Texas Caviar

Don't worry, no fish eggs in this recipe!
Texas Caviar is one of our favorite summer recipes. It is to die for!

Texas Caviar

1 can black beans
1 can corn
1 can black eyed peas
2 peppers of your choice- I used red and green
Half a red onion

For the marinade:
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

Directions:
Dice veggies and rinse corn, black beans, and black eyed peas. Mix veggies, beans, corn, and black eyed peas.
Mix marinade ingredients in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil and stir until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let cool. Stirring every few minutes. Mix marinade with other ingredients and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. The longer it sets up the better! Serve with Tostitos.

Enjoy the rest of your Saturday!

Puppy love

Im staying at my parents house tonight and I brought Ike over to play with my parents dog Jack. Lets just say they haven't stopped running and chasing each other yet. We keep saying, "I'm sure they will tire out and crash." I'm becoming less and less assured of that. They both have so much energy. There are 100 dog toys in the house and they only want the toy that the other one has. Not sure if puppy love is what you would call it but we tried!

Tug-o-war match


In other news...It looks like its going to be a beautiful weekend here which will be nice because we had chilly weather this week. As I type this the dogs are chasing each other around my chair. Im getting quite dizzy. I've become seriously infatuated with the idea of an old door as a headboard. I'm going to keep my eye out for one as garage sales start this summer.
Thank God tomorrow is Friday!
Thats all I've got for now

Buttons and Bobby pins

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been working on crafts with stuff I have around the house.
 It seems more thrifty and creative this way. As summer rolls around and bangs become more of a nuisance, bobby pins become my savior! What would most girls do without them?? 

So this weeks 'to D.I.Y for' was really simple. All it took was a hot glue gun (which most college students, except me of course do not have in their dorms), some bobby pins, and some old buttons. Lucky for me my mom has quite the fascination with antique and vintage things so she has an old mason jar full of old buttons in our living room. It makes quite a cute and effective bookend as well!  ANYWAYS... the idea was to spruce up your old run of the mill bobby pins into something more well, chic I guess you could say.

Here's how they turned out...Pretty cute right? All I did was glue the buttons to the end of the bobby pin. The closed side that is. Hot gluing the open end wouldn't do much except give you a button on a stick. We want to be functional after all don't we? I gave a few to my mom and kept some for myself. Their easy and casual. Just thought I would share the idea. Hope you find them pretty cute too...

Ideas to ponder on a Tuesday...

I found this picture not to long ago and for some reason it just stuck with me. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for the elderly. The quote that goes along with the picture is so true too. It seems like these days there are so many divorces and unhappy couples. I don't think the reason for that is that people are just more unhappy in recent generations but more that they are less willing to work for something.

"Enjoy the little things in life because one day you will look back and realize they were the big things."

Although I'm not married and I have certainly not lived long enough yet to know the key to a long and happy relationship I do know that no relationship is perfect. Period. You find out what true love is the second you are having a bad day and you know your not alone. I work at my relationship every day and every day that I work harder I surprise myself.
                       

Mondays.

Do Mondays ever get easier??? Im looking forward to summer mondays. They seem more bearable for some reason. Today was cloudy, rainy and cold! Yuck! I guess we have just been spoiled and I may be asking just a little too much considering it's only March. I have become a little craft crazy lately. I find sooo many things that I want to make that I don't know where to begin. I've been trying to make crafts with stuff around the house (I am a broke college student after all!) Some old buttons will likely be the subject of a future to D.I.Y. for post.... I gotta keep you coming back right?? Tomorrow I have to go into Hy-Vee to fill out some paper work and take a drug test. It made me realize that I haven't ever worked for a big corporation before. The last flower shop that I worked for was just a family owned business and obviously didn't drug test so this will be new for me! I guess I won't be having a lemon poppyseed muffin for breakfast tomorrow! I've been working on some headers for different posts.....Here is a little sample

Our Weekend in Pictures

So Dalton ended up coming home on Wednesday from up north but it ended up working out okay anyway. Dalton needed to recover from Monday and Tuesday so we kicked back and relaxed for a few days. On Friday night we went out to our favorite supper club, Toby's with Daltons grandparents. We had an amazing dinner as usual. We always seem to find someone we know there. Its just a great old place where you know you will have great food. We have been wanting to see Act of Valor for some time now so we finally saw that on Saturday. I really wanted to see the Hunger Games but there will be plenty of time for that. I'm curious to see how it compares to the books(which I adored.) Act of Valor turned out to be really good but really sad. We made mental notes of all the movies that we want to see next. Cough Cough--The new Nicholas Sparks movie The Lucky One. It turned out to be a really good relaxing weekend. Are we ready for another week?? I can't believe I only have 8 weeks left of school. WOW

                                                              Some pictures........

We went to a bon fire on Saturday night. It was perfect weather!

Dalton and Andy at the fire

Me and Chelsey. We all have that red glow going on from the fire. No Instagram needed!

