Paper flowers

As many of you might guess from my puffy faced picture on Facebook- I had my wisdom teeth out on Friday. That left me with some free time over my Easter holiday. What better than to make something fun and pretty when you're bored laying around with gauze jammed into your cheeks?

I am graduating from COLLEGE in May! (Super excited at this, as you can imagine) So I was making some little paper invites from stuff that I had around the house. I literally have zero money to invest in fancy invitations, so these were totally free for me. Just took a lot of time.

To make these pretty little things all you need is a printer, three different colors of regular weight 8.5x11 paper, and a bit of needle and thread. 

First I made my paper flowers, by drawing with a sharpie very primitive flowers on the darkest color paper (as many as you can fit on a page, about 2-inch circles). I then placed the two other colors behind and cut out flowers on all three sheets. Place six little flowers (two of each color) in a pattern that is darkest to lightest repeated twice, dampen the paper with water and scrunch them up as tight as possible. Let the paper flowers dry. 

I then printed out my invites, tore the edges for a homemade look and also tore out background paper that was about a cm wider on every side. Once your paper flowers have dried, open and flatten them, and sow onto the top of the invites. After they are secured, crinkle each sheet individually to give a natural petal look & feel. 

These cute little paper flowers could go on anything! And I plan on having them around at my party :)

Kelly

Mrs. Lucas Pasta

With The Art Show and family in town things have been a bit hectic-- I haven't cooked in a week! (It truly is sad) But I have had the blessing of lots of free meals-- so that is always good for any college student :)

Here is a family favorite that my family and I made while they were in town. We lovingly call it Mrs. Lucas Pasta (our family friend who gave us the recipe).

Mrs. Lucas Pasta- cooked by my, stirred my Mama.

Here's the recipe:

Prepare half a box of penne pasta. Set 2-3 tablespoons of pine nuts in a small pan, roast on low and put aside. In a few tablespoons of olive oil, stir in 2-3 minced garlic cloves on medium heat. Add in halved cherry tomatoes and let soften for 5-7 minutes. Add in 10 leaves of loosely chopped fresh basil and 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinaigrette as you stir into pasta. Toss in roasted pine nuts. We love serving this with a french baguette popped in the oven for a few minutes (just to make it crunchy on the outside) with some butter. Simple good food-- full o carbs! 

Kelly

Mama's Banana Bread

I've been enjoying the lovely spring weather all weekend. So tonight I walked to the grocery store (gotta cut those outrageous gas costs somehow...) and as I was about to buy my usual Kashi breakfast bars, I had a vision of all the frozen bananas Trisha & I have been saving up in our freezer.

So-- I opted to buy the one ingredient I didn't have (Baking Powder) for a much cheaper cost and make my mom's banana bread for the week's breakfast. Saving money is the best. Plus-- this bread may or may not be way tastier than Kashi bars, as much as I love 'em.

Mom's Banana Bread, in my prized vintage Pyrex. 

More bread, more pyrex. All is well in the world. 

Can't wait to slice fresh pieces every morning. No butter needed, cause this stuff is one of my favorite's, just plain. Recipe? Top secret. 

Kelly

TACOS!

Okay-- let me just say these tacos were a.maz.ing. The pictures don't do them justice. But try out this recipe if you want some tasty treats. Plus it is like summer outside, so tacos are in order. With fresh tomatoes. GO!

Summer Tacos

Easy as one, two, three.

1. Grilled boneless skinless chicken breast, seasoned with salt, pepper, and cumin.

2. Stir up frozen yellow corn & black beans in red onion, olive oil and garlic. 

3. Serve with mont jack cheese and quartered small tomatoes, wrapped in corn or flour tortilla. I had some left over chips & salsa from out to eat, and it was a super happy dinner (and lunch the next day).

Happy eating!

Kelly

i love kansas city poster

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I'm putting on an art show with two other girls and a whole team of people this FRIDAY. We decided to make some posters as a give art back packet for our donors. Here's my contribution for our lovely donors. We love your art!

i love kc poster, kelly lawler

Taco post coming soon! Yummmm

Kelly

River Market

I've always been really into city life, but this weekend just made me fall in love all over again. I spent Friday night down at First Friday's (for all those Omahan's, first fridays is a big hipster-fest for art lovers in downtown KC the first friday of every month. Its great).

Saturday was baseball (I was ultra tempted to do a whole post about my love for sunflower seeds... its an obsession). Maybe someday.

But Sunday (starting to remind myself of a Rebecca Black remix...), Sunday was river market day. On my way to church I had some amazing iced espresso from Broadway Coffee in Westport, and would have been happy to leave the day at realizing it was warm warm warm enough that iced coffee was a must. But it got way better. Grocery shopping at River Market has got to be one of the best things about Kansas City.

My friend Liz (who apparently gets mentioned in this blog a lot) took me to a bakery in the market that I had never visited: Bloom. Heavenly bread. Other great part:  except to for the steak, I made this dinner straight from the market.

Really easy to make. Toss green beans, halved mushrooms, and loosely chopped red onions in olive oil, salt & pepper. Toss on the grill. Season steak with salt, pepper, and balsamic vinegar and sear on both sides. Cook to your preference, of course. While grilling I just chopped up the greens and made a dressing out of the vinegar & olive oil... tossed it together with some salt & pepper. And decided that my 3/$1 oranges would be tasty with this... which they were. 

Great Sunday. I love the city. 

Kelly

Sister Nite

My younger sister Emily loves pasta. Ever since this girl was a young child she's been completely enamored with all kinds of it: spaghetti, penne, lasagna... tortellini is a favorite. 


The girl is simply in love.

So, we had a sister night, and of course I made her carb of choice. Obviously a really simple meal, but the salad was my favorite:

-choice of favorite lettuce
-avocados
-red onion
-feta cheese
-greek dressing
-yum!

Classic.  

We even did some yoga to burn off all those carbs! Great to just hang out with family even away from home at college... needless to say Emily was very upset the next day when she realized she had left her spare container of parmesan cheese at my house. That stuff is her main food group. 

Kelly