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Friday Faves May 17, 2013

Another busy Friday! Tabby has Field Day today, so I am spending half my day at her school, playing tag and giving out popcicles and the like. Should be fun! On to another round of Friday Faves.

attictheatreFavorite Daydream: check out this awesome attic movie theatre. I think what really appeals to me is the soft surfaces and cave-like look of it. I think I could watch movies or just sleep or read in here for hours.

caramelcrunchFavorite Purchase: I tried some of this ice cream at the Mother’s Day Race I ran on the recommendation of my girlfriend. Man, she was right. I am not sure I’ve ever had better ice cream. Sweet, salty, creamy, crunchy. AWESOME.  Not sure how widely available it is, since they’re a CO company, but if you can find it, BUY IT!! Coconut crunch is great too.

orangechickenFavorite Savory Delight: This orange chicken with asparagus looks awesome. I think we’re heading out of asparagus season, but I want to make some next week.

samethingFavorite App: This game’s a little hard to explain, but easy once you “get” it. You and a friend both say a random word, then you both try to find something in between your two words. Then again with the next two words you come up with until you both say the same thing. It’s also great because you can get it on Android and iOS. Interesting side note, it was developed by the band OK Go! (a personal fave).

tapeFavorite Craftiness: Just saw this great article on how to make your own paper tape!!  You just get some double-sided adhesive and put it on wrapping paper or whatever you like. Such a fun idea.

faroeFavorite Destination: This is Faroe Islands in Denmark and it is definitely going on my must-visit list. So beautiful.

bobFavorite Workout: Bob Harper’s 20  minute crossfit workout is all things I love: Bob Harper and Crossfit. All you need are some dumbells and this little vid.

avalancheFavorite Sweet Thang: Check out these avalanche bars. One of my favorite candy stores, Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, sells something pretty similar. It won’t happen soon because I’m trying to behave myself vis-a-vis sugar, but I will have to try these out!

sofaFavorite Funny: bwwaaaahahhahahah! His expression says it all!!!

inferiorsFavorite Wise Words: yep … well said, Sirius.

bfastpizzaFavorite Breakfast Nom: I am constantly on the lookout for new breakfast ideas because while I could (and do) happily eat the same breakfast repeatedly for months, the kids like variety. This breakfast pizza looks great and has the protein that is hard to fit into a quickie breakfast on the way out the door. Going to try it soon – maybe for camping!

And that is it! Hope you have a great weekend!

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Friday Faves April 26, 2013

Man, I barely thought about the blog this week. The new job is kicking my bum just a bit. Very very busy. But good. And I feel like I’m getting it and it will be easier soonish. I hope. Anyhow, I did see a few new cool things this week:

monkeybreadFavorite Sweet Thang: Look at these mini monkey bread cinnamon breads … easy and YUM!

sism3Favorite Purchase: I actually bought this a couple of weeks ago, and am finally going to play it tonight (hopefully, if I don’t pass out too soon) … the latest expansion pack in The Sims lineup: University. I hardly ever get to veg and play a good game, so I’m looking forward to it!

curryFavorite Savory Delight: Beef and Sweet Potato Curry with Kale looks delish … I love sweet potato in just about anything and add curry and kale and it sound awesome!

41diyFavorite Craftiness: this looks like a great board (similar to pinterest, but not) full of DIY furniture projects. I especially like the sawhorse tables and the coffee tables (we need a new one).

watercolorsFavorite Freebie: I’ve been using the blue watercolor desktop from Design Love Fest for a couple of weeks. It’s so simple and pretty.

endlessalphaFavorite App: Just downloaded this Endless Alphabet App for the kiddos. It’s a really pretty alphabet “game” with spelling lessons and vocab. It’s free too!

stayhumbleFavorite Wise Words: this pretty much says it all … maybe I need it for my new office.

formalbabyFavorite Funny: saw this on Pinterest with the note “my mom asked me for a ‘formal’ photo of my 1 month old baby so I sent her this” LOL!

And with that, I am off for a typical fun-filled, soccer-filled, birthday-party-filled weekend. Cheers!

