Pumpkins

Oh Martha… you never cease to amaze me. Yes, I know you probably don’t come up with all of these ideas yourself… and you might be a slave driver, but I still love you. Your monogram pumpkin was the inspiration for MY monogram pumpkin.

Yes, yours has pretty scrolls and even lines, but mine is real. And was carved after one too many glasses of wine. (The pumpkin looks like it is radioactive and about to blow up here… do not look directly into the light…)


And it proceeded to rot after only a couple of days. I heard that if you spray Lysol inside the pumpkin it does not rot as quickly. We did not have Lysol, so I used some organic counter cleaner…And it did not work.

Next year I need to do a pumpkin like this:

*Images from Martha Stewart or Better Homes and Gardens or MrsPreppy

The gift of cotton

Happy Anniversary Mr. M!

It sure has been a fun filled 2 years.

On this day 2 years ago I would have never predicted everything we would go through in 2 years, but I would not change it for anything. It has been a fun ride.

The traditional gift for the 2nd anniversary is cotton. Will my gift to Mr. M be something cotton??? He will find out tonight!

NEW pictures of Baby M.

Rewind the Tivo

There is something about the UPS Whiteboard commercials makes me stop dead in my tracks.

I love the music.

I want to see the new stuff he will draw.

He has good hair.

And I think he is pretty good looking.

These commercials have been around for a couple years now and I never get tired of them. Normally we fast forward through all commercials, but I always make sure to watch these.

• The song playing in the background is by The Postal Service - Such Great Heights. It is also on the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack, v1.


• The actor that is doing all of the drawing also developed the creative concept - he is the creative director for an advertising agency.


• He started out doing all of the drawings, but computer animation has now been added to some of the spots.

Are there any commercials that you make sure to watch?

Do you do organic?

I have to confess, I could have cared less about organic foods a year ago. Ever since A came along I have been more interested in what we eat. I try buy our meat and produce at Sprouts and I always use a produce cleaner....meat and produce are our main organic areas. I am not as much concerned about the nutritional value of organic vs. non-organic, but rather all of the chemicals, pesticides and steroids that food comes in contact with.

Since i love to cook, I knew from the beginning I knew that I wanted to make A's baby food. Not only is it easy, but it saves money, you can make a lot at one time, and you know exactly what your little one is eating. I just steam or bake the food, toss it into the Cuisinart and then freeze in ice cube trays. Each cube is the perfect little serving. Just thinking about the chemicals that go into baby food makes me want to gag.

Wholesome Babyfood is a wonderful website that gives you lots of ideas and information on baby and toddler recipes. Right now A is eating peas, carrots, green beans, sweet potato, pumpkin, banana, avocado and oatmeal cereal. We are going to introduce apples this weekend. She is not a fan of the peas or green beans that I make, but she loves the Gerber Organics variety.

According to Health magazine, this is where you should splurge on organic:

Do you do organic?

Hey good lookin... What ya' got cookin??

It seems like I have been cooking up a storm lately. Dinners...baby food... desserts. You name it.

A couple of weekends ago, we had a pizza par-tay with some of our friends, Lauren & Ethan. Lauren and I made the pizzas while the men folk played with the baby.

Here is Lauren with her masterpiece: homemade crust, red sauce, pepperoni, yellow bell peppers, mushrooms and cheese.

I added some basil in the crust of my pizza and topped it with alfredo sauce, homemade pesto, grilled chicken, mushrooms, and cheese.

Last night for dinner I made Martha Stewart's turkey burgers. Yum.

What have you been cooking lately?

Mommy and Me

I think I need to make a trip to Payless for these mommy and me shoes.

This Payless 15% coupon makes the deal even sweeter.

Hey good lookin'...What ya' got cookin?

Breakfast foods are my all time favorite, so much so that we usually have breakfast for dinner once a week. Pancakes. BACON. French Toast. BACON. Eggs. Sausage. Waffles. BACON. Quiche. Biscuits and white gravy. The list could go on and on....

Last week I made breakfast muffins for dinner. They are wonderful be cause you can throw anything in them and they taste great. And, they are perfect for breakfast on the go the rest of the week.

This recipe is not very exact, alter the wet/dry ingredients based on how much other 'stuff' you put in them.

This batch I used:

3 eggs

1/2 c skim milk

salt / pepper

bacon

fresh chopped spinach

chopped red bell pepper

chopped onion

1/2 - 3/4 c Bisquick

cheese

Mix everything together and put in muffin pans. Bake at 350 for about 20 min.

**The are all flipped upside down because they were cooling and I did not want to get out the rack...***

Home Decor

Our next home improvement project is going to be to re-wallpaper our downstairs half bath. I am not much of a fan, but when a room is already wallpapered, you are pretty much stuck with it.

I am in love with this pattern from Ballard Designs.

Add a new mirror...

and a new light fixture....

and voila!