Better Than Salt Dough Key Ornament

Hello!

I wanted to save a memory of our first apartment, and what better way than to make an ornament! 

Preheat oven to 175 degree F. 

what you need:

Ingredients for 1 ornament:

1/4 C baking soda

1/2 C cornstarch

1/2 C water

double recipe if needed

Place all ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Stir for several minutes until mixture thickens like smooth mashed potatoes. 

Place in a ball in a bowl with a damp cloth to cool. I only let it cool until it wasn't too hot to touch.

Place some cornstarch on a table and roll dough into a ball and place on counter. Use more cornstarch if it is sticky. I used my palm to flatten my dough to about 1/4 inch thick, feel free to use a rolling pin.

Once you have the shape you want, (I did a heart) place key into dough carefully. If your dough starts to crack or dry out, just add small amounts of water. I used my finger to spread water on the dough. I also did this to smooth out the dough before I placed it on my baking sheet. Use a toothpick to make a hole in the top of the ornament.

Place parchment paper on baking sheet and bake for 1 hour, flip half way through baking.

Once cooled, I wrote "Our first apartment 2014" and on the back I put our address. I then covered the ornament in Mod Podge to help seal it in.

A fun little way to remember your first place. It's not perfect, but it works. :)

Happy Holidays!

Our First Little Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is my favorite holiday and I wanted to share our little apartment and our first Christmas together! I will always have the pictures to go with the memories! It's not much, but it's all we can do in this place.

Our tree theme this year is memories. because we don't have any ornaments besides the ones we received when we were little, plus some random ones I picked up over the last few years. But this gives me an excuse to buy new ones after the holidays. We didn't have a tree topper so I stuck a Santa hat on top.

I did this last year after I saw one similar on Pinterest. It fit perfectly during my bridal shower which our wedding theme was beach. But I still think its cute and festive :)

I found this snowflake stand at the thrift store and once I start making Christmas cookies I'll use it for that, but for now it holds my festive candle.

Since our place doesn't have a fireplace, we used the counter to hang our stockings. It works.

This was from my grandmother :)

I made this Christmas Countdown using wood blocks, mod podge, and printed out the numbers. Super easy.

I will be putting candy in this mason jar that I found at the thrift store. How cute!

This was my hubby's he got when he was little.

Not the best picture, but my table runner, I did a post on it last week on how to make it.

My awesome Santa pants! 

How adorable are these little presents! 

This tree is in our bedroom, because you can't ever have too many Christmas tree's. This theme is obviously blue, silver, and white, which is the theme of our bedroom. I got the lantern and the things inside it from Pier 1, which I work part time at. (It has its perks) 

Happy Holidays!

DIY Christmas Table Runner No Sew!

Another easy DIY Christmas project! No sew!

I saw this santa table runner at Pier 1 and thought it was awesome! However, it was way to long for my table so I decided to make my own. It was really simple to do, and alot less expensive.

What you need: fabric, an iron, iron on hem tape, ribbon 

For my table (which is a small round table) I used 2 yards of red velvet fabric I got at Joann Fabrics for about $10. I cut it once I got home to the width I wanted and used the remaining fabric for under my Christmas tree. (two birds with one stone)

You need 2 of the 2 yard rolls of fuzzy fabric trim (don't know technical term) unless you have a longer table then go by your measurements. I had a coupon for these and they ended up being around 3 dollars each.

I used iron on hem tape for this, but if you have a sewing machine feel free to sew everything on (might look better and will last longer) but for me since I don't have a sewing machine this is good enough.

My iron had to be up pretty high for the heat to melt the tape, but I used a towel to protect my fabric. Just hold it in one spot for about 30 seconds and move to the next spot.

Once that was finished I measured where I wanted to place the belt. I used black and silver ribbon, if you have a bigger piece of silver ribbon or fabric use that instead and cut a square in the middle it will look better, but I already had this ribbon from a previous project. Again, I used the hem tape to secure it.

