bluwaterlife

cocktails, island style, stories & beautiful blue water

loaded potato soup ~

Welcome to a fun recipe blog hop ~ the Ultimate Recipe Challenge ~ using one of my favorite ingredients ~ potatoes! I'm sharing my Loaded Potato Soup ~ basically your favorite loaded baked potato in a soup bowl. My Grandmother Nellie {of Sweet Potato Pie fame} always said, "If you're out of potatoes, you're out of ... read more ~~~

IKEA Lenda curtains ~

Things have been quiet on the blog front lately. Big projects at home, and big projects at work, means most of my time is going to DOING projects ~ leaving little time to blog about them. I have enjoyed some kitchen time, and shared some recipes. Hey a gal's gotta eat! I'm sharing a preview of one of the big projects at ... read more ~~~

chocolate pistachio cookies ~

Happy sunny Saturday! Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and a perfect day for these Chocolate Pistachio slice and bake cookies. Well, really any day is perfect for these cookies! My friend Val from A Scrumptious Life made these for her cookie swap party and they went on my "must make" list. The chocolate made them perfect for ... read more ~~~

quick pizza bites ~ game time!

What's your game time food? Wings? Nachos? Subs? Pizza? Oh yeah, pizza! These quick pizza bites come together in 30ish minutes, use fridge and pantry ingredients {so you can make them anytime} ~ and they are a great take-along if you're going to a Super Bowl party! quick pizza bites ~ 1 refrigerated pizza crust ... read more ~~~

easy pressure cooker pulled pork ~

What do you do when you want slow-cooked pulled pork barbecue for dinner, but it's already late afternoon? Well, you could order out ~ or you could have fantastic pressure cooker pulled pork in about an hour ~ yes, you can! That's what we did one recent Saturday. From what would usually take many hours in an oven or ... read more ~~~

2016 ~ fortunate! #oneword365

Welcome 2016! The first week of 2016 is winding down, Christmas has been sorted and stored, and it's been a good week to look back ~ and look ahead. Last year I joined my blogging friends in finding a word as a personal theme or focus for the new year ~ #oneword365 ~ and I'm doing the same thing again this ... read more ~~~

top blog posts ~ 2015

It's the first week of the new year, and as I'm putting away the holiday decorations and thinking about my new year plans, it's a good time to look back on some of your favorite posts over the past year. Lots of things to eat, a few bits of style, and bluwatergetaway opportunities were all in the bluwaterfave mix. ... read more ~~~

chocolate peanut butter bars ~

Is it Christmas yet? So close, whew ~ still time to share one more Christmas post! In blogland, holiday posts start the end of October, about the same time as decorations start showing up in stores. In both cases that's so folks can get ideas, and have time to do, buy, wrap and give. For years, working in retail visual ... read more ~~~

christmas mantle and door ~

How do you decorate for the holidays? Early fluffer or last-minute finisher? Something festive in every room, or maybe just a simple wreath or candles? Everyone is different ~ heck for me, every year is different. I always re-use some decorations from year to year, but when and how is always subject to whatever else is ... read more ~~~

sea glass ornaments ~

It's Christmas decor week at bluwaterlife! We're starting with DIY sea glass ornaments, and a vintage aluminum Christmas tree that is nearly as old as I am. And the tree is showing its age, just like me, but I still love it! :-) This is the original aluminum tree we had when I was a kid. I LOVED watching it in ... read more ~~~

holiday moscow mule cocktail ~

We've enjoyed such a nice Thanksgiving holiday with Bluwatermom. And we tried a new bluwaterdrink, dubbed the Holiday Moscow Mule ~ which got the thumbs up from all of us! I found the recipe here from Serena Bakes Simply from Scratch, and shared it on the bluwaterlife Facebook page as one of the ... read more ~~~

thanksgiving pie ~

We have a small dilemma at Thanksgiving. Bluwatermom does not like pumpkin! So I'm sharing a southern tradition that is a great alternative to pumpkin pie ~ my grandmother's favorite Sweet Potato Pie! I'm doing this the way my grandmother would have, and she was the queen of aluminum pie pans. Living ... read more ~~~

air travel tips ~

Are you traveling next week for Thanksgiving? Fortunately, we aren’t flying for the holiday, but I did fly this week for business, so I thought to share my air travel tips for those who may be flying this Thanksgiving. I used to fly frequently and considered myself a "quasi-professional" air traveler, but after being ... read more ~~~