Art around our house

Day In.

I wanted to share some of the artwork that Stuart and I have around the house.

Lauren Dunn Designs
My most recent piece of art comes from a local artist in Nashville, TN. I attended an art show at David Lipscomb with my mom, and she bought me this beauty. For now, it sits in my turquoise chair until I find a home for it.

(I really should thank my mom for being artsy and introducing me to these local artists that I now love! She has some wonderful taste.)

Hydrangeas by Lauren Dunn

I love Lauren's work. I like the texture and colors she works with. You can find her work here.

Ron York

Ron is another Nashville native and a good friend of my mom's. We are pretty sure someday that mom will have enough of Ron's work to have an exhibit :).

I have 2 pieces of Ron's...one is a small 5x5" square and the other is a 12x16". I love birds so appropriately, both of these have birds on them.

"Home Tweet Home" and "Love is Blue" by Ron York 

I love how Ron signs his name.

Rebecca McKaskle

I have a very talented family. My sister painted me a trio of art a couple Christmases ago.  She painted food, one of my favorite things. She painted an eggplant, artichoke and an avocado.

Here are two of them on our shelves.

Jan McKaskle

I asked my mom to paint Stuart something for his (then) new house a couple of years ago. Here is what she came up with. I love it! It is currently hanging in our kitchen. Love the colors.

DeAnn Hebert
This is my favorite piece of art. It was a wedding gift from my parents. They commissioned DeAnn to sit at our reception and paint it from her point of view. It is stunning. She used a lot of my favorite colors...grays and orange. It is perfect over our couch because it was empty for a long time. I love it because it truly is one of a kind...

The adorable DeAnn.

In our living room

Stuart Day

Stuart recently made a piece of art for me. It was so sweet of him. He made it out of an original window from our house.

We finally hung it! We hung it in our dining room. We have some other large pieces in there so we thought they worked together. 

Lindsay Williams

Stuart's cousin is very talented and artistic as well. She is a graphic designer. She made us this piece as a wedding gift last year. It is one of my favorite things in our house. The background is burlap and in the shape of the state of Tennessee (where we got married).

And last...
Stuart and I bought these old mechanical gears from a garage sale at our church (ok really, Stuart should get the credit). We like a mix of high and low and a bit of industrial mixed in. So we didn't make these gears but we still consider them art in our house.

Yay for art!

Day out.

Just Dance

We had some friends over Sunday night to eat and play Just Dance! on the Wii. It was a lot of fun, and you actually get quite the workout. (I think I am ashamed to say that I am sore this morning!)

Here is a video of Stuart and I "dancing" to Michael Jackson's Beat It. Stuart has some sweet moves.

(sorry about the poor quality)

Valentine's Day

Day In.

Happy day of love! (I'm a day behind)

This is Stuart and I's first Valentine's Day being married. We decided to have a nice relaxing night at home since my work schedule has been a bit hectic lately. And being home sounded great to me.

I decided to bake a little and give Valentines to neighbors and friends. My mom found this amazing recipe for iced lemon cookies...she made them for us last weekend, and I swooned over them. Recipe to come soon!

I decided to make those cookies and these Red Velvet brownies I found on Pinterest. Sooo good! (The only thing I did different was subbed 1/3 of a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips for the dark chocolate. My Valentine sadly does not like dark chocolate....)

After sampling some...
You can see the brownie and the cheesecake layers. Yum!

I bought cellophane bags and silver string at Paper Source. Then I cut out hearts from red and pink paper and attached them to the bag. They were easy and fun!

I had some extra hearts so I decided to add them to the dining table. Also, I had to bring down my "Happy Everything" plate!

All the table needed was some flowers......

Stuart knows me so well! He got me red tulips :) Fresh flowers is all I really want on Valentine's!

Here's to love!

Day Out.

Crisis averted...with shelving

Stuart and I were having our Sunday school class over to watch the Super Bowl and eat lots of dips and junk food. We were excited :) The night before, we heard a loud noise coming from our cabinets where we keep our dishes.

