The Cheerful Dreamer Blog -

25
Mar
2017

Frozen Breakfast Burritos

categories: Food

I have a strong addiction to breakfast burritos. I eat one almost every day, especially when I am at work. When you are buying them off of the shelf, the expense can really add up. The ones that I have been eating range in price from $1.99 to $2.49. Before I know it, I have spent a lot of money on burritos. Now I can happily say that those days are behind me. How did I kick the habit, you ask? I didn’t. I did start making my own burritos, however. Most of us don’t have time to make a burrito every morning, so I started making batches of burritos and throwing them in the freezer. This way, I can grab one of my way out the door and I am set. It is such a money saver! You will need the following ingredients:

Peppers, onions, scrambled eggs, meat, tortillas, cheese and frozen tater tots.

Start by scrambling eggs. Set them aside once they are cooked and then sauté the vegetables and sausage together. It is very important that you let the cook food completely cool before assembling your burritos. If you don’t, the food will sweat once it starts to freeze. That ice it ends up making you leave you with super soggy burritos. Nobody wants that. Yuck! Once everything has cooled, assemble like you would any other burrito.

After it is all put together, roll it up!

Bam! After that, I wrap mine in a layer of plastic wrap followed by a layer of foil.

It is also a good idea to write what type of burrito you have on the top if you are making multiple kinds. These I made have smoked sausage. I made a batch last week with chorizo. They were amazingly tasty! There are so many options with these. You can truly customize them to fit your tastes. It is also nice to know exactly what is going into your food. After all was said and done, this cost less than $1.00 per burrito. Those are some significant savings!

15
Nov
2016

Paper Towel Roll Flowers

categories: Home Decor

Not only do I love a good DIY project, but I love seizing any opportunity to repurpose something. This is one of those projects. We all burn through paper towel and toilet paper rolls in our homes. What do we do with the cardboard left over? We either recycle or discard them. Why not repurpose them? I think the first hesitation with repurposing such a thing is doubt that it can be made to look like something other than what it is. Who wants to have a house decorated in something that looks like it has been in the bathroom? I get it. Trust me though, you can really transform these things! Today you will see the first of many examples of how to bring new life to these rolls – paper towel roll flowers!

For this project, we will start by cutting up the rolls.

After that, just start assembling! I first wound the fringe looking rolls up and hot glued them together. Then I attached the “petals” to the fringe base. I secured it on a decorative paper straw to serve as the stem. Once the glue was dry, I hit the flowers with a light coat of paint with my airbrush gun. A light coat of spray paint would work just as well. I added a pearl in the center to finish it off and viola!

There is sand in the bottom of the vase to hold the flowers in place.

13
Nov
2016

Good Evening

categories: General Crafting

Good evening lovelies! I hope everyone had a splendid weekend. I spent today being lazy and watching football. It was a glorious day, my Buccaneers beat Matt’s Bears and I couldn’t have been more delighted. It’s the small things folks. Now that the game is over, I have been doing laundry and trying to sneak in some craft time. I have been collecting paper towel rolls for a while now. Scratch that, my mom has been collecting paper towel rolls for me. It is high time that I get around to doing something with them. So tonight I work on phase one of the project. It is the tedious part… the cutting. I am going to get it all out of the way tonight so I can play all day tomorrow.

12
Nov
2016

Personalized Door Hangar

categories: Home Decor

If you know anything about me, you know that I am a sucker for a good deal. Hence, my recent Groupon addiction. They are now partnered with Ibotta, the awesome app that gives you cash back for groceries. So far, my deals have ranged from 5-30 percent back on my purchase. I found this personalized door hangar a few months ago. What a gem!

I had to order it. There was a coupon for it AND I got 30% back with Ibotta. There was no way that deal was going to get by me. It did take a while to get to me. I am fine with that. It is cut from a single piece of wood and the quality is quite impressive. I am willing to wait for a worthy product. Though beautiful in it’s original state, I knew that I wanted o spice it up a bit. My front door is black, so I decided to paint it a tealish color to make it pop a bit. I also tied on several paper flowers. I hot glued pieces of twine on the flowers and tied them on rather than gluing them straight to the wood. This will give me freedom to change the embellishments up in the future without damaging the product.

