Parmesan Chicken & Pasta

Boil noodles of your choice, we like bow-tie pasta. While that boils, cut your chicken breast into bite sized pieces. Coat each piece in grated pamesan cheese and flour. Cook in a shallow skillet of olive oil until cooked through. When noodles are cooked, poor a jar of your favorite spaggetti sauce over the noodels. Spoon noodles in the boil, top with chicken and sprinkle with paresan cheese. Quick and Easy!

For other great recipes, check out:

Show Us Your Life - Wedding Dresses

Starting this week, Kelly at Kelly's Korner is hosting Weddings for the next few weeks. This week is all about the dress. Visit Kelly is see more dresses!

This will probably be the only week I participate because these are the only 4 pics I have in digital format. So unless I just get froggy and start scanning pics, this will likely be it.

I really did love my dress. And I tried on many! Being from Little Rock, living in Jonesboro and marrying someone from the Memphis area, I had lots of opportunity to visit many different stores. And like any true Arkansas girl, I did spend a day a Lowe's Bridal in Brinkly. But I ended up getting my dress as a well known bridal store here in Jonesboro. It was two pieces, the dress itself and the embroidered and beaded top. I wish I had a picture of the back, it was really pretty with buttons all the way down the top. At one time I could have told you the designer, but that was 10 years ago and I have let that information go to memorize more important things like Goodnight Moon.

I loved my veil too. I found the veil at a bridal store in Little Rock that was having a clearance sale. It was the exact length I wanted and trimmed in lace, but I did not like the hair comb it was attached to. But for $10 who could pass it up! So I removed the hair comb  and made my own head piece. I used embroidered flowers similar to my dress and it turned out great. 
My dress is still hanging in my closet at my parents house. The question afterwards is what do you do with it? I recently heard about a wedding that someone went to where they had both of the mother's dresses and one of the grandmother's dresses on mannequins at the wedding reception, what a neat idea!

One Tip Wednesday

One Tip Wednesday is on break in July while I attend to some family needs. It will return on August 5 with a give away! Come and join in on the first Wednesday in August for a chance to win a personalized prize. More details coming. Until then, click HERE for previous One Tip Wednesday posts!

Outdoor Wednesday - Lilies

Visit A Southern Daydreamer to see other views of the great outdoors.

I had the opportunity to take a few pictures of some beautiful Lilies in bloom our our recent anniversary trip. I love Lilies and think they make some of the most beautiful pictures. I can never pass them up!

Birthday Parties

Friday, Kelly at Kelly's Korner is hosting Children's Birthday Parties. Go show off your party or go to find some great ideas.
















3rd Birthday was Thomas the Train




2nd Birthday was Winnie the Pooh

1st Birthday was Raggedy Andy. I had really cute decorations, but those pictures were not digital and these are the only ones I could find already scanned.

Tablescape Thursday

Visit Between Naps on the Porch to see other great Tablescapes!

I love to host baby and wedding showers. I rarely have the opportunity to do the later, but sometimes have the chance to hose a baby shower for a friend from church. Generally at our church, the first baby shower is held at the church by the couple's small group class. But 2nd, 3rd, etc., baby showers are held in a small group member home. Who came up with these rules I have no idea, but it is an unwritten rule that we all seem to follow! 

A couple weeks ago, I had the opportunity to host a shower for my friend Frances who will very soon welcome her second daughter, Tracy. The table was super simple, but the colors and everything pulled together well.

She is doing Tracy's room in light green and lavender. At first I wasn't sure how I was going to decorate, but I found these cute wooden cutouts at Hobby Lobby and the colors fit perfectly. I hung them from my chandler and they looked so pretty on a hot summer day. I decided I would then just use solid color napkins and plates to match the colors.
But then I was so excited to find these plates and napkins at Target.

The colors were perfect and they were such cute little napkins and plates. I also bought square green plates to match for the food and left the smaller plates for cake.

One of the ladies in our small group made the cake to match the colors.

For the food, I used some of my crystal serving pieces. I love crystal because it goes with anything and always looks so pretty.
I made a banner with Tracy's name with my Cricut to carry on the purple and green theme, adding some girly pink and flowers. It hung directly behind the table across the window.
The completed table.

Outdoor Wednesday - Fireworks

Join A Southern Day Dreamer for other great views of the outdoors. What better place is there to be in the summer than outdoors!

I love fireworks and I love to take pictures of them! My in-laws neighbor does an incredible fireworks "show" on the 4th of July which allows me to get a lot closer than a big fireworks display would. I had a lot of fun this year playing with the shutter speeds and functions on my camera to get some pretty neat shots.

Blog Hop - Favorite Picture

I love this picture! What is sweeter than two brothers who love each other! I took this picture in the spring (along with dozens more) and spontaneously, the baby reached over to give his big brother a kiss. So sweet!

This week, on TUESDAY, 7/7/09, the theme is A FAVORITE PHOTOGRAPH. Post up one of your favorite photographs and a caption that tells the audience about it. Then add MckLinky to your blog and spend some time hopping around blog land.

Pressed flower with Monogram

After the funeral of my husband's 34-year-old cousin, I took a rose from the spray sent by all of the cousins. I didn't know at the time what I would do with it, but I knew I wanted to do something for his aunt and uncle. I decided to try pressing the flower into a frame. Here are the instructions for how I did it and how it turned out.

I first let the rose dry about 3 weeks hanging upside down. You want to do this project with the petals are no longer wet, but still soft enough to work with. The humidity in your home will certainly affect this process.

I started with cutting her initial in vinyl adhesive on my Cricut. I used the Storybook cartridge and cut a 2 1/2" letter. Adhere the negative vinyl to the glass so that you will be etching the letter onto it.

I used Armour Etch and followed the directions on the bottle.
Cut a background for the frame. I used the front sheet out of the frame as a template and cut out cardstock. You could use fabric also, but with this small a frame, I knew very little of the background would actually show.
I then put on a couple pieces of scrapbook adhesive to the back and...
attached it to the inside of the back on the frame. This way when I laid the back onto the flowers, I didn't have to worry about it sliding around.

This is what it looks like in the frame without the glass or the flower.
When the time is up on the Armor Etch, clean the glass as instructed. Then remove the vinyl adhesive and clean the glass completely.
Lay the glass into the frame.
Pull the dried petals from the stem. Starting with the smallest petals, begin layering them around the glass. Remember you are working backwards, so you will want the pretty side of the petal down.
After all of the petals are laid on the glass, carefully lay the back of the frame over the petals, making sure they don't shift, and secure it.
This is the finished product:

I was able to give it to them Saturday night and it was very sweet. Their precious daughter had a short, but loving life. I hope this little gift is a reminder of her and how much her family loved her.