Learning Illustrator

So yesterday I got something that I have wanted for a LONG time…Adobe Illustrator!  Yeah!  I want to learn how to make all of these digital elements myself.  I just love this kind of stuff.  So tonight, after a long day at work moving offices, I played and learned how to make a simple little flower.  No I’m not exactly “proud” of this flower but am PROUD I learned how to make it!!!  See below… Hopefully more to come tomorrow but no promises!!!

MY Easy 4 Can Tortilla Soup

Tonight for dinner – MY easy 4 can tortilla soup!  It really is that easy.

Ingredients
1 can corn
1 can black beans
1 can rotel
1 can chicken broth
chili powder
2 chicken breasts

Combine all ingredients into a pot.  Bring to boil.  Once chicken is cooked throughly,shred.  Top with chips, cheese and sour cream.  GREAT left over!

Thanksgiving Food – Cream Corn

I LOVE Thanksgiving.  Mostly because of the food but it might be my favorite.  Okay, next to Christmas.  And I LOVE to make turkey!  Does that make me weird?  So I’m not blogging today about some great turkey recipe though, because I really don’t remember exactly what I do to my turkey until the day.  I’ll try to remember to blog the recipe as I go next Thursday.  Anyway so we are supposed to bring a side tomorrow for our holiday lunch at work and I’m bringing cream corn.  Okay – NOT my recipe but…Jamie’s!  Real shocker I know. 😉  She’s a good cook, though, what can I say? 😉

Cream Corn

Ingredients

3 packages frozen corn
1/2 package of cream cheese
1/2 stick butter
salt & pepper
some milk

So you literally just dump all of this in a crock pot, let it cook and wah-la!  See why I’m bringing it tomorrow.  So simple!!!

Yummy dinner & GREAT leftovers

So excited today when I was grocery shopping at Kroger to find that spiral cut hams were on sale!  I love these but they are so pricey.  Anyway, I bought one and made a great Sunday night meal with my favorite meal for Monday – leftovers!  I hate Monday’s and more so, hate cooking on Mondays!  So I put my ham in the oven at 350 for 2 hours.  I spread some brown sugar on the outside and several orange slices.  When I had about 30 minutes left, I mixed up the glaze that came with the ham and spread it all over and added more sugar.  I then put into the oven my sweet potato casserole.  Now I’m going to include my recipe for this but I’m not kidding, this turns out different every time bc I never do the same thing twice but last night was pretty good and I remember what I did! 🙂

Sweet Potato Casserole

2 large cans sweet potatoes
1/2 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 stick butter, melted
cinnamon
marshmallows

Drain both cans of potatoes.  I dump one in my casserole dish and the other in a mixing bowl.  In the mixing bowl add your sugar, milk, butter and cinnamon.  Mix well.  I always taste and then add more sugar, brown sugar or cinnamon to taste.  Pour this mixture into the casserole dish. 

I then usually take a little butter mixed with brown sugar and melt it in the microwave.  Mix it together until it is paste like.  I dribble this all over the top.  Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.  Then cover with marshmallows and bake until brown.

I got to put this dinner together with only ONE child at home.  Braxton went to play with his best bud, Layton.  It was so quiet at home, too quiet and Bryson didn’t know what to do being the only child.  I realized this was the first time since he was born that he had been alone with Mommy and Daddy.  Poor guy!  Don’t worry – he got some good alone time and major snuggles!!!

Back up your data with Mozy and save 10%!

So I was asked today who I use to backup all my priceless pictures.  The answer…

Mozy.com

If you only want 2GB of backup space, you can sign up for FREE…Yes, I said FREE!  But for the low price of $4.95 per month, you can have unlimited backup space!  It is super simple to use.  The first backup took a long while but hey, its backing up for the first time – shouldn’t it take a while? 😉  After that, its a breeze and I do NOTHING to ensure it occurs.  Okay, maybe I have to make sure my computer is on. 🙂  I have my backup setup for Sunday’s in the middle of the night.  No distruption to what I may have going on.

