HF Community: Monday Meetups

The 2nd and 4th (sometimes 5th) Monday of every month, watch this space for a few questions that you can take, post and answer on your blogs and THEN LINK BACK HERE so that we all can come around and visit.

This adventure is OPEN TO EVERYONE!  You DO NOT have to be a part of the Homefront Team.  We just ask that when you leave your link here, you TRULY have a post that pertains to the set of questions.

OK so....

This Week's Questions come from 

Sarah of Florida Scarf

 Handmade Green Heart Scarf Womens Neckwarmer

1. Where is your favorite place to go for inspiration?

2. What is your most embarrassing moment as an operator of a small business?

3. What is one thing that you have to do everyday that you dislike?

 Peace and Love Reversible Hood

Here are Sarah's Answers:

1. I am constantly looking back at old vacation photos when I paint. They give me the best compositions. I also like painting them the most because I can remenisce.

2. I once went to a designer-call at a department store in NYC. The girl reviewing my product basically told me she was insulted that I had brought my handmade goods to the store. She said her customer was "way sexier" than that. I felt like an idiot. Now I laugh about it.

3. I HATE making the bed.

Ok, remember to list the link to your blog in the comments

Sarah's links:

Etsy

Blog
 

Have questions? Send them to us for consideration via the "Contact" Tab at the top of the blog?

  

Robin Norgren, Blog Coordinator

Saturday Tutorial: Dirt Dessert

 

Before I married my Marine and we started our family I would spend hours in the kitchen baking and cooking.  I loved creating desserts and bringing them into work and sharing them with my friends.  Bringing in cookies is a great way of meeting new people and brings a smile to everyone’s face (except those dieting- boo to them)!  

Lately, baking has taken a major backseat in my life.  Keeping up with my family, Etsy shop and life have shifted my priorities.  Plus hubby always complains that it’s not good for the Marines to be eating sweets.  

Oh well I said; for this blog post I had the opportunity to bake guilt free and take some time to embark on something fun for me!  The recipe I chose was the classic “dirt dessert”.  Even for the baking challenged this recipe is easy as pie!

Ingredients and supplies you will need:

• Instant chocolate pudding
• Milk
• Oreos
• Gummy worms
• Containers (I used mason jars)
• Rolling pin or hammer
• Baggies
• Measuring cups
• Whisk
• Scissors
• Pencil
• Paper

Step 1: Gather your supplies.

Step 2: Place 6-12 Oreos in a baggie and beat, whack, smack, slam, hit with a rolling pin or hammer.  Great if you are trying to relieve stress.

See how much it looks like dirt!  

Step 3: Make pudding.  Using the instant pudding is not only easy to make but quick.  All that is needed is to add milk to your pudding and whisk for about 2 minutes.  Shortly after the pudding will solidify into… well pudding.  Duh.  

Step 4: Pour pudding into a baggie that is lined in a measuring cup.  This will allow your baggie to A) not fall over while you are pouring and B) pipe the pudding into the jars so it doesn’t drip down the sides (rookie mistake).

Step 5: Pipe pudding into containers.  (Note: to pipe your pudding all you need to do is cut the corner off your baggie and squeeze it into desired location).  

Step 6: Spoon in your dirt (not literally silly, the Oreos you bludgeoned to death before) on top of pudding. 

 

Step 7: Add gummy worms.  And you are done!  

Bonus:  If you are using mason jars you can add a little decorative paper to the top or a special note (Happy Birthday, Welcome Home, Congrats on your baby, etc).  To ensure your paper fits correctly, simply trace the lid on the paper and cut it out.  Then place paper cutout on lid and screw on top.  This adds a little pop to your dessert and can be accomplished with very little time.  

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!  Dirt dessert is truly a simple and delicious dessert.  Since no cooking is involved this is a fun activity to share with your children.  Not only will they have fun in the kitchen but they can also eat their creation.  

Thank you Nora of Lillianne Lee.  Check out Nora's shop links:

Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/lilliannelee
twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lilliannelee
facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Lillianne-Lee/149016085116927
family blog: ribblesx3.blogspot.com/

If you are interested in seeing your tutorial here, please contact us via the contact tab at the top of the blog.

