Fabulous Finds Friday-Goodreads

I love to read!  My Mom & Grandma definately passed on their love of books and reading as I hope to do for my children.  I remember while growing up having reading time with Mom every night.  We read several series together like Wizard of OZ, Anne of Green Gables, Chronicles of Narnia, and more.

I have books everywhere.  Along with 6 bookcases in our house I have them stashed in closets and under beds.  I keep books I am currently reading in any place I may need one.  I have a few by the bed, one on the shelf by the baby's room, one by the TV, on the kitchen counter, one in each the drivers side and passenger side door in our vehicle, in the diaper bag, and now that we have wonderful electronic devices I have a book on my mp3 player, tablet, and on my phone...yes, I sound a little crazy.

A few years ago a friend told me about a website called Goodreads.  You set up an account and profile.  You can track the books you have read, are currently reading, and ones you want to read.  You can review the book, mark the date you finished, etc.  You can also connect with friends.  It can send you updates on what your friends are reading.  This has been a great way for my mom, sisters & I to trade book ideas and keep track of everything we have read & want to read.

If you don't want to set up a profile you can still browse book reviews from other people.  There are recommendations based on genre, age range, authors, and more.   

This has been one of my most used internet sites.  I am so glad we found this Fabulous site!  Hopefully this will inspire you to pick up a good book & enjoy!!

~Amy

Browned Butter Mizithra Cheese - Fabulous Finds Friday

My family and I love eating at the Old Spaghetti Factory, and one of our favorite dishes there is the Browned Butter Mizithra Cheese (I am not positive the exact name of it, but it is something along those lines). It is spaghetti noodles with browned butter poured over it with Mizithra cheese sprinkled on. It is delicious! I wanted to try to make it had home and did some searching online and found a recipe for it. It is extremely easy to make, and not very expensive at all. The hardest part is finding the Mizithra cheese because not all stores carry it, but Winco does carry it. This is now one of our favorite things to make for dinner!

 You can find the recipe HERE. Enjoy!

~Megan

Fab Finds Friday

Wow, I have so many ideas for this that I had a hard time deciding which to do first.  Since I just did a quilt project using glues sticks, that is what I decided to talk about today. You probably already have some, the ones that are always on sale with back-to-school supplies.  I usually buy Elmer’s School Glue sticks, but I have also used Scotch brand and others.  For the use I will talk about today, you want to make sure they are washable.  What do I use them for?  I took a quilting class once on appliqué, where the teacher told us to use glue sticks to hold down our appliqué pieces until we were able to sew them on.  If you iron the glued pieces, they stay even better.  I did a raw edge mouse shape appliqué, 2 layer, and it held really well after ironing the glued layers.  I was able to sew them on without having to use pins to hold them.  I was doing 12 of the appliqués, so it saved me a lot of time.  Since it is Christmas time and as usual, I am trying to get more done than I have time to, a time-saving thing like glue sticks is a great idea!  The glue stick just washes out of the quilt when I am done. I am sure you can think of others uses for a glue stick.  I also have used glue sticks for holding down quilt binding  so I can sew it on the sewing machine, but have more of a hand sewn look.  But that is a tip for another day.  Also, if you keep the glue sticks in zip lock bags in the fridge, they stay good longer without drying out.  I hope you find this tip as helpful as I have.

~Gayle

Fabulous Friday Finds

I am excited to be sharing my Fabulous Friday Find today.  It is a trick I learned from Pinterest and love. This is the original post from coffeelightandsweet.com.

I have a hard time wearing cute flats, they always bother my feet somewhere.  Usually across my little toe, or on the heel.  I would just wear bandaids but that gets old too and my husband gave me a hard time for wearing shoes that bother my feet so bad.  Silly husband!

For this trick, all you need is a blow dryer, thick socks and the shoes that don't fit quite right.  Put the socks on and then the shoes, they will be really snug.  Then use the blow dryer on high heat on the areas that are too tight for you.  I heat them up quite a bit.  WARNING:  I haven't had any issues with this but I can't promise that there won't be any damage.  Not sure if it could burn the shoes or not so please just use some caution and don't get the blow dryer too close.  Once the areas have been heated really well, I walk around with them on for 20 minutes or so.  Take the socks off and see how they fit.  If they are still snug, you can repeat it again.  I have a few pairs that haven't worked as well but I am planning on trying it with a second pair of socks or something to see if that helps.  I have 'fixed' at least 5 pairs of my shoes this way and can wear them comfortably.

Hope this helps you like it helped me!

~Andrea

Fabulous FINDS Friday

We wanted to try something fun on Fridays and share some of our fabulous finds.  These will be a variety of things we have found that we love...recipes, tutorials, websites, books, products, tips, tricks, deals etc.

Today I'm going to start with a tutorial I found for Tissue Flowers.  They were fun, easy, and beautiful.  My kids loved helping me roll the flowers.

I found the tutorial on The Idea Room site.  She has done a wonderful job with the tutorial including a video. Red tissue balls would be pretty for a Christmas center piece!
Head on over and check out her Tissue Rosette Kissing Balls.

~Amy