Meal Plan Monday

How was your week? I hope it was a good one for everyone! We had a wonderful time hanging out with our families, eating some seriously good food, and then getting away from the city for a bit. I'm feeling quite thankful for it all, and so fortunate to have some leftovers after it's all said and done. And, no, I'm not sick of T-Giving fare just yet! Here's the plan:

Monday:

tortilla soup (carry over from last week)

Tuesday:

honey baked ham sandwiches

w/ my mom's spicy honey mustard

(will have to get and share the recipe for this one!)

side of fruit

Wednesday:

turkey/dressing/sweet potatoes one.last.time.

Thursday:

grilled chicken

broccoli

Friday:

out

Saturday:

breakfast casserole (as specifically requested by my daughter)

Sunday:

salad with the leftover grilled chicken

My husband said to me recently, "I can't believe some people won't eat leftovers." Oh, how I love him! Makes things so much simpler for me. How do you feel about leftovers?

Thankfulness

Have a wonderful week!

I hope you are surrounded by love and gratitude and lots of delicious food!

I'll see you later... probably Friday or Monday. I'm working on a little holiday giveaway, so stay tuned.

Monday Meal Plan: Thanksgiving Dinner!!

{I usually double this recipe and still bake it in a 13x9 dish, just baking it a bit longer.}

I'm so flipping excited about this week! When people talk about their last meal, I know what mine would be if I was given the choice: Thanksgiving dinner, specifically my mother-in-law's chicken dressing and sweet potato casserole. I could eat this for meals on end straight. Last year my mom-in-law taught me how to make the dressing (although mine was no where near as tasty as hers... I made it with her side-by-side and mine still didn't quite cut it... Not sure why, but at least it was still scrumptious. It's that good!), so I'll be making it for my family this year. Both sides of our families do potluck style dinners to celebrate Thanksgiving. We'll be celebrating with his on Thursday and mine on Saturday. Can.Not.Wait!

Monday/Tuesday:

Tortilla soup

Wednesday:

Spaghetti

Thursday:

potluck with the in laws... my contribution:

sweet potato casserole

dessert (not sure what yet... ideas?)

Friday:

leftovers

(Oh yeah, we all come with our own tuperware to take home a bit of everything. There's always sooooo much!)

Saturday/Sunday:

my contribution:

chicken dressing

sweet potato casserole (really, can there ever be enough?)

fruit salad

Any suggestions what dessert I should bring on Thursday? I'd love it to be something the kids can help prepare, and not the typical pies because those are already accounted for.

What are your Thanksgiving specialties?

The Show

So yesterday was tons of fun! Having never participated in an event like this, I didn't quite know what to expect. It was so encouraging. I felt like a legitimate business gal with a real business. (even though I still so stink at the business side of things... You should have seen me trying to price my products. I'm a mess.) It was so neat to be in a room full of creative women and seeing their craft. Check out some of the businesses that I was introduced to yesterday:

May Books

Anahata Wraps

Jany Lee Designs

Ave Gifts

Design Roots

Coco and Peanut Photography

And these were just the ones that I was able to grab cards from. I can't wait to go back through my program and check out the other sites.

Part of the fun and stress was planning my table layout. I was worried about how to make it look good on very little money. I scrounged around the house and borrowed from friends and family. My favorite find was the sewing machine drawers to use to hold my notecards. (Thanks Mom and Molly!) Here's the gist of it:

And here's my booth neighbor and a peak at her photo jewelry. You might recognize her from her blog, Kotori. We were both sporting the cutest little vendor aprons that she made for us. (Can't believe I didn't snap a pic of this: Boo.) Apparently you can make one "quite easily" by following her DIY, but I prefer the DIFM method (Do It For Me: Thanks Tonya!).

All in all, it was a wonderfully exhausting day. I'm feeling quite ready for the weekend, and some relaxing, and that bottle of wine. Hope you have a great weekend too!

It's Time For a Soiree

I'm off peddling my goods today. If you're local, stop by to say hello. (Email me for details.)

