Four Square

Yesterday the kids were outside playing a game of four square.  I was playing around with my camera settings and took pictures with the "action burst" setting.  My phone pictures automatically download to G+ and look what G+ did to my pictures.  I thought it was pretty cool!

Princess Leia (A New Hope) Costume

Written by Tiana November 2012

I created this costume for May the Fourth 2012. I was able to get really good pictures of the costume worn in the movie from the Padawan's Guide. I also followed this tutorial. I thought about making a costume for May the Fourth about a week before, and by the time I made the pattern and found fabric it was two or three days before May the Fourth. Needless to say I was able to finish it in about two days. The whole costume is not officially completed because I don't have white boots and I still need to make the belt. Hopefully I'll get to make the belt soon and be able to find some white boots.

 

 

 

On May the Fourth we celebrated by making Blue Milk, dressing up, and watching Star Wars. It was indeed a fun day, and I plan on doing it again next year!

Paleo No-Bake Carrot Cake

Written by Sereina April 19, 2013

I only remember having carrot cake a few time in my life, but for the past year I've been wanting to make one. It had been a long time and I still hadn't made it, so now that I'm dairy-free and not eating sugar I decided to look for a Paleo recipe. I found this on on Google and it is so good! It wasn't till I made it that I realized it was a no-bake recipe. There's no flour and it's sweetened with dates. And the frosting on it? It's made with cashews, yet it tastes so good.

Paleo No-Bake Carrot Cake
via Betty Rawker

Ingredients:

1 cup grated carrot

1 cup raw walnuts

1 cup (about 9) medjool dates, pitted

1 cup shredded coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice seasoning

1/3 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Frosting:
1 cup raw cashews
2 tablespoons maple syrup or honey
2 tablespoons coconut oil
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon water
pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Put the carrots in a Vitamix for food processor and mix until shredded. Scoop into a large bowl.

2. Puree 1 cup walnuts in the Vitamix for food processor  Add in mejool dates and then blend into a paste. Add to the bowl with the grated carrots.

3. Add the shredded coconut and stir/mash until combined.  Then add the vanilla, five spice, and walnuts, if using them. Mix until well incorporated.

4. Shape the carrot cake with your hands onto a plate. Chill in the fridge for a minimum of 1 hour.

5. Blend all of the frosting ingredients together in the Vitamix for food processor until smooth and combined. Add more water if needed. Chill in the fridge until the cake is done, then frost the cake.

Sereina Bakes Paleo Snickerdoodles

Written By Sereina April 17:

These cookies don't taste exactly like regular sinckerdoodles, but they're still really good! With the texture, we decided that they're like donut holes. They're really easy to make and the hardest part is letting them chill in the fridge for an hour. The nutmeg almost makes them taste like eggnog, so they'll be really good for the Christmas season too. Recipe found here.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups of almond meal
• 1 tbs of coconut flour
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1/4 cup of melted coconut oil
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• 1/2 tsp of cinnamon + extra for rolling dough in
• 1/2 tsp of nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• 1/4 tsp of sea salt

Directions:

1. Combine all the ingredients together in a bowl and mix well.
2. Cover the cookie dough and place in the fridge to chill for one hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
4. Roll the cookies into small balls and coat in cinnamon.
5. Use the bottom of a cup or jar to flatten them out.
6. Place cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes.

Inside the Capital Building

Written by Sereina February 9, 2013

Yesterday, for the first time in my life, I went inside the capital building in Olympia. I've lived in Washington my whole life and it only took me nearly 19 years to visit it. :P

 

There are several really big and fancy chandeliers. 

Hangin' out in the main area.

All the doors inside had George Washington door knobs. Pretty cool.

Some more chandeliers.

A Taste of Spring

Written By Tiana:

The last few days it's been sunny off and on all day. Today I decided to go out and get some pictures and enjoy the warm weather. After I was done taking pictures I played Star Wars with my brother.

Last week on the Pinterest challenge I didn't really do anything, my mind was preoccupied with decided on what costume I want to make for May the 4th (this year I remembered to make a costume a month and a half before, and not 3 days!). I finally decided on Beru Lars from episode II. I'll be posting my progress on my costume blog,here. When the costume is done I'll post it on this blog as well.

Back on the topic of the Pinterest challenge, I'm going to do my best to do something this week, but I'm going to be putting a lot of time into my costume. 

Knotted Bow Headbands

Written by Sereina Feb. 7, 2013

Last week I got to visit with Sarah at her house. We made chicken dumpling soup and did some crafting while watching an episode of Downton Abbey. We made these super cute knotted bow headbands that I found on Pinterest. They turned out really cute and I'd like to make a few more, because they're easy to make, comfortable to wear, and I really like the style of them. We both made a second headband, just a bit wider, but don't have any photos of them.

Our Neighbor Cat

Written By Tiana:

We call him Gino which is short for Orangino. We don't know his real name because it's some Russian name.

