Covered Button Tutorial

One of my favourite things to do (I've discovered), is to make things for the people I really care about. A few of the things that I love best about creating something for someone else is that you get such a feeling of accomplishment, you get to be creative and the gifts are unique, personal and show that you really thought of the person. That is what I think is the most important part of gift giving - not how much you spend but how much you think of the other person. I love making gestures to show in a physical sense that I was thinking of someone. Even if it is just a small gesture.
I saw these via Pinterest and its Pinterest for the win. Not only are they adorable, but they were easy to make (once you tracked down all the supplies and found the fabric you wanted to use). And who knew covering buttons would be so fun?

Finding fabric for my buttons was by the far the hardest thing for me.

Particularly since I don't sew and have no sewing knowledge. I thought I would just be able to buy tiny scraps of fabric, but turns out fabric stores arent really all about that. So I now have a ridiculous amount of leftover fabric. 

But it is possible to buy little squares of fabric or triangles of fabric (I think they're regularly used for quilting?) and use those. It'll still be too much fabric, but since I dont have fabric scraps, I took what I could find. 

With this step, it'd be nice to keep the button fairly centered in the fabric. You might have to push pretty hard to get the button down, but once you figure out how much you have to push, it goes pretty quickly. The excess fabric folds really easily into the center and I used my nails and the button pusher to tuck it down as much as possible.

See those adorable purple corduroy earrings? Yes they are adorable. And yes they were hell to make.

A word to the wise, keep in mind your fabric thickness. Particularly for the little buttons, I had a very difficult time getting the button back to snap on because the fabric was so thick. I ended up hammering the backs on.

Finding the earrings posts was quite a challenge. Turns out, not that many places sell them. But phoning around was useful.

The glue was bought at walmart. Easy peasy.

I started by trying not to have excess glue. But since the backs of the buttons werent necessarily completely flat, I decided I'd rather have some excess glue that would make the earrings a little sturdier, and make sure the posts bonded to the buttons.

I loved how these button earrings turned out. And I loved making little card boxes and giving them away to all my friends. Maybe I'll make a pair for myself at some point (since I really do have so much left over fabric), but it was just such a fun little project to do.

Just the Tip of the Iceberg

I'd comment, but lets be real, I too have an ungodly amount of photos of myself that are just like this.

Crockpot Chicken Tortilla Soup

I ended up having to make dinner on a non-day off day (because yes, I can only manage to make dinner if I have at least an hour before it needs to be done and when I work till five, I dont really have time to get home and make dinner before the family needs to eat at like 5:30). So as always I turned to trusty Pinterest. This soup turned out sooo good (and its leftovers can be turned into a casserole). With really good flavor and not too spicy at all. Plus those onions! They were amazing.

In the Crockpot:

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

2 10oz cans of green chiles

1 can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 can kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 can corn or two cups frozen corn

1 onion, chopped

900mL chicken broth (I used one of those big boxes of chicken broth that looks like a giant juice box)

1-2 cups of water

1 Taco Seasoning Package

To finish the soup:

tortilla chips

sour cream

shredded cheese

fresh cilantro

This could not have been easier to make. I just put all the ingredients (onion, beans, green chiles, etc) in the crockpot and mixed them around (adding the chicken last and making sure it was partially submerged in the liquid mixture - which wasnt a problem since there was lots of liquid). Then I set the crockpot for low and cooked it for about 8-9 hours. Since I got home after it was ready, Nat broke up the chicken a little bit - which was super easy since it had been cooking all day. 

To serve we crunched up some chips, topped it with shredded cheese and since I like sour cream, I added a spoon full of that. I didn't have any cilantro, but I know it would have only enhanced the flavour. It was amazing (even though Dave doesn't consider soup a real meal). And seriously so easy. I think I could really get into crockpot cooking. 

Free Skate

Who can pass up a nice free skate. Ness text me about it and immediately I was interested. Unfortunately, I did have a major problem. I do not own any skates. Which is unfortunate because I actually quite enjoy skating. Any time I go it reminds me of my first year when I'd go skating outdoors all the time with Royall. But Bri found an old pair of his brothers and brought them in for me. Definitely not the tightest pair of skates I've ever worn but I think it's high time I get a pair of fitting skates. By the end of the hour free skate my right foot was dying. But still the same it was fun. It's been a long time since I've gone skating. So I kinda forgot how to stop. But no bother. Hopefully, we'll go again soon and I'll figure it out.

Ginger Snaps

One weekend, I was asking Dave what Brian and I should do to entertain ourselves.

His response: You should babysit my kids and make me gingersnaps.

And since I'm not opposed to pleasing Dave, Brian and I did just that.

Katelyn loved helping us make the cookies.

She's going to be a cute little homemaker one day considering she loves to bake and sew and she's only five.

And she impressed me with her discovery of a natural smile for the camera (sometimes the children struggle with this). It was pretty adorable watching her and Brian roll the dough into balls and then roll it in sugar.

