Easter Dinner 2013 Part 1

It's hard to throw a holiday dinner for only a handful of people. You want to make all of your favorite or traditional dishes, but sometimes cutting down the recipe size goes wrong, or even if it goes right you're still left with loads of food. Holiday leftovers are always delicious the first day or two after, but by midweek you start thinking along the lines of, "If I never see ham again it will still be too soon." When planning Easter dinner this year C and I decided to keep things small, deviate from our traditional favorite recipes, and only have one dessert. I'd love to make more than one dessert, but there's only us two and C is not as big of a sweets fan as me, and I'm probably going to eat most of the one dessert I do make. We're inviting my friend Danielle, who's also in graduate school with, over to enjoy and feast with us so all in all it should be a good time.

Our Easter Menu as planned thus far (click on the links for the detailed recipes!)
- Glazed Ham with Horseradish Cream
- Greek Potatoes with Lemon Vinaigrette
- Deviled Eggs
- Broccoli Gratin (we're using mozzarella & Parmesan cheese instead of cheddar)
- Lemon Squares

If you don't have an Easter menu planned out yet here's one that can at least serve as a basis for your meal, if you're cooking for a crowd just add a few more side dishes, appetizers, and desserts and you'll be set for Sunday. I'm getting started cooking early in the morning, we're doing our dinner Saturday night, and I'll be sure to post some pictures of how things turn out.

It's hard to throw a holiday dinner for only a handful of people. You want to make all of your favorite or traditional dishes, but sometimes cutting down the recipe size goes wrong, or even if it goes right you're still left with loads of food. Holiday leftovers are always delicious the first day or two after, but by midweek you start thinking along the lines of, "If I never see ham again it will still be too soon." When planning Easter dinner this year C and I decided to keep things small, deviate from our traditional favorite recipes, and only have one dessert. I'd love to make more than one dessert, but there's only us two and C is not as big of a sweets fan as me, and I'm probably going to eat most of the one dessert I do make. We're inviting my friend Danielle, who's also in graduate school with, over to enjoy and feast with us so all in all it should be a good time.

Our Easter Menu as planned thus far (click on the links for the detailed recipes!)
- Glazed Ham with Horseradish Cream
- Greek Potatoes with Lemon Vinaigrette
- Deviled Eggs
- Broccoli Gratin (we're using mozzarella & Parmesan cheese instead of cheddar)
- Lemon Squares

If you don't have an Easter menu planned out yet here's one that can at least serve as a basis for your meal, if you're cooking for a crowd just add a few more side dishes, appetizers, and desserts and you'll be set for Sunday. I'm getting started cooking early in the morning, we're doing our dinner Saturday night, and I'll be sure to post some pictures of how things turn out.

Honey Bunnies

 Easter is one of my favorite holidays, my family never celebrated in the religious sense, but as a time for us to spend time together while enjoying food and each others company. Not to mention Easter baskets and egg dyeing. At this point my sister and I have a running tradition of  'whose eggs are the most awesome' which she usually loses. I'm dyeing eggs later tonight, so check back later for some pictures and ideas if you haven't dyed eggs yet.

 Pretty much every year the week before or around Easter my mom would make a batch of honey bunnies, they're just your typical honey bun except a lot fluffier and buttery. The dough itself has honey in it, and then you coat them with a butter/honey glaze giving them the perfect amount of sweetness. Yum.

C, and I are heading out to Breckenridge Saturday night in order to spend Easter snowboarding. Since we weren't sure if anyone at the house we're staying at in Breckenridge had plans to celebrate Easter, we decided to have our own early Easter dinner on Saturday before we leave. I still thought it would be a good idea to celebrate a little bit on Sunday so I'm making the honey bunny dough Saturday morning to bring with us. I personally can't wait to wake up a little earlier and pop these in the oven and get to eat 1 or 4 before going out to ride the mountains all day, and I'm sure all of the housemates will enjoy them too. I'm attaching the recipe after the break, enjoy!

