Since it's Cinco de Mayo, I'm making a yummy dish tonight. I made enchiladas last night and tonight I am making Mexican Pizza! This is so yummy! The black bean spread definitely makes this dish! If you haven't gone to Annie's Eats, then you are definitely missing out!

This coming weekend is so busy! My mom is moving and one of my college friends is having her engagement party. Now, I've debated with a few people whether you are supposed to take a gift to an engagement party. At the end of the day, I decided I'd rather show up with a gift, than not! We were very close in college. We were best friends, roommates, attached at the hip! So I wanted to give her a gift inspired by a gift that I got when I was engaged. I decided to make her a picnic basket for two. Mine had a vintage twist to it. As much as I love the vintage twist on mine, that is not her personality. So I found a cute little picnic basket and lined it with a fun table cloth that can be used to sit on during a picnic. I bought two glass plates and two wine glasses. I also bought two forks, spoons, and knives and tied them with some turquoise raffea. I also bought a bottle of wine and wrapped it with some cute paper from Paper Source and then put a tag on it with a message reminding them to always take time for just the two of them. I added a cookbook, that had some good recipes for picnicing and wine bottle stopper. I hope she likes it!

I've finally caught up on my one book a month this year. These are the books that I have read so far. Spoken from the Heart by Laura Bush was the culprate in making me fall so far behind. I started out flying through the book but, by the time she hit the part where they were in the White House, I lost speed. It just drug on and on! But I powered through and finally finished it. I decided I needed some quick books to catch me up. My next book was Uncharted Territori by Tori Spelling. I don't read for eduaction purposes. I read for entertainment and her books are pretty entertaining and quick to read. My next book was Water for Elephants! This book was ah-mazing!!!!! I loved it and I can't wait to see the movie. The last book I read was Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks. His books are always fast reads for me. This was a good one and it actually had an unexpected ending. If you like Nicholas Sparks, then you will need to read Safe Haven.

But now it's May and I need to start a new book. I have a few books being shipped from Amazon right now, including Something Borrowed. That movie looks good too. I'm just one of those people that likes to read the book before seeing the movie. At the beginning of this, Manny had asked if he could pick just one of my books for the year. I don't know why I said yes. We have absolutely nothing in common when it comes to the things we read. He's an English major for goodness sake! He reads for education purposes 9 times out of 10! I read smut!!!! Haha! So he picked the DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. Manny is a huge Dan Brown fan and is really excited for me to read this book. I'm thinking that I'm about to get behind again. We shall see. I will read it. I did promise after all.

First, I am so excited that I have finished my student teaching and am officially a certified teacher! Yay!!!!! I learned so much and I will miss the class! I've had a few crafts and projects in the past few weeks.

This is a picture of the thank yous I made for all the ladies at school that helped me out during my student teaching. Since I work part time at Paper Source, I had to do something cute. So I got paper bag envelopes and lined them with the tan and turquoise paper. I used pool colored cards and favor boxes and stamped the bird stamp on both with a harbor colored ink pad. Then I heat embossed them to give them a little more of a punch. I made strawberry cake balls and put them inside the favor boxes. I love the way it turned out!

This is the shadow box I made for Manny with all his Navy stuff. This is what he asked for, for his birthday. (His birthday was in January! Gasp, I know!!!! Bad wife!) I bought some navy and white paper from ,where else, Paper Source. I glued the paper to the shadow box and then attached everything with Velcro. I was a bit intimidated with this project but, it turned out to be pretty easy!

