Friday, March 30, 2012

What's For Dinner?

Happy Friday to you!

Do you like the making dinner each night?  I kind of do. The challenge of coming up with food that most people in my family will like and the chance to try new recipes is a nice creative outlet. I've been using my Pinterest dinner board a lot lately for inspriation. Just this week I made three of our dinners based on ideas found on Pinterest. I've been planning meals on Monday and doing all of the shopping that day so we are set and ready with dinner each weeknight.

We made Lasagna with Spinach and Ricotta Roll-ups on Tuesday night. They were pretty good, but I would add garlic to give it more flavor next time. All of my kids missed the meat that is usually found in my lasagna, but one of the reasons that I made it was because it was meatless. I also added some sauteed bell peppers to a few of the roll ups just to add a few more veggies to the meal.

This was served with a side of one of my favorite salads. It's spinach, sliced strawberries, feta, craisins and candied almonds mixed together and served with a little balsamic vinaigrette dressing.




Last night we made Skinny Chicken Broccoli Alfredo. My husband and I liked it, but it wasn't a hit with the kids. I think I'd add more cheese next time. Yes, that does take away part of the "skinny" mentioned in the recipe title, but I really love cheese.



We made this Crock Pot Refried Beans recipe on Wednesday night. I've made these before and really love this recipe. I didn't mash the beans and we just ate them whole in bean burritos. After wrapping our burritos, we browned up the tortillas on a skillet. Simple and delicious meal.

We whipped up some smoothies to have as a fruit side dish.



One of my favorite things to use when I'm cooking is olive oil from Queen Creek Olive Mill.  This place is located about 45 minutes from my house, but we haven't been there yet. I plan to go soon. I have purchased their olive oil at a gift shop close to my house and love it.

They infuse their extra virgin olive oils with flavors like lemon, Mexican lime, garlic and even chocolate. It is really so good. I haven't tried the chocolate oil yet, but I hear you can try samples at their store, so I'll have to give that one a try.


Just a little olive oil adds a punch of flavor to sauteed vegetables or grilled meat. If you don't live in nearby, they can ship to you. I'm thinking these would make great hostess or birthday gifts.

On a non-food note, I came across this clever shirt yesterday and love it.




Now that summer is almost here, I am on the lookout for cute t-shirts don't need any layering to look complete.

Hope you have an enjoyable weekend ahead of you. We have a volleyball game, basketball game, choir retreat and will also be watching our church general conference. We have general conference twice a year and watch it at home. We'll be watching in our pajamas while eating a big homemade breakfast. Can't wait for the inspirational family time! Let's just hope we can get through the day without the kids fighting. :)

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

A Day at the Beach

During our spring break visit to see my sister and her family in North Carolina a couple of weeks ago, we drove a little over an hour from her house to the beach.

I don't go to the beach enough.

There's just something so wonderful and the waves, sun and sand. The kids are all so happy and I'm so happy too!


I love watching the kids bogie board (the water is too cold for me to go all the way in!) and dig in the sand. Of course, I love taking lots of pictures at the beach and then sitting back and relaxing on a beach towel.


We have a beach camping trip planned with friends in June, so at least it won't be too long before we get to spend more time at the beach!


Layout created the the Scrapbook Circle April Daydreamer Kit.

Hope your day is going well!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Scrapbook Circle April Kit

Just wanted to stop in and share a couple of Scrapbook Circle April kit peeks with you today.


Lots of new Heidi Swapp this month. Full kit will be revealed tomorrow!

Hope you are enjoying your weekend.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Project Life: Week Ten

I've been running a bit behind on my Project Life pages because of traveling, but I'll catch up. The kids return to school after a two week spring break next week, so then my schedule will return to more structured time. For now, I'm enjoying our more relaxing schedule and family time.

These pages are for March 4 - 10 and it was a busy, full week. It was the last week of school before spring break, so we had school projects due and an assembly to attend.


Almost all of the pictures this week are printed smaller that the photo slot so that more patterned paper and color can be seen on the page.


This week my oldest daughter and I went to see Wicked with my parents and sister. Since that was a highlight of the week, it took up half of a page. We also started our spring break traveling with a flight to Baltimore and time spent with our good friends who live there.


In addition to the links below, I used the upcoming Scrapbook Circle April kit for the majority of the supplies on this. Lots of brand new Amy Tangerine and Heidi Sawpp and coming in that kit!



Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Spring Break and Getting Orgainzed

We are on week two of spring break. We were traveling of all last week and this week we are getting things done at home. I must admit that I am having a bit of travel withdrawals. Exactly a week ago we were enjoying time with my sister and her family at Atlantic Beach in North Carolina. The weather was perfect and everyone had a fantastic time.

Being at the beach is one of my favorite things to do. Can you tell I was pretty relaxed?


It was so great to see the cousins all playing together. They only get to see each other about once a year, so it was a special time.


My niece loved to pose for the camera, so of course, I was loving that!


Even though we don't have school this week, we are keeping busy with volleyball camp, scouts, piano lessons, basketball practice, a dentist appointment and church activities. We also spent a few hours yesterday cleaning out the girls room. Things had really accumulated in their closet and we now have several bags of things to giveaway. Love that cleaned out feeling!

Today I worked on a little pantry organization inspired by my visit to my sister last week. She stored a bunch of her pantry items in mason jars and I loved how it added to the organization of her kitchen. I have about 30 mason jars that my mom gave me that have been sitting in my garage.


 I washed the jars and then added a bunch of pantry items that were being stored in big baggies.


I placed a piece of chipboard in between the layers to help stabilize the top layer of jars.






