Adventures in packing!

This is what my guest room likes looks like at the moment. My closet has thrown up all over the bed as I am trying to pick and chose what outfits to wear to my trip to Peru!

My family members are always dressed to the nines, even in the cold of winter over there. So I need to spruce up my outfit selection if I don't want to look like a frumpy traveler!

This is the Pinterest board I chose to help me with my selections!

I can't wait to tell you about my trip!

Mangos for you, mangos for me!

And SNL's Mango is who I think about whenever I talk about my own mango tree! I mean they are falling everywhere from my trees! What am I to do? I guess I must show them off to you!

I had already posted my Mango Chicken recipe [here], but I think these are some more recipes I will be testing out before mango season is over. And after mangos are done...we get avocados! So get ready to see these babies here too!

Self.com

Damndelicious.net

twopeasandtheirpod.com

Happy Pinteresting lovelies!

Fusion of the day: Korean/Peruvian/Cuban

So the other day I decided that it would be a great idea to just have  a wine, fruit, and cheese type of dinner. I mean, why not? You have your fruits, dairy, and your calcium! Healthy, right?!?

Yet, something told me it may not have been the best choice, but whatever. I needed to "wine" down. I was starting to get super anxious for my trip! Yipeeee!

The next day, my foodie friends saved me and decided I needed a sensible dinner. The stashed hubby and I in their car and drove us to a land not too far away, yet once we arrived to FINKA, it appeared that we had just traveled over 30 minutes to the "chic" area of Miami. "FINKA" is a deliciously amicable friendship between Peruvian/Korean/Cuban cuisine. I may be a little biased in regards to Peruvian being the tastiest cuisine, but really, the fusion, mesh, intro, presentation was to die for!

Early in the night, I asked the bartender to make me a "Chilcano" a refreshing mix of Pisco, lime juice, and ginger ale. So tasty!

Anyhow, here some of the dishes we had for dinner. And like all great foodies, we order plates to share! Everyone has to taste everyone's food! So dig in and see!

We were extremely pleased with the food and the prices! Yet, we felt a bit shafted since they did not take reservations on a Thursday night and we had a 50minute wait. Although the music was great and jamming, the volume could have been a bit lower. We were yelling at each other while seating a few inches across from each other at a table! But even with these comments, I would still come back here in a flash!

What would you do?!?!

Music Monday

Yes, I know, I am late. It is now Tuesday in my timezone as I am late by 45 minutes or so.

But who cares! Music is what makes the world go 'round anyway!

And this little Canadian chick makes all my 80s dancing dreams come true. Kiesza is like that piece of candy you found in your pocket after you thought you had finished all of your Halloween goodies. So sweet!

Baby Noah's Newborn Session

As you all know, I am a new tia! My sister had a beautiful baby boy named Noah and he probably has a modeling shoot every day! And if you have a baby (or fur baby), you know that you love filling your FB feed with countless pictures of your bundle(s) of joy.

Well, little sister is no different. To add, I was the one putting pics of my nephew up all over the place. I just love to stare at him, carry him, and I am just ready to spoil him rotten. I wanted to show you some of the newborn pics of Noah that I've taken with my SLR so here are a "few" pics of baby Noah. 

I didn't think it would be this hard to take newborn pictures!! It took me 3 days to get some good pictures with all of the outfits that my sister had gotten for him. He didn't want to cooperate, was fussy, and stayed awake for the most part.

Oh, and by the way, he is always frowning. Doesn't he have a "Come at me bro!" or "Why you mad bro?!" look?

On the plus side, I think I will be taking my hobby more seriously! I need to either take classes, or practice, practice, practice!!

Playing with colors

I recently decided to get a new 'do and play with some colors. And why not? I don't work during the summer and I won't have any parents looking at me weird for having crazy hair. I haven't colored my hair in over a decade, so I figured, it's time to try something new. And so I went a little wild and followed these pins for inspiration.

I really wanted to go for blue streaks, rather than purple, but I couldn't really find any blue streaks on Pinterest for me to show my stylist. She finally told me, that the blue would end up fading into green and she suggested to go for purple instead. Despite her suggestion, I still pushed blue streaks for my hair. Therefore, we compromised and she added both fashion colors to the blonde streaks she had to create on my hair in order to strip it of color.

She and I couldn't be any more happy with the results as she even took me outside to take pics to add to her Instagram!

And below, are my selfies. It's hard to appear inconspicuous when the neighborhood gardeners keep driving by.

Alhough I probably should've listened to her because two weeks later, my blue streaks are now beginning to fade into green. C'est la vie!

I totally love my new 'do and can't wait to wear it out and about....as long as its not hot, humid, nor raining. Then the color will bleed, I will begin to sweat, and the locks will turn into poof balls. 

Have you tried anything new lately?

