Christmas 2012

O'Henry, our Elf on the Shelf had so much fun last year! It will be so much fun to see what he is up to this year!

Do you have an Elf? I would love to see what they are up to!

Chocolate Chip Cookies: a Recipe

This is a post from the archives. I wrote this a few years ago and never published it so I decided now is the perfect time to post it! (sorry for the dark photos, at the time I thought it looked good hahaha)

Cookies!!!

Who doesn't love a good cookie? So I had an afternoon to whip up a few, like 6 dozen! Wow, I didn't realize the recipe I was following was a double batch of the original so I made like a ton of these bad boys!

Blue Ribbon Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/2 cups Flour

1/2 tsp. Baking Soda

1/4 tsp. Salt

1 cup Brown Sugar

1/2 cup Sugar

1 cup Butter (2 sticks)

2 Eggs

2 tsp. Vanilla Extract

1 cup Chocolate Chips

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

In a small bowl combine flour, baking soda & salt.

In a large mixing bowl or stand mixer beat brown sugar, sugar & butter.

Add eggs one at a time and vanilla.

Slowly add dry ingredients.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Drop spoonfuls or use cookie scoop onto prepared baking sheet and bake for 21 minutes (depending on your oven).

They are so yummy and delicious!

There were so many I didn't know where to put them all! I need to invest in a dang cookie jar, one that won't let the air in so they don't get all hard. That's one thing I hate about cookie jars.... 

yummmm

Enjoy!

What have you been baking lately?

Click here for printable recipe!

The Help: aFree Printable

Let's talk about movies today. I absolutely love to watch movies and there are so many great ones! I love action films, suspense movies, comedies and of course a good chick flick or even a bad one really. I just love to watch movies! There are so many great ones out there. My all time favorite movie is Remember the Titans.

Image Source

I could watch this one 100 times and still enjoy it every time. And talk about an awesome soundtrack, I love the music in this movie!
Besides my all time fave, my top 5 favorites are:
The Italian Job
A Knight's Tale - another awesome sound track
The Mask of Zorro
Pride & Prejudice - this version is the best
A Walk to Remember
And a bonus: Holes

Images Source

So who has seen The Help? Didn't you just love it???!!

Image source 

This one was such a great movie! Everyone I have talked to lovesit. It is sooo good! and I just love Emma Stone, she is hilarious.

Last year for Mother's Day I thought it would be fun to make a print from this movie for a gift.
I went to the DI and got a few old wood frames.

I sanded and then spray painted the ugly frames with Krylon Ivory.

I designed the print after the colors on the movie cover.

I just love this cute little bee :)

Feel free to print. (for personal use only)
Click here to download.

Have you figured out what you are giving for Mother's Day this year? What are your top 5 (or 7) favorite movies?

Planting Wheat Grass: aTutorial

By raise of hands: Who wants to plat some grass???

Only ME? ha!
I'm going to show you all anyway :)

Okey dokey, so Monday I posted about the grass I grew a few years ago for Mother's Day. Today I'm going to show you how easy it is to plant and grow it! (Even for someone like me that stinks at plant growing.) I did this in seriously 10 minutes when I went home on my lunch break. IT'S FAST! The longest part was deciding on the container.

Quick story tho: Danny and I went to Lowe's on Wed. to pick up a few hooks I needed for a project, I'll show you one day... anyway so we walked out through the garden center, not sure why, we never go that way, but I was happy because I secretly wanted a pretty potted flowery plant. So we are walking and I said to Danny, man, I want some pretty flowers. And he said, and I quote: "your not getting flowers, it's a waste of money, you know they will just die, you can't keep anything alive." And then we both laughed because we knew it was so true and I couldn't even argue that this time would be different and I wouldn't forget to water them and they would be beautiful and live forever because I knew I would probably forget about them after a few days and they would die and be a waste of 8 bucks. One day I'll do better, but we both knew today wasn't the day... hahaha

Okay so back to my easy grass: Here are what the seeds look like. This is the same package I purchased 2 years ago, you don't use very many seeds so it will pretty much last forever. Not bad for a, I think, 5 or 6 dollar investment. 

What you will need: (all of these are kind of obvious)

-Wheat Grass Seeds

-Dirt 

-Rocks

-a Container

-Water

Step 1: Get something to grow your grass in.

I decided to use this glass candle holder because I think it will be pretty.

Step 2: Put a few rocks in the bottom for drainage.

I don't actually know if you need to do this but again, I thought it would be pretty like those succulent terrariums you see all over the internets. Also, I didn't have any rocks so I used these marble rock things that I had. They are just the rocks for my fish bowl, these ones never lived with the fish if you were wondering.

Step 3: Throw some dirt in on top of the rocks.

The directions say to fill the dirt to an inch below the top of your container. I did mine a little less because I'll show you why in a sec.

Step 4: Add seeds!!

You just need an even layer of seeds across the top.

