Fall wreath

I'm happy with my first DIY wreath. I went to Michaels and purchased everything for under $10. Wow, DIY is so much cheaper than buying an already made wreath. I love the way it turned out.

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$25 Target gift certificate!!! Go check it out at Every New Beginning's blog!!

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Before and After

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This is my very FIRST furniture project I have made and I am very pleased with the outcome. My grandmother handed me down this piece of furniture when my husband and I moved into our apartment. I was inspired by photos pinned on pinterest and I was determined to accomplish a refurbished piece of furniture on my own. This project was also part of my 101 in 1001 goal, I got one down and two more to go. These are the steps I took:

1. I took out the drawers and unscrewed the knobs/pulls.  The drawers had two holes from each pull (totaling 4 holes on each drawer) and I only filled one hole on each side with Elmer’s Wood Filler (leaving a total of 2 holes on each drawer). I then sanded the entire piece until I couldn’t see the surface shine anymore. I used a roll-on brush. I then grabbed a wet cloth and cleaned/dusted the furniture. (1st day)

2. The very next day I primed the entire furniture. I quickly went over everything with one coat and didn’t care much if there were streaks on it or not. Let it dry for 24 hours.  (2nd day)

3. On the third day, I sanded the entire piece once more and cleaned it with a wet cloth. (3rd day)

4. I added a second coat of primer the next day and let it dry 24 hours. (4th day)

5. With the roll-on brush, I painted the entire piece with Burnt Red Olympic color paint. I only applied one coat. Yes, you could still see the primer a bit. Let it dry for 24 hours. (5th day)

6. I applied a second coat of the colored paint. I made sure I used a thin layer of paint on all of my coats, I noticed the thicker I used the more clumps you could see. Let it dry for 24 hours. (6th day)

7. On the next day I sanded the entire piece and cleaned with a wet cloth. Let it dry. (7th day)

8. I applied a third thin coat of colored paint. Let it dry for 24 hours. (8th day)

9. Apply a fourth thin coat of colored paint. Let it dry for 24 hours. (9th day)

10. I actually let the entire piece dry for 3 days before I installed the new knobs/pulls. (10th day)

This project took me an entire month to complete because of the drying time. I wanted it to be perfect so I HAD to be very patient, which was extremely hard.

Lomo Saltado Chicken

 
My mother is a wonderful cook and she makes the most delicious Peruvian dish that just wants to make you lick every bit off of your plate. Just follow the recipe and its easy as 1 2 3…
Grab your ingredients

Lomo Saltado Ingredients
3 Whole Chicken Breast
1 red bell pepper
2 small tomatoes
3 medium potatoes (not shown above)
1/2 large red onion
1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped (I use the one that comes chopped already in a jar)
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon ground cumin

Salsa
6 large limes
1/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
1/4 white vinegar
1/4 canola oil
1/2 large red onion, thinly sliced
1 habanero pepper, finely chopped
pinch of salt and pepper

Rice
1 1/2 cup of rice
3 cups water
1/2 medium white onion, finely chopped
1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
3 teaspoons chicken bullion
1 teaspoon canola oil

For the Lomo

 

Peel and chop up the potatoes into a french fry cut. In a large pot put a good amount of canola oil to fry the potatoes. While the potatoes are being fried, chop up the chicken into cubes and chop  up the red onion, bell pepper,cilantro and tomatoes.

Mix the chicken, garlic, ground cumin thoroughly to get an even spread.

Cook chicken until white.

Pour soy sauce in, cover and let it simmer for about 5 minutes.

Add the bell pepper, cilantro, tomatoes and red onion into the chicken. Mix well. Cover and let the steam cook the veggies.

While the veggies are being steamed, check on your potatoes and take them out once they are crispy.

For the Salsa

Finely chop the habanero pepper and thinly slice the red onion. Mix.

Squeeze the limes into the bowl with  red onions and habanero peppers. Mix.

Add the balsamic vinegar, white vinegar, canola oil and salt-n-pepper. Mix.

For the Rice

I have a rice cooker that does ALL the work for me. I simply mix the white onions and cilantro with a bit of oil, let it fry for a minute or two. I then add the rice and mix. Then add the water, garlic salt and chicken bullion and mix. Cover and cook, once it’s done the rice cooker button will pop up and it’s ready.

Food is ready to be served, I love to pour my salsa into my rice. Don’t forget to add the french fries over the lomo.

Enjoy!!!

If.....

Gonna try this….  

Fill in the blanks...


•If I were to get pregnant again At first I would be excited “Yay!” then probably go into a panic “Uh-oh” I really love being a mommy and started bugging my hubby to have another one soon. Now that Jacob is 6 months and very active, I don’t think I can handle two at the same time, “Yikes.” I actually feel bad writing that, “eek.”

