Weekend Recap

Happy Monday Friends!  I hope you had a wonderful holiday and a relaxing weekend like I did!

We did some grilling on the 4th of July and had one of the BFFs over.  It was low key and wonderful.  We are so cool we did a little puzzle working.

I confess, I love to work puzzles.  I sucked Rebecca (one of the BFFs) into the puzzle working world as well.  She even took one of my old puzzles home with her to work.  I sent her this picture of Sammy helping me out.

Yes, Sam is a big help in the puzzle department.  I thought Rebecca's response to my message was hilarious.

Apparently all dogs are big with puzzle help.

The most exciting part of my weekend involved plywood, paint and cabinet pulls.

You might be able to guess where I am going with this project.  It will be detailed on the blog tomorrow.

This happened this weekend as well.

That's right, my first pair of drug store reading glasses.  Awesome.  The husband was making fun of me until I put them on him and he said oh, maybe I need some.  Then I was laughing.  :)

I hope you have a great week!

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Weekend Recap

Hello friends!  I had a fun and creative weekend.  I almost don't know where to start.

I picked up a three dollar frame at Wal-Mart...

...that I turned into this.

This was the last piece I needed to finish my patriotic mantel.  I love it.  If you're interested in seeing the full mantel, come visit me on Wednesday, I'll be revealing the it then.

I finished sorting through pictures that I found hidden in the garage when we cleaned out a couple of weeks ago.  I came across this treasure.

This is a picture of my dad and my sister circa 1970.  I had never seen this picture before.  Love.

Sunday we had an impromptu barbecue and look at my cutest guests!

My nephew and niece joined us for an indoor picnic.  Indoor picnics rock in Houston in the summer time.

This little beauty...

...made this beautiful work of art on my new pantry door chalkboard.

I knew my favorite kiddos would love this.  I scored super aunt points.

This beauty also arrived over the weekend.

I had been wanting to order something like this for almost 5 years and I finally did it!  More details on where I picked it up and some other items in my Weekly Finds post tomorrow.

I hope you had a fantastic weekend!!!  Enjoy your week.

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Weekend Recap

We are back from Italy and mostly back in the swing of everyday life.  It is good to be home...I missed you guys!

My weekend was fairly boring, a lot of around the house stuff, so instead of boring you with that I thought I would bombard you with vacation pictures...my fave ones captured by my phone.  The pictures from the actual camera are not edited and ready, but will be coming soon along with reviews of our hotels and tours.

And now...phone pictures!

Venice

Florence

 

Volterra

Pisa

The Vatican

Rome

It is possible that it was a mistake to do this post on a Monday because now I really wish I was still on vacation!

I hope you have a fantastic Monday and your week ahead treats you well.

Weekend Recap

This weekend felt sort of close to normal.  It started off with crawfish and beer with the husband on Friday afternoon.

Yummy.  I'm glad I am not longer on pain meds and can enjoy a beer.  See, there is always a reason to be thankful.  I am also thankful that crawfish can be enjoyed on Fridays during lent.

Speaking of lenten Fridays, I have a new recipe for you.  It combines eggs and pasta sauce again.  If you haven't tried it and you enjoy eggs (or just the whites like me) I suggest you give it a try.  This recipe was very easy.  My mom gave me the idea for this recipe from a similar one she found in Family Circle Magazine.  Here is my version:

Italian Egg Bake

• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 28 ounces crushed tomatoes
• 1/4 tsp oregano
• 1/4 tsp thyme
• 8 leaves fresh basil (2 of them sliced for garnish)
• 4 ounces sliced fresh mozzarella cheese
• 6 eggs

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.  Add olive oil and chopped onion to an oven safe pan or skillet and saute until translucent, add garlic and saute another minute or two.  Add all remaining ingredients, except two leaves of basil, the eggs, and cheese and bring to a low simmer.  Simmer the sauce for at least 15 minutes; the longer you simmer, the better it tastes.

Remove your sauce from heat and crack in 6 eggs around the pan on top of your sauce.  Scatter your sliced cheese around the eggs and bake until the egg whites set, around 15 minutes.  Add the sliced basil garnish and serve immediately.  We had ours with crusty bread, but you could just as easily serve this over pasta.

It was a pretty good meatless meal.

The rest of the weekend consisted of mani/pedis with Rebecca and girls lunch on Saturday...then lots of relaxing and puzzle working.

My dear friend Kelly brought over a puzzle last Thursday when she came to visit and I finished what we had left of it over the weekend.  I do enjoy working puzzles.

There was also things to do in Italy planning....

And laundry.  Sam enjoys laundry.

It was a very exciting weekend.  I hope yours was fantastic.

Have a great week!

Weekend Recap

We had a wonderful weekend!!  The husband and I went with our friends Robyn and Dave to their ranch in Fredericksburg, Texas.  They have vineyards on their property!

And they make wine!

It was interesting to learn about the wine making process and how much time is involved.  I never expected to feel like I was in a chemistry course while making wine.

Dave and Robyn have a batch of wine from their 2011 harvest and it was time to test the sulfite level in the wine.  I am not sure what it means but you don't want the level to be higher than a 4.

Mmmm...one year old beaker wine.

This testing, blending and moving of wine was happening at 9:00 AM on Saturday morning...I did no tasting.

I liked all the glass containers they had around for wine bottling.  The husband was very proud of the wine he bottled.

Robyn and I did lots of walking around the ranch and lots of playing with the animals.

Cats, horses and dogs, oh my!

I am sure Sammy was very sad she missed the party.

On Sunday we went over to William and Chris Vineyards.  This is the vineyard that purchased our friends' last harvest of grapes.  They grow sangiovese grapes that produces a delicious red wine.

While we were there tasting the wines, Chris (the Chris of William and Chris) showed up and he invited us into the winery to taste the progress on the sangiovese wine.  Very cool, right?

Chris getting us a taste from the barrel.

Just a few barrels.

Chris talking about wine.

Chris's daughter being a cutie.

Wine making thingies.

The husband being excited about wine.  :)

I know you are wondering if there was any shopping and the answer is of course!  Robyn and I did lots of shopping on Saturday.  Fredericksburg has the cutest Main Street with lots of great shops.

(source)

I came home with several goodies including this cute pumpkin that looks great in the mum I planted on the deck.

We visited a cute store called Dogologie. Where I bought Sammy a fun toy and this magnet that I secretly stuck on my mom's car.

I wonder how long it will take her to notice it.  Heehee.

I hope you had a fabulous weekend.  What did you do??