What have I been up to?

Maybe stuff like this?

And this?

And maybe a little of this?

Well howdy strangers! I hope I still have a few people who at least follow me in a reader or something so will see that I have finally posted again!

Oh. My. Gosh. What a ride it has been since I last posted! I said I didn’t want to go all summer without posting like I did last year, but then I went and pretty much did just that. I didn’t know at the time though just what the summer would bring!

I am very happy to say that I have made amazing progress on a couple those little goals for the year that I set for myself in January.

First of all my weight, I had a goal of losing 20lbs this year. I blogged about our change in diet, almost completely cutting out sugar, grains and starches. We are still going strong with that, we still have our little treats once or twice a week of a burger and I have my favorite coffee. With 2 and a half months still to go in the year I have lost 30lbs officially as of today!  My husband has lost 40! We both feel GREAT! Not just because of the weight, but the change in diet has done wonders for other things like migraines and stomach issues that have plagued me for years.

The other goal I’ve made progress on is the “plan a business” goal. I have been working my butt off for the past 3 months not only starting my business, but one for hubby too. Remember my Juno Designs website that I posted a while back with my CafePress T-shirts and stuff? Well, that’s not what is on that site anymore! My CafePress stuff can still be accessed through my CafePress Juno Designs site. But now my Juno Designs site is home to my new business. I’m making jewelry, and not just any jewelry, fun and unique jewelry with skulls, dragons, celtic symbols, buttons, washers…..and I have SO many more things to come(think Steampunk and Chainmaille just to name a couple)! I’m also selling some of my husband’s amazing photography. And I have been helping my husband get his business going too. My husband is a bit of a huge Geek, we’ve been moving his huge collection of comics and gaming books around for over 20 years……well he has finally decided to let most of them go and use them to start his own business!

We have spent the past 3 months setting up at a Swap Meet Farmers Market every weekend with our stuff, and it has been a blast!! Sadly because it is an outdoor market it’s closed for the season now . We’re trying to find a place we can afford to set up during the winter, but so far haven’t found anything decent that we can afford. I am going to do a couple of craft sales next month though with my jewelry and my husband’s photography….I’m so excited about that!

Anyway, I need to cut this short now because I have like a gazillion things to do, but I really wanted to finally get on here and post an update. I have had no time to work on recipes to post and I don’t have much to post for outfit posts because most of my clothes are too big for me right now LOL, that and I’ve just been so busy  that even if I do get dressed up nice I don’t have time to take pics. Don’t give up on me though, I just need more time to get life a little more organized(which is probably also include a move in the next handful of months) and I will be back to blogging!

I would LOVE it if you would check out my website , I can’t ship to the US off my actual website because Paypal has major restrictions as to how you can set up shipping charges and stuff like that as soon as you are outside of the US…..I have some of my stuff up on an Etsy store, and I can ship to the US if ordered off there, but I had to up my prices a bit because of the extra fees Etsy charges…..I still strive to keep my prices really good(right now none of my jewelry is over $10!). And come see me on my Facebook page too! I have pictures of almost everything on there, and I do my best to accommodate requests too!

My website

My Facebook Page

My Etsy Store

If you’re into the Geek stuff(or know someone who is) my husband’s website is Winking Mutant Collectible Comics and Gaming Books, there’s not a lot of comics up yet because I have to scan and post them one at a time and there are hundreds of them….it’s going to take me a while! LOL

Some more of my jewelry :

         

One of these days soon I hope I can find time to get reading blogs again, I miss reading everyone’s blog!!!

 

Jolene

Holidays Are Over :(

Well, today is the last day of hubby’s 2 weeks of holiday. It was a great 2 weeks, but I’m sad it’s over(fortunately he has 2 more weeks in early September, yay!).

A lot happened in 2 weeks. We got some yard work done, got a little bit done inside the house(though not as much as we wanted, it just got too hot and with no a/c going in the house we just couldn’t do it in the heat). Went to the Calgary Stampede. We went camping for a couple of nights, cut it short by a night because the heat was just too much for everyone, but we enjoyed the 2 nights we did have. We spent all day every day together, had our 15th Anniversary and for the first Anniversary in a while we actually got to spend it together! We went for burgers and out collecting firewood for our fire pit lol, I’m a cheap and easy date because it was all good for me!

I got a phone call while camping on Wednesday. My Mom and Dad had just got back on Tuesday after being gone for a month because of my Grandpa passing away(my Mom’s Dad), then just the next day after being back they get the call that my Grandma passed(my Dad’s Mom). She was 96. I haven’t got to have a good cry over it yet, I know I need to. But I don’t like crying in front of people. I’ve had some small break downs that I’ve managed to hide. Now I just have one Grandma left. It’s been hard to go from not knowing losing anyone to losing 2 special people less than 3 weeks apart. There’s a bit of guilt in there too because I haven’t seen them in such a long time, but we just never had the money to go visit.

On a more upbeat note; hubby and I finally got to go out on a REAL date night last night for the first time in a very long time(probably last time would have been hubby’s Christmas Party for work 2 Christmases ago). I was on Twitter yesterday and saw a tweet from the Calgary Stampede to go to their Facebook page and enter to win tickets for the Johnny Reid concert that was last night. In order to enter you had to post a picture of the Stampede. I almost wasn’t going to do it, I hesitated a few times then finally decided to post a picture we had taken of us at the Travel Texas booth. After posting it we went out to get some groceries, I started to feel a little sick because it was so hot and muggy out so we decided to finish the shopping later and come back home. I went to lay down when we got back home but decided I would check Facebook quick first…..and when I did I found out I was one of the winners!! I realize Johnny Reid may not be so well known to some, he’s a Scottish born Canadian Country Music singer. I’m a HUGE Country music fan and I have loved this man for a while now but could never afford to go see him when he came. It was short notice, but fortunately we had no plans for the night and our kids are now old enough that we don’t have to worry about finding a babysitter. We had such an amazing night!!! The concert was absolutely incredible, I love this singer even more now! It was a fantastic way to finish off hubby’s holidays. I can’t remember the last time I went out and had such a great time! Even though when we came back home the stresses of money issues and other things and the sadness of the loss of my Grandparents was still there, it felt so good to go out and enjoy myself for the night.

