The Great Outdoors

This past weekend we put together our new patio furniture.  We ordered it online from Home Depot and thank goodness they had free shipping.  The box would NEVER have fit in one of our cars.

We had the opportunity to sit outside and enjoy the furniture for a few hours after we assembled it.  Luckily it was easy to put together! :)

Memories to Share

I wanted to share with everyone my most recent crafting adventure.  I don't know if you guys have seen the memory boxes out there lately but people are so creative and decorate the tops and sides of the boxes beautifully.  I wanted to make a memory box for friends of David and I who were married at the most beautiful wedding last fall.  (BTW, I don't think David has shared this blog with you guys but if he has, close your eyes and don't look at the pictures below!!)  I had a lot of fun picking out textured papers, making cuts, and stamping away.  What do you think?

Sorry, I couldn't get this one to rotate for me so you'll just have to rotate your head while you look at it!  Consider it a neck stretch....you're welcome! :)

The great thing about these boxes is you can either use them for photos (they provider dividers inside so you can organize and label your photos) or you can use them to hold mementos.

Blue Kitchen

Alright, so I couldn't come up with a clever title for this post.  I've told you before, I'm not much of a writer! :)  Since we have moved into our house I have made the comment that I liked the kitchen color (blue) but would have chosen a different shade of blue.  Well this weekend I finally made it happen. I have some before and after pictures for you but I honestly don't know if you can tell the difference in the photos between the two shades of blue.  The kitchen was a brighter periwinkle blue before and now it is a lighter, grayish blue.  I painted the kitchen Manhattan Mist by Behr and I used the paint with the primer so the whole kitchen only took one coat.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Let's see if you can tell the difference.  It maybe all in my head but I think the kitchen looks a little airier now (and yes, that must be a word because spell check didn't stop me!!).  Next on my painting "to do" list is to paint the mantel.  It needs another coat of paint from what was originally painted on it.  Will keep you updated!

What's for Dinner?

So, while stuck at home recovering from a cold and strep throat, I had a chance to get caught up on my Martha Stewart Living magazines that I had let pile up over the holiday season.  I stumbled upon some great recipes calling for Parmesan, parsley, and lemon.  With Martha recipes, it is hit or miss for me.  Many times they call for a lot of ingredients I don't have or look very complex but these recipes seemed right up my alley in skill level and ingredients needed.  I decided to start with the Lemon, parsley, and Parmesan with chicken and potatoes.  I love when a whole meal can be cooked with one recipe and one baking dish.  The meal was pretty easy to make and the only thing I changed with the recipe was to add more garlic when called for.  Oh and I used shredded Parmesan rather than grated, still tasted grrrrreat!

Ingredients

• Chicken and potatoes

1 whole organic chicken (about 3 1/2 pounds)

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

1/2 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 lemon, halved

1 pound fingerling potatoes, halved or cut into thirds if large

• Sauce

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 lemon, zested (2 teaspoons) and juiced (1 1/2 tablespoons)

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

Pinch of red-pepper flakes

Preparation

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Place chicken, breast side up, on a baking sheet. Rub with 2 tablespoons oil; season generously with salt and pepper. Place parsley and 1 lemon half in cavity. Tie legs together with kitchen twine. Toss potatoes and 2 tablespoons oil. Drizzle with juice from remaining lemon half. Season with salt and pepper. Scatter potatoes along chicken.

Roast for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 375 degrees F; cook for 25 minutes. Rotate pan, toss potatoes, and cook until potatoes and chicken are golden brown and a thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the chicken’s thigh reaches 165 degrees F, about 25 minutes more. Let chicken and potatoes stand for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, make the sauce: Combine ingredients. After 10 minutes, brush sauce on chicken and drizzle on potatoes.

Active time: 15 minutes

Total time: 1 hour 40 minutes

Serving Size - Serves 6

Martha Stewart Living, January issue (2012)

www.marthastewart.com

Twenty Twelve

To jump start the new year I wanted to do a little mini-update post.  The  month of December was a very busy one around here filled with holiday parties, dinners with friends and family, and lots of good memories.  We hosted a Christmas dinner one Sunday night in December and I wanted to share some pictures of the table decorations.  Sometimes Sunday night dinners are the best to host.  If we're having friends over for dinner on a Sunday I always pick an earlier than usual time for everyone to arrive.  This gives everyone the chance to socialize and catch up but also allows everyone the chance to get home at a reasonable hour and get ready for the work week.  

