Jets and Firetrucks

Check out two new diecuts now available at Picture This! Both $2.35. The firetruck is 2"x6" and the jet is 3"x5". They're already going out the door! Check out the samples made with them at the store.

The Bouquet Toss

Happy Saturday everyone! This page is from my sister-in-law's wedding from two years ago. It took place in Negril, Jamaica. You may remember me posting pictures from that trip. These photos are from the Bouquet Toss during the reception. 

That girl who caught the bouquet, yeah that's me. I got a little excited when I caught it! And I guess it's true that the girl who catches the bouquet gets married next because five days later I was engaged! :)

Simple Stories "The Story of Us" Line

Lawn Fawn "Stitched Journaling Card"

MFT Die-namics "Fancy Flourish"

Cheery Lynn "Birds of Sky and Earth" & "Tiny Fanciful Flourish Left and Right"

Wine Tasting in Chianti

As you may remember from a couple of months ago, I went to Italy. We were in the Chianti region which is famous for their Chianti Classico wine. So of course we had to go wine tasting. The one picture was taken at a local restaurant called Machiavelli, named so due to its famous visitor Niccolo Machiavelli, who was an Italian historian, politician, and writer in the 16th century. Much wine was consumed there. The other picture was taken at an independent San Giovese vineyard called Pomona. San Giovese grapes are the kind of grapes used to make Chianti Classico wine. We had samplings of their wine and olive oil and got to take a tour with a brief history lesson. Now, about the page. The "wine tasting" diecut is available at Picture This. The label is Lawn Fawn. The glasses are Memory Box. And the paper is Scrapbook Customs.

Colin 6 mos -Swagger

This is my adorable nephew Colin. He had his first photo shoot done at 6 months old by his mama who happens to be a photographer. For this page I used embellishments from Kaiser Craft "Mister Fox" Collectibles, Amy Tangerine "Match" alphabet chipboard stickers, and Fancy Pants Swagger line "Gallant" & "Humorous". Easy, peesy, and adorable.

New stuff

We got in a huge shipment today! New Simple Stories paper collections, Dienamics, and much more! Take a look!

Graduation

As I mentioned in my last post, my younger brother graduated last week. This is the card that I made for him. (The Memorial Old Abes paper is custom and only available at Picture This)

CONGRATULATIONS to all of the 2014 graduates!!!!

Fun Finds

So as you all may have noticed, I have been MIA for the last month. I apologize. I seen to do my blogging in spurts, a few months of good blogging, then it slows down, and then a month passes with no new posts. Again, sorry. :(

In my defense, I have had a VERY busy month. As you may remember, I had a trip to Italy in May. It was tons of fun! I got to drink wine, see Florence, and bond with my 6 mo old nephew. Shortly after I returned, my grandma was admitted into the hospital and ended up in surgery to remove a tumor. Turns out she had stage 4 colon cancer. So I have been spending a lot of my free time with her and my mom. And then there's the fact that summer is finally here and my husband and I have so many things to do around the house, getting a new roof being one of them. So I've been keeping busy. 

However, my little brother just graduated high school last week and though I didn't have the time to finish his scrapbook for graduation, his birthday is in August, and I will have plenty of time to finish it by then. So in the near future up until August I should have lots of pages to post for you! 

To appease you for the moment, here are some (new) fun finds around Picture This that I discovered this weekend.

I don't think that this sympathy set is new, but it's a really great stamp set. Having gone through everything with my grandma, I've been thinking about supplies that I  need for sympathy cards a lot.

But this one is for my youngest brother who loves mustaches (he's too young to grow one himself).

And I had to buy the Tim Holtz Movers & Shapers "Mini Mustache and Pointing Finger" die so that I could make my brother mustaches out of paper and felt. Now he can stop buying the sticky ones from the dollar store. Teehee.

Happy Father's Day everyone!

Thank you for sticking with me!

Stop in today on this beautiful spring day!

Thank You Card #12

Customer Thrift Sale

Come on down today for the Annual Customer Thrift Sale before it's all gone.

Thank You Card #11

Thank You Card #10

Happy Easter to everyone!

Thank You Card #9

Spellinders Lg Standard Circles
Just Rite Just a Note Stamp set
Kaiser Craft Blae & Ivy Collection "Meadow"

Spiffy Mustache

This card is for my little brother. His birthday is this week and he's kind of obsessed with mustaches so I thought that this card to be very well suited for him.

