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CROCHET GARLAND

Crochet garland is complete! It looks so nice above our bed (the picture does not do it justice). I love home made touches. They bring a whole new level of comfort and coziness to a home. In fact - I think they really help make a house feel more like a home. That, and the people who live in it of course!

You can get the mini-heart crochet tutorial here - it took me literally 2 minutes to make each heart. So easy! I then just added a little loop through the middle of each heart, strung them all together, et voila!

THUNDERSTORMY NIGHTS

On thunderstormy nights I like to turn the lights down low and watch the lighting from our huge windows. Last night I turned off Crooked Still (which is a great band to listen to during a thunderstorm) for a little while and just listened to the rain. And then I got moving! I rearranged all the furniture in our little basement suite to get the desk out of our bedroom, and create this cute little workspace in the living room! And right before the rain started, I picked some sweet little flowers to freshen up our coffee table. Once I was done listening to the rain, I watched the movie Fireproof (amazing) and crocheted 22 of those little hearts (get the how-to here)- which I later turned into a sweet garland for over our bed (pics to come)! Each heart takes less than 3 minutes to make. They are sooo easy!

And that was my thunderstormy night. How was yours?

RECIPE: PEANUT BUTTER SQUARES

Uh oh. These taste EXACLTY like Reeces Peanut Butter Cups. EXACTLY.

Recipe here!

LONG WEEKENDING PART 2

Played golf for the first time!

3 hour and 15 minute canoe trip from Little Marble Lake to Mazinaw Lake @ Bon Echo Provincial Park.

Some cliff climbers!

On May 22 2010, Mark and I canoed to this very random, but beautiful rock (above), where he asked me to marry him! So this year we came back to find it and reminisce.

Cool, eh?

RECIPE: SPICY SPINACH PERSONAL PITA PIZZA

 Today I was craving pizza. I quickly looked around at some simple recipes, and I created this one! I'm calling it the Spicy Spinach Personal Pita Pizza (because alliteration makes everything much more fun to say).

Recipe below!

Spicy Spinach Personal Pita Pizza

1/2 C plain tomato sauce (no salt added)

1 Tbsp Frank's Thick Red Hot Sauce

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper flakes

2 or 3 fresh garlic cloves (finely minced)

1/4 tomato (thinly sliced and chopped)

2 small whole wheat pitas (the thick and fluffy kind)

1 C organic spinach (loosely packed)

2 oz fresh mozzarella (finely sliced rounds)

Preheat oven to 400F. In a small bowl, combine tomato sauce, Frank's sauce, red pepper flakes, garlic, and tomato slices. Spread sauce on pitas, leaving a half inch space around the edges. Sprinkle with spinach, and top with mozzarella slices. Bake 8-10 minutes, or until spinach is wilted and cheese is melted. Makes 2 small pizzas.

If you only plan on eating one pizza, loosely wrap remaining pizza in tin foil and store for up to 2 days in your fridge. Reheat in a warm oven. 

** Click to read up on the health benefits of spinach**

LONG WEEKENDING PART 1

TREASURE

Treasures of new:

Mark's 25th birthday gift from the family - Scrabble Deluxe Classic Edition... on a spinny board!!!!

Treasures of old:

An old stump, probably off of the enormousness tree in our front yard, that I found tucked away in our basement suite storage cupboard. Pretty neat eh? 

Do you remember the Ottawa ice storm or "strom" of 1998? I sure do. My power was out for only half an hour, and my mom made me and my brother do homework the whole time. Ok maybe not the whole time... but that's what I remember!

Have an awesome long weekend everyone!

BLISS

25

Mark turned joined the quarter of a century club this past week, and we had planned a little surprise party for him! It was a blast. We had a bunch of our close friends over to Mark's parents' house and everyone hid in the basement. The night was filled with food, games, and laughter!

SUMMER PLANS

LATELY

DREAMING

One day... maybe?

RECIPE: TOMATO & MOZZARELLA PASTA BAKE

Now that the end of the dance season is nearing, my work schedule is slowly getting less and less busy. So I had the WHOLE day off yesterday! Yahoo! I tried a new recipe last night, and it was a big hit with hubby (and me too!). As you can see, we ate half of the dish in one sitting. Great success. And not only that, it was SO simple to make and took me less than 20 minutes to prepare (plus 15 more mins for baking time). Double success. Here's the recipe!

Tomato and Mozzarella Pasta Bake

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2-14 oz. cans diced Italian plum tomatoes

1 tsp. dried oregano

S&P

1 lb. pasta (tubes)

8 oz. mozzarella cheese, cubed

2/3 c. parmesan

Directions:

Heat oil in skillet. Add garlic and cook over medium high heat, 1 min. Add tomatoes and oregano and simmer rapidly, stirring occasionally until thickened, 15 min. Add S&P.Meanwhile, cook pasta. Toss pasta with sauce. Place half of pasta in an oiled 9×13” dish.Cover with half parmesan and half mozzarella. Top with remaining pasta, then parmesan and mozzarella. Bake at 400° for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

CHALK ART

This past Sunday Mark and I spent our morning and afternoon at his workplace, helping with some major and minor renovations to revamp the store for its 30th anniversary. However, I spent the majority of my time on a special project... the chalkboard! I love chalkboard art, and I was so thrilled to have been asked to handle this project! I was given complete freedom to create whatever I felt reflected the store best. So here's what I came up with! What do you think?

DELICIOUS DAYS

 Snippets of my my day with sissy.
Home-made peanut butter hot chocolate experiment / screech jams / lattes & God talks / David's Tea & Westboro shops.

We bought some birthday cake tea from David's Tea! DELICIOUS.

Made these honey cinnamon roasted chickpeas today! Also delicious.

Have a happy May 1st!