Vino

{so creatively cool: wine glass rack, cork peeps, wine bottle glasses, place card holders}

Remember my Fall Resolutions? Well, I'm still striving and doing so-so on most, but I'm excelling at the last, late addition one (go figure). Here are some of the wines we've tried that we gave a thumbs up to:

Ghost Pines

cabernet sauvignon

Fat Bastard

chardonnay

Red Guitar

old vine navarro

On the docket for this weekend is Poppy Pinot Noir. I picked this one because we love Pinot Noir, and its name and orange were quite appealing. Oh, and it was less than $15, which is a prerequisite in our house. I'll let you know what what we think. Oh, and keep in mind when reading my recs that come Friday, I'm not all that picky!

Any vino suggestions to pass on?

Oh, and thank you so much for commiserating with me and my sick crew. Things are looking up over here a bit and hope to stay on that path!!

No Meal Plan Monday

The weekend started with a couple of fat lips, moved into some throwing up, and then progressed to a few fevers. We're crawling out of our fog this morning and hoping all is clearing up. Look for a meal plan tomorrow (hopefully) because as of this moment half the family is still not desiring food so much. The other half is on their own (they know and they're okay with it, I promise).

Please share what's cooking at your house, since I'm slacking today!

With hope it will inspire me!

Happy Monday!

Words To Inspire...

{via here}

Looking for a little of both as of late.

Wishing you a courageously creative day!

Brilliant, I say!

I talked my hubby into going with me to Ikea last weekend (under the guise of birthday week special-ness... I sure eeked a lot out of my 7 days). We didn't make any big purchases but did pick up a few little things. This plastic bag dispenser being the fave:

Seriously, it's brilliant! It's $1.99 and it totally works. You just stuff the plastic bags in the top and pull them out the bottom. We don't have a crazy amount of plastic grocery bags as we try to BYOBag as often as possible, but it works wonderfully for corralling the ones we do have.

I also had to toss this cheese grater set into my basket when I spotted it. I recently used it at one of our cooking/playdates: You just grate the cheese right into the container and pop the lid on.

If you splurge on both, you'll still make it out for under ten bucks. That Ikea is something else!

Set On These Lights

Okay, so I may still not know what I want on my kitchen floor (oh yeah, it still looks like this), but I know I want a light fixture (or two) from Schoolhouse Electric hanging up above whatever goes down:

Aren't they dreamy?!

Meal Plan Monday

{image via here... I'll take my own after I make these. Can't wait!}

This meal plan came straight from some cravings... I really want some mexican food and hubby wants a steak. The rest just kind of filled in the gaps. Looks like it rounded out to be a yummy week:

Monday:

chicken caesar salad

Tuesday:

pizza

Wednesday/Thursday:

crock pot salsa chicken (similar to this recipe)

corn tortillas

guacamole

Friday/Saturday:

steak

twice baked potatoes

steamed broccoli

Sunday:

leftovers or out

What's in the works at your place?

Bein' Happy

My email inbox has been getting a lot of activity lately. You know the kind: The messages that get deleted before you even open them because you don't know the sender and can't figure out how the subject line even pertains to you. I just try to funnel through these, wasting the least time possible. All that being said, a little gem snuck in. I was asked to review a book, and since I'm a complete sucker for books, I had to read on. Turns out it was for a book called The Happy Book:

I was smitten right off the bat by how pretty it was, and the summary of it seemed to fit so nicely into this little blog space here. I read it and thought it might be something you would like too. Take a look at a little excerpt from the intro:

"The Happy Book is about celebrating what makes you glad, what gives you joy... what makes you quietly appreciative and full inside, or what makes you feel just dang content..."