Robin Norgren-Blog Coordinator

Story Behind the (Shop) Name: Reyna Red

 

Shop Link

 

Leah Butler of Reyna Red

Here's the story behind her shop name: 

    About 5 years ago, while I was working on a new collection for Wind Dancer, I kept designing things that didn't fit in with the collection.  Instead of regalia inspired, I was all about faceted stones, pearls, and precious metals.  I decided to create a new Luxe Collection under a new moniker.

    The name Reyna Red is actually a play on two of my nicknames from childhood.  Reyna, which means queen, of royal blood, etc - is a play on words for the nickname that haunted me from 1st grade on: Princess Leah.  Oh yes, I was born the same year that Star Wars came out, and my first name is Leah.  But the icing on the cake, the nail in my nickname coffin came from my mother, who decided to send me to school one day with the dreaded...(gasp)..."donut braids!"  Why didn't she just hang a sign?  The nickname stuck all the way through high school, and cropped up again when the prequels came out.

   And Red - well not much of a story there.  My hair is red, so people I knew called me Red.  It wasn't the most inventive nickname, but with a name like "Leah" which is only 2 syllables and 4 letters long...you can't really shorten it into anything.

  So that's my story - it's funny, Reyna Red has become another nickname.  People just assume that is my actual name.  And I answer to it now.  LOL  My company name is my homage to my childhood name trauma - essentially showing to the world (in a covert way) that I have a sense of humor about the whole thing. 

:-) Leah    

Thank you Leah for sharing your story! If you are interested in submitting to this feature, please contact us via the CONTACT tab at the top of the blog. 

Robin Norgren, Blog Coordinator

Creative Homefires: Perfectly Distressed Wordboards & Design

Creative HomeFires is a series which highlights the value that creativity offers to family members of a deployed spouse/significant other.  We offer stories of the creative life and the beautiful benefits experienced during some of the most difficult seasons. 

 

  This Feature is written by Melissa Gutierrez, shop owner of

Perfectly Distressed Word Boards & Design

Lots of people remember significant events in relation to the year it happened, the school they were attending, or by the job that they held at the time.  Military spouses remember events by where they were living at the time.

We got married 3 days before we left for Japan.  We welcomed our first child into the world in Jacksonville, Florida.  She started walking in Hawaii, rode a bike for the first time in Virginia.  Her brother came along in Maine, and he potty trained in New Hampshire. With transitioning between so many bases, I’ll soon be able to tell you where my daughter started high school, and where my son started kindergarten based on where we are stationed.

As much as the idea of another set of movers makes me want to sigh, the experiences I have had, all over the world, have made me a better person.  The sisters that I have made by living on all of these different bases has given me the knowledge and experience that I need in order to make a home, even when the place I was born is thousands of miles away.

These are the things I think about as I work on each and every sign I create. These bases that I paint on the boards are more than just letters on a piece of wood. They are first children, first steps, first deployments and so much more. When the boards come together, they tell a story.  The story of a special kind of person; a person that can make a home anywhere the military sends them.

SHOP

FAN PAGE

Thank you Melissa!  If you would like to submit a story for this series please contact us ("Contact" tab at the top of the blog) for consideration. 

Robin Norgren, Blog Coordinator

Military Life...from a Spouse's Perspective: Patty Jones

The Military Brat Team and the Homefront Team are combining efforts to share our experiences with the military lifestyle so that others can fully understand the sense of community, sacrifices, benefits, and expectations we all share as members of a truly unique group of people. Each month we will feature a story shared by a Military Brat Team member, and a story shared by a Homefront Team member.

  This Feature is written by Patty Jones, shop owner of Little Pat Pat's

Military Life….

From a spouse's perspective

Stuffed Bird - Pink and Green 

        The Military lifestyle is difficult, rewarding, stressful, and amazing all at the same time.  Being married to a service member forces you to be strong and independent, but it can also be lonely. It is a special sort of person who can continuously pull up their roots and move across the country on virtually no notice. One who can keep a relationship strong and healthy across thousands of miles on trust and love alone. Not everyone who agrees to live this life survives it but those of us who do are a truly amazing breed.

