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Friday, October 28, 2011

My Pinterest Challenge

First, have you heard of Pinterest?  If not, I encourage you to check it out but you've been warned: it's highly addicting.  It's a great source to find everything and anything you are looking for. I've started boards for "dream house", "my style", "holidays", etc.  So great!

On to my Pinterest Challenge.  I got this idea from Sherry and Katie and found a couple of fun fall projects to try, pinned them, and started crafting.  Here they are:

Image From Here
My DIY:


It was very easy to do.  I started with these supplies from Michael's:


The spider and the pumpkin were both 50% off and I used a coupon for the rhinestones.  Total price: $9



My second challenge was even easier and I already had the supplies on hand.  I wanted to make the pumpkin in the upper left corner:

Image From Here
My finished product:



My Supplies:



So easy!  I really love the sparkly pumpkin.  It's even prettier in person.  So go check out Pinterest and happy pinning!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Things Im loving in Pottery Barn right now:

Clara Hutch & Buffet

I love the look of this and the storage that it provides. You could totally make this yourself using an old hutch and adding the wood rods to separate the wine bottles



Toscana Round Table


I love how rustic this looks. It's very similar to Young House Love's round table they found here:
Image from YoungHouseLove.com



Clarissa Glass Chandelier

So 1920's to me. I love it but it is too small for my dining space and since my space is round I don't think the rectangular one would work.



Still loving the classics, Mom this one's for you:

PB Basic Sofa with Brushed Canvas Slipcovers



Definitely want something like this in my next house. Don't have space for it at this house:


Samantha Collection Shelf and Bench

Monday, October 24, 2011

Fall To-Do List

I recently saw this idea on a blog that I regularly read and remembered how I used to set goals for myself like this in high school and loved the feeling of going back over the goals and checking them off the list while remembering all the fun I had while doing each event.



So here goes my first FUN To-Do List since high school (we wont even talk about how long it's been):

Rake Leaves
Jump in the leaves
Make pumpkin bread
Enjoy a pumpkin spice latte (or two)
Have a girls get-together
Visit the pumpkin patch
Hayride

Sodium Smarty

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Sunkist S’alternative for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

A few years ago my then fiancé and I set out to save money for our wedding and one of the easiest ways for us to do this was to cook meals at home instead of eating out all the time.  After about 2 weeks of home cooked meals we needed a little splurge and went out to eat.  We were so excited to eat out, each one carefully looking over the menu in a way we rarely did before to make our selections.  Once we did and our meals came out we were both surprised and disappointed at how salty the food tasted.  Even desert had tons of salt!  This was a turning point in our lives as far as limiting our sodium intake.

sunkist

I recently took the  Sunkist Sodium Quiz to test my knowledge of sodium intake and what do you know, I’m a sodium smarty. The quiz asks various questions testing your knowledge about sodium: how much is the recommended daily amount, where the majority of it is found in our diets, etc.
Here are my results:


Sunkist®  has recently developed a program they call Sunkist S’alternative,  an all-natural way to flavor food, boost potassium intake and cut down on sodium using Sunkist® lemons as an alternative to salt. A fresh squeeze of a Sunkist® lemon is a fast, easy and delicious way to enhance the natural flavor of food without exceeding your daily sodium limit! Lemons taste good on just about everything – seafood, chicken, pasta, salad.  It’s a great alternative to high sodium spices.

In fact, Sunkist® created a great paella dish I can’t wait to try. I know my Spanish husband would love to see me whip up a batch of this for dinner.  Here is the recipe:

Lemon Seafood Paella
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Ingredients:
  • 1-32 oz can low sodium vegetable broth
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • 1 teaspoon saffron threads
  • 1lb. of firm, fresh pieces of whitefish such as tilapia, bass, halibut and swordfish, cut into 16-21 pieces
  • 1lb. or 16-21 mussels, cleaned and de-bearded
  • 1lb. or 16-21 medium sized clams, rinsed
  • ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
  • 3 Sunkist®lemons, zest and juice
  • 3 Tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 ½ cups minced onion
  • 3 cloves garlic, minced
  • ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • 3 cups uncooked short-grain rice such as Valencian, Arborio, or Calrose
  • 1 cup frozen green peas
  • 1-8oz jar of sliced, roasted red peppers

Instructions: (Makes 8 servings)
  • To prepare broth, combine all the ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer (do not boil). Keep warm over low heat.
  • To prepare paella, heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large paella pan or large skillet over medium-high heat. Add fish pieces to pan and sauté 1 minute. Remove fish from pan, reserve and keep warm. Add onion to pan and sauté 5 minutes. Add the lemon zest, garlic and crushed red pepper and cook 5 minutes. Add rice and cook 1 minute longer, stirring constantly. Stir in broth, bring to a low boil and cook 10 minutes, stirring frequently.
  • Stir in the peas and red pepper slices. Add mussels and clams to pan, nestling them into rice mixture. Cook 5 minutes or until shells open; discard any unopened shells. Stir in the reserved fish and chopped parsley and cook 5 minutes. Remove from the heat, stir in lemon juice and check for seasoning. Cover with a towel and let stand 10 minutes before stirring.
Sunkist S'alternativ#3C3C25.doc


