Leftover Fabric?

Here's an idea if you have some leftover fabric. I happen to have lots of scrap fabric from quilts and other projects. The great thing about this little project is that it is quick and very simple!! It requires a hot glue gun, small pieces of scrap fabric, and some gift bags (I love the "paper bag" look, but you can use whatever you want).

The first step is the fabric flowers. I found a rolled fabric flower tutorial on a blog: http://mysparkle.blogspot.com/2010/02/how-to-rolled-flowers.html. Again, VERY SIMPLE!

The second and last step is to just hot glue the flowers onto the bag. You can make the flowers as big or as small as you want and do several different combinations!

A close-up!

YEP! It's really just as simple as making the flowers and hot gluing them onto a bag :)

AND...if you have more leftover fabric after the rolled flowers, here are a couple other ideas that I found on blogs.

Fabric backdrop/wall hanging thing for a bridal shower, baby shower, or whatever else!

I think this mason jar lemonade is ADORABLE! And again, VERY SIMPLE!!

I haven't tried the last two ideas, but maybe soon! :)

San Diego

I believe an update is in order! George and I just got home from an unexpected trip to San Diego. Our good friend Nick ended up coming into town at the last minute and we were happy to have him! Plus, it was a good excuse to do some fun stuff around town.

We started off the long weekend on Friday night by hanging out with Nick and our "California friends" (George's coworker Sergio and his girlfriend Andy) in downtown Fullerton. Fullerton is a town about 20 minutes away from us with a neat downtown area with restaurants and bars.

You'll never guess where we went on Saturday - Disneyland!! Yes, AGAIN! :) I was telling you all last week about how George was so excited to go on the new Star Tours. Well, George told Nick and Nick was dying to check it out too so we went! Nick and George actually met at Star Tours in Orlando (they both worked there). The official Star Tours re-opening is not until June 3, but they have been doing a soft opening for the past few weeks. This past Saturday they were exclusively opened to annual pass holders whose names had been drawn....well, we were not among those people SOO Nick and George had to do some major begging! After explaining that they used to work at Star Tours and George telling them that his name is George Lucas after all, they got on!! Good thing too because I think I would have seen a couple of temper tantrums! HAHA!

George's other friend Derek and his girlfriend and siblings happened to be in San Diego this weekend so on Sunday, the three of us decided to drive down there to hang out with them (San Diego is only an hour from us). We stayed in the downtown area on Sunday night and just hung out. This morning we decided to check out the USS Midway in the San Diego Harbor...it was REALLY neat and there was a great audio tour! It was especially cool b/c we were there on Memorial Day (although last year I was in Normandy on Memorial Day....) Here are some pictures!

George and Nick hanging out on the deck of the ship (with the beautiful San Diego harbor in the background)

George was pretty into it!

Look how tiny the beds are! There are three stacked on each other. My uncle was on one of these ships and he was well over 6 feet...he must have had to duck down all the time!

Trying to remember back to his old Boyscout days...

The USS Midway is an Aircraft Carrier so there were lots of planes and helicopters to check out too!

George and me in front of the USS Midway!

Being a Captain doesn't seem so bad :)

The rest of the Captain's suite!

Homemade Salsa

I found this recipe on a blog a few weeks ago and decided to give it a whirl tonight. George

LOVES all kinds of Mexican food, salsa included! It was actually relatively simple to make. Here

is the recipe:

Quick and Easy Salsa

(from yourhomebasedmom.com)

1 can (28 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes With Juice
2 cans (10 Ounce) Rotel (diced Tomatoes And Green Chilies) Rotel is the brand. Some stores carry a generic version.
¼ Chopped Onion
1 clove Garlic, Minced
1 whole Jalapeno, Quartered And Sliced Thin
¼ tsp Sugar
¼ tsp Salt
¼ tsp Ground Cumin
½ C Cilantro
½ whole Lime Juice

Rough cut your garlic, onion and jalapeno.

Put the tomatoes, Rotel tomatoes, jalapeno, garlic, onion, salt, sugar, cumin, lime juice and cilantro into a food processor. You may also use a blender. Puree until the salsa becomes the consistency, texture you like. I did about 12 -14 pulses. Pour into a bowl.