Now I need to get back on track with our regular schedule, blogging better and more often will hopefully be a part of that! Most important thing I have to do is make money though, have to figure out what I’m going to do and very soon. Sadly as much as hubby likes where he is, he might have to look for a job that pays more, he’s not getting paid the going rate for his position in this city as it is and his raise is going to be so low it’s a slap in the face and that after being told they probably won’t get full bonus and yet the company is doing amazing and growing all the time. Neither of us are too happy about it, when he went to work there 2 years ago it was with the plan of him staying there long term and hopefully eventually retire with the company. But the type of position he works should pay enough for a man to support his family, especially considering we are a pretty frugal family, we don’t buy extravagant stuff or go on expensive holidays or anything like that. With the job he has we shouldn’t be struggling like we are. So unless they clue in to that he’s going to have no choice but look elsewhere, which it looks like they won’t because they just lost a guy who worked there 18 years because he got a job with WAY more money and less responsibility and then they go and give hubby this pathetic “raise”(can’t even call it that, it’s less than how much cost of living has gone up). Currently almost every one of their supervisors is looking elsewhere over the same issues, so it’s not just us being picky or whiny.

Anyway, I will make an effort to get back on track with blogging regardless of what ends up going on .

Jolene

Just Saying Hello

Just a quick hello post!

Today my hubby and I celebrated 15 years of marriage! How fast that time has gone, hard to believe I’ve been married for that many years already!

Tomorrow we’re going to the Calgary Stampede, other than one year when we were living down in Texas I have not missed a year of going since my family moved to Calgary in 1988. We don’t do a lot, in fact tomorrow will probably only be a couple of hours of walking around just looking at stuff, but the Stampede is such a big and wonderful thing and we love and support our city so we always go. We just can’t afford all the rides and games and shows and stuff. The $20 for parking(provided it didn’t go up this year) and the cost of getting in is already more than we can really afford.

Next week we’ll be going camping. I’m a little concerned because it’s supposed to be very hot and I don’t handle heat well, but we’re going anyway and hopefully I’ll do ok and we’ll have a great time. At least the car will be right there so if I start to get my usual heat exhaustion I can sit in the car with some a/c blasting if I have to lol.

I’m sure I won’t be able to post again for at least a week, so I hope everyone is having a great summer so far and hopefully I can get to some great posts I have in mind soon!

  Jolene

Friend Makin’ Monday

I am slacking big time, aren’t I? I’ve just been so busy and now hubby is on holidays, and we all know holidays mean being even busier, right? LOL. I don’t know how much I’ll be posting these next 2 weeks while he’s on holidays, we have this week planned with getting stuff done around the house, the week will end with taking in the Calgary Stampede, and then next week we’re going camping again(pleeeeeease let the weather cooperate!!). So don’t be surprised if it’s another couple of weeks before I’m posting much. I’m definitely feeling better than I was in my last post and have lots I want to blog about, just haven’t had the time.

Since it’s Monday I thought I would quickly participate in this weeks Friend Makin’ Monday.

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Quick Questions

1. What are your plans for Independence Day? I live in Canada, but we just had Canada Day yesterday. We spent the day working outside in the backyard.

2. What is the last thing interesting thing you drank? I never drink anything overly interesting LOL, but I treated myself to my favorite coffee tonight, Tim Horton’s XL Double Double, yum!

3. Share on of your favorite quotes. Not much of a quotes person(becoming more fond of them lately though), but I’ve loved a good many quotes from the great Ronald Reagan, one: "Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem."

4. Name someone or something that makes you smile.  My husband and my children

5. What will you/did you eat for lunch today? the usual, nothing LOL. My small appetite is definitely helping with the lack of money situation lol!

6. What’s the last movie that you watched and enjoyed? Can’t remember the last movie I watched, it has been a couple months since I watched one.

7. Share something sweet and unexpected that someone did for you recently. My hubby gave me a little back massage last night, LOL, I don’t get those very often anymore.

8. If you could spend ten days on vacation anywhere in the world, where would you go?  That’s a tough one. I would either want some gorgeous beach somewhere, or spend it on a road trip visiting ghost towns and other points of historic interest….there are so many ruins all over the world I want to see so badly.

9. What are you currently reading? Blogs LOL, that’s about it.

10. Share at least one thing that you’re looking forward to this week.  My hubby not going to work! And going to the Calgary Stampede on Friday. And most of all, my 15th Wedding Anniversary is this week!!

Now it’s your turn to answer the questions on your blog.  Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments!  Happy Monday!

RIP Grandpa

My Grandpa passed away Friday night. He surprised everyone by lasting just one night shy of a full 2 weeks with nothing entering his body but morphine to make sure he wasn’t in pain and the very occasional sip of water when he was conscious. He was even talking to the nurses at the beginning of the week.

I’m so sad he’s gone, but he would never have wanted to be like he was, so I’m glad he’s no longer wasting away and in a way that was not him. He never wanted to be like that.

The funeral will be Wednesday, I do feel bad that we can’t go. I want to send my Grandma something, but I don’t know what. She’s in what I guess would be an assisted care facility herself. If anyone has any ideas of what to send, please share. So far all I can come up with is a letter and some pictures, I’m horrible at writing letters though, not sure what to say. Grandpa loved trains, I wish I could find some sort of train themed thing that could be engraved in his memory or something. I don’t know. I’m not used to this sort of thing, I don’t know what’s appropriate and I don’t have much money to spend. I’m worried that now that Grandpa is gone she will go downhill fast, I hope I’m wrong. Grandma is tiny but strong.

I have so many posts I want to do, hopefully I’ll feel up to doing some better posting soon. It’s not just Grandpa passing away, but I’ve been feeling a little down lately anyway. Money is definitely high on the list of reasons. But everything else just seems to come together all at once too. I hate never feeling like I fit in anywhere. I have felt like this my whole life. I’m always too fat for the skinny crowd but too skinny for the fat crowd. Too poor for the rich crowd but too rich for the poor crowd(bwahaha, yeah, right, rich). Too smart for the dumb crowd, too dumb for the smart crowd. Not conservative enough for the conservative crowd, but way too conservative for the liberal crowd. Too funny for stick up their ass crowd, but not funny enough for never take life seriously crowd. Too nice for most, not nice enough for some. I just feel we live in a world where if you’re just nice, calm, cool and  middle of the road you’re nothing, you have to be extreme to get noticed or be worth anything. I refuse to change who I am, but wish more people would realize that middle of the road is a good thing too. I always feel this way, just sometimes it bothers me more than others. I think it has been bothering me a lot lately because I tried so hard for the past years to gain more followers for my blog. I see others who started their blog around the same time as I did and they have hundreds of followers even though I never see them commenting on other peoples blogs. How do they get so many followers? While I haven’t had as much time lately, in the past year I have spent a LOT of time reading, following and commenting on other blogs. I have done everything that top bloggers list to recommend getting more followers and none of it has worked for me. I know having a lot of followers shouldn’t be a big deal, and in many ways it’s not, but in a lot of ways it is. If you have very few followers it makes you feel like you’re not good enough to follow, having a decent amount of followers makes you feel like what you’re spending the time to post is worth something. I don’t know, I don’t think I’m explaining very good what I mean lol, my mind is mush. I know there’s some out there who understand what I’m trying to say and struggle too.

