Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

I love Pinterest! Have I ever said that? Well I do. I love it even more when I make something I find and it is a big success! And I love pinning delicious, easy dinners that I already have all the ingredients for because then I am way more likely to actually make it!

I had a bunch of leftover rice and wanted to find a good meal to go with it. I found a tasty looking recipe from Comfy in the Kitchen. You can get her recipe HERE!

I didn't follow her recipe exactly. However, I didn't marinate my chicken, I didn't use chick peas or feta cheese, and I used walnuts instead of pecans. I heated up our leftover brown rice and steamed some broccoli to go along with it. Doesn't it look tasty???

It's so fun to be able to make a great dinner for my husband and enjoy it together in our house!

My husband absolutely LOVED this dinner. He told me he would expect to see it in a restaurant! I love hearing that, especially when it was an easy meal to make. He rated this as a 9, saying you can never rate something as 10 so that there is room to grow. :) In other words, he told me he wanted it every night that week! Let's just say I will be making this again. Thank you so much Janelle from Comfy in the Kitchen for this wonderful recipe!

DIY Entryway Table Part 1

My husband's grandma moved out of her house this summer into a retirement home and had to give away several things. This wooden card table was sitting in the garage, unclaimed...so I put my name on it. I immediately saw potential for it.

What, you may ask am I going to do a with a flimsy, wooden card table? Well...I'm going to cut it in half and make it into an entryway table for that space on the kitchen floor with all that bare wall you can see in the picture above. Since this table isn't the best quality, we decided it will work great for our rental home now and then if we choose to, we can build a better/nicer one for our new home someday. Half will be the table-top and the other half will be a low shelf. We'll see how it goes!

First we unscrewed all the legs. Make sure you keep all the hardware!

Hubby loves a chance to use his power tools. :)

Yay! A project for our new radial arm saw! Hubby found this on Craigslist for a great deal and we couldn't pass it up as we each look forward to many projects.

Measuring to find the middle.

All set to cut it in half!

First time using a skill saw.

According to my man, "you made a really good cut!" oh, and don't forget to wear those sexy safety glasses.

Now to cut reinforcement spacers for the legs.

Pretty fun using power tools!

The reinforcement spacers are glued and clamped on to dry.

The other half drying on a  "work table". We have limited space in our garage but look forward to a nice shop someday!

Come back later to see part 2 and the finished result!!!

"New" Furniture

I mentioned a couple posts ago that my dad and brother moved a piano into my house. It is new to my house but not new to me. This is the piano my family has had since my brother and I first started taking lessons in early elementary school. Many tunes have been played on these keys. I haven't played consistently over the last 7 years or so, but I still know one song from memory and can roughly read music. I'm excited to have the piano. It's always a nice way to relax for me and just escape for a few minute by playing. I also look forward to teaching our kids how to play someday. And...like I mentioned before, the flat-top provide decorating possibilities :) Since our TV sits on top of our non-working fireplace and therefore we really don't have a mantle, the piano top will serve as my mantle.

This spot was perfect for a piano! Now my wall doesn't look so huge and bare.

First decor arrangement. Okay, but not great.

Rearranged the pictures to break up colors and heights, getting better.

Added some candles which I think was a perfect finishing touch. For now that will do it! Come Christmas time, I will probably re-decorate. :)

Any ideas for how I should decorate it? I am a rookie at decorating so very open to ideas and tips.

WTTW #6

Monday

Green baby-tee: ModBod from Costco

Oatmeal cardigan: American Eagle

Black bootcut pants: American Eagle

Black Flats: DSW

Tuesday

(hubby came home from a 5-day business trip, so I dress up a little :)

Blue and white pin-strip button-up--JCPenney

Black Pencil Skirt--Target

Gray MaryJane heels: Target

Wednesday

Floral top: Target

Khaki bootcut pants: American Eagle

Brown flats: Target

Thursday

Red baby tee: Kohls

Jean Jacket: WalMart

Floral Skirt: sewn by my mom

Brown flats: Target

Friday

 

Gray baby tee: Shade

Green  3/4 sleeve cardigan: Target

Brown bootcut pants: American Eagle

Brown flats: Target

Bedtime Surprise

I got home tonight from a weekend with my family. My hubby is gone on a business trip so I went to my parents' house and my brother came home from college too. It was such a great time with the 4 of us all together. Mom made wonderful meals and desserts and we got to spend good time catching up and laughing.

