Peanut Butter chocolate Slimfast bars

I love Slimfast. It may be old school weightloss, but it's yummy IMO. However I get tired of drinking shakes and hate to spend money on the bars all the time. So after looking at a few recipes I came up with my own bars. Here's your super easy, 2 minute recipe.

2cups whole oats
4scoops Chocolate Slimfast (use any flavor of chocolate you want)
1/3 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
1/2 cup of natural peanut butter


Mix ingredients in large bowl (I used my hands, it was much easier). Line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper and press mixture into bottoms of pan. Sit in fridge for 45 min and cut into 8 pieces. Great for a quick snack or have two for a meal.

Crochet 4 leaf clover

Excuse the rough draft and tell me if you need a better explanation. I just made this up after searching for a perfect clover that wasn't too big for what I want it for. These will make cute embellishments or you could connect multiple clovers for a cute St. Patty's Day garland.


Need a size h hook and worsted weight yarn.

Magic loop, ch.1 5hdc in loop join with slst.

Row2: chain 4, slst all in first hdc. Slst in next st, ch 4, slst in same stitch(repeat 2x), slst in next stitch,( ch8. 2sc in second chain from hook, 2sc in next chain, 1sc in next 5 chains), slst. Do not join.

Row 3: in loop formed by ch4 (2sc, hdc, 2dc,hdc,sc,hdc, 2dc,hdc, 2sc) repeat3x. slst to first sc in this row.

Finish off. Leave a tail if you plan to use as an embellishment.

Snow Storm!!!

I'm actually semi-excited to see a downpour of snow over the next 24 hours. Most people aren't. Most people are mad they canceled school. Most people don't think it will snow that much. And Most people are idiots. Then you get those of us who PREP for the snow storm. Our main need was flashlights...just in case. We have one flash light and the ones on our phones, which if electricity goes out we don't have car charges so that won't do us any good after a day or so. The likely hood of no electricity is slim, but I've seen it happen due to snow and it sucked!! However, my kids will quickly learn what life without the Wii, Xbox, or Playstation is like. (spoiled brats!)

But back to the main subject. Here's how we prepped, because we're cool people who do that sort of thing. First we packed kiddos up and headed to Wally World, the store that has everything right seemed a legit place to be. Here's what we bought...

4 awesome glow stick/flashlights which are ultimately for the kids
Bread (which we were lucky there was any left, apparently everyone thinks its Armageddon)
Candy (lots of it because... well, lets face it, who knows when you'll need candy in your life)
Milk (@ 2.48 a gallon I might say)
Sunchips(@1.96 so we bought 4 bags :))
batteries (duh)
breaded greenbeans that you bake and are amazing and cheap (I think they are called crispers? frozen section, they're yummy but not enough in one box for our family)
bagels
peanut butter captain crunch (NECESSARY!)
Bubbles (for pinterest idea I'll post about)
and random other items I can't think of. But for the most part, nothing anyone really needs to be prepared for the storm....We do have quite a bit in the house as it is so I guess we didn't need to buy too much but our grocery list looks pretty pathetic to the outsider and I have to laugh at it. oooooh yea, and we bought beer. Leinenkugals Holiday something or another bundle. Beer is essential when stuck at home forever with 4 kids right?! of course it is!
Anyhow, if you'd like to have more ideas on how to prep for a storm...don't follow me, I'm terrible at it :)

I'm in Lincoln, Nebraska...right on the edge of that 10-12"/8-10" line. I don't doubt we'll see that much at all. The weather men aren't that far off!

Simple crochet nb hat pattern

This is my pattern, mine only, Im sure there are similar ones out there but this is my tried and true pattern. I don't care if you use it, sell things from it, what have you but would love some sort of acknowledgement or shout out once in a great while :)

Materials:
I hook
worsted weight yarn

gauge: 13 hdc in 4"

ch. 4, slip stitch to join.

Rnd1: ch 1. 9hdc in circle, slst in first hdc
Rnd2: ch1. 1hdc in same space, 2 hdc in next stitch and next 7stitches
Rnd3: ch1. 1hdc in same st, *2 hdc in next, 1 hdc in next*, repeat around
Rnd 4: ch1. 1hdc in same st, 1 hdc in next, *2hdc in next stitch, 1hdc in next 2* repeat around
Rnd5: ch1. 1hdc in same st, 1hdc in next 2 stitches, *2hdc in next st. 1hdc in next 3* repeat around
Rnd 6ch1. 1hdc in same st. 1 hdc all stitches around

Rnd 7-13: repeat row 6

Finish off with yarn needle. Slide remaining yarn through stitches so it is hidden and trim off close to your hat.