It goes on to say that we practice and work on and hone so many things/skills/processes, but we don't practice being happy. We actually let happiness pass by in fleeting moments. This book is organized as a little journal that helps you to tap into what makes you happy. It's not this deep, complicated soul-searching process either. It's fun and goofy and light-hearted. From drawing hand turkeys, to listing your favorite scents, to describing how you'd spend an unplugged day, it's all about simple joys that are unique to you. I couldn't help but smile the whole way through. Oh, and did I mention that it has little quotes all the way through it? You know how I love a good quote. My favorite one from the book:

Have a wonderfully happy weekend!

Thankfulness Project

Okay, so I'm all about copying this week... I saw another great and simple (a definite prereq for me) idea. This thankfulness project is much like an advent calendar, but for Thanksgiving. When I saw it, I stopped down and gathered my supplies.

I resisted the urge to make it perfect and just went with what I had on hand and could finish in less than an hour. (Seriously, don't look too closely! And did I take into consideration that Thanksgiving doesn't always fall on the 24th? Not even this year: Oops.) I'm thrilled with what we've created, especially the message that goes along with it.

We're each writing down something that we're thankful for everyday and stashing it in the daily pocket. Then on Thanksgiving we can revisit everyone's thoughts. I'm thinking this will help us to celebrate this precious holiday and get us in the right mindset for the Christmas season.

This was so simple, really. I just used a placemat and the brown wrapping paper I keep on hand, but think about the cuteness potential if given a bit more creative planning and time! What about some fabric pockets stitched in a fun contrasting color? Of course, that would require me to know how to sew and well... I'm perfectly pleased with this quick and easy version! And I'm thankful to Kristen for sharing her idea and instructions with us... I might just write that down on my little strip of paper today.

Help!

I've fallen and I can't stop spending!

{I was going to use an image from the "Help: I've fallen and I can't get up" commercials, but I thought it might be in poor taste. So now I've opted to spam you with more pictures of my kids. Slightly less poor tasted?}

Seriously though, for my birthday I asked for a day of shopping, with no time constraints. My hubby had the day off, so I too took the day off. (Wasn't that nice of me?) I left the house at around 10:00 in the morning and didn't return until after 6:00. I shopped and shopped. I must have tried on 83 pairs of jeans and perused every rack of clothing. It was amazing, truly amazing. When I came home I was singing "Pretty Woman", swinging my shopping bags, feeling all glorious like Julia Roberts did (minus the hooker part). I had more fun showing off my buys without (much) guilt. My plan was to put that experience into a compartment labeled special one time birthday present. Nice plan in theory.... The shopping bug has done bitten me. I'll be using all my self-control reserves to resist it. No wonder I haven't been able to stop eating the Halloween candy!

Fall Decorating Idea

I have a friend (Hi Tara!) who has the ability to festively decorate like no other. Her seasonal knick knacks fit so seamlessly into her everyday decor (which is impeccable as well). I leave her house so inspired (and wanting to redesign my entire house: Hello house envy). There's not a whole lot of time left to fall decorate, but my sweet friend and this decorating idea inspired me. While it will take me a while to hone her decorating skills, I just happened to have all the necessary bits to create one new piece. Check it out:

It's simple and festive and classy. Perfect!

Now for the rest of the house...

And thanks to everyone who entered to win a PS printable. Your encouraging words are priceless! The random numbers were 26, 28, and 6. Dina, Kalee and Tracey look for an email from me soon!

Monday Meal Plan

My goal in mind while planning this week was to cook healthy-ish meals that the kids are sure to eat. I'm trying to balance out the extra sugar they are ingesting due to halloween festivities and all the trick-or-treating loot hanging around. This is what I came up with:

Monday:

tortellini

salad

Tuesday:

turkey/cheese/pear paninis

side of cantaloupe

Wednesday:

cooking playdate:

brisket tacos with avocado salsa verde

Thursday/Friday:

pork chops and rice

(trying my mil's recipe... will report back if I can do it justice.)

steamed broccoli

Saturday:

out

Sunday:

?

I'm still awaiting inspiration for Sunday... Any ideas?

Oh, and I haven't fogotten about the PS Printables giveaway.

Look for an announcement tomorrow!