Valentines Day Earrings Giveaway~Closed

My last giveaway received such a good response I thought I'd do another quick one for you this week

The Annabella

Beautiful heart shaped cubic zirconias dangle from gold-filled wires

$15.00

Aren't they sweet?

Not a fan of gold? I can also  make these for you in silver

Available at my site  Its All About The Jewels

To Enter

1. Become a follower of this blog(or let me know if you already are) &

leave a comment on what you love to get (or give) for Valentines Day

For additional entries…


2. Follow me on twitter



3. Blog or tweet about this giveaway and come back here leave me the link



Be sure to leave me a way to contact you.



Contest ends on Feb. 5th so I can get them to you by Valentines Day
 

Good Luck!

Enough With The Friggin' Snow

I don't know about you but I've about reached my limit on the snow this year. This is what my street looks like right now.Not sure if you can tell but yes it's snowing

This is before the 6-8 inches or more that we're supposed to get later today.

I'm done.

I want to see the sun

I want to stop washing the floor everday  because of the salt being dragged in.

I want to make it to the mailbox without landing on my ass( 2x this year but my driveway is on a slope & I'm a clutz)

As Sophia said this morning" I just want to see the ground again" and this is coming from a kid that will potentially get a snow day tomorrow.

I'm really really done!

Recipe Monday

So remember I posted a couple of weeks ago that one of my goals for the new year was to post more regularly? Guess how many times I posted since then-4. Big friggin' 4 times and one of them was just announcing a giveaway winner but I'm counting it... So starting today I will be posting a favorite recipe every Monday. This along with my Friday Fab Finds should help me with my goal.
This recipe is for my favorite roasted chicken. This chicken is super easy to make and always comes out super juicy. Definitely a favorite here. First will be the recipe as written after it I'll let you know what I do differently


Roasted Chicken


Recipe created by Cristina Ferrare


 This recipe calls for two chickens so that you have leftovers!

.

Ingredients

Roasted Chicken:

2 chickens , 4 1/2 to 5 pounds each

6 lemons

A poultry mix of fresh herbs: Rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley and oregano work well

Marinade for one chicken:

1 cup Dijon mustard

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup juice from fresh lemon (don't discard lemon rinds)

Directions

To make marinade: Place all ingredients in a nonreactive bowl. Whisk with a wire whisk until ingredients are incorporated well—the marinade should have a smooth and creamy consistency.



To make roasted chicken: Preheat oven to 425°.



Clean chickens well and pat dry. Place each chicken in its own baking dish.



Stuff cavities with lemon rinds and fresh herbs. A poultry mix is fine, usually consisting of rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley and oregano.



Pour marinade over chicken. Add cracked pepper and remaining herbs to the top of each chicken.



Place an oven thermometer in each chicken and cover with aluminum foil. Place on the lower rack of the oven. Bake for 1 1/2 hours, then remove the aluminum foil. Baste with a basting bulb. Keep basting often, ever 15 minutes until the thermometer reads 180°.


Ok- first I don't know why the recipe calls for 2 chickens but  the marinade is for one chicken.That never made sense to me. I've only made this with one chicken. Anyway I have never used the fresh herbs or substituted dried herbs for that matter. I have also never used more than 2 lemons. I can't imagine why you would need 6 lemons. Instead I just use the marinade and fill the cavity with the lemon rinds,a couple of whole garlic gloves and quartered onion. I also salt and pepper it.I then tie up the legs with a piece of aluminum foil.

I make  basic  gravy from the drippings that is absolutely delicious. If we have any leftovers I shred the chicken and toss it with egg noodles and the leftover marinade.

If you have any of your favorite recipes you like to share send me the link!

Necklace Giveaway Winner

The winner is...

Comment #31

*Mom's Best Bets said...


I Follow and the Jane necklace is lovely:)

Congrats!



January 10, 2011 1:18 AM

Thursday's Three

Today I thought I would introduce you to 3 of my daily reads

 This is one of my favorite blogs . Not a day goes by without my reading it It is written by Melissa - a stay at home mom to 5- I can barely keep my head above water with 2! She has wonderful  photos of her re-do projects(a shared passion)she hosts great giveaways(another passion) and has incredible ideas on how to get the most bang for your buck(yet another shared passion). But one of my favorite things about her blog is how she truly celebrates the simple things in life-something in our hustle and bustle lives we tend to forget to do. Oh and one last thing I love is the name itself-320 Sycamore which is the address of the home of George & Mary Bailey from one of my favorite movies It's a wonderful life. 

