I know it's November, but...

re-cap of Halloween!!

I had a lot of fun making some new crafts, food, and coming up with my costume!
Now I can't wait to get started on Christmas....
I just can't really seem to get into any Thanksgiving decorating here seeing as though we don't have any leaves changing or cornucopias. lol.   We are having dinner with a friend of mine so we won't even be eating Thanksgiving dinner at our house, although I do plan on making lots of stuff... especially pumpkin pie!

anyway. here are a few of my favorite Halloween decorations

these are pop bottles, mostly LLBs that I removed the label and either painted with nail polish, wrapped twine around, or decorated with black electrical tape.  the green bottle is Ting

some friends and I were out snorkeling and I was on the hunt for some cool branches to use as a decoration... I had my mind set on something much different, but Veronika spotted this and we decided the thorns were very Halloween-ish

I made lots of other silly little decorations and food, you can read/see more on my other blog.

On Halloween Night I made Lee and I spooky pancakes!  I intended to have bright purple pancakes, but didn't really take into account that when I cooked them they would 'brown' so they were kinda purple. and I dyed our scrambled eggs bright orange. haha. but they didn't photograph too well.

and finally... my costume!!

Color Lovers

there is this website that I love and Lee makes fun of me for spending time creating color palettes and patterns, but I love it!!
My very very very favorite is when
I want to use a specific color and then I find out that I am the first person to ever use such a color and I get to name it and make it my color!!
it really is fun. I swear.

The site is called colour lovers
but they use the word color all over.
make up your mind people. are you american or are your british.
maybe they're canadian and can't decide??
I hate it when things aren't consistent.

but it's ok the site itself makes up for it.

here a a few of my favorite color palettes and patterns


Color by COLOURlovers

In this one I got to name 3 colors, the blue is summer night sky, the red is strawberry pie, and the grey is screwdriver.


Color by COLOURlovers
I named 3 of these colors as well, purple panic, seaglass, and grenada jungle green


Color by COLOURlovers
I named these, bittersweets, spinach, and golden maze


Color by COLOURlovers


Color by COLOURlovers


Color by COLOURlovers


Color by COLOURlovers


Color by COLOURlovers

ok ok, I could go on forever.
maybe I will make this a weekly update. new color palettes

Halloween!

I am having a little Halloween party this year.
little because -
A. I don't want to have a crazy party
B. our apartment is like 400sq feet.
C. I don't have any money for party like things.
D. I live in Grenada... no supplies available! and I don't own that much stuff to pull from :(

I am excited though. excited for costumes, creepy food, and decorations!!
I really wish I had a punch bowl, cookie cutters, a pumpkin and many many more things....

If I had this costume though it would make up for everything else.
I still love fairies. so much

one my my favorite blogs

I have a confession.  I love children's room, nurseries, birthday parties etc.
and this blog gives me so many awesome ideas for someday when I get to play super mom and have awesome kids rooms and parties.
and I get lots of inspiration for other things too, like our after school program crafts or decorating ideas for me :)
love you design dazzle!!

her recent post about vintage kids rooms made my heart skip a beat... i love love love vintage!! and one of the pictures she used is from a book I own and love!!
and excitedly I have lots of the items in the pictures stored at home!
ah I can't wait for a home to spread out alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll my my millions of treasures I have stored away and try out some of my ideas!
but for now. grenada and a concrete 300sq apartment it is. and I love it.

she sells seashells down by the seashore

If I ever get the time (how ironic) I want to work on some of these crafts!
and gather enough shells to have the Limes kids do one!!!

Lee and I have a little joke about Koalas. haha and these are soooo cute!

and  for Christmas I want to do  this!!

and I've already done this, however not so much work involved.

Salad!!!!