I then decided to add more fur to the ends of my table runner.

 And the finished product. How festive! 

Hello!

As promised here is a really easy and fun DIY Christmas project! Sweater stockings! An easy way to get rid of some old holiday sweaters or even a fun trip to the thrift store with your sister-in-law! These are really easy to make and require very little skill. 

First find the sweater you like for the stockings. Both my sweaters cost me under $10 at my local thrift store. Depending on the type of sweater and how thick it is, you will need yarn or thread. I used a thick yarn needle.

Next, take some cardboard and trace out your stencil. It took a couple tries to get the right size and shape. Cut it out.

Make sure your sweater is turned inside out until all the sewing is done. I used the bottom of the sweater for the top of my stocking since it has the original sewing. I also made the top a little longer than my stencil so I could fold the top over when I was finished. I traced my stencil on the sweater using a permanent marker. 

If your sweater does not have buttons on it, lay the stencil so one edge of the stocking has the original sewing from the sweater, it makes life so much easier. (I did move mine to the left after I took this picture) :)

If your sweater has cute buttons like one of mine did, then you have to sew both sides. 

Once your all done sewing, turn the stocking right side out and you are finished! You can add fur on the top if you like, or just fold the tops over. Also, do not forget to add either yarn or fabric from the sweater to the top to hang it from! Here is the final product (we don't have a fireplace)

Happy DIY!

Meatball Grinders!

Meatball Grinders! For that cheat day dinner. These are super easy to make and taste delicious! 

What you need: 

1 pound (or a little more) ground beef (I used 85%, but feel free to use higher)

3/4 Cup bread crumbs (I used 4C Panko Seasoned Japanese style)

2 Tablespoons of each: Garlic powder, parsley flakes, Italian seasoning, Parmesan cheese

1 Egg (beat before adding it to the dry mix)

Preheat oven to 375

Mix all together in a medium bowl with hands. Form into balls and place on a baking sheet. Cook for 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the meatballs.

While they are cooking, heat spaghetti sauce in pan on medium-low heat. Also melt half of a stick of butter with added garlic powder. We had our sandwiches open face and spread the garlic butter onto the open buns. Place in oven while there is about 10 minutes left for the meatballs.

We cut our meatballs in half and placed them onto the buns, added the sauce and some mozzarella cheese and placed them back into the oven for about 5 minutes until the cheese is melted. I turned the temperature up to about 400.

A super easy and quick dinner, and hubby approved! :)

Lemon Blueberry Muffins!

Hey guys! Today I'm sharing a super delicious and healthy recipe for blueberry muffins (ok, their not that healthy with the sugar and flour, but blueberries and lemon is pretty good for ya ;) ) 

This recipe is a staple for me and is so delicious and super easy to make! Sometimes I make a simple sugar glaze to go on top of these, but usually I skip it!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees 

1/2 C butter (1 stick), softened

2 tsp lemon zest

1 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose white flour

1.5 tsp salt

2 tsp. baking powder

2 cups blueberries (I just use a carton)

1/2 cup fat free milk

1. Cream butter w/ lemon zest and 1 cup of sugar until light and fluffy. 

2. Add egg and vanilla and beat until combined, meanwhile toss blueberries w/ 1/2 cup of flour in a small bowl sift 2 cups flour baking powder and salt. 

3. Add flour mixture to butter/sugar mixture slowly, alternating with milk. Once combined fold in blueberries

4. Grease a jumbo muffin tin or regular size muffin tin. (I use liners) Distribute batter so muffins are 2/3 full. Sprinkle sugar on top if desired. 

5. Bake 30 mins for jumbo or 22-25 mins for regular. Muffins are done when toothpick inserted comes out clean.

This recipe calls for 2  tsp of lemon zest which is about 2 lemons, sometimes I don't want it to be too lemony so I only use 1. Choice is yours...

I usually get a little over a dozen regular size muffins with this recipe and 6 jumbo ones!

