Month: January 2021

Cake Mix Muffins

Dear Sis,

Mama Jenn found hundreds of Valentine’s Day cupcake liners during her home declutter. We decided to do a muffin give away with our family and friends to use them up! We are making five recipes each… all with cake mix as a base! Busy Mama’s like short cuts:)

Lemon Poppyseed Cake Mix Muffins

b
Print Recipe
Course Breakfast
Servings 24

Ingredients
  

  • 1 box lemon cake mix
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 lemon zest & juice
  • 1/2 c butter soft
  • 1/3 c milk
  • 1/4 c sour cream
  • 2 t poppyseeds

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 24 muffins cups with parchment liners or grease and flour.
  • Beat together all ingredients until smooth. Spoon into prepared cups.
  • Bake 14 minutes. Remove from pans to cool.

Both the kids like these! I’ll have to try making them when Josh is home to see if he enjoys them too:)

Cranberry Orange Cake Mix Muffins

Print Recipe
Course Breakfast
Servings 24

Ingredients
  

  • 1 box yellow cake mix
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 orange zest & juice
  • 1/2 c butter soft
  • 1/3 c milk
  • 1/4 c sour cream
  • 1 c dry cranberries

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 24 muffin cups with parchment liners or grease and flour.
  • Beat ingredients together until smooth. Fold in berries. Spoon into prepared cups.
  • Bake 14 minutes. Remove from pans to cool.

Love,

b

Asparagus Supreme

Dear Sis,

I’ve been in the market for an easy asparagus recipe for some time. I stumbled upon it by chance in a cookbook (Taste of Home: Almost Homemade 2013) I found at our local little free library. It was a great trade for a dozen kids books we don’t need anymore! I’m always looking for time-friendly ways to cook for my family.

Asparagus Supreme

b
Print Recipe
Course Side Dish
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

  • 1 lb. asparagus 1 inch pieces
  • 2 T onion soup mix
  • 1 T butter melted
  • 1/3 c mozzarella or monterey jack shredded

Instructions
 

  • Bring 1/2 inch water to a boil in a saucepan. Add asparagus and cook 3 minutes. Drain. Pour into a square baking dish.
  • Combine seasoning and butter. Drizzle over asparagus. Top with cheese.
  • Bake at 425 for 10-12 minutes.

I prep-ed dinner during nap time, while William built this “Tower of Powder!” He decided to build it on the table so baby sister wouldn’t wreck it upon waking:)

Love,

b

 

Clutter Free January – Bathroom Painting

Dear Sis,

So I finished decluttering! Naturally, I’ve moved onto remodeling:) Isn’t that next?

Day One: I filled nail holes and other imperfections with drywall compound and sanded it smooth. I used the shop vac and then dusted very thoroughly from ceiling to floor.  Finally, I removed fixtures and covers so I could paint the ceiling  on Day Two. 

I decided to put high-gloss on all the ceilings and baseboards. I realize that’s a bit unusual! But it makes it so easy to dust the textured ceiling, and it makes the space brighter!!!

Day Three: I masked with Frog Tape and painted the walls.

Day Four: The previous home owners painted without removing the light fixture, so I had to scrape it with a razor blade and scrub it to remove all as much of the paint, dust, and tarnish as possible. 

It was less expensive to replace the shades than the entire fixture. Approximately half the cost! I like it so much better now!!!

I also hung the new mirror. It’s from Hobby Lobby. The room is so small that all the straight lines of the walls made it necessary to find a mirror that wasn’t boxy too! I really hated the old mirror!!! The project actually began in a fit of disgust when I ripped it off the wall, so I didn’t have an excuse to procrastinate anymore:)

I ordered a new hook for the towel that matching our color scheme and airplane theme better. I’ll make sure it is featured in the final reveal post.

It’s funny how the space really began to feel done when the baseboards were finished! Now our half bath is worthy of the new flooring we had installed back in the fall. 

To complete the space, we still need to hang two shelves above the toilet, the new towel hook, and add the decor and storage to the shelves. I’ll post a reveal, whenever I finish.

Love,

b

 

Clutter Free January: Kitchen

Dear Sis, 

Although, I decluttered the kitchen just a few months ago so that the instant pot and food processor could have accessible cabinet space, I have been finding little ways to improve kitchen function even more.

I’m not sure why, but our water cooler has always been in the living room. It makes more sense here in the kitchen/dining arena!

I recently saw this idea on one of the vlogs I follow on Youtube.

I’ve been thinking for some time, I need to overhaul the spice cabinet! Charlotte had broken many of the jar lids by repeatedly throwing them on the floor before I got a cabinet lock. The handwritten labels were hardly uniform! Many of the spices haven’t been used in nearly a decade! And still others, never received a custom jar and were still in store packing. 

I hope to find a few small baskets to place in the empty space for extracts and food coloring. 

Happy Organizing!

Love,

b

P.S. William has recently taken to threatening to run away when he doesn’t get his way. I’ve decided to go with it! So I helped him schedule a sleepover with Aunt Angel, since he is so big now!!!

