Blueberry Banana Muffins

We had some blueberries that I needed to use up... and bananas that were ripe.

I used the Banana Muffin recipe and added blueberries to it.


I changed up a few things.
I added one more egg and 1 cup of fresh blueberries.


Because of adding the blueberries, the recipe will make about 18 muffins.  Set oven to 375 degrees.



Here is the recipe again with the changes:

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 banana mashed
3/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1 cup fresh blueberries


topping
1/3 cup light brown sugar (you can use regular sugar if you want)
2 tbsp flour
1/8 tsp cinnamon  (if you want a stronger cinnamon, add 1/4 tsp)
1 tbsp butter  (make sure this is cold, because when it's melted, it just turns the mix into mush)


Directions:
Mix mashed bananas, sugar, and butter, then add eggs.
Mix the dries together. Add the dries to the banana mix. Until completed mixed, add blueberries last. Fold the blueberries into the batter so you don't crush them.

These baked about 20 minutes for me.

I used the regular sugar for the crunch topping, but I think I'll use the light brown next time. I like a bit of a darker flavor to it.

Fabric Addiction

Dear Reader,

I have an addiction. I don't even think it's healthy.
I cannot stop myself from buying fabric. Sometimes it's almost sickening. I don't even know what I am going to make, but it does not stop me from buying it.
My addiction loves all fabrics... I do not discriminate between pre-cut fabrics and yardage.

That's why one of my goals for 2012 is to finish one bucket of fabrics. I have 3 to 4 buckets of 40 gallon plastic storage containers of fabrics that I have accumulated for the past years... I have about 2 or 3 boxes (i think their sizes are 18x18) of sample fabrics from commercial/upholstery fabrics.
And yet, I cannot help buying fabrics.

There is a website that does not help with my addiction. It is called Craftsy. They have deals everyday on fabrics, sometimes they're charm packs, sometimes they're jelly rolls, and sometimes they're fat quarters...



Do you have an addiction? If you don't, make up one so I can feel better about my closet full of fabrics! lol

Hair Room - Review

I had gotten the Morgan's Deal for Mani and Pedi Combo, Warm Water Soak & Scrub, Warm Oil Massage and $10 off next session at the Hair Room.

Apparently, only one of the ladies was doing this deal. So, I originally had made the appointment on a Saturday, then a week before I got a call that she only does it Tuesday and Fridays.
So, we moved the appointment to Dec. 23, right before Christmas in the afternoon. So, my nails were all fixed up for Christmas.

Michelle was the lady that did my nails and toes. She was friendly, soft spoken. Overall, I thought she did a good job.
The Hair Room was nice. The customer waiting area was open and not crowded with beauty supplies. The manicure area was a bit crowded (three total tables). They only have one room for pedicures. That would limit timing for pedicure. I didn't get to see the salon side, but it looked nice from a glance. It seems that the Hair Room was limited in colors of nail polish.

They did not give me the $10 off for the next session. I may need to call and let them know about that if I want to go back.

I rate the Hair Room: 4 out of 5.
I'll probably go back for the mani and pedi.


P.S. I just want to make it clear that no one paid for any of our vouchers. We purchase them as we need them and I write reviews on them. If you have different experience, feel free to comment. Not everyone has the same opinions.

12 Goals for 2012

Here is my list of 12 goals for 2012.
(I wasn't sure how I felt about 13 goals before 2013. I'm not superstitious or anything, I just thought it sounded funny.)

1. Complete a 10k (completed: 01/29/2012 - 1:04) and half marathon. (completed: 04/14/2012 - 2:31)

2. Complete craft room decor. (goal date by March 2012)
3. Pay off half of student loans. (goal date by Dec 2012)
4. Pick up after myself/be better organized.
5. Make quilts for the boys. (goal date by August 2012)
6. Make an "I Spy" Quilt. (goal date by June 2012)
7. Start and complete a new project every month.
8. Clean out a bucket of fabrics. (goal date by November 2012)
9. Be a better blogger. (now?)
10. Take a family vacation. (planning in March)
11. Date night/day once a month.
12. Clean up and update ni-chern designs website.

I'm going to bold them as I complete them with a date.

I think some of them are going to be really big/difficult tasks, so, I am really hoping that I'll be able to do it.

