Giveaway

I feel really excited and a little vomity.  Yeah, that can only mean one thing:  my first giveaway.

I'm coming close to 100 followers and I would like to say a special thank you to everyone who has decided to spend their time following me.  When I actually reach 100 followers, I would like to send this to someone:

It is a pair of cotton crocheted facecloths and a natural body soap.

If you'd like to enter to win this giveaway:

1.  Please follow me for one entry if you don't already (mandatory).  Please leave me a comment to let me know.  

2. Follow me on twitter for a second entry (optional).  Please leave a comment to let me know.



3.  Follow me on Facebook for a third entry (also optional) and again, please leave a comment to let me know.



That's it.  That's all it takes.

When I reach 100 followers, I will randomly select a winner and let you all know.

Thanks again for your support.  I appreciate it every day. This has been a fabulous journey so far and it is all because of you!!

Chicken Piccata

I actually made this last week but somehow forgot to take photos, so I'm making it again.  We love this recipe or should I say sort of recipe.  It's all kinda wishy washy.  It's basically some chicken and some lemon, easy peasy.

I start off with chicken breasts and then cut them in half horizontally.  So you end up with two skinny fillets from each breast.  If the tenderloin is on the back I cut that off and make a tiny filet out of it.

Once everything is cut, I put the chicken between pieces of waxed paper and give them a big bang-up until they're fairly evenly flattened.  I like banging things.  The tenderloin piece will give you a nice size for a small child or a snack while you're cooking.  :)

So, you've got your skinny chicken.  Now dredge the chicken in either a beaten egg or egg whites (to cut a few calories I used egg whites), then dip into the breadcrumbs.  I made homemade this time and used store bought last time and didn't notice a huge difference.  Use what's convenient.  Shake off the excess and fry in a bit of oil spray for about 3 minutes a side or until the center is no longer pink.

As you finish cooking the fillets, pull them out and put on a plate either in a warmed oven (I usually do about 250 degrees) or covered with tin foil.  Time to make the sauce.

I wipe out the skillet if the chicken left a bunch of brown bits.  Throw in 2 Tablespoons of butter, and let it melt.  Add 2 Tablespoons of flour, mix and let cook for 1 minute.

Add 3/4 cup chicken stock, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1 Tablespoon of chopped parsley, 1-2 Tablespoons capers, sliced lemons, salt and pepper.  Cook until thickened.

Put the chicken fillets back in to rewarm and get good and tasty with the sauce.  Should only take about a minute if you've kept the chicken warm.

Be sure to spoon that yummy sauce over top when you serve.

I'm partying here:

Fabric Wall Art

Okay, today was the day when the fate of the fabric was decided.  Well, two of the black and white fat quarters anyway.  Sew4Home has a trio of no-sew fabric paintings that I fell in love with ages ago so that was the deciding factor that had me cutting into that precious fabric.  Hands shaking a little bit.  Big deep breath.  :)

Okay, okay.  Perhaps a tad dramatic there.

I started with three 8x10-inch canvases from the dollar store and two fat quarters.  I ironed the fabric, and then I laid the canvas on the fabric and cut so that there was approximately 2 inches of extra fabric all the way around.  I didn't worry too much about even cutting (okay, I can't actually cut evenly so this wasn't intentional, just fortunate that it didn't matter in this case) because the edges were going to be hidden behind the canvases.

I folded up the fabric tightly, fastening with the staple gun.  I couldn't get a good shot at the corners but basically I did them as I would a Christmas package, pulling tight of course.  I have to admit to feeling particularly capable while using the staple gun.  Does anyone else feel that way, lol?

I made three of these with alternating fabrics and hung them in the spare bedroom.  This poor room is drastically under-decorated.  This is a start.

In the end, three of them did not quite make up enough space on the wall so I think I'll make one more in the second fabric.

Also, just a note, next time I would make the surrounding fabric a little bigger than 2 inches.  It was a little tight to fold over, but I think that 3 inches would make it perfect.

I'm partying here:













































I Heart Naptime

Featured

I feel so fortunate this morning after finding out that my Autumn Wreath was featured on two of my favourite sites:




- and -





Please do check out the blogs these gals have.  I love them both and know you won't be disappointed.

