Five On Friday- My Top Five Most Popular Blog Posts Of The Year

I got this idea from September Acres, who has a fabulous blog herself! Of course this Friday Five I am connecting with these amazing ladies who all seem to be pregnant!! It's in the water look out! LOL

Here are my top five most popular blog posts of 2013. Let's do it David Letterman style to make it more suspenseful!

5. The Five Best Thanksgiving Ideas From Pinterest- My Friday Five!

Well of course. These ideas are amazing. Especially this!!!

4.  RIP Lilly Pulitzer- Anythings Possible With Sunshine and A Little Pink

Lilly Pulitzer is not just a brand. It's an attitude. Read on!

3.  March is National Reading Month With Levar Burton!

I am so happy that this is a popular post! Reading Rainbow is back in a big way!

2.  The Best Hotel In Santa Barbara- The Montecito Inn!

And I feel that the love is mutual because they send me a Christmas Card! LOL

And the most popular post of 2013 is.......


1. The Going Rate for The Toothfairy. How much do you give?

This was a controversial post! Weigh in!!!

Thanks for a great year!!!!Looking forward to a fabulous 2014!!!!

The Best Thanksgiving Ideas From Pinterest! My Friday Five!

On to the next Holiday! RIGHT? (right about now I am dreaming on January where there is NOTHING TO DO).  I thought my Friday Five should have a Thanksgiving Theme!! I know Carolina Charm will love it. (Isn't she the cutest pregnant person!?)

Anyhoo....Here's some things from my PINTEREST board: "Thanksgiving Fabulous" that I am loving:

 1) I love to make my Mom's pie crust but my friend at Ocean Breezes and Country Sneezes took it to a whole other level!

Don't you love the acorns!!

2) This pumpkin roll by Homemade by Holman looks amazing.

3) Might have to try to find this shirt on Etsy for Coco!

 4) I want to make these hat place cards for this years meal. A pilgrim hat place card holder from Tip Junkie!

5) And.....I am so doing this veggie platter this year!!! Gobble Gobble!

Halloween Decorating- Some Faves From Pinterest!

I have some pumpkins around for now but this weekend I am busting out the SIX bins of decorations and fun times to put out!

Coco cannot wait for this guy to come out:

She's got a love hate thing with it that is HILARIOUS.

Here's a few home decorating ideas for Halloween from Pinterest.

 

Love this door decor. It's like Christmas for Halloween!

This mantle is so cute:

Love the branches! This is very spooky spidery!

 

And I love this web on the porch, better than the ones I usually see!

Have you pulled out your Halloween decor yet?

Superbowl Recipes! Chicken Nachos!

I could care less about football except for the EATING that is involved. I have been very good after my juicing and eating right, so now I'm going to be BAD.

I found these on Pinterest and am excited to give them a whirl!

 

First Slow Cooker Chicken Nachos from Bev Cooks! 

Slow Cooker Chicken Nachos:

* 2 chicken breasts
* 1 jarred roasted red pepper
* 1/2 cup favorite salsa
* 1 tsp ground cumin
* 1 tsp chili powder
* 2 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 large pinch coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
* 1 (14.5 oz) can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
* 1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
* 1 scallion, finely sliced
* 1/2 avocado, diced (or the whole thing if you want!)
* 1 lime, for the juice
* 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
* 1/2 bag favorite tortilla chips
In a slow cooker, place the chicken, roasted red pepper, salsa, cumin, chili powder, garlic, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook on high for three hours. (Or low for six.)
After three hours, take two forks and shred the chicken right in the cooker. Add the pinto beans, toss to combine and cook an additional hour. *if at this time you feel it needs to be a little more liquidy, by all means, add a leetle more salsa.
Arrange the chips on a large platter. Spoon the chicken and bean mixture over the chips. Sprinkle the cheese over the chicken. Pop the platter under the broiler for a couple of minutes to the get the cheese all browned and bubbly.
Remove the platter from the oven with your bare hands (kidding!) and top with chopped cilantro, scallions and diced avocado. Give a good squeeze of lime juice over the whole dang thing.

Then I found this recipe so we had to make BOTH!

 

Buffalo Chicken Nachos from The Girl Who Ate Everything!

Ingredients

• 8 cups Ranch flavored tortilla chips (I used Cool Ranch Doritos)
• 4 cups cooked chicken shredded
• 1 1/2 cups Frank's Buffalo Wing sauce
• water
• 3 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 4 ounces blue cheese crumbles
• 1 cup chopped celery

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Spread tortilla chips on a rimmed baking sheet or in a shallow dish.
2. Bring wing sauce and 1/2 cup water to a simmer. Add shredded cooked chicken; heat through. Strain the chicken (reserving the sauce) and spread over ranch-flavored tortilla chips. Top with shredded cheddar.
3. Bake in the upper third portion of the oven until cheese is melted for about 5-7 minutes. After nachos are baked top with blue cheese, chopped celery and the reserved wing sauce.