 Easter is one of my favorite holidays, my family never celebrated in the religious sense, but as a time for us to spend time together while enjoying food and each others company. Not to mention Easter baskets and egg dyeing. At this point my sister and I have a running tradition of  'whose eggs are the most awesome' which she usually loses. I'm dyeing eggs later tonight, so check back later for some pictures and ideas if you haven't dyed eggs yet.

 Pretty much every year the week before or around Easter my mom would make a batch of honey bunnies, they're just your typical honey bun except a lot fluffier and buttery. The dough itself has honey in it, and then you coat them with a butter/honey glaze giving them the perfect amount of sweetness. Yum.

C, and I are heading out to Breckenridge Saturday night in order to spend Easter snowboarding. Since we weren't sure if anyone at the house we're staying at in Breckenridge had plans to celebrate Easter, we decided to have our own early Easter dinner on Saturday before we leave. I still thought it would be a good idea to celebrate a little bit on Sunday so I'm making the honey bunny dough Saturday morning to bring with us. I personally can't wait to wake up a little earlier and pop these in the oven and get to eat 1 or 4 before going out to ride the mountains all day, and I'm sure all of the housemates will enjoy them too. I'm attaching the recipe after the break, enjoy!

Map String Art

 

 By now I'm sure most people have seen pictures like these before, or at least pictures of string art framing a different state or shape. I've seen a number on Pinterest as well as other crafting blogs, and thought they were cute and a nice way to pay homage to your home state or places you've lived so I 'pinned' a picture of one to my craft drafts board . Last week I was on spring break or as I dubbed it Craft Week 2013, and was able to get these done.

 

 By now I'm sure most people have seen pictures like these before, or at least pictures of string art framing a different state or shape. I've seen a number on Pinterest as well as other crafting blogs, and thought they were cute and a nice way to pay homage to your home state or places you've lived so I 'pinned' a picture of one to my craft drafts board . Last week I was on spring break or as I dubbed it Craft Week 2013, and was able to get these done.

Making A Poster (Part 1)

I've been in the slow process of adding things to my apartment in order to 1) make it feel more home and 2) look glamorous like those beautifully decorated apartments and homes you see on interior design websites and Pinterest. I'm still not quite at that number 2 stage yet, but when I get there I'll be sure to post pictures! One of the things I've realized is that hanging things on your walls helps your rooms come together and just make your space look lived in. When I lived in NY I had posters and things hung up, but after moving to CO C and I never really got around to hanging things until around Christmas time. That being said I'm always looking around for stuff to put up. Unfortunately many of the cute things I do find are out of my price range or I end up thinking that my money could be better spent on something else this month, so maybe next month (my hate of spending money will be a running theme in this blog).

Lucky for me when I was looking at one of my favorite websites (which will also be a running theme because they come up with and feature so many great DIYs) design*sponge they had posted a DIY poster making tutorial today. Not only do they have a great idea for a poster, they have instructions on how to format the image in photoshop and printing size. I will be trying this out in the next couple of weeks, I'm not sure yet if I'm going to come up with my own design/idea or just make a Holi-Inspired piece, but check back for a step-by-step of the poster I do end up making.

I've been in the slow process of adding things to my apartment in order to 1) make it feel more home and 2) look glamorous like those beautifully decorated apartments and homes you see on interior design websites and Pinterest. I'm still not quite at that number 2 stage yet, but when I get there I'll be sure to post pictures! One of the things I've realized is that hanging things on your walls helps your rooms come together and just make your space look lived in. When I lived in NY I had posters and things hung up, but after moving to CO C and I never really got around to hanging things until around Christmas time. That being said I'm always looking around for stuff to put up. Unfortunately many of the cute things I do find are out of my price range or I end up thinking that my money could be better spent on something else this month, so maybe next month (my hate of spending money will be a running theme in this blog).

Lucky for me when I was looking at one of my favorite websites (which will also be a running theme because they come up with and feature so many great DIYs) design*sponge they had posted a DIY poster making tutorial today. Not only do they have a great idea for a poster, they have instructions on how to format the image in photoshop and printing size. I will be trying this out in the next couple of weeks, I'm not sure yet if I'm going to come up with my own design/idea or just make a Holi-Inspired piece, but check back for a step-by-step of the poster I do end up making.

