Crockpot cinnamon-vanilla almonds.

I found this recipe on Pinterest and was dying to try it....and it turned out so delicious! I will for sure be making these every Christmas! I've made 3 batches so far...and I might need to make more! Super yummy! Here is the recipe (modified from the original slightly...):

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 tbs (generous) cinnamon
1 egg white
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups whole almonds
1/4 cup water

In one bowl whisk together the egg white and vanilla until frothy and pour over the almonds (in the slow cooker) stir well so all of the almonds are covered in the egg mixture.
In a separate bowl combine sugars and cinnamon. Once mixed, pour over almonds and stir well.
Put the lid on the slow cooker and cook on low for 3-4 hours. (I cooked mine for about 3 hours and 15 minutes)
You will need to stir the almonds every 20 minutes.
In the last hour, pour the water over the almonds and stir well.
Once your time is up, transfer the almonds to a covered baking sheet (wax paper or tinfoil) and let cool & harder.
Try to lay them out as flat as you can because they will all clump together into a big almondy mess!
(Bonus...makes your kitchen smell delicious!!)

Super easy. And yummy..those are the recipes I like!

Recent craftiness.

Here are some things I have made in the last little bit...

Excuse my horrendous hand sewing skills. Cute idea??

I am so proud of this cute wreath!

*Found the ideas for these on Pinterest...so I'm not really that creative!

Moved!

Praise the heavens! We are no longer living in our yucky curry-scented apartment building!
For the past five months we have been checking Kijiji every single day hoping to stumble across the perfect place to move.
a. It had to be within our price range
b. It had to be close to the college
c. It had to be bigger than our current place so we wouldn't have to move if kiddos come around in the next few years.
d. We really had our hearts set on staying in the same ward for church.

....This is why it took us SO long to get out of that miserable building!!

Our new duplex is about...50 feet from our old building, just right around the corner! So right there we met part b. and c. of our requirements! The ad said it was 2 bedrooms, but when we took a walk through...there was 3...plus a whole big area in the basement that wasn't even finished yet! I was a little nervous how much it would be, but actually it was in our price range! Our new landlord seems like the nicest guy and he was willing to drop the price for us if we (Travis) did some handy work while living here. All of our requirements were met and we moved! The move went great! We had tons of help and since we don't have kids, we don't have tons of stuff!

I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am not to be woken up to the smell of curry at 5am, not to be followed in the hallway by scary asian grandmothers and not have to hear foreign languages being screamed across the halls. I am also pretty happy about all of the space, carport, 2 bathrooms...the list goes on! We really got lucky!

I hesitate to tell this next story because my parents made fun of me for about a week after I told them...but I feel like we can all have a good laugh about it now!!
About 4 days before we moved, I went down my hallway in the apartment building because I needed to check the mail. When I got to the mailboxes there was 4-5 asian people standing around a box in front of the mailboxes...so I kindly made my way through the people and got my mail...when all of the sudden I hear a "cluck-cluck". I'm sure my face was priceless at this moment. So I look down at the box by feet and there are feathers poking out of the box. Yup. Live chickens. GROSS! I was pretty glad at that moment that I only had a few more days left in that miserable place. The worst thing is my landlord would have been to old and senile to even comprehend the whole situation.

Anyways...enough ranting! We are are just super thrilled to be in our new "home"! Here are some pictures! (keep in mind...they aren't the best!!)

Bedroom: Still looking for cute throw pillows (or to make them) and still needing to
hang a couple things on the wall.

Other side of the bedroom: Travis actually ran into that wall yesterday in the middle of the night and broke my J...

Bathroom: Loving the blue toilet and tub...who even!?

Office: Need curtains or blinds (I took these sunday right after church...hence the tie!)

Living room: Kinda squishy! and our fish are in the corner out of the picture...

Christmas Tree!!! Pink pink pink!! (And a christmas J)

Living room wall: My attempt to be artistic and hang an arrangement of frames.

Looking down at the front door. (Ps having a carport is great!!)

Christmas shelf

Craft room: Disaster. Need to organize.

Storage room in basement

More storage and view of unfinished room in the basement

Kitchen table (with freshly baked banana bread...YUM)

Kitchen: SO nice having a full sized fridge.

Kitchen: Disaster. At least Travis was kind enough to do the dishes!! Bonus!

So that is our new little place! A big step up from our dingy apartment!! We are so blessed!

Speaking of blessed...I got a temporary part time position in the Operating room at the hospital!! Yay! (Except waking up before 6am is a real killer!!) Hopefully I don't mess things up too bad in there!

Thanks for creeping on my living space, I'll try to keep you all updated more!

Bits and Pieces

You will notice that when I blog, I usually do two posts in one day. So, here you go:

I always believed that because I live in a ghetto apartment, decorating for holidays were pointless. But then I fell in love with some clearance decorations and put this thinking to an end.

For less than $10 I now have a cute little shelf to decorate on! I can't get over how cute the owl banner is...plus it was only $1 at Superstore. (Now that its November, my Christmas decorations are already up..but you will have to wait and see that!)

