Project Spooky Shower

One of my best friends in the whole wide freakin' world is Chrissy-Lynn and she is having her first baby this fall!  I could not be more excited to welcome Little B's new partner in crime into this world.

Of course that means there is a baby shower in the works. Woohoo!  To top it all off, it will be a Halloween themed baby shower.  And if you knew my friend, you would know that a Halloween baby shower could not be more appropriate than it is for this girl.  She has skull n' cross bones coffee mugs!

My group of girls and I are busy with ideas and preparations for this upcoming event.  So Halloween is coming a little early this year and it is going to be awesome.  To kick off the ideas, we are thinking about using this Amy Atlas table as our inspiration.  What do you think?  What other cute Halloween/baby ideas do you think we should include?  Leave me a comment and let me know.

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Little Miss Pouty Face

Little B has recently developed quite the pouty face when she does not get her way.  I think her plan to make me feel sorry for her is backfiring, because these expressions just make me laugh.

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The power of a lazy susan

Don't you love when the simplest of ideas makes the biggest impact?  That is just what happened when Emily from Decorchick decided to overhaul her pantry.  The transformation is really quite impressive. I may have to steal of a few of her ideas.

Before

After

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Big D weekend

We have a big weekend planned and I could not be more excited.  We are off to Dallas!  Home of my birth, the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, and Mia's, one of the best Mexican food restaurants I have ever been to.

I will enjoy this weekend to the fullest as I get to reconnect with an old high school friend, Adrienne, and her 3 little girls.   I get to hang out with my kindred spirit friend, Jessica, and plot my plans to get her to move back to Austin.  Then it is off to cause some trouble with two of my three brothers.  And to top it all off, there is a brand spankin' new baby neice that I have been dying to love on. Little B is going to be in heaven.

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That's a lot of books

Nothing warms my heart more than a well organized book space.  Well done!

Image via Pittsy's Place

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My sunshine

I want to get this to hang in Little B's room.  Isn't it so great!

Image via Blueprint Bliss

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Green and blue

I love, love, love this dress.  Green and blue combinations are my favorite. It takes a certain kind of woman that can pull off horizontal stripes and look fabulous.  Paula from Two Ellie does it so well.  She said that the dress came from Shabby Apple.  Shabby Apple... not too shabby at all (sorry, I could not resist).

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Kitchen love

Oh how I love this kitchen with its beautiful windows, natural light, and clean lines.

Photo via Desire to Inspire

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End-of-summer, get-ready-for-fall rituals

Woohoo!  Kelly from Make Grow Gather gave me a shout-out on her blog.  Love it when that happens.  Thanks Kelly!

Anyways, she was having the post-vacation blues.  And we were discussing the best ways to get over that funk and say goodbye summer and hello to fall!

For me, I have a end of summer ritual that works every year.  It includes two things...

First, I kick off an ode to summer weekend that includes lots of swimming, margaritas and BBQ.  It is like I want to soak in as much summer-time-goodness as possible to get me through until next summer.  But then after the soaking-in has reached its maximum point (i.e. I am usually sunburned), I start the next step.

I begin my fall preparation ritual.  I make oatmeal cookies and start thinking about camping trips, smores, tall brown boots, football, pumpkins, cinnamon, and sippin' hot chocolate.  I figure out what kind of fall wreath I want to hang on my front door.  I begin to flip through recipes for fire-alarm chili, pot roast, and apple crisp.  I plan what great things I will grow in my fall garden. I brainstorm what my awesome Halloween costume will be this year and how we will decorate to scare the trick-or-treaters just right. And I try to remember where I stored my beat-up, comfy sweater that looks good with just about everything.

So far I have been very lucky with my ritual.  It gets me in the mood for fall every time.

Let's keep this conversation going.  We only have a few more weeks of summer left.  What are your end-of-summer, get-ready-for-fall rituals? 

Photo via Gourmet

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11 months!

The little one is 11 months!  Wow... one more month and it will be her birthday.  That blows my mind.

To think about where I was a whole year ago... The countdown was in full swing.  It was one of the hottest summers on record and I was hugely pregnant which made it 10 times hotter.  But what kept getting me through was knowing that my little one was going to be in my arms very soon.  That last month of pregnancy seemed to take forever.  I wondered what she would look like, what her personality would be, and hoping that labor would not be so bad.

Fast forward to today... it seems so long ago and so recent all at the same time.  But she is here now, all 20+ pounds of chubby, delicious energy.  My 11 month baby girl is growing up fast.  She has traded her grunts for babbling, her pureed food for little bites of whatever we are eating, and her stationary contentment for fast pitter-pattering all around the house.

