Chimichurri Fish Tacos with Avocado Corn Salsa

I don’t know about you, but my food preferences change with the seasons. Without me even realizing it in the Winter I gravitate towards soups, meats and potatoes, recipes that include heavy creams. I almost don’t even think about vegetables. Then Summer rolls around and all of the sudden I am practically a vegetarian. Besides all of the hamburgers and hot dogs that we throw on the grill everything I eat is fresh and colorful.

Well the weather has been heating up here in Denver and so has my need for eating fresher foods. The other night I took my first step towards my Spring/Summer eating habits. I made chimichurri rubbed fish tacos with an avocado corn salsa. They were delicious!

Ingredients:
Chimichurri Rubbed Fish:

• 1 lb Cod
  
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
  
• 1 tablespoons red wine vinegar (white wine vinegar would work fine too)
  
• 1 tablespoon parsley flakes
  
• 2 teaspoons oregano
  
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  
• 1 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
  
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Avocado Corn Salsa:

• 2 avocados, diced
  
• 8 oz. can corn
  
• 1 jalapeno, diced
  
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
  
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
  
• 1 small red onion, diced
  
• juice from 2 limes
  
• salt to taste

Combine parsley flakes, red wine vinegar, oregano, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes in a bowl stir together. Lay cod in a 9 x 13 baking dish. Cover the cod in olive oil. Next rub the cod with the chimichurri mix. Place in oven at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Then combine your salsa ingredients in a bowl and stir together. Refrigerate for a few minutes before serving.

When cod is cooked, cut into smaller pieces. Lay cod inside warm corn tortillas and then top with avocado corn salsa.

Enjoy!

The Penelope Nursery Mobile

We haven’t meant for this to be a secret, but we are expecting! Yep, both Whitney and I (Angela).  We are due just days apart. I’m due at the end of June and Whitney is due at the beginning of July.

And if that wasn’t exciting enough, we are both having girls! Whitney has the cute Penelope nursery bedding from Pottery Barn for her little girl’s nursery. I thought that I would make her a mobile to match her bedding.

It has hand stitched birds and hearts, each stuffed with cotton balls to give a more 3D effect.

It hangs from a wooden hoop that I covered in lace.

I love this mobile!

*This was my audition project for SYTYC. You may have seen it over there. Competition starts in a few weeks. I’ll give you more details on that when it begins.

*Also, any interest in a pattern for this mobile? I’d be happy to share one.

Coloring Page Easter Egg Holders

My son is almost two. In fact, he’ll be two in just a few days. I really wanted to decorate Easter eggs with my son. I just couldn’t imagine getting out all of the dyes and paints, just to clean up a giant mess.  I even thought about just letting him put some stickers on eggs. Even if I hard boiled some eggs, guaranteed all the eggs would end up cracked on the floor as my son would turn the eggs into mini footballs. So I think I’ll hold off on the real egg decorating until next year.

This year, I came up with an alternative so that we could still decorate Easter eggs. I created some fun animal Easter egg holders. 

He got to color them…

Then he got to put them around plastic Easter eggs.

This was the perfect alternative to dying eggs. My son still had just as much fun!

If you want to download your own set of coloring page Easter egg holders, head over to our Facebook page. They are available for download over there, along with yesterday’s spring Easter egg holders. If you already like us on Facebook, you can find these located under the Free Gift tab on the left hand side of our Facebook page.

*All images used came from http://www.coloringbook4kids.com I just edited them to make them into Easter egg holders.

Easter Egg Holder Printables

Since St. Patrick’s day is over, I thought it was time to switch up our monthly Facebook printable. Now we are sharing some fun Easter egg holders. I actually have two different sets available for download. This set, which are some pretty ones for you to put on display. Tomorrow, I’ll share some fun ones I created for the kids to color and decorate.

There are five different designs in an array of spring colors.

I love them all. They are such a fun and easy way to add a little spring to the home.

These are available for download on our Facebook page. (Actually both sets that I mentioned are available for download now. I’ll share details on the second set tomorrow.) Head over to our Facebook page to get yours. If you are already friends with us on Facebook, just click the link on the left hand side of the page that says Free Gift!

Enjoy!

Denver Spring Soiree

I know this post is a little late. This took place on March 10. I am finally getting a moment to sit down and write about it. I am so excited to share with you all about our Colorado blogger meet up!

First, I want to say that when my sisters and I started blogging we got into it for the purpose of staying connected. We all live in various parts of the country. We all have such different talents and interests. So Together we created this blog to learn from each other, and to help inspire each other to try new things, and to be a little Better everyday. Hence the name of the blog… Better Together. The one thing that never crossed my mind as we started this was that not only would this blog be a way to stay connected with my sisters, but it could also be a place to make new friends. I am so glad to have made so many new friends just through this blog.