01/18/12 edit: I revised #3 to half because we're also paying on my parents' loans that they took out for me. So, it's double the loans, and it seems a bit unachievable. Paying it off in a year seems super nice, but we have to realistic...




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For #7. Start and complete a new project every month:
January and February: Quilts of Valor: part 1; part 2; part 3;

Happy Friday

It's been a slow and yet fast week.

Five things that made me smile/happy this week:

1. We sent out our Christmas photo last week, while I put it together... it just really made me smile.

It was crazy! D didn't want to sit still, C wanted his binky... lol, but sure makes lots of fun pictures! I just love D's silliness.

2. Progress of the Craft Room / Office.

3. C is a Momma's boy. I'm ok with that! ;) Wednesday morning, S was dropping C off at his parents'. C sees me in the car seat, and fusses a lot. S tells C "You'll see Mommy later, but we're going to see Grandpa." .... [silence]. ... hey wait a minute, I thought he's a Momma's boy! Well, priorities Mommy. Grandpa wins. lol

4. I went to D's Holiday Party at his Daycare yesterday. They had various activities for all the kids to work on. I volunteered with D's group.

5. We had a Secret Santa lunch on Tuesday for our work. It was a lot of fun. I always enjoy getting together with my team :)
This is my favorite. Couple guys here play ping pong with another team downstairs. So, they call themselves the Moon Pie. This is what one of them got. I just laughed so hard. It was great.  He got a moon pie hat.

Frame Art for the Holidays

We don't have anything up on our mantel, and I wanted to do something.

I got my inspiration from this picture:

But I wanted to do something a little different.

I went to Hobby Lobby, found red poster board, white scrapbook cardstock, and 18x24 frame.

I got lucky. Everything was on sale!
Red Poster Board - $.50
White Scrapbook Cardstock pack - $4  -- I only used 3 sheets of 12x12
18x24 frame - $17.50
Mat and cutting - free (S's dad had extra and cut it for me too!)  I think you can get 1 cut for $1 at Hobby Lobby - I'm not sure though.

I spent a total of : $22

I sketched up what I wanted to do.  As you can see I just grabbed whatever I could find on the table!

I had used Cricut Cutting Up Cartridge for the lettering.

I put it all together last night. I had to revise from what I sketched, I moved the "to the" next to Joy because I didn't have room for "the Lord" to be on one line... I still think it turned out nice.

S said it has the 'Dr. Seuss' look. I have to agree. It's cute, and I'm happy with it!

Our mantel is very sparse, so, I'm trying to do something every year. :)

Bows Tutorial

Four days before Christmas! I'm sure everyone is starting to wrap their presents! BUT you forgot to buy bows! Oh No!!! No worries... take a deep breath. Do you have 5 - 8 minutes to spare? Yes? Well! This bow making tutorial is just for you!

I made some bows with some blueprints from work.

They are super easy to make!

If you have scrap paper that you don't really want to throw away or even your child's scribbles... or progress reports from work, or notes from your teacher to your parents, ... any paper would be perfect to use for this simple project!

Cut stripes. I had cut 3/4" and 1" strips. 

11" is too long, so trim it down to about 9" or 9.5"

Fold the strip in half.  Twist one end of the paper to the folded line. Tape the one side down. I used tape, but you can use glue if you want to. Do the same thing to the other side of the strip. Twist two of the 9" strips like this. Tape them crossed on top of each other. I'm not sure if you can see it well in the pictures below.

For the next three strips, cut them at 7". Do the same thing, and tape them to the base of the bow that you started with the 9" strips.

I think 5 strips look the best. You can vary the width of the bows to your liking... but now you know how to make them!!

Personalized Call/Video from Santa

I just saw this on Google! (I'm sure I'm the last one to see it! lol)

You can make it sincere or goofy. Either way, it's a fun call/video to send!

Craft Room/Office Update

First off, I'm going start off to say Thank you to my husband. He's been using his vacation time working on things around the house.

As you may remember we are redoing our craft room/office. I put together a design board. Steve and I both picked out the colors. At first, I just wanted a feature wall of the green.  Then I saw stenciling... I was like, "S! This looks awesome!"

So, Here S is on Sunday. Our first try with the stenciling.

