Button Coffee Table

My dad made this awesome coffee table using my grandmothers old bag of buttons. I remember playing with the buttons when I was a kid. We use to dump them all out on the floor and go through them. My favorite and the one I remember playing with the most is the big wooden one on the right side.

 Some close-up ones of very old buttons. 

See the layers? You lay out some buttons, cover them in whatever it was he used, let it dry and just keep layering. 

 See the colorful flowery designed ones? My dad added them as filler and to give the table a little more color. 

Side view

My dad is so creative and such a great craftsmen. And we were thinking, you can do this with just about anything...bottle caps, wine corks, old pictures, holiday ones, the possibilities are endless. They make a great talking piece. You can make smaller side table or panels to hang on your wall. Isn't that the coolest table you've even seen?

3 Ingredient Ranch Chicken

This is such a great simple and quick dinner. It takes maybe 5 minutes to prepare and is delicious. Sebastian, Dave, and I love it. Seriously, so good and only 3 ingredients!!!

What You'll Need
3 chicken breast
3/4 cup ranch dressing
1 cup Italian Style bread crumbs
You can up the amount of ranch dressing and bread crumbs if you have more chicken to cook. 

Put the ranch dressing and bread crumbs on two, separate, small plates.

Dredge the chicken in the ranch dressing.

Then coat with the bread crumbs.

Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Serve and enjoy!!!

What We Did Last Week

These darn wasps...we finally broke down and called an exterminator which was a total waste of time. He couldn't find the wasp nest, even when I pointed out where I thought it was, right on the other side of our fence, which is common grounds so he couldn't do anything about it. I think Dave and I will have to be the exterminators ourselves...wish us luck, we're going to need it!!!

I made and blogged about Cinnamon Sugar Popcorn

and Dave's Twice Baked Potatoes

and this delicious Monkey Bread!!!

We liked Pina Coladas but didn't get caught in the rain.

Sebastian played with his sprinkler ball. 

I made Bulgogi with Hawaiian Fried Rice.

We played at the park.  

Sebastian likes to wear Dave's sun glasses. 

  We fed the ducks and geese.   

There were a lot of them!!!

Dave chased after Sebastian, while I took pictures. :)

My tomatoes are finally starting to grow!!!

Sebastian and I went to Andrea's house for dinner and I got to see my Buggins Huggins. 

Sebastian and Ava got to catch up on some overdue play time!!!

I love, love, love this video!!!


I hope you had a great week also.


Oh...and one last thing, I'm going to start doing quotes of the week. Here's one from last week:


Dave to Sebastian "Come on dude, are we gonna watch Doc McStuffins or what?" 
If you have kids that watch the Disney Jr channel, then you'll know who Doc McStuffins is!!!

Monkey Bread

Monkey bread has been something I've been wanting to make for a while now and I finally did yesterday. I took it over to my sister's house for dessert and everyone loved it. 

 What You'll Need:
2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter
2 Tbsp shortening
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. 

Using your fingertips, cut the chilled butter and shortening into dry ingredients until mixture looks crumbly and the butter and shortening are pea size. You don't want the butter to melt so do this a quickly as possible. 

 Make a well in the center of the mixture and pour in the buttermilk. 

Use a fork to mix in the buttermilk, stir just until the dough comes together. 

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. 

Knead the dough 7 to 10 times, adding just enough flour for the dough to not stick to the surface. 

Roll the dough out to about a 1/2 inch thick.

Using a sharp knife or pizza cutter, dipped in flour as to not stick to the dough, cut the the dough into 1 inch squares. 

In a small bowl mix together the sugar and cinnamon and in another small bowl melt 8 Tbsp of butter. Have these really for dipping!
Round the dough, one square as a time, into a ball. 

Roll each piece in the melted butter. 

 Then round them in the cinnamon and sugar mixture. 

Then arrange them evenly in a buttered bundt pan.

 In a small sauce pan, bring to a boil the brown sugar and remaining butter. Let bowl for 1 minute.  

Pour the brown sugar mixture over the dough piece in the bundt pan. 

Bake at 350 degrees F for 35 minutes. 

Let the bread sit for 10 minutes after you have pulled it from the oven, then turn it out onto a serving plate. 

Serve warm and enjoy.