favorite things

Last night Carl made us an especially delicious homemade pizza. First attempt at making his own homemade pizza dough. The results were amazing! Its so incredibly easy that I seriously doubt we'll ever go back to store-bought dough again.

Carl's Curry Pie

Homemade pizza dough

2-3 chicken breasts (cut up into bite size pieces)

Curry sauce (we used a bottle of Trader Joe's Curry Simmer Sauce)

1 onion - sliced

Cilantro- a handful or two depending on your tastes
Mozzarella cheese - shredded

Pizza Dough:

we used a great recipe from The Kitchn

the ingredients are super simple and include:

3/4 cups (6 ounces) of water
1/2 teaspoon of active-dry yeast (if using instant yeast, you don't need to dissolve it during the first step)
2 cups (10 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour (we used wheat flour)
1/2 tsp salt

Once you've made the dough, just roll it out, get it on a baking sheet or pizza stone and go crazy!!

For the curry topping:

Carl tossed the chicken pieces into a bowl and smothered them in the curry sauce

He then laid the chicken right on top of the dough (I was a bit skeptical about this one - I was WRONG!)

I carmelized the sliced onions

He chopped some fresh cilantro from our herb garden

Keys to a great pizza:

Put on your toppings first - no cheese

Cook for about 5 minutes, rotate 180 degrees (to make up for the oven's hot spots)

Cook another 2-3 minutes, THEN add your cheese

Cook another 3 minutes and VOILA - its pizza time!

 And don't forget that glass of Sangiovese...

Carl enjoying some of his favorite things: homemade pizza, glass of good red and favorite T-shirt

More favorite things from this weekend

Watching this awesome drum group banging it out:

These kids were amazing. Check the head-banging they've got going on.

A fun little walk downtown, with a quick pit-stop in front of our amazing Museum of Art

And a very necessary pit-stop here for some delicious gelato

More sweet goodness from here

Its always a must when I work up in Los Olivos

How could I resist these sweeties?!?!

Coming home from work, my honey waiting with a cocktail (sort of a necessity after the lame-o day I had) and our amazingly talented friend, Rusty Lindsey there for an evening serenade in our front yard

If you get a chance, please check out Rusty's site. He's awesome, and if you live in the SoCal area there's a good chance you'll be able to check him out live!

And finally, enjoying some craft time

Hope your weekend was filled with favorite things as well. 

XO,

Chelsea

fancy fridays - filling in the blanks

I decided that I would play along with Lauren's FITB. Strangely, enough, I realized that I would probably just copy most of her answers since they are pretty much EXACTLY what my answers would be, minus the reality TV. Then I realized that I would probably sound like a crazy person, so I had better think up my own answers. So, without much ado, I'm filling it in...

1.  The first thing I do in the morning is  hit the snooze button....three times   . This is Lauren's answer, but seriously DITTO. Really.

2.  Every night before bed  I   set my alarm on my phone and kiss my honey goodnight. Provided of course, that he's not on the road .

3.  My favorite thing to do when I'm having a bad day is  well, run. I guess its not my favorite thing since I have a love/hate relationship with it, but its like instant gratification-therapy for me. I always come back with a clear head and happy heart.

4.  Something that makes me cringe is people that try to hard to be something they are not. I wish they would just realize that they are beautiful and need to let their freak-flag fly, whatever that may be.

5.  Social situations   are when I'm at my best. I love playing hostess, entertaining and bringing people together.

6.  I like to collect  pretty much everything. I seem to have a random collection of chairs at the moment. Three of which are living in the garage. Sorry, honey.

7.  Weekends are for   getting outdoors, enjoying the awesome town we live in, crafting and spending time with the ones you love. 

If you want to play along, head on over to the little things we do and link up. Or feel free to post yours in my comments. 

 

 

Happy Friday to all!!

 

I can't wait to enjoy this weekend. Even though I'm working tomorrow, I get to wake up to two little snuggle bunnies, have a lazy breakfast with my loves and even adventure out to the Farmer's Market beforehand. Sunday has been deemed craft day and I can't be more excited to get stitching, sewing, crocheting and creating. We might even sneak in a bike ride or a hike.

What will your weekend be filled with?

XO,

Chelsea

i HEART Thursdays - all made up

Yippee! Its Thursday again!!
I was super productive over last weekend and I really think that has led me to have such an easy week.
I'm looking forward to watching the sunset at the beach tonight with my sweetie and wrapping up the work week tomorrow. Sort of. I'm actually working at the awesome Consilience Tasting Room on Saturday. But its super hard to call that work. Its more like throwing a party and getting paid for it!!