We didn't think the tape the sides really helped. S repainted it with the gray again. Unfortunately, painting the stencils were postponed.

Then yesterday (Monday), S tackled it by himself.

This is what it looks like after he worked on it for over 12 hours... and I helped him touch up after I put the kids to bed.

It definitely took a lot longer than he expected. But it looks amazing! I absolutely LOVE it!

Thank you so much S!!!! He says he's going to move the furniture around today, but I told him to take it easy in the morning since he was painting [literally] all day yesterday.

Happy Friday

1. Ran the Jingle Bell 5k Run for Arthritis. I didn't do as well as I hoped (30:36). It was only 3 seconds better than the Gobbler Run (30:39). This was my first underground run. It was in the Meritex caves in Lenexa. I heard it was a pretty good run, but I had a really hard time. All I could smell was fumes, not sure if it was paint or exhaust. I don't think I'm going to do this run again.  But good news is that I took a picture with Santa! :)

2.  S and I made cookies for our neighbors again this year. This year's repeat is the Lemon Ricotta Cookies. This was apparently the favorite. We also made Chocolate Gooey Butter Cookies, and Sour Cream Cinnamon Cookies.  I apologize that the pictures do not look the best. Daylight is difficult to come by.

3. Stroud's! We went there for lunch. Took a few people from work. and it was delicious!!!!!!!!!!!

4. Daycare Holiday Program. D, along with all the preschool kids, presented their Holiday Program. It was so fun. All the kids did so well! And they're just so cute!
Do you know a parent that is always in everyone's picture or video? Well, this mom was standing in the middle of the seats... So, she's in every one of our photos. I know she's all excited for her kid, but... a bummer for all the other parents.

5. 10k. It's official, I signed up to do a 10k (6.2 miles). Training, here I come!

Taste of Home - Review

Back in November (November 3 to be exact), I ordered four books from the Taste of Home website.

Two weeks later, I received an empty box (with two leaves in it) with an USPS sticker on it that says "Received Unsealed".

I called their customer service as soon as I could (which was about 6pm).
I spoke with someone that didn't speak English very well.

So, she tells me that it's going to take 4-6 weeks to process, not to ship... but to process. wow. I asked for a confirmation number, she said that they do not do confirmation numbers. I asked what can I get to know that this is going to be processed. She responds, "this is all that you will get". REALLY?

At this point, I'm pretty much fed up with them. I went on Taste of Home's facebook page, and made a comment. I get a response fairly quickly... letting me know that I should e-mail them to get this figured out.
I e-mailed them on Dec. 8. ... it is currently Dec. 15. No response back.

Now, I really just want my money back. Why do I want to give them money if they can't take care of me?
I called the customer service, and AGAIN, someone who could not speak English. She called me "Mister Hall" the whole time. Really? REALLY?

This time, she gave me a confirmation number for the refund when I asked for it. Oh... I thought you guys don't do confirmation numbers? How funny.

She said it'll take 1 - 2 billing cycles to send me the refund - of course she doesn't know how long it'll take. Don't worry, I'm waiting for it.

I am not beginning to think that companies don't respond to unsatisfied customers through phone or e-mail anymore... they only respond when you post on their facebook page. Pretty pathetic.

I'm not upset about not getting the books, I'm mainly upset about the way they have handled this.




If you order through Taste of Homes... you are warned, if ANYTHING unfortunate happens to you, customer service doesn't make sure you are satisfied.

Birthday Party Planning

D's birthday in early January. We're going to throw him a Robot party.

He absolutely LOVE robots, since 18 months. He watched Robot Rampage from Backyardigans at Steve's parents' house while I was on bedrest in the hospital... ever since then, he love robots.

Since his birthday is so close to the holidays, I've started to buy items for his party. I bought the Robot Party Cricut cartridge when it was on sale on Black Friday. I know I won't have time the weekend before his birthday... So, I've started to cut out the gears for the banner.

The colors will be mostly blue, red, and yellow. His two favorite colors are blue and red. It's also KU Jayhawk colors!  We never really pushed colors on him. He has a blue blanket that he loves, I think that's mainly the only blue item that he has. But ever since he started to play with blocks, he always played with the blue and red.

