Sweet Josephine

My Little Witch

2011-10-31T23:10:00.001-04:00

I really hope that your Halloween involved at least as many smiles as mine did this year. Having an 18 month old at Halloween? It doesn't get better.

This year, this:

inspired this:

Happy Halloween!

Pinspired Food {part 3}

2011-10-09T21:08:00.001-04:00

This is the one post where I will rave about every recipe. Yummmmmy!

Check out part 1 and part 2 for some other yummy (and not-so-yummy) ideas.

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

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These cookies were super delish. My one suggestion would be to make sure to do ample scoops and be sure not to smoosh them down. A lot of mine were too crispy and eve though I usually like my cookies that way, it didn't work as well for these since they are supposed to be cheesecakey. I added some of the cream cheese frosting from the next recipe to some of the cookies and that was a GOOD idea!

Cookies & Cream Cupcakes

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YUM-O. These cupcakes were every bit as scrumptious as the picture leads you to believe. Between the cookie at the bottom and the cream cheese frosting, these were pretty much to-die-for.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

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These cupcakes were also to-die-for. I pinned the recipe from a girl who adapted the original and that is the picture you see above since Annie's Eats does not allow people to save images. Anywho, it was my first time putting a filling in a cupcake and it won't be my last! The filling was sooooooo good! Then the crumbles on top...yeah, I need to make these again. Stat.

Pinspired Food {part 2}

2011-09-30T22:49:00.002-04:00

It's part 2 of of my Pinspired food adventures! If you missed part one, you can check it out here.

Let me just take a minute to give you a little insight into me and my relationship with cooking and baking. I have a little plaque in my kitchen that a friend gave me that says, "If God wanted me to cook, why did He invent restaurants?" and that pretty much sums it up. It is not that I don't love home-cooked food, I really really do (who doesn't??). It's just that I don't love the act of cooking. My mom was not much of a cook, either. I mean, she cooked very well...when she cooked. She was a work-outside-of-the-home mama so her time in the kitchen was limited and she was similar to me in that she didn't love the act of cooking. I can probably count on both of my hands the number of different dishes my mom made throughout my childhood and I can count on just one of my hands the number of times my mom baked something. Literally. Now baking, on the other hand, is something that I do enjoy. The problem is that I have a tendency to only make things that really appeal to me and then I want to eat it all. Maybe that plays into why I had to shed almost 30 lbs last year? Probably.

Here's the thing. I don't want to be that mom. The mom who is too busy to cook. The kind of mom that doesn't ever cook for her family because it doesn't suit her. I want to be the mom who's kids die for her food. So I really need to to work on this, because Josie is growing like a weed and I have more kiddos on the brain. I am hoping that this latest obsession with recipes found on Pinterest, really does inspire me to work on this.

Without further ado...

Tex Mex Queso Pasta

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This one was really disappointing for me! I stayed true to the recipe, even keeping in the jalapenos, but I think where I went wrong was using whole grain noodles. We always buy whole grain pasta around here but we find that some are better than others and when I made this recipe I used a new brand. I *think* it was Mueller's new whole grain pasta line, but don't hold me to it - I didn't have blogging on the mind when I made it so I didn't keep tabs. But the noodles were just a little too whole-grainy if you know what I mean. I feel like the pasta should just be a vehicle for all the yumminess you put on it but in this pasta a huge part of what I was tasting was the noodles. Anyway, the hubs liked it but was not in love with it. He did say that it was better as leftovers. I love when that happens and it doesn't happen enough, in my opinion.

Roasted Chick Peas

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To be blunt, these were disgusting. The hubs didn't even eat any after the initial bite I gave him and that is unprecedented for him because he hates to not give the 'ole college try to anything I make as to make sure he doesn't hurt my feelings. They look so delish in the pic, right? I used a garlic salt mix for the "spice blend mix" that the recipe calls for and it was not the right choice. But honestly, I really don't know if any spice mix would taste good. They were kind of mushy and I guess I was hoping for more of a crunchy, savory snack (like the author described...) but these completely fell flat.

On a side note...I am learning that I am not so good at this food description stuff because I am having a really hard time explaining why I didn't like stuff...

Reese's Cheesecake Brownies

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O. M. G. These brownies are just seriously sinful. And soooo good. This is the kind of dessert that you can only handle small portions of because it is almost too much. Next time around the only thing I think I would change is the Reese's Pieces in the cheesecake mixture - was just unnecessary. You already have peanut butter in the frosting and Reese's cups on top and that is good enough for me. Also, either I am having an oven temperature issue (which is entirely possible) or the 40 minutes was not long enough for this dish to fully bake. The brownie layer was pretty much almost-baked batter in the middle. I was actually okay with that but I planned on taking these brownies with me somewhere and I could only take from the outer edge because I couldn't cut brownies out of the middle without just coming out with a big pile of sweetness. But overall, I totally suggest making these for a party - you will be getting oohs and ahhs all over the place!