Kapone was super curious about those seeds, he almost spilled the whole thing over. Maybe I shouldn't have done this on a rocking chair??

**I would also like to point out that I liked chevron (and glitter/sequins) long before it was crazy popular on Pinterest. And before I even knew what chevron was besides the gas station on the corner...

The background on all of these pictures is a blanket I bought when I was in junior high. I thought it was the coolest thing and I still totally think it is! The color photographed pretty funny in these pictures its more red in some and more pink in others but the real color is purpleish/pinkish. The picture with me pouring seeds is pretty true to real life I think.

Anyway, I just wanted everyone to know I'm a total trend setter :) bwahahaha!

Step 4: Add some dirt on top of the seeds.

If you read those directions in that last photo, you can repeat steps 3 & 4. That is what I did because I haven't tried it before and I want it to be cute and thick! This is also why I didn't put more dirt in at the beginning.

Here is my 2nd layer of seeds:

Can you see my 2 layers of seeds here? I hope it looks cool when everything starts to grow! I can't wait.

Step 6: Now WATER that bad boy!

This part makes me nervous because I don't want to over water and drowned it but my dirt was super duper dry, basically like saw dust, so I wanted to make sure everything got plenty wet enough.

Step 7: Place in a sunny area and watch it grow!

Can you see the water in there? It was kind of fun watching the dirt soak it all up. 

Now it should grow pretty fast, they say results in 3-5 days, but Don't forget to keep watering it!! This is the part I am really bad at! If the dirt is dry I water it so it is damp. of course that is when I remember :)

If you follow me on Instagram I'm sure I will post pictures as it grows because I really do think it is super cute, so check there for updates along the way. 

I'm hoping this will be a really cute centerpiece for my table. I just hope I can fill that frame and that vase before my grass comes up! Wish me luck. :) Then when this is ready I'll blog about how cute my table looks!

I really didn't bother to clean up before I took these pictures. That is totally a sneak peek of another project hanging from that chair. It kind of looks like a fan. haha Totally isn't a fan, but wouldn't that be cool it I was awesome enough to build a fan?

womp womp

Are you planting anything fun? Do you have a hard time growing things too or do you have a green thumb? I'd love tips!

Happy SPRING!! with a Mother's Day gift idea.

I am sorry I missed posting last week, I have a good excuse though: I was out of town. It was only for a few days but I was pretty much checked out all week in vacation mode. Still am, if we are being honest. I just want to look out the window at the pretty sun and the very sweet just blooming flowers and daydream that it is summer and I'm driving around town in my jeep with the top down and the sun warming my shoulders with a warm breeze blowing across my face and my hair blowing backwards in the wind, looking gorgeous and on the way to the lake with Danny and our puppies. Of course if you have ever ridden in a jeep going faster then 20 mph you know your hair is never blowing in the right direction and if you know me at all you know my ideal speed would be much faster then 20 mph. But a girl can dream right?

Soon enough it's going to be 90 degrees and I'll have my hair in a pony, driving around, top down with sun kissed cheeks and big shades shielding my eyes from direct sunlight. AND. IT. WILL. BE. MAGICAL!

So in the spirit of warm weather and pretty things: I love SPRING!!! I'm so glad Spring has come to Idaho!

Today I am going to show you some spring photos! This is my mantle from a couple years ago. I got a bundle of tulips for Easter and they are so beautiful!

I should probably go pick up some fresh flowers for my dining table; pretty flowers always make me happy! (as long as there are no bugs, I can't handle bugs...)

Have you ever grown grass in a can? OH MY GOSH, SO PRETTY! And so easy!! I love to watch things grow, although I'm not that great at keeping plants alive, I love to see the little daily growth.

For Mother's Day a couple of years ago I decided to get some seeds and plant some wheat grass. I found these cute little cans at Target in the $1 section and they were perfect! I got some dirt and planted the seeds and I was so excited to get those first little sprouts coming out of the dirt and this grass is a fast grower too. My kind of plat; I get very impatient.

The only down side is it doesn't last super long and once you trim it it's done, at least I found this to be the case when I grew it. Maybe it's not always like that, I don't know, I only grew it once. But while it's growing it's so pretty and so cute! I found my seeds at a craft store but I'm guessing you can find them at your craft store or any nursery if you would like to grow your own wheat grass. Just looking at these pictures makes me happy, I think I may just plant some grass tonight!

I also saw this fun Tin Can Treat idea on OurBestBites.com that I wanted to give along with the grass that year for Mother's Day. Follow the easy toot from Sara to make your own! I used fruit cans, washed them out, found this darling paper at the craft store to cover my cans and I used lots of fun ribbon to tie on the tab.

They look so cute with just the paper on them. I also decided to create my own label and taped them to the front of the can. They are super cute and I love how they turned out! There are Peanut M&M's inside! One of my favorite treats!