If you guys try this let me know how you think they turn out!

I usually use fresh blueberries but frozen works just as well. Just be sure to thaw and rinse them!

Enjoy! :)

Ab day!

Sorry for the lack of blogging, school got a little crazy! Anyway, today's workout was abs. This routine can be done just about anywhere, there's only one move I did that involved using a hanging bar or a captains chair, but if one isn't available don't worry about it! Here is what I did: I first started with a warm up:

30 reps of each exercise

-toe touches
-regular crunch
-feet flat crunch
-single leg raise hold for one minute each leg
-penguins
-side crunches
-front plank for one minute (or however long you can go)
-side plank for one minute on each side (or however long you can go)
-In-outs
-leg raises
-cross over crunch
-hanging leg raises to front and to side
-side bends with 30lb weight (if you don't have a weight, substitute for standing opposite arm and leg cross over)

After this workout, I could really feel my hip flexors and my abs being so tired! A great feeling!

Today's Workout

Hello there! Here is what I did for a workout today. I am not a trainer, however I am studying exercise physiology so I'm almost a trainer :) and I am not a power lifter by any means, I'm just a girl who loves working out and who wants to get a little more toned before her wedding :)

 Today was leg day! Before any workout, you want to make sure you warm up first. For my warm up I jogged 1 lap on the track (400m) and did some walking lunges, leg swings, and body squats. Now it's time for the workout! This workout is for gaining muscle and strength. Each workout had 4 sets with 8 repetitions. Make sure you are taking a full rest! 

1. Squat with weight

    Pick a weight that you can get about 8 reps (not too easy, I did 100 lbs today) with any squat you want to make sure you are driving through your heals and to make sure the knee is not going past the toe. Ideally you should be in a 90 degree angle, but if you cannot get down that far, go as far as comfortable!

2. Romanian Dead Lift

    I used the squat bar, make sure you keep the knees bent and the back straight!

3. Weighted Lunge

     With this either use the bar or use 2 dumbbells, I stay on one leg for the 8 reps and then switch legs, but you can switch legs after 1 rep if you want. Pick a weight that is challenging for you. I used a 30 pound weight, or a bar with 2 10 pounds on each side for a total of 65.

4. Single leg dead lift

     Use 1 dumbbell in your left hand and use your right leg, and vise versa. Get the weight as low as possible, remember to keep the knee slightly bent, I used one weight, which was a 30 lb.

5. Weighted calf raises

     With this i used the bar again and did 3 sets of 12 for these with both legs (65 lb, but it was pretty easy)

I also did some hanging abs, I would recommend using a captains chair if one is available to you because I always find my hands hurt at about rep 7,(and I wear lifting gloves, which do help) so with these I do 10 reps and then rest to give my hands a break.

I did 3 sets of 10

I also ran about 1.5 miles at speed 7 on a 1% grade, on a treadmill you want to make sure you run at least on a 1% grade because if not then the treadmill is basically doing all the work for you, and a 1% grade is equivalent to running outside. I then walked until I reached 2 miles. (this was several hours after I lifted) 

Remember to cool down and stretch after each workout! And to drink plenty of water before, during and after your workouts!

This was a great workout and I can feel it in my legs and butt already! Let me know if you try these lifts and how they work for you! Remember to exhale as you power through the lift, usually when we count the rep is when you breath out, its a good reminder!

Have a good one!- Jenna

   

Welcome!

Welcome! I am a girl currently living in a small town, going to college in her senior year! I am engaged and will be getting married this summer as well as graduating college and moving into a place of my own! Come join me on this crazy journey! Currently I am studying exercise physiology so you can expect this blog to contain some fitness tips and tricks so stay tuned! 



I want this blog to contain a little bit of everything! Health and Fitness, recipes, fashion, beauty, home decor, wedding tips...you name it! 

I will also take requests such as workout tips for toning, or weight loss, ect. Just let me know!

Much love, Jenna