I made chicken parmigiana; my first attempt and I think it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.  It was a great excuse to pull out the china, that makes twice in one year, a new record!! :)

I made the same "place cards" that I made for Thanksgiving and put a little Christmas twist on them with the red berries. 

A little close-up of the center of the table.  Since I wanted the dinner to be relaxed, I kept the table decor to a minimum.

There were 8 of us total so the men sat in the dinning room while the women sat in the kitchen.

On another Christmas note, I mentioned my mom's nativity scene to a few of my coworkers so I took some pictures while we were at my parent's for Christmas.  My mom had the the wooden barn made for the nativity scene.  She has taken different animals she finds and incorporates them into the scene.  The "ground" is decorated brown paper that her family used for their nativity scene's growing up.

I have many goals on my list to accomplish this year with the house.  Hopefully I will be updating the blog more than I did in the month of December.  I have a few little projects in store but my next big project is painting the kitchen.  Will keep you updated.  Happy New Year everyone!!

Christmas Time is Here..

"Happiness and Cheer!"

As I mentioned in my last post, over the Thanksgiving weekend my mom and I decorated my house for Christmas.  We had some help from our company in town who helped decorate the tree with my husband (thanks SIL!).  Here's a picture of our mantel, our stockings hung with care!

Here is the fire place, I love those red trees and had to fit a picture with them in the blog somewhere!

A close-up of the ledge between the den and dining room.

The dining room (as noted in my earlier post about the dining room, the red color is smooth, for some reason depending on how the lighting is at the time the photos show it as splotchy).

The table at the front entry way.

The stairs you see from the entry way.

And of course, the true meaning of Christmas....

"Oh, that we could only see such spirit through the year!!"

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!!

Thankful

My Thanksgiving preparations began with the purchase of my first Turkey ever (OK, first raw turkey ever).  I was so excited buying it in the store and wanted to take a picture in it's new home to commemorate the occasion.

But in all seriousness I took lots of pictures to post here from the first Thanksgiving that we hosted.  We had family and friends visiting throughout the weekend but for the actual holiday my parents, SIL, and very special   family from CLT were in attendance for the Thanksgiving meal.  My mom and I started getting things ready in the morning and cooked the turkey all day.  

Yummmm, that Turkey is all ready to pop in the oven and get a tan! :) 

But before it was time to eat, even before all the guests arrived, we first had to set up the tables and decorate.  My mom is a florist and she made two beautiful arrangements using some of the pumpkins we had on the front stoop.  Below is the larger arrangement of the two, the second you might catch a glimpse of in pictures of the food table.

There were 7 of us total so we had to set up two tables to fit everyone.  The table we currently have in the living room is the kitchen table from our condo (now our dining room table).  We moved our current kitchen table from the kitchen to the foyer so everyone could still talk from table to table.

Here is the dining room table....

I made place cards for everyone out of magnolia leaves.  I used a gold paint pen to write the names on one of the leaves and tied two leaves together (one green side up, one brown side up) with gold ribbon.

This is the kitchen table set up in the foyer...

Cooking for the Thanksgiving meal was not as difficult as I had built it up to be in my mind.  Once I had everything figured out and a schedule in the back of  my mind, things just fell into place.  I made the side dishes and my mom handled the stuffing and gravy (phew, those were the two things I was worried about making myself!!).  It was nice to have an extra set of hands in the kitchen and someone with years of experience with actual Thanksgiving meal cooking.  

Here's our turkey just out of the oven.  Gobble Gobble Yummmm!  That turkey was able to feed many different visitors all weekend and we still had plenty left over to make Turkey hash to freeze for both our house and my parent's.

After the turkey came out of the oven, we heated and finished cooking the sides.  Doesn't all that food look yummy?  I forgot to take a picture before we called everyone in to start filling their plates so instead you get an action shot!

Here's a view of the desserts.  My mom made her famous pumpkin roll and I made the pumpkin pie.  I had left over pie dough so I added a leaf for extra decoration.  We also had freshly made whipped cream on hand.

This Thanksgiving I am thankful for so many things.  I will not list them all here, but I thank God for each and every one of them!! :)