Caesar Potato Salad Recipe

Not everyone loves classic potato salad, and for those of you who don't, I'm introducing the mayo alternative, Caesar potato salad.

PYRC #28: The Best Taco Soup

It's cold weather season, and that means soup. And this taco soup, specifically, is one for the books.

PYRC #27: Central Market Love Dip

Central Market's love dip is just way too delicious, and if you haven't had it before, you're missing out. As we devoured it at work one day with cocktail bread, I decided, “Why not make it?” I googled a recipe, pinned it and today am adding it to my never-ending Pinterest Yummy Recipe Challenge list.

Kapavik Family Christmas Reunion

My MeMaw is one of seven, and that equals a lot of family. To keep in touch and catch up with everyone, we do an annual Kapavik Christmas Family Reunion at the local KJT hall. We've been doing this for as long as I can remember.

This year it was my MeMaw's side of the family in charge. We dressed the hall with traditional Christmas decor. The kids crafted away on holiday projects. We played fun games. We feasted on tons of holiday and Czech food, and Santa even brought presents for the kids.

     

     

Chevron & Burlap No Sew Ruffle Tree Skirt

I haven't spent much time this year doing projects just for the fun of it. So in spirit of the holiday season, I took a day for myself to make this awesome no sew ruffle tree skirt.
 

Addition to the Family

No, we're not pregnant. We got a dog!

New Blog Design

After venting about how frustrated I've been the past year with my blog design, I finally committed to a new concept.

 

Whatcha think? It's been a long time coming, to say the least. I've brainstormed and drafted and designed, yet continued to scrap everything I created. Logos just aren't really my thing.

PYRC #26: Avocado Chicken Salad

If you're like me and you can't say no to chicken salad, then I'm sure you'll appreciate this avocado twist. I was lucky enough to whip up a personal sized serving for lunch using some leftover shredded chicken from my avocado enchiladas.

Randoms at Ross

If you know me well, you probably know I am a pretty frugal person, and I am a 100% sucker for a good deal, almost to a fault. With that being said, shopping at Ross is basically shooting an arrow into my Achilles heel. Why I am still allowed in that store (along with Target, World Market, Central Market and Hobby Lobby), I'm not really sure.

So what exactly gets me at Ross? Everything.

 

Even clothes sometimes.

 

PYRC #25: Chicken Enchiladas with Avocado Cream Sauce

What do you get when you cross a Mexican food craving, no desire to spend money eating out and a plethora of ripened avocados? Homemade chicken enchiladas with avocado cream sauce.

Thank You PicMonkey

For as much as I blog, I often feel like such a rookie. Yeah, maybe I'm being a bit harsh on myself, but my blog is totally DIY, make- it-work just like everything else in my life.

• My formatting is always cursed with random spaces and fixing it each time has come down to a methodical science (why does everything quadruple space when I paste from word?)
• My fonts are sometimes inconsistent even though I continue to select the “default” font
• My blog design is not near what I imagine and envision, and I spend HOURS googling HTML code to fix things that I typically can't figure out how to fix
• I've made dozens of attempts at a new logo and background, yet I do not love any enough to actually commit 
• My layout is not how I'd like it, but once again I waste time trying to learn HTML to fix it, and it still doesn't fix
• My efforts to recruit followers (yeah, I only have 21) have also been a fail
• I have no idea how to easily watermark photos or add cute tags
• Making photo collages has always been a nightmare using some janky online collage tool or trying to rig them in Photoshop

The problem is that I want to be an expert. The reality is that I'm not. I'm a self-taught blogger with an extremely creative eye who is trapped in frustration because I can't make my blog look the way I want it to look or do the things I want it to do. My figure-it-out methods have simply just not worked.

So, why am I venting these frustrations that have irritated me for the past year? Because I want to say THANK YOU to PicMonkey for giving me a glimmer of hope.

