Posted on

Links I Like

So it’s been a pretty good week. We’re always crazy-busy but we’ve been accomplishing things. I’ve gotten in all of my planned workouts. I’ve cooked dinner EVERY NIGHT (I’m taking tonight off since Matt is out of town and I have to accomplish swim lessons and getting kids to my parents’ house) and with one exception, everything has been tasty. At work my projects are going well and I’ve learned some really cool new things about databases. I definitely appreciate good weeks like this one!!

Anyhow, here’s some fun web things that are making my already excellent week extra excellent:

  • hooked up with an AWESOME Erica, an artist on Etsy who created an amazing graphic for me to use for the kids’ birthday party give-aways (personalized placemats, printed and laminated by me) -it’s pretty similar to this one, but with a mermaid. She was awesome to work with and turned things around in like 24 hours! If you have any graphicky things that need done totally check her out.
  • Also saw this amazing light fixture while poking around on Etsy … I have no idea where I’d put it, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE it.
  • I had never heard of this before, but given my recent history with cloth napkins, I’d love to try these ombre napkins out. They’re so pretty!
  • Something about these newsprint nails just makes me smile.
  • The people at Make Magazine share this technique for making a hidden safe in your door.
  • If you’re looking for leggings or tights, you’ve got to check out this site … they have tons in practically every color and size (toddler to plus) imaginable.
  • How cool would  it be to visit some of the abandoned Tube Stations in London as a bar or concert hall? I’m all in.
Posted on

Recovered Bar Stools

Way back when we were first married and living in Madison, WI, we purchased a set of four bar stools. Being as we had little $$ we got them super cheap – under $10/each from a weird little K Mart style store called Shopko. Our apartment had a breakfast bar and so at first, rather than pony up the cash for a dining table, we at our meals on the stools at the breakfast bar. I’ve always liked them. They’ve got nice simple clean lines.

In our house though we do not have a breakfast bar so we keep two of them in the basement and the other two are in our kitchen as occasional seating. They also get to serve as a landing strip for lots of stuff (bags, laundry baskets, etc.). A year ago or so I noticed that the upholstery was looking pretty bad. Who knows what variety of schmutz had been deposited on them between this and that. Finally I decided to do something about them. The process was pretty simple and I love the results.

Continue reading “Recovered Bar Stools”

Posted on

Hula Pizza

The folks at my house are big pizza fans (I know it’s rare to find an American who isn’t). We’re completely happy with the garden variety mushroom and pepperoni variety (we frequently order it from down the block), but we also like something a bit different. We’ve put lots of different things on pizzas including buffalo chicken, shrimp scampi and various “Mexican” combinations. I don’t think we’ve had a loser yet. Surely this wasn’t it! This pizza, adapted from a Devin Alexander recipe I saw in the Biggest Loser Family cookbook, combines slightly disparate but always yummy ingredients into something really tasty and unexpected. It was a hit with the whole family. Matt and I ate it in its entirety.Tabby (who normally loves pineapple) ate all of the chicken and handed Ben her pineapple.  Ben picked off and ate all pineapple, including Tabby’s and then licked off all the cheese. #facepalm

Hope you enjoy it as much as we did!

Continue reading “Hula Pizza”

Posted on

A Tale of Haves and Have Nots

What I Have Not:

  • any photos to show you (it just wasn’t that sort of weekend)
  • planted any of the seeds that arrived Friday
  • plane tickets for any of the trips we’re taking this year (swore we were going to do that this weekend)
  • any sign of improvement to this blog
  • nicely coiffed hair (still no haircut … think it’s been 2 months)

What I Have:

  • new fabric all ready to cover up our grody bar stools
  • two darling kiddos mostly done with illness (I hope)
  • funny new one liners courtesy of the awesome comic we saw saturday night, Lamont Ferguson
  • 90% of the invites for the kids’ party delivered
  • run 10 miles and almost feel ready for the half marathon 2 wks from yesterday
  • drawers full of clean laundry
  • a fridge full of healthy food
  • a cabinet all cleaned out and ready to store water bottles
  • a successful execution of a new recipe (shrimp & grits)

Not 100%, but I’ll take it!!

Posted on

On My Mind

We are trying to plan travel for this year. It is never an easy prospect. We have to arrange loads of things like people’s work schedules, plane tickets, accommodations, and the like. And it’s getting better, but still the thought of traveling with our two kiddos and all it entails sort of makes me break out into hives. But we will do it and it will be fine. It’s a bit like getting a shot … it’s much worse in my imagination than in reality. Anyhow, we are planning to visit our Nashville family sometime in late June (when my SIL and BIL can get time off). We want to go to the Gatlinburg/Seiverville area and rent a cabin for a while. It’s gorgeous there. Then in September we want to go to NYC to do the fun NYC stuff and also to check out Maker Faire, a big ol’ nerd fest where inventors (makers) bring their projects and show them off. These clips from Martha Stewart will totally make you want to check it out.

Continue reading “On My Mind”

Posted on

Weekend Rundown

Some highlights from the weekend:

  • Flat Stanley was pretty cute and Tabby LOVED it
  • Playing at the indoor playground at the REI flagship store.
  • Also got to buy socks and browse clearance racks.
  • GIANT slices of NY style pizza with our friends.
  • Had family over for chili on Friday.
  • Ran 9 miles.
  • Picked up our pottery pieces from the shop … they turned out great!
  • B’day party at the pool (everyone exhausted afterward).
  • Mounted the kids’ Computer/TV on the wall of the playroom.
  • Reorganized the playroom.
  • Made the first burgers of the season (sadly not on the grill – it ran out of propane).
  • Super tasty Tuna Noodle Casserole dinner.
  • Made yet ANOTHER batch of granola bars.
  • Cleaned up the back yard.
  • Sorted out the “tupperware” cabinet (I know … you wish you could be me).
  • Did about 10 loads of laundry.
  • Grocery shopping!
  • Naps!!
  • Also, I am apparently a good better cook. Who knew.

