Fourth of July Page - Memory Monday #10

By Vicky Nardone

Happy Fourth of July week!  I'm in full summer mode now.  How about you?  This year my dad is getting married in Chicago the day after the Fourth of July so Matt and I are flying into Chicago on the Fourth for the wedding.  We will be watching the fireworks on Navy Pier after the rehearsal dinner on Friday.  This will be the first Fourth of July since Matt and I met that we won't be watching the fireworks at the local park in Tonawanda NY where we used to live.  Matt's been going to that park for fireworks since he bought his house in Tonawanda back in 2007.  

All About Family - Memory Mondays #5

By Vicky Nardone

Happy Memorial Day everyone!  I hope it's nice weather where you are and that you're getting to spend some time barbequing or maybe having a picnic.  Memorial day to me is all about spending time with your family.  That's why I decided to share my family layout that I recently completed for today's Memory Monday.

First Year Anniversary

By Vicky Nardone

One year ago today, right around this time, I was getting ready to go to the Lodge on Echo Lake and get married to my best friend.  It's been a wonderful first year together.  Matt's success in his business has grown, I've gotten a promotion at work and we got our wonderful second puppy Piper.

To celebrate our anniversary, we went to this restaurant called Acqua on the Buffalo waterfront.  Neither of us had ever been before but one of our new friends, Chris, works as a server there and we had a $25 gift certificate so we decided to try it.  It was sooooo good!  I had a to-die-for Filet Mignon with a blue cheese topping.  It was served with these green beans that had a slight hint of maple to them.  Matt had a seafood feast - he started with little neck clams and for his main course he had a shrimp and scallop dish.  Chris gave us free apple pie for dessert that was delicious!  Matt and I were both so full we were uncomfortable when we left.  We had stopped for ice cream on our way home from the afternoon event we were at about an hour and a half before dinner.  It had seemed like a good idea at the time!

Happy Mother's Day 2013

By Vicky Nardone

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there!  I am not a mother to any human children yet, but I do have two little dogs and a kitty to call my own.  My dog Piper left me a pile of poop in the corner today - not sure if that can really be called a Mother's Day present?

Anyway, for Mother's Day my husband and I did lunch with my mom.  She wanted to have lobster at our place and she insisted on bringing them over herself.  I made sides to go with them - garlicky green beans and golden potatoes.  For dessert we had mint chocolate fudge cups which I will be sharing the recipe for with you later this week.

Our (not so great) Easter

By Vicky Nardone

So as Easter's go, this one was not so great.  It started being not so great last night around 2am when Matt got the flu.  He had the chills and spent a good majority of the night shaking.  Needless to say neither of us had a very good night's sleep and my Easter started out with a trip to the grocery store to buy a combo pack of dayquil and nyquil for him.

Irish Soda Bread

By Vicky Nardone

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  Today I'm going to be sharing one of my favorite St. Patrick's day recipes with you - Irish soda bread.  My earliest memory of this bread goes back to second grade.  We were reading about bread as part of our reading unit and everyone had to have their parents help them bake a bread that we could bring in and share with the rest of the class.  My mom suggested we bake Irish soda bread and it was a hit!  People were coming back for seconds and there were no leftovers.  My mom is coming over to have St. Patrick's day dinner tonight and this was my contribution to the meal.

Kitty Valentine

By Vicky Nardone

I have to start off this post with the gift I just got in the mail from my dad.  He had ordered a knitting book I wanted off my Amazon wish list for Christmas and it somehow never got here.  I ended up ordering it after Christmas before I found out that he had tried to send me a copy.  Just today in the mail I got this replacement gift that he picked out for me:

We love Downton Abbey and when my dad was here visiting in November we watched an episode of Downton Abbey because he and his partner Louie like it too.  Sybil was the nickname he gave me when I was a baby so this truly was the perfect gift.  It's definitely going to get a lot of wear.  I won't spoil any of this season for you if you haven't gotten to watch it yet but it's really good so far.

Valentine's Day Puppy

By Vicky Nardone

Valentine's Day is less than two weeks away and Matt is filming a music video tonight so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to make his Valentine's day card.

I wanted to make him a puppy shaped card but I didn't have anything on any of my cricut cartridges for a puppy card so I had to improvise a little bit.  I scoured my cartridges until I found a shape that I thought could work.  The base of the card is actually a pumpkin card from the Mini Monsters Cartridge.  I think it worked out fairly nicely although the puppy does have a weird sort of mohawk type thing going on on top of his head.  Oh well - we've noticed that our dog Maggie gets a mohawk on her back and neck when she starts barking at something she sees outdoors.  It's so funny - her hair stands up on end.