Super lazy weekend

Well, I got a grand total of nothing done this weekend, so I don't have any awesome craftiness to report on. I can say that of the marinades I posted last week, I have prepared both of them. The balsamic herb chicken was pretty good, I enjoyed it and ate my full portion. The spicy citrus marinade was definitely not good. The key lime was just way way too citrusy.

This upcoming week I don't have any crafting plans, but Alex and I are planning to go camping at Fort Macon. That should be a lot of fun and have the possibility to have lots of pictures. I am looking forward to a fun week where I get a day off in the middle of the week!

A very busy Saturday

So yesterday was an insanely busy day for me. I actually woke up thanks to Alex going to play paintball and I was able to get things accomplished. Task 1 was to do a lot of running around. I went to Michaels, the Dollar store and the container store.

Project 1 after I got home was to make a little pedastal thing to go by the sink to have the hand soap, ring holder and some hand lotion sit on. Here is how it turned out.

 I am fairly happy with how it turned out. What I did was I got a candlestick and candle tray from the Dollar Store and superglued them together. While doing this I relearned the lesson that if you superglue your hand to a candlestick it hurts. A lot. After I soaked my fingers in nail polish remover and detached myself, I was left with a pretty awesome little stand, but the clear glass on clear glass was not going it for me so I used some paint I got from Michael's which was a Martha Stewart "anything" paint and was a bright red with glitter. The packaging leads you to believe that it will be a solid color. The packaging lied. The color I ended up with is translucent and the product of 4 coats of the paint and I had to let it dry for an hour between each coat.

Also in that picture you see a little vase in the corner with a red liquid. That is a tiny little bud vase I picked up because every once in a while we get those obnoxious little drain flies, and I have found the best way to get rid of them is wine. So instead of having a big wine bottle sitting out I got the little vases. There are four of them strategically placed around the kitchen to lure the little bugs to their drunken doom. Also I like them because the cats don't seem to know they are there.

Next project planned was to make a two tiered shelf to go in the bathroom. The goal was to do something similar to what I did in the kitchen but to have a bottom tray slightly bigger then the top tray. Well, if wishes were ponies I would be a freakin cowgirl. As I am not a cowgirl you can tell that this project did not go as planned. I originally intended to cover the flat surfaces with pretty construction paper. Well the plates I got were sloped so the paper wouldn't sit flat. So it is less than attractive. The only cool thing is that the little vase in the middle is full of colored rocks. I did learn another superglue lesson. Glass and ceramic do not want to glue together. I got it to work in the end but it was frustrating for a while. Here is how this one ended up!

Not the most awesome thing I have ever made but it doubled the space right there so I think I will keep it.

Next on the days to-do list was rearranging the living room. I learned many lessons while doing this and they were all painful ones. So I am not going to revisit that and just show pictures. Just ignore the vacuum in the middle, eventually I will finish vacuuming.

Aren't blurry cell phone pictures the best? Anyway, this opens the room up a lot more and also I can watch TV while cooking so...yay!

As if all of that wasn't enough I decided that the kitchen needed some attention. Since I was determined to use the scrapbook paper I got at Michael's I picked up some plastic condiment bottles from the Container Store and sealed the paper to it and they now hold my Olive Oil and Balsamic Vinegar!

But wait the day is not complete yet! (Honestly looking back at yesterday I am surprised I am not in a coma from everything I did).

I needed to do some reorganizing so I completely rearranged the kitchen:

And I needed a fun way to organize my pot holders and measuring spoons. This were normally hanging on the wall with push pins but I wanted something more put together, also that didn't make it look like this was a college apartment (the futon does that enough). So I had the little shelf/papertowel holder thing on the wall but I never put paper towels on it because we have a much cooler one. So I picked up a set of shower curtain hooks and used them to hang everything!

Finally, after everything was said and done I chilled out on the futon and watched the movie "The Sitter" which is absolutley hilarious and knitted. Then I listened to "War of the Worlds" and knitted some more! Here is what I am working on!

It is a baby blanket for whenever I finally have children. I have been working on it on and off since December and I would like to get it done. I figured if I wanted to be sure it was done when we had a baby I should start it before one was on the way!

That is yesterday and brings us to today. I slept in which made me feel like a bit of a slacker, but I went to the grocery store while Alex got a hair cut and bought enough stuff on sale to last us a while. One thing I did was get a lot of chicken and portioned it out so that there were two pieces in each freezer bag. So I ended up with 3 meals worth of chicken. To make life easier when I go to make dinner after work two of the bags have a marinade in them that will freeze with the chicken.

Marinade 1: Balsamic Herb
Balsamic Vinegar
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Dried Minced Onion
Garlic Powder
Oregano

Marinade 2: Spicy Citrus
Key Lime Juice
Olive oil
Dried Minced Onion
Garlic Powder
Salt
Pepper
Cayanne Pepper

So those should be interesting. Now for the rest of the day I am just going to relax, I feel like I have earned it! Have a cute animal to make you smile on this lazy Sunday!