Can you believe I have made enough stuff found on Pinterest over the last month or so to fill two more posts??

Pinspired Food {part 1}

2011-09-24T14:21:00.001-04:00

What's that you say? My behind is larger this month than last month? Thanks for noticing and let's go ahead and thank Pinterest for that. Now I am broke from all the extra grocery trips and you think I look fat. Great.

Some of these recipes were well worth it, though. Welcome to part 1 of what is going to be a 4 part series detailing my adventures in recreating recipes I have discovered on Pinterest.

Double Chocolate Loaf with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

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This was soooooooo good! I used Ghirardelli cocoa, which I think helped make it so delish. But the real beauty of this is the frosting. I may or may not have been taking swipes of it from the container at every opportunity. Peanut butter, cream cheese and confectionary sugar is a combo directly from heaven. I love when people make a recipe and then give ideas for what they would change so I am going to do that with these posts, however, there is NOTHING I would change about this one! Follow the recipe and you will be in love.

Want to read a funny story, though? A raccoon was the recipient of most of it's calories. We took the loaf camping and on the 2nd morning we began a half-hearted searching for it. Then the desire for this wonderful loaf of awesomeness took a turn for the desperate and we amped up the search (I mean, how many places could it be on a campsite??). After discovering that this thing was nowhere to be found (and many silent accusations of who might have been the one to get up in the middle of the night and mow the whole thing and was sitting there acting like they had no idea where it was) the hubs discovered an empty, ripped up plastic bag maybe 50 feet from our campsite with only a sad few remaining crumbs of chocolate loaf. I could seriously punch that raccoon. We had only eaten less than half of it and IT WAS IN A SEALED PLASTIC BIN. Wtf? Not cool.

Chocolate Chip Sour Cream Muffins

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These were pretty good. Nothing super special but they were moist and yummy. I used a combo of milk chocolate chips and peanut butter chips instead but that was all I did differently (and I would suggest it, too).

But the weekend that I made these must have not been my weekend. I also took these camping and we discovered that some of them had this weird slight soapy taste. I have no idea what I did, but somewhere along the way I got a little bit of soap in there. Thankfully it did not ruin ALL of them.

By the way, if you do not own silicone baking cups, you should. They are so much better than paper cups. They practically fall off the muffin so no pulling off paper cups and trying to not have the crumbs fall everywhere and bonus - no garbage!

Pizza Puffs

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These bad boys are one of the more disappointing things I have made. They were just alright. Not bad at all, just alright - and I guess I was expecting them to be utterly delicious and to-die-for and so I was sad when they were not. I am not much of a cook so I really have no idea what you could do to make them better but let me know if you do!

Stay tuned for part 2 next week!

Embrace the Camera

2011-09-22T20:43:00.000-04:00

No giant smiles this week.

I tested out the timer on J to see if it mesmerized her and check it out. It did!

This kid is always on the move and rarely will just sit with mama so I kinda love this picture.

Linking up with the fabulous Mrs. Emily Anderson over at The Anderson Crew.

Josie {17 months}

2011-09-19T22:25:00.002-04:00

How can it be that I have a child who is 17 months old? How can it be that she is walking (i.e., running) and talking? How can it be that we are so lucky?

Today Josie still has her night night. We see no end in sight and are okay with that for the moment. We have made it off limits when she is at home but she can have it for sleeping and for public outings (admittedly, just makes life easier).

Today Josie is a picky, unpredictable eater. You give her something one day and she loves it. The next day, notsomuch. The only thing that I can predict is that I will be frustrated and she will not eat much - that much is true 90% of the time. We throw away more food every day than I would like to admit but the girl certainly isn't starving. At, I am guessing, 26ish pounds she is downright solid. The things that she often will not turn down are yogurt, cheese, green beans, olives and anything that we are eating. That last part does not mean that she will actually swallow something you give her from your plate, but she will beg for it. It is probably something that we should discourage more than we do but when she has hardly eaten anything and then seems to want what you have, it is very difficult to turn her down.

Can't you just feel the mischief?

Today Josie is so smart. I know this is so cliche and every parent says it but you know what? All of our children are smart. Everyone else might not see it the same as we do, but we all see the best parts of our children and know what makes them special. Josie is saying more words than I can count and is sure to give her best attempt at repeating any word we give her. If we count to 10, she will say a lot of the #'s as we go. If we sing the ABC song, she will become quite intent on listening and toward the end you can hear her telling you "TUVWXYZ" and then, "...meeee!". She can show you all of the parts of your face and a good amount of your body parts to you and she can point them out on herself, too. She loves to give a nose a good honk and she loves to poke eyes. She love love loves Take Me Out to the Ball Game, Itsy Bitsy Spider and Ring Around the Rosie. She thinks it is the funniest thing if she tickles you and you laugh like crazy and she will do it until you won't let her do it anymore. Oh yeah, and on a SUPER cute note, it is the coolest thing when I see her do something just like her daddy. Like the way she sticks out her tongue just a little bit when she is really concentrating.

