Valentine's Day 2014

 

Hi peoples! 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day, single or not.When I was single, I used V-day as a great excuse to eat more chocolate and watch sappy romance movies that guys can't stand ;) My hubby has been a pretty good sport with those though.....unfortunately he isn't up for watching one every night in February like my sister and I did while we were still living at home. Drat. I enjoyed it while it lasted! I guess I need to plan a girl's night out to sate my girlish heart.

Despite my hectic past few days of work (why does everyone wait until the last minute?), my Valentine's day was pretty awesome. Got home at 5ish and got a call from Mom and Dad asking if Robert and I were interested in getting Chinese. She got an enthusiastic yes. No cooking? Count me in! So I changed into my new dress from ThredUP (which I'll show in some pics below) and Mom and Dad brought the Chinese :) 

Here are some pics of the day:



The Dinner Table and Pink and Red Roses from Robert.

A Valentine garland I made a few years ago.

The greenery garland is from our wedding table. I just recently placed it above our dining room door to add some color to the room.

The "Love" sign was something I made a few years ago with wooden letters from Wal-mart and scrapbook paper cut to fit, then modge podged onto the letters.

 

We finally got a frame for this! I found this picture at Hobby Lobby awhile back. Originally I swapped it out with another picture that hung in my childhood bedroom, but now it will be kept out year round. I LOVE these pictures!

When V-day comes around I usually set out all my romantic books and movies to show my appreciation. These are a few good reads. (Warning: P.S. I Love You has some adult content which I DO NOT support. I may do a review on it someday, but for now, please read with caution. Otherwise it is a good story.)

More decor. Again, these romance movies both have fast-forward worthy parts in them, so keep the remote ready, especially when watched with little ones.

Cutesie window stickers from Wal-Mart.

My ThredUp Dress! You can see how I layered with it in pics below.

Chocolates from Robert :) He even remembered that I liked the design on the box!



My card. We always use sealing wax on our cards to each other

Robert's present from me. I work at a candy store so I get to make special packs like this. My inspiration was from the Percy Jackson series. If you haven't read them, Percy's mom works at a candy store and buys him blue candy to prove to her unfortunate husband that blue food does exist. We just finished the series so I thought this would be perfect!

We're adorbs, I know.



Our activities fro the evening. I found a Romeo and Juliet puzzle at Jo-Ann Fabrics last year (I fell in love with the pic on my copy) and plan to frame it once we put it together. We're still working on it. Er, well, Robert is working on it, mostly. I'm horrible at putting together huge puzzles.


I combined the roses the next day.

 



My Mother- in- law, or "Mother-in-love" as she says, spoiled me with some pretty jewelry for my V-day gift :)

I put some of the roses in this re-usable vase that my aunt gave me.

I forgot to add this in the Christmas post! Robert made me this AWESOME pot rack for part of my Christmas present!!!!!! It is so perfect for our kitchen. I was completely surprised. He knew I wanted one, but I wouldn't have dreamed he would make me one! I couldn't have pictured anything better than this.

 

He also made this side table with my Dad for our stove, to fit in the gap between the wall and the stove. I am just absolutely loving it!
 



Tonight I made Chicken Breasts with Bacon wrapped around and Sage sprinkled on top. They were delicious!



For our side, I made fresh Brussel Sprouts, halved and cooked with a chopped onion in olive oil.
 



Last, but not least, dessert. Banana Crumb Muffins



 Happy Late Valentine's Day to you all! 

Of Phantom of the Opera Music/Guest Rooms, Birthdays, and Valentine Pretties....

Hello there!

How is everyone surviving this weather? We got about a foot of snow overnight. Yeah. I'm thrilled! (that comment was just dripping with sarcasm) More shoveling. More wind. Bleh.

On the bright side, the weather is so nasty that I get today off! YAY! 

I've had so many blog post ideas floating around in my head, but every time I've tried to sit down and write about them something else needed to be done instead. Oh, the joys of life.

So here I am. And I have a boat load of pictures to share with you!

Here is what went on in January:

            The celebration of my 19th and Robert's 22nd Birthday. Yes, we have the same birthday :) I made Robert a chocolate cake with snowflake sprinkles and I attempted to make petite fours. Neither turned out as planned, but they tasted good.

              Yeah, we're getting old. One candle for each of us. Don't judge us, we wanted to eat cake!

Mom gave me this :) It was yummy!

This is me after I had my wisdom removed...oops...I mean wisdom teeth removed :D All four of 'em and all were impacted. I look horrible in this pic :P I'm glad it's over. Cross that off my list of "The fun things you get to do once you're an adult".

Most of January was spent recovering from this, and being cooped up in the house and at work due to the lovely weekend winter storms we've been having lately.

"The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway" Ha! Rub it in, Elsa. Want to use your magical powers to remove the snow off my driveway? Oh wait, I already did that.

And here is what I've been up to so far this month:

This is a project I began in September: Our Phantom of the Opera themed Music/Guest room! I'm so happy with how it turned out! Despite how long it took to paint :P

Before........

 Prepping and Painting.........

  Don't mess with this woman. I was tired of painting at this point.

 After..........I made the felt wall hanging in the pic above.

  I love how the red turned out!

              Robert and I painted the mirror black and silver, and the candle stand was also spray painted black. I painted a black design on the candles too, just to add some artwork. They looked a little bland by themselves.

