{link} my new blog!

So I haven't blogged in the last couple of weeks because I've been working on something brand new and exciting. Drum roll pleeeeasseeeee......Big K, little k {designs}

I've had so many people contact me via email about doing custom design jobs (and sewing projects!) that I decided to make it a little easier and organized. I started with the etsy shop and facebook fan page then decided I wanted a pretty little blog to go with it. All my blog posts will now be found at: www.bigklittlek.com 

Join me there!

{drinking} again!!

i'm pretty sure when the diet experts say "don't drink your calories", they're not talking about this drink. it's a meal in itself, just in sipable form. i am in DESPERATE need of an energy boost tonight....tons of design work lined up plus i'm learning a new software that requires me to be completely focused (which never happens around my house).
Below is the "recipe" i use for my green eyed monster smoothie. it's not really a recipe because i just throw a little bitta this and i little bitta that into it, so feel free to tweak it to your taste buds. I actually tweaked this recipe from the Iowa Girl Eats blog. This is my fav daily food blog. if you haven't ever read her blog, put the kids to bed and plan on being on her site for like 4 hours jumping from post to post. lots of great recipes and info. she has a great personality that shows thru her blog (unlike mine! hehehe)

1 cup almond milk (I used the 90 calorie vanilla tonight, usually I try to put in the 35 calorie unsweetened almond milk because it really doesn't need the added sweetness that the 90 calorie added to it)
1/2 cup greek yogurt (any brand will work. i like fage)
1 whole banana
1 tablespoon almond butter
1 tablespoon sunbutter (if you haven't tried sunbutter you need to, especially if you like sunflower seeds. it's delish!)
1 teaspoon chia seeds (super good for you!)
about 2 cups baby spinach

blend that baby up and sip thru a cutesy straw (and the straw is NOT, I repeat NOT optional! it's a must have) this doesn't taste anything like spinach....more like a banana/peanut butter shake. it's soooo good for you plus gives you energy!

oh and a little sidenote before i stop procrastinating and get to work....for all my local gals into non-processed organic food:
went to kroger in paris today and got tons of great organic stuff. in fact, i filled a buggy full of NOTHING but organic foods and guess what?!! totally spent $50 less than i usually do on groceries. take that "organic food is more expensive" stereotype! word to the wise, of course they have the small organic section there by the produce BUT the organic selection doesn't end there! I found everything on my list in an organic brand sprinkled throughout the store, you just have to have your eyes open and be willing to really look for it. **disclaimer: my girls did not grocery shop with me today. otherwise i'm pretty sure i would have missed 90% of the organic goodness that kroger has to offer.
oh and a sidenote about the sidenote: just because something is labeled as organic doesn't mean you can grab it without checking the label first. there's a lot of organic products out there loaded with sugar. i don't buy ANYTHING with sugar in it. We have started using honey and maple syrup as our only sweeteners and i haven't missed sugar at all. Now Karl on the other hand is having serious withdraws but i will say he deserves a pat on the back for being a good sport. he is really trying to like what i fix. yesterday he called my food "edible"....sounds like a compliment to me!!! ;)

{ drinking } a 40 on a saturday night....again!

yep, i'm at it again on a saturday night...drinking 40 ounces of vegetable juice all at once. I crave it and usually juice at least 4 times a week but for some reason saturday nights have become my favorite night to juice a big ol glass pitcher of it.

i'm either really pathetic or really awesome, i can't decide. ;)

i feel like i deserve it though after the curtains i made for the girls room. took frickin forever but they look totes adorable. i took pics of how i did it but i'm too tired to give a step by step of how i made them right now. but i will leave ya with a pic of them and the thought of a tutorial coming soon!

ok time for me to go "veg out" on the couch! gosh i'm corny tonight! 