My parents bought a new house and are moving soon. One of reasons I went up to visit was to go through all the boxes of my childhood stuff out in their shop. When they moved the last time I was away at college so everything just got put into boxes without being sorted through at all. Looking through everything was fun to remember the good times of my childhood. I threw a lot away, put a lot in the Goodwill pile, but then kept lots too. I kept my doll house, Barbies, dolls, and furniture. I will use all those for my daughter (hopefully) someday.

My dad and brother did a lot of heavy furniture moving. One of the items they moved was our piano...to my house! I don't play much anymore but I'm still excited to have it. I'm also excited because it's another flat-topped surface with decor possibilities. Pictures to come, and ideas welcome!


Also while I was up there, I worked on a project I have been planning for a long time. It was so much fun and great success! Come back later this week for the story and pictures of what I did.

For now though, it is time for me to get some sleep! This girl has been up late all weekend and she has to be at district-wide collaboration at 7:45 am :S

WOAH! I climbed into bed. And I couldn't get in. Maybe the sheets are just stuck. (Kicking feet down and they won't go anywhere. Whattttt????? My bed is short-sheeted. But how? No one has been at my house all weekend. Oh wait! My dad and brother when they moved the piano. HAHA. I called both of them to let them know their joke had worked.

Even when I'm not with them anymore, my family still makes me smile and shows me they love me!

WTTW #5

Monday

 Gray Babe Tee: Shade

Black Boyfriend Sweater: JC Penney

Jean Skirt: Target

Black Boots: JCPenney

Scarf: made in Israel, gift from a friend

Tuesday: Field Trip to a Farm

Plaid Flannel button-up: Target

Straight Jeans: JC Penney

Polka dot boots: Costco

Wednesday

White t-shirt: Kohls

Coral Cardigan: BP from Nordstrom

Khaki bootcut pants: Hollister

Sandals: Target

Necklace: SamMoon

Thursday

Dark Coral Sweater: Target

Blue bootcut pants: Target

Brown flats: Target

Friday

Blue Baby tee: Shade

Navy open-face cardigan: Costco

Khaki bootcut pants: American Eagle

Brown flats: Target

Necklace: SamMoon

WTTW #4

 Monday

 Floral button-up shirt: JCPenney

Brown bootcut pants: American Eagle

Brown flats: Target

 Tuesday

Yellow Baby Tee: Shade 

Gray 1/2 sleeve jacket: a college friend was getting rid of it

Blue floral skirt: my mom made it

Sandals: Rainbows

 Wednesday

 Gray Baby Tee: Shade

Blue cardigan: Target

Black bootcut pants: American Eagle

Black Flats: DSW

Thursday

Light Blue Babe Tee: Shade

Gray and white striped hoodie cardigan: Target

Blue bootcut pants: Target

Brown flats: Target

Only 4 outfits this week...no school on Friday! Woo hoo! My husband and I are using the long weekend to go to Seattle to visit friends and go to the Carrie Underwood concert!

A New Blog!

Hello!

I heard about and decided to join this challenge to blog about a topic for 31 consecutive days. The theme I chose is outside of my normal blog posts so I decided to create a new blog for it. You can access my new blog by clicking on the tab under my Blog Title that says "31 Days of Wedding Planning." I will be posting every day this month!

I did have a little trouble making the tab work as a link to my new blog. If you have trouble, you can access my 31 Days blog by clicking HERE. If you do have problems or the tab fails to send you to my new page, please leave me a comment so I know and can fix the problem.

Thanks!