I was feeling oatmeal this morning, but…

I couldn’t resist this fresh-baked loaf of Great Harvest Honey Whole Wheat hubby picked up yesterday (ok it’s like a day old, but it’s pretty darn fresh!)

I ended up with toast with real butter, a fried cage free egg and half an organic orange.

With nice, hot coffee of course.

Bailey was looking so cute today. I had to take some photos.

Hot tulsi tea (no sweetener) in Chai Masala.

I was on phone conferences during lunch, so I just grabbed some random stuff.

An Amy’s veggie burger and some pretzels (because I was craving something salty).

Edamame

Great Harvest toast with Earthfare Organic Pomegranate jelly and chia seeds.

I took care of some giveaway packages (been procrastinating on these…not gonna lie. Sorry! Things have just been so crazy around here lately!). While I still need to officially announce winners, I’ve got a few packages packed up and ready to drop off for delivery. yay!

I snacked on one of Julie’s Chai Tea Scones while I worked on my bloggie projects.

Salad for dinner – baby romaine, sunflower seeds, Drew’s Rosemary Balsamic dressing.

Pizza for dinner! I had 1 1/2 slices of cheese with bell pepper and red onion and 1 slice of cheese.

Hubby even picked up some panna cotta gelato for dessert. Yum yum!

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I have to work an hour-ish away from town and be there at 8am, so it’s going to be an early morning for me. Eek! Did I mention I still have to pack? Yup, the bad news is that I have to commute nearly 2 hours tomorrow. The good news is that it’s on the way to see hubby’s mom. We’re visiting her this weekend and I’ve got a bloggie meet-up planned, too! Fun fun!

I have several posts and pages in the work, and I finally completed one this week…

Check out my new Plateware page (click to view)!

By the way, since ladies figure skating is on tonight, I thought I’d mention…did you guys know I used to ice skate? Yep…here’s proof. Ok, rusty proof, but still…lol

So, the figure skating fan in me cannot pry myself away from the TV. Though I have to be up far earlier than normal, I can’t stop watching. Gah!

What are you up to this weekend?

The Chic Life has a new look! What do you think of my bloggie makeover? Not too shabby, eh? I would hope not considering how many hours (and hours and hours) I poured into it over the weekend.

I’ll go into the nitty gritty of how I moved my blog another day…maybe this weekend?

For now, I want to C-E-L-E-B-R-A-T-E!!!!!!!!!!

What better way to celebrate than with a giveaway?

Since I’m feeling generous, I’m offering three different prizes for three different winners! More chances to win is always a plus, no?

Most of you guys know I make jewelry (under my biz name D Celestine).

I put a little something together just for you my dear readers.

On the to the swag!

Option #1 – A Handmade Sterling Silver and Onyx Gemstone Necklace

This necklace has a modern touch with a hammered oval as part of the pendant. This classic style necklace with a modern twist would look great with any outfit!

The jewelry may be shipped to either the US or Canada.

Option #2 – A Pair of Handmade Sterling Silver and Rainbow Crystal Earrings

These little dazzlers would add a punch of fun to any outfit. The rainbow crystal color makes these earrings go with almost any color!

The jewelry may be shipped to either the US or Canada.

Option #3 – A Batch of Dreena’s Homestyle Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

You don’t have to be vegan to fall in love with these cookies! Trust me, I’m a meat eater and I’m a big fan of them!

These can only be shipped to the US.

Giveaway Details

• Entries accepted for one week – till next Thursday, February 4th, 2010.
• Each entry must be entered as a separate comment to count.
• Winners will be selected randomly.
• First winner selected will have choice of the 3 options.
• Second winner selected will have choice of the remaining two.
• Third winner selected will receive the remaining prize (if the remaining prize is the cookies and you live in Canada, I will work out a different jewelry gift – I can’t afford to ship the cookies to Canada…sorry!).
• The jewelry may be shipped to either the US or Canada.
• The cookies can only be shipped to the US.
• Winner will be notified via email.
• If winner doesn’t respond within 48 hours of when the email notification went out, another winner will be selected.

