Beautiful Life Friday

I love this idea. Taking a minute to reflect on something beautiful from your week. This week was a little tough. Nothing major; just the day-to-day wearing on me. Feeling a little bit like I am going in too many directions sometimes. I work part-time (which is really full-time) in corporate america and I think I'm good at my job, but it can be a little consuming mentally sometimes. My husband's uncle e-mailed him a quote this week that said this:

"My greatest fear is not failure; it is succeeding at something that does not matter."-Author Unknown

That hits home with me lately. I want to be good at the things that really matter. Like a good wife, mom, daughter, friend, sister....I worry about failing in these areas.

But, in the midst of my stress, I found beauty in the picture below of my oldest son taking in the colors of the season. Looking at it just makes me step back from everything else and appreciate the things I've been rushing past. The things God has blessed me with.

What you can't see in this picture (which was taken in my bedroom) are the unmade bed and piles of clothes that also fill this room. But, sometimes it's all about perspective. Looking past the things that don't matter and focusing on the ones that do.

Ok, that might have been a little heavy for a Friday night! Check out some other "beautiful" posts over at the Inspired Room's Beautiful Life Friday.

Fall Recipe Series: Chicken Enchiladas

My husband and I came across this recipe when we were first married. We were looking for something festive to cook for Cinco de Mayo, and these enchiladas did not disappoint. We found it on the Food Network website, and it's still posted here. Doubling and freezing it works well also; I've even quadrupled it before (couple for us, couple for friends). Just make sure you have a huge bowl for all the mixing! (Pics below are from a quad batch.) I have also used canned, shredded chicken and that works great as well.

If you're feeling really adventurous, try Fried Ice Cream for dessert. We also made that along with this recipe originally. It's a little bit of work, but fun and tasty.

Enjoy!

Chicken Enchiladas

(recipe taken from the Food Network website)

Ingredients

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup sour cream

2 cups prepared salsa

2 cups grated Cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese

2 cups shredded cooked chicken

1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon cayenne

Salt and pepper

4 scallions, thinly sliced

12 to 14 soft round 6 to 8-inch flour or corn tortillas

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

Directions In a medium bowl cream together the cream cheese and the sour cream. Stir in 1/2 cup of the salsa. Stir in 1 cup of the grated cheese. In a second bowl toss together the chicken, the corn, cumin, cayenne, salt, pepper, and 1/2 of the scallions. Add the chicken mixture to the cheese mixture and stir to combine.

In a baking dish spread a 1/2 cup of the salsa over the bottom. Place about a 1/3 cup of the filling on a corn tortilla, roll up and transfer to the baking dish with the seam side down. Repeat process for remaining tortillas. Pour remaining salsa over enchiladas, spreading to coat all of them. Sprinkle remaining grated cheese over the top. Enchiladas may be prepared up to this point 12 hours in advance. Transfer to preheated oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until hot and bubbly. Enchiladas may be reheated, covered with aluminum foil, before service. Sprinkle with the remaining scallions and serve warm.

Cute Chore Chart

I've been wanting to create a chore cart for my oldest son, so this post from ModEco Kids via ohdeedoh caught my eye. But what I love more than the chart is the sentiment expressed in her post, talking about the importance of kids feeling that they are contributing to something bigger than themselves.

Just thought I'd share this in case you were looking for something as well! There's a free printable so you can make your own - how nice!

And check out the rest of ModEco while you are there - great stuff. She also has an adorable etsy shop!

Fear of Orchids

I know it seems wierd to be afraid of something so pretty. I've always loved orchids...from a distance. A couple weeks ago my husband was kind enough to bring one home for me, and I love it. But, I'm afraid I'm going to kill it. The just seem too delicate and exotic.

Anyway, so far so good. Seems to be hanging in there, but I'd appreciate any tips you may have on orchid care! :-)

Procrastinator's Party: The Reveal

Well, today was the deadline for the Procrastinator's Party. I will say this: having this deadline definitely gave me some motivation! I'm pretty happy with what I got done. Still some thing to finish up, but it's pretty darn close.

To refresh your memory:

And.....drumroll please.........

{sorry again about the lighting....had to use the flash for these since I was taking them tonight}

Better? This project was like therapy for me. It's something I've really been wanting (NEEDING) to do for a while, so it felt good to get it accomplished, but it also really got the creative juices flowing. I had a lot of fun choosing the fabrics, spending WAY too much time at Joann's and then doing the actual sewing, etc. These were my inspirations:

I think my favorite part is the chair cover. I fell in love with this fabric when I saw it at Joann's. It's not fancy, just cotton fabric, but I loved the colors and I knew I needed to get out of the yellow-blue rut in the kitchen. We got this chair at IKEA for cheap, but the cover was totally trashed (mostly from my 4-year old who loves to play at the computer).

Making the cover was actually pretty simple. I had tried (and failed) one other time to cover it. This time it turned out decent. I just sewed the two rectangles together (after hemming the bottom edge first) and then added the ribbon on the bottom to close it. The seat was easy - staple gun! :-)

I also loved the fabric I used for the memo board. It was upholstery fabric that was half-off and it helped me accomplish my goal of getting away from floral a little bit (it's a problem for me). :-) It was easy to cover the old one I had - again, staple gun! And some leftover ribbon from the chair.

