by heather | recipes
I just love when I discover a delicious new healthy AND easy recipe. The title of this recipe caught my attention….and after reading the ingredients and discovering that a Laughing Cow cheese was involved I got super excited. I love that stuff. The cucumbers and tomatoes are plentiful this time of year, so this is a great summer salad!
Cheesy Balsamic Cucumber Tomato Salad
- 2 Laughing Cow Light Garlic & Herb Wedges
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
- Salt and Black Pepper
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 tbsp Honey
- Pint grape tomatoes halved
- Large cucumber chopped in small bite size pieces
- Basil – about 10 leaves or so torn up into smaller pieces
Mash The Laughing Cow Light Garlic & Herb Wedge with all of the vinegars, olive oil, and honey. Add the tomatoes, cucumber, basil, and stir together. Season with salt and pepper to your liking. Enjoy!
Thanks to GreenLiteBites for this yummy recipe!
by heather | creative tips
My husband has been gone for 12 days. That is a crazy long time to be home by yourself! I have been busy with little projects around the house….mostly that “spring cleaning” that I never got to. And now that it is officially summer, I guess it was partially summer cleaning!
I am forever finding things on Pinterest that I want to do for the house. Well, I finally got around to doing some of them this past weekend! And I am so excited, and thought I should share…
FREE PANTRY PRINTABLES
I have been wanting to reorganize my pantry ever since I moved in this house and unpacked those boxes in a hurry some 6 months ago. I also have been wanting to print out some of these awesome charts and helpful tips I see flying around Pinterest and hang them up in my pantry. YAY!
Don’t forget, I am a coupon queen….so I stock pile a lot of pantry items! Read my coupon tips HERE!
The first printable I found was a NC “What’s In Season Chart” from the NC Department of Agriculture…. (click on image to go to printable link). Now, I know all of our readers don’t live in NC….but just google your state name with “vegetable chart” and I bet you find one 🙂
The next one is a reminder to always try healthier options! Like substituting Chobani Greek Yogurt for butter, mayo, cream cheese, buttermilk, oil and sour cream. Who knew? Now, I haven’t tried these yet…..but this is a reminder to me to try them! (click on image to go to Chobani’s website to find image)
The best part about these prints. I just bought 8.5×11 simple frames at my local craft store. They were only $2.00 each! This way, I can print them on my home printer using standard 8.5×11 printer paper and just change out the prints when I want!
FREE LAUNDRY PRINTABLE
Another great printable I found was for the laundry room describing methods for treating different kinds of stains: coffee, ink, grass, paint, lipstick, red wine, etc. I couldn’t think of a more perfect framed print for the laundry room!
Thanks Better Homes and Gardens! (click on image to go to their website. you will have to sign up to download this one, but it’s quick and free!)
Happy Cleaning! And Organizing! And Decorating!
by heather | diy
I just discovered the most amazing thing this past weekend. A paint your pet class.
Now, I have been to a couple of these painting studios that are the new trend lately….you know – bring your own wine, a couple of friends and the whole class paints the same random picture of the day thing. Well, this class was different. We had to submit a photo of our pet a few days prior to the class and of course everyone was painting their own pet. Here is my photo I submitted of my dog, Willy (you might remember him from the superman costume):
When we showed up at the class, they had our photos enlarged on the canvases in black and white for us to paint over. Sweet! So much better than the pressure of starting with a blank white canvas! We started with a background color of our choice and a little general instruction to get us started. I brought my brother along with me, who was painting his cat.
Now, I have an art degree…but I have never painted a dog! There were two instructors to help, thank goodness and they each took time coming around and helping each person out with their individual paintings. I was pretty nervous when I got to the stage when my photo was all covered with paint. You can see my brother working on his cat’s belly shadows. He has a fat cat!
After a little under three hours, we were all done! We were both so pleasantly surprised at how great our paintings came out! I must admit I had a lot of trouble with Willy’s eye/nose area and the instructor helped me with that and some finishing touches of the painting. Ultimately, they were there to help you take home a great painting of your pet. I will be so proud to hang this up in my house! I told my husband he might have to take the TV down from above the fireplace so I can hang it there. HA!
There was one girl in our class there painting a photo of her best friend’s dog as a surprise for her best friend’s birthday. What a great gift idea! Everyone’s paintings in the class turned out great. We had so much fun too. And now, I want to go back and paint my other two dogs!
This class was at Wine and Design in Charlotte, NC – they have other locations on the east coast too. Lots of these painting (and “wine”) studios are popping up all over. Check for one in your town!
As you can see….my brother decided to make his cat a super cat. HA!