Today Josie LOVES music. She instantly smiles if someone she knows starts singing, no matter where she is she will stop and start to sway if she hears a catchy tune, and it is a nightly occurance to see her dancing and twirling in the living room. There are certain songs that we make a point of playing in the car sometimes because they are sure to have her smiling as big as she can and shaking her booty in her seat - Ice Ice Baby, Pumped Up Kicks and Rolling in the Deep, just to name a few.

Today Josie is a beautiful little lady. Her hair is most definitely in a mullet style, officially. Mama just hasn't gotten around to taking her in but don't be sad because her smooth, silky locks will not allow little pigtails in the back so don't cry for the imminent loss of it. In her light-the-whole-room-up smile, she has the majority of her baby teeth except her cuspids and 2nd molars, which from my research seems to be right on track. She is rocking a size 6 shoe, and depending on where you are shopping, she is pretty much in 18 months clothes. Carter's 18 months is still a little big, while Old Navy 18-24 months is just about perfect. The pants are usually a little long but I guess that is where the "-24 months" part of the size come into play! When Josie wears disposable diapers, she is perfectly in a size 4.

Today Josie loves to test her limits. She says an emphatic "No!" at every opportunity and if you are saying no to her, she will touch the off-limits item and look you right in the eye and say "Okay!" as she is touching whatever it is you are asking her not to touch. Josie has already seen a few time-outs and a few hand smacks. But isn't there some kind of saying about the smartest kids being the most stubborn or something? No, you say? Well, there should be.

Today Josie is our heart. She smiles, we smile. She laughs, we laugh. She cries...well, I won't go that far...

Yes, I am aware that this picture quality super sucks but this is the only family pic we have taken in a few months!

Pinspired?

2011-09-17T22:12:00.000-04:00

Remember this post? Well, just want to let you know that I am still completely enamored with Pinterest. In the last month or so I have pinned 241 things! I have been in love with Google Reader for a long time now - maybe 2 years - and not too long ago I discovered the ability to "star" posts. That is probably completely old news to anyone who uses GR, but I was way excited about it because up until then I would just keep good posts unread until I printed them out or did whatever it was that I wanted to do from them. So for someone like me who is OCD and did not enjoying having unread items in her feed when they were in fact very read, this was not cool. Well, Pinterest is essentially the same thing as starring, except the whole world is opened up to you. I think the site should actually be called Pinspire because it inspires me every.single.day. I cannot get over how many wonderfully creative people are in the world. It just seriously makes my heart so happy.

I thought it would be fun to do a little recap of all the pins that I have actually accomplished, so here goes. Oh. Admittedly I am a huge lame-o because I haven't taken pictures of hardly any of the things I have done, so all you get are the pics from Pinterest. So sorry.

Under the sink organization. I bought two metal mesh ones from Ikea for $6.99 and it fit all of our plastic wrap, foil and plastic bags. It is such a small thing but a really great organizational improvement for us! I HATED sorting through all those boxes just laying in the cabinet.

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I lied. I do have one picture example but it is actually something that I posted in my last blog. I saw this picture on Pinterest, but for some reason I did not repin it so I am very sorry but I cannot give the originator credit:

As soon as I saw it, I had to do it for my Goddaughter and also for my Josie. I whipped these up on Picnik in just a few minutes.

(Did I ever share these photo shoots with you? I was pretty proud of both of them. And did I share how I made Josie's tutu?? SUPER easy.)

Adorable jacket pattern for a baby girl. I am not much of a sewer (it really weirds me out that that is the right word, btw) so I commissioned one of my best pal's best pal to make it for me! I bought the pattern, now I just need to buy the fabric and send it to her.

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Just realized that I lied again. I have another picture! Check out this sweet idea for a baby boy photo:

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It was my smart hubby's idea to use felt instead of construction paper, in order to eliminate any potential glare. Here are some of the pics we got last weekend when I took my ridiculously ADORABLE nephew's 6-month pics:

Unfortunately, I didn't get as many good ones from this as I had hoped. #1 The tape was not sticking well to the felt or the binky - I wish I would have given that a little more thought and tested it out beforehand and #2 The hubs made them for me and didn't really take into account the size of the baby's face so they were a little large and his nose was covered too much in most of the pics. He also cut out a fu-man-chu, but due to the problems I just listed, it just didn't work. Case in point:

Fortunately, they plan on having a Duggar-sized fam so I am sure we will have another little to give it a go on.

As it turns out, this post is getting pretty long and I haven't even covered half of it! I will be back to finish up later - hope you enjoyed!