I bought this mirror for $5 at the thrift store a while ago and had a really hard time deciding what to do with it. I picked out a million quotes and could not decide on one (And my when I would ask my husband for his opinion he would simply reply with "Whatever makes you happiest dear" A lot of help that is!!) Finally while watching a little bit of Moulin Rouge the other day I decided on "Love is a many splendored thing" Which is a line from a song from Moulin Rouge and the title of a super old movie. And I went with a dark purple because I decided to add a little purple to our bedroom.

It is surprisingly hard to take a picture of a mirror without having awkward glares from
the light. So instead you get awkward me in the frame.

A little pop of purple with the grey & Yellow.
I'm searching for cute throw pillows, until then
a blanket will have to do!

We moved our room around! (Not very exciting) 

I am sure you have seen this on Pinterest...folding your clothes like this. Let me tell you first hand, it is a lifesaver! Such a smart idea. Now I don't have to dig around my shirt drawer like a madwoman..I can just look! (Yeah yeah...I have way too many clothes! I know!)

For halloween this year, we didnt have any plans until last minute, so this is what we threw together! Spiderman and Gwen Stacy. I hope Albert Health Services doesn't mind the slight alteration to my name badge! 

Thanks for reading! (Sorry for the poor quality of pictures...most of these are taken with my Iphone!!)

Funeral Planning.

I have probably said this before...but weekends in Medicine Hat can get pretty boring.

The other weekend however, was a little bit different.

First of all I worked everyday during the week and on Friday night I had to work until 1015pm and then be back at 830am the next day! (Cha-ching! Weekend AND evening pay!!) So when 445 rolled around on Saturday, I was prepared for the remaining portion of the weekend to be quite and boring, as per usual. Medicine Hat was having a Home&Leisure show that night, so we decided to check it out. I was hesitant because it would cost us $5 each to get in and I was pretty sure it would not be worth it. Since Travis could use his student ID and get a discount, we decided to go inside. It was pretty empty...we entered lots of draws and tasted food samples and Trav even got his flu shot from one of the booths...nothing too exciting. (Although we did end up buying some delicious sausage and beef jerky. yumm!) 

That night we were also scheduled to help clean our church building with another family, but since there was a Stake emergency preparedness fair going on that evening, we had to wait until it was over...so we figured we could just kill our time there until we had a chance to clean. Since we had gone to the Home&Leisure show, we were about 20 minutes late and a man in charge told us there were two different classes going on: Winter driving and food storage. We figured the winter driving class would be more entertaining, so we decided to go to the last 15 minutes of the food storage class and then switch over to the winter driving class. 

Little did we know, we were NOT going to the winter driving class. 

After the food class we sat down in the other class expecting to sit through a winter driving class, until the guest speaker was announced...a gentleman that works at a local funeral home. We were in a funeral planning class. Travis and I looked at each other and just laughed. We couldn't just leave, so we sat through it..so if you have any questions about pre-planning your funeral...we know all about it!

After the class, we were invited to the gym for refreshments (score!). Little did we know, funeral planning wasn't the only surprise we were in for that evening. Various people from the Stake had made food that could easily be made with your food storage...let me tell you, some of it was disgusting!! But surprisingly there were a lot of really tasty thing too! The favorite for me and Travis was a rice-type casserole. I got the recipe and made it the next day! So yummy and easy! (Very similar to the taste of fried rice).

The rest of the weekend was great with the Calgary Temple dedication! (Travis and I even got to babysit some cute little boys while their parents went to a session! That was so fun!)

So even though we had a weird time learning about planning our funerals, the weekend turned out good!

(Especially because Travis's name was pulled for one of the draws at the Home&Leisure show and he won $500!!)

One Dish "Fried Rice"

1 1/4 Cup Uncooked Rice

1 1/4 Cup Water

2 TBS Onion Soup Mix

2 TBS Oil

1 1/2 TBS Soy Sauce

1 Can Sliced Mushrooms

1 Cup Frozen Peas

Combine first 6 ingredients in casserole dish. Cover and bake 45min @375.

Remove and stir in peas and bake an additional 10-15 minutes.

I am all about easy and delicious dinners! We made ours with spicy sausage on the side. So yum!

Too Early For Christmas?

Here is a quick post:

For those of you who don't follow me on Instagram, Travis and I went apartment hunting the other day and came across this delightful light switch plate in a ferret-smelling basement suite. SICK. 

Whilst browsing through Pinterest a few weeks ago, I was inspired to craft! However, its a Christmas craft...but I think it turned out really well! And if you like it enough, you can buy your very own from me for only $10. 

This is simply vinyl on a painted canvas. Love how it turned out!

In other project news...

Some of our good friends here in Medicine Hat had the most adorable baby girl! Since I have no idea what to buy new babies, I thought I could make something! Turned out pretty cute!

In the past few weeks we also had the chance to visit some family, go to the Calgary Temple open house and I was lucky enough to go to the Justin Bieber concert with my sister, aunt and cousin! It was so fun!! (But I missed being away from my husband for a few days!)

Justin at the Saddledome!

