Tuesday, July 29

Easy Summer Entertaining

Tomayto. Tomahto.
We are having a bumper crop from our little garden this year, how 'bout you? Soooooo tasty! I just wanted to share our favorite summer recipe with these yummy treats. This is such an easy, yet delicious dinner - it's perfect for inviting friends and enjoying the lazy days of summer.
Our version of Pasta Caprese: Ingredients:
fresh home-grown or local tomatoes - cherry, grape, diced plum or whatever you've got that's the most fresh!
grilled chicken breast, sliced or diced
1# fresh mozzarella (this comes from the deli counter or cheese guy at your store, it's very soft and wet)
fresh chopped basil
1 pkg cooked pasta
olive oil
minced garlic (2-3 cloves)
salt & pepper
Pour the hot pasta into a bowl and drizzle with olive oil. Toss with the chicken, cheese, tomatoes, basil, garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste. Depending on the ripeness and flavor of your tomatoes, you may need to add a little sugar to cut the acidity.

Serve with a bagette or simple green side salad. If you're feeding big eaters, use one chicken breast per person, otherwise figure about 1/2 per person. This is the ultimate dish with homemade pasta. Feel free to experiment: skip the side salad and toss in broccoli; this dish is sometimes made with balsamic vinagrette, but we save that "flavor" for when we're making the caprese salad (sliced tomatoes topped with fresh mozz and basil and then drizzled with balsamic).

Tip: when you've got the hot charcoal grill going on the weekend, cook a large package of chicken breasts - keep them in the refrigerator for quick weeknight meals: like this pasta, a large dinner salad, burrito/taco/nachos night or wraps to eat on the run!

Friday, July 25

Give and You Shall Receive ...

We have some new neighbors in our 'hood. So, my little helpers and I whipped up some giant blueberry muffins to bring over. Since I knew "they" consisted of a mom and son, I thought 4 would suffice ... and allow me to keep 2 behind as bribery to encourage good behavior during our meet and greet ... :-) ... Well, it went well. My little guy gave the mom a few "gotchas" to her legs, but hey, her son is 16, so I'm sure she's used to getting "gotcha'd" every now and again! :-)I'm sure all you way-more-talented-than-me gals could pull off a better presentation, but I'm all about keeping it simple ... and I didn't want to come off too Bree, right? :-) (Well, that's what I'm telling myself! I have used fun dish towels before in place of paper napkins but all I had on hand were white and like I want to give someone a new-but-now-blueberry-stained towel to wash while they're busy moving in? And my leftover fuschia hula girl birthday paper napkins were not going to cut it either.)

Blueberry Muffin recipe link. Note: I add a crumb topping to my muffins, which isn't in any of my recipes, but my sweet tooth requires it. I mix approx.: 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2T flour, 2T butter, dash of cinnamon, and some uncooked oatmeal for texture. Sprinkle over each right before baking.

My little tip, that you probably already know, is to write everyone's name down with your phone number for the new neighbor. I have moved a number of times and both my husband and I are TERRIBLE with names. No sooner do we close the door and turn to each other with a "what was his/her name" and neither of us remembers! It goes in and out! I've read all those name/word association tips and actually, once or twice even tried them, but for the most part I'm horrible with names. So that's my little suggestion for welcoming newbies to the 'hood. Please add your tips in the comments!

AND ... I received ......an AWARD!! This was so fun! The Arte y Pico award is to honor creativity, design, interesting material, and contributions to the blogging community. A big thank you to Misty at Rainy Day in May for giving it to me! Please visit her great blog! And now I get to pass it along to 5 bloggers of my choosing!

http://www.heatherbullard.typepad.com Heather is a fabulous source for "pretties" with her unique "modern vintage" style.
http://littlemommaandcompany.blogspot.com Emily has the best pictures!
http://www.barbarajacksier.blogspot.com Barbara is an uber-talented book editor/decorator!
http://mabelshouse.blogspot.com Liz's writings are fun and reel me in!
http://fleamarketstudio.typepad.com Lilia's posts are jam-packed with gorgeous photos ... just the way I like to "read" a blog!

Check them out and enjoy!!

Monday, July 21

I'm Getting Rusty!

I was going to skip Mixed Media Monday today. With a theme of "rust" I had no ideas ... until I remembered my little garden angel I made a few years back:
May I say, that when I say "made her" that I really did!? From a sheet of steel. Using a plasma torch. And ginormous head shield thing. And manly-man-sized gloves!!! What a She-Ra I am! The (what looked like) hundred-year-old machine shop in northwestern CT - I am SURE - had never called a meetin' on, say, insurance policies, or that OSHA thing because what were they thinking to let me in there -- unsupervised! OK, my hubby was there to make sure I came home with all limbs still attached, but still!? :-)

Anyhoo, I was working on garden art ideas for my online store at the time and wanted to make some proto-types. So here was the sweet little one from my collection. After cutting, I added some craft-store rusting medium and let it take it's course. Today I embellished her with some wire and beads.

