its a hard job but someone's gotta do it...

If you guys follow me on FB I mentioned that I had volunteered to do a hard job of test baking a delicious pie from The Right Slice.

Life is rough huh.

I picked up my mango lilikoi frozen pie and my directions and brought it home to do my 'homework'.

And then the countdown began.

I just love love these pies, they are so yummy.

The house smelled so good, just like my grandmas house growing up.

Look at this golden deliciousness.

Sooo buttery....

It didnt take long at all before it looked like this....

Yum-o!

That was hard work man!

If you guys are ever on Kauai you MUST check this place out.

Sweet and savory pies to die for!

And... if you cant make it here she does mail order as well!

more backyard-agains....

While I'm on the subject of our backyard, I thought I'd let you know about all the other things I got knocked off the to do list as well.

First of all AGAIN back to the project list for this year.

It seems like all I've been talking about but I'm so glad to be getting these projects done, thats the purpose of goals right?

And it feels so good checking them off this list.

First off we have my pavers!

I got these pavers from a jobsite we worked on. They are really nice in person.

The hubs and I quickly put them out and within 5 - 10 mins we had them in just the spots we wanted.

Seriouslly only 5 - 10 mins. Made me wonder why it took me so long to do this.

And then it was time to level them out. I had to dig in some areas and fill in others and I was reminded why. Ugh..

Since we had extra lumber from our Pergola project, the hubs built a little bench sort of thing to raise up our potted plants from being on the ground.

It's actually been really nice not having to bend down to work on the plants.

Also keeps the puppy from chewing it up!

AND speaking of chewing things up....

Remember meeting my maple?

I almost threw that puppy over the fence!

She thought my precious maple was a chew toy, NOT GOOD.

We put up fencing around it to keep her out and hopefully let the maple heal it's self.

See not good!

We lost a good 3 feet on her :-(

Of course, just because I'm loving our new addition to the patio here it is again!

Hope you all had a great weekend... why do they always have to end so soon??

It's about darn time....

Pretty much since we first moved in to our home almost 5 years ago I have wanted to put up a shade over our back patio.



The back patio faces west and in the afternoons the sun is just horrible, pretty much making the back yard unusable. Well, thats just unacceptable, especially with a very active 3 yr old.

You see our backyard is fenced and what better way to keep em entertained?

Go out in the backyard and let them run off all that energy!

That's why this project has made it on my project list for 2012

So, do you remember when I told you I was so excited I could almost pee my pants?

Yay!

Yes we finally got working on our pergola, here is the before.

And after so much hard work, sweat, tears.... ok fine we hired a contractor!

(so worth it!)

I couldnt be more excited! Yay!

Still more work to be done, we have to finish the roofing and paint it, not to mention get some yard work done, yikes! Can't belive I'm actually showing this picture, yuck.

BTW, this sucker is HUGE! It really feels enormous!

Our weather is cleared up now since all of the storms and it has left our backyard all torn up. Majority of our grass died, although it looks awful right now it's not too heartbreaking since we're in the process of changing out the grass anyway.

Hey, anyone up for a painting party?



oh for the love of kitchens....

I am just dying for this linky party over at Thrifty Decor Chick called Show Us Your house.

The theme right now is Kitchens!

I am L-O-V-I-N-G all the great ideas and inspiration I am getting!

Go check it out!



Once upon a time, a long, long time ago...

well more like August of 2010, I picked up

these chairs

from Craigslist.

I loved the shape of them, the idea of the challenge to turn them into something I was gonna love and I loved how comfortable they were too.

It took me a while to get started on this project and when i finally did, YIKES was it time consuming. I spent hours and hours removing staples.

The more and more I took the chairs apart I found damage, termite damage.

:-( sad face

I had to do what was best and so lets have a moment of silence for my loss of those chairs.

Farewell friends.

White Bean, Green Chile & Chicken Stew

Sorry for the absence recently and thanks for sticking around!

I wanted to share this recipe with you because not only was it good, but my hubby also liked it!

And YES I was VERY supprized!

It was a perfect set the crock pot in the morning, go to work and have dinner ready when we got home. It was warm and cozy and also perfect timing with all the storms were having over here.

I got the recipe from myrecipes.com

I put the chicken, white beans, green chiles, one onion chopped and a can of chicken broth a dash of salt and cumin in the crockpot before leaving for work one day.

When I got home I took out some of the broth and tossed it out, I'm assuming I could have kept it for another similar recipe. I spooned out about 1/3 of the beans and put it into a blender.

I beat the beans until it was a sort of smooth consistency.

Then I pulled the chicken out of the crock pot and removed the skin and bones and shreaded the meat.

I put the shreaded chicken back into the crock pot.

And the bean mixture from the blender as well. This thickened it up very well.

I sat and thought it definately needs some dinner rolls but I didn't have any!

I did have some left over hot dog buns so i buttered it up on both sides and threw them in a pan.

Would you belive it was delish!!

AMAZING and I'm not joking! I would have this over and over again any day over a dinner roll. My son and my hubby would have eaten only the hot dog buns had I allowed them to!

This recipe passed with flying colors.

Kid tested, husband tested and mother approved!

It tastes like a chimichanga in a bowl.

Next time I'm making extra and keeping some on the side to make a chimichanga casserole with tortillas.

I'll be linking up to the parties at the bottom of my page and I hope ya'll try this one!

It's definately a keeper!!

Making your Cricut mats last longer

I love my Cricut.

I use it often, not as often as I like but pretty darn often. Every holiday at the least.
I have used it so many times in fact that I've had to buy replacement mats several times.

I was so excited to find this blog

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog

No only do they have tons of gret ideas and inspiration but this one post is totally worth it!
Click on the link below and you'll thank me, I promise.

Quick Tip Tuesday

She shares with everyone how to recondition your Cricut mats so that they last longer!
Yay!

a day of rest and rain

If you follow me on twitter you might have seen this picture below.

Saturday night was my husband's neice's first birthday party and if you know how the locals here do it, you know what a big deal a first birthday is.

Prepring potato mac salad

It was a ton of work and there were so many helping hands.

Luckily everything worked out, because we have a major storm on our hands right now.

Before we left for the party my lil guy took a few minutes to rock out.

I sure hope he learns how to play one day.

I'm not at all musical.

 

Anyway, about that storm... it's really bad.

We got home on Saturday night and the tent we had up for the contractor to was building our patio had collapsed from all the rain.

The tent frame crumbled and bent, we're in mourning.

(darn thing cost a pretty penny... 23,000 pennies actually)

We had to spend the day inside and we just had to spend the entire day in our pjs and of course have some hot cocoa to keep warm.

And of course left over party food for breakfast!!

What else is there to do on a stormy day? EAT!

20 minutes away at my mom's house things weren't going as well.

They live in a flood zone and boy did it flood!

Remember I told you about my mom's house?

How about a before & after shot.

Her neighbors came over as well since they got flooded too.

I thought this picture was classic. I told her atleast the flood should help you get rid of those strays that keep hanging out by your house, maybe not....

Today the rain continues and roads and bridges are closed and a portions of the highway has completely collapsed.

Please pray for everyone here on Kauai for more news you can check out Hawaii News Now
or search Koloa Flood on youtube.

I'm so excited I could pee my pants

Do you remember that list of projects for 2012?

Work has started on one of them, can you guess which one?


~ Squeel ~