Spring break was almost 2 weeks ago. I've been meaning to post these pictures but, I just haven't gotten to it. I started off spring break with strep throat. I left school that Friday with a 103 degree fever. When Manny got home we immediately went to the urgent care clinic in Bee Caves (which is FABULOUS)!!!! They diagnosed me with strep throat and I got meds. My mom came into town to spend a few days with me. I felt horrible that I was sick but, I felt better after a day or two. The fever lasted only one day so that took away most of what was making miserable. My mom and I have been talking about taking a reupholstering classes but, who has time for that? I will take a class one day but, it will have to wait. My mom had a book about reupholstering and I told her that I would let her experiment on a chair that I have. After all the moving I've done with this chair, it was tired and dirty and needed to be brought back to life! I love the size of it and it is so comfy!!! It just was worn out from being moved all over Texas! So my mom dove in. I didn't think I would be nervous because my mom is uber-crafty!!! She told me she read the book, which really meant that she scanned over it a few times. I got nervous when she started ripping off fabric! It turned out amazing!!!! She did an awesome job! I was really impressed! The last part of spring break, I went home to Conroe. I got to help babysit my sweet little cousin Anna. She's so stinking cute!!!! I also got to see the newest member of the family, Blake Patrick Jones. He is absolutely adorable. All these babies gave me bad baby fever!!! I also got to see the craft barn that my mom and BethAnn have done. BethAnn's husband, Anthony, built it and they cuted it up! I'll post pics when it's all done and decorated it! I'm jealous that I don't live closer to get to use it!!!!

This is when I got really nervous. Manny started ripping fabric off too! He was a big help!

At this point I was thinking about what I had gotten myself into!

But look at the finished product!!! I bought the floral fabric cheap last summer at Hancock's for $5/yard! I bought 10 yards. If I wanted it all the same fabric, I would need about 12-13 yards. I like the 3 different fabrics though.

Once again, I have been so busy lately. I'm in the midst of student teaching and still loving it. I'm at the point where I'm teaching the full day so it's been a really good learning experience. I'm still working at Paper Source which is always fun. Getting my hands on crafts while I'm at work is so fun. Since the last time I blogged quite a bit has been going on. We had Valentine's Day and my birthday thrown in there. I've also gotten two projects done. I'm so excited about them. The first is my peacock project! Below is the inspiration picture.

This is the final product! I love it. I love love love the way it came out. I took an old canvas that I bought in college and glued some craft paper to it that had some script on it. Then, the wonderful Rusty Braun cut this peacock out for me with vinyl. I'm sure he will never accept a project from me again because the last two were both pains in the butt, this one especially. He did an awesome job. He is also the one that cut the vinyl out for my subway art canvas hanging over Manny's desk. After my mom and I laid the vinyl on top of the canvas, we painted the teal color and then peeled it off. I love it! My room is now complete. I always love when a project is done but, then I feel like I need another one to do. Thank you so much Mr. Rusty!!!!

This was also another project that I've been wanting to do. I had been trying to decide what paper to buy at work. We have tons of beautiful papers and I knew I wanted to cover the inside of this thing. With a glass front, it needed some pizazz instead of just boring white. I love this paper. It makes the table look 10 times better.

This is a close up of the paper.

Now on to Valentine's Day. Let me start off by saying that I'm not the biggest Valentine's Day fan. The holiday never seems to really work out for Manny and I. Last year, I had planned dinner for us but his ship didn't come in until after Valentine's Day. This year, since it landed on a convenient Monday, we couldn't do anything that day since Manny had school. I thought maybe we'd just skip it. I got Manny a little gift but wasn't really planning on anything. I had to work the Sunday before Valentine's Day. When I got home, my sweet husband had this surprise waiting for me. He had flowers and chocolates. He even arranged the chocolates into a heart. He made dinner and everything! Very sweet!!!!

After dinner, which was delicious, Manny gave me my Valentine's Day gift. It was really sweet. He had made a slide show to music of our relationship. I of course cried. I wasn't expecting something home made and for me that is the perfect gift on Valentine's Day. I took a picture of the first slide on the TV screen.

He even washed dishes!!!!! He washes dishes every night so this wasn't so out of the ordinary!
On a side note, the lovely beard he's sporting is gone! Thank goodness.

Next was dessert. Manny prepared smores because we always made them in Seattle. I'm not sure why we made them so much while we lived there but we did.

We even toasted the marshmallows in the fireplace like in Seattle too. The difference is that our Seattle fireplace was wood burning and this one you just flip a switch! They were really yummy!

This was Mija during the Valentine's festivities.