Hubby works this week and then is on holidays for 2 weeks, the first week we’re sticking around the house and getting stuff done, the second week we are going to go camping again(please let the weather cooperate!), so I likely won’t be posting at all that second week. I’m going to try and pull my emotions together though in the next couple of days here and get back to posting some good stuff!

Jolene

The Great Outdoors

It’s been a pretty good week! We went camping for 2 nights, first time in 20 years hubby and I have been camping, first time ever for my boys. We all had a great time. It would have been better if it was a bit warmer and a little less windy, but we had a lot of fun nonetheless. The boys didn’t get to go fishing as they were hoping to, we even had the river running right behind our campsite, but the fish are still spawning and the first day fishing is allowed is tomorrow. They were kind of bummed about that. We’re going to go camping again in a few weeks when hubby is on holidays and we can go for longer hopefully because he has more days off and it should hopefully be warmer by then.

We thought about staying one more night, but figured we wouldn’t push our luck and since it’s Friday we knew the campground would fill up more and not be quite as peaceful as it was during the week. It was my birthday today too(I can’t believe I’m 37! Seriously hard for me to comprehend I’m that old already LOL!), so hubby wanted to take me out for dinner(a hamburger since that’s all we can afford LOL, but it’s my favorite food so I love it all the same!). I also haven’t had much sleep for a few days, I don’t sleep well at the best of times so sleeping somewhere “different” doesn’t help. I probably slept 3 hours max the first night, but I managed about 5 hours last night. I’m definitely exhausted and ready for my bed tonight.

Amazingly my Grandpa is still hanging in there. My Mom and Dad ended up flying out at the end of last week because the Dr said 2 days at the most. A week later and he’s still hanging in there. He was taken from the hospital back to his bed and taken off the IV last Saturday. For the first few days all he did was sleep, but in the past few days he has actually been awake and even talking to the nurses a bit(though can’t really be understood much). He has had nothing going into his body except morphine to make sure he’s not in pain and the occasional sip of water for a week and he’s still hanging in! It sounds like my Grandma might be having some difficulties though and on top of it there’s some sort of outbreak at the home she’s in. I’m hoping she will be strong and stick around for a while longer. I’m so happy for my Dad too, they were able to go see his Mom today and she actually knew who he was and looked pretty good.

So that’s been my week! I have a ton of cleaning and organizing stuff from camping to do, amazing how much work just for 2 days of camping lol, at least it was fun though! I need to get back to some regular blogging though, and soon! I know last summer I slacked a bit, just so much on the go, I’ll try to be better this summer!

 

Jolene

 

Grandpa

I’m very fortunate that at my age I have not had to deal very much with death. I’m an extremely emotional person, but I don’t like to let people see me be emotional. Some people may find me “cold”, when I’m fighting with everything I have to keep my emotions in check, keep from breaking down. A huge amount of time that I’m alone is spent crying, it’s just how I deal with things. I have had a lot to deal with in my life, just not death. I guess eventually everyone has to. Sure, lots of family I don’t know well is gone, but people I don’t have much memory of even meeting. Now it’s coming closer though.

We’ve never been too close with extended family because they all live in Ontario, my parents moved away from Ontario when I was just a newborn. My Grandpa on my Dad’s side passed away when I was about 12, my Grandma hasn’t known who I am for a very long time. That set of Grandparents were farmers, they didn’t go anywhere, I never saw my Grandpa except when we would go there to visit. Grandma finally left home to travel after Grandpa passed away. I called her about 6 or 7 years ago, she barely knew who I was and certainly did not know who my kids were or that I had any. They got to meet her once at my brothers wedding, 12 years ago I believe(the last time I saw her), but at less than 6 months old and 2 years old they of course don’t remember her. Grandma’s hanging on. For the past few years I’ve heard that it will likely be her last Christmas, but I guess she’s not ready to go yet. She’s 96.

I haven’t seen my Grandparents on my Mom’s side in a very long time either. I’m guessing 9 years, maybe 10. I saw them a bit more growing up. We would visit them, they would visit us. I have great memories of both of them. I wish we lived close and I got to spend more time with them. I loved Grandpa’s blacksmithing and his old Rumley. I loved Grandma’s pies and jams. I loved “camping” at their old caboose in the bush. Grandpa hasn’t known anyone for a little while now. Grandma still is doing ok for her age.

My Mom called the other day, Grandpa is in the hospital. He has pneumonia. In both lungs. He’s 93?(either 93 now or on his next birthday, can’t remember what Mom said now). Mom called again yesterday, it’s not looking good. He can’t swallow, he’s not getting any food. They don’t recommend feeding tubes at this age and he’s already pulling out the other tubes so probably wouldn’t keep it in anyway. His only nutrients right now is through a tube, an IV I guess? My Dad called today, my Mom must be busy packing or too emotional to talk, likely both. The family(my Mom and her siblings) have to decide when to pull the tubes, it has to be done. He’ll be gone soon after that.

They were waiting for Grandma to ask to be taken to see him. Yesterday she hadn’t yet asked so they asked her. She did. She got to see him. Today she asked to go see him again. I know Grandma is pretty strong. She still knows who everyone is, she still remembers. I can’t imagine how hard it is to be strong, they have been married for 66 1/2 years. She hasn’t been able to be with him for a while, they’ve both needed a different level of care.

My Mom didn’t know when to go, she’s the only one who doesn’t live nearby. Going too early would only mean sitting there unable to do anything, he doesn’t even know who she is. If he hung on for a long while they couldn’t afford to stay, if he improved and they came home they couldn’t afford to go back, though I’m sure a way would have been found. Now they know for sure it’s the end. My parents will leave this weekend, they’ll drive. I hope for my Mom’s sake that they wait to pull the tubes and he holds on until she gets there. Even if she only gets minutes with him to say goodbye.

My sister and one brother will go to the funeral. Another brother apparently says he’s thinking about it, I don’t think he will though. I can’t go. My financial situation is no secret. There’s no money to go. But I’ve known that all along. I knew the time was coming and even when our finances were better I knew there was no way I could afford to go when the time came. The days are numbered before my Grandma’s are gone too, yeah one is doing well, but for how long after her love of so many years is gone? Thank goodness for memories, the memories I have of younger and healthier Grandparents are what makes it easy to accept that I never got to say goodbye. In some ways it’s comforting to know that my great memories are my last and not a funeral.  I’m already crying more than I thought I would, I’m not very good at this.

