wordle.com

Thought I would share and cool website!

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1228565/Echale_ganas

I made this wordle for my Spanish class to explain what the phrase "echale ganas" means.

All you have to do is type in the words you want to show up (the more times you type the same word the bigger that word will show up)

Try it out and let me know what you think.

Fall decoration

I've been doing a lot arond the house...and sadly haven't updated my blog :( ...soon to come.

Here is a cheap fall decoration I created today! Only 50 cent sheets of paper, some glue, clothes pins and a ribbon.

Nacho everyday nacho

We made nachos tonight! Yum!

Step one: place the chips on the pan in a lovely, organized pattern

Step two: place seasoned turkey and black beans on Jason's nachos and place only black beans on my nachos

Step three: sprinkle sharp cheddar cheese on top of all the chips

Step four: place a jalapeno slice on top of each chip

Step five: put pan in the oven for 5-7 minutes at 350 degrees

Step six: remove nachos from pan and place nachos on individual plates

Step seven: dress your nachos with sour cream, cilantro, guacamole and pico de gallo
Step eight: enjoy with a refreshing Corona! YUMMY! (please excuse the bad pic)

School's out for summer!

It's been quite a while since my last blog, but I have had very little time since it was the last month of school. I have 2 things in particular that I've been meaning to blog:

1. Look at my beautiful rose bush in my back yard. I took this picture about a month ago with the intentions to post that day but never got around to it...so here you go.

2. I finished another flounce scarf and I love it. Pink - Brown - Grey

That's all for now! Hopefully I'll be back sooner than later!

Broccolini

First time cooking broccolini! It's a great veggie that I'd never tried cooking myself until today.

Here's what I did:
Boil 1 bunch of broccolini for 2 minutes

In a seperate bowl mix:
1/8 cup of olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vineagar
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp grated garlic
salt and pepper
spritz of lemon juice


Coat broccolini in dressing and serve warm or hot! Delicious! - Thanks Ina Garten a.k.a. the Barefoot Contesa

2 side notes:

a. This may be the 1st time ever that I have spelled a word correctly which Jason didn't know how to spell

b. This picture just reminded me of how much I love my dishes!

re-do: guest bathroom project

I was very disappointed in the "art work" (if you can even call it that) I previously had for the guest bathroom so, I decided to change it. Here's what I came up with:

Here is the guest bathroom: I put the decoration on the wall in front of the toilet and sink.

I collected different size and shape letters. I painted 3 of them and covered the "s" in fabric.

Here it is!

Easter riverdance - for your entertainment pleasure!

These videos were filmed around 7:30pm on the evening of Easter after dinner. Here are our renditions of Riverdance. For your entertainment pleasure! Obviously I could not figure out how to flip the videos upright (and Jason refused to re-film his version).

As you will notice in my video...my feet move much quicker, but Jason wanted to point out that his "kicks" are much higher and he should receive points for difficulty.

I know...I am a middle school Spanish teacher...so please excuse Jason for saying "trece" (meaning 13) instead of "tres" (meaning 3).

Jason would also like to point out that he was "making a beat for me" which allegedly helped my dancing. haha

Happy Easter 2009 everyone!

Easter photo shoot

Jason and I on the porch Easter afternoon. (Update: the bunnies are doing great)

More bunnies and an "almost finished" flower bed!

On this beautiful Saturday afternoon Jason and I decided to finish up our flower bed project (that has become more complex everyday). We still haven't finished, but have very few stones left to place. Here are some photos of the "almost finished" product:



While we were working today I saw a small animal in the middle of the yard covered in some straw. I told Jason to check it out, because it looked like it could be a mole (and I didn't want it to tear up the yard). As we looked closer we realized that it was a little bunny nest! There were 4 to 5 little bunnies in this small nest! How cute! We accidentally scared one of them out and it ran into our flower bed. That's the one in the picture below. I picked it up and placed it back in the nest. Hopefully in a short while they will be up running around the neighborhood.

Here is a picture of the nest in the middle of the yard.

Bunnies

We've had bunnies living in our back yard since we moved into our house. With Easter weekend shortly upon us I decided to take a few pictures of them from our patio. Check out mommy and daddy bunny munching on some grub.

My latest craigslist purchase!

We've been thinking about purchasing patio furniture for the upcoming spring and summer seasons...but I was shocked to see the actual prices of these sets! Yesterday here's what I found on craigslist...and here it is today on our patio deck!

take 2 - my front yard project

As you can tell by reading my last blog post...I wasn't too pleased with the results of the retaining wall planter attempt 1! I took it upon myself this Saturday to correct the problem. I wanted all the stones to be level. I worked from 12:45-5:45 non-stop picking up and re-placing the blocks in their new position. I'm much more pleased with the results. The project is now 2/3 finished. I want to make sure you realize that Jason was out of town this weekend, so ALL OF THIS WORK WAS DONE BY ME!