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Friday Favorites – Lateish

It was a crazy week! Next week is the last week for swim lessons and man I am READY! Some of my faves from this crazy week:

callmidwives

Favorite Buy: Season2 of Call the Midwife has started and I bought the two eps that are currently out. I still have yet to watch them, but I know they’re sitting there on my Amazon account just waiting for me!

strawberryangelFavorite Sweet Thing: Homemade Strawberry Angel Food Cake Ice Cream!

closetbasketsFavorite Great Idea: Attaching baskets to the insides of your closet doors to be catch-alls for hats, purses, gloves, etc.

photoletteringFavorite App: Photo Lettering lets you use COOL typography on your photographs.

boozeydropFavorite Day Dream: Don’t really care about the booze, but I lurve the styling on this Boozey Teardrop!

springmenuFavorite Savory Delight: Love this spring-inspired house warming menu from The Kitchn! All of it. Like I might have to make it when I host Bunco next month!

runningdrillsFavorite Workout: It just occurred to me that I am running TWO races in a couple of weeks and sorely need to get my bum in gear. And I love (sort of) the idea of these running drills!

ombreshirtFavorite Craftiness: I’m guessing this Ombre t’shirt isn’t as easy as it looks, but it sure is pretty!

wordofsauronFavorite Funny: a missionary for evil

nocakeFavorite Inspiring Words: A Party Without Cake is Just a Meeting

 

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Friday Favorites

headbandsFavorite buy: take a look at these cute headbands I bought for Tabby from this great Etsy shop. Can’t wait ’til they arrive!

winedispenserFavorite Crazy Item: Check out this utterly bizarre wine dispenser. I love wine, but err … probably not that much!

srirachacaramelcornFavorite Sweet Thang: Sriracha caramel corn! Salty, sweet and SPICY. MMMM

summerpassportFavorite Great Idea: Summer passport! Figure out what you want to do this summer, fill a small notebook and get to stamping that guy!

tocaFavorite App: Toca Boca makes cool kids apps – tea parties, clothing design, hair cutting. Good clean creative fun!

17leonardFavorite Day Dream: Vintage 17′ Leocraft Camper. Already sold, otherwise there might just have been an impromptu road trip to Canada for me to purchase. Seriously, love that yellow!!!

bnsmacFavorite Savory Delight: Butternut Squash Mac ‘n’ Cheese with Caramelized Onions, Bacon and Apple – a mouthful in more ways than one!

54321workoutFavorite Workout: Did this 5-4-3-2-1 workout on Tuesday. A nice mix of cardio and body-weight workout.

mapmagnets

Favorite Craftiness: Make Your Own Map Magnets – pretty sure the kids need these, right??

amishcinnbreadFavorite Breakfast Nom: Amish Cinnamon Bread … I think I could choke a piece of this down.

Have a wonderful weekend!

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Digital Scraptitude

So long ago I used to do the paper scrapbook thing … sorta. But I’d already been doing the digital image thing for long enough that the messiness of paper scrapbooking really bugged me. I also never liked the “overhead” involved in picking up and putting down a project. Digital is just my thing. So when Tabby was born, I tried to do some digital scrapbooking and I didn’t get too far. It was a good idea, but a few things plagued me. 1. I went too crazy and I got discouraged. I wanted to have all the photos and when I couldn’t find one, I’d get frustrated. And I wanted all my layouts perfect and super creative like the ones I saw online.  2. I got overwhelmed by volume – too much to catch up on!  3. I really didn’t have the time. Continue reading “Digital Scraptitude”

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Working for the Weekend

It has been such a long week! And it’s only Wednesday! I think it’s partially because I brought my work home with me Monday and worked into the wee smalls. Our sitter is also off for the week, so we are juggling around three different sitters over four days and some craziness that goes along with that.

So I am looking forward to the weekend. It is not CRAZY busy. We just have two parties to go to, and some little visitors on Saturday morning. And maybe a third party, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet. Not too bad, right? So I’m looking forward to a little time to get some things done around the house. We need to make a run to Good Will. A few weeks ago we did some purging of toys from the kids’ rooms and held onto the spoils until we made sure they weren’t going to miss them. They are going away this weekend along with some clothes, books and magazines and other random stuff I’ve been gathering.

