Easter re-cap

Yesterday was so much fun and super busy all at the same time! We hosted Easter dinner at our house this year and as I went searching through my blog and Flickr for photos of past Easters, I didn't find anything! Hard to believe but I tend to be so busy on holidays that taking photos isn't even a passing thought in my mind. I need to remember to put someone in charge of taking photos at the next family get together. :)

We left out carrots for the Easter bunny but inside of leaving them outside for him, Alaina insisted that we should put them in a China dish and leave them inside "so he won't get all grossed out." She woke us up at 6am on Sunday to tell us that he ate almost all of the carrots! After excitingly tearing apart their Easter baskets (and showing the kids next door) we held our Easter Egg hunt out back. This year I decided to mix in a few plastic eggs in with the 18 eggs the kids had colored the night before. I filled some of the plastic eggs with candy, money (Chase's favorite eggs) and teeny-tiny toys. I think I'll do this again next year, it was a big hit with the kids! 

I'm also adding my menu so I have a reference for next year. I started cooking on Saturday and I try to do all of the prep-work the day before so that dinner is as effortless as possible!

 Easter menu

starters:
Hot Artichoke & Spinach Dip - baked pita chips
Apple Dip - Green Apples
Guacamole - tortilla chips
Deviled Eggs
Vegetable Platter

 dinner:
Apricot Glazed Ham
Mashed Potatoes
Sauteed Peas w/ toasted almonds
Sauteed whole Green Beans w/ garlic
Orange Mandarin Salad
Spinach Salad w/ strawberry, feta & onions
Sweet Rolls - Wheat Rolls

drinks:
infused water, lemon and cucumber w/ mint
sparkling cider
nectarine tea

dessert:
Coconut Macaroons
Mini Carrot Cakes w/ cream cheese frosting & grated carrot
Flan
Strawberry Jam cookies

*a before and after shot*

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter with their families this year!

hello April!

I know, it's been awhile - but with good reason! Last month, I took a long look at that to-do list I had in front of me and decided that in order to really get anything done I was going to have to focus and get moving. Since the move I haven't really felt that I put the house on the top of my priority list, I seemed to put everything else on the list but not so much the house. So, I cut back on a few things (phone time and time spent on the computer) and really poured myself into making our house feel more like home. With the exception of the kitchen and one bathroom, I think I'm about finished with the house and it couldn't be better timing because I'm hosting Easter at my house this year! I did manage to photograph the entry room today, which also happens to be my favorite room in the house, and I plan on sharing those photos after Easter! - but here's a peek!

So in between all of the house stuff, I managed to squeeze in some time for Crate Paper. At the end of last month I posted my It's a Wrap post and today is my April Color Challenge. It's been 1 year, this month, since taking over the color challenges for the Crate blog! I wish I had noticed that before yesterday as I had a celebration theme in mind for the challenge! This month, I went the route of traveling/vacations as my inspiration and created a color palette that I swore I would never do... almost a primary color combination. Ordinarily, I hate the combination of primary colors with a passion! It reminds me of comic books but I thought if I were to tweak the colors a bit, maybe, I would be able to work with them. I was right! The combination of light blue, a medium yellow and a pinky red mixed with a heavy does of bright white was all it took! Who knew? I created 2 framed artwork pieces, one for the entry way and one for Alaina's room.

If you have a chance to scrapbook this coming week, get out your Crate Paper and play along! The kids have the day off of school today and we have plans to finish some last minute dish shopping before the cooking marathon kicks off on Saturday! I am so excited for Easter this year!!

are you ready,

for a bunch of scrapbook related stuff? I've started to realize that I don't really scrapbook anymore without having a reason: challenges for Crate Paper but I still really enjoy working with paper.... I think it's a time thing too. With the new house, I have all these interior projects that I want to start on and it keeps me pretty occupied! Now that it's Spring I have a whole list of out-doorsy projects to start - some planting, sprucing up the outdoor sitting area - I want to create this lighting feature I've had on my mind for weeks.... I just need some extra time!

back to scrapbooking! My color challenge for March is posted over on the Crate blog.

I couldn't decide on a color combination this month, so I went with 2! If you have some free time this weekend you should play along! I give away a Crate Paper collection to the winner of each challenge - pretty sweet right!

This layout was made for the February color challenge but colors are still kind of tie into the current challenge. :)

I even squeezed some time to create a little custom order on Etsy this week. :)

Today's schedule includes cleaning up that massive mess I call my craft room. Getting the house ready for company. Peter's parents are coming to stay with us and should be arriving tonight! Since it's their first visit to the new house - a home tour will be in order. :) Everything needs to be in order and dust free! I naively thought living on the fairway of a golf-course might help to ease the dust issue but sadly that doesn't seem to be the case! At some point I WILL take photos of the entire house and I will get them posted. There's still some little things that I want to find to make the house feel more complete. A new rug here, and taller lamp there, maybe an end table and some new paint..... All in all, I'm really happy in our hew home... dust and all. Have a happy Thursday!

Shabby Apple Winner!

Hi all, I'm here to announce the winner of the Shabby Apple giveaway! They are my new favorite clothing find *plus I really like their photos! :)

and the lucky girl is:

Stephanie Smith

said...
I Like them on Facebook.
How lovely it would be to win this giveaway!

2.3.12



yay Stephanie!! Please send me your contact info to rosas07@msn.com

amd I'll be back tomorrow to share a whole bunch of scrapbook stuff! I've been a bit preoccupied taking care of a sick household and hoping that tomorrow is the day that we all start to feel better. I need to get everyone back on track! Until then ~ good night!