Then, I saw this cute little candle holder I have ... with rusted accents ...and wanted to dress it up a bit, too:
I received these cute little paper clips from Melanie in my first swap, and used one to hold a little "Blessings" tag. Attached with narrow green satin ribbon and accented with a glass bead.

Friday, July 18

Soffit Idea ... the old-fashioned way!

Happy Friday! Yeah! Tomorrow is a BIG project day in my new art studio AND a very necessary one to finish before we can go further in there ... the floor! I'll post about it when it's done, but suffice it to say I hope THIS plan works! Fingers crossed!!

So, today, I'm going to share a little peak at something I did in our breakfast room two houses ago:I wrote "faith • hope • love" on the soffit. And, no I don't have a picture of the whole thing! :-) I know I DID, but where it is now - who knows. Anyway, I hope you get the idea, which, BTW, went very well with our Connecticut colonial. :-)
Now that wallies exist this project need not be this complicated, but if you want a completely original look .... I taped off a border and ragged-on some white paint. I carefully measured spacing and where each letter should be centered, sketched them in pencil, then painted them free-hand. For a more aged look, I finished it by ragging touches of white over the dried letters.

Monday, July 14

Woo Hoo - Goodies!!

Today I received an absolutely delightful and extremely generous and enormously fun package of goodies from fellow blogger and Favorite Things swap partner Dei, from Dei's Delights!!!!!
This amazingly sweet and talented and generous east coast gal blessed this little desert dweller with a beach fantasy escape! She didn't even know I DREAM to live by the ocean, she just shared some of her favorite things ... according to the swap rules ... set by According-to-Kelly.

Let's dig in I'm so excited! (No touching kiddos - this is a MOMMY gift! Let's pacify them with the beautiful ribbon so I can oogle my gorgeous goodies!) This exquisitely framed beach photo was taken by her talented hubby! MY hubby likes the super hip wood fish salad tongs as much as I do! Two design mags - does this girl have taste or what?! AND ... drum roll please ... a hurricane with two starfish frosted on the sides, plus pebbles to go in the bottom to hold a candle!! I'm just giddy - it's Christmas in July!!!
Dei, you were too kind. I couldn't have been more DEI-lighted!! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Everyone, please go check out this uber-talented seamstress on her blog: http://deisdelights.blogspot.com. You won't believe the creations she whips up and her fabulous eye for style! No doubt she'll be taking orders, soon!!

Well, as long as I'm in here, I'll show you a quick little piece that I did for my part of the swap for Dei. I had learned her favorite color was pink, so decided to spruce up the tin bucket I was going to use to hold her treats:
I painted the outside of the bucket pink, and by using a homemade stencil, left her initial to show thru in the ivory. I printed out a "D" in a nice font to the exact size. Cut it out and glued it firmly, but temporarily in place on the bucket. I removed it promptly after spraying. And here was the finished product!! Thanks to Kelly for a great swap and to Dei for your thoughtful gifts!!!

Saturday, July 12

Giveaway Winner

This winner of the Birthday Contest is .....
"Rae" - Congratulations! The Love framed sentiment will soon be yours! Thanks to all who visited and left such lovely comments. Thanks for all the sweet emails, too! Next time, only the online comments will count, but I received way more comments via email than thru the blog feature! Merci beaucoup for your kind words!

... On another note, some of you have been emailing me about my studio ... and, yes, I am working on it in my "spare time." Lots of little things filling my spare time these days. Oh, yes, here's one of those "little things" now. :-)My wonderful helpers and I painted the studio a light aqua. My first test splotch was a bit too "normal" blue, so I kicked it up a notch and went with a bolder choice. Eh, voila! A peak at the results! This color is definitely one that takes on the light of the day. I don't think I could have done such a bright color had the room been south facing. But the windows are on the north and west sides and I'm very pleased with how it turned out! Yeah! One check on my long to-do list! :-)

Monday, July 7

My Joyful Heart

Today is my second Mixed Media Monday project! This week's theme is "monochromatic colours" and I chose shades of blue. My little guy inspired me with his recent watercolor masterpiece. I framed it and added a few embellishments: thread, vellum, chalk and felt. (PS: scroll down two posts to enter my giveaway!!!)

Thursday, July 3

Independence Day!

Enjoy some inspiring and patriotic 4th of July celebrations tomorrow everyone!Thank you men and women in the military! We value your sacrifices!
(Project info: Glue small pewter cross charms and a glass bead accent to tall colored glass bottles - for fun, casual summer vases!)

Tuesday, July 1

Birthday Contest!!

Happy July 1st!!
To celebrate the fabulous month of July ... my birthday month :-) ... I am hosting a Giveaway/Contest!!I will give away this lovely 5x7 framed sentiment. It's a wonderful taupe/gray wood frame with silver fern imprints. It reads "Love is the blueprint for building a lasting family."

To be entered in the contest, please take a look around my blog and comment here about something you like! Post before midnight MT, July 10, 2008. I will draw one winner on July 11th and post the name shortly after. Be sure you leave your email in the comment so I can contact you for shipping information. Ships to US addresses only. Naturally, I will pay postage. Please spread the word. Thanks!!
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