Family Vacation: Newport Beach, California

What a vacation! After 7 work events in April, I packed my bags for a week in California with my mom's side of the family. My aunt and uncle have a timeshare with Marriott and we stayed at the Marriott Newport Coast Villas, in Newport Beach.  The resort was B-E-A-utiful!

On our first day there, my aunt, uncle and I went to the public golf course for my first 9 holes on a golf course. Truthfully, I had never even taken a lesson before so I was beyond nervous that I would be awful. However, after the first 3 holes I finally remembered to keep my shoulders down when I swung and I started doing pretty well. 

Me and my Aunt Cathy

The view from the course wasn't too bad either, especially for it being a public course. 

Thursday was the only day of the trip when the weather was warm and the sun was shining.  So this became our relax by the pool day. 

The resort has a main pool area, with 3 pools and 2 hot tubs.  Outside by the pool there are two ping pong tables and two pool tables, and a giant checker/chess board for anyone to use. There is also a teen room with arcade games and a movie theater with movies playing throughout the day.

There are two other pools on the outermost edges of the resort for all the people who are staying in buildings away from the main pool. 

Paper Pinwheels

Hey everyone! I'm so excited for warm weater, especially since we just had a crazy mid-May snowstorm in Denver.  And not just a sprinkling of snow, almost a foot of heavy wet snow that broke tree branches.

So while it was snowing, I was crafting paper pinwheels and dreaming of summer.  Believe it or not I don't remember making paper pinwheels before, and I had to look up a few blogs with directions. Lucky for me they are easy to make. 

What You Need: 

Cardstock paper with designs on both sides

Ruler

Scissors

Hole Punch

Brads

Wooden Dowels

Washi Tape

Directions:

I used 12 inch, 10 inch, 9 inch and 8 inch square papers  to see how much the sizes changed.  The 12" pinwheel was a bit big, I recommend smaller ones. 

You can either fold the square in half both directions, or use a ruler to mark the middle of the paper

Using your folded or drown lines, cut from each corner of the paper halfway to the middle.

Then hole punch every other corner of the paper. Pull each hole punched corner to the middle of the paper and put a brad through the four corners. 

Push the brad through the cross mark in the middle of the paper and push the metal tabs out to hold in place.

Wrap washi tape on the wooden dowels and hot glue one on to the back of each pinwheel.

Co-worker Thank You Gifts

Since I have the most amazing co-workers in the world, and they helped me sooo much with my events in April, I wanted to do something small to tell them how much I appreciate all their hard work.

I came across something similar to this on Pinterest and loved how simple they were. After grabbing hand sanitizer at Bath and Body Works, I picked up some cute gift tags at Michaels.  I wrote 'small card. BIG thanks.' on each card and signed my name. Simple and small, but a meaningful thank you.

This would be easy to do with travel size lotions, a pack of pens, candy bars etc... Have fun with with and let me know what great ideas you come up with!

Easy Mother's Day Gift Idea

Happy Mother's Day to all the amazing mom's out there! If you're anything like my mom, you are always putting your family's needs before your own, and you often don't get a thank you for it.  (Mom, thank you for always being there for me, I am so lucky to have you.) Now I've said it publicly ;)

My mom doesn't ask for anything for Mother's Day, which has been nice when I've been a broke college kid.  This year, I saw this idea on Pinterest and I knew it was the perfect gift for my mom who doesn't need traditional gifts.

I printed off this great gift tag from Capital B, and attached it to paper plates, in two sizes, and plastic cups from the grocery store.  Sky over at capital B also created another version of this printable in multiple colors in case you like those better.

This gift will definitely be used on a long day after work, or when company comes over for a BBQ this summer.

Braised Chicken

I found this jar of Chicken Fricassee Braising Base in my parent's kitchen cabinet and decided I should use it to make dinner for the family. It was about $12 from Williams-Sonoma. 

Directions were easy and it could be used to cook in a crock pot or in a dutch oven.  

Just brown chicken in a skillet or in the dutch oven, add the sauce and cook in the oven for 50 minutes. Then add asparagus and peas for ten more minutes. 

An easy recipe for week night dinners, and Williams-Sonoma has braising bases in a variety of flavors. This will definitely become a pantry staple for easy chicken dinners. 

Goodwill's Power of Work Luncheon

Well April was a busy month. After 7 events and promotions scheduled in April, I was ready for my vacation to California to see my extended family.  On April 17th Goodwill Industries of Denver hosted it's 18th Annual Power of Work Luncheon at the Marriott City Center in Denver.  This fundraising luncheon is one of our biggest events every year, raising money for our programs.

Each year we choose 4 participants in our our programs to honor at the awards luncheon.  This is never an easy task since we have so many deserving people nominated each year.  This year's winners were Colette, Winifred, Abdela and Micheal.  All the videos are below except for Abdela's; he is a refugee from Africa who is deaf and had no language skills before finding Goodwill. He asked that we not post his picture or video online.


