Claudine, Oui c'est Francais

French lunch-mini book

After my lovely French lunch I made a mini book as a thank you to my friend Michelle. I saw her today so it was safe to share it with you all now

cover made with pages from a french magazine, gaffer tape and one of my favorite things, 7 Gypsies spoon and french flag ribbon

 

I am really getting into a crafty zone right now.. but I better get back to making my thank you cards. I will share those later....

New Martha Crafts

New at your local Michael's or online at Martha Stewart Crafts online is some new Wedding themed craft supplies.

Here are some of my favorites...

The Wedding Cake acrylic stamps

Laurel Wreath acrylic stamps

and some new punches:

I can't wait to do some crafting with some of these new wonderful supplies....

   

Happy Birthday to me....

This is me on my 6th birthday, 31 years ago today. My mom made me the bunny cake. It is oh so cute.....

Cake decorating is in the blood...

Another great pre-birthday day

We are now down to 2 days until my birthday, in case you were keeping count!

I came home today from running around to find a box on the doorstep. Of course there is nothing better then a package waiting for you.

It was from my dear Marthateer friend Elaine. Of course it was beautifully wrapped in Martha paper, with a Martha bow and inside Martha tissue. Oh no Elaine, it did not go un-noticed, it was amazing!

Inside was a beautiful card that Elaine made with a Eiffel Tower and some glitter! I will keep it forever. And a wonderful Martha beach towel with a Damask print on it (one of my favorites) and a lovely little French soap.

Thank you Elaine for the wonderful surprise today!

The best birthday lunch EVER

It may be 3 days away but today I had the best birthday lunch ever!

My friend Michelle and I made a date for lunch and of course we went to a local French restaurant, Le Bouchon. Michelle loves anything French like me and all things fancy in the way of food, and most anything else.

My mouth was watering every time I thought about it, we looked at the menu online and decided we wanted almost all of it. We had Escargot, Pate, Salade Nicoise and Assiette de Fromage to finish. It was all perfect and oh so tasty! When I emailed John and told him what I was going to have his response was.....puke! Real nice honey!

 

And then to make it even more lovely I got a beautiful gift wrapped up in a wonderful old hat box embossed and with a French newspaper flag that had silver glitter on it. Nothing makes me happier then some sparkles!

   

And inside was this pretty little white milk glass compote, a pretty little scarf and a little chocolate in the cutest box ever that I probably won't open since it is so cute

 

And since I was in Northwest Portland I stopped at a place I have wanted to oooohhhh so many times. The French bakery St. Honore Boulangerie. Inside I found the most heavenly French pastries... I left with the Saint Honoré, which is made of Pate a Choux, Puff Pastry, Saint Honore Cream, Caramel and whipped cream. Pretty much heaven on a fork! I would have taken a picture but it did not fare to well in the car on the ride home. Oh but it was still sooooo good! Now I need to recreate it. But first I better take another turn on the treadmill for the day.

Thanks Michelle for the best birthday lunch, Ever!

C'est Magnifique

Acrylic stamp storage

I found a new great way to store all my acrylic stamps, of course Martha is involved. I purchased one of the Martha Stewart Photo storage boxes and my sheets of acrylic stamps fit in there perfectly. The use to sit in 4 three ring binders in side clear sheet protectors. Now they are sorted into alphabets, flourishes, flowers etc...

Now they are all in one place and so easy to use, I wish I thought of it sooner.....

And the winners are.....

Thanks for all the well wishes on my blogaversary.....

The winners are....

For the Martha kitchen items....Louise

For all the great Martha craft items..... Elaine

and for the Starbucks goodies.....Lianne

I wish I had something for every single one of you. Check back soon, it was so much fun I think I may need to do something every month.

Winners please email me your address and I will get your goodies out to you this week

Thank you!

Happy 2nd Blogaversary-Updated with more giveaways

Yes my little Blog is now 2 years old...

After 285 posts, 755 comments and over 50,000 hits to my little old blog, it now turns 2 years old. What a year it has been, one of the biggest highlights was becoming one of Martha's trusted bloggers and meeting wonderful people that work at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and her PR company. And I must not forget all of the wonderful people that I have met in the online world through there blogs and my own.

So to share with all of you I am putting together a collection of some of my favorite Martha things. I will have 3 different winners, The first collection is some of my favorite kitchen items, of course it will include my very favorite blue spatula, , my favorite Martha recipe cards and the newest issues of Martha Stewart Weddings and Living and the special Good Things for a Healthy Home, Pie weights, silicone pinch bowls, a Martha Blue mini cutting board and one of my favorite journals.

The second winner will be some of my favorite Martha craft items. A package of Faux Bois craft paper, Thank you rub ons, a flying dove paper punch, set of Martha brick colored pens in different sizes, glitter brads, star tags, rhinestone brads, Collection display box and of course some glitter in one of my favorite colors and glitter glue

The 3rd winner will get something special from my other favorite, Starbucks...

So just leave me a comment and on Monday morning I will pick a name to be the big winner.

12 of 12 April

Another month and another 12 of 12, the creative idea of Chad Darnell that involves people from all over the world taking pictures of there day on the 12th of each month. Visit my fellow 12 of 12ers here

I was at work all today so I took pictures when I could, there are a lot of flowers.....

before leaving the house I notice my tulips in full bloom. It looks like a ruffly pillow

the tree outside our house. I love the spring...

at work now and I think this is a Tulip tree

White Tulip Tree

Flower arraignment at work, I love the green viburnum

dinner table for my event at work. It is 7 glasses of Syrah wine....

   

dinner flowers

this is my sassy BFF Michelle, we ate our lunch on the floor between events.

Barrel tasting event, before all the people arrive

Silent Auction

lots of people pouring wine, and drinking it as well

 

and more flowers....

Don't forget to check back at the end of the week to enter to win some of my favorite Martha things for my 2nd Blogavesary.....

Seared Chicken Salad-Everyday Food

After a very long few days of work, this is exactly what I want for dinner. Well I really want Salad Nicoise, but John calls it Salad Dirt so I will wait to make that for myself while on vacation next week

Seared-Chicken Salad with Green Beans, Almonds, and Dried Cherries

Ingredients

Serves 4

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound chicken breast cutlets (about 6)
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/2 pound green beans, trimmed
• 3 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon apricot jam
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 5 ounces baby arugula
• 1 head radicchio, cored and shredded
• 1/3 cup dried cherries
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds

Directions

1. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon oil over high; season chicken with salt and pepper. In two batches, cook chicken until opaque throughout, 1 to 2 minutes per side; transfer to a plate. When cool enough to handle, slice chicken crosswise.
2. In a medium saucepan, bring 2 inches salted water to a boil. Add green beans; cover and cook until crisp-tender, 4 to 6 minutes. Rinse under cold water until cool; drain well.
3. Make dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together vinegar, jam, mustard, and remaining 2 tablespoons oil; season with salt and pepper.
4. In a large bowl, toss arugula and radicchio with all but 1 tablespoon dressing. Divide salad among four plates; arrange chicken, green beans, cherries, and almonds on top. Drizzle with remaining dressing; serve immediately.

Don't forget to check back at the end of the week to enter to win some of my favorite Martha things for my 2nd Blogavesary.....