Friday Giveaway: from Shabby Apple!

Hello and Happy Friday!!! When the sweet people over at Shabby Apple approached me with a giveaway from their amazing clothing site, I just knew it would be a perfect fit for a blog giveaway! If you haven't found Shabby Apple yet, you are in for a special treat!



Shabby Apple is a fanciful online boutique whose specialty just happens to be pretty vintage inspired clothing and accessories. - think Anthropologie-ish with beautiful photographs and realistic price points - What impresses the artist within me most, about Shabby Apple, is that each of their collections are inspired by a theme and then each of the dresses within that collection has a coordinating name. (I love that simple cohesiveness of each collection!)



Here's a few of my top picks! The Mad Hatter collection - a whimsical Alice in Wonderland inspired line and my personal favorite - the Yosemite collection. (I would like one of each please!) I could also see me wearing one of these fun aprons from the Boysenberry collection while spending a Saturday afternoon baking! Lastly, the Oh la la collection how nice a Paris vacation would be right now!







They also have dreamy accessories, super cute heels and even a little girls clothing line! (My good friend Christine and I spent some more time, this morning, chatting on the phone with our morning coffee all while shoe shopping :)




Are you smitten with all of the pretty dresses? I can certainly see the need for a few new Spring dresses in my near future :) I'm super excited to be able to giveaway a $75.00 gift card from Shabby Apple to one of my lovely blog readers!

To enter this giveaway:

1. please visit the Shabby Apple Facebook page and click on the 'Like' button.

2. then pop back here and leave a comment on this post!

Super simple right! I'll be choosing a lucky winner on Tuesday. Good luck to you! xo ~T

glitterly gold and a little pink

Over at the Crate blog today, I've introduced my newest monthly post: 'It's a Wrap!' The last day of each month I'll be posting my thoughts and hopefully some new ideas all centered around gift-wrapping! It's kind of an easy-breezy post for the end of the month, simple and with pretty photos. I think I'm going to create a gift theme for each month, that way I'll have my color combination posts and a themed gift wrap post for the month and with a little luck the posts will hopefully compliment each other! (That's the hope!)

This month, I went the route of a baby-shower theme. I think baby-showers and Spring somehow go hand in hand together.... which is perfectly ok because I love soft muted baby colors and shopping for sweet little baby items.

There's lot's of details and how-to's over on the Crate blog.

Gift Wrap details:


trims, sequins, ruffle crepe paper: thrifted
Bakers Twine: thrifted vintage
Journal Tags: Crate Paper (Story Teller collection)
Yo-yo & Gold leaves: handmade by me
gift-wrap papers: thrifted

There are some exciting things in the works at our little casa today. Chase and I are patiently waiting for the landscapers to arrive and start on our backyard - I've never been so happy to see grass and small cactus's! :) While I wait, I'm just putting the final touches on Crate's color challenge that kicks off this Friday and on Friday afternoon, here on my blog, I'll be doing a fun little giveaway that you won't want to miss! I can't wait to share that giveaway, I've been dreaming about it all week!

Have a wonderful sunny afternoon! ~ Tara

Fruit and Water combined

Hello and happy Monday morning to you! I'm spending the morning working on a new monthly post for Crate Paper (check out the blog on Wednesday!!) but wanted to take a little break to post the rest of my photos from the guest-spot on Jessica's blog! I had originally planned on doing a crafty type post for her blog but it just wasn't happening and then the idea to do a easy recipe seemed much more realistic. I had about a day to decide on a project and get it photographed. :)

A post all about Infused Water it is!

Because we live in the desert, dry has taken on a whole new meaning and to remedy that unfortunate fact - we drink ALOT of water. I remember my first spring/summer in AZ watching people walk with a gallon of water in hand and thinking it was a tad bit overkill. Now, 10 summers later, I've come to realize that a gallon of water a day is a must! Since water can be bland at times, especially with the 10 and under crowd here's a couple of ideas for spicing it up... or sweetening it up!

Strawberry - Cucumber Infused water

You will need: 1 pitcher of cold water, half of a peeled cucumber - sliced and 6 sliced strawberries

Push the fruit down into the water and let set for just a few minutes. Of course the longer you let the fruit and water blend together the stronger the flavors will be. If you're planning on making this for guests, make it right before you'd like to serve it. I've found that the strawberries tend to use their vibrancy when I leave them in the water for too long (3+ hours) and they don't look as pretty as when I first slice them! I like fruit to look fresh!

The best part of infused water is that you can play with different fruit combinations to see which ones suit you taste! Whenever we have guests over I keep a pitcher of the Strawberry/Cucumber chilled in the fridge, I've found the majority of people like how refreshing it is - even my finicky Chase will drink it! My other favorite combinations are Peach/Mint leaves, Lemon/Raspberry and Honeydew Melon/Green Apple.

Table Scape details:

Table runner - a DIY project that cost about $12 and only took me an hour to make - I made it right before taking these photos!

Vase for flowers - found coffee can at the grocery store (I walked around looking for any type of container with the yellow and red colors on it. I love the high contrast between red/yellow and black/white.)

Succulents - planted in thrifted tart tins and tea canisters

Paper straws - purchased from Etsy

Mason Jars - thrifted

Glass Pitcher - Pier1, purchased last summer

Have a lovely Monday!