{random} yep that's the word for this week

ever have one of those feelings on a sunday night that your week is going to just be random and busy for no apparent reason? yep, i had that gut feeling and i was right. pure craziness this week. luckily, i did plan out my meals for next week using the plan to eat website. it really helped me to plan everything out and i will say i definitely saved major moola at trader joes and whole foods since i went in there with a list and a plan to stay under budget. we spend $300 every 2 weeks on groceries and i spent $303 total. not too shabby if i do say so myself. plus i bought extra ingredients so i could double the recipes to freeze.
to top off our week of randomness we are leaving out tomorrow mid-day for a mini vaca to the chattanooga area to visit some friends which we never get to do. i guess that's the good kind of random not the crazy kind of random we have had all week.

in going with the random theme here's an awesome video. love this song and this is really amazing how they did this.

and if that's not enough random for you, here's the parody to it. love how they make fun of the guy on the right!

{blogging} how do i not have time for this?!!!

i am frustrated. i can't figure out where all the time in my day goes. i am a stay at home mom!!! i don't understand how the working momma's out there do it all. i see all these cute blogs that are updated daily without fail. one.day.that.will.be.me!
ahhh!!!
ah ok, i'm stepping down off my soapbox to show you the cutest baby toddler in the world. for realz.

first time with pigtails. ooooohhh so cute!! it makes her look big though and that makes me sad.
what else makes me sad is this: karlie says to me today, "you know mom that me and kenna are going to get big and leave one day and then it's going to be just you and daddy." {sigh} oh karlie i know. mommy just don't want to think about that, like at all.

and so yesterday i had to completely tear apart a throw up infested car seat. and no, not just take the cover off and wash it. i mean, take the whole thing apart and soak it in soapy water. poor baby keniston was in the backseat saying "ah oh" in the cutest little baby voice (it's practically the only thing she says) and when i looked in the rear view i said "ah oh" too. completely covered in throw up. i was only taking a quick trip into town, everyone still had jammies on, no diaper bag, nothing. and the kid was throwing up like nobody's business and then crying because she didn't like it all over her. Good times.

almond butter apple sandwiches got me major bonus points with my girls. karlie hugged me and told me how good of a momma i was for making her such a yummy lunch. sweet girl! we have been eating really good this week. karl has even liked the suppers i have fixed. I made a peach cobbler that i couldn't believe i actually made because it was so good (and healthy). and i have made banana bread that was super yummy and thanks to my neighbor for bringing me the biggest zucchini i've ever seen, we made zucchini bread. Tonight I have been canning blackberry jam with the help of a no pectin/no sugar recipe i found on 100 days of real food. that website is seriously my bible when it comes to learning about eating clean. so much useful info packed into an easy to follow site. lisa leake is definitely someone i admire.

so phase 1 of "opertion big girl room" is complete. i painted the walls this awesome shade of blue and i'm super proud of myself for picking it out all by myself. it's hard when you have a color in your head and then you start looking at all those swatches, it gets to be too much. everytime i end up picking the wrong shade. BUT not this time!! the exact color i had imagined, painted on the girls walls with a little help from a little helper.

i also built this really cool chevron bench for the girls. it was super easy to do. basically just upholstered a piece of wood and then bought legs and the leg screw set from lowes. i spray painted the legs and then screwed them into the wood. easy peasy. the legs may or may not be uneven. just sayin. ;)

now on to my next project CURTAINS. not just any curtains....floor to ceiling curtains. pretty sure they are going to be a pain to make but i'm soooo ready to get some curtains up in their room. they have a beautiful sunburst style window but it catches the sunrise and as soon as the room gets light, karlie will wake up and come in my room to tell me that the sun is up. aren't kids great?! love it. so yes, curtains are at the tippy top of my priority list.

oh and one last thing.....my bestie found out today that she is having a GIRL!!! i am sooo excited for her. she needed a girl (not that there's anything wrong with boys so don't send me hate mail). i can already imagine what this little girl is going to be like, blonde hair, green eyes, shy and spunky when no one's looking. i am so happy for her and can't wait to hold that sweet baby girl especially since my girls are big now. (sidenote: i'm pretty sure i'm immune to baby fever....finally. it's kinda like the chicken pox only i had to get it twice in order to build up my immunity)

