Spinach Salad and Dressing Recipe

From my good friend, Tracie.

New Year's Fiesta!

This year for New Year's Eve, we kept it pretty low key.  That was just fine, because it sure has seemed like such a busy year! We celebrated the evening with our good friends Tracie and Luke and ate some delicious food.
On the menu was: lobster tails, champagne, quinoa, spinach salad and chocolate melting cups.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it!!
To make it simpler for you all, here are the recipes we followed.
- Lobster tails, here.

(To make this one more cost effective, we did not steam the tails in champagne, but substituted the champagne for beer.  We researched it and was just as delicious!)

To come....spinach salad recipe and chocolate melting pots recipe :)

Subway Art

Someone asked me last weekend where I got one of my subway art, found in the picture above.  After some searching, since I've had it printed for a while, I found the blog where I found it.  Enjoy your freebie!

Homeade Peanut Butter Patties

Before:

Once a year I have a student or two come up to me and ask if I want to buy Girl Scout cookies from them.  I always buy one or two boxes to support the organization and simply we just like the cookies! 
I've discovered that B's favorite is Peanut Butter Patties.  Well, we all know that the price of the cookies has gone up as the size of the boxes has gone down.  My mom normally makes this recipe during Christmas time, but I thought that I would make them as a surprise for B!  Super easy and quick to make.  The amount you can make is flexible...all depending on how many cookies you feel like enjoying :)  If you are like us, that will be quite a few!

Here's what you'll need:
Ingredients
-Ritz crackers
-Chocolate almond bark
-Creamy peanut butter
1) Start melting the almond bark in a double boiler and get that going first, while stirring the chocolate frequently. 
While that melts, you'll make little sandwiches out of the peanut butter and Ritz crackers.  It depends on how peanut buttery you would like your cookies to be, as to how much peanut butter you spread on. 
2) Once the chocolate melts, dip in the cracker sandwiches in the chocolate and fully coat the crackers with it.  I think it is easier to maneuver with two forks....see picture above.
3) Once they are fully coated, place on wax paper and let them dry.

Yummy after!

4) Then, ENJOY!

Wedding Bouquet Ornament

After!

My wedding bouquet has been on display over the past 2 1/2 years since we got married.  At first it was nice and colorful and then slowly, the colors started to fade and the flowers started to get crispy and collect dust.  So, on a whim last week, I remembered something my sister had told me about on Pinterest.  She said people were taking apart their old bouquets and turning them into Christmas ornaments.   I originally put the idea in the back of my mind, but then after some thinking, decided it was time to turn my dusty bouquet into a keepsake.

Believe it or not, I got very sentimental taking apart my bouquet!  I think it's the fact that that new bride feeling is about 2 1/2 years old now.  Don't get me wrong, I am even more madly in love with my husband now, than I was then...but it's still kind of sad.  It is such a special time, a new time in your life.  

I found a couple good links on Pinterest here and here and went on my way.  I used the ribbon from my bouquet as ribbons on my ornaments.  I also luckily had some silk flowers in my bouquet and from my hair that gave my ornaments some colors.  My ornaments came from Michael's for about $2.99 a piece and were sitting in my craft drawer waiting for another project I had planned to do a couple of years ago.  The end product turned out really well and now we have 2 special ornaments to hang on our tree each year.  

Before...

 

The Uglies.

When we walked into our house the first time, we knew it was the one.  It might not be perfect for any other family, but we really feel that it is perfect for us!
So, as we've been living here now about 1 1/2 years, we have decided the that previous owners had HORRIBLE task in decorating and more specifically in light fixtures.    After staring at the horrible light fixtures over the landing on our stairs, we decided to call up our "resident electrician" and install a brand new fixture.  Check out the pictures.  Don't you think it is an improvement?  We decided to go with a vintage-feeling fixture that is not flush with the ceiling since it is such a high space.  Definitely the correct fixture for a 1920s house.  The old one was really horrendous!

Christmas 2012

Hello there again!  We have had a busy last couple of months!  December came and went in the blink of an eye it seems.  We celebrated Christmas with B's family, my family, and had our own little Christmas here at home.  It was so nice to just be with family and celebrate being together.  Thank goodness we actually had a white Christmas this year!

Carrying the "loot" through downtown.

Shopping wears B out!

The gang, minus K.  We missed you!

I will forever think of this place as Marshall Fields!

Right before Christmas, we went with my family to Chicago for a weekend.  We rode the train in, saw the Macy's gigantic tree, met up with M and E downtown and just had a great weekend.  My sister and I picked up these very cool willow sticks at Crate and Barrel--on mega sale.  The only issue with this was the they were about 3 feet long and we had to carry them all over downtown...maybe not the best planning on our part!  We did survive and had a wonderful time.