I have all kinds of news this week, the main piece being – we found a house!  Looks like we will be moving in mid-June if all goes according to plan (I’m trying to avoid the whole chickens-before-they-hatch thing and temper my excitement).  I’m really happy – that will give us about a month before Little Man makes his appearance.  Got any tips for moving?  Link up your moving posts along with your regular posts for the week for me to check out, or leave your tips in the comments!

There were some great posts linked last week – let me show you a few of my favorites!

DIY Dahlia Flower Decor at The Happy Scraps

Paint Chip Butterfly Shadowbox at Framed Frosting

Star Wars Mickey Mouse Cookies at Sugar Swings!

Quilling Butterfly Card at Tousled Day

Rocky Road Oatmeal Cookie Bars at Will Cook For Smiles

I can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to this week!

They are super easy (even easier if you have leftover chicken breasts to use up) and you can modify the recipe in any number of ways to suit your family.  My husband prefers no veggies, so I’m going to share with you the veggie-free version, but adding some spinach or broccoli is also awesome.

5.0 from 1 reviews

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Cheesy Chicken Pockets

Author: Happy Hour Projects

Prep time:  20 mins

Cook time:  30 mins

Total time:  50 mins

Serves: 8

 

Ingredients

• 2 chicken breasts (about 2 cups cooked)
• 1½ c. shredded cheddar cheese
• ½ c. mayonnaise
• 2 – 8 oz. tubes of crescent rolls
• 1 Tbsp. minced onion
• 2 tsp. seasoned salt
• 1 tsp. garlic powder

Instructions

1. Cook, drain, and dice your chicken breasts. If you’re using leftovers, your job is half done already!
2. Preheat oven to 375F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
3. In a bowl, mix together chicken, cheese, mayonnaise, and seasonings. You can easily alter your seasonings to suit your family or use a brand-name blend, if you want.
4. Open a tube of crescent rolls and unroll them. Leaving two attached together to make a rectangle, spread out some of your chicken mixture on the roll.
5. 
6. Then, just roll it up. Do this for the remaining crescent rolls and chicken mix.
7. 
8. I top them with a little bit of cheese, but that’s mainly for looks. Then, bake for 24-28 minutes – until your rolls begin to brown.
9. Serve hot with a side of veggies!

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I hope you enjoy!

I have a fun appetizer recipe to share with you today! I’ve been enjoying getting creative in the kitchen while a lot of my craft supplies are packed away.  The thing is, I still enjoy my time in the kitchen to be quick and easy, so I’m always on the lookout for products that simplify my recipes. Today I have an awesome one for you using Kraft Fresh Take!

Have you tried Kraft’s new Fresh Take seasoning packets?  They are awesome!  They come in several flavors and include a breading mix and fresh cheese.  As soon as I spotted the Italian Parmesan flavor, I knew right away I wanted to try it in an appetizer recipe I’ve been trying to perfect.

Raya and I took our weekly trip to Walmart to pick up my ingredients – you can check out my shopping trip in my G+ album!  As curious as I am to try the other flavors, I went with my initial instinct and picked up the Italian Parmesan flavor.  I’m glad I did – it was awesome.  You can find Kraft Fresh Take in the refrigerated cheese aisle at Walmart.

I served these when my extended came over for a visit, and they were a HIT.  It was nice to bring something different – I’m usually in charge of the veggie and cheese tray, so this was a great alternative.  I will warn you that this recipe does need some time to set during the prep, so allow for an overnight (or at least an hour) between mixing it up and baking.

Active prep and cooking time is well under an hour, though, and you know I always aim for an hour or less around here!

5.0 from 2 reviews

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Broccoli Bites Appetizers with Kraft Fresh Take

Author: Happy Hour Projects

Serves: 6-8

 

Ingredients

• 1 box (6-oz.) chicken-flavored dry stuffing mix
• 4 eggs
• 3 c. chopped broccoli – fresh or frozen (about 2 c. cooked if you’re using leftovers)
• ½ c. melted butter or margarine
• 1 6-oz. package Italian Parmesan flavored Kraft Fresh Take
• 2 Tbsp. water

Instructions

1. Chop, cook, and drain and cool your broccoli. You can use fresh or frozen broccoli – or even leftovers, if you want! (If you’re using already-cooked broccoli, you want about 2 cups.)
2. Melt and cool your margarine or butter.
3. Stir together broccoli, dry stuffing mix, and margarine/butter and water until well-mixed, and then both the seasoning and the parmesan cheese from your package of Kraft Fresh Take.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs. If your mixture is still at all hot at this point, allow it to cool before adding the eggs, as you don’t want them to begin cooking yet. Once cool, stir into broccoli mixture until thoroughly blended.
5. Refrigerate mixture until the stuffing mix absorbs the moisture. It will be ready in about an hour, but it can be refrigerated overnight if that works better for you.
6. Preheat oven to 325F and roll your broccoli mix into 1-inch balls. You should get about 3 dozen balls from this recipe. Place on baking sheet at least ½ inch apart.
7. Bake for 16-20 minutes, until eggs have fully cooked. (Note – be careful not to overbake them, or they will come out dry.)
8. Serve hot or cold, whatever your preference!

