My Famous Yummy Chicken Piccata

I love to cook...well I think I love to eat more, but I really do enjoy cooking every night. Here is my famous Chicken Piccata recipe that the hubby and I love! We literally eat this at least once a week. I have adopted the recipe from Giada DeLaurentiis who is one of my favorite chefs. Here is the recipe:

Photo courtesy of Food Network



Ingredients

• 2 skinless and boneless chicken breasts, butterflied and then cut in half
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• All-purpose flour, for dredging
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup chicken stock
• 1/4 cup brined capers, rinsed
• 1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Directions

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Dredge chicken in flour and shake off excess.
In a large skillet over medium high heat, melt 2 tablespoons of butter with 3 tablespoons olive oil. When butter and oil start to sizzle, add 2 pieces of chicken and cook for 3 minutes. When chicken is browned, flip and cook other side for 3 minutes. Remove and transfer to plate. Melt 2 more tablespoons butter and add another 2 tablespoons olive oil. When butter and oil start to sizzle, add the other 2 pieces of chicken and brown both sides in same manner. Remove pan from heat and add chicken to the plate.
Into the pan add the lemon juice, stock and capers. Return to stove and bring to boil, scraping up brown bits from the pan for extra flavor. Check for seasoning. Return all the chicken to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove chicken to platter. Add remaining 2 tablespoons butter to sauce and whisk vigorously. Pour sauce over chicken and garnish with parsley.


Ok so there is her recipe. What I do to make it a complete meal is put the chicken over a bed of whole wheat linguine (Barilla preferably) then pour the sauce over the chicken and pasta. This is such a quick and easy yummy weeknight meal that I highly recommend.

Coffee Filter Wreath Tutorial

I loved my coffee filter topiaries, so I decided to tackle a coffee filter wreath. I feel this was more challenging because I used a lot more coffee filters. Here it is step by step:

Here are the supplies I started with: 2 Styrofoam wreaths from Dollar Tree and a pack of 160 coffee filters

Major was inspecting the supplies to make sure they were ok for his mommy to use

Start with a coffee filter

Fold in half

Fold in half again

And fold one more time

Then fold the pointed end in a triangle (about 1 inch)

Put some hot glue on folded triangle and begin gluing on the filters

Begin gluing in a row

Then keep folding and gluing until your eyes begin crossing =)

Grab some pretty Valentine's Day ribbon and hang =)

I love the way it turned out! I hung this one on the back of my front door

Chalkboard Love

I love chalkboards!! I don't know if its the teacher in me, that swoons over beautifully framed chalkboards??? This next project is an easy easy project that can be done in a few hours on a lazy Sunday. Some of the supplies you will need are the following:

1. an old frame (I search the aisles of thrift stores to find really neat and ornate ones)
2. spray paint for your frame (unless you find a gorgeous frame in perfect condition)
3. painters tape
4. chalkboard paint

an example of an old frame...this frame would look amazing painted white or turquoise if you are brave would look chic

I love this chalkboard paint. It dries quickly and has low odor

Here is one of my chalkboards in my laundry room. The frame was actually from a thrift store and it was a canvas painting. I ripped the painting off, then painted and shabbied up the frame. Then I measured the inside of the frame and marked on the wall with the painter's tape. Paint the chalkboard paint on and once it is dry, hang your frame.

Another view of it

Here is one in my dining area. I used to use it as my menu board, but now we just write random lyrics from our favorite songs :)

Who does not love this song?? This was my song for my parents when I got married :)

Paint it black

Ok for this post the song, "Paint it Black" by the wonderful Rolling Stones is repeating over and over again in my head.
I wanted to let you know that the power of paint is amazing! It really can change a room in an instant and its a very cheap fix to add drama to a boring space. I have a small boring foyer that I wanted to spruce up. Unfortunately I forgot to take before pictures of the space, but you can use your imagination...

I wanted to paint the interior of my front door black! I had seen it in one of my home magazines and thought it looked fabulous. So here is a picture of what my front door looked similar to before I painted it:

Here is the after, and look at little Major wanting to be in the picture

I loved the way it turned out and it was so easy and affordable to change my foyer!

Little Love Birds DIY Craft

This is a really easy Valentine's Day Craft that I thought of that is very affordable and super adorable. Here is the step by step craft and I will list the supplies and cost at the end for those of you who are curious:

2 boring little love birds I found at the Dollar Tree

They looked boring here but I knew I could make them special for Valentine's Day

One of my favorite craft supply! This is Krylon's Ballet Slipper Satin spray paint. I saw this pink and I knew I had to paint something this color. If you haven't guessed...pink is my favorite color

Twinklit's Diamond Dust. I bought this while doing so many Christmas crafts and I love it so much. Its sparkly without too much glitter.

Here are the steps:

1. I spray painted my two love birds that pretty pink and then give them plenty of time to dry

2. Grab a can of Spray Adhesive

3. Give the birdies a good spray of the adhesive

4. Sprinkle to diamond dust all over and shake off excess

Here is one all finished

Here are my two love birds sitting on my coffee table. I think they make a great addition to my Valentine's Day decor...don't you? :)

Supplies:

• 2 ceramic birds from Dollar Tree ($2.00)
• 1 can Krylon Spray Paint in Ballet Slipper from Walmart ($2.97)
• 1 can spray adhesive from Michael's ($2.99)
• 1 jar Diamond Dust from Michael's ($7.99)

My Favorite Eye Brushes

In order to enjoy the wonderful eyeshadows in my previous post, you need good brushes baby! I mean the Mona Lisa was not a finger painted masterpiece!! Good brushes are essential in achieving gorgeous eye looks. So here are my 5 favorite that I cannot live without:

MAC 217 ($22.50) This is a great brush for creases. It is super soft and blends very nicely

MAC 227 ($30.00) This is a must have for all over blending! I love this big soft chubby brush

MAC 252 ($30.00) This brush is great for packing on pigments

MAC 263 ($20.00) 9 times out of 10, I wear gel eyeliner, so this brush is perfect for my pots of eyeliner

Bare Escentuals Smoky Eye kit ($32.00) Ok the brush in this kit is not sold separately =(...but I would totally recommend buying the kit because the two colors are gorgeous for a soft smoky eye. This brush is my favorite for achieving a gorgeous smoky eye.

So there are my 5 favorite eye shadow brushes!

My Top 5 Favorite Eyeshadows

Hi again, my name is Amber and I have a problem. I am addicted to makeup (and shoes). I wanted to share my favorite eyeshadows. This was very very very hard because I have so many I love, so I pretended that I am going to a deserted island with my hubby and I can only bring 5. Here they are:

MAC Twinks : a gorgeous bronze color with plums...this is what my makeup artist used on my eyes for my wedding

 MAC Woodwinked: a coppery bronze that is especially gorgeous in the summer or to bring out those baby blue eyes

MAC Shroom: a gorgeous soft beige with a slight shimmer...if you only bought one of these, I would recommend this one, because it is flattering on every skin type, color, or age

MAC Carbon: a matte non shimmer black that is essential for any smoky eye

MAC Bronze: a gorgeous dark bronze with lots of shimmer...this is my staple in the summertime



So there you have it. These are the 5 eyeshadows that I would take on a deserted island. As you notice they are all MAC eyeshadows. I have found over my many years of experimenting with makeup, MAC has by far the best eyeshadows. The pigments are great and they are very blendable. Even though their eyeshadows are superior, I would recommend investing in a great eye shadow primer and great brushes. Stay tuned for another post about my favorite brushes.

Cute gift idea for dog owners

I made this craft over the summer for my Family Wall. Since the husband and I only have furbabies, I decided to have pictures of them on the wall since they are our family. I absolutely love the silhouette images of children, so I decided to make one of our "children." I thought about taking a picture of the dogs to get the perfect silhouette, but since my dogs have ADHD, they can't be still for more than 2 seconds. So, I googled images of the types of dogs they are. When I finally found 2 that would work for our dogs, I enlarged them to the same size and printed them out. Then, I carefully cut the images out with a very sharp razor blade. I placed them on black cardstock and traced the images. Then I carefully cut those out. I chose to put the silhouettes on striped paper to make the images pop. I put Major's image on blue for a boy, and I put Stella's on pink for a girl. I really liked how they turned out, and they were so easy to make. I think this would make a perfect gift for your four legged loving friends.



 Major

 Stella

Our board and batten Family Wall

My Dirty Little Secret

Ok, here goes my big confession....I have an addiction, and that addiction is shoes!! Also I am a bit messy with my obsession/addiction. Since Jack Frost has canceled work the past two days, I decided to clean up my shoe/purse closet. (yes I do have a separate closet for my addiction) Now, I am not proud of the addiction and I am also not proud how messy this closet has gotten, but I am willing to share my struggles in organizing it and keeping it organized. 

 How appropriate is the sign above my shoe closet??



Yikes!! This is a before pic of my unorganized obsession.

 I can hear my hubby groaning at all of my "junk"



 My little fur baby shares part of my closet also and even she is embarrassed!

 This closet has also served as a dumping place for my school books as you can see =)

 Dog costumes and clothes everywhere!!

So my first step was to DECLUTTER!! I take the rule that if I haven't worn them in over a year, I am most likely never going to wear them again. So with that said, I filled up a large trash bag to drop off at my local Goodwill. It felt so good to give away some of my precious shoes, because I knew they were going to make someone else very happy.

Here is a pic of what my after looked like:

 I even organized my cubbies to make things more accessible

Then, I organized my heels according to styles:



 Peep toes on top because I tend to wear this style more.

 Suede on next level for winter time

 Pointy toes on next level because I rarely wear these

 Dressy

OK, now I didn't have room for my sandals so these are still kind of messy. Overall I am happy how it turned out. Now, I can find shoes much easier, and my husband was so happy that I cleaned up my messy shoe closet!! =)