InstaFriday

Happy Friday!  Do y'all feel like the weekends get here faster and faster?  I sure do! We keep quite a pace around here, and I can tell the days are flying past us.  InstaFriday seems to get here quickly week to week!  And this week is a lot of random.  But for those who know me at all, you know that "random" is my M.O.  Sam says I have Attention Deficit "Oooh, Shiny!"....but I have more fun than he does!  And I agree that I find a lot of joy in some of the oddest places.  {see final picture for proof!}  Here we go - a journal of my week in phone pics!

I designed a lot, lot, LOT of pretties this week for May brides.  At one point I was trying to make room to write something on my desk, and I giggled at my crowded surroundings.  Pantone color matching fans, three decks of paper swatches, invitation samples from my arsenal, order forms, files, a calculator and a Diet Coke of course.  You know the music is playin' when my desk is a wreck! Messy desk = Creative juice.

I bought a new mirror.  Ladies, y'all know how exciting that is!  I had just been in Dallas for the Cotton Bowl and visited Mary Cates and Co. - a DREAMY boutique on Lover's Lane - full of furniture and accessories with age, patina, and make-your-heart-flutter details.  And it is entirely too pricey for my pocketbook.  But I found this mirror with age, patina, and make-your-heart-flutter detail for $125 {not $1250!} for my entry. It is thrilling for so many reasons.  I knew all a-y'all would get it. Thanks for celebrating with me!

My family went with our friends the Baileys to the Arkansas-Auburn basketball game this week.  And although we shot a miserable 12% in the first half, we still won.  Somehow.  It was literally like there was an invisible force-field around the basket that repelled every. single. shot. Thank Heavens we were with fun friends! It was a win either way!

I spent one whole day shipping a gazillion etsy orders and platters.  And I have had a handful of reports from customers around the US that their packages looked like they had been run over by a truck. {Thanks for that, USPS!} So I thought I'd apply a little Southern charm to my packages with hopes that the carriers would be wooed into being more careful.  These stickers are sugar-sweet! Southern charm has proven effective with police officers and house contractors, so I'm hoping to pull a Southern-girl "Jedi mind trick" on the mail carriers.

 

Now I'm sure you'll be shocked by this, but I don't batter and fry food very often.  Not because I can't, but because I hate the mess of dredging. Three pans.  Flour to egg wash to bread crumbs and into the oil.  It's a lot of work that I'm often just not up for.  BUT I did make one of my fave dishes last night - Chicken Parmesan {the real way, not the Pinterest casserole way...no offense, Pinterest.}  And I have always made my own crumbs or breading.  Until now. I have heard forEVER about Panko, but I just didn't believe they could be any better than what I used.  Y'all.  They're magical.  So crispy, and they stuck to my egg wash like they were hanging on for dear life.  They need to be flavored with seasoning or salt/pepper, but they are my new crumb of choice.

When I was scooping flour for Dredging Dish #1, I thought I'd give y'all an update on the levels in the monstrous glass jars on my island.  I filled them with almost 10 pounds of flour/sugar on December 15 and posted this {here}.  I've heard numerous comments along the lines of "I'd never use that much flour in a lifetime."  Yet in just a little more than a month, it's almost gone.  And I wonder why I get winded putting on a fitted sheet...

The highlight of my week, hands down, was this. An Arkansas-shaped Stacy's Pita Chip.  I pulled it right out of the bag at the stoplight after picking Grace up from school.  And I literally shrieked and had a fit! {Attention Deficit "Oooh Shiny"}  And I squawked for Grace to take a picture of it with my phone for y'all to see!  So here, my friends, is the Natural State in a pita cracker. Photographed on the thigh of my teenage daughter, who first laughed then rolled her eyes like I was ridiculous...and then tweeted it immediately because she knew in her heart that it was actually pretty fabulous.

That's my life where we eat big, laugh bigger and love biggest! "From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another..." John 1:16  I hope your week was big and blessed as well!  I'll see y'all back here Monday! xo