Embrace the Camera

2011-09-15T21:21:00.001-04:00

This week's Embrace the Camera is brought to you courtesy of Picnik*. I seriously love this site so much. I hate the phrase "pink puffy heart" but I might be compelled to use it here...

I like the idea of taking perfect photos straight out of the camera, however, I'm not that good yet. So Picnik allows me to take a pretty good picture and turn it into a fab picture.

Picniked Photo

Original

Better, right? Nothing crazy - most of the time I just like to enhance the picture and make the people in it look a little better.

I sprung for the annual membership after reading this post. I had been contemplating taking the plunge for awhile, because, really? How expensive is $2/month? Not really. There are lots of fun things I can do now like add blush to cheeks and mascara to eyelashes, whiten teeth and brighten eyes. I totally suggest paying for the extras!

On a not-related-to-ETC-but-related-to-Picnik note, I also used Picnik to create this little beauty:

Linking up with the fabulous Mrs. Emily Anderson over at The Anderson Crew.

*Picnik did not really sponsor this post...I just wish they did.

#11 Contribute Something Homemade to the Family Reunion

2011-09-03T23:01:00.003-04:00

Every July, the hubs' family throws a 3-day family reunion. On day 2 there is always a raffle and a pretty sweet raffle, at that. Always lots of goodies and my personal favorite, the homemade stuff. I appreciate something a million times more when I personally know the person who put their heart into it. So every year I intend on contributing and I only have a few times but it has been awhile. So with Google Reader becoming a mainstay of my life this past year, I had "starred" a few wreaths that I thought were cool and I made them.

Without further ado, let me proudly introduce what I contributed this year...

I thought this one was sooo cute for if you were having a party! If I had to do it over again, I would use smaller floral pins (the ones I used were coming through the other side in some spots) and smaller balloons because some of them are a little bit big, I think. It cost less than $15 and took about 45 minutes from start to finish - not bad!

I wanted to make this one for a long time for myself but never did. So my lucky cousin was the recipient of it and hopefully I will get around to making another for myself soon. I cannot recall how much it cost, maybe $20? And this one took a bit of time with all of the fabric cutting but my wonderful hubs helped me so it wasn't too bad. With his help, probably took me an hour and a half to two hours from start to finish.

This one turned out to probably be my favorite - well, I don't know, I really liked the red one...- and was definitely the least work. And the best part is that it was all my idea! I went into JoAnn's knowing that I wanted to make one for 4th of July and that I wanted to incorporate fabric, yarn and rosettes and this is what I came up with! I got .25 yards of 3 different patriotic fabrics, a skein of cheap, white yarn and a foam wreath. It was about $15 and took me maybe 30 minutes. So easy!

I love making wreaths, I have discovered. Maybe it will be my reunion "thing" now!

And just for good measure, here is a pretty pic of Josie from this year's reunion.

If anyone can tell me how to work with the crazy spacing issues in Blogger without messing with composing in HTML, I would greatly appreciate it. :)

Check it: 101 in 1,001.

Fave Photo from August

2011-09-02T13:10:00.000-04:00

Paper Mama Photo Challenge

I really like photo challenges. They inspire me to take photos that I would not have otherwise taken. In the case of today's challenge, however, it is for pictures already taken. But I really felt like posting my fave picture from August so I am going to participate! I think that the challenge itself is actually over but, oh well.

How much do you love this photo?

I don't care that it is slightly blurry, I don't care that it is overexposed. I think that it has an ethereal feel, my baby looks stunning and adore the look on her face, and those shorts she is wearing are one of my favorite items of clothing that she has ever had. They are soooo cute, even though you cannot really tell here. LOVE!

Embrace the Camera

2011-09-01T08:22:00.000-04:00

This week's Embrace the Camera post was inspired by the most fabulous Pinterest, my latest obsession (as well as the rest of the blogging community, it seems...).

I saw this picture:

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Then I showed the hubs and he was like, "We are so doing that." So this weekend he told me to get Josie and I coordinated to take some pics together because we were going to do this same thing in our house, except he wanted it to be pics of Josie and I and the letter would be J since we are both J's. Cute, right? Well, we shall see if it ever actually comes to fruition because we really want to do it with big canvas photos like the ones above but that shizz is expensive!

Anyway, here are some shots from our 'lil photo shoot.

Linking up with the fabulous Mrs. Emily Anderson over at The Anderson Crew.

Embrace the Camera

2011-08-26T00:59:00.000-04:00

Technically it is Friday.

But I can't sleep and it is still Thursday as far as I'm concerned and I want to share this picture because I am in love with the intent look on her face - which is what I loved in the moment, too, and why I was barely able to take the bite she was offering to me.

I love her. And I love that she got her daddy's nose. :)

I am linking up with Emily Anderson over at The Anderson Crew.