Five Fabulous Ways to Enter

• Leave a comment on this post saying which item you’d like to win and where you think I should eat out once my Eat in Month challenge is over.
• Blog about and link to this contest.
• Tweet about and link to this contest.
• Add The Chic Life (the new URL) to your blogroll/link list (or update the link to my new URL).
• Subscribe to my NEW blog feed. (or update your current subscription to the new site).

IMPORTANT – for each entry, leave a separate comment. Your entries must be in separate comments for them to count.

That’s it! Simple, no? Now, who wants to win some free stuff?!

The first half of the day was about as busy as normal, but we had so much to do after work.

I had plans to make an important trip just after work to visit an office that closed at 5:30pm. Of course, the meeting that was supposed to end at 5pm ended late, so I totally missed my visit! Grr…wouldn’t have been so upset if I hadn’t been putting the trip off all week because I couldn’t fit it into my work schedule.

I stopped by Trader Joe’s to pick up stuff for dinner.  You should have seen my basket…I swear, if it weren’t for the sour cream I bought, you-da thought I was vegan (or at least vegetarian) ! lol I had soy creamer, veggie masala burgers, and other good stuff in my basket.

I was starving by the time I got home and started on dinner immediately – Beef Strogonaff! For the first time, instead of mincing my mushrooms, I sliced them up and even added more than usual. Perhaps I am starting to like them after all these years?

I love how easy beef strongonaff is. I wish it cooked up faster, but at least the easy part is a score.

I normally serve my beef strogonaff over egg noodles, but we were out!  Who knew? 

I decided bowties were the next closest thing around. Paprika and parsley are the perfect garnish.

Round 2 – not as pretty, just as tasty

Bailey was sleepy all night…must be the weather

While I worked on a jewelry order post-dinner….

Hubby played Santa Claus delivering our hot cocoa mix and cookies to some friends.

I snacked on some of our treats – an Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookie…

…a piece of Cookies and Cream bark…

…and a handmade caramel.

Hubby and I are thinking of making chocolates for Christmas next year. I think that’s pretty awesome!

As if we hadn’t done enough in the day, we had plans to visit my fam this weekend. With reports that icy/snowy weather would hit town in the morning, we decided to take a late trip out of town.

After leaving work (later than expected), grocery shopping, cooking dinner, delivering gifts, and making a jewelry order, we still had to pack and hit the road.

It was 11pm by the time we got in the car, but we were worried about not being able to go at all if we didn’t leave when we did.  We made it to my parent’s house safe and sound, though quite tired.

Phew!

How many trips will you be making to visit friends and family for the holidays?

My good friend Courtney was kind enough to think of me for an event where she thought I could sell some jewelry.

The event was inside the super chic salon where she works.

I set up inside the “nail room.”

I had my booth setup and lookin pretty good, but alas…I made no sales. Talk about Jewelry Show FAIL! And at no fault of Courtney’s or the salons…guess the recession is just really hitting people.

I drowned my sorrow in chocolate and wine. I had all these M&Ms and a small glass of red wine. I never made it to the white…it was given to me accidentally.

After the show, we went out to a tapas restaurant/bar called blue where Courtney wanted to have some drinks and so some birthday dancing. See, my visit to Courtney was twofold: 1. jewelry show 2. celebrate Courtney’s b-day.

It was late by the time we got to the restaurant but I still wanted dinner, so once we found a table in the bar area, I got a caprese salad and crabcakes. The lighting inside was non-existent, so after seeing my first photo was pretty awful, I decided to not try to shoot the crabcakes. It was all very good, though, and I was happy to work some extra veggies into the day’s eats.

I crashed at Courtney’s place and met her son William when we got home later that night. He was awake with grandma. I forgot to ask if it was ok to post photos of him, so here he is without a good facial shot (I should have asked because that boy is a cutie pie!).