I can't believe I haven't blogged in so long. I have been crazy busy though. I went from nothing to do when I wasn't working to having a lot to do. I have started my student teaching and I am absolutely loving it!!!! This crazy arctic blast has been a bit nuts. I'm sure the kids are loving being off school but, I'm missing out on some good observation and practice time. I've learned a lot so far. I am really really liking it! I have also started a part time job at Paper Source. If you've never heard of it, it's a paper/craft store. Please, twist my arm to work there! ;) This is so not work for me. Anything crafty is right up my alley! I am loving it. If you are in Austin, stop by the store! I have a lot of crafting ideas that I want to do, so now that the store is open, I can start doing them. With all this stuff on my plate, a lot of things have gone by the way side. It was hard for me to work 2 jobs and keep up my half marathon training. I plan to still run but, the half marathon will have to wait. I also, didn't finish my January book. I am still working on it. Hopefully I can get it read and my February book done before February is over. I love being busy again! Manny is back to the school grind. He has a ton of reading to do. 14 books for just one semester! Yikes!!!! All's good around the Pina household! I'll try to post some fun crafty stuff soon.

If you are anything like me, when you go shopping for a wedding gift you want to get something that will stick out in the couples mind long after the wedding has past. I mean anyone can get them mixing bowls or a spatula. Getting all that stuff is amazing and much appreciated but, I got a few gifts that were incredibly personal and touching! Let me say that my mom has an amazing group of friends! They are not only amazing to her but, to me also. I kept telling my mom that I needed to go to "wife school" when I got engaged. I was by far the furthest thing from domestic when I got engaged. I didn't think that I would be very good at some of the more traditional wifely duties. I guess my mom relayed this message back to her friends. They are all crafty and come up with some really cool and unique ideas. Here are a few of the things I got.

The flatware is actually antique! Don't you love special touches like that?!! I do!!!

This is another gift from Julie. This was more of an engagement gift. Julie made this scrapbook out of brown paper bags. There are tons of vintage looking paper, stickers, ribbon, etc. It is so cute!

There are cards that you can pull out and put pictures or write on. I put a picture of my engagement ring on one of them.

I focused on the dresses on this page. I put the swatches from my dress and my bridesmaid's dresses in there. I wrote down about the day I bought my dress too. Then I stuck some pics on the next page.

Some pictures from the wedding of me and my handsome groom! This was the perfect place to put the picture in the bottom corner. I wore a birdcage veil at my wedding and we had pinned it into my hair in multiple places. When it came time for the kiss, Manny went to grab the veil to lift it up! I quickly told him no! It would have been a disaster. Of course it got a good little laugh from everyone at the wedding. I thought it was a cute moment and I'm glad it was caught on camera and that I'm glad that my hair wasn't destroyed!

On this page I wrote down the lyrics to the song we danced to at our reception and put a picture from the reception on the next page.

This is the back of the book. I put a picture of us leaving in car! I just love this book! It's so fun to look at! Thanks Julie!!!! I just love the stuff you made me!!!

This next gift is from my mom's friends Sandra, Debbie, KK, Dana, Lori, and Lisa. Now I don't have a picture of it the way it was presented. It came in this cute round box. It was filled with recipes from each of the ladies, a recipe box, recipe cards, and apron, etc. They also put in advice to me. I took the advice that they gave me and put it on my bulletin board that you see immediately when you enter my house. Here's a few pics of that.

Some of my advice cards.

This was in the box too. It reads: Amy, When you were newly engaged you told your mom you needed to take a class on how to be a wife. Well...here is our "Wife In A Box." Then it lists what children define love as. It was so cute!

My mom sent me this video today that she was inspired by. Within the first 10 seconds I was inspired too. It made me think back to a time when I never left the house without a camera. Even in the good ole days when you bought those wind up disposables, I still had a camera with me. Back in high school and college, I took pictures of everything. I captured moments not only from the big events like prom, birthdays, and cotillions but also the normal everyday things like a silly Tuesday with friends. This video got me to thinking about why I don't do this anymore. I'm letting these years go by without having anything to look back on and remember them by except my own memory. Now that it's so easy to have a little digital camera in my purse 24/7, what's my excuse? I don't have one! There isn't one. I can only say that I will start keeping a camera on me at all times! That's a new challenge I am giving myself. So if you see me out, keep me in check and ask me if I have my camera! I challenge you to do the same!