Paper: Echo Park -Times and Seasons "Spiffy Mustache "
SB Standard Circles Large
Hot off the press "Just a Little Greeting" stamp set
JUDITH large stub star stamp
Cheery Lynn "Pretty Pretty Bows" die set

MNT Bunny Tube

Stop by for the make n take today!

Martha Stewart Fence Border Punch and Butterfly Punch

Blue circular pendant is Memory Box

Cheery Lynn Mini Fanciful Flourish & Build a Flower

Treat Bags

We got some adorable new bags to create with at the store on our buffet table. All the girls here have created something out of them. This is my take on it. Be sure to check out the other girls' blogs and of course the store for more ideas on what to do with these new brown bags.
Supplies:
4x11" brown bag
Cheery Lynn Pretty Pretty Bows B422
Simple Stories Vintage Bliss "Laugh Lots"
Cream Ribbon

Thank You Card #8

Thank You Card #7

Thank You Card #6

Paper is Webster's Pages- Citrus Squeeze collection- Berry Blast
Spellbinders Lg Standard and Scalloped Circles

Amy's Spicy Honey Orange Glazed Chicken with Soy Sauce

I have a treat for you all today that I hope you will enjoy: it's another recipe!

My Angry Orchard Beer Bread was received so well I thought that I would try another recipe with you. Today I will be sharing another one of my own recipes: Amy's Spicy Honey Orange Glazed Chicken with Soy Sauce.

I made this for my husband and I back in February and it was a huge hit! I got the idea from a frozen meal that I had eaten at work that was an orange glazed chicken and rice meal. It was actually a really good meal, but I wanted more! So I took down all of the ingredients on the back of the box and figured I could make something even better. I had to do a little bit of recipe searching to figure out proportions to get a glaze but in the end the recipe was my own creation. None of the other recipes I found had everything in it that I wanted. Sweet and Savory. Glazed. Mushrooms, Carrots, and Rice. And I even made it Spicy after my initial trial of the recipe. 

I will be including directions to make yours with or without the spice. Without the spice is how I first intended this dish to be made. The spicy version uses chipotle pepper so it has a smoky spiciness. The original way is sweeter and has stronger flavors of orange and honey. Feel free to play with the proportions of everything to get a flavor that you prefer. But be sure to try it! By the way, it's amazing both ways. :)

(And please excuse the pictures. My camera isn't that great, nor is the lighting in my kitchen.)

You will need (in no order at all): Chicken breasts, OJ, Butter, Mushrooms(I've used canned and fresh), Soy Sauce, Honey, Rice (I used instant), salt, pepper, chipotle pepper, carrots, honey (not pictured) ( and I have onion flakes pictured, but I didn't use them...)

Prepare all of your ingredients first to make your process go more smoothly.

Julienne your carrots and mince your mushrooms, you also want to have your chicken cut into 2" wide strips (so each breast is cut into 3-4 long thing pieces, like tenderloins),

you can prepare your glaze early on if you prefer, but there is time while your chicken cooks. You will have a glaze for your chicken and a very similar sauce for your rice so be sure to prepare them both.

Heat your pan and melt your butter. Add the chicken when the pan is hot. Cook chicken approximately 4 minutes on each side, until seared. At the same time begin cooking your rice.

When your rice is done cooking, add your carrots and mushrooms to steam them, and pour the sauce for the rice over the rice mixture. Keep rice on low heat to help the sauce absorb.

About the same time your rice is getting done (before adding the carrots, mushrooms, and sauce) your chicken should be ready for the glaze. Pour the glaze into your pan and continue to cook on medium-high heat for about 5 minutes, until glaze begins to thicken. Your glaze should be boiling during this process.

When your rice has absorbed most of the liquid from the sauce and the glaze for your chicken is thick, it's done! Serve chicken over rice and spoon addition glaze over the dish.

I hope you enjoy it!

