Blueberry & Syrup Muffins + A Few Projects

Yesterday, the tiny humans demanded blueberry cupcakes. While I don't cater to their every whim, sometimes I don't mind making them a little treat. This past week I also finally painted this little shelf we wanted to use to display our "family", which consists of mostly wind-up toys we collect from our adventuring. And I even busted out (turned on) the sewing machine for my first sewing project! 

We are going on vacation this next week (P.S. : I'm taking a week hiatus!) and I haven't been buying that much food stuff so it doesn't just sit & go bad while we are away. So basically I didn't have much to work with to make these blueberry cupcakes. Also, I didn't want to make cupcakes, I wanted to make more of a muffin.
First, I was out of eggs, but had some egg replacer left over from trying to cook egg-free for Matts brother. Second, I only had white flour (left over from making play-doh), which I always try to sub out for whole wheat, so I was stuck with that precessed white stuff. Third, I had a 1/2 cup of apple sauce left in a jar in the fridge that I wanted to incorporate & I didn't want to use too much sugar, so I tried adding just the applesauce and syrup. While that gave them a yummy taste, it made them really moist and I still ended up adding a little sugar.

Blueberry & syrup muffin ingredients:
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup syrup
1 tbsp vanilla
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup flour
2 tbsp sugar
2 egg whites, or egg replacer
1/2 cup blueberries

Directions: Mix all ingredients, pour into greased pan, bake in 350 degree oven for 15-20 mins.

Pictorial process:

Here is the little shelf I finally painted. Before, our "family" of wind up toys was hidden, sitting on our book shelf. Now they are on full display. I ALWAYS try to use what we have on hand for projects, even if it means slight improvisation (see: blueberry muffins). I had this almost full can of spray paint left over from a previous project that we will prob. never use again, so I used it to paint the wooden shelf. Well, it says 'special purpose', 'for metals'. Pssh, whatever, I used it on the wood and it worked just fine!

This was my first sewing project with my new (hand-me-down-from-my-mother-in-law) sewing machine. I made a flag banner-- at least I'm pretty sure that's what it's called. It is pretty messy, but it was a good project for fiddling around with the new machine and making something easy & whimsy.

Now we're off to Leavenworth, Washington for another family adventure! Hope you all have a good weekend & week!

DIY Glitter Shoes

So maybe I just ordered these shoes from Forever 21:

There's actually no maybe, they are bought, paid for and on their way to my house. BUT, I've been wanting to MAKE glitter shoes myself for the past few months, and can never really get enough of glitter anything, so I finally made some time to do so. I also just happened to have all the essentials to make the shoes. These glitter flats were very easy to make & were an excellent way to repurpose some old sad shoes!

You'll need:
-glitter (I used a combo of fine silver & larger gold glitter)
-mod podge
-paint brush or paint sponge
-bowl
-shoes
-spray adhesive **I did use this to finish the shoes after the final coat had dried, but would recommend using a different finishing spray adhesive or clear coat.

Directions:
-mix mod podge and glitter in bowl (I did about half/ half)
-paint mixture on shoes, let dry
-paint however many more layers to completely cover shoes in glitter (I did 3)
-let dry completely
-spray on spray adhesive to finish and seal

Sad shoes in need of glitter love:
** Sad shoes are so much sadder when you give them creeper eyes. Fact.

Happy, sparkly shoes:

I'll incorporate these shoes in my next outfit post :)

Things Tiny Humans Do: Puzzles + Our Puzzle Wedding Invites

Puzzles are currently all the tiny human (and ALWAYS the adult) rage in our house. Last week it was anything to do with Blues Clues, the week before it was bubble-time, all the time, and the week before that it was anything to do with Dora. Tiny humans go through toy fads faster than they do clean clothes. But, seeing as this puzzle thing is slightly more educational than most interactive games/toys, I'm gonna try to keep this fad around indefinetly. I mean, at any age, puzzles are awesome!

In fact, our wedding invites were actually puzzles! The Keyser family may just have a bit of a thing for puzzles....

Tiny humans playing with puzzles:

Our puzzle wedding invites:

Aren't they awesome?! Yeahh, I agree :) In October, around our anniversary, I will do a whole post about our wedding.
::Edit: Check out the wedding post here!

ALSO, all three of us are obsessed with this song right now. Matt even learned how to play it on his guitar... enjoy!

Nerd Alert

I've had some time these past few weeks to do a bit of reading and finished 3 new books: 2, in 2 new series and 1 in a series I've been reading for a while.

** note: MOST urban and/or fantasy books, especially those with female leads, have corny covers. And I mean C-o-r-n-y, corny. I don't mind them too much, but they are a bit embarrassing, right? Try to look past those as I have :)

Book numero uno: New series, new book
Vampire Academy By: Richelle Mead

About:

St. Vladimir’s Academy isn’t just any boarding school—it’s a hidden place where vampires are educated in the ways of magic and half-human teens train to protect them. Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, a bodyguard for her best friend Lissa, a Moroi Vampire Princess. They’ve been on the run, but now they’re being dragged back to St. Vladimir’s—the very place where they’re most in danger...

My review:

Nooooot such a great read. First off, I didn't realize that it was a young-adult novel until about, oh, a chapter in. The content and writing style were anything but mature and the depth of character and story development were basically terrible. The actual story setup/background and plot were great. I've never read another story with this same plot and I just loved the concept. The actual execution of said concept, however, was just a plain ole flop. It was too immature for my taste and I won't continue the series. 