I’d also like to tackle one or two projects around the house. There are some that are already in the queue, like fixing Tabby’s shelf and making Ben’s decorative shelves, and cleaning out my office and some others I’ve only been dreaming of. I saw this awesome backyard sign featuring places you’ve been on Pinterest and I really want to make one. Matt and I also want to cover a corkboard with a map of CO so that we can add pins to all of the camping/vacation destinations we’ve been to around the state.

There are also a couple of stores I’d like to check out. Apparently there is another great fabric store in the area, Fabricate, that I would love to check out. I’m toying with the idea of covering our camper’s dinette cushions with oilcloth or similar since (ahem) kids eat there. Athleta, purveyor of my favorite clothes also just opened a retail store in Denver and I’d LOVE to check that out.

I am NOTHING if not talented at jam-packing a weekend.

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Photo Hanging Board

First, I must say, this isn’t really my project. This is Matt’s project. Inspired by a few things, including the jewelry boards we’ve made before, but equally by this pin from a house tour on Design Mom, I asked Matt if he would make me a large board for our dining room where we could hang photos. Matt was more than equal to the task and worked at this diligently in the bits of spare time he comes up with. It is a very nice frame and the chicken wire is recessed (rabbited) into the back of the frame so it all hangs nicely on the wall. It looks even better in person than in this photo.

I love any photo display solutions that are easy to change out. Frames are nice and all, but I am terrible about going through the effort to pull them down, open them up and change out the photos. Then our house ends up with tons of photos of the kids at one age because that was the last time I did photo framing. And displays like these go very well with our house’s design aesthetic. This is in fact, replacing one such display, our photo line. It was great … but I think this is better.

I won’t even begin to tell you what Matt did in his woodshop to accomplish this because I have no idea. But you could achieve a similar look by using canvas stretchers (from your art supply store) as we have done with our jewelry boards. You glue them together, stain, attach chicken wire to the back and hang. Voila!

A huge shout out and hug to my awesome hubby for making this happen!!

Nannersp
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Lemonade Layer Cake

Matt’s birthday always seems to get lost in the shuffle. It’s not because he’s not incredibly important to me and the kids, but because things are always going on, it seems. Graduations, Mother’s Day, etc. He also doesn’t like to make a big deal about birthdays and generally buys himself whatever he wants during the year and so he’s a pretty hard guy to find a present for.

But I always like to do SOMETHING to mark the day, even if it ends up just being a promise to spend time together in a couple of days. This year, we had a nice steak dinner planned and I thought he might like a birthday cake for dessert. Matt is very big into lemon desserts, so I found a recipe I’d pinned a while back called lemonade cake. It was lemony, light and sounded fairly doable for a weeknight. It’s also a cooking light recipe, coming in at 322 calories for 1 of 16 slices.

I grabbed the couple ingredients I lacked (a lemon, some lemonade concentrate, cream cheese and buttermilk) on the way home for work and whipped it up in pretty good time. The hardest part was getting the butter, cream cheese and lemonade concentrate softened. My west-facing front porch in the afternoon was the perfect spot to leave everything for 5 minutes and they were quite well softened.

Lemonade Cake

adapted from Cooking Light

cake:

  • 1 1/3 C sugar
  • 6 T butter, softened
  • 1 T grated lemon rind
  • 3 T thawed lemonade concentrate
  • 2 t vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 egg whites
  • 2 C all-purpose flour
  • 1 t baking powder
  • 1/2 t salt
  • 1/2 t baking soda
  • 1 1/4 C fat-free buttermilk
  • Cooking spray

frosting:

  • 2 T butter, softened
  • 2 t grated lemon rind
  • 2 t thawed lemonade concentrate
  • 1/2 t vanilla extract
  • 8 oz low fat cream cheese
  • 3 1/2 C powdered sugar

To make the cake: Heat oven to 350°. Pam two 9-inch round cake pans. In the bowl of a stand mixer, place sugar, butter, lemon rind, lemonade concentrate and vanilla. Beat at medium speed until well blended (about 5 minutes). Add eggs and egg whites, 1 at a time, beating well after each. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda; stir well with a whisk. Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to sugar mixture and beat well after each addition.