The sun is out and shining right now and it's fairly warm out. I thought I'd go out and take some pictures of Gino, because he was on our back porch begging to come in for some food. Well, that didn't go to well because he just kept sticking his head through the railing to watch our chickens. So I only got one decent photo. Cat's are so hard to take pictures of!

Tiana's Distressed Jars

Written by Tiana

I've fallen in love with the country cottage/shabby chic look and have been trying to theme my bedroom with that look. I haven't really been doing a great job at that though. But I've found a few things I either have, or have yet to make during the Pinterest challenge.

This was the inspiration for my distressed mason jar.

This was actually the second thing I did for the Pinterest challenge this week. My first one was the book pages on mason jars. I'll be posting those by the end of the week.

Here's how mine turned out. I'm using mine at my desk for pens, pencils and scissors.

Here are the colors I chose.

The first thing you do is paint the inside and let it dry.

 Next, paint the outside and let that dry. I ended up using the metal rim piece so I didn't worry about making the top neat and tidy.

To distress my jar I used a wire scrub brush and rubbed it around.

The distressing part is optional of course. If you do decide to not distress it you don't need to paint the inside of the jar though. 

Tiana's Ribbon Wreath

Written by Tiana:

I got a little crafty and made a ribbon wreath for my bedroom door. I've seen similar things on Pinterest but none were quite the same. All I used was ribbon, a wire coat hanger, and pinking shears. It was really easy but time consuming. 

First I took the coat hanger and left the hook but bent the other part into a circle. I cut the ribbon into strips about 3 inches long, I don't know for sure because I measured what I wanted when it was tied and just cut the strips that size. Then all you have to do is tie them on. After the whole thing is covered with ribbons you hang it on your door, and viola! You have a beautiful new wreath!

Character Training

Introducing My New Blog

I would like to introduce my new blog that has been floating around in my head for awhile now, but only about a month and a half ago got enough vision to start it.  I will continue to post here, but I see the new blog as encompassing a little bit of everything in all areas of our life.  I have a couple of posts in the hopper and look forward to sharing them when they are fully ready.

Walk and Live

Tiana's January Projects

 Tiana has an online business called Redberry Supply where she sells crafting supplies.  Between her profits there and a mamma's helper job she has she paid for a camera of her own to learn photography with.  Below are a couple of samples of her beginning work.

 Being that I have a few photographers in my home, I notice that they see life through the camera and therefore notice things and view things with the art of a picture in mind.  This is what Tiana saw when we woke up to go somewhere and the car was frosty.

 Lately Tiana has taken to drinking tea, listening to music from the 40's - 50's while she is crocheting, knitting, drawing or whatever.  What a peaceful and creative life she lives.

As a part of her blogging and photography she has been led to learn PhotoShop.  This is a fun project she made for the header of her blog. 

 Tiana has become quite the Tangled fan which has led to lots and lots of drawing.  She has been getting books from the library and practicing her drawing for hours.  Here is some of her latest drawings of Rapunzel.

It is quite normal to see Tiana working on some sort of yard project at any given time.  This is a new pattern she learned online.  She is currently working on crocheting a hat and I noticed she has another knitting project started too just yesterday.  The wheels are always turning in her head.

A few years ago Tiana took up an interest in tap dance and began to teach herself some steps with the help of YouTube.  This summer she began taking tap classes and was able to skip the first several levels because of the work she has done at home.  She has invested in her interest by teaching herself and continues to invest by paying for half of the monthly fee for her tap classes.  She has wanted these shoes for a long time and was finally able to buy them thanks to her job and business.

Sereina's Projects

Something I originally wanted to share when I started this blog was my children's projects.  Initially I thought I would talk all about them or have them talk all about them.  They enjoy blogging about the projects on their  own personal blogs which seemed like a lot of duplicity and life has been busy so, as you can see, I haven't posted much in a long time.  This morning the Lord inspired me to post monthly about each child's activities, just highlighting various projects.  That feels so much freedom to me  to do that since it's still on my heart to feature my children's projects.

Sereina made this gift to give a friend for her birthday.  

She made the salts and decorated the jars.

Sereina was inspired by another blogger to do her first painting.  She chose Paradise Falls from the movie, "Up."  She doesn't consider herself very artistic, but I really think she is.  She had to redo the background  since she felt it turned out too dark the first time, which was a blessing to see as I remember a time when not getting it right the first time would have been really hard for her to accept.  I am really glad for the teaching in Lifestyle of Learning about how to develop character along with their learning activities so they have a truly well rounded education.

The above and below pictures are some of her photography artwork which is her main passion and her new vocation, she started her photography business, Sereina Charise Photography,  in the beginning of January.  The above picture colloage is Koko, one of our Seal Point Siamese cats.  He's quite the character as you might note from the picture.

This picture collage is from our state capitol building.

Sereina and a friend got together to craft and they each made a couple of knotted bow headbands.  this is one of Sereinas.  They found the idea on Pinterest.  I think they look very cute.

These are some of Sereina's projects from the last month or so.