What a Nice Gesture

I have been awarded the Liebster Award, from my friend Donna over at Little Cottage in the Country last week! What an honor...I will be passing it on to 5 bloggers with less than 200 followers so they can keep this award going!

Liebster means beloved or favorite in German, and the purpose of the award is to show appreciation to smaller blogs. I am so thrilled with this award and thank you Donna for the nomination....your a sweetheart :)

WoW! What a Fantastic Giveaway!!

Everyone needs to go over to Niki's blog http://butternutstreet.blogspot.com and sign up for Ginger's giveaway at Five Monkey Fabrics!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/fivemonkeyfabrics?section_id=10175464&page=2
She has some of the best fabrics around...so many choices for your crafty needs! Good luck to all, and thanks Niki and Ginger for the opportunity to be apart of this!

Free Printable St. Patrick's Day Tags

Avocado Chicken Salad

I love chicken salad for lunch, and this is a yummy reprieve from my normal recipe. I found it on Pinterest, along with so many other wonderful things! Love to get inspirations from this site.

Servings: 8 servings

Prep Time: 10 min

Ingredients

3 cups cooked, diced chicken

3 cups cooked white rice

2 avocados, peeled, diced, and tossed with 1 tablespoon lemon juice

3/4 cup chopped onion

1 cup mayonnaise

1 to 2 teaspoons pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves

Mix all ingredients and chill.

Avocado Dressing:

1 large avocado, peeled and mashed with 2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup chopped onion

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon salt

Dash cayenne pepper

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. Chill and serve alongside chicken salad.

Thick, crusty bread, multi-grain or sourdough, for serving

Lemon wedges, for garnish

Hope you enjoy it!

Go Green-Make Paper Beads!

I found this cool article on making your own paper beads. What a neat concept, and it saves the Earth from more trash! Here are the instructions so you can do it too, along with some photos of finished beads...have fun.

How to Make a Basic Paper Bead

Supplies

Paper or Magazine Pages, wrapping paper works best!

Glue or Mod Podge

Paintbrush for glue

Scissors or paper cutter

Thin straws (don't use skewers of wood, they will stick to it!)

Shallow cardboard box, slightly wider than the longest straw.

Instructions:

Step 1: Make Your Drying Rack

Take your card board box & cut notches along both of the long sides. This is what you will be ‘hanging’ your sticks from so the beads can dry. (For kids beads, you can skip this step).

Step 2: Cut the Paper

Cut your papers into ½" – ¾" wide strips, about 6" in length at an angle. The paper cutter makes this much faster. (Wide at one end, narrow on the other) The longer you cut your strip, the thicker (bigger) the bead will be when finished.

If you want to get fancy with your beads, cut some paper into narrow strips & layer these strips, starting with the wide end, over the center of the bead you just rolled. Using a contrasting color will add extra color & interest to your bead. This layer will also add thickness, so keep it short (about 3"-4").

Step 3: Apply Glue

Kid Instructions:

On a big piece of scrap paper to protect your table, lay out a strip of paper and using your glue stick, run it down the whole strip. Start at the thick end and leave about an 1/2 inch, then glue away. Make sure your get enough glue on the pointy end.

Adult Instructions for smaller beads

Apply the glue to the back of the strip using a paintbrush. Spread the glue thinly on the wrong side of your paper.

Step 4: Roll the Beads

Using your stick or pencil,and starting with the wide end of your paper strip, roll the paper onto your stick, slowly & evenly making sure to smooth the paper as you roll & keep your edges even. If you are making the fat kids beads with a pencil, you can take the bead off your pencil and start on your next bead.

Step 5: Let Dry

If you are making the smaller beads with Mod Podge, let them dry on your drying rack (the notched card board box). During the drying process, be sure to gently loosen the beads every 2 or so hours or they’ll be difficult to remove from the stick ( They will stick, if not loosened). When the beads are dry, & still on the stick, you can coat them with a thin coat of clear fingernail polish or use the Mod Podge (mat finish for a dull look, gloss for a shiny look). Allow to dry, remove from the stick.

Done!

Your beads are now ready to use for stringing. Create necklaces, bracelets or use as embellishments for other crafts. You can string them on wire or jute, use as tassels on gift tags, collages & journals. 

Shabby Decorating

I just love Pinterest!! The boards are full of wonderful eye candy for your home. These are just a couple of inspirational goodies I found for decorating in the 'shabby' design. Enjoy!!