FOOD

Alright, this is another post I will be updating as frequently as possible.  These are all experiments I performed using a combination of recipes to make one catered just for me.  And hopefully you too!  These were usually made on Sundays because 1) I have time to make something yummy and 2) Sunday is my day I like to make meals/snacks that I can have quickly throughout the week.  So, lets cut the chit chat and get to the good stuff!

NUTELLA CREPES.

 Recipe:

1 cup flour
2 eggs
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbs butter
1/4 cup nutella

What I love about this recipe is that it's cheaper than pancake mix!  It doesn't matter which order you put the ingredients into the bowl, I simply mixed the ingredients all together and poured them into the pan.  And, as you can see by the picture, toppings include mini chocolate chips (because they're more fun than regular size) and syrup!  These are Josh's favorites... mine is strawberry jam (: So... as you can see- depending on what you like, toppings are up to you!




GRANOLA BITES.

Okay.  Can I just say... these are SO good.  My New Years Resolution was to do no desserts (except for Holidays- don't worry, I'm not totally deprived), but these accidentally kind of turned out like delicious cookies......? WHOOPS!  But you can always substitute certain ingredients.  Ex. Whole wheat flour for flour, Stevia for sugar, walnuts/fruit for white chocolate chips, etc. To make them healthier.

Recipe:

3 cups oats
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup ground flax seed
1/2 cup craisins
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
2 tbs vanilla extract
1 egg

For this recipe, it didn't matter which order I put the ingredients into the bowl.   I kind of just threw things in and tasted little by bit, but kept track of how much of what I put into the bowl.  Typically with cookies or granola, you should mix the dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls... So if you would like to do that, GO for it!

I baked these puppies at 350* for no more than 15 minutes.  Depends on how crunchy you want them.  But if you are going to make bars instead of bites then I would cook them for 20 minutes.  I was afraid these would turn out too hard, and they feel a little crumbly but the middle was chewy...  Enjoy!

Gettin' Crafty

The Table.

Some background to the project:

I found this table on the side of the road, I passed by it a few times, first because we don't have much room in our apartment for new furniture, second because I'm always paranoid people put their things outside to just clean.  I didn't want to steal it!  But after a few days of it outside I figured it was up for grabs- right?  I really wanted a coffee table! haha. 

I was just going to spray paint it because that was nice and simple.  In the meantime (since it was winter and I couldn't really spray paint) I put a few blankets on top for cushion.  When I told Josh I was going to spray paint it he got a little sad because he liked the cushion. Men.  So... I decided to buy some cushions and fabric. Guess it's not too much of a coffee table anymore, a little bit of a bench.  We still use it as a coffee table though (:  

So, here's the process:
   
 1. Get the supplies.

Luckily, my amazing friend, Brittney, had a staple gun and hot glue gun to put the cushions in place.

2.  Take off the legs and put the cushions on.

 
 3. Staple the fabric over the cushion to the table.  Anddd I got a little too excited towards the end of the project so I forgot to take a picture of this step- whoops!  So I put the legs back on and here's   But here's the final product, I LOVE IT!

The Shelf.

All you need is a little color (:

Step 1: Find a piece of BORING furniture around your house. Check!

Step 2: Find a little bit of paint that is your favorite color... double check!

Step 3: Sand till your heart's content!  I used an electric sander... saves LOTS of time.
 

Step 4: Primer.  This makes your paint adhere better to the surface of whatever you are painting.

Step 5: Paint.  I used a foam brush, a sponge, and a normal bristled brush.  Your brush depends on what type of look you want.  Unfortunately, this shelf had a plastic covering so I didn't have much of a choice.  I wanted to go for the antique look, but it's hard to do with the covering that was on this piece.

Step 6: If your shelf has a backboard to it, cover it with a fun piece of wrapping paper to spice things up!  If you don't have wrapping paper, you could make your own stamp out of an eraser, draw on the backboard if you're super artsy (: , or paint it a different color than you did for the piece.

The Doodle Art.

This is my "I love..." project!  This idea came to me through doodling.  I'm not sure if you knew, but I am a professional doodler ;) catch me in class- what am I doing? Doodling.  Due to my ADD, doodling helps me focus, instead of looking at everyone around the room, liking this person's hair, that person's outfit, etc...  

