The Spice of Life

If you know me, you know that I can pretty much live on salsa.  Seriously it's one of my favorite foods and I judge places based on the type of salsa that they make, if you can't impress me there why would I trust you with the rest of my Mexican food!  There is nothing better then a eating home-made salsa. I will eat the jarred stuff but I mean really you compare Pace to any home-made kind and its just a boring substitute.  Once upon a time my dad used to make this amazing salsa recipe that he got from my grandma and I thought nothing can beat this... and then Sean Beckstead and Friends entered my life.  He said they had a great salsa recipe so we decided to have a little competition.  I made my grandma's recipe and they made theirs.  When my dad came home from work he tasted both and said theirs won!! He chose theirs over the recipe he perfected! I was shocked.  Needless to say Sean bragged about winning and I claimed theirs was a fake since it wasn't completely home-made.  They used a jar of premade green salsa to add to their recipe.  I would tell Sean he cheated and he would tell me that my salsa wasn't home-made either because I used cans of stewed tomatoes (totally not the same thing!)  Needless to say Sean's salsa was better because we always make it but recently I decided to make it 99.9% home-made (short of growing my own vegetables and making a bullion cube)  So here we go, I will give you the original and my version:

Original Salsa:
6 Roma Tomatoes
1/2 Bundle of Cilantro
1/2 Red Onion
1 Anaheim Pepper
3 Jalapenos
1 Habanero (optional)
1 Bullion Cube
1 Jar of Herdez Green Salsa
Salt, Pepper and Lime to taste

The Beckstead Salsa:
6 Roma Tomatoes
1 Bundle of Cilantro
1 Red Onion
1 Anaheim Peppers
6 Jalapenos
1 Habanero (not optional!)
1 Bullion Cube
8-10 Tomatillos
Salt Pepper and Lime to taste

Now decide which recipe you are going to use then follow these directions (If you are doing the original version ignore the first step.)
First (again just if you are making the Beckstead Recipe) set your oven to broil and peel your tomatillos, place them on a pan sprayed with oil and place them in the oven.  You will want to wait until their skin has browned a little bit.  Once they  have roasted to your desired amount take them out of the oven and toss them in your blender of food processor.  Add 3 jalapenos and a tablespoon of water, then blend until smooth and pour into a bowl.  Now place the Roma tomatoes in your food processor or blender and blend to your desired consistency (keep in mind if you like it chunky you will be adding the rest of the ingredients too.) Once your tomatoes are as chunky or smooth as you would like stop and roast your peppers.  We like to roast it in the flames of our stove top but you could also place them in the oven with your tomatillos if you would like.  When the peppers have finished roasting cut off the stems and seed if you can't handle the heat!  Then toss the remainder of your ingredients (peppers, bullion cube, green salsa (canned or homemade) salt, pepper and lime.) Then blend until the ingredients are mixed.  Keep tasting the salsa to decide if you need more salt, pepper or lime!  The last step is to enjoy this yummy salsa and try not to eat it in one sitting!!  I know that everyone is different when it comes to taste so add more or less of ingredients depending on what you like! Seriously when we go to store bought salsa after eating this life is not as good in our house.  So I make big batches of this and can it! I hope that this recipe spices up your life... pun intended!

The end of Christmas crafts this year!

I don't know about you guys but I had a hard time finding something to hold my burlap stockings that I really loved.  So naturally I decided to make my own.  I wanted something cute, unique, and of course cheap (especially with lots of craft store coupons!!)  The answer was simple, Pinecones, I mean how could I possibly mess up a pinecone stocking holder.

What you will need:
-Pinecones (one for each holder)
-Wood plaques (less then $1 each)
-White spray paint (small cans are about $4)
-A glue gun

Ok now are you ready for the extremely complicated directions?? You simply glue the pinecones to the wooden plaque, you may have to trim the bottom of the pinecone so it will sit flat.  Once the glue dries spray paint the entire thing white.  You will have to hold it upside down to get in the little crevices of the pinecone and you may have to do more then one coat.  When it dries admire your handy work!  Seriously how simple is that.  Here is what ours look like.

                                    And here are our stockings hanging on our fireplace!

Sorry for the poor quality photos I used my phone instead of our camera!

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Christmas is my favorite time of year, just like pretty much every other person!  This year is our first official Christmas.  I know, I know, Sean and I have been married for almost two years so we had a Christmas last year, however we were living at my in-laws house.  We moved into our home this past April its like our first, I mean we have our own tree up!  I decided to make stockings for our little family this year, I mean anyone could make a giant sock it seems pretty simple.  I love anything with a vintage feel so when I was on Pinterest and saw these super cute stockings I was in heaven!

I mean seriously its simple and gorgeous, so hello I want this in my home.  I loved the burlap with this cream color fabric so this was my inspiration for our stockings.