The storage boxes were from IKEA and I found some vinyl stickers for embellishment (though taking me back to flowers!). The file folders / hanger I already had, and I used one of my favorite flea market tins to hold a rescued-from-the-cold impatien fomr the backyard. We got a brand new in-the-box keyboard tray on craigslist for $35 - score.

AND, I did tackle that cabinet and the drawers as well. Now, some of that stuff is in a bag and a box and still need to be sorted, but it's progress. All but the bottom drawer are empty; I'm thinking of putting the boys' craft supplies, etc. in there. My best helper for this project was my trusty label maker. I got it a couple years ago and am addicted. :-)

This has been great fun! Melissa, thanks for throwing the "party," let's do it again soon! Visit the post at The Inspired Room to check out more "afters!"

Flea Marketeer Party

One more "invite" I can't pass up...

The folks over at Flea Market Style are having a little party! The invitation is to post your favorite flea market find, and, as you'll recall from this post, I come from a long line of flea marketers, thrifters...whatever you want to call it, it's in my genes (and my home!)

Below are a few of my favorites. Everything pictured below was $1 or less (i.e. free!). Can't beat that!

Share yours! Head on over to the party and check out the rest of the blog while you're there. I'm looking forward to picking up a copy of their magazine!

You-Can-Do-It-If-You-Try Window Treatments

It's no secret how much I love ideas from Jenny over at the Little Green Notebook. If SHE knew, she'd likely issue some type of cyber restraining order. Truly.

But, I couldn't pass up the chance to participate in her most recent post on pelmet boxes. She made these adorable pink ones for her girls' room using foam board, badding, L brackets and a little tape to hold it all together! How cute is this:

{image via Little Green Notebook}

And her tutorial is here. She's asked folks to share their own DIY pelmet box ideas, and I happened to have done some a couple of years ago with none other than.........foam board and tape! Worked like a charm. The fabric was an upholstery-type fabric I picked up at IKEA maybe 3 years ago? I was going to use it to recover some dining room chairs, but changed my mind. I LOVE this fabric and still have a whole bunch of it...what to do...what to do...

(excuse these photos; I took them tonight and the lighting was not great!)

And I can't help but share another of her tutorials on these DIY roman shades; I'll definitely be trying this one. Thanks, Jenny!

{image via Little Green Notebook}

Happy Fall!

I'm enjoying fall so far; it could be little warmer and less rainy, but enjoying it nonetheless. I'm definitely a cool weather girl; just wish we could keep it at cool and skip the bitter cold of Chicago winter. Hope you're having a good fall. I am planning on spending today working on the office area (no, I haven't started yet, but if I had I wouldn't be a true procrastinator, right?). Have a great weekend!

Procrastinator's Party

I must say that today's post at The Inspired Room caught my attention; you know how often I talk about my procrastination. That's what made this post right up my alley! The challenge is to conquer one project that has been delayed by procrastination using the following steps: posting about it, linking back to the original post and then coming back in two weeks to share your results. As a procrastinator, I work best under a deadline, so this is perfect.

And I don't even need to tell you which project I'm tackling. :-) Yes, it still looks the same (other than I threw out the dead plant). I need to seriously organize and spruce up the office area in the kitchen.

Care to join? Check out the post here.

Fall Recipe Series: Heather's Pizza Soup

The weather has changed and I thought maybe I'd post some of my favorite cool weather recipes. My friend Heather gave me this soup recipe a while back; it's REALLY good and very easy to put together. I'm thinking this is on our menu for this cool fall day!

Here's the recipe (lifted from her blog - thanks, Feather! :-)).

Pizza Soup:

2 – 14 ½ oz. cans crushed tomatoes

2 - 10 ¾ oz. cans condensed tomato soup, undiluted

2 ½ C. water

3 ½ oz. sliced pepperoni, quartered

1 med. Sweet red pepper, chopped

1 med. Green pepper, chopped

1 C. sliced fresh mushrooms

2 garlic cloves, minced

½ tsp. rubbed sage

½ tsp. dried basil

½ tsp. dried oregano

Salt and pepper to taste

Garlic Bread

Shredded Mozzarella cheese

Simmer together until veggies are tender. Serve with garlic bread and cheese. You can also prepare like French onion soup with bread on top, topped with cheese and broiled. This cooks up great in a crock pot. Also, you can substitute V-8 for the amount of liquid in the tomato soup and water – about 40 oz. of V-8, and it doesn't taste any different. (Those are Heather's words / recommendations.)

Happy fall! I love this time of year.

Pretty Bird

I have been stalking these dishes at Target for quite some time now. Every time I'm there I swing by and take a peek....love them. I actually think they look better in person; the colors are a little brighter.

The problem is, I don't really NEED new dishes. My Pfaltzgraff Summer Breeze dishes (that we got for our wedding) are doing just fine. But, tastes change over time, right? I'm also very sentimental and I think I would feel badly about abandoning our "wedding" dishes. But, we do have the china from our wedding as well, so maybe I wouldn't feel that bad. :-)

But, as I said, I don't NEED new dishes. Just want them.

Look what I found...

I was at L'Occitane this week picking up Jamie's prize and of course had to ask about the special edition lavender shea butter from a few years ago. She told me they stopped making it because the process wasn't 100% organic, but that they were acquiring a company call Melvita and the products would be avalable in the US in November. And guess what they have? Lavender Shea Butter! :-) Organic certified shea butter with wild lavender essential oil - Melvita USA Shared via AddThis