{getting healthy} my plan of attack against processed foods without going overboard

this is what happens when i have too much free time to think on the beach....i come up with crazy, life altering stuff. i have actually had this on my mind for awhile but got to really think about it and research it while my toes were in the sand. fyi, the beach we were on had wifi. maybe i'm still living in the stone age but i thought this was a big deal. i was able to sit in my lounge chair on the beach with my feet in the water all while pinning to pinterest, facebooking, researching healthy stuff all on my ipad. i was as close to my heaven as i think i have ever been! ;)
so yes, i had time to think. think about all the crap we eat on the daily. think about the "treats" i reward karlie with. think about the poptarts my husband eats at work for breakfast. think about all the sugary juice we drink. think about the crazy hormone feed animals we eat. think about the diet food i have been stuffing down my throat in an attempt to lose the baby weight.
so i thought and thought about it. now don't get me wrong we (and by we i mean me and my 2 girls) eat pretty good/healthy. we usually have eggs or bacon or granola with greek yogurt for breakfast. some sort of veggie sandwich for lunch. snack on popcorn after nap and so on. but even getting "good" isn't enough anymore. bacon is full of nitrates. eggs come from hormone raged chickens. greek yogurt has sugar in it. our bread has too much crap in it (sugar, white flour, corn syrup, etc). so i started researching options and this is what i have concluded....we can eat (basically) the same stuff we were eating before BUT i (me, the mommy, complete ruler of food in our household) am going to have to spend alot of time in the kitchen. and for those who know me and know about what i do know that i really don't have extra time in the day to spend in the kitchen, and really who does? everyone is busy. i'm a complete dabbler...i do graphic design both commercially and free lance. i sew both personally and for others. i am a stay at home mom to 2 girls under the age of 4.  my husband drives 2 hours a day to work so he isn't here alot to help out. i'm trying desperately to lose the baby weight so i have picked up running 3-5 miles 4 times a week.
it's overwhelming to add the kind of planning and dedication that eating clean is going to take. BUT it's worth it. i want my kids to be the healthiest they can be. i want to be healthy for my kids and make sure i'm around for many years to come. and i want my husband to be healthy and around for many years to come (although he's fighting this healthy eating, i know i will eventually wear him down!)

 {my husband thinks he is hilarious, changing my menu board. hard to read from this pic but it basically says i'm starving him. my personal fave was wednesday: "make some sweets that aren't sweet". poor husband of mine.}

it's hard eating clean when you live in a small town, nearly impossible unless you really do some planning ahead. organizing and planning meals ahead of time is where i'm at in my journey of getting healthy. i came across a really cool service called plan to eat. i'm using their 30 day trial and so far so good. i like the way it's set up and it seems like something I might actually use. ideally this is what I would like to do....
once a month do a big shopping trip to whole foods and trader joes to buy the bulk of my food for the upcoming month. Then do a marathon cooking day where I make up several meals and freeze them. Then use our local walmart for small stuff like their selection of organic veggies and eggs. i was actually kinda surprised at what i found when i was shopping "clean" at the local wally....chicken, hot dogs, bacon, deli meat, frozen chicken fajita strips, raw honey, organic eggs are all things i bought that were what i considered to be clean.

i love my family and i plan to fight the battle against disease, cancer, obesity that stems from what we are putting in our bodies...i want us all to be happy and healthy for many years to come. and that doesn't mean i won't occasionally let my family eat out or have sugar BUT i plan to make our normal day to day food be good clean food that helps our bodies be the best they can be.

{recap} family beach vacation 2012

whew!! the last 2 weeks have honestly been a blur. we returned home this past saturday from a week long trip to our favorite vacation spot (when i say "our" i mean everyone in my family except karl, he hates the beach, weird i know). fort morgan, al, the calmer next door neighbor to the well known beaches of gulf shores, al.
rental house on the beach for a week? it doesn't get much better than that. we slept late. we lounged at the beach. we swam. we built sandcastles. we ate crab and shrimp. we played in the sprinklers. we chased the ice cream truck....daily. we napped. we went on a treasure hunt with priates and princesses. we celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary. but most importantly......we road in the car for 12 hours without crying, once. i'm one happy (and blessed) momma!

