Want a drink? Take a coaster.

Do you use coasters in your house? We haven’t in the past, but with all the painting of furniture we’ve been doing I thought we should start.
I bought these photo coasters a few years ago, but never took them out of the box. I purchased them through ABC Distributing, but you can find them at JoAnn’s, Michael’s, or even Wal-mart. You just have to look around.

(Sorry I started this project late last night…bad lighting)
To make the initials, I used a font I like and played around with it until it was the size I liked. I then printed and cut them out.

Took apart the coasters.

I used Dark Fig by Valspar with a dry-brush technique to paint the frames. Dark Fig is a really dark chocolately brown. Can you believe spell check doesn’t think “chocolately” is a word??? It is a word! I made it a word!
 
Aren’t they just pretty in all their chocolate glory?
As for the initials, I didn’t like the white paper against the brown, so what is a girl to do? Bring out the tea bags…that’s what!
After making a fresh pot of tea, I broke apart the tea bags and poured or more like squished the tea grounds into a plastic container, filled with water. In went the “R’s” to soak. The amount of time you leave them in would depend on how creamy colored you want your paper. You could use coffee grounds, but since we’re not big coffee drinkers…I used what I had.


I left mine soak for about 2 hours, then pulled them out to dry.

This rack from my microwave worked really well. I put a paper towel below to catch any drips.

Here you can see the difference in color.

What do you think?? I’m excited to start using them. Crimson beat me to it, though. I went to the computer to post this, walked back in the dining room and what was on the table?

Oh well, that’s what I made them for…right?

Edited to say: I'm linking up with Today's Creative Blog, Get your Craft on Party.
My silly computer won't let me cut/paste the button. I'll have to figure that one out.

Cajun Chicken Pasta Bake with a little Zest...

Good morning all! I hope you had a great weekend.

Thank you for all the prayers and get well wishes for my husband's family. His grandmother was released from the hospital to the nursing home last Tuesday, but had to be rushed back to the ER on Friday. They couldn't get her blood pressure up, so she was admitted. Please continue praying for her.

On a lighter note...

I found an awesome recipe for a quick Cajun Chicken Pasta on the Sister's Stuff blog.

(If you aren't a regular reader you should be! They have the cutest craft ideas and lots of quick easy recipes. Go check out their blog and you'll be hooked!!! Just click on Sister's Stuff blog above.)

I wanted to try to make it, but my hubby took it over. You can click on the link above for the Sister's Stuff version, which will be much quicker and easier than this, but here's my hubby's...

Ingredients:

1 box Penne pasta

1 jar Alfredo sauce

1 pound boneless chicken breast or chicken tenders, sliced into thin strips

1 tomato, diced

2 tblsp Cajun Seasoning

1 tblsp Garlic powder

Fresh basil, chopped, about 5 leaves

1 tsp Grapefruit zest

1-2 tblsp Olive oil

Parmesan and/or mozzarella cheese

Cook penne pasta per directions on box, drain. Warm alfredo sauce in saucepan. In medium frying pan, add olive oil, cajun seasoning, and garlic powder, then add chicken strips. Cook chicken covered until done, mixing occasionally, drain any oil and/or fat from pan, then add tomatoes, basil, and grapefruit zest. Continue to cook covered on low, until tomatoes are warm. Mix alfredo sauce with penne pasta. Layer pasta and chicken mixture in a medium lasagna pan, cover with parmesan and/or mozzarella cheese. Bake on 350 for 10 minutes, or until cheese on top has melted. Enjoy!!!

Note: The amount of cajun seasoning, garlic powder, basil and grapefruit zest can be modified to fit your individual taste buds. The grapefruit makes this a very light tasting pasta. You could use this as an appetizer, instead of a full meal.

Hopefully, I can get back to posting more often. Life just seems to pass like a blur these days. It's funny how the older I get, the faster the days go by! I really wish we could slow life down...just a little, and enjoy it more. Losing Ricky's grandfather has been hard on everyone, it was definitely a surprise. We knew his grandmother was sick and probably wouldn't be around much longer, but his grandfather was pretty healthy for his age. He had to have surgery back last summer for lung cancer, but he got well after that and was doing great. It wasn't until a couple weeks before Christmas when he started feeling sick and was told he had pnemonia. When the pnemonia didn't want to go away, my mother-in-law took him to a different doctor. We didn't find out until after he passed that it wasn't pnemonia at all...he had emphysema. (sp?) Make sure you tell your family everyday that you love them, you never know when you may lose them.

Prayers please

My husband's grandfather died this morning. His grandmother doesn't yet. She had to be rushed to the emergency room and is now in the ICU. She will be having surgery for gangrene in her gallbladder soon. They gave her a little better than a 50/50 chance. Please keep his family in your prayers!!!

Thanks!

She got it!

If you haven't met my daughter...here she is:

My gorgeous baby girl (I know, I'm partial) makes me proud everyday of her life. The smallest things she does makes me happy and her smile can make a whole room light up. So, when I say I'm proud of her for this, I don't want to take away from anything else she does...but....

She was booked for the A&W Restaurant commercial!!!

We're so excited for her! She goes in this afternoon for the "talent fitting" and then back on Wednesday for the actual shoot date. It's going to be a national commercial and they don't know how many seasons it's going to run. I'll let you know the air date as soon as I know. It's also going to be on the internet, so I'll post a link once it's up.

In other news...

**Our computer is back up and running, but I still have to install a few programs in order to blog again. (I'm on my lunch break at work right now.)

**It's frigid here in middle Tennessee!!! It was 9 degrees when I got up this morning!!! It's not supposed to get above 32 degrees for the rest of the week!! This royally sucks, because we live in an old house! Yesterday, we woke up to frozen hot water. Not frozen cold water, just hot water. (and no, it's not the water heater) It was crazy! The cold water line going into my washing machine was froze, but the cold water in the rest of the house worked just fine! Even the dishwasher, that is on the other side of the wall from the washing machine, worked just fine! Luckily, my in-laws live just over a block down the street, so we were able to take showers. About five minutes after I got up this morning the power to the whole house went out! With the hot water still frozen, I was ready to cry. My hubby messed around with the breaker box for a little while and it finally came back on. He said that the main breaker had overheated due to the load our heating and air unit was pulling. I don't understand a whole lot about how electricity works, but it's back on now so I don't have to cry! Now, if only the hot water lines would thaw.....

**I took a bunch of pics with my Christmas present. They were all of my darling daughter. I'll post a few soon, but for now...this is what he gave me:

It's a SUH-WEET Canon 20D with an 18-55 mm lens. LUV it!

My photographer/writer sister-in-law has one, so when I got ready to have a bigger better camera, I had to get one like hers. Speaking of the S-I-L, she started a blog recently. It's about her journey to being a published author. Go check out her blog and give her some bloggy love!!!

I guess that's all for now. I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's and that 2010 will be an amazing year for you! I know it will for us!

Happy Monday!

A.Rose