This week’s Instagram, photo a day challenge:

Mar 24th – Day 84

Day 24 – an animal

Beth and Teal like to run with Swedish Fish for a snack, after Sunday’s 1/2 marathon this is what Teal’s uneaten fish looked like…sad.

Mar 25th – Day 85

Day 25 – breakfast

Post Rock N Roll Half we ended up at Hacienda on Henderson for a rather…interesting brunch.  I had to try the mango jalapeno hotcakes and they came with chicken.

If you live in Dallas and haven’t heard of Cane Rosso….I am just sad for you! Cane Rosso is located in Deep Ellum and has just expanded it’s location. It has been awhile since I had been Cane Rosso and was excited to get back. Did you know on Wednesdays it’s BYOB? I love that!

We had entirely too much food and all left stuffed because it was so good! We started out with the Focacia. It is the perfect mix of flavors on warm pizza crust with a drizzle of olive oil on top.  I loved the flavor the Rosemary added to it!

Next we got started on the pizza!  The problem at Cane Rosso, is trying to decide which pizza(s) to order!  We got 3…I know what you’re thinking, “DANG!”  But if you’ve tried their pizza, you’ll understand!

After hearing the waitress describe the Seasonal White Pie, we had to try that one.  It had cripsy proscuitto, mushrooms and peppers.  It was SO good!  It had the perfect amount of spice.

We also started with the Proscuitto e Rucola.  This is one of my favorite pies.  It consists of fresh mozarella with garlic, prosciutto crudo, arugula and extra virgin olive oil.  With the arugula on top of the pizza, there is a freshness to this pizza that is delicious!

After we got this pizza there was a bit of a break before we ordered yet another pizza.  This time we got the Luana.  This pie has italian tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, basil, Jimmy’s sausage (I have no idea who Jimmy is…), hot soppresta and mushrooms.

Despite not being a big mushroom fan, this pizza is still fabulous. Again I love the spice to this one.

Last but not least, we ordered the S’mores Calzone.  This was mainly at my request because I wanted to try one of their desserts.  I keep hearing people talk about how amazing their desserts were.  Despite being delicious, I was entirely too full to really enjoy this dessert.

On a side note…while at dinner, I kept staring at this woman, trying to figure out who she was….and then I realized it was Real Posh Mom! So fun to finally meet her in real life.  And I totally crashed their planning meeting for Chefs for Farmers. The event is Saturday May 6th from 1-5pm at Lee Park and looks awesome! I’m going to be out of town that weekend but if I can get back in time I plan to go, what about you??

When Creative Chaos was first made available online that seemed surreal…but now that it is in print, I feel like I’m dreaming. And in fact I did have a dream (or maybe it was more of a nightmare) that I was flipping through a copy and found a typo on page 62 or was it 68? I’m kind of afraid to go and look now though!

I guess it’s too late on the first draft now…because, Creative Chaos is out and people actually have copies that I signed…how weird is that!?!?

My mom has been making this baked Italian chicken for as long as I can remember, and to be honest I have no idea where she got the recipe from, so I definitely not trying to claim this as my family’s recipe.

Mom’s version calls for:

3-5 chicken breasts

8 oz cream cheese (soft, you can do this in the microwave)

1 package Good Season Italian Dressing mix

1/3-1/2 Cup white cooking wine

The problem with this recipe is, you have to make the whole recipe…it’s pretty tricky to measure out just the right amount of cream cheese and get just the amount of dressing mix you need for one breast of baked Italian chicken if that’s all you want to fix.

As I was looking for ways to promote the release of Creative Chaos I was alerted to Courtney Walsh’s debut novel over on Two Peas in a Bucket’s message board.  For those who have no clue about what Two Peas is, it is a message board for Scrapbookers.

A Sweethaven Summer by Courtney Walsh was released in just the last few months and centers on the lives of four women brought together by a scrapbook they started as teenagers.  Sweethaven is the town where they all meet when they were just children.  As I read this book I found myself wishing I knew of a place like Sweethaven, Walsh did an amazing job of painting the perfect picture of this small town.

She also did a great job of keeping you guessing and wanting to figure out if Campbell, the person this story is based around, will be able to uncover the secrets that her Mom had so desperately kept stored away.  This is a story of forgiveness, friendship and redemption that is just truly well written.

I have been asked several times about how to self publish online now that Creative Chaos is out and available.

What appealed to me about self publishing was the low cost.  Since I had written my book a few years back; with all of the resources available online it just seemed foolish to not get my book out there.

When I decided to self publish online, I started with a blog announcement and it went from there!  Luckily I have experience with Photoshop and Illustrator and was able to design the cover of Creative Chaos on my own.  Next I had to file the copyright.  This can be done online really easily for approximately $35.