Of course, Reese, once she discovered what we were doing wanted to help as well. 

This resulted in a very sugary Reesey-babe. And a very sugary floor.

But Brian was cute and helped her wash the sugar and dough off her hands.

One of Reese's favorite things is to have me flip her upside down.

And of course this results in Katelyn wanting a turn.

I love these little girls and their antics. 

And it was fun to babysit and make cookies with Brian.

I feel like living with Dave and Nat has really been the best thing for me. And I hope that when our time in the same house is over that I will have picked up even a little of how brilliant Nat and Dave are. I cant stress enough what great parents and people they are and how much I look up to them and how they are raising their children. I know this period of time will come to an end. But I am grateful for the relationships it is allowing me to develop with Dave and Nat and their kids. And the person they are helping me to become. I've always looked up to Dave and Nat and I love having the opportunity to see how they operate on a daily basis. They do so many little things that I love. Being single can be lonely. Because even if you like your roommates, they arent a family. And I have really loved having a family to be with these last few months. Its just nice to have someone to take care of and to take care of other people too.

Utah Roadtrip - How Bri and I Spent Our Time

I remembered discussing road trips once. The person I talked about it with was of the opinion that road trips were a make or break for couples. And that every couple should go on at least one.

So it was with a little trepidation that I invited Bri to drive to Utah with me. 

But I really shouldn't of been worried. Bri is awesome. And fun. And spending so much time with Matt and Tiff is always my favorite.

We left from Taber and since I love pictures I made Bri take a pre-roadtrip picture.

It honestly was really good that Bri was with me. Cause I am weak sauce when it comes to driving. 

After an hour and half of driving I start to get tired. And then need a four hour nap to be able to be awake again. It was slightly ridiculous. But Bri took is like a champ.

Wednesday

Upon arriving in Utah on the Wednesday, we watched a little How I Met Your Mother while Tiff made some Cafe Rio style dinner. 

The thing I love about Matt and Tiff is that they make anything festive. Since it was Halloween we decided some sort of activity needed to happen. 

We opted for a little Krispy Kreme activity. 

Unfortunately, Bri and I couldnt eat the donuts since we had an entire day driving and eating a hideous amount of candy.

Mostly Bri and I were super thirsty so we went to Sonic.

After we left I found these little gems on my phone.

Matt and Tiff are just the cutest.

Thursday.

 I needed to find something to wear to the wedding, but Bri and I stopped to visit Steph and her kids.

Little Walker is so darling.

It was so great to see Steph and catch up. 

 For dinner Thursday night we went to this little restaurant and got Navajo Tacos. 

Fried dough? Ya, you really can't go wrong with that.

Our waiter was insanely annoying though.

He literally came and asked us every two minutes if we had questions but when we did ask him questions he had no idea. 

Bri paid and we waited in the car while Nicole and Matt and Tiff paid cause Brian couldnt bear to talk to our waiter any more than he had to.

Friday

 Once we were done wedding stuff on Friday, we met back up with Matt and Tiff and Nicole and her friend. Tiff had found a little train ride in Heber City for us to entertain us with. 

We stopped at Dairy Keen to eat a little food.

Which was kinda terrible. 

Though the milkshakes werent half bad.

Then it was off to the Train station.

The train ride was funny. 

The train drove out about a half hour and then turned around and drove back.

You couldnt really see anything out the windows and the chocolate they provided was sub-par.

But it was fun. How often do you get to ride on a real train.

And be serenaded by a little girl playing violin.

And a rad train conductor?

I cant make these things up.

Matt and Bri play fought after the ride in the parking lot.

It was a fun night.

Saturday

 On Saturday, the six of us went to Salt Lake to go to City Creek Mall. 

Bri was thrilled.

But we wandered in and out of store and I found some hipster safety glasses.

And then Bri and I packed up and went to Katie's wedding reception.

Sunday

Bri and I took turns driving on Sunday. And while I was driving, the gas light went on. Bri said we could make it to Butte so I kept driving. Unfortunately, when the car started stuttering, I realized that was the wrong call and totally resulted in us totally running out of gas. 

The gps said that there was a gas station just up ahead so Bri and I started walking.

The thing I liked about this crappy situation was how Bri handled it. 

We were trying to get him home early, because he still had to drive back to Edmonton. So running out of gas kind of put us behind schedule. But he was such a good sport about it.

We started walking.

I kept hoping that someone would pick us up. By the time we got to the spot that was supposed to have a gas station, we realized that there was no gas station.

We were just debating what to do when a car stopped.

Paul and Gail were a retired couple.

They told us that the nearest gas station was 15 miles away.

They couldnt believe we'd made it so far without getting picked up. They drove us all the way to the nearest gas station and then back to my car.

 We were really lucky they stopped because I'm not sure what we would have done without them.

It was a great trip and I'm glad I was able to go down to Utah and that Bri was able to come with me.

It was fun to have so many days together rather than the quick weekend trips we've been making.