On to today's heart post.
Well, I still have yet to see Alice in Wonderland, which just breaks my heart.
The movie has certainly inspired a lot of Queen of Hearts looks all over the place, and I'm loving the personalized takes floating around out there. I love makeup. So much that I even got my Esthetician license so I could play with makeup all day. I don't practice anymore, but I still love to ogle over the makeup counters and I could seriously spend all day in a Sephora. Sadly, its mainly just window shopping since I don't really wear much makeup in my day-to-day life. Maybe I was a drag queen in a past life?

Here's a little smattering of all the "made-up" hearts kissing their way across people's faces these days

 

(sources: weheartit and flickr)

What movie were you dying to see, but missed in the theater?

XO,

Chelsea

old faithful

This outfit is my standby.
Something I know always looks good.
The dress and ankle boots combo is one of my favorites and it never fails to make me feel great all day.
Sunshine and blue skies doesn't hurt either.

Funny things happen when you are running around taking pictures. A guy walked by when I was out in this field and asked if I was taking self-portraits. I lied and said I was testing camera settings. Then he asked if I had any tips for shooting into the sun. Um, no. Clearly, I barely know how to use the thing myself.

Another beautiful week and the first day back to my workouts after the detoxification last week. Tomorrow will be the first run in over a week. Fingers crossed that its an easy transition back because I've got to start training for the Nike Women's Half in San Fran. So excited for that race!!

Happy Hump Day!

How is your Wednesday?

XO,

Chelsea

time for two things

Happy Tuesday to everyone!

The sun is shining after a bit of rain on Sunday and yesterday. I don't mind the rain too much and I love the way everything looks so fresh and green afterwards. Harper always says the rain washes the sky, and I think she's absolutely right. We saw a beautiful rainbow on our way home yesterday and it made us all smile.

I'm super excited about Kassi's Two Things Tuesday this week. I get to share two great recent thrift finds. If you haven't checked out Kassi's blog, hop on over now to check it out. Its a daily read for me! She's got great personal style, a beautiful family, and major crafty-girl skills.

I mentioned a little while ago that I had found this great chair for my little Harper. I had seen a very similar one on another blog that was painted a vibrant, juicy orange. I immediately made mental note to look for one on my thrifting/antiquing adventures but never thought I would actually come across one that same week at a thrift store for $4! I've debated painting it a bright, shiny color but Carl seems to love the white and I like the juxtaposition of the chippy paint against our mid-century modern Drexel dining set.

Seeing this chair everyday just makes me so happy. Harper seems pretty pleased with it as well. She feels like like quite the little lady having this special chair all to herself.

Same favorite thrift store, a few weeks later, I also found this adorable ceramic camera. This was one of those a-ha! thrifting days where you feel like you scored some seriously awesome treasures.

The drink menu in the background I swiped from the Saint Cecelia Hotel during our trip to Austin. That hotel is so incredibly cool, I wanted to live there!

I love the wonky shape and hand-painted details on the camera. It looks like it could be someone's ceramics class cast-off. Lucky for me!

The camera made its new home in one of my favorite nooks in the house

I'd love to see the two things you are loving today!

Tell me about your two things in my comments

Or create your own post and head on over to Kassi's blog to Mister Linky!

XO,

Chelsea

work it out weekend

For once, I am actually posting a weekend wrapup on a Monday. Its a miracle!

But amazing things happen when you don't have an overbooked weekend and you plan to, well, plan!

It was a wonderful weekend of relaxing, getting things done and rejuvenating our tired spirits.

Things accomplished:

amazing relaxed breakfast with the family

zoo time with the kiddos

An afternoon nap (I never get these!)

Taxes!! 

a wonderful dinner celebrating this lovely lady

birthday girl and I doing the matching gray shorts pose

budgeting - icky but necessary

cleaning

crafting - almost finished with my very first piece of embroidery

and last but definitely not least - two tickets to Norway please!!

(photo source: flickr)

YIPPEE!!

and finishing it all off with a romantic dinner for two

Weekend: fully accomplished

I'm ready to tackle Monday!!

How was your weekend??

XO,

Chelsea

i HEART Thursdays - I love balloons

Oh joy. Its already Thursday again! My honey is on the train home. I've got a sweet little boy to gather, meet Carl at the train station and the three of us are off for a date night adventure of dinner and How to Train Your Dragon in 3D. Not sure how I'll survive dinner out while on day 4 of my detox - but I'm determined. Super excited to see Dragon - especially with my Nordic sweetie.

Today's <3 post is a random mashup of pretty balloon hearts. Just because :) 

What's your favorite day of the week??

XO,

Chelsea