Poor William was not a happy camper that night and screamed all night long. One may think the screaming child would deter me from wanting children but he was so darn cute, I’d say meeting him tilted me in the other direction.

In the AM, I had some coffee in a hilarious mug.

Breakfast: plain bagel toasted – 1/2 with strawberry cream cheese and 1/2 with plain organic cream cheese.

The weather around lunchtime was gorgeous!

I decided to revisit a new fave at lunch from Jason’s Deli.

Steamed veggies, French onion soup, Turkey Reuben – oh so good…all of it! Esp that tangy flavor on the sammie.

Hubby had a treat waiting for me at home. He knew I’d had a rough jewelry show, so he got me a little treat – donuts from a local bakery. I had mine with some 2% organic milk from Earthfare.

Oh yea! A sweet ending to a rough show. Hey, at least I got some QT with my good friend Courtney and got to meet her son. I’ll call that a WIN!

So behind on everything lately it seems! I have tons of comments to respond to, blog posts to write, de-cluttering to do, flashcards to study…phew!

This past Sunday (yesterday), I tried to multi-task to the best of my ability and decided to take some “me time” to start clearing out my DVR list (which seems to forever be 100% complete). I watched What Would Brian Boitono Cook (a little cheesey, but the figure skater in my LOVED it…and of course, Brian is amazing…the show made me wish he was my friend so we could hang out and cook and talk skating and foodie stuffs) and a DVR’ed Cold Case PLUS I caught a live Cold Case re-run, sans DVR.

While I caught up my TV shows, I made and prepared a jewelry order for my biz D Celestine.

I made a pair of my Tiki Chici earrings. I think these would make AWESOME beach earrings!

Dinner was easy as pie, but I was disappointed by my veggie. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE peas, but I had picked up some brussels sprouts earlier in the day from TJ’s and as I prepped them, they had all these icky black spots all over them – some that seemed to go to the deepest layer (I was trying to just peel off the outside layers after trimming the bottom).

My frozen green peas saved the day. They microwaved up quite nicely.

Yummy white wine & herb rotisserie chicken breast from The Fresh Market . I re-heated this in the oven at 350 degrees F for 15 minutes, wrapped in aluminum foil. It wasn’t quite enough time, but I was hungry, so I zapped the chicken in the microwave briefly to bring up the heat.

One of those Virginia Rolls from Great Harvest from the Animal Kneads event earlier in the day served as my carb.

Make that two rolls…with a little dab of real butter.

I mean LOOK at it! Could you resist this fresh-baked, tender, deliciousness? I think not.

Anywho, late phone conference tomorrow, but hoping to catch up on comments soon at least. Have a great week!

Besides de-cluttering my clothes, magazines, and other belongings, I’m also currently working on downsizing my jewelry inventory, for my jewelry biz, D Celestine Limited. D Celestine features jewelry designs that I create and make with own 2 little hands. I’m going to be adding some jewelry designs that I’ve priced ready to MOVE to my etsy account:

I’ll throw a couple full-price items in there, but I’m hoping to mostly use my etsy account to list my sale items. Some of the items are a little on the pricey side, but sometimes the materials used and time it took to make a particular design run my price calculations on the higher side…even after discounts.

Take a looksie and let me know what you think! I’ll try to update here on TCL when I add new stuff. Proceeds from my sales going to my (hopefully) new house!! Woot-woot!

This morning started with a nice big bowl of Blueberries N Cream Oats. No, I’m not doing a food journal, but I will try to share the foods I think are extra cool and/or photogenic.

I spent a loooooong day in training…all day! It was an interesting session, but I was pretty drained by the end of the day.

Since I was so tired and had so much to do after work, I kept dinner super simple. I just picked up some boneless, skinless chicken breasts and a can of pinto beans. It only ran me about $7. The rest of dinner was pulled together using pantry items and leftovers.