We discovered that two of the shelves had fallen and the pieces holding the shelves up were broken! (For some reason, the previous house owners thought it would be a good idea to use plastic to hold up the shelves.)

Here are the shelves after we took some of the dishes out.

And dishes were everywhere...

Luckily, Stuart knew what to do. He cut a small dowel rod and fit each into the shelves using wood glue.

Also, only one delicate glass had a crack in it....nothing was broken!

I can now live in peace.

Happy house discoveries!

AC

Honey Lime Enchiladas

Day In.

These is one of Stuart's favorite meals to eat during the week (me too!). There's usually a lot of moaning and not much talking while we eat these. We get 4 meals out of it (2 each), and we LOVE having the leftovers! You could change this recipe a bunch...I've added red onion and cilantro to mine. I bet spinach would be tasty in it as well.

Enjoy!

Honey Lime Enchiladas
3 chicken breasts
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil

Medium red onion
1 Tbsp. olive oil
6 Tbsp. honey
5 Tbsp. fresh lime juice (3-4 limes)
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cayenne
Dash of hot sauce
1 tsp. minced garlic
8-10 tortillas
8 oz. Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
16 oz. can of green enchilada sauce
1 cup of heavy cream
1 bunch of cilantro, washed and chopped
Cooking spray

Rub the olive oil, salt, and pepper on both sides of the chicken breasts. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Set aside to cool.

I bought split chicken breasts which work too.
It just takes a little longer to cut around the bones when they are cooked.

Roughly chop the red onion. In a skillet, heat up the olive oil on Medium Low. Add the onion. Saute until caramelized. Set aside to cool.

Whisk honey, lime juice, chili powder, cayenne, hot sauce and garlic together in a large bowl.

When chicken has cooled, slice or rough dice the chicken (I do a rough dice). Add the chicken to the honey lime mixture. Let it sit for at least 30 minutes. If it's too spicy, add more honey. Or add another dash of hot sauce if it needs more heat.

Spray a 9x13 and an 8x8 pan with cooking spray. Pour half of the enchilada sauce onto the bottom of both pans.

Make an assemble line of the tortillas, chicken mixture, chopped cilantro, red onion, and cheese. Layer the chicken, onions, cilantro, and cheese into each tortillas. Roll and place seam-side down into the pans. The enchiladas should fit snugly next to each other.

Once all the tortillas have been stuffed, you should have some of the honey lime marinade left over. Add the rest of the enchilada sauce to it as well the cup of heavy cream. Mix together.

Pour the enchilada cream sauce on top of the enchiladas. Add any remaining cheese to the top.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20-30 minutes until bubbling. I serve with black beans and cilantro rice.

Adapted from this.

Yum!

Day Out.
AC

Wedding Craft - Tea Bag Favors

I love tea. I drink it every morning. It is my cup of coffee. So when Stuart and I got married, I wanted the reception favors to be a little bit of him and little bit of me. So I decided to give out Pecan Shortbread bites for the guests and a tea bag that they could take with them.

The Pecan Shortbread was made by Dolce Desserts in Nashville. And they are absolutely amazing! Melt in your mouth, sweet and salty, buttery...yum. I highly recommend them.

That was the Stuart-part of the favors. He loves pecans, pecan pie, etc.

For me, I found this idea on Martha Stewart's website. I know that not everyone loves tea like me but I wanted the wedding to be about the things we love. So I decided to make my version of Martha's tea bags.

I ordered empty individual tea bags that you close by ironing. I found English Breakfast loose tea leaves in bulk from Mountain Rose Herbs. They also carry tea bags so I ended up ordering it all from one place which was great! I ordered about 200 tea bags and almost 2 pounds of tea (I was expecting about 160 guests).

Press N' Brew Tea Bag, 2.25" x 2.25"...perfect for one cup of tea

With the help of my (amazing!) bridesmaids, we filled about a tablespoon of tea leaves into each bag.
 Looking back, I think we should have done half of that.

