Follow Friday #8: Charming Beach Living

Happy Friday friends! I hope you had a great week! It’s a cold and rainy day here in AZ, which means, my thoughts are of warm, summer days. Since I am a fan of hot, sunny days, this Follow Friday's theme is Charming Beach Living.
With it raining all weekend, my plans have changed from working outside in the garden, to back inside with more Valentine decorating. My family from Prescott is coming down for the Superbowl, and I'm hoping the rain stops on Sunday, so we can go enjoy some part of the weekend outside.
Thanks to Pinterest and Instagram their Inspiration gave me so many ideas, with too many being my favorites, that  I would really love to share them all with you. I just don't want to take up all of your time, so here are a couple to spread the love and inspiration!

 

I am crushing on this mantle. So pretty and calming! Perfect for a cold rainy day to sit and get warm by the fire, while admiring the serene wall art!

 

Adventures in Decorating

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Love her style!

 

Starfish Cottage

 

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A new blog for me! Her style is bright and fresh!

 

Coastal Style

 

 

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I've been looking for a DIY tablerunner project! I just love this Starfish one!

 

BoogieBoard Cottage

 

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Have a great Weekend! Until next time!

 

 

A Week in CASL Photos: January 22nd- January 28th

I am so glad you stopped by to visit me today! What I love about Wednesday is that I get to share with you a peek into what my week has been like, and possibly a sneak peek to what next week will bring. I've tried 365 Photo or Daily photo memes several times before, and surprisingly, I am getting farther posting my photos once a week, instead of once a day. It makes a big difference, and it's really nice to look back and see a slice of my day!

Let's start with Downton Abbey, I don't know where I've been, but I just caught up with all 4 seasons on Youtube (except for two of the Christmas specials). Seriously, now I can watch the new season on PBS and be up to date. To start my week off I give you a couple of my favorite mixed matched fine china plates I have in my collection.

January 22: Collection

January 23: Far Away

Last week, it started warming up, I was working out in the yard pruning bushes, getting ideas on my garden, and then out of the blue it turned chilly and cold again. When I looked up at these clouds, I imagined myself on a beach somewhere Far Away, with my toes in the sand, soaking up all the warm sun.

January 24: Playtime

May I introduce my assistant, isn't she a sweet heart! I don't know who was more excited, me or her to put this IKEA Rast dresser together. She was amazing. I got distracted with a request from her sister, five minutes later, I returned and she had half of it put together allready. What should I expect, she is the daughter of a woodworker. He loves to remember, before she went to kindergarten, I worked Friday mornings so he would take her to his wood shop, and they'd spend the day together.  She did seem to have a lot of fun with the power tools. Start 'em early, so I've been told!

January 25th- Black and White

One of my favorite things that reminds me of my Nana who passed away three years ago, was her copper collection. When I saw this little copper heart cake pan at a flea market for $2, I picked it right up!

January 26th- Three

My three loves. There is a 4th, but she grew up and moved to Washington State. It broke my heart, for her to move away, but just knowing she's happy is all that matters to me. Back to these three, it warms my heart to know they are all really close and love each other. Ok, well most of the time!!

January 27th...Morning

So far this is the only picture I didn't take. My daughter in Washington took this picture. In Arizona, we have the most amazing Sunsets, my husband texted my daughter a picture of a gorgeous Arizona sunset, and she texted him back this incredible Washington Sunrise. 

January 28th.....Strange

Do you think Dark Chocolate and Chili a Strange combination? 

Hmmmm. My husband actually wants me to make THESE Dark Chocolate Chili Truffles!

If you are interested I am following THIS photo a day prompt!

You can  Follow me here on Instagram !

Let me know if you decide to join in the fun!

Have a great rest of your week! Until next time!

East Meets West Chipotle-Lime Sticky Wings

Good morning! Today I am sharing, the most amazing baked wings. Seriously, these are so addicting,  allcovered in a sticky, sweet and spicy sauce (with the combination of two secret ingredients) my East Meets-West Chipotle Lime sticky wings, will not only make a great appetizer for your
Game Day party, but a delicious meal anytime.

What I love about these wings, is that you can adjust the heat of spiciness.

Why East Meets- West you ask?

If you like Chipotle like I do, then you more than likely know, that a little chipotle peppers in adoboe sauce goes a long way.

For example, it's tradition in our family for Christmas dinner to have  Enchiladas and Spanish rice. I have a super, easy recipe, for Spanish rice, that I will share, and my husband loves it because it calls for 3 Chipotle peppers, which is too HOT for me. If it's too hot for me, than it will definetly be too hot for my mother who was coming for dinner.

When I was getting my ingredients together for the Spanish rice,  I came across, Chipotle sauce (salsa, I found it in the Latin food section). It's pureed chipotles without seeds. The pepper seeds is where the spiciness comes from. This was just the puree. I found that when I used it in my Spanish rice, it gave that smoky chili flavor and was way less spicy than if I used even 1 pepper.