Then I had to obtain ISBNs, this is where the cost picks up.  I went with Bowker, I know there are several sites that will issue ISBNs and even take over and get your book published online for you.  I read that it is best to have an ISBN for each different version of your book you are putting out: Kindle, Nook, iBooks, PDF, physical book. When Bowker offered 1o for the price of 2, I figured that was the way to go.

This week’s Instagram, photo a day challenge (I know this is a day late, technically it’s Photo Saturday):

Mar 17th – Day 77

Day 17 – green

Today was Saint Patrick’s Day so it was only fitting that the theme for the day would be green.  These are a few of the green things I encountered: green jello shots, this 4 leaf clover “Lucky sign”, a Tanked cupcake from Trailercakes and of course green beer!

I have been hearing about Trailercakes for weeks, scratch that, for months on twitter but had yet to be in the same spot as their trailer “Bubbles.”  There were times we’d literally missed each other by minutes.

When I knew they were only going to be a block away from me on Saint Patrick’s day there was NO way I was going to miss them.  At 2:00 on the dot we walked the block and I finally saw Bubbles!

I am so happy to say that Trailercakes lived up to all the hype…they make some tasty cupcakes!!

They had quite a selection at this event and I loved that they were mini cupcakes, it made it way easier to try the different flavors.  At the request of my friend Robbie we got 2 of everything!

Since it was St. Patrick’s Day they had some special cupcakes, Tanked & Lucky Charms.

But my favorites were some of the cakes they offer all the time!

The “Cookie Monster” in the back right corner is DIVINE!  Everything about it was amazing, including the surprise of crushed oreos at the bottom of the cake!

The PB&J in the middle row has a surprise of jelly in the middle…you have got to try it!

“Hitched” is the one with the flower on top, loved! I am all about these kinds of cupcakes and Trailercakes’ wedding cake was delicious and did not disappoint!

“Slap Your Mother Chocolate” on the right…I really don’t even have words for.  I’m not a chocoholic…but I loved this cupcake!

Needless to say, if you see Trailercakes stop by and get some cakes, you’ll thank me later, I promise.  I really don’t think you could go wrong with any choice you make on their cakes.  Follow Trailercakes on Facebook and Twitter to see where Bubbles is parked.  You can also stop by their Richardson office to get cakes.

I can’t wait for my next Trailercakes experience!

I know I’ve beeing saying Creative Chaos would be printed soon and now it really is.  I believe it is being printed as I type.  And I am happy to announce that next Tuesday, March 27th will be the Creative Chaos book release.  The location, time and other vendors have been secured.  Here is the information:

If you’re like me, you’ve never heard of Mr Mesero.  At this point they’ve been open right at 100 days and I had absolutely NO clue!  I was even at Kozy not that long ago and it’s across the street.

I have yet to find anyone here in Dallas that has never been to MiCocina or Taco Diner.  I even have family members that have to go to MiCocina every time they come in town.  Despite the notoriety of these restaurants I had no clue their founder, Mico was no longer a part of those restaurants.

Friday I was hanging out with some friends watching some basketball and catching up at Knox Street Pub when we decided we needed to figure out what to do for dinner.  I looked up and thought…I wonder what Mr Mesero is.  I pulled out my trusty iPad and pulled up the menu.  After passing the menu around we were all sold and settled up our tabs and headed across the street.

We had a friend to wait on and decided we’d start out with a margarita.  Next thing we knew Mico appeared at our table and it felt like he was welcoming us into his home. Our first question was…did you bring the Mambo Taxi with you to Mr Mesero?  And he told us the El Santo was better. It was delicious!  The guys went with a less pink drink and tried the La Dona (and I did too. It was good, but my favorite was the El Santo).

Sometimes I have to be responsible and take a break from reading “fun” books to read “work” books.  I stumbled upon this book and at $2.99 in the Kindle Store, it felt like a steal!

This is the 2nd Edition that was released just about a year ago.  It is a quick read that is pretty easy to follow and gives some great strategies to help you rank higher in search engines.  I think it is just over 100 pages so if you have any interest in learning about SEO this could be a good place for you to start.

Michael H. Fleischner does a good job of simplifying the different types of optimization needed (on-page and off-page) as well as the importance of inbound links. If you do not work on or with websites you may want to skip this one.  However if you are trying to grow your twitter or facebook presence many of the same principles apply.

This week’s Instagram, photo a day challenge:

Mar 10th – Day 70

Day 10 – loud

We had dinner at the Perez’ house on Saturday and I finally tried tamales!  So good!  But of course we had to have margaritas and this magic bullet blender was way cool and super loud!

Mar 11th – Day 71

Day 11 – someone you talked to today

This day the only people I talked to were my mom and my sister Beth, so here’s a pic of my sis!