USA! USA!

I wasn't kidding when I said we had been busy --- last week Zac and I also drove up to Columbus to watch the US Men's Soccer Team play in a World Cup Qualifier against Jamaica.

It was a late night for us. I can't remember the last time I wasn't home at midnight on a weeknight, but it was worth it. Zac is a huge soccer fan, but this was my first big game.

We had GREAT seats. It was a blast - I don't think anyone in that stadium ever sat down. People were cheering and singing and jumping and just having a great time.

The US missed what felt like a hundred shots before finally scoring their first goal.

There was something extra special about cheering for the USA on the 11th anniversary of 9/11.

The US is in the red/white uniforms, and Jamaica wore yellow. The players look a bit like a "Where's Waldo" book, but I do love their jerseys.

The final score was 1-0... USA! USA!

Magic Chicken

Zac and I have been eating like we go to fancy restaurants every night recently, and it's awesome. You know Zac loves to cook, but we were in a rut where he was tired of making all the same things. I was happy to do my small part and find some new recipes so that our menu was a bit more exciting.

Enter this magic chicken stuff. It probably has a real name, but this stuff is magic. It's quick to prepare, it uses ingredients you probably have at home, and you truly could make this for company. And it's delicious.

Want to make it for dinner tonight? You can!

Chicken Asparagus Roll-Ups
Recipe from Allrecipes.com, found via Pinterest

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 1 lemon, juiced and zested
• 2 teaspoons dried tarragon
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 16 spears fresh asparagus, trimmed
• 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
• 4 slices provolone cheese
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees F (245 degrees C). Grease a baking dish. In a bowl, mix together the mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, lemon zest, tarragon, salt, and pepper until the mixture is well combined. Set aside.
2. Cook asparagus in the microwave on High until bright green and just tender, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes. Set the asparagus spears aside. Place a chicken breast between two sheets of heavy plastic (resealable freezer bags work well) on a solid, level surface. Firmly pound the chicken breast with the smooth side of a meat mallet to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Repeat with the rest of the chicken breasts.
3. Place 1 slice of provolone on each chicken breast, and top the cheese with 4 asparagus spears per breast. Roll the chicken breasts around the asparagus and cheese, making a tidy package, and place, seam sides down, in the prepared baking dish. With a pastry brush, apply a coating of the mayonnaise mixture to each chicken breast, and sprinkle each with panko crumbs, pressing the crumbs into the chicken to make a coating.

1. Bake in the preheated oven until the crumbs are browned and the chicken juices run clear, about 25 minutes.

Remember, Zac is fancy, so he made a few edits. He substituted fresh thyme from our garden for the tarragon. We also put some of the sauce inside the roll-ups between the cheese and the asparagus. YUM.

Zac said it tasted like "if chicken they serve you at banquets was actually good."  It was super yummy.


And this is how my dinner is plated every single night. Those nights I spent home alone while he was working late restaurant hours were worth it.

It was super yummy with couscous. I hope you make it and love it too!


The one thing that's different from when Zac was working in a restaurant? His sous chef. The one we have now is a little bit furrier...

We like to "do Derby's voice" and say what we think he would say in a funny voice. Can you see it here? He's probably saying/thinking: "Hey Mom! I got you this potholder and brought it into the living room in case you need it in here because that's how much I love you and I just want to help and can I have some chicken if you don't eat it all because it's 7:02 PM right now and you were supposed to get me dinner at 7:00 PM but don't worry you're still my favorite person in the entire world."

More pallet art

I have a confession to make. Sometimes we do big house projects and I don't show you right away because they aren't "finished." And then I never show them to you because they're never finished. Case in point - our bedroom. We spent a weekend doing a bedroom makeover in January, and I still haven't shown it to you yet. Oops. We still need to add the finishing touches that really tie the room together - art, etc. - and we talked that a bit over the weekend.

I'm obsessed with the pallet art I made last fall, and ever since we found another pallet, I've been itching to make another one. Pinterest inspired me with things like this:

and this:

Zac made the pallet into a sign just like he did last time, and we went to work. I was planning to cut the letters from cardstock or contact paper, but my friend Clare caught me in time and cut them for me on her Cricuit. That saved me a ton of time. And made it look like this:

She cut the letters out on colored paper and we taped them to the pallet.

Our next step was to trace the letters with a pencil. Zac's more precise than I am, so he took care of this part.

Derby, meanwhile, was super helpful. But oh my goodness is he cute.

Tracing the letters turned into this...

which then turned into this.

We wanted a "rustic" look, so I used a paint brush to fill in the letters. I used a paint pen where I needed it, but for the most part I just used a brush.

Here's our finished product:

If we did it all over again, there are a few things I would do differently (like not use black paint), but overall, I'm happy with it.

Here it is in the overall room:

I really like the contrast between the silk curtains and the rustic art. What do you think? Fingers crossed that I'll show you the whole room over the next few days. We love it and I hope you will too!

Click HERE to see the blog parties where I'm linking!