Sooo...

2011-08-09T00:11:00.000-04:00

So I was blogging all the time for a little while there. And then suddenly I wasn't. Did anyone notice?

Summer took a hold of me, I stopped taking so many pictures and I went this whole crazy anxiety-ridden new job thing. I start my new job on Wednesday and I am starting to feel like myself again. But I am still really enjoying summer and not making any promises to this computer...

Now I just want to take a minute and talk about Pinterest. Holy CRAP. The first time I went on I was like, yeah, this is cool but whatever, it's not that great. And then, out of nowhere (having four days off in a row and staying up for many, many hours after the babe has went down, maybe?), I logged on and I got it. I got what all the fuss is about. This site is mind-blowing. It inspires me soooooo much. Unfortunately, all it inspired me to do last night and tonight was to stare at this computer screen with my mouth gaped open, periodically pushing up my jaw back up as to stop the drool from falling. Hmmm...hopefully the inspiration is more fruitful from now on.

Anyway, here are some of my fave pins from the past few nights. Oh yeah, and let me know if you need an invite!

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#2 Visit Kevin & Emily in Ohio

2011-07-04T11:38:00.001-04:00

Finally!

Our super cool friends, Kevin and Emily, have lived here for four years and we are always saying how we should go visit but, for no good reason at all, we kept putting it off.

We arrived around 4pm on a Saturday in June and headed home late afternoon on Sunday so it was not a long visit but it didn't have to be - it taught us that they are not THAT far away and we can easily make this trip again.

Let me just say, I was a really bad picture taker on this trip. I have no cool pictures of their adorable neighborhood or any of the cute shops there; no pictures of their house or Emily, like 2 of Kevin and not enough of their adorable little girl. I got a couple of good ones of us, but that is really it, unfortunately!

Our pals live in the historic German Village of Columbus, Ohio. Their house was built in the early 1900's and a good portion of the house is original. I wish I had taken some pictures of their actual house but I was not in my blogging frame of mind :(. The streets in the neighborhood are even still original cobble stone! It is such a cute neighborhood and I am so glad that we got a chance to visit them there before they moved on to greener pastures.

Our visit was pretty low-key. Pretty much consisted of walking, talking, eating and attending to our babies.

Kevin and Emily have a seven month old daughter named Evie that we were so excited to finally meet! She is so beautiful and so sweet, seriously. And she literally has the sweetest hair that I have ever seen on a baby. It was so fun to see them parenting at a stage that we were at so recently ourselves but still seems like it was sooo long ago! They are still trying out new solid foods, giving bottles and not dealing with mobility. It was also funny to hear Emily asking me the very same questions I was wondering about just a few months before, like, "How did you make the transition from pureed food to table food??". It just made me laugh because that frame of mind is still so vivid for me but at the same time so far away.

On Sunday afternoon we headed to the Columbus Zoo. This zoo rocks! Apparently it has the distinction of #1 zoo in North America? This is what my hosts tell me. I have to say that it was pretty awesome. It is laid out very well and there are A LOT of animals. We were only there for a few hours so we didn't get to see everything. Our friends purchased a year pass which allows them to bring 2 guests every visit for FREE! How sweet is that? I told you that these people are cool.

Ohio actually has some redeeming qualities, after all. ;)

To check out my list: 101 in 1,001. And a quick note - if you are following me through an RSS feed like Google Reader or whatever, would you mind taking a second to go to my actual page and follow me? I am just wondering if I have picked up any new readers. Thanks. And thanks so much for reading! :)

Embrace the Camera

2011-06-30T18:57:00.000-04:00

I am linking up with Emily Anderson over at The Anderson Crew for Embrace the Camera.

I am soooo happy to be blogging about this moment that we had the other day.

I laid down on the ground, just as you see here, and grabbed a book and just started reading out loud for Josie as she toddled around the room. These days all she does is walk, walk, walk. I guess that is what you do when you have a new love in life, isn't it? She cannot contain herself from going back and forth to all of the glorious things that she could only stare at with longing for so many months.

Suddenly she stopped and laid down right next to me with her own book (the one you see us reading). I wish I would have videotaped it because her process of laying down like I did was so painstaking. She has never so slowly and deliberately tried to mimic something that I did the way that she mimicked this.

It was one of those super silly, emotional moments for me where at one point I was laughing because I started tearing up over the sweetness of it all and had to put my head down and re-focus so I wouldn't start sobbing!

That is me making monkey sounds...

This being a mom stuff is no joke. I cannot believe this little person actually wants to hang out with me ~~for now~~ and actually watches the things that I say and do.

I love this kid sooooooo much!!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

2011-06-29T23:26:00.000-04:00

It is Wednesday so you know what time it is! I know you are dying to hear what I am loving...

Check out the WILW originator over at This Kind of Love .

