Tea Bar Bridal Shower

I had the joy of working on a friends bridal shower.  She is a low key kind of person so we needed to find a theme that worked for her.  So we decided to go with Natural colors: blue, green and brown with a runner that added a pop of color.  She loves tea but we didn't want to go with a tea party theme so we went with something much more modern a Tea Bar.  For decorations we used tree limbs, ivy, faux leaves and love birds made from scrapbooking paper.  We filled large vases with tall, sanded tree limbs and the base had rocks and spanish moss and ivy coming out of it.  The fun part was the Tea Bar. 
The Tea Bar was a hit!

We filled 4 "pitchers" with different flavored cold teas and made fun labels for each flavor.  The Teas were Pomegranate Lemon, Lemon Verbena, Rasberry Lemon and Lemon Mint.  

Our party favor was tea bags in fun Match packaging with twisted crepe paper bows.  For the labels we used the same graphics that were on the tables and the Teas. 

It was simple, modern, beautiful and most importantly inexpensive!

Quick and Easy Creamy Tomato Penne Pasta

My cravings are far and few in between since my nausea keeps me from wanting to eat for pleasure.  But the other day I was flipping through a magazine and saw some advertisements for pasta and I thought I want some creamy tomato sauce over some penne and fresh baked garlic bread to go with it.

Quick and Easy Creamy Tomato Penne Pasta
1 can of Diced Garlic Herb Tomato
1cp of heavy cream
2tbspns of diced garlic
Penne Pasta
olive oil
parmesan cheese

serves 4-5
Sautee garlic in olive oil until slightly brown. 
Add Diced tomatoes with liquid.  Let it simmer for 5min.
Add heavy cream and stir.  Simmer for about 5min.
Pour over your cooked Penne and sprinkle with parmesan.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

Told you it is quick and easy.  You can use plain diced tomotoes and season them yourself with Italian seasoning if you don't have Garlic herb ones in your cupboard.

cranberry broccoli salad

Cranberry Broccoli Salad
1 head of broccoli
1/2 cp of dried cranberries
1/4 cp of chopped red onion
1/4cp of chopped walnuts
4-6 slices of cooked bacon, crumbled
Your favorite salad dressing. Rasberry viniagrette, Ranch, Italian
sprinkle top with shredded cheddar cheese

If you want even more fruity you can dice 1/2 an apple and add to the mix. 

Can't keep this to myself: Potato salad w/ country ranch dressing

Picture and recipe came from Better Home and Gardens.  http://www.bhg.com/recipe/salads/potato-salad-with-country-ranch-dressing/  My pregnant self could not handle the hard boiled eggs so I made mine with out.  I also didn't have cider vinegar so I used red wine vinegar and it turned out just fine.  Please note that it serves 12. I didn't realize that before making it.

An Award for me

Shout out to Kathy who gave me my first blogger award! The cyberworld can be lonely since you only hope that you have some mysterious cyberspace blog readers out there who prefer to keep themselves anonymous, right don't we all have those. 

So for all those mysterious readers I am now supposed to share 7 things about myself:
1. I am 3 months pregnant and were hoping God blesses us with a little girl the third time around.
2. I am a counselor at a missionary school in Ecuador.
3. Though I am officially a "missionary" I love home decor, fashion and art. 
4.  I love my sweet Savior and Heavenly Father dearly. 
5.  My husband and 2 boys are a huge support and joy in my life.
6.  I want to climb Macchu Picchu in Peru when I am 6 mos pregnant (most likely won't happen).
7.  I would love to start a christian version of "family fun" magazine.