all week junior has been reediting some old favorites in black and white and posting them over on instagram.  they are just all slaying my life right now so i needed to share!!  i love how these new edits give the pictures a different feeling.  i highly recommend following along on instagram as he continues to post.  he always writes the best captions!!













i absolutely love this concept!  what do you guys think??

photographs by blissfulkaos.  

i volunteered to make lasagna for easter sunday dinner and then my mom told me to be at her house by 2:30.  which meant i had to have everything cooked and be dressed and ready to leave the house by 2:00.  and it usually takes me about 4 to 5 hours to make lasagna, so that was just not going to work out.

i decided to make the sauce saturday night and have it ready so that all i had to do sunday morning was prepare the lasagna and pop it in the oven.  doing this made my life so much easier!  actually, i may make lasagna more often than just once a year now that i figured out i can make the sauce the night before!  i think husband will be so happy.  it's one of his favorite meals ;)

so today, i'm going to share my lasagna recipe with you and show you how i made my meat sauce.  because let's face it, the sauce is what makes the lasagna good or bad!  i stole this recipe from my best friend, paula.  actually, most of what i know how to cook is because of her.  thank you, paulita linda for sharing your ways with me!

1. sauté/fry onions, garlic and tomatoes in oil until soft, add salt, pepper, garlic powder and adobo
2. add meat and cook until brown
3. add crushed tomatoes, both cans and paste (add tablespoon of sugar to cut acid)
4. wash and chop fresh basil and add
5. let cook for 2 hours-simmer on low with lid partially on.  stir every 15-20 minutes (cooked within an hour but the longer it cooks, the better)
6. in a separate bowl, mix eggs, a little salt and adobo and ricotta cheese
7. when sauce is done, take oven dish and add sauce on the bottom
8. layer pasta over the sauce, then ricotta cheese mixture, then sauce and shredded cheese, pasta, ricotta cheese, sauce, shredded cheese (layer 2 or 3 times)
9. top layer: no ricotta, just sauce and shredded cheese
10. cover with aluminum and cook according to time and temp on pasta box

and because sunday morning husband whipped out the camera while i was putting the lasagna together, here's a picture of me in my nightgown ;)


if you make this recipe, please let me know!!  do you have any special recipes you'd like to share??  i love cooking and trying out new dishes ;)

photographs by blissfulkaos.  

i hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!  we celebrated easter on sunday with my family and had such a great time.  it's always a good time when the crazies all get together ;)

we went to my mom's house and had so much delicious food!  i made lasagna, which is husband's absolute favorite!  he complains because he says i only make it once a year.  he's right, lol!  since i make the sauce from scratch, i like to let it cook for hours and it takes me all day long to make the lasagna from start to finish.  this time, i made the sauce the night before and just put everything together the next morning.  it came out just as good and i didn't have to slave in the kitchen for hours.  win-win!!

my mom was cute and gave my sister and me little gifts from the easter bunny.  she also made little "favors" for everyone else.  i totally get my creativeness from her!!  i always remember making little crafts with my mom to give as gifts to the family.  i'm so grateful that she is so crafty and puts little details into everything.  i learned from the best!

in other news, on friday husband and i did the adult thing and got our eyes checked.  we both ended up walking out of there with new glasses.  turns out we were both always tired and getting headaches for a reason.  who knew?  it feels good to be an adult...sometimes.











^^ i love my sissie poo!

tank top
blazer
pants
shoes (similar)

photography by blissfulkaos.  

happy spring, everyone!!

i found this tuturial on pinterest last year and just fell in love.  i knew immediately that i had to recreate it!  i had thoughts of making these botanical wood coasters for all of my friends and then i brought my head back down from the clouds.   i got a little ahead of myself.  i mean, it has taken me a least a year just to make a set for myself!!

at first i truly thought this little project was going to be way too much for me to handle.  but then i remembered what husband always says, what one man can do another can do.  so i collected all my supplies and went to town.  the process was way easier than it looks and i totally feel like i can make a set for everyone i know ;)

first i had to collect the wood slices.  this may seem easier then i'm making it sound.  collect wood slices?  can't you just go to the craft store and buy them?  yes, your're absolutely right.  but!  my local hobby lobby and michaels did not have much to choose from.  it was very hard to find wood slices that were roughly the same size.  once i had all my slices, i then had to find what images i wanted to print out on the wood.  i tried to get all creative and then realized i loved the botanical prints the best.  so that's what i stuck with ;)  the rest of the supplies were all things that i had on hand (wax paper, a credit card to help transfer the image, a printer, printer paper, scissors and tape).

i really love the way they came out and am excited to use them during these warmer months to add just a touch more of the outdoors into my home!  if you want to find step-by-step instructions on how to make these coasters, please check it out here!

if you haven't already noticed, i love blogs.  i've been reading blogs for years and there are a handful of blogs that i read daily.  i am always interested in finding new blogs to add to my list of daily reads.  i wanted to start a new feature here where i can highlight a few of the bloggers i'm currently crushing on and are so lovely!  hopefully you'll love them just as much as i do!


love taza is a lifestyle blog following naomi, her husband josh and their three littles.  i've been following this blog from way before little eleanor came into the picture and i absolute love them!



barefoot blonde is a hair, fashion and lifestyle blog following amber, her husband david and their two littles.  i started following amber on instagram because of her amazing hairstyles a few years ago.  i quickly fell in love with her and love watching her family grow.


cara loren is a fashion and lifestyle blog following cara, her husband brody and their two boys.  i love following cara because of her amazing fashion sense and her awesome hair!!



sometimes sweet is a lifestyle blog following danielle, her husband hank and their two little boys.  danielle has the most beautiful style of writing and i enjoy reading her posts so much!!

do you see a trend here?  all mommy bloggers!!  no, i'm not giving out any hints.  i just love bad-ass women that know how to juggle it all ;)  any blogs that you're loving lately??  do you have a blog?  let me know in the comments!!