Front yard project

This may be the largest scale project I have started around the house and also the most important! Our house sits at the top of a cul-de-sac. The ground is higher than the rest of the houses which provides us with a great view of the surrounding area. Unfortunately it also provides for difficulty landscaping the front flower bed because of the steep slope downward away from the house. Here are some pictures of the pathetic attempt I made to create a stone edging/retaining wall around the potential flower bed. I've spoken with a neighbor who actually has landscaping experience for help with this project. Check out the atrocity:

Look at that slope!

Side view: it looks like the wall is going to fall forward

Great Potato Salad Recipe

I was looking for a new fresh and easy potato salad recipe...and I found a great one on http://www.foodnetwork.com/

Here's the recipe:

3lb Yukon gold potatoes
salt and pepper
2 stalks of celery (I left this out)
1 cup mayonnaise
1 small red onion chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill (I used dried, but less)
1-2 T of vinegar
1/2 lemon juiced
1 T Dijon mustard

Peel potatoes and boil for about 25 minutes. - Cut potatoes to 1 1/2" and let cool to room temperature. Combine all ingredients and serve!

And here's a picture of the potato salad I made on Saturday!

spring break Project: Bonus room

I had little to no official plans for spring break which sounded very relaxing. I decided to take on a few projects around the house. One of which was to find a daybed with a trundle to replace the red love seat in the bonus room. Per request of my husband: I had to sell the love seat before I purchased a daybed. I posted the love seat on craigslist and had a buyer within 2 hours. Such a lovely lady and her two sons. Hopefully they are enjoying the love seat. Jason was a little sentimental about this piece of furniture reminding me that it was the first piece of furniture we ever bought together... I just wanted to get the money to put towards the new daybed. haha

Here is the beloved love seat.

The master plan: currently our house has limited "official sleeping" locations. There is a king bed in the master bedroom, queen bed in the guest bedroom and two very large comfortable couches in the bonus room. The red love seat was too small for anyone to sleep on and only 2 people could sit on it at a time...so...I would like to replace the love seat with a daybed and trundle therefore providing 2 more locations for guests to sleep.

The day after the love seat was picked up and paid for by a craigslist purchaser I found this lovely daybed with 2 mattresses and trundle. The piece was a little ugly on the surface, but I saw true potential!

Before I painted the frame.

Please excuse the blue shutters (that I have still not turned into a head and foot board) next to the trundle frame.

I primed and painted the daybed frame with a satin red paint.

I found a demi-ish and white stripe twin bed sheet to put over the mattress. I also bought the large red and white plaid fabric to make the euro pillows and a matching curtain.

The last thing I did was paint the previously bronze lamps the same color red as the bed frame.

Over all I would consider the spring break project: bonus room a success!

Birthdays

Last week was Jason and my birthday week! My day was the 11th and 2 days later Jason had his day on the 13th. It was a fun week and we had a very relaxing dinner celebration and just spent some QTime together. No gifts involved.

Here is a picture of all the special birthday cards our friends and family sent us! Thanks!

Wedding vows

Well, Jason and I have been married 3 years July 1st. I've been looking/thinking for a while about a keepsake (other than pictures) that would be special for us. I stumbled across Sara Mincy's blog about 2 months ago (it inspired me to start my own blog). Any how, I sent Sara a copy of the wedding vows Jason and I wrote for our wedding and asked her to paint them. I gave her some colors but that's it. She did the rest. Here's the painting:

So, I'll be putting this up in the bedroom as soon as it gets here. Wish I had artistic talent like this, but Laura + paint (usually) = disaster. I always think I can whip of these masterpieces, but they NEVER turn out the way I envision them.

Sara's blog: http://sara-mincy.blogspot.com/

My new purse

Here's my new Cole Haan purse!! I bought it this weekend! Happy Birthday to me!

Love day

Yesterday was Valentine's Day! My husband and I had a great day. We just relaxed during the day, got a massage in the afternoon and cooked dinner at the house last night.
Here are a few pictures of our romantic dinner:

Here we have the table setting with my flowers (both the Yellow Rose of Texas and Tennessee Iris), how sweet!

Here we are during the cooking process. Jason maned the steaks on the grill, and I worked on the lobster and sides.

We made asparagus,

mashed potatoes,

steak and lobster tail! YUMMY!

Here we are getting ready to enjoy!!!

Over all, a great day full of love!