Colorful Textured Layering

Hey all hope you're doing well this weekend.  Aaron usually works on the weekend, but luckily he got all of today off.  It's the first Saturday he's had off in a long time.  We visited the local farmer's market, bought some breakfast, beef pot pies, homemade breakfast sausage, and a phone case for me.  Oh yeah and some chocolate chips, cause I'm thinking about making something with them.  Then we headed over to our favorite garden center, because my gerber daisy desperately needs a new pot.  In the mid-afternoon we hung out watched the brand new Downton Abbey together, and ate some air popped popcorn.  

 Sweater-- Forever 21

Lace Tank Top-- Urban Outfitters

Tank Top-- Target

Pants-- Forever 21

Shoes-- Rocketdog

I love bright colors and combining different prints and textures.

  

This sweater is so comfy.  I wear it practically everyday in the winter.  

I don't own much jewelry, but I love these three necklaces together.  My Rocketdogs are my favorite winter shoe.  I love how colorful they are, yet they are warm, and comfortable.  

Have a good weekend, and happy DIYing, chris!

Fun Friday Fascinations #39

#1. Gallery walls are really in right now, and I can totally get down with this design idea.  I have a ton of art to hang, and I always find it hard to pick just a couple for a small wall.  Of course you don't want to over do it.  It's probably not suggested to do a gallery wall in every room of your home, but a couple might be stylish.  At Home In Love has a few fantastic examples of well done Gallery Walls.  

#2.  Ruffled has a fantastic DIY Table Runner, made with paint sticks!  How brilliant is that?  Great looking, and functional, can it get better then that?  

#3.  Saw this great DIY bookcase and table on Apartment Therapy.  Love the gas pipe used for the bookcase, and who doesn't love reclaimed wood?  I'd love to build an open closet with gas pipe, I'm sure it would look amazing.  

#4.  This Homemade Italian Cream Soda from Butter With A Side Of Bread is making my mouth water.  I'd love to have a whole cache of flavored syrups.  

#5.  All Recipes has this great cupcake recipe for a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcake.  I definitely want to try it out.  Looks extra yummy.  

Happy Fun Friday Fascinations, chris!

Pineapple Banana Smoothie

Happy Thirsty Thursday!  Today's drink is a Pineapple Banana Smoothie.  

Ingredients:

- 2 tablespoons heavy cream

- 3 tablespoons of pineapple juice

- 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

- 1 small banana

- 1 tablespoon toffee

Directions:

Place the heavy cream in a small blender, and blend for a couple of minutes until it becomes whip cream.  Then add the  pineapple juice, yogurt, and slice the banana as you add it.  Blend all together.  Add the the toffee, blend once more, and enjoy!  

Garnish with a banana slice.  A little toffee on the top would be nice too.  This was yummy, and it might actually be kinda healthy.  I think walnuts or pecans could taste great in this.  I don't have any, and didn't think of it until I had finished the drink.  

Happy Thirsty Thursday, chris!  

16 Years Strong

A few days ago my parents had to put down our family dog of 16+ years.  It's been hard watching him decline over the last year.  His back hips had been giving him a lot of trouble, and he had been on pain medication to deal with the discomfort.  A side effect of the pain medication was a loss of functionality of his kidneys.  In the last few months his quality of life had rapidly diminished.  My mom was especially close with the little guy.  She works from home, and he would 'go to work' with her everyday, right up until the end.  There is never a good time to lose a pet, but today's my mom's birthday.  At first I thought I'd look on my computer for photos of her and I as a kid, but I stubbled across this photo of Scruffy, and I just had to share.  

Happy Birthday Mom!  I'm sorry for your loss!  I hope your new little dude brings you as much joy as Snuffman, Christine.

Recycle Day

Tomorrow is recycle morning for my neighborhood.  They only happen every other week, and as an avid recycler things pile up.  Well two weeks ago they didn't pick up ours for some reason.  They got other people's cans, but not ours.  So we decided we need a recycle sign for our can.  I found this sign online, and printed out two on some orange cardstock paper.  

Then since it would be outdoors I slipped them into large ziplock baggies.  Folded the zipper underneath, and taped it down.  I taped both signs to my trash can.  Hopefully it will work, and they will recycle our load.  We can't handle another two weeks of recyclables.  

Sorry that's all for today, but you can also use this for packages too.  When I use USPS to mail packages from home, I stick the printable label in a ziplock baggie so the barcode and addresses wont get messed up by rain.  It seems to work well, I've never had a package returned! Happy DIYing, chris!

Penne with Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese

Happy Nom Nom Monday!  For today's dish I have a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks, Best Ever 30-minute Cookbook by Jenni Fleetwood.  It's called Penne with Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese.  

Ingredients:

- 3 1/2 cups penne pasta

- 1 cup broccoli

- 4 tablespoons of butter

- 2 boneless skinless chicken breast (cut into strips)

- 2 cloves of garlic (chopped)

- 1/2 cup dry white wine

- 1 cup heavy cream

- 4 oz gorgonzola 

- salt and pepper 

- parmesan cheese for garnish

Directions:

Begin by bringing two pots of water to a boil.  Add the pasta to one pot of boiling water, let cook for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the noodles are tender.  

Add the broccoli florets to the other pot of boiling water, cook for about 2 minutes, drain and cool with cold water, and set aside.  

In a large frying pan melt the butter.  Over medium heat cook the chicken strips and chopped garlic.  Season the chicken with salt and pepper.  Cook for about five minutes or until the chicken turns white.  

Add the dry white wine and heavy cream.  Stir continually, and let simmer until the chicken is completely cooked.  

Add the broccoli, stir, and season with salt and pepper again.  

Stir in the noodles, and then add the gorgonzola cheese over low heat.  Serve with fresh parmesan cheese grated over the top.  

This dish was yummy!  I would definitely suggest having everything prepped and measured out before getting started.  If you want to decrease the number of dirty dish you can cook the broccoli and then the pasta, using the same pan.  No matter the number of dishes, this meal is fantastic.  I love how rich it is, yet it's not sickeningly creamy.  The dry white wine adds the necessary lightness to keep the cream and cheese from weighing down this flavorful dish.  

Hope ya'll enjoyed as much as I did, and happy Nom Nom Monday, chris!

DIY Plastic Earrings

I hardly feel like doing anything these days.  It's just so cold, and all I want to do is curl up in front of the TV.  Swaddle myself in a warm blanket, and munch on snacks all day.  So today's DIY is a throw-back from when I was in college.  I hardly wear earrings anymore, but when I did I enjoyed mis-matching my earrings.  I found a set of plastic beads from Michael's that had about 10 beads, but none of the beads were a pair.  Though they all still clearly went together, so I knew they would be perfect for a making some homemade earrings.

I used clear fishing line to attach the beads to a sterling silver earring hoop.  

That's it!  A cute outcome for very little work.  Hope ya'll enjoy, and happy DIYing, chris!