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Watch for the Kraft Fresh Possibilities Tour truck which will be making stops across the country from March through the end of July. To see if they are making a stop in your town you can check the website:  Fresh Possibilities Tour.

There will also be an immediately redeemable coupon on packages of chicken in the meat department. The coupon takes $1.00 off the price of one (1) chicken item with the purchase of Fresh Take. The coupons will run May 1-July 31.

As part of the Social Fabric Community, I have something else I’d like to share with you – the Live SoFab Summer Digital Magazine! You can check it out here!

What have you made with Kraft Fresh Take, or what recipes would you like to try?

I am loving turquoise this season, so I used a mix of turquoise beads and tube beads to create this look.  I’ll show you how I made mine, but keep in mind that memory wire bracelets are very versatile – giving you the chance to create any look you love!

What you will need:

• Memory Wire
• Tube beads - 3 packs of 4 will make this look.
• Accent beads you love (I used a few inches of 4mm round Turquoise Shell Twister Beads™)
• Round-nose jewelry pliers
• Optional but helpful – Memory Wire Shears

First, using your round-nosed pliers, make a small loop at the end of your memory wire coil.  This will hold your beads on as you work.  If you are working of a large spool, you can cut about 4 coils off to make this bracelet.   The memory wire I linked to above is pre-cut into coils of 4.

Begin threading your beads onto the coil.  There is no right or wrong way to do it, but I added two shell beads between each tube bead. You may certainly use just one, or several!

If you find that the tube beads aren’t exactly the same curve as your memory wire, you may need to bend (or un-bend, as the case may be) your wire slightly to match the curve.  You will only need to to this for a short length at the very beginning of your coil; once the beads are on, they will slide along just fine.

Once all your beads are threaded on, take your round-nosed pliers and make a curve in the end of your memory wire.  This just ensures that your beads don’t fall off when you use the shears to nip off the excess wire.

Memory wire shears aren’t essential, but memory wire holds its shape because it is hardened beyond average jewelry wire.  This make it easy to wear, but it’s not easy to cut with normal wire cutters.  It can be done, but once I tried the memory wire shears, I’m so glad I got them.  Memory wire is a lot of fun for bracelet-making, so if you’re anything like me, you’ll probably find them a worthwhile investment!

Finish making a loop in the end of your newly-cut wire, and that’s it!  It’s ready to wear, or to give as a gift!

So, you all may remember that I was awfully worried about my Whiskey Barrel Planter after Mother’s Day brought frost to my neck of the woods, but I’m happy to say that it bounced right back – for the most part.  The phlox has needed a little extra attention, and it still looks a little bit sad, but it looks much better than before!

I have loved, LOVED this little garden project, and it’s gotten compliments from a lot of people!  In fact, it has me itching to do more gardening.  We just put an offer on a new house over the weekend (I have my fingers crossed!!) and I would love to #DigIn to that space as well… but I will have to exercise patience, haha.

If you are thinking of tackling a whiskey barrel planter – or any kind of container garden – for yourself, I would recommend it as a great, simple project.  Once I had all my supplies from The Home Depot, I was done in under an hour.

You can visit my tutorial post if you want more information (including the how-to video), and let me offer you these tips as some quick advice:

1. Pick a planter that you love.  For us, we loved the rustic look of our authentic whiskey barrel!
2. Decide where you want it, and check how much sun and shade that area gets each day.
3. Find flowers that are well-suited to your region and the amount of sun, shade, and water you’re able to provide.  
4. Allow for drainage – if your planter doesn’t have drainage holes, drilling a few is easy.
5. Ensure you’re past the first frost before you plant.  Ahem.  Lesson learned here.
6. Get creative and plant whatever you love!  Edibles, flowers – there are options in every climate for every space that are beautiful, practical, easy, challenging – whatever you’re looking for to enhance your patio or deck.

That’s really it!  I know new gardeners are probably skeptical of it being that easy, but I assure you – if I can do it, YOU can do it!  My favorite part has been showing my daughter how to care for our plants.  