Pic Monkey makes photo collages. Pic Monkey is easy. And best of all, Pic Monkey is free! Hallelujah, amen, thank goodness... and I don't even have to register to use it! Check out some of my DIY Wedding collage examples below that I made from PicMonkey.

 

Liebster Blog Award

In addition to my first feature last week, I told you I had some more exciting blog news to share. In my rookie year of blogging, I have been nominated by Susan at Organized 31 for the Liebster Blog Award!

What is the Liebster Award?

A designation given by bloggers to other up-and-coming bloggers with less than 200 followers. With only 19 followers (come on people, I know I have more frequent visitors than that), I definitely qualify. The purpose of it is to show appreciation, sprinkle some kudos and help spread the word about blogs. I must say, it DEFINITELY made me feel loved.

I've Been Featured!

I am more than happy to announce that my ugly bookshelf makeover has been featured on Roadkill Rescue.

My DIY Wedding

Ok, so I'm almost one month past my one-year anniversary, but that doesn't mean I still can't celebrate it with this DIY wedding post.

I'm Czech and from the small town of Ennis, and with that came a big Czech wedding. In order to host such an event yet still remain within a budget, that meant DIY everything, not necessarily on my own, but DIY nonetheless. Here's a snapshot, because I'm pretty sure I have MANY more photos, of the DIY work that made our wedding more than extra special:

"Save the Date" painted for/during our Save the Date video announcement

The Home Depot Hot Dog Man

My town may not have street food vendors, but who cares when you have the Home Depot hot dog man?

PYRC #24: Egg-in-the-Hole Burger

Who wouldn't get excited about this post? It's a burger with an egg baked inside! Ok, maybe the people who are totally creeped out by having an egg on their burger, but that is totally not me.

West Texas Adventures: Scenic Tour

Ah, the conclusion of our West Texas trip. I've featured Fort Davis, Alpine and Marfa, and all I have left is the scenic view.

By the last day of our trip, we had exhausted most of our to-do, to-see resources, especially since many of the local businesses were closed on Sunday. Taking a tip from an Eskimo Hut local, we chose to take a scenic drive through the mountains, around the outskirts of Big Bend, through Lajitas and along the border of Mexico. The approximately five hour trip definitely had some nice views.

 

 

West Texas Adventures: Marfa

If you haven't heard of Marfa, it's an eclectic, artsy town that is planted in the middle of what-seems to be nowhere.
 

West Texas Adventures: Alpine

Welcome to Alpine!

West Texas Adventures: Fort Davis

For our one year anniversary (which was Monday), we indubitably had to plan a trip. Contending places included Savannah, Mexico, the Hill Country, San Francisco and Marfa, amongst others. For a plethora of reasons, we chose Marfa, which entailed an eight hour low-key, relaxing road trip to some interesting West Texas towns. Jeff did a college advertising campaign on Marfa, and I did one on the nearby UT McDonald Observatory; so needless to say, a trip that direction had been on our radar for quite some time. Throughout the weekend we visited Marfa, Alpine and Fort Davis, and then drove our way through the outskirts of Big Bend and along the border of Mexico.
 

PYRC #23: Grilled Marinated Mushrooms, Crockpot BBQ Ribs and Baked Zucchini Sticks with Sweet Onion Dip

As a recap and in case you're wondering what PYRC means, it stands for Pinterest Yummy Recipe Challenge. Back in January I challenged myself to actually make the recipe pins that I tagged to my Yummy Recipes board. I started with mushroom soup and now over 10 months later, I'm 23 posts and 35+ recipes deep.

Grilled Marinated Mushrooms

Garden Still Growing

I planned a post a month or two ago about the success and death of my first garden (even referenced it in a post or two), but then, somehow, there was an unexpected change in weather, the heat dropped, moisture came in, and my plants survived! Aside from jumping for joy over what I thought was the perfect Texas summer (100+ degree days kept to a minimum), I was even more thrilled to keep my vegetables growing.