I bought some metallic color sheets... so, I might use that for letters... I haven't decided yet.

Hopefully after the holidays, I'll have more to post! 

Flashback...

In January this year, he has a construction birthday party!

Cookies and Cream cupcakes, cream cheese icing, crushed chocolate graham crackers, and toy tops from US Toys.

He wore that bib during his first birthday too, I wonder if he'll let me put it on him for his third birthday! :P

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Update: Birthday invitations  (and Free Robot Invitation Printables)

Jewelmint - Review

S and I just started to go through our financial planning - so, we can pay off loans. We're trying to do the Dave Ramsey Debt Free challenge.


So, back in October (29th to be exact), I purchased a pair of hoop earrings from Jewelmint.  And it's not very good either. The hooks seriously look like it's about to rust over. I only wore it once, and it irritated my ears and one of them kept falling off.

This month, S and I were going through statements, and saw a $29.99 charge from Jewelmint.
Apparently by purchasing ANY of their jewelry... you are automatically signed into their monthly membership, and if you don't want to pay, you need to 'personally' opt-out every month.

I looked through ALL my past emails to see if they ever told me about this membership when I purchased the earrings in October. NOPE. Couldn't find a single e-mail that said that I was automatically signed onto this $29.99/month membership.

So, they charged me Nov. 5 and Dec. 7. to earn one credit a month (which doesn't even total up to ONE jewelry per credit). No thanks.

The only two ways to cancel your membership is to e-mail their customer service and/or call their number.

I e-mailed them Sunday night, they said they canceled my membership, and said they will refund me. They never said they'll refund me for two months worth.  This is what I'm trying to do right now.

to be continued....



If you purchased anything from Jewelmint, check your statements. You may have been paying $29.99 a month for how ever long ago you purchased jewelry from them.


Update: (02/28/12) This is an overdue update. Jewelmint is very accommodating with refunding the monthly charges. I also realize that many blogs who has Jewelmint as a sponsor are now pointing out the monthly fees. I'm assuming that Jewelmint have been getting complaints about not letting people know about this monthly fee.

Either way, I do not sign up for anything that makes me pay a monthly fee for "credits"... especially for not so good quality items.  I want things to last, and I want them to be good quality. Not something that is going to make my ears all green.

Craft Room/Office Revamp

Some of you may know that we've been working on getting the craft/office painted and fixed up.
S had built a craft table for me earlier this year. He will be staining and painting it during this holiday break. He's so awesome.  The top will be stained, and the bottom will be painted with the same color as the trims (cream color).  He got his plans from Ana White. Click here for the plans.

Here is a design board that I put together. Not sure if I'm going to keep that upholstery fabric. Still trying to find something that really fits. I do like the style though.   Click on the picture to see it enlarged.

Here is the room currently. Prepped to be painted on Thursday.
 

Only one wall will be stenciled (the far left). Originally I thought it would look nice on the window wall, but I would rather have the daylight shine on the stencil wall to bring it out more.  The circles will be the Sedate Gray (SW6169), and the negative space will be the Leap Frog (SW6431). Only one wall will have the Leap Frog (SW6431). Since the green is pretty limited, I'm not too worried about the upholstery not 100% matching if I can't find the perfect fabric.

What do you think?

Holiday Promotion for Ni-Chern Designs

I'm so terrible at posting these things.
I'm strange. I get really shy when I talk about my hobby.
I need to get out of my shell. So, it'll take me awhile... please be patient with me. :)

KCEtsy is the Street Team that I am a part of on Etsy.

For the holiday season (from Thanksgiving to Christmas), I am donating 5% of my sales to Harvesters.

Everyday bag - Floral Paisley

Check out other KCEtsy team members that are donating too!

Sherwin Williams Holiday E-Card

Here's a cute Holiday E-Card from Sherwin Williams.

This is just a screen shot, it's an animated e-card

Shawnee Mission Hyundai - Car Detailing - Review

Back in May, there was a Groupon for Car Detailing for $90. I thought this would be nice since the kids and I get the car pretty dirty.
I went in about 8am, and I was a bit confused since I have never been there before. No one greeted me. I walked in to the rectangular space, and everyone "looked" busy. I told them what I was there for, I cleaned out my car while the service rep. was getting info/paperwork ready.
Scott, the service rep, says that it'll take 8 hours, which I was okay with.
They shuttled me to my work.
They called me at 230pm to let me know that my car was ready.