Anyways, I figured- why keep my doodles to myself?  Let's share it with the world (aka: my apartment)! So, I have decided to make many of my doodles into art!  And so can you... all you need to do is get a little creative (:

I get my canvasses from Big! Lots.  (Or at least I think that's where the punctuation goes..)  Here, the canvasses are really affordable.  I got this one for around $5. You can also check out Michaels, Walmart, any other crafting store... they just may not be as affordable as Big! Lots.  So far I haven't found a better deal- so if you do, please let me know!

1.  I painted my canvass white.  Silly, it sounds... but at Big! Lots, you never know how clean your canvass will be.  So, if it's white enough for you- go for it!  Doodle away. 

2.  Then, I painted the sides pink, one of my favorite colors (:  Obviously, you can pick whichever color you're in the mood for!  And you don't have to paint the sides pink, you could paint just the front and leave the sides white... I just wanted to try something a little different than my normal canvass doodle arts.

3. After, I traced a heart.  I did this freehand, but if you have a stencil/make one of your own, that would be a great idea as well.  I lightly traced the heart with pencil, and then wrote my words slightly over the line so that I didn't need to erase it in the end.

4.  Write away!  What do you love?  The heart reserves names for only those who deserve it.  This is where you get to know yourself.  Make that list of things that make you unbearably happy.  It will brighten your day and bring back great memories!





Another Doodle Art.

 I call this my "Tree of Luuuuuv".  Just kidding, I don't really "name" my doodle arts, we can just keep that up for interpretation ;) 

1.  Paint your canvass any color that suits you.  It doesn't have to be a perfect wash, I prefer mine with a little character, actually.  As you can see, I used horizontal strokes for the ground, and vertical strokes for the sky.  But, be your own art-eest!  Switch it up however you'd like.  You can do the sky/ground with swirly strokes, zig-zag, anything you would like.  This was just my first try so I kept it simple.

2.  I started with the trunk, then the shadow.  As for the hearts, I didn't pencil it out, just let the brush do the work! But if you don't feel comfortable with this, penciling it out before hand works out just fine. 

Tips:   
I would definitely recommend penciling out the shape of the leafy part of the tree.  If you don't it can get pretty lopsided, trust me haha

If you don't feel comfortable using a brush for fine lines, use a pen like I did for the heart.  It's much easier and takes less time!




Any questions?  Leave a comment! 

8.18.12

Since I started this blog as a new, fresh documentation of me and Josh's life together, I figured it would be great to start out with the most important day we've shared together- our wedding!!! I know this is kind of cheesy, but what girl doesn't like to talk about her wedding?  It's something we've been planning our entire LIVES.... Just kidding.  I mean, some girls like to talk about it with their moms, sisters, or friends; but it just never really came up in my family.  Anyways, I think I'll skip the mumble jumble and get down to the good stuff...  Picture Time!!!!

We were married in the beautiful San Diego Temple on August 18th, 2012.  It was so gorgeous that day!  I always love a cloudless sky (:

 

Our first debut as Mr. & Mrs. Musson... 

I can't think of a better place to celebrate!

Family, Family, & More Family!

Our Wonderful Bridal Party! 

Just a few pictures at the San Diego Temple, Balboa, and La Jolla... 

My three favorite places in San Diego!

Let the Party Begin!

The Details.

Dancing the Night Away....

Ta Ta for now! 

The End (:

Compliments to all of those who helped with our wedding and our wonderful photographer, Stefanie Zeltner!

Tips&Tricks

Let's cut to the chase.  Everybody likes to save time, money, and skip on the confusion- right?  Here's a few things that I have found useful in my everyday life... (:  Oh, and this is an accumulative post.  So every few weeks I notice something that helps ease my life a little more, and I add it here!

Backpacks.
Never buy a backpack in store that you can easily get online!  I was at the BYU-I bookstore browsing through backpacks and I came across a Dakine backpack for $55.  Although for Dakine that's a descent price, it isn't for the Mussons!

Proof:

 

Long story short- after a few minutes of looking online, we found this one for $32, shipping included,on ebag! I am one happy (and stylish) camper.  
Money saved=23 dollars.

P.S.  I wasn't going to buy this backpack because mine isn't completely broken, yet... but Josh surprised me!