And just when I think, "oh, this stage is the best", she surprises me with something new that makes me smile even more.  It just keeps getting better and better.

There are few things in life that live up to the hype... but baby girl, you are all the hype and so much more.

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Summer To Do List: eat lots and lots of BLTs

Quite possibly the best sandwich ever invented, the BLT (Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato) sandwich is standard fare in my house.  I know what I am eating for lunch today.

Photo via Closet Cooking

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Living Vicariously

As I sit here typing this, our house is under attack... by 4 little baby teeth.  Little B is teething.  My sweet baby girl has been replaced by a temper tantrum bundle of energy that can not be soothed.  We have tried popsicles, cuddling, cold carrots... even daddy's iPhone.  None of it is doing the trick.

So here is how I am surviving... when it is David's shift, I sit down and peruse some of my favorites blogs and live vicariously in the traveling adventures of others.  Here are some of the blogs that are making me smile this week.

• Bonjour J: I am living vicariously through her recent travels to Paris.  Le sigh.
• Hither and Thither:  These two live for travel.  And through their blog, you are taken along for this ride.
• Little Brown Pen: Nichole and her family hop back and forth between New York and Paris.  Her photography is inspiring.
• One Pearl Button: Alli is an archaeologist who lives in the US most of the time, but every summer travels to Italy and Greece to conduct research.  I want her life!

Photo via Little Brown Pen

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Glorious Weekend

Hello friends.  It is going to be another, hot glorious weekend!  We will be keeping cool with some homemade strawberry ice cream, a dip or two in the pool, and finishing up a good book. What are yall up to?

 Image via Chocolate Therapy

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Magically wonderful

So I am wrapping up my first week of this new chapter in my one wild and precious life.  And I must say, it has been pretty great.  In fact, it has been better than great.  It has been magically wonderful.

It is like I have hit the pause button on my roller coaster world and have slowed down just enough so that I can appreciate all that my life is made up of.  Like taking a deep breath or finally getting that much needed sleep that your body is craving, I feel better all of a sudden... more like myself.

My mom called me yesterday and asked if I was bored yet.  Heck no, I am just getting started.  My days have been filled with some really, great stuff...

• Long, eye-gazing conversations with this little one.  Apparently, she has a lot that she has been wanting to tell me. 

• Reading!  I have finished 2 books this week.  And that does not even count all the books that I read to Little B.  I feel so literary right now. 

• Playdates.  There is this whole underground sub-culture of moms that I never even knew existed.  Little B's social calendar is all of a sudden completely booked up.  I guess she was just waiting on a driver this whole time.  For me, I am getting to meet some really great women and reconnect with friends that I have been missing.

• Whipping up yummy goodness in the kitchen.  It is crazy how much cooking calms me.  Like an ongoing conversation with an old friend, I can jump back in after a long hiatus without missing a beat. And of course, the little shadow wants to help too.

• Listening to the radio... in the middle of the day.  This may seem small to everyone else.  But to me, it is the audio equivalent of skipping school.

• Lots of snuggling because it is just plain good for the soul.

Sure, we still have some of the mundane things that need to get done.  But for this week, we think the laundry can wait, the grocery store run can be done another day, and the grass will be mowed later.  Because we have better stuff to do.  There is fun to be had.  And we are drinking it up.

And when we do finally get around to crossing those everyday tasks off the to-do list, we will treat each one like another adventure in this wild and precious life.

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Last gifts from the garden

These are the last gifts from the garden.  It is just getting too hot around here to anything to flourish.  And of course, now the bugs are starting to descend.  So I will enjoy these beauties in a homemade salsa while I dream of what my fall garden will be.

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Literary stunt double

If you had to pick a literary stunt double, who would you pick? 

Jo from Little Women could be a good choice... headstrong, independent and loves books. Or maybe Scarlet from Gone with the Wind because of her tenacity and flirty personality.  Jane Eyre, Amelia Peabody, Bridget Jones, Kay Scarpetta... the list of potential candidates goes on and on.

For me, I would pick...
Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables.  She has spunk, makes friends everywhere she goes, gets into her fair share of trouble, has a temper, and believes in the goodness of people.

Okay, so I know that there have to be some great stunt doubles out there.  Leave me a comment and let me know who yours is and why.

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Balsamic Strawberry Ice Cream

I made the most delicious summer dessert last night.  I don't want to sound too full of myself, but I must say, this dessert turned out pretty dang awesome. 