Jolene

Friend Makin’ Monday

Sorry I just haven’t been in the blogging mood. I want to be posting more but I’m struggling right now and as usual for me I don’t know how to handle things. We’re planning on 2 or 3 days of camping next week, first time in 20 years I’ve been camping. Fortunately other than the camping fee and gas, both of which are not a lot because we only need a tent site and our car is really good on gas, it’s the closest thing to a “free” break we’re going to get. I’m hoping it will help clear my head so I can figure out what to do. Between the yard sale and selling some homeschool items we don’t need anymore we made more than enough to pay for the little camping trip without having to touch what little money I have to pay bills with. Of course I could really use that money to pay for food and bills, but I need to clear my head and sitting here day after day trying to figure out a solution is only leading me to my breaking point.

Anyway, as long as Friend Makin’ Monday’s are simple to do at least it’s a way for me to keep posting without too much thought for now. So here’s this weeks FMM:

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Quick and Easy

 

1. When is your birthday? June 15

2. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?  omg, a letter? Like a real handwritten letter? Holy cow, it has to have been 25 years I’m sure! I’ve never been good at keeping in touch with people lol.

3. What did you eat for breakfast this morning? Eat, nothing. Drank coffee LOL.

4. Who is the next band/artist you will see perform live? Who knows, last concert was about 4 years ago, I’m sure it will be a very very long time before I can afford a concert .  It will likely be someone Country though. If I could it would be either Brad Paisley or Garth Brooks who are both coming here next month for the Calgary Stampede, Garth Brooks sold out in seconds though , so even if I had money I wouldn’t get to go to that one.

5. What is the last song you listened to? Honestly don’t know, usually only listen to music in the car.

6. If you could be fluent in any other language, which one would you choose? Definitely Spanish, I learn some and then forget it because we don’t speak it, then learn some again and forget it again, been like with me for years. Would love to learn and make it stick.

7. Does anything on your body hurt right now? Better question would be what doesn’t, I think my pinky is feeling ok.

8. What’s your favorite sports team? Stewart-Haas Racing, loooove my Nascar. Next would be Calgary Flames.

9. How often do you watch the news? Lately, never.

10. Do you wear glasses? Yeah, everyone and everything is a blurry blob without them. Went years without them, can’t figure out how I managed to get by.

 

Jolene

Friend Makin’ Monday

I promise I’ll get to some decent posting soon. Yard sale went pretty well this weekend, still have a lot of organizing to do though and we’re still recovering from an incredibly busy and exhausting weekend.

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: One or the Other

1. Shower or Bubble Bath?  Shower

2. Money or Power?  Money

3. Country Music or Rap? I’m totally a Country girl, love love love it, can’t stand rap even in the slightest, the only “music” I totally despise lol.

4. Sunshine or Thunderstorms? Oh gosh, absolutely cannot pick between these two, love them both.

5. Uniform  or Suit? Suit

6. Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla

7. Beauty or Brains? Brains

8. Newspaper or Online News? Online

9. Marinara or Alfredo? Alfredo

10. Lip Gloss or Lip Stick? Lip Stick

11. Beach or Mountains? Beach, but love the mountains too as long as it’s not cold.

12. Talk or Text? Neither lol, hate both. In person talk or email for me, only use a phone when I have to or when it’s hubby or my Mom.

13.  CNN or Fox News? Don’t get either since I don’t live in the U.S. and don’t have cable, but when I did we watched Fox

14. Cake or Potato Chips? Don’t eat either now, but I can still make low carb cakes and have a couple VERY yummy ones I make….so I guess it’s cake lol.

15. Movies at home or at the theater?  At home, theatre is enjoyable but is too ridiculously expensive

16. Bar or Bookstore? Bookstore, can count on one hand how many times I’ve been in a bar in my life.

17. Rock or Pop? Rock

18. Manicure or Facial? Facial

19. Book or e-reader? definitely book!

20. Planes or Trains? Neither, but would take either if I had to, probably would prefer train though I’ve only been on one once when I was a kid.

Now it’s your turn to answer this week’s questions.  Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments!  Happy Monday, and Happy Memorial Day to my US friends!

Jolene

One Year

Saturday will be one year for this blog. We are having a yard sale Saturday though and I’m sure I won’t be getting a chance to blog, so wanted to quickly post about it now.

While I’m proud of my posts over the past year, I’m disappointed in not being able to attract many regular readers. I’ve mentioned before that I didn’t have quite this difficult of a time on my previous blog. When I did my old blog it was pretty much automatic that if someone followed you or commented on your blog that you did the same in return, I’m not sure what has happened to the blogging world in the years since then, but that doesn’t seem to happen much anymore. It seems that for every 50 comments I leave on other blogs or blogs I start to follow(and I don’t leave a comment unless I truly have something to say, I don’t comment just to say come to my blog) I’m lucky if I get 1 comment or follower back. Anyway, guess I’ll just keep plugging away and hope for more success in my second year.

Sorry I can’t do a giveaway like some bloggers do. I just can’t afford any prizes right now and I don’t get enough traffic to interest anyone in supplying something yet. Things are really tough right now. Nothing we haven’t been through many times before, but still stressful and making me a little depressed.

Have a great weekend!

Jolene

What I Wore

I’ve been super busy going through the insane mess which we call a basement. I can’t even begin to describe the mess my kids have made of it, they always do this, everywhere we have ever lived they have done this. I will go and get it all organized and they go down to play and get into absolutely everything and then our basement looks like a hoarders house. I’ve spent the past year and a half trying to get them to fix the mess they made only a month after I made it all nice. Nope, didn’t happen. Now we are trying to participate in a community parade of garage sales this weekend and now I’m seeing exactly how bad the insane mess is as we’re trying to find stuff to sell. I knew it was bad down there, but I only go down for laundry and the freezer which are right at the bottom of the stairs, so I didn’t really realize exactly how bad it was! I’m exhausted, I’m overwhelmed with the mess they’ve created….and needless to say pretty darn pissed off too. There are so many better ways I could spend my time, grrr. But instead I’ll probably be spending weeks getting this mess dealt with because I can only handle a few hours a day before my back starts to give out on me, and I still have all the daily cooking and cleaning to worry about. At least they are now beyond the “playing” age, so I have high hopes that this time it will stay clean and organized, especially if we can get rid of some stuff.

So, dressing up has not been high on my list this past week obviously! I do have some outfit pics though that I just have not got around to posting yet. This one is from a couple of weeks ago…..and I wasn’t wearing any black!! None at all! How’s that for something different? LOL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Denim Capris: Walmart I think, don’t recall price (2008)

White Tank: Warehouse One, $10 (2011)

Cardi: City Chic, $5 (2012)

Sandals: Walmart, $9 (2011)

Necklace: Liquidation Store, $5 (2012)

Earrings: Avon, $3ish? (2009ish?)