Weekend photo dump: St. Augustine, FL

I've had a pretty good weekend even if my friend Claudia had to twist my arm to go with her. I wanted to save some money before leaving to Peru in a few weeks and she assured me we'd keep the budget low!

I had always wanted to visit St. Augustine. The oldest city in the United States. The idea was to leave early on Friday so we could walk around the city a bit and then watch the fireworks while sitting next to the Castillo de San Marcos. I will leave you with some pics taken on my iPhone, but I'll introduce you to my cannon photos in the near future!

Little did we know it would be HOT as BALLS in a brick oven! 

Luckily, this helped me sweat off all of the calories I ingested!

We ended up at the Mill Top restaurant for lunch since it was the only restaurant with covered seating for the six of us. And it was good!

Too bad we didn't see the list of drinks until after we had ordered! My favorite one was "Sand In Your Butt!"

We cheered on and cried for Colombia while they played against Brazil. All in all, it was a great game! 

That night, we watched one of the top most beautiful fireworks displays in Florida! 

I saw letters, stars, and stripes light up the sky!

 On our second day we did some more walking around in hot and humid weather. 

Below is proof that I got him on Love Lockdown!

We continued our stroll through St. Augustine the following day and stopped for some chicken wings and beer.

I had the most amazing Lasagna pizza here at Pizza Time!

Had some coffee and ate the most delicious desserts at "The Chocolate Turtle". The cafe shop is named after the dessert on the bottom right. SCRUMPTIOUS!!

But then the rain came and we just wished for it to go away so that we could enjoy a calm stroll through the rest of the city.

Where did you go on your most recent vacation?

Refreshing Mango Chicken Recipe

I am lucky enough to have a robust mango tree in my backyard and for the past month or so, I have been picking mangoes from the tree or picking up those that fall on the ground. And now, I am surrounded by mangoes, they are in my fridge, in my freezer, and in bags ready to get sent to my friends' homes!

Considering my lovely mango tree, I needed to incorporate these into my easy cooking recipes. This recipe serves 4 people and was very savory and refreshing!

Ingredients:

1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. dried thyme

1 pinch ground nutmeg 

1 pinch cayenne pepper

1 pinch cinnamon

Olive Oil Cooking Spray

4 boneless skinless chicken breast strips, about 1 lb

2 teaspoons of light margarine

1 ripe, but firm mango, peeled and cut into chunks

2 green onions, thinly sliced

Salt (to taste)

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Lime juice (to taste)

Directions:
In a small dish, stir together the spices. Feel free to add a just a tad bit more to crank up the taste. Lightly spray cooking spray on the chicken breasts. I used Olive Oil cooking spray. Sprinkle and cover both sides of chicken breasts with spice mixture. Allow these to sit for in the refrigerator for 10 minutes. When ready, begin by heating margarine in a large nonstick frypan over medium high heat. Add chicken breast strips and cook, turning occasionally, until both sides are deep golden brown and chicken is no longer pink inside, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add mango and green onions. Cook, stirring, just until heated through, for about 1 minute. Remove chicken from heat. Sprinkle with salt, cilantro, and squeeze lime over the chicken. Serve immediately over a bed of rice with a side of broccoli.

I'll admit, I'm not the best cook, but surprisingly enough, hubby loved it! And did I also mention he is not a mango lover?

Comic Book Bar Display and Remodel

We've had a lot of fun and headaches in remodeling and filling up our new home. And there are many parts of our home I have yet to show you. So I'll begin with this room in our house.

So this is how the previous owners left the house. I wasn't too into the chair rails and the two-toned green. But before the handymen took over, we made this our dining room.

However, soon after, we noticed that the pool/ping-pong table the previous owners had left behind could not survive outdoors in the Miami humidity. Therefore we brought it back inside. We painted the walls of the room a blueish gray. And we were lucky enough to inherit 4 barstool chairs from a TV studio from my brother-in-law's job.

We wanted to dress up our bar area and hubby a million and one ideas for his comic book and card collection. Instead of allowing him to take over one of the walls in the main living room, we agreed on dressing up the play room/bar area. 

So for this Comic Book Display, we decided to take to Ikea to get our ideas started! 

We purchased three 21in RIBBA Picture Ledges for $9.99/each in addition to several RIBBA Picture Frames size 81/2 x 11in at $4.99/each. I also bought some black construction paper since the frames are slightly bigger than the comic books and the paper would allow for a black backing for them. 

I have to say our little project was fun for both of us. He got to go down memory lane and pick his favorite cards and comic books. And I utilized my overly annoying perfectionism in measuring and placing the ledges and frames on the walls. ha! Now that I am looking at this picture, I think we will add another set of frames to the left side of the window too. What do you think?

We are also in the search for some cool window treatments because we have two large sliding doors and one window that we need to dress up pretty. But, in the meantime...we will enjoy some fun in the pool. 

Would you like to join us?