I used the pinto beans to do a play on peas and rice…a dish we frequently saw in the Bahamas last year during our wedding and honeymoon. I also did sauteed chicken breasts seasoned with spices and garlicky-sauteed spinach. I made a bit of a pan gravy to top the chicken since we had some chicken broth in the fridge getting ready to go bad.

Hubby let me try a bit of his beer – Grolsch? He said he got a 6-pack of this beer because he thought I’d like it, but I didn’t even get one! Guess I don’t drink enough or fast enough, at least.

I spent the rest of the night doing jewelry-related things. My bride came by just before dinner to pick out her honorary bridesmaid and flower girl jewelry designs and after she left, I had one necklace to make and lots of packaging.

I love my little boxes for my jewelry biz – D Celestine

Four of the boxes contained these pretty sterling silver and Swarovski crystal earrings.

Personalized tags I had the bride sign while she was over.

I hope the girls like their jewelry! I get to see my bridesmaid jewelry in action for the first time (as a guest – made jewelry as a bridesmaid for the other bridesmaids once) since I’m actually invited to this wedding, which will take place this weekend. Can’t wait!

Hubby and Bailey cuddled on the couch while I worked. Look at that tongue!

Caught him blinking.

What a cutie pie!

Phew…it’s past 11 pm and I haven’t even packed for Minneapolis! I’m leaving tomorrow afternoon and have to go to work in the morning…yikes! Better get to stepping! Toodles!

So, besides all of the house-hunting fun, I’ve been a pretty productive girl lately. Sunday was also a day of baking and jewelry making. After making those Honey Oat biscuits for breakfast, I decided to bake chocolate chip cookies with hubby after dinner.

We stopped by the grocery store on our way home from our pizza dinner and ended up picking up a bag of Nestle Tollhouse semi-sweet chocolate chips for some serious cooking-baking.

I’ve always thought the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip package to be the best…haven’t found one that beats it yet (though I am open to suggestions).

Madagascar vanilla extract – one of my fave baking ingredients

Mixing it up

Adding the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. I subbed my white wheat flour I got at TJ’s earlier for the regular flour in the recipe.

Lookin good already!

I made the cookies too big…probaby twice as big as they should have been thereby causing them to bake strangely. I mean, the recipe said it yielded 5 dozen (seriously!?) but I only got about 30-ish? Forgot to count.

They tasted good and that’s all I really cared about. Especially with some lovely 1% milk.

Chocolate chip cookies are the best!

So besides all the baking fun (which hubby is really enjoying!), I’ve been working on a very important project – wedding jewelry!

Specifically, I’m making jewelry for a good friend’s wedding, including: 5 bridesmaids necklace/earring sets, and jewelry for an honorary bridesmaid and 2 flower girls.

I have a couple options for the the bride, so I can’t wait to show her the finished jewelry so she can make her selections! Wedding jewelry is my fave to make.

Btw, no update on the house situation just yet. I saw 2 that really get me thinking and 1 I kind of want to make an offer on, but I dunno…hubby and I will have to make lots of changes to afford a house, but maybe it’s time to change? I know I need to downsize on all my stuff, so I definitely have some clutter clearing projects in my near future. I’m actually a bit of an organization junkie, so I’m looking forward to a good day of projects.

Has any one out there been house-poor? If you bought a house, were you happy being either house-poor or not house-poor?

Sorry to get this up so late today, but I had a lot to say about my new SCBR plan.

Click here to learn more about the weekly food challenge and how you can play along. But, basically, you just make something during the challenge week with the weekly challenge food item and add your link to this post (leave a comment with your URL and I'll add it). See, simple!

This Week's Challenge Item (2/1 – 2/7) – Turmeric:
According to Parker-Pope, from her article "The 11 Best Foods You Aren't Eating", "The “superstar of spices,” it may have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. How to eat: Mix with scrambled eggs or in any vegetable dish."

