Oh the Lovelies, (Thanks Pinterest)

If you follow me on Pinterest you might have been noticing all of the lovely pins lately. If you have been to our home you know that we have a bit of a cottage feel going on. We love older pieces of furniture that we have redone & repurposed, barn wood used for headboards & shelving units, we love whites & soft pastels but with some pop of teal here & there. It really makes us happy. So lately, I've been getting inspired via pinterest to tackle the guest room/future nursery (no I'm not pregnant) our back porch, and we need ideas for our den that is a little too dark for me. Also, there are a few extra lovely things I've pinned.

Enjoy them with me ..... 

Okay, so if you know me pretty well you know that I've developed a slight obsession with campers. pretty, sweet, lovely little campers. Such as this one one above. I want to open a little shop in a camper such as this one above. to sell baked goods, yummy food, jewelry, hoops, and journals. 

I am in love with this piece of furniture above & the one below. I would love either of these for the awkward little space in our kitchen or for guest room. They would both be perfect. The colors & everything they are filled with. 

simply in love with all the goodness that is this hutch. 
Would be incredible to have everything it is filled with.

Oh this piano is just perfect for our sitting/music room. It really would go perfectly under our DIY shelves. Our sitting room has a vintage record player console, bongos, guitars, and a trombone. Pretty sure a piano would make it come together nicely. Love this one. The colors, plates, & seat, perfect. We have been looking for a a piano for the last few months, but don't have much of a budget to spend on one so the hunt is still on! I'm really wanting to start playing again. 

Don't you just want to sit here & read for an hour or so? 

I do. 

I would say this is probably my dream location to relax, read, pray, journal, have coffee, and enjoy the day! 

(couldn't locate orignal source for this picture)

I love floating around on Pinterest 

& looking at all the lovely things. 

A lot of my pins were found via my cousin Krystal's Pinterest Boards here. She also blogs here & here.

This was a fun post for me. 

 Hope you enjoyed all the lovely things here.

~Brit

A Not So Pinteresting Day

If only I had been feeling like a normal functioning human being the last few days here are a few things  I probably would have made... 

Bottles Full of Light, Design Mom shared this tutorial I found via Pinterest to accomplish drilling through the jar. We finished our DIY Door to a Table in the backyard last week & are now working on ambiance to go with it. lol. Easy ambiance, Lights! We have a few ideas we are tossing around and this is one of them. We shall see.

Puffins by Bakerella! (Pancakes + Muffins) Don't these look so fun & would make such a fun treat? Plus my very picky toddler loves muffins so this is a win win. They would probably freeze pretty well too. 

Spinach Quiche. I found, Just a Spoonful Of's blog last week & it is full of yummy recipes that look doable & amazing.  Go check them out! My mom & I shared a piece of quiche this weekend while at the hospital when my dad was resting, ever since I have been wanting to make a quiche. 

.... but I did not brave the kitchen or the craft room. Instead on Saturday I got home from a quick trip to be with my parents (I'll fill ya in on that later) at 5 pm went to sleep, basically until Sunday at 4 pm. So thankful for my sweet man who loves me & is dad of the year! For real, he is. I do not know of any man that has voluntarily watched his toddler all by his lonesome and taken him to work with him for 5 days so his wife could be with her family 4 hours away & then let her peacefully recover from (what I believe was) the flu. Love you boy. It has been a rough last 8 days, praying tomorrow is a new beginning in many ways.
~Brit

A Pinteresting Day

Crock-pot Chicken Tacos

I'm a Texas girl who loves Mexican food. I married an Iowa boy who did not grow up on enchiladas, tacos, and burrito bowls like this girl did. Johnny has grown to love this food just as much as his wife does. This makes my heart happy. 

A popular recipe on Pinterest has turned prep time for cooking up some yummy mexican food down to nothing. The last few weeks I have made these Chicken Tacos posted on Chocolate Therapy four times already! I made them last Thursday night for our home group & they were a hit. The picture does not do them justice.

