Sunday Southern Days

As a new(er) mom, I sought out the advice of moms before me when my little one had her first cold. Of course, so many advice gets thrown at you, but when they're too little for medicine, here is the best combination of remedies to help baby colds and congestion: Of course, do not use this as a substitution for professional medical advice. This is just what's helped at our house, and I hope it can help at yours too. Stay fabulous,

I know I am not alone in receiving an onslaught of "artwork" sent home from school. Aside from a Rubbermaid bin, I'm running out of display ideas. Today, 6 Halloween pieces arrived in my daughter's backpack, too cute to toss. So I got to work with a 5 minute craft: School Art Banner 1.0 I popped two holes in each piece to thread through a ribbon, creating a little display garland for my kitchen.  Here is the final product: Stay fabulous,

Do you ever have one of those evenings where you're staring into the fridge with NO clue what to make for dinner, hoping something will magically appear? That was tonight at my house. I had a few essentials on hand and threw together this Summery Shrimp Primavera, which was a huge hit with the family, even my one year old. Ingredients: 1 lb shrimp (any size, I used large shrimp) 2 T olive oil 1 red pepper, rough dice 1 yellow pepper, rough dice 6 asparagus stalks, cut into 1" pieces 10 black olives, pitted 1/2 onion, diced 1/2 c tomato sauce (mine was garlic flavored) 1 t dried dill 1/2 t salt 1/4 t black pepper 1 lb. farfalle/bowtie pasta How to make it: Set the water to boil for the pasta. Once boiling, drop in your pasta and stir every couple of minutes to prevent sticking. While that's working, set a saute pan over med-high heat and add your olive oil. Heat for 2 minutes and add your onion.  Saute for 2-3 minutes until fragrant and ...

The Captain and I have been on a pretty solid roll of healthier eating lately (just disregard my 10/1 post about the Southern Ground Music & Food Festival). Tonight for dinner, I started with a base of a Stone Fire Flatbread -- pre-baked and found in the bakery section of Jewel grocery store ( stonefire.com/our-flatbreads/pizza/ ). Here is how it piled up: (from the bottom) - Stone Fire Flatbread (whole wheat) - 2 T EVOO - 2 t minced garlic - 1 red pepper, cleaned and diced - 1 lb. of frozen spinach, thawed and squeeze out all of the water - 1 diced 6 oz. chicken breast (I used the Market Pantry pre-cooked frozen chicken breast from Target) - 1 container (6 oz.) Athenos herbed crumbled feta - 1/4 c low fat Mexican shredded cheddar mix Top with 2 T drizzled EVOO on top, then bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Enjoy!!

On today, the first Sunday of the NFL Football season, fall is in the air (even if it was 80 degrees today in Chicago). Chili was in the crockpot, sweaters dug out of the closet, and our first pumpkin recipes surfaced to prepare for lots of baking in the coming weeks.  After a good bout on Pinterest and other awesome recipe sites, I've rounded up my favorite pumpkin recipes to get you ready for fall. Enjoy! Pumpkin Rolls @ The Girl Who Ate Everything Pumpkin Mac & Cheese with Bacon @ Lauren's Latest Pumpkin Ravioli @ Health My own recipe for Cinnamon Roll Pie Crust -- fill with your favorite pumpkin or any other pie recipe! Pumpkin Fudge @ Sweet Pea's Kitchen Pumpkin Snickerdoodles @ A Bitchin' Kitchen Pumpkin Ice Cream @ Little Leopard Book Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread @ Fever Avenue Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting @ For The Mommas Pumpkin Pie Bites ...

I've gotten the question recently on how to add the Pinterest Pin It Button to your iPad so you can easily add Pins from any site you visiting online. Here you go! Step 1.  On your iPhone or iPad go into the Settings icon, then Safari and make sure that Open New Tabs in Background is on. Make sure that Always Show Bookmarks Bar is turned on. Under privacy make sure Accept Cookies is set to From visited. And under the Security menu make sure JavaScript is set to on. Step 2.  Open Safari and browse to thefinalboardingcall.blogspot.com. Press the Share button within Safari and then Bookmark. Delete out the title and then type  Pin It . Select the Bookmarks Bar and then save the Bookmark. Don’t worry about the address being set to thefinalboardingcall.blogspot.com. You should now see your Pin It Bookmark saved in the top of your Safari browser. Step 3.  Go into your Bookmarks, Bookmarks Bar then press Edit. Press the Right Arrow, then delete out thefinalboardingcall.blog...

How many glass jars have you tossed at the end of your candles even though in your crafty heart of hearts, you know there should be a way to keep and reuse that lovely jar. Well here you go. Photo tutorial of how to get the last of the wax out to reuse the jar for your next project. Starting Jar Bring 3 or so cups of water to boil Pour the boiling water into the candle jar all the way to to the top. Be careful, as the glass will be very hot. Filling to the top is important because as the wax begins to melt, it will float to the top of the water. Give it a little time (10-15 minutes) and the wax will magically begin to melt and float to the top.  15 minutes later, all of the wax had floated to the top of the jar. Allow to cool, and pop out the wax (I let it cool for about 2 hours total before I popped out the wax). Finished product! I removed the label and wiped off the residual stickiness with rubbing alcohol and a cotton ball.

Lemonade. vodka. ice. lemon garnish. straw. Adult Capri Sun. Who's ready for the beach?

So I may have a ribbon problem. I love it, I buy it, and I have way too much of it (but really, is there such a thing as too much of any craft supply? I mean it's called a "supply" for a reason). My bin 'o' ribbon wasn't cutting it as much as I'd like, and I found these vintage-looking straw holders at Wal-Mart -- love. And they are very prettily displayed on my bookcase now.

Seriously, who doesn't hate their slouching boots when not in use? I searched around for "boot forms" but only came up with a few old-lady-looking options that cost an arm and a leg. But guess who's Dollar Tree had pool noodles this past weekend? Bingo. Cut it in thirds (or whatever height you want) and you have super cheap and functional boot forms.

I love this trick to take up space under a pillar candle when you're filling with a fun seasonal filler. You'll use half of the filler and get better height on shorter (and usually cheaper) pillar candles.

I'm totally in love with this s'mores bar. Found on Pinterest, it appears to be a wood box filled with gravel and gel sternos. How adorable can you get for year-round indoor s'mores?!