Silk Yarn For Sale

100% Mulberry Silk Lace Yarn

This is a 100% mulberry silk yarn, that is spun in India from silver silk tops. It has a beautiful sheen, smooth silky feel, saturated color, and drapes wonderfully. My hand dyed yarn is more variegated than the mill dyed yarn, which is dyed before spinning. All colors are dyed with professional acid dyes. Dye lots vary, so order enough to complete your project.

Yarn is sold on cones 92+ grams.

One Hundred grams of Lace yarn is approximately 798 yards long.

Care: Hand wash in cold water only, or dry clean. Do not twist yarn. Dry flat.

Hand Dyed Colors

Mill Dyed Colors

  • Cost: $15.00 per cone
  • Shipping: is a flat $5.00 for USA shipping.
  • Payment: Paypal invoice only
  • Contact me at: jamiequick5151@gmail.com

I also have many of these yarns in sport weight. So, feel free to email me if you need a thicker silk.

Clutter Free January: Kids Art Corner

Dear Sis,

Our homeschool corner functions well, but the annex for the craft supplies wasn’t quite cutting it anymore. They plastic drawers were always getting stuck or falling out onto the floor. I’ve been thinking for a long time about how to make a kid friendly art corner!

Step one was relocating the piano from the corner to in front of the widows, which we actually did way back on the 3rd.

Another fringe benefit of moving the piano in front of the windows: protecting the blinds for our resident blind butcher, baby sister! 

We got a cheap walmart bookshelf for less than $30.00 and two more cube storage bins. Happily we were able to source the rest of the organizing containers from our home. Perhaps our best storage epiphany was using my old utensil holder for pipe cleaners! The kids helped along that way. Peeling label backs, moving wiggly eyes to a new container, etc. 

We placed a standing lamp in the corner for good light for our tiny artists! Historically, we’ve always kept our child sized table near our toy kitchen because it allows multiple kids to play in the space better. We’ve maintained that function plus brought it closer to our art supplies!

It came out perfect and $10 under the $50 budget I set for the project!

Papa Jeff stopped by on his way to work. The kids got to open their holiday gifts from him… ART SUPPLIES! They were easy to put away, but not before the kids tried out the finger paints.

William loves the squish of finger paints, poor Charlotte was trying them for the first time and was quite repulsed. I gave her a brush and she was much happier:)

Love,

b 

Clutter Free January: Laundry Room

Dear Sis,

I have been holding out for three years, because I want cabinetry in our laundry room, but reality finally sunk in. We can’t afford that right now! I decided to look for a more cost effective alternative to manage the visual clutter of the space. 

Cube Storage is a very inexpensive option. Now, I can grab something from the top shelf without the domino effect! The labels are some clip art I dropped into a word processor, printed on card stock, cut out, and hot glued in place. The labels covered up those terribly cheap looking metallic plastic grommet handles many cube storage options have. 

We’ve all seen the various farmhouse style Laundry Co. signs in just about every decor section for that last few years. My closet size space hardly allows for something of that size and I liked the idea of making it feel a bit more personal and I’m always up for a good pun. I repurposed the frame and bought a new navy mat for $2.50, and made a fun sign on a word processor. It fills that tiny random gap above the dryer nicely and the colors go perfectly with the rest of the space:)

Happy Decluttering!

Love,

b

P.S. It’s always nice to have a helper hoist things to you while you are on a step ladder!

Great Grandma’s Cabbage Rolls

Dear Sis,

Our neighbors gave us a cabbage a few weeks ago. I haven’t bought cabbage in the better part of a decade because Josh doesn’t enjoy it, but since this one just showed up I decided to turn it into an old family classic. 

Great Grandma's Cabbage Rolls

b
Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 1 head of cabbage
  • 1 lb. ground turkey
  • 1 lb. ground turkey breakfast sausage
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 1/2 c rice uncooked
  • 1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
  • 1 (10.5 oz) can condensed tomato soup

Instructions
 

  • Core and boil cabbage, pulling off leaves as they cook and soften.
  • Brown meat and onion. Stir in rice and diced tomatoes.
  • Wrap meat mixture in cabbage leaves.
  • Combine soup and 1 cup cabbage water. Pour over cabbage rolls.
  • Cover with foil and bake 45 minutes at 350.

Notes

Great Grandma used ground veal and pork breakfast sausage instead of turkey. 

We invited Carter’s family to help us eat it all up. Mama Jenn was kind enough to make and bring mashed potatoes to go with it. We had your Cheater Apple Dumplings for dessert. Your batch is too big for our family, so I always make a half batch instead.

Cheater Apple Dumplings

b
Print Recipe

Ingredients
  

  • 1 (8 oz) can crescent rolls
  • 2 apples peeled, cored, and quartered
  • 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter melted
  • 1 t vanilla extract
  • 1 (7.5 oz) can Mt. Dew soda

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350. Butter a square baking dish.
  • Wrap each apple slice in a crescent roll and arrange in prepared pan.
  • Combine sugar, butter, and vanilla. Spread over rolls. Pour soda into the corner of the dish carefully, so it doesn't disturb the sugar mixture.
  • Bake 30-35 minutes until golden and cooked through.

Love,

b