Fruity Chicken Salad

One of my other favorite recipes from Eliza's birthday party is a waldorf chicken salad! It's got some chicken in there with a bunch of fruit to make it nice and sweet! Here is what you need:
 I doubled my recipe for the party but I'll just share the regular portioned recipe. First off you will need about 3 pieces of boneless chicken breast. The way I like to cook it is making a foil pocket, put the chicken on top of a piece of foil and then put another piece of foil on top and fold together the edges to form a pocket. Place it on top of a baking sheet and bake it for 45-60 minutes at 350 degrees to make it juicy and tender. Then let it cool and dice it.   Next you'll dice up 1 apple and slice in half about 20 red grapes.   Combine the two in a large container.   Chop up about 2 sticks of celery and add that to the pile.    Scoop about one third of a cup of sweet relish and this is optional but you can add in some raisins for some extra sweetness!   Now for the last part, add a glob of mayo starting with just a spoonful and mix. It really depends on how much you like mayo but basically you want it to make all the ingredients kind of stick together without it being too mayo-y.   And there you have it, fruity waldorf salad! Yum!  

Peanut Butter Reese's Cookies

Hey everyone! I'm bloggin from michigan and boy it is beautiful up here! The weather is about 30 degrees cooler than Houston and I can not tell you how amazing it feels to me right now. Really. Anyways, I'm going to share a yummy recipe that I used for Eliza's Birthday Party. It is a super simple peanut butter cookie recipe that I stole from my good friend Meg. I had some at a party of hers and just had to make some of my own! Here's how:

 First I used this packet of Peanut Butter Cookie mix.  And a thing of Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.   Follow the directions to make the dough.   And form little balls about the size of a ping pong ball.   Follow the directions for how long to cook and at what time. While these are cooking, you are going to take your reeses, count out how many you need (one for each cookie) and unwrap them. This just saves a lot of time towards the end. Then unwrap one more and reward yourself for all this cookin'!  When they are done, let them cool for a couple minutes and scoop them onto some wax paper (or a plate).   Before they cool off any more, you're going to take a reeses (top side up) and gently press into center of cookie. Tip: It helps to kind of hold the sides of the cookie while doing this so it doesn't split apart.    The last time I made them, I made the mistake of using sugar cookie dough and they just didn't have the same ummph! But if you're not a peanut butter person than that may be the way to go. They are so simple but sooo delicious. Brandon, who usually doesn't eat a lot of sweets, ate over half of them so I will definitely be making them more often! It's nice to have an easy go-to dessert, just in case! Look out for my next recipe, it's another one of my all time favorites! Have a great weekend everyone!  

Eliza's Second Birthday!

Last Sunday was Eliza's second birthday and it was so much fun! I was planning and making stuff for about a month and it turned out better than I could have imagined! I've got some fun tutorials to share in the next few posts but for now here's a peek into her birthday weekend.  

  On Saturday, I sent Eliza and Brandon off on a photo scavenger hunt so I could clean the house and get everything ready for the party. It kept them out untill 10 o'clock! So that was perfect.    And here is all my hardwork on the day of.


 
 Ants on a log, PB & J Sandwiches Chicken Waldorf Salad Spinach dip and baguettes


 And here is the dessert table:


 
 The first row of stuff was for make-your-own mud pie! The blue pot on the left was where the pudding went. 
 Peanut Butter Cookies with Reeses in the middle (I'll share the recipe later!) 
 
 My favorite dessert- lemon bars! Recognize the plate stand? 
 Look out for some yummy recipes in the near future! I've got some serious blogging to do and I'm going out of town tomorrow! It'll have to wait until I get back. July is coming to an end and that means summer is almost over! What happened to June?

New Store: Big Cartel

So, I've been struggling with my store lately... well really I've been struggling with money and I've been looking for ways to maximize my earnings from my store. One of the things that I've really been thinking about is Etsy fees and how I hate having to list things everyday to compete with all the other clothes sellers on Etsy and just for a chance to be seen. A lot more goes into this business than making/finding clothes and I've been spending more time doing everything else that what I love- making things and hunting for treasures. So I'm changing my strategy! I created a new store on Big Cartel: Sam Wish. If it does work out, this means less fees! I can customize my layout more and I have less limits to what I'm allowed to sell. The only difference (to me atleast) is that I don't get the traffic from Etsy which means I'm going to have to actually start advertising. But I think this also means I can spend more time doing photoshoots, creating lookbooks/magazines, finding fashion bloggers to advertise with and making clothes! So I'll probably be sharing more of my latest items on here (hope you don't mind!). Here's what's in store right now!


 


 


 


 


 


 


store. I think I'm going to change my store background soon. I'm thinking something white? Lace? We'll see! Tomorrow is Eliza's Birthday, I've been working hard for the last two weeks to get stuff prepared and I can't wait to share all my fun diy projects! Have a good weekend everyone!

Daily Outfit & New Hair Curler!

A couple weeks ago, I was in the market for a new curling iron! The one I had was really old and just not what I wanted. I was looking at those conical curlers without the clips and turned to YouTube to help me decide. I found this video on Taylor Swift Ispired curls and decided I had to get one of those! Most are really expensive but I found a mini one at Sally's for $12.99!!! And it works! It's called the Plugged In Mini Curling Wand.

  I went straight home and tested it out! Usually my hair is wavy and has that beachy kind of look (on the right), on the left is using the curler.   Also, it gets up to 400 degrees! So it came with these cute half glove things:  This is what I wore this day, just a comfy outfit for work. (excuse the paint on my hand)     Outfit Details: Skirt- Thrifted Top: Forever 21/Upcycled   

San Antonio: Day 2

Soooo I made wrote this when I made the first San Antonio Trip post and then forgot to post it! So here it is, sorry it's late (:

The second day we were in San Antonio we went to a baby shower at this cute little house in the hill country and then made a pit stop at the Alamo on the way back. I think the best part about San Antonio was the joy of seeing these two play together. They're like sisters, I mean look at them! Too cute.

 



 And how gorgeous is this cake?! Yes, those flowers are edible and are basically pure sugar. Unfortunately for me, Eliza had one too many...  



 



 Brandon and I snuck off to explore and found this fun treehouse! I was not in appropriate treehouse climbing garb and did not get up there but it looks cool, right? 



 



 Is this not the cutest garden sign ever? I may make one in the near future. This house made me yearn for one of my own! I can't wait until I'm a houseowner. I love my apartment and all but there's only so much I can do, ya know? 



 



 The Alamo ended up being closed (we missed it by like 2 hours) but that's ok. Been there, done that.  



 We peeked through the gates and got our fix.  



 Excuse my silly obsession with trees, I just couldn't help myself. But look at this thing, talk about tree climbing heaven! I suppose it's a good thing it was closed, Brandon would have been up in that thing before I could even say stop!