Teryaki Bacon Wrapped Chicken Skewers

Soo, my friend Jessica told me about this recipe and it has become my husband's favorite so I have used it several times since! Love it! You just dice your chicken into 1 inch chunks, wrap in bacon (not the expensive, thick bacon, just the cheap thinner stuff or it will overtake the flavor), and feed it onto your skewer alternating with pineapple chunks until it is full. I actually was out of bacon this time, but decided to make it anyway. Then, you brush on any teryaki marinade with your basting brush (my friend and I both like the Mr Yoshidas marinade you can find at Costco or Sams) and sprinkle a good amount of brown sugar on top. Cover and refrigerate for a couple hours or whatever time you have. I also like to put vegetables on skewers for a side and this time I diced zuccini and rolled it in melted butter, or olive oil, and then mixed parmesan and bread crumbs. Grill it with your chicken and it's soo yummy! Serve with rice!

4th of July Burlap Pillow

So, 2 things I have wanted to make from Pinterest for the 4th were the Burlap Wreath, my last post, and this pillow that wasn't supposed to be burlap, but I wanted it to match my wreath. I used the same burlap from my wreath and cut it into strips, used a basting stitch to gather them together, then sewed the strips onto a piece of fabric the size of my pillow form, which was 12 x 16. Then, put right sides together and stitched around the edges and left a few inches at the bottom for turning. Finish your opening on the bottom and you're done! Find the tutorial on thislittleproject.com.

4th of July Wreath

As I have previously mentioned, I LOVE the 4th of July! My friend and I got together to make these wreaths out of red and cream burlap and a blue fabric with stars on it. I hve seen it with denim and it is really cute, but I fell in love with the stars :). You can find a tutorial on thescrapshoppeblog.com. We used the big straw kind of wreath beacuse it was thicker, and covered it with a red ribbon, because you will see inside through the burlap. We cut our fabric and burlap into strips and ran a basting stitch through it to gather it up. The tutorial lady did it by hand, but why take the time, right? It feels like you have to be super careful gathering the burlap wen you start, but soon realize it is pretty tough and wont fall apart as easy as you think and you can whip through the rest pretty quickly. Then you just hot glue it on starting and ending in the back since you will see though the burlap, and ta da! A beautiful one-of-a-kind 4th of july wreath. If you hang it on your door, beware it fades quickly, but the faded look is kinda charming to me :)

Good luck and let me know if you try it!

Best Way to Cook Zuccini and Carrots

I found this recipe for zuccini and carrots on voraciousvander.com and it is so yummy! There are lots of different ways to try it, so I did mine a few different ways to see which way we liked it best. After I tossed my zuccini and carrots in olive oil, I tried some in paprika and parmesan, garlic powder and parmesan, some with lots of just parmesan, and then I tried one of my own and added French's Fried Onions. They were all so delicious, I couldn't pick a favorite! A couple days later, I tried grilling them and that time I mixed equal parts of breadcrumbs and parmesan and they were so good! My husband and I decided eating zuccini as our vegetable at dinner is our new favorite, which is great! Especially since we have had an abundance all of a sudden from neighbors and our own garden has started producing as well! You should see our freakishly ginormous carrots too! Mmmm! Gardens are so rewarding!

Try it out! There are so many options for our vegetables!

Loveable Baby Gift

One of my good friend's daughter is having a baby girl and I wanted to make something special, but I only had a couple days to do it in. I have made dozens of these "Girly Skirts" before, so I knew it would be a familiar project. I had some extra charm packs in my fabric bin, which I like to collect, and a coordinating fat quarter, which I also like to collect. If you are at a fabric store and love certain fabrics, but don't have anything in mind for them, just pick up a charm pack or fat quarter or two and stash them away for a day like this one, when I didn't have time or want to go to the store to pick out fabrics. This particular charm pack was one of my favorites and I was so excited to use it! Since this was a newborn size skirt, I just used one long row of squares and added a strip of the coordinating fat quarter to the bottom and used it for the waistline as well. I threw in some elastic and it was done. I wanted something cute to add to it, and what is better than a matching headband? I got some elastic and covered it with the same fabric and used a couple remaining charm pack squares, cut and sewn into short strips and twisted into a circle, to make the flowers and I just stitched straight lines through it in different directions until it was secure. Soo easy, I don't know why I haven't done this before! Anyways, it turned out super cute and I whipped through it all uninterrupted in about 2 1/2 hours. Whew! Thank goodness for hubbys on days like these.

Congratulations on your sweet baby girl! I'm excited to see her!

4th of July Pinwheels

I love the 4th of July! It is probably my most favorite holidays! So, when my friend wanted to make some of these pinwheels in 4th of July Fabrics, I was ALL IN! We first picked out 6 inches of 6 different, but coordinating fabrics. We also got a yard of double sided fusable interfacing, wooden dowells, and buttons. You cut 6 inch squares from each of the fabrics and the interfacing and iron a coordinating fabric onto each side. Trim with pinking shears, or leave straight, or do a combo of the two, which is what we did. Mark you center and cut from each corner in about an inch from the center. Make some holes, one in the center, and one on each corner making sure you cut all on the left or all on the right on each corner so they are all the same. We used a scrapbook setter to make the holes. Fold in each of your "holed" corners to the center and secure with a brad. Glue a button onto your brad and a wooden dowell onto your back and you're done! Super easy!

Thanks Natalie for the idea and fun times!