Now onto my food inspiration. If you've read my blog before, then you know that I am a huge Annie's Eats fan! I read her blog, follow her on Facebook, and I must say I cook one of her meals at least once a week. I haven't encountered a bad one yet. Since I met Manny I knew I could make him happy by offering to cook two dishes: pizza and macaroni and cheese! I mean, when I moved to Seattle and looked in the fridge and pantry all I saw were Totino's frozen pizzas and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese! I've done really well in the pizza department. We've come a long way from frozen pizzas! Annie's Eats has given me some great pizza recipes and all have been ahhh-mazing! Now, I like mac-n-cheese just as much as the next person but, sometimes it needs a twist. And sometimes it needs to be a little better than the one that comes in the blue box. Why not add some other goodness in there besides cheese and pasta! Well it's Annie's Eats to the rescue. I made her Mushroom Herb Mac last night and it was sooooo good! It was a nice change of pace from the mainstream dish! My next mac-n-cheese recipe of hers to try is Creamy Taco Mac. I think it sounds good! We shall see!

I have finished my first project of 2011! We bought this desk back in October and immediately knew that we needed something to go over it. Instead of just buying any random picture to go up there, I thought it would be cool to do a subway art with words and sayings that are about our lives. So I bought a canvas and painted it black with some paint I had laying around. A family friend of mine cut the vinyl and I stuck it on! I love the way it came out. It looks really good over Manny's desk, just in time for him to go back to school. I have one more project that I'm waiting to complete. I'm having the same family friend cut a stencil for me.

Now that things are getting back to normal and I am finally feeling better from my allergies, I feel it's time to put those New Year's resolutions into affect! For 2011, I have decided to read one book each month. I am starting off with Laura Bush's book. I have a few other books in mind for the rest of the year. I'm not into reading for educational purposes. I like entertainment reading. Which is why Tori Spelling's latest book is on my 2011 list. Make fun all you want but, her first 2 books were pretty good! Manny is insisting on adding one book to my list. I feel this is a bit of a problem because we don't have the same taste in reading material. He is really pushing me to read a Dan Brown book. We will see if it makes the list. I am also running a half marathon on my birthday this year, which is only a little over a month and half away! I tried to run one back in college but, had to have a toe procedure suddenly. So I've been training for this one. It's going okay. The holidays were challenging as well as the allergies but, I'm working through it. Manny has decided to work on his "road rage" for 2011. He tends to get annoyed when other drivers don't follow his rules of the road!

We had a really great holiday season. It was very different from our quiet little first Christmas just the two of us in Seattle. This year we juggled all our families and it was a bit challenging but, turned out all right. We started off with Manny's family the weekend before Christmas. His mom and brother came to Austin the weekend before Christmas. I cooked my first lasagna and a really yummy Italian Sausage Soup. The next weekend we left for Fairfield on Christmas Eve. We hung out with my Dad's side of the family Christmas Eve and most of Christmas Day. It was really nice to be with them on the actual holiday. Christmas night we left and headed to Conroe. We went to have Christmas with my mom that night and then went to Manny's mom's house. Sunday was the big Christmas at Mimi's and the we made the journey back home to Austin that night. I was exhausted after Christmas! We had a really low key New Year's. We went to the DeShazo's and hung out. Nothing too crazy for our New Year's Eve. I had allergies really bad and Candice is expecting baby number 2 so we just played games and hung out. We actually got Will to play Just Dance 2! It was hilarious! I also found out that one of my best friends is expecting her first baby! I am so excited for Traci and Josh. 2011 will be a good year! I am hoping it's not a hectic as 2010 was. There will be no moving across the country so that cuts down half of last years chaos. Now all the decorations are down and the house is back to normal. I am looking forward to this year and hoping it's just as good as 2010 was to us! Happy 2011 everyone!

Manny got matching sweats so of course we had to have Kodak moment!

This was Mija most of the weekend. I think traveling stresses her out!

My dad's side of the family on Christmas.