Brooke and I at the big LCI vs. Raymond game!
(Looking equally insane/freezing)

And Stuff Like That

To start off today's post, I want to share a video with you! The Flight of the Conchords were asked to write a song for charity, so they decided to interview children to acquire lyrics. HILARIOUS. It's a pretty long video, so if you are impatient and just want to hear the song, it starts at about the 5min mark. I dare you to watch this and not laugh. Plus it is so catchy! (And who doesn't love NZ accents?!)

Now for the more important things at hand: Crafting! Check out what I've been up too!

*I made this for my husband's cousin's baptism. I found this cute frame at a garage sale for $3 and was inspired to do something with it! For those of you who don't know what CTR means, it mean Choose the Right and is a popular saying in the LDS church. (And that's the Cardston Temple!)

*I have always wanted a recipe box and I had a 40% off coupon for Michaels that I needed to use. Not including the supplies I already owned, this project cost me $3ish. Maybe now I can be even more organized. (Originally this was one of those plain wooden boxes)

                  

(Can you guess my favorite thing to cut using my Cricut??)

Latest Creations

I like to make things...a lot. Here are some of my latest creations:

*We had some friends move away, so I made this sign:

Just ignore the horrible picture, it was in the
process of drying!

*I made this cork board for my sister-in-law who just moved out of home:

*I made this garbage can for the car: 

I literally have zero sewing skills, so I am quite impressed with this. You can find the
tutorial HERE. 

*I made this delicious meal: 

This was super yummy! Just make sure your chicken is mostly cooked/cooked before you begin. You can find the recipe
HERE.

My husband and I also did a little rearranging of our apartment! 

BEFORE: 

AFTER:

Just cleaned up a little bit! 

Oh look! We have acquired another
couch that matches our current
 couch & chair!(But you probably
don't want to know where
we "got" it.)

That's about it! Thanks for reading!

Our Summer...

I would love to sit here and write about an exciting summer filled with lazy days, tanning, trips and regular summer activities, but truthfully....all we did was work.

Travis worked 40+ hours a week working construction and I was lucky enough to have a temporary full time position at the hospital for the summer. We are so blessed! Even though we worked hard, it was all worth it in the end! We were able to save up enough money to be able to pay off our new car, pay for tuition and still have lots leftover to save for future expenses. We still managed to sneak away to Lethbridge & Barnwell for family time on the weekends which was great! 

Some other highlights of our summer included:

*Strawberry picking & fresh pie! 
One beautiful day, Brooke, Travis and I took a little drive out to Broxburn farms and picked our own strawberries and had some delicious pie at the cafe! (Then we preceeded to go home and  make more strawberry pie with our berries...!)

*Dyed my hair!
I wanted to go darker, so I gave into the trend and went a little ombre. (I was the first one my 
hairdresser did this on, turned out alright!)

 *Got new glasses! (I know, I know...I get new glasses all the time...)
Not sure how many pairs these put me at! But I got cheetah print and a purple pair and Travis, a white pair!

Purple pair

Cheetah with bows!

*Travis had surgery

Since I spend everyday at the hospital, I was more than thrilled to spend a whole day off...at the hospital! Travis had hernia surgery in the middle of August, and I'm thankful I had worked in operating room the week prior to his surgery...it totally made me feel more calm about the experience! (I even got to go with him right up to the OR...thanks to some connections!) The surgery was expected to take about 1 1\2 hours, plus about an hour in recovery room. When 

the nurses finally brought him back to his room in Day Surgery, his face was SO swollen, I knew something was up! The nurses then proceeded to tell me Travis is apparently allergic to the antibiotic they administered right before surgery, sending him into anaphylactic shock right before the anesthesia kicked in! I suppose if you are going to discover an allergy and have an allergic reaction, no better place then on the operating room table!!! But the surgery went great and things healed quickly.

Poor guy :(

*Spent almost 3 weeks in Lethbridge:
The day after Travis's surgery we packed up and left for Lethbridge. The reason we left so soon after his surgery was because my Dad was in the Lethbridge Hospital and actually spent a few days up in the ICU. By the time we got there he was doing a lot better and was out of ICU and soon was able to go home! Unfortunately my Mom, sister and I had planned a Vegas trip around this time, but cancelled last minute because we thought it would be more important to stay home in case  something happened with my Dad. (Such a bummer!!!) Good thing we didn't go, because my Dad did end up back in the hospital for a few more days, but is now out and doing better.

Enjoying a popsicle at the hospital with my
 dear sister.
(Which she split all over her shirt on the drive home!!)

Travis and I got to babysit my cousin's kids for a week while my cousin and her husband went to Vegas! We had so much fun playing house that week!! Horseback riding, crafts, movies, parks and their cute dog Oliver!

We even had matching Cheetah Pj pants!

*Went to Calaway Park!
And for the last hoo-rah of Summer, Travis and I went and spent the day in Calgary! The morning at Calaway park, a quick visit with family, a delicious lunch a Milestones, shopping and most importantly...ice cream at Ikea. 

This was after the log ride and why I look a-mess!

Sorry for the loooong post! If you made it all the way through, congrats! So I guess our summer wasn't so boring after all!