Easter decor

It's that time again!  I spent the weekend putting out my Easter decor.   I absolutely love holiday decorating and Easter is one of my favorites!  (There are a LOT of pictures!)

The entrance way table always gets full attention.  Beaded candle wreaths, a bowl filled with colored eggs and wooden blocks that spell Easter:

Click to enlarge

I love the white pillars with the green candles:

 

I also hung an egg embellished wreath on the mirror over the entrance way table:

Here's the wreath to the front door:

 I hung the "Easter" sign on the door that leads out to the garage: 

I love this little tree with tiny ornaments:

I've had this cute duck for about seven years now:

I picked up these wooden Easter block letters on clearance at Hallmark a few years back:

I put the "spring" blocked letters on my make-believe mantle. I know it's not officially spring until March 20th, but we'll be looking at temperatures in the 80's next week so it will pretty much feel like Spring.

Mr and Mrs Bunny sit on the end table in the living room:

This bowl of colored eggs has three bunnies that hold up the bowl -- so cute!

This white bunny sits in one of the shelves of the media center:

I also put these little ceramic bunny houses on the shelves too:

On the shelf in the kitchen I added Easter Subway art to the frame and added a beaded swag:

I wrapped the white candle in the same ribbon that I used to make a bow on the swag:

This is what the cross has written on it:

This cute guy sits on the table and has colored eggs in the bowl:

I'm not sure where I got this plate, but I adore it!

Queen Creek Olive Mill

On Saturday morning Sweetheart and I went to the Olive Mill in Queen Creek, Arizona. 

The Olive Mill is a local farm that produces Arizona's only extra virgin olive oil.   The farm is located at the Queen Creek site:

http://queencreekolivemill.com/

At our first visit last year we bought a Mexican Lime infused olive oil.  It was amazing ~ so flavorful! 

Sweetheart uses it to marinade our chicken and the result are fantastic!

This time we bought three bottles:  a Chili Olive Oil, another Mexican Lime and a Pomegranate Balsamic Vinegar (this one is delicious!):

We also bought some Tapenade: 

Sweetheart got into the Tapenade before I could get pictures

And we bought some Parmesan Romano stuffed olives and some Wasabi Ginger Sake stuffed olives:

We love that we can support a local business and it makes for a great road trip!

We're all set for a couple of months:

Jewelry Center

Remember the mess of a 'jewelry center' I posted about here?  Well the mess is no more.  I worked on this idea all week.  My goal was to spend as little as possible in organizing my jewelry.  This is what I came up with:

Click to enlarge

I looked at dozens of organizing ideas on Pineterest.  Although I loved so many of them, I decided to go with  what I thought might work well and would cost me nearly nothing.  I decided re-purposing would be the best way to go.  So I took the tree tea light holder from this project -- I had broken most of the glass votive holders because I kept knocking it over so it was sitting in my craft closet -- perfect for holding my dangle earrings I thought.  So I grabbed it tried it out and it was perfect!

This is how my project started

I took a can of white spray paint from the garage and painted the entire thing white.  I felt it would be easier to spot the earrings I wanted to wear if they sat on a white surface instead of the dark surface it was originally.  I just realized my paint job wasn't the best but I'm okay with it because this sits in the closet so no one will ever see it.

I also placed the converted earring holder on top of a silver charger and placed the charger on a turntable so that the holder can be accessed from all sides.  This way I can also utilize the back of the tree:

I hung the necklaces on shower rings.  I remember seeing this idea on Pinterest -- although what I saw had a rod attached to a frame and the rings hung on that rod.  I hung the shower rings on the clothes rod.  It's perfect.  Initially I attached the necklaces around the rod which made it difficult to try on different necklaces.  It was a lot of clasping and unclasping that was just annoying.  So this idea really worked out well.  I bought two packages of the shower rings:

I took this silver tray from our bedroom and placed all my bangles in it:

Now everything is easy to access and I can quickly find the necklace, earrings and bracelet that I want to wear:

 I think it turned out great.  And I love that I spent $10 on the entire project.  Re-purposing really pays off and it was fun going from room to room taking items and trying them out.

