Wednesday, December 4, 2013

december photo challenge: day 3

Favorite Holiday Movie:
 
White Christmas is my favorite Christmas movie, it comes close to my favorite movie even!
 
"Even guys with two left feet, come out alright if the girl is sweet..."
"when I'm worried & I can't sleep, I count my blessings instead of sheep..."
 
Well, now I'm off to make a "White Christmas" pandora radio station!
 
 


 


Tuesday, December 3, 2013

december photo challenge: day 2

Bright:
 
 
This is the view of some of our outdoor Christmas lights through the glass of our front door window.
 
As a "youngin", I remember staying up late (9pm!!) looking at the Christmas tree lights and squinting my eyes so they'd get all blury, bright & sparkly.
 
Now, my failing eyesight enables me to see all Christmas lights in this "blury, bright & sparkly" mode all the time! Haha!
 
 
 
 
 


december photo challenge: day 1

Your view today:
 
Today's view is brought to you by recently devoured turkey, dressing, & pie 
and the promise of Christmas cookies to come!
 
 
 


december photo challenge

In an attempt to start blogging regularly again I have imposed upon myself a December photo-a-day challenge! I'm going to be pretty loosey-goosey about the rules so it doesn't become stressful! The main rules are: I will only be using my phone camera for this challenge and that I can't take more than 3 pics a day (to account for make-ups :) and since I only decided that I was going to do this challenge as of yesterday, December 2, I did have to take 2 pics yesterday to get caught up already!
 
 
I'm using this schedule for inspiration, most likely just switching up the days a bunch:
 
December Photo a day Challenge copy
 
 
 
Wish me luck!!



Accomplished
Day 1: Your view today
Day 2: Bright 
Day 3: Favorite holiday movie
Day 4: Christmas tree
Day 5: Red
Day 6: Morning
Day 7: Todays temp
Day 8: Outside lights
Day 9: Fun
Day 10: Sky view
Day 11: Tradition
Day 12: Your winter wonderland
Day 13: A beautiful sight
Day 14: Wrapping paper
Day 15: Joyous
Day 16: Night Time
Day 17: Cookies
Day 18: Shopping
Day 19: Words
Day 20: Stockings
Day 21: Family
Day 22: Gifts













 
 
 


Tuesday, July 9, 2013

miller park zoo

A couple of weeks ago when my friend & her little girl came to visit we went to check out the local zoo - Miller Park Zoo.
 
Here's a couple of my favorite pics from the afternoon:
 
This bird was not camera shy in the least!
It kept following me around and demanding to become a movie star!
 
 
 
 
The Tiger was hot that day - it gave a couple of "roars" but I think it was out of frustration of the heat rather than anything else!
 
 
 
 
This little otter was a cutie, I wanted to take it home!
 

 
 
Katie enjoyed the zoo, maybe not as much as I did though :)
 

 
 
Katie was very interested in the Merry-Go-Round. However, once she got on it, it becamse apparent that she was more in love with the "idea" of the ride rather than actually "participating" in the ride - Amen to that! There's a life lesson in there for sure!
 

 
 
One more bird shot, 'cause I can
 

 
 
The St. Louis Zoo is still my all time favorite zoo, but it's sure nice to have a little something in town and a bit closer than St. Louis!
 

Friday, June 28, 2013

chocolate pb cupcakes

I love these cupcakes!
You don't get a much more beautiful & intuitive flavor combination than chocolate & peanut butter and these fulfill that flavor craving every time!
 
Not to mention, this is my favorite basic chocolate cupcake recipe - so light and fluffy!
{cupcake recipe from the cookbook "Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey" by Jill O'Connor}
 
One more thing... these cupcakes keep really well, in fact, I think they taste better on day 2 or 3 compared to fresh out of the oven! I love recipes like that!
 
 
 
 
It's always so hard to stop at just one!
 
 
 
 
Chocolate Cupcakes w/ PB Buttercream
 
Chocolate Cupcakes
 
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa {I like Hershey Dark}
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup mayonnaise {not low fat}
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/3 cup boiling water
 
Sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda & salt. In mixing bowl combine sugar & eggs and beat on medium/high until light and fluffy. Beat in the mayo and vanilla just until combined. Reduce speed to medium and beat in half of the flour mixture just until combined, scraping down the sides. Add half of the boiling water and beat on low until the batter is smooth. Add remaining flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the sides. Add remaining boiling water and beat on low until the batter is smooth again. Batter will be pretty thin. Pour batter into cupcake tins prepared with liners. Fill 3/4 full. Makes 24+ cupcakes. Bake in preheated oven at 350 for 18-20 minutes. Cupcake is done when you touch the middle of the cupcake with your finger and it springs back and when it no longer looks "wet". Transfer to wire racks and cool completely.
 
 
Peanut Butter Buttercream
 
1/2 cup butter, softened (real - not margarine!)
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
 
{for more pb flavor add up to 1 cup pb.
I generally add a generous 1/2 cup for a delicate pb flavor}
 
Beat butter & peanut butter together. Slowly beat in milk and then powered sugar.
Add a little more milk if needed to reach desired consistency.
 
I iced these cupcakes with Wilton tip 1M and garnished with a mini Reese's cup
 

 
 
The worst part about posting recipes is then all I can think about is eating what I'm posting about and then I have to turn around and make it again!
{cause I never get posts up before we've devoured every last bite!}

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Sydney's 16th

A couple of weeks ago Kevin's niece (Sydney) turned 16!
 
I still can't believe she's 16!!!!
{sniff, sniff *tear*}
 
Isn't she beautiful?! Yes. The answer is Yes.
 
 
 
 
 
 
I got to do the decorations & desserts for the birthday bash/cookout
The theme was music; using the colors purple, blue, green & black
 
This may not pop out in the picture below, but Syndey's mom made a homemade guac dip which I am now completely addicted to. So if you have a party I will probably make and bring it just so I can eat it... so have a party and invite me already!!
 
 
 
 
Sydney's mom also made this awesome shark watermellon inspired by pinterest!
 
 
 
 
Close up of the circle garland
{made out of construction paper using a circle cutter & circle punches, then sewn together} 
and musical notes
{made out of black poster board & party city fans}
 
 
 
 
It was hard to get a good picture of the circles above the dessert table, but they turned out really cool!
We used cardstock and two different sizes of circles - sewing them every other one to make these circle streamers that hung from the ceiling.
 
 
 
 
Desserts included chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting, chocolate cupcakes with cake batter frosting, cookies & cream cupcakes, cakepops, white chocolate popcorn, musical note sugar cookies & a cake!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
There was also a "photo booth" set up with props for some serious seriously fun picture taking!
 
Ray & Dottie {Mom & Dad}
 
 
 
 
Me & Grant {nephew}
 
 
 
 
Kevin & I {umm... the cool uncle & aunt!?!}
 
 
 
 
Claire {niece}
 
 
 
 
Jayne {niece)
 
 
 
 
The theme came together at the last minute so I owe many thanks to Kevin, Amy & JD for slaving away Friday night cutting & sewing circles & decorating cookies while I baked the cupcakes!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
So thankful for the help of friends and the love of family!