Here is a better look fro a few steps back. Please pardon the condition of my door. It is in dire need of a paint job. That is on my to-do list for next week. I am on a little vacation, so I have time for projects. What a great feeling!

What I also love about this is something that I didn’t even think of until my husband pointed it out. It looks super cool at night!

The traditional wreath on my door has officially been replaced. I definitely recommend getting on of these next time you see a deal running for them on Groupon!

11
Nov
2016

Happy Belated Halloween

categories: Everyday Life

Hello everyone, Happy Halloween! I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday. I had to work all day and trick-or-treating was done in my neighborhood when I got home this year. It wasn’t a total loss, though. we got to be festive at work! After years of not being able to have any holiday spirit, my new company let us have some fun. My co-workers and I painted our faces and wore the traditional ears. I spent the day dispensing prescriptions (and dealing with the most annoying inventory ever) in full on bunny face. It was everything I could have hoped for. Seriously, it was stressful, but still a totally great day because of the festivities.

I had so much fun doing my makeup!! I found a lot of inspiration on Instagram. When I got home, I tried the ears out on the doggos. Two of them hated it, but I can always count on this chilled out hound to go along with my games.

She was sad when I took them off. I’m pretty sure she would have stayed in them for hours. Such a good girl!! The other stinkers kept wanting to take them and chew on them, so they had to be put away. Anyway, I am excited that it is now my favorite time of year. The festive songs, the yummy food and best of all, the amazing DIY projects! Halloween is always a great way to start things off. I need to kick it into high gear, because I have been slacking. I promise there is a lot coming your way. See you soon!

16
Aug
2016

Alcohol Splatter Coasters

categories: Art

A while back, I saw someone make these cool coasters on tiles with sharpies and alcohol. I finally tried it for myself and am officially obsessed. There are so many great things about this project. First, you can get the tiles for super cheap at your local warehouse stores. I opted for the oversized tiles at Lowes and only paid 48 cents per tile. The average sized tiles were only 16 cents each. What?! You can also use any brand of permanent marker. I used both Sharpie, PrismaColor and some cheapo markers from Michaels on these. What I love about using different brands on the same piece is that they each transition differently at the end of the process.

Now comes the fun part… drawing! If you have a specific design in mind, go with it. If you want to free hand it, that is okay too! I have two different tiles posted here for you. One is a rainbow. I knew that is what I wanted, so that is what I drew. The other is just random dots. I had nothing in particular in mind when I did that one. Just color your heart out. Once you are done, spritz your tile with a little alcohol. The ink will automatically start to dissipate once the alcohol hits it. If you want an even cooler effect, you can stand the tile up on any side and let the alcohol run a bit. That is what I did with my rainbow. As you can see, the colors began to run into each other.

Once they are dry, be sure to thoroughly seal them. I used this:

I sprayed several coats, letting it dry completely in between. Be sure to spray your art in a well ventilated area. I used my picnic table outside. The fumes from the spray are pretty strong and definitely should be breathed in. After that, simply glue on some cork or felt to the back and you are done! I am thinking about how I can make more and turn them into some sort of mosaic project. If I come up with something, you will see it soon!

08
May
2016

Happy Mother’s Day

categories: Everyday Life, Pets

I was so happy that my weekend off fell on Mother’s Day. I have been so busy at work lately. With the pharmacy transitioning from Target to CVS, when I get off of work each day I am just too exhausted to function. Seriously, if you go to a store that just transitioned to CVS, please be nice to them. They are dying. People are horrible. It’s rough. It was nice to have a day that I didn’t just feel the need to stay in bed. We got up early and took my mom to breakfast at my favorite diner. It was absolutely y-u-m!

I just love that lady. After I got my belly full and did a little shopping, it was home for some doggie snuggle time. I tried to take some cute selfies, but all Delta was interested in was trying to get some kisses. Typical.

