Mad Tea Party 2021: MyMsMellow in Wonderland
My daughters and I had two goals for participating in this year’s virtual Mad Tea Party being hosted by A Fanciful Twist. Those goals were: 1) decorating a tea box to store our teas and 2) playing as Mad Hatter dressing the newest addition to our family, our recently rescued from the living on the street dog MsMellow, in various hats and jewels.
The tea box is off to a great start!
It was originally a box intended to store silver service / flatware. It was old and musty.
—We stripped the interior,
—sanded and stained exterior,
—added new velvet lining,
—painted the inside of the lid,
—embellished with shiny heart stickers,
—added clear acrylic divider trays,
—and stocked it with teas that we had in the kitchen cabinets.
Im so pleased with it. I’ll also likely keep adding to the embellishments of it in future months. Wouldn’t a crystal knob be so perfect on it? Completing the service tray that accompanies it will be fun, too!
Next, we decided to try being the Mad Hatter and trying to dress our dog in hats…
🤣🤣🤣
While MsMellow continued to be extremely kind and all, she was actually unexpectedly a bit bonkers about the hats and became a little too excited hopping around for us to get even a single decent photo of her in the many hats she tried on.
🤣🤣🤣
Bonkers, I tell you, Bonkers!!
🤣🤣🤣
Insider Secret: … all of the best dogs are, though!
❤️❤️❤️
Here are the photos:
Even though we don’t have any posed glamour shot portraits of MsMellow in hats, daughters and I laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed and had so much fun with the trying. It was the BEST.
13/10 great experience as Mad Hatter. ❤️
I would absolutely do every bit of it again.
Your Friend, AmberHH
PS
—If you’re also participating in the Mad Tea hop, I’d love for you to leave a comment with your link! ❤️
—Whether you’re participating or not, you’ll want to visit our hostess at A Fanciful Twist to see her party and find links to other participants
—you can see my 3 previous mad tea parties at these three links:
https://whatamberloves.com/2016/07/23/mad-tea-party-2016-blog-hop/
https://whatamberloves.com/2015/07/10/mad-tea-party-2015/
https://whatamberloves.com/2016/07/23/mad-tea-party-2016-blog-hop/
Mad Tea Party! 🐇♥️
Once again this year, I’m so excited to announce that I’ll participate in a Wonderland themed “Mad Tea Party!” blog hop event organized and hosted by the always lovely Vanessa’s site, A Fanciful Twist!
New this year, we’ll also hop on Instagram!
For more information about how to join, what to expect, and to see links to Tea Parties hosted in previous years, you’ll need to visit https://afancifultwist.typepad.com/a_fanciful_twist/2021/07/into-wonderland-for-our-2021-mad-tea-party.html#comment-6a00d83451d99869e20282e110bc1d200b
You can see my participation in 2016, 2015, and 2014 at these links:
https://whatamberloves.com/2016/07/23/mad-tea-party-2016-blog-hop/
https://whatamberloves.com/2015/07/10/mad-tea-party-2015/
https://whatamberloves.com/2014/07/12/mad-tea-party-2014/
So exciting! Now, to prepare … !!
💚 —Amber
Looksie
Notes to self:
Be authentic.
Be strong, but not rude.
Be kind, but not weak.
Be bold, but don’t bully.
Be humble, but not shy.
Be proud, but not arrogant.
Go to sleep with a dream.
Wake up with a purpose.
#Selfie 🤳🏻
Generally good ideas:
🌿 Be present, not perfect.
🪨 Be love, be light, be peace, and definitely be a little go f*ck yourself when the situation calls for it.
🪵 Enjoy a creative mess as much as idle tidiness.
✨🌿🖤🌿✨
So many things have been happening that I might want to write posts about … so many wonderful things I’ve been documenting with photos, ready to share here soon … new dog, new recipes, renovating an old house across town from where we currently live, adventures, and more …
I’ll be back here with those photos soon!
🤍 —Amber
Chicken Lombardy!
This recipe. This.
Ingredients:
- 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1/3 cup butter divided
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 8 oz sliced mushrooms
- 3/4 cup marsala wine, dry not sweet
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- salt, pepper, garlic powder
- 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella
- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
- 4 green onions sliced
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add 2 tbs butter.
- Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until they begin to brown; remove them and set aside.
- Split the chicken breasts in half lengthwise. Flatten each piece between 2 sheets of waxed paper or plastic wrap with a meat mallet to about 1/4-inch thickness. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Dredge each flattened piece in the flour.
- In the same pan you cooked the mushrooms in, add 1 tbs of the butter and heat over medium-high heat.
- Add 2 chicken breast pieces and brown well on all sides. Remove and set aside.