Divide batter between prepared pans and sharply tap pans once on counter to remove air bubbles. Bake for 20 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes on a wire rack; remove from pans. Cool completely on wire rack.

To prepare frosting, place 2 T butter, lemon rind, lemonade concentrate, vanilla extract and cream cheese in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until fluffy. Add powdered sugar, up to 3 1/2 C until desired sweetness and beat at low speed just until blended. Chill 1 hour. Frost cake as desired and serve immediately. Happy b’day to Matty!

Nannersp
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Spray Painted Folding Chairs

One of the best things about Pinterest are the really great, yet really SIMPLE ideas that you see there. This is one such idea: to paint your ugly folding chairs in pretty colors with spray paint … DUH! I saw this pin sometime last fall and sometime thereafter, executed it on a couple of the army of ugly beige folding chairs we’ve had since college. I am not going to post directions because umm… you spray paint folding chairs. Obviously, you should do it outside or in a well ventilated area and you should put something down on your surface to protect it. Oh, also, we got a cool gadget that you put on top of the can of spray paint and it makes it a lot easier to spray because you squeeze it with your hand instead of pushing the little thing on the top.

This would be a great project to use up some spray paint that you used just a bit of for another project. It takes quite a bit of paint, but not quite a whole can.

The chairs, even after some months of use, still look great. Both kids have their own chair and now they are not ruining our upholstered chairs! I still want to do a couple other colors and probably will soon now that the weather’s warmer.

Nannersp
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Halfway Cookies

I knew when I pinned this recipe for Halfway Cookies that I would have to try it. I almost overlooked it on Friday when we were trying to figure out a dessert when we were having my family to dinner but I noticed it at the last moment and I am SO SO glad I did. It is by far one of the best desserts I’ve ever tried … a little salty in with the sweet, a delightful crunch with the meringue and very much like a chocolate chip cookie in other ways. WONDERFUL. I am sure I will be making these regularly for a long time to come.

Halfway Cookies

Ingredients

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 cup brown sugar, divided
  • 2 eggs, separated
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350°. Cut two pieces of aluminum foil and fold them to match the width of the pan. Criss cross them each direction of the pan so that the bars will be easily lifted out. Spray aluminum foil with non-stick spray. Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder in a small bowl. In a mixer, cream together the butter, the granulated sugar and just 1/2 cup of the brown sugar until it looks like smooth frosting. Separate the eggs, reserving the whites. Mix the yolks into the butter-sugar mixture one at a time until they are completely absorbed, then mix in the water and vanilla. With the mixer at a low speed, add the flour mixture and beat gently until all the flour has been absorbed and the dough looks crumbly.

Press the cookie dough gently into the pan with your hands, making sure the surface is even. Sprinkle the chocolate chips on top of the cookie dough and press them slightly into the dough. This will help keep them from moving when you add the meringue.

Using a mixer with a clean bowl and a whisk attachment, start whisking the egg whites. Gradually increase speed to medium-high. When the egg whites are very frothy and look like loose foam, start adding the remaining cup of brown sugar a little at a time. Continue increasing speed to the highest setting. When all the sugar has been added, continue whipping the meringue until it it comes to soft peaks. It should look like “glossy, soft-serve ice cream.”

Spread the meringue down the middle of the pan. It is really sticky and pretty hard to work with. Use a spatula to gently spread the meringue from the middle to the edges. When you get it too thin it disturbs the chocolate chips, so be careful. I think it might be worth it to add another egg white and maybe a bit more brown sugar to make just a little more meringue.

Cover pan with parchment paper to prevent scorching and bake for 20 minutes, then remove the parchment. Continue baking for an additional 5-10 minutes, until the edges look toasted and are pulling away from the sides of the pan. Cool completely, lift out and cut into bars.

Ooh, ahh, drool and ENJOY. With milk, if you please! The recipe says you can replace the chocolate chip layer with lots of other things like butterscotch chips, jam, dried fruit, maybe coconut??

Nannersp
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