Nail Files: Polka Dot Pinspiration

I pinned the left picture a few weeks ago and have been dying to recreate it, but just never found the time until last night!! My aunt gave me a nail art kit for Christmas two years ago that included a pen tip which worked out perfectly for the polka dots! I let my nails dry for about 3 hours and for some reason my right hand still messed up in the shower! Ugh! Oh well...I can just touch it up later I guess...ha ha.

Weekend Recap: 4 year Anniversary Edition

Last Thursday, I came home to these beautiful roses from my man for our 4 year anniversary!

He did a good job!

 

 

This flower is now my new wallpaper on my phone. It replaces the previous yellow rose I had from 2 years ago...ha ha.

 

Outfit of the Day/Night...shirt: old navy, vest: extremely old from H&M, jeans: old navy, shoes: Steve Madden, necklace: F21

The whole week I kept telling Barrett that I was taking him to a surprise dinner and even though he tried his hardest, I never gave in and kept it a secret! I ended up taking him to BJ's Brewhouse because I had gift cards from Christmas for the restaurant...therefore neither of us had to pay!! #win

 

 Excuse the bad lighting... My absolute favorite thing at BJ's is the pizookie! Usually we order the trio of smaller cookies, but since we had money to spend we each got our own full size pizookie! I devoured mine...I guess you could say I'm somewhat of a cookie monster.

 

 

Friday night we had tickets to the Astros (aka where we had our first date). One of the spanish radio broadcasters I had met a few weeks ago (read about it here) actually played for the Astros back in the day. He said next time I was at a game he would give me an autographed baseball card and he didn't forget! Right when I turned around to catch my peanuts he was waving the card at me to come and get it!!  

 

I don't have any pictures from the rest of the weekend, but it included going to see my future SIL try on her wedding dress that came in super early, trying out my new bedding that did not look good and cleaning out my closet which really just turned into a fashion show of items I forgot I had...ha ha.

Thanks Card

I've never really sent out thank you cards before, unless it was after one of my graduations, but I decided to send one out for a birthday gift I had received.  I kept it pretty simple again and thought it turned out decent...except I should have used lighter paper...I don't know why I decided to go with such dark paper. Then the stamping process didn't turn out how I wanted. First, I used sliver ink for the 'thanks' stamp but you could barely see it so I decided to stamp over it with black. I keep trying to tell myself that it just looks like a shadow now, but I know the truth.

I would have just scrapped the whole card and started over, except that I hate wasting good card stock and ribbon...ha ha.

August Meal: Spicy Taco Soup

Lately whenever I'm by myself my go to meal has been tacos, so when my friend told me she had a really good taco soup recipe I made her share! Gotta switch things up a bit...you know what I'm saying dawg?!?! (<--- you'll get that if you've seen We're the Millers)

Not pictured...ground beef and water

What I used...

1 lb of  94/6 Lean Ground Beef
1 can of Corn drained
1 can of Pinto Beans drained
1 can of Hot Chili Beans in their sauce
1 can Hot Rotel blended
1 can Diced Tomatoes drained
1 pkg. Dry Ranch Seasoning
1 T Clean Eating Taco Seasoning
1 1/3 cups of Water

What to do...

Brown the ground beef and drain any grease. Add in everything else and bring to a boil. I actually let mine boil for a few minutes because I was unloading/reloading the dishwasher...ha ha. I enjoyed my soup with The Better Chip's Corn Chips...they added a nice crunch.

I made this after a really hard workout the other night, so I don't know if that's reason or not, but when I was enjoying this chili like soup I started sweating and my nose started running! I thought I had finally made something too spicy...ha ha. But then I ate it the couple of nights and was perfectly fine. It does have a kick though. If you don't want or can't handle the heat I would suggest using regular Rotel and regular Chili Beans.

Whenever I make this again, I will omit the Diced Tomatoes. They really did nothing for me and I ended up picking them out...go figure...ha ha. Oh and I imagine this would be awesome topped with some avocado...so I'm definitely going to have to remember to pick one up next time.

mmmmm...how can anything not taste good when served in this cute bowl on this cute plate?!?!

**note...my friend does not blend her Rotel...just me because I don't like chunks. Also, she uses a regular taco seasoning packet vs. a homemade one and she uses 2 cups of water because she loves broth...ha ha**

Weekend Recap

Friday, as I was getting ready to say adios to another work week, I forgot my own rule of no food in the car!!! How dare I! Let me paint you a picture...I'm at my car, had already placed the pizza in the passenger seat, then I stand there like a fool because I can't figure out why I just did that. After standing there contemplating for a good minute on what I should do now because the pizza box already penetrated the barrier, I finally just got in my car. I'm sure I had the security guard, who I know was staring at me, very confused on why I wasn't getting in my car.

