Microblog Mondays

What would I do without the internet? These days I use it for so much- keeping in touch with friends and family across the world, finding recipes, keeping track of my runs, getting directions, checking the weather. The list is endless. It's so amazing to think back to when I was younger to the pre-AOL CD days.

This past weekend I used Pinterest for an idea to do a little Halloween decoration for our front door.....

.....and I used my blog reader (Navigating the Mothership) to make an inexpensive crib protector as Izzy has suddenly decided to become a beaver and chew on her crib rails. 

Two DIY wins thanks to the Internet!



Want to read more Microblog Mondays? Go here.

Pinning

With CP out of town, I have been busy keeping my mind off the upcoming IVF cycle by pinning and then making items!  After my holiday crafting blitz I have been a little lazy on the crafting side, but home improvement is enough “crafting” for me these days.  We are desperately trying to finish off the kitchen before we have friends over for the Superbowl on Sunday. 

Frankly, my pictures are never as good as the person who took the time to stage their food, so most of these pictures will be from the Pinterest pin.  :-)

For a work holiday party, I ended up making these cheesecake stuffed strawberries.  Holy crap they were good (and really easy).  The only caution I have for you is to make sure that you make them the day of the event.  I made mine the night before and the strawberries were a little mushy.

Recipe here

I made these pretzel bites for a friend’s holiday party.  I ended up making both the cinnamon sugar and the parmesan bites.  I had NO idea what Rhodes Roll dough was and if I had more time I would have made the dough myself….instead I just used Pillsbury dough and they came out great!  I would absolutely make them again.

Recipe here

 Although it’s not quite the season right now for some of these veggies, this Summer Veggies with Basil Quinoa Salad was delicious.

Recipe here

Last week I wanted a casserole, but also wanted it to be something that was really easy to put together.  I found this recipe for a Chicken, Spinach and Pasta Casserole.  I used rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods, fresh spinach (instead of frozen), and threw in some fresh mushroom into the dish.  It was tasty and easy to put together.

Recipe here

I can’t remember if I told you guys about this Chicken dish, but in case I haven’t, I’m posting it here.  This is a fantastically easy marinade and even though I’m not a huge fan of mustard, I could eat a whole lot of this chicken.

Recipe here

I love making soup in the fall, winter or spring.  I could seriously eat it every day.  I happen to LOVE corn chowder so I thought that I would make Quinoa Corn Chowder.  The soup is just okay- it seemed to be missing something- maybe a spice?  I ended up putting some Tony Chachere’s seasoning into the soup and it was better. 
 

Recipe here

CP bought me three beautiful silk scarves in Thailand on his work trip (I’m wearing my favorite one today and even took a crappy iPhone picture of it- see below ).  I used this handy scarf-tying guide to figure out different ways to tie my new scarves!

Finally, if you are looking for a delicious and healthy breakfast, look no further.  The baked eggs with spinach dish that I pinned was really easy because I had all of the ingredients on hand!  This is definitely a breakfast I will be making again.

Recipe here

Have you pinned anything interesting lately that you would like to share?

Holiday weekend

I hope all of you had a fantastic Thanksgiving.  I had a great long weekend with my parents, my sister and her dog, and of course CP and our dogs.  As usual I ate too much but at least we took a family hike with the dogs at the Warren Dunes State Park prior to the big meal.

The dogs swimming in cold Lake Michigan

Over the weekend my sister and I also did some crafting via Pinterest:

We each made a wine cork wreath:  

Actually, this is my sister's wreath but mine looks very similar

We each made jingle bell snowflakes to hang off our mantles: 

Picture from the website

I made a holly wreath for our front door:  

It was fun!  I could see us using the long weekend to craft again next year! 

On Saturday we went to local antique stores to try to find a coffee table and a painting or mirror for over our mantle, but didn’t find anything that worked.  My Dad LOVES doing this kind of stuff so he was over the moon that we wanted to go antiquing. 

Sunday morning CP and I woke up bright and early to head back to IL to work on the dining room.  For some reason the seller WALLPAPERED the CEILING and INSIDE THE HUTCHES so I had a nice 8 hour day of stripping wallpaper off the walls.  My shoulders are still sore!  I swear the seller did some of this just to f*ck with the next owners (aka US).

Stripping the seriously UGLY wallpaper out of the hutches

Tearing the wallpaper off the ceiling.

CP is on a major tear with the dining room.  He is going to be traveling for work quite a bit in December and really wants the room finished before we have family over for Christmas.  We'll see if that happens....

Pinterest

Every day more and more of my friends are joining Pinterest. I was annoyed at having to get an invite, and still think that having to get an invite to join the website is silly, but I’m glad that I did. I annoy CP on a daily basis by showing him something I found on Pinterest…a new recipe, a piece of furniture for our sunroom, DIY crafts, etc.

Not everything that you find on Pinterest works. For instance, I showed CP a picture of a coffee table made out of two skids. His comment was, “That will never work. They use the crappiest wood for skids and even if you sanded them there would be all kinds of splinters and it would never hold anything.” Point taken. I’m glad that I have him around for some logical thinking because otherwise I was starting to get excited about the new coffee table I was going to make! Ha.

So far I have mainly made food off of Pinterest. Here are my comments in case you would like to pin these items.

Sock bun/ Curly Hair Without Heat

(Me with my sock bun)

I tried out this technique one night when bored (see picture above). The video at the end of the post was easy to follow and sure enough I had a sock bun (which I loved as a hairstyle- will definitely be doing it again). The next morning when I took the bun out though, my hair was nice and curly but too poofy. I blame this on the fact that the tutorial tells you to put it high on your head. I will try this again with it lower on my head.

Pepperoni Pizza Monkey Bread

I made this recipe for the Superbowl- but without pepperoni. The recipe was pretty good (I used Whole Foods pre-made pizza dough), but would have liked a little more flavor. The outside pieces of monkey bread were great because you brush the outside of the pan with garlic butter, but the inside were kind of dull (despite the fact that I brushed them with the garlic butter as well). I would probably not make this again.

Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread

Delicious. I would definitely make this again. I took it to a party and everyone loved it!

Caramel Brownies

The overall brownie taste was good, but somehow my brownie texture was more like fudge than a brownie. I did use pre-made caramel sauce from Whole Foods so that might have been my issue. My coworkers LOVED these despite the not-quite-right texture.

Skinny Spinach Macaroni bites

The idea of putting healthier mac and cheese (with spinach to up the healthy factor) into a muffin tin is a good one…but the mac and cheese didn’t have a lot of flavor. I would not make this again.

2 Minute Salted Caramel Mug Cake

Last but certainly not least, the mug cake. One night CP declared that he wanted dessert. This doesn’t happen very often so I was shocked. He suggested going for ice cream; I suggested that he help me try out this fast recipe. I made sure that I had all of the ingredients and ended up making the salted caramel chocolate mug cake (I substituted white chocolate chips for the salted caramel pieces). OMG. I couldn’t believe that it worked but after two minutes in the microwave, there it was: a delicious, moist, and gooey chocolate cake that I whipped up in minutes. In hindsight finding this post was probably a bad idea because I know that I have the ingredients on hand and will make the cake again!

Have you pinned anything good recently? Leave the link in the comments so that I can check it out!

*All images taken from Pinterest (other than my hair picture)*