Dalton and his roommate Tyler. Dalton said this was the last picture of the night.
He doesn't understand that I need pictures for the blog! But everyone cooperated smiled for the Camera

Haha.
We were lazy on Saturday morning(prior to the fire) and we were all snuggled in
watching Netflix. We snuggled Ike up in all the blankets and pillows and no surprise he was perfectly content!

Ike taking a snooze in the car during some sunday errands

1st edition of to DIY for

                                                                                                  T-Shirt Scarf 

So, I had been seeing these scarves all over Pinterest and I decided it was time for me to make one.

I made this a few weeks a go and had so many compliments. I used an old tank top from Kohl's. They are my favorite but it had a rip in the strap so I decided to make it into a craft!

It works best if you use something that has a soft and stretchy fabric like jersey or what not.

           It was also my first time making the rosettes which took some practice but they are pretty easy too! I'm going to work on my 'tutorial' skills so for further to d.i.y. for sections I can do the full tutorial. But for now.... Here is the link to the T-shirt scarf tutorial that I used: http://aprettypennyblog.com/2011/01/02/project-restyle-easy-no-sew-t-shirt-necklace/

                                                           

Its a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

                                            Well I just got back from my interview and....Drumroll please.....
                    I got the job! I won't be starting until summer but I'm really excited. Everyone seems to be so nice at Hy-Vee and I have heard only good things about working for them. I'll work mostly in the floral department because I have some floral experience from my last job. On a different note..  Its Mister Rogers birthday today(hence the title of the post.) I believe I heard that he would have been 84 today. Its beautiful weather again today, but a little windy.....I'm working on getting everything worked out for my venture up to Castle Rock Lake tomorrow. I've still got some homework to do tonight so I can email my professors. I hope all of you are having a good week with nice weather to enjoy as well.

Thanks for stopping by!

Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring

Well here we are on the final eve of winter.
Today was quite like a spring day. It was rainy and gloomy
this morning and then the sun broke through and now its sunny and 80.
Even the cherry blossoms are blooming and they are so pretty.
Just another reminder of how lucky we are with this crazy warm weather.
I can't believe that we have had weather in the 80's while
Arizona and New Mexico have snow storms!
I guess after all these years its our turn to have a nice long summer.
I've been busy working to get all my work done for the week before Wednesday. As I mentioned in Saturdays post I'm planning on heading up north to meet up with my boyfriend and some friends who are already there. I don't want to get too behind so I've been working my little butt of to get things done before I go.
I also have an interview at Hy-Vee tomorrow for a summer job so that will cut a small chunk out of my homework time.
I'll let you know how the interview goes tomorrow :)
Wish me luck

Our Weekend In Pictures {Fishing}

We enjoyed a nice Sunday out fishing on the Pond...
I caught one too but my picture was much less attractive so I will only show Daltons ;)

Nothing like an Iced Latte on a warm spring Saturday

Dalton bought a new fishing pole and was trying it out on Ike

Ike sunbathing at the Pond...We were lucky to catch a picture of him
for the whole 2 minutes that he was laying down. There was so much for him to
sniff and discover!

We found some turtles sunbathing too!
After I took the picture they got really close almost like they were kissing.
Too cute!



So overall it was a very fun relaxing weekend. A little R&R is just what I needed. Dalton headed up north to the cabin because they are on spring break this week. I'm hoping to head up on Wednesday night and enjoy the last part of the week. 

B-e-a-utiful Weather

                                      We have had absolutly exceptional weather here in Wisconsin!
Its been at least 80 the past two days and we are taking full advantage of it! We cooked out last night and went to a bonfire at a friends house. It was so nice to be able to enjoy time outside (especially before the mosquitoes arrive) I will post pictures of our weekend tomorrow. We are planning a camping trip for next weekend which I am really looking forward to. Hopefully the nice weather sticks around!

Spring Break

                                   This week I am on Spring Break and no, unfortunately I'm not on
                           a tropical vacation. My boyfriend and I took a trip this winter to Huatulco, Mexico. We       both have conflicting spring breaks so we decided to take a vacation over our nice long winter break.
               So here I am in Wisconsin but I am very happy to report that the weather is absolutely beautiful.
                   Its been in the high 70's the past few days and you can tell we all have spring fever.

Here is a picture from our trip to Huatulco.

P.S. If you've never heard of Huatulco, you should look it up!
We stayed at the beautiful Secrets Resort 

Lots of "First Times"

My name is Ali, thats me on the left.
This is my very first blog and my very first post!
I have recently fallen in love with many other blogs and I have been considering starting my own.
I figured that a creative outlet might be good for me.
First a few things about me:
Im a freshman in college
I was born and raised in Wisconsin
I love being creative and doing new crafts.
I have a boyfriend named Dalton-He's the one in the picture :)
For now that should do....
Now how to get people to read my blog??