Out of Milk!

If you have read any parts of this blog, I am sure it did not take you long to figure out that we girls are always in pursuit of getting organized. Not sure what that's all about - calmness, sense of order, control issues... Who knows, but it is what it is. And I must say, it makes me happy to feel some part of my life is put together. At least for a short time.


Anyway .. the good stuff.  A while back my friend (apparently I attract others with similar qualities) shared a fun app with me for my smart phone.  Out of Milk.  For those of you like me, I have had my smart phone for a little over a year and I am certain I under utilize it.  So needless to say it took me a little while to start using the app (and must admit I still am only using a very small portion of it).

This app is great!  I love it - well worth the money.  Site says $1.99 today, but I may have paid $4.99.  You can use it obviously on your phone, but also on your computer, which I think is a really nice feature.



Today though I wanted to play around with the Pantry List part of the app - it helps you keep track of what you have in your pantry and how much.  Great right!  Well unless you have to sit and manually enter each item. NO! It has a scan that let's you use your phone to scan the barcode, look up the item, and then you simply add the quantity.

I just tackled my spice rack today and spent about 15 minutes scanning the draw. 

I am still learning how to use it, but it is just so darn cool I had to share.

Summertime

On our way!

Just Add Water

Summer fun for us almost always involves water and what better place to enjoy water than Lake Powell on a houseboat.  It's hot, but the water is cool and the mountains are beautiful.  Add family and friends, some jet skis, a fast boat (to cover the enormous lake), several decks of cards, SUNSCREEN, and you've got all the ingredients for some serious fun!

Sisters

Happy, happy Birthday to You!

Today is my sweet sister's birthday.  

We are separated by many miles, 

so on days like this I cannot help but reflect on all the wonderful 

and not so wonderful things we have been able to share 

with one another over the years.

To me my sister is:

Amazingly Stronger Than she Thinks

Truly Beautiful

KIND

Courageous

crazy Talented

&

My Best Friend!

I love you!

Letter Press

Today, while in search of ideas for a graduation party,
I came across the most lovely site. 

I had to share it.

My sister and I love paper and type setting.
I will play around with fonts for hours

(until I finally am to exhausted to continue the craziness). 

Trying to find the right invitation is, well, really important.  

After all, it is the first impression people get.

Everything else just follows suit!

Now I know a lot of you are thinking, 

"Oh my gosh - is this woman for real!"

YES - I am.

But then again, I am a crazy detail oriented person.  

And, I do love color, fonts, and pretty paper -
put them together to make a beautiful invitation... 

well let's just say I feel complete JOY.

Click on picture to link to the source & site.

Cheese, Lovely Cheese...

My newest interest is making homemade cheese.  Well actually I have been playing around with making cheese for about a year now, but I decided it was time I get serious and bump up my game.  

So today I am making Chevre cheese.  Not that this is a difficult cheese to make, on the contrary it is quite simple.  It takes about 12 - 18 hours for the curds to set up.  So no pictures at this point.  

However I do want to share a few resources I found helpful:

Available on Amazon

This book is , shall I say, amazing.  I am fairly new to this adventure and I have to say this book is so complete that it makes even myself feel very confident I can do this.  Now I am still in the easy cheese section of the book, but am moving onto the intermediate next week when I can acquire some local ingredients I want to use.

As for the Chevre cheese - the recipe in the book is straight forward and simple.  However, I do like to see the process and the pictures in the book, although lovely are sparse for my needs.  I found this series of videos on YouTube and found it very helpful. 

Be sure to watch part 2 and part 3 before starting.

Happy cheese making!

it only took a few months...

first off, let me introduce myself...

i'm MaCall.

{the fabulous niece & daughter.}

my husband & i currently live in Salt Lake while he
{husband's name is Aaron, but i simply refer to him as husband.}

finishes school at the UofU.

i recently finished cosmetology school & am

"in pursuit of..." finding a cute salon to work at.

so in the mean time, i'm working at a little french

bakery in downtown.

between work & school, the husband & i are always

"in pursuit of...":

- quick, easy & healthy meals.

- great ways to stay organized in small spaces.