One big highlight of our weekend was that we actually were at home all afternoon on Saturday. We didn’t go anywhere and I could focus for 10 seconds on things around the house other than the weeknight firedrills of dinner and declutter. We need to do a lot of work around our house … clean out kids’ rooms and some other messy corners. I hope to start tackling this in the next few weeks.

Posted on

Spring in My Step

It is a beautiful afternoon here in the Mile High City. Wow. We’ve had a mild winter and we’ve hit the 70s twice this month already. I love it. If it weren’t for Christmas and skiing I’m not sure I could stand winter!!

I STILL  need to get our seeds ordered and our seedlings started or we’re going to be stuck buying them from the nursery again without many choices. Luckily, thanks to CO’s open-minded laws on a certain little plant known as MaryJane, grow-shops abound and I can get lots of excellent indoor growing lights at competitive prices. Yay for the potheads. We’re going to tack up some 2x4s on the wall in Matt’s shop and mount grow-lights on a timer underneath each to sun our plants.

I am making up my menu for next week while I wait on things. I usually get around to this on the weekend, but I’m planning on having the family over for dinner tomorrow night (it’s supposed to get chilly here tomorrow and I want to make lamb stew one last time this winter). I am loving Skinny Taste big time and I want to make Chicken Pot Pie Soup and Skinny Tuna Noodle Casserole from there this week. These Shrimp Po’ Boys from Annie’s Eats look awesome as well, but I have to find a new source from shrimp since the ones I’ve been getting from Target and Sunflower haven’t been the best. I’ve got to hit Whole Foods to pick up the lamb anyhow, so maybe I’ll try theirs.

We have a few plans for this weekend, including seeing The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley at our local theatre and attending a very important birthday party for one of our favorite five-year-olds. Aside from that we must get in a long run … and of course the never ending cycle of errands and laundry. Hope it’s a good one for all!

Posted on

Why I’m Boring this Week

I keep trying to write you an interesting post, but it’s just not going very well. Every night I want to go to bed by like 8 PM and on Monday night I did. We’ll see how tonight goes.

I’m training very hard right now. I am in week 2 of a 6-week bootcamp which meets 3 days/week (MWF). It’s a bit more strenuous than my normal x-training routine of step class and some conditioning (if I feel like it). But I’m also just a few weeks away from my first half marathon of the season which means I’m training hard for that too. So I’m running 3 days a week in addition and resting a bit on the 7th.  I am also responsible (as part of boot camp) for doing a comprehensive food journal for the duration of the 6 weeks. My normal routine is to do pretty well 5 days a week and then say “the hell with it!” over the weekend but I am trying to break that bad habit and I succeeded last weekend. Hopefully I can continue this trend. Continue reading “Why I’m Boring this Week”

Posted on

Weekend Update

We had a really really nice (though typically busy) weekend. It was a pretty good mix of go and chill and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Friday we had a nice “day off.” It always amazes me how fast our Fridays go. A little workout here, some meals, a nap, a single activity and done. We dropped the kids off with my parents in the evening so we could have a nice evening out with Andrew who leaves this week. Matt, Andrew, Kelly and I went to dinner at Ted’s (hello giant burger!) and then did some “Cosmic Bowling.” I love that we can really enjoy bowling since all the venues are now SMOKE FREE. Sorry smokers, but this makes me ecstatic. We played 3 or 4 games. I actually got above 100 on one of them. I also got to dedicate a song to Uncle Buck.

Saturday Tabby had her mini gymnastics meet that ends this session of “gymnastics.” Then my parents kept Ben while we had our Tabby Date. We took her to Target so she could spend some of her b’day money. She purchased a hot pink sequined Hello Kitty purse and Guess Who. Then we went to Into the Fire so she could paint her very own “box” turtle. Its body is brown, its shell is green and it has camo-colored dots EVERYWHERE (inspired, I think by the salt and pepper shakers I painted). There was a small meltdown when she realized she’d have to wait a week for her turtle to be baked but she got over it and enjoyed lunch at her requested spot “SWEET TOMATOES!” After naps, we got to finish out the evening by joining my parents for pizza and playing several games of Guess Who (which I am apparently very bad at … ha!).

Matt and I started out Sunday with our 7.5 mile run and followed it up with the usual montage of laundry, errands, house cleaning, cooking. Since the sun is now going down later, we were able to take the kids to the park after dinner which was nice. Though unfortunately, the wind was blowing hard and making it pretty chilly so we only stayed for about 30 minutes. I will be excited to get home and enjoy the dinner I started yesterday, Pork Ragu … it smells so so good.

Posted on

A Bumpy Road (Nerd Stuff, Sorry)

Well it’s been a few weeks since I switched the blog over to WordPress. Overall, I’m pretty happy with how things have gone, but I still have much to work on. WordPress is like all closed systems (Mac, I’m looking at YOU). It is super easy, convenient and perfect to do the things it was intended for, but when you need to do things with it that are a bit unconventional, it is harder to do them than it would be outside the system. Here’s some of what I’m working on: Continue reading “A Bumpy Road (Nerd Stuff, Sorry)”