Book 2: Also new series, new book
Halfway to the Grave By:Jeaniene Frost

About (series):

The NIGHT HUNTRESS series is an urban fantasy romance featuring half-vampire heroine Cat Crawfield and Master vampire hero, Bones. My heroine and hero have a difficult road ahead of them and they will have to work very hard to earn their HEA (happily-ever-after), so their story isn’t over with the first book. Hope you come along for the ride!

My review:

Love this urban fantasy book/series! It's intelligent, witty, has a tough female lead and just the right amount of sexy time ;)This author knows what she's doing-- there is a great and unusual story line accompanied with well developed characters and just a bit of romance. It totally sucked me in and I will continue reading the second book in the series.

Boor three: Book 5 in the Kate Daniels series

Magic Slays By Ilona Andrews

About: 

It’s a volatile, screwed-up world. Magic feeds on technology, gnawing down on skyscrappers until most of them topple and fall, leaving only skeletal husks behind. Monsters prowl the ruined streets, werebears and werehyenas stalk their prey; and the Masters of the Dead, necromancers driven by their thirst of knowledge and wealth, pilot blood-crazed vampires with their minds.
The world has suffered a magic apocalypse. We pushed the technological progress too far, and now magic returned with a vengeance. It comes in waves, without warning, and vanishes as suddenly as it appears. When magic is up, planes drop out of the sky, cars stall, electricity dies. When magic is down, guns work and spells fail.
In this world lives Kate Daniels. Kate likes her sword a little too much and has a hard time controlling her mouth. The magic in her blood makes her a target, and she spent most of her life hiding in plain sight.  But sometimes even trained killers make friends and fall in love, and when the universe tries to kick them in the face, they kick back.
My Review:
Fantastic series! Each book gets just that much more addicting and this book was no exception. Great story and overall concept. Interesting character and plot developments. Fun & creative writing, as well as intelligent humor, put this book very high on the series I love scale. Read. This. Series. Someday I'm really going to have to make that actual scale....

Busy Bee Weekend

I feel like I've been such a busy bee this past weekend. Friday night was girls night which quickly turned into high school reunion night. The girly time was overdue and getting to see so many ladies whom I haven't seen in ages, basically made my summer (yes, I feel that deprived of friend time). We went out in Portland & ate at Mee-Sen, a Thai restaurant with great food. Even though I was supposed to be on day three of my juice cleanse, I couldn't resist ordering their Pad Thai and it was worth it I tell you! We then had drinks at Prost. They have 'das boot'-- their infamous beir boot that you aren't allowed to put down until finished. Unfortunately, I'm still doing this whole gluten-free shindig so I couldn't partake in the beer fun, but I got to watch my friends get nice and wasted while I sipped on some delish cider. We went to another bar after this, but due to excess liquor the pics weren't of great quality annnd we basically all look rediculous. Bad pics = good, quality night :)

Saturday - Monday we visited Matts mom in Astoria-- a habit which is quickly turning into this summers weekend tradition. Sunday we visited the Peter_Iredale Shipwerck (aka the remnants of a shipwreck at the beach) in Warrenton. The weather was perfection; warm and just the right amount of breeze. You never know what you'll get at the Oregon coast, so we lucked out. We ate at Stephanie's Cabin in Astoria. It was great American/ coastie-ish food. Matt also did some yard work for his mom while Olin and I frolicked and we took some outdoor & outfit pictures.

Friday (top two pics courtesy of Megan):

Pretty Portland-ie bench.

Saturday/Sunday/Monday:

This is the extent of out sandcastle building abilities. That & GodzOlin kept destroying everything we built.

Matt built that retaining wall. And I thought we were supposed to be on vacation...

Stephanie's Cabin

  

Dress:Target, Sweater/Earrings:F21, Sandals:Macys

Eco-Friendly Friday: Our First Official Family Camping Trip!

Maybe calling camping an ecologically friendly thing is a bit of a stretch, but we did get in touch with nature & this is my blog so I'm saying it is. This past weekend we went camping. WOO! But, what was supposed to be a 3 day trip, turned into a one and a half day trip due to Matts work sucking the life and soul out of him. Not so 'woo'. But seriously, his work can go jump off a cliff. He had to fill in for his boss, so we ended up getting a late start. 
We met up with Matts brother & sister in-law at the Camper Cove Campground in the Tillamook State forest. We did get some good pics, but our phones and basically all electronic devices kept acting up and/ or dying. It was so AMAZING to get away from, well, life for a few days (*day and a half). 
Watching two 3 year olds, working for my step-dad (this is a new thing: I'm basically designing his website/ doing social networking) and even blogging have been taking a toll on my ability to stay mentally sane this past week. I'm slowly but surely finding a balance with it all, but it's definitely taking some time. 
Back to camping.... It was fantastic! We ate bad food, had great conversations, went on a few great strolls, visited the The Tillamook Air Museum & Tillamook Cheese Factory and got some great family time in. The cheese factory ended up being a bit of a trouist trap, but we tried to make the best of it. The Air Museum however, was freaking awesome! Seriously, the structure was originally used to make blimps, BLIMPS people!

 

 

 

My phone died again so my sister in-law kindly took some photos: