Smitten and you will be too!

Hello there! Hope your New Year is going well, mine is going pretty good!  Today I wanted to share with you two fun projects that I created for Rhonna's cReative Team Tuesday.

 This year I am going to invite my nieces over for a girls lunch with me the weekend before Valentines. And so I will be sharing my decor and favors with you over the next few weeks.  

First up is this little goodie bag, I used some of the papers that Rhonna designed this year.  You can find them in a great bundle offer HERE or just the paper kit HERE.  I simply printed out the paper from the kiss Papers Kit onto Matte presentation paper then trimmed to size for the sack and bow.  The doily that I used is from the $1 bin at Target and let me tell you they are awesome!  They are softer than most doilies that I have bought.  I am going back for more and I suggest you grab some too.

And for the card shown above I printed out some of the edges found HERE and papers found Here and created my own washi tape.  I printed them out on some 3M Full sheet labels specifically designed for inkjet printer found at Office Depot HERE.

Thanks for stopping in and I hope to see you back here next week for some of my Mantel decor.

Chicken Taco Soup

Hello friends! Just a quick post on the eve of a new year! I just made this soup and wanted to share the recipe with you! I found it a few years ago online and until I can find the link to the original source here is the recipe. I took a quick photo of it for Instagram as shown below.

Ingredients
1/2 cup diced onions
1/2 cup diced green bell peppers
1 tablespoon minced garlic
Vegetable oil
1lb chicken breasts, boiled and shredded (you can use 2 10oz cans Tyson chicken)
1 pkg taco seasoning mix
1 (8oz) jar salsa
1 (14oz) can kernel corn, drained
1 (14oz) can hominy, drained (white or yellow)
1 (16oz) can ranch style beans
2 (4-oz) cans tomato paste (I only had 1 can and it tasted fine)
28oz chicken broth
1 (8oz) pkg of cream cheese (can be omitted)

Sauté onions, green bell peppers and garlic in a small amount of vegetable oil. Add chicken, taco seasoning mix, salsa, vegetables, beans, tomato paste, and chicken broth. Adjust liquid to your liking. Bring to a slow simmer and simmer for 20 mins. *Place cream cheese in a separate bowl. Using a measuring cup, take some of the hot liquid from the soup and pour over cream cheese to melt and then add back to the soup. Simmer on low for another 10 minutes. Serve with tortilla chips and grated Monterrey jack cheese. Great over rice the second day.

I like to cut corn tortillas into thin strips and fry in vegetable oil till crisp. Then top a bowl of soup with cheese and fried tortillas strips.

*If you don't melt the cream cheese before adding to soup it will take longer to melt as it stays in chunks. So you will need to keep stirring soup till it dissolves and you can also omit the cream cheese all together and it's still yummy!

This recipe doubles well should you need to feed more.

Serves 4 to 6

I use www.rhonnadesigns.com Insta fonts to dress up my instagrams. I used instapatterns for the IG above via Phonto.

Hope you have a fun and safe New Years Eve!!

-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Merry Christmas

 I wish you a very Merry Christmas or if you prefer Happy Holidays.  I hope you know how much I appreciate you stopping in at my blog now and then! 

I hope this coming new year brings your families many happy blessings!

I created the piece above using a photo I took of our Christmas tree and some Christmas goodness from non other than Rhonna Designs.  You can find them HERE and HERE.

Let's have some Gift Tag fun!

There is something AWESOME going on today over at Rhonna's blog found HERE! Don't miss out on the fun and prizes!! Her Black Friday sale started today so be sure to check your email for her newsletter for the code! Or follow her on Instagram too and she and I have both shared the code there too! Can't wait to start creating with her fabulous new Modern additions that will be great when paired up with last years Christmas release! Talk about saving money! Love that you can use last year's line with this years creations to make so much for so little!!

I can't wait to use her new designs on my advent calendar that I used HERE!

Falling in Love...

...with photography has been something that I have been doing for many years now.  And over the last five years the love affair has blossomed.  This past summer my husband bought me a Canon 5D Mark II and now I can't seem to keep photography from creeping into my daily thoughts.

I try to read as much on photography as I can when I'm home in the evenings while the hubby watches tv.  Having my ipad has made it so easy to read or pin photography articles!  I have been asking friends and family to allow me to photograph them so that I can get as much practice as possible!  Recently my friend Christina asked me to take some maternity photos for her at 6 months and at 9 months and I was so excited!  I was nervous of course, after all I am so not a schooled photographer! But, they were pleased with the photos as was I and for us they were photos that turned out good enough.  I'm sure that a trained eye will pick up on all my mistakes but it's ok, we like them and that is all that counts.  And with that I share the link to the slide show I created for your viewing.

The music playing is from Mindy Gledhill.

This picture slideshow customized with Smilebox