Five on Friday

This week has flown by!  Here's my five for this week.

1.  First Fresh Fruit from the Garden
Eric and I have a VERY small garden and we picked our first ripe tomato this week.  Even more exciting than getting our first tomato of the season is the fact that we beat my dad this year.  That rarely happens!  Of course, we had to call him and rub it in a bit.  Better luck next year Dad.

 

 

 

2.  James Taylor

This concert was definitely a check off my bucket list.  I have wanted to see James Taylor for years and it finally happened on Tuesday night.  He was playing at the Verizon Amphitheater in St. Louis and he did not disappoint!  It was the perfect evening to be sitting there in the lawn listening to James do his thing with two of my favorite concert buddies.  The biggest surprise of the evening was how truly funny he was.  Thanks for making the evening a blast Jane and Debbie.

 

 

 

3.  Fourth of July Mantle

The Fourth of July mantle is complete!!  Not bad for less than an hour of work.

 

 

4.  Lemon Tartlets

These babies are a breeze to put together and taste like little pieces of sunshine!  If you like lemon, you should really give this recipe a try.

Take this....

 

and make this.

Here's the ingredients:

3 eggs

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

 

In the top of a double boiler, beat eggs and sugar.  Stir in lemon juice, butter and lemon peel.  Cook over simmering water for 15 minutes or until thickened.

This recipe is found on allrecipes.com and it's by Margaret Balakowski

 

Heat the fillo shells in the oven at 350 degrees for 3-5 minutes.  When the shells are cooled completely, fill with the lemon curd.  Garnish with a bit of grated lemon peel.

 

 

5.  Girls Night Out

Can't wait for girls night out tomorrow with these great friends to celebrate (belatedly) Tracy's birthday.  We'll be hitting Cherokee Street for a little shopping and then on to Modesto's for dinner.  Check back next week to hear about the fun.



 

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

It's a good day when.....

Hey everybody -- I'm linking up with some folks today to talk about what makes a good day.  Honestly, today's a pretty ordinary day for me but thinking about what makes a good day put a smile on my face.

Here's a few of my thoughts on it's a good day when.....

You wake up hearing the ocean and know your feet will be in the sand as soon as you walk outside.

 

A friend calls to schedule a girls night out.

 

A water main breaks near your office and they call off work for the day.  And the repair part for the said water main break doesn't come in and they tell you to take the rest of the week off.  (BTW -- this has never and will probably never happen to me.  Just sayin').

 

You have concert tickets for an outdoor venue and it's an absolutely beautiful day.

 

Someone you know gets an incredible honor that they truly deserve. 

 

A work friend surprises you with your favorite bagel for breakfast.

 

You're home recuperating and friends bring you food.

 

A surprise bouquet of flowers arrive from a secret admirer.

 

Upon opening the mailbox, you see there's an actual handwritten note or card for you. 

 

You pull into the parking lot at work and see the number one parking spot is open.

 

Someone else makes the bed (thanks Eric -- you know I LOVE when you do this).

Hope you're having a great day!!  Would love to hear some of your "good day" happenings.

Fourth of July Wood Block Project

With the Fourth of July holiday quickly approaching, I decided it was time to get in gear with decorating the mantle for this holiday.  Amazingly, the whole mantle came together in about an hour (all the while an episode of OITNB was going in the background).  I love multi-tasking!

Straight from something I saw on Pinterest, I knew I wanted to make U, S, and A blocks for the mantle.  I had previously purchased a piece of wood at Home Depot and had them cut it into chunks.  Love, love, love the fact they will do this for free!  Out of one piece of lumber that cost around $4, they cut approximate 16 pieces of wood.  And as a bonus you can haul all the pieces out of the store in a bag instead of needing a vehicle that can accommodate a 6-foot board.

To start, simply paint three chunks of wood.  Luckily, one coat of paint did the trick covering the wood.

As the paint dried, I die cut the letters "U", "S" and "A" with my Silhouette Cameo.  Seriously, I can not say enough about how much I love this machine.  It is definitely something I would take with me if I could only take five items and move to an island.  While the machine was doing it's magic, I cut square pieces of scrapbook paper 1/2" small than my block of wood. 

When the Silhouette finished cutting, spray adhesive was used to attach the letters to the scrapbook paper.  Then, with a little Modge Podge, the paper was attached to the block. 

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Viola!  In the span of time it takes to watch one episode of OITNB, you too can make this fun block set.  I'll show you the entire mantle this Friday in my Five on Friday post.

 

 

Linking to Serenity Now





Out to Lunch

My friend, Tammy, and I decided to bust out of the office for lunch on Friday and head to a St. Louis favorite location - Crown Candy. 

http://crowncandykitchen.net/

Most days there is a wait during the lunch time to get a seat in the 14-booth dining room.  Friday was no different -- we waited for about 50 minutes in the St. Louis 94 degree weather to be seated.  Crown is known for their BLT sandwiches.  It is rumored that each sandwich is made with 26 slices of bacon, which helped make the decision to share it instead of ordering one each.  We also had to indulge in their famous milkshakes.  Needless to say, we both went way over our calorie count for Friday -- but it was so, so worth it. 

Some of you may have heard of Crown Candy through the Food Network.  Man vs. Food brought Adam Richman to the restaurant in 2009 to try the milkshake challenged.  Adam had to drink five 24-ounce malt milkshakes in 30 minutes, a challenge offered by the restaurant since 1913.  Crown Candy was also featured Adam's Best Sandwich show in 2012.

If you're visiting the St. Louis area, this location is definitely worth adding to your itinerary.

Five on Friday!

Five on Friday!

This is my first Five on Friday and I'm excited to share some of my favorite things.

1.  Cardinals Baseball
I bought my husband tickets to a Cardinals game for Father's Day in the new Ball Park Village area.  We both love the Cardinals and we were excited to check out the new seats that are located across the street from Busch Stadium. 


2.  Chip Clips
Being a little bit of a crafter, I love making these chip clips.  These little dandies are just clothes pins with some scrapbook paper modge podged on them.  So easy!!  We keep tons in our utensil drawer because you never can have too many -- right?!?  They also make cute little gifts to send to college students, people moving into a new home or friends about to take a road trip. 

3.  Orange Is The New Black
So excited Season 2 has arrived!!  I'm planning to do some serious TV time this weekend.

4.  My Bicycle - Chelsey
Yes, my bicycle has a name and it's Chelsey.  My very good friend Tracy gave her to me a couple years ago and I love toodling around the neighborhood.  I wanted a bike that had the old fashioned brakes (not hand brakes) and Tracy fixed me up.  There's something about the wind in your hair while riding a bike that can really make the stress of the day melt away.

5.  Birchbox
The same very good friend that gave me my bike also gave me a year's subscription to Birchbox for my birthday last year.  I can't even tell you how excited I get every month when it arrives.  I'm sure you'll be seeing more Birchbox posts in the future as I receive them in the mail.

 

 

Have a great weekend everyone!!

In the beginning...

Hello!  It is one of my goals this year to begin a blog -- so here it begins. 

My best friend and I just got back from a wonderful vacation in Gulf Shores with her two fabulous daughters.   Vacations are the best!  We had plenty of time to chat, laugh and joke around.  Here's one of my favorite pictures from the trip.

 

 

I'll share more about our trip and other fun things soon.