Friday I also picked up some brand new Sperrys!! And I got them for 29 bucks!! Thank you DSW for big coupons and being able to use those on clearance items!!

This weekend I was in a Fall mood I guess because I made my first batch of pumpkin cookies for the year. However, I like to call these Naked Pumpkin Cookies because there is no icing and no chocolate chips in them. Still so delicious! Oh and I might have used them as pre and post workout snacks...ha ha.

After stuffing ourselves at my Dad's birthday dinner Saturday night, we still managed to wake up and go to the movies. Ok...yeah maybe the movie wasn't until 12:45, but hey that still requires waking up and getting ready. This weekend it was Barrett's turn to pick a movie since he's the birthday boy! Paranoia was pretty good...plus Liam Hemsworth is always nice to look at ;)

Ok so this technically wasn't from the weekend, but it did happen last week. My brother's fiance officially asked me to be a bridesmaid! She gave me a cute burlap bag that her mom stenciled my name on and found a vintage handkerchief with the question already on it. I planning on framing the handkerchief unless anyone else has another good idea?!?!

Press Box Seats

Last Friday night my brother and I went to the longest baseball game in history!! Ok maybe not the longest game ever, but the 8th inning did take 45 mins!!! After the first out in the 9th we were ready to head out...this was a big deal because I was actually going to leave before Friday Night Fireworks with music from 90's boy bands...that's saying something.

On our way out of our seats the Spanish radio broadcaster that always throws me peanuts during the 7th inning stretch stopped us and asked why we were leaving...ha ha. I'm guessing he really didn't want us to leave because he invited us to come to the booth!

My tiredness flew out the window and I was ready to watch the rest of the game. Once we were in the booth the guy had to get back to the broadcast, but handed me a headset so I could listen. While I don't speak Spanish, I was able to pick up on a few things here and there. Turns out if I did speak Spanish they would have put me on air...ha ha.

After the game and fireworks finished, my new friend said he would take us out through the tunnel where the players were...sweetness!! No one even questioned our presence down there...guess we looked legit enough. We were able to see where the families of the players wait for them to come out and ended up walking behind one of the players. I did control myself and didn't bother the player with an autograph or picture...I mean after that game I wouldn't want to be bothered either. Then he took us through the player's parking garage and then it was goodbye.

What an exciting and unexpected way to end the night! Too bad the boyfriend wasn't with me to experience all this too.

Wedding Invitation Ornament 2013

Not knowing if any of my friend's friends were crafty too, I decided to go ahead and make her an invitation ornament and give it to her at her second shower. I had asked her for an extra invitation which probably seemed weird, but I assured her she would get it back one way or another...ha ha. You can check out the other one I made and how I made it here!

Bridal Shower Cards

I bought this bride and groom stamp over two years ago and finally got to use it!! The idea for this card came from one of the Stamp It Up books Erica found while cleaning out her house...yay for friends moving!! There was definitely a lot of cutting and sizing with this card, but I love how all the layers turned out. And this was all done without using my Cricut!!

The idea for this card also came from one of the Stamp It Up books given to me. The original card had polka dot paper on top, but since I'm obsessed with my new paisley embossing folder (the card above has the same pattern as well) I decided to use that instead. I absolutely love the simplicity of this card.

Bubble Burlap Wedding Wreaths

My friend who is getting married in October was talking about wanting burlap wreaths for her wedding and me being the crafter that I am offered to make them for her! I finally gave them to her last week at her showers so now I can share them with y'all! Let's start from the beginning...

Supplies...two 12 inch wreath forms, 2 yards of red burlap, 2 1/2 spools of red ribbon, sewing pins with the big heads.

I then cut the the burlap into 4 inch strips.

Then the strips into 4 inch squares.

Then it was time to make and pin the "bubbles" on to the wreath form that I had already wrapped with the ribbon. I took the right top corner of the square and brought it down to the bottom left corner. Then you take the right corner and fold it to the center and repeat with the left. Stick the sewing needle through all the layers and then on to the wreath. Repeat until your wreath is nice and full!

Yay! All the burlap is on! Now it was time to start gluing rhinestones onto the wood letters. I gave y'all a sneak peak of this process a month or so ago.