I absolutely love reading Natalie's blog. I love to read about what is currently challenging,inspiring,impressing and pissing her off. She always has the most amazing photos(loved the recent snow photos) which has motivated me to really work on my photography skills. She has introduced me to amazing products and lovely blogs that I would have otherwise never have come across if it wasn't for her. She also has giveaways which I love and I even won a scentsy burner from her blog just before the holidays.


 

I love me a giveaway. Not only do I always post my own giveaways here but I enter a couple a day from here too. I love the diversity of the prizes. The blog is very organized and very easy to navigate

Its All About The Jewels Necklace Giveaway

My birthday is in January so I figured my first giveaway in January would feautre my birthstone-garnet.

I'm giving this lovely necklace from my site Its All About The Jewels to one lucky reader

The Giovanina

This necklace features 5 garnet colored teardrop cubic zirconias dangling from a delicate gold filled cable chain.

$25.00

What I love about this necklace is this chain is so delicate that it just disappears into your skin leaving the stones to appear floating around your neck

To enter:

1. Become a follower of this blog(or let me know if you already are) then click on over to my
site Its All About The Jewels  and come back let me know what your favorite piece is

For additional entries…



2. Follow me on twitter


3. Blog or tweet  about this giveaway and come back here leave me the link


Be sure to leave me a way to contact you.

Giveaway ends January 15th

Good Luck

Valentines Day Sale at Drama Queen Bows & Jewels

Click below to be taken to my site

New Year New Goals

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year and has recovered from the holidays. I had everyone home for 12 days(not that I was counting) so it's good to get things back to normal.

I'm not one to make new year resolutions- I don't know one person who has ever stuck to them past February including myself. Instead I'm starting the new year with new goals-simple reachable goals. I'm also giving myself as much time as needed to complete them.So here goes

1. Be better organized-
I consider myself a pretty organized person but in only certain aspects of my life.When it comes to closets and such I have a bit of a Jekyll & Hyde personality.  Here's an example:

These are shelves in my studio

You can see that they are organized with each color ribbon in it's own container.I have to be super organized when I have almost 100 different color ribbons for just solids. I have no idea how many different stripes,dots,prints etc. If I was to guess I  would say  b another 100-150 rolls. If I'm not super organized with my business supplies it cost me money.

In complete contrast here's my pantry

Super messy and filled with crap. In my defense there is much more junk food in it than I usually allow do to hosting several holiday get togethers and having all the mad snackers home-for 12 days.

My goal is to get all my cabinets,drawers and closet super organized and neat.

2. Save more money-

I thought I was pretty good with saving money. I'm a very diligent coupon cutter and I can easily get $100.00 of stuff for $20.00 or less when shopping at CVS. Then I watched Extreme Couponing on TLC last week and realized I'm not saving nearly as much as I could be. The people featured have pretty much dedicated their lives to spending next to nothing on their purchases and were really extreme in their methods. What I realistically took from the show is how I organized my coupons. I previously had them in a index card box but I had to scroll through each category to find the exact coupon I needed. Time consuming and frustrating. Now I have this

 I broke the binder down into different categories( health,beauty, cleaning, etc.) & put in sleeves with pockets for baseball sized cards. Now I have my coupons organized with product and expiration  dates and I can clearly see them without having to dig around in a box. I took it with me to Target yesterday and saved and additional $10.00.

3. Eat healthier-

This one will probably the hardest. I'm not be any means a junk food junkie but I definitely could have better eating habits. I have a few health issues the limit my diet. Unfortunately healthy foods like most fruits and many vegetables are an aggravation to my condition. Carbs are one of the easiest things on my system so unfortunately I take the easy route and eat too much carbs. Although it's not a weight issue for me  I can't be doing my body any good with what I'm feeding it.My goal is to find subtable healthier foods  to eat and decrease my carb intake.

4. Blog more-

I have a bad habit of sitting down to blog and get distracted but any number of things and never get to posting. I intend on blogging a minimum of  3 days a week. This should be the easiest goal because it's something enjoying doing.

There's my list- hopefully I'll conquer it. I'll keep you updated on my progress