Jolene

Friend Makin Monday

I haven’t participated in one of these for a while, this looks like a fun one to join in on .

 

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: www.alltheweigh.com so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

FMM: Three Things

1. Three of your favorite movies:

Ok, cheating already on #1 lol, but I honestly don’t have “favorite” movies. I love watching movies but don’t really like watching them more than once so I can’t really say I have specific favorites. As long as it’s not a boring Drama or some gang type thing, I’m not too picky when it comes to movies.

2. Three of your favorite things to drink:

- coffee
- Diet Pepsi
- Iced Capp/Iced Coffee

3. Three of your favorite songs:

- Open Arms by Journey(my wedding song)
Besides that one song I absolutely LOVE so many songs I couldn’t possibly pick favorites….love Country and classic rock especially.

4. Three people who have recently been a positive influence on your life (outside of your family):

- ugh, cheating again. I have so little interaction with people who are not family.

5. Three things you to do keep yourself entertained:

- watching TV and hanging out with my kids and hubby
- Reading blogs
- sitting around the fire with my family

6. Three things you’re attracted to in the opposite sex:

- sense of humor
- respect for others
- hard work ethic and desire to take care of loved ones

7. Three things you love about yourself:

- My common sense
- I’m a good cook
- My big heart

8. The last three people who text messaged you:

- some scammer garbage
- my husband
- my Cell phone company  (I rarely use text) 

9. Three things you’re looking forward to this week:

- Wednesday, my husbands first day off of the week
- Friday, my husbands second day off of the week
- Saturday, my husbands third day off of the week(he works longer shifts so gets 3 days off a week)

10. Three wishes specifically for yourself…What are they? (Be selfish, and be honest.)

- to own my own beautiful house with a huge kitchen and yard
- to lose 20lbs or have no more skin problems(I’d be extremely happy with one or the other of those)
- to have my kids get out of their moody teen stage so I can be loving and fun Mom all the time and not have to be “mean” or “angry” Mom ever again

11. Three of your favorite quotes:

Not really a quote kind of person, I repin some on pinterest that I like, but not a memorize and requote anything kind of person.

12. Three of your biggest fears:

- losing someone I love
- leaving my family without me(ok, as you can see from those top two death scares me, big time)
- driving

13. Three of your favorite TV shows:

- Castle
- Fringe
- Eureka
- Haven
- Parenthood
Oops, that’s more than three…Oh well. (hey, if the one posting it can do it, so can I lol….that’s not even a fraction of my favorites)  

14. Three of your favorite things to purchase when you’re shopping.

- food lol

- organization stuff

- and all equally: shoes, clothes, jewelry, make-up

15. Three things that you enjoyed last week:

- My kids both finished another year of homeschooling, our best one yet!

- My inlaws arrived back home safely in Canada, and to stay, after a hellish experience selling their home in Mexico and a hellish experience at the US border

- Sitting out back around the fire with family, enjoying the night and good company

16. Three things that you always have in your bag or close to you if you’re not a purse kind of person.  

- wallet

- keys

- cell phone

17. Three types of food that you wouldn’t want to give up.

- Steak

- Hamburgers

- Chicken

18. Three things you do to enjoy burning calories:

- sex

- sex

- ok, walking I guess….(what? sorry, I hate exercise but have a great marriage LOL!)

19.  Three things you dislike about blogging:

- Bloggers are so extremely cliquey, feels like I went back 20 years and am in school again lol

- So many bloggers never acknowledge commenters and never even try to check out bloggers that are following and commenting on their blog….I find it rude but see it a lot

- The huge amount of rude people that think it’s ok to comment on your blog criticizing you or what you have to say. I haven’t had it happen on this blog but did once on my last one and I see it happen a LOT on blogs I’m reading. People blog for those with similar beliefs, likes or whatever the blog pertains to. People don’t blog for you to come and debate them, I’m sure there’s the odd blog out there that wants that, but for the most part that is NOT the point of blogging and people need to learn that just because you don’t agree with or like someone does not mean it’s ok to say something or start something, it’s their blog, it’s their space, not yours, if you don’t like it don’t read it and move along and mind your own business. A blog is not the same as a news article you are reading on a news website.

20.  Three ways blogging has changed your life:

- It has given me confidence I never knew I had

- It forces me to keep up with doing things I otherwise would probably not

- It has opened my eyes to the fact that I do and am capable of more than I thought I was(ok, guess that sort of falls under confidence…but still)

Now it’s your turn to answer the questions!  Don’t forget to come back and link up in the comments, and have a happy Monday!

Jolene

A Very Sucky Week

It was a very up and down week emotionally and stress-wise for me. One of my brothers that I respected the most, even though I don’t really know him all that well(he’s older and a half brother and has lived in the US since long before I was born), out of the blue showed that he is not the person I thought he was. It’s hard to find out someone you thought was one type of person is in fact totally different than you thought.  What’s even worse is he showed this side on my personal Facebook page and a couple of my friends(both very GOOD people!) got a piece of his horrid behaviour, I was so embarrassed by it. It took me a couple of days to shake it, I couldn’t sleep because of it. I’ve been treated pretty shitty by a lot of people in my life, but his behaviour is about the worst I’ve ever seen directed at me and he’s my own brother. I have other family that I’m tired of their treatment/neglect of my family and finally ready to speak up about it if I need to, but this brother was the last person I ever expected to see act in such a way.

Then right after that incident my husband got news that he likely will not get his bonus this year, which is usually given in August. This is huge for us because when he got this job the base pay was much lower than he was asking for, but they said that with the bonus it would bring it up to what he was asking for and they said they always get the bonus. Well, then he didn’t get a full bonus last year(because he had not been there a full year, even though when hired he was told he would get full) and now they’re saying it’s not looking good at all for bonus this year. And the thing is, it’s not because they didn’t do what they were supposed to do(they did! They’re doing fantastic!), it’s because a new system that was put in place in the Fall caused some major issues when it was put in, stuff that was completely out of their hands yet they’re still counting those issues that happened against them…even though it had nothing to do with them. This is a huge problem for us, it’s hard to get by with what he would get including his bonus, without it we’re in big trouble. He loves the company he works for, loves his job, but he’s not getting paid what he’s worth and what we need. The last they were told 6 months ago is that they would be getting it, if we knew that was not the case we never would have spent money on some things like gardening and such.

