mcconnell mills state park

While in the Pittsburg area we wanted to spend some time with PA nature so we visited a nearby state park - McConnell Mills State Park. It had an old mill, a covered bridge, and a couple of waterfalls too! It was so beautiful and relaxing to spend the morning enjoying nature.

Here's the mill and the covered brige.

inside the mill was all the old tools used when the mill was "up and running"

tourists :)

from the bottem side of the mill

next we took a trail to see a waterfall

it was so lush and green and peaceful

I was running to catch up with Kevin & Mark and I accidently snapped this photo... I think it's kinda cool though!

Hi Kevin!

We made it to the waterfal! So pretty!

On our way back to the Hotel we found this castle golf course & club house - it was a wee bit expensive, but very pretty!

love, marriage, and cookies!!!

This past weekend we visited Pittsburg, PA for Kevin's cousin's wedding and were able to spend an extra couple of days there for a mini vacation with some of Kevin's family. It was great! The wedding was so much fun and I loved the town! We crammed a lot of activity into our couple of days so get ready for a whole slew of posts about it!!!

Here's the newly married couple!

Kevin & I all purdied up :)

Eric & Casey

The brothers looking sharp in their various shades of blue

Kevin's cousins  (and uncle)

I tried to get Kevin to take a "cute" pic and this is the best we could do. Guess "cute" isn't our cup of tea.

Yes, we got stuck driving the "kids" around :)

Maybe we're not so far from being "kids" ourselves

Love this pic of Kevin's parents!

Another shot of us - we stopped at a wine bar on the way to reception! The sangria was mmmm

All parts of the wedding and reception were beautiful and fun, but I've got to give a big (5 picture) shout out for my favorite part... the cookie bar!!! Each mother made 40+ dozen cookies (that's 80+ dozen total) for this delicious appetizer/dessert/snack bar and I LOVED IT. I can't wait to use this idea for my next party

I'm not gonna lie... I ate a lot of cookies and even was able to take a few to-go to snack on the rest of the weekend. love love love

chalkboard "like" turned "love"

I've liked the look of chalkboard paint for the several years it's been "in" in home decorating

contemporary kids design by los angeles interior designer Jill Seidner Interior Design

The big thing lately is even to paint your fridge with chalkboard paint - which is totally awesome!

contemporary dining room design by san francisco interior designer tineke triggs

but I strongly dislike writing with chalk... it makes me grind my teeth and cringe

Which brings us to this great solution... chalkbard markers!!!

This type of marker writes like a marker, but looks like chalk - can somebody say halleluiah?!?!


This is perfect for me and now I'm looking for the perfect place in my house to add chalkboard paint!


Here's some more great inspiration:

traditional kids design by media and blogs From House to Home

eclectic bathroom design by other metros interior designer Birdhouse Interior Design Consulting

found here



found here



found here


Now do you see why instead of just liking the chalkboard paint look I LOVE IT!!!

kevin's bd party: cupcakes!!!

For Kevin's birthday cake I wanted to make several different kinds of cupcakes so everyone could have their cake of choice! The only problem is I don't really ever make cake from scratch (I just use a box like most Americans!). But this time I wanted to do it right and so I pulled out my go-to cookbook, the Better Homes & Gardens checkered one, and got to it.

I was so excited that I even got up around 6am on Friday to get started!

I made batch #1 - a basic chocolate. They looked a little like mushrooms, but not too bad and they tasted pretty good so I moved on to batch #2 - red velvet (Kevin's fav) and achieved the same results as batch #1.

Batch #3 - carrot... looked perfect.

Now I suspected that batches #1 and #2 maybe weren't good enough after all.

Batch #4 - a basic white and batch #5 - a basic white with a chocolate chip cookie in the center also turned out perfect and so i knew I had to redo batches #1 and #2 as batches #6 & #7.

That's right I made 7 batches of cupcakes and got done around 1pm - just in time to meet some friends for a lunch break.

Why did the first 2 batches not turn out so pretty? I filled the muffin cups too full. Unlike a box mix, these homemade cupcakes weren't rising all pretty and high, but rather spilling over the edges like a mushroom. Turns out that's pretty common so I wasn't doing anything wrong, other than overfilling.

The icing went really well until my last batch, which was the red velvet. After a little trial and error I ended up refrigerating that icing overnight and then whipping it in the morning. It ended up just a little runny, but not too bad (I'll be sure to post tips when I post that recipe). I got all cleaned up around 10pm. So that was about 12 hours of making and icing cupcakes off and all on day.

But they turned out pretty and tasty and I didn't mind the effort at all, especially since it was for Kevin's big party! If you just make one kind at a time then it's really not all that much work, especially now that learned so many things that I can pass on!

Don't they look great?!

I also made these cute little tags with a circle punch. I love tags in cupcakes it really kicks them up a notch!

batch #1/#6

chocolate cake with peanut butter buttercream frosting

batch #3

carrot cake with cream cheese frosting

batch #5

vanilla cake filled with chocolate chip cookies and iced with buttercream frosting

(see here for buttercream recipe)

batch #2/#7

red velvet cake with red velvet frosting

batch #4 (forgot to snap pics!)

white cake with almond buttercream frosting

(see here for buttercream recipe and add 1/2 tsp almond flavoring)

this is how full my fridge was after filling it with all the cupcakes!

Again, it was hard work to make this quantity and variety, but totally worth it for the big birthday party!!!

kevin's bd party: having a good time!

When I went through the pictures from Kevin's party there were all these great pictures of people with such happy smiles - everybody looks like they were having such a good time! I knew I had to dedicate a whole post to these beautiful smiles! Thanks Heather, for taking most (if not all) of these pictures!!!