I had a mish-mash of things in my fridge/pantry that needed to be used up - strawberries, a little half and half, some coconut milk, and the most amazing bottle of fig balsamic vinegar that my friend in Maine sent me.  So I did what any good amateur cook would do - I conducted a taste concoction experiment.  Giada on the Food Network does it all the time... a little of this, a little of that, and poof!  Greatness occurs.  Maybe I should the next big Food Network star!!!

Okay, now that I have bored you with my Food Network fantasy, here is the recipe...

Balsamic Strawberry Ice Cream 

1 cup of milk

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of half and half

1 cup of coconut milk

Seeds of 1 vanilla bean

1 pint of strawberries

1-2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

In a medium bowl, combine the strawberries, balsamic vinegar and 1/4 cup of sugar.  Let that sit for about an hour.

Then, whisk the milk and 3/4 cup of sugar until all the sugar is dissolved.  Add in the half and half, vanilla, and coconut milk.   Turn your ice cream machine on, then pour the mixture in through the spout and let it mix for about 30 minutes.

In the last 5 minutes of mixing, you want to add in the strawberry mixtures, juices and all.  Once it all mixes, turn it off, pop it in the freezer to harden up.  The hardest part of the whole process is the waiting for it to freeze.  But once it is ready, it is so good!

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Summer To Do List: learn to surf

Okay,  so I probably won't learn to surf this summer since we are staying put in our land-locked town for a while.  But it still goes on the list for a future summer.  Maybe it is because surfing is the bad ass of water sports.  Or maybe it is because I have this idea that it feels like flying, but with water.  Who knows.  But for whatever reason, I want to learn how to surf.  So it goes on the list.

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From my bookshelf: Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson is going on my list of top books of year.  It took me a while to get into, but once I did, I could not put it down.  At its core, this is a crime novel.  But through the very smart weaving of additional storylines and characters, this book becomes so much more.

Set in Sweden, the story line begins with the the lead character, Mikael Blomkvist, a journalist that has been hired by Henrick Vanger, an elderly CEO.  Vanger wants Blomkvist to track down what happened to his niece, Harriet, who went missing 40 years earlier.
So Blomkvist uproots his life and moves to this isolated island in order to figure out the mystery.  Oh yeh, and by the way, Blomkvist has just been sentenced to prison after losing a libel case.

Through a twist of the storyline, Blomkvist is assisted in his efforts by Lisbeth Salander, a girl with a dragon tattoo.  Salander is an interesting person - she is in her twenties, is a private investigator, and is extremely asocial.  So much in fact that she is a ward of the state.  This girl has issues.  She is emotionally closed off, very distrusting, and has dealt with her fair share of life drama.  But even with all her issues, you care about her.

Together Blomkvist and Salander try to determine what happened to Harriet over 40 years ago and in their quest, uncover so much more than anyone expected about the residents of the island.  So good!  The author has written two other books in this series.  I will definitely be putting those on my "to-read" list.

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To chop or not to chop

For the past year or so, I have been growing my hair long. Who has not wanted super model hair only seen in Pantene commercials? In my mind, my long hair looks like this.

In reality, it probably looks more like this:

So I am having a mental tug-of-war... to chop or not to chop. A few people tell me that I look cute with short hair. Mostly my mom... so she does not count. But I don't want to be cute, I want to be righteously, smoking hot, of course.  And I definitely do not want to fall into the mom-haircut look.  That will just not do.

If I do cut it, these are the styles that I am considering:

So tell me.  Give it to me straight.  Should I chop it or no?  And if I do, what style should I choose?  Okay, let the brutally honest comments begin!

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Summer To Do List: watermelon

If there ever was a summer mascot, watermelon would be a good one.  Sticky, refreshing goodness that cools as it drips off the chin. 

I have fond memories of my mom throwing all of us kids outside in the evenings with our watermelon slices in hand.  My brothers and I would have seed-spitting contests to see who could spit the seed the farthest, over the dog, over the fence, over the pool... the game goes on and on.  Once after a great watermelon night of games, we came back from a 2 week vacation to see a huge rogue watermelon growing right next to the pool thanks to our competitive endeavors.  Best watermelon ever!

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Runs in the family

I think that ridiculous facial expressions in pictures must run in the family.  What do you think?

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Her new favorite place

This window is Little B's new favorite place.  With a perfect, little ledge to pull herself up on, she can peer out over her domain while standing.  Yep, that's right... Little B is now standing!  Oh boy!

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Happy, hot weekend

Sorry, this post is gonna be short and sweet.  Lots of fun stuff going on so I don't have much time to write.  But just wanted to tell all of yall, "Happy Weekend!"

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Back to basics: cancelling cable

As I have mentioned before in previous posts, David and I are going through our "gut check" process of getting back to basics.  Figuring out what counts, what doesn't, and how to make the most of our one wild and precious life.