She is such a goofball. I hope that everyone reading this enjoyed their weekend. It is back to the grind for me tomorrow. Wish me luck! Hopefully I won’t be too pooped to try out a couple of projects for y’all!

07
May
2016

Outdoor Water Fountain

categories: Outdoors

Hello lovely people! It feels like forever since I have been here presenting a project to you. My laptop went to computer heaven right after my last post and it has taken until now to get a new one. Ah, life. It feels good to be back at it, though! I have been working on creating a little backyard oasis for myself lately and I have been wanting to add a little water fountain to it. What better project to stage a come back with, right? Right. So without further ado, here is my super easy, anyone with thumbs can do it, outdoor water fountain!

Start by gathering two big clay pots and one small pot to hold them together. I just went for Terra Cotta because I was already dishing out a bunch of money on plants and I had somewhat of a budget I was trying to adhere to. You could always splurge and go for the nicer painted, glazed pots of you are feeling froggy. Here are mine:

As you can see on the pictures on the left, I sealed the bottom hole as well as adhered the smaller pot to the larger one with some caulk. This will keep it from leaking everywhere. You don’t have t use caulk, it is just what I had handy. I didn’t worry too much about how it looked, because it is just for me and you won’t see any of that in the end. Once the caulk (or whatever adhesive you decide to use) is dry, Place the smaller of the two pots on top of the larger and position however you find appealing. I chose to tip mine, because the fountain attachment worked well that way and it just looked nice.

I bought a bag of nice stones from Lowes to fill the pots with. I love the contrast in colors. Like I said, the sky is the limit when making your own. Once you get the logistics of how everything works, there are so many options to choose from. Before you fill your pots completely up with rocks, put your pump in. I was lucky enough to find this solar-powered pump at Harbor Freight this morning for a heck of a good price! It is nice because I don’t have to worry about unplugging it or wasting power. Love!!

Once it is in and positioned like you want, start loading in the rocks and water. It really is that easy. This is what mine looks like now:

You can always use tubing instead of the plastic stand that it comes with. That comes in handy if you don’t want to see where the water is coming from. I didn’t mind on this one, but I have an idea for another one that I might use tubing for. If I make it I will be sure to show you guys! I added a video down below of the fountain in action. Before you watch it, know this. I have not figured out the video editor yet. So the clip is sideways. Yikes! You get the idea, though. Bye loves!!

DIY Outdoor Fountain

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04
Jan
2016

DIY Dog Toy

categories: Pets

You might remember my post and corresponding video tutorial on making t-shirt yarn. Well, I finally got around to posting the video for the dog toy I made with the yarn. Honestly, I completely forgot about it until I was going through my phone and saw it. It is really quite simple. Even if you don’t make your own yarn, you can purchase some to make this toy. I simply finger knitted three long strands and tied off each end. Once that is complete, secure all three stands together and braid, twist or knot them until you are at the opposite end.

Check the video out here:

03
Jan
2016

Airbrushing Fun

categories: Art

Happy New Year friends! I hope everyone had a great holiday. I have been super sick for the past two weeks, but I am finally starting to feel better. Woo hoo!! My super awesome hubby got me an airbrushing kit that I have had my eye on for Christmas. I have been dying to play around with it. When I thought I wouldn’t possibly cough up a lung yesterday, I started playing with it. It. Is. AWESOME! Seriously, everyone run out and buy one immediately. I had so much fun creating art with it. I was in my own creative world and I never wanted to leave it.

I got a five pack of canvas for $12 right before Christmas at Michael’s. They were having awesome deals every day. I couldn’t stop going in and spending money. I used that and tons of free paint that I have been collecting from the dump. This is what I made:

It is a galaxy! I love it. I think it is pretty good for my first time playing with an airbrush gun. The only thing I would change is the method that I used to make the stars. Some of them just came out too big and chunky. Like I said, it was so much fun to create. I think it is safe to say that I officially have a new obsession!!

If you are interested in trying it out for yourself, he got my kit at Harbor Freight. They are the go to place for cheap tools. Always check RetailMeNot for coupons too. I got some accessories for my kit for 20% off when I went yesterday.