But wait…there's more! The main reason I selected this item is because it's supposed to help with joints, and my wrist often bothers me because of all the jewelry making. According to Johnny Bowden in The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth , turmeric has been used to help with arthritis, muscle pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, and liver ailments and has shown to reduce numbers/size of tumors in animals in some studies. Bowden also points out that "While no one is claiming that turmeric cures cancer, there is plenty of reason to believe that it is a really useful adjunct to the diet of everyone concerned with staying healthy."

Oddly enough, Turmeric was also mentioned in one of the magazines I just got – Whole Living – Body + Soul in an article by Charlyne Mattox. According to her article, Power Foods: Tumeric, "Both beneficial and intensely flavorful, this ancient Indian seasoning is a must-have for every kitchen spice cabinet."

Have I convinced you to try this yet?

If you're thinking that you're scared to try adding this spice to your food because you don't know what to do with it, check out the next section.

Recipe Ideas:
According to Mattox, turmeric can stain easily, so cook with caution!

• Bowden suggests adding turmeric to scrambled eggs and omelettes.
• Mattox suggests adding turmeric to "legumes and vegetables, such as lentils and cauliflower, and meats like chicken and lamb. Saute the spice in a little oil before adding to other ingredients."
• Oven Roasted Cauliflower with Turmeric and Ginger – Bobby Flay
• Saffron Spaghetti alla Carbonara – Rachael Ray
• Tandoori Chicken with Mashed Chick Peas and Pepper and Onion Salad – Rachael Ray
• Taj Mahlolla! Chicken – Guy Fieri
• Indian Curry Lamb Skewers with Mint-Grilled Nectarine Chutney with Pita Recipe – Bobby Flay
• Easy Chicken Burritos with Mojo – Tyler Florence
• Sweet and Spicy Brussels Sprouts – Rachael Ray
• Sauteed Shrimp Cocktail – Giada DeLaurentiis
• Better Than Grannie's Creamed Corn – Alton Brown
• Chicken Enchiladas with Roasted Tomatillo Chile Salsa – Tyler Florence (this one had a ton of reviews – 269 reviews – and 5 stars!)
• Cuban Spiced Pork Tenderloin and Soffrito Rice – Rachael Ray
• Curried Couscous – Ina Garten

How to Play:
Any one can play along for fun, but if you want to go for the prize (since there is one this week – yay!), you have to do the following:

• Cook/prepare something during the challenge week (2/1-2/7) with turmeric
• Do a blog post about what you made – each post will count as one entry, but you can't enter 2 posts about the same challenge dish
• Add the Challenge banner (the muffin photo – available here – click) to your blog post
• Leave me a comment to let me know you did your post so I can add you link to the list

The Prize:
Up for grabs is this fabulous pair of earrings, which I will make with my two little hands just for you

Just Chipper

Happy cooking!

The Players:

1. Maggie – Snappy Vietnamese Vegetable Soup
2. Amy – Mac-n-Cheese with Broccoli and Tomatoes
3. BumbleVee – Peanutty Chicken
4. Betherann – Indian Eggs

Thank you ladies for the wonderful tumeric-dishes!  I'll post the winner via a separate post.  Winner will be chosen by random number generator.  Good luck!

I've been meaning to participate in the impromptu color week challenge over at Burrow House all week, but keep forgetting.  Well, not today!  Today, I bring you Blue Day Thursday:

We took Bailey for a quick lunch-time walk.  Check out his blue leash.

The weather was lovely…a bit cold & windy, but the blue sky made up for it.

When we got back, I found some things to photograph around the kitchen to photograph, including this blue teacup and saucer.

Here's my blue Martha Stewart cast iron pot – we got this as a wedding gift from some family friends.

Here we have my blue peppermill – a treat I got for the kitchen last time I was at Anthropologie.

Here are a couple strands of blue beads from my blue bead stash.

Another look at those blue briolette beads.  Bails stands guard in the background.

Anywho, I had a great time taking photos of colorfully blue things today.  I'm hoping to remember to get a post together for tomorrow, too!

Check out the blue things over at Burrow House by clicking here.