A Trend?

Perhaps.  I've been having so much fun on Pinterest sorting through the cool quotations that I thought I would share some from this week.  These all fall under the believe in yourself category.

(WARNING: some mild cussing at the bottom of the page - you've been warned):

Modern Emotive

Ayn Rand

Tania Willis Tumbler

El.em.be.

Do you feel inspired or motivated when you read quotations like this?  Some days they are just what I need.  Have a fabulous weekend.

Photography Challenge - Week #5

Okay, this is week #5 of the Photography Challenge over at A Step in the Journey.   You can join in at any time, so if you're interested just click on the button below to get a list of the upcoming themes.



This week's theme was "From a High Angle".  I had some difficulty thinking of where to take this shot because I wasn't anywhere high this week, lol.  Finally, I just went upstairs and fooled around until I got a shot that I didn't hate.  Yep, with this camera - seriously, that's the best I can hope for.  Anyway, here we go:

We had some pretty pink impatiens in hanging baskets out here, but in the end, daily waterings weren't enough for them to combat the blistering sun this year.  That's okay though, I like the fall mums so much better.  

Planning Your Blog

How much planning do you put into your blog?  Do you follow a specific routine or outline?  I don't follow a particular pattern, often I'm just trying to get things done so that I can post about them.  I also don't have a big plan,.....yet.

I like to make a list of goals as we enter into fall.  I find that in the summer I'm useless at getting things accomplished.  I don't know if it's the hot weather, extra company and activities, or the laid-back feel of the season.  Whatever the reason, fall becomes my time to get things done.

Source - "There is no end to the amount of things you can accomplish."

This fall I am going to focus on some changes for the blog.  I was thinking of creating more of a schedule or outline.  Something like:  Monday = wild card day; Tuesday = craft; Wednesday = recipe; Thursday - photograph; Friday - something inspirational.  I don't know,...needs to be tweaked, but you get the idea.

Source

Any thoughts from you guys?  Anything you would like to see more of? Less of?  Any big ideas for your own blogs?  Or still in summer mode? lol

Easy Breezy Entertaining

Last night we hosted 5 of my husband's colleagues for dinner so it was the perfect opportunity to try out my new easy breezy entertaining attitude.  

The day started off with a bang when I discovered that the cat had brought in a frog.  A live frog.  And the dog chased it under the stove before I could catch it.  No problem.  Easy breezy.  I was just going to hope that it either came out before the group arrived (which it did) or after they had left.  

The next surprise was the dishwasher broke.  We had picked up new glasses so we would have something nice for this group and I ran them through the dishwasher which left rock hard white spots on them.  Well, them and every other glass and dish in there.  I tried soaking them in vinegar, experimented with CLR and eventually moved on to the magic eraser.  Thankfully the magic eraser worked but it wasn't without vigorous scrubbing and who really has time to wash dishes 3 times with company coming?

No problem.  Still easy breezy.

When I discovered that the only ice bucket we have is bright summer plastic blue, I didn't flinch.  It would do.

Festive!

When I realized that we didn't have enough of the nice wine glasses (because I broke one a few months ago), I grabbed the less than pretty glasses, put them in the mix, and chose to think of it as eclectic instead of mismatched.

Pretty one is on the right 

When I did this, I ran some cold water over it and carried on.

Not a meal until someone gets burned

When the roast wouldn't cook fast enough, I cranked up the heat, poured more wine for everyone and added a few extra crackers to the appetizer tray.  Easy breezy.

And you know what? It worked.  I didn't get tense and neurotic, I asked someone to make the martinis for me (which ended up being a big source of entertainment and laughter), and everyone seemed to have a good time.  Even me.

Well, until I woke up this morning to do these:

And these:

And these:

By hand.  :)  

The dishwasher is now fixed apparently.  The fellow who came out this morning to look at it suggested I change detergents.  Yep, that was the big problem.  Not broken at all.  I guess I should be happier but let's just say this conversation about the detergent was an expensive one and leave it at that.  After all, we're easy breezy, right?!