Colette could have seen her unfortunate circumstances as a burden that wouldn't allow her to succeed, but through her own immense determination and a little help from Goodwill's Youth Career Development Program, she knows failure is not even an option. This young, inspiring woman has risen above abuse, unstable housing, and other obstacles to graduate from high school and plan for a bright future.


Winifred was looking to rejoin the workforce after caring for her ailing father for years. As an unemployed senior, Winifred didn't believe anyone would ever hire her because of her age. Not knowing what to do next, she found Goodwill's Career Connection Center which provided the support she needed to gain skills, confidence, and eventually a great job.



Michael Williams has come a long way from his days living without a home, without a job, without an advocate, or even a friend. He was living on the streets, addicted to drugs, and taking temporary jobs to sustain his habit. He didn't really think much further than meeting his needs for the day until help came in the form of a job at Goodwill. He hasn't looked back since. 

Nearly 650 guests joined us this year in learning about the awardees amazing stories.

Cheryl Preheim of 9News was our talented emcee for the second year.

Students from four Denver schools collaborated on a performance about dignity and success. 

The guy in this picture is a future rap star!

I couldn't have done this event without the help of my amazing work family! 

Southwest Chicken Sandwich

This recipe came to me when I was trying to figure out how to use leftovers and what little was in the fridge. It actually turned out very well and will be one a recipe I use again.

What you need:

Cooked shredded chicken
Sliced green peppers
Green Chile sauce
Whatever bread is in the fridge, or tortillas to make a wrap- I had ciabatta bread
Pepper Jack cheese slices


Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

While oven is preheating. Cook and shred the chicken in a skillet, add green peppers and green chile for flavor. Place the bread on a cookie sheet. On the bread spread salsa or green chile. Place chicken and green peppers on top. Cover with pepper jack cheese. Place the top of the bread on top and bake 8-10 minutes, or until the bread is lightly toasted. If you want add sour cream after baking.

Breakfast Quesadilla

I was on a new recipe kick this weekend. I made a Southwest Chicken Sandwich on Friday night and this breakfast quesadilla on Saturday morning, and they were delicious!

What You Need: (serves 2-3)

4 Flour Tortillas (soft taco size)
3 Eggs
Breakfast sausage, or bacon
1 cup shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese
1 1/3 cup shredded Jack Cheese
1/2 cup Salsa
2 tablespoons Milk
Butter
Ground Black Pepper

Directions:

Preheat your oven at 375 degrees.

Heat a skillet on medium heat and cook the sausage or bacon, and set aside for later. Then scramble the eggs.

Grease a cookie sheet with about ½ tablespoon of butter. Lay two tortillas on the cookie sheet. Add shredded cheese, cooked sausage or bacon, scrambled eggs, and salsa to the tortillas. Top each quesadilla with the last tortillas.

In a small bowl, melt some of the butter, and brush it on top of the quesadila. Bake until the cheese melts and the outside edges of the tortillas turn a light golden color (about 15 to 18 minutes).

 I had this great pan, the perfect size for making one of these for just me!

I used left over steak instead of bacon or sausage.

It was an unusually warm morning in Denver so I ate outside on the patio. 

One of my favorite things to do. 

Paper Dahlia

I've had this pin on my board for forever. So I finally bought a few sheets of the same color of paper at a trip to the craft store and got to gluing.

What you need:

10 sheets of cardstock in a matching color
5 sheets of cardstock in another matching color
Paper cutter or scissors
Cardboard circle
Glue, tacky or hot glue

Directons:

First cut a circle out of the cardboard, this will hold all the petals of your flower and can be any size you'd like. If it's bigger you'll need more sheets of paper to have a full flower.

Next cut each sheet of paper into fourths. Roll each piece of paper into a cone and glue to hold the shape. This took a while to do because I had to hold each rolled "petal" while it dried. After the petals are done drying glue the petals around the outer edge of the cardboard circle. To make it easier to glue each petal, flatten the end that is getting glued.

Then work your way in adding petals in between the firt layer. When I got halfway to the middle, I switched petal colors to add some color.  When I got to the flowers in the very middle, I cut the cone in half so they were easier to glue in place.

Spring Porch Decorations

Spring is coming! Well at least here in Denver, we hope it is. It seems March is the most deceiving month of the year with 70 degree days followed by cold snowy ones. But the Crocus flowers are still sprouting up in the flower beds; a surefire sign that the weather will warm up soon. 

 

I bought this wooden letter E, my last initial, at Hobby Lobby for $7 on clearance. It was already painted with a chevron design that I loved, but the colors were white and grey, so it blended in with the brick. It was easy to paint over just following the existing stripes.