Our first thought was that I would have to go and work outside of the home again, the mention of that brought everyone to tears. I cried all night, I think it was something I needed after what happened with my brother, but I also cried because in 15 years of marriage we’ve had this bad luck cycle that seems to happen every 2 years and I’m just so tired of it. We just barely get to recover from one bad luck episode and then something else comes along and knocks us right back down. So, of course my first thoughts were here we go again, this time it has actually been  more than 2 years since we’ve had anything really bad happen. Of course this time he still has a job, it’s just less money than we were expecting/needing. So it’s not even close to when things have gone bad in the past, just frustrating and depressing when you think you’ve finally shaken whatever curse has been upon you just to feel like it has hit again.

We’re going to try to remain hopeful that they were wrong and the bonus will happen, the cut off isn’t until July, so there’s still time for things to change. Maybe some higher up will finally come to their senses and realize that it is unfair and only going to piss off a lot of people to hold them accountable for something that was out of their hands. But in the meantime we need to figure out what else we can do, me going out and working outside of the home, even if it’s part time, would have a huge negative impact on family and home life for us all while only helping out financially a little bit. So we have decided that will have to be an absolute last resort. Everything has gone up so much this year already, utilities are all way up, groceries are way up, our rent went up, add that to two growing boys who’s appetites are huge and the cost to clothe a child who is bigger than the average man…..well, something has gotta give that’s for sure.

With any luck one of the lottery tickets in my purse I have yet to check will have a pleasant surprise for us and our life long money issues will be over LOL.

Jolene

Recipe: Low Carb Pizza

First of all, Happy Mother’s Day to all the other Moms out there! I hope you all had a great day! My hubby and boys remembered this year, so it was better than last years for me LOL.

I made some pizza for dinner tonight and it was good! I’ve tried a couple of low carb pizza crust recipes and while they both tasted good I was still waiting to find that “wow” kind of pizza crust that I know will become a regular meal for us. I think this is the one!

Remember the low carb buns I made and posted thanks to Ginny at Ginny's Low Carb Kitchen? Well, the recipe makes a damn good pizza crust too! And unlike the other low carb crusts I’ve tried so far, this one you can actually pick up and eat with your hands if you want to!

So now for the good part of this post….the Pizza!!

Low Carb Pizza Crust

(these are the exact ingredients as for the bun recipe)

1/4 cup Butter

6 Large Eggs

1/3 cup Water

3 tbsp Parmesan

1/2 cup Almond Flour

1/3 cup Flax Meal

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1 1/2 tsp Splenda

Melt butter in a large bowl. Add all other ingredients and whisk together really well. Take a baking sheet(one with sides) and line it with a sheet of parchment paper. Give it a bit of a spray with cooking spray, especially on any spots that are not covered by parchment just to make sure it doesn’t stick. Pour the batter onto the parchment and shake it around a bit until it’s spread evenly on the pan.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, then turn up to 400 and bake another 10 minutes or until the crust is sort of crisped up and toasted a bit.

Make the pizza as you wish, I will share how I make ours…..

Pizza(no exact amounts here, pizza’s all about tossing on what you like!)

Pizza Crust

Pizza Sauce(here’s my Pizza Sauce Recipe in this old post, it’s the best sauce I’ve ever tasted! Just leave out the sugar(I do) or substitute with Splenda)

Grated cheese(we like marble)

Assorted pizza meats(I buy a pack at Walmart for like $3, it’s enough for 2 pizzas)

Cooked and Crumbled bacon

Sliced onions

Sliced tomatoes

Spread pizza sauce on the crust, sprinkle a bit of cheese on top, add meats and veggies and top with more cheese. Bake at 400 for 10 to 12 minutes.

Cut up and enjoy! One pizza was enough for 2 pieces for each of us and they are very filling pieces.

I know some people who are looking for low carb recipes want to know how many carbs there are . I don’t list the nutritional information for my recipes, or even figure it out because I don’t feel I’m qualified to do so. The information for most recipes is going to vary anyway depending on brands etc, so even if I did figure it out what it is for me and what I used may not be what it is for what you use. Another reason I don’t is because we don’t eat low carb for “dieting”, we eat low carb as a healthy lifestyle so the actual amounts of carb is not important to us. We don’t actually count carbs, we just avoid sugar and grains and high carb foods as much as possible. If the carb count is important to you I recommend even for recipes that do list the carb count to still figure it out on your own based on what you use to make sure it’s accurate.

 

Happy Mother’s Day!!

Jolene

What I Wore

This week has pretty much sucked for me. Could be worse of course, but it still sucked. I wanted to catch up on some badly needed cleaning this week but instead I spent most of it loopy on painkillers and getting nothing done. My back decided it was a week for laying on the couch with a heating pad and Robaxicet(which seems to be doing nothing for the pain except making me sleep so I can’t feel it while unconscious). I’m used to this happening every once in a while, I’ve had a bad back since I was a kid, but this time it feels like the worst pain I’ve ever had. Breathing hurts, yawning hurts, and omg sneezing makes it feel like someone is grabbing hold of the muscle and ripping it out! I thought it was over with on Wednesday when the pain was definitely tolerable and I went out shopping and stuff without a problem. Then I woke up this morning in even more pain than when it started at the beginning of the week. argh! So I’ve been completely useless and because of the painkillers I haven’t been with it enough to even do any non-physical work. All I can say is tomorrow it better show serious improvement because I have things that have to get done and I can’t stand another day of laying around feeling dopey.

I dressed up in one of my maxi dresses Wednesday and felt so nice in it….but forgot to take pics….doh! So since I’ve been bad at sharing outfits I’ll share one I wore last week to our final meeting of the year with our homeschool facilitator(yayy, we’re just about done school for the year!). Totally simple, and most of it old stuff too. I felt I looked better than what I see when I look at the pics though, do you get that sometimes? You feel great and feel like what you’re wearing looks great, then you see a picture of it and the picture really doesn’t look like how you thought it looked? Maybe it’s all that light color I’m not used to seeing myself in LOL.

This outfit I actually wore with Yolanda from Diva Deep In Thought in mind. The outfit was kind of inspired by some I’ve seen her post on jean wearing days, although she would have some real kick ass stiletto’s on with hers LOL, I’d kill myself in them though so boots with a square heel it was for me. It was also inspired by Yolanda because the top is coral!! Yes, Yoli, I realized I actually do own something coral! I’ve had this top for a long time but didn’t really clue in that it was coral, I don’t wear it very often. Yolanda is rather obsessed with coral, and for good reason too, it looks great on her!

Ignore the mess in the background lol, it’s still too cold most nights to leave my plants outside, so they’re still taking over my house!