She asks every day if it’s time to water them.  (Bonus for me – I have someone to remind me all the time to water the plants, haha!)

If you have any questions along the way, feel free to drop me a note, or you can check any of the great resources at the Home Depot Garden Club for tips, tricks, advice and inspiration.

Happy gardening!

It’s home improvement time, and The Home Depot has everything you need to #DigIn for Spring. No matter what projects you want to tackle, they have great values on all you need. They’re ready to help you with renovation ideas and expert advice, too.

Get over $300 in email exclusive savings each year, sneak peeks on new products, monthly lawn & garden ideas for your region and access to The Home Depot’s gardening experts. Click here to join the world’s largest garden community today! Or go to http://gardenclub.homedepot.com/ to see some of the many benefits of membership.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Home Depot.

If you read here often you probably remember last fall when I made up a white chocolate bark recipe and put it in star-shaped ice cube trays.  Well, today’s idea is much the same – just a totally different recipe.

I went into a lot more detail when I shared the Star Shaped Party Bark so I am just going to give you a few tips and skip right to the recipe today, but if you want to know more, that post has a lot of info about using shaped trays for bark, rather than stirring it up and pouring it.

For this recipe, I used a set of silicone ice trays designed to make ice cubes that fit into water bottles.  I mixed up my chocolate and put it in a squeeze bottle and just squirted it in.

My honest recommendation, though, is a different shape would work better.  This long and skinny shape made the pieces more fragile than I would like.  It’s awesome to eat the broken ones (LOL), but in all seriousness,  the star shape would work a lot better or really any other shape you like the looks of!  The rounder/fuller your shape, the more support it will have.  If you choose a mold what might be fragile, you will have the best luck removing the candy pieces when cold, so put them in the frig for a few minute before you remove them from their trays.

5.0 from 1 reviews

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Chocolate Peanut Butter Oreo Bark

Author: Happy Hour Projects

Prep time:  30 mins

Total time:  30 mins

Serves: 4-8

 

Ingredients

• 8 oz. melting/dipping chocolate – you can use bakers squares, or chocolate flavored wafers or Candiquik. Products like Candiquik that are designed to melt well make this an easy treat, but if you want *real* chocolate, there are other alternatives.
• 2 Tbsp. peanut butter – I used creamy, but chunky would work fine. Totally up to you.
• 4-6 Oreo Cookies
• ¼ c. peanut butter chips

Instructions

1. First, melt your chocolate according to the package directions. Be sure to stir it often, because it will retain its shape even if it’s ready to work with.
2. Stir in your peanut butter until it’s well-blended.
3. Add mixture to a squeeze bottle, if you like. It’s easier to work with but it’s a hassle to clean so it’s optional.
4. In a separate bowl, crush your Oreos and stir in the peanut butter chips.
5. Pipe or spoon your chocolate mixture into one of your trays. Immediately sprinkle the Oreo/chip mixture on top. Lightly press it into the chocolate. Just do one tray at a time because the chocolate will cool quickly.
6. Keep filling trays until you run out of chocolate; it was 2 trays for me but it will vary based on how many cavities your trays have, and how deep each one is.
7. Cool on the counter top or speed things up by putting trays in the refrigerator.
8. Turn trays upside down and gently press on each cavity to releases your candy pieces.
9. Serve and enjoy!

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Hope you all have a fantastic week!!

As small as our space is at the moment, we love nights on our patio in the summertime.  If you read here often, you know we're currently house-hunting, and one of my non-negotiables is a nice deck for relaxing, grilling, and having friends and family over.  We spend so much of our time outdoors in the nice weather, I can't wait to have a big, gorgeous space to call our own.  We are actually out looking at new homes this weekend!  But, in the meantime, we come home to relax on our little front patio.  This is the view we've enjoyed for the past 8 years.

As much as I can't wait to have my dream backyard, we love being outside on Michigan summer nights even on our little patio.  We just added a couple of  TIKI Brand Glowing Torches to our decor, because they suit any outdoor space, big or small!

We love, LOVE the handcrafted art glass TIKI Brand Glowing Table Torch - you can even add OFF! Bitefighter torch fuel to help repel the mosquitoes!  The battery-operated LED light function in the Table Torch is also ideal when we don't want an open flame – like if Raya is outside with us, or if we have guests with kids over.  You can also just enjoy the ambiance of the vessel being lit from within whether the flame is lit or not with a simple on/off button.  It's gorgeous.

