Sunday, June 27, 2010

I Bake, I'm Baking!

Lately I am trying my hand at baking and I'm kind of excited about it. I was thinking of that scene in 'What About Bob?' (haven't seen it? you need to) where they go on a boat and Bill Murray is strapped to the mast and he's excited and yelling, "I sail! I'm sailing!!" That's how I feel about me baking. Now if I could just get my hands on one of those awesome Kitchen Aid stand mixers....

And look! I have a recipe and pictures to share.

Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups rolled oats
1 2/3 cups butterscotch chips
(1 package)

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. In a large bowl, beat butter and both sugars together. Then add the eggs and vanilla, beat well.
3. In smaller bowl, stir together flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Gradually add this mixture to the butter mixture and stir until blended.
4. Stop for a moment and dream about Kitchen Aid stand mixer. (optional)
5. Stir in oats and butterscotch chips. On this step I thought 3 cups seemed like too many, so I added about 2 or 2.5.
6. Drop by teaspoonfulls on parchment paper covered cookie sheets.
7. Bake 8-10 minutes.


by the way, parchment paper kind of rules. I like to roast potatoes on it also


the final product, yay for butterscotch!

Ode to Cheeto




Monday, June 21, 2010

Celebrating



We were only able to have a smaller party for Carys' birthday, which I actually realized may be the best way to do it anyway! I was still able to decorate the way I wanted and try to bring out my inner Martha Stewart...or something like that. I decided to do a Ni-hao Kai-lan theme since I liked her colors better than Dora's :).

I'm also incredibly blessed to have close family friends that are also brilliant photographers. Thanks Andi and Ana, you guys are so very talented!

(the collage above and the next two pics are Andi's and the rest are by Ana)


this water hose was probably the kids' favorite part of the day

Fresh and Easy has peonies on sale...how serendipitous!
yeah, yeah, sing the birthday song...just gimme my cupcake already!

Grandma Sue gave her this vintage style chair with her name on it, it was a big hit.

I love how the homemade banners turned out....

I had to include a shot with the cupcakes and chocolate-dipped fortune cookies, I was especially proud of those!
I wasn't particularly proud of how the cake looked. I was going to try and do an icing version of Kai-lan's face, but who was I kidding? But I was proud of how it tasted...delicious! Thanks to Amanda's birthday cake and frosting recipe you can check out here.


Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Design love

Mostly what I love about this one is the deep couch, I aspire to one of these but with better throw pillows.


Love everything about this dining area, the orange table, the rug, the chairs, the walls, the....


A black and white dining room is on the list too

Friday, June 4, 2010

Part Two

Yesterday Carys turned 2! She is such a fun-loving, curious, sweet, and funny little girl. Every day I'm amazed at the things she learns and says, it is a truly exciting experience to be her mommy.

1 week


1 year


2 years



Here's to a new year of good times, potty training, and growing out that mullet!