I am still loving my Ikea chalk board (talked about here) because of moments like this:

I went to take a shower and before I left I said to the hubs, "You know what would be great?" and he replied with something unsuitable for the blog viewing community so I said, "No. Actually, it would be great if when I came out of the shower that you had something great written on the chalk board. I need a little laugh please." And he delivered, as always. And that is the epitome of what I wanted from this chalkboard! I am totally okay that I had to make him do it.

I am loving all of the great pictures I have taken in the last week. Cue photo dump...

I love crying pics...does that make me a mean mommy?? I just think her cry face is adorable!

Detroit Tigers pink dress and pink baby Crocs - need I say more?

Daddy and baby pics just kill me...

She can furrow her brow like nobody's business.

My beautiful Goddaughter and her "say cheese!" smile.

My BIL trying to break some beer bottles for his baby girl.

Hubs trying for his baby girl, too. LOVE BIL's focused neck position in the background, too!

I love how engaged everyone in this picture is on something - Maddie on the game, Hubs on Maddie and J on daddy!

Looks repulsive to me but makes for pretty picture!

Mmmm...corn dog.

BE-A-U-TEE-FUL

One day, J, in the not-too-distant future...

Man, I have some pretty people in my life.

My favorite girls!

Just had to add this one in for comparison - this one is from about 4 months ago. Please note that Maddie has tattoos in both pics...she is a rock star like that.

Today I am in love with the fact that my friend, Jen, gave me the most wonderful thank you today. Jen lives in Nevada (I am in MI) and due to lots of moving for her hubby's job in the last few years, she does not have any family and no good friends at her immediate disposal and she is currently just shy of 8 months pregnant. I wanted to send her a little package of baby stuff that she wouldn't have necessarily thought she needed without ever having a baby herself. So J and I headed over to Target and had ourselves a good 'ole time buying lots of fun "essential" baby stuff. Then we came home and made Jen a little video explaining each item and why they were some of our favorite things. Josie definitely added to the entertainment value of the video by getting into stuff and making me pause to take care of what she was doing or by how she said "BUH-BYE" loud and clear at the end. Anyway, Jen received the package today (oh, you know, only 5 weeks after we bought the gift...) and she sent me some of the greatest texts I have ever received..."U are way too cute! That video made my day, no my month. LOVED it! Josie is adorable and so r u. That meant so much to me. Ur such an amazing friend. Thank you!!!!!"..."I even called my mom right away to tell her how incredible u are".

Seriously? Seriously?? All because we took 45 minutes of one day of our lives to do something for her! This is why I love doing unexpected things for people - whether it is giving a really great, personal gift or sending a random post card or whatever. It is SO FUN to make people really, really happy just by some small act of kindness! I really wish that I took the time to do it more often. But I did this for Jen because I knew that I would love to see a friend's face right now if I were her and I knew that if the roles were reversed and it were me, I would love it. But I didn't expect such an amazing reaction. Gratitude is my favorite thing in the world and especially when it is given so graciously for such small things. Thank you, Jen, you made MY month!

Us at Jen's wedding in 2008.

Thanks for reading!

{30 day} photo fun - days 28 & 29

2011-06-29T22:20:00.000-04:00

{Day 28 - Transportation}

Pretty uninspired. Sorry :(. This is the front-end of my husband's {very dirty} truck.

{Day 29 - Trees}

This one, however, ended up being very inspiring! I just walked around outside looking for the best spot to capture a good tree shot and remembered our cherry tree that we have not picked yet.

There is something about fruit and flowers and that just make me want to take artsy fartsy pictures. Hubs decided to join in on the action!

This photo sesh was spontaneous, people. I didn't have time to paint my toe nails and didn't think about getting a prettier bowl.

This one is courtesy of the hubs. Awesome, no?

Maybe I will be inspired to make another sour cherry crumb pie!

{30 day} photo fun - day 27

2011-06-27T20:52:00.000-04:00

{Day 27 - My Weakness}

Truthfully, I have way too many weaknesses. Most of them are food related. So I took two pictures for this challenge, one food and one non-food.

Coffee. Not so much my weakness because it has caffeine or because it stains my teeth but more so because I really like the ones with lots of fat. For the last 6 months or more, I have gotten all my coffee sans fat but, for some reason, I decided to get a McDonald's Iced Mocha WITH whip WITH fatty milk a few weeks ago. DAMMIT...why, why did I get it again?? My $0.50 Keurig coffee with Coffeemate fat-free french vanilla liquid creamer is delicious! I actually even like this very same drink without whip and nonfat but is that what I get?? Noooo. Please, someone talk some sense in to me! Part of the reason why I have been able to keep the weight off is that I have been really good about breakfast and lunch and I swear these freaking ($3.50) Mickey D coffees are gonna put it all back on.