- Repeat the browning process 2 more times (using a tbs of butter with each shift)–you have to do this in shifts so the chicken is not crowded in the pan and browns evenly. Don’t drain the drippings, you need it for the marsala sauce.
- Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
- After all the chicken is browned and set aside, using the same pan with the collected drippings, add the wine a bit at a time scraping the bottom of the pan and stirring as you add, then add the chicken stock, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
- Add the chicken breasts back to the skillet being sure each piece is coated/submerged in sauce, or alternatively put chicken into a baking dish and cover with the sauce from the skillet. Sprinkle evenly with the mushrooms.
- Mix the cheeses and green onions and distribute over the top of the chicken.
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until cheese is melted and just starting to brown.
- **(Goes well with pasta or rice, if you want to add bulk; freezes well.)
Love it as much as I do? (I LOVE it. A LOT.)
Do you have a same/similar variation of this recipe and process, too? If so, tell me? 😃
—Amber HH
“GROUND ROADKILL” a sweet Halloween treat
Just for fun, every year our family creates at least one consumable, silly Halloween food item. This year, Abigail saw “ROADKILL” on social media somewhere and decided to duplicate/improve upon the idea. So, that’s what she did!
Following a standard recipe for Rice Krispy treats, she added RED food coloring plus a few drops of BLACK food coloring into the melted marshmallow before stirring in the rice cereal. (Adding the black was essential to muddy the pink/red a bit and give the color some depth.)
Packaging. It is really the presentation that transforms these regular treats into something appropriately able to trick friends for Halloween.
Using styrofoam trays, clear cling wrap, and custom printed labels, the treats suddenly transform in appearance from being a sticky sweet indulgence to an appearance of potentially rank (and definitely gross) ROADKILL.
Attention to detail designing the labels was fun! Did you notice the expiration date is on Halloween? The storage instructions? We had fun with this part of the process!
Whether you’re carving jackolanterns, trick-or-treating, going to parties, or just staying home watching scary movies this evening, we hope you enjoy the day!
Happy Halloween, y’all!
autumn MABON equinox
This is the week of equinox here, daylight and nighttime exist in balance. 🍂🕰
The the intensity of summer sun is subsiding in Arkansas. Leaves are ready, beginning their journey to show their brilliant colors beyond green before browning and falling to the ground. Do you enjoy pondering the metaphysical?
🕰🍂 If a year existed inside of a mantle clock, autumn would be the magic hour.
🕰🍂 Your friend,
—AmberHH 🍂🕰
2020 Cards, Cards, Cards …
2020 is what happens when you mix up cards from your Tarot Deck and your box of Cards Against Humanity. 🤪
Don’t do it again… 😆
Meat Flag! (4th of July)
Show Me Your Charcuterie!
—Blueberries & PepperJack stars
—Hot Bacon Jam & Cream Cheese
—WheatThin crackers
—cherry tomatoes
—Habanero/Pineapple Almonds
—Pepperoni
—Monterey cheese
—Babyback BBQ pork ribs
—baked Ham
Does it look like the American Flag?
I assembled the FLAG tray using items available at our neighborhood Kroger and Walmart stores. Our family enjoyed snacking on the goodies on the tray throughout the afternoon on the 4th of July while waiting until it was dark enough for the firework festivities to start! We hope your family had a fun day, too! —AmberHH
Little Fairy Garden in a Big Birdcage!
Inside of a big, old metal birdcage that we welded on top of an old base to a bird bath that no longer had a bowl, we assembled a little “fairy garden.” You won’t see the fairies in the photos of this garden, because that is the nature of fairies. They are quite camera shy. We just trust that they visit and enjoy this whimsical little place!
“The World is very Old;
But year by year
It grows all new again
When blooms appear!”
–AmberHH, WhatAmberLoves
National Book Lovers Day!
Well, yes, I do love books!
Story time? In!!
In the event you enjoy unusual thoughts, you might like this post. If you have enough “eccentric” friends, keep scrolling. 🌿 Here it is: For awhile, I’ve had my books stacked in the shelf cubbies. While it’s less practical for retrieving them, I can fit far more books per shelf. However, this afternoon it occurred to me that it looks like my books are “asleep.” Thus, I’ve decided to “wake them up” by standing them all up-right next week. So, there ya go! 🌿 You’re welcome. I’m “waking up books” one day next week. Down the rabbit hole I’ve gone … 💕📚
I cannot decide whether I prefer reading or writing, nor will I.
Do you ever smell a faint scent of something and it brings back a memory? Only you can’t remember the memory, just the way you felt at that very moment?
Also, if one door closes and the other door opens, your
house might be haunted. 🚪💋📕💋🚪#GhostStories
I’m currently reading A Gentleman in Moscow. Next, I plan to read A Secret History of Witches.
What book are you currently reading or have read recently that you recommend?
Your Friend,
AmberHH