I bought lettuce this week because it was on sale, and I have ate (eaten?) a salad every single day.
I am addicted!
I guess that is a great thing to be addicted to though.
I think it's mostly because I have found the most delicious salad dressing. and shockingly enough it is not caesar - formerly the ONLY dressing I ate.
Wishbone Creamy Italian = delicious.

and I made homemade pizza the other day.
the last time I made homemade dough it didn't rise enough this time it raised too much!
well Lee thought so anyway, I like a nice thick pizza dough

Canadian Thanksgiving and 5 yr Anniversary

Yesterday was Canadian Thanksgiving.
but apparently you can celebrate Thanksgiving anytime over the weekend..... so on Friday people on facebook were saying Happy Thanksgiving & I was confused... b/c it's on a Monday right?  well whenever Friday-Monday.
We were unable to celebrate such a holiday because I only saw Lee for about 30 minutes a day and that was when I went over to campus to take him something to eat.
So on Sunday night I made him a turkey sandwich and said Happy Thanksgiving!! haha

After 5 years of being with Lee I have learned that he will eat anything with cheese and onions included.... :)
I didn't have much to offer a turkey sandwich, because after all when I eat one I just eat turkey and bread, so cheese and onions it was! and mayo of course. and he really liked it :)

and last night for our 5years of togetherness I wanted to make him something special that I had never made before.... so I made him pasta with sausage.  he LOVES sausage in pasta, but I DO NOT eat sausage, so he only gets it in restaurants...

I ground up some sausage and put it in the sauce, (which was just canned hunt's cheese & garlic sauce) cream cheese, fresh garlic, onions, bell peppers, and some Cajun seasoning.  I also cut some of the sausage up into bits and fried it with some onions and put it on top...
Lee was very happy.
I ate garlic bread for dinner. lol.

my new anthem

we sang this song in church this morning & I loooooved it.
exactly what I needed to hear this morning.



I Am Blessed Among The People
I Am Blessed Among The Nations
I Am Blessed Because I Am Loved By You

I Am Loved And Highly Favored
Saved By The Grace Of A Mighty Savior
I Am Blessed Because I Am Loved By You

No Weapon Formed Against Me Will Prosper
No Curse Can Ever Take His Promise From Me

When Hope Is Gone And The Darkness Has Fallen
I Will Still Believe, I Will Still Believe

I Will Rise Up, I'm Will Rise Up
I Will Rise Up And Call Myself Blessed
I Will Rise Up, I'm Will Rise Up
I Will Rise Up And Call Myself Blessed

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

If you'd like to make a photo to raise awareness for your facebook profile or for your blog you can do something similar to this on picnik.com
it's FREE!!!
& your picture doesn't have to be pink... you can just have a ribbon.
<3 please remember to check yourself!!

What's for dinner

I realized I've been writing a lot about desserts... so I thought I'd share some of what we've been eating for dinner recently.

- Spinach Chicken Alfredo Pizza, with homemade dough I might add - yum yum yum!  (this picture was taken before it was baked)

- Regular Pizza too
- Teriyaki Chicken Stir Fry -onions, carrots, bell peppers, rice, and gasp -lentils!? haha
- Pumpkin soup and cheese quesadillas for dipping :)
- Chicken and homemade dumplings - I was really happy about this one.  My mom makes dumplings and they are so good, so I was happy to have mine turn out just as good!! and the dumplings are just flour and eggs, who would have thought! lol
- Tacos, something we eat at least every 10 days or so...
- Hamburgers and Macaroni & Cheese - one of my favorite, easy meals.... loooove Macaroni!
- Spaghetti
- Omelets - Lee has finally approved my omelet making skills.  He truthfully is really really good at making eggs.... but he trusts me now.  I don't eat omelets so I never made them before.  but poor guy he just gets onions, peppers, and cheese in his.... bacon and sausage is too expensive & fattening. lol.  When Lee eats an omelet I just have a fried egg and toast.
- Chicken Sandwiches and fries
- Pot Roast - yay for a crockpot!!  I really like pot roast, and Lee does too, he just doesn't really love potatoes so he doesn't like them in pot roast..... weirdo.
- Chicken, mashed potatoes, and peas - easy and home-y.
- Alfredo - we eat pasta a lot.... we have Chicken Alfredo probably once a week. Homemade sauce now too... jar sauce is too expensive & with cream cheese I can make it sooo much better anyway.



Ok, that's enough..... I think I have pictures of some of these meals somewhere... or at least pictures of other things I've wanted to blog about. so I'll try to update more frequently.!
now.... what to have tonight ??

genius!