Tips to Reduce Sodium
Most of the sodium in the typical American diet (75%) comes from processed and restaurant foods. Here are a few tips to help you and your family reduce sodium by consuming more fresh foods like Sunkist®lemons and other fresh Sunkist citrus!
  • Plan meals carefully. If a high sodium food is selected, choose your other menu items from lower sodium groups.
  • Read labels of packaged or prepared food products for the sodium content. Look for items “without added salt.”
  • Skip the salt in all cooking and food preparation by serving extra Sunkist lemon wedges and herb mixtures for individual seasoning.
  • Check the sodium content of the drinking water in your area with your local Health Department. If you are on a lower sodium restricted diet, do not drink the water if it has been treated with a water-softening agent.
  • When eating away from home, order freshly cooked turkey or chicken versus pressed meat. Turkey rolls and other pre-cooked poultry meats contain much higher sodium content than freshly cooked poultry.
  • As you reduce your sodium intake, your taste buds will adjust, allowing you to enjoy the true flavors of food that salt often masks. (This is exactly what happened to us)
Check out the Sunkist® Facebook page and their website.  Once you’ve taken the quiz come back to my blog and post your scores.  I’m curious to see if other people have had the same experiences I’ve had.  Also feel free to post any great lemony recipes that you have. 

Visit Sponsor's Site

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

My Shutterfly Party Pack Has Arrived!!!

My Shutterfly Give and Get Joy Party 2011 party pack arrived today and I couldn't wait to open it: 



I'm so excited for this party!  I love making photo books as gifts and just to document life in general.  I've made several books for my in-laws as a "thank you" gift for letting us come visit and as a way to document the visit.  Some of my favorites have been the books I've made for Tyler of various trips we've taken and one for his first year of life.  He loves to flip the pages and point at the baby.  :-)

I can't wait to share my experience and some great freebies with my party guests.  Here is what is included in the party box:


Wow, ignore that giant mess of a desk.  I guess I've got some cleaning to do!

  • A DVD showing inspirational stories from other customers
  • A set of holiday card samples
  • I wooden easel to display a photo book I have already made
  • Balloons
  • 15 promo codes for a free 8x8 photo book
  • 15 promo codes for 10 free holiday cards
  • $10 gift card to Plum District for each guest

I also got a bonus pack of House Party decoders!  Each guest will receive 5 of them and could win an iPad, a laptop, fabulous jewelry, and other awesome prizes. 

Updating the Nursery

Tyler can now reach the curtains and the cord for the baby monitor so we had to come up with a new place for the monitor and pull his crib closer to the middle of that wall.  We decided to get a couple of shelves to put on the wall so we could move the baby monitor further away from him and take the table out of the room that we borrowed from the living room.  It wasn't a very sturdy table and Tyler is now pulling himself up on furniture and it was just a matter of time before he broke the table or the table broke him!

I bought these shelves at Home Depot.  I chose the shallow shelves because the deeper ones were very heavy and I read a few reviews saying they basically cant hold anything because they are already too heavy to hold their own weight and kind of sag in the front.  Not cool! 

Everything seems to fit just fine on these shelves for now and maybe later we can turn them into Trophy shelves once he's older.


A little to the left, Daddy!

Perfect!  Oh how I wish I could use that drill! Maybe one day...

Monday, October 17, 2011

Farm Visit

We met up with friends at Larriland Farms for their annual fall festival on Sunday.  This farm is about an hour and fifteen minutes from us but totally worth the drive.  Why, when we have so many farms around us?  Two words: APPLE FRITTERS!  Such yummy goodness that we only get once a year.  They went so fast I couldn't even get a picture of them.  Here is one I found online that most closely represents:



Here are the farm helpers making them.  Some have to peel and core the apples, the others make up the dough and toss the apples in.





That wasn't the only experience to be had at the festival.  We also ran through the straw maze and rode on the hayride with all of our friends.  Here are some pictures from the day:




Peek-a-boo!


The kids were very interested in the goats:




Snuggles with Daddy












Friday, October 14, 2011

My First Sewing Project

My mother bought me a sewing machine for my birthday and Im ashamed to say it took me over a month to get it out of the box.  So much to do with vacations, a first birthday party to plan, and everything else that the summer throws at you. 
I had so many ideas for my first sewing project but once I got the Pottery Barn Kids Halloween catalog in the mail I knew what it would be. 

This banner seemed like a good first project because it was simple and something that I could take and make my own with different fabric and measurements.  And at $29 I figured I had to be able to make it cheaper than that!   So I got everthing together that I needed: ribbon, Halloween fabric, black fabric, white stiff felt, and thread.  Total spent was $15 and I have enough to make 6-7 banners!




And here's some pictures of T-man playing in the yard:


Peek-a-boo!!  I see you!!