Ok,  this puree on it's own is perfect for my mother to enjoy my Spanish rice, but I do like spicy, and to me it's just not spicy enough. I didn't want to add a hot sauce like Tabasco or Frank's Red Hot sauce. When it hit me, I love my Chinese Garlic Chili sauce, again a little goes along way, but it was just enough to kick up my wings a notch.

They turned out perfect! Not burn your lips off hot, but hot enough for the spicy food lover in your family! These will definitely be a Game Day winner!

East Meets- West Chipotle Lime Sticky Wings

3 lbs Chicken wings/ or drumettes, with the skin on

Salt and pepper

2 Tbls. + 1 Tbls. butter melted 

1/2 cup honey 

1/2 cup soy sauce 

1/4 cup rice wine vineagar 

The zest from one lime

1 Tbls. minced garlic

 1/3 cup chipotle salsa

1 Tbls. Sambal chili garlic sauce
 ( add more of less depending on how hot you want them)

2 green onions, sliced

1. Preheat oven to 425F. Spray a large rimmed sheet tray with nonstick spray.

2. Place chicken on sheet tray. Brush with 1 Tbls. melted butter. Season with  salt and pepper.

3. Bake for 35 minutes, until golden brown.

4. Meantime, combine the 2 Tbls. melted butter, honey, soy sauce, vinegar, lime zest, garlic, chipotle salsa, and chinese garlic sauce in a sauce pan over low heat. Simmer, until it becomes syrupy and you can coat the back of your spoon with it, for approximately 15 minutes. Some stoves heat up faster, keep an eye on it, to make sure it doesn't burn.

5.  After 35 minutes, I baste the wings with a little sauce, reserving the rest for when they are done cooking.

6. Bake 5 more minutes. Then remove from oven carefully. Coat chicken with remaining suce. Garnish with green onions.

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Valentine's Day Craft: Part 3 : DIY Dollar Store Shabby Chic Distressed Picture Frame with Valentine Printable

Happy Monday! Hope you had a great weekend! I've been working on a couple painted furniture projects. Lately, I feel like I just want to paint something!!

Today I am sharing a new love of mine, (which has been a trend for awhile now, that I am just now finding out about) , is to take something old or new and turn it into something shabby and chic.

My husband actually laughed last night, when he's been a woodworker for about ten years now, and was wondering why it's taken me this long to start wanting to do this. It's nice that he can appreciate, when I am trying to do learn something new that I enjoy doing.

Last week, I picked up two wooden oak frames at the Dollar store,  some Acrylic paint (Parisian Pink and Antique White) at Michael's, 3 foam brushes for $1, and my husband had some fine grain sand paper.

First I sanded the frame down, to not only help the acrylic paint adhere to the wood, but to start giving it that distressed older look. Looking at old frames, they seem to take the most wear on the corners and the edges.

Next, I painted the frame first in pink, and let it dry completely. After it dried completely, I sanded down the frame, again on the corners and edges, until I got the shabby look I was after. Over the pink, I painted the Antique White. Once it dried, I carefully sanded the corners and edges, to expose very little wood, I was after a pop of pink to come through. That's it. Super Easy.

I actually made two frames, the first one, was pink on antique white, which I didn't see to much antique white pop through, so that's when I tried the second frame with the Antique white on the pink. They both looked like old Shabby Chic frames without a piece of Art to show case.

You can find the Valentine's Day printable HERE. If you have ever wanted to learn how to make your own Holiday Printable, take a look at this POST.

via

If you enjoyed this Valentine's Day Craft, here are Parts 1 and 2.

Valentine's Day Crafts Part 1: DIY Dollar Store Crepe Paper Rose Heart

Valentine's Day Craft Part 2: Stained Dollar Store Glass Candy Dish

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Follow Friday #7: Rhapsody in White

Happy Friday! I wait all week for this day! Friday Follow's are one of my favorite post, because I hope it helps you to find new and inspiring blogs to follow!

 

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 Saturday, I am so excited, I'm not only going to my first Flea Market, but I picked up some lovely mint colored paint to redo my old console table. Here's the picture that caught my inspiration. I absolutely loooove this color. It's La Fonda Mirage by Valspar.

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I hope whatever your plans for this weekend, you are spending time with the ones you dearly love!

 

This week, I am featuring A Rhapsody in White! To me white is not just a color on it's own, there are a variety of serene and clean shades to choose from, like vanilla, sand, ivory, and champagne.

 

 

 

If you are looking for some inspiring decorative painting, you need to check out Sandy @PaintMeWhite.

 

 

A Beach Cottage

 

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City Farm House 

 

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I love this sweet room, from the mirrors, to the rose quilt, to the monogrammed chest, and of course than hanging sweet wreath!

 

Sweet Melanie

 

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Wishing you all a Fantastic Weekend! Until next time!

 

 

 

 

Valentine's Day Craft Part 2: Stained Dollar Store Glass Candy Dish

Growing up, when we went to Grandma's house to visit, she would always offer us a piece of candy! My brother and I would get this big smile on our faces and happily picked one piece of sweet candy, unwrapped it as quick as we could to get our sweet. sugary fix!

