}

I learned a new technique for making eyes and even though I had to scower all over the Treasure Valley area to find the tools I needed, I found the tools and created the girl head below. I just need to make her body, then sand and paint her.

{Crockpot Chili}

My bowl of chili with a dollop of sour cream, chopped green onions and a sprinkle of cheese

I took a recipe I found in Jan/Feb 2012 Food Network Magazine for "Chili Con Carne" and adapted it to work with what I had on hand and make it work in a crockpot because I didn't want to hover over a stove all day.  Below is my adapted recipe for crockpot chili.

Crockpot Chili

1/2 package of bacon, chopped

2 lbs ground beef

2 small onions, chopped

2 red bell peppers, chopped

4 tbsp chopped garlic

1/4 c. chili powder

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp ground cheyenne powder

2 tsp paprika

2 tsp oregano

1 tsp turmeric 

2 tbsp coco powder
1/8 c. brown sugar

Sea Salt to taste

3 cubes of beef bulion

4 cups of water

1 - 6oz can tomato paste

2 - 15.5 oz can diced tomatoes

 2 - 15 oz cans black beans, drained and rinsed

2 - 15 oz cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 tbsp hot sauce

Directions:

Cook the bacon until slightly crispy. Use the some of  the bacon grease to cook down the chopped onions and bell peppers and garlic. Cook and drain the ground beef. 

in a separate bowl place all the dry spices and mix together.

Add bacon, ground beef, onions, peppers, garlic and beans into a large crockpot (mine is 6 qt I believe). Add the bullion, tomato paste and chopped tomatoes. Stir all ingredients together. Add the water, stir til combined then pour dry spices into pot and stir until they are dissolved. 

Cover crockpot, turn onto HIGH for 6 hours or cook on LOW for 10 hours. Add water if needed.

When done, top with shredded cheese, sour cream chopped green onions  or any other topping you would like or just enjoy by itself.

**NOTE** This is  not a spicy chili but a more mild chili, great for kids who don't like too much heat.

{Mom Visit}

My mom visited us this week, it was a short visit (like one night, one morning and a whole day in-between) and it was great to see her, but I wish it could have been longer!

My new hat

Mom on her cell phone the morning she had to leave.

my outfit that I wore the day my mom left

me and my mom

Nana and Ruth the morning before she left

Me, My mom and the girls

Me and hubby right before my mom left

{Weekly Weigh In: Week 4}

Ugh, that's all, just UGH! I have forgotten breakfast all this week, forgotten to not eat after 7pm and I have bought and eaten junk food when stressed. depressed and overly hungry. I really shouldn't shop when I am hungry, I tend to make poor choices.

Hoping next week I do better...I know what I should and shouldn't do but it's been hard.

Start Weight: 302 lbs

Last Week: 299.3

Loss/Gain: + 3.2 lbs

Current weight: 302.5 lbs

{From Black to Color}

Just some more of what I have been creating over the weekend.

3 ladies I sculpted and painted in black

this is them after a little painting

{all done}

She's all done, the little bunny gal that I was inspired to create. she's going to sit next to my computer and help remind me to keep looking up.

{weekly Weigh In: Week 3}

So it's now week 3 and I am no where near what I had planned to be at, but it is all my fault between stress eating, fighting depression and just an over all struggle to love myself I haven't made much progress in three weeks.

So there it is, this week sucked in terms of weight loss but I am trying to get my act together one day/week at a time.

Start Weight: 302 lbs

Last Week: 300.6

Loss/Gain: - 1.3 lbs

Current weight: 299.3 lbs

{Inspired}

I have a wonderful artist that I have been following for a couple of years and she posted a couple cute bunny people and I was inspired and tried to make one of my own for by my computer and so far this is what I came up with.

Colleen Downs is amazing and creates the most wonderful little creatures and is a great inspiration to me. You can find her blog here and her etsy shop here.

{first REAL snow}

It is the first real snow of winter, sure there was a splattering of snow that came and went in like 5 minuets last week but this snow stuck, even after it started raining.

I heard the kids squeal with delight as I was waking up about how it was snowing.  It was big fat fluffy flakes that were falling when the kids went to school and it continued to fall until about an hour before picking up the kids and then it turned to rain - that didn't stop the kids from building a snowman when they got home though.

of course hot coco followed and they changed into warm, DRY clothes. as a side note Myrna hated the cold on her hands and didn't care for being out in the cold as much as she thought she would.

front of house at 8:30 am

drive home from dropping off the kids at school

back yard 8:45 am

toby was out for like 2 seconds and hated it but Sorry was fascinated.

Noon - snow still falling and getting thicker on the ground

Kids get home and start to play around 4 pm - it's starting to rain

Myrna's first real experience with snow

See aaron in the back rolling the bottom of the snowman?

right after this Myrna started to cry and came inside where it was warm and dry

The kids snowman turned out great!! as you can see the kids are soaked - praying they don't get sick

but they were so proud of their snowman!

{Owls}

These are some of my owls, I have more but this is what fit on my shelf. Some are thrift store finds, others were found in antique shops and some were gifts. A couple got new life injected into them with a fresh coat of paint and others look amazing with graceful wear.

This owl was repainted to freshen it's look up

this guy was so badly damaged he was in dire need of a repainting so out came the black spray paint and gold dry brush gave him new life.

{camo princess}

My girls playing around around and on the guest bed while I worked on a couple projects at the computer. Myrna was having fun with a little panda that had velcro on it's hands and daddy kept sticking it to her pj's.

Then Ruth put Myrna on the bed and put her "camo princess" hat on her while Myrna played the psp. Soon after the girls left and the cats showed up...amazingly they didn't fight with one another.

see the panda on her jammies

Ruth and Myrna aka "camo princess"

Toby

Sorry