How To Make Your Own Breadcrumbs

My husband opened the fridge up the other day and saw a package of hot dog buns sitting there on the shelf: "Are we having hot dogs for dinner tonight?"  Me: "No."  (silence)  Him: "Then why do we have hot dog buns in the fridge...?"  Me: "To make bread crumbs."

I've actually been making breadcrumbs for the last few years.  It is one of those things that I think isn't worth the cost to buy.  I buy a package of 12 hot dog buns (or 8 hamburger buns) for $.99 and it makes about 2.5 cups of breadcrumbs.  Then I store them in an airtight container in the pantry and pull them out whenever I need a filler for my meatloaf or to make parmesan chicken.

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Font Friday: My 10 Favorite {Free} Handwriting Fonts

Welcome to another Font Friday!  Today I'm sharing some of my favorite handwriting fonts.  As always, they are free for personal use.  To download the font, simple click on the name of the font below the picture.  If you need help installing the fonts on your computer, click HERE for a step-by-step tutorial.

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Guest Post: Kendra Leigh Photography: How To Choose Colors for Family Pictures

I'm so excited to introduce today's guest poster: Kendra Hill, owner of Kendra Leigh Photography and Video!  Kendra and I live in the same neighborhood and go to the same church house so we see each other pretty regularly.  Kendra is actually the photographer who took our most recent family pictures and she also took my kids' pictures about a year ago for Mother's Day.  And see that picture of me on the sidebar?  Yeah, she took that one too.  So I am very familiar with her work and think she is great and totally recommend her to anyone looking for a photographer.  When I asked Kendra if she'd be willing to do a guest post for me, I was so happy she said yes because I know photographers are always super busy in the spring with weddings and family pictures.  I'm guessing that some of you might even be in the midst of planning one of these things out for yourself/your family.  Today, Kendra will be sharing some tips for choosing colors for family pictures (which I always find super tricky)!

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Craft Room Organization {Using Chalkboard Labels}

When my husband and I started to work on finishing the basement, my only request was: "Can I please have a craft room?"  Knowing how much craft stuff I have, and how much my husband dislikes when I spread it all over the kitchen counters, he made sure that I had a space dedicated to my craftiness.  (He still likes to call it an office, but we both know it's really my craft room.)

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Bubble Snake

The weather here in Utah has been pretty crazy lately.  It will be sunny and 80 degrees one day and the next will be rainy and 60 degrees.  My poor kids ask me every morning if it's going to be a warm day outside so they can play in the yard.  Thankfully, today the answer was yes and they were outside as much as they could be playing on the swing set, jumping on the trampoline or splashing in the water.

One of their favorite things to do outside is blow bubbles.  We go through more bubbles than almost anything else they play with.  (This could also be due to the fact that they tend to spill the bubbles...)  While my son was napping, my daughter and I made a little contraption that when you blow into it, a stream of bubbles comes out the other end.  We call it a 'bubble snake'.  It's really simple and costs practically nothing to make.

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Book Review: Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi {plus Book Club Discussion/Questions}

Every other month, a group of my friends and I get together for a young adult book club.  Someone in the group hosts and we all discuss the most recent book we read, eat treats and laugh a lot.

This month, we read Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi.

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Summer Pallet Art

I was looking at my spring mantle this week and realizing that it was time to start thinking about summer decor.  So I looked through my summer decorations and noticed a serious lack of summer-y-ness (totally a word) in my collection.  A few months ago I picked up a 12x12 unfinished pallet board at Walmart without knowing exactly what I wanted to do with it but thought it would come in handy one day.  (This is a habit that drives my husband crazy, but sometimes I just can't help myself.  *wink*)

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My Favorite {Free} Kitchen Printables

Over the last few months I've been working on redecorating our kitchen.  I got rid of a few items above our cabinets that I'd had forever and didn't like anymore and picked up a new color scheme that flowed better between our living room and kitchen.  To replace one of the items I got rid of above the cabinet, I decided to print out a cute kitchen quote.  I found a lot of free kitchen printables, but many of them came in a group and I don't have a lot of wall space in my kitchen so I settled on a single print.

While I wasn't able to use all the printables I found, I thought I'd share some of my favorites with you in case you are looking for a simple and inexpensive way to add a little something to your kitchen decor.  Simply click on the link below the picture and it will take you to the website where you can download and print the file.  I hope you find one you love!

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Easy Strawberry Pie

We had strawberry pie a lot growing up because everyone in my family, especially my younger sister, loves strawberries.  Whenever my mom made it, she used a pre-made pie crust and store bought glaze.  Super easy and super fast.  Since then, I've found what I think is just as fast and easy, if not more so.  Instead of a pre-made pie crust that has to be baked, I use a shortbread crust.  Instead of store-bought glaze, which can be pricey, I use strawberry gelatin as a base for the glaze.  So yummy and so fast.

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How Do Dinosaurs Books Review

Ever since I was young, books have been a huge part of my life.  I have a memory from when I was about five years old walking home from the library with an entire wagon full of books we had checked out.  That little wagon sat in our front room where I could pick a book and look through it or my mom would read it to me.  Before the week was done, I had looked through all the books at least once.  The next week, we took the books back and got another wagon full to bring home.  This love of reading has stuck with me all my life.  I love getting lost in the world of books.  My husband laughs at me because if I'm reading a book, I have no idea what's going on around me.

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10 Things Motherhood Has Taught Me

Mother's Day is coming up this weekend and like many women out there, it's given me some time to reflect and think about my own mother as well as my experiences with being a mother myself.  Today, I'm sharing some things I've learned in the four years and four months since I became a mother.

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5 Inspirational Quotes from Albert Einstein

Ever since I was young, I've been interested in collecting quotes.  You could find quotes written on random pieces of paper, printed out from the computer, in my planner, my wallet...you name it.  As an adult, I still love quotes and I still collect them.  My favorite types of quote are those that are inspirational, give hope or provide perspective.  When I was trying to decide what to share with you this week, the idea of quotes came to mind so I made a few up.  (I'm thinking about making them into printable files.  What do you think?)

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How To Celebrate Your Anniversary On A Tight Budget

Tomorrow my husband and I will be celebrating our EIGHT year anniversary!  It's hard to believe how fast the time has gone and all that's happened in that time: college graduation (2 Undergraduate degrees and one Masters degree), bought our first home, had 2 kids, job changes and many other experiences and memories.  I always look forward to celebrating our anniversary because I love remembering and celebrating the day we were married.

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