Place bowl in refrigerator for at least an hour to allow flavors to blend together. Enjoy!

A few tips...Sprouts (grocery store where I was picking things up) didn't have Rotel tomatoes so instead I just got regular diced tomatoes (in addition to the whole tomatoes that the recipe calls for) and added a small can of green chilies. Also, the Jalapenos obviously make it pretty spicy. If you're like me and can't handle the spice, you might want to do 1/2 of the Jalapeno...George likes it really spicy so he didn't mind at all! We both love the flavor of cilantro so I doubled the recommended amount. Finally, the LIME JUICE really pulls it all together (again, I doubled the recommended lime juice amount)...at first I forgot the lime and it was kind of boring...added the lime juice and VOILA!

The finished product! Serve with your favorite tortilla chips, tortillas, or Mexican dish. I served it with chicken tacos with homemade flour tortillas!

This recipes results in a TON of salsa....seriously the blender was more than 3/4 full of salsa!

ENJOY! :)

Disneyland

We had a great weekend with Emily, Hannah, Kimi (Emily's good friend), and Jeremiah! They drove in from Arizona on Friday evening...everyone was excited for a full day of Disneyland on Saturday so went to bed not too long after arrived. We woke up early and hit Disneyland on Saturday....and spent 14+ hours there!! It was so much fun :) We got all of the "big" rides in...Space Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Indiana Jones, California Screamin', Soarin', Toy Story (it got a bit competitive!!), Tower of Terror (my FAVORITE by far!), and more! AND we ate a lot of classic Disney foods :)...

Cotton candy, Pineapple Dole Whip, ice cream on Main Street (FYI- that is Dreyer's ice cream that they serve), and George got his beloved Cream Cheese Pretzel in Tomorrowland. *Disclaimer- we all shared most of that stuff :)

I have just a couple of pictures from the day, but Emily has a bunch more. Whenever Emily is around, I don't worry about taking pictures b/c I know that she will!

As most of you know, George and I worked at Disney World for 7 months in 2006. George worked at the Star Tours ride at Disney's MGM Studios (very fitting considering his name). They have recently made some changes to the ride and it is reopening on June 3...BUT yesterday they did a preview of the new version. George could not have been more excited about it!

Waiting in line for the Star Tours preview!

On the tram! It was Kimi's first time to any Disney park!

I hope everyone had a great weekend!! June will be here before we know it!

Music

Hope everyone is having a good week so far! Mine has been a little too busy, but it should slow down a bit tomorrow. I've been "out in the field" for work which means falling behind on the office work....emails, emails, emails! I sometimes wonder what people did all day at work before email. Hahaha :)

Over the last few months, George and I have learned the wonderfulness in just relaxing and hanging out at home. Actually, I think George (and most people!) have always realized that, but it is kind of new for me! In the past, I always liked to constantly be on "the go".....and I still do, BUT I've learned to balance it out a bit more. It's definitely a good thing :)

One of George's all-time favorite things to do while relaxing at at home is to play his guitar or piano (keyboard for now b/c we live in a apartment)! If you stop by our apartment on any given night, you will quickly realize just how often George picks up his guitar or sits down at the piano - it's like every 5 minutes! :) Soo....he convinced me to join him in this hobby of his. George bought me a bass guitar as a wedding gift. I have to admit that it sat there for a few weeks, but we finally starting "jamming" and I'm kind of getting the hang of it. BUT I have a long way to go and I need a LOT more practice! We have 2 songs down so far!!

George (aka my teacher) playing his acoustic guitar!

Me, very focused on not messing up! Haha

Quick Update

It's been a week since my last update...been busy working and traveling to Phoenix. I don't have much time to update right now as I really need to get some sleep (long day ahead of me tomorrow). I had a wonderful time in Arizona celebrating Emily's graduation from Arizona State University! Way to go, Emily!!!! As always, my time with family and friends flew by! I always find myself kind of sad on the flight home...there are lots of great things about California, but it's nothing compared to being "home" in Arizona! BUT we are looking forward to having my sisters here this weekend for some time at Disneyland! :)

Here's a quick recap of my trip...I flew in on Thursday night. My parents picked me up from the airport and then I met up with Emily and some of her friends in Tempe (near ASU). This is when I realized that I am kind of lame. I was out for an hour and was exhausted and went home :) What can I say?? - I'm a working person now!!! On Friday, I had the pleasure of waking up early to go the DMV (to get my name changed on my driver's license). Then the day got more exciting - we headed to Emily's graduation, followed by an early dinner at Oregano's (yummm!). On Saturday, I took Hannah to her French horn lesson (she has some serious talent!), ate lunch with Hannah and Jeremiah, headed home to get ready for the party, and then celebrated Emily's graduation with tons of neighbors and friends! There's the 30 second version :) And now for some pictures!

My family after Oregano's!!

The adorable Paisley! Paisley was the center of attention (along with Emily!!) on Saturday night. Brian even took her for a little swim!

Paisley and me :)

AZ, Food, and My Mom!

The weekend is almost over (BOO!!), it went by so fast! BUT good news...I have Friday off. Yay for a three day weekend to celebrate Emily's college graduation!! I am heading to AZ on Thursday evening for the weekend :) Originally just I was going to go...then we were able to get an inexpensive flight for George...and NOW George can't go due to a lack of vacation time (saving it for our week long trip to ROCHESTER!! :)) and a possible store transfer. Poor George will have to stay home. Thankfully he takes it much, MUCH better than I would. It's been a couple of months since we have been back to Arizona and it feels like forever to me.

Yesterday I decided that I would like to try some new places in our area...no more chain restaurants! So today, George and I had a fun time trying out some new spots around Irvine. We like to look at online reviews at yelp.com for recommendations. We actually tried three new places - haha, I think we got carried away! The first place was Mag's Bakery. They are known for their breakfast baked goods - specifically, ham & cheese croissants and donuts. We aren't big croissant fans so we were forced to stick with the donuts. I managed to just eat 1/2 of a donut...but let's just say George indulged. For lunch/dinner we went to a place near the UCI campus called Le Diplomate Cafe. They have very tasty sandwiches for $3 or so each...you can see why they do so well next to a college campus - cheap and tasty! And since we were in the neighborhood, we had to check out a frozen custard place down the street. We split a vanilla custard with rainbow sprinkles. Yep, we're now full!

Today, of course, is Mother's Day! A big shout out to my mom for being so stinking AMAZING!! Here are just a few of the reasons why I love my mom:

1. She spends tons of time doing stuff for her kids, seriously TONS OF TIME - I can't remember my mom ever missing a band concert (multiply that by 4 kids), sporting event, school event, etc. for my siblings or me. BUT my mom doesn't stop there...nope! She has chaperoned and organized lots of those events too. Last summer, when I moved out to Southern California, my mom drove me out here. She made multiple trips to Costco and Target with me until I was all set.

2. She has a passion for helping out other kids too. My mom works in the college/career center at Hannah's high school and she is so good at it! She has helped several kids navigate the confusing world of college applications and scholarships. I have met a few of the students that she has worked with (I use to run into some of them when I recruited for ASU). I would tell them that my mom works at Mountain View and they would say, "I LOVE Mrs. Warren...she is the best!!!" Definitely a testament to her great work!

3. She (and my Dad) have taken us on some awesome trips over the years - lots of ski trips, New York City, Washington, DC, Europe, Disney World, Florida, Canada, a cruise, a cross country trip. And they have always made sure to get all six of us back to Rochester at least once a year to see our extended family. All the travel that I've done has definitely shaped me and given me an adventurous spirit and love for traveling!

4. George ask that I throw this one in here too - she is an amazing baker...specifically, he loves her Coconut Squares! Haha, they are pretty delicious!

Quick funny story...when I went to Bakersfield for the tour, they ask that you put down an emergency contact, just in case. So, just like I've done for the past 24 years, I wrote down my mom's name and number. Then I realized, oh wait...I have a husband, I should put George's info down! Anyway, I told my coworkers how I thought it was funny that I defaulted to putting my mom down (how grown-up of me!) and turns out that 4/5 of us did the same thing!

Anyway, there's a bit about my mom! I hope that the rest of you moms out there had a relaxing day!

And one more thing before I go, I wanted to share these two pictures from the weekend!

Paisley looking super cool with her sunglasses :)

My baby sister had prom last night...doesn't she look STUNNING?!

Ice Cream Factory!

Yesterday was AWESOME!! Why you ask?! Well, I went to the world's largest ice cream factory in Bakersfield, California. My company happens to own it! (and about 5 others in the U.S.)

Ever since I have started working for Nestle, everyone has said that I have to go to one of the manufacturing facilities to see how the ice cream is made. SO finally a month or two ago I rounded up some other new employees and planned a trip up to Bakersfield, CA (2 hours North of LA). Bakersfield is now more developed, but back in the day it was pretty much just dairy land.

I have always been an ice cream lover so this was especially exciting for me. Seriously, it was SO COOL to see Drumsticks, Tollhouse Cookie Sandwiches, Fruit Bars, Skinny Cow Sandwiches, and MUCH MORE being made. The care for each ingredient and quality awareness gave me an even greater appreciation for our ice cream!

Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed of the actual production lines :( But here are a couple from before and after the tour.

Here I am - happy and full from eating tons of ice cream!

The group right before we entered the production area. It's hard to see, but I am the second on the left.

I forgot to mention one of the best parts of the the tour...we got to eat the product right after it came off of the line!!! It tasted even better than it usually does!

Lemon Blueberry Muffins

Summertime is sooo quickly approaching! Southern California hit the 90s today. Not nearly as bad as some of the temps Phoenix is feeling, I'm sure. George and I are are really fortunate...we live about 15 minutes away from the ocean in Irvine, CA. Our proximity to the ocean really makes for some aaaa-MAZING weather. I work about 30-45 minutes away (more inland) and the temps can be 10-15 degrees higher at work than the temps at our apartment. I guess I can kind of understand why people pay so much to live in the OC :)

Anyway, I am getting pretty excited for summer and all of the summery things that come with it! - VACATION, SWIMMING, NO SCHOOL (oh wait...that's not unique to summer!!), ETC. ETC. So in the spirit of summer, I wanted to share this summery recipe with YOU!...Lemon Blueberry muffins. This recipe is again taken from yourhomebasedmom.com

MMMM....I love me some lemons! :)

Not that I know from first hand experience or anything, but this batter was TASTY!!

(Dad, I was looking for you to give the spoon to)

They were not only tasty, but they were pretty too!

Had to get a close-up to capture the delicious lemon glaze!

OOPS, I almost forgot the recipe!!

Makes 8-9 muffins

Printable Recipe

1 1/2 C flour

3/4 C sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/3 C vegetable oil

1 egg

1/3 c milk

1 C fresh blueberries

1 Tbsp grated lemon rind

Glaze:

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 C powdered sugar

Bake at 400 degrees for approx. 20 minutes

Mix together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and lemon zest. In another bowl mix together oil, egg and milk. Add liquid into flour mixture and mix until just combined. Gently fold in blueberries. Fill lined or greased muffin tins. Bake and cool.

When muffins are almost totally cooled, just slightly warm drizzle with glaze.

Glaze: Combine lemon juice and powdered sugar together until a good consistency to drizzle with.

Breaking News

Breaking news always grabs my attention. Like a lot of others, George and I turned on the TV last night to breaking news - Osama Bin Laden has been killed by the U.S. Wow! The whole thing sounded like a movie...helicopters, breaking into a compound, the President watching it "real time" from the White House. Again, wow!! What a triumph for the United States. I am curious to see what details, evidence, pictures, etc. we see in the media in the coming days.

On a lighter note, we had a great time in Las Vegas. It was a very quick trip (left Friday afternoon, came home Sunday afternoon), but definitely fun filled! The highlight of the trip was a Cirque Du Soleil show, Mystere. This was my fourth Cirque Du Soleil show and I have yet to be disappointed. This one had tons of acrobatics, live music, and insane stunts. My only complaint with their shows is that there is TOO much going on - I feel like I miss half of the show b/c I don't know what to look at :)

This week is going to be so busy with work. I started the "mini-team" portion of my one year training program with Nestle today. I now have four people reporting to me on our frozen pizza side of the business...Nestle owns Digiorno, CPK, and Tombstone frozen pizza. So now I go from eating lots of ice cream to eating lots of pizza!!! :) We have a lot of flavors to try.