I feel like a genius right now... haha. (I don't know if this is as great as I think it is....)
I have been craving a turkey sandwich, but lunch meat is pretty expensive here... and I'm a bit picky.
But today I was getting cheese from the deli and gave in an bought a half pound of this plain, white, oven roasted turkey... and it was cheap! $4.50EC for the half lb. so like $2.50US
When I was making lunch it looked gross..... kinda slimy and plain.
So I decided to spruce it up a little... I sprinkled some brown sugar in a frying pan and cooked the turkey a little bit, no oil or anything... just fried it on each side for like a minute or less and it got a little brown and flavored & turned out good!
I'm so proud of my brown sugar glazed turkey sandwich. haha.

Bake Sale for Limes

Friday we had a bake sale for the Limes After School Program and it went really well!! We raised a TON of money!!  The money will be used to supplies, snack, and possibly rent for a building.

For the sale I made iced sugar cookies, blueberry muffins, and banana pumpkin bread.

I found the recipe here.

I changed a few things, I didn't use oats or ginger just because I didn't have them.

I was so excited I was able to use almost all ingredients from Grenada... fresh pumpkin, fresh bananas, fresh eggs, sugar produced here, flour I think was made here (or at least in the caribbean somewhere) cinnamon, and nutmeg that I actually found while hiking up to Mt. Carmel waterfalls!  I found nutmeg laying on the ground and grated it for my bread... amazing.
It turned out delicious and I'm so glad I made two batches so Lee and I would have some to eat!

I put the pumpkin, banana, and egg in the blender 

I make a mess cooking. 

mmmmmmm
Thank you everyone for helping out!!

Banana Bread!

This recipe for banana  bread tastes just like Bob Evans!!
& this website is so cool - you can adjust the servings and it automatically changes the measurements for you! and it does US or Metric measurements
http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/banana-banana-bread/Detail.aspx

I have to admit that I didn't use real bananas in this bread, I used 'rock figs' which look just like bananas only a little smaller and taste almost exactly like a banana. I think.... I'm starting to forget what a banana tastes like at home.  I don't think they are as good as they are here though.

 Here is a comparison picture of bananas and figs.  They are common in the West Indies.
I found this picture on this website -http://homepage.mac.com/karlek/.Public/SVG/SVG620.HTM it explains a lot of Caribbean foods!

ps.  my silicone bread pan was the greatest idea of all time... nothing ever sticks and it smashed up nicely in my suitcase for the trip down :)

frustrating.

so yesterday I was so proud, I got up and had all the laundry done really early so it would have time to dry before I went to Limes... and then as soon as it is all up on the line and about half dry, my neighbor decided to build a fire RIGHT up against his fence, directly across from my clean laundry.  I didn't realize until the air was already full of smoke and I thought my house was burning down...
I didn't know what to do, our dryer is broken, well not really but a fuse or the switch is & like everything else in Grenada our landlord has been unable to get an electrician to set a time to come and so we're still waiting.
So I wasn't able to just throw all the clothes in the dryer with some smell good sheets and get rid of the odor :(
I decided to just leave it for the afternoon (the sky was completely blue and perfect so no chance of rain) and hopefully after the fire it would air our a bit.
When I got home at 5oclock it was STILL smoking!!!!

at that point I said forget it, and as of now (8am next day) the clothes are still hanging on the line! haha
I will probably have to end up washing them again... but I just want to make totally sure there will not be any more fires!

Cinnamon Rolls

On Sunday afternoon I was just sitting at home alone and got in the mood to bake something.
We don't buy many "snacks" here in Grenada.  Mostly because it is too expensive, so I am excited to try baking more.
I decided to bake cinnamon rolls because that is one of Lee and I's favorite things.  When we first got married and were living in West Virginia we would go to Kroger grocery shopping together (the good old days) and we would always end up buying a can of cinnamon rolls and making them when we got home and eating the entire pack in one sitting! haha, unhealthy, but so fun and delicious.

I found a recipe online that didn't require too much work or sitting around waiting for the dough to raise.

filling

• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon butter, melted

dough

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk ( I substituted - 1 cup milk & 1tsp white vinegar)
• 6 tablespoonsbutter, melted

I mixed all the ingredients together for the dough and mixed the filling ingredients together until it looked like  sand.