  

Pink: the Truth about Love Tour

When I heard Pink was kicking off her tour in Phoenix, I told Sweetheart that I would love to see her in concert.  The day the tickets went on sale I came home and found two tickets sitting on the dining room table.  I was beyond excited!  That was in October of last year.   Since the concert was the day before Valentine's day, Sweetheart made sure to tell me that the tickets were my Valentine's day gift.  Ha!

So on Wednesday, the day before Valentine's Day, we went to see Pink kick off her Truth About Love tour.

Her performance was absolutely phenomenal!   

I took some pictures with my iphone but it was too hard to get good pictures because she never stood still and the bright lights interfered with the flash.  

She opened with "Raise Your Glass" while suspended in air and upside down most of the song!

She had numerous costume changes.  Like lots of them. 

She joked that in 2002 she kicked off her Missundaztood concert in Phoenix and had a total of two costumes changes the entire show:  a red and black pair of dickies.

She's come a long way indeed: 

She spent the majority of the concert in the air:

This is my Sweetheart with me at the concert.  He was such a trooper to go with me.

He was outnumbered by women at the venue.  Most with a "chick-power" way about them.  That might be why he has a crazy look about him in the picture.  I'm just saying...

During the concert Sweetheart ran off and bought me some souvenirs:

An autographed picture of Pink (which I love)!

And a Pink T-shirt -- which I also love!

It was the most amazing concert I had been too.  

She is an amazing performer and such a class act!

Egg Muffins and DIY Planning

I was going through my emails the other day and I came across this recipe from Johnsonville.com:

They are called "Amazing Muffin Cups".  I thought it was a brilliant idea so I decided to make some for breakfast this morning.  I altered the recipe to include: eggs, onions, garlic, spinach and mushrooms -- Sweetheart and I are eating healthy so I skipped the hash brown, sausage and cheese. 

Here's how mine turned out:

[click on photo to enlarge]

They were super easy to make and so tasty.  It's just like the frittata I've made a few times but so much less work.  I just sprayed the cupcake pans with Pam and poured in my egg mixture and baked for 20 minutes:

I love the little "muffins" because they are an ideal method of portion control:

I'll definitely be making them again.  

Meanwhile, today was a lazy kind of day.  Sweetheart has been battling a cold/flu thing and was off of work all last week.  We spent all day just catching up on shows we have on the DVR.  Our new favorite is The Following with Kevin Bacon.  When I (finally) got my turn with the remote I decided to catch up on SMASH and Project Runway; this is what happened to Sweetheart and Grievous when I did:

Man and his best friend...

Oh and on to my DIY planning.  One of my New Year's goals was to "accessorize".  I know that may sound somewhat lame but I wear the same thing every single day:  my diamond studs, diamond stud necklace, watch and silver bangle/Tiffany bracelet.  I've been working the same thing for like 10 years.  I call it classic and my "signature" as I have said so many times to my sisters (and cousin) who say I need to be a little more open to new things.   So, this year I'm embracing the whole idea.  I've already bought some really cute pieces that I really like.  I didn't realize how much a nice necklace or earrings or even some colorful bracelets really make an outfit pop. 

Back to my DIY planning.  My dilemma is that I never had a need for a jewelry box because I've always worn everything I own.  I mean outside of a few items that I have for special occasions of course.   Well now it's all out of control.  What is usually very organized is now a mess:

I've been on Pinterest looking for some DIY ideas.  For now my necklaces hang from the clothes rod that goes across the closet:

I'm of the mind frame that it's not in front of me and ready to use, I just don't use it so I've been looking at something like this:

  
   

I want to make it myself and of course I want to be as frugal as I can.  I also want to keep what I make inside the closet rather than in the bedroom.  I'm hoping I can put something together this coming weekend.  I'll post it as soon as I'm done!