Simple Soup: Potato Chili

As the weather gets chillier, I get more cravings for soups. My favorite one (perhaps because it's also the simplest recipe) is potato and green chili soup. Three ingredients, five minutes of prep time, plenty of simmering, and dinner is served!


Ingredients: 
3 Large Russet Potatoes,
2 4-oz Cans Diced Green Chiles
2 32-oz Organic Chicken Stock

Dish into bowls, top with shredded cheese, and serve hot with quesadillas! 

Enjoy!
Erin

DIY Paint Chip Art

I am so lucky that I have amazingly creative and talented friends. I saw this DIY made by one of my favorite friends, and I asked her to share her brilliance with you today! Maybe you can try something similar this weekend! Happy Friday! XO, KATE. 

Here's an easy way to make something spectacular for your walls - paint-chip punch-out art!

You need: paint chips, a hole punch, a glue stick, a large piece of heavy weight paper, and lots of patience! I made a picture of mommy and baby giraffe for my daughter's nursery.

1. Start by punching out a whole bunch of paint chips in the shades you want. My suggestion is to pick two complimentary colors (in my case coral + grey) and punch from the spectrum of lighter/darker colors around each one -- this way you get some great gradation in your artwork. To keep it simple, use one color for the main graphic, and the other color for your background.

2. Once you have enough punched, start moving the pieces around to form the graphic you want. If you don't have a design in mind, find a picture online and trace the outlines onto your paper to give you some guidance.

3. When you have the main graphic looking like you want, glue each little dot (this is the tedious part. Do it while you're watching reruns or something).

4. Now you can move on to the background. I ended up making silhouettes of trees behind the giraffe using shades of grey. Glue away!

5. To tie everything together, scatter a couple little dots in the shade of your main graphic into the background. Here's the final picture:

And here it is in our nursery. I think it turned out really great, and my daughter really loves staring at the dots, so I think she likes it too!

Good luck!

Cheryl,

Right at Helm

Crepe Paper Headband

I'm on a little streak of making basic headbands for the girls. Sometimes I just get bored of the same clips or bands in their hair all the time, and I like a little variety. Bright color always perks up an outfit. Sophie particularly likes this one and she's been wearing it around all week, which makes me happy.

Supplies: Crepe paper cut to about one inch width, a basic plastic headband, a ribbon, and hot glue/gun.

Here's the how-to:
1. Fold your crepe paper strip lengthwise a few times and pinch it in your fingers.
2. Snip the edges toward the center. Be careful not to make your cuts too deep.
3. Repeat on the opposite edge, making sure you don't snip all the way through.
4. Unfold and use your hot glue gun to glue the intact center of the strip to the headband.
5. Hot glue a small ribbon wrapped around the ends of the band to make it more comfortable when worn.
6. Voila! You're finished. Let it dry and hope your little girl loves hers as much as mine does!

XO,
Kate

Sick Monday

Today we're battling colds. These colds are trying to get us down, but we aren't letting them. We have plenty of books to read, ballet moves to be danced (Sophie had to miss this week's class!), and cozy socks to keep us warm while we watch movies together. 

Dotty Headband

I think it's time to be crafty again.

I made this little headband in five minutes. I'm not quite sure where I got the green elastic band, but it worked perfectly for what I wanted! I've seen them in craft stores everywhere, so I'm sure they're simple to find. Here's all you do:

- Measure the elastic around your child's head and cut accordingly.
- Use a hot glue gun to attach the ends.
- Cut circle dots out of felt.
- Hot glue them to the other side of the band.
- Let dry.
- Finished!

Organized Traveler

I went a little OCD today.

I confess: I'm an organized traveler. I don't want to go anywhere and have clothing all over the floor because we were searching for pj's and didn't have time to be deliberate about it. I want to really have a plan so that whether it's me opening that suitcase, or a family member who hasn't the faintest idea what belongs to whom, it's all very clear...

So this is what I did. I used index cards to label everything. I even post-it noted what shoes go with the church clothes on the other side of the card. I went crazy OCD...

In my defense, my mom took my girls for a nice walk today, so I had spare time on my hands. So this is what would happen if I didn't have children or a job. Thank goodness I have children rather than spare time.

When it's all said and done, I'm perfectly happy being the crazy girl with the meticulous packing habits. I'm also perfectly content with the fact that I don't generally have time to have any semblance of my former organized self, because it means my time is being filled instead with noise and laughter and happy MESS.

XO.