I can't live without: A Schedule

All this willy-nilly blog posting can't last long. That's probably why I haven't ever stuck with blogging- I need an actual schedule. So here it goes, my attempt at scheduling creativity into my life:

Sundays: Dessert of the Week
Tuesday: Progress on Project Craft
Friday: Finding My Style Friday (I have never had a style I really love. I will find it! Someday!)
And whenever I make something really yummy: Meal of the Week

There! Not only am I now accountable for making progress on Project Craft, I have some other fun things too!

Meal of the Week: Crock Pot French Dip Sandwiches

I never liked french dip growing up (sorry mom, I didn't like a lot of things...). I still actually don't like roast beef- I'm a turkey sandwich kind of girl. But something about tantalizing pictures on Pinterest makes me want all kinds of food! Plus, since I'm gone 10 hours a day at school and work, a crock pot meal is the kind of meal for me. The only problem is that it's hard to find a variety of crock pot meals that actually cook for 10 hours. I tried a crock pot lasagna a few months back...it was supposed to cook for 4 hours....let's just say I didn't take any pictures of that charcoal mess.

(NOT my charcoal mess. The lovely picture I was attempting to copy)

But these sandwiches, amazing! It's different from your classic "roast and veggies" or "coke pulled pork," and I am constantly looking for new and different recipes! Actually, I could go on and on about how much I love this recipe. Another reason is that it doesn't have any of those "condensed cream" soups in it. Sure it has condensed french onion, but doesn't that sound healthier! It has the word onion in it! All around, this is a winner. Plus I found the buns on the day-old rack at the grocery store, so they were 75 cents for 8 rolls. And since we only used 3, that's like 1.666666666667 more meals! Yes, I can do math. Anyway, now that I've convinced you all that this meal should be eaten like, every day, let's get down to the good stuff.

The recipe is from Baking Bites, but really I just eyeballed it. Plus, I happened to be out of wine that day (and...every day) so I just added some water. My recipe looks something like this:

Crock Pot French Dip Sandwiches
(Recipe adapted from Baking Bites)


Some roast. (I used 1 lb. of chuck roast)
Salt and Pepper to season roast
Half a can of beef broth
Half a can of condensed french onion soup
Some garlic powder
1/4 cup water or something

Day-old bakery buns (or make your own if you are fancy. I might try that sometime)
Provolone cheese

Throw the meat and seasonings/soups into the crock pot. I didn't even trim the fat because my roast was frozen. But it might be better to trim the fat if you can, because it saves you the hassle of separating it later. Then cook all day on low. Take the roast out after about 6-10 hours and cut into slices (or basically shred if your roast was as tender as mine). Then put it back into the liquid for another fifteen minutes or so. Meanwhile, slice up some provolone and put it on the rolls under the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese is melted and the rolls are toasted.

Then, serve! put the meat on the rolls, dish the remaining liquid from the slow cooker into a bowl, and dig in! Man, just writing this makes me want it again. Good thing we have leftovers in the fridge! Also, did you notice how handy my recipe is? You now have half cans of broth and onion soup leftover...whatever shall you do with them? How about freeze, then use later for more delicious french dip!

(picture from Baking Bites, so you can see her prettier version)

Project Craft: January

One of my New Years Resolutions was to do something crafty at least once per month. Hopefully I will do it more, but this way I am committed to at least 12 new fun projects! For January, I finally decided to break out some fabric I bought last summer (hence it's more of a summery skirt...but I think it will work with grey tights for winter!) So with this skirt as inspiration:

And with help from some tutorials:

http://grandrevivaldesign.typepad.com/grand_revival_design/2011/10/pleated-wrap-skirt-tutorial.html

http://elleapparel.blogspot.com/2010/08/pinwheel-skirt.html

http://elleapparel.blogspot.com/2010/09/socialite-skirt.html

Oh yah, and 21 years of sewing lessons from this lovely woman:

Plus my own awesome math skills and brilliant ideas (this is mostly where things went wrong... :D)

I made my own box-pleat skirt!

Lessons Learned: First of all, I didn't prewash the fabric, and I'm pretty sure I'll be kicking myself about this sometime soon! My zipper is entirely messed up, but by the time I got to that part, I was ready to be finished! Next time, watch a zipper tutorial PLEASE! And finally, I messed up the waistband big time. All the tutorials showed me how to do a tapered waistband--but did I listen? No... I figured I could taper it in the back. But hello, you aren't curvy in the back! You are curvy on your sides. So next time, I am going to make a front and back waistband so it can be tapered in on my sides. But overall, I measured twice so I only had to cut once (measuring is generally a major flaw of mine) and I even ironed my seam allowances! 

Look at that awesome box pleat!

Messed up zipper....and awkward back-taper-waistband

Please ignore my shiny face and strange hair. Oh, and the lighting.

A Place to Call Home

I have tried blogging off and on. I have used the family blog, a personal blog, a recipe blog with my sister...and created numerous other blogs that I have deleted within a few days or even hours. I've just never found anything worth blogging about that I can stick to. Until now. I guess the title of this blog reflects my devotion to a lot of things. Devotion to my family, to creating a home filled with love and creativity, and devotion to sticking with blogging!

I really just want a place to reflect on everything I've learned since becoming so domestic! So here it is. :)