Weekend recap

Hello! How was your weekend? 
Friday we did some grocery shopping. Then came home and I made Southwestern chicken salads for dinner. That has become one of our favorite meals! I marinade the chicken in some barbecue sauce for a few hours, then grill it on the barbecuer. I then top the lettuce with grated cheddar cheese, black beans, corn, guacamole or avocados, chicken, barbecue ranch dressing, and corn chips. Very good!

After dinner we watched North by Northwest, which was okay. It wasn't the greatest movie, but it wasn't too bad either.

I made some homemade ice cream to eat while we watched our movie. I haven't made ice cream since last summer, so it was a nice treat!

Saturday I worked on some stuff around the house and then I made some soup. Quite exciting, I know. You should all be jealous ;)

That night we watched half of A Time to Kill. My mom really likes John Grisham books, so she thought we could try watching the movie. We all liked the first half and planned on watching the second half Sunday night.

I spent most of Sunday working on a project (more on that later this week!). I also went out and took some pictures. I only realized a few days ago that we have a lilac bush in our backyard. I really like lilacs and was happy to see it had started blooming! 

I also took some pictures of the cherry blossom tree in our front yard. There are a ton of cherry trees in my neighborhood, and the blossoms are so pretty to look at!

Sunday evening we watched the rest of A Time to Kill. I thought it was a pretty good movie. It was a really long movie, but good!

Did you do anything fun or exciting this past weekend?

Five for Friday

Hello everyone! How was your week? I am linking up with Coffee With Caitlin, Cup of Tea, and Della Devoted!
1. You may or may not have seen my post earlier this week about the box we got from my brother in France. That was pretty exciting!

2. Have you seen this? Tom Hanks acts out all of his movies in 8 minutes. I thought it was pretty funny!

3. Hannah and I had dentist appointments yesterday. The hygienist kept saying that I had such great teeth! That's always nice to hear! 

4. I found this skirt tutorial. It looks pretty easy and I am going to have to talk my mom into making it for me ;)

5. Not terribly exciting, but I finally organized my scrapbook paper. I had SO much stuff that I had been packing around for years and most of it was paper I was never going to use. When I first started scrapbooking, I bought a lot of those paper packs. Maybe 60% of the pack was decent paper, but the rest of it was just ugly or weird. I guess I kept thinking I might use it someday but never did! I got rid of a lot of the paper that was partially used, and then put aside (probably a two inch stack!) of paper I definitely was not ever going to use. I'll keep it for now until I can find somewhere to donate it or something. It will definitely make scrapbooking a little more efficient since I won't have so much to go through!

Hope you have a great weekend!
Au revoir!

Fun mail

It was quite a nice surprise Monday morning to receive a package from my brother! He has been living in France for the past year while going to school. He recently visited Germany, and he sent us a bunch of fun stuff from France and Germany.

All of the things he sent! Postcards, lots of candy and cookies, a magnet, some German language things for my mom and sister who are learning German, and that item on the top left of the picture are socks from Germany. My mom is always cold so those will be really nice and warm!

Milka eggs.

These are SO good! 

My brother got me a Starbucks mug from Saarbrücken, Germany! It's the perfect size too. 

My sister and I are excited to try these Oreo Milka bars. I know they are going to be so good! 

Have you received any fun mail lately?

Cherry blossoms

I really love it when all the cherry blossoms start growing. I think that is my favorite part about spring. Well, I really like seeing all the flowers growing! They've really started blooming around here within the last few days and they are just so pretty!

Five for Friday

Hello! How was your week? I am linking up with Della Devoted, Coffee With Caitlin, and Cup of Tea!
1. I am really not much of a shoe girl (I mean, I wear them of course, but I am not obsessed with shoes like most women are.) and I have wanted some Oxfords for the longest time. I was really happy when my mom came across these online and ordered them for me. They're really comfortable and I am excited to start wearing them!

2. So earlier this week I was making a shot of espresso with my espresso machine, when the filter portion shot off and soggy espresso grounds went everywhere! I have never had that happen before so it was quite shocking! I should have taken a picture, but I didn't have my phone nearby. My dad and I cleaned it all up and then my dad took part of the machine apart and cleaned that as well. It seems to be working as good as new now!

3. We went to Trader Joe's this week and I picked up these peanut butter cups. They are SO good! Better than Reese's Peanut Butter cups. The Trader Joe's one have creamy peanut butter inside which makes them so good!

4. We have had problems with our internet ever since we moved to Idaho. Which is really annoying. We got a new modem (or router? I don't know the difference.) but anyways, it is working better now  and I am very happy about that!

5. I hadn't painted my nails for a while, so I decided on a nice lavender for something springy. :)

Hope you have a great weekend! À bientôt!