 {horrible day for a photo shoot because of the storms/wind BUT we did end up with a great beach picture}

 {my sweet family-p.s. keniston hated the sand so no cute toes in the sand pics for us! boo!}

 {the cousins....not the best pic in the world but what do ya expect with 5 kids under 8. you get whatcha get.}

 {this sweet booty turned 6 months while we were at the beach, and he LOVED the sand.}

 {this "cracks" me up!}

 {the outdoor splash pad. so much fun!!!!}

 {my dad fished most of the vaca and caught a huge "red" but he also caught a hook in the arm and had to come home early to get my mom to help him get it out. i probably would have passed out if i would have seen it!!}

{my cuties in their yellow polka dot bikinis} 

 {kenna preferred to stay in the lounge chair instead of the sand}

 {this girl LOVED the sand and the beach, although she preferred going to the swimming pool}

 {she wouldn't let go of that ball the whole time she was in the pool. very possessive little stinker}

 {build-a-frickin-fortune-in-fluff}

{one of my favorite parts of vacation....getting to watch the blue angels practice. simply amazing. so proud to be an american!} 

{outside the original oyester house. she was terrified of this gator a couple of years ago now she loves it}

 {they figured out real quick that if they waved money in the air the ice cream man would stop.}

 {ice cream man, highlight of their day, everyday we were there

}

{karlie kissing her treasure she found at the pirates and princesses breakfast at The Hangout}

Beach Vacation 2012, success! I miss you already, beach. Hope to see you again next year!

{whew!} big ol' looonnnnggg weekend

i'm not even sure where to begin with describing our fun-filled pre-vacation weekend. maybe with a funny pic of keniston right after she woke up on friday morning. this cracks me up!!

she looks how I feel most mornings. for some reason I can't seem to get any sleep anymore. the girls aren't keeping me up but i think my body has gotten used to not getting uninterrupted sleep so i have been waking up at 3:30 and ready to start the day.....however, i don't, i just lay there. sometimes i drift back to sleep around 5, sometimes not. i am hoping my body will realize that my kids are FINALLY sleeping good and i am allowed to get 8-10 hours of good ol' sleep.

this was how karlie had been sleeping for awhile now....on our bedroom floor on her mattress. this was a HUGE improvement over her sleeping in our bed, which is where she has been sleeping since she's been in this world. however, after visiting with our sweet little neighbor, julia, she has decided to start sleeping in her own room!!!! this is major news in our house. julia is my new favorite person. ;) karlie has slept in her own room for the past 4 nights without a fight. amazing what peer pressure can do. hehehe
if she keeps it up we are planning a room redo. i started working on the girl's room when we moved to the new house but decided to stop wasting money on a room that they never are in. i'm really hoping she keeps it up because i already have ideas ready to go.

oh memorial day, how you bring out the redneck in all of us! we had a kiddie slip-n-slide that the kiddos were playing on, well apparently it wasn't big enough so my husband and brother-in-law to a trip to the wal-marts and made their own make-shift slip-n-slide. it was so much fun.....after we figured out to use a pool float to go down it. we all got a little banged up on the rocky ground but trial and error and now we have a plan for the 4th of July....buy a ton of pool floats and baby oil. we used soap but apparently the guys want to end up in the river so baby oil it is. i will be shocked if we don't end up in the e.r.

one of my girls loves the water, the other not so much. can you guess which is which? ;) hoping she will like the pool and the beach but it's not looking so good. we are leaving on friday and i absolutely can not wait!! we didn't get to go on our normal family beach vacation because keniston was only a couple weeks old and we didn't want to put up with chance taking a newborn to the beach.

so i have been busy this week and i guess i haven't been cooking as much as usual....apparently my husband thinks so too. he changed my menu board to tell me how little i have been cooking lately. :\ not funny karl, not funny.

so this morning i fixed the girls funny face pancakes. they loved this and i did too. i hardly ever get to be "that mom" so when i do get a chance to do something fun for them, i enjoy it just as much as they do.