Let me know if you give them a whirl too! What do you cook for Superbowl parties?

Halloween Decorations For Your Mantle. Its Halloween Around Here?

Well it's still 90 degrees but that doesn't stop me from getting in the Halloween spirit!

I have my mantle all done up as usual:

Love my purple spidey hanging in my Joanne's Fabrics spider web fabric I used to swag the mantle.

The pumpkins, flowers and garland are also from Joannes that were spray painted black and silver by an old girlfriend. The gift that keeps on giving!

Love purple and black for Halloween!

You can find these and more on my Pinterest! Follow me there! Would love to see your decorations too!

Halloween Party Menu Ideas From My Pinterest Boards!

Every year we host a Halloween Trick Or Treating party for our friends. Our neighborhood is so cute on Halloween, a lot of friends want to come here!

Working on our menu, I have to feed adults and kids quick so we can get out there and trick or treat!

I think this guy will be perfect way to get the kids to eat their veggies:

And these Hot Dog Mummies of course!

They can also sip on this Ghostly punch!

And for the adults, I might do some of these if I'm feeling fancy...

Or I might do personalized seven layer dip (cause who doesn't want one of those?)

 And then these: (spinach and feta yum!)

Either way I am carving this guy!!!

From Pinterest To My House!

I am beyond obsessed with Pinterest. I love using it for party planning, recipes, decorating, and planning my wardrobe!

I was looking for a new screen door because all I had seen was these metal ugly things.

So while sipping my pinot grigio and perusing Pinterest I found this!

A gorgeous wood Chippendale door! Am I dreaming? No! It's real! Husband found out that you could special order it at Home Depot! Yahooooooo!!!! It came unfinished, but husband had it painted white and VOILA!!!!

LOVE IT!!!

Cocktail Club Starts With Beauty and Basil!

It was a wonderful night and it went off without a hitch! Being the first event in our cocktail club, I wanted to really go all out. After all, God is in the details! I started with the theme of Beauty and Basil. I used this invitation from Paperless Post!

I even used a green crocodile liner. I know, I know. I am always extolling the virtues of paper invitations, but for this club wanted it to be easy peasy.

I wanted to have all forms of beauty at the party. Beauty you could see, taste, hear, touch and create!

First, husband had to get the pool and backyard looking smashing. And he did! Sod was in! Mama was happy! Before the party started we had to take of photo of our color coordinating Beauty and Basil attire!

I literally walked into Macy's with an exact idea of the dress I wanted and it was waiting for me. I love that place! Husband looked smashing in his Nantucket reds, green gingham Vineyard Vines shirt and blue blazer!


When our guests arrived they were treated to two signature cocktails from our bartender Robin.

One was a Cucumber Basil Martini with Vodka....

And the other was a Strawberry, Basil Mojito!

We moved outside for our cocktails. Aren't we a colorful and festive group!

 

Soon our Fabulous Chef Manouschka Guerrier of "Single Serving Bytes" was ready with our appetizers!

You may recognize her from Food Networks, Private Chefs of Beverly Hills! You can follow her on twitter @singleserving.

The menu:

Sliced Filet on a Crostini with horseradish

Tomato Basil Soup with Grilled Fontina Cheese

Lemon Basil Shrimp with Creole Cocktail Sauce

Tomato, Basil, and Watermelon skewers with balsamic simple syrup

Ahi Tuna Tare Tare Kiss

and guava cream cheese tartlets!

We were loving it! Soon my special guests arrived.

Danielle and her cellist . She was amazing and breathtaking! We listened and also watched the movie "Under The Tuscan Sun", playing on our outdoor wall.

Magical!  Throughout the night my guests painted on canvases with acrylic paints I had set out for them. One canvas per couple.

The guys got into it!

At the end of the night each guest left with a bottle of Santa Barbara Collection wine and a basil plant! A fabulous evening!!!

Best Graduation Gift Ever From Pinterest!

This is such a cute idea that I got from A Sprinkle of This !

Have your childs teachers sign "Oh, the Places You'll Go" from Pre-K to High School at the end of each year and give it to your child at graduation!




Landon graduated from Preschool so I had all his teachers sign it. (I started one for Coco too) I love the idea that I can give it to all his teachers until he turns 18 and then give it to him as a high school graduation gift! Wouldn't that be amazing!?