Last weekend, I got together with some of the fabulous friends that I have made through my blogging experience, and I was able to make new ones. Ashley from Make it and Love it had the brilliant idea of holding a Colorado crafter/blogger meet up. Then she contacted Kirstin(Kojo Designs), Alison(Oopsey Daisy), Courtney(Sweet C Designs), and I, since she knew we were all friends and that we all lived in Colorado, to help get it organized. 

Can I just say that we had a blast! I just adore all of these ladies. It is a privilege to be friends with them in real life.

Alison, Ashley, Kirstin, and me

The meet up was a blast! Everyone came in, filled out their name tags, and took a little bag filled with paint- donated by one of our fabulous sponsors Plaid- and a little treat bag made by Ashley.

The meet-up had all sorts of delicious treats- appetizers, candy cups scattered about, and tons of cupcakes! The Colorado Cupcake Bar- where all of the cupcake flavors were named after various Colorado towns/mountains/etc- was a huge hit. There wasn’t a single cupcake left over. Wow! Kirstin and Alison put all the fabulous cupcakes together. Kirstin even made all the the fun cupcakes signs. They were delicious girls! Way to go!

For the first little while we all just ate, chatted, and worked on crafts. All of the crafts were donated by Pick your Plum… how generous! You could paint your own earrings, make fun shamrock magnets (Alison shared a tutorial for how to make those over on her blog) or you could make a fun mustache necklace or keychain.

Then it was time to hand out our giveaways! We had such generous sponsors. Check out everything we had to giveaway. At least half of everyone in attendance was able to go home with some thing. There were 100 + people there.

Alison called out numbers, and I handed out all of the prizes.

You have to check out all of our sponsors!

Plaid

Pick Your Plum

January Jones Designs

Tootsie Wootsie

Lilybean

Thoughts in Vinyl

Thirty One

TaraDara

Ribbon Retreat

Heartmade Creations

Then after the giveaways, Ashley did a little Q&A to respond to all of her frequently asked blogging questions. It was so fun to hear from her. She is such a sweetheart!

And that was it folks. Like I said, it was a blast!!!

Let’s do this again soon!

How fabulous are these photos? The pictures were taken from the lovely Katie of KB Digital Designs. Definitely head on over and check out KB Digital Designs (and like her page on FB!) or enter this giveaway at Make It and Love It for a free photography session with Katie!

It was so much fun to meet so many Colorado bloggers/crafters. Did we get a chance to talk at the meet-up? Leave a comment letting me know where I can find your blog! I would love to keep in touch with all of you fabulous ladies.

Ombre and Rainbow St. Patty’s Day Printables

I decided that I needed some ombre art to match my ombre garland. I quickly made up a simple printable to add to my last minute St. Patty’s day décor.

I printed out the one below. It goes perfectly with my garland. (If I get a chance today, I will take a photo of it for you. I at least wanted to get the printable shared incase anyone is looking for last minute St. Patty’s day decor.)

Just for fun I created a few different designs.

All print as 8x10. You can download the PDF for all of these designs right HERE.

Enjoy!

Ombre St. Patrick's Day Garland

I have a little last minute St. Patrick's day project to share with you. I wasn’t planning to decorate for St. Patrick’s Day. The last two days I have been sitting on the couch next to a sick little boy. I wasn’t allowed to leave his side except to get him more juice. I think I have seen Toy Story at least 20 times over the last two days. As much as I love my son, a woman can only watch toys come to life so many times. So on one of my juice runs, I checked out my felt stash. I found four different shades of green and a cream that I thought would be cute for a some St. Patrick's day décor. I set out to make an ombre garland. The perfect project for those sitting on the couch days.

I used this as the stencil to help cut out my shamrocks.

I cut out 8 of each color. I cut 40 shamrocks. I would have loved to run over to my sewing machine to sew this together quickly. Since I wasn’t allowed to leave the couch. I just used embroidery thread to connect all of the shamrocks. It didn’t take as long as I thought it would.

This project may be coming a little late this year. I will definitely be keeping it for next year too!

Cardio Circuit Workout

Cardio Circuit Workout 

1. Burpees

Do 3 sets of ten 

2.  Single leg dumbbell row

Do 3 sets of 20 (10 on each leg)

3. Mountain climber on ball

Do 3 sets of 45 seconds

4. Alternating ball pushups (on toes or knees)

Do 3 sets of 10 

5.  Dumbbell Swing

3 sets of 20 on each arm

6. V-Ups 

Do 3 sets of 20 

Perform all exercises in a series and then repeat the 2nd and 3rd set. This is a great way to mix weight training and cardio. It is a very effective workout in a short amount of time.