 Ingredients

Chicken (I used dark meat boneless & skinless)

1 packet of taco seasoning (I used chicken)

1 jar of salsa (any kinda)

All you do is throw them in a crock-pot turn turn it to low & cook for a few hours. That is it! The best thing about this recipe is that it is versatile. I took the mixture and made chimichangas, rice bowls, enchilada pasta, nachos and grilled sandwiches with it throughout the week. We make cilantro lime rice and a corn salsa that is wonderful with it too. 

Pinterest Inspired Pasta Enchiladas 
I used the Chicken Taco Recipe above, from Chocolate Therapies Recipe Box, and then combined it with the 4 ingredients below. 

Cook your pasta, saute your onions, throw the chicken mixture in and pour enchilada sauce over it. Top with 1/2 a cup of mexican cheese. Dinner for friends & family is ready!! 

In case your wondering, One cup is 300 calories! Top with low fat sour cream for a few more. 

Try this two in one recipe for easy cooking, lots of leftovers, and a guaranteed way to make everyone happy!

~Brit

A Pinteresting Day: Easy Fruit Tarts

Fruit Tarts

Lately these little yummy bite sized fruit tarts are flooding Pinterest. My mom use to make these often when I was a kid.  Usually she would just make one big fruit pie but occasionally she would make them in bite sized rounds. 

I've been wanting to make these for a while and last Sunday night I decided to make them for our small group. Most of the recipes bouncing around Pinterest call for several ingredients and are most time consuming, including my mommas. I decided to skip a few steps to save a few calories and time.

Ingredients: 

Sugar Cookie Recipe 

1 stick of butter

cool whip

1 egg

fruit

Mix up your cookies, roll them into balls onto your cookie sheet (excuse my beaten up pans), and bake them for 9-10 minutes on 350 degrees. 

In the meantime while your cookies are cooling, cut and rinse your fruit. We happened to have everything I needed for these fruit tarts in my pantry, including a variety of fruit. If you don't have a variety of fruit in your fridge, just grab a few kiwi along with a carton of strawberries and call it a day. Use about 1/2 a tablespoon of cool whip per cookie & then top with fruit. 

These were incredibly easy and took less than an hour to make. I made almost 40 fruit tarts. Each tart was 31 calories. Not too bad ladies, not too bad.

Make Some & Enjoy. 

~Brit

A Pinteresting Day

So unless you live in a cave or just don’t have an internet connection you’ve probably heard of Pinterest. If you are slightly crafty, enjoy cooking, or just like to look at interesting things I am sure that you are loving Pinterest. I am!

I found this recipe via Pinterest that was posted here on this blog a few weeks ago. Like usual I did not follow the recipe exactly, because I knew I would enjoy it even more with a little tweaking! I made it last week and again yesterday for lunch.

The Tweaked Recipe

• 1 can chickpeas
• 5 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
• 3 tablespoons of extra light virgin olive oil
• dried oregano (as much or as little as you like)
• cracked black pepper (again, the amount is up to you)
• 2 large tomatoes 
• 2 extra large cucumbers
• feta cheese

Drain & rinse your chickpeas & then wait for the foam to go away. Mix up your balsamic vinegar & olive oil and dump your chickpeas into it. Put them in the fridge for 1-5 hours. Basically as much or as little time that you care to wait (at least 30 minutes to get cool).

Slice up your tomatoes & cucumbers the way you like & sprinkle with as much or as little oregano that your taste buds prefer.

If you are making this for a few people then you could just dump the chilled chickpea mixture over the veggies but if it is just you & the salad then I suggest just serving yourself a plate & putting the rest in the fridge for later. So drain the chickpeas but catch all the dressing in a bowl. Add the chickpeas to the veggies & then drizzle the dressing over your individual salad serving. If you pour all the dressing over the veggies the salad will wilt by the end of the day.

Add your cracked black pepper & feta to your yummy salad & enjoy with a nice glass of tea!

Happy Pinteresting!

~Brit