so this week is going to be a beach-packing, play group playing, 90 minute massage getting, super secret graphic design project designing, spray tan spritzing week. :)

{juicing} all you need to know from someone who has no clue what they're talking about

so here it goes, my 411 info guide to all things juice fast related. i have been asked by several people now about my experiences with juicing and fasting so i figured i would put into blog form so i don't leave anything out.
first off, my mom has taught me everything about it. she has been juicing since i was in high school. my favorite was "grapple" juice, a combo of grapes and apples.
now days i don't juice fruits....not because i don't like them but because of the amount of sugar in them. i am desperately trying to get off the pounds my 2 sweet little angels put on my body during pregnancy. i wouldn't take it back for anything but i would love to not cry in victoria's secret and have to leave the store (true story).
so nowadays i do pretty much the same juice "recipe" every time I juice.
it tastes good and it's really really healthy.

Kerri's Super Green Juice:
2 cucumbers
3 carrots
3-5 stalks of celery
1/4 red pepper
1 med tomato
12 cherry tomatoes
1/2 lemon
3 stalks of kale
big handful baby spinach
3 stalks of romaine lettuce
handful of parsley
(sometimes I add a clove of garlic)

i am a salt-a-holic so i add a dash (or 2 or 3) to my drink as i'm drinking it.

i LOVE LOVE LOVE this bamboo cutting board/strainer for washing and cutting up my veggies. i swear this thing has saved me sooo much time.
that's the only thing i hate about juicing...it's time consuming to wash, cut, juice, and clean the juicer. i have my own system down now so it's not so bad but it's still not my favorite part of the day.

i have done a couple of juice fasts and i highly recommend it. i felt so much healthier plus lost some weight. you have to prepare your body before you do the whole fast thing though. the way i did it was a couple weeks before i started replacing 1 meal a day with juice then i gradually cut down the amount of food i was eating. slowly i started to only eat vegetables and brown rice until i was ready to do the complete fast. same way when you're coming off the fast, you can't just eat a big mac once your fast is over. slowly start introducing foods back into your diet.

if you can buy organic, DO IT, especially if you are fasting. I buy nearly all organic veggies not only because they're better but because i hate to peel and cut. when you buy organic, you can send it through the juicer peel and all.

i use a "jack lalanne power juicer".  i had a cheaper one and it just wasn't cutting it (literally) so i traded with my mom (isn't that what moms are good for?!) and now i'm using her juicer. i will be buying my own or possibly a "breville" juicer in the near future.

i try to juice once a day and i'm introducing it into my girl's diets as well. they seem to LOVE it. i make around 40 oz. and I usually drink around 28 oz. and the girls drink the rest. I have been known to drink the entire 40 oz. of juice myself.  Make sure when you juice that you are drinking your juice immediately....from what i have read if you let it sit or put it in the fridge for later, you lose the nutrients. and if i'm going to go to all the trouble (and expense) to juice i better be getting all the goodness i can get outta it!

let's face it, i have too many dishes to do already so just i just put a straw in my pitcher and drink.
my juice usually looks like brown stagnant water, it doesn't bother me at all but my husband can't even stomach to watch my drink it. hehehe

if you have any questions about juicing, please let me know!! shoot me an email or leave a comment below!
go forth and juice!

{keniston's 1st birthday party} - cute as a button

Whew!!! It's over. All the planning and creating for Keniston's birthday party is finally come to a close. I love seeing it all come together. All the little details that I stressed over. The photobooth was a huge hit....now I think every party should have a photobooth!! ;) At the end of this post I will list all the vendors that I used to make the party a suceess. If you have any questions about any of it, please email me and let me know. Enjoy!!

***UPDATE: keniston's party was feature on the Hostess with the Mostess blog. I'm so excited!!

 

Frames- Wild Sorbet Frame Company
Cake-Susan Jackson
Button Cookies- Paradise Sweets
Photobooth Props- Party Goodies
Tableware and Balloons- Sweet Lulu