Spring break

Today is the final day of my kids being on spring break, and I must admit it that it has been an extremely long week and I have survived it (well mostly. more on that in a bit) Between soccer practice, ballet, guitar lessons, housework, work, and countless appointments. Spring break is over and we have made it thru unscathed. I really do wish that we could have gone out and done something fun for our spring break but with the man barely having started working that made it impossible for us. Anyways we made it thru with only one ONE almost devastating disaster.
My son thought it would be a good idea to start our hay bale on fire yes I repeat OUR 6 year old started a FIRE! Now I have no clue as to where he managed to find the lighter. We keep all lighters hidden and locked up because he has started smaller fires before. But none as big as this one, It took just a few seconds between me gathering laundry from one room to the other for him to run back in the house screaming that there was a fire! I managed to keep cool and calm even though hay burns extremely fast and it just happened to be sitting about a foot away from our house. And that's basically what our spring break consisted of. I will now leave you with a horrible image of our backyard. it will be getting lots of TLC this next week as I go out and  Do some MAJOR clean up and plant my seeds for the garden.

Umm yeah reality looks horrible and this is what a very neglected yard looks like :( 

Thrifty Thursday

For todays thrifty thursday I have scored 9 wool and cashmere sweaters that i will be using to make wool soakers( diaper covers) for the new baby. I have got to say wool is addicting, these were a steal at $16.00 for all sweaters.

 I have already used one to make a tester wool diaper cover for one of my sessions yesterday.

I also scored two feather throw pillows for $3.00 each (insert happy dance here)

Surprise!

Yep that's all the news for today, there is another little one on the way!

be on the look out for wool and cloth diapering in the future 

Red chile sauce tutorial

I am not too great with recipes so today I will show you how I make red chile sauce from scratch. (with not too many accurate measurements, don't judge me I'm just not good at this stuff)  No Chile powder here.  Lets get started! 

Step one ( and i forgot to take photos)

You only need about 10 chile pods 

Deseed chile pods by taking off stems and shaking out seeds. Rinse off to remove dust and debris, place in pot of water and boil until pods are soft.

Step two

Place pods in blender until pureed 

Step three 

Strain into a pot using a fine sieve to separate, puree 

Here is what it looks like after they are separated

Step four 

add salt to taste and a few bay leaves, you can also use some garlic or onion powder for additional flavoring optional.  Boil for about ten minutes until all flavors are infused. Enjoy!

You can use this in any recipe for red chile sauce, I used this to make tamales for dinner. 

I'm an auntie!

I'm so excited, I am officially an auntie!
My baby sister had her precious little bundle of joy on 1/4/14 and I was there to photograph the birth, no worries it does not show anything graphic just lots of emotions and new life
enjoy



The birth of Leon from Diana on Vimeo.

Wedding

We got hitched!
we have been together for 9 years and we have finally decided to get married. We set the date for Nov 23, 2013 and were joined by our kids, and close family (who drove 12 hours to join us on our special day)
it was not a grand event. We chose just to have a lunch buffet at our home and the ceremony at a park.
Lucky for us I chose the coldest day of the month to get married. all month long we have had wonderful weather in the 70's and 60's super sunny and beautiful, then BAM! we get a severe cold front and super cloudy day on the day of our wedding. We were also under a snow storm watch! IN NOV! IN NEW MEXICO!!
The ceremony was great freezing but great, everyone huddled close together just to stay warm! got a few photos and raced back home. we started the fire pit in the back yard and ate lots and lots of yummy food. Turned up the music and got jiggy with it!
Around 10 pm it began hailing then snowing where it continued snowing until the next day for a grand total of 3 inches. Now I leave you with the photos from the day and some of the snow the next day. Please try not to pay to much attention to the fluffy bride.

we painted a canvas instead of a sand ceremony, I had intended for us to drip the paint down the canvas but it was so cold that the paint was to cold to drip down.

the kids painting the canvas

Our oldest, our nephew and my best friends daughter.

The view out the front door

Here is a breakdown of our DIY wedding cost's
Wedding officiant $165
Wedding dress $60 including shoes
Grooms outfit-free (military uniform)
Flower girl   - $6 Pre- gifted outfit from grandmother cost is just for shoes
Flower girl 2  $11 including shoes
Ring bearer $8 including shoes Pre -owned outfit given to us for free this is just for shoes and tie
Father of the bride button up shirt ,slacks and $6.50
Flower bouquet and other flowers for ceremony hand made $2
Glass toast glasses & 8 large wine glasses  $4.50
Ring bearer pillow $2
Cake $10 ( brides mother decorated it, baked by bride)
Food $20 buffet style food prepared by bride, mother and mother in law
Canvas to combine family instead of sand ceremony $1
Paints for canvas $6
Make up and Hair -free from friends/neighbors
Photography - free from friends
Minus $50 gift card won from a Halloween costume contest
Grand total  $252!
most items were purchased at thrift/second hand stores, already pre-owned or gifted to us

wedding shoes redo

We are finally getting married! and I say finally because we have been together for 8 years now! either way it wouldn't be a wedding unless I DIY it. I found my perfect shoes at Savers for $5.99 not too shabby eh. But, there is a small defect on them. But hey who really cares cause i'm about to cover that little defect up.

They are too cute

                         Lets get started, I drew out a heart shape with a NON permanent marker.

Then I placed hot glue on only half of the heart shape, sorry no photo of the next step but its self explanatory I dipped the shoe into a bowl of glass seed beads so that they could get stuck on the shoe. next add hot glue to the other half and repeat 

And Ta Daaa you have customized your new to you wedding shoes.

Thanks for stopping by, see you soon!