 Quality Burp Cloths - Octopus

It can be hard to have the military play such an important role in our lives. They decide where we live and how often we see our spouses. It can be frustrating to have to leave jobs and friends you love and start over again and again, but we do it because this is our life.  The key to success is:

• rolling with the punches and constant flexibility.

• Start your own business, figure out how to work from home.

• Put that strength and independence to work for you and grab military life by the horns and laugh in it’s face as you overcome all of it’s struggles!

SHOP

FACEBOOK

BLOG

Thank you Patty for sharing your story with us! If you would like to contribute to this space, please contact us via the Contact Tab at the top of the blog.

Robin Norgren, Blog Coordinator

Saturday Tutorial: Taco Dip

This recipe is sure to be a hit at any get together. When my husband was attached to his sub and we had people over, this taco dip was always gone within an hour and I always got requests for upcoming parties to make it. Now I am passing it on to you, enjoy!

Ingredients:
Milk
1 lb Ground Beef(you can substitute this with ground turkey for a healthier alternative)
1 can Hunts dice tomatoes(I like to use the ones with balsamic vinegar, basil and olive oil)
1 Package of your favorite taco seasoning
1 Can cheddar cheese soup(campbell's works great)
1 1lb block of colby jack cheese
Slow Cooker/Crock Pot
Pepper
Garlic Salt

Directions:
Brown the beef in a pan and season with pepper and garlic salt. Don't over do it or else your dip will be salty.

When meat is brown, drain and add the taco seasoning. Follow the directions on the back of the package.

While the meat finishes cooking with the taco seasoning, cut up the block of cheese into small cubes. Add to the crock pot.

Add the cheddar cheese soup to the crock pot next. Pour the milk into the empty soup can and stir. This will loosen up any extra cheese that was left behind. Then pour the milk into the crock pot mixture.

Drain the tomatoes and then add them to the crock pot.

Add your seasoned beef to the crock pot.

Cook on low for about 2 hours and stir often so that the mixture doesn't burn and stick to the bottom of the crock pot.

Serve over your favorite tortilla chips and enjoy!

Thank you Sara  of Sara Rubendall Design Studio for submitting to this feature!  Here's her Links:

Etsy Shop: www.sararubendall.etsy.com
Website: www.srdesignstudio.weebly.com
Blog: srdesignstudio.blogspot.com

If you are interested in being featured in this space, Contact us via the Contact tab at the top of the blog.

Robin Norgren-Blog Coordinator

Creative HomeFires: A Nursing Reminder

Creative HomeFires is a series which highlights the value that creativity offers to family members of a deployed spouse/significant other.  We offer stories of the creative life and the beautiful benefits experienced during some of the most difficult seasons. 

Dark Wooden Nursing Reminder Bracelet

Let me introduce Jess of A Nursing Reminder.  Here's her story:

     I went from full time United States Marine to full time Mom.  When I found out I was pregnant with Ethan, I was in the middle of sending up my re-enlistment package.  It hit like a brick wall...I went from 90 mph to 0 in about 2 seconds flat. I LOVED being a Marine.  It was fun, rewarding, and I was well on my way to meeting my career goals!  Then there I was, raising a baby, while watching my husband go to work doing what I love, watching all of my friends advance in their careers in the military, as nurses, as architects...

    But don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade being with my babies for anything!  It brought about massive amounts of guilt and conflict that I now realize a lot of Moms go through.  My store was birthed out of a real need as a mom, and that first trip to Michaels Craft Store snowballed into an obsession with beads no one saw coming!  Now I have the best of all worlds, I still get to participate in some military events as a military spouse, I get to be at home with my sons, and I get to work at home doing my new, very real passion, helping other moms!!!

  

Shop

Thank you Jess for sharing your story!  If you would like to be featured in this space, please contact us via the Contact tab at the top of the blog

OH AND remember....

SALE IS TODAY: READ MORE CLICK HERE!

Robin Norgren, Blog Coordinator