The labels were cut out of self adhesive chalkboard paper with my Cameo. I then used a white sharpie to write on the labels.


Now I just need to organize the rest of the pantry!

Hope you are enjoying your week.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Take Twelve: March 2012

This past week our family has been traveling for our spring break. We started out in Baltimore last weekend visiting friends and then spent the past week in North Carolina vising my sister and her family.

I'm playing along this year with the Ella Publishing challenge of taking 12 photos on the 12th of each month. This month I didn't realize that it was already the 12th. Since we were traveling, I wasn't very good about paying attention to the date. But luckily, since we were on vacation, I did take several pictures on the 12th.


We drove six hours from Baltimore, MD to Kitty Hawk, NC on the 12th. We started out our day at Miss Shirley's for breakfast before starting our drive. My daughter and I shared the Southern Slammer that was a pumpernickel bread sandwich with fried green tomatoes, bacon and avocado. Delicious! (For some reason, I didn't take a picture here.)

We meet up with my sister and her five kids at Bodie Island Lighthouse. We also played in some huge sand dunes at Jockey's Ridge Park and found a great kid friendly restaurant for dinner.

We are now at the airport in Raleigh, NC waiting to catch our flight to Phoenix. I'm so thankful for this time away with friends and family.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Wicked!

Last week I felt very lucky to get to go and see Wicked. We bought our tickets months ago and have been eagerly awaiting the show. My daughter Audrey came along with my sister and parents.


The musical has such a great story and music. I think my favorite song is "For Good" that was sung at the end. Such a great message about meeting people in life at certain times and having them influence you for good.


All of the layout supplies are from the Best.Day.Ever. kit.

Thanks for the visit today!

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Cards from Scraps

A couple days ago I shared a few card ideas on the Scrapbook Circle blog. The cards used up some of the scraps from the Best.Day.Ever. kit. Perfect way to clean up a bit of scrapbook mess and make something handmade.

Here's a look at what I created.



These cards are pretty small (about 2.5" by 3") and they came together really quickly. This could be my new favorite size of card!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

First Time Golfer

A couple of weekends ago my husband took Max golfing for the first time. They went with another dad & son who had found a great Groupon deal that included golfing, a golf cart and lunch. Very fun!

Max loved golfing so much that he said he'd rather golf than spend an entire day playing at Airworx. That's saying a lot because he loves going to the indoor trampoline place.


On this page, I decided to play with the Jenni Bowlin papers strips that were in the Best.Day.Ever. kit on this page. They are simple little perforated rectangles. I just tore them apart and misted them a few different colors.







The colorful little rectangles added a playful touch to the page.



Thanks for stopping by today!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Enjoy Life

A few days ago I saw this quote on Pinterest and loved it:


I read Marjorie Hinkley's book a few years ago and really enjoyed her common sense attitude and optimistic outlook on life.

Even if each day isn't great, I try to focus on the good things that happened.

Today I want to share one small and simple good thing with you that I discovered at a friend's house. I'm sure every knew this except for me. Use a clothespin to hold a dishtowel on the handle of the dishwasher.



My dishtowels were always falling on the floor and then I saw this simple solution and wondered why I hadn't thought of that.

Hopefully this will help you with your falling dishtowel issues!

Hope you enjoy today.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Project Life: Week Nine

It's hard to believe that it's already time to share another week of project life. Time is flying by.


This week was another full week for our family. Although I really love creating layouts, this is becoming my favorite way of documenting our daily life.  All of the little pieces of our life that might go forgotten and not being recorded.  Loving that!


This week I included one of our favorite breakfast & dinner recipes: Oatmeal Waffles. I love how hearty and delicious these are.  I highly recommend you give them a try.


These pages include a bunch of different paper that I received as samples at CHA and I can't find links to it since it's not out yet. Some of the paper is from Cosmo Cricket 2wenty-Three and Lily Bee Double Dutch. Other paper is from the older Create Paper Emma's Shoppe line.


       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       
       
           
                                                               
       


Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Paper Layers + 12 on the 12th

This month, I am very excited about the Glitz blog challenge because it required that I use paper layers on one of my projects. Glitz paper layers are really easy to work with and come with a bunch of different designs, so they are perfect for layering, cutting and using on projects.


On my layout, I decided to use my Cameo to cut the title for the page out of one of the book papers and it worked perfectly! The book paper came out with really nice and clean cuts.


I also cut a 2" X 7" strip off of another book paper, pleated it and ran it through the sewing machine. Once that was done, I misted it to bring in more teal onto the page.


For a final touch on the page, I freehand cut a heart from a piece of book paper. I love that it's very thin and I don't have to tear up old books to get the look on my pages.


This year I've decided to play along with the Ella Publishing Take Twelve challenge which encourages us to take 12 photos on the 12th of each month. It's a pretty easy challenge and I love that I end up with photos that wound not have been taken without the challenge.


I decided to use all of the photos on a layout celebrating the little thing that happened on February 12.


The photos were printed at 2" X 2" so that all of the photos would fit on one page. Although none of the photos are particularly of fantastic quality, I love that together on a page they tell a story about our family life.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Lisa 

Happy Birthday Layout Supplies
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Patterned Paper: Stripe, Polka
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Paper Layers
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Patterned Paper: Polka
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Whatnots
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Journaling Stickers
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Epoxy Stickers
Other: Mist, stamps, thread

Twelve on the Twelfth Layout Supplies
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Patterned Paper: Polka, Stripe, Raindrops, Floral
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Glitzers
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Journaling Stickers
Glitz Designs Teeny White Alpha
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Epoxy Stickers
Other: Cardstock, Paper Tape

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails

ShareThis