Easter!!

Easter is always fun! This year tho the budget was very tiny

so I had to get creative!

We didn't dye an entire dozen

we did 4 eggs but one broke so she ate it!

So we colored 3 with a dye recipe that I found on Pinterest

Very simple and it's a recipe I will continue to use

Here are our eggs

She had fun so that's all that matters to me!

Her grandma in Virginia (she prefers to be called Babs) :) sent her an Easter care package

that contained two dresses and matcing pajamas.

She squealed and wore everything in the box within the span of an hour!

My girl looooooves clothes!

Here is the favorite one!

I absolutely love it also!

I love the little person she is becoming, we have our bad days

but I can't imagine life without her and can't wait to see what she does next!

Tomorrow morning should be fun the easter bunny has changed it up this year and we're not all about candy

I did put some in the basket but there are also some seeds and instructions from the easter bunny to start her own garden! And some nail polish because my girl likes painted nails!

Here's the basket

I don't like to go overboard

I want her to have things but she doesn't need a ton

I want her to appreciate things and to treat her things well so they last

Happy Easter ya'll have fun tomorrow!!

xoxoxo

Last night's dinner



Peace, Love, & Sandy Toes

I don't claim to be a great cook but I'm willing to experiment and fail. I fail a lot but it doesn't get me down, I learn what not to do and there are a few things I do well. Well last night I think I had a winner. I chose pork chops, usually gets the ugh response around here. When I cook I can't help but do what I call meddling, I stir a lot, I lift lids and open doors A LOT! But last night I followed the rules and the pork was tender and juicy. The hubs ate alll the meat down to the bone! And said it was pretty good! Keeper! Pretty quick and simple I had the meat marinating all day in some kens steakhouse Italian dressing, surfed Pinterest for a pork chop recipe and came across Kelly at eat yourself skinny, one minor modification to the recipe and it came out really good!

I'll share the recipe with you. My minor change is that I didn't use mustard I had my chops marinating in italian dressing all day so thats what the breading stuck to, also I didn't use whole wheat panko. I used a seasoned regular panko instead. :) My husband isn't that into breading but the panko was perfect, gave it a little crispy to the outside without being too heavy. This recipe is perfect, simple and adaptable!

Here are your ingredients:

Recipe adapted from Cooking Light

4 boneless pork chops, fat trimmed

2 Tbsp Dijon mustard

1/2 cup whole wheat Panko breadcrumbs

1 Tbsp fresh thyme, chopped

1 Tbsp fresh parsley, minced

1/8 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. ground black pepper

1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Rub mustard evenly over pork chops.  Combine panko, thyme, parsley, salt and pepper in a large bowl and dredge pork chops in panko mixture.

Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat.  Add oil to pan and swirl to coat.  Add pork chops, saute for 2 minutes or until golden brown.  Turn pork over and place skillet in oven for about 8 minutes or until pork reaches 145 degrees in the center.  Enjoy!

Here's a link to the blog I discovered!

http://www.eat-yourself-skinny.com/2012/03/herb-crusted-pork-chops.html

Good Morning!

It's a brand new day!

Cheesy right?!

Well this morning I woke up feeling pretty good about myself.

I don't like to talk about myself, don't ask why it just feels weird!

But it's time to break out of my shell and as the title of my blog suggests

put myself out there.

Subject to criticizim and people putting me down,

but who cares right!?

I'm going to do it because people are going to talk about you regardless

of what you do so what the hell I'm going for it!

So I say Good Morning new day bring it on! 

Mother nature always impresses me

This is the view from my side yard

Have a great day ya'll xoxo

My jewelry

So I get a little distracted sometimes and start things but never follow through or finish with them. I'm hoping to change that and trust me it hasn't been easy, as I'm sure many of you know that changing your life style and things about yourself can be difficult. But I'm improving and getting better with the follow through and keeping up with this is the next step for me. I'm going to post about whatever, anything and everything. Even if no one follows me I will at least have something to show my daughter when she gets older. We can look back and laugh at mom lol :)
I suppose it's time to show you what I create.

The top photo is a bracelet I made using silver wire, silver findings and a stone I can't remember the name of anymore. (time to research) The bottom photo is a necklace of the same stone as the bracelet, silver findings, and the pendant is made of precious metal clay. I believe that pendant was made by my hubby, back when we thought it was easy to travel to art shows and sell our wares! The precious metal clay is silver and organic binders that can be molded into whatever then when baked in a kiln the organic binders burn off and you're left with 99.99% silver. I love making these pieces and have put it on the back burner for too long.
Thats just a little bit of what I can create, I plan to post much much more. I also have some pieces hanging at a friends shop here in town. A groovey little spot where you can paint with an instructor while you sip wine and socialize with other 'painters' no painting experience necessary just bring your open heart and you will amaze yourself! I will post more about this groovey spot later as I master this blog thing ;)

My first post

Hello!
So this is my first blog post. The picture above is of my little family. My wonderful 'husband' Dillon (we'll get into that later) and my incredible 3 year old daughter Fiona. I'm starting this blog to sort of put myself out there again as far as what I want to do with my life. I would like to make pretty jewelry for ladies and girls to wear and I have been making jewelry for many years now without much commercial success. Granted I haven't marketed myself in any way, my inventory has been sitting in boxes since my daughter was born just begging to be sold to anyone! So here goes nothing, I'm jumping in with both feet and hoping for the best and if I fail then eh just get up and try again. You can't keep a good woman down ;) Thanks to anyone who reads this for taking the time to bother with a newbie like me. In time I hope to have lots of friends out there in the blogging world :)