DIY: Baby Shower Guest Book

A few months ago I was asked to help plan a baby shower. In planning the shower we wanted to find activities to entertain the guests and ways for each of the guests to leave their special mark on the shower. A perfect way to make everyone feel involved and give the parents to be great keepsake from the shower is by creating an advice filled baby shower guestbook. There are many many formats for this; words of wisdom for the baby as he/she grows up, advice for the parents to be, or just a normal guestbook.

My finished guestbook card

Here are the basic steps of how I designed, created, and produced my own (cost effective) guest book.

Christmas Lights, for a good cause

I wish I had discovered this earlier, but there's a house in Arlington County (East Falls Church) that puts on a great Christmas 'Dancing' Light show. Plus, its all to benefit The Animal Welfare League of Arlington.

Picture from Arlnow.com 

Chicken Pierre

I found this recipe for Chicken Pierre on allrecipes while looking for a new way to cook chicken breasts. It was a bit of a gamble for my household because we are not big tomato fanatics, but this recipe was sooo good it might just change our minds.

Chicken Pierre

Caramel Apple Cider Cookies

I found this recipe on Pinterest, and it looks delicious and a great way to use fall flavors as the season changes. More than that, I actually had a box of Alpine Apple Cider drink mix sitting in my cabinet that needed to be used.

Halloween Caramel Apple Cider Cookies

Garlic Chili Rosemary Chicken

I love cooking chicken thighs, dark meat is so moist that it almost always turns out wonderfully. So I was excited when I found this recipe for Sriracha Rosemary Chicken which combined dark meat, with the flavors which my fiance enjoys, and a yogurt to cool it down a bit.

Mustard Mayhem: Part II

Several weeks ago I posted Mustard Mayhem Part I, featuring Mustard Glazed Salmon and Mustard Maple Chicken recipes. Being someone who can let no leftovers go to waste, I found a new recipe combining my leftover Mustard, Maple Syrup, and Salmon into Smokey Maple-Mustard Salmon. At first I was worried this would be too similar to the mustard glazed salmon, but after a few bites my fiance assured me that both recipes deserved a place in our normal dinner rotation.

Smokey Maple Mustard Salmon

Smokey Maple-Mustard Salmon proved to be less sweet with a bit of heat. While I enjoyed the earthiness and crunch of mustard glazed salmon I have to agree that this is a great alternative when the sweetness is just too much. Plus this was SUPER EASY!

DIY Paper Fan Wheels

Today I made a party decoration I've been eyeing for a while. Paper Rosettes aka Paper Fan Wheels. I think these paper rosettes look incredible and are a cool, unique party decoration. Before I begin you have to know one thing about me, while I LOVE crafting I am definitely a novice crafter. I have no desire to stock a full craft room in my house or spend money on special scissors, cutting tools, glues, etc. For that reason you'll notice I often improvise with what I have around my house; water glasses, twist ties, etc.

My DIY paper rosettes

Here's how I made my paper Rosettes;

Pudding Cookies

I needed a last minute cookie to take to a party. Having made Chocolate Scotcharoos earlier in the week, I was planning to make a second batch with the left over chips. I reconsidered and decided I wanted to go with a more traditional cookie, but had to use what was left in my pantry. Enter Pudding Cookies which I used as 'garbage' cookies. A catch all for all the leftovers in my pantry.

Pudding cookie ingredients, including my pantry 'garage' of chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and walnuts.

Swirl Nail Polish

Right now a big Pinterest trend is 'tie dye' or 'marble' nails. I've seen it again and again and it always intrigues me. Who wouldn't want a really awesome looking nail treatment they could do at home? So, are these for real and can a nail painting novice like myself actually recreate these at home?

Swirl Nails, using water dip technique

Swirl Nails, using 'sticker' technique

Searching around on Pinterest I found two main methods of creating swirl painted nails. The first method, which appears to be most common, involves floating polish on a glass of water and dipping your nail into it. The second method had the user create a 'sticker' of nail polish which was then applied to their nails. I decided to put both of these methods to the test, water method on my right hand and sticker method on my left. See the results for yourself.

Banana Nutella Bread

Pinterst Alter! This was posted on pinterest through originally at Emily Carlton and Visions of Sugar Plum. After all, how is anyone supposed to resist a Nutella Recipe?!

BANANA NUTELLA BREAD