Punk Puppies

Scrolling through tumblr one afternoon I saw this picture pop up on my timeline, and my immediate thought

after 'aawwing at the cute liddle punk kitty' was that
I could make something like this for my dogs. I have
two chihuahuas, a 2 year old named Neva who's
technically my boyfriend, C's, dog, and Coconut a 6
month old puppy. Now I had never been a fan of
Chihuahuas mainly because I thought they were yippy annoying rat dogs. But Neva turned me into a believer, she never barks and is a huge cuddle bug. Not to mention a beast, she's been on 3 of our 14,000 ft mountain hikes (14ers) and was happy the whole way and in way better physical shape than both C and I.

Scrolling through tumblr one afternoon I saw this picture pop up on my timeline, and my immediate thought

after 'aawwing at the cute liddle punk kitty' was that
I could make something like this for my dogs. I have
two chihuahuas, a 2 year old named Neva who's
technically my boyfriend, C's, dog, and Coconut a 6
month old puppy. Now I had never been a fan of
Chihuahuas mainly because I thought they were yippy annoying rat dogs. But Neva turned me into a believer, she never barks and is a huge cuddle bug. Not to mention a beast, she's been on 3 of our 14,000 ft mountain hikes (14ers) and was happy the whole way and in way better physical shape than both C and I.

Dresser Re-Do

Old ugly dresser                                                                Revamped gorgeous dresser

So the dresser to the left lived in the storage/junk shed out back behind my parent's house for as long as I can remember. My brother and I lived together briefly in an apartment in NY, and when we moved my parent's gave this dresser to my brother to use. Long story short he moved out and left the dresser behind, and when I moved to Colorado it came along with me in my huge Uhaul. Needless to say it was an eyesore, lucky for me I have nice walk-in closets big enough for the dresser to fit in.Still I hated how it was in such bad shape, the old brass handles,the chipping wood  paneling ( is that even what it is ? ). I'd seen tons of dresser re-dos on many of my favorite blogs and on pinterest, and I figured well the worst that could happen is that the thing ends up uglier and I just get rid of it.

Old ugly dresser                                                                Revamped gorgeous dresser

So the dresser to the left lived in the storage/junk shed out back behind my parent's house for as long as I can remember. My brother and I lived together briefly in an apartment in NY, and when we moved my parent's gave this dresser to my brother to use. Long story short he moved out and left the dresser behind, and when I moved to Colorado it came along with me in my huge Uhaul. Needless to say it was an eyesore, lucky for me I have nice walk-in closets big enough for the dresser to fit in.Still I hated how it was in such bad shape, the old brass handles,the chipping wood  paneling ( is that even what it is ? ). I'd seen tons of dresser re-dos on many of my favorite blogs and on pinterest, and I figured well the worst that could happen is that the thing ends up uglier and I just get rid of it.

In The Beginning

Hey everyone!

Welcome to Guild of Goods, a blog that will mainly feature crafts, diy projects, the food posts, and occasional blurbs of my life. I'm hoping for most of things I post to be things I've made/worked on, but I also plan on highlighting neat things I find on the internet or from my favorite blogs and future craft plans. I'm sure as time passes the blog will hopefully expand and allow me to add other sections and features, but for now I'm going to try and limit my posts to the above content.

I have a number of previously done projects to share as my spring break ( aka craft week 2013 ) just ended and I had a productive week.

 I'll get to posting them, enjoy!

Hey everyone!

Welcome to Guild of Goods, a blog that will mainly feature crafts, diy projects, the food posts, and occasional blurbs of my life. I'm hoping for most of things I post to be things I've made/worked on, but I also plan on highlighting neat things I find on the internet or from my favorite blogs and future craft plans. I'm sure as time passes the blog will hopefully expand and allow me to add other sections and features, but for now I'm going to try and limit my posts to the above content.

I have a number of previously done projects to share as my spring break ( aka craft week 2013 ) just ended and I had a productive week.

 I'll get to posting them, enjoy!