Makeup and make up tools. Now, not just any makeup either, but expensive makeup. Nothing you see in this picture cost less than $15...I would venture that nothing in here even costs less than $25, but I am drawing a blank and I think some may be $18ish... Anywho, that is expensive to me. But soooo worth it. I can seriously justify this stuff because I use every last speck of it and I don't care about the stupid rules about makeup expiration that you read about in Cosmo, I keep that shiz for a long time and until it is GONE. (I get so ghetto when I get fired up - what is that about?)

$90 makeup case? Had it for 5 years. $35 blush brush? Had at least 5 years. Concealer? The makeup artist told me that hers lasted for about 3 months - I am going on 7 and no end is in sight. Let's ignore the fact that MAC artists wear like 3 inches of concealer and foundation. I wear it every.single.day on several spots on my face. I will stop there because I am sure you get the point.

{30 day} photo fun - days 23-26

2011-06-26T22:46:00.000-04:00

Time to play catch-up!

I may or may not have taken some of these on the wrong days...

{Day 23 - Black & White}

Hubs outside on a beautiful day showing off his pearly whites.

{Day 24 - Love}

I could have went for the obvious with this challenge but I decided that was too predictable. The hubs has his Converse sneakers on a constant rotation. He has or has had them in black, blue, green and grey, as well, but he always has a white pair to wear. The old ones become "work shoes". Right now Corey has the ones on the far left that he wears at home for working in the around the house, then the middle pair is for dirty jobs for work and then the last pair are the brand new ones that he is wearing with his regular clothes. I love, love, love the hubs in his Converse!

{Day 25 - Citrus}

Again, could have went for the obvious but ~~I didn't have any~~ that's no fun. This was taken at a local fair.

{Day 26 - Favorite Color}

My favorite lady in my favorite color, purple.

What I'm Loving Wednesday

2011-06-22T21:21:00.001-04:00

It is Wednesday so you know what time it is! I know you are dying to hear what I am loving...

Check out the WILW originator over at This Kind of Love .

::Ben & Jerry's Late Night Snack

This is an oddly delicious combo of vanilla ice cream, salty caramel swirl and chocolate-covered-potato-chip clusters! I really did not expect to like it. In fact, I actually bought it for my husband and bought myself their S'More's flavor.

But now this is probably my most favorite ice cream ever! I may or may not have eaten an entire pint of it for lunch on Sunday.

I heard Jimmy Fallon talking about this on the radio recently and he mentioned that all of the proceeds from this flavor are going to charity (he said which one but I cannot remember). The crazy thing is that I looked all over the container and all over the Ben & Jerry's website and I did not see this mentioned anywhere. Now, this could mean one of three things:

#1 Ben & Jerry's are so humble in their philanthropy that they do not want to be showy about the fact that they are giving up the profit on this ice cream,

#2 Ben & Jerry's is not giving any of the money to proceeds to charity and Jimmy was lying, or #3 I mis-heard Jimmy and he was saying that his show's profit on the ice cream is the only profit that is going to charity, in which case it would make sense for Ben & Jerry not to advertise because it would not be their endeavor.

I wonder.

::I am loving this Nordstrom dress. Mi wonderful madre gave me a Nordstrom gift card for Mother's Day and I got myself this little ditty. I got it with black and grey stripes and I really think it looks way cuter in person.

::I am kind of loving the Words with Friends app for Android. But I am also in a state of constant irritation with one of my pals who is apparently the freaking Words with Friends King and he thinks that it is appropriate to play words like Li, Gi, Da, Ag and Bewig. Seriously? Seriously?! And on top of that, every word he does gets about 846 points so I have no chance of winning against this cheater. Alas, I still love it. When I am not playing against cheaters.

Oh yeah, and my husband's name is TheWordminator. So funny!

::I am loving This blog post that I read yesterday and I almost died laughing. I don't think that everyone will find it as funny as I did but I was literally crying laughing. The hubs thought I was losing it. I hate camping and I think violent diarrhea stories are hilarious, so it is right up my alley.

::Lastly, I am in love with Picnik again. I go through phases with this site. I don't have any photo editing software so this is really convenient when I love a picture but it just needs a little something' somethin'. For Father's Day, I made the hubs a photo frame and it had these pics in it, in this order:

Text came out a little too small...it says "Daddy is so nice to cuddle with".

This one says, "...and he's pretty handsome (for a dad)..."

And this one says, "...and I sure do love playing with him!" Also says "My daddy is pretty much my hero" at the bottom. Really wish I would have made that white so it would have stood out more.

I know...super cheesy, right? But he totally loved it. He said it was the first "daddy" gift he has received that he almost shed a tear over! I love my 'lil sensitive baby daddy. I know not every guy would appreciate this cheesefest.

Oh, and here is what I originally created, but Costco couldn't print it due to the odd shape.

Happy Wednesday!