Voila!! Your finished!

(P.S. feel free to ask me any questions. This is the first pattern I've written down so I may have missed something. Keep in mind that you may not always end off with a perfect round, that's ok, having odd stitches will do that)

Bus-nass

About 85% of all my sales come directly from Facebook, whether it be custom orders or from sales I host, so I've decided I'm done with Etsy, a place where I can get lost in the crowd among thousands of other people selling the same exact thing but maybe in a different color. I don't think this is a fix all nor do I expect to suddenly clear out my closets (which I desperately want to happen) but I am tired of paying another site to not sell what I can not sell all on my own :) This whole "running my own business" thing is a daunting task. I spend so much time making things and most of them don't sell. Instead someone may want something similar but not exactly the same. Which I don't mind at all, I'm happy for the sale. However I don't like when I have piles of items slowly stacking up in my closet. I need to get rid of some stuff so I can make new stuff to sit around on the shelves for this next year! lol

Anyhow, here's the link to my page, again. www.facebook.com/navilluscreations. Find the album titled "FOR SALE" (practical title huh?) and start shopping. Here's a preview of whats currently listed until I find more stuff to list.

      

Yo-no

When dieting its important to get the right balance of everything, fruits, proteins, veggies, some non fat dairy, yada yada...give me some chocolate! Sigh, really I need some chocolate right now, I hate dieting. So for now let's call it a lifestyle change. I am currently making a lifestyle change and consciously trying to change my horrible eating habits. I've gotten into a slump of eating things from a box and not things from the ground. It's cheaper that way, plain and simple. So while I'm still feeding my kids half box and half natural things I'm doing better myself by not eating more than 20% or so in processes foods. It's working, I did great last week but binged on my "free day" and have to start all over. Seriously, don't so this, it's discouraging and really sucks.
Ok back to my main point. I bought some Yoplait Greek the other day (I had a coupon so it was of course a good plan) thinking I like Yoplait so I'd probably like their Greek too. No, nope, nay, I say. It wasn't terrible per se but was far from good. Its like the added false sweeteners or something to it making it unbearable to eat. I may have eaten half before giving it to E because he'll eat anything. I think I'm gonna have to stick with Chobani, the more expensive option. Chobani has an ok texture (im a big texture freak) and definitely not artificially sweetened. Pineapple is my favorite :)

Freebie Friday!!

Really I only titled it that because it just so happens its Friday, otherwise I'd totally have named it something less cheesy/mainstream/what everyone else would call it ;)
Anyhow, Ms. Kelsey at http://kelseyhomolka-keepingupwithkelsey.blogspot.com told me I was slacking in blogging, in a totally friendly way I'm sure. So to prove I'm not a slacker and instead of making hats like I should be for customers I'm gonna blog about my last 45 minutes. Which of course weren't that exciting other than knowing I will be getting free stuff in the mail in the next month or so. This free sample splurge started a month ago, somehow I came across www.bsavings.com, they're pretty awesome, they have lots of links for samples. Some are slightly annoying because they want you to fill out this and that, and this again. But for the most part its "please fill this out" and then "thank you, you should receive this product in .....weeks". I'm thankful for those ones. Also thankful for autofill to simplify things (thanks Google). Anyhow occasionally you run across links to other freebies sites such as www.freeflys.com which are organized according to product type making it easy for me to get what I'd actually use. Tonight I signed up for a lot of hair and body products, some laundry items, and I think some vitamins as well. I could probably do it all night long if I wanted but I have things I should be doing...oops. Oh another way to get freebies/samples, go to product fb pages, a lot of times they have links to their giveaways or even when you "like" the page you can apply for samples. Other pages have giveaways when you leave a short review. Pretty sweet deal for free stuff I think.
But, just so you know, so far I've received a free cookbook from Jiffy which was relatively thick and had quite a few recipes in it. Jiffy is super cheap so I use it frequently and will definitely find use in my little cookbook. And yesterday I received free samples of airborne as well as $1.50 off coupon. When I get more freebies/samples/coupons I'll try to update, as well as update when I find more sites to go to.