Some of my favorite people to follow on Instagram

I really like Instagram. I love pictures and I really enjoy seeing life in different places. I follow a lot of people, mostly travel photographers, and I thought I would share some of my favorite Instagrammers!
(In no particular order)

1. wisslaren - photographer from Sweden who posts travel/landscape/nature photos.

2. finn - definitely one of my favorite feeds. He posts incredible (mostly landscape) pictures. 

3. wander_washington - a collection of photos from Washington. This page really makes me miss living in Washington!

4. taylormichaelburk - photographer from Edmonton who posts some really cool travel pictures.

5. adamsenatori - a pilot who takes really cool aerial/travel pictures.

6. ovunno - photographer who posts some really interesting travel photos.

7. colbyshootspeople - another photographer who posts travel pictures.

Who are your favorite people to follow on Instagram?
(You could always follow me too!)

Tulips

I really like having fresh flowers in the house, so I picked up a small bouquet of tulips from the grocery store last week. I took a few pictures with my phone and was surprised at how well the pictures turned out! I guess I am always surprised when my iPhone pictures turn out well since I am so used to shooting with my DSLR!

Corn & black bean guacamole

I really like Chipotle's guacamole (who doesn't?) and I also really like California Pizza Kitchen's corn guacamole. So, I started thinking about combining the two and I came up with this! My sister and I have been eating it a lot. It is just so good!

Corn and black bean guacamole

3/4 cup frozen corn

2/3 can black beans (rinsed)

2 large avocados

juice of one lime or about 3 tablespoons

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

2 tblspoons chopped onion

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. garlic powder or 1 clove garlic

1. Cook corn according to package directions. Drain water and set in refrigerator to cool.

2. Remove the pit and peel from avocados, place into a bowl and mash. I don't like mine too chunky, but if you prefer a chunkier guacamole, that is fine too!

3. Slice and juice your lime or add the lime juice to the avocados.

4. Finely dice the cilantro and add to the mashed avocados.

5. Finely dice onion. You can add it to the avocados raw, or you can saute it until translucent. I do not like the taste of raw onion, so I prefer to saute mine. Then add to the avocados.

6. Add corn, black beans, salt, pepper, and garlic powder or clove of garlic to avocados and stir together. 

Enjoy!

Weekend recap

Hello! How was your weekend? 

On Saturday, my mom and I made some candles. My mom had ordered some candle making stuff a few weeks ago, and we finally decided to make some. I was surprised at how easy they were to make! I made a Snickers (like the candy!) scented one and then my mom made some lavender ones. I am looking forward the lighting them to see how they smell. 

I wouldn't consider myself much of a gamer or anything, but I enjoy playing a video game now and them. I played Zelda Majora's Mask over the weekend. (For the record, it is not my favorite of the Zelda games!) but I had never played it before so I spent some time getting frustrated playing it.

Sunday, we went out to lunch and did some shopping. The Corner Bakery isn't too far from us and I had been wanting to try it for a while. They unfortunately do not have a Panera or Jason's Deli around here, so The Corner Bakery wasn't too bad. We like Panera better, but it was nice to find a decent place to eat. We will definitely go again!

After lunch, we walked around the little outdoor mall nearby. It was really warm (I think it got up to 60!). We then ended up going over to the other mall and walked around. My mom ended up with some nice stuff; although I didn't find anything I liked. 

I painted the wooden birds I posted about this past Friday. I did a coat of white paint over the birds, and am trying to decide how I want to actually paint them. 

I didn't get around to making a menu plan and grocery list for the week, so I will have to put one together today. It just makes life so much easier to have a menu plan for the week!

Did you do anything fun this weekend?

Five for Friday

Hello! Hope you had a good week. I am linking up with Della Devoted, Coffee with Caitlin, and Cup of Tea!

1. My mom picked these birds up at a craft store for me this week. I am hoping to paint them this weekend! I think they will be really cute. 

2. I ordered this really cute dress from ModCloth; but unfortunately it didn't fit :( and now it's out of stock so I can't even get another size. I thought the print was really cute! 

3. Did anyone else watch Broadchurch this week? I thought the first episode was really good! I am curious as to what is going to happen this season. I really liked the first season and I heard that there is going to be a third season as well!

4. I grilled some chicken last night for dinner and made southwestern chicken salads. I've been trying to eat more salads lately and am always on the lookout for salad ideas. They turned out SO good!

5. I have a photography project I need to work on. I have been stuck on this assignment for a while and I have no idea where to go to get the pictures I need! It's been super frustrating. So I am hoping to get something figured out this weekend. 

Hope you have a great weekend!

Some scrapbooking

Lately I have been trying to get caught up on my scrapbooking. I am about a year behind. I seem to get caught up, and then get way behind again. But anyways, here are a few of the pages I've done.