I got the idea to cover light switch covers with scrap book paper from Shealynn at Shealynn's Faerie Shoppe. Here's the link to the tutorial: DIY Switchplate Covers.

 I love barbies....so obviously there was going to be a Christine/Erik combo in this room! I need to make a mask for Erik.

 I printed off some sheet music from the Phantom and modge-podged it to this magazine organizer.

 My Egyptian shelf. I love Ancient Egyptian history. I wanted to be an Egyptologist when I was little, after watching the Mummy movies.

 Two wedding gifts from two different people that go together perfectly!

     I had the idea of using my guardian angel picture with the idea of "The Angel of Music" in mind.

 I even decorated the trash can. I cut out a mask shape with scrapbook paper and stuck it on using double sided tape.

    My caged "lark". If you've seen Sweeney Todd, you'll understand.

   My brother found this music box for me. It plays "The Music of the Night".

 My Christine costume I made for Halloween.

                  And here we are as The Phantom and Christine during our Halloween party!

This room was an awesome project and it took about a month to complete. Some of the decor I already had, and some things I repainted or made from scratch. I love designing rooms :) There are so many themes to choose from! This one was no-brainer though :D Music room? Definitely POTO.

    Here is what I'll be working on today...Valentine decorating! It won't be a mess for long............

Here are some pretties I've found lately: FROZEN valentines! I love the one with Olaf on it :D The two mailboxes are for my niece and nephew. They like hello kitty and star wars at the moment. These were too cute to pass up! The girl outfit is for my other niece. I love the leggings. Babies in leggings are adorable. The skull and crossbones outfit is for my future son, whenever he comes along. I'm not pregnant, yet. But hopefully sooner than later! I tend to buy baby clothes every once in a great while. If I see something I like and will probably never find again, I'm going for it! I dislike a lot of boy clothes out there right now, so when I saw that this was the last one on the rack, I grabbed it and ran :D

So that's what I've been up to lately. Besides shoveling :P

Hope you're staying warm. If you live in a tropical climate....PLEASE TAKE ME WITH YOU!

Cheers!

~Mary

A Gluten and Dairy-Free Lunch - Welcome To My World

Hi again!

You are probably thinking: Wow, two posts from her in two days? Crazy, I know! I aim to do more blogging this year ( might as well call it one of my new year's resolutions), just maybe not every day blogging, but just whenever I have something interesting to share. Now is one of those times.

I happen to be off for the first two weeks of January (YAY!) and since I have some extra free time now, I decided that today I would make myself an extra healthy lunch. Something I need to do more often :P

I mentioned in my last post that my husband is allergic to gluten and dairy, and I have just recently started having suspicions that I may have a dairy allergy too. Since we've been married, I basically adapted the gluten and dairy free lifestyle. It keeps me from buying junk food that I shouldn't have anyway, and helps me eat healthier! Plus, sometimes my eyes are bigger than my stomach, so it's nice to have a hubby who is willing to finish whatever I couldn't fit in :D So I might as well just make things that he can have all the time, right?

It's really not as difficult as it sounds. It was a little daunting at first, but as time went on, I got used to it. More and more restaurants and stores have been bringing in more options for people with those kinds of allergies. The prices on the other hand, suck BIG time, but you come to find that a lot of the stuff that you used to have, you can learn to live without.

So, today I'm going to share a little recipe that we make frequently:

~The Gluten and Dairy Free Wrap~

Here is what you start with:

In place of regular tortillas, we've found that Rudi's Gluten Free Bakery (Their products can be found at Krogers in the Natural section) has the closest recipe to the norm. And yes, they happen to be green! The spinach tortillas actually hold together better than the rice flour tortillas we have also tried out, and they don't crumble as soon as you fold it.

For lunch meat, I always use Nature's Choice, regardless of allergies. The more natural the better. Here, I used their Salami, and their new ( or new to me) Sun-dried tomato Turkey.

For lettuce, just get whatever you want. I happened to have the Private Selection Artisan Lettuce from Kroger on hand.

For cheese, we usually get goat or sheep's cheese, since he is allergic to cow's milk. I haven't really searched for a lot of different cheeses yet, I just get whatever is available to me locally. Here, I used Aldi's Honey Goat Cheese. It is unbelievably delicious! It isn't terribly expensive either, which makes me happy :)

And finally, a tomato. It's a kind of fruit, by the way ;)

All you have to do is spread the goat cheese onto the tortilla. Then place however much meat you want on your wrap. I used three pieces of each meat. Then put the lettuce on, and slice the tomatoes as thinly as you can without destroying them. This will make the wrap less bulky and less likely to break when folded. You can also put Italian seasoning on top of the wrap, but I felt that it was flavorful enough without it.

This is what it will look  like when its folded! Some (or all) of the tomatoes WILL plop out onto your plate while eating.

I also made a smoothie today, as you can see. It was really simple. It is also gluten and dairy free! I kind of made the recipe up as I went.

Strawberry/Banana Smoothie:

1 carton of fresh strawberries, chopped into rounds
2 ripe bananas
And about a cup of Orange Juice. (I didn't really measure with this one. I just poured it in until I liked the consistency.)

Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until everything is mixed well. You will end up with a delicious smoothie!

                                 And here is myself and the half-eaten wrap. It was yummy!

See? Simple AND delicious.

Cheers!

~Mary