The theme of many of our goals is to simplify our lives as much as possible so that we can focus on the things that count.  Some of our efforts are big - quitting my job. Others not so much - eating more meals at home.  But with each move that we make, I feel more and more empowered to live the life that we want.  It is kind of exciting when I really think about it.

One of the small things (though David may argue this to be big) that we have done is cut our cable TV.  After doing the math, we realized that we were spending almost $1200 a year on cable.  Crazy!  I would love to have 1200 bucks back in my pocket.

Now don't think we are shunning all television...
That is not the case at all.  Instead we watch the main channels through antenna and then catch up on the rest with the help of Netflix and Hulu.  Love that Netflix!

Sure there are times when I really miss the Food Network.  And David cries a little whenever football season starts up without access to his beloved ESPN.  But on the whole, it has been a really great move on our part.  Instead of watching whatever happens to be on TV at the moment, we only watch what we really want to watch.  Our house is quieter and more serene because the TV is not on in the background at all times.  And when David really wants to watch a game that is not on the main channels, we head over to friends' houses or he meets up at the bar with the guys, thus making it more of a social event.

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Summer To Do List: refrigerator pickles

Crisp, cool, and crunchy... refrigerator pickles are perfectly summer.  If you ever have an abundance of cucumbers from the garden, this is the best way to use them up. 

Image via A Country Farmhouse

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She had me at avocado

Last week I stumbled across a lovely blog called Adrienn eats.  Adrienn writes about eating, cooking, and the healing effects that food can have on your body.  I found her while hunting down ideas on what to do with the bi-jillion tomatoes that are coming out of our garden.  And wow, does she deliver.

But what really caught my eye was a super simple recipe for Chilled Avocado Soup.  She had me at avocado.

Chilled avocado soup
2 servings
1 avocado
1 c ice water (with ice)
juice from 1 lime
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp red pepper flakes
1/4 c cilantro
1 tbsp olive oil

Blend all the ingredients and garnish with cilantro. Season with sea salt and pepper.

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Choosing Joy

So we have this guy in the office that is a textbook pessimist.  When he is presented with something, he will search for the one thing that does not match his vision and zone in on that.  He gets a certain look on his face right before the harsh words come out of his mouth.  Like a predator right before he pounces on his prey.  It has gotten so bad recently that a few of us have decided to try out an experiment.  Right before our negative comrade unleashes his words, we say, "Choose Joy." 

It has had the most interesting effect.  With that one spoken statement, this life-long pessimist has a few times stopped mid-thought, put a smile on his face, and has refocused his attention in finding at least one thing that he can compliment on.

You can tell that it is hard for him.  His mind keeps wanting to go back to the one thing that needs to be tweaked.  It is like watching a baby learn to walk.  A baby knows that it is easier to crawl, but walking could be so much more exciting.  So the baby keeps trying.

While I would love to say that our negative comrade had permanently changed his ways, I can not.  But I am still hopefully in our little experiment.  It is actually something that I am constantly working on with myself.  I think naturally I am a perfectionist.  And the problem with a perfectionist is that nothing is ever perfect.  So I have to force myself to appreciate the reality... flaws and all.  And my hope is that after a few weeks, months, years of choosing joy, it will become second nature.

So how am I choosing joy today?  Here are a few of my favorite joys that I have stumbled across already...

• I love the way that Little B puts her arms around my neck and pulls in for a hug.  Be still my heart!
• The Bachelor Pad - nothing like a train wreck of a tv show to get you through a Monday.
• The radio played 3 really good songs back to back on the drive in today - Soul Sister by Train, Joey by Concrete Blonde, Crash by Dave Matthews. 
• Homemade iced coffee on a 100+ degree day.
• Knowing that football season is right around the corner.  Go Aggies!
• A funny email from my girls.
• Watching Little B gobble up Cheerios.  Those chubby little fingers are quite efficient.

So tell me lovely readers, how are you choosing joy today?  Leave me a comment and let me know.

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Summer To Do List: blow bubbles

Isn't it crazy how something as innocent and simple as a bubble can bring such a big smile to one's face?

Photo via Design Sponge

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Happy Monday

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Right this second...

... we are heading to the pool!

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Happy Weekend!

Not too much planned this weekend.  Get a little laundry done, hang out with some friends, and dig in the garden.  Of course, I will have my helper with me keeping me laughing the whole time.

Temps are hitting the 100 mark.  So this is our time of year when we do as little as possible in order to stay cool.  What are your plans for the weekend and what do you do to chill out on the scorching days of summer?

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