Before I glued the rhinestones on I had to make sure they would all fit right. So this picture that I previously shared is of the unglued rhinestones. Once I figured out the placement of all the rhinestones (over 1,160 5mm rhinestones) I glued them all on using E6000 glue. Unfortunately, during the gluing process some shifted on me so they don't look as perfect as before...ha ha. Once all rhinestones were secured I glued small wood beads on the back of the letters and ran jewelry wire through them and tied the onto the wreaths. 

Drum roll please.....I present you the finished wreaths!

I can't wait to see these hanging on the doors of the wedding venue...I may just have to get my picture taken by them!! ha ha.

3 Ingredient Healthy Pancakes

Another recipe from another pin! I don't know why I thought it would be a challenge to complete 5 pins this year (aka one of my goals from my 13 in 2013 which you can find over on the right).

This recipe comes from the Undressed Skeleton...which is a tumblr account so my peeps at work, we can't click on the link.

The pancake batter consists of 1 banana and 1 egg. You pour that into your skillet and then add a few blueberries.

I had some difficulties flipping the pancakes and finally realized the smaller the better and the less blueberries the better. Those suckers like to roll!

Overall the taste was pretty good. A couple of bites tasted a bit egg-ish, but other than that I think it mixed fine. However, I could tell I wasn't eating a real pancake...mainly because I make my pancakes pretty thick (my dad calls them man-cakes) and these were super thin. Also, instead of blueberries I will probably use mini chocolate chips in the future.

One last thing...these don't fill you up for long (or at least they didn't for me) so I would definitely add a side of bacon or breakfast sausage.

Birthday Card for the Future SIL

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My future Sister-In-Law's birthday is the day after mine, so even though we were celebrating mine a week or so ago we were also celebrating hers. So of course I had to make her a card! Once again, I think I got the idea for this card off Pinterest, but didn't actually Pin it. There were suppose to be cut outs at the bottom, but I made a boo-boo and did the punch one too many times so the bottom was chopped off, which is also the reason the card can't stand...ha ha. The "happy" I cut out using my cricut.

I have 3 more card posts coming soon and none of them involve my cricut!! I can't believe it!!

July Meal: Turkey Tacos with Clean Eating Taco Seasoning

I actually thought I missed making a new meal in July, but turns out I did and didn't even realize it. I'm sure we've all seen the make your own clean eating taco seasoning floating around Pinterest and after realizing I had nothing but turkey meat to make for dinner one night I decided to give this taco seasoning a try.

All of my ingredients minus chili powder (turns out I didn't have any) but I added red pepper flakes instead.

Note to self...next time just mix it in the container you are going to keep it in to avoid extra dirty dishes...ha ha.

2 T ground cumin, 1 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/2 tsp onion powder, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 tsp black pepper and 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes (should have been chili powder). Once blended, I used 1 T of this mixture for my 1 lb. of turkey plus 3/4 cup of water.

I let it boil for a few minutes and then simmer for few more and ta-da your done.

Like I said at the beginning of this post...I didn't have much in my fridge, freezer or pantry. However I did find two tortillas left over from my chicken enchiladas. So I had turkey soft tacos with no extras...ha ha.

My notes on this...the original recipe says this has a little kick to it...um not to me. I figured it was because of the lack of chili powder so I just recently tried this seasoning again but made sure to pick up some chili powder before hand. But still...not enough kick for me. Since I still have some seasoning left, next time I use it I'm going to add in some more red pepper flakes.

Oh yeah...here's the pin I got the recipe from... The Gracious Pantry

#MB20GoosTour!

Tuesday night Barrett and I saw The Goo Goo Dolls and Matchbox 20 in concert. This was actually his birthday gift from me even though his birthday is still weeks away...ha ha. It was an extremely hot Texas summer night, but the performances were definitely worth it!!

Kate Earl opened the show

I couldn't really understand her so I can't say if she's good or not

Right before the Goo Goo Dolls came out someone in a bear costume came out and did a little dance for everyone

Goo Goo Dolls

Goo Goo Dolls

Goo Goo Dolls...the sun finally went down!

my favorite instagram picture!

Matchbox 20

Well hello there Rob...

By this time the sun was completely gone so that means the spotlights came out and washed him out...so the best pics I have of him are when he's at the back of the stage.

Crazy eyes!

Piano

The concert was awesome! I didn't know many of the newer songs, but I sure did like them!! Of course the old stuff was still just as good!