A co-worker dropped me off around 430pm. I walked in the service area. Again, no one acknowledge me. Scott turns around after about almost a minute (which is a long time when all three guys not looking at you when you walk in their office), and looks at me as he never helped me. I'm sure they see lots of people, but I think it was the demeanor that turned me off. He went to get my car.
The car looked nice, but they left a lot of the oil. Everywhere I touched, I needed to wipe my hands because of the oil. I left my tweezers and nail clipper in one of the cubbies (yes, I have tweezers and nail clippers in my car), but the tweezers were missing. I may need to dig in the bags of junk that I cleaned up. I'm sure it's in there.

The car looked nice, they cleaned it very well. I just wish the wiped the excess oil off.

Overall, I rate Shawnee Mission Hyundai's Car Detailing - 3 of out 5.
It's the service that set them back for me (both times).

P.S. I just want to make it clear that I am not paid for any of the vouchers. We purchase them as we need/want them, and I write reviews for them. I started this because I never seem to find reviews for these places or services. If you have a different experience, please feel free to comment. Not everyone has the same opinions.

Happy Friday

I really don't have much of an excuse for my late Happy Friday. lol


1. D (Child #1) was in the Church play last Sunday (Dec 4). When we heard that we needed to have them wear a box, so that they could look like presents. We were not sure how D would react to it.
We wrapped the box in Darth Vader/Yoda wrapping paper. He was so excited to wear it!

2. C (Child #2) got a hair cut! [finally]  We save his hair and ship it to my Aunt in Taiwan to make calligraphy brushes.  Since this is his first hair cut, the ends have a fine point and not blunt... perfect for brushes.

3. S and I took Friday (Dec. 9) off so we can have a 'date day'. We got the kids ready for daycare, dropped them off. Ran errand at Target, and... well, came home and cleaned house. lol, not much of a 'Date'. I really enjoy spending time with him.

4.  My work had the company holiday party at Arrowhead Stadium on Friday. S and I had a really good time!            

5. Almost forgot this major break through. D has a hard time when we drop him off at Sunday School, so one of us usually just stays with him through out the whole thing. On Saturday, Dec 3, our church had a Santa's Workshop... where there are activities for the kids to do.  S and I volunteered to help with the seven 8-yr-olds. We had to leave D at his group. It was difficult because he cried a bunch at the beginning, ... I had to sit him down and tell him that he needs to let himself have a good time and not rely on us. So, after about 10 minutes of crying (and some screaming)... he did. He let himself have a good time. It was so nice to see him have fun without hanging onto one of us. It was a major break through for him. It really made S and me happy that he was having fun.

Happy Friday

Since I didn't do Happy Friday last week.... ... being a holiday week and all [my excuse].

1. I ran the Gobbler 5k Sunday, Nov. 20th. I did it in 30:39. I felt like I could have done better. They had all marathon, half-marathon, and 5k people run together. ... everyone split off to their respectable run when it came time. I felt like I could have done better because I had to run around a lot of walkers that were at the front of the run.  Oh well, in the end, ... I did better than my previous 5k (Girls on the Run 30:51).
It was a really cold morning too! It was 27 degrees when I got to the location, and it was 31 degrees when I left.... But I have to say, I enjoyed the cold run better.

2. Thanksgiving. Even though Holidays are also so hectic... this Thanksgiving turned out really well. The boys slept in (yay), and both our families came. We had a great time together. So thankful for everyone in our lives. See below for our collection of family pictures. I don't think there is a 'perfect' one.

3. When I went to pick up the kids last Tuesday, the director of the school wanted to let me know that the head teacher for D (Child #1) was impressed with his math skills. D being only 1.5 months shy of being three years old was doing things that they would expect a 4 or 5 year old to do. I am so very proud of him.

4. S and I got to see his dad in the Messiah last night at the new Kauffman Center of the Performing Arts. Well, kind of. It was a dress rehearsal. It was still pretty awesome.

5. I had lunch with an old co-worker, Erin. I haven't seen her for awhile. So, I thought we should get lunch! It was such a delight!