All sorts of random

I'm sort of in a funk this week. I think it stems from being really tired - Zac's brother and sister-in-law are finally home from their trip around the world (yay!) but their flight was delayed until 3:00 AM on Sunday so I'm just exhausted (boo!). I haven't been in the mood to do much creating lately, and some of my pictures are on my home computer, and others are on my work computer, and blah blah. Huge problems, I know.

What I have been in the mood for is some organizing and purging. We did a completely overhaul of our guest room on Sunday - which was good since Josh and Steph ended up needing it in the middle of the night! We took an entire car load of stuff to Goodwill and rearranged the room to be a bit more functional. I didn't take pictures for you - this is all temporary as we have bigger plans for that space, but other things need to come first.

We also pooled together the last of our wedding gift cards to buy this beauty:

It's from Crate and Barrell. I had to accept that we're never going to get around to building one. It's gorgeous though, and it was pretty affordable. The chairs? Not so much (at $200 a pop). We are either going to buy unfinished chairs pre-made for $79 a piece, or try to garage sale some un-matching ones and re-finish them to match the table. Does anyone know the secret to making that look classy and chic and not just a hot mess? Something like this but a little less funky?

Or maybe the key is to add some fabric and color?

The table is back ordered until June, so we have some time to decide. We do need to get that room painted before it arrives though!

Other randomness based on the cell phone pictures I've taken recently:

Cincinnati has a new park downtown with these color lights and water features. I can't wait to take our good camera to get real pictures!

I have been crocheting up a storm and I don't know why. I'm hooked... pun intended! I got some sweet baby yarn on sale at JoAnn's and bought it without a project in mind. I ended up making a baby blanket. I'm just about finished, so you'll get pictures soon.

Sorry for the random brain dump. Unfortunately, this is what it's like to be in my head this week!!

A Happy Mother's Day Brunch

One of the best things about being finished with school is how much extra time I feel like I have. I'm sure it will fill up quickly, but for now, I feel like I just have extra hours in my day. And it's awesome.

Zac and I invited our families to our house for a Mother's Day Brunch. We live just about halfway between both of our parents, which is ideal for us. We love when everyone comes to our house. We don't have to travel, and I love entertaining.

We had so much fun planning this brunch, but it was a lot of work. I have a new appreciation for the graduation parties my mother threw us - which had about twenty times the amount of guests. We really wanted it to be special for our moms, so we spent a lot of time preparing.

Our menu was very Pinterest inspired, of course...

• Mini breakfast casseroles
• Mini coffee cakes - a recipe I can't give you because it's from my mom's good friend who doesn't want her to have it!
• Veggie tray
• Fruit kabobs
• Warm brie cups
• Salted white chocolate chip cookies
• Make your own fruit pizzas

I found navy blue and hot pink tablecloths at Homegoods, and I used that to set the theme for the brunch.

The drink station. We had bloody marys, mimosas, coffee, soda, and lemon water.

Check out the skewers on the fruit kabobs. I colored water with food coloring and soaked them for a few hours and voila! Hot pink to match the theme!

These mason jars belonged to my grandmother, who gave them to me last summer. I love them!! If you ever put flowers in a mason jar, use small carnations like these. They look perfect!

HOW CUTE ARE THESE?!? I made them using this pan.

I found these flower balloons on Pinterest. Do you like my take on them?

My pretty mom enjoying a mini fruit pizza.

My wonderful mother in law opening her presents.

Our moms loved their brunch, and we had a blast spending time with our families. Do you need proof of how hard we worked? This is what I found about 30 minutes after everyone had left:

Such a wonderful vacation!

Zac and I snuck away last week for a vacation. We've been looking forward to it for such a long time - and it's honestly what got me through the last few months of school. This was our first anniversary / end of school celebration / last hurrah for awhile trip. At some point, we're going to start thinking about having a family and week long trips to Mexico won't be a possibility anymore. Sigh. 

We went back to the same wonderful place we visited during our honeymoon. We loved it so much the first time around and couldn't stop thinking about it after we left. 

When we arrived, it was as wonderful as we remembered. The only downside was that we weren't "discovering" all of the neat things for the first time, but it felt like we had never left from the minute we arrived.

Obviously the first thing we had to do was order room service!

The gorgeous view from our room.

I mean, seriously. This is what heaven must be like.

Self-timed pictures are so difficult... This is me posing to check the light, but it took us four nights of self-timed pictures to figure out how to get the focus right. Oops.

Heading to dinner one night

Zac really wanted to try the Indian restaurant. Not my favorite, but he loved it!

Hanging out by the pool -- with the ocean in the background!

One of Zac's favorite part last year was the flaming coffee, and he was so excited to have it again. PS - is this picture not awesome? Josh, this one is for you. No edits.

Look how happy he is! And handsome too, by the way.

Dinner our last night there.

We had the most wonderful week... it felt like we were there for such a long time. I managed to read six books by the pool, we floated along the lazy river, swam in the ocean, and drank yummy fruity drinks by the pool. And we ate - my goodness did we eat. 

It was a wonderful trip and was a great way to celebrate the end of school. It was a great bridge between the craziness that was finishing up and the wonderfulness that is now!