•If I could have any job in the world I would continue to be a Teacher. I love teaching young minds. The best reward on top of it all, is to see their faces glow in aw when they have learned something new and the progress they have made by the end of the school year.

•If I had a day to myself I would SLEEP IN! Not clean! Not do anything that makes me break out a sweat. And stay on the computer all day!!!!

•If I could get married all over again I wouldn’t change a thing. We eloped, it was small (3 other people present) and private. I would love to renew my vows and solemnize our marriage and do the “big” wedding thing.

•If I could live anywhere in the US I would love to live in Michigan or Seattle or maybe even Chicago somewhere up North. I love cold weather.

•If Jacob would have been a girl he would have been named (or your baby girl a boy) It would have been Sophia

•If I could have any talent in the world it would be to have and AMAZING voice to sing!

•If you met me in real life you would probably say- HA! I dunno! Um…. Probably that I am genuinely nice.

•If I could go back to school and get a different degree I would get my Masters in either education technology or Administration in Education

•If money were not an object  Have a custom made home, and travel, travel and travel!

•If I could meet one celebrity Probably the Kardashian girls! They crack me up so bad when they act silly!

•If I could only shop at one store for the rest of my life Target and Walmart!

•If we get another pet I would want a kitten. A sphinx cat to be exact.

•If I could go on a trip, RIGHT NOW, on a cruise to Greece!

•If I had to choose between a house cleaner and a personal chef, The house cleaner for sure! I absolutely cannot stand the house being a mess and it stresses me out when I can’t clean for some reason. I’m super OCD about things, so the house cleaner has to be real GOOD at what they do!

•If I had the option of plastic surgery I’d have my keloids removed in hopes that they will never grow back. Get some lipo done.

Meh!!!

6 Months!

Jacoby turned 6 months 6 days ago and silly me never posted about it because, why? I have been busy on pinterest and designing his baptism invites whenever I got a chance. Here’s what Jacob has done up to this month…

This Month…

♥Jacob weighs 20 lbs. and 5 oz.

♥He is growing out of his 9 month old clothes and fit very comfortably in 12 mths.

♥He eats 8 oz twice a day and about 4-6 oz in between pureed food feedings

♥He just started eating finger foods. We got the ok to feed him homemade soups, mashed potatoes and the little Gerber snacks.

♥He has learned how to sit up on his own for a couple of minutes until he gets tired and rolls over to hid tummy.

♥He loves to grab at EVERYTHING that is in front of him, to the right and left of him and behind him.

♥He is teething pretty bad (poor baby) but I don’t feel any teeth coming through kinda annoyed by that.

♥He wants to be held ALL. THE. TIME. If I put him down on his bouncers or swings and tummy he gets bored within 10 minutes, he begins with the fake cries and if I ignore him for too long it turns out to full blown cries.

♥He sits on restaurant high chairs when we go out to eat and bangs his hands on the tables. Future drummer? Maybe.

♥He still wakes up once or twice a night for feedings.

♥He is starting to throw his tantrums when we are out and about.

Happy be-lated 6 months!! Woo-hoo half a year! WOW!

From the Classroom of Mrs. Concepcion

With fall already in session and Halloween right around the corner, I have been trying to think of creative crafts to come up with for my students. As much as I try to think of things we could make, I can't. But it's ok, cause I got co-workers and pinterest to help me with that. My lovely co-worker, Ms. Silva, made these adorable falling leaves mobile with her students. All you would need is small paper plates, construction paper, leave templates, brown crayon and a fall poem. I tried this craft with my kiddos and they LOVED it!

I also got this next idea from pinterest. I had many rolls of butcher paper left over, but I just had them behind my door and they just kept falling over. So I did this...

My school is making us incorporate the Daily 5 into our classroom. At first, I was kinda iffy about it and "oh great, more work for us to do." Now that I have researched it and read about it, I am actually excited about it. My students have fun with it and look they forward to doing the stations. My wonderful cousin Ms. Bloom, thought of an idea to put velcro on the back of the station labels. She thought it would be easier to move the labels rather than to move the individual clips one by one.

On my work on writing station, I made slot boxes out of mail boxes and red gift wrapping paper. I use them to hold the paper templates of:  make a list, postcard, make a story, journal books, letters and the work on writing folders. The students simply grab a work on writing folder, decide what they want to write about, grab a paper and go back to their desks. They use the folder to help them decide what to write about if they get stuck, they could also use them as privacy folders while they write.  Here's what it looks like...

Click on photo for a closer look