{we're both neat freaks.}

- fun things to do on the cheap.

- beauty products that actually work.

{that's more me than husband.}

&

- fabulous restaurants.

{if we're going to eat out, it has to be worth our while.}

Spring Cleaning!

I found myself with some extra time this week and I decided it was time to do a little spring cleaning in my house. I know, I'm so exciting! Today - I tackled the REFRIGERATOR.  Not the freezer mind you, just the refrigerator.  Who knew so many things could hide behind others.  Luckily no science experiments going on - just a few items out of date.

While I was waiting for things to dry in the sink, I took a look online to see what type of organizing ideas I might get.  I thought I would share some of my findings.

I have to admit - I do love Crate & Barrel!

More fun photos...

Martha Stewart

and sites....

REAL SIMPLE

Live Simply

I always do a quick clean and sweep when I go grocery shopping - before I add the new, fresh items - I like to tidy up the shelves and wipe them down.  But, when you are really going to clean it - you need to set aside a little bit of time so you can empty out your refrigerator, take out the shelves and bins, wash them in some warm soapy water, and wipe out the refrigerator really well.  It's very simple, no crazy strategy. But I must say it will look worse before it gets better.  Everything from the refrigerator will be on your counter tops.

Sadly, I did not take any before pictures of mine - sorry!  But here are the during & after shots.

A French Food Find

Over the last few years we have enjoyed being pass holders to the Disney Parks here in Florida.  And, of course EPCOT is one of our favorites.  Probably because of the Garden Show in the spring and the Food and Wine Festival in the fall. OH, and Christmas is delightful.  After all, I do like to eat and they have some great food.  I know that sounds odd - being a theme park and all, but it really does have some great restaurants.

 Les Chefs de France is the most recent I've tried with my son and good friends.  I ordered the roasted chicken which was cooked perfectly and had a lovely wine reduction sauce.  The French baguette was amazingly good and overall we thought it was quite nice.
 
On a date night with my husband we also tried Bistro de Paris.  This was an amazing evening.  The food was wonderful.  We were in no hurry and the meal took quite some time as several courses were brought out.  We were lucky enough to have a table by the window and were able to watch the firework show right from our seats.  As we left the park, well after closing hours, we enjoyed what seemed to be a private tour through the beautiful gardens.  Truly a lovely evening.

DisneyTouristBlog- click on link below

DisneyTouristBlog

But as luck would have it - I just had lunch at a very lovely little spot in my downtown called Rendez-Vous.

We were a party of five and I will tell you that we all enjoyed our meals.  The bread and goat cheese was of course a favorite, but sadly $2 a small basket.  The prices on the rest of the meal I thought were very reasonable for the portion size.  Below are some of our samplings.

You should give them a try - I am certain you wont be sorry.

A Backyard Campout

As kids get older it's harder and harder to find fun birthday celebrations that aren't just crazy expensive.  This year we decided to have a Backyard Campout to celebrate my son's 13th birthday.  So I thought I would share a few photos.

I finally posted PDFs for the labels!

The midnight snack included: trail mix, Pringles singles, Slim Jim, a Glow stick, and a small whoopee cushion.

Who doesn't love a s'more!

Luckily we have a pool so that was free entertainment. The boys arrived around 4:30 and stayed until 4:30 the next day.  At first I thought no big deal, but then I realized I would need to find a few things to fill the time.  I purchased Mess Kits at Wal-Mart and the boys used them to eat their Foil dinner in.  For those of you not familiar with what a foil dinner is - you use ground beef as a base and load sliced or cubed potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, and the boys added cheese as well.  Wrap it up in heavy duty foil, then another layer of foil for extra protection.  Write the boys name on the outside and stick it on hot coals or in our case, the grill. That night we had a fire and roasted marshmallows to make s'mores.  Played a few rounds of Man Hunt and of course sat around the fire way to late.

Next day after breakfast and a quick swim, I sent the boys on a neighborhood scavenger hunt - this was pretty fun. Then we finished up the afternoon with a little bit of wii games.

Hope you enjoy the idea! Be sure to search it on pinterest as well - lots of cute ideas there.