What You Will Need:

• Burlap- 1/3 yard for each stocking
• White fabric- (I used muslin) about 1/3 yard for each stocking

Optional Items:

• Silky Fabric- 1/2 yard
• Buttons or other items to decorate

So first thing you will need to do is make a pattern for your stocking.  I was at my parents house so I just used one of their stocking and traced it.  Fold both the burlap and your white fabric in half (this will just save time in cutting). Then cut out the stocking shape (you will need to leave about 1/2 inch space for joining the fabric you can do this while tracing your pattern or while cutting your fabric).  Now if you would like a burlap cuff decide how big you would like it and cut your stocking higher to fold it over, the same goes if you would like a white cuff.  Take the top of your fabric which will be your cuff and hem it so you have a clean edge, if there is no cuff you will still want to hem (or if your like the roughed up look dont worry about it). Place your 4 layers of fabric together (if your burlap has a pattern on it you will want the right sides facing each other.)  You will make it a burlap sandwich with your white fabric.  Begin to sew your stocking. Once you have finished sewing turn out your stocking, fold over your cuff and iron out your stocking.  Decorate to your hearts content. Admire your handy work.  Here is our stockings.

So here is Brigham's Stocking.  I decided not to do a cuff on his and instead make the envelope shape with that cute button on the end of it!  I also grabbed a wooden B painted it red then sprayed this bronze color lightly over for the sparkle.  It will be hung with his stocking!

This is the hubby's stocking. I love that its just simple and those cute buttons have a coat of arms on it! I am glad my man likes my style so I can make things like this!

Last is my stocking.  On top of a mustache obsession I am also loving bows.  So I decided on my cuff to place this huge bow with a peal button in the center!  I can't wait to make more of these stockings as our family grows! 

A Gentleman's Mobile

When Sean and I found out that I was pregnant we were thrilled.  We were more then thrilled because I was told that having children would be almost impossible for me, so we were super excited to be blessed with this wonderful gift.  We both always wanted a girl first, however when we found out that our little bean was a little man we couldn't be more happy!  If you know me you might have noticed my obsession with mustaches.  I threw a mustache party for prostate cancer during the month of MOvember which was heaven for me to decorate with lots of mustaches :)! So I knew as soon as they said we were having a Brigham that he would have lots of mustache decorations in his room!  The first thing that I wanted to make was a mobile (like I have said I wanted to be a crafty mom) so I found this on Pinterest 

Ok, how adorable is that? Well I loved it but I knew I wanted something a little bit different, so I used this as my inspiration.  I wanted to use a real hat as the center piece and talked about it with Sean constantly.  So for my birthday my cute husband gave me the bowler hat that was just perfect!  My next step was to think of what I was going to do about those mustaches... well thanks to my mother-in-law I have a wonderful sewing machine so I decided to sew them.  I found this picture to use as my pattern for the mustache.

               

I picked out the fabrics I wanted then began to sew my mustaches.

So this is what I used and approximately what it cost:

• 1 bowler hat (bought online) $7.00
• 4 different fabrics (I grabbed the rectangle scraps from Walmart and Joanne's) $1.00 each
• Fishing wire $4.00
• Ribbon (Free since I had it already)

 First I cut out the mustaches using my template.  Then I sewed them together with the wrong sides facing out, making sure to leave a spot open to flip the mustache so the right side of the fabric is facing out.  I made two mustaches with each fabric and then stuffed them with the scraps for added umph!  Then sewed the end shut and poof I had eight cute (and slightly odd-shaped) mustaches!!

I then sewed the mustaches to one end of the ribbon.  Next decide how you want your mustaches to hang.  I wanted mine to spiral down and circle around the hat.  So I taped end of the ribbon (not attached to the mustache) inside my hat so I could adjust the heights.  Then I sewed the ribbon to the hat so it would be secure! the last step I did was to sew fishing wire into the top of the hat so I could hang it.  And just like that I had a super cute one of a kind baby mobile for my little man.

Pardon my sewing skills, I am still trying to get the hang of this, but I think it turned out nice.  Having a stuffed mustache proved to be a little more challenging then I thought . But hey I love it and Brigham is entertained by it so its good enough for who its for!

                                              

Welcome!

Hello there! Let me begin by saying this is my first ever blog post! So let me tell you a little bit about myself.   My name is Tori (Toy is my nickname) I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  I have been married to the cutest,most amazing husband possible since April 2011 and we recently added a little man named Brigham Allistair in June.  My life has been so incredibly blessed just with those two men in my life. I really love doing things as natural as possible (but I am not 100% on that) and I love to make things for myself since most of the time its cheaper and healthier.
  So why a blog you may ask? Well I have never been gifted when it comes to crafting or all of the usual things you think a homemaker is capable of (except cooking :) ), but after recently having baby Briggs, I  decided to change that.  Luckily for me there is a fantastic website www.Pintrest.com where I can get the inspiration I need to become picture perfect homemaker.  I could spend hours there finding crafts to make, food to cook, ways to do my hair and the list goes on.  So for you lucky readers I will be sharing my experiences here at The Toy Chronicles.  You will see things from my own brain as well as ideas inspired by other creative minds.  I just hope they all turn out as perfect as I imagine, if it doesn't well I guess that will make it a little more entertaining! So here's to hoping my craftiness will increase!