The tea bag was less than half full.

All of my paper goods were designed by the amazing and talented Sarah Robins M. Powell, a wonderful college friend. I asked her to create the tea tags to resemble our wedding invitations. 

Here is what she came up with...of course, they were perfect!

I picked up a gray embroidery thread from Michael's to attach the tags.

Tie  a double knot at the end of the thread.
Place the thread inside the tea bag, past the edge that you are ironing.

Iron the open edge of the tea bag. I used the steam setting on the iron.

 

The tag should stay in the tea bag once you have pressed the end together. 

Voila! The perfect wedding favor (for tea lovers).

Happy weddings!
AC

Ways to save money in 2012

Day In.

Now that I quit my 8-5 job and work at a bakery, I know it's time to start cutting back on some expenses that we can definitely live without. (and no, that doesn't include J.Crew...hehe...ok, I'll have to think about that one)

Here are some ways I have thought of that can save us some money this year (and in no particular order)...

1. Starbucks
Sometimes I just crave a vanilla latte or a pumpkin spice latte. But really, I don't need to spend that money or need the calories.

I could save:
$4/drink, 2/month = about $100

2. Magazines
Since pretty much every magazine is online these days, I really don't need to buy any.
I could save:
$4/magazine, 1/month = $48

3. Manicures
I really don't do this one often but it is fun to go out with your girl friends and get your nails done. So I'm going to see if the girls would want to come over and do our nails ourselves...maybe get out some cheese and wine :)

I could save:
$20/month, 1/month = $240

4. Hairdresser
This one makes me sad too because I love my hairdresser! She's the best. I think this may be my "treat" to do every once and a while.

But anyways, in college I used to color my own hair sometimes. I might start doing that.

I could save:
$130/visit, 5 times/year = $650

5. Eat what is at home
I absolutely hate throwing away food, especially produce. I noticed this week that our pantry is pretty stocked but we seem to not be eating much of it. I told Stuart that one week, we are going to only eat what we have at home without buying groceries. I don't think he was too thrilled about it :)

I think this would help us cut back on groceries.

I could save:
$75 groceries/month = $900

6. Automatic savings
This one is not a cutback on spending but a great way to save without noticing. Stu and I have an ING savings account...they are awesome. Last year, I made $50 in interest! I signed up for an automatic withdrawal from my checking into my ING. Honestly, I barely even noticed the money leaving my checking. It really is a great way to save.

I earned (for free!):
$50/year

7. Bringing lunch to work
It's so easy to eat out at lunch, especially for Stuart since he works in midtown. Even if he brings his lunch 3 days a week, that would save us some money too.

I could save:
$25/week = about $1000 (just an estimate since he really doesn't work every week of the year)

8. Less shopping
This one should be easy for me....gulp. I have to wear khakis, a work shirt, and an apron to work so I really don't need to buy many new clothes.

Let's just assume that I stick to this one :)

I could save:
$100/month = $1200

9. Food from scratch
This is a good article about lots of food that is easy to make yourself and a lot healthier than buying it.

http://www.mnn.com/money/personal-finance/photos/7-things-you-can-make-instead-of-buying/food-from-scratch

Not sure about the savings here...I will just include that with the week of eating what is at home!

10. Homemade gifts

I think for this year, I am going to work on giving more homemade gifts. They are very sweet and appreciated (hopefully!) by most. I love what my friend P did for her husband at Christmas.

Not sure on the savings here either...but I'm thinking about $200.

~~~~

I think our generation doesn't know the benefit of waiting for what you want. Everything I listed I could just go out and buy whenever I want to. This year, I am going to take my time and "wait" for what I want to buy. Not only will I save some money getting there, but I will truly appreciate what I am waiting for.

~~~~

Overall, I would say that it's about $4000 listed above (I am estimating since we would have to buy groceries in order to pack our lunches, etc.)

Even if we only save half of that, we would be happy!

Here's to saving :)

Day Out.

AC