Jeans: hand-me-down from friend from several years ago

Top: Penningtons, no idea cost(2006)(told ya it was old stuff)

Blazer: City Chic, $26(2011)

Boots: Payless, $40(2011)

Necklace: Forever 21, $7(2011)

Earrings: Avon, don’t recall price, at least 4 or 5 yrs old

Are ya reading Yoli? Do you think I translated some of your style? LOL

Jolene

Juno Designs

I promise I will get some outfits and hopefully recipes too posted soon. I got my website done though, yay! If you would like to take a peek please do, please, please, please! LOL. And I wouldn’t be at all opposed to you sharing it with others . My store name is Juno Designs, “Juno” is a name I’ve been using online in different forms for many years because it’s the first 2 letters of my boys names put together.

I also made an ad and would be more than happy to trade ads with other bloggers, whether it be a business ad or advertising your blog….as long as it is an ad that is within my own personal beliefs and morals of course .

When I first made these a few years back I made the “Mom of Boys….Need I Say More?” one just playing around and seeing what the Cafepress site was all about. I was shocked when one sold right away, I was even more shocked when even more sold and that is what made me decide to make more. I didn’t touch the site though for a couple of years, I regret that, I should have kept making new designs all along and advertised. I’m doing that now though . My original “Mom of Boys” design continues to be the best selling one though.

Each design comes on a variety of t-shirt styles and other items, the Mom ones even come in maternity and plus size. Here’s my best selling designs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, I just need to start making more money off them so I can start my plus size store!

Thank you for checking out my stuff

Jolene

Gabriella, here is the code for the ad:

<br />
<center><a href="http://juno-designs.weebly.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c360/jomom75/Graphics/Blog%20Stuff/junodesigns200x200.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" /></a><center>

 

Jewelry!

We went to a liquidation store on Friday and of all things I found a great deal on jewelry!! I’ve managed to get decent household things at these stores before, but never jewelry. It’s of course cheaper stuff, stuff like you would get at Forever 21, and about the same prices as you would pay there. But I got some cute and unique pieces. They were all either $4 or $5 each. I also got a couple of belts that were only $9 each, definitely not plus size but the kind of elastic they have on them makes them very stretchy.

I’m trying so hard not to spend extra right now, but hubby liked these necklaces so much that every one I said I liked he grabbed LOL.

This is the jewelry I got, didn’t take a pic of the belts, hopefully I can work them into an outfit post soon.

Jolene

Update on “Do I Just Jump In?”

Hey y’all! Been a busy week, ok, yeah, aren’t they all?

Thank you to all my new readers that have come because of my last post! I had more visitors to my blog in one day after posting that recipe than I have had in total the entire 11ish months since I started this blog! So glad I could help so many others who have a adopted a healthy low carb lifestyle with one of the things that we miss the most, probably much more for convenience of meals than taste….bread! Of course as I said, I can’t take all the credit, the recipe was amazing the way I found it, I only put together the instructions for making a larger batch . We had grilled cheese and bacon sandwiches with them today along with some homemade tomato soup, and what a treat it was!

I’ve got a lot going on right now, so much that I have even given up Facebook for now! *gasp*! Ok, well Facebook has been both boring me and annoying me lately anyway, so maybe it wasn’t all that hard. Being a creature of habit though is what made it hard. When you’ve been going to a website multiple times a day for 5 or 6 years it’s a little hard to break the habit. I will still visit my Facebook page for this blog once in a while, but I’m really trying to stay away from my own personal page.

I mentioned a few weeks ago about wanting to start an online store but being a little afraid to jump in. I have decided that I definitely want to do it, not only want to, need to. The results of a local election means that the days are number before basically we start getting taxed up the, well ass for lack of a better term. Canadians are already very highly taxed, so this isn’t a good thing but we all know it’s coming. We’re already having a very hard time getting by on a single income, and everything keeps going up while hubby’s pay only goes up by a very small amount. So I really need to start bringing in some money as well, it just can’t interfere with being Mom or a Wife, those things are my life and come first no matter what. Which is why I need to start something on my own, going and working outside the home will affect too much on the household in a very negative way. Been there, done that, not going to do it again.

I can’t just jump in to starting my store though because there are some steps I need to take first and of course they require…..MONEY! Yeah, you gotta spend money to make money, right? I want to make sure I start off right. I need licenses, both at the local and federal level in order to start a business. And of course I need stock, I do not want to be one of those stores that advertises stuff for sale that I don’t have right here ready to send out.  I figure before I can start my store I need to save up at least $1,000 to cover everything I need.

So then I’m left with the question of how do I save up that kind of money when we barely have enough coming in to live off of in the first place. On my previous blog I did some of those pay per post type of things, it’s not big money but I made enough off it one year to pay for Christmas, so not complaints there. I really don’t want to get into that kind of posting on here though, I mean I’m ok doing reviews for product kind of a thing as long as I’m allowed to be 100% honest in my review. But I really don’t want to do the pay per post things on here because let’s be honest, most of the stuff you get to do a post on is not something you would even care about or have any interest in. Not once did I get to do a post on clothes, fashion or anything food that interested me. I don’t want this blog clogged up with every few posts being like that.

I’ve done a few other odd things here and there online in the past to earn money, most of them are more time consuming than they’re worth, basically you end up with pennies for hours worth of work. Besides the paid posting the only other thing I’ve ever done online that made money was designing t-shirts and stuff and selling them on Cafepress. I got lazy though and didn’t give it all the attention it deserved. I continue to get small cheques here and there from it even though I haven’t promoted my stuff at all. I’ve just been lucky enough that some of my designs still sell on their own through the Cafepress marketplace. Because of my laziness in promoting my stuff though it hasn’t been big money. I think I’ve made about $350 since doing my first design in the middle of 2008. I make very little per item sold if it sells from their marketplace, but I could make as much as double that or more per item if I promote it myself and sell via my own “store”.

I have one design especially that has done pretty well. So I started thinking that maybe I can make the money I need to start my own online store with plus size clothing if I just stopped being so lazy and started promoting my Cafepress designs and maybe even designing more stuff. It would also kind of help ease me into more of a “business mode” that I will need when I start my plus size store.

If anyone is interested in trading small adverts I’m open to it. I can make up a small advert for my Cafepress stuff, I’m going to try to link it all together through one site(each design has it’s own “store” unless you pay for an upgrade) and as soon as I do it will make it easier for me to do that. I can put up blog adverts or whatever else in exchange for you putting up one of mine. I’m thinking sidebar advert.