Wheat Thins.
Ok seriously.  Who doesn't like Wheat Thins?  This isn't really a tip or trick, but just wanted to let all of you out there know that these babies taste EXACTLY like them.  And are on average a dollar cheaper!  So if you're a wheat thin lover like me, save 7 bucks a year then go crazy at the dollar store... I know I will!

 
 Necklace extender.  

For a while now, I've wanted to buy an extension for this necklace that I want longer. But, I couldn't get myself to do it.  I'm too cheap to buy one!  So I figured, why not use a bracelet as an extension?  I simply linked them together and boom!  A longer necklace (:

 Necklace + Bracelet = Long Necklace. 

Easiest math I've ever done!

Aaaand, somehow my hair went from light brown to dark brown in these photos.  Don't ask me how it happened- I have no clue!   

Being Healthy.

Wanna trick your stomach into thinking you're eating more?  Dr. Oz taught me to place the fruit to your cereal FIRST.  This way, cereal goes on top and your mind thinks you're eating more- Win!

Makeup brush cleaner.

Make it last longer by putting the liquid into a spray bottle.  This way just the right amount comes out every time.  Ps- Spray bottle is a dollar at Walmart.

   

Medicine.  

Who likes to read the back of the bottle?  It seems there's nearly a billion little words on the back!  I often get confused between medicines of how many to take.  So I go to the back of the bottle and search for "Directions", call me stupid, but it takes me a good 10 seconds! haha So.... I wrote the amount of pills to take on the top of the bottle. DUH!

Planners.  

As a Christmas present to myself, I would always pick out a planner from Barnes & Noble, wrap it, and act pleasantly surprised when I opened it!  But guess what.  This year I couldn't find a planner worthy enough to enter my backpack!  I was pretty sad.  I tried Target, another Barnes & Noble, the internet, nothing worked...  So after Christmas I went back to Barnes & Noble to look again and picked my planner.  Once I got to the cash register- 50% off baby! This puppy was only $5.  So, lesson learned; from now on I will buy my planner AFTER Christmas and save 50%. (:

                






 

Chargers.

I don't know about you, but in my home with a family of only four, we had dozens of chargers.  We kept our chargers in the same location, which made it great to find, but impossible to sort through.  Solution?  LABELS.  Why didn't I think of this earlier?  Once again, if I wasn't a poor college student I would use my special little label maker- but due to limited storage and money, duct tape and a marker/pen will work for now!  

(Is there photo editing for better handwriting?;)

 Mobile pills. 

Alright so I hope I don't look like a little druggie with all my "medicine" tips, I just get nice, long headaches quite often and what girl doesn't need a little help with her monthly gift?!  So please, don't worry about me... I'm perfectly healthy.  Anyway, I found this contact case for $4 at JC Penney and I had to have it.  Just because you don't have contacts, doesn't mean you can't buy the case... right?!  So I use it as a convenient little case for meds... (:

Mascara.

We all know it's nearly impossible to get all of that yummy black stuff out of the bottle.  To get the most use out of your mascara, place it in a sink of warm water- this way, not only does it heat the mascara to get more out of the bottle, but the mascara is less clumpy when you apply it... Double bonus!

Yes, I took a picture of my mascara in the sink... Lash Blast!  My favorite.

 

Why BlOg?

A reason to start out with: I believe keeping a history or some form of documentation of your life is SO important!  I don't know why it is so important to me... In fact, I used to hate keeping a journal.  My first entry in one of my journals when I was young was, "The only reason why I have a journal is so that my kids know what I was like when I was little."  True fact.  This very entry displayed my near hatred of writing about my life.  I know this sounds sad, and to answer any questions, my childhood was great, so don't worry! (: 

  Goodbye journals, Hello blog!

Back to my reason for blogging.  Recently, for a few years now, I have had a goal to keep a journal and write in it every day.  Although this was a success, I realized after a few years it started to get a wee bit boring- I began to write simply to fulfill my goal.  Long story short- I made a new goal; to blog.  Blogging will be my new and improved journal.  This way, hopefully it will be more interesting because I am writing to an audience and get to include pictures which results in getting a little more creativity than just writing on a lined piece of paper each day.  I hope that as time goes by people will enjoy reading, be inspired, and discover interesting, new facts or ideas that they can incorporate into their own lives!  I'm excited to keep this new documentation of my life with Josh and desire to keep my goal of recording my life on this blog!