When I saw this pin for Tinted Mason Jars, I knew I was going to make one of these eventually, that the thought also came to me about tinted glass RED for a Valentine's Candy Dish! It couldn't have been easier to make!! The hardest part was waiting for the Mod Podge to dry!

 

Gathering my supplies, I needed:

A glass candle stick -$1

A glass bowl- $1

Ribbon from Wallmart- $1

Loctite adhesive, my husband already had handy!

A sponge brush which I forgot to get in the picture 3 for $1

In this pin, it's suggested you tint Mod Podge with food coloring, I'm saving that for my next Spring project, but when I saw this Sheer Tint ModPodge I thought I'd try that, and see which way I liked better.

First, I coated the inside of the glass bowl with the sponge brush. Initially I coated it very lightly, and it didn't have the dramatic stained glass effect I was looking for. Then I poured half the bottle and swirled it around the glass bowl, until it was very well coated. To help with the runoff of excess glue, I turned the glass jar, upside down on an old cake pan I was going to toss anyway. I would use something to place underneath the glass bowl, to let it rest on, to keep from sticking to the cake pan.

After about an hour, when I noticed all of the excess had collected on the cake pan, I preheated my oven to it's very lowest setting about 170F. Carefully I set it upright, with the door to the oven open, I then turned off the oven, to have the heat help dry the glue. Make sure to check that the glass bowl, doesn't get too over heated and crack up on you.

You could also do several coats and wait in between 15-20 minutes for each coat to dry, which I think is safer.

Once the tinted glass bowl is dry, and no longer tacky, I added a dime size of adhesive on the bottom of the bowl, and then set the bowl on top of the glass candlestick.

This is what my Valentine's Stained Glass Candy Dish looked like with the sun shining through it! LOVE the brilliant red color!

After the adhesive dried clear, (it took about an hour), I decorated it with a bow, and of course filled it with Dark Chocolates!

If you enjoyed this post, you can take a look at  :

Part 1: DIY Red Crepe Paper Rose Hanging Heart

Part 3: DIY $Store Valentine Shabby Chic Picture Frame with Printable

 Until next time! XOXO

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A Week in CASL Photos: January 15th- January 21st

  January 15th- Old- It was 10 years ago, I visited this Antique store in Chandler, AZ. Lately, I have this obsession with Shabby Chic distressed dressers. It was fun browsing all the booths, with their collectibles, and antique furnishings. If you are ever in Chandler, look in on Urban Bliss. She has so many lovely things.

 

  January 16th- Nature- Thought this was unusual to have the leaves changing color in January....I guess anything is possible in Arizona.
January 17th- Jump- It has been super nice weather we've been having. Took the girls over to the park after school for a little playtime. It's always fun to swing as high as you can and then Jump!!  

 

January 18th- Today is...Another Valentine's project...Tinted Mod Podge and dollar store items, for a Valentine's Candy Dish.

 

January 19th- Home made- My husband has been asking since the New Year for an Pineapple Upside Down Cake. After all the fudge, chocolate and baked cookies from Christmas, I really wasn't feeling like anything too sweet. These Pineapple Upside Biscuits were perfect. Slightly sweet, buttery, (because we have to have our biscuits buttery now) and were the perfect sweet treat!

 

January 20th- Window- Stained glass with sun shining through the window. Part 2 of my Valentine's Craft ideas.

 

January 21st- In a row- I love citrus this time of year. Lemons and oranges are not only colorful, but Vitamin C is very good for you if you are fighting off a cold or the flu. Dinner last night was Lemon Roasted Chicken with Red Potatoes and Carrots.

With the weather as nice as it's been I was actually able to get out in the garden, pruning my roses and cutting away the dead branches from my dormant bushes. Getting some thoughts together of what I want to plant for the Spring.

Here's to a great rest of the week!! Until next time!

Valentine's Day Crafts Part 1: DIY Dollar Store Crepe Paper Rose Heart

Love all the Valentine decorations I have been seeing, so today I am sharing with you this              DIY Dollar Store Crepe Paper Rose Heart decoration. So, I put the question to my daughter, if she liked to make pink or red roses. She decided on a RED.  

After watching this video (it is in Spanish, I was able to follow along with her tutorial), I attempted to make the roses the way she showed in the tutorial, but mine turned out like the roses in the photo below. I'm not sure what I did differently, I cut the crepe paper in 18" strips, and folded, pinched, and rolled, and my roses came out slightly different with more ruffles. At the bottom of the roses I hot glued them, to keep them from unraveling. 

After finishing about 20 roses, I unfolded a cereal box, and using a heart template cut a heart out! Then I hot glued the paper roses onto the cardboard heart. At the top of the heart I punched a hole out for the ribbon.

Looking through all the tutorials on How to make a perfect Bow I found this one HERE.

Hope you enjoyed Part 1 of my Valentine's DIY! Until next time, Have a great week!

Part 2: $Store Valentine Stained Glass CandyDish

Part3: DIY $Store Valentine Shabby Chic Picture Frame with Printable

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