I rolled out the dough into a rectangle, brushed on melted butter, and spread the filling on top

I then cut it into strips and rolled it up into 'rolls'.  This was really difficult for me ( my first time home making cinnamon rolls) maybe my dough was too 'wet' because they kept falling apart and coming open, so they didn't turn out that beautiful.... hence why some turned into more of a crescent roll.
and then by reading more recipes I found that it probably would have been easier to roll the entire piece of dough up into a 'log' and then cut it.  I'll know next time. and pur the rest of the melted butter on top! (LOTS of butter in this one, lol)

 Make sure you spray or butter the pan really, really well!! I found that a lot of the filling melted and ran out the bottom and caused them to stick.  Or perhaps I should have baked them less. ?
I baked them for 20 minutes on 425degrees.

I made a very small amount of icing to pour on top, because they already had so much sugar in them!!



Icing

•  2 tbs of cream cheese
• 1 tbs milk
• enough powdered sugar to make it thick

So I definitely learned a lot for what to do next time, and they turned out delicious regardless!

French Toast Casserole

Friday morning I had a little breakfast party.
3 of my friends came over for breakfast and then we went downtown St. George's to explore and take pictures.
I made french toast casserole & it turned out great!  and everyone seemed to like it :) so here is how I did it.
I'm not really that great for following recipes I usually change things or don't measure or something...  but I'll try to do my best!

ingredients:
1 loaf of bread (texas toast would have been great, but that wasn't an option)
5 eggs
milk -I'd guess about a cup? or a little more
vanilla -just a splash
sugar - about 1/4 cup
cinnamon - 1 teaspoon

-cut the slices of bread into 4ths and layer in a pan. I think I did about 3 layers deep.
-mix eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla in a bowl & then pour over bread making sure to coat each slice and layer.
-cover and refrigerate over night

the next morning:
-bake casserole at 400degrees for about 10 minutes
-while it's baking mix butter and brown sugar in a skillet until it makes a syrup
-then remove casserole from oven & pour over top, and bake for another 10 minutes (or until the bread isn't too soggy anymore)

I like to serve mine with powdered sugar and syrup. 
I also thought bananas mixed in the butter and brown sugar concoction would have been really good, like bananas foster! but there were no bananas to be found on the island that day....

BACK!!

I had almost forgot about this other little blog I started....
I am in full "housewife" mode today and it reminded me to update!!
I will have to work on getting a new layout too, considering I don't live there anymore....

Things are mostly the same.... just different apartment.
Although I now have an oven!!!
and my laundry routine now includes a clothesline.

I will update about all my adventures in cooking, cleaning, and house-wifing soon.
but for now I am getting ready to check on a true housewife disaster....
I washed my navy blue tie-dyed dress with some other things & apparently it bleeds blue dye onto everything else!!!! I have had the dress for like a year.... I can't believe this is the first time it has ruined other clothes.
one thing I was sad about were my off white shorts that I have had since like 10th grade..... I'm going to attempt to recover them from my laundry mistake and get the dye out! wish me luck!

Memorial Day

 I've been on Polyvore today... it's a really fun website. especially when you're bored.
so I made some outfits with similar items to things I already own for Memorial Day, one of my favorite holidays of the year :)

homestretch

I got up at 6:30am to make Lee breakfast before his Biochem final (the last one! yay)
Yes, he woke me up.... but at least I told him to.

I've been watching Mad Men & it's set in the 60s & all the women are such syrupy sweet housewives... none of them are happy & their husbands are dirt bags & they all smoke like freight trains.... BUT it did make me think about how women actually did do every single thing at home & how Lee being consumed with medical school about 14-15 hrs a day makes me a 1960s housewife.
Dinner is ready for him when he gets home (as well as breakfast & lunch occasionally) I do the dishes, he always has clean laundry, I make the bed everyday, I even take the trash out. haha.... ugh it sound so depressing.  I don't mind it that much, especially since I don't have a real job, but even on days when I babysit and/or do some volunteer stuff I come home & am like.... are you serious I have to cook now? and in the real world Lee would be doing sooooo much more.  When we lived in West Virginia he did the dishes every single day and at least once a week he cooked.
I'm afraid those days are over, at least for the foreseeable future.
But I am so overwhelmingly proud of my husband for completing his first term of medical school and doing so well and still having time to love me and making sure I never feel neglected.

You make me happy to be alive!

I picniked a few picture with the lyrics to what has become kind of Lee and I's song... Firefly by Jimmy Needham.
His new album is coming out soon & we're both really excited... we're planning on listening to it the entire way to my parent's house... a 10 hr drive. haha