owen's olivia: July 2011

7/30/2011

Pottery Barn Kids Knock-Off Bird Garland {Tutorial}

Pottery Barn Kids

If you like to dabble in crafts like I do, this is so much fun! This would be a great kids activity or even great for Family Home Evening. PB Kids has an adorable bird garland for $29.50. (I L.O.V.E birds, remember?) Yikes! That is a little steep for me considering I am only getting 5 birds, and let's not forget shipping and tax.

Garlands, especially this one, are great for many occasions. Think of baby showers, weddings, parties, crib decorations (as long as the little one can't play with it), outdoor decor, Christmas, and the list goes on.

My garland costs maybe $2 - $3 max. Although I do not use fabric like PB does, my garland is simple, easy, cheap, and uses supplies most of us already have around the house. Who doesn't love that??

too {INGENIUS} not to share

Okay . . . This is totally worth sharing for all my non LDS friends out there. Well, maybe a member could pull this off somehow, but definitely not as a dress! :) I bet most of you reading this will run to your closet if you have a men's shirt and try this. I did. It totally worked!

Thanks to Polyvore for sharing!

BOOM: by JasmineAnnnnn on Polyvore.com

Just wrap it around you like a towel, and button from bottom up.

Spicy Sweet and Sour Chicken

Thank you Bobby Flay for this wonderful recipe! I didn't have all the ingredients his recipe called for, so I had to do it a little differently. I changed a few things too, and it was F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S! This beats any bottled sauce or dry packet you find in the grocery store. Bonus? No MSG! You can read the reviews and recipe here. A friend at church gave me a bunch of bell peppers (We won't go into how poor of a green thumb I have nor how I have killed our garden 3 years in a row.), and I knew with the pineapple I had in the pantry I had to combine the two for Chinese cuisine.

Spicy Sweet and Sour Chicken

1 cup white wine vinegar

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar (I used Marukan)

1/4 soy sauce

All the juice from 1 20 oz can of sliced pineapple

1 cup of granulated sugar

2 jalapenos chopped (I removed the membranes and seeds from only 1 jalapeno)

2 green peppers

3 peeled and sliced carrots

1 cup all purpose flour

Salt and pepper

3 Chicken Breasts cut into bite size pieces

Canola oil

Cooked Jasmine Rice (or any kind of rice you like)
1 Paint scraper (If you are ~~a little~~ clumsy in the kitchen like me, your sauce will boil over onto the stove.)

In a 2 qt pot, add vinegars, soy sauce, pineapple juice, sugar, and jalapenos. Bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a slow boil. Cook until it is reduced by half. Stir occasionally. This will take anywhere from 20-30 mins. Once the sauce is done, set it aside and off the burner.

In the meantime (keep your eye on that sauce or you will be using a paint scraper), place flour, salt, and pepper into a ziploc or brown bag. Add chicken and toss to coat. In a large skillet, add some canola oil and heat over med-high heat. (I used between a 6 and 7 on my dial on the stove.) You want the oil hot enough to fry the chicken, but you don't want to burn it. Fry chicken until cooked.

Place chicken on a paper towel. Add more oil, if needed, to saute the vegetables. Saute for just a few minutes. You will want a little bite left in the veggies and not soft and mushy.

Holding a fine mesh strainer over the skillet, dump the sauce in the strainer. Add the chicken to the sauce and vegetable mixture. Top rice with meat and vegetables. Add some canned pineapple slices to the top. Enjoy!

Optional: Make the sauce first before doing anything else. I am too impatient to do that, and I don't mind using a paint scraper. ;)

Insta-Wardrobe {Date Night}

Date night is something my hubby and I don't do enough of. If there is anything right now that I dislike more than dressing up is trying to find something to wear. I don't know what brought this on other than maybe becoming a mother. There are certain colors I can't wear for the fear of getting pureed green beans on it, and let's not mention the year and a half I was disconnected from fashion (still happening). I just hate malls, and I hate shopping. Clothes shopping that is. :) But this doesn't stop me from admiring some of today's fashions wishing I could wear that out somewhere. If you can't afford a pricey outfit (lame-o!), you can just drool and dream over these styles, which is what I have to do.

Soooo, I guess I'm lame.

Maybe this will help jump start your brain, so you don't have to be like me and spend hours going through the closet screaming "I have nothing to wear!" when the next date night comes around.

Susan Woo

French Connection

H & M

Free People

Shabby Apple

Susan Woo

Banana Republic

L'Wren Scott

Karen Zambos

7/27/2011

Tip and Trick

Owen's high chair needed some good scrubbin'. My microwave oven needed some love too, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone.

Place 2 cups of water in a microwave-safe bowl. Add a 1/4 - 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar to it. Microwave for 2-3 mins (you want it to get hot). Let the bowl sit in the microwave for about a min. Dip a rag into the water mixture and wipe your oven clean! Food should come off really easily. Use that water to clean countertops, high chairs, dining chairs, tables, or anything else you fancy.

9 Layer Bars

My friend, Heather, posted her 7 Layer Bar recipe, which is fantastic! I wanted to make this, but I did it with a twist. I think there are many possibilities for 7 Layer Bars. Who knows. There may be another recipe post down the road with different ingredients. You just can't go wrong with sugar and fat!

1/4 Cup (4 Tablespoons) of Butter, browned (You can just melt it, if you prefer not to brown it.)
1 14oz can Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/2 can (2.5 oz) of Evaporated Milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 Cup of Vanilla Wafers, crushed
1 scant Cup of Pretzels, crushed *Refer to photo below for my scant
1 1/2 Cups of shredded coconut
1 1/2 Cups Chocolate Chips
1/2 Cup Butterscotch Chips
1 Cup Pecans, chopped

Vanilla Wafers

Pretzels

Scant

Preheat oven to 325. Place the butter in a 9" x 13" pan. Place in oven. While butter is browning, mix the two milks together in a bowl. Add vanilla and mix. When butter is bubbly, foamy, and part brown (not burnt), take out of the oven. Layer the vanilla wafers, pretzels, coconut, and chocolate and butterscotch chips. Pour the milk mixture over the top covering the entire dish. Add chopped nuts on top.
Bake for 20-25 mins.

7/26/2011

Laundry Soap {Tutorial}

I like to save money whenever I can. With only one spouse working (did I mention he is a full-time student too?), I try to stretch our dollars. I started making laundry soap months ago when a friend introduced me to it. I searched online for recipes, which there are many. After making the recipe I chose, I adjusted it a little. I still use stain treatment like Shout for more soiled areas, but I no longer have to spend lots of money on soap. I use Zote soap, which you can find at Wal-Mart, and it has a clean, nice scent. I have heard Fels-Naptha works well for pretreatment. I cannot find that near me, so I don't buy it.

Google Has Found Me!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

I know what you are thinking. That is a ridiculous title, and who cares if Google has found Owen's Olivia. Well, it tells me I am making progress, and that makes me

HAPPY!

When I first started a couple of days ago, the Google search engine could not direct readers to me. It didn't recognize me, at all. Today, my friends, I am at the bottom of the first page.

YESSS!