I hope this inspires you to plant something, cut some flowers for your home or create a fun Mother's Day gift to give this year! Have a beautiful day!! Now I'm going to go out and enjoy this sunshine!!

I'd love to see what you are giving this year for Mother's Day! Let me know in the comments!

PS: I stopped by Ikea last week while I was in Utah, I can't wait to show you what I brought home!!

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Teriyaki Chicken & Rice Bowls: a Recipe

Let me just tell you, these were amazing!! I could eat this every night and be perfectly happy about it.

Okay so here is what you will need:

2 green peppers, a yellow onion, a can of pineapple chunks with the juice, a package of boneless, skinless chicken thighs, oregano, salt & pepper, olive oil, teriyaki sauce, butter, and rice.

I picked up this Kikkoman teriyaki sauce and it's delicious but you can of course use your favorite.

It is pretty simple to make. I typically prepare the chicken the morning of so it has a few hours to marinate but you could also do it the night before if you've got the time and plan ahead that far. Cut chicken into bite sized cubes. Place cut chicken in a gallon Ziploc bag. Add Oregano, Salt, Pepper and a bit of teriyaki sauce, enough to evenly coat chicken. Leaving some air, close the bag and mix. Once completely combined remove as much air as possible and let marinate in the refrigerator for as long as desired.

In a large saucepan or pot on medium high heat add chopped green peppers and about a 1tbs. olive oil. Cook until almost soft then add the onions and more olive oil if necessary, you could even throw in a tablespoon of brown sugar to help caramelize the onions. Once onions are caramelized move veggies to a serving bowl. There may be bits left on the bottom of the pan, this is perfect we will use this to cook the chicken.

But let’s start the rice first. In a 1 quart pot add 1 cup of uncooked rice, 2 cups of water, a tsp. salt and a tbs. butter. Cook on high uncovered until it starts to boil. Once it is boiling cover and turn down to simmer for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes remove from heat leaving the lid on for 5 minutes. Remove lid and fluff before serving.

While the rice is going let’s deglaze our veggie pan by pouring in the juice from the can of pineapple chunks. Keeping the heat at medium high add in your marinated chicken chunks and cook in the pineapple juice. You may want to add more teriyaki sauce at this point, about a tbs. at a time depending on your desired taste. I added about 2 more tbs. Once chicken is cooked through and rice is ready, let’s eat!!

To build your rice bowl start with a couple spoonfuls of rice, then add veggies, pineapple chunks and chicken. Make sure you include a few extra spoonfuls of the juice from the chicken, it is amazing! I also added more teriyaki sauce because I love the flavor but you don’t have to, it will be amazing either way. Eat up and enjoy! This is a new favorite in our house.

For printable recipe click here.

I hope you like it! What is your favorite meal? I'd love to hear!

The Evolution of a Room: Part 3

A few weeks ago I Instagramed this photo:

I was so excited when I brought my new bike home I had to put it up and show it to the world!
I love having pictures and art hanging on the walls in our home, it makes it feel so much more homey and ours. I have a hard time with plain blank walls...

I have plans to make a washi tape frame around the bike but until I find a tape that I like or actually start looking for tape, I just used regular old masking tape on the back side and taped it in several different spots to make sure it stayed up.
I have plans to hang more things in here (that means you characacher!) but so far this is what I've got and there are also plans in my head for lighting but that will have to wait a little bit as well.

I am very happy with the makeover my bed received. Thanks to Christmas and my hubby for getting me the duvet I wanted. I was happy to see this duvet cover on my way out of JCP while Christmas shopping one night. I love the colors and pattern and the price was too good to pass up, I didn't know I would get the duvet for Christmas so that was a very happy surprise and a wonderful Christmas morning!

For those of you that are interested here is my source list for bedding and bike:
I have a really hard time spending a lot of money on anything so this whole room makeover was super duper inexpensive, like less then 100 bucks!

Art:

Bike print from CaravanShoppe
Printed at Staples with a 40% off code.

Bedding:

Sheets at JCPenny similar here (and on sale)
Duvet Cover at JCPenny clearance (no longer available)
Duvet at Overstock.com here 

I love the new colors going on in here now and I can't wait to add more stuff to make this room feel even more ours. It is evolving into a space that I love!

Valentines

I love giving and receiving Valentines, it is my favorite thing about this holiday! So I wanted to share with you what I did last year for my Valentines.

There is one of the cutest little Etsy shops called Paper + Pip and they create some of the cutest little printables. I was able to get these when they were running a deal on GroupDealz last year.

I just fell in love with all the different designs and the cute little pictures. They are too sweet!

These went together pretty quick.

I whipped up a batch of cookies using Valentine's M&M's instead of chocolate chips.

Purchased these paper CD sleeves and put a little red napkin in each one and then put a cookie inside.

I wrapped the Valentine's I printed out around the cookie sleeve and tied it up with twine.

They are so darling and yummy! I couldn't wait to give them out!

I hope this helps you if you are searching for a cute Valentine idea!