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Awesome Christmas Present Ideas

So my Creative (& Crafty) Cohort Debbie is a blog-stalker! 😉  But thank God she is because she finds the neatest things.  Check out these links below.  We are going to hopefully be making some of these soon (and of course I’ll let you know how difficult or easy they turn out to be) for nice, but inexpensive presents for the holiday season.  And of course – making ourselves some presents too! 🙂

http://www.polkadotchair.com/2010/03/tuesday-tutorial-quick-change-corsage.html

http://notsoidlehands.blogspot.com/2010/05/cute-mothers-day-photo-necklace.html

http://3punkmom.blogspot.com/2010/11/tutorial-mama-ruffle-scarf.html

Jamie’s Cheesy Tortilla Soup

So MOSTLY because my friend Jamie “joked” about me blogging her recipe that she made last night and then also because I’m sure I’ll make it and I’m sure it will be delish because it is her recipe but here is a Cheesy Tortilla Soup recipes that sounds yummy and easy.

Cheesy Tortilla Soup

1 envelope fajita marinade mix
4 boneless chicken breast halves, diced
2 TBSP vegetable oil
1/2 C chopped onion
1/4 C butter
1/3 C flour
2 cans (14 oz each) chicken broth
1 can rotel
1 cup velveeta cheese, cubed
1 1/2 C shredded cheese, divided
1 1/2 C half and half cream
Guacamole (i didn’t use this)
tortilla chips

-Cook chicken in oil, then add fajita mix and 1/4 C water.  Simmer.

– In a large saucepan, cook onion in butter until tender.  Stir in flour until blended.  Gradually stir in broth.  Bring to a boil.  cook and stir for 2 minutes until thickened and bubbly.  Add tomatoes, velveeta and 1 cup shredded cheese.  Cook and stir unti lcheese is melted.  Stir in cream and chicken.  Heat through (do not boil).  Spoon into bowls.  Garnish with guacamole, cheese and tortilla chips.

YUM!!!

Grab My Button!!!

Announcing…my first button for you to grab!!!  So excited that I learned how to do this!  If you would like to grab my button, you can find it in the top right hand corner of my sidebar.  Yes, it is really simple and plain, but hey – I just learned how to do it!  Please, take it, post it and share it! 🙂

I was THANKFULLY able to accomplish this but by no means on my own.  If you’re interested, try the tutorial at the Blog Guidebook on How To Add Button Code & Code Box To Your Blog.  Super simple and they literally walk you through every step.  Thank you Blog Guidebook!!!

What I Worked On Today

So I realize as I type this, that I have links on here for sites/blogs that I like and follow…except for my own website!  See a problem?  So my photography website is http://www.stacihelselphotography.com/.  I just added a ton of new photos of Megan.  Did her senior pictures a while back.  She is the sister of one of my best friends so we literally took 2 days taking pictures all over Savannah.  It was fun, but hot, and tiring.  And I’m finally wrapping up getting them all loaded to the site.  Should have the rest loaded this week!  I PROMISE!  I think they turned out soooo good, however, I think that was largely in part to her being so photogenic!  Here are a few of my favorites:

This is no where close to the amount of pictures we took.  I really hope she likes them.

I didn’t get to spend near the amount of time that I hoped this weekend learning tips & tricks for blogging but I guess there is always next weekend.

Did take some good photos of my boys this weekend.  Though I love them all, this one is my favorite from the weekend.  

Adding Music to your blog

Sooooo a long time ago, I heard the song that is playing on my blog.  Being that my hobby is photography and sometimes call myself a photographer, I LOVE this song.  It is Bishop Allen’s Click Click Click Click.  Anyway, I really wanted it on my blog so today, I found out how.  Just with a simple goodle of “how to add music to my blog”…I found out!  I entered the following code into an HTML gadget in my sidebar:

http://entertheurlofyoursong

I got the url of my song from http://beemp3.com/.

If you enter the code above, it places a little control panel on your blog.  If you don’t want it to autostart when someone visits your blog, you change autostart to false.

Anyway, thought I’d share how I got this accomplished. One day, I might be able to claim to know what to do with a blog! 🙂