Tiki Torches just say summer to me.  They are a must-have for a great summer backyard!  I love the blend of traditional and contemporary style in the TIKI Brand Flame & Solar Torch.

Just like the Table Torch, you can operate the 2 in 1 Flame and Solar Torch with either oil, or the unique solar LED light.  The solar option is brilliant if you or your guests have pets or small kids running around – and best yet, it comes on automatically at dusk and operates for up to 8 hours on one charge!  

I can tell you about the TIKI Brand Glowing Torch, but it's honestly better if I show you what they can do!  So I put together this little video so you can see in real-time what they look like!

Awesome, right? You can get TIKI Brand Flame & Solar Torches at Walmart and Target from $34.99 to $39.99, and fill them with OFF!/Bitefighter Torch Fuel for proven mosquito repellency, or enjoy the LED lighting anytime you don't want an open flame.  

Be sure to like TIKI Brand on Facebook to stay up-to-date on new products and backyard decor!

What do you love about TIKI Brand products?

I love World Market.  If you shop there, I’m sure you recognize that I often use dishes and table settings from there, and some of our favorite furiture pieces are World Market finds.  I’m a member of their rewards program, so I get extra coupons and earn points when I shop, too.  So – no surprise – I always check them out when it’s gift time!  June is right around the corner, which means it’s getting to be time to shop for Father’s Day Gifts!

My husband is probably pretty typical when it comes to gifts he likes – I can never go wrong with BBQ & Grilling tools as he is the self-proclaimed “King of the Grill”…

I also loved these beautiful Adirondack chairs in World Market’s Outdoor Furniture & Decor!

He’s been saving that he’d enjoy a set, but with our ucoming move, I want to see what sort of backyard space we end up with before I start decorating it already, haha.

Anyway – while he loves all the traditional dad-gifts, I was browsing through the food aisle when I spotted these, and knew just what Raya and I were going to get him for Father’s Day.

See, breakfast has always been our family’s “thing”.  (Now, with my husband working nights, I have to confess, it’s not always first thing in the morning.)  But on the weekends, our favorite way to connect as a family is over breakfast.  Sometimes we go out, sometimes we make breakfast at home (I’ve shared a couple of my favorite breakfast food posts from our weekend breakfasts in – Classic Waffles and our Sausage and Egg Breakfast Casserole). Sometimes it’s even breakfast for dinner.  But every weekend, I can count on time otgether for familybreakfast.  So I decided that some new mixes and an upgrade to his kitchen tools would make the perfect Father’s Day gift, since breakfast together really embodies one of his favorite roles as Dad!

I picked out a mix of fun tools like new measuring spoons, a whisk, and a couple new spatulas, and found a new scrambled egg pan (because our old one needs to be… well, retired, haha).  I grabbed a big mixing bowl and made up a breakfast-themed gift basket out of it.  I actually couldn’t wait for Father’s Day to give it to him (please tell me I’m not the only one who can’t keep a secret, haha!) but I did sneak out first thing in the morning to pick up a Sunday paper, and of course started a fresh cup of coffee for him when Raya and I surprised him with it!

He loved it!  We had waffles, eggs and bacon and he had a great time playing with his new kitchen tools.  It was a perfect way for us to celebrate him and his role as Dad.  (And yes, I did the dishes.)

World Market wants to help you celebrate the Dad in your life, too, with the Dad’s Day Sweepstakes!

Nominate your Dad here for one of 4 weekly Grand Prize packages – a $1,000 gift card for you, and one for Dad, too, to celebrate his special day!  No matter how your husband or your Dad enjoys his free time, World Markiet has stylish and unique, quality gifts for Father’s Day.  You can earn more chances to win by visiting them on Facebook for all the details, and checking out all their social media channels.  Hope you have fun shopping for your favorite dad this year!

~ Adrianne

It’s really easy to enter, and you can even come back every day for more entries!  The Rafflecopter form below will walk you through what you need to do!  Good luck, I’d love to see a Happy Hour Projects reader win.  You’ve got through May 23 to get your entries in!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

It’s supposed to be gorgeous weather here this weekend, I think we might try to take our daughter to the beach.  We are only about 30 minutes from Lake Michigan.  What about you – do you have any fun plans?  Do they include getting creative?  Because there were some great ideas linked last week!  Let me show you a few of my favorites!

Tablescaping with Natural Elements at Oh My Creative

Berry Blush Chair Makeover at Girl in the Garage

Fabric Truck Pouch at One Dog Woof

DIY Tiny Potted Trellis at The Knoxville Holts

DIY Pandora Style Bracelet at 4 You With Love

I can’t wait to see what you’ve been up to this week!