A long time gone

Well, it has been a long time since my last post in January! Since then I have gotten a new job as an insurance adjuster at an awesome insurance company and have generally been chilling! I did learn how to spin with a drop spindle while I was in Sumter visiting mom. That was a lot of fun and my first drop spindle yarn is drying out on the back of a chair in the dining room.

Today was pretty awesome, Alex and I went to the NC Farmers Market in Raleigh and bought a ton of food. The thing I am starting with first is the strawberries, we bought a giant basket (and the basket I am sure is going to be reused in some sort of crafty fashion :) ) and I made some Strawberry Muffins today.

In addition to all of the fruits I bought a plant for my desk, I went to tell Alex its name it it was Josiah. I think it will make me happy while I am at work.

Another thing I have been up to is spinning. The roving I used was pencil Roving that I got at Yarn Tree Studios. I soaked it in water and have laid it out to dry and I am excited, I have not decided what I will make with it. Here is it drying out:

 My next project will be involving a glass milk bottle, but I haven't figured out what I will do with it.

Here is today's cute animal:

Finally cleaning

So today I am finally motivated to finish with the last bit of cleaning in the new apartment. I even have the guest bathroom setup to be able to be used! My motivation is a dinner party tonight as well as a girls weekend that starts Friday.

Tonights dinner is Chicken Parmesan. So far the croutons are made, the sauce is simmering and the chicken is pounded thin. I still have the salad to make and the chicken to bread, quickly fry in basil oil to sear the coating and then finish it in the oven and two more hours to get it done!

Poor Alex though, in my cleaning I have piled all the trash bags by the door for him to take out when he gets home. But things are looking nice here and I am ready for friends!

The cute animal of the day:

Fantastic day

Today was a really great day. Slept in until 11 then went out for lunch and a tour of the Gregory Vineyard. Lunch was a little bit of a challenge. Alex and I went out expecting to use a groupon we received for Christmas at a place called 5th Street Grill. We got there and the place had gone out of business. So we ended up at Arby's.

The winery tour was super awesome. We got to see the vineyard and we heard a full description of how they grow the grapes and then we got to see where the grapes are turned into wine. Then of course came the tasting. There were 8 wines and 2 juices and 2 ciders. They were all muscadine wines but they tasted great. Alex even liked them and picked out his own bottle.

Now I am relaxing at home with a glass of wine and air popped popcorn :)

Todays cute animal:

Things to Consider

I am trying to make plans so that I can meet new people and make friends. I think I am going to start taking Yoga classes (once I get a job). That should be fun :). Also I am going to go to the local knitting store Yarn Tree Studio for some classes. Maybe one on spinning. Hopefully I will get this job so I can start doing super fun stuff again :)

Tomorrow should actually be fun though, for Christmas Alex and I received a groupon for a winery tour and tasting so we are going to do that tomorrow afternoon. Then next week sometime I am going to do the Raleigh Bartenders class which is a 4 hour mixology class. That should be fun. Lots going on.

Here is the very cute animal for the day:

Epic Dinner Time

So dinner tonight was an adventure. I made Stuffed chicken breasts with a parmesan pasta. Here is what you do:

1) Well I decided the best way to make sure I survived creating this new recipe was to start with a Vodka Tonic. Now that that is taken care of I can get started.
2) Now we work on the filling so gather your ingredients: 4 cups of spinach, ricotta cheese, parmesan, garlic powder, pepper, salt, basil and oregano. Chop the spinach into small pieces and grate the parmesan (super easy with the right Kitchenaid attachment). Mix half the ricotta and most of the spinach (reserve some for the pasta). Mix with your choice of seasoning quantites. It should look like this:

3) Now you pound your chicken out to your choice of thickness (thinner is better). Once that is done you put a small amount in the middle and roll the chicken around it. Then you dip the chicken in egg and panko and saute the chicken in basil oil (mine was a christmas gift made by a friend):

Once you have sauteed around Put the chicken on a broiler pan and cook at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.
4) While that is cooking make your pasta. I used linguini but you can use whatever you want. Once is it cooked to your liking drizzle with more of your basil oil and then add parmesan and the rest of the chopped spinach and mix it up:

5) Once your chicken is cooked serve it on a bed of the pasta:


The Verdict:
Alex liked everything, but I wasn't a fan of the chicken. It should have been pounded thinner. The pasta was AMAZING. I would make it again, will probably make the pasta for lunch tomorrow.

I can't add any pictures for some reason so no cute animal with this post.

Boy have I slacked off

I really am a massive slacker! My last post was at the beginning of November and here it is January 5th! So much has gone on, Christmas, moving to Raleigh right before Christmas and an awesome New Year Party.

My new apartment has been pretty awesome, I don't feel like a bullet might come flying through my house any moment. Right now I am playing the housewife game while I wait to get a job, Second interview next tuesday so fingers crossed.
To fill my time I have been cooking and crafting. My craft right now is a baby blanket so that when I finally have a baby it will be ready. Cooking I have gotten a little lazy but not tonight. Dinner tonight is Stuffed Chicken breast over a simple Parmesan pasta. The stuffing for the chicken breasts is spinach, ricotta and parmesan. Should be yummy. I will do a whole post about that adventure. That is a quick update more details will come in the dinner post.
Today's adorable animal: