He Calls Me Lovely: DIY

I loooovvveeee me a grill. Basically, anything you cook on a grill, I will eat it. And I miss grilled food. They are very, very expensive down here therefore we know a total of 2 people who own a grill - and they're married so that's just one grill.

N-T-way, I made the yummiest thing the other day. Nothing profound or exotic. Just simple - easy - and yummy to the tummy! (And if you squint your eyes just right, it even tastes like it came off a grill - almost).

If you're going to dinner at a friend's house and need to take a side - this is awesome! It can also be great for a quick snack for the kids or a fast, easy side at lunch. And all of it can happen in 5 super-easy super-fast steps!

Step 1: Choose your veggies and preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

I chose zucchini, bell pepper, green beans, onion, and cherry tomatoes.

Step 2: Chop or slice your veggies - which ever you prefer. I sliced but either one works just as well.

Step 3: Line your baking pan with tin foil and arrange your veggies neatly inside. Once inside the pan, you can season them easily. I like to keep like-veggies together in a row but you could just mix them up and throw them in the pan in any kind of fashion.

Step 4: Drizzle Olive Oil over them and then season with salt, pepper, and Tony's. Stick it in the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Step 5: Remove the veggies from the oven and LIGHTLY drizzle with soy sauce. Note: it does not take much of this at all so be careful! Put back in the oven for 10 more minutes or until veggies are soft/cooked/browned. At this point, you can bake at long as you want, according to your taste. I like mine a little browned because it gives it a nice grilled flavor. And seeing as how we don't have a grill in down here, it works well for us!

And BAM! Easy, fast, fun, and YUMMY!!

Alonso seems to love it, as do I so it's quickly becoming a favorite!!

See ya on the other side,

Ashli :)

Since it's Saturday and I don't have to go to school, I decided to be productive and do very important things like sleep late, cook a big breakfast that I didn't eat all of, and waste a lot of time online looking at wedding planning websites. Once I was bored with all of that and decided to shower, I couldn't handle another second of my bathroom not being spotless so I started cleaning it. I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned longer and harder than ever before. I cleaned spots I never even knew existed in my bathroom - only to discover that I have a really, really ugly pedestal sink. Something had to change.

I knew I wanted a sink skirt but I don't have a sewing machine and even if I did, I wouldn't know the first thing about using it. (I'm remembering back to the World Race when, in South Africa, my best-race-friend Amy taught me how to sew and we helped young girls produce more purses to sale. Thanks, Amy!) Regardless, that was like 80 years ago and I remember nothing. So... I needed to find a way to make this bad boy without a Singer.

I googled it up and read several articles but it basically came down to a combination of a few. It was SO SUPER easy but only because I had a hot little assistant helping me through the whole thing. So here we go... this is how it went down.

1. Alonso and I went downtown to the fabric store to choose a material that would match my bathroom.

(Yay for no makeup days!)

2. We measured the sink area to know how big we needed the skirt to be.

Then stretched out our materials on a hard, flat surface. For me, my living room floor.

3. While down there, we cut the fabric to size and hemmed each side with this little miracle worker ....

(Life saver for a non-semstrist like me!)

4. We stuck our sticky-back velcro (that we bought at a local crafty store) to the edges of the sink and then the other half of it to the skirt.

(Oh hey there, newly placed engagement ring!! ;)

5. Finally, we stuck the skirt to the velcro and VUALA!

My bathroom took a turn for the better. More colorful, more neat, and more hiding plungers and toilet bowl cleaners behind the skirt. Can I get an AMEN for hiding the gross stuff?