4th of July week

Yay 4th of July. The hubby and I went to his parents place to celebrate the 4th, and had a blast. We brought a couple snacks, of course found via pinterest, all of which were a big hit.

The first was a veggie tray, where I had turned the peppers into the dip holders. I don't remember where I got the original idea from, because I didn't repin it, and it now seems to be part of the Pinmarket. So to whoever came up with this idea- Thank you; it was awesome!

The second thing we brought was a fruit flag. I thought this pin was too easy and cute to pass up. The hubby actually made this one, and as he doesn't cook much I should be sure he gets the credit. It looks like the idea originally came from party city here. And below is our flag, which has the correct number of stripes, because we are anal like that. :)

The last of our treats was this recipe for chicken enchilada dip that I found here. I made some minor adjustments to the recipe, like using a tablespoon of canned prechopped jalepenos instead of chopping a fresh one because they scare me. I used the chicken breasts from a rotisserie chicken I got from the store and added taco seasoning and chili powder to the dip base instead of grilling them specifically for the dip. I also used neufchatel cheese instead of cream cheese and canola oil mayonaise instead of the full fat version. I still got thumbs up all the way around. Even my picky husband who doesn't like cream cheese or mayonaise and said he wouldn't try it when he saw what was in it, liked it. Definitely a hit that will get made again.

And because he's adorable I will include a pic of Meeko who turned three on the 3rd, and who I showed off to anyone who would look on the 4th. :)

After the fourth was kind of lazy. We did go to Seattle Internation Beerfest on Saturday. It was fun and we got to try a bunch of new beers for not a lot of money, which is always a plus. Especially when you don't like what you're trying.

And a pic of the hubby and I after Beerfest.

Last night I did get back to work on my soap making and made some lip balm, which I will take pics of once it's done setting up. In the meantime I will finally post a pic of my first successful (yes that must be specified) soap batch, and possibly successful (it looks a little different than the first) second batch.

All of that is to say that I got absolutely no writing done last week. We'll see how this week goes.... :)

Pinterest and Soap Successes

So I did get quite a bit of writing done Friday night while watching Pratical Magic and making soap. :) I forgot to take a picture of my soap so I'll have to upload that later. Luckily I made it all the way through the process with no exploding, and the final product looks like soap, so I think it's a success. We'll see in 4 weeks.

I did however take pictures of the garlic fries I made last night from a recipe I found on Pinterest. Every time I have made fries in the past they end up under or over cooked and just generally blah. I saw this pin on Pinterest though and decided that burgers and fries sounded good for dinner. You can find her recipe here. I made a few small adjustments. I added onion powder, because I tend to like it with garlic and I used dried parsley instead of cilantro, because that's what I had on hand. Because the parsley was dried, I also just added it to the mix before I baked them. And here's what they looked like:

I also finished part one on my crafts to make my entry way more functional. It is a picture frame, where you can change the picture without having to take the frame apart! I also found this craft on pinterest, and you can find the instructions here. I'm still making part two, which I should be able to add on Friday. :) In the meantime I will leave you with the pic of the frame before I added the binder clip.

I'm off with the hubby to a George RR Martin reading now.