If you are reading and you participated in WILW, please share with me!

{30 day} photo fun - day 22

2011-06-22T20:46:00.000-04:00

{Day 22 - Landscape}

So we don't live in the prettiest neighborhood. There are not a lot of rolling hills or beautiful green grass stretching as far as the eye can see. It is more like half alive grass and wire fencing. But hey, we can only go up from here, right??

BUT.

When you drive into my neighborhood there is this teeny tiny babbling brook. This picture doesn't really do justice to how pretty it is in person because I was dying to just get the damn picture and LEAVE.

I think I would have taken a few pictures that would have been much, much better but you see, I am a mosquito magnet. Like a honeycomb to a bee...or a dog to another dog's pee or... well, you get the idea. They like me. A LOT. So I was literally taking the pictures for all of 90 seconds before I had to run back to my car and inspect the damage to my skin. No less than 10 bites, people. In 90 seconds.

So I hope you enjoyed this pic - it was not without cost for me.

On a random but slightly related note, I entered this picture into a photo contest yesterday and I thought I would share:

I took this fabulous picture on my honeymoon over 6 years ago with my little Canon Powershot. To date, I still think it is the coolest picture I have ever shot. (The colors were brightened a little but it is otherwise untouched.)

For the first time ever...

2011-06-21T23:32:00.000-04:00

I am hooring out my blog so that I can win some free stuff. (I know that is not proper spelling, btw, but I want you to pronounce it like "who-oar" in your head.)

But seriously, I would love love love to win a canvas print and a camera strap cover so please just read this and move on because I don't need y'all up against me in this giveaway. OK, fine. I am kidding. Go ahead and enter but remember me if you win. :)

Check the link, y'all.

{30 day} photo fun - days 19-21

2011-06-21T20:55:00.000-04:00

{Day 19 - Summertime}

I was in my house with a sick child all.day.long. I did not take any summertime photos. :(

{Day 20 - Water}

As usual, I forgot to take this picture until way late in the day (I was even home from work all day) so I took a picture of the water boiling the potatoes for dinner...

So I asked hubs to take a "water" photo for me and this is what he came up with...

Pretty clever, just wish it was a little more crisp.

{Day 21 - Macro}

Macro is a photography term that basically means really close up. So you may have noticed that I am still really learning my camera and it will come as no surprise to you that I struggled with this challenge too. One would think that the closer you get to the object, the better the macro pic - nope. If I was too close, the camera would just not take the picture. I felt a little like the hubs and wanted to scream at it, "JUST TAKE THE F%$#ING PICTURE! I don't care if it is crap just DO WHAT YOU DO!" But I stayed calm, took deep breaths and managed to get the following pics:

I know that I started this challenge on day 6 so I have not even been doing it for a whole 21 days but I still cannot believe there are only 9 more pictures to take! Some of the ones left that I am looking forward to are "black & white" and "love". Fun stuff!

Stay tuned tomorrow for another What I Am Loving Wednesday post!

{30 day} photo fun - day 18

2011-06-18T23:02:00.001-04:00

{Day 18 - Eyes}

The sleepy eye of my beautiful old dog. His name is Roper and he is 9 years old. He is a pretty fabulous dog.

I intended to get some better eyes pictures today but it didn't quite happen. I had my beautiful 2-year old Goddaughter, Maddie, and my smiley 4-month old nephew, Liam, over for a good part of the day. Please see below for the ONLY picture I took while I was watching them. Watching 3 babies at once is a lot of work!

Then my hubby came home and shortly thereafter we realized that J seems to be developing pink eye (which would have been such an awesomely ironic picture to get for today but my camera actually ended up being the last thing on my mind today).

So after I went to the store for some medicine for J, I picked up some Chinese food for dinner. Shortly after, hubs tells me that he is not feeling so well. So I get the mini sicko in bed and off I go to the grocery store to get the breakfast fixins for daddy's day as well as some medicine now for my big sicko.

THEN, I took a picture of my dog's eye.

{30 day} photo fun - day 17

2011-06-17T22:10:00.000-04:00

{Day 17 - Bokeh}

The definition of bokeh according to Wikipedia:

In photography, bokeh is the blur, or the aesthetic quality of the blur, in out-of-focus areas of an image, or "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light."

So, as I wrote out that definition, I realized that I totally did not get the definition the first time I read it. Which, makes sense because I was like, "Well, it is just a really blurry background in a picture or a picture taken with the largest aperture". But now I get that is only part of what it means. Duh! Dammit.

Honestly, I really have no idea how to use my camera well enough to make a great bokeh picture anyway!

Here's my {non-challenge-passing} photo!

Well, OK...now I am thinking that I sort of did it. See the upper left where there are little circles of light congregating here and there? That is what I think they are talking about when they say "the way the lens renders out of focus points of light". What do you think?