Here's the recipe: 

AMY'S (Spicy) HONEY ORANGE GLAZED CHICKEN WITH SOY SAUCE

Prep:10 minutes

Cook Time:15 minutes

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE GLAZE:

1/4c honey

1/3c orange juice

1/4c soy sauce (or 2T for the not spicy version)

1T garlic powder or 1 garlic clove, minced

1tsp chipotle seasoning or your spice of choice (or 1/4tsp for not spicy version)

2tsp celery salt

FOR THE CHICKEN:

1/2tsp salt

1/2tsp pepper

4 chicken breasts, cut into 2" strips

2T butter or margarine

cooking spray

FOR THE RICE:

1c instant brown rice

1c water

1 4oz can mushrooms, minced

10 baby carrots, julienned (about 1/2c)

1/3c orange juice

2tsp celery salt

2tsp soy sauce

2tsp honey

1tsp chipotle seasoning (or leave this out for rice that isn't spicy)

DIRECTIONS

1) Begin by spraying your frying pan with cooking spray, add butter and let melt. Season chicken with salt and pepper. When your pan is hot, add chicken and cook on medium-high heat until seared, about 4 minutes per side.

2) At the same time, prepare your rice as per instructions on the box with the water.

3) While chicken is cooking combine all ingredients for the glaze and whisk. You may need to microwave the sauce for about 10 seconds to get the honey to soften enough to be stirred into the mixture.

4) At this point you can also whisk together 1/3c orange juice, 2t celery salt, 2t soy sauce, 2t honey, and 1t chipotle seasoning to make a sauce for the rice.

5) When the chicken is just cooked through, add the glaze to the pan and continue to cook on medium-high heat until it begins to  thicken, about 5 minutes.

Your rice should also be done by now. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add the carrots, mushrooms, and prepared sauce for rice to the saucepan and cover for about 5 minutes to get the vegetables softened and warm up the sauce. 

7) When everything is done, serve chicken over rice and spoon glaze from frying pan onto chicken. 

8) Enjoy! 

Glass Jars are Fun!

A while ago I showed you all how I changed my bag of tangled ribbon into neatly wrapped individually ribbon clothespins. I told you that I had to put them into jars yet and here ya go! 

This is what my ribbon "Collection" looks like these days:

A while ago I purchased a single jar like these with the No. 1 on  it in black. I purchased it at Tuesday Morning. After searching for similar jars almost everywhere else and failing I decided that I may as well try to find them again so I went back to the store to look. I searched all over and couldn't find them, until of course I was about to leave and they were on the shelf closest to the registers! SCORE. So of course I got three. And I love them. I wanted clasping jars because I didn't want to have to worry about my klutzy self knocking the lids off. And I knew that these jars were made of a durable, less breakable glass. So again, a plus if they get knocked over. Plus I love the numbers on them. So Adorable!

I also managed to find some miniature jars at Target for a buck! Same concept: clasping jars. I initially bought them to organize my junk drawer (my nails and screws and such), but they ended up being too big. I think I will just have to use a plastic tackle box thing. 

Anyhoo...I was having a problem with my spices. I've bought some that the store bags themselves, not in shaker containers, because it's cheaper that way and there's more of a variety but I have been quandering how to keep them fresh in their bags. I could buy shakers for them,  but at the store where I bought the spices it's at least $1.25 for shaker containers. So I figured why not use those little glass jars for my spices? Since I already had them and they technically were cheaper than the shaker bottles. They'd be cute displayed on the counter too when full. So I went to work filling them and making labels. I love the turnout!

I used Spellbinders Large Scalloped Circles and a Sharpie to make the Tags. 

Then I just used Tacky Glue to adhere them to the lids of the jars.

Make sure to wash out your jars before you put them spices into them and let dry thoroughly. 

Then fill with your spices!

Thank You Card #5

Paper: Pebbles, Family Ties, "Daughter" (Front and Back)

Spellbinders Large Standard and Large Scalloped Circles

Just Rite "Just a Note" 1 5/8" Stamp Set

Stampede Expo

Join the gals today at the Stampede "Stampin' & Scrappin'" Expo for some make n takes and take n makes and some great sales!

 Dies Used:

Spellbinders A-2 Matting Basics A

Impression Obsession Birch Trees DIE079-U

My Favorite Things/Dienamics Fresh Cut Grass

Memory Box Dies:

Bamboo Shoots 98793

Small Alder Tree 98792

Puffy Clouds 98172

Carolina Birdhouse 928

Thank You Card #4

Paper: Simple Stories, Vintage Bliss, "Laugh Lots" (Front and Back)

Spellbinders Large Standard & Scalloped Circles

Just Rite "Just A Note" 1 5/8" Stamp Set