Sunday, January 13, 2013

The D stands for Daly, not Dave or Duh or Dyno-mite or Dogs allowed or ....

I went to Wally World the day after Christmas because I desperately needed (and still do need) more white Christmas lights.  (Side note:   I have looked everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE for white lights and have had absolutely no luck.)  Anyway, I DID find wreath hangers for $1.00!!!  And so began my foray into making one of those fancy, pinterest-inspired wreaths.  (There are 4 keys around the wreath, the picture doesn't do them justice.)

Wreath:  marked down from $14.99 to $4.49
Ribbon:  marked down from $9.99 to $3.00
Keys:  not on sale, but each $1.50 (I bought 4)
Letter D:  not on sale, but only $1.99
Pink Glitter:  $2.00
and don't forget the hanger:  I don't know what the original price was, but sale price $1.00

I started by putting my little helper to work covering the letter in glue and sprinkling on the glitter.  This required two applications for my desired glittery-ness.

Then, I played around with the ribbons and keys.  I hot glued the letter on, and Viola!  A beautiful new wreath for my beat-up, not-so-beautiful, down-right-ugly front door.

So, the whole project ran me about  $18.50.  I looked into similar items on Etsy.com and I think a wreath like this would run anywhere from $30.00 to $75.00, not including at least $15.00 shipping. 

I'd say it was a successful DIY...


Friday, January 4, 2013

Take your wife to work day...

A few weeks ago the kids went with grandma and grandpa to see How the Grinch Stole Christmas at the Oriental Theater in Chicago. 

Dave had cattle coming and going that night, so I went out to the feed lot with him that afternoon to help him get ready.  (Mostly I just wanted to see what all the "excitement" was about, but also I needed a bovine fix... it had been a couple of stressful weeks...)

First, I put on my favorite pair of shoes.... yaaaaayyyyy!!!!

Then, we loaded up some straw bales in the back of the truck. 

We had to move some of the big guys to a holding pen for when the semis arrived.











Dave scraped and we bedded their old pen and then moved in some younger (not-ready-to-go) cattle.  Don't they look so happy?!?!

Next, we (Dave) filled the feed bunks in the pens with feed for when the new (little guys) would get off the semi.  

Before long, in rolled the semis.  The new cattle were off-loaded, then the big guys were loaded on the semi.  Just the time it was getting dark, the trucks were full and off they went to a meat packing plant in Iowa for Monday morning processing. 






Then, I went back home and finished grading papers...booooooo....

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

My fancy new pan...

I got this fancy new pan for Christmas!  Isn't it spiffy!  It's made by Wilton












I was lamenting my anguish at baking quick breads earlier this fall: how my glass loaf pans take forever to cook completely through, how they're a smidgen too small for my normal bread recipes, and no matter how long you leave the bread in the oven, the bread usually isn't done in the middle and the tops are burnt and crusty. 

So to break it in, my littlest helper and biggest kitchen comrade whipped up some Snickerdoodle Bread.  I found the recipe over at http://lilluna.com/snickerdoodle-bread/



The cinnamon chips are easy to find right now, and I admit that since finding this recipe, I have been stock-piling because they're a seasonal item. 


Since we were going to be ringing in the New Year with three other families, we decided to share our bread with them!
While the breads were cooking, my little artist worked up some gift tags :)   

We started our New Years Eve celebration by going bowling.  After that, we went back to one of the family's house where we had a blast!  The adults played "Apples to Apples" and the kids played the Wii and with new Christmas toys.  The oldest (our 11 year old) and the youngest (4 year olds) boys crashed around 11pm, but everyone else made it to midnight!   It was a great way to send out 2012 and welcome in 2013!

Happy New Year from the Dalys!