Cooking in style baby

I've been wanting an apron for a loooong time. If you haven't heard already, I am a klutz. That means I spill things ALL the time. I am a magnet for stains - I have pretty much accepted that if I am wearing white or any other light-colored fabric, I will attract some kind of food in some shape or form on my clothes at some point in the day. When I'm cooking the food, this problem is magnified times 10 - thus the need for said apron.

Like I was saying, I need an apron - not the old-fashioned kind with lace and dingy looking flowers, I wanted one that I loved, something unique and fun. My sister-in-law introduced me to an awesome store called Anthropologie a few years back, and ever since then, I've wanted to live there. They have so many cute clothes and decorations that I end up just wandering through the entire store aimlessly imagining I had the money to buy it all.

When I was there last, I saw a few aprons that I loved but I couldn't bring myself to fork out the dough (my husband was a proud man.) So, with that in mind, I thought I'd try making one myself. That way, I had less chance of hating the apron...unless my perfectionism overruled, which has often been the case with stuff that I've made. I had a pattern in one of the sewing books I own for a reversible apron so, without ever having made one before, I sat down and gave it a try.


It actually wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I really like the blue fabric I bought, and I decided to sew a peacock on the reverse side to add some fun and compliment the front. I may have a new hobby :) I think it turned out pretty well for my first try! What do you think??

The birthday trial run

Haley's birthday is coming up in 3 weeks. Not just any birthday though, her FIRST birthday. I may be new at the whole "first birthday" thing, but I know it's a big deal. First birthdays (in my opinion) are not really for the little people celebrating them. They're for the parents; and if we're really being honest, they're for the mom's. Don't get me wrong, my husband is thrilled about celebrating our little girl's 1st birthday, but he would like just as much to do with the planning process as he would like having a tooth pulled.



MarthaStewart.com

 Since my husband was no help at all, I enlisted the help of my (much more enthusiastic) sister-in-law, Shannon. After throwing ideas around, we decided to make her party a "fairy/garden" theme complete with fairy outfit and flower cupcakes inspired by Martha Stewart. As you may already know, on first birthdays many American parents give their newly-minted 1-year old their own cake and let them dive face first into a sugar overdose. I fully support this tradition, but if my daughter is going to be covered in frosting that I'll be peeling off of her scalp for 2 weeks after, the cake has to be good.

I saw a commercial on TV for a giant cupcake mold. I didn't want to be fool because my cake wasn't cool, so I decided to buy the giant mold and make Haley her very own huge toadstool cupcake - you know, the cute little mushrooms with the red top and white spots? Before the official debut though, I knew I should probably do a trial run to make sure everything came out looking like the picture...and man, I'm glad I did.



MarthaStewart.com

 After making the cupcake, the cupcake did NOT come out of the mold easily like the commercial claims. The top of the cupcake was pretty much small bits of cake held together with frosting. Since it was a trial run, I decided not to put the white spots on the cupcake since I was going to quality over looks. After frosting the cupcake though, I realized the amount of red dye that goes into giving the toadstool its signature red color. And then I thought about how much of that red-dyed frosting would be all over my daughter as she did a faceplant into her birthday cupcake. With that thought in mind, I think I'm going to go for white frosting and red dots instead, more like Martha Stewart's toadstool cupcake, but giant. And without a worm. And hopefully better looking on my next trial run :)

Snow day!

I LOVE SNOW DAYS. Especially unexpected ones. This morning, I woke up to 3 inches of fresh snow on the ground and no work. In Tennessee, the whole city shuts down when it snows. There are no snow plows (that I have seen) and no salt trucks. Your best bet is to call up a buddy with a 4x4 and hope that you make it safely to the grocery store, and if not, you better hope you can live off of whatever is in your house until the snow melts.

Having lived in Colorado for 8 years, 3 inches of snow is nothing. I remember many many days waking up and seeing 3+ inches of fresh snow outside and immediately running downstairs to the TV to watch for a cancellation, only to find out that school wasn't even delayed. Not even by half an hour. So I would sit there and wait until last minute, hoping that the superintendant had a change of heart and decided not to risk the lives of hundreds of children that day. He usually decided it was worth the risk. I would then trudge sadly upstairs to get ready for the grueling wait in the 20 degree weather for the bus.

In Colorado, they didn't mess around with the snow. The minute the first flake fell, the snow plows and salt trucks were outside doing their thing. I hated them as a kid. They meant a morning full of algebra and science classes instead of cartoons and hot chocolate. As I began my walk to the bus stop, hands shoved into gloves deep into my pockets and close to my body to avoid letting any freezing wind in, I would inevitably see that one kid whose mom drove him to the bus stop in his warm, cozy van and let him wait inside until the bus came. I always wondered why Van Mom wouldn't let the rest of us in to keep warm. Couldn't she see that we were all losing precious extremities with each passing minute?

We would all stand in a little group, waiting for the 15-minute mark - as we all know, that's the correct amount of time that is allowed to pass before you go home and tell your parents that school must be cancelled because the bus didn't show up. Inevitably though, we would get close to the 15-minute mark and then see it- the white strobe light. When there was heavy snowfall in Colorado, the busses would turn on a white strobe light on their roof and chug along in the snow to pick up the unwilling children. The white strobe light in the distance meant no cartoons or snowball fights...unless it snowed harder by lunch hour.

I haven't had a snow day since...well, since last week, but BEFORE THAT I can't remember when I had a snow day. As an adult, you'd think that the excitement of a snow day would have died a little bit, but this morning, that child in me that used to run to the TV to see if school was cancelled got really excited when I found out that I didn't have to go in to work. What to do? Netflix instant que? Baking? Computer games? Reading? Playing in the snow is not really that appealing to me...I'm not too fond of wet, freezing feet and hands, but since Haley has never been in snow before, I promised my husband that I'd take her out in it. She spent most of her time trying to eat the snow. 11-month olds don't really get the fun factor of snow yet. Give her a few years and she'll be having snowball fights and getting excited when a new blanket of snow means no school that day.

New Blog

I wanted to come up with a new blog where I could combine all of my past ramblings into one. That was the easy part...my problem was coming up with a creative name for said blog. So, of course, I went to my husband for some creative suggestions.

Me: "Honey, help me come up with a good name for my new blog."

Husband: "New name? How about 'Blog"? I mean, you never see anyone with a blog named Blog, I mean, that's pretty creative."

Me: "Umm....that's not exactly what I was looking for..."

Husband: "Ok well, I was thinking about how easy-going you are and trying to come up with a name relating to that, but they all make you sound like a whore. Like 'Easy...something' or even something like 'Loose Ends,' those just doesn't sound right."

Thanks Honey.