I need to make this work. I still have to focus on helping the kids finish up our school year and then I will have a month or two before I need to start getting ready for the next school year. I also have holidays to plan, we’re going to camp for the first time in 20 years!(yeah, only holiday we can afford LOL) I have to go through the entire house and get stuff ready for a yard sale, we have too much stuff and we could use the extra money to get it out of our way. So much to do, but I know I need to work extra hard on getting enough money to make this work. Designing t-shirts is fun, I do enjoy it. But to get to set up my plus size store will not only help with a much needed second income, it’s something I love and am passionate about. Which is why I know I can’t be scared to jump in and do it, I have to do it.

Jolene

Recipe: Buns I Can Eat

The hardest part of cutting out sugar and carbs is not having bread for sandwiches or burgers. I came across a couple of recipes for low carb breads but didn’t really care for them. I know there’s low carb breads and tortillas and such that you can buy, but here in Canada they are pretty much impossible to find(and super expensive if you do).

Finally a couple of weeks ago I came across a recipe for a “One Minute Bread” on Pinterest. Any of you here from my Pinterest link have probably seen this recipe floating around from anyone who pins low carb recipes. I made one for the kids and I to try with some tuna we had made. It was not only good, it was great! I made another bun for each of us and we each had a tuna sandwich, seriously the best tuna sandwich I had ever had! The buns have so much flavor! I made one for hubby later and used it for a fried egg sandwich for him when he got home from work. He loved it!

My only problem with the recipe was that it was for making one bun at a time. It’s definitely nice to have a recipe to make just one quick bun if you need it, but with 4 of us of course we need more if we are going to use it for a meal. I asked the blogger who posted the recipe if she had tried making them in the oven, she had not. So, that just meant that I was going to have to!

It was such a gorgeous weekend that we wanted to barbecue hamburgers yesterday. Of course we wanted some sort of bun with them. Perfect chance for me to try out making these in the oven so I could make more at one time. I tried making just one at first to see if it would turn out. Turn out it did! I quickly mixed up more to make enough for dinner. They were so incredibly good as hamburger buns! I mean so much better than a traditional bun, and this is coming from someone who’s favorite food is hamburgers.

To get the original recipe for just one bun that I used go to Ginny's Low Carb Kitchen. The only ingredients I changed from hers was I used butter instead of coconut oil because I’m almost out of it and it’s pretty expensive, but so good for you so use it if you have it. And I used just regular flax meal instead of golden as hers calls for. If you want to make more than one bun, here is how I made 6 buns at a time(picture is of bun before being toasted):

Low Carb Buns

Inspired by One Minute Bread, The Next Minute Toast by Ginny

Makes 6 buns.

1/4 cup Butter

6 Large Eggs

1/3 cup Water

3 tbsp Parmesan

1/2 cup Almond Flour

1/3 cup Flax Meal

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Salt

1 1/2 tsp Splenda

Melt butter in a large bowl. Add all other ingredients and whisk together really well.

Take 6 oven safe bowls, ramekins or tins, basically anything that will give you the shape and size you want. See pictures below for what I used, I got them at the Dollar store and plan to just wash and re-use them until they wear out or I find something else to use. They are the perfect size and shape and I couldn’t find anything else similar. Spray with some cooking spray and line them up on a baking sheet.

Divide batter up evenly among the 6 tins, you’ll end up with approximately 1/3 cup of batter in each tin.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Let them cool for a few minutes, then carefully slice each bun. Toast them to desired crispness and enjoy!

I haven’t tried them not toasted so I have no idea what they taste like that way, but toasted they are great and you can use them for any kind of sandwich or burger.

 

With batter divided among tins:

Buns fresh out of the oven:

Jolene

What I Wore

Yikes, how does a week go by without a post? It feels like I just posted yesterday!

I am so excited for some amazing weather we are supposed to be getting this weekend. Last weekend we got almost all our flowers and veggies started, until I ran out of soil anyway. My house is now filled with pots of bulbs and seeds that I’m praying my black thumb won’t ruin! I can do many things, some I’m even pretty darn good at, but gardening is not one of them LOL. I have had no luck with anything gardening related. But, I’m going to give it another go this year. I’ve planted flowers from both seeds and bulbs and I’m trying a few different veggies and herbs. If nothing works out this year then I’m going to officially give up on gardening, I’ve wasted enough money trying to grow things that just don’t grow. I sort of blame my hubby too LOL, he means well but he always ends up trying to take over when we grow anything, so I have never been able to plant something and take care of it myself. So maybe it’s his black thumb that is to blame lol. We have 2 to 3 weeks before we can put it all outside, I’m sure it would be ok now since it has been fairly mild, but I don’t want to risk it, we can get snow and frost up until the first week or so of June.

I’m sort of lacking much to post for outfits lately. I don’t know how some bloggers manage to post a new outfit so often. I don’t have enough clothes to make that many new outfits and can’t afford to add to my wardrobe very often. I do have probably the best selection of clothing though that I’ve ever had in my life! It’s still pathetic compared to most women though lol. So a lot of what I wear is just re-wearing outfits that I already posted or making changes that are too minor to bother with posting.

I ordered some adorable cardi’s from City Chic and am totally in love with them! They are the most comfortable cardi’s I’ve ever had. And the best thing about them? They only cost $5!!! They come in 3 colors, I first ordered the purple and the black and as soon as I got them this week and tried them on I immediately went back on their website and ordered the blue and another black. I know I will be wearing these a ton this summer and the price is soooo my kind of deal!

Here is one of many ways I will be wearing these cardi’s, I chose not to tie it, but it looks good whether you tie it or not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jeans: Forever 21+, $15(2011)

Tank: Warehouse One, $10(2011)

Cardi: City Chic, $5(2012)

Boots: Payless, $40(2011)

Necklace: souvenir shop @ Royal Tyrrell Museum, $5ish??(2011)

Earrings: Avon, gift from my Mom

Ring: $10, Addition-Elle(2011)

Jolene

What I’m Wearing

I got to have a much needed break from the boys today. It was just to run around the city and do some shopping, but with the week I’ve had with the boys it was so nice to get out of the house without them, regardless of what it was for. We got another day of amazing weather too, allowing me to dress light and summery. It feels so good to be wearing some of my summer clothes! Even though I try to wear them all year round, a nice flowy dress just doesn’t feel as nice with heavy tights and boots as it does with bare legs, light shoes and a cardigan.

Notice the braid? Look closely. You can see just how insanely fine my hair is by the skinny braid, that is ALL my hair in the braid. I’m so jealous of those with long thick hair! I love my length but hate how crazy fine my hair is. It is so hard to do anything with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dress: 121Avenue, $17(2011)

Cardigan: Joe Clothing from Real Canadian Superstore, $12ish(2011)

Belt: City Chic, $12(